There was no day or night on the spaceship Relief, a hospital transport ship transporting the wounded back from a battle on the planet Sol-Earth. They had just recently entered orbit of the snow planet Alderan-Taygeta in the Pleidian system.
“These MegaCorp spaceships are cheap. I worry we will all die when the ship implodes,” a heavily medicated patient said. He was a wounded soldier the others called Thirteen, named for his bunk number.
“Space is a vacuum. How would it cause a spaceship to implode?” one of the soldiers playing cards asked.
“Explode. Whatever. MegaCrap ships,” Thirteen said, snorting at his pun.
“I served on a ship, the Enterprise, before the Army privitized transportation services - that was a real lady,” said Twelve.
“Make your bet,” another gambler said.
Twelve threw two credits on the empty bunk serving as a card table. The players ignored Thirteen and played their hand. In the end, Twelve lost the hand and said “I’m out” and returned to his bunk.
“A soldier from the transport ship Winnefeld told me they had hit a huge asteriod and knocked a hole in her side. . . . Do you hear me?” Thirteen asked the patient in the bunk beneath him.
The woman the other patients knew as Six was silent. Thirteen raised himself a little in his bunk and said in a whisper, “Can you hear me, Mom? A soldier told me that their ship ran into an enormous asteroid and knocked a hole in her side.”
Six was motionless, as if she had not heard. And once more there was silence on the ward.
The ship’s thorium reactor coolers pulsed a heartbeat hum that their ears were long accustomed to, but it seemed as though everything were wrapped in sleep and silence. The three patients who had played cards for hours had quit and were now lying in their bunks falling sleep.
“The AC has broken . . . ” said Thirteen, wiping his brow.
This time Six coughed and answered irritably: “You talk of a ship colliding with an asteroid,” she paused for a breath, “and now you say the AC is broken?”
“That’s what people say.”
“Do you believe everything people say?”
Thirteen couldn’t see anything to be angry about. What was wrong with his story about the rock or in his saying that the AC had broken? He pressed the plunger on his packet of pain meds and felt better. Thirteen thought for a long time of a rock as big as a planet, crashing into another planet, then that planet crashing into another, ad infinitum. When he got tired of dreaming about planets and began to think of his birthplace, where he was returning after five years’ service fighting wars. He saw with his mind’s eye the great ocean whose shore was covered with snow. On the coast of the ocean was his small town. From the fifth house on the street facing the sea came his brother Blue in a snow-runner; behind him sat his little daughters Violet in large felt boots, and Aqua, also in felt boots. Blue is smiling happily while driving through the newly fallen snow, Violet laughs, and Aqua’s face is hidden - she is well wrapped up.
“The children will catch cold . . . ” thought Thirteen, smiling.
Six coughed loudly.
The thread of Thirteen’s thoughts was broken, and instead of the sea, suddenly he saw his young mother seated, reading to him as a little boy while he played with his childhood toy trains and they went round and round by themselves.
He was glad he had seen his nieces. “I saw them, Mother!” he muttered, and opened his eyes and, seeing his sick Mother asleep in her bunk, felt round in the darkness for water.
His stomach hurt. He drank and then lay down again, and once more he saw the trains, billowing black smoke, clouds of it, going around in circles.
Suddenly Six cheered up. “I’ll tell you a story that will make you laugh.” She took a few breaths and then said to anyone who would listen: “Do you know how they swindled me?”
“Who, Mother?” Thirteen asked.
“MegaCorp,” she said. “You see only warriors get justice. The Supply Corp, we are in another class. Especially women. Complain - you are a bitch. File a rape charge against - they make your life hell in court. Can I afford a private lawyer to represent me? No. I take their appointed counsel, some MegaCorp legal intern. There is no convincing them by law or logic. Their laywers are professionals robbers of human dignity. I always tell the truth. If you file suit against one of the warrior class, especially a MegaCorp Merc, they will twist that around so that you are guilty until proven innocent. I am afraid of nothing and fear no body but I am so naive, it’s funny - for me to think my stand will make a difference is quite a laugh!”
“That’s not funny at all,” Thirteen said softly.
“What happened?” Seven asked Six.
Six tired easily and needed to take a few breaths.
“Yes, Six, tell us what happened” said Twelve.
