“I’m not finished with my lunch,” the doctor replied.
As if to emphasize his point, the Orion leaned across the table toward Fisher. “Yes, you are. Come with me, now.”
“What’s this about?” Reyes snapped, scowling and deciding that he did not care how the guard chose to interpret his question or tone.
The guard turned to glower once more at Reyes. “I’ve been ordered to escort this human off the ship. I don’t know the reason, and I don’t care.” To Fisher, he said, “Let’s go.”
Shrugging, the doctor wiped his mouth with a napkin before pushing back his chair and rising to his feet. “Food was cold, anyway.” He sighed, offering Reyes another small, knowing smile. “See you around, Diego,” he said, before looking back to the guard and nodding toward the restaurant’s exit. “After you.”
Reyes was certain he heard the Orion growl in irritation as he gestured for Fisher to move along. He watched the unlikely pair work their way through the crowded restaurant, with the guard retrieving what Reyes knew to be a communications device from his belt and holding it up to his mouth. No doubt he was alerting whoever was on duty for the Omari-Ekon’s security detail that he had his charge in custody and was escorting him to the exit, where Reyes guessed Fisher would be shown without ceremony to the docking ring leading back to Vanguard.
See you around, Zeke.
Looking down at his meal, Reyes decided that Fisher’s dismissal and the prospect of eating yet another meal in solitude had removed what remained of his appetite. He was contemplating an attempt to annoy Ganz and his cronies by winning at the gaming tables when his thoughts were interrupted by the voice of T’Prynn echoing in his head.
“ Mister Reyes.”
“I thought you were going to call me Diego?” Reyes asked, masking his mouth with his water glass, from which he then sipped.
The Vulcan seemed to ignore that. “ I have just been informed that Doctor Fisher has left theOmari-Ekon. As you have likely surmised, his visit was a pretense.”
“No kidding,” Reyes mumbled. “I’m assuming Pennington’s part of the plan, too?”
T’Prynn said, “ That’s correct, but he’s there only to serve as a distraction. His last visit attracted some scrutiny, but I do not believe they know anything about the messages he helped you to pass to us. However, he volunteered to take his evening meal aboard theOmari-Ekon simply as an exercise in diverting the attention of any security guards who might be watching Doctor Fisher.”
Reyes wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Okay, but if Zeke was supposed to tell me something, he either didn’t get a chance to say it, or I’m too stupid to have understood it.”
T’Prynn replied, “ Doctor Fisher’s task was to leave you something. Please check the underside of your plate.”
Trying to affect as casual a demeanor as possible while not making it appear too obvious that he was looking about to see if he was being observed, Reyes took the better part of a minute to inspect the underside of each of the plate’s eight edges with his fingers. On the left side of the plate, close to the edge nearest his side of the table, his fingertips brushed over something thin and smooth. It required only the smallest amount of force to move the object, and it fell from the plate into his palm. He left his hand in place for an extra moment as he forced himself to take another bite of his stew. Around the meat in his mouth, he mumbled, “ What is it?”
“ A transceiver, fitted with an additional translator module,” T’Prynn replied. “ You will use it during your next attempt to access theOmari-Ekon ’s navigational logs.”
Reyes suspected as much. The device was small enough that he could conceal it in his hand, and he covered the movement by reaching up with that same hand to rub his nose. “I was wondering if you’d forgotten about me.” It might have been his imagination, but he swore he heard T’Prynn sigh before answering.
“ Hardly. It took some time to program the module to be able to access all known spoken and written Orion languages, including those which have fallen out of common use. You should encounter no further linguistic difficulty when you make your next attempt.”
“Excellent,” Reyes said, reaching up to scratch his chin. “When do we go for it?”
“ If you have no objections,” T’Prynn replied, “ I was thinking we might try later this evening.”
That suited Reyes just fine. He was tiring of this entire affair, and there was a part of him that wanted it to be over, one way or the other.
Of course,he mused as he considered the transceiver still secreted in his palm as he strolled out of the restaurant, I definitely prefer one way over the other.
22
Ming Xiong heard the footsteps crossing the open deck of the Lovell’s cargo bay, only then realizing that he had missed the sound of the room’s access hatch opening. Had he been dozing? Jerking himself upright in his seat, he reached up to wipe his face while turning his seat in the direction of his visitor, uncertain as to whether he should expect a dressing down or merciless ribbing for his apparent nap.
“What in the name of all that’s holy are you doing here at oh-whatever hundred hours time it is?” asked Lieutenant Kurt Davis, Mahmud al-Khaled’s second in command for the Lovell’s Corps of Engineers team. Tall and thin, with long arms that seemed much too small for the sleeves of his uniform tunic, when Davis smiled his mouth seemed capable of devouring the rest of his face, and Xiong was certain the man possessed the whitest teeth he had ever seen.
“I could ask you the same question,” Xiong said, rising from his chair and making his way toward the food slot set into the nearby bulkhead.
Davis shrugged. “Just making the rounds. It’s my shift. Commander al-Khaled and I usually work opposite each other, and I like the night shift. It’s quieter—most of the time, anyway. Besides, it gives me time and space to sort through a tough project without all of the interruptions that come with working on prime shift. There’s also never a line in the mess hall, either.” He glanced toward the isolation chamber. “If I’d known you were down here, I’d have dropped by sooner.”
Rubbing his chin, which he now realized had grown fuzzy with very fine beard stubble, Xiong reached for one of the data cards lying on a nearby shelf and inserted it into the food slot’s reader. He entered a sequence on the row of buttons below the reader, and the slot’s door opened to reveal a cup of hot coffee. As he retrieved the steaming beverage, he held it up to Davis, who shook his head at the silent offer.
“So,” the engineer said, “what’s the matter? Can’t sleep?”
Xiong nodded. “Something like that.” After a sleepless turn in the bunk he had been provided in what laughingly passed as guest quarters aboard the Lovell,he had opted to return to the cargo bay and review the data that had been collected during their previous attempts to scan the Mirdonyae Artifact. Still ensconced within the isolation chamber, the artifact appeared dormant save for the constant muted violet hue emanating from within its crystalline heart.
“I’ve reviewed some of the data,” Davis said as Xiong returned to his seat and sipped his coffee. “No new progress, I see.”
Xiong shook his head. “Nothing. We’ve repeated some of the more intensive scan cycles a few times, but there’s been no response of any kind, or any other indication that the Shedai wants anything to do with us.”
“I’m guessing you’ve run diagnostics on the chamber itself,” Davis said.
“Until my fingers were numb,” Xiong replied before taking another sip of his coffee. “Everything checks out; we’re just not getting a response.” Shaking his head, he reached up to brush hair from his eyes. “I’m considering resetting all of the scan procedures and starting over, just to see if I’m missing something stupid.”