Losing Mars (Saving Mars Series-3) (11 page)

And then Kipper’s eyes flew wide.

Jess nodded very slightly. It could have been a nod of greeting. It could have been a confirmation of her identity:
Yes, I am who you think I am.

A child who’d grown impatient broke from the circle and ran to snatch the disc from Kipper’s trembling hand.

“You’re a skinny-bones,” said the child to Jessamyn. “Just like her.” The child pointed to Kipper. “Your hair matches your eyebrows. I think your eyebrows are ugly. You’re as old as my grandmother and she’s oldy-moldy-as-dirt.”

Jess giggled. Kipper scolded. The child continued talking to Jess.

“I’m Mischka. Who are you?”

Jessamyn knelt beside the dark-haired little boy. “I’m Jessamyn,” she said softly. “Jessamyn Harpreet Jaarda.”

“That’s a stupid name,” said the boy, seizing the disc from Kipper’s hand and dashing back to the circle with much victorious crowing.

“It’s not a stupid name,” stuttered Kipper. She put a hand to her temple and seemed to lose her balance momentarily. “It’s the loveliest name I’ve heard in a very long while, in fact.” She held Jessamyn’s eyes in a brief and fierce glance before turning her eyes back to the waiting circle of children. “I have to get back … please, wait here,” she broke off uncertainly. “Please wait. I’m thinking—I’ll think of something.”

A howl rose from the circle of children. Kipper looked over her shoulder and then back at Jessamyn. “
Don’t leave
!” she whispered. Then she dashed back to the howling child who had crumpled to the ground.

“I’m here, I’m here,” said Kipper. She reached for one of the child’s small hands and with her own hands traced soft circles along the tiny palm. The child’s howl subsided to a squeal and then a moan. Kipper continued running a thumb round and round the child’s palm. At last the little girl seemed to fall asleep.

“Take her back,” Kipper said to the twobody beside her. “She just needs to sleep it off. Get her hydrated.”

Jessamyn saw the furrow in her former captain’s brow. Was Kipper worried about the child? Was it for show? Or was the worry on Kip’s face because she didn’t know how to arrange the chance to speak with her first officer?

Jess stepped forward. “Looks like you could use some help,” she said, gazing at the milling children.

The boy who’d called Jessamyn names now stuck out his lower lip and glared at her.

“It’s time for giving back,” said Kipper to the children.

Jessamyn raised an eyebrow.
Giving what back?

Several of Kipper’s small charges groaned but two dashed off to where Jessamyn’s coffee cup lay forgotten beside the tree.

“It’s mine!” cried one child.

“I saw it first!” shouted the other one.

As they argued and tugged at the cup, the covering lid detached and drifted toward the ground. A third child dashed forward and snatched the lid, causing the first two to give chase.

“Seven,” murmured a small girl as she squatted to gather a crumpled bit of paper from the grass. This, she shoved inside a small satchel strung over her shoulder. “Eight.”

“They’ll be at it a few more minutes,” said Kipper, who now stood beside Jessamyn. “Some of them have figured out they can extend park-time if they pretend they can’t find a tenth bit of trash to clean up.”

Jess nodded. She wanted to ask, “
Is it really you?
” She wanted to demand tangible proof that Cassondra Kiplinger stood before her. But all she said was, “Oh.”

“Why haven’t you left?
Hades
, Jaarda, do you know how long it will take to get home now? People could be starving while you and I stand here.”

Jessamyn’s face flamed red. There was a chance she wasn’t speaking to Kipper, but it sure sounded like the Kip she knew.

Jess snapped back, “No one’s starving. I did my job.” Then she glared at Kipper and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Skinny-bones!” called Mischka as he ran past the two.

“You did?” asked Jess’s captain. “
Oh.
” Jessamyn saw a flicker of hope behind Kipper’s tired eyes. “
You came back.
” Moisture gathered in Kipper’s eyes and she blinked it back. “The Secretary—she sent you back for me.”

Jessamyn didn’t see the point in disabusing Kipper of this belief at the moment.

“Are you alone?” asked Kip.

“Harpreet and Ethan are here. On Earth, I mean. We’re hiding out in a dissenting community along with Brian Wallace and some others.”

Several of the children now stood in a line grasping the rope that had led them to the park chanting, “Ten, ten, ten, ten.”

