Dirge - Alan Dean Foster [105]
“Just a minute.” Chimbu broke his silence. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. If you go back to where you were found, there’s no telling how you’ll react. The experience could cause you to flash back and relive the trauma you originally suffered. You could lapse back into coma.”
“I’m sorry, Doctor,” Rothenburg began, “but the overriding importance of this dictates that your authority is…”
Mallory cut him off. “Take it easy, Major. I’m coming.” He shifted his attention to the troubled Chimbu. “I don’t have any choice. I owe it to six hundred thousand dead neighbors.”
“If you experience a serious relapse,” the chief medical officer warned him stiffly, “this time you might not come out of it in as little as a month’s time. You might not come out of it at all.” He looked sharply at Rothenburg. “Then you’ll have neither proof nor witness.”
“A witness without proof is worthless,” the officer shot back. Remembering the man in the bed, he added less stridently, “Nothing personal, Mallory.”
“Up yours,” the patient responded without hesitation. “I’m going.”
“Good. I’ll initiate the necessary arrangements.” Rothenburg eyed the doctor. “You’ll certify that he’s well enough to travel.”
“Since that wasn’t phrased as a question,” a diffident Chimbu replied, “I don’t suppose it matters what I say.”
“You’ll come along,” the officer continued inexorably, “to supervise his medical care.” His gaze shifted to the side of the bed. “As will you, Nurse Tse.”
“I have no problem with that.” She continued to hold Mallory’s hand in hers.
“A one-centimeter diameter composite mollysphere.” Exhaling slowly, Nadurovina rubbed tiredly at her forehead. “I hope his mind will be clear enough to remember its location.”
“Screw his mind,” Rothenburg snapped. “His sense of direction is all I’m concerned about.” Remembering the figure in the bed he added, “No offense.”
“For a repeatedly offensive person, at least you’re appropriately apologetic,” a serene Mallory informed him.
16
The long journey to the Argus system was accomplished via military transport. Mallory was given a commanding officer’s suite with two adjoining orderly’s quarters. Tse was ensconced in one and Chimbu in the other. Though he objected strenuously to the profusion of monitoring instrumentation that had been placed in the suite, his protests were courteously ignored. Until the greater matter at hand was resolved, Alwyn Mallory would not be allowed to go to the bathroom unsupervised. He was too important—so important that the KK-drive dreadnought conveying him back to Treetrunk traveled englobed in a cruiser-and-destroyer convoy.
It was an incredibly costly escort for one man. But Rothenburg could have asked for half a fleet and had the request granted. Out of concern for secrecy, he did not. The movement of a small task force would not be overly remarked upon. Military vessels made the run to Argus periodically. Mallory’s escort was certainly of unusual size, but not aberrantly so.
As one by one the ships executed the drop from space-plus back into space-normal, there was outwardly nothing wrong with the convoy’s first passenger. How much he was holding inside only he knew. Nadurovina worried herself sick about him. To a lesser extent so did Chimbu and Rothenburg and the few others who knew what a full-strength task force was doing visiting the devastated Argus system. Of those close to medical science’s most important patient, only Tse was relaxed and confident.
“He’s stronger than you think,” she told Nadurovina one morning over real coffee and calorie-free beignets.
“Taxonomically speaking, I realize that Alwyn Mallory is one tough son of a bitch.” The psychiatrist sponged coffee with a beignet. “I also know that he puts up a strong defensive front that conceals what he is really feeling. He would not be human if it were otherwise. We are both aware that despite his jaunty demeanor and tough exterior he is never very far from the edge. He proved that when he became violent and wrecked his original hospital room.” Her voice fell slightly. “What happened before