Chapter 11
Velda had barely finished her meal when Ritter called them back to the medbay. Ethan had eaten fast, and then spent the rest of his time studying the layout of the room and the few people left in it.
She guessed he couldn’t help himself, but there was very little way she could see out of this. And that really frightened her.
When they got to the medbay, the guards strapped them to the same beds they’d woken up on, and Velda looked around to see what had changed since then.
Ritter had brought a large metal box into the room on a trolley, and beside it was a small device with a line of lights along the top, although they were currently unlit.
This was it? This was his equipment?
She eyed the big box, but couldn’t really tell what was in it.
“Did you tie the crew down when you experimented on them?” Ethan asked.
Ritter looked up from the screen he held in his hand. “Yes. Although with you and your companion, it’s both to keep you still and protect me from any attack, whereas I didn’t have that worry with the crew.”
He put the screen down and picked up two blindfolds, came over to secure them. “Top secret, you understand.”
Velda said nothing, and just before her eyes were covered over, she saw Ethan’s fists clench.
Ritter was probably right to secure them to the tables.
She heard a sound, which she assumed was the box being opened, and couldn’t help lifting her head and shoulders up, in anticipation of what, she didn’t know, but lying back passively just wasn’t in her makeup.
“You need to lie flat.” Ritter pushed her shoulder down and then she felt something cold and small land in the hollow between her throat and her clavicle. It felt like it disappeared a moment later.
She waited, expecting to feel something, for there to be some reaction, either within or without, but there was nothing.
“Velda?” Ethan’s voice sounded calm.
“All good. You?”
“All good.” His tone was neutral, and she wondered if he was as surprised as she was at the lack of pain, discomfort or weirdness.
She guessed yes.
“I told you it wasn’t going to hurt.” Ritter’s voice sounded too close for comfort, and Velda flinched away from him. “Not this first part, anyway.”
She knew it. She knew it had been too good to be true. The staff wouldn’t have been refusing to participate anymore if there had been no effects.
She could hear the box being closed back up and the trolley rolled away. And then Ritter was back, removing the blindfolds.
“Now what?” Ethan asked.
“Now we wait,” Ritter said. He glanced at the screen propped up on the shelf nearby. “This time tomorrow, I’ll do some tests. Then things might get a little uncomfortable, but everyone who’s been through it is perfectly fine.”
“Have you been through it?” Velda asked.
Ritter snapped his gaze to hers, held it for a moment, and then went to the door and opened it. He stood in the threshold to address the two guards waiting outside. “You can take them to the holding room. Full containment.”
They were unclipped from the beds, secured with restraints, and taken back down the passageway, but this time, they bypassed the mess and were taken to a small room that Velda guessed was the closest a ship of this small size got to a brig.
It had two benches running down each side, with a thin mattress on each, a tiny bathroom at the back with a sink, toilet and shower, and nothing else.
The guards unclipped the restraints and Velda felt a surge of relief at that.
Another guard appeared with sheets and blankets and dumped a set at the end of each mattress.
Then the door closed, and they were sitting, facing each other.
“Alone at last,” Velda said, to try to make Ethan smile.
He looked as grim as she’d ever seen him.
He didn’t even try to accommodate her.
“They’ve got to be recording us,” he said.
She sighed, stood, and began to make up her bed. “I know.”