Then she coughed and went on, “There were four of them. When I die, there will be no one brave enough to stand up to them.” She collapsed back on her bunk, exhausted.
Thirteen had stopped listening. He knew she would not tell them what happened.
Through the darkness Seven began slowly to distinguish the patient in the bunk number six. He saw her sleeping in a sitting position, for if she lay down she could not breathe. Her skin was grey and clammy, but her features were striking and at one time was one of the most beautiful women in the entire military. She was losing strength through her illness and the suffocating heat, and she breathed heavily and was always muttering to herself. Seven was healthier and felt sorry for Six. Thirteen turned to her as well. Noticing that her son was looking at her, she turned toward him and said:
“Are you beginning to understand? . . . Forget the past . . . Try to understand the here and now.”
“Understand what?” Thirteen asked, too weak to try to argue.
“It was strange to me at first, why we, instead of being kept in a proper hospital, should be on this old hospital transport ship in subspace orbit, where the heat is stifling, and stinking, and must be fatal to you. Now it is all clear to me. Do you see it? There is nothing broken. They turned up this heat intentionally. The doctors ordered us here to get rid of us. They got tired of all the trouble we gave them. You are no good to them; no longer being of the warrior class. You only give a lot of trouble, and if you die you spoil their body count stats. Therefore you are just cattle, and there is no difficulty in getting rid of you,” she said with conviction. She paused to take a few breaths and said, “MegaCorp's lack of conscience and humanity makes immorality second nature.”
“The military will find them out,” Thirteen argued.
“They won’t. On a MegaCrap transport, MegaCorp controls our fate. A few sick soldiers will not be noticed.”
Thirteen could not make out what his Mother was talking about; thinking she might not be serious, he said, “I’m not that sick - it’s just that I caught a chill.”
“They are banking on the fact that you can’t last out the trip home... . And that’s all the return you get for faithful service!”
Six looked very angry, and said “They ought to be shown up. There would be public outcry.”
Silence fell. It was very hot and Thirteen could hardly breathe. He wanted a drink, but the water was warm and disgusting.
Once more Thirteen thought of the sea, the snowy village. Violet laughed, and that fool of a little girl Aqua opened her fur coat, and stretched out her feet. “Look,” she said, “my felt boots are new.” “You’re almost six years old and still you has no sense!” said Thirteen. “Instead of showing your boots off, why don’t you bring some water to your soldier-uncle? If you do, I’ll give you a present.” Then came Blue, with his carbine on his shoulder, and there was the train and the black smoke ... .
Suddenly something strange happened to one of the soldiers playing cards. He called ace of diamonds and dropped his cards. He lurched and looked round with empty eyes.
“In a moment,” he said and lay down on the floor.
All were at a loss. They shouted at him but he made no reply.
“Are you okay?” asked Seven. “Perhaps we’d better call the doctor, eh? Drink some water. Here, have a sip.”
“What’s the use,” shouted Thirteen angrily.
“Don’t you see?”
“What?” said Seven.
“What?!” cried Thirteen. “He’s dead, that’s what! Doen’t you see?”
Some soldiers had begun to play cards again. Six was propped up in her bunk, and some others squatting uncomfortably on the floor. One gambler had his right arm in a sling and his wrist was tightly bandaged so that he had to hold the cards in his left hand or in the crook of his elbow.
“I could never cook. Your father could though.”
“I know.”
“Do you like being a cook?” Six asked Thirteen.
Thirteen said nothing.
“My God, my God!” said Six sorrowfully. “To take a man from Alderan-Taygeta, drag him fifteen parsecs, ... and what for? So he can cook! Where’s the sense of it?”
“You get up in the morning, program the meals for the day into the machine, make sure there’s plenty of coffee and eggs for breakfast, and then there is nothing to do until lunch. The officers make battle plans all day long. You can pray or read books or go out if the ship is docked. It’s a good enough life.”
“Yes. You stay in the kitchen all day long and suffer from homesickness while they make plans. Plans don’t matter.”
“If you follow orders then no one will harm you. For five years now I’ve never been in the brig and I’ve only been to court once.”
“What was that for?” Seven asked, not looking up from his cards.
“Fighting. Four allied contractors came into the kitchen while I was Officer of the Watch. They were wearing swords, I think, but I don’t remember. I had a few beers with my enlisted men and was a little drunk.”
“Drunk on watch?” Seven asked.
