Homesick

Scott had been drifting in and out of consciousness since the IV drip started. He now hung motionless in his web like a long dead insect, or rather an exhausted one that had stopped struggling, accepted its fate, and was hoping for a merciful death. He looked more pale and drawn than he had been on the operating table and his eyes were sunken and dull. It was as if his entire body had wilted into a ghostly specter of his former self. If Sally had Jackie to consult, she probably would have said his spirit was ill rather than his body. For once, Sally had no trouble believing this. She saw a man whose life force was draining out of him before her eyes. His body was sagging in response, like a stretched out balloon gradually deflating.

His eyes were only half open when Sally entered with a ration pack and a plastic fork. She eyed the settings on the IV pump and checked the level on the globe of clear fluid being pumped into his veins. The pump purred gently and a regulator valve rotated like a slow windmill. Then she turned to her patient, silently taking a deep breath and forcing a smile.

“Dinnertime, Scott,” she said with professional briskness. “You’re famished and I can’t keep you on IV forever.”

He stared at her as if trying unsuccessfully to remember something. His face looked tired and old, like he’d been hanging there for years. He gave the impression of a prisoner who had long forgotten the crime he had committed, or a captured soldier who had never talked but no longer had any useful information to give.

“I’ve brought your favorites,” Sally offered. “Macaroni and cheese, veal cutlet, some of that Nebraska corn your wife packed for you. And, of course, cherry cobbler. Open up.”

“Please,” he said with a voice that was little more than a whisper. “I’ve got to get back home. Please don’t keep me here. I want to go back to my brothers and sisters.” His eyelids flickered down further, as if the effort of speaking was draining the last of his strength.

“You need this, Scott. It’ll make you feel better.”

She skewered a pre-cut piece of meat and touched it to his lips, navigating it into his partially open mouth. “There you go, my friend.”

Suddenly his eyes snapped open in horror. He struggled frantically with the restraint and shrunk back from the fork as if he suspected poison. Sally stepped back, surprised at his reaction and the force he was able to muster.

“What are you trying to do?” he shrieked. “I can’t eat that! How could you even think?”

Sally worked to balance the tray as she regained her footing.

“Then we’ll start with the macaroni,” she said with a shrug, successfully maintaining her nurse’s professional manner.

He eyed the tray and struggled again, trying to get further back. “No, that’s not right! That should go to the Masters! What do you think I am? Give that to the Masters! I can’t eat the Masters’ food!”

Sally paused for a moment, calculating her next strategy. “Scott, it’s okay. This food belongs to us. I’m giving it to you. It’s yours. You have a right to eat it.” She approached him again, but fear mounted in his eyes as the food neared his face.

“No, it’s not right! Give it to the Masters! Please! Save it for them for when we go down! Please! Save it for them!”

Sally felt her patience giving way. She was appalled at the condition of Scott’s body and it was getting worse. His injuries were healing too slowly because of the abuse his system had taken on the planet. To rebuild those damaged tissues and to recover from surgery, Scott’s body was using up what little reserves he had left. To prevent further decline, good nutrition was an absolute necessity. But, blocking her every attempt to help him was the face she had seen on the monitor. The Master. The smirking, decadent face with the twisted smile. The evil face that Scott worshiped.

“Scott, this has gone on long enough! You’re going to eat this food! It doesn’t belong to the Masters, it belongs to me. And I say you can have it!”

“It should belong to them! Don’t you see, we can’t waste that on me! It’s . . . not right! Food like that belongs to them! It’s fitting for them! They need it!”

“Why? What did they do to deserve it? Look what they’ve done to you, for heaven’s sake! I wish they’d all starve!”

Scott gasped, his face taking on a mixture of terror and astonishment. “That would be terrible! We can’t let the Masters starve, how can you say that?” Tears formed in his eyes and quickly rolled down his cheeks. “After all they’ve done for us, how can you talk like that?”

“You really believe that, don’t you?” Sally said, bewildered.

“Of course I do!” His face took on a faraway expression. “They’re so generous and kind. They rescued me and took care of me. And they were going to do the same for you!” He regarded Sally with pure contempt. “And you want them to go hungry? How can you be so cruel? You won’t try to hurt them, will you?” His arms tensed. “I won’t let you hurt them!”

“Okay, okay! No!” She lifted a reassuring hand. “I’m sure they won’t go hungry, Scott. There are plenty of people down there for them to eat, plenty of lives to destroy. But, up here, I’m concerned about you. Will you please try to eat this?”

She held the fork up to his face and he reeled back again. “No, that’s for the Masters! Get it away!”

“Listen to me, Scott!” she said, losing the last of her patience. “The Masters aren’t your friends! They hurt you! They were using you! Don’t you see? They were killing you an inch at a time! And, God, what they did to your mind!”

“No, you don’t understand! Let them show you, please! Let them show you!”

