X-Seven Trilogy/10

They depart the Lezaro and Scully sets a good pace along the paths to her house. They walk through a simulated night with unnaturally brilliant stars painted on the simulated sky. At the walkway leading to the entry to Scully's house, Rupert hesitates and stops. "Dana, I'll see you at your lab in the morning."

Dana is surprised that Rupert wants to take off. "You do not want to see this through?"

Rupert says, "I trust you to do what's right, Dana." He turns and departs.

Scully turns and places her palm on the door to open it. Suddenly Roberta shrieks like a child and Scully turns her head just in time to see a chunk of Gary's cheek ripped off his face. Gary leaps over the hedge that runs in front of the entry door to the stair well that leads down to Scully's house. Scully realizes that rather than go home, Rupert had followed them. He is in the bushes across the walkway where it bends around the end of the hedge. In the low light Scully sees a flash from the space between Rupert's two pointing fingers as he takes another shot at Gary. Suddenly Rupert topples over into the bushes. Scully runs to Rupert and searches him for a wound.

Gary approaches, takes one of Rupert's hands and throws the limp body over his shoulder. In the low gravity, Gary has no trouble carrying Rupert down the stairs into Scully's house. Gary dumps Rupert's body at the foot of the stairs. Scully checks Rupert’s pulse and respiration then opens the second door at the bottom of the stairway and in the higher light can see blood in two places on Gary's chest. She leads him to a chair and takes his shirt off, revealing two of the crystal projectile wounds. With Roberta's and her household medical robot's help, Scully spends the next ten minutes bandaging Gary's wounds. She gets into an argument with the robot, "He needs surgery on that cheek."

The Robot says, "Trust me Dana, that medicated bandage we put on it will take care of everything."

With the blood flow stopped, Dana is able to think and remember what she has read of Lunar emergency medicine. "Nanosurgery?"

The robot nods. "Exactly. That bandage contains a nanodevice that will repair and rebuild the damaged tissue. There will not even be a scar."

Scully slumps into a chair and looks around, pleased that there is no sign of the Mulder robot. She asks Gary, "So why are you still conscious?"

Gary replies, "Rupert's drugs have no effect on me. There is a simple antidote and my nanodevice implants can synthesize it."

"What did you do to Rupert?"

"He will sleep for a while." Gary gets up and goes and retrieves Rupert, brings him in and lays him on a sofa. "When he wakes up, we will be gone."

Scully is not sure if Gary's "we" includes her. Dana notices Roberta staring at her. "Are you having second thoughts about trusting Gary?"

Roberta laughs nervously, "I've always had doubts about Gary, but I have no choice. As far as I know, I have to trust Gary if I am going to get home."

Gary sighs. "What good does it do for me to offer my assurances? If either of you do not trust me, just stay here. You can continue to deal with Rupert and his brothers."

Scully wants to keep Gary talking, give him a chance to spill some information. "You never said if you work with your brothers."

Gary stops hovering over Rupert's body and sits down, grimacing with the pain of his wounds. "My brothers and sisters lead their own lives. We were created out of love, not as tools."

Dana is intrigued, "Sisters?"

Gary explains, "Where I come from it is traditional to produce a male zygote, let it divide three times, split the embryo into eight cells, and engineer 4 of them to be female. Instant family, four boys and four girls."

Roberta says to Dana, "Is that weird or what?"

Scully asks Roberta, "Are you really ready to go to Earth?"

She leans back in her soft chair, "I'm just waiting for you to say if you want off this dead rock or not, honey."

Scully somehow feels a new bond with Gary and Roberta. She knows she should not trust her feeling for people that she has been under fire with, but since when has anyone had control over their emotions. Gary jumps to his feet and says, "Come on Roberta, this is not right. Let Dana, sleep on it. This is a big decision and there is no rush. I'll run you down to Earth and with luck Scully will join you tomorrow."

Roberta slowly gets to her feet and goes with Gary to the door. Scully decides that they are really just going to leave. She gets up and goes with them. "Okay, let's go. I'm ready." Roberta gives Dana an enthusiastic hug.

Without any further discussion, they go out the front door. Scully looks back at Rupert and sees the house robot placing a blanket over him. She closes the door and they go down another flight of stairs to the transport tube. The tube cars zip them out of the city. After a longer tube ride than Scully thought possible in the tube system, they pop out in a well lit chamber containing what looks like a Black Hawk helicopter.

Gary opens the door of the helicopter and they climb in. Scully immediately notices that they are not in a helicopter. The interior of the ship is roomy and exquisitely well appointed. By the time Scully turns to look out the window, she can see stars and the receding surface of the Moon.