Page 14 of The Red Woman on Mars

Before doing anything else, Vivian stopped by the dining room console to check her messages. Nothing. On the transport ship, they’d had almost no communication access. But it had now been five days since she’d landed and sent messages to her parents and Evie. She should have heard something by now.

In the bathroom, Vivian slipped off the soft, silken robe the artificial clothier had provided her, and stepped into the shower’s warm cascade of water. She tried to let her worry for her parents and Evie run down the drain as she took the time to wash every inch of her body with a peppermint body wash dispensed from the wall and massage her scalp with a lavender shampoo. After nine months of sonic showers aboard the ship, she reveled in the sheer sensual joy of real hot water moving down her body.

After the shower, Vivian slipped the robe back on her clean skin and ducked her head under the built-in artificial styler. In amatter of minutes, the styler dried her long chestnut hair and gave it a soft curl. Vivian stepped back into her bedroom and dressed in a pale-yellow day dress with a sky-blue ribbon that gave her an unexpected wave of homesickness. The pinkish-red Martian sky, visible through the dome, served as a daily reminder that she was a stranger here.

She ran one hand through her silken hair and breathed in the scent of lavender, allowing herself a moment of pure indulgent bliss at the sensation of being clean, sweet smelling, and well dressed. Mars might still feel strange, but her new life came with benefits she was learning to appreciate.

Vivian turned to look at Delilah, who hadn’t moved from her position curled on her side on the bed. Was her sister going to sleep all day?

“Delilah, wake up you sleepyhead.” She snatched the covers off of Delilah’s form.

Her sister moaned in response and grasped feebly for the blanket. Her pale face dripped with sweat.

Vivian’s stomach plummeted. Sticking her head out the door, she shouted, “Luz! I need you.” Without waiting for a response, she hurried back to kneel by her sister’s bed. Vivian carefully tucked the blanket around Delilah’s body and laid a hand against her brow. “You’re hot.”

“The room is spinning,” Delilah whispered. “Viv, I feel strange.”

Concealing her own terror, Vivian pushed the hair back from Delilah’s clammy forehead and murmured, “Shh, shh.”

Luz stuck her head in. “Shit. I’ll make a call.”

Vivian waited, holding Delilah’s hand as her sister panted and whimpered in turn. Memories of the illnesses that had swept the camp passed through her mind. At the camp, if Delilah had been in this state, Vivian would be bracing herself for the possibility of her sister’s death. Would it be different here?

Finally, Luz returned with Camille and Felicia beside her. Camille knelt in front of Delilah and pressed a cool cloth to her forehead. “My mom’s a nurse. Or she was. Before.” She turned over Delilah’s arms and then pulled up her nightgown to expose her legs and belly. “No rash. Probably not measles.” Delilah barely stirred, her eyes closed.

“We were vaccinated,” Vivian whispered. “Before we got on the ship.”

“For TB too?”

“I think so.” Vivian swallowed. “How do we know what clinic we can afford here? Even if we pool all of our allowances from Wim, it won’t be enough.”

“Don’t worry about that.” Luz gestured to the door, where Caspian Hayes stood, chest heaving as if he’d run from the front gate. He crossed the room in two strides and crouched at Delilah’s side.

Vivian moved out of his way and went to Luz in the doorway. “I thought you were calling Dr. Chavez!” she hissed. “Tell me you did not contact Caspian of all people?”

“Of course I did,” Luz murmured in her ear. “You saw he owns a hospital, yes? We might as well allow some good to come of this. If he isn’t as kind and thoughtful as he seems, better to find out now. And if he is, Delilah will have demonstrated sheneedshim. Men eat that shit up.”

Caspian took Delilah’s limp hand in his. “How long has she been this way?”

“She was fine yesterday evening,” Vivian said. “Is it the fertility treatments? We’ve only been taking them a few days.”

Caspian shook his head. “I’m not privy to the breakthrough in reproductive medicine the Intelligence has shared with Dr. Chavez, but I recognize these symptoms—a form of kinetosis caused when a new arrival has an incompatibility with Martian gravity.” His normally affable expression was gone, replaced by apale, pinched mouth and creased eyebrows. “You must allow me to treat Delilah in my hospital. At once.”

Vivian hesitated. “We can’t afford that.”

Caspian jerked his head back. “Our hospital does not charge for its services.”

Vivian had expected him to offer to cover the cost, not that there was no cost at all. At Sumter, any illness meant an agonizing scramble for sufficient funds for a medic visit and hours—or perhaps days—camped outside the clinic waiting to be seen.

“Please,” Caspian continued. “Let me care for your sister. She will be safe at the hospital and well-treated. We need to leave.Now.”

Vivian exchanged a glance with the other women. “Fine. But I’m coming with you.”

Caspian nodded in relief and hurried outside. Vivian watched him through the window speaking rapidly to one of his men. With astonishing speed, two Earther men entered their dormitory and moved Delilah onto a stretcher, and Luz helped Vivian scramble together an overnight duffel.

“Don’t forget this.” Camille pressed two bags of hormone treatments into her hand.

“I hardly think that matters now,” Vivian objected.