Hal returned a few minutes later. He’d changed into a green T-shirt and black cargo pants, hair still damp from his quick shower.
“Take a seat up there.” Beryl gestured to the other medbed as she brought over supplies to disinfect his wound.
“What did you find out?” Hal asked.
“Not much, yet,” Ty replied. “Just a name. Vivian Valjean.”
“So, what do we do with her?”
“Just let her rest. I’ve got a meeting with LanTech in two days. We’ll take her to Omicron Station with us, then bring her back here. If we take her with us, we don’t miss the meet, and she’s safe from whoever was trying to snatch her. Might be an inconvenience, but at least she won’t wake up in some brothel somewhere, chained to a bed.”
Hal nodded. “Sounds good. That a keycard for her room?”
“Yeah. Looks like she’s rented a cube down the avenue from the bar. Think we should go pay for her room a few days?” Ty said.
“Either that or get her things. You know how those managers are,” Beryl said. “If she doesn’t come for another day, they’ll take everything out of there and sell it. I’ll stay with her.”
“OK. We’ll be back,” Ty said, glancing at Hal. His friend hadn’t taken his eyes off the sleeping woman during their whole conversation. Something in her had triggered Hal’s protective instincts. Anyone wanting to get to Vivian Valjean while she was on their ship would clearly have to go through Hal first.
TWO
She had a headache. A bad one. Did Noah find me? The thought caused her to open one eye, expecting to see her small cube of a rented room, or worse, her hab unit with Noah. Instead she saw a medical bay with metal floors and ceiling. Opening both eyes, she looked around. She was in a medbed, covered with a blanket. She could feel the pull of medical sensors on her arm and collarbone. Her fingers began to work at them in growing panic.
“Where the hell am I?” she breathed, yanking harder at the sticky pads of the sensors. She had a vague memory of two men grabbing her and pulling her somewhere she didn’t want to go. Had she been taken prisoner? The room swam in her sight, and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut with a groan.
You are on the Loshad, Vivian Valjean. I am Runa, the ship’s computerized assistant. Please do not try to get up.
Her eyes opened wide. The calm, steady voice seemed to come from above her, where the ship’s comms would be. If a ship’s computer knew she was awake, it would be alerting someone right now. “Yeah, well, sorry. Don’t take orders from computers. I give the orders.” She removed the last sticky pad from her collarbone. “I’m outta here.”
Miss Valjean, you are suffering the after-effects of being drugged.
“No shit, really?” Vivi slid from the bed, promptly falling on the floor. On her hands and knees she found her boots and sat back to jam her feet into them. It took a moment to regain her balance, and the sudden vertigo made her cling to the medbed until the world stopped spinning. “What the hell happened to me?” she asked, slurring her words.
Lifting her head, she saw her bag. Her datapad and ID were on the counter next to it. She shoved them into the backpack, grabbed it and lurched toward the door. As she got there, it slid open, and she ran into a man standing on the other side. She staggered back, then tripped and fell to the ground.
“Woah, there!” he said. “You shouldn’t be up yet.”
She looked up at him through a haze. He was attractive, with short brownish-blonde hair, gentle eyes and a golden scruff on his face that softened his features. He knelt beside her, taking her arm gently. She could smell the clean scent of his soap.
“I need to get you back onto the bed,” he said, helping her to a sitting position.
“I… I remember you…” she said, uncertainly. Was he the man who had grabbed her arm and tried to take her out of the bar? Or was he that blur of grey and black she’d seen fighting her would-be attacker? She wasn’t sure. “You… were in the bar.”
“Yeah. No need to be afraid.” The man helped her to her feet. When she took a sliding step backwards to put space between them, he was careful not to touch her again. “If you can just lie back down, we can talk.” He gestured toward the bed. Even though it was the last thing she wanted to do, she felt nauseous and lying down was probably a good idea. He followed her as she staggered her way to the bed and crawled up on it. “Nobody’s gonna hurt you here, Miss Valjean.”
“Who are you?” she asked before laying back down.
“My name’s Hal Cullen,” he replied. “Should I get our medic?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “No, I’m just kinda… kinda dizzy.”
“That normal, Runa?”
Yes, Hal, the computer’s even tone replied. But I am not currently getting a reading on our guest.
“Here, let me reattach the monitors…” Hal murmured, turning her arm to place the sensor inside her elbow. He was careful with her, moving slowly so as not to startle her.
“Did… Did you guys kidnap me?” Vivi asked, still clutching her backpack to her with one arm.
“No.” Hal looked up, startled. He shook his head as he moved to slip off her boots and cover her with a warm blanket again. “No. There were guys in the club who tried to snatch you, but I saw it and came after you.”
She began to remember the blonde man attacking the one who had yanked her up from the floor with a hand in her hair. “Oh, right.” Vivi nodded, her eyes growing heavy again. “I kind of recall seeing you fighting with someone.”
“Yeah. You’re safe now. Our medic said you’d probably need to sleep a little longer.”
“But I’m not sleepy….” She lay there, feeling both nervous around this total stranger and more exhausted than she’d ever felt in her life. He took a seat beside the bed and she forced her eyes to stay open, wanting to keep an eye on him, but within moments she lost the battle.
When Ty entered the common area, later that night, he saw Hal at the table eating a protein bar and drinking a bottle of water – his standard fare after a rush or a night of drinking. He was reading something on his handheld but glanced up when he saw Tyce.
“Beryl with our guest?” Ty asked.
“Yeah.”
Ty raised an eyebrow. “You good?”
“Five by five, Cap.”
Ty was glad to see Hal was back to a calmer state of mind. The rush had been a short one.
Like all vats, Hal was subject to a stronger reaction to adrenaline than those born normally – seeking the rush was built into his biology. Rushing vats were at the top of their physical and mental prowess, but it took a great toll on them. Ty’s regiment had been made up almost exclusively of vats, so he knew them well enough to help Hal manage the more aggressive facets of his nature.
Vats were raised to serve in the military, so the rush compulsion wasn’t a problem until they got their walking papers from the service. They were discharged from their military duty after seven years. In the early days of the genetically modified soldiers, they’d tried to keep them enlisted indefinitely, but the nightly programming they underwent eventually made them violent and unstable.