The pleading in his eyes made Sally more scared than angry. This was not the Scott Anderson she knew, not even close. The doctor in her must have known this long ago, but the rest of her had been denying it. She’d worked diligently, tending and checking the injuries she could treat. Perhaps, while doing so, she’d deluded herself into thinking she’d made progress. Perhaps, unconsciously, she had worked on his body for her benefit more than his. When he was on her table, she could pretend the real damage could be mended and sewn back together. She could imagine him rising from the bed with a lighthearted joke and launching into a discussion about football. She could hear Ian’s voice, too, bantering about the finer points of one team or another. She could hear him shuffle a deck of cards and challenge anyone nearby to a game. She felt the sting of bitter loss. No, not yet! This was her patient and her friend. One way or another, he would get the help he needed. And he certainly wasn’t going to die under her care!

“Anderson, you’re going to eat this food. I’m your doctor and your captain, and this is a direct order! It’s for your own good! You can get it over with now or we can do this over the course of several days, but you will eat it!”

He reeled back from the plate as if it contained live scorpions. He shivered, pulling at his restraints and looking fearfully into her determined eyes.

“Let it spoil,” a female voice called from behind.

Sally whirled around, losing her balance and letting the tray float to the deck in slow motion, a few sticky portions escaping as it did. A woman in a lab coat stared at her. She was slender, short, and had a long face. Her dark brown hair was tied back neatly and her eyes were dark enough that the pupils were hard to discern.

“Who the hell?”

“Forgive me, Captain, I didn’t mean to startle you, but I needed to see how this progressed.”

“Well, as you can see, it’s going just fine!”

“Let it spoil,” she repeated.

Sally put her hands on her hips and regarded the smaller woman quizzically. “Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?”

“No, it’s logical. Based on your initial report about the planet and Anderson’s behavior, it would fit the pattern. Surely it must be clear to you now that Anderson didn’t want to leave the labor camp. He’s been conditioned to think it’s home. We can therefore assume his concepts of pleasure and discomfort have been completely reversed. That would be the easiest way to make him remain by choice in what we would consider an uncomfortable environment. Chances are, they also conditioned him to be partial to food his Masters wouldn’t eat. That way their workforce could subsist happily on garbage. It would be cheaper to feed them and the Masters could skim the best off the top for themselves. So, let the food spoil and he’ll probably eat it.”

Sally stared at the newcomer, sizing her up. “Excuse me, but just who are you and what are you doing here?”

“Forgive me, Captain, my name is Dr. Rachel Poole. This is obviously a VR link. I told you in my last message I’d be contacting you.”

“You’re Poole?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not what I expected,” Sally admitted.

Poole smiled. “I sometimes have that effect on people.”

Sally’s face stiffened. “So, you’re the one who blacked us out and had my partner arrested?”

She nodded, her smile vanishing. “Yes, Captain, those were necessary precautions. But your friend was not arrested.”

“Quarantined then. That’s what the man said, wasn’t it?”

Poole nodded again. “But I think you’ll understand more when we get started here __”

“I want to understand now,” she interrupted. “I spent half my life in school and I’ve practiced medicine for quite a while, so don’t toy with me! You know damn well I never actually entered Jackie’s apartment and she didn’t come here. Whatever bugs I picked up from the planet couldn’t be transmitted though VR, so how in God’s name do you justify a quarantine?”

“Those aren’t the bugs we’re concerned with, Captain. I’m a doctor, too, and I’m not trying to belittle your abilities. But I need you to understand that this is outside your area of expertise. Earth Command has given me wide latitude here in terms of authority, but I’d much rather work with you.” She paused, letting her words settle. “You see, Doctor, I do respect what you can do.”

Sally’s next attack was suddenly and skillfully diffused. She could only stare at the newcomer with reluctant respect. “You’re in VR now. Does that mean whatever contamination you were worried about doesn’t exist?”

“We’re still not sure,” she admitted. “But we believe, if there were a problem, we’d have detected it by now. We’ve also taken further precautions.” She put on a half-smile. “By the way, there was no need to be so rude to our guinea pig. He took quite a chance to protect you and I think you scared him half to death.”

“You were observing him, he said.”

“Yes. He’s still alright and so is Jackie.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s back at home and you can visit her later today. I’m suspending VR silence with some provisions. I’ll need you all to take the same precautions we have.”

“You said that before. What do you mean by ‘precautions?’”

“We’ve modified the chipsets and we’re monitoring all activity.”

“Jackie’s implant?”

She nodded. “But hers was new enough that we didn’t have to go in surgically.” She felt the back of her head. “Mine did require surgery.”

“What about Ian’s family?”

“And Coronov. They’re all taken care of. I’d like your permission to meet with the whole crew when we’re done here so I can give you all a full briefing.”

She nodded.

“I’ll also need a better look at the implant you removed from Anderson. I’ll want Coronov to dissect if for me micron by micron and record every step of the procedure holographically.”

