Reclamation(40)

Perivar turned his back on his partner. “We need to get a blood sample,” he said to Arla, “so we can find out what we can do with you.”

“Eric told me.” She held out her arm without changing her expression.

Yeah. Perivar shook himself. Now where’d I put … No, I threw that all away. Let’s see … He pulled open a corner drawer and found a utility knife and a piece of plastic wrapper. He tossed them both in the heater and set it on sterilize.

When he turned back around, she was still holding her arm out, waiting patiently for him to draw blood.

He laid the knife against her fingertip and pressed down. The skin broke and the blood welled scarlet around the blade. Arla didn’t even flinch.

Perivar, we just got the answer. The sample’s clean. Tell the client. Perivar, sample’s no good. We’re going to have to dump ’em. Perivar, sample says they’ll be able to take it for at least a year down there. Let the client know we’re bringing them in.

He wiped her cut off with the wrapping and dropped her hand.

Perivar, I don’t think you understand what you’re doing … You’ll do what you’re told you damned barbarian or you’re dead … Try me, Skyman, just try me.

Leave me alone! he shouted to the memory voices.

Perivar taped the wrap closed around the bloody smear.

“Brain. Get a courier cart up here, on the double; I’ve got a package for Zur-Iyal at the Amaiar Gardens.” He and Iyal had never stopped sending each other things; souvenirs or jokes or small presents. One more package wasn’t going to generate any more attention, even from the watchful Vitae.

“Priority rating assigned. Request one will be completed in five minutes.” The voice from the ceiling startled Arla but not badly. Perivar slid the sample into a wrapper and dropped it into the hard mail bin. Reluctantly, he turned back to Arla.

“There’s not much for us to do until we get an answer on this. You can wait in here.” He led her into his living rooms.

Perivar picked a few old schedule printouts up off the sofa and said, “Make yourself comfortable,” before he walked out into the workroom again. He closed the door behind him.

“All right.” He strode back to the map table. “Where were we?”

“Perivar …”

Perivar touched two keys to clear a space in the corner of the display for schedule data. “I think I remember seeing that Haron Station will be supporting a six-layer open channel between …”

“Stop this.”

Startled, Perivar looked up. On the other side of the membrane, Kiv and all five of the kids stared at him, eyes and ears focused entirely in his direction. For the first time in years, that attention made his skin crawl.

Kiv glided up to the membrane. The kids slipped sideways to let their parent by.

“What are you doing, Perivar?”

He curled his hands into fists and leaned all his weight on his knuckles. “Trying to finish up the routing for packet 73-1511. What are you doing?”

Kiv closed and retracted all his eyes. “If I live a thousand lives, I will never understand your people.”

“You’ve said that before.”

“This time I mean it.” Only two of Kiv’s eyes opened and extended. “The packet can wait another few hours, Perivar. You have another responsibility that requires immediate attention.” All of his hands waved toward Perivar’s closed living rooms.

“She’s not my responsibility,” Perivar told the tabletop through clenched teeth. “I’m just moving her through.”

There was a long pause.

“So, how did you deal with … the contraband before this? When they were your responsibility?”

Perivar kept his eyes toward the map, but he saw nothing at all.

“We kept them in life-support capsules in the cargo hold. I actually spoke to maybe two others besides Eric. I told myself what we were doing didn’t matter. They’re not human, not like me, just gods-blasted-and-damned barbarians …” A red haze filled his eyes. “Better off where we take them, or better off dead. Too stupid to understand what really matters …”

“Per-efar!”

Perivar’s head jerked up. Kiv had shouted his name, the actual syllables, not the conglomeration of whistles and buzzes the translator straightened out.

“Perivar.” Kiv slapped his silicate mask over his face and glided through the membrane, leaving the kids huddled in a complex knot behind him. He filled the workroom and had to bend his body to fit between the counters and the map table. Despite that, he got close enough that Perivar could see the gel glisten on his skin. Perivar fought the urge to back away.