comings and goings, the passengers guessed that the center door led to the next
area back in the ship, the right-hand door led to Sabatini’s own private cabin,
and the left-hand one opened on a room that seemed to be filled with complex
electronic gear. A thick red line was painted on the floor about a meter in
front of the doors, and past that the chain would not go.
Forward of the table and chairs there were also three doors. The center one,
they were told, led forward to the next area and was doubly dangerous, since it
opened onto an inner air lock and seal, and no areas forward now contained air.
A red circle on the floor in front of the door again proved to be the chain’s
limit. The door on the left, however, was the toilet, and that they could enter.
The other door led to a shower, or at least what Sabatini called a shower. There
was a small outer area for putting down clothing, then what looked like a huge
plastic tube with one side cut away. When one stood in the center of the tube,
the open side closed, and one was almost engulfed by a tremendous stream of
liquid. The shower had three cycles, which left the bather dry and very clean.
For the first two days out the boredom was broken only by occasional
explanations from Sabatini. The new clothing—white, loose-fitting cotton
pajamas—allowed Chu Li to maintain his fiction a while longer, although Deng Ho
was beginning to look at him curiously. Chu Li knew that the time was coming
when he could not avoid revealing his secret, but he could not bring himself to
do it—not yet.
Sabatini was generally not in the passenger cabin, occupying himself elsewhere.
This gave them some initial breathing room and allowed for some expert
examinations. Chu Li could find no routine visual monitoring devices in the
cabin, though it appeared that Sabatini could watch them from either of his
rooms through some special plates. The speakers were certainly two-way, but
there were only two of them, and they were easily avoided. It was possible to
have private conversations by having one pair talk loudly near the speakers
while the other pair spoke in whispers.
You have seen the place now. What do you think? Chow Dai asked Chu Li in such
a circumstance.
This room is customized far beyond what this ship usually has, he told her.
It is possible that it is used to carry important people as well as prisoners.
That might also explain the lack of monitors and recorders. Both of the rooms in
back are also not standard. I particularly do not understand that room full of
gear or that headset he wears. This ship is totally automatic, with a self-aware
computer for a pilot. What could he be doing from that room? And what is
forward? I do not know how far up we are in the ship, but if that middle door is
an air lock, then it shows no indicators like the ones on the sides and no
seals, either. There is air up there, at least for one more room. I know there
is. Why? And where are the space suits? They should be in a compartment off this
room, yet there seem to be no compartments except the small ones that manage
these chain devices and the ones that deliver our food and drink on the little
trays and dispose of the waste. Much of this does not make sense.
The food is strange, too, she noted.
It is foreign devil food, but it serves. This is not a Chinese ship. What about
these chain things?
The box is easy to fool. Chow Mai and I have already found two ways to make it
loosen up enough to slip the whole thing off. The doors have simple electrical
locks. I know the combinations now from just observing the captain, but they are
almost identical to the locks on the toilet and shower. We could break them if
we had to.
I thought you’d need some tools for that.
We have them. He never missed the two we required when Chow Mai took them from
his pack. The problem is his headset. It really can override—we have watched
him—and the tongue is impossible.
He nodded. I must know more about the ship. When he sleeps, you must show me
how to slip this bond and help me enter that mystery room with all the
electronics. We must know everything before we move,
They were all supposed to sleep at the same time, but their chains were left
free in case they needed to use the toilet. No matter how hard he tried, Chu Li
could not manage the simple maneuver to fool the box, but Chow Dai slipped hers
and then freed him. Chow Mai and Deng Ho remained in their beds, quietly on
watch.
Chu Li would have liked to explore the rest of the ship, but whenever Sabatini
had opened the rear door, a distant bell had sounded; until they could somehow
mask that alarm, they couldn’t risk it. In any case, the mystery room was their
primary target.
Chow Dai did not want to chance using the combination. Instead, she skillfully
bypassed the combination board and sprang the lock with two small and nearly
silent pilfered electronic tools. When the door swung back, Chu Li kissed her
and entered the room.
The place was an electronic wonderland situated around a single command chair.
Much of the equipment was unfamiliar, though he recognized some machines and
could guess at the functions of others. There was a small mind-print machine and
a large number of cartridges, which were numbered in the Arabic system rather
than labeled. The machine itself was far too simple for psychosurgery; more than
likely it was there so that Sabatini could instantly learn other languages he
needed or be updated on ship changes and modifications. Monitors showed
schematics of the ship at this level and probably could display other levels in
response to the correct commands. One thing was certain: The areas of
pressurization and atmosphere, which were outlined in blue, extended far aft as
well as forward of the cabin they were in. The artificial gravity, however,
appeared limited to the passenger compartment and a much larger compartment
immediately behind it—almost certainly the live animal transport area of which
the captain had spoken.
Unfortunately, too much of the information on the monitors and even the labels
was useless, written again in that unknown script. Chu Li looked longingly at
the mindprint machine and cartridges. Somewhere there was probably the language
he needed, but which one? He certainly didn’t have the time to learn them all.
Still, there was far more equipment here than any human companion on this ship
would require, even more than would be needed for any conceivable human
intervention. It was more like the kind of compartment required for someone to
run the whole ship—but that was done by computer.
The only logical explanation struck him with the force of a blow. Song Ching’s
father had already known that there was a human override built into the ships.
