Read Online Damage Control - ARC by Mary Jeddore Blakney - Free Book Online Page B

ocean? Or see with
the eyes?”
    “I don't know 'ocean,’” Koll answered. She
quickly pulled a small object from her left hip and spoke into it.
“Oshad,” she said to it, because she couldn't say 'ocean,' and the
object replied, “Shass.” Then she said, “Sea,” and this time the
object gave a long reply. Jade theorized that it was giving the
definitions of the words 'sea' and 'see,' and maybe also the letter
'C.’
    “That's a nice dictionary you've got there,”
said Jade, hoping to continue the friendly tone as long as
possible.
    “Yes,” the soldier agreed, putting the object
back on her hip. “But perhaps we rely them too much. Is called a
Personal Device.” Now that her left hand was free, she reached for
Jade's hair. “You will get Personal Device, too,” she continued as
she ran her claws through the ends of the pumpkin-colored curls.
“But yours does less than ours, for security.”
    Jade's stiffness soon wore off, and she
walked with Koll through corridor after corridor, stepping up and
down on the uneven floor. Sometimes they passed other soldiers.
Finally, Koll stopped where another soldier waited near an open
door. “This is your room,” she said.
    Jade had been expecting a cell, and hoping
for a cot or at least a shelf for sleeping, and a toilet. What she
saw was a spacious, well-furnished room. She could identify some of
the items she saw: pillows, a couple of high counters or low walls,
an American-brand coffeemaker, a swimming pool. Most of them, she
could not. The floor, of course, was on many levels. A soldier
waited behind one of the counters.
    “You may come in,” said the soldier.
Actually, what she said was, “You bay cub id,” and for half a
second Jade heard it as “You make a bid.”
    Jade entered and someone closed the door
behind her. She was alone with the new soldier, whose head-ridges
were blue. Jade wondered whether she belonged to a blue-ridged
ethnic group or whether she had painted them. Whatever their
source, the blue ridges matched what appeared to be eye shadow, and
the effect was striking. Chuzekks, in Jade's opinion, were ugly,
but this one was somehow beautiful.
    The blue-ridged soldier came out from behind
the counter. “Since you are perhaps not familiar with our
accommodations, I will tell you what is here and teach you how to
use things. I am late.” She extended her hand. Her claws were blue,
too.
    “If you're late,” said Jade, shaking her
hand, “we can skip the tour. I'm sure I'll figure things out.”
    The soldier laughed. “I have time. Laitt is
by dabe,” she said. Laitt is my name. She stroked Jade's head.
“Here is your bed,” she said, indicating a flat disk about three
feet high and ten feet in diameter, with no blankets or pillows.
“Here is the temperature control for the bed. Or you can use a
voice command. It understands English.”
    “The bed is heated?” Jade asked, and
immediately realized how stupid the question sounded.
    “Yes." If Laitt thought the question was
stupid, she gave no indication of it. "Here is the pool. Here is
the temperature control for the pool.”
    Jade didn't comment on the heated pool. “When
can I call my family?” she asked instead.
    “I don't know. I recommend you ask your
interrogator.”
    “My interrogator?”
    “Yes.”
    “Who's my interrogator?”
    “I don't know.”
    “But you know that I have one?”
    “No. Rarely prisoners are captured by error
and returned without interrogation. But that is rare.”
    “How do I find out who my interrogator is,
then?”
    “Perhaps you will not discover who it is
before your interrogation starts. If I discover, I will tell you,
if I am allowed.”
    “Thank you,” Jade replied hollowly.
    “Here is your desk,” Laitt continued,
gesturing toward the counter she had been sitting behind when Jade
first saw her.
    It didn't look like a desk. And it had some
strange-looking metal devices on one side. Jade didn’t like them:
they looked too much like