Chapter 23 - Recovery

I slowly climbed back to consciousness. Fog seemed to cloud my head, clearing briefly as a loud hiss broke through my muddled thoughts. I tried to sit up, but a firm hand on my left shoulder kept me lying flat.

"Don't move yet," Shawna's voice instructed me. "Open your eyes and look at me."

Bright almost blinding light caused me to gasp, but I held them open and turned my head towards the voice.

Shawna stood next to me. My position put me about her waist level. Glancing down I could see that I was in an opened medical pod.

"You should be fine, but I want you to sit up slowly," Shawna said. "That acid proved to be rather nasty. The last scan in the pod says you are fully recovered, but you will probably be a bit dizzy. You need to eat."

"How long?" I gasped out as I struggled to sit up. My arms were very weak. I realized I was pressing my right hand against the pad I lay on and felt no pain. "How long was I in the pod?"

"Angel hour is now starting," the AI called out.

I turned my head back to Shawna as she shook her head. "Over twelve hours," she informed me. "The acid had destroyed most of the flesh on your palm. There were even traces of the acid in your bloodstream. Don't worry; you will make a full recovery."

I was sitting up now, although I swayed a bit. Putting a hand on the side of the pod to steady myself I looked around. Immediately I noticed that all the other pods were in use. "Amanda?" I asked. "The others?"

Shawna sighed. "Amanda was hurt worse than you, but the actions of the armor kept her alive. She's going to be another two days in a pod though. A large amount of acid got into her bloodstream and caused some rather severe damage to her heart and lungs. The pod needs to finish fixing those before I can work on her leg. The other pods have crew from Cancun."

"We saved the ship?" I asked.

"You did at that," a female voice called out. I heard high heels clicking on the floor as someone entered and turned to look.

The woman who had just entered appeared to be in her mid-twenties. However, the first thing that stood out was that she was dressed in a professional blouse and skirt, complete with a ribbon around her neck. Her hair was up in a bun, much like Bethany wore. She looked like a lawyer entering a courtroom for a trial rather than a citizen of the Confederacy.

I held out my right hand. "Hello, I'm Meiko."

The woman smiled and reached out to take my hand. "Captain Jennifer Gates, commander of the Cancun." She turned to Shawna. "I believe you said that Ambrogio should be healed. I thought I'd stop by and be here when the medical pod released him."

Shawna smiled. "He is the crewman with the shattered shoulder correct?"

Jennifer nodded. "Yes, he was performing some repairs on a damaged coil for the rail gun when we took a hit from a Sa'arm rail gun."

"He'll be about ten more minutes," Shawna said with a yawn.

"Long day at the office?" I asked as I got out of the pod.

"I got a little sleep after the initial excitement," Shawna muttered. "Donna volunteered for the first shift. But we have every pod full, and half are for extensive work."

"Anyone from Ishtar? Other than Amanda?" I asked.

Shawna smiled. "Tina needed to have her hands treated. They weren't as bad as your right hand, but some acid had eaten through the towels she was using. From what I can gather the fact that it was raining on the surface must have concentrated the acid somehow."

"How does that work?" Jennifer asked. "I realize that you are underground here, and that we were teleported directly to the planet, but no one really explained why."

Shawna looked ready to respond, but one of the medical pods started sounding an alarm. "Shit!" she screamed. "Allison's going into shock again! Give me a moment."

"What's wrong?' Jennifer asked calmly.

Shawna had dashed over to one of the pods. She was checking something on the side. She said nothing as she worked.

Jennifer turned to look at me. "You're from Ishtar. Can you explain this acid rain?"

I shrugged as I carefully climbed out of the pod and stood up. "I'm not the best to explain. What I understand is that this is a young planet. The atmosphere still has a high concentration of acidic compounds. I've seen what it can do to a person."

I shivered remembering the young woman who had died when the ceiling collapsed. Her legs had been stripped to bones after a few seconds of contract with the green mist that had invaded the halls.

Jennifer was looking over at Shawna. "Will she recover?"

Shawna sighed. "She should. What was she standing near when her suit got burned?"

Jennifer sighed. "She is part of the portside engine crew. Why?"

"She's having some kind of allergic reaction to something that was burned into her skin. The medical pod is having trouble isolating it and removing all of it. That's the third time she's had an attack. But she should recover fully. I've set the pod to do a full filtration of her blood and to use a nanite restructure on the burned skin to remove any more contamination. Unfortunately, she'll be in the pod for another day." Shawna said.

