Fever [Sunsinger Chronicles Book 5]

by Michelle Levigne

  Bain noticed that and wondered why. Was Juhan afraid of Lin, or afraid he would give her an illness if he got too close?

  “Nine days ago, we had a firestorm. Somewhere between a hurricane and a triple?strength lightening storm. Our power lines are shielded, but we were still getting short?circuits.” Juhan shook his head, as if he still couldn't believe the strength of the storm. “Then, when we thought it was safe to come outside again, we had a meteor shower. Fortunately, none of our buildings were hit. That would have set us back more than losing power for a few hours at a time."

  “The plague bombs came down in the meteor shower?” Bain guessed.

  “I don't know what you mean by plague bombs. All we know is that it got hot the next day, like it usually does after big storms around here, and the children went swimming like usual, and they found meteors in the river. When they came home, they started getting sick."

  “Meteors in the river,” Lin echoed. “Where? Did anyone go to examine them?"

  “We've been too busy tending the sick and protecting the healthy."

  “And ever since then, you've had a Mashrami plague bomb sitting in your river, polluting it. You take all your drinking and washing water from the river, don't you?"

  “It goes through a stringent filtration and purification system before we use it."

  “I wonder how effective it really is. Anyon showed me how to perform the tests, if anything happened to him.” She stood and headed toward the sanitary chambers.

  “Captain, what do you think you're doing?” Juhan hurried to intercept her, blocking the way bodily, his arms and legs spread.

  It didn't work. Lin simply moved on to the next of the three alcoves. When Juhan tried to slide between her and the next one, she scurried around him and ran to the food processing station. Before he could catch up with her, Lin had turned on a faucet and ran water into a sample tube she took from the pocket of her jacket.

  Bain nearly laughed aloud when he realized that Lin had been planning on taking samples even before she heard about the meteor in the river.

  “Captain, you really can't—"

  “What are you trying to hide?” Lin turned sharply, coming nearly nose?to?nose with the red?faced, panicking man. “Anyone with a sudden, inexplicable illness on their hands would welcome any help that was offered. You people act like you're being invaded, and we have to nearly beg you to take our help. What are you hiding?"

  “Hiding?” Juhan stepped back and hid his hands behind his back, as if the answers were written on them.

  “What don't you want us to discover in the water? Are you breaking ecological laws? Poisoning the environment for the sake of profit?"

  “Never!” Momentary anger replaced his nervousness and visible fear.

  “Maybe there was no plague bomb after all, and that's why you didn't want our help? You didn't want us to find out you brought the sickness on yourselves."

  “Take the water and test it, Captain Fieran. You'll find out we didn't do anything to it.” Juhan pulled himself up to his full height and glared into Lin's eyes. Huffing, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the room.

  Silence. Bain held his breath, listening for the fading echoes of the man's footsteps. Before they had completely vanished, though, Lin let out a long breath and then chuckled softly a few seconds.

  “Why beg when you can growl?” she said, and winked at Bain.

  “You didn't think they were doing anything wrong at all, did you?” Bain said. He clamped both hands over his mouth to keep from laughing.

  “He was too scared and worried to think clearly. If you get someone mad, sometimes they start thinking again. It was a matter of pride to him to prove none of this was their fault.” Lin filled two more sample tubes with water and handed all three to Bain. “You're better equipped for secure handling, I think. Let's go."

  “Shouldn't one of us stay here?” he blurted as he hurried to follow her.

  “You want to stay down here all alone? You're a braver man than me, that's for certain.” She shuddered and picked up her pace.

  Bain decided not to point out that Lin wasn't a man at all. She was in one of those moods, using teasing and gruffness to fight her own fear. He understood completely how she felt.

  * * *

  Chapter Six

  Half an hour later, they were back underground. Lin pounded on the double doors and braced herself, holding her breath, eyes closed as the disinfectant spray gushed down in a thickening cloud on her and Bain. Before the hissing had quite stopped, she tapped Bain on the shoulder. He opened his eyes, wincing at the slight stinging in them, and hurried to follow her.

