In the Company of Others by Julie E. Czerneda

Author:Julie E. Czerneda [Czerneda, Julie E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, General, Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9781101464564
Google: nBX_g4HjxjoC
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2001-06-01T15:04:02+00:00

Chapter 41

He hadn't known himself.' Pardell sat on the one chair this room offered and knew it was true.

Freak didn't begin to describe him.

He knew Malley would throw a pillow at him— more than one or something more substantia1— while saying all the imminently practical, sensible things the stationer found defined his sense of right and wrong. Not that Malley was an amoral man. Far from it. But his conscience was definitely of the "what's done, is done" variety.

Pardell couldn't afford that comfort, though he'd have given anything to have Malley near, pillow-tossing or not. A sharp-edged sword needed a scabbard. He had none, he thought, gripping his knees with his hand. He was dangerous simply by being.

He was deadly.

Malley would doubtless remind him that he'd almost died, too. Irrelevant. A bomb also "died" as it killed. Did that make a bomb less a problem to have around? Less a threat to others? To friends?

He was ashamed to feel relief only strangers had died; the joy of ignorance, doomed to end the moment word spread that so-and-so in Outward Five, or this 'sider, had lost an aunt, or a cousin, or a lover during the riot, and did anyone know what had happened? It was a large station— not a limitless one. Eventually, the chain of who-knew-who would link itself from death's face to those with tears in their eyes and hate in their hearts as they looked at him.

The bridge of the 'Mate wouldn't be far enough.

He'd hoped the Seeker would be his way to a better life. Now, Pardell told himself, cooperating with this Dr. Smith was his only chance to survive.

But it wasn't Malley's.

Funny how the universe continually bent itself into the most inconvenient shape possible for all concerned. Pardell knew he could walk off this ship now. The locked door? No barrier— not with what was in the room for him to use. The guards? Grab a suit, find an air lock, and he could vanish Outside before the Earthers strapped on their fancy boots. His body? The scientist/ physician, Dr. Lynn, had insisted on an uncomfortably thorough physical— using remote handling arms— before letting him walk around. She'd found him in good health by any standard, let alone for someone who'd been brain-dead hours before.

Pardell could leave— but he had nowhere else to go.

Malley, on the other hand, had family, work, and friends waiting— every imaginable reason to leave the Seeker and none to stay. But Pardell was quite sure Gail Smith knew locked doors or guards weren't what imprisoned the stationer on her ship. Pardell himself still found it incredible that Malley'd made it through the air lock and into the Seeker on his own.

Which didn't change things. Malley had to get off this ship and back home. If the Earthers wouldn't help him— if Gail Smith wouldn't make it possible because she had plans for the stationer as well— then it was up to him.

Pardell had to smile at himself. Here he was,

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