by Lisa Lace
I remembered that I forgot to check my messages when I realized she was missing. There wasn't a message from Quinn, but I found a scribbled note. I skimmed it. She had decided to go ahead without me. She said she wanted her space.
Normally that would be fine, except this time I knew she would die in the forest. I had to find her. I was almost out the door, completely unprepared and ready to follow her tracks before I realized I was an idiot. Five more minutes wouldn't make a difference. The extra time would let me get ready for anything I might meet in the woods.
I ran back to our tent and emptied my backpack, only leaving emergency supplies, a change of clothes for both of us, and a few extra pairs of socks. Then I sent a quick message to Rob, telling him what was happening. I strapped on my snowshoes and raced off, following her tracks. I knew I would have to run to catch up with her.
What if this was when my vision was becoming reality? What worried me the most was that things might have changed. Now she might be going to die alone. In an ideal world, I would take a fresh vision to recalibrate the future.
The thought gave me wings, and I moved quickly. I had to slow myself down to pace my movements. The last thing I wanted to do was hit a wall and be stuck, unable to move, while Quinn was still lost somewhere in the forest.
I followed beside her tracks, not over them. The holes she made struggling through the deep snow could make me trip and fall. My equipment was more useful on fresh snow than trampled snow.
By this time, the snow was falling so quickly I could hardly see. I wasn't going to let anything stop me from following the tracks. I tried to move faster. I knew the snow was coming down so hard it would soon cover her tracks. I would have no way of knowing which way she went.
The wind came up suddenly. I pulled my scarf up to my eyes and my hat down to my eyebrows. Leaving only my eyes exposed would keep my face from freezing. With the speed of the wind and the temperature right now, I knew a high wind chill made the weather seem colder. If I was back home, I imagined a warning would say: Exposed skin will freeze in under a minute.
When you heard that alert, you either stayed inside or made sure you were covered up. Since remaining indoors wasn't an option, I protected myself from the bitter cold and kept going.
When she saw me, she wasn't ready to talk. "Airik, leave me alone!"
"I wanted the memory pull to work, Quinn."
"But it didn't."
"Not for lack of trying," I pointed out.
"Forget it. I don't care. Why did you bother trying to find me out here?"
"I was worried about you," I said. In my mind, I saw the tree falling on us again. "Anything could happen."
She stepped backward with an expression of shock on her face. "You had a vision about me, didn't you? There's a particular look you get when you're doing an intervention on a target. Did you see my death?"
"Quinn, don't say silly things."
"You didn't say no." She frowned. "And you wouldn't tell me even if you did." She started muttering to herself.
"Quinn, please. Let's find everyone else."
Like magic, the remains of our party came into view. They were still far down the mountain but moving towards us at a fast clip. Rob was probably afraid we would go in without him and steal his glory. I wondered if my bitterness was coming out. He was probably worried about us. We watched as they approached. They caught up with us in a few minutes.
"Is this the place?" Rob asked.
"Do you know of any other cabin on this mountaintop at these coordinates?" I said sarcastically.
He gave me an angry look, and I couldn't help grinning. Rob went over the plan again. It was straightforward. We didn't anticipate any problems.
"Okay, people," he said. "Let's head out."
Quinn glanced at me. She moved ahead inconspicuously so she wouldn't have to walk beside me. My heart felt like it was breaking in two. I fell to the back of the group. That's why I didn't know what was happening when the shouting started.
Someone screamed, and everyone else gathered around a body. I ran to catch up and see what was going on. Deerva lay on the ground. She had a big burn mark on her ankle. It was visible through her partially burned snow pants. She groaned and shook; she seemed to be extreme pain. The injury looked bad enough to make me sick to my stomach. I turned away from the scene, trying to keep down my breakfast.
Rob barked out orders and quickly moved towards her to begin treatment. Soon her keening stopped, and he had the wound bandaged and wrapped up. He must have given her a painkiller. Otherwise, I'm sure she be unconscious with such a bad burn.
"What was that?" I exclaimed as quietly as possible.
"Tripwire. There's a laser perimeter around the house," he said. He shone a special light onto the area that showed the defensive mechanism.
"I can't believe they have any defenses, and I can't imagine why they would be set to burn us." I said. "Who are these people?"
"No one knows. We should proceed with extreme caution. I don't want any other team members getting hurt. Deerva needs to heal. Her burn is all the way to the bone on her shin."
"Rob. Shut up," I said. My stomach was doing a flip.
Quinn walked up to us and looked at me, then back to Rob. "What's the problem?"
"Airik is squeamish about physical injuries," he said to Quinn. He turned back to me. "You're turning green. Are you going to be okay?"
"I'll be fine when you stop describing it in such graphic detail," I said, clenching my teeth.
"What happened?" Quinn said.
"She set off a tripwire that's been set to burn anyone who crosses it. It's homemade but deadly."
Quinn glanced at me, then murmured, "I was ahead of her. I decided to drop back and talk to you. Before I knew it, she was screaming. It should have been me."
I was shocked. "Quinn," I said, studying her face. She gazed back and reached up, cupping her hand to my cheek. She was a beautiful sight. What made me unable to love her?
