“Hey, wake up. You can’t sleep here.”
Mercury blinked her eyes. Why was it so dark? A moment ago, a large orange sun was dominating the sky.
“How much did you have?” the male voice asked.
She raised her head and had to close her eyes again to keep from being blinded by the bright white light in the speaker’s hand. “What are you talking about?”
“Whatever drug you took.”
“I didn’t.” Why did she feel so wrong? Even after a night or two of space-sickness, she’d never felt so weak. Warm fingers lifted her chin, not roughly, but not gently either. There was something off about the texture of the skin but the thought slipped from her mind when the owner of the fingers tilted her head back and forth, then shined his light on the side of her face.
“What do you remember last?”
“I was driving. Parking.”
“You live here? I haven’t seen you here before.”
She put her head back down against the steering Y. It was easier than holding it up. “I just moved here, today.”
“And borrowed a car?”
“No. It’s my father-in-law’s. He said I could drive it around and take a little tour. I was returning it to the garage.”
“You are mated?”
Mated? How strange. She knew mated could be used to describe a relationship – she’d read it in an ancient fantasy book in an Earthen literature class – but no one ever did. Her translator settings must be out of whack.
“Not anymore. My husband is dead.”
Husband. That was an even stranger word than mated – kind of like her relationship with William. What would it have been like to kiss him? He’d had nice lips.
“Hey,” the speaker nudged her, “don’t fall asleep again. It is dangerous out here.”
Dangerous? She looked around at the crisp white buildings and the rows of glow lights along the walks and the dim moon overhead. She was still in the resort. The big fence should keep out all of the native species except for maybe the three sentient ones, but they didn’t live on this part of the planet and they were still in the bow-and-arrow stage of their development, not that arrows couldn’t kill.
“Wake up!”
“No danger here,” she managed to mumble. Why was it so hard to speak and why did her head feel like it was stuffed with gauze?
“Yes here. You were attacked. I can see the mark on your neck. You are lucky to be alive. The Tsorians love human blood. You are a delicacy to them.”
It was like fighting a jammed sanitizer to tug the information forward in her mind, but eventually she remembered the Tsorians were the blood-sucking sentients, not the flying ones or the rhino-like ones.
She wanted to ask how they found her if they weren’t even supposed to know the place existed but all she could manage was, “How?”
“They probably found another way under the fence. If you tell me your father-in-law’s residence number, I can help you home.”
Her mind went completely blank. She tapped her wrist where her Wripad should be, but she only felt skin. Great, she’d been robbed too. Well, the joke was on them. Her Wripad was so old the energy cell had long ceased holding a charge. It only worked as long as she kept it close to her skin.
“I don’t remember.”
“Do you remember his name?”
She should. It was funny. It rhymed with fuzz…cuz…suds.. “Buzz. Buzz Phillips.”
“We can look on the registry. Can you walk?”
She managed a weak chuckle. She couldn’t even lift her head and he wanted her to walk?
“I assume that’s a no. If you move over, I can drive us to the office.”
She tilted her head to view the seat beside her. An armrest and a cup-holder had never looked so daunting.
“Can you sit back at least? I’ll put it in automatic.”
That, she might be able to do. She lifted her head first, then let its weight carry her back. To her relief, the back of the seat was tilted far enough that she was able to stay straight back and not have to keep herself from sliding to the side.
The man, whom she still hadn’t seen thanks to the annoying flashlight he kept shining in her eyes, leaned in front of her to inspect the dash. She really should watch what he was doing so she could learn but just opening her eyelids had become impossible.
“You’re not going to sleep again are you?”
She managed a grunt.
“Maybe I should take you to the clinic first.”
That sounded good. The car was moving before it dawned on her that she hadn’t replied out loud. A few seconds later, she was leaning on something warm. She hadn’t realized it was so cold. She shivered and whatever held her tightened around her. A moment after that, she was in a chair – a very comfortable chair – with a pressure around her arm and something cool rushing into her veins. She opened her eyes to a dimly lit room that smelled a little like the medical ward where she used to work, but not as strong.
“Feeling better?”
It was the same voice but she still couldn’t see the face due to the light right behind his head.
