Endurance

by Richard Chizmar

  “Prisoners Wonlee and Kelly must be executed, as well.”

  “Why?” Once more I tested the grip of my escorts’ claws. “Are you having all the torturing equipment cleaned and recalibrated?”

  “Take her to my chambers,” SrrokVar said, and then stepped back as TssVar whirled suddenly.

  “I will not permit further research, Lord.” TssVar turned to address his centurons. “Remove the slaves being held in SrrokVar’s chambers, and confine them to the auction holding cell until further notice.”

  “TssVar.” I waited until he looked at me directly. “I need to treat those prisoners.”

  He paused for a long moment, then inclined his head. “Allow the doctor to see to them.”

  I mouthed a silent thank-you as I walked past him. One echoed many times by the battered, pathetically grateful prisoners I later treated in the holding cell.

  Gael Kelly came to me the moment I was thrust into the cell and produced a med kit. “I think you’ll be wanting this, dote.”

  I gave him an enthusiastic hug, glad to see his winsome grin had returned. My smile tightened as I thought of what SrrokVar had requested. “Give me a hand with these people, will you?”

  The Irishman made a good assistant, mostly by keeping my patients distracted and calm. Everyone settled down as we took care of the last of the injured and discussed the situation in low tones.

  “He’ll not sell these knackers, not as they are.” Gael scanned the twenty prisoners and sighed. “Bushed, the whole gang of them. I’m gobsmacked they didn’t do away with them on the spot.”

  That reminded me. “Gael, I need to tell you something important.” I relayed the standoff between TssVar and SrrokVar, then the sadist’s requests for execution.

  He didn’t say anything for a long time. “As thick as two planks, I am. Should have expected it. Letting on like I was going back to Clare.” He sat back against a wall and closed his eyes. “Pisses me off, it does. Can’t scatter from this one. Unless …”

  I nudged him with my elbow. “Unless?”

  “You could give up the sleeven and save us all.”

  “The sleeven.” It took a moment to recall what that meant. “Oh, no, Gael, not Noarr. He didn’t betray us.”

  “Didn’t he?” Gael swept his hand around the cell. “I begged him to help me get these knackers to safety, Doc. Scaldy chancer said no.”

  “But that’s only because—” I stopped. I couldn’t exactly blurt out the details of what I knew, