Jungle (Colony Book 2), page 35
“Well …” Kombes said, her voice breaking the silence. “This does explain a few things I’d wondered about. I’ll admit, I was starting to worry you were going to be one of those unstable, disaffected gun-for-hire types.”
“Sanctuary Raiders didn’t approve of that kind of killer,” Anna said, her voice flat. “Not when we joined, anyway.”
“Well, you’re not that type,” Kombes responded. “Instead, you’re full of anger, but for entirely legitimate reasons. Your family was threatened, the team you were responsible for torn apart in front of you. To add insult to injury, the guilty party damaged your armor, so you threw yourself into it as a method of dealing with your anger, as well as repairing some of what was taken from you.”
“I thought you said you weren’t here to psychoanalyze me.”
“And I said I was building a basic psychological profile,” Kombes replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “Though I’ll admit that this has gone much deeper than I expected. And with some unsettling revelations about our employer,” she added quickly, shaking her head as a shiver ran through her. “Still, don’t think that I find it reflecting poorly on you.”
“It doesn’t?” Anna asked, her eyes flicking to the warped table edges and back.
“Well, perhaps that brief moment,” Kombes admitted. “So you may have some slight aggressive anger issues. Your record suggested as much. It did note a number of disciplinary confrontations with your superiors over the years. However,” she continued as Anna opened her mouth. “Those were vocal alterations. Not physical. With one or two exceptions.”
“They threw the first punch,” Anna said automatically, her eyes still fixed on the reflective visor. Her face was a dark blob on the grey finish.
“Your record actually did note that,” Kombes said, smiling once more. “It also said you’d point that out immediately if asked. But I have to be honest, aggressive tendencies aside, and for the moment not addressing how you got here, my opinion of you so far isn’t a negative one.”
“Really?” Anna asked, her eyes snapping back to the doctor.
“No,” Kombes continued. “I think that you are aggressive—your little shouting match at Karabou and Johan the other day made that clear, as well as memorable—but you’re also protective. You take your job to protect those around you seriously. You’re bothered and upset that someone threatened your family, yes, but you’re also upset that you weren’t able to protect the third member of your team. You responded by throwing yourself into fixing your armor, not just because it’s yours, I feel, but also because you feel it will help aid you in continuing to do your job going forward. You’re angry, and with good reason, but you’re responding to that anger by trying even harder.” She leaned back. “Which, if that makes sense, means that you’re exactly the kind of person we’d want protecting this expedition in the event something went wrong. A little rough around the edges? Sure.”
“They’re killing edges,” Anna said almost by reflex. “And they’ve seen a lot of use.”
“And I do understand that,” Kombes said, a solemn expression on her face. “But, in looking at your record, those edges also seem fairly nuanced in the directions they face. Away from those that they’re supposed to protect, and towards those that would do harm to their charge.”
“In other words, Anna,” Kombes continued. “You’re exactly the kind of individual I would trust to do your part in keeping this expedition safe. You’re aggressive, skilled, and dangerous, and you put all of that skill, talent, and capability towards doing your job. And right now your job is defending this expedition. I don’t know if we’ll actually need all the energy that you’re clearly putting forth in it …” There was a telling look at the plastic-strewn floor around them. “But at the same time, I won’t be the one to speak against such energy.”
Anna thought for a moment as the doctor went silent. “So then …” she ventured. “I’m good?”
“Not ‘good,’” Kombes said. “Not exactly. You’re certainly suffering from a great deal of stress, and unless I miss my guess a lack of sleep as well, neither of which I really blame you for, though as the team doctor I would advise you to remedy at least one of those if possible, both if you can. But that aside, you do seem capable of doing your job with regards to this mission. I’ll admit I had some worry after you failed to appear over the last few days, but Tames trusts you.”
Yeah, Anna thought, an image of Jake flitting through her mind. He does. And I’ve spent the last six days fixing my armor while he’s gone ahead and handled everything else.