“I had Ian start on that already.”

“I got his initial report, but I would have thought Coronov’s background in electronics would make him a more obvious candidate for the task.” She paused. “But, of course, that’s up to you.”

“I’ll talk to Vlad about it.”

“I’ll also need to upload some files to your mainframe immediately. I’ll need you to clear about five hundred petabytes for my folder and partition it so I can have direct access from here at all times __”

“Hold on a minute!” Sally put up her hands. “Our systems are pretty well spoken for. We’ve had to depend on our mainframe quite a bit, especially recently. I’m not sure we have five hundred petabytes to spare.”

“You do. You’ll have to clear off some of your excess data files, but I think you can make it.”

“Where would you like me to start? Navigational control? Life support?”

Poole sighed. “How about starting with the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Collected Works of Shakespeare? Also, many of your crew’s personal VR files can probably go into storage without too much damage to moral.” She took on a gentle but firm tone. “Captain, I didn’t come here to pick a fight with you and I’m sorry I have to be abrupt, but time may be critical. I’m not trying to undermine your authority, but I know as much about your ship and your mission as anyone on Earth does. I’m going to have to depend on your resources and I know all your specs. If I ask you for something it’s because I need it and I know you can spare it. Please don’t try to play hardball with me. Remember, I don’t really have to ask.”

Sally found herself outflanked by her logic. She suddenly felt like a fool. “Very well,” she agreed. “I’ll see to it you get what you need.”

“And, concerning Anderson, we’ll need him out of that restraint as soon as possible and I’ll need his VR implant reset __”

“Wait a minute!” Sally said, facing off again. “There we do have a problem.”

“I understand the reasoning behind the restraint, but I won’t be able to work with him in that condition. And you as a doctor must be aware of the problems that would result in keeping him like that even in the short term.”

“Yes! But, if we let him out of there, he’ll try to harm himself. And, besides, he’s my patient and I intend to remain in control of his treatment.”

“He’ll try to get back to the planet,” Poole agreed. “But we can take care of that. Again, Captain, I don’t want to have to insist. When you check your most current messages from Earth, you’ll see that UN Command has agreed to transfer primary control of Anderson’s recovery to me.”

“Okay, but just who are you, actually? I mean, you’ve obviously impressed some big shots at the UN, but that doesn’t make you more qualified than I am. And, incidentally, I’m probably the only doctor I know of not in active practice who still routinely browses the journals. Why haven’t I heard of you?”

“I’d say you’re browsing the wrong journals. I’m not exactly a medical doctor. My field is in psychiatric sciences and bio-technical mental disorders. That’s why I certainly bow to your skill in getting him to this point, but I think you’ll find that Anderson’s long term problem falls much more within my jurisdiction than yours.” She took a hesitant step closer to Sally. “Again, I’d rather work with you.” She extended her hand.

Sally again found herself marveling at Poole’s diplomatic skills. She watched any further counter attacks she might have launched fizzle out on their pads. She nodded and shook the woman’s hand politely, noting how small and smooth it was. Dr. Poole seemed almost like a child.

“The food won’t spoil,” she said. “There are too many preservatives.”

Poole’s eyebrows knitted. “I’d forgotten about that.”

“I could try to culture some bacteria to deliberately spoil it, but that would be hard to do without making it dangerous. I found parasites in his intestinal walls. I don’t know what he was eating down there, but it was pretty bad.”

“How about making it dirty?” Poole suggested. “Remember, it just has to be bad enough that normal people wouldn’t feel comfortable eating it.”

“But it also has to be safe.”

“Agreed.” Poole began to pace. “Maybe you could use clean dirt.”

“Clean dirt?” Sally mulled it over for a few moments and then began to smile. Poole’s lips stretched tight across her teeth in response, as she, too, saw the humor in it. They looked at each other for a few moments before both exploded into laughter. It was then that Sally realized she hadn’t laughed in weeks. Not since she’d been with Jackie before the terror began had she allowed herself that luxury. She’d needed the release more than she could have imagined.

“Clean dirt,” Poole repeated, still grinning. “You know, sterilized earth, perhaps. Something that won’t actually harm him. You might also try dehydrating bread to make it seem stale.”

“Good idea.”

“And I’m going to need Anderson’s VR chip reinitialized. I’ll upload the specifications. I really would suggest you put Coronov on that.”

Sally nodded.

Then the door chimed and Ian entered. He started to speak, but froze in surprise, looking back and forth between Sally and the newcomer.

“Oh, Ian!” Sally called to him. “Meet Dr. Rachel Poole.”

“Delighted,” he said, looking visibly uncomfortable. Then Sally caught on. In all the excitement, she had actually forgotten about the Masters!

“You called them?” she asked.

“They want to talk to you. They don’t like the terms.”

Poole looked from one to the other.

“There’s something I should have told you,” Sally said.