Jennifer sighed in relief. "Thank God. I'd hate to have someone die on my watch. Especially on this planet."

"Why?" I asked. "We like Ishtar."

"What?" Jennifer screamed. "You like being here? That makes no sense. I heard this was some death world that was used as a dumping ground."

Shawna giggled. "Well, I don't remember who said it, but one of our citizens observed. 'Be it dank, dark and mysterious, Ishtar is our home."

I looked at Jennifer. "How is it you know about Ishtar?" I asked. "The other captains just know that we exist."

Jennifer blushed and looked at the floor. "Your being here is my fault."

"What?" Shawna screamed. "How can it be your fault?"

Jennifer looked up and stared Shawna in the eye. "Because I wasn't always a ship captain. Less than a year ago I was one of the executives in DECO and part of my duties was to monitor colony creation and citizen allocation."

Shawna shrugged. "Did you order us placed here?"

"No," Jennifer said as she walked over to the wall. She leaned against it and closed her eyes. "I was not directly involved. The problem was I should have noticed it and stopped it. The person who placed the orders that sent you here did it at the behest of a few training commanders who didn't want to have to have to train marginal recruits. But she did it because I had rejected her advances."

Shawna's jaw dropped. "You mean we ended up here because of an unrequited love affair?"

Jennifer frowned as she nodded. "I hate to call it that, but that's about what happened."

I had a thought. "Jennifer, how much do you know about the politics of Central Command?"

She looked at me and shrugged. "Not as much as I should. Miles doesn't like his people to associate much with the military, and I was lost in my own personal troubles while I was in DECO. But I know some. You couldn't attend one of Miles regular dinners without hearing a lot of gossip about what the military was doing, or failing to do. It was mostly about their failures."

I looked over at Shawna and then back at Jennifer. "Shawna? Do you think you can help Ambrogio on your own? I think James needs to meet with Jennifer as soon as possible."

Shawna shrugged. "Is Jennifer willing to go with you? I won't force her to leave if she wants to stay."

Jennifer just smiled. "He'll understand if I can't be here. I want to be here for my crew, but if I can help you in some way, I feel I must."

Shawna nodded. "James is probably in the command post. You might have trouble finding it, the doors been concealed behind Tina's gift to the colony."

I giggled realizing what that meant. Then with wobbly legs I made my way to the door. In the doorway I turned to watch Jennifer push away from the wall and start to follow.

We stepped into the hallway. Despite the healing I found that I was unsteady on my feet. Jennifer noticed and moved next to me to offer her arm as support. "What happened to you?" she asked.

"I was helping remove the armor from one of our gunners who had a seal fail on her armor. The acid collected on the protection I was using and burned through it. I ended up with acid all over the palm of my hand," I said.

"You seem remarkably calm about it," Jennifer observed as I led her through the hallway. We found that we had to step aside occasionally as concubines and citizens were scurrying through the corridors. A few paused long enough to wave at me.

I said nothing until I noticed the tapestry hanging on the wall. At first the angle made it impossible to make out, but as we approached I could see the deep blue pond that dominated the lower section. Jennifer stopped with a gasp as I walked up to the tapestry and lifted the left side away from the wall.

"Don't touch it," she commanded.

"The command post is behind the tapestry," I told her as a section of the revealed wall slid away to the right. I stepped away so Jennifer could see the doorway.

She paused for a moment and then stepped inside. I followed her through. As I took a third step inside I was pushed back against the wall by a fierce hug. "Meiko! You're alive!" I heard Janice shout.

"I just got out of the medical pod," I admitted. "And I found out something from Jennifer that James should know. I haven't even had time to get some food or see Madoka."

"Madoka is fine," Janice said. "We put her in the same crib as Joy and the two appeared to get along fine. James is in the briefing room, but they are relaxing. Take Jennifer to him. I'll bring some food for you."

I nodded and reached out to touch Jennifer's hand. She was looking around. I saw her stare closely at Tamara and Tiffany as they set at their stations. "Come," I said. "James has time to see you."

"This is your command post?" Jennifer whispered. "It seems very professional considering the people I heard were selected for Ishtar."

I saw the twins whirl to look at Jennifer as we entered the briefing room. James and Yvette were both lounging in chairs. Brad was standing over by the wall, holding Candi.

"Well, the good news is that laser one is usable," James said. 'We are down to one person with ready armor though. Fred, Amanda, Brad, Barbara, Xavier and I all went up and every suit of armor is damaged and needs repair."