He would, she thought, lifting her helmet in her hand. And maybe it’s time I did too.
“So … sleep?” she said, cocking one eyebrow as she looked at Kombes.
“Sleep would be a good start, yes,” the woman replied. “And perhaps a little more tact when dealing with other members of the expedition. I know that you’re military, but many of them aren’t. They’re used to far less strict engagements and interactions.”
Anna nodded, then flipped her helmet in one hand, gripping at the collar with her other. “Any other observations?”
“Don’t tear yourself up over something you have no control over,” Kombes said. “Don’t forget it, but don’t let it destroy you, either.”
“That almost sounded like a fortune cookie,” Anna said, before flipping the helmet down over her face. There was a muffled response from Kombes, but the helmet blocked it well enough that it was indistinct. The bottom seam sealed automatically, skinsuit going tight against her neck, and then there was a brief pause as, connections made, the suit attempted to come to life.
It took longer than it should have. She could see Kombes patiently waiting through her visor, but as her HUD began to come to life around her, the suit powering up, it was clear that there were definite issues arising already, even in low-power mode. On her display, several warning lights were flashing, though thankfully none of them urgent. Well, not unless the one claiming that she was missing her right leg at the hip was accurate.
Bad connection, she thought, making a quick mental list of the locations where the signal could be being lost. She opened her mouth. “Sorry about that … can you hear me? You were saying?” Kombes mouth opened and closed, but Anna couldn’t hear a word of it.
“Right,” she said, holding up finger. “Hold on.” Control suite, control suite … there! A piercing whine filled the inside of her suit and she jerked her hand back, silencing the noise.
Right. Maybe that isn’t working right. She lifted her opposite hand to the side of her head again, and this time the suit registered her action.
“—okay?” Kombes was asking.
“Yeah,” Anna said as she heard the woman’s voice. “Calibration problems.” She lifted her left hand. “Something’s not coming in right when I use my left hand. You were saying?”
“Oh, I—um—Oh, right. That I’d borrowed it off an image post someone left on my feed once,” Kombes finished. “A little overdone, perhaps, but fitting advice all the same from time to time.”
“Well, if it’s all the same to you, could we talk about something else for a while?” Anna asked. “No offense, but between you being so direct about it and the last few days—”
“No, no, that’s fine,” Kombes said quickly. “I can even leave if you need to get back to work—” She started to rise, but Anna waved a hand at her, noting as she did that a warning on her hud flashed into existence before fading.
“Relax,” she said as Kombes sat back down. “We can still talk. I’d just rather focus on something else for a bit.”
“Did you have a topic in mind?” Kombes asked.
“Actually, yes,” Anna said, mirroring the hand wave in slow motion and noting when the alert popped up once again. “Checking a fault,” she said as Kombes gave her a confused look, twisting her arm for emphasis and watching as the alert came and went. “You’ve been on a lot of these expeditions, right?”
“Thirty-seven. Why?”
“In your opinion, then, what’s the actual functional effect of the security team? I’ve been reading over the manuals for it and there’s a lot in there that I’ve been noting, but since I’ve never actually been on an assignment like this, I’m not sure if my inclinations to adjust everything are aimed in the right direction or not.”
Kombes sat for a moment, her brow furrowed and her lips pressed together, a cascade of emotions running across her face. Finally, she spoke. “At their most basic, the standard security functions do well enough for the most part. Keep in mind that I’m fairly certain not all of them are supposed to be used at any one time, but rather mixed and matched based on the security team’s assessment of the surrounding environment.”
“And are those standard precautions usually enough?” Anna asked, still rotating her hand and watching as the connection alert flashed and faded several times. Antebrazo, she thought, eyeing the offending plate.
