30th Century: Escape (30th Century Trilogy Book 1)

by Mark Kingston Levin

  Much later into the night the festival began to wind down. Marty had prearranged a ride for everyone to get safely back to the Albatross. They met Teva’s brother, Maui, who offered his truck. Exhausted, everyone settled into the back of the truck. Lacy wobbled a bit as she walked toward the vehicle.

  “Too much kava?” Jennifer asked, helping her friend into the truck.

  Lacy nodded absently as Jennifer settled in next to her. Sometime later Lacy fell asleep on Jennifer’s shoulder as they rode back under the starlit sky.

  CHAPTER 11

  Rescue at Sea

  Jennifer went through the now familiar process of strapping herself in for liftoff. After four days on Tureia to complete their sampling and research, the crew of the Albatross were finally on their way to Tahiti. As the plane gained altitude, Jennifer racked her brain to figure out a way to avoid Marty’s continuing insistence that she have a medical examination. She had tried subtly getting out of it, but the man was stubborn. Aside from telling him the truth, all she could think of was to just flat-out refuse.

  I know you’re worried, but I can’t be allowed to be examined because I’m from the future and the technology in my body would be a discovery capable of initializing a global conflict.

  She sighed. Anyone’s first reaction to hearing that would be to ditch me in whatever psych-hole was closest.

  Lacy looked over with worry, but Jennifer gave her a bright smile to erase any concern. She had grown closer to the petite young woman since they had started having their private conversations in French. The girl was a hard worker and exceptionally bright. Jennifer had seen her make excellent progress on the studies they had accomplished so far.

  The Albatross finally reached its cruising elevation and leveled off. In response, the crew unfastened themselves and stretched. Jennifer made her way to the cockpit with the intention of trying once again to convince Marty she had no need for medical care.

  “What is your position, Maria? Over,” Mike repeated into the radio.

  Alice was pulling charts out of an overhead compartment, then swiftly scanning them. She found the one she sought and immediately began using several measuring devices on it.

  “Do you have them yet?” Marty asked Mike.

  “Not yet, mate.”

  “Tell them to get on it. If they need help, we’re here to help—but it has to be now. If we pass them and have to turn around, chances are we won’t have enough fuel to make it back.”

  Before Mike could answer, a garbled voice came in through the radio.

  “Repeat that! Over.”

  The voice came through again. Mike listened closely, shouting out longitude and latitude.

  “Got it!” Alice answered, furiously measuring her charts. “Marty, we can get them. They are ahead of us still, but we’ll need to start the descent now if we’re gonna make it.”

  “Roger that. Go tell everyone to buckle back in—” He turned, noticing Jennifer standing in the cockpit entrance.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “There was an accident,” Marty answered. “We just received an emergency radio call from a fishing vessel. We’re going to check it out. Go back and get everyone in their seats. Make sure Lacy has her medical kit handy; there might be injuries.”

  Without another word, Jennifer went back to the crew compartment and briefed everyone. They had just sat down and buckled in when the Albatross began its descent toward the ocean. Looking out her window, Jennifer saw a thin line of smoke rising from the horizon.

  * * *

  They set down in the waters half a kilometer from the wreckage of a trawler. Its burnt husk was a stark black skeleton marring an otherwise clear ocean under cloudy skies. Among the charred debris floating in the water were several lifeboats and rafts. As soon as they landed, Marty sent Mike out in the large Zodiac with Bill and Lacy to check on the survivors. Marty himself stayed in the cockpit with Alice, in radio contact with Mike and trying to reach the authorities.

  Jennifer watched from the Albatross along with Kai and Ken. “Do you think they are all right?” she asked.

  Ken shrugged. “They seemed to be in distress.”

  “I hope we came in time,” Jennifer said.

  Kai put an arm around her. “At least we got here,” she said. “Lucky we were close enough to help.”