"We expected that," Brad began, looking around Candi. "Meiko! What are you doing up and who do you have with you?"

I heard feet hitting the floor as James and Yvette sat up. Blushing, I turned to towards my master. "Master, Jennifer met me when I was released from medical. She has a bit of insight into Central Command and I thought you'd like to talk to her."

James slowly turned his head to look at Jennifer. She was looking at the floor, but took a deep breath and raised her gaze to meet his. "I guess I should introduce myself more formally. I'm Captain Jennifer Gates, commander of the Cancun. However, Meiko seemed more interested in the fact that I was part of DECO and in charge of colony placement and selection when Ishtar was founded."

"What?" Yvette cried. "How did you get that post as a ship's captain?"

Jennifer blushed. My legs were shaking so I slipped into a chair as she took another deep breath. "An investigator was sent to Central Command to find out how Ishtar was accepted as a colony. I wasn't involved in its creation, but if I had done my job properly, you wouldn't be here. Miles wanted to get rid of me after the truth was revealed and I was transferred to the Navy as an officer candidate. I ended up stationed on Kelor and given command of Cancun," she said in a rush.

James nodded. "I can understand that. You embarrassed your boss, so he transferred you to try and conceal the problem. I'm not sure you can really help us. We're trying to figure out how to handle a scientist that we are being forced to host."

Jennifer frowned. "Well, I didn't deal with the scientists much. None of us in DECO really wanted to deal with the military directly. I know that except for a few high priority scientists who were explicitly requested by the Navy, the vast majority of the citizens allocated to science stations were considered unsuitable for combat duty."

"Like we were," Yvette said sweetly.

Jennifer actually giggled and moved to sit down. "No. Not in that way. DECO claims a few high CAP pickups and there are times that the Navy will pre-designate someone for a specific post, usually a scientific one, but the rest of the citizens go through basic training. However, there are always a few that don't adjust well to military life. Some will be transferred to the Civil Service or to Fleet Auxiliary. When they turn out to be former college professors, they usually end up in a research station. They remain in the military, but will never command a ship or unit."

"And us?" Yvette asked.

"It was partly for revenge against me, and partly an attempt to please some training base commanders who are tired of having to train citizens who had issues," Jennifer said. She started to look around. "Wait. I know that the original shipment here was one hundred citizens, but I sure haven't seen that many."

"We have twenty-two citizens on the planet," James said. "We didn't arrive as one unified group, but as four separate factions. The others fought until they brought a section of the ceiling down. The acid rushed in and wiped out those who had survived the fighting."

Jennifer shivered. "I've heard enough to know that the acid is frightening. I'm not sure I could live here."

Brad laughed. "Well, I miss the outdoors, but we are definitely a close-knit community now. You should have seen the show the concubines put on for us."

"Brad!" Candi shouted as she turned to face him. "We performed that for you!"

I covered my mouth to hide a smile. As I did Janice slid into the chair next to me and pushed a tray of food over to me. She had ordered some kind of rice and tempura dish. "Madoka was sleeping, so I left her alone. She fussed all last night. I think she knew you were hurt."

"Thank you," I whispered back as I picked up the fork and started to eat.

"A show?" Jennifer asked. "Now, I know this isn't a normal colony."

James laughed. "We definitely aren't a normal colony. Everyone pitches in and helps."

"I've heard of that," Jennifer admitted. "But I haven't seen it before. But is there anything more I can answer about the scientist who is coming?"

"Not if you don't know him," James admitted. "It sounds like we can expect him to be territorial, not very military, but want to have us show him a lot more respect than he deserves."

"Sounds like a department head in DECO," Jennifer said with a smirk. "Now that is something I can describe for you. The AI units pretty much run the Confederacy. Central Command does have the ability and authority to choose who is stationed on a planet or ship and who gets to be in charge, but there are really many things that the AI prevents. You know if you try to visit one of the alien planets, the AI units will deliberately change your destination. Human ships can only enter other Confederacy systems in an emergency or because there are active Sa'arm ships in the area. For the more ambitious, this is an endless nightmare. I know of four DECO department heads who attempted to hack the AI units."

"Can it be done?" Yvette asked.

"I never met anyone who succeeded completely," Jennifer said. 'In fact the founding of Ishtar is probably the closest I've ever heard of, and that only involved telling the AI to set up the colony, while instructing it to hide the information that the colony had been founded."

"We knew that there had to be something like that when Admiral Himmel didn't know we were in his district," Yvette said. "And he's told us that technically Ishtar doesn't have a governor."

