“He thought he could put one over on them,” Rune snarled as Eran, Ziv, and I watched from the twin divans. Prowling back and forth across my salon, the black-clad Gaspar reminded me of an ancient video I had once seen of a panther restlessly pacing its cage. He stopped abruptly, facing us as he tossed up his hands. “What the hell made him think he could pull it off?”
“Maybe he felt he had no choice,” Eran offered reasonably. “Matheson probably believed he was on his own without a friend in the world. Since he didn’t turn himself in, we can safely assume he had no desire to be returned to his former state. Seeing no way around the evaluation, what could he do but gut it out and hope for the best?”
“Yeah? Well, he didn’t get the best, did he?” Rune went back on the prowl. “Nobody makes it past the drug Huw and Iakona use to pry open their victims’ minds. Ruvellanoxis strips your psyche. There’s no hiding anything once that stuff hits your veins. Believe me. I’ve seen it in action.”
I shuddered inwardly but refused to dwell on the specter of Ruvellanoxis haunting my own future, focusing instead on Rune. Despite his rant against poor doomed Hugo, I sensed our friend blamed himself for the man’s downfall. Blowing off steam was fine under normal circumstances, but in this case, giving vent to misdirected anger wouldn’t get to the heart of the problem. I decided to cut to the chase.
“Was there anything you could have done to prevent what happened to Hugo?” I asked. My blunt question surprised Eran and Ziv—I could feel them staring at me—but I kept my eyes on Rune. “Well? Was there?”
He stalked over to stand in front of me, feet spread, hands fisted at his sides. “What do you think?” he growled.
A few months ago, that tone would have had me diving for cover. Now I didn’t so much as bat an eye. “What do I think?” I answered evenly, keeping my compassion firmly under wraps. Knowing Rune, a show of sympathy at this juncture would only complicate the issue. “I think Enid and Jasun were ready and waiting when Hugo showed up for his psych evaluation, right?”
“Yeah. So?”
“So, with them sitting right there, you had no chance to warn him. How were you going to keep him from giving himself away? Did you have a chance to talk to him before he showed up? Did you know he was one of us?”
His combative stance relaxed slightly. “No.”
“So you never had a chance to rescue him.”
Eran took my hand, squeezing my fingers in gentle approval as he said, “Some of them are bound to get past you, Rune. You can’t save them all.”
Rune’s glare faded. He blew out a breath, dropping his chin as he rubbed the back of his neck. “No, I can’t.” He raised his head, pinning us with the same tormented gaze I had seen in the corridor. “But it’s like a knife to the heart every time we lose one. And having to be the one to take down Matheson that way, deliver him up to Huw ….” He pressed his lips together and shook his head.
“What a nightmare,” Ziv mumbled.
“Trust me,” Rune grunted as he sank down next to Ziv on the divan across from Eran and me, “you ain’t seen nothing yet. This nightmare is only getting started.” He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “We broke open the weapons locker today.”
I blinked. “You have a weapons locker?”
“Sure,” he replied matter-of-factly. “We’re in charge of security. What did you expect?” I shook my head dazedly. “Anyway, based on this morning’s pursuit and the possibility of—and I quote—‘resistance of a more violent nature,’ the First Councilor ordered me to arm my agents with Inducers.”
Ziv frowned. “Inducers? That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“You only say that because you have a four-hundred-plus-year cushion of blissful ignorance between you and what used to be common knowledge,” Rune replied sardonically. He reached around to the small of his back and drew out a weapon. It was a uniform black from the hand grip to the short, sinister barrel. “You’ve heard the expression in a world of hurt, right?” He hefted the weapon meaningfully. “Well, this is your passport. A pulsed energy weapon that triggers a plasma burst guaranteed to knock you off your feet, induce instant paralysis, and light up every pain neuron in your body. We’re talking enough agony to make a strong man scream for mercy … if he could scream.”
“Lethal?” Eran wanted to know.
“It can be. The power is scalable from stun to lethal. So far, our orders are to keep them set on stun. Garan may be jumpy, but he’s not out to kill anyone.” Rune paused, eyes suddenly narrowed as if he were weighing unseen factors. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Not yet?” Ziv chuckled uneasily. “You make it sound like the Council is going to start executing anyone who disagrees with them.” He glanced to Eran and me, obviously expecting us to scoff along with him. When we didn’t, his expression turned incredulous, darting between us and Rune. “Don’t tell me the three of you believe it might actually come to that?”
“I never actually believed it would come to Alpha Genesis or Inducers,” Eran answered. “Did you?”
Ziv scowled uncertainly. “No, but political assassination is something else again.”