“They want their ice cream,” murmured Kipper. “I have to take them back now.”

“Wait,” said Jessamyn. “You’re leaving me here? We have plans to make.”

The captain frowned, pressed two fingers to her temple, massaging it in slow circles. “Here,” she said, slipping off a back pack. “There’s a child’s blankie inside. Come to the hospital at seven this evening. Say you found the blanket in the park. Ask for me.”

“Ask for you, how?”

“Just ask for Cass,” replied Kipper. “I’m known as Nurse Cassondra now.”

With that, Jessamyn’s captain turned to jog back to gather the stragglers and lead the group back to the hospital. Jess shook her head. “What kind of plan is ‘bring a blanket’?” Was this the behavior of her former captain? Kip seemed so …
lost
.

Of course, the captain had been living on Earth for almost three months with no idea whether any of the Raiders were alive or dead, or if the
Galleon
had made it back to Mars. Jess knew that she’d have been changed by such circumstances. In fact, it was wonderful Kipper had believed Jess was, well,
Jess
. She could have assumed any number of things upon seeing Jessamyn’s body once again. But Kipper had assumed she was
Jessamyn
. And Jess was going with her gut feeling that Kipper was Kipper as well.

The hours from mid-morning to seven in the evening passed slowly and involved repeated visits to the coffee shop around the corner from the hospital. In a spectacular display of waste, Jess chose not to finish her fourth cup of coffee. She suspected the Terran beverage was contributing to the uncomfortable jitters tickling up and down her spine. She watched as a pair of twobodies and the threebody doctor left the hospital, the threebody pausing to secure the door before he left. It was seven o’clock. Jess waited until the man had turned a corner. Shouldering the back pack Kipper had given her, Jessamyn stood, crossed the street, and sounded a door-alert at the hospital’s entrance.

“This is it,” she muttered.

23

WORST JOB IN THE WORLD

Lucca Brezhnaya did not have a temper that managed idleness well. Now that she had set things in motion with Gaspar, her fly-on-the-wall, her mind grew restless. The Head of Global Solvency had long-since been instructed to keep a weather-eye to the flow of tellurium, and the Chancellor had checked in with him several times in the past two days, eventually admitting that there was nothing new to be learned or gained. No one, it appeared, was moving tellurium at all right now.

This brought her thoughts to her own lovely store of the precious metal. Its location, which she’d at first thought unfortunate, now seemed rather fortuitous after all. If the Martian ship had crashed on land, there would have been prying eyes on its hold, even with the erection of barriers to keep the curious away.

It was easier to keep the inquisitive away from the sunken vessel, however. Lucca had simply circulated a story that ancient undersea mines had been discovered along the coast by farmers of sea urchin beds. A healthy aversion to being blown to bits had effectively cleared the coast to the west of the Puget Sound.

She glanced through her latest reports, noting that Red Squadron Forces were being trained in methods of undersea diving and the use of submersible vehicles. Last month, she’d had a handful of operatives adept in low-depth reconnaissance. They had, however, all met with unfortunate deaths at the site of the M-class accident. Lucca had been very angry that day. She regretted it now.

She placed a call to her Pacific operations inquiring as to how much longer it would be before the trainees would be ready to dive and begin the process of hauling up the massive find. What she was told did not please her.

“Two weeks?” she asked the official on the holoscreen. “What are you teaching them? How to tie their shoes underwater?”

“Madam Chancellor, we have established protocols to minimize the loss of life due to inadequate knowledge and—”

Lucca cut the speaker off. “Two weeks is unacceptable. I want them diving in two days.”

There was an extended silence as the figure upon the holoscreen glanced over to others in his office to consult.

“We must stress that we
cannot
send the new divers this soon,” came the response at last. “Conditions underwater at these depths are simply—”

The Chancellor interrupted again. “Then find me someone who
can
dive safely at these depths. Do I have to do everything myself?”

The official at the Puget Sound station nodded, then shook his head, then cleared his throat. “Certainly we can bring in experienced divers. We thought that you wished to keep the investigation of the crashed vehicle top-secret, so—”

“There is more than one way to keep information from circulating. Find me some divers. I want intelligence on the status of that ship’s hold in two days’ time. Do I make myself clear?”

“Absolutely, Madam Chancellor,” said the official.

