Her need for it is imperative, as she reflects that Nick holds "a gift for revenge" in response to her winning the argument that let her keep her ID tag.At most only a minute or two remained before heavy g drove her completely insane.
Morn feels the ship reducing spin motion in preparation for the heavy g burn, forcing her to frantically seal herself in her blanket and quickly hit the zone implant control button that she knows induces her to sleep. She curses herself for a fool for not remembering to set a time limit on her sleep, fearing that she'll sleep until someone discovers her zone implant and turns it off.
Morn returns to consciousness to find herself being carried through one of the ship's hallways with each of her arms braced on the shoulders of a crewman. One voice, which sounds familiar to her, tells her to hang on as they take her to sickbay. As she gains further clarity of her situation, Morn realizes this is Vector Shaheed.
Vector urges Morn to say something, so that it will be apparent that she's not still crazy with gap-sickness. Otherwise, Vector informs here that he and his companion, whom he introduces as Orn Vorbuld, will have to take Morn to sickbay to test her for gap-sickness and try to find a way to get her to recover.The other may have been the same man who'd sat at the data console while she was on the bridge. She couldn't be sure. He was large enough. And not very well put together--
Neither of them had the zone implant control. At least not out in their hands where she could see it.
Morn realizes being scanned by sickbay machinery will reveal her zone implant, so she claims to be groggy from having taken too much cat, cat that she says she stole from Angus. Vector tells Orn that Morn appears recovered and needs only food, and urges Orn to leave to get some sleep.
While guiding Morn to the galley, Vector remarks that Orn is a genius with computers but nevertheless "has the glands of an ape." Morn briefly wonders if Vector is trying to warn her (I think so), but is quickly distracted by the thought of food. After Vector gets her food, then coffee, Morn asks how long the ship has gone at high speed, where they are going, and for what purpose. Vector replies that they have burned for four hours, that they are going for repairs to the gap drive, and that he can't tell her their destination. Morn speculates that all this is being done to make the UMCP, specifically Hashi Lebwohl and Data Acquisition, look innocent of framing Angus. Vector is initially puzzled, then recalls the theory Morn stated on the bridge that Nick is a DA operative. He warns Morn that it's too dangerous for her to keep repeating such a theory. Morn asks why, and Vector repliesOrn Vorbuld didn't seem to realize he'd been dismissed. He squinted at Morn as if she were growing brighter in some way; soon she would be too bright to be looked at directly. With the air of a man reaching a difficult decision, he said to her, "You're too much for Nick." His tone was timid; it made the words sound like a question.
One of his thick hands reached out and stroked her hair.
Then he walked away.
Morn asks what crimes she is supposed to be guilty of, and Vector replies that her being a cop is crime enough. Then he tells her the story of how he and Orn came to be illegals."There isn't anybody aboard this ship who doesn't hate the UMCP." An undercurrent of vehemence ran through his mild tone. "And we've got cause. We can just barely tolerate you as it is. If you try to taint Nick with your own crimes, we'll use your guts for thruster fuel."
Vector had been the geneticist and Orn the computer expert for an organization called Intertech, working on producing an immunization for RNA mutation, and thus a defense against genetic warfare. This would reduce the threat of traveling in forbidden space. Morn immediately grasps the advantage this would have for humanity. Vector relates that he was close enough to the solution that he could just about visualize all the final steps. But one day he couldn't access the research on the computers, and Orn found out that DA had embedded codes in Intertech's computers that once activated shut down access to all their research.
Vector then tells her he and Orn got out of Intertech to eventually make their way to working for Nick. He leaves her with the thought that "the pirates are the good guys." This thought hits Morn hard, shatters all her preconceptions.He made an effort to control himself, but it didn't work. "Think about it for a while," he broke out. "At least a dozen billion human beings, all condemned to the terror and probably the fact of genetic imperialism, and for what? For nothing. Except to consolidate and extend the power of the cops. And the UMC. In the end the whole of human space is going to be one vast gulag, owned and operated by the UMC for its own benefit, with the cops for muscle.["]
As if Morn hasn't suffered enough already. But I concede that she'd have to face the truth sometime, so might as well get it over with.Now what was she supposed to hope for? That Vector was lying? If so, she would never be able to prove it. And she would never be able to eradicate what he'd told her from her brain: it would always be there, tainting her thoughts, corrupting her as surely as forbidden space. No matter how much personal integrity her father--or she herself--had possessed, he and she may have been nothing more than tools in malign hands.
Alone in Captain's Fancy's galley, with a mug of cold coffee in front of her and nowhere to go, Morn Hyland spent an hour or two grieving for her father--and for everything he represented in her life. She'd only killed his body; and only because of an illness she hadn't known about. Vector Shaheed had damaged his image, his memory.
That grief was necessary. Until it was done, she couldn't summon enough anger to return to her cabin and the zone implant control.
