Book Read Free

Icarus Rising

Page 12

by Bernadette Gardner


  consider her an offering since she lay in the net where the

  sacrifices had always been placed.

  118

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  She struggled to gain her bearings and sit up, but every

  movement left her gasping in pain. Her head pounded with

  the rhythm of the waves. Her back ached from lying for God

  knew how long in the cold, creaking net. The salt spray stung

  the vicious raw patches on her knees and she figured at least

  three of her toes were broken, possibly her left wrist and

  more than one rib. Breathing was agony.

  She would never have the strength to call for help.

  Caleb! Another wave of panic pumped adrenalin through

  her ravaged body. Had Arilani done the same thing to him?

  Would the Icarian healer have tried to sabotage the breeding

  program?

  Right now, Zara was the only one who knew of Arilani's

  treachery, and if she didn't find some way back to the

  research station, no one would ever know what had happened

  here.

  With steely determination and tears streaming down her

  ocean-dampened face from the excruciating pain, she rolled

  over and began to crawl toward the frayed edge of the alor

  net.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  119

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  Chapter Fourteen

  "I see no reason why he cannot mate. Dr. Danson insists

  the symbion is able to control this strange human disease

  he's contracted. It will not be passed to his offspring, and it

  will not kill him as long as he remains joined." Arilani paced

  the great room of the royal aerie, her wings twitching in

  irritation. After all she'd done to ensure Caleb would be hers,

  Jidar had decreed no mating would take place.

  "Arilani, Dr. Faulkner is suffering. He has confessed to

  killing Dr. Abbott during a mating frenzy. He cannot control

  his symbion, and Dr. Danson fears that the illness, though it

  won't kill him now, may prevent him from ever being able to

  suitably regulate his biochemistry. He is in no position to rear

  offspring." Namara's soft voice served only to anger Ari

  further. She had no desire to be cajoled and coddled with

  logic.

  "I told you, Caleb was delirious when I found him. I know

  he did not kill Dr. Abbott. The evidence suggests she fell from

  the aerie. She probably lost her footing due to the midday

  winds."

  "We will never know for sure unless her body is found,"

  Jidar said.

  Ari pursed her lips and cursed silently. She had gone back

  personally and searched for Zara's body. It made no sense

  that the xeno-therapist's remains could not be found. She'd

  purposely dropped her in an area of flat rocks in order to

  ensure she would not float out to sea too quickly. The irony

  120

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  was that perhaps the lie Ari had told Caleb about her slipping

  into a crevice might be true.

  Ultimately this should have posed no problem for Arilani,

  but the disappearance of Zara's body left Caleb inconsolable.

  Jidar now believed Caleb's drug-induced confession, the one

  Arilani had planted in his brain and made him promise never

  to tell.

  "Among the humans, there is a saying—innocent until

  proven guilty. By their laws, Dr. Faulkner cannot be said to

  have committed murder unless there is incontrovertible

  evidence to support it. Without Dr. Abbott's body, we must

  assume Dr. Faulkner is innocent because he is human and is

  subject to their laws, not ours."

  Jidar raised his wingtips in disagreement. "That is not so.

  Dr. Faulkner accepted the bonding. He is Icarian now, having

  pledged his loyalty to me. He has confessed to a crime of

  violence, and therefore he stands guilty of that crime. By our

  laws he must be banished for one mating cycle, assuming Dr.

  Danson does not insist on removing the symbion. Then, and

  only then, will he be subject to human laws rather than ours."

  Frustration swept over Arilani and uncharacteristically, her

  eyes stung with tears. She'd come too close to success to see

  it ripped away from her like this. "The symbion's life is

  sacred, my liege. How can you allow Dr. Danson to destroy

  it?"

  "He feels Dr. Faulkner will be unable to function mentally

  with the biochemical imbalance."

  "But you just said the symbion is preventing his disease

  from killing him!"

  121

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  Namara sprang forward, hands outstretched to calm Arilani

  with a touch. "We did not say the decision would be an easy

  one. Dr. Danson is struggling with it. Either way, Dr. Faulkner

  may die, and the loss of Dr. Abbott, whether at his hands or

  not, has robbed him of the will to survive."

  Arilani pulled away from Namara's soothing touch. "I will

  give him the will to survive. A mate, a child, will force him to

  want to live. He needs only to be told by Jidar what he must

  do, and he will do it."

  "I will not take the risk," Jidar said. The tone of finality in

  his voice made Ari cringe. "We will consider another candidate

  for bonding, but only after Dr. Danson completes all his tests

  and assures me that what happened with Dr. Faulkner is an

  anomaly and will not occur with anyone else."

