by T. L Smith
Everett didn’t ask for details, the soldier’s statement enough to tell him it was not good. He followed the officer to a door at the side of the storage bay. He was hit by an immediate wave of nausea. Only intense training to not vomit in his life support suit, kept his stomach from turning inside out.
He moved to one table, forcing himself to take a closer look. This unfortunate creature was dead. What was probably a face gave him the impression it had been alive while eviscerated. Everett couldn’t help but remember the maw of the Punitraq and a shudder vibrated through his whole body. “Find something to cover these bodies.”
Everett stepped aside as the soldier came to the table, a thermal blanket from his emergency kit, giving this alien one last gesture of respect.
Everett moved over to a cylinder set up beside another table. His scanner got no reading as he leaned over the view port to look inside. He couldn’t see a face through what appeared to be blood smeared on the inside glass. Smeared, meaning the creature died inside the container.
Everett jabbed at his com for a line back to his ship. “Commander Gardner. Halt destruction of the other ships. We need more boarding parties. There’s possibly thousands of hostages aboard this ship, in self-sustaining stasis containers.” He tapped his scanner into the link. “Send teams to these same coordinates on the remaining ships and confirm. Huracid…” He tapped at his com to add a channel.
“Huracid…” He got a confirmation tone. “Prepare evacuation teams to start retrieving these cylinders and any of the equipment in their… vicinity.”
A privacy signal chirped in his ear and he grudgingly switched over. “This is Everett.”
Sharmila’s voice, cold and remote, sounded in his ear. “I did not approve you to lead the boarding party. Return to your post.”
“Too late and I don’t need approval.”
“Recovery is not the mission. You’ve identified them. They can wait until the…”
“Until the mission is over? Screw the mission and your single-minded vengeance. We came out here to save people, not turn our backs on them. God only knows how many we killed, not knowing they were aboard all the ships we destroyed. There’s not an EH here or there who will purposely leave them now.”
Everett switched her off before she could argue with him. His companion blocked her as she tried to compel him to reopen the line.
Everett returned to his link to Huracid and Gardner, using his helmet cam to show them the bodies, covered now. “Huracid, this appears to be the equipment to reverse stasis. Retrieve all the equipment you can, but be warned, this is an… autopsy room.”
“Orders received. Verify ships are clear of Puni, then send retrieval teams. Will leave support ships here to complete orders while the fleet continues with mission.”
Everett knew Huracid was playing peacekeeper between him and Sharmila, providing a compromise. “Confirmed. Give us another hour to finish our scans.” Everett still ignored Sharmila’s attempts to regain his attention.
Ignoring her hails pissed her off and gave him a perverse satisfaction. He knew Kali would enjoy it too. He turned to the officer with him in this torture chamber. “This and everything like it has to go with the stasis containers. We can’t return these people to their home worlds right now, but I want them alive when this is done.”
Everett felt support from his officers, relief something good would come from this gruesome discovery. “Contact me as soon as your groups have finished clearing this section. We don’t want to leave these monsters waiting, now do we?”
As much as he disapproved of Sharmila’s single-mindedness, this discovery reinforced the depravity of their enemy. He left the stasis chamber, gathered his guard and headed back to the cutting team. As he rejoined them, atmosphere started to seep from molten laser cuts. The chamber beyond had been pressurized, meaning there could be Puni on the other side.
By the time the last cuts were made, the flow was barely detectable. It took four men to shoulder the slab far enough to fall into the next room. Even in virtually no gravity, the chunk of metal vibrated as it hit the floor. Rifles at ready, companions shielding their hosts, the soldiers stormed the chamber.
The companions plunged their minds into the darkness the EH couldn’t see into, searching for enemies, but finding nothing. The scanners also returned no signals, only heavy interference from the equipment filling the center of the room. It hummed, still operational.
Everett turned his attention towards deciphering the device. He couldn’t tell the purpose, but it was in the most secure room they’d found so far. He walked around it, looking at symbols on what appeared to be control panels, five of them as he circled the base. He couldn’t decipher the writing, but Everett sensed a slight recognition from his companion.
