Green, Sharon - Mind Guest

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2024-12-04 0 0 680.24KB 299 页 5.9玖币

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Mind Guest

by Sharon Green

A Diana Santee Spaceways Novel

Chapter 1

Waking up began as a struggle, the sort you strain against with

all your strength and get absolutely nowhere with. I strained and

struggled and found nothing but fog to fight, but by the time I

reached the groaning stage the fog was beginning to lift. I became

aware of what I entailed, then felt the hum that touched deeply

but lightly in my bones. I knew the hum should mean something, but

I was still too deep in the fog to know what.

It took a lot of effort to turn to my left side and open my eyes,

and I couldn't remember why the effort was necessary. All I saw

was a small room, plain metal walls, built-in drawers, and nothing

else. All behind a thin but unbreakable mesh of monostrand, the

sort used m spaceships to protect sleepers from the sudden loss of

gravity.

Spaceship.

I had to be on a ship, but where was I going? Was the assignment

finished already? Assignment. What assignment? What the hell was

going on? I put a hand to my head as if that would stop the spasms

going on inside it, but there was still too much fog. Raising my

arm seemed to be a signal for the fog to close in again, and that

turned the switch off on my struggling.

The next time my eyes opened, the fog was all gone. I saw the top

of the bunk section, the monostrand safety net closing the only

open side, felt the throb that meant live but unfiring engines. I

was in a ship, all right, but this time I knew all about it. The

assignment I'd been so worried over even when I didn't remember

anything about it hadn't been finished, not unless you count

getting grabbed as finishing it. I'd walked right into Radman's

waiting arms, just as if I were responding to an invitation he'd

sent out. I sat up carefully on the bunk, trying not to bash my

thick head on the metal above, disgusted with myself and impatient

with the dizziness the last of the drug caused. Radman had used

cryosol, and there was no knowing how long it had kept me under.

I ran my hands through my tangled hair as I sat cross-legged,

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giving myself a couple of minutes to take inventory before

pressing on to the harder job of getting out of the bunk. My

entire body felt heavy and without strength, probably a

combination reaction from the drug and the length of time I'd been

unconscious, but I didn't hurt anymore. My clothes were long gone,

cut away at Radman's direction while he stood and grinned and

drooled, and naturally not replaced. He'd pretended to be

delighted that it was a female Special Agent who had been sent

after him, but his delight had switched to panic when one of his

men had gotten careless enough to let me almost get one leg free.

'There were only five of them there besides Radman himself, and

those aren't very comfortable odds against a hyper-A. The nickname

means High Percentage Risk Agent and isn't handed out to every

male with big muscles or every female with a pretty smile. Radman

had never heard the nickname, but he didn't have to. He'd heard

about Special Agents, and believed enough of what he'd heard to be

very, very careful.

I unhooked the monostrand mesh and swung my legs over the side of

the bunk, then stood up. I was feeling steadier than I thought I

would, but a couple of twinges flashed here and there, an

unpleasant tail-end reminder of Radman's reaction to my "attempted

escape." After I'd been chained with no more than a single link's

space between wrists and ankles, Radman had spent some time

kicking me around-literally. Experience had probably taught him

how much pain he could give without actually breaking anything

important, and he'd put that knowledge to work. By the time he'd

worked off the heavy sweat he'd felt at the thought of my getting

loose I was sure he'd cracked a couple of ribs at the very least,

but I'd been wrong. Nothing had scraped together inside when a

couple of Radman's men had carried me to a metal-framed cot and

had shifted the chains on me to create the ever-popular spread-

eagled look. Radman had gotten hot from the fun he'd had knocking'

me around, and wanted to spend some time working that off. I have

a high pain threshold, but happily not that high; it didn't take

long before his second-stage battering put me out. Which was a

damned good thing. If I'd still been conscious when it came time

for him to let rip I would have spit in his face, and I'd been in

no shape to stand what would have come from that little gesture.

The small cabin opened onto a somewhat larger common room, from

which it was possible to reach the rest of the ship. All the

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lights were set at daylight normal, but I ignored the brightness

in the common room the way I had in the cabin and made my way to

the tiny galley. I took a long drink of water while the ship

thawed and heated a synthegg sandwich for me, then sat and ate it

while a second was being done. Cryosol slows your bodily processes

while it keeps you unconscious, but that just means you won't

starve to death before you wake up. It doesn't mean you can afford

to forget to grab at least a quick bite once you're up and around

again, despite the fact that you're not feeling very hungry.

People have been known to die from the oversight, and it would

have been rude of me to die so quickly and thereby spoil all of

Radman's carefully laid plans.

When the second sandwich was ready I took it with me to the

control room. Radman had had a lot of fun telling me all about

what he intended doing, but even knowing what to expect didn't

stop the flutter of panic I felt at sight of all that red on the

pilot's console. Most pilots equate blinking red with the pumping

of lifeblood out of a major artery, and I was no different. It

took an effort to keep from running closer and quickly slapping

switches, but since I knew how useless slapping switches would be

I could walk forward slowly until I stood behind the pilot's

chair.

The acceleration and deceleration switches had been cut off flush

with the console, giving the check-off computer hysterics, and the

emergency rocket toggle was also gone. The life-support system,

meteor deflectors, view screens and communicator were still on the

green, but that meant nothing. Radman had preset the view from the

forward view screen, and the location computer was running a

continuous "no information" blank tape, showing that I'd left

human-inhabited space long behind me. Just for the hell of it I

checked the number of inches of blank tape, multiplied by the

standard rounded figure supplied in the front of every ephemeris,

then took a long, slow bite of my sandwich. At the time of

calculation I'd already been in an area of space that would not be

explored for a minimum of two hundred standard years, with each

second passing sending me farther and farther away. I'd be able to

watch where I was going, Radman had said, live comfortably and eat

well while I thought about ways of coming back, but there'd be no

coming back. By going after him I'd earned a free, unending

vacation trip, and he was going to see that I got what I'd earned.

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I could still hear his heavy, brutal laughter as the cryosol was

hype-sprayed into my bloodstream, and I looked down to see that

I'd unconsciously crushed the sandwich to slop in one hand. I

turned and left the control room then, and went to get a cup of

coffee and another sandwich.

I set up a loose schedule for living in the days that followed,

but still spent a lot of time reviewing and re-reviewing the moves

I'd made in going after Radman. I'd expected to see what I'd done

wrong rather quickly, but time passed and as far as I could see I

hadn't done anything wrong. Nothing I'd done would have told

Radman I was coming after him, but I'd still found him waiting for

me. I usually had to go heavy on the exercising after coming to

that conclusion, even though I knew intense rage was a waste of

time and energy. The position I'd been forced into wasn't

contusive to sane calm and logical thinking.

I must have been about two months on my way to nowhere when I

finally decided I'd had enough of sitting around and doing

nothing. Aside from the fact that there wasn't much I could do,

most of my hesitation had come from that terrible human disease

called wishful thinking. Being fully adult and more realistic than

most hadn't stopped me from hoping that Starman Courageous and his

loyal crew would somehow stumble across me, save me from the fate

worse than death that had been imposed on me, and quickly return

me to hearth and home. It took me that two months to admit that I

was the proud possessor of a fate worse than death, and that

Starman Courageous, every broad-shouldered and wide-chested inch

of him, was too busy saving slender helpless female types on tri-v

to show up. If anything was going to he done, I was the one who

would have to do it.

I took one last cigarette with my feet propped up, grabbed a quick

shower, then found an adjusting tool and headed for the c6ntrol

room. I knew almost nothing about transbar electronics, but I was

faced with the choice of tinkering and possibly killing myself

fast, or leaving it alone and continuing on until I went crazy.

Being a loner I hadn't found the two months totally unbearable,

but two months wasn't two years or twenty. If I didn't do

something, I was sealed into what would eventually become my tomb,

and sitting around waiting for the inevitable wasn't my usual

style.