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ve never seen the V-Doc get so excited. He seemed to think you were going to die any moment. You’re on the second bag of blood.”
“Who are you?” she asked.
“I’m Amith, one of the security guards.”
She wished he’d move so she could see his face. He wasn’t speaking Earth common, so the translator in her ear was interfering with her ability to hear him clearly, but she could hear enough to tell there was something strange about his voice.
The big screen behind Amith flared to life suddenly and the image of a handsome male doctor in a medical coat stared down at her.
“Your vitals are looking much better. After the transfusion is complete I want you to take these pills with a large glass of water and get a good night’s rest.”
Two pills clattered into the covered well under the center of the screen. From the shape and size and color she recognized them as vitamin pills with iron.
“Thank you doctor.”
The V-doc pointed his finger at her and peered over his glasses. “You take care of yourself.”
The screen went black. Amith had moved out of the way when the doctor started talking. Now that she could see him, she realized the shape on his back wasn’t a backpack.
“You have wings, and…feathers.”
His hair wasn’t hair at all, but feathers sticking up like hair. In fact, the top half of his face was covered in feathers, almost like a mask, then it turned into small scales.
“Yes.”
“You’re an Aeresian!”
“I have been for some time.”
“But you’re not supposed to be here.”
He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead, just stared at her impassively.
“I am so pleased to meet you. I didn’t think I’d get to meet any of the sentient beings on this planet but it seems I’ve met two already. Thank you for saving me.”
She couldn’t say exactly what changed on his face, but his look seemed less harsh when he reached for the swivel screen attached to a small desk beside her.
“I’ve pulled up the register. Do you see your father-in-law’s name?”
Obediently she began scrolling through the list. There was no Phillip or Buzz or anything similar, but she knew he was there. She’d left all her things with him. “No. Are you sure everyone is here?”
“Yes, all the residents. The guests are on a different list.”
“Can I look at that?”
He pulled it up and she flipped through it. Neither Buzz nor herself were on that list.
“How often are the lists updated because I’m not on this one either.”
He shook his head.
“Do you have a map? I remember how I found him.”
He tapped the screen a few times and a layout of the retirement resort appeared. Now that she’d toured the place in person, it amazed her even more. In the various stations where she’d lived and worked, everything was optimized to fit together and take up as little space as possible. There were no meandering paths to anything. Here, the houses in the center did share side walls, but there was plenty of green space in front of them, and a shared pond with a path in the midst of them. The houses around the edges sat on their own plots of land, surrounded by roads and paths that meandered without reason as far as she could tell. Some of the houses had gardens, which didn’t surprise her as fresh food was always better than replicator food, but some had trees and even flowers – useless, beautiful flowers.
She found the main entry on the map and imagined walking through and looking for the residence number again. “There, 616”
He tapped the building she indicated and a box appeared showing who lived there. The name was blank.
“Are you sure?” Amith asked.
“I’m sure. It was the third door past the corner.”
He tapped the houses on either side of it. They came up blank too. “That’s strange. Perhaps there’s something wrong with the register. I’ll take you over there after we’re through here.”
The doubt in his tone prompted her to ask, “Does this happen often?”
“No.” A couple of moments passed while he studied the map. “I need to make my rounds. You should be safe here. I’ll lock the door. Just lay back and sleep if you want. There’s some water there too.”
She didn’t really want to be left alone, but he had a job to do. She understood. Until very recently, she’d had a job too.
About a quarter of an hour later, the machine pumping the blood substitute into her arm retracted its needles and gave an irritating buzz to signal the process was over. It was one of the nicer models, no doubt very expensive when it was purchased a few cycles ago. The little clinic was better stocked than most of the places she’d worked. Judging by the V-doc, which was equipped with the most elaborate sample receiving setup she’d ever seen, the clinic was fully automated.
How had Amith known how to use it? Better, why was he working here? He should not know about this place, nor should the Tsorians. Did that mean the Rhanori were aware of it too? That any of them were in contact with such advanced technology was a serious breach in Alliance policy. Were the Alliance Representatives aware of what was happening? Should she report it?
The resorts had been open at least five Earth cycles, surely someone had reported it already, or maybe not. Maybe no one cared.
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