In the center of each panel seemed to be hand print analyzers. He had the urge to reach out and touch one, but was strongly blocked by his Elder. He didn’t need to be told what he might set off by such an impulse. It couldn’t possibly be good.
Stepping backwards to get a broader view, Everett let his eyes follow conduits to more equipment along the walls, possible power supplies somewhere in the mess. This being the largest mystery they’d found aboard, Everett reopened his com line to Sharmila.
Her voice was just as cold as this ship was getting. He ignored it, reporting. “I think we’re done here. This equipment is still running, but we don’t know what it does and can’t read the panels, so I think we should just let it be for now.” He swung his video over the equipment and conduits around the room. “It might be their weapons center.”
It took a moment before Sharmila answered and Everett could sense her anger. “Leave it then. Proceed with securing the—" Sharmila’s voice rose. “Stop! Pan back, I saw som—"
Weapon fire burned the floor next to him. Everett dove sideways, but another beam caught his shoulder. He rolled as his team returned fire, then hands grabbed at the straps of his uniform and hauled him out into the corridor.
“Man down! Man down! Get the medic here. You, slap a pressure seal on his suit.” Orders were shouted around him. He ground his teeth at the searing, crushing pain.
Everett felt lightheaded as the burning pain quickly faded away. Oxygen loss. His thoughts jumbled. He imagined Kali’s panic. Kali… can’t hurt her… He reached out, but couldn’t feel her there.
CHAPTER FORTY
Sharmila saw a flicker near the ceiling of the room, shouting at Everett, but not soon enough. He was hit by enemy fire. She heard me screaming inside. My panic made it hard for her to speak, to issue orders. She forced me down again. “Locate the nearest hull breach or make one as close as you can to their location. Send a shuttle to get Col. Everett back here. Now! Commander—"
Gardner looked up from her station. “Primary, you are done here. Go to medical so you… so Kali can be there when they get the Colonel back here.”
Sharmila didn’t like being ordered, but I was fighting with everything I had. She hesitated, then moved towards the upper deck. “Let me know when they arrive.” She made it to the doors, losing the battle for control as I surged up from the hole she kept me in. She struggled to get each foot ahead of the other, not taking me to medical.
We barely made it into my quarters before she fell. “Kali, stop this!”
“This is your fault! I trusted you, over and over again, even when you shut me out. Everett shouldn’t have been there.” I pushed harder.
“I didn’t order him to go. I had no idea he joined the boarding party.” Sharmila pushed back, refusing to release control.
“You should have known, but you were too hungry for revenge. You’ve driven him away from me, but if I lose him, then you’ve put us all into danger. He’s my lifemate. I need him.” I clawed to untangle myself from Sharmila, searching for the talents Everett worked so hard to help me harness.
Sharmila struggled. She’d forgotten pain and what I did caused us both intense pain. Pain I released from the depths of my ancient hu
man soul.
I ignored the agony ripping through my head, through every muscle in my body. I had to drive her down. Her grip on me quivered and I twisted harder. Then I was free, finally. “No more!”
Sharmila shuddered as I broke through. “You can’t do this. You can’t fight the Punitraq.”
I took a deep breath, forcing my lungs open, my fingers felt the cool metal of the floor, my heart pounded in fear for Everett. I pushed myself up, staggering for only a second before I found my balance. “I can’t trust you anymore, with Everett’s life or the lives of my people.” I shook off the tension built up under Sharmila’s grip on my body and soul.
Free again, I shouted at her in total defiance. “If I need your help, I’ll let you out, but you won’t ever control me again.” I turned to the door, still feeling Sharmila resisting me. “Don’t fight me or I’ll cut you off completely, just like you did to me. Try me! I dare you. I have nothing else to lose.”
