The Recovery Man's Bargain

ears for humans.” Nafti said. Yu wondered how he knew this.

Yu moved the identifier. He shoved more hair aside and then moved the delicate edge of her right ear. A number flared up at him.

“There it is!” Nafti said as if he had discovered it himself.

But Yu wasn’t excited. He was irritated. The Gyonnese had it wrong. She wasn’t a Fifth.

“It’s a six,” he said. “A damn six. When were you born?”

The girl was shaking. She gave the date and the year in Earth time, then repeated it in Alliance Standard.

“Thirteen Earth years ago,” Nafti said as if Yu couldn’t do the math himself.

“Six. That bitch put her here as a decoy.” How many children had that woman created for the sake of her own ego? How many had been captured by the Gyonnese before being let go as unworthy?

“What?” the girl asked.

She had the right to know what her so-called mother did to her. She had to know that she wasn’t here as a beloved child, but as an extra round of protection for her mother.

“You weren’t born, you know,” Yu said. “You were hatched. You know that, right?”

“What?” she asked again, her voice even smaller.

“Maybe she doesn’t know,” Nafti said. Was the girl getting to him, too? “Or maybe she had things erased. You want to check?”

For once, Nafti had outthought him. Of course he would want to check. If the girl knew where the original was, then Yu could go back to the Gyonnese with that information—and without Rhonda Shindo.

“Please don’t mess with my brain,” the girl said. She sounded truly terrified for the first time.

Yu ignored it. He had to.

“I don’t have the skill to do a full memory recovery,” he said. He didn’t have the skill to do a memory recovery at all. “I was just supposed to bring her back. Humans are out of my league.”

“There are truth drugs,” Nafti said. “I’ve used them before. Here, hold her.”

And then he swung the girl toward Yu. Yu grabbed her, feeling startled. Nafti must have worked with Trackers. Otherwise he would have had no need for truth drugs.

Nafti got up and left the room. Yu’s heart was pounding. Would truth drugs hurt the girl? He had no idea.

The girl didn’t say anything. She just trembled. He respected that silence. She was terrified, but she wasn’t going to beg.

Nafti returned with a small vial. He poured some leaves from it into his hand. Then he grabbed the girl by the face, forced her mouth open, and shoved the leaves into it, massaging her throat until she swallowed.

She coughed and then choked. That was enough. Yu didn’t care what she knew. He reached around and pulled the herbs out of her mouth.

Her eyes were already lolling in the back of her head.

“How much did you give her?” Yu asked.

“Normal dose,” Nafti said.

“For what size human?” Yu snapped. The girl fell limply against him.

“I dunno. Most.”

“This girl is younger than most. Get some water.”

Nafti disappeared again. When he came back he had a glass. Yu rinsed the girl’s mouth. He’d hate it if she died.

“Can this stuff kill?”

Nafti shrugged.

Yu glared at him. “House,” Yu said. “Do you have medical protocols?”

“I do,” the House said.

“And a baseline for the daughter of Rhonda Shindo?”

“I do,” the House said.

“Analyze this and tell me if it will harm the girl.” Yu looked at Nafti. “Go pour that truth drug on the card near the main control panel. Now.”

Nafti disappeared into the living room. There was a momentary silence, and then the House said, “There are no harmful herbs here. Depending on the dose, the girl will either be quite talkative or she will sleep for several hours.”

“Looks like we got sleep,” Yu said to Nafti.

“If you would like,” the House said, “I will do a body analysis to see if the herbs have interacted with anything in her system.”

“Yes,” Yu said. “Do that.”

A small needle formed out of a nearby piece of rug. It took some skin and blood samples from the girl and then disappeared into the rug again.

Yu stared at it. He knew there was a reason he didn’t own his own home. It could attack him at any time.

“She will sleep for twelve Earth hours,” the House said. “She has ingested no other drugs. She will awaken slowly and might be confused about what has occurred.”

But he wasn’t sure he would be off-planet within twelve hours. He had to make sure she didn’t notify the authorities.

“Put her in that closet,” Yu said to Nafti. “Make her comfortable. I’ll take care of the rest.”

* * *

The rest was reprogramming the House computer yet again. He locked the girl in the closet for twenty-four hours, making sure the House wouldn’t let her out. He programmed the House computer to reset its security protocols in thirty hours, so that the girl could call for help if she couldn’t figure out how to leave on her own.

That was the best he could do for her.

Then he prepared his message for the authorities.

He attached a holo unit to the side door. The unit replayed a recording of the spraying that Shindo had done. The Gyonnese had designed the holo unit. The Gyonnese had kept cameras on the field where their larvae were growing. The cameras were for the parents, so that they could see each moment of their child’s development.

The recording had been edited down to just a few short minutes. First, it showed a wind-swept field under a blue sky. Light seemed thin, washing out the tall grass and the mountains beyond.

A running clock in both alien characters and regular numbers showed time lapsing. A vehicle hovered low over the grass, spraying a liquid.

Then the flying car disappeared and the grass died. The ground was brownish red, but parts of it turned black. The Gyonnese showed up, their whiskers moving in agitation. They bent in half and dug at the dirt, pulling up the dead larvae.

Larvae were usually light brown. These were black and shriveled.

The Gyonnese folded themselves in half, hands raised to the sky in a sign of complete and utter distress.

Eventually the image faded and words covered the screen: Ten thousand died in the first wave. Twenty thousand families lost generations of genetic heritage. This act was repeated twice more. Sixty thousand Gyonnese have paid with their futures.

How has Rhonda Flint paid?

The Gyonnese had set up a contact button at the corner of the image, and that proved the hardest to attach. Because the House’s communications with the rest of Valhalla Basin had been shut off, Yu couldn’t test to make sure he had set up the contact button correctly.

He had to hope that the instructions the Gyonnese had given him were correct.

He finished with very little time to spare. He checked on the girl—she was still unconscious, and she seemed unharmed. He made sure the closet was secured, then he went searching for Nafti.

Yu found Nafti watching a holoshow in the other bedroom. He had sprawled on the bed as if the place