Thirteen nodded. "I was drunk on watch."
“Swords but not guns?” asked Twelve.
“Guns were not authorized on that deck,” Thirteen said.
“Oh, okay. Then what?”
“The contractors started it and I defended myself, and that is that. The court ruled it was self-defense, but demoted me to private and stripped me of my medals anyway because I’d been drinking.”
Six was completely exhausted and shut her eyes; her head fell back and then flopped forward onto her chest. She tried to lie down, but in vain, for she could not breathe.
“MegaCorp contractors?” Seven asked.
“Yes.”
Seven snorted and spat on the steel wall.
“And why did you go for them?” Six asked after a while.
“I told you they started it,” Thirteen snapped.
Seven looked at Six and saw a tear run down her cheek before she turned way.
Thirteen drank some warm water and thought of his fight in the kitchen. He remembered he had not paniced when he was first wounded but to focus on the fight. He gave worst than he got, and he dozed off remembering how his knife blade stayed sharp and never broke and how the handle never slipped in his hand despite all the blood. He was good with knives so when he was demoted to cook, he thought it was somehow appropriate. Six slept and he slept, and it seemed that all the world was sleeping.
Two days passed. Six no longer sat up, but lay full length; her eyes were closed and her face seemed to be thinner than ever.
“Mother!” called Thirteen.
Six opened her eyes and moved her lips.
“Are you okay?”
“It’s nothing,” answered Six, breathing heavily and looking away. “It’s better now. I’m much better. You see I can lie down now. If you see Blue and his girls, tell them I’m okay and not to worry.”
The patient’s ward was still stifling and hot. It was hard not only to speak but even to listen without an effort. Thirteen clasped his knees, leaned his head on them and dreamt of Blue and himself playing in their childhood home. He saw himself driving a snow-runner, with Blue behind him, riding fast and Blue was yelling to slow down but he didn’t really mean it. The cold wind slaps your face and freezes your nose and cuts your hands; the lumps of snow fall down your neck. Thirteen laughed out loud thinking of how funny it was when Blue was flung hard into a snow-drift, getting snow in his face! A long time passed in silence, but he noticed nothing as he sat dreaming of the snow.
He could hear some one coming into the ward, and some voices, but five minutes passed and all was still.
“May she rest in peace!” said Seven. “She was a tough soldier.”
“What?” asked Thirteen.
“She’s dead. She has just been taken to an upper deck.”
Thirteen tried to sit up in his bunk but fell back, exhausted. “She suffered much. She deserved to die on a better, a more honorable ship. At least her suffering is over now.”
Seven sat down on Thirteen’s bunk and said in an undertone: “You won’t live much longer either.”
“Did the doctor tell you that?” asked Thirteen.
“No one told me, but I can see it. You can always tell when a man is going to die soon. I’m not saying this to make you feel bad, but if you have any credits, you had better give it to the senior officer.”
“I have not written my brother back home,” said Thirteen. “I shall die and he will never know about mother.”
“Your family will know,” said Seven. “When you die they will report your cause of death to your nearest family member and when we dock at Earth they will give your effects, and those of your Mother’s, to the Army headquarters, and they will send them to your family.”
This conversation made Thirteen begin to feel unhappy. He drank water and breathed the hot air; he tried to think of his home and the snow.
“They are going to eject Six into deep space,” said Seven. “They will put her in a capsule and eject her.”
“Yes. That’s the way they do it.”
“There is no love in deep space. It’s better to lie in the ground. Then the family can go to the grave and weep over it,” said Seven.
“Yes.”
“Aren’t you afraid to die?” asked Seven.
“Yes. I’m afraid. I have a brother at home, and his family, and I will miss them. But I am tired, just let me sleep a little,” Thirteen said.
Thirteen lay down in his bunk and he he fell into a deep sleep. After some time passed, two soldiers came down and carried him out of the ward. He was placed is a capsule, which looked like a casket, rectangular and black. Round him stood Seven and some other patients.
“May he rest in peace, always, now and forever,” said someone.
An officer pressed a button and Thirteen shot headlong and disappeared onto space. He traveled for some days before his capsule joined his Mother’s and together they entered the upper atmosphere of Alderan-Taygeta. Their capsules impacted the snow planet on the coast of a beautiful ocean, not far from a small village where he was born.
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