Sharmila backed down and I sensed her thoughts. She’d been confident in her control, but didn’t remember how strong mortal emotions were. I dug deep into her memories and found the protected memory of her lost lifemate. I forced her to remember her pain, the source of her anger towards Everett.
Bombarded by forgotten emotions, she let go. This was her fault. She’d violated a soul she didn’t own anymore.
I felt her surrender as I headed for the medical deck. I knew it had taken me more than a few minutes to wrestle control back from her. Enough time for them to retrieve Everett.
A med officer met me as the lift doors opened. He escorted me to the emergency surgical center. Not that I needed him. Back in possession of my talents, I was pulled to Everett. When I reached the surgical ward, a guard blocked the door. “Let me in!”
The guard looked at me, his face expressionless, but beneath emotions ran high. He’d been on the team, the man who pulled Everett to safety. He still wore his blood-stained EV suit. “Ma’am, they’ve already started surgery. They ordered me to keep you out.”
The med officer stepped between us, nodding his head down the corridor in one direction. “There is a surgical theatre, but I don’t recommend it, Ma’am.”
I could have forced them out of my way, but knew it would only make matters worse. Given no choice, I headed for the theatre. I had to climb a flight of stairs, entering a small dimly lit room. Several people already leaned over a viewing pane. I approached the railing.
Nothing prepared me for the sight of Everett laid out on the operating table. Doctors and nurses worked frantically, but I caught glimpses of his face. So pale. Blood pooled on the operating room floor, more blood than I’d ever seen. How much had he lost before they got him here? How much more could he lose? As a doctor stood up to reach for an instrument, the last of my breath was sucked out of me.
Little remained of Everett’s left shoulder. I saw no collar bone, no shoulder socket. Only skin connected his arm to his body. And there was so much blood. From where? I knew the answer. Lasers weapons usually cauterized wounds, unless hitting major arteries, or organs… not his heart… not his heart, please.
A hand on my arm made me jump. I’d been so distracted I didn’t sense the doctor next to me. He spoke softly, seriously. “The Colonel has lost a great deal of blood, but it could have been worse.”
I resisted huffing in disgust at the seemingly trivial comment.
“Either from shock, his companion, or both, the blood loss was minimalized. The damaged blood vessels went into vasoconstriction...”
“Vasocon…what?” I backed away from the viewing pane, unable to keep looking at Everett in this condition.
“Vasoconstriction. Under certain circumstances, like traumatic injury and shock, the walls of blood vessels constrict to prevent blood loss. However, the left subclavian artery, the artery supplying blood from his heart to the head and arms, was ruptured. That is where he suffered the worst blood loss and what we’re fighting to repair first, so we can restore full blood flow to his brain. Until then he is on by-pass.”
“You can fix him though, save his life?” I turned my full attention to the doctor, looking deeper than his words as he spoke, holding my hand up as I heard the answers he didn’t speak. I didn’t want to hear them said out loud. “Stop! Don’t give up on him. Do whatever it takes.” I stepped closer, staring into the doctor’s soul. “Save him!”
“Yes, Ma’am.” He turned and left the theatre. I forced my soul back to Everett, trying to sense him, but he was too deep under anesthesia, so I sought his Elder.
He was alert, still connected to his host, refusing to leave. He worked from the inside, trying to keep Everett stable while the doctors worked from the outside. If only my companion had such compassion. “Save him.”
I heard gasps from the people around me, looking up. The shimmering cloud the Elders allowed us to see was materializing in the operating room, high above Everett. The Elders. For a moment the memory of Carl being reclaimed rushed into my head, before I felt them gathering around me too. A calmness came with them.
Everett’s life depended on his companion and the Elders. They would lend him their strength. I clung to that hope, letting go of my strained contact with his Elder so he could focus completely on Everett. I let go of watching, my heart unable to take the sight.
Silently I slipped away, down the steps and to a patient room they’d prepared for me. Water and food had been set out. The hospital bed had extra blankets and pillows. After our battle, seeing Everett get shot, my internal struggle with Sharmila, followed by seeing him so wounded, I could barely hold myself up.