Rob interrupted my thoughts. "The cabin is lit up now so we can see everything. Please proceed cautiously. The mission is more dangerous than we previously anticipated."
Everyone nodded. I stepped over, holding my breath. Quinn followed me carefully. Rob and Deerva came next. He supported her as she limped along. We avoided two other tripwires before we finally got close to the cabin.
We were moving slowly toward the door when it opened, and the nose of a gun peeked out.
"Get down," Rob yelled. We all dropped flat on the snow as several blasts shot by overhead. Deerva had rolled a few feet before she came to rest. She clumsily fell, hampered by her hurt leg.
Rob pulled out a gun, but no one else carried anything to defend ourselves. Bursts of gunfire went back and forth for several minutes before I heard Quinn shout "Stop shooting!" She stood and raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.
"Quinn, what are you doing?" I whispered.
"I know what's going to happen," she said. "It's okay."
I couldn't relax. She had opened herself to the future. She must have seen we would be safe if she stopped everyone from shooting.
She might not have realized that things could change. People made different choices all the time. Neither the future nor the present was predetermined. What we saw were possibilities, not certainties. I thought having Quinn approach a madwoman was a bad idea.
"Please stop shooting," she said. She hadn't moved and kept her hands up. "Someone is going to get hurt. It might be your daughter."
The gun disappeared. In its place appeared a face which peered out into the snowy day to see Quinn. She looked like an older woman, with a wrinkled face and eyes that squinted. Her hair was not combed. Her clothes looked ragged.
"Get out of here. All of you. I only want to talk with her," the woman said.
Rob looked at me. I shook my head.
"I have to leave a partner with her. We won't leave her by herself," Rob called out.
"Fine," she said. "One more."
/> Rob nodded to me. "Be safe." He stood up with Deerva. They moved as quickly as they could, limping back the way we had come. He would take her back to camp and get help to retrieve her. Someone would take her to the hospital.
"Would you turn off the tripwire, please?" Quinn said. "One of our people was already badly hurt."
A guilty look flashed across the woman's face, but it didn't last long. Within seconds, a stern expression was back. This would be harder than it seemed back at headquarters. She disappeared inside her cabin. After a moment, the lasers illuminated by Rob's device disappeared.
"Come in quickly," the woman said. "I need to reactivate the defense system."
Quinn marched toward the house. I scrambled to keep pace with her. The woman opened the door to let us in. Inside the cabin, the room was plain and bare. On one side of the room, a girl lay sleeping on a bed. On the other side was a kitchen with a wooden table and two benches.
"Please sit down," the woman said, indicating one of the benches.
"I'm Quinn," she said. "This is Airik."
I noticed she didn't introduce me as her husband.
"My name is Dorelle," the woman said. Now that I could get a better look at her, I thought she might be the same age as me. I gazed at the sick girl and hoped the rest of our mission would go as planned. I had never had one go this far off course.
"You're probably wondering why we've invaded your cabin," Quinn began.
"I know why you're here," Dorelle said, biting off the words.
Quinn and I blinked and glanced at each other, waiting for her to explain herself.
"We came here from Dantin. It's my home planet and where my daughter was born. It's a low technology world. If you know who to pay, the right people can sneak a coded message to a space station in orbit. You can get transported out if you're lucky. We don't use credits, but if you gift enough land, someone will help you get off-world.
"We knew that," Quinn said. "What we don't know is why you came here."
"It's because of my husband," she said. "He loved Dantin and never wanted to leave. But he got sick with a virus. I knew he was dying, so I paid to have us beamed to the space station. I thought they could save him."
Her eyes filled with tears. "He died anyway. The doctors couldn't do anything. They said it was too late for him. We couldn't go back because we had traded all our belongings to reach the doctor."
She took a deep breath and continued her story.
"I was healthy. I managed to get a job washing dishes on the space station while Golda went to school. Eventually, I had saved enough to buy passage on a spaceship. I knew where I wanted to emigrate."
"Koccoran?" I said.
She nodded. "We passed all the tests. They let us in based on my petition. We were refugees without a home. I discovered this cabin, and it wasn't expensive. Golda and I knew how to live off the land. We bought supplies and started a garden. We were doing fine."
"Until Golda got sick, too," Quinn said.
"That's right. The doctors performed a lot of medical tests on us, but they still missed it. I thought if they let us in, we were clean."
"But you carried a virus, and now Golda is sick," Quinn said. "Dorelle, this is bigger than a single sick child." Quinn stood up and approached her. "If we don't give her the antidote, there will be more sick children. There will be an epidemic. Many wives will lose their husbands." Her eyes cut over to me. "Parents will worry about their children's lives."
"I know," she said. She didn't look surprised at Quinn's revelations.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"Why do you think I chose Koccoran? I knew that they would be accepting of my gift."
"Which gift do you mean?"
Quinn already knew all about Dorelle's gift. "She's a Precog, just like us."
CHAPTER 17
AIRIK
I rolled my eyes. Of course she was. No wonder she had activated her defense system. She knew we were coming.
"If you just want a new life, why do you have all this weaponry?" I said.