The controls had been damaged at the pilot's console, which is

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usually a pretty permanent way of damaging them, but there was one

remote chance. The transbar leads were tucked away in a box of

their own, and if I could figure out which leads controlled what,

I might be able to bypass the console. Only I was not an

electrical engineer. My talents lie in other directions, and I've

piloted many ships, but never had to fix any of them. I opened the

panel that covered the leads, groaned at the nine million

different colored wires, then took a deep breath and got started.

I'd found the leads that controlled the shower, the lights, and a

dozen and a half unknown functions before it happened. I was

tightening the last lead I'd loosened when the adjusting tool

slipped, knocking out a lead in the unexplored section. The loose

lead swung down and to the left, 'toward the bottom contact, but

fouled on another lead instead. There was a spray of pretty blue

sparks for about three seconds, then silence. I wondered if I'd

done anything serious, only to notice the new flashing red light

on the control console. I closed my eyes for a minute then went to

see what it was. It turned out to be nothing much - the new

blinking red light was for the life support system.

After I carefully tossed the adjusting tool away, I sat down in

the pilot's seat. I would have done better using spit and baling

wire on the control console, the way Starman Courageous would

have, but it might have taken me another two standard months to

kill myself with spit and baling wire. Why waste the time?

Then my eyes fell on the forward viewscreen, and I stared hard. I

hadn't bothered checking it for weeks, but I should have taken a

peek before starting on the transbar leads - it would have saved

some trouble. The ship had blundered into the middle of a star

system, cutting across the orbital path of at least one of the

planets. I could tell this easily by the sight of the good-sized

moon I was heading for, but I couldn't tell by eye whether or not

I'd hit it. My hand went toward the computer outlet automatically,

but I pulled it back before asking for the data. If the ship was

going to hit, it would hit. There was nothing I could do about it

one way or the other, and if I hit I wouldn't have to worry about

the new ringing in my ears. My tinkering with the transbar leads

had done something to the air pressure, and I hadn't the faintest

idea of how to undo it. I sat back in ~e seat and simply watched

the moon.

Six hours later, I was a lot closer to the moon and a lot closer

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to upchucking. The on-again, off-again ringing in my ears was

making me dizzy and nauseated, but I stayed near the viewscreen to

see what was happening. Then, suddenly, the proximity alarm went

off, almost sending me straight up through the hull. Where the

hell would another ship be coming from way out there? Nothing

showed in the forward viewscreen, and I was about to activate the

others when the ringing got deeper and closer to my head. I

hesitated a minute, trying to fight the lowering air pressure, but

it was no good. I didn't touch the transbar leads, but the lights

went out anyway.

Chapter 2

Waking up was downright luxurious. I was lying belly down and I

stretched in comfort and yawned, wondering why the bunk felt so

soft, then groaned when I realized it was probably a malfunction

in the gravity control. I buried my face in the softness, knowing

damned well that there was almost nothing I could do about it,

then lay very still. The gentle fragrance coming from what I was

lying on was nothing like the paper bed linen I'd used so long,

and it was also nothing like anything I'd ever encountered before.

There was dark all around me, the familiar dark I always slept in,

but even in the dark there was something different about my

surroundings.

I moved my fingers over whatever it was I was lying on, getting

the impression of a soft and very rich-feeling fur. There was no

pillow under my face, just the fur, and stretching my arms out

limited the size of the fur whatever to little more than the width

of a double bed was closer to the edge on the right, so I hung my

right arm over it and found that the floor was no more than twelve

inches below me - and also covered with what felt like fur. None

of what was happening made any sense: was I dreaming or just plain

crazy?

I shifted over onto my back, in the process making another

unsettling discovery. I knew I had no clothes on, but I'd had the

impression that I was covered with something like a light blanket.

Now I could feel there was a warmth on me, from shoulder height

down to past my toes, but the warmth wasn't coming from anything

as banal as a cover. All at once I began feeling annoyed, knowing

damned well that by rights I ought to be scared stiff, but the

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whole thing was too stupid to be scary. When someone puts you in

the dark to terrify you, they don't give you fur to lie on, and

they don't make sure you're snuggly warm. I brushed my loose hair

away from my face and made up my mind, then sat up slowly, holding

one hand above my head to see if there was anything over me.

