Hal glanced to Ty to see what his captain wanted him to do. Ty knew if he said go, Hal would plow into both of them. Probably even kill one of them, without touching his blaspistol. Sometimes that was comforting to know; other times it was terrifying to realize that Hal trusted him so completely to make those decisions.
But there was no reason to fight the bouncers. Ty held out his ID to be scanned and gestured for Hal to do the same. The bouncer sneered when he saw the flash of Hal’s tattoo on his wrist. “Damn vat fuckers. Always causing problems,” he muttered.
Hal straightened up and advanced, getting in the bouncer’s personal space.
“Hal,” Ty said in a low voice.
“What? You wanna go, jar-bred?” the bouncer spat.
Hal smirked, hungry for another combat. “Sure. I’ll even give you the first swing, nat,” he said.
The second bouncer was checking the screen of his scanner, but at the exchange he glanced up angrily at his companion, then yanked him back by his shirt. “Shut the fuck up, Marque. Godsdamn moron.” The bouncer glanced at Ty and then flashed a pair of wings on his own forearm; the design was a popular tattoo with nat flight crews in the ACAS. He checked Ty’s ID and addressed him more formally. “Sorry, captain. Go on about your night. Get the girl there home. She’s lookin’ a little green if you don’t mind me saying so.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Ty nodded, glancing to Hal. “Let’s go.”
Hal didn’t move, so Ty grabbed him by the shoulder. “Halvor, let’s get her home. Come on.”
The use of his full first name brought Hal back enough so that he backed up, but kept his glare focused on Marque. As the bouncer went back in the club, Hal turned away. His expression softened when he saw the blonde again and he knelt to pick her up. “Come on,” Hal said gently. Her head leaned against Hal’s shoulder as he walked with Tyce back toward the series of lifts that would take them to their ship.
She murmured a few times during the short trip. Ty had trouble understanding her except for when she woke up enough to look around her. “Don’t… let them get me,” she whispered softly. “Please.”
“Nobody’s gonna hurt you,” Hal promised, looking at the bruises on her face. “I’ll take their head off if they even try. You’re gonna be OK.”
“I like you,” she sighed resting back against him again. She was still for a while, then she lifted her head back up, eyes bleary. “I don’t feel so good,” she said, turning her head just in time to vomit on Hal’s arm and shoe. “Oh my gods… I’m sorry,” she mumbled.
Hal didn’t even blink at it. “Don’t worry. Not the worst thing to happen to me.”
She buried her face back against his shoulder with a moan. Ty looked over and smirked.
“I can see you’ve had quite an effect on her,” Ty teased good-naturedly, then he became more serious. “We’ll let Beryl check her out in the medbay. If she needs a medcenter, it won’t take long to get her there.”
They used Jaleeth Station’s complicated series of lifts to reach their ship. Jaleeth was a large station, constructed in the shape of an X, with docking for ships all along the thick legs of the structure. The berths were segregated depending on the class of ship so there were smaller berths for ships like the Loshad, but there were also those that accommodated larger vessels such as the ACAS warships. Once a ship was docked and the bay pressurized, a bay door led into the main concourse of the station, which contained thousands of hab units, retail shops, storage units, restaurants, bars and mech shops. Although its size could be confusing, once a traveler figured out its color-coded lift and tram system, travelling around was actually fairly quick.
In less than twenty minutes, Beryl had the young woman on a table in the medbay, scanning her body. Their medic was an older woman who had served in the ACAS for two decades. In her salad days, Beryl McCabe had been a colonist of Tykus 7, an agricultural planet near the Border. Their colony had been attacked, and her husband and eight year-old son had been murdered by pirates. Beryl, along with the other colonists, had been rescued by an ACAS contingent. Later on, she’d joined up, done her time and been released from service.
Beryl took a blood sample from the young woman. “Runa. Run a scan on this. She was probably drugged,” she said, plugging the sample into the analyzer.
Yes, Beryl, their onboard computer replied. After a few seconds, the program spoke again. She has been drugged with Glimthixene at two and a half times the regular dosage. It is not lethal, but it is longer lasting when taken with alcohol. At her blood alcohol level, she will be in and out of consciousness for at least twenty hours.
“Glimthixene?” Tyce was trying to place it. “What does the drug do?”
“It’s a drug used for panic attacks – a tranquilizer,” Beryl answered.
Tyce took the girl’s backpack off to make her more comfortable. He removed her shoes and covered her with a blanket as Beryl attached sensors to monitor her condition. “OK, what do we need to do to treat her?”
“I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do, really,” Beryl said. “Just keep her warm and comfortable. We could drop her at Jaleeth’s medcenter, but you said someone tried to snatch her?”
“Yeah.” Hal said. “Two of them.”
Tyce eyed the dark bruising on the girl’s face. “I’m not really interested in leaving her anywhere before she’s awake enough to take care of herself,” he mused.
“I think that’s a good plan.” Beryl nodded, turning her attention to Hal and noticing the state of his clothes for the first time. She wrinkled her nose at the smell. “Now you – you need a shower, then I want you back here so I can check you over.”
“OK,” Hal agreed, taking a last look at the sleeping girl before heading for his room.
“How did the meet go? Get any intel?” Beryl asked.
“No. I think the guy was just trying to collect some easy scrill.” Ty ran a hand through his short brown hair in frustration. He gestured to the girl. “At least we were able to help someone.”
Beryl nodded, checking the girl’s vitals. They were steady. “OK. Well, we can definitely take care of her here until she’s back up and about.”
They got an IV line started, then Ty began looking for clues to the girl’s identity. He grabbed her backpack and hauled it up to the other empty medbed. Ty didn’t like going through her things, but he had to know who she was. The front pocket was full of data chips in various neon colors. Opening another larger inner area revealed a datapad. He tried to activate it and was met with a password lock screen.
“She’s got a node. Must be a tecker,” Beryl said, showing Ty the port behind the girl’s ear. “Pretty high dollar rig, too.”
Ty knew most teckers had nodes to allow them to interface with and monitor computer systems. Regular people could get them too, but that specific bioware was usually very expensive. “Mmm,” he agreed. “She’s got a lot of data chips in here too.” In the fourth compartment of the bag, he found an old ID badge for one of the universities located on the Inner Spiral. “Wait. Here we go,” he said. The photo showed the girl, in a much better state than she was in right now. Ocean green eyes looked confidently into the camera amid a sea of blonde curls and freckles. “Vivian Valjean. Says on her ID that she was studying technology.” He found the keycard for a cube where she was staying and set it beside her things.