  "This mating cycle will end in just a few months, my liege.

  By the time another begins, I will be too old to conceive. Most

  of our females will be. If we miss this opportunity, there may

  not be another one."

  Jidar bowed his head. "I am well aware of that, Arilani. Do

  not presume to tell me how dire the situation is for our race."

  "Are you prepared to accept donated mating material

  then? Or will you simply allow our people to die in order to

  preserve the archaic traditions of our ancestors?"

  "That is enough!" Jidar rose from his chair, wings

  outstretched.

  Faced with her leader's wrath, Ari wisely dropped into a

  submissive position, head down, wings still and flat against

  her naked back. "Forgive me, my liege. I am ... desperate to

  conceive."

  122

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  "And at least there is still a possibility you shall succeed."

  Jidar spoke quietly, but the controlled fury in his voice

  frightened her. "Remember, unless we forsake each other for

  human mates, Namara and I will never have children of our

  own."

  "With donated sperm, you could."

  "Silence now. I will not consider medically induced mating

  unless there is no other choice. I have given Dr. Danson one

  week to make his final decision about how to proceed with Dr.

  Faulkner. Once he chooses his path of treatment, I will

  determine if Dr. Faulkner will be banished or turned over to

  the human authorities. Either way, he will never be your

  mate, Arilani. I'm sorry."r />
  Seething, Arilani remained in submission to Jidar until he

  gave her leave to rise. Once he dismissed her, she turned

  resolutely and fled the royal aerie. She had created this mess,

  and now it was time to fix it, or every living Icarian would pay

  the price.

  None of it made sense. Part of Caleb's addled brain was

  convinced he'd killed Zara. The words echoed in his head

  every time he closed his eyes, every time the lab grew silent

  and every time he turned his head to stare in misery at the

  brilliant blue/green sky beyond his window.

  No human could survive the fall.

  The voice in his head was Arilani's, but it rang with such

  deep conviction that he had to believe it. He had to learn to

  accept it. Zara was gone, and he'd destroyed everything in

  his life that meant anything to him. If he could have escaped

  123

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  the restraints that held him to the diagnostic bed, he would

  have run outside and thrown himself into the pounding surf.

  After years of running from the prospect of his death,

  denying it would ever happen, he embraced it now. In fact,

  he and his symbion both longed for oblivion and the end to

  this relentless pain.

  "Caleb, how are you feeling today?" Ray Danson stood at

  the foot of Caleb's bed. He'd entered the room silently and

  had probably stood watching his patient wallow in his mental

  anguish for a bit. It would not have been the first time.

  Caleb cast a derisive glance at the geneticist but didn't

  bother to respond.

  "Dumb question, I suppose," Danson said. "You wear your

  heart on your sleeve."

  "In case you hadn't noticed, Doc, I don't have sleeves. Or

  a heart."

  "Then why are you mourning the woman you loved?"

  Caleb strained against the straps that held his arms and

  legs immobile, and wisely, Danson stepped back. "Do you like

  hearing me say it, Ray? I killed Zara. I killed her."

  "But you don't remember doing it."

  "I remember enough."

  Danson held up a syringe. "I don't think you do. But I

  think I've found a way to clear that up. I've developed what I

  think will be the answer to the biochemical imbalance."

  Caleb didn't react. What did he care about clear thinking at

  this point? He had no desire to relive Zara's murder in graphic

  detail, better it was just a fuzzy, half-forgotten nightmare in a

  dark corner of his mind.

  124

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  "I believe a daily dose of this will regulate all the symbion's

  hormone production. That should cure the mood swings, the

  depression and help with the pain you've been experiencing. I

  know you won't admit it, but I can tell you're still feeling

  discomfort from the siphon."

  He was. The ache at the back of his neck was relentless,

  but at least it provided some distraction from memories of

  Zara. He thought of it as punishment for his sins, and

  deserved to live with it forever.

  "Don't you want to feel better?"

  Now Caleb turned a baleful stare at Danson. "Nothing in

  this world or any other could make me feel better, Ray. You

  should just let me die."

  "I can't do that. I took an oath. Even patients who lie to

  me, even patients who are accused of murder still deserve my

  help. I'm going to make you well again and get this breeding

  program back on track whether you like it or not, so prepare

  to feel human again. Or at least half human." With that,

  Danson stepped up to the IV pump that had been filling Caleb

  full of mood regulators, pain killers and nutrients for the past

  three days. He carefully removed the cap to a catheter and

  inserted the syringe filled with bright red liquid. It took only a

  few seconds to empty the syringe into the IV pump. Caleb

  watched the drug diffuse into the reservoir where his

  medicinal soup sat bubbling and mixing. The fluid there

  turned pink and slowly, centimeter by centimeter, the first

  drops worked their way through the tube that led to the

  central line in his chest.

