by S. L. Viehl
“That would be nice,” I said.
We didn’t escape the industrial complex unscathed; the Odnallak hit us with a barrage of ground fire, damaging the hull and taking out one of the engines. Still Shon somehow managed to evade the worst of it and emerge on the other side, where we had been brought in from the tram.
I saw why he had put the craft into a stationary hover. “It’s too big to fit through those chambers.”
Reever put his hands on two spheres set in the console, turning them until they glowed. When he pressed in on the top of the spheres, twin energy blasts shot out of the front of the craft and blew an enormous hole through the air locks.
“Now it’s not,” he said.
Shon flew through the ragged gap and up to the rail transport station, where I saw innumerable trams coming to a stop and a horde of armed Odnallak pouring out of them. But rather than fly over the rails, Shon darted the craft under them.
There wasn’t more than a few feet of space on either side of us as he flew beneath the elevated rails, turning the craft sideways here and there to squeeze through even narrower spaces between the support struts.
I looked back and saw several other craft in pursuit. “We’ve got company, coming up fast.” I winced as one pilot misjudged his distance, clipped a strut, and slammed into the ground, exploding on impact. Then I glanced ahead and saw we were headed straight for some kind of blockade of other craft. “Shon.”
“Brace yourselves, this is going to be ugly.” He brought the craft to a sudden stop amid a hail of weapons fire from the blockade, wrenched the nose up, and shot in between the rails.
The craft bounced into something that careened away, and through the side view panel I saw it was one of the transports, which fell directly on top of the blockade. Things began exploding as we cleared the rails and Shon righted the craft.
“They will have the launch surrounded,” Reever said, “and the docking area guarded. Our power cells are almost drained.”
“They believe we’re primitive, so this should work.” Shon banked the craft, circling around the docking area and drawing fire away from our launch. He began to descend on the far side, half a mile from the launch, and stopped just short of landing.
“They’re coming right at us,” I said, watching the Odnallak running and firing as they swarmed across the docks.
“They are.”
“I will not die if they implode this vessel-propulsion system,” Maggie said. “You and Shon and Reever will be badly hurt. ChoVa will expire.”
“Maybe you should land, Shon,” I suggested, “and we should run?”
“Wait for it.” He turned his head and showed me his fangs. “This will be better.”
As soon as the Odnallak began hitting the craft with powerful blasts, Shon rammed the nose up, fired the engines, and shot away. By the time the Odnallak realized what had happened, he had landed the craft on top of our launch.
Maggie frowned as she looked out. “Why did you not set down beside it? This will not work.”
“There are emergency access hatches on the roof of the launch. Follow me.” I thrust open the compartment door and jumped out, hurrying to the nearest one, stopping only when I heard ChoVa cry out. I turned to see her clutching a bloodied shoulder and Reever and Shon moving quickly to grab her from either side and haul her to the hatches.
There was no time to perform a preflight or even check the fuel levels; as soon as we were inside, Shon and Reever ran to the helm and fired the engines. Maggie and I had just managed to get ChoVa strapped into a seat when the launch shot from the docking area up into the fog.
“Grab my case,” I told Maggie, and then gently eased the Hsktskt’s hand away from her shoulder. The wound was deep, wide, and bleeding profusely.
“It is not so bad,” she said, her teeth grinding. “My arm is still attached.”
While I put a pressure dressing on ChoVa’s wound, Reever launched several probes, scattering them around us as Shon continued the steep climb. I understood the ruse as ground fire erupted all around us, hitting and destroying several probes but missing the launch. The dirty sky darkened to black and stars appeared as we escaped the planet’s atmosphere and entered space.
“Sunlace, this is Shon Valtas,” the oKiaf signaled. “We are en route to the ship now, ETA five minutes. Prepare for emergency departure as soon as we land.”
“Confirmed, Healer Valtas,” Xonea’s voice said over the speaker. “Should we expect to be pursued?”