As soon as I was sitting straight, there was no longer any need to

hold my hand up. A light had begun glowing from somewhere,

starting very faint and low, then brightening to a good level. I

took a deep breath and let it out slowly, fairly sure - or at

least hoping - that there was a photocell or some equivalent

involved.

The room that had just come to view was no more than twelve by

twelve, having very few things in it. There was a small round

metallic shape next to the bed-couch I was lying on, an amorphous

blob that might have been a chair, and nothing else. I looked down

at the bed-couch under me, expecting to see fur, but saw nothing

but cloth. Granted, it was a silvery-gray cloth that looked better

than any other cloth I'd ever seen, but it was still just cloth.

The couch-bed was a low platform, an eight-foot by seven foot

oblong, raised slightly at the end that was against the wall, and

seemingly upholstered. I shifted around a little, noticing that

the warmth I'd felt earlier was fading, then decided to ask the

major question: where the hell could I possibly be? It was fairly

obvious that the proximity alarm bad meant another ship, but where

had they come from, and who were they? And while I was listing

interesting questions, it would be smart to include, why? Someone

had gone to more than a little trouble intercepting my ship, had

managed to pull me out of it alive - and then had neatly tucked me

into beddy-bye before disappearing from view. I'm normally

grateful for any help I get in saving my neck, but I'd learned to

be skeptical as well.

The warmth was entirely gone, so I put my feet out to the fur-

cloth floor and stood up, looking around again. The floor-fur was

a deep green, setting off the light salmon-colored wall panels,

the panels themselves being very plain. Each three-foot section of

wall was separated from the others by a panel line, and there must

have been a door there somewhere, but I couldn't spot it just

then. I also saw no window - which didn't mean there weren't any -

but the far wall had something square on it. I moved closer,

trying to figure out what the square might be. It was a light,

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slightly flickering gold in color, and could have been anything

from an observation screen or window to an example of the art of

tomorrow. I felt the urge to touch it, but pulled back suddenly. I

was old enough to know better than to touch strange, unexplained

objects; I'd had enough of waking up in odd places for a while.

"I see you've taken it upon yourself to leave your bed," an

annoyed male voice said from behind me. "Are you sure you're

feeling well enough?"

The unexpectedness of the voice startled me, that and the fact it

was using an unknown language that I somehow understood perfectly.

I turned slowly and took the time to prepare myself for whatever

might be standing behind me, but the whole thing was a giant let-

down. The only thing standing behind me, well to the right, was a

mild-looking little man, round-cheeked and slightly pot-bellied,

wearing a dark gold, one-piece outfit that could have been a

uniform. The outfit had patches here and there, supporting the

uniform theory, and the little man wasn't looking at all pleased

with me. The entire scene had a very unreal quality to it, as if

it would all turn out to be someone's idea of a practical joke,

but I dismissed that thought fast and smiled my friendliest smile.

"How sweet of you to be concerned about me," I purred, moving a

step or two closer to him. "I'm feeling just fine now, and I'll

bet I have you to thank for it. I can see in your eyes that you're

a very-special-sort of man.

His blue eyes didn't get any darker, but his chest swelled and his

face settled into a prissy look of satisfaction.

"I did very little more than see to your comfort, my dear," he

said smoothly. "And yet you may rest assured that had anything

been seriously wrong with you, I would have seen to it to the best

of my ability. We're rather isolated out here, but our medical

facilities can't be bettered anywhere."

I let my smile warm slightly, mainly to cover the fact that I was

still moving slowly toward him, and said, "I knew I was right

about you, but I'm just a little confused. You mentioned your

medical facilities here, but you didn't say where 'here' was. Can

you tell me where I am?"

The satisfaction shifted to a frown, and the little man peered at

me.

"This is an observation outpost of our Absari Confederacy," he

answered sharply. "The planet is called Tildor by its natives.

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Hadn't you any idea you were in our neighborhood? The area happens

to be proscribed."