  Now, the sickroom was fully revealed.

  Bain's first impression was that it had been planned for storage, not people. There was no black plastic coating on the stone floor. Shelves lined the walls nearly to the shadowed ceiling.

  The shelves had been converted into beds, with a mattress and blankets and netting across the opening to keep the sick from falling to the ground, sometimes four meters down. Cots in rows filled the wide floor, ten wide, and six deep, head to foot. All of them were filled. Bain felt a moment of dizzy panic, and turned to stare at the shelf beds. Only a few were occupied.

  Then he saw the tables at the far end of the room, covered with cloth?draped objects. It didn't take much imagination to realize those were bodies under the cloths. Six bodies. Even as he watched, two men came in through one of the four doorways at the end of the room, picked up a body, and carried it out. The men wore breather masks and long gloves tucked over the ends of their coats.

  “Pretty pitiful, isn't it?” Dr. Anyon said, stepping out of the shadows to join them. He gestured at the men and the body as they vanished through the door. “Those people have died just since we got here."

  “How many more sick have joined the group?” Lin asked in a quiet, emotionless voice.

  “I haven't been told yet. I do know there was no one in the shelves when I came in."

  “Stop them bathing and drinking or you'll have even more."

  “The water is the source?” He stared at Lin for two seconds, then shifted his gaze to Bain, as if the boy could give him a better answer.

  “According to Council member Juhan, a meteor fell into the river where the children swim, and everybody started falling ill immediately after discovering it.” Lin dug in her pocket and brought out the computer printout from the diagnostic unit. “It's a pretty tough version of the plagues, to survive the purification system. I'm no scientist, but I have this awful feeling the Mashrami designed something specifically to react to water."

  “It makes sense,” Dr. Anyon said on a sigh. “Can we modify the water purification system to kill it?"

  “Took me three tries and almost used up all the samples, but we can."

  “Good. If you two can get started—"

  “We already unloaded all the equipment Ganfer says we'll need,” Lin broke in. “We just need to know where to install it."

  “Leave that to me.” He smiled at them; a tired expression, but Bain felt better seeing it wipe away the worry that cut new, dark lines around the doctor's eyes and mouth.

  * * * *

  Six men wearing protective clothing—breather masks, hoods, gloves and boots that sealed to their pants just above the knees—met Lin and Bain at the ship. They brought carts and took the equipment down to the water purification plant at the edge of the river.

  The same equipment that had carved the smooth, straight walls of the tunnels had carved out a reservoir at the side of the river. Water spilled from the river shallows into the deep trench in the rock where a thick hose sucked it up and deposited it into the reservoir. From there, it went through a series of filters and chemical analysis stages, then was treated, filtered again, and pumped into another tunnel that led to the reservoir underneath the colony. From there, the water lines ran to individual homes and facilities.

  Bain looked at the diagrams one of the men had spread out on the dam
p rock at the edge of the reservoir, and wondered why the colonists bothered to live aboveground at all. It seemed to him that at least three?quarters of the colony was underground.

  “That's ridiculous,” one of the men said, when Bain mentioned his observation. “Why would anyone want to live underground?” He grinned, and then chuckled, as if he thought the boy had made a joke.

  “But—"

  “All that darkness and quiet underground, it's easy to misjudge distances. Those tunnels and rooms under the square aren't nearly half as big as they seem.” The man's voice sounded a little too jolly.

  Bain thought about Juhan, when Lin had accused him of hiding something. His eyes had gotten wide and his face had lost a little color, just like this man here. Bain personally thought the shadows underground hid most of the vastness of the rooms, but he kept silent. They were all too busy installing the new equipment into the purification system and setting the dosage of the medicine to waste time arguing.

  He mentioned it to Lin, though, when they went back to Sunsinger by themselves to put the tools away.

  “I heard some of that, but I didn't know what you two were talking about.” She nodded, pursing her lips as she thought. “Very observant, apprentice. We'll make a stealth spy out of you yet."