Reever checked the console. “They have not yet launched any of their star ships.”
“Unknown, Captain,” Shon said. “But we did not part on good terms.”
“Understood. Report to Command as soon as you are on board.”
I made sure ChoVa was secure in her harness before I joined the men at the helm. “May I?” When Shon nodded, I signaled the captain. “Xonea, ChoVa is injured and losing a lot of blood. I’ll need a medevac team standing by in launch bay.” When he confirmed my request, I added, “Did the Odnallak send up any probes while we were on the surface?”
“They did. They surrounded the ship for several hours, and then returned to the surface.”
I looked through the viewer until I spotted the Sunlace, and then magnified the view.
The protocrystal that had covered the hull had vanished.
“They got what they really wanted,” I said, glancing at my husband. “Do you think they’ll try to use it?”
“Of course they will,”Maggie said as she wandered up from the passenger compartment. “They will feed it to their machines now. Then they will release it according to their equations into their water and air, and it will kill them all.”
I stared at her. “How do you know that will happen?”
“The old one had it in his head. He brought you here so that you would make it happen.” She bent over the console and peered at the scanner. “They are very impatient. They have already begun.”
“How were they able to remove it from the ship, Maggie?” Reever asked.
She nodded at me. “They put some of her fluids into the probes. Although if they had waited, it would have come down to the surface to find her.”
I touched the spot on my arm where Joseph had tapped me. “Why would my blood lure the protocrystal into the probes?”
“You are its child, Cherijo,” she chided. “Its child and mine. The old one said that in the future I used it to make you.” She beamed. “That is why you were able to operate the collector.”
Fourteen
Shon landed the launch on the Sunlace without incident, and while the men went to Command to brief Xonea, I called for a gurney and took ChoVa to Medical. Halfway there a Hsktskt male I didn’t recognize came barreling down the corridor, blocking our path and leaning over the gurney.
“ChoVa?” When she didn’t respond, he dropped his head back and roared in agony.
She opened one eye. “Stop making that noise. I am not dead. I am wounded. Move out of the way so that the healer may convey me to Medical.”
The Hsktskt male’s enormous yellow eyes glared at me. “Who shot her?”
“Who are you?” I countered.
He displayed several rows of jagged teeth. “If she lives, her betrothed. If she dies, the one who will gut you alive.”
“Oh, it’s you, PyrsVar.” I turned to Maggie. “Are you responsible for this?”
She nodded. “I accelerated the growth of his scales before we left on the launch. He did not look well without them. Now he and ChoVa can mate.”
ChoVa opened both eyes, inspected PyrsVar, and then dropped her head back. “I am not mating with a male who would let me bleed to death on a gurney.”
“The romance will have to wait a little while,” I agreed, and grabbed the handles of the gurney. To PyrsVar, I said, “You look very handsome. She’s going to be fine. Now move or I’ll have Maggie turn you into a Barterman.”
PyrsVar flattened himself against a wall panel to allow us to pas
s, only to trot behind me and breathe down my neck as we continued on to Medical. “She is bleeding too much.”
“I know.”
He bumped into my back as he tried to look over my shoulder. “Her breathing sounds wrong. It is too rapid.”
“She’s panting because she’s in pain,” I told him as I wheeled her into the lift.
As soon as we were inside, he got in my face. “You must give her drugs at once.”
I lifted my brows. “And which drugs would you like me to administer, Dr. Romeo?”
“I do not know,” he said, scowling. “You are the healer.”
“Exactly. And you”—I prodded his chest with my finger—“are not. Since I wouldn’t presume to tell you how to attack a settlement, please return the favor.”
“What does that mean?”
Maggie tapped his arm to get his attention. “It means shut up and let her do her job.”
We made it to Medical, where with the help of several nurses we transferred ChoVa to a berth, where I personally prepped her for surgery. Since PyrsVar made it clear he wasn’t going to leave her side, I sent him to cleanse and dress in scrubs.