I stopped where I was, about five feet from my visitor, determined

not to show how off balance I suddenly was. Not only hadn't I

known that the area was proscribed, I'd never even heard of

proscribed areas, not to mention something called the "Absari

Confederacy." Things were back to being unreal again, but there

was one thing I knew for a rock-hard fact: if my Federation had

ever had contact with an Absari Confederacy, I would have heard

about it. My not having heard about them meant we'd never

contacted them, and I was back to wandering in the dark, searching

for a candle.

The little man was still watching me closely, so I decided to use

some of the confusion I felt to my own advantage.

"I must have gone farther astray than I thought," I breathed

weakly, putting my hand to my head. "I haven't the faintest idea

of how I got here."

"But, my dear girl, where were you going?" he asked, stepping

closer to me with professional concern. "And where did you start

from? Surely no one would have allowed someone with such meager

knowledge of star locations to travel about alone?"

We were no more than three feet apart, and that was just about

right for what I was going to have to do. He'd already asked three

questions I couldn't possibly answer, and I also couldn't afford

to wait around until those questions came from a more official

source. I had to get out of there as fast as possible, without

leaving anyone behind who could begin yelling before I was well

out of reach.

I had stiffened the fingers of my right hand and was just lifting

the arm, when a section of the wall panel directly behind the

little man slid aside, showing a second male visitor. This one was

a good deal larger than the first, much taller and with much

broader shoulders and no pot-belly, wearing the same sort of one-

piece uniform that the little man wore, but his was a cobalt blue,

with the patches in different places. His dark eyes gave me a

slow, frank stare of appraisal, and he must have been pleased with

what he saw-his rugged face creased into a grin, and he stopped

next to the little man, his eyes still on me.

"How's our patient doing, Landren?" he asked in the sort of deep

voice one would expect. "Is she up to having visitors yet?"

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The little man had glanced at the newcomer, but his attention was

still on me.

"She's still a bit shaky, Commander," he answered with what was

becoming a familiar frown. "But there seems to be something odd

going on here. You specifically told me she was alone, but why

would such a helpless young woman be traveling alone? And another

thing\a133"

"You're perfectly right, Landren," the man addressed as Commander

interrupted. "I'm sure there are many things to discuss, but this

isn't the time for it. The young lady and I are going to have a

chat now, and I'd appreciate it if you would have someone bring a

tray of edibles to us. You and I can have a talk later."

I stood casually where I was, making sure my muscles were relaxed

in spite of the fact that the bigger man hadn't taken his dark

eyes off me and now stood between me and my erstwhile target. The

little man was annoyed all over again, not knowing how close he

had come to the end of every annoyance, but there seemed to be

little he could do. he nodded once, angrily, and drew himself up.

"Very well, Commander," he grudged to the larger man's back.

"We'll discuss the matter later. And I'll speak to one of your

team members about the rest of it."

He looked at me with what was probably supposed to have been a

smile, bowed stiffly, then turned and walked out. The man who now

stood and studied me with folded arms and sharp, intelligent eyes

was nothing like the first man and would not be as easy to handle,

but he would still have to be handled one way or another. I'd done

a lot of bluffing in my professional life, but never in a

situation where I didn't even know what I was supposed to be

bluffing about. The man's eyes kept moving over me, as though he

were looking for some sign of embarrassment on my part due to the

fact that he was dressed and I wasn't, but he wasn't likely to

find one. I'd been born and raised on one of the only two nudist

planets in the Federation, and standing around raw had never

bothered me. I looked away from the man, extended my left arm for

inspection, then rubbed at an invisible spot with a small frown

and a whole lot of concentration. I heard the sound of a snort of

amusement, then the big man shifted slightly where he stood.

"You're really very good, girl," he commented in that deep voice.

"If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were as innocent as you

look."

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MindGuestMindGuestbySharonGreenADianaSanteeSpacewaysNovelChapter1Wakingupbeganasastruggle,thesortyoustrainagainstwithallyourstrengthandgetabsolutelynowherewith.Istrainedandstruggledandfoundnothingbutfogtofight,butbythetimeIreachedthegroaningstagethefogwasbeginningtolift.IbecameawareofwhatIentailed,t...

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