A Taste Of Despair (The Humal Sequence) Read Online Free PDF Page B

sharply at Hamilton.
    “If it is, then it’s the slowest plague I ever heard of.” Hamilton answered. “We spent months aboard, trying to fix the drives enough to get home. No one got sick.”
    “There are no pathogens in your system.” Anderton added. “Reanimation requires an awful lot of scans during the process. There’s no way anything got by me.” There was a hint of professional pride in his voice.
    “Why quarantine us, then?” Rames scowled.
    “Probably what we were discussing earlier.” Hamilton suggested, his glance flicking to Anderton.
    “You think?” Rames looked thoughtful. He looked down at the message again, re-reading it. “It also says that, under no circumstances am I to thaw any of the survivors out. Anderton, you have made time-coded log entries about the reanimation, haven’t you?”
    Anderton nodded. “It’s all marked from well before the message was received. We’re covered as far as obeying orders goes.”
    Rames breathed a sigh of relief and tapped the data pane for a few moments, composing a reply, before hitting send.
    “I’ve told them we’ve already thawed out one survivor for questioning, but that he remains unconscious. All other capsules are secure and still frozen. We’ll see what they make of that.”
    It didn’t take long. Less than five minutes later the data pane chirruped as the reply arrived, also marked alpha priority.
    Rames earlier frown turned to a scowl. “Apparently, I have been chided for my recklessness. I’m to secure you in the brig. In addition, they are dispatching the destroyer Triton to ‘escort’ us home safely.”
    Hamilton noted that even the medic bridled at the suggestion they couldn’t be trusted. He glanced at Rames.
    “Looks like my story isn’t sounding so far-fetched now, after all?” He said to the captain.
    Rames nodded slowly, thinking furiously. The he looked up at Anderton. “Eldon, would you mind going and finding Mr. Grimes and Major Harvan and asking them to join us down here. We have some things to discuss.”

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER THREE
     
    “So why don’t you tell us again, Mr. Hamilton, in your own words, exactly how you ended up on a ship thought lost for fifty years.”
    Hamilton glanced around the room at the suits present. All corporate big boys and military top brass. This inquest had really attracted the big guns. Of course he was very familiar with all their faces by now. This was the fourth time they’d called him in to repeat his story. Of course, they weren’t actually there. They were just visual representations projected onto the holo-slates that adorned the room, giving them a slightly translucent, ethereal look. The room was just a conference call chamber in Q-section’s medical isolation area. Hamilton was the only person physically present.
    After his conversation with Rames, the pair had gone over the story he had concocted with the others of his group. It was too late to change it now, but Rames would be questioned as well, so he had to know the story so that he could relate it as if Hamilton had told him it as the truth.
    Anderton, Rames’ medic, Grimes, his executive officer and Harvan, the Marine commander, had all been told the truth. Rames had served with them for some time and trusted them. Given the reaction of the military authorities to the reappearance of the Morebaeus , Rames had decided that more than just he and Hamilton should know the truth, in case anything happened to them. So the medic, marine and exo had been brought in on the deal. Between the five of them they had spent some time discussing their options.
    The truth as they all knew it would remain hidden, of course. If Walsh was out there, the re-appearance of Hamilton would cause him some concern. Hamilton knew little of the alien that called itself Walsh, other than the information and feeling he had gained from his last minute conversation with him. But he had a feeling the alien would want to get rid of the