Once we were alone, I started an IV and then prepared the anesthetic.
“How bad is it?” ChoVa asked as she watched me.
“It’s not going to be easy,” I admitted. “I’ll need to repair the vessels and see what I can do about the severed tendons.” I scanned the wound and showed her the displayed results. “As you can see, you’re missing a good chunk of muscle. I’m also concerned about the length of the extensors.”
“Harvest what grafts you need from my legs,” she suggested. “I would rather limp than lose the use of an upper appendage.”
That was what I needed to know. “I’ll do my best.”
“That is more than I could hope for,” she assured me, her voice slurring as the anesthetic took effect and her eyelids drooped.
I signaled Command, and informed Xonea that I was going into surgery. That was when he gave me the news that a small Odnallak shuttle had managed to intercept the ship and, despite being badly damaged, had entered and landed in our launch bay. Smoke from the battered shuttle had filled the level, and by the time the emergency crews had put out the fires, the Odnallak pilot had escaped.
“We are searching for him now, and I am ordering guards stationed at Medical and every other vital area of the ship,” Xonea said, “but you should advise your people to stay alert.”
“Do we know who he is?” I asked.
“He was not seen by the crew,” Xonea admitted. “If he is the shape-shifter, he will try to disguise himself as one of the crew.”
“The only way to identify him is with a DNA sample,” I told my ClanBrother. “Send one of your search team to me, and I’ll give them handheld sample readers.”
After I briefed the staff and told the nurses to round up as many DNA readers as they could for the search teams, I joined PyrsVar at the cleansing unit. I didn’t want to think about Joseph, so as I scrubbed, I explained ChoVa’s condition and how I planned to operate in words he could understand.
“Her shoulder is mangled,” he said. “I have seen such wounds before on Vtaga, during the raids. Her limb will no longer function. You must have the oKiaf heal her.”
“It’s not that simple,” I told him. “Shon can heal some wounds, but he can’t regenerate missing tissue and tendons. I have to replace what was destroyed by the blast she took.”
“I do not care if her limb functions,” he said suddenly. “I would take her as my mate if she had no limbs.” He chuffed some air through his nostrils. “But with the affection she has for her work, such a thing would cause her to suffer.” He gave me a direct look. “Can you repair this damage and make her as she was?”
“I’ll do whatever is possible, PyrsVar.” I nodded toward the surgical suite. “We’ll be working on her in there. I’ll allow you to come in and observe, but you can’t disrupt the procedure or distract me during surgery, or it could cost ChoVa the use of her limb. Is that clear?”
He nodded.
Once I had drafted two nurses and a resident to scrub in, I had PyrsVar move ChoVa by gurney into the suite. The gentle way he handled her touched me almost as much as what he had said. He did love her, more than I’d realized, which made me all the more determined to make the procedure as successful as possible.
After PyrsVar had placed ChoVa on the table, I initiated a sterile field and draped her body so that only her wound and her lower right leg lay exposed. I then examined the wound, cleaning out some charred tissue before I inspected the damage under the scope and confirmed my readings.
“I’m going to take some tendon and muscle from her leg now,” I said to PyrsVar as I prepared to make the incision down the center of the femoral muscle sheath. To my nurse I said, “Prepare a catch basin.”
I mentally reviewed what I knew about Hsktskt limbs and techniques used to repair them, and abruptly recalled the last time I had used them.
I ran in front of his gurney to the infirmary, shouted for a scrub team to move faster than the speed of light, and checked the still-twitching limb in the cryo-unit.
“I need the full text on Hsktskt limb replantation,” I said as I scrubbed. “If they’re not in our database, signal Command and tell them to relay them now.”
A nurse brought it in on a datapad as I geared up, and I studied the data carefully. Had GothVar torn off TssVar’s tail, it wouldn’t have been a problem—Hsktskt regenerated those naturally. But the limb was going to require some very special, fancy cutting, especially in areas where the ruptured vessels were not as easily accessible, in and around the major shoulder joint. . . .
