The Morcai Battalion: The Recruit

“Their core body temperature is three degrees higher than our own,” Madeline reminded her as they jogged toward the Cularian medical sector. “They cool the ship to make them more comfortable.”

Edris was looking at the alien script on the compartment hatches as they passed them. She shook her head. “I don’t know how anybody ever reads that.”

“It’s not so hard,” came the amused reply. “It’s a lot like old Asian languages on Terravega, mostly symbols. Pronouncing it, though, that’s hard.”

“They pronounce names differently according to kinship and relationship status, too, don’t they?”

“Yes.”

Edris frowned. “Why are they so secretive? I mean, we know a lot about their physical makeup, but nothing about their culture or even their behavioral patterns.”

“They don’t volunteer information,” Madeline said, still smarting about her black market vids that had been a scam. “I’ve spent years trying to dig it out of Komak. He won’t tell me anything.”

“You could ask the C.O.,” Edris suggested.

“Only with a good head start,” Madeline assured her. “You just don’t bring up those topics with him.”

“I suppose not. I wonder if...”

“Who authorized you to bring Mallory aboard?” came a terse, angry deep voice from behind them.

Madeline stopped with easy grace and turned. Edris was frozen in place, her blue eyes like saucers as she stared uneasily at Dtimun.

“If I go down sick, you have to have a Cularian specialist aboard,” she said simply.

“You are never unwell,” Dtimun pointed out.

“I could catch that Altairian flu and be laid low for a week,” she replied. “We have to have backup, and there isn’t anyone else.”

“Holmes,” he began.

“Holmes shipped out to the Algomerian sector last week,” Madeline told him. “Besides, he wasn’t comfortable aboard the Morcai.” She said it with a hint of reproach.

Dtimun’s eyes narrowed and his jaw firmed. “I have competent physicals on my own planet, given by my own physician,” he replied. “I do not require the services of a Terravegan Cularian specialist!”

Madeline pursed her lips and smiled. “Ever?”

He glared at her while Edris tried to melt into the deck.

“If I hadn’t been at Ahkmau,” she began, “you’d be dead now. Sir.”

“Will there ever be an end to the constant revisiting of that medical procedure?” he wondered.

“Well, not as long as I’m alive, sir,” she said with twinkling green eyes. “You are, after all, my greatest medical accomplishment.”

He didn’t speak. He was still glaring.

“Some surgeons couldn’t have managed what I did under laboratory conditions,” she continued, warming to her subject. “I did it with a couple of purloined tools and almost no pure water, with Rojok patrols right outside the prison cell.”

His lips were now making a thin line.

“You know, I don’t recall that you ever even thanked me for it,” she continued.

He bit off some comments in his own language.

“Sir!” she exclaimed.

He made a rough noise in his throat and turned his attention to Mallory. “Make sure that Ruszel acquaints you with shipboard protocol. No wandering is allowed, especially in the kelekom sector.”

Mallory saluted, rigid as a board. “Sir, I never wander. I’ve never seen a kelekom. I mean, I don’t want to see one. I mean, not that they aren’t interesting, I’m sure...!”

Dtimun turned back to Madeline, exasperated. “There is no one else?”

She glared at him. “Edris is perfectly competent.”

“To do what?” he demanded.

Edris made a hunted sound. She looked as if she wanted to hide under something.

“Sir, don’t you have some pressing military function to perform that requires your attention elsewhere?” Madeline asked pleasantly. “Lives must be at stake somewhere.”

“One day, warwoman,” he bit off.

She raised both eyebrows. “One day, what, sir?” she asked innocently.

He darted a killing glance at Mallory, another at Madeline and turned on his heel, muttering in his own tongue as he stalked off.

“Can you translate that?” Edris asked timidly.

“Oh, you don’t want me to do that,” Madeline assured her. “Let’s get you settled. It’s going to be a long few days.”

* * *

ON THAT SCORE, she was absolutely right. There was an emergency on one of the Coromat system planets near Terramer which required the skills of a Cularian medical specialist. Madeline elected to take Edris along, to let her get the feel of an away mission.

Sadly, no one had thought to tell the new recruit that the commander did high grav landings. He put down at six megs and Mallory threw up all over the deck. Dtimun was eloquent.

When he left the scout ship, Hahnson and Stern and Komak roared with laughter.

“Sorry,” Hahnson told Edris, “we aren’t laughing at you. It’s just that the C.O. does line himself up for these mishaps. I mean, who puts down at six megs?”

Stern raised his hand.

“Not in a Cehn-Tahr scout, you never did,” Madeline pointed out.

“I’m just so sorry,” Edris moaned, pressing a medicated wipe to her face. “I’m so embarrassed! I’ve never done anything like that.” She dotted an enzyme eraser onto the mess she’d made on the deck, cleaning it efficiently.

“I threw up the first time I did a high grav landing,” Madeline assured her.