Investments (Dread Empire's Fall) by Walter Jon Williams

Author:Walter Jon Williams [Williams, Walter Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Walter Jon Williams
Published: 2018-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

10.

Screams could still be heard faintly through the door.

Severin shone his light on Chamcha long enough for the sensor operator to work his way out of his cage and push across the room toward another flashlight. Then he turned to the problem of the door. He pulled and locked down a hand grip installed for the purpose, then— floating on the end of the handgrip— opened an access panel, removed a light alloy crank, and inserted it into the door mechanism. With one hand on the grip, the flashlight stuck to the wall on an adhesive strip, and a foot braced against the bottom of an instrument panel, Severin began to crank the door open.

The screams had stopped. Severin didn’t know whether to be encouraged by that or not.

By the time Severin had cranked open the heavy door he was puffing and throwing off beads of sweat that floated like drops of molten gold in the light. The control room crew clustered around him, hanging by fingertips onto cage struts or instrument displays, and their lights were turned to the outside corridor. Severin heard a series of gasps, and the single cry, “Lord captain!”

Severin looked out and saw Lord Go hanging weightless in the flashlight beams. He was wearing turquoise satin pajamas. His skin had turned bright red, and his eyes were hidden amid scarlet swellings. Large blisters were forming on his face and hands. His expression was slack.

Burns, Severin thought. His mind whirled with the idea of a fire so fierce and sudden that it could knock out the ship and burn the captain before a single call for help could be made. But he saw no fire and could smell no burning.

“My lord!” Severin called. With one hand still on the grip, he swung himself toward Lord Go, reached out, and took his captain’s hand. Another crew member, he saw, was hovering motionlessly a short distance down the corridor, and from the golden hair that floated in the absence of gravity he knew it was Lady Maxine Wellstone, the ship’s junior lieutenant.

Severin drew Lord Go toward him by the hand, and his stomach queased at the slippery way the captain’s flesh felt under his fingers— it felt unattached, as if he could peel the skin from Lord Go’s hand like a glove. He tried to brake Lord Go as gently as he could and brought him to a motionless halt just inside the door.

“Bhagwati,” he said. “Tether the lord captain to an acceleration cage or something. Try not to touch him.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Nkomo, go find the doctor and bring her here.”

Surveyor’s doctor was no doctor at all, but a Pharmacist First Class. She would have to do.

“Very good, my lord,” Nkomo said. He made an agile dive into the corridor over Severin’s head, and Severin pushed off to Nkomo’s acceleration cage, where Lily Bhagwati was tethering Lord Go to a cage strut with her belt. Severin held himself a short distance from his captain’s face, and tried not to look too closely at the scalded, weeping flesh.

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