  They waited for what felt like an eternity, until at last the Zodiac headed back toward them—with an additional passenger. Jennifer and Ken quickly cleared out the galley area to make room for medical procedures and spread plastic sheeting over the table. The Zodiac came up to the Albatross’s side and Kai secured its lines. Bill and Mike looked roughed-up and dirty, and Lacy hovered over a bloodied man.

  Carefully, they brought the injured man aboard. Kai and Ken helped Bill lift the man to the table while Jennifer stayed out of the way.

  Marty called from the cockpit, “The French Coast Guard is heading for the wreck. How’s it going back there?”

  Lacy called out in a tone firmer than Jennifer had ever heard from her. “Please get ready for takeoff. We need to get to a hospital, stat.”

  “Roger that,” Marty called back.

  From the sounds of switches and buttons, Jennifer could hear him readying the plane. Clearly, he trusted Lacy’s judgment absolutely.

  “What is the damage?” Jennifer asked.

  Not taking her eyes off her patient as she scissored off the man’s tattered clothes, Lacy answered, “His arms are broken and he has severe internal damage. His spleen may’ve ruptured. He needs immediate surgery and a blood transfusion or he is going to die.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Trip to Tahiti

  The Albatross took off as soon as possible, Jennifer watching as Lacy tried to stabilize her patient. “What’s his name?” she asked softly.

  With Lacy too focused to answer, Bill spoke up. “José Rodrigues. He was the only one seriously injured in the boiler explosion that took out the ship. The others will be safe in the lifeboats ’til Coast Guard picks ’em up. We heard on Mike’s radio someone’s coming to get them. This guy was too badly hurt to wait, though.” He looked down at José with pity and concern.

  “Which is why we need to get him to a hospital as soon as possible,” Lacy said, wrapping a fresh bandage over a gash in José’s side. “Jennifer, go ask how long until we get there. Bill, I need you to take his wrist and pull gently but steadily while I splint.”

  Jennifer left them to their work and headed to the cockpit.

  “I just checked with Faa’a International, Captain,” Mike started. “There’s a line of thunderstorms between us and Tahiti.”

  Marty cursed. “We need an alternate near a good hospital.”

  “It’d be a risk finding a path to fly through.”

  “If we fly around the storms, could we reach Bora Bora?” Marty asked.

  “I’m on it,” Alice said, going over her charts.

  Jennifer stood silently at the entrance to the cockpit, not wanting to interrupt. She watched Alice measure out the route. Jennifer glanced at the instrument panel and calculated the flight to Bora Bora. Her stomach dropped—there wasn’t enough fuel.

  “All right,” Alice said. “It’ll be close but we might just make it to Bora Bora. It might be four and a half hours to Tahiti but going around the storms could add an extra hour.”

  Jennifer panicked. Alice was wrong. Either that or she was being optimistic. She looked at the redhead and saw that the woman was worried, but still set on her readings. Jennifer debated whether to say something.

  “All right, we can try for Bora Bora—”

  “Hold on there, mate,” Mike interrupted. “Marty listen, that bloke back there is in real rough shape. The quicker we get him to help, the better. Besides, the hospital in Papeete will be better equipped to help him than whatever local dingy they’ll have on Bora Bora.”

  “And the storm?” Marty asked with concern.

  “We’ve been in worse, Captain.”

>   Marty considered. “Five and a half hours you said, Alice? That’ll get us to Papeete just after sunset.”

  Jennifer let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

  Marty turned toward her. “Fasten everything down. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

  * * *

  Jennifer sat with Lacy and the others near José. Around an hour after she’d left the cockpit, the turbulence became rougher and the sky darker as towering clouds appeared outside the window. José had been secured and bandaged.

  Lacy placed two fingers on the pulse in his neck, watching her wristwatch with worry etching into her face. “I’m concerned about his internal injuries. I’ve got this saline IV in him to compensate for the blood loss, but I don’t think it’s enough.”

  “What can we do for him?” Jennifer asked, placing a hand on Lacy’s shoulder.

  “I can’t stabilize him. His pulse is getting weaker. He needs a blood transfusion or he’s going to go into shock.”

