Kamikaze by Jayel

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Kamikaze, Part 5
by Jayel

Val and Tara had apparently reached some sort of agreement, because Val started helping her pack. "Hey, Julia, there's a refrigeration compartment on the underside of the rocket," he called to me as I struggled to make everything fit in the back of the transrover's tiny "icebox." "Why don't you stash your medical stuff there, and Tara can put her dainty underthings in the transrover instead."

"Wait a minute," Danziger said, coming around from the front of the truck. "You're planning to take the rocket?"

"Yep," Val answered, obviously anticipating objections. "As a matter of fact, we're not going without it."

"I thought you said it was nearly out of fuel," Danziger said. "Will it make it that far?"

Val shrugged. "Probably," he said, dragging a heavy coil of chain out of the rocket's cockpit. "But I wasn't thinking of flying it." He looked up at Danziger and me with one of those killer fly-boy grins I was beginning to know so well. "I thought maybe we could hitch it up to that transrover of yours and drag it."

Morgan had been silently stashing he and Bess' personals in the back of the truck, but this was apparently too much for him. "You have got to be kidding," he exploded. "Do you have any idea how heavy that thing is?"

"Nah, Tex, not a clue," Val said sarcastically. "Why don't you pick it up and weigh it for me?"

"You're a real funny guy, fly-boy," Wolman said, striding over from one of the rails to put his two cents worth into the conversation. Relations between him and Val hadn't improved any. I wasn't sure why, but when I asked Danizger about it, he had mumbled something about a "pissing contest."

"For once, Martin is right," Wolman continued. "Towing that thing is going to slow us down by hours every day. It doesn't even have wheels on it, for pity's sake."

"Exactly," Morgan agreed--he so rarely found an ally among us, I didn't really blame him for taking full advantage. "We're already moving at a snail's pace as it is, trying to keep up with all the stuff we really need."

"Like you and Bess' precious geolocks?" Alonzo muttered, joining me. "Those were useful."

Morgan ignored him. "Why should we add something else that for all the practical use it is to us might as well be a pile of scrap?"

"A two-ton pile of scrap with a smidgen of extremely powerful propulsion fuel floating around inside it, just waiting to explode," Wolman concluded.

"All right, all right," Danziger said wearily. "We've heard why we shouldn't take it; now why don't we just calm down and let Val tell us why he thinks we should." Both Morgan and Wolman opened their mouths to protest, but a pointed look from Danziger was enough to convince them to close them again, and all eyes turned to Val.

"We don't need wheels," he began, reaching into the rocket and flipping a switch. The admittedly junky-looking thing seemed to shudder once in alarm before lifting itself a few inches off the ground. It hovered, wheezing as if for sympathy, but apparently stable, until Val flipped the switch again. "It can hover like that for hours by pulling power from the DC cells," he explained, closing the cockpit. "As for why we have to take it, we just do." He looked up at Wolman and Morgan, the ice returning to his eyes. "Otherwise, I'm not going."

"Fine!" Wolman said. "Stay here, why don't you, and good riddance--"

"And neither is Tara," Val continued, taking a threatening step toward him.

"Hey, buddy," Alonzo said, springing to life beside me and stepping between them. "Get a grip, all right? Nobody's suggesting that Tara's going anywhere without you--"

"Although it might not be a bad idea," Wolman added, perversely adding fuel to a fire that was already threatening to get out of control. I had been close to Alonzo long enough to know when he was anxious, and although he was still smiling and his voice was calm, I could tell he was worried.

"You think you might try convincing her?" Val said, a dangerous grin playing around the corners of his mouth under his icy blue stare. "Why don't you, Wolman, just to see what happens next? You're an adventurous kind of guy, right? 'Lonzo said you've been itching to shoot something with that big rifle of yours; why not try aiming it at me?"

"Stop it!" Tara had come out of one of the few tents still standing, holding Uly by one hand and a basket of foodstuffs in the other. "Val, for pity's sake, just tell them about the dream." She dropped Uly's hand and walked up to her husband. "They're on our side, remember? We have to trust them." She shook her finger at Wolman playfully, but her eyes were serious. "All of them."

"What dream?" Alonzo asked.

"I don't even really remember," Val admitted, shooting Wolman a final murderous look. "All I know is that in the dream, the Terrians kept pointing at the rocket like it was something real important, something we're going to need again. I don't know why, or if it even means anything at all, but I've learned enough living on this planet to know that sometimes a little signal like that is the only clue you're likely to get."

"He has a point," I said, looking around the group.

"You're right; he does," Danziger agreed, putting a hand on Wolman's shoulder. "We've set out on crazier quests on less evidence before. I think it's worth the risk, but I guess if it's an issue, we should vote--"

"No," Wolman interrupted, his face a little flushed. "I mean, you're right. I'm willing to withdraw my objection, if the rest of you--"

"Yeah, me too," Morgan interjected. "If the Terrians think we should have it, then probably we should have it. Although I still can't see why."

"Neither can I," Val admitted with a conciliatory grin in the bureaucrat's direction. "But I'm powerfully afraid we're going to find out soon enough."

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Later, just before we started moving, I remembered that I had yet to get a medscan of either of the Donahoe's. Val was helping Danziger and Baines tie down some cargo they had strapped to the top of the rocket, and Tara was leaning against the transrover consulting with True about some VR gear, so I figured now would be as good a time as any and went to the rail to get my glove.

I passed Val on the way back and gave him a quick scan-- he was as healthy as the proverbial earth-grown horse. But when I got back to the transrover, Tara was gone.

"Where's Tara?" I asked True, who was still standing there holding her gear.

"She went back inside," she answered pointing toward the shelter. "One of the VR programs she had lent me was malfunctioning and I couldn't fix it, so I asked her what was wrong. She said she couldn't fix it out here in the direct sunlight and took it inside."

I had never heard of a VR programming tube being sensitive to sunlight, but then I had never seen or heard of any VR programs as vivid as the ones Tara had. The few moments we had spent in her "speakeasy" had given us only the barest glimpse of what she could do, the vividness of the sensory experiences she had captured. The kids had sworn they caught the sniffles playing on her ice planet, and even Yale confided to me that apparently Tara was to VR programming what Dickens had been to novels, that her attention to detail was uncanny. At any rate, if she said they couldn't be exposed to the sun, I was in no position to dispute her.

"Do you think she's pretty?" True asked me suddenly.

"Who?" I asked. "Tara? Yes, I think she's very pretty. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know," she said with a shrug. "She does great VR, and she seems nice enough, I guess, but I like Val better."

I didn't tell her that this was the reaction of most of the female contingent of the Eden Project towards our newfound companions. "Val is easier to like," I admitted.

"He sort of reminds me of Alonzo," she said.

"Who sort of reminds you of Alonzo?" Magus said, joining us.

"We were talking about the Donahoe's," I told her.

"Ah," Magus said with a knowing smile. "He's awfully cute, isn't he? Too bad he's so happily married."

"Julia doesn't care," True pointed out. "She has Alonzo."

"Yeah, lucky Julia," Magus said, shooting me a teasing look. "And lucky Tara, and poor, sad me and True-girl. I guess we'll just have to keep looking."

"You look all you want," True said, making a face. "I'm just as happy without." She looked up and saw Ulysses daring to touch the controls on one of the rails. "Hey, wait for me!" she yelled, running after him and leaving Magus and myself to our own devices. "We're supposed to stick together, remember?"

"She's just as happy without, huh?" Magus said to me.

"For the time being," I agreed, returning her smile.

"It's amazing how quickly that changes, isn't it?" she said. "Don't answer that--you don't have to." She looked around and sighed. "Speaking of Tara, have you seen her? I need to find out how to get one of these ground-lockers they've got by the lake open, and Val said she's the one who set the locks."

"I think she's in the shelter," I said. "That's what True said, anyway. Listen, if you see her, will you tell her I'm looking for her, too? I need to do a medscan."

"Sure, no problem," she said, heading for the shelter.

I didn't really think anything of it when she didn't come out after about ten minutes--obviously Tara was explaining the ground-locker combinations to her. Then Bess came up and asked me for a pain suppressor for Morgan's headache. So it was almost an hour before it occurred to me to wonder where Magus and Tara had gone. Everything was pretty much packed, and Alonzo and Val were getting the kids stowed in the back of the transrover.

"Have you guys seen Magus?" I called.

"Not since she was with you," True called back.

"How about Tara?" I said, going up to them. "Val, have you seen her? I need to do a medscan."

"If she knows that, she's probably hiding," he said with a grin.

"She doesn't, unless Magus told her," I answered, trying to ignore the nagging little alarm bells that were going off in my head. "They were in the shelter--I'll be back in a minute."

At first I thought the shelter was deserted. All the windows had been secured, so it was almost completely dark inside, and I didn't sense any movement. I was about to assume they had gone when I heard a tiny sound coming from the floor near the fireplace. Switching on a flashlight, I saw Magus crumpled in a heap in front of the hearth."

"No light," she moaned, rolling onto her side and sheltering her eyes with her arm. "Please . . . too much . . . " Then she was quiet and much too still.

"Alonzo!" I yelled, rushing to her. "Alonzo, hurry and bring my bag!" I knelt down beside her and rolled her over so I could see her face. She didn't react to the light again, even when I shined it directly at her eyelids. The only sign of injury I could see was a small, bruised lump on her forehead that didn't look terribly serious and thin trickles of blood coming from her nose, mouth, and ears that did.

"What happened?" Danziger demanded, bursting in with a much bigger light. "Good lord--"

"Yeah, I know," I said brusquely. "Here, help me lay her flat, but be careful. I don't think anything's broken, but I don't want to take any chances. Is Alonzo coming?"

"I'm right here," he said, handing me my glove. "What happened?"

"I don't know," I said, slipping it on and passing it over Magus' eerily peaceful face. "She seems to have suffered some sort of cerebral trauma. The bump on her head is minor-- she probably got it when she fell."

"What about the other?" Danziger asked grimly.

I looked up at him and shrugged. "I just don't know," I answered.

True and Val had followed Alonzo inside. "Where's Tara?" True asked.

"True-girl, get out of here so Julia can work," Danziger said firmly.

"No, but where is she?" True insisted. "She was here, with Magus."

"She's right," I agreed. "Magus came in here over an hour ago looking for her."

Val was deathly pale, and he kept muttering what sounded like "lock the door . . . how many times . . ." under his breath. When he saw me looking up at him, his expression cleared somewhat, but he still looked worried. "It's sensory overload," he explained, reaching for another flashlight from the shelf on the wall. "If you can stop the bleeding, she should be fine--"

"What are you talking about?" Alonzo asked him. "Are you saying Tara did this?"

"Not on purpose," he said grimly, taking down a coil of rope as well. "I'm gonna go find her."

Danziger picked up a flashlight of his own. "I'm going with you," he said in a tone that suggested the issue was not up for debate. "Julia, is there anything else you need?"

"True and Alonzo can help me," I said, returning my full attention to Magus. "You guys just find Tara so she can tell me how she did this before she does it to anyone else."

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