Part 16 (1/2)
She shrugged. She didn't want to understand. She just wanted the blood a.n.a.lyzed.
Alisa took Alejandro's hand and curled his fingers around the container. ”I only need your help for a few minutes, Doctor,” she said, forcing herself to remain patient.
He finally pushed himself to his feet. She backed up, knowing she would only be in the way.
”What do you want to know?”
”For starters, if it's actually blood or if someone dumped paint on the floor.”
”I'll get my tools. Your sickbay is woefully under equipped.”
”My entire s.h.i.+p is under equipped.” Alisa did not know if he had heard the story about how she'd recovered it from a junkyard, but she decided not to bring it up.
He returned from his cabin with his duffle and withdrew prayer beads, a worn copy of the Xerikesh, and a sack of dried ka'tah petals for consecrating holy water. A handheld microscope came next.
”Someday, you'll have to let us know if you're really a monk, or if your ruse is just elaborate in its details,” Alisa said.
”We can start holding sermons on Stars Day if you wish.”
”I'm not sure your ability to bore the crew once a week would verify or deny your monkly status.”
He gave her a dark look and unscrewed the container.
”Captain?” Mica stood in the hatchway, waving to her.
”Trouble?” Alisa joined her in the corridor, figuring Alejandro would prefer it if she did not hover over his shoulder.
”Do you even have to ask?”
”I suppose not.”
”We have attracted tourists.” Mica walked to NavCom, pointed to one of the camera displays, and brought it up on the view screen. Four Sta.r.s.eer warriors stood on the landing pad, talking and eyeing the Nomad.
”Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Yumi's sister is out there to hurl them into walls,” Alisa said.
”No, but I wouldn't mind seeing that again.”
”Have they tried to comm yet?” Alisa hoped Alejandro would finish his a.n.a.lysis of the blood first so she would have something to talk with them about.
”No, but one of them keeps pacing. Like he's waiting for someone. Or a response to something.”
Alisa grimaced. ”A response to the question, Can we blow them back out into the mists?'”
”I'm watching them to make sure they don't snoop around under the s.h.i.+p and see the explosives I set. The docking clamps are still fastened, I noticed.”
Yes, just because Young-hee had said they were free to go did not mean that all the Sta.r.s.eers felt that way.
”Are your explosives set in such a way that they won't damage the s.h.i.+p?” Alisa asked.
Mica hesitated. ”They're too close in for us to raise the s.h.i.+elds for protection. The clamps themselves are fastened to the hull.”
”So, your explosives will damage the s.h.i.+p?”
”Probably, but we don't have to head into orbit right away. Just fly to a more civilized part of the planet, and we can set down for repairs. That's better than staying here.”
”All we have to do is survive a flight through those mists.”
”I suggest going straight up. They may extend across the surface for thousands of square miles, but I bet you can fly out of them within a mile if you go up.”
”Maybe.” Alisa had never studied satellite imagery of this part of the planet, but she remembered Leonidas's encyclopedia article. She doubted all of those airplanes would have crashed if the mists only affected the first few thousand feet above the surface.
She reached for the computer console, thinking of taking a look at the satellite imagery now, if she could pull it up. Most of her instruments had gone wacky when they had first entered the mists.
The comm light flashed first.
”It's not paint, Captain,” Alejandro said when she answered it.
”What is it?”
”Blood.”
So much for her theory.
”Human blood?” Alisa asked. Maybe the Sta.r.s.eers had sacrificed some animal for their plot, though she hadn't seen anywhere in the temple where livestock had been kept.
”Human blood.”
”Can you tell if it's Sta.r.s.eer blood?”
Mica lifted her eyebrows. ”Is that possible?”
”Yes,” Alisa said. ”The empire tests-used to test babies at birth-to see if they had the gene mutations.”
”Huh. Our legends of them just say they were blessed by the G.o.ds and were given magic.”
”Please. Those people are about as blessed as warts on your toes. As far as I've heard, humanity is still looking for proof that G.o.ds and magic exist. If you're interested in the search, maybe you can sign up for one of the explorer missions.”
Mica snorted. ”To be cryogenically frozen for two hundred years to wake up in another star system? One that might be horrible? You'd have to be a wacko. No, thanks.”
”It's how our ancestors ended up here.”
”They were wackos.”
”You're so respectful of the dead.”
”I found my DNA sequencer,” Alejandro said, interrupting the conversation. ”For a minute, I thought those pirates with their grubby fingers had taken it.”
”I don't think they had a sickbay or cared about keeping people alive.” Alisa remembered the scalps those thugs had worn on their belts.
”I have forty thousand tindarks' worth of equipment in here, Marchenko.” His tone chilled a few degrees. ”Don't tell Beck.”