Piece Simul ✔

Chapter 44- Russ - That Thai Magic

"How did that work again?"

Genly's lucite heels click clacked as he kept pace with Russ.

Forster was resting in quarantine, even as med scans had cleared him. The Captain (because Russ refused to think of Guin as such) had no idea what was going on.

Conversely, Russ had regained full control of her senses, and limbs. Well, the ones she had left. Power-walking put her at ease. It also kept her from sprinting, which is what her instincts screamed for. Russ needed to understand why and how the infected crew member had mysteriously been cured.

Repository of knowledge that he was, Genly obliged: "Thai culture invests heavily in nomenclature. They believe full names hold a sort of power."

"I get that part. How did she..." Russ waved a hand over her face. "...clear up?"

"Without a blood sample," Genly sounded excited at the prospect, "there's no way to know. By way of an educated guess...the placebo effect."

Ping. Ping.

In the background, the system resounded with faint clicks and bells. The noise faded to the background for Russ. It was always there, even as some pings were more annoying than others.

Ping. Ping.

She did her best to tune it out and concentrate.

They arrived at the particle shield cutting off the Control room from everything else. The blue wall hummed with energy, highlighting the lax condition of the prisoner inside.

Guin was draped on a Control chair. Her head hung off the side, her regular-colored eyes glassed over in half-slits. As Russ watched, Guin didn't even blink. Had Genly not assured her the opposite was true, Russ would've assumed her dead.

"The name change was a placebo?"

"More or less."

Currently, with Guin's limp body, it looked like less. Though, the more she debated on the state of Guin, the more time was wasted at Kevrun 9. The override function lever mocked her from behind the particle shield, a mere two feet away.

Russ depressed the comms button next to the particle shield.

"Hello...Estrenar." At the last moment, she had to catch herself from saying Guin, lest this placebo thing reverse itself.

"Hey." The response was faint, Guin's lips barely moving.

"So," Russ took a deep breath before asking the obvious, "how are ya?"

"Swell after that cleansing."

Russ let go of the comms button, then turned to Genly. "You bathed her?"

The bot's head shook back and forth in a definitive no. "She must mean the name change."

Ping. Ping.

Russ considered this before depressing the comms button once more. "Didn't know a new name would work that well."

One of Guin's legs swung down, catching hold of the floor. She leveraged her foot to pivot the chair round and round at a snail's pace.

"Gotta be that old Thai magic," she said.

"Must be," Russ agreed, thinking there was some joke that went over her Puerto Rican head. "You're gonna laugh when I tell you what your name means."

"I know what it means: brand new."

Ping. Ping.

The noise almost soothed her. Russ chewed the inside of her cheek, a nasty habit she couldn't break, especially when thinking hard about something. Guin, or Estrenar, was that something. And Russ knew she didn't have enough cheek to see her through this shit-show.

They had already lost years. That meant a potential millions, billions dead. Given that there was still someone to answer back home, there was a home to return to. However, Control had dissolved, and that meant Earth was probably in a bad way.

There wasn't time to sit and wait on Estrenar to be okay. Russ gripped the phaser at her side. If she wasn't, Russ would blast through until okay showed up.

Releasing the phaser, she touched the comms button. "It's been six hours. You all better now?"

A twirl of the chair. A painfully slow twirl, at that. Then,

"I think so."

It was good enough for Russ. Her mouth opened to order the particle wall dissolve. She stopped when she realized what the ping had stopped, and what it meant.

A pod had launched and was being tracked. The ping resonated upon landing, to indicate success and system resilience.

"System, where is the pod located?"

"Docked, and crewmembers are on board."

Estrenar stopped twirling. "Wondered when you were gonna figure that out."

Internally, Russ kicked herself for missing such an obvious issue. Although, it had been a deviation from the mission and from protocol. Deviant behavior seemed the new norm among the crew. Still, it was odd for Samuel and Tiptree to leave without word. Unless they had been confused about her order, which was unlikely.

Hainish, a newer generation bot, rounded the corner, one hand raised. "Though core programming dictates I report to the Captain," Here, Russ was grateful for the lack of reference to Guin, "I'm to report to Russ that two crewmembers have taken a pod to Kevrun 9."

Russ nodded. "I know that part. But why did Tiptree and Samuel go?"

"No, sir. Samuel is in living quarters with Tiptree. They sent me to inform you."

Gears turned, but nothing computed. "They're still onboard?" Russ asked slowly.

"Yes."

"Then who the hell is on that pod?"

~*~