  Jennifer took her hand back, looking from her own flesh to the dying man before her. She clenched her fist—the Symbiotes in her blood could save this man’s life. The risk was exposing herself as a liar and as someone from the future, incomprehensible to the team around her. Before she could debate further, Ken approached.

  “How much blood does he need?”

  “It does not matter if we cannot match blood type,” Lacy said with concern.

  “I’m O-negative, universal donor.”

  “Really? Ken, thank you so much.”

  “Perhaps it’ll buy us some time.”

  Lacy set Ken down in his bunk and began drawing blood.

  As the bag filled, Bill asked, “Hey, Lacy, will the rest of us be able to help? Kai and I could donate some, too.”

  Kai, who had been sitting farther away in the lab area, mumbled something about “Needles…”

  “I’m not certain,” Lacy answered. “It’s too risky unless we know yours and José’s blood type. Ken’s should work as a universal, but yours could cause a clot if it’s not a match.”

  Bill looked disappointed, Kai relieved.

  “You could watch over Ken for me,” Lacy added. “None of us have really eaten much today, so he’s bound to get a little weak after this pint. Go get some biscuits and juice.”

  “Good on biscuits and juice,” Bill laughed. “You can count on me.”

  “Oh, gee,” Ken said with obvious sarcasm, “I feel safer already.”

  The plane shook, buffeted by wind shear turbulence at 20,000 feet. Rain pelted the windows as they moved into the storm. Lacy swapped the saline bag hooked up to José for one of Ken’s donor blood. Some of the color returned to José’s skin and his eyelids fluttered. Worry shadowed Lacy’s eyes.

  “It’s not enough, is it?” Jennifer whispered to her friend.

  “Ken’s blood is helping, but José needs more to stabilize. I can’t take more from Ken, just that pint has him out of commission for hours, and we don’t know if anyone else is the right type.”

  They turned toward Ken lying in his bunk, his hand shaking as he held the juice Bill had brought.

  Type…Of course! Jennifer thought. “Lacy, give me some time in the lab and I can test everyone’s blood to see if we have another donor.”

  “What? You can do that?” asked Lacy.

  “I remember reading about an Indian doctor who devised a simple method to measure blood type. Trust me, I just need samples.”

  Without waiting for Lacy’s response, Jennifer got up and rummaged through the medical gear. “Fingers, everyone. You too, Kai.”

  Using pipettes and needles, Jennifer quickly took samples from Bill’s, Kai’s, and her own first finger. “I’ll test these and then try Alice and Marty if we need more.”

  She headed to the lab counter and set up the microscope. Kai was nearby but had closed her eyes at the sight of the needles and kept them closed, the first-time Jennifer had seen the California girl discomfited.

  Good.

  In truth, the lab did not have the proper tools to use Ms. S. M. Nazia Fathima’s blood type test method, but it was a convenient enough cover for what Jennifer needed to do. She was unwilling to let someone die in front of her when she could save them, even if it did mean telling a few more lies. Outside, lightning arced around the plane.

  She took the sample of José’s blood and set it on the microscope slide, setting the other samples aside. Making sure Kai was still distracted, Jennifer dropped her own blood sample into José’s. Through the microscope lens, Jennifer saw her Symbiotes quickly adapt to their new environment without causing harm to the host cells. Satisfied with the rate of assimilation, she prepared for the next step.

  Jennifer set her cut finger on José’s infused sample and focused on the rate of adaptation; it was fast enough. She quickly set herself up for a blood draw from her arm where the nanites had already begun their new task.

  “What the crap are you doing?” Kai exclaimed, seeing Jennifer prepare a new IV bag, after sticking herself with the needle. “Don’t you want me to get Lacy or someone to help?”

  Jennifer smiled, excited at the prospect of saving a life. “Turns out I’m a match for José. Don’t worry; I know how to do a blood draw just fine.” Jennifer could not help but recall moments like these in the field—every second counted when a comrade’s life was in danger. She had saved many lives, but the amount lost always felt higher. She was not about to pass up an opportunity to save José.