“Look at it this way,” I suggested. “The Quingenti won’t hesitate to fry someone’s brain to kill a newborn consciousness. Isn’t that a kind of assassination? Alpha Genesis takes lives, too, Ziv. So in one sense, the they have already crossed the line. Taking a physical life wouldn’t be much of a leap for them at this point.”
“She’s right,” Rune said. “If we’re going to survive, we had better face facts: The faithful will do whatever it takes to preserve the status quo.”
Ziv shook his head disbelievingly. “But kill us?”
“You’re not looking at it from their point of view,” Rune reminded him. “They don’t see each human life as a once-and-done deal, which means sooner or later, they’ll decide there’s nothing morally wrong with cutting ours short. They might even convince themselves it’s the right thing to do—regrettable, maybe, but what the hell? What’s one lifespan in the Colonial scheme of things? We won’t be dead as they understand dead, because they’ll still have our DNA.”
“And as far as they’re concerned,” said Eran, “as long as the DNA lives, so do we.”
Rune’s lips twisted sardonically. “It’s not assassination if nobody dies, Menka.”
“I’m beginning to think Ke-Ling had the right idea,” I mused.
Rune’s head whipped around, and he eyed me narrowly. “Don’t even start down that road, Red.” He nodded toward Eran. “We’re working on a plan to get us out of this mess, and it won’t be long before we’re ready to put it into action. But no matter what happens, there’s no way we’re going down without a fight. We’re sure as hell not going to do the Quingenti any favors by taking a swan dive into that good night.”
Eran was regarding me thoughtfully. “I don’t think she’s talking about suicide.”
“No, of course not. I meant Ke-Ling was right about the DNA.” I paused to gather my thoughts. “I have a lot of faith in you two, and I’m sure your plan is a good one. But ….”
“But what?” prodded Rune when I trailed off.
“But suppose they find out about one of us before you’re ready to move? What if I’m taken, for example, and they zap me back to the Alpha State? A couple of jolts, and I’m back on board with the whole cloning thing.”
“We would never let it get that far,” Rune assured me coldly.
“Maybe not, but I want replication completely off the table. I want my life to count, even if I can’t remember why it should. And what if they do resort to lethal force? What if we do have to go down fighting? I want my death to count, too. I want to force everyone on this ship to deal with the fact that they ended my life, and I can never be replicated. I want them to have to face what they’ve done … what they’ve become by doing it.”
“So what do you suggest?” Eran asked.
“Ke-Ling knew there was only one way to make the kind of statement I have in mind.” I glanced at my three companions. “We have to do what he did; we have to destroy our DNA.”
“Right!” Ziv agreed enthusiastically. “Take the vials, get rid of the contents, replace the empty containers so nobody even notices the contents are missing … for a few decades, at least.” He frowned. “But they’re going to notice sooner or later. What’s to stop them from replacing the original deposits with DNA drawn from our bodies … alive or dead?”
“Good question,” I admitted. Now all we needed was a good answer.
Ziv pondered the problem a few moments longer, then brightened. “How about a disinformation campaign?”
“How would that help?” I asked, shaking my head.
“Well, we could plant the idea that our aberrant behavior might signal a flaw in gene expression.”
My brow furrowed as I tried to keep up with him. “Why would they believe that, when Ke-Ling and Abila both made it clear genetic abnormalities are a thing of the past?”
“That might be true of the DNA stored in a specially designed vault, but our bodies are another matter. Maybe something went wrong during gestation? A tiny glitch, unnoticed then, resulting in dire consequences now? Or maybe,” he continued with gathering enthusiasm, “it’s due to the effects of prolonged spaceflight! Over-exposure to cosmic background radiation or something! Nobody’s ever been out this long, right?”
I smiled slowly. “Oh, I get it. We’d need evidence,” I murmured, thinking furiously. “I know! Rune can ask Alis to get a DNA specimen from Matheson. If a gene can be repaired, it can be sabotaged, right? She might be able to fake a slight mutation!”
“And Rune can hack into the medical records and plant evidence of the same genetic hiccup in all our files! All without leaving a trace!” Zivon concluded triumphantly.
“Well, well, well,” drawled Rune. “Will you listen to these two?” He glanced between Ziv and me. “Think you’ve got it all figured out, do you?” Why he seemed so pleased, I couldn’t imagine, until he went on, “Not bad. Not bad at all. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t have done better myself.” He looked at Eran. “I don’t plan to be around long enough need this scheme of theirs, but backup isn’t a bad idea.”
“So you’ll do it?” I asked. “You’ll talk to Alis?”
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. We’ll see what we can do.”
Ω
Chapter 41 coming next week!
© 2010, Kathy DiSanto, all rights reserved
