Julie walked into the medical bay where Luka was sitting up in bed. He had a drip plugged into his arm and a nasal tube supplying extra oxygen to his nostrils. He was gaunt and pale with beady eyes which seemed to have sunk into their sockets. His hair was greasy and swept back, while a dark stubble had grown on his chin. Her mother might have described him as “like death warmed up” which, indeed, was what he was.
Luka managed a smile as Julie approached. “You got my message, then,” he said. His voice was croaky from the trauma he had put his lungs through.
“I did,” she said.
“I wasn’t sure that you would see me.”
“Oh, I had to see the crazy man who walked to Tharsis City in a rad-suit during a major solar flare.”
“Crazy, am I?” said Luka.
She felt embarrassed at possibly offending him. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Did they tell you I hallucinated my dead wife and children out there?”
Julie nodded. The doctor treating Luka had told her to go easy on him. Mentally, as well as physically, he was still fragile. “It was understandable.”
“I knew, deep down, it wasn’t real. But if it hadn’t been for them, I don’t think I would have made it.”
“You nearly didn’t,” said Julie. “You were unconscious when they found you. They had to connect an oxygen line to your suit and give you CPR out on the planet’s surface.”
“How did they find me? I asked the doctors, but they said they don’t know.”
“You collapsed in full view of one of the outside cameras. Several people had their windows tuned to a live view of the Martian landscape from that side of the city. You were lucky they saw you and reported it. There was no one in the Oasis to see you banging against the transparent dome – it gets sealed off during a major solar event.”
“It must have given people a shock to have their pleasant window view interrupted by a desperate man.” He laughed at the thought. Then broke into a fit of coughing.
Julie reached over to a jug of water by his bed and filled the mug sitting next to it. She offered it to him as the coughing subsided and he took several small sips between wheezy breaths.
“Thank you,” he croaked. “One good thing about being in hospital – you get extra water rations.”
Julie smiled. At least he had maintained a sense of humor. “So, how are you? That cough doesn’t sound good.”
“There’s some damage from the hypoxia which I’m probably going to have to live with. But, I’m going to live, which is bonus. They don’t think there’s any brain damage, but they want to run some more tests. Obviously, I got an inadvisable dose of radiation, so I still feel sick all the time and the long term consequences of that are… best not dwelled upon.”
“Are they giving you the gene repair therapy?”
“I can’t afford that! I’m indentured labor, I have no money. Even if I was still in ThorGate’s good books, they don’t expend special treatment to their migrant workforce.”
“Maybe I can do something,” said Julie. “UNMI has resources the other corporations don’t have.”
“That would be amazing, but it’s not why I asked to see you.”
“I know that, but we can enroll you in a research program or something. I’m sure I can find some scientists determined to test how their therapy works on someone who went out for a walk during a major solar event.”
“Thank you.”
“So, why did you ask to see me? I’m assuming it has something to do with the reason the woman who runs ThorGate is demanding to have you extradited back to Thor Town.”
“Anita Andreassen wants me extradited? Can she do that?”
“I can oppose it, but ultimately it’s the Tharsis Republic’s decision. This is their city.”
“I can’t go back there, said Luka. “Not while she’s in charge.”
“What did she do to you?”
“It doesn’t matter what she did to me. It’s what she did to Gianni Lupo and how she betrayed ThorGate. I asked to see you because I think she knew the asteroid was going to destroy the research station and I think she sent Gianni there on that day to be killed. I also think – in fact, I know – she was behind the discovery of microbes in the aquifer where ThorGate was supposed to build Noctis City.”
Julie balked at the allegations. Perhaps he was crazy after all. “Why would she sabotage ThorGate’s own projects?”
“Because Ecoline promised her enough money to buy out her contract and return to Earth.”
Julie shook her head. “Those are some serious accusations. Do you have proof?”
Luka looked down his hands clutching the top of the bedsheet. “I had proof, but I transferred the messages from Ecoline to Anita to my personal account and I’ve been locked out of that. I imagine Erik has already seen to it that they are deleted. Permanently.”
“Erik?”
“A man I thought was a friend,” said Luka. “He’s probably gone through my room and destroyed Gianni’s diaries too.”
“Then…” Julie thought about what she was going to say. “What you have brought me is a series of – forgive me – rather farfetched allegations with no evidence. Spoken by a man who – and don’t take this the wrong way – recently suffered hypoxia, admits that he might have brain damage, and has been having visions of his dead family.”
What little color was left in Luka’s face drained away. “But you believe me, don’t you?”
Despite everything, Julie was starting to think that she did. With everything she had discovered during her investigation into the asteroid disaster, she could believe a lot of terrible things about a lot of people in power. Sometimes the simplest answer wasn’t always the right one. “It doesn’t matter whether I believe you, it’s what I can do with the information. Without evidence, there’s nothing I can do.”
“You said when we met at the construction habitat that you didn’t think the asteroid crash was an accident.”
“I said too much when we met at the construction habitat. I’d had somewhat of a bad day.”
“But it wasn’t an accident?” Luka pressed her.
“No,” said Julie. Even though she knew she shouldn’t be telling a virtual stranger after the threat that Rufus had made to her.
“Then we have to do something!” said Luka.
“Do what?”
“I don’t know… something. I didn’t drive across Mars and nearly die to let this go.”