With a slight shake of his head, Dorn confessed, “But now I have no purpose for living. I’ve found all the dead from the Wars that I could. That doesn’t atone for all those I killed.”
“You’re working for the scientists now.”
“Yes, for the scientists. But serving their purposes doesn’t give me any purpose to my life. I’m an empty shell, Deirdre. I have nothing to live for.”
She reached out and touched the human side of his face. “You’ve gone through so much. You’ll find some reason for living. Maybe at Station
“Maybe,” he echoed. It sounded hollow to Deirdre.
“Well,” she said, “thanks for telling me about yourself. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
She started for the hatch, but Dorn put up his metallic hand, stopping her.
“This conversation began,” he said, “with you saying that I didn’t ask what your medical problem is. May I ask you now?”
She bit her lip, hesitating. He has a right to know, Deirdre told herself. He’s willing to give you his blood to help you. He has a right to know the truth.
“I have rabies,” she said, so softly she could barely hear her own words.
“Rabies.” Dorn appeared unshaken by the news. Then he asked, “I didn’t realize that animals are kept in
“They’re not,” said Deirdre. “No pets. No meat animals. We get protein from soy substitutes and aquaculture.”
“Then how did you contract rabies? It comes from being bitten or scratched by a rabid animal, doesn’t it?”
Nodding, she answered, “That’s what makes it so peculiar. Dr. Pohan hasn’t been able to figure it out.”
“Is the doctor certain that it’s rabies? It seems totally unlikely.”
She shrugged. “He’s certain. The virus showed up in the blood sample he took.”
Dorn looked out at the endless stars for several silent moments. At last he said to Deirdre, “He took a sample of your blood.”
“Yes. He did it for all the passengers. Didn’t he take a sample of your blood?”
“Weeks ago, just after I boarded at Selene.”
“He must have taken samples from everybody.”
“He extracted your blood with a hypodermic syringe?” Dorn asked.
“How else?”
“And you haven’t been bitten or scratched by an animal before you boarded this ship?”
A little impatiently, she replied, “I told you, Dorn, there aren’t any animals in
“Then the only time your skin has been punctured is when the ship’s doctor took your blood.”
“Yes…” She finally saw where he was heading. Her eyes widening, Deirdre asked, “An infected needle?”
“How would it get infected with rabies here aboard the ship?”
“Dr. Pohan said there was a rabies case on the way out from the Earth/Moon system. A fatality.”
Dorn shook his head slowly. “I’ve been aboard this ship since it left lunar orbit. As far as I know, none of the passengers who came aboard from Earth or Selene have died.”
Deirdre felt confused. “He lied to me?”
“He not only lied to you,” said Dorn. “He infected you with rabies.”
ANDY CORVUS’S STATEROOM
Max Yeager looked around the compartment with narrowed eyes as Corvus ushered him into his quarters.
“Cripes, this place looks like the back room of an electronics lab. Where the hell do you sleep?”
Corvus waved toward the bed, which was covered with several laptops, a scattering of headsets, thumb- sized hard drives, diagnostic tools, and other gadgets. Two more laptops sat open on the compartment’s tiny desk, their screens glowing, and a half-dozen more rollup screens were pasted to the bulkheads. The compartment’s built-in wall screen showed a garishly colored image of what looked to Yeager like a canary yellow head of cauliflower. Or maybe a human brain. Tiny numbers pulsed on the imagery.
“What’re you doing in here?” Yeager demanded. Inwardly he felt almost insulted at the cluttered, chaotic state of Corvus’s room. You can’t get any work done in such a turmoil, he thought. I’ll bet he can’t even find the toilet in this mess.
Scratching at his thick thatch of red hair, Corvus said good-naturedly, “I’m trying to figure out a way to reproduce the visual imagery that Dee saw when she was in contact with Baby.”
“Aha,” said Yeager.
“Aha what?” Andy asked. “Aha, like you know how to do it, or aha, you think it’s impossible.”
Frowning slightly, Yeager said, “Aha, like now I understand what all these screens are showing.” He jabbed a finger at the rollups on the bulkheads. “Brain scans.”
“Right. The one on the wall screen is Baby’s brain.”
“And what are all these numbers blinking on top of the imagery?”
“Color identifiers,” said Corvus. “I’m color blind, so I use the numbers to tell me what the colors are.”
“Uh-huh.” Yeager swung his gaze back and forth among the screens. “So this one is the dolphin’s brain…”
“And all these,” Corvus waved a hand, “are Dee’s—Deirdre’s brain.” He stepped to the desk and sat on its springy little chair.
Yeager noticed that his feet were bare. He probably can’t find his shoes, the engineer thought.
Pointing to the two adjacent laptops, Corvus explained, “And these two show Dee’s brain activity in real time when she was connected with Baby.”
Yeager bent over Andy’s shoulder and peered at the two screens. He couldn’t help worrying that the pair of laptops were too big for the compartment’s desk. If he’s not careful he’s going to wind up with one of them on the floor, the engineer thought. Maybe both of them.
“See?” Corvus was saying. “When an area in one of their brains lights up, the other brain lights up, too.”
“Not the same area,” Yeager muttered.
“Well, they’re not the same brains. Not the same species. One’s a dolphin and the other’s a human being.”
“So how do you know they’re connected?”
“They light up at the same time. And even though the regions of the brain showing activity aren’t exactly the same, they’re pretty darned close. I mean, we’ve made functional maps of human and dolphin brains for years. They’re both lighting up in the same functional area.”
Yeager grunted, “Huh?”
Looking slightly disappointed, Corvus explained, “This area here in Dee’s brain is her visual cortex. The dolphin’s visual cortex is here.” Andy tapped the laptop’s screen hard enough to make it wobble on the edge of the desk.
“They both light up at the same time,” Yeager realized.
“Right! That means they’re both seeing the same thing at the same time!”
Yeager rubbed his stubbly jaw thoughtfully. “I don’t know if you could say that, Andy. I don’t think you’ve got enough evidence to make that stick.”
“That’s why I called you. Can you help me?”
“Me? I’m not a neurotechnician.”
“But you’ve got a lot of experience with sensors and transducers. I looked up your dossier, you know.”
Yeager almost smiled. “My experience is with electronics and optronics equipment, not brains. There are lots