  “Lin.... “Bain felt his face heat up. The idea of being a stealth spy for the Commonwealth did sound fascinating, but he just couldn't see himself doing it.

  “Come on. We've earned a quiet dinner before we head back down below.” She stood up and nudged the equipment bin closed. “Did you notice something, though? Except for the sick, the few moments we were in the hospital room, we haven't seen any children."

  “Oh. Where are they keeping them?"

  “That's what I'd like to know.” She circled around the control panel and headed for the galley. “Ganfer, can you boost your sensors to get through all that rock?"

  “It would be better if I were closer to the area being scanned,” the ship?brain responded.

  “Is that a yes or no?"

  “Distance reduces the intensity of the scanning beam. The best procedure is to move the ship closer to the colony, thereby reducing the distance the beam must travel."

  “Can't do that. They already know we doubt what they tell us.” She shook her head and paused in pulling meal trays out of the cold box. “If we lift, just enough to move Sunsinger closer to the colony, they'll wonder why. Frightened, angry people with something to hide don't need an excuse to start fighting. I don't care to find out how clever and nasty they can be."

  * * * *

  It was full dark by the time Lin and Bain went back underground. The heat radiating from the rocky ground had begun to fade and the air started to chill. Lin wrapped her jacket tighter around herself and glanced around at the dark colony buildings. No one had bothered turning on lights. The only illumination came from the tiny, far?off moon. Lin paused in the doorway of the schoolroom and looked up at the dark, silver?speckled dome of the sky.

  “It's just not the same,” she murmured.

  “What is? The stars?” Bain tilted his head back and looked upwards, too, trying to see what she saw.

  “The atmosphere plays tricks with colors and rays of light. It blurs everything. Space is dangerous, but the beauty and the purity even things out.” Lin lowered her gaze to the door standing open before them. She shrugged. “At least I think so."

  Bain wasn't quite sure what to say, or if he should even say anything. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his borrowed jacket and followed her inside, across the schoolroom and down the elevator.

  Even through the double doors of the hospital room, they heard the angry voices. Bain looked at Lin and she looked at him. She squared her shoulders, bracing herself for what they would find inside. Lin banged on the doors and when they swung open she hurried through, not pausing to be hit with the disinfectant gas. Bain wasn't so lucky. He took a breath at the wrong moment hurrying through the cloud.

  For ten long, torturous seconds, he leaned against the nearest wall, gagging, feeling like his lungs tried to catch fire. Gasping, eyes watering, Bain struggled to catch his breath and see and hear what was going on. He rubbed at his eyes until he could see well enough not to run into anything, and staggered toward the sounds of raised voices.

  His ears worked fine and despite the thudding of his tripled heartbeats, he knew he didn't hear either Lin or Dr. Anyon doing the yelling.

  “It's not fair!” a woman roared, and abruptly broke out in choking coughs.

  “What's not fair?” Lin asked in a reasonable tone that somehow managed to break through the mutters and interruptions of the other people gathered around the argument.

  Bain could finally see straight. He took his place behind Lin and to the right, where he could see everything. Lin had often teased him about his tendency to act like a man?at?arms or bodyguard, and claimed he had taken his self?defense lessons from Jax a little too seriously. She never told him to stop standing there when they faced chancy situations, and Bain suspected she was pleased.

  Lin and Dr. Anyon stood side?by?side, facing down more than twenty adults. Some were dressed in dirty, outdoor clothes; others wore robes, their hair lank with fever sweat and their faces pasty from weakness.

  “This is the best plan. We take the ill away to much better treatment than we can dispense from my little ship. They get healed and we take away the culture bed for sickness,” Lin continued.

  “It's still here,” Juhan said. He pushed his way to the front of the crowd. “Why did you augment the water treatment plant if the source of the illness is gone?"