I pushed the laser rig up out of the way. “PyrsVar, help me turn ChoVa onto her uninjured side.”*
He carefully repositioned her. “Like this?”
I nodded. “That’s fine. Now hold her in that position for me.”
“Will it distract you if I ask why?”
“Not at all. I’m going to amputate her tail.” I was already scanning it. “She doesn’t need it, and it contains all the different tissues for the grafts I need.”
“But if you cut it off, it will . . . grow back in a matter of weeks.” His mask stretched. “And she will not limp or lose her limb.”
“That’s the plan.” I cleansed the derma around the base of ChoVa’s tail and pulled down the rig. “Nurse, we’re going to need a bigger catch basin.”
As I removed ChoVa’s tail and dressed the stump, I told PyrsVar about that other surgery I had performed on my patient’s father.
“Of course, immediately after I reattached his limb, SrrokVar had me dragged out of the infirmary and tossed back in the solitary-confinement pit,” I said as I transferred a section of tendon from the dissected tail over to ChoVa’s shoulder. “But if he hadn’t, I would never have met the Pel, and I’d probably still be patching up slaves on Catopsa.”
“That is why the Hanar looks upon you as a comrade and friend,” PyrsVar said. “You saved his limb even when you knew you would likely not profit from it.”
“Oh, I definitely paid for that surgery.” I didn’t want to think about what SrrokVar had done to me after I’d operated on TssVar, or how close I’d come to losing my mind in the crying chambers. “Nurse, a little suction, please.”
Reconstructing ChoVa’s shoulder took several hours, approximately a third of the tissue harvested from her tail, and many, many grafts and resections. The most delicate part of the procedure was repairing and reattaching the extensors, which were a complicated mass of muscle and tendon that gave the Hsktskt motor control over her arm and claws. I did most of that while looking through a scope.
Finally I grafted a new outer layer of octagonal keratin scales from the tail by color to match her scale pattern—something the Hsktskt used to identify one another—and closed the last gap in the underlying layer of flesh. I wouldn’t know until she healed and began physical therapy if the grafts had worke
d, but I felt a lot better about her chances than I had before.
“Let’s take her out to recovery. Hey.” I squeaked the last word as PyrsVar snatched me off my feet. “She’s going to be all right. I promise.” I groaned as he squeezed me. “Don’t snap my spine.”
He set me down on the deck and cupped my face between his claws. “I owe you a life-debt, Healer,” he said formally. “For me, and for my ChoVa. Anything you may require, you have only to ask, and I will make it yours.”
“You’re welcome, big guy.” I endured another reptilian hug before I stripped off my gloves and rolled my head to stretch the tight muscles in my neck. “She’ll be out for a couple of hours, so maybe you should—”
I never got to complete my suggestion, as something hit the ship and the deck rocked under my feet.
“Not again.” I rushed out of the suite and ordered the nurses to put the patients in restraints as a second blast hit the Sunlace. I’d just made it to Marel’s room when the air turned icy and the first dazzling lights appeared.
My daughter opened her eyes. “Mama?”
I made it to her berth and climbed onto it, pulling her into my arms. “I’m here, baby. Hold on to me.”
“Don’t be scared, Mama,” she murmured as light filled the room. “We’re going home now.”
I opened my eyes to see red frost forming on the buckled plasteel in front of me. The compartment where Oforon had stowed me had somehow survived the crash, although it looked as if it had been crushed in the grip of some giant hand.
The impact had also snapped my restraints, what good that did me. I tried to move and my breath rushed out as shattered bones ground together. My wrist was broken, and I couldn’t feel the left side of my face. Numbing cold seeped in through the metal, spreading over me.
If I didn’t get out of here, I was going to freeze.
I managed to push one shoulder against the access panel, but it wouldn’t budge. The frigid temperature stole first my feet, then my legs. I wasn’t walking away from this. I’d be lucky if I could crawl.