  As the blood trickled into the bag, Kai went white and moved to the other side of the plane, losing her balance and falling into a seat as the Albatross rocked from turbulence. Rain drove into the windows in sheets.

  Siphoning enough blood transmodified with her Symbiotes to fill up three pints, Jennifer removed the needle and began her recovery. She’d drawn enough for a short-term repair to the ruptured spleen. The donated nanite colony would speed the natural rate of healing. The Symbiotes would not reproduce in another host, tied to her specific DNA, so eventually they would die off and be flushed out of his body without a trace.

  Jennifer got up and immediately regretted it. Augmented or not, blood loss on an empty stomach still took a toll.

  Bill was quick enough to grab her. “What’s the matter with you?” He supported her weak form on his strong shoulder.

  “She just sucked, like, a ton of blood out of herself, that’s what,” Kai shouted from her seat, her eyes still averted.

  Jennifer weakly held up the bags of blood for emphasis. “It’s a match.”

  “Jennifer!” Lacy came over with a concerned look. “You should’ve gotten me to help.”

  “De rien.” Jennifer handed the blood bags to Lacy, finding them to have grown particularly heavy. “Regardez notre ami.” She motioned toward José.

  “Merci. Merci beaucoup, Jennifer,” Lacy said as she took the blood. She bent down and gave Jennifer a kiss on the cheek before turning her attention to Bill. “Take care of her, please, she needs rest and juice. And a biscuit!”

  “You got it, Doc,” Bill replied, taking Jennifer to her bunk and gently laying her down.

  Jennifer could hear the others talking, but the words blurred into the sounds of the engines fighting the rain and wind. She was exhausted and drained—her head was light and she felt a chill. Despite this, there was warmth in her core. She knew the blood would save José. With that thought, she grew comfortable with the darkness that crept along the edges of her vision until only her window was visible. In the storm, it had become a circular port to a sky of chaos—wind, rain, and lightning. Yet there was a pattern to it, the rhythm of raindrops, the music of thunder…

  * * *

  Jennifer awoke sometime later to the sound of sirens. Outside her window, lightning flashes illuminated a cloudy night sky, accompanied by rain and wind. But something was missing. Jennifer listened, but heard nothing else. She realized the roar of the plane’s engine had ceased. They had landed.

  Footsteps approached her.
She tried to turn over but was too weak. Two strong arms reached under her and gently lifted. Her head fell onto Marty’s chest, giving her a chance to look up and see his warm smile.

  “I heard you did some good work out here, both you and Lacy.”

  Jennifer tried to speak, but it came out sounding like a groan.

  Marty carried her to the port door and through a covered bridge attachment into an airport terminal. “José is going to be fine, thanks to you. We just got him loaded into an ambulance, Lacy went with him. She wanted me to thank you when you woke up. She said your quick thinking saved the day. What did you do?”

  “International Journal of Machine Learning and Computing. August 2013. Volume three. Number four. S. M. Nazia Fathima. ‘Classification of Blood Types by Microscope Color Images’,” Jennifer mumbled. She had saved the photographic recollection of the article in case anyone asked about her blood trick. She was too tired to come up with another excuse.

  “Wow, I’ll have to remember to ask you about that when you’re able. Sounds like it could make for an interesting discussion to have a drink over.”

  Jennifer merely groaned in response. She lazily moved her head to see the surroundings. The airport was passing in a blur. She couldn’t see any of the others.

  “We’re in the Tahitian airport. It was pretty rough getting through that storm, but Mike and I’ve seen worse. We ended up having such a smooth landing that José couldn’t even tell when we touched down.” Marty laughed.

  “He woke up?”

  “Yeah. Lacy said he came to after your blood transfusion.”

  “Where…Lacy?” she asked.

  “I told you, she went to the hospital with José. You’ll be able to see her there; I’m sure she’ll want to check up on you.”