  125

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  Danson flicked the tube with his finger to increase the drop

  rate and stepped back with a faint smile of triumph. "There. It

  should take a few hours for you to feel the effects, but when

  you do, I think you'll find them miraculous. You're not going

  to die, Caleb. I know right now that's not good news as far as

  you're concerned, but once we get your body running

  normally, I think you'll change your mind."

  Again, Caleb remained silent. I didn't matter how good he

  felt physically. He'd never get over being responsible for

  Zara's death. Ever.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  126

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  Chapter Fifteen

  Zara lay panting at the edge of the net. It had taken hours

  for her to work her way toward the relative safety of a flat

  rock under the curious scrutiny of an adult symbion.

  Unattached to hosts, in their natural state, the creatures

  were somewhat frightening. Their long, slender bodies bore

  small, round eyes and wide mouths with prehensile beaks,

  perfect for tearing apart crabs and scooping small fish from

  the sunlit upper layers of the ocean water.

  How they built their conical nests was a mystery, but now

  Zara understood the reason for the special shape. The tall

  nests made it easier for the legless birds to land on their

  bellies to roost. With their huge wings folded, they resembled

  owls. Each one incubated a single white-shelled egg about the

  size of Zara's head.

  She lay watching them for a while, concentrating on

  anything other than the pain in her legs, her back and her

  side. Hunger had made her terribly weak, but at least she'd

  managed to scoop some water from an alor frond and take a

  few sips. The low salt content of the Icarian ocean made it

  relatively safe to drink small quantities. She wouldn't die of

  thirst, but if no one came to her rescue soon, she would die.

  "Caleb, where are you?" She'd spent three terrifying nights

  hammocked in the net, talking to him to keep herself from

  succumbing to pain and despair. He had to be dead. If he was

  alive, he'd have found her by now. Or maybe he just didn't

  know where to look.

  127

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  "Stop staring at me," she cried to the vigilant symbion.

  "I'm not edible."

  Unfortunately, Zara realized she was the only thing around

  that was edible at the moment. There were no fruit vines or

  small fish within her reach, nothing she could snag for herself

  to boost her failing strength or offer as a gift to the watchful

  sentinels.

  Her stomach had ceased protesting, though, and was

  numb now, like most of her body, at least the parts that
r />   weren't broken. Her toes were swollen and purple, her knees

  were bright red and still bleeding in places and her fingers

  shook with the effort to swipe cold tendrils of wet hair out of

  her eyes.

  The situation was hopeless. No one would ever find her.

  Frustration and fear had her screaming until her voice gave

  out. The noise agitated the nesting symbions and they

  scattered, then circled around her, seeming both curious and

  annoyed by her exhibition of human frailty.

  One of the creatures swooped low, and Zara cringed away

  from it. Would they attack? The Icarians had claimed the

  birds were gentle except when hunting their prey. Likely they

  would see her as fair game because she could neither fight

  nor flee.

  Shock silenced Zara's protests when she realized the

  animal soaring above her had dropped something into the

  net. An object bounced next to her on the taut alor vines, and

  after a moment Zara reached out and managed to grab it.

  She retrieved a crab, its shell cracked open. Zara squinted

  at the symbion which had come to roost once again in its

  128

  Icarus Rising

  by Bernadette Gardner

  nest. It eyed her expectantly, and she met its gaze with

  confusion. "Is this for me? To eat?"

  The symbion had no reaction, but Zara could think of no

  other explanation. She couldn't recall the lifespan of unjoined

  symbions, but she wondered if this one might be old enough

  to remember a time when Icarians dropped offerings into the

  net from their aerie above. Had it learned from that

  experience?

  With numb fingers, Zara worked at prying the crab's

  broken shell open. She managed to tear a few bits of meat

  out of the shell and chewed the rubbery flesh gratefully.

  Icarians often ate raw crabs, so she figured the uncooked

  meat wouldn't leave her any worse off than she already was.

  "Well, thank you." She gestured with a crab claw at the

  symbion. "Now I won't starve. Any ideas on how I might get

  home?"

  The symbion only stared at her. Finally, apparently bored

  with watching her gnaw on the remnants of the crab, it closed

  its eyes and fell asleep.

  Caleb woke to Arilani's face hovering above him. To his

  surprise, she seemed to be unfastening his restraints.

 

‹ Prev