  “She said the culture bed,” Dr. Anyon said. “By this time, those who are susceptible have caught the illness. The problem with the Mashrami plague bombs is that once the virus finds a Human host, it learns to adapt to the Human immunosystem. Those of you who were immune to the first wave of attack, through the water vector, could still be susceptible and catch it from others. We have to take the sick away from here."

  “No, you have to take the healthy away,” another woman insisted. She wore clothes that looked like she had been digging through rock and sand all day long, streaked with mud and sweat. Her hands looked calloused and cut, her hair filthy with dust and held back with braids and a grimy sweatband.

  “We don't have the room or the facilities,” Lin said, shaking her head. Bain didn't have to look at her to know she fought frustration and compassion. The careful control in her voice was clue enough.

  “You don't care!"

  “I care, but I'm not going to let it overrule common sense,” she bit back. “I'm captain of one little ship. I can fit all your sick people into the bunks in my cargo hold, and I can take them directly to the hospital ship. If I take your healthy people, how will they take the trip, twice as long, to the next habitable planet? Will there be any room there for them? Enough food? Enough shelter? You have to consider those things before you change our plans for us."

  “You're not planning on taking our children to a hospital ship, anyway,” the hawk?nosed man who had met Bain and Devon that afternoon spat out. He shook his fist nearly in Lin's face. “You're going to take them away and dump them in the middle of nowhere to die!"

  Lin slapped him. The sound rang out in the sudden silence. A few people gasped softly, and several more stepped back, leaving a cleared space around Lin and the enraged, stunned man.

  “Don't ever accuse me of leaving a child to die,” Lin growled, leaning in so close she almost brushed her nose against his. “Stupid, stubborn old fools like you, I'd gladly leave for the Mashrami—it'd be a punishment for them! But no child, no matter who their relatives are, will ever be left to suffer while I have a say in it.” She turned sharply on one heel and stalked out of the room.

  Bain stared at the too?quiet crowd. He was almost afraid to turn to look at Dr. Anyon. The man nodded to him and tilted his head in Lin's direction. Bain realized the doctor was telling him to follow Lin. Bain nodded and ran.

/>   This time, he managed to slide between the closing doors and missed the bitter spray entirely. He followed Lin down the dark hallway to the room where she had obtained the water samples. Her arms were held stiffly at her sides and her boots threatened to strike sparks against the hard plastic floor. She stomped into the middle of the room and sat down hard on a bench in a u?shaped grouping, with her arms wrapped tight around herself like she was cold.

  Bain crept across the floor and sat down on the end of the bench. Gingerly, he reached out and rested a hand on Lin's shoulder. He was surprised to feel her shaking.

  “Lin?"

  “They're hiding something, Bain.” Her voice was surprisingly soft. A few shudders racked her body and then she was still. “They're hiding something and they're afraid of us finding out. They're so afraid, they argue with us and risk lives."

  “Afraid of what?"

  “I don't know ... but I think it has to do with their children.” Lin rubbed at her eyes. Her hands glistened with tears. “Bain, while they were arguing with Dr. Anyon and then with me, I saw two children die. I stood there, watching people pull sheets over their faces, and others come and carry them away, and those idiots kept arguing, wasting precious time!"

  “I think we should ask Ganfer about this colony. Maybe it's different from what it should be, and that's what they're trying to hide."

  “Bain—” A choked gasp of laughter escaped Lin. She reached up and rested her hand over his on her shoulder, and squeezed it. “You are brilliant. What would I do without you?"

  “Argue with Ganfer more?” he suggested.

  “Exactly.” Lin rubbed at her eyes once more. She nodded and frowned, concentrating as Bain had seen her do hundreds of times as she decided how to frame her questions. “Ganfer, what do you have on this colony that would make the people prone to hide something?"

  “That will take several minutes,” the ship?brain responded, speaking through both Lin and Bain's collar links.

  “We have plenty of time. At least until those idiots realize what harm they're doing,” Lin hurried to add.

  “Captain?” Juhan took a few steps into the room. “Who are you talking to?"