Mind Over Ship

Mary said to the first nuss, “Myr Starke wants out!”

Wordlessly, the nuss pulled on a pair of foil gloves and climbed the ladder to the top of the tank, while the second nuss stood nearby with a receiving blanket.

“What are you waiting for?” Mary asked the nuss at the tank. “Reach in and pull her up.”

“Good patient care encourages the patient to swim to the top on their own,” the nuss replied. “Regeneration patients especially must make every effort to extend their abilities. Otherwise, they will not thrive.”

Mary harrumphed. “Get off the ladder,” she said. “I’ll do it.”

“What’s going on?” said a stern voice from the doorway. By the ribbons on her collar, Mary saw that it was the head nurse. “Sangita, I thought I told you not to let these persons in here. Sushi, get down off that ladder.”

The nuss scooted down from the tank and went to stand next to her colleague. The head nuss made a sweeping gesture to Mary and Georgine. “You two, leave Myr Starke’s quarters at once.”

“Oh, for crying out loud,” Mary said and went around the tank to climb the ladder.

“Get down from there this very instant,” roared the head nuss.

Mary had no gloves, but the regenerative syrup wasn’t nearly as nasty as the amber amnio syrup had been at the clinic, and she reached all the way in to her armpit. Even so, she only grazed the top of Ellen’s head. Then she snagged a lock of hair, and when she hauled her up and out, a security man at the foot of the tank tapped her leg with the business end of a standstill wand.

“Put her back,” he said politely, “and please come down from there.” He was the same type as the ones down in the private tube station, and he had a natural authority about him that made her want to obey, just like the russes did. There were two more of his type in the bedroom, and another was escorting Georgine out.

Mary said, “Step aside, Myr Capias, or you’ll likely cause an accident.”

The man removed his wand and held his arms out for the baby. “I know you mean well and don’t intend to hurt her, so let’s settle this amicably, shall we? No one gets hurt.”

Mary didn’t budge. “Someone always gets hurt, myr. It’s the law of nature. Lyra, are you recording all this?”

The young mentar appeared next to the tank. “Yes, Mary. I’m afraid I don’t have clear instructions in how to resolve the jurisdictional authority in this case, and Cabinet offers no guidance.”

“Sometimes you just have to play it by ear, Lyra, and do what seems best.” To the security officer she said, “I hope you’re aware that this is no ordinary client. This is Ellen Starke I hold in my arms, and if you don’t step back and allow me to climb down from this ladder with her safely, the viewing audience will have a chance to watch your incredibly poor judgment live around the globe. What do you think that will do for your Capias World’s reputation?”

The man needed only a moment to consider. He stepped back and gave Mary plenty of room to bring Ellen down. But when she tried to take her to the adjoining bathroom, he blocked their way.

“This ends now,” he said simply, and the head nuss stepped forward for Ellen.

“Lyra,” Mary said, “call Clarity and tell her to inset this into as many shows as she can with a live feed.”

“Inset what, Mary?”

“What you’re witnessing here in realtime.”

The mentar hesitated, then said, “Yes, Mary.”

But by then, Ellen was paying attention. “Enough!” she said from Mary’s arms. “Enough of this! Everyone out except Mary and Lyra.”

Reluctantly, the nusses and guards left the room and closed the door. “Well, hello there,” Mary said to the baby. “Nice of you to join us.”

Ellen began to fuss, and Mary sat on the edge of the bed and rocked her for a little while. When the mood passed, Mary said, “Ellen, tell Lyra that Cyndee, Georgine, and I are in charge over the new people.”

“All right, Mary.”

“And that includes the ones at the checkpoints. Lyra, did you hear that?”

The young mentar nodded.

“All right, then,” Mary said and got up and carried Ellen to the door. Georgine and the Capias staff were waiting in the hall. Mary handed Ellen to the head nurse and said, “Give Myr Starke a bath, and don’t forget to shampoo her hair.”

The nurse took the baby and was about to reply, but the new orders streamed into her ears. She stifled a huff and said, “Yes, myr.”

Mary examined her own purple-stained clothes. “Georgine, you stay with Ellen. I’m going to get cleaned up myself.”

WHEN MARY RETURNED to Ellen’s bedroom in new clothes, the nusses were trying to cajole Ellen into eating a serving of strained fruit. Georgine was sitting in the corner and watching without comment.

“That’s all right,” Mary said. “You two can go now.”

“She hasn’t eaten,” one of them said.

“Perhaps your menu is unappealing. Now please take the cart and close the door behind you.”

The nusses left without complaint, and Ellen began to cry again. “I’m sorry, Mary,” she said. “I can’t help it.”

“Forget about it. Everyone’s entitled to a bad day now and then. If I had my own tank, I think I’d stay in it today myself.” She picked Ellen up and carried her to the large, hardly used bed. “In fact, why don’t we all spend the day in bed?” To Georgine’s surprise, Mary quickly undressed and climbed under the covers. She looked at Georgine with an expression that said, Well?

Georgine undressed and got into bed beside her. They put Ellen between them and snuggled, and when they were all comfortable, Georgine said, “Welcome back, Mary. We missed you around here.” Ellen nodded her large head in agreement. “So, how’s Fred doing?”

“Fred’s fine. He has a lot of adjusting to do, but basically I think he’ll be fine.” The others watched her, waiting for more. “But I don’t want to talk about Fred today.”

“Then what should we talk about?”

“I don’t know. Let’s talk about you. How’s it going with your new jerry?”

“What jerry?”

“Norbert.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Norris? Norman? Normal? I know it starts with a ‘Nor.’ ”

“You must be thinking of some other sister, Mary. I would never go out with a jerry. They’re too full of themselves.”

“Then who are you seeing?”

“Who says I’m seeing anyone?”

“You must be. I’ve never known you to be alone for very long.”

Ellen followed the conversation back and forth, and when Georgine seemed reluctant to go on, she said, “Tell us.”

Georgine pursed her lips and furrowed her brow in a comic display of reluctance. “If I tell you guys, you have to promise not to tell anyone, and I mean anyone.”

Mary quickly said, “I promise.”

Georgine looked at Ellen. “You too.”

“All right, I promise,” Ellen said.

“Good. Because this is all very hush-hush. I’ve been going out with this guy off and on for over two years, since before I started working for you. I was pulling duty at a top-secret genomics lab where they were designing the people of the future.”

“Oooo,” Mary said. “Go on.”

“I can’t divulge much, but I can tell you they’re raising a prototype of a new iterant called a mickey, and they hired me to help socialize him.”

“I’ve never heard of a mickey,” Mary said.

“I told you, Mary. It’s all top secret.”