Endurance by Viehl S. L

Author:Viehl, S. L. [Viehl, S. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cherijo (Fictitious Character), Torin; Cherijo (Fictitious Character), Fiction, Science Fiction, Torin, General, Physicians, Slavery, Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 0451458141
Google: SjIEAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0451458141
Publisher: Roc
Published: 2001-01-02T07:00:00+00:00

“Either help me,” he said, “or stay out of my way.”

What he meant was, trust him. I had little reason to do so. Yet every instinct inside me was inclined to do just that. I swiped at the syrinpress. “Put me down. I’ll do it.”

He shadowed me as I infused each of the females with the drug. Another hidden door opened in the back of the infirmary, and Wonlee emerged.

“Are you done? I must report back to the centuron before I am missed.”

“Go.” I ran a scan on the five females and falsified death recordings for each of them. Noarr hovered, watching me. “That means you, too, Zorro.”

“Zorro?”

“Another demented male with a hopeless mission. Go on. Get out of here.”

Noarr and Wonlee left the way they came. I went to the console and signaled for a recycler crew to come and retrieve the not-quite-dead corpses. While I was waiting for them to arrive, I finished rounds and tried not to wonder if I’d done the right thing.

Acting nonchalant as Wonlee and two other slaves came in to remove the Aksellans wasn’t easy.

The Lieutenant didn’t look at me, but something was wrong. I could feel it.

“Doctor.”

The hair on the back of my neck rose as I turned. “OverMaster HalaVar.” I gave Reever what I prayed was a convincingly snotty scowl. “Surely you don’t need medical treatment. That would convince me there is a God.”

“I was informed of the Aksellan deaths.”

He regarded the crew removing the bodies, and stopped one litter to lift the thermal cover and inspect the motionless form. It gave me time to raise some mental walls, just in case he decided to resort to one of his mind-control tricks.

“As you see, arachnids don’t respond well to reproductive controllers.” I yanked the cover back over the patient. “Have some common decency and respect the dead, will you?”

He wasn’t about to let it go. “There was nothing you could do for them?”

“Not a thing.” Terror should have paralyzed me, made me stutter, something. Instead I lied my way through a concise, completely false postmortem report. “Maybe you should reconsider using chemical inhibitors on your merchandise. It’s killing them faster than you can sell them,” I said, as an afterthought.

Naturally he had an annoying comeback ready. “You would prefer to see small children torn from their parents and sold to the highest bidder?”

“Is that why you wanted to get me pregnant?” I smiled when I saw his nearly imperceptible reaction. Distaste? Or was it something more basic? “Think our kid would bring a good price?”

He ignored Wonlee and the others-the whole point of my provocation-and moved closer. When he would have touched me, I glided back a step. “I would never sell our child.”

My face got hot again. “Let me clarify this, OverMaster HalaVar. We’re not having a child. We’re never having a child. I wouldn’t have sex with you if you were the last Terran in existence. I’d rather mate with GothVar. Not only would he be a better lover, but giving birth to a litter of his little monsters would be a treat versus letting you touch me.

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