“It depends on the world,” Kombes said. “Certainly I’ve been to a few were they were not.” Anna cocked her head, and she continued. “Hibil. It was a small, low-g world with some aggressively territorial, nocturnal predators. Our security officer put up electric fences, but assumed that would keep them out. Didn’t realize how high they could jump until they’d already cleared the fence and attacked one of our biologists. They lived, but they spent the rest of the mission in quarantine while their wounds healed. Turned out there was a particularly vicious venom in the creature’s bites as well that caused delayed-action seizures.
“So in other words,” Anna said, nodding and lowering her arm. “It’s about as variable as anything else, but it’s letting your guard down that gets someone hurt.” Err on the safe side, then. “What about the team members?”
“What about them?”
“How do they handle security procedures? On average, anyway?”
“Are you referring to things like the fence? Or …?”
“Sort of,” Anna said, her chair creaking under her as she shifted and leaned forward. “Both, really. How do most teams feel about the usual security procedures, and how do they feel about them when they directly affect them? In addition, how do they tend to react when those procedures are modified?”
Again Kombes leaned back, a thoughtful look on her face. “Well, for the most part, they’ll grumble about standard security procedure—the basic stuff that everyone has to follow, like wearing environmental suits and the decontamination locks—but they all understand why we need it. You start putting up fences and they’ll grumble a little more, and some of them might gripe a bit louder. If you start really changing stuff, going all out, they’ll really start to let you know they don’t agree with it.”
“Let me guess,” Anna said, twisting her shoulder as she checked for more bad connections. “They complain about it right up until something goes wrong.”
Kombes gave her head a strange, nodding shake that almost made her look like one of the wobbly-headed dashboard mascots Anna could recall some of the pilots in the Raiders having in their cockpits. “Pretty much,” the doctor said.
“Sounds about right,” Anna said, filing the woman’s motion away as a form of eye-roll. Probably picked up from a colony world. “Same as any security force, really. No one wants you there until they actually need you, then they don’t want you anywhere else.” She shifted her shoulder once more. All good there. “What about this group in particular?”
“Ones who’ll go along and ones who will complain?”
Anna nodded.
“Well,” Kombes said. “Unless you do something particularly drastic, you can count on support from myself and Commander Ikeda. Both of us are seasoned and experienced enough to know that when a security officer makes a decision, it’s usually for a good reason. We may ask for justification, but we’ll go along with it regardless.”
“Silva has been on a number of expeditions,” the doctor continued. “Not as many as myself, but a fair number all the same. In addition, he’s well respected, and my experience with him before has led me to believe that he’s level headed, if a little obstinate at times. If you make a decision that he agrees with, he’ll accept it without complaint, but if he does question it, he’ll likely request an explanation at the earliest opportunity—in the moment if he deems it so.”
“Old and set in his ways?” Anna asked.
“To a degree that does describe him, yes.”
“All right. What about the rest of the group?”
Kombes let out a sigh. “Well, they’re a mixed bag, honestly. Of all of them, the two that come to mind as most worrisome are Price and Morel.”
“Price is Johan, right? The energetic little solicitor?”
“I won’t comment on whether or not that description is accurate, but yes, Johan Price,” Kombes said, shifting in her seat and crossing her legs. “The man’s record paints a clear picture of how he ended up on this expedition.”
“Let me guess,” Anna said, Johan’s smiling face popping into her mind. It was a unique smile, the kind that made her want to reach out and slap it off of him. “The kind of guy who would dance around in front of a sniper daring them to shoot him?”
“That’s one way you could put it, yes,” Kombes said, a somewhat shocked smile breaking across her face at the expression. “His record—and my personal experience with him aboard this ship, I might add—shows that he’s highly confrontational and often speaks and acts without thinking, based on his own position. Like when he and Botha propositioned you to join them for sex. I find it hard to believe that anyone with a reasonable ounce of sense would have considered you the most likely prospect for such an offer. That’s a comment on your vocation, by the way, not your looks, which were likely the root of that pair’s logic.”