She looked down at her hands. "I was afraid that we were still carriers even though we made it through customs. I foresaw a group of people coming and attacking us. That's when I installed the defense system. It took the last of my credits, but it was worth it."
"We didn't come to fight you," I said.
"Seems like I'm under attack right now," she said. When I thought about it, I had to admit that she was right. I would have thought we were attacking her, too.
"We have the antidote. Where is your daughter? We can save her."
"I'm sorry. I can't let you do that," Dorelle said, lifting her gun. She had never set it down. Now it was pointing straight at us.
"Why not?" Quinn said. "It will neutralize the virus and prevent it from spreading. If your daughter dies, the virus will infect everyone that has come within twenty feet of her. They'll quarantine us, but the epidemic will still happen."
I looked at her sharply. "How do you know that?"
"I had another vision on the way here," she explained.
"I couldn't tell."
"I know. I can have them without any interruptions in my activities now." She looked at me like it was commonplace, but I don't think she fully understood how unusual it was. I had never heard of anyone who didn't go into a trance when having a vision.
"Koccoran already has population issues," she said to Dorelle. "If this virus is allowed to spread, it will wipe out many women of childbearing age. It will mean a death sentence for their entire race. Please think about what you're doing."
"I am thinking. I knew you were coming, and I read up on your antidote."
"How?" I said. "I thought you didn't have any technology here."
"I got a connection and the defense system. I got what I need," she said. "I can learn. Your cure could make her deaf or blind. Maybe both."
"The chances of that happening are less than 10 percent," I said.
"She's not your child. I'd rather she died. We'll be careful and burn her body."
"You want her to die?" Quinn said. "Are you crazy?"
"Where I come from, if you're deaf or blind, you might as well be dead. You can't take care of yourself."
"We've made advances since those days."
"Yeah, yeah. Technology. You all believe gadgets are wonderful. But it couldn't figure out we had that damn virus in our blood, could it? If it can't help with the most important things, what good is it?"
I didn't have an answer to that.
"Dorelle, look at all you've gone through to protect your daughter. You can't stop now. We're her best shot."
"You won't convince me. I won't have her live to be a cripple."
"What about Koccoran? They took you in when you had nowhere to go. Don't you owe them? How can you unleash an epidemic on an entire planet?" Quinn said.
The woman sniffed and rubbed her nose. "I have to take care of my own. I can't worry about an entire world."
"You can do both," Quinn said.
"Just because I can doesn't mean I will. You have to leave now," Dorelle said, gesturing with her gun towards the direction of the door.
Quinn's eyes flicked to mine and then to Golda, who was tossing and turning feverishly on the couch. I nodded my head.
"Sure," Quinn said. "We'll leave. But before we go, can we have a drink of water?"
Dorelle made a face but turned to the kitchen. Quinn tackled her in an instant. The woman fought back, punching and hitting Quinn. The gun went off. I ignored the fight and moved towards the girl.
I had my syringe out and pulled off the cap. I pulled off the bedcovers and slightly pushed up her nightdress, jabbing my needle into her thigh and injecting the contents into her body.
The little girl whined and started crying. I held it until I counted to twenty.
"It's done." I sat back and ran a medical scanner over her body to confirm the antidote had worked.
Just like that, we had saved the planet.
QUINN
The little girl's fever had broken already. Dorelle, although furious initially, wasn't upset any longer. She saw her daughter getting better every minute, and she didn't appear to have any lasting injuries.
I didn't have anything to do. Dark thoughts were starting to infect my mind again. I glanced at Airik. He was busy sterilizing the cabin with Rob, making sure they disinfected everything. He wouldn't even notice I was gone. I just needed some air. I would go for a walk, come back, and help with whatever else needed to be cleaned up.
The door was open. When I let myself out, I was glad to see there was only a mild snowfall. After a few minutes, I had my first misgivings. The snow was becoming thicker. I decided to turn around and go back. But when I turned to follow my tracks, I saw that they were already disappearing beneath the fresh powder.
I had to get used to being on my own and doing my own thing. In a couple of weeks, we would be divorced, and I wouldn't be able to depend on him to save me. I was a grown woman now. It was time to pull up my big girl panties and take care of myself.
The cabin should be directly behind me, so I tried to turn around and go back the way I came. As I walked, the trees and brush became denser. Was I going in the right direction? I didn't remember all these obstacles on the way out. I had to fight my way through the vegetation several times. Occasionally I had to go all the way around some plants because there was no way through except on my stomach.
I tried to call a vision, but I was so scared that I couldn't activate one. There was too much stress. The adrenaline in my system would block my ability.
The forest suddenly didn't seem as friendly as it had seemed back at camp. I kept walking. Instead of getting brighter, the atmosphere seemed dark and oppressive. It worried me. I knew the trees would block out the light, but I felt like the sun was disappearing around me. Incredibly, the snow began to fall more and more thickly. Soon I could barely see anything more than a few feet in front of me.
Was I caught in a blizzard?
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, the wind picked up. It blew hard and wailed through the trees. I knew my walk had been a bad idea at this point, but there was nothing I could do but keep moving. There wouldn't be a shelter for me. There was no point in going back. I had to find the cabin.