Ancient Hunter

The car drove past Central Processing. No surprise in that they would hardly be holding her there. I closed my hand and opened it again. A habit I had picked up from getting my hand half blown off. It still amazed me what a Cell Stitcher could do, that and the nanobots running about in my blood. I’d healed a lot quicker than it was possible. I opened and closed my hand again. I had thought I’d got out of that habit but looked like I hadn’t kicked it. The ground car slowed as the Central General Hospital loomed ahead. It was clearly the tallest building in the city consisting of thirty floors in an ‘E’ shape. I’d never actually been inside. Kelli a T’Arni formally from my team had done any treatment I needed. The ground car went around the back and drove down a ramp into the hospital’s basement car lot. Ljufu parked her car in a section labelled ‘Security’. I had wondered why she’d worn her uniform and now I knew why. We got out and walked to the nearest elevator. It opened as we approached and let us in. It was huge inside all shiny metal and crisp plastic. I could have stretched out my arms and not touched the sides. Ljufu flashed her comms at the console and the elevator rose smoothly. It glided to a stop at the second floor and the doors opened. We stepped out in a bright and airy corridor the walls painted in the soft pastel colours the T’Arni so liked. Helpful signs directed passer-byes to wards and other departments. I’d never been inside a Confed hospital but was surprised to find it the same as Imperial hospitals.

“This way,” Ljufu whispered to me as if not to break the peacefulness of the place.

I followed her through a series of doors losing all sense of direction as we turned and turned again. Finally we were in a corridor this one lined with doors all marked numerically. Ljufu paused at a door and opened it. It was a square room with a window in the centre of the room opposite the door. I noted that the window had bars on it not a thing I’d thought to see in a Confed hospital. Then this was my first time. The floor was made of the same material that lined a shower cubical. There was a shower and a toilet but with no privacy for any that used it except for a waist high wall. Yellow tiles reached from floor to ceiling. There was one bed the edges covered with foam. A female T’Arni in hospital scrubs sat on the only chair in the room a datapad in her hands. Her blonde hair was cropped short and her eyes on the figure sitting on the bed. At the side of the T’Arni was a night stand. I wondered why Ljufu had brought me here but only for a moment. I turned my attention to the figure on the bed. It was a woman I was sure that it was. She was wearing a hospital gown open at the back to reveal that was all she was wearing. I could see her backbone stick out through her emaciated ribs. Her hair was long grey and straggly. The T’Arni glanced up from her datapad and regarded us with no emotions on her face then went back to her Datapad.

“Vanessa,” Ljufu called out.

The woman turned and my stomach did the same. I felt bile rise to my throat. I took a step back unsure if I believed what I was seeing. If this was truly Vanessa she had aged one hell of a lot.

“You sure this is Vanessa?” I felt my stomach gurgle I wanted to throw up. There was no way I could reconcile this image with the one in my mind.

“DNA and dental records match. The Terrans were quite happy to let us have them.”

“She’s slowly dying and her memories are gone,” the T’Arni added.

I swallowed hard any thought of wrapping my hands around and throttling the life from her faded. I couldn’t do it that it wasn’t what I’d wanted in the first place. I just needed to see justice served. There would be no justice here she wouldn’t understand.

“How, why?” I stuttered at a loss. “Vanessa!” I called out. There was no hint of recognition just a blank stare. I tried again. “Monica, Alicia?” then in a softer tone, “Solstrid.” Still nothing one last try. “Gwen, Gwendolyn Hunter.”

Vanessa just stared I felt heart sick I’d never be able to put Solstrid’s soul to rest. I’d have to carry her burden for the rest of my life.

“As I’ve said her memories are gone. All that’s keeping her alive are the augmentations in her body,” the T’Arni said.

“Augmentations?” I was having difficulty processing what was being said.

The T’Arni handed me her datapad. I stared at the image of a body on its screen. A female shape with strange devices on her arms and legs. Her heart was another device and as to her head and it looked as if she was wearing a cap over her skull. I handed the datapad back to the T’Arni.

I felt ill no rational thinking Imperial would do that to themselves. I know I had nanobots in my blood but that hadn’t been my choice. Vanessa had deliberately done this to herself the question was why?

“They’re failing,” T’Arni stated.

“What?”

“The augmentations are shutting down slowly. No one in the Confederacy has seen the like. Even our Ezarans are puzzled.”

It took a lot to puzzle an Ezaran I knew one of them and he was at the top of his game. I looked at Vanessa there was nothing I could do. She had effectively put herself out of my reach. “Let’s get out of here.” I put my hand to my stomach I was sick of this place.

I stepped into the corridor and punched the wall opposite pain travelled up my arm from my hand. Ljufu made no move to stop me. I turned and leaned against the wall nursing my injured hand. That was a stupid thing to do.

“One of our patrols found her scrabbling in the dirt on the edge of some desert town,” Ljufu told me.

“What was she doing there?”

“We don’t know either. The patrol took her back to the station and cleaned her up. They tried to talk to her but got no results and so they ran a scan. That’s when they called Central. I sent some experts none of them could figure out what was going on.”

“How did you find out it was Vanessa?” The sick feeling in my stomach was lessening.

“DNA and fingerprints we asked the Terrans for help and they sent us the info pretty quick.”

I made a guess that Lady Broaden had a hand in that. She knew I was after Vanessa, so why did she not tell me? That left me with my next question based on the T’Arni’s words. “How long has she?”

“Two years at the most. She functions like a machine.”

I knew that feeling all too easily when the Keepers computer locked me in that exoskeleton and forced me to work.

Ljufu continued. “She eats food placed in front of her, can walk a bit but not too far. As to washing and going to the toilet she’s functioning like a new born.”

I knew Ljufu had experience in dealing with a baby so she knew what she was talking about. As to me I knew what restrictions the computer under Saros put on me. If it hadn’t been for Mouse I’d not have had the luxury of using the toilet or eating and drinking. It would have worked me until I died.

I followed Ljufu back to her ground car my mind whirling with thoughts. It wasn’t until I was seated inside that I realised where I was.

“Where do you want to go?” Ljufu asked it was obvious she wanted to take me to her house. “I could take you to my house?”

That wouldn’t be advisable. “Back to my hotel, I’ll take things from there.”

“As long as you don’t take things literately, I rather not have to arrest you for theft.” Her feeble attempt to lighten my mood.

“I won’t, I have a reputation to up hold,” I replied with a half-smile that quickly faded.

Ljufu nodded with a smile and we headed out of the hospital parking lot.