“Thanks. He’s probably watched too many movies,” Anna said, rolling her eyes. “So, hotheaded, huh?”
“No … I wouldn’t use those words,” Kombes said with a shake of her head. “More … opinionated and headstrong. He fought his superiors on a regular basis, and quite frankly I’m almost surprised he didn’t end up on one of these expeditions before now.”
“In any case,” she continued, “I expect that any decision you make, regardless of how appropriate it is, will be challenged by him if he finds reason to disagree with it.”
“My response may vary based upon the severity of the situation,” Anna said, smirking inside her helmet.
“Which is probably your best possible choice,” Kombes said, inclining her head slightly. “Though I would not advise letting him have too much free movement early on. If he challenges you baselessly, don’t let him dig into it. It’ll only make him more obstinate later.” Then she shrugged. “Then again, maybe he’s one of those individuals who talks big but clams up and does their job when the pressure is on.”
“What about the woman he’s sleeping with?” Anna asked. “Bothan?”
“Botha,” the doctor corrected. “Karabou Botha. And I wouldn’t call it sleeping. Not from what I’ve heard. But no, actually, I don’t think she’ll take issue with any security measures.”
“Really? Despite her and Johan spending so much time together?”
“I’m fairly certain that’s a relationship of convenience, not mutual interest,” Kombes said. “No, I don’t, and my reasoning is fairly simple: Botha is a zoologist with in-field experience. She’s well aware how dangerous wildlife, however indigenous, can be.”
“Are you sure?” Anna asked.
“Positive,” Kombes replied. “Mostly because I happened to overhear her the other day discussing personal defense options with your partner. She’s had …” A momentary cloud crossed Kombes’ features. “—a few close calls before,” she finished, looking back at Anna. “She’s no stranger to the dangers of wild, untamed life.”
“Good to know,” Anna said, making a mental note. Sounds like a good prospect for weapons training if she’s open for it. “And Morel? He’s the one who’s recently divorced, right? Jake told me,” she added when she saw Kombes’ questioning look.
The woman mouthed a silent “Aah,” and then spoke. “Yes, Louis Morel, the microbiologist. And yes, recently divorced, though I’m sure he’d rather you not speak about that. Tames should have kept quiet.”
“You can trust him,” Anna said. “He told me because he trusts me, and it was something he felt I needed to know.” She twisted once more but there was no sign from her hud. Apparently she’d reached the end of the simple stuff. Three faults.
“I suppose that is correct; you are both security officials, after all.” For a moment, Kombes paused, a thoughtful look on her face. “In any case, his divorce is the reason I would keep a close eye on him.”
“Shook him up?”
Kombes nodded quickly. “Badly. He’s teetering on the edge of depression, or perhaps a breakdown. I think the only reason he made it past the medical overview was because he had a psychological review already on file, from before the divorce finalized, and no one cared enough to do it a second time.”
“You think he’ll dispute anything?”
Kombes shook her head. “It’s hard to say. He’s distraught, and a little lonely. Johan seems to have gravitated to him, but I think that’s more because he puts up with Johan more than anything else. He’s also a bit of a hypochondriac, so I expect that in his normal state of mind, he’ll accept just about anything you or Tames say is in his best interest.”
“But when he’s not …” Anna said, drawing out the last word. Kombes nodded.
“When he’s not,” she said, “there’s no telling what he might think. He might think you’re coddling him, or pressuring him. I really don’t know, since he refuses to talk about what the cause of his divorce was, at least at the moment. It’s also possible he might just sink into the mire and decide to do something drastic.”
“Got it. PDS for Morel,” Anna said.
“I’ll let you know if something changes, but for now, yes,” Kombes said. “Just … keep an eye on him if you’re watching him. I don’t want him to do something foolish like remove his helmet, either, and suck in a lungful of toxic microbes. He’s a hypochondriac, so the chances are against it, but the mind does funny things when it’s grieving.”