“Brezhnaya out.”

Lucca pressed her forefinger and thumb on either side of the bridge of her nose and rubbed gently until she felt calm again. She always felt better after she’d done a bit of shouting, but it did tend to increase her headaches. Why couldn’t people simply anticipate what needed doing? Lucca allowed herself a rare moment of self-pity. She had the worst job in the world.

But she was committed to seeing her vision through, committed to leaving Earth better than she had found it. No matter how many headaches it cost her. She reached for a med-patch to send the headache packing. It was a difficult and lonely calling, to keep peace on Earth, but she would do it, no matter the personal cost.

24

PROTOCOL

The door of the
Dunakeszi Hospital and Clinic for Brain Injury
swung open and Jessamyn gazed inside. From behind a counter, Kipper gestured for her to come in. Jess could hear a child crying in the distance. Running toward Jess, Kipper seized the bag she’d given Jess earlier and dug inside.

“What I was thinking?” she asked. “Dunya’s blankie, for the love of mittens!” She shook her head as she fished out the blanket. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

And with that, Kipper strode off in the direction of the crying child, calling out, “
I’m coming, I’m coming!”

Jess would have chased Kipper up the stairs except that it was plain to see her former captain was much faster than Jessamyn on this gravity-heavy world. That, and Jess felt a bit unsteady, like rogue electrons were buzzing around in her brain and stomach.

“I will never drink coffee again,” she murmured to the empty foyer.

Kipper came swiftly down the stairs and grasped Jessamyn’s hand in hers. “This way,” she said. As they strode along a narrow hall, Kipper released Jess’s hand, murmuring an apology. “Sorry. I’m used to taking children’s hands.”

Using her wrist chip, Kipper scanned the two of them inside a room that reminded Jessamyn of the one she’d been stuck inside at New Kelen Hospital.

“We’ve both been sloppy as regards protocol. You ought to have demanded proof that I am who you believe me to be.”

“I don’t need you to prove anything,” said Jessamyn.

“That’s extremely unwise. Prove to me you are Jessamyn Jaarda,” said Kipper as soon as the door latched behind them.

Jess’s eyebrows raised. “Seriously? Fine. After you prove you’re Kipper,” she retorted.

The former captain stood arrow-straight. “I tendered my resignation when I heard you would be my first officer. I’m from Squyres Station where we mine the best tellurium on the planet. I sent you to your quarters for insubordinate behavior on our first day out from Mars even though your actions saved our lives. I was shot in the head and captured while trying to help your brother on our mission. Your turn.”

“Oh, Kipper,” Jess said softly.

“Don’t feel sorry for me,” snapped the captain. “I want proof you are who you appear to be. How do I know it’s you?”

Jess took a deep breath. “You and I haven’t had the best working relationship. I called you ‘Sir’ when I knew you preferred ‘Ma’am.’ You gave up your quarters so my brother would feel less discomfort. Oh, and everyone knows you want to be the next Secretary General. Your brother’s trying to beat you to it, though. Is that enough proof for you?”

“My brother?” Kipper’s eyes drew almost closed as she frowned at Jessamyn.

“Yeah. We’ve got a lot to talk about. But not here,” said Jess, looking around nervously.

“This room is Dr. Ruchenko’s office. He’s disabled any kind of monitoring. Had me do it, actually, when he heard I was good with high tech.”

“I didn’t know you were good with high tech,” said Jess.

“Why else do you think I was assigned to assist Ethan?”

Jess felt stupid. She’d been too busy keeping track of what Kipper didn’t do well to be aware of her strengths. “I’m sorry I was so … insubordinate, Captain.”

Kipper’s face softened. “I—You—” and then she broke off, her face crumpling with evident pain. “Ahh,” she sighed, clutching at the side of her face.

Jessamyn stood awkwardly, then glanced around the room. “Can I get you something? An analgesic?” She opened and closed several panels, eager to help her captain.

Kipper made no response, but after several seconds, she grunted out a few words. “Nothing helps. It always passes.” She seemed to recover and explained, “The bullet causes me to experience high levels of pain twenty-four-seven. But they can’t take the bullet out without risking ruining this body. Meaning this body is useless to the Rebody program. Dr. Ruchenko was supposed to turn me over for questioning when I awoke from the coma, but he thinks I’m too valuable as a nurse.”