I curled up in the blankets, huddling under them as I fought the urge to completely break into a million pieces. If I broke, this war would be over, lost, and these Punitraq would flood into my own galaxy, doing to our people what they’d done to those aboard the enemy ship.
Everett had covered the bodies before opening the com line, but I’d seen his face through the helmet. It was terrifying and he’d not want that visited on anyone. EH, human or Collective. Everett wouldn’t want me to give up and let them win.
I climbed out of the bed, but hung onto the blankets around my shoulders. At the little desk I flipped through computer displays, listening to reports. Boarding parties had entered the other disabled ships, even engaged several more pockets of resistance, but took no chances. Gave no mercy. They used ionizing grenades, resulting in the total obliteration of any enemy barricaded in their hideouts.
Huracid’s teams started stasis container removal. Just as Everett believed, there were hostages on the other ships, though two ships had sustained such severe damage many containers were destroyed. Engineers already dug into the guts of destroyed containers to determine the energy sources and operations. Even if we couldn’t revive the surviving captives immediately, we’d keep them alive until we could.
Working kept me busy, but I still watched time slip away with no reports from the doctors. When I finally thought I would lose my mind, the door opened and two doctors entered. I jumped up, holding tight to the blankets around my shoulders. Dread told me not to look into their minds, but I couldn’t help myself.
The truth surged through to me. “He’s alive!”
“Yes, he survived surgery. Brain scans indicate no serious damage, but we won’t know for certain until he wakes up. As for his arm, we have a lot of reconstruction surgery to do.” The doctor from the theatre turned to the woman next to him. “Dr. Arroza?”
She came across the room and around the table. She was older and after so many hours on her feet, looked tired, but she took my hands. “I’ll take you to him, then we’ll talk.
Her confidence gripped me tighter than words. “Yes, please. I can’t stand another minute in here.” I clung to her, to her empathy, as she led me out into the corridor. I didn’t care about showing weakness. This was Everett.
She led me to a prep room outside of ICU. “Scrub up. Put on a gown and gloves, for his safety. With the extent of injuries, we
had to leave the wound open. He needs more surgery, but we can only do so much at a time. His system needs time to stabilize. Another day, maybe two. In the meantime we’re working on skin patches.”
“Doctor, you can stuff me in a bio-suit if that’s what it takes to be with him.” I didn’t hesitate, going to the sink and letting the dispenser spray lather over my hands. A tech helped us into gowns and the doctor led me into the next hospital room.
Nurses bustled around a bed as they set up equipment to monitor their patient. The doctor cleared her throat and most of the nurses left, the remaining ones moved aside. I approached the bed cautiously, wanting to rush and wrap my arms around him, but I could see what the doctor meant by an open wound. I stopped a foot from the bed, afraid to even jar him slightly.
The wound wasn’t actually open, but filled with an opaque gel and covered with clear artificial skin. I had expected burnt flesh, but they’d cut it away, leaving red, raw tissue. Tubes ran into his shoulder, into his limp arm and into his chest.
Wanting to be closer, I moved to the right side of the bed. I reached out to rest my fingers gently on his cheek. He felt cold. “I’m here. I’m so sorry. I should have fought her harder. This would never have happened if I were in control, so you better get well, so I can make it up to you.” I looked up at the doctor. “He can hear me, right?”
She nodded, her voice low as she spoke. “We have him in an induced coma so he doesn’t move, but he can hear what is said...” Her tone turned to a warning. “…especially EH. Be positive. I advise against blaming yourself, as it might disturb him.” She gave the nurses a dismissing nod. “We’re going to give you a little time alone, but only ten minutes. When you’re done, a nurse will bring you to my office and we’ll go over the treatment phase.”
“Thank you!” I waited as the nurses left. Even though I wore gloves, I slipped my hand into his. If he could hear, he might be able to feel me too. I didn’t reach out to him. His Elder was still struggling to help him from within. I couldn’t interfere.