Suppose Sabatini really was the captain? Suppose the computer pilot was not
independent but his subordinate, subject to him? He remembered the complex
helmets in the illegal tech cult’s fortress laboratories. They had built them
from scratch and had assumed that they would have to hardwire the connection.
Suppose that was what the omnipresent headset was really for? Sabatini was
running his own ship!
He turned back toward the door only to see it suddenly shut with a speed and
force he’d never before seen on a door. He tried to open it but could not. He
was stuck in there!
You just stay right there and don’t touch a thing! Sabatini’s voice came over
a small speaker in the console. I will tend to you as soon as I have tended to
your friends, and I will be far gentler to them if you just sit in the chair and
relax until I come for you.
There was no malice in his tone, but Chu Li had no doubt that the captain would
not hesitate to carry out his implied threat. There was nothing to do but sit
and try to figure out as much additional information as he could from what he
could see.
After an eternity, the door opened and the full cabin lights flooded the
compartment. Sabatini, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, stood there with a small
weapon in his hand. He had his small headset on as well. All right—time to get
out now, he said casually. And I was beginning to wonder if this would be a
boring trip. All right—out! Now!
When Chu Li emerged, he found both the girls kneeling on the floor, their chains
reattached, their hands bound behind their backs, and their ankles secured. Chow
Dai gave him an expression that was filled with both hurt and apology. Deng Ho
was still in his chair, strapped to it by hand and leg cuffs and unable to move.
Chu Li looked at the weapon in Sabatini’s hand. It was a very small thing of red
plastic with a gauge on its handle, a small button for a trigger, and a metallic
point where the barrel ended.
I’ve already demonstrated the stinger to your girl friends, the captain
warned. If you’d like one, I’ll be happy to give it. This little line here
shows the amount of power it’ll put out in a room this size. Right now it’s set
for a debilitating shock. Halfway and it’ll knock you out for a couple of
minutes. All the way up and it might stop your heart.
I believe you, Chu Li responded hollowly.
All right, then—over here. Chain on. That’s it. Now— hands behind your back.
Good. Chu Li felt pressure and found his hands held by very firm handcuffs that
allowed no real give or play at all. Now—on your knees. He did so, and two
stiff leg cuffs were also locked into place. He faced the two girls on the
opposite side of the open space.
Sabatini relaxed. Now, I told you I could be mean if somebody tried to take
advantage of me. I figured you might be pulling something, covering talks with
other talks and whispering campaigns, and I knew from the records that the girls
were experts at locks. When I sleep, I put the alarms on all these doors so they
sound in my cabin. I just decided to see what you were up to.
Chu Li understood now how it worked. The captain switched on the alarm, and when
it rang and awakened him, he had merely to grab his headset to find where the
trouble was and who was causing it. He then simply commanded the door to shut,
overriding the lock, then took the others with his weapon.
All right—it was one slip, Sabatini said almost kindly. If I was mean and
nasty or even smart, I’d just leave you all like that for the next thirty-nine
days but pull you all to the wall with the box behind your back like your hands
and feed you like animals from trays. Or send you back to the animal cages,
maybe. But that’s only because this sort of stuff puts me in a real bad mood.
Now, if somebody got me in a better mood, I might actually forgive and forget.
He walked back over to his open cabin door, reached in, and brought out a rather
nasty-looking straight knife. Then he muttered something into his headphone, and
abruptly both women were jerked back to the wall and slammed against it. Since
the chain emerged from a point in the bulkhead above their waists, it had the
effect of suspending them slightly, leaning forward because of their bound
hands, barely touching the floor with their toes.
Sabatini went over to Chow Dai. You’ve got an ugly face, he told her, but I’m
curious about the rest of you. Using the knife, he cut away her pullover and
her pants and flung them to one side, leaving her hanging there by the chain,
naked. She did, in fact, have quite a nice body, but something made the captain
stop and command the chain to come out a bit. He caught her and turned her
around to face the wall.
Chu Li gasped, and Sabatini was almost equally appalled. Chow Dai’s back was a
mass of welts and scar tissue almost from the shoulders to the buttocks. Holy—
somebody really did a job on you, didn’t they, beautiful? he commented. He
lifted her up, then put her back on the floor in the kneeling position. You
stay there. Let’s see if your sister got the same treatment.
She had. If anything, Chow Mai’s scars were worse. The evident brutality was so
gross and unexpected that even Sabatini hadn’t been prepared for it. He put the
sister back down in the kneeling position on the floor as well.
Well, the captain muttered. Nothing about that in the record. Damn it, you
girls wouldn’t be any fun at all. He paused a moment. But then, hope springs
eternal, doesn’t it? There’s lots of things not in the official record. He
turned and stalked back across the room. Isn’t that right, Mister Chu?
Now it was Chu Li’s turn to be suspended against the wall and slowly have the
clothing cut away as the others watched. Everyone except the captain seemed
shocked, surprised, and amazed at what was revealed. Song Ching, after all, had
been genetically designed for perfection. Nor were there any marks on this body,
not so much as a scar or blemish.
Now, that’s more like it, Sabatini proclaimed lustfully as he put Chu Li back
down in the kneeling position.
Chow Dai’s mouth seemed permanently open in amazement, all embarrassment from
her own exposure pushed aside. Chu Li—you are a girl! But—how is that
possible?