Waela tried to swallow in a dry throat. Could no one else hear him? She shot a furtive glance around the room. When she heard the voice, she felt sure of it. The instant it was gone, she doubted. Her real-time perceptions were demanding full attention, though. Physical senses honed to high sensitivity by the necessities of survival on Pandora - these she trusted. And Ferry demanded her attention. The man was a menace, operating on several levels of deception. She had heard the stories about Ferry, a competent-enough medical man with a few eccentricities, but not to be trusted alone with a young woman.
Her eyes told her something else.
A humbler, Waela told herself, who sits in the command seat. Interesting. Why did Oakes choose a humbler?
Waela's Pandora-sensitized nostrils detected alcohol in Ferry's drink. She put on her best impassive mask to conceal the recognition. The groundside uses of alcohol and tetrahydrocannabinol in their various forms were generally accepted in Colony. But somehow she had not expected this shipside. With Ship to protect the.... well, Shipmen had long held that alcohol was a risky and undesirable poison shipside. But then again, she knew that Ferry, like herself, had spent his early years Earthside. His reversion might not be all that unusual.
Still, Ferry's actions interested her. If the fact of her impregnation outside Ship's regular breeding program were taken seriously in certain circle.... ? Well, why else would Ferry be using viewscreen shields? And alcohol! She did not want her life, nor her baby's life, depending on someone who deliberately lowered his acuities.
Drinking, she thought. The word was dredged up out of her childhood and she had a bottomless-pit feeling about the hyb-plus-waking time which had passed since she had equated that word with alcohol.
The shielded screen bothered her. It was time someone invaded Ferry's privacy, she thought.
"That drink smells like fresh mint. Could I taste it?"
"Ye.... of course."
It was not of course, but he offered her the glass. "Just a taste. It's not the kind of thing a prospective mother should have."
The glass was cold against her fingers. She sipped the drink and closed her eyes, recalling a scorched afternoon in Earthside summer when her mother had let her have a diluted mint julep with the grownups. The color of this drink was paler, but it was definitely bourbon with mint. She opened her eyes and saw Ferry's gaze fixed on the glass.
Hungry for it, she saw. He's nearly drooling.
"It's quite good," she said. "Where did you get it?"
He reached for the glass, but Waela handed it to Hali, who hesitated and looked at Ferry, then at Waela.
"Go ahead," Waela said. "Everyone should have one sometime. I had my first when I was twelve."
When Hali still hesitated, Ferry said, "Perhaps she shouldn't, what with this strange illness going around. What if it's catching?"
He treats it like a precious jewel, Waela thought. It must be hard to get.
She said: "If it's that contagious, we've caught it. Go ahead, Hali."
The younger woman sipped, swallowed and immediately bent her head in a fit of coughing, the glass thrust out for someone to take it. Ferry grabbed it from her hand.
Eyes watering, Hali said: "That's terrible!"
"It's all in knowing what to expect," Ferry said.
"And lots of practice," Waela said. "You never told us where you got it. Not one of our lab alcohols, is it?"
Ferry placed the glass carefully on the deck beside his seat.
"It's from Pandora."
"Must be hard to get."
"Don't we have more important things to discuss?" Murdoch asked.
They were his first words, and they transfixed Ferry. He reached down for the drink, drew his hand back without it. He turned and fussed with the controls for his screen, dropped the shield, hesitated, then left it down.
Waela promised herself that she would use the first opportunity to call up the records Ferry found so interesting. With unrestricted use of Ship's research facilities, it would not be difficult.
Murdoch moved around behind Ferry, an action which increased Ferry's nervousness.
Waela found herself sympathizing with the old man. Murdoch in that position would make anyone's shoulderblades twitch.
Ferry sputtered, then: "I wa.... ahh, waiting for some ahhh, others to come up before, ahhh, taking up the, ahh business w.... I mea...."
"What are we doing here?" Hali asked. She did not like the undercurrents flowing through this room. Unspoken threats lay heavy on Ferry's shoulders and it was obvious they came from Murdoch.
Ferry reached for the drink with a convulsive motion, but before he could put it to his lips, Murdoch reached over Ferry's shoulder and removed the glass from his hand.
"This'll wait."
Murdoch put the glass on a ledge behind him. As he turned back toward the others, the hatch opened and three people entered.
Hali recognized Brulagi from Medical, a heavy-set woman with fat arms and a thick lower lip. She wore her auburn hair in the regular close-cropped style, and her eyes shone bright blue above a flat nose. Right behind her came Andrit from Behavioral, a large dark man with quick almond eyes of deep brown and a nervous, darting manner. Behind these two was Usija, gray-haired, a thin-lipped, soft-spoken woman from the Natali, who had assigned Hali to monitor Waela TaoLini.
"Ahhh, here you are," Ferry said. "Please be seated, everyone. Please be seated."
Hali was glad to sit. She found a sling chair for Waela and another for herself. Waela moved her own chair to seat herself directly across from Ferry. It put her apart from the others, an observer's distance, and let her focus on Ferry and Murdoch without having to turn. Ferry would notice and it would annoy him, she thought. He wanted attention, not investigation.
What is it with you, old man? Waela wondered. What do you fear?
The three latecomers perched on a couch at right angles to Ferry. Murdoch remained standing.
Hali, noting Waela's move, wondered about it, but was distracted by the sudden realization that Andrit from Behavioral must be the father of young Raul. What was going on here?
Murdoch touched Ferry's shoulder and the older man jumped. "Show them the map."
Ferry swallowed, turned to his keyboard, punched at it clumsily. A miniature projection of Ship's schematic materialized at the holofocus beside him.
Hali recognized the special Natali area outship from Behavioral and noted a number of red dots through the projection. Brulagi from Medical leaned forward with her thick arms on her legs and stared at the three-dimensional map. Andrit appeared agitated by it. Usija merely nodded.
"What are the red markers?" Hali asked.
"Each dot represents a stricken child," Ferry said. "If you connect them, they form a spiral and you'll note that they increase in density as they reach the spiral's center."
"A vortex," Murdoch said.
Waela peered closely at the schematic. She caught her breath and glanced up to catch a look of unguarded fury on Andrit's face. He was clenching and unclenching his fists. She saw the heavy muscles of his forearms knotting under his singlesuit.
Ferry pulled some papers from the ledge beside his keyboard and shuffled through them while he spoke: "For the sake of those who might not know, ahh, where is your cubby, Waela?"