Jennifer laughed. "Now that is only technically true. That's one of the things Central Command hates. They can issue orders that a certain person is to be governor of a planet, but the AI has the ability to ignore the order and choose a different governor. It hasn't happened often, but it does happen."

"Why?" Brad asked.

"It has to do with the logic of the aliens. I guess they want humans with a certain personality as governor when possible. If the AI is given an opportunity to select, it will. Central doesn't consider those decisions binding," Jennifer commented.

I could see James shrug. He seemed ready to say more but suddenly Jennifer looked over at Brad. "A show? What do you mean the concubines put on a show?"

Janice raised her hand. "That was my fault. James wanted some live music and the idea grew until we performed a show for the citizens."

"It was a ton of fun to do," Candi chirped. "I never thought I'd get to sing and dance on stage."

"How many concubines participated?" Jennifer asked.

"All of us," I replied quietly. "Well, we did have two covering the command post, so all the citizens could watch the show."

"We?" Jennifer asked reaching out to touch my shoulder. "You're a concubine? But you were hurt during the fighting."

I shrugged. "There aren't enough citizens to do everything. Getting into the armor our gunners wear isn't really possible without help. So concubines help their master or mistress. When Amanda was brought back down injured I was there to help get her out of her armor."

James looked at me. "How is she? Did Shawna tell you how she was doing when you were released?"

I shook my head. "Shawna said she'd be a couple of days in the pod, but I didn't ask for too much detail. Jennifer arrived as I woke. When I found out she had been in Central Command when Ishtar was founded I hoped she'd be able to offer some guidance. You have been worrying too much."

James laughed. "I have something worth fighting for: six concubines I love, four babies with more on the way, and a colony full of people who are dear and treasured friends."

Janice and I giggled and hugged. The tray sat empty in front of me. "We love you too, master," we caroled.

Jennifer smiled. "You keep changing the subject. So there is a show your concubines have performed?"

"They have," James admitted. "In fact they had just completed it when your ship emerged from its jump."

Jennifer looked hopeful. "Do you think they'd perform for my people once they are all out of medical? They deserve some entertainment."

James sat silently. Yvette and Brad were looking at the walls, ignoring Janice as she sat there with her mouth open. I wanted to help, but had no idea what to say.

"Well...." Janice finally said after a long uncomfortable silence. "We hadn't thought much about performing for others. The original idea was that it would be a gift for the people who have shown us so much respect...."

She looked around wildly. To my surprise Candi spoke up. "There's no reason we can't use the new multi-use room for it. I've looked and it's set up so that our entrance leads directly to the backstage area. We'd just need to let everyone know, and arrange for someone to sit all the babies."

Yvette giggled. "I'm sure there are several citizens who might be willing to spend an evening with their children."

Janice smiled. "Well, if you don't mind, we can do it. We just need to wait until all the crew is out of medical. When will that be?"

James looked up. "Medical, please come in."

"This is Ed. Shawna just headed off to sleep and Donna is still resting. What do you need?" a voice called back.

"Ed, this is James. A question about how much longer the crew of the Cancun will be healing has been asked. Can you answer?" James inquired.

"About twenty-four hours," Ed replied. "We have one crewman who had some contamination in her bloodstream, and we have one who lost a right arm and needs more time for the regeneration. Private Ambrogio is awake and ready to return to the barracks. I've asked Tara to come and escort him."

"Will there be any problems?" James asked.

"I doubt it," Ed said. "The crew of the Cancun has been extremely polite and friendly. And Tara holds a blackbelt in Aikido. If he tries something, he'll most likely get hurt."

"If he does, he can ride on the outside of my ship when we go back to Ursus," Jennifer said. "I don't need any stupid citizens. Ambrogio has two loving concubines back on Kelor," Jennifer snapped.

"How is Kelor? And who is in charge there," James asked.

"I wasn't there for long," Jennifer replied. "Just long enough to be assigned to command Cancun and gather my crew really. The base commander is Commander Jason Charles. I was impressed by him on the flight out."

James nodded. "I'm sure I'll hear more about him soon."

Jennifer laughed. "But not today. Now if you don't mind I want to tell my crew about the show. I'm guessing you'll have it tomorrow afternoon?"

Janice thought for a moment. "Let's plan for tomorrow at three in the afternoon. That should give your people plenty of time."

"I'll go let them know," Jennifer said. She jumped to her feet and dashed out of the briefing room. James and Yvette sat quietly and watched her go.