The Forlorn(105)

"Likewise," Wolf grated. "I have come to kill him."

The surgeon turned to a voice pick-up below a wall-mounted screen. "CompControl: Records search: Ahrens, Jacoob, First Mate, Morningstar I. Print to screen."

The screen flashed. "RECORDS DELETED"

"Why . . . something's wrong here," said the surgeon. "Let's check Medical records. Medical CompControl: Records search: Ahrens, Jacoob, First Mate; Morningstar I: All data print to screen."

Lines of print began to scroll across the screen.

"AHRENS, JACOOB MAMUD. FIRST MATE. Ph.D. ASTROPHYSICS. (ANK.) M.Sc. NANOENGINEERING. (MOSK.) BORN 23/3/2068. HEIGHT: 6'4". WEIGHT: 195 lb. SPORTS: NULL-G TENNIS: TURKISH NAT. CHAMP: 2084. 3-D CHESS. LEVEL GRANDMASTER. RELIG. AFFIL.: SUNNI MOSLEM." Then on to immunizations, illnesses, allergies, and so on, down to retinal records, fingerprints.

The surgeon bit his forefinger. "He existed. Even was treated here, three hundred and fifty years ago. Tall man . . ." Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "Tall man! Medical Compcontrol check those records against Mortuary records."

There was a long pause.

Then across the screen marched: "ERROR MESSAGE: MORTURY MATCHES TO RETINA AND FINGERPRINT RECORDS BUT CORPSE NAME NOT LISTED AS AHRENS, JACOOB MAMUD."

"Yess! I knew I'd seen two nearly identically tall men at the crew council meeting . . . and only one whom I had a name for!" said the surgeon grimly.

"Medical Compcontrol: Print name listed for corpse with retina and fingerprints of Ahrens, Jacoob Mamud."

A brief pause. "FISHER, DANE. SUB-CAPTAIN."

"That explains a lot. Compcontrol: Records search: Fisher, Dane. Sub-Captain. List records to screen."

"RECORDS DELETED."

"To prove that's no fluke, I'll do my own. Compcontrol: Records search: Edwards, James. Lieutenant-Commander. List record to screen."

Information began to scroll slowly down the screen. The surgeon pointed at it and nodded. He sighed. "Your man out there is Sub-Captain Dane Fisher. And having known the bastard, I'm hardly surprised. Wait. He covered his tracks . . . but he missed the medical records. Probably didn't realize they were separately stored. He never liked the medical side much, for all that he was supposed to be one of us. He was always more interested in pharmaceutical research than medicine. Humans were just incidental guinea pigs. Medical Compcontrol: Records search: Fisher, Dane. Sub-Captain. All data print to screen."

A pause:

Then the print began to scroll onto the screen.

"FISHER. DANE NESBIT HUENNES. SUB-CAPTAIN. Ph.D BIOCHEM. (CAPE TOWN). Ph.D. MIL.SCIENCE (CAL.) M.ChB. (LOND.) BORN: 2065. HEIGHT: 6'4" WEIGHT:192 lb. SPORTS: KARATE (FUNAKOSHI). OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST SA 2080, 2084. RELIG. AFIL. AG. SURGICAL IMPLANTS. INDEX FINGER DISTAL PHALANX REPLACED WITH SINGLE PULSE MICRO-LASER UNIT, SOLAR RECHARGEABLE THROUGH FINGERNAIL . . ." but after the fingerprint and retina prints was a note: "FURTHER RECORDS> MEDICAL REQUISITIONS AUTHORIZED BY FISHER, DANE. PRINT TO SCREEN?"

"Medical Compcontrol. Print requisitions to screen."

A list began to scroll across the screen.

The surgeon shrugged. "He planned this all right. I suppose he didn't realize that all medical-supply requisitions were also downloaded to Medical Compcontrol. Look at it all! Longevity drugs—at least a lifetime supply—antibiotics, general first aid stuff, Mini robosurgery unit . . . what in hell! Was he planning to do a lot of screwing around? That's about a million doses of AmB 486. What the hell would he take that number of abortifacients with him for?"

A terrible, terrifying light began to dawn in Keilin. "Sir . . . you know about the Gene-spliced people . . ."

"Sure. Like these chaps, and my patient. I should imagine half the population is by now. I did some post-grad work on the heritability of the characteristics. Every kid a coconut. It wasn't generally known, but the dominance linking was very successful."

"Then there is no reason that the Gene-spliced cannot have babies?" Keilin asked cautiously, aware of the acute attention of Wolf and his friends.

"No. None. They're perfectly normal humans, just with a few extra abilities." The doctor looked puzzled.

"They can interbreed with ordinary humans, have ordinary babies?"

"They are ordinary humans. The kids will inherit the gene splices that's all. I told you they were dominant-gene linked."

The girl called Gerda looked at him, ice in her eyes. "I've been pregnant twice. Spontaneous abortion both times. The children were both too deformed to have lived anyway. My mother aborted seventeen times. She bled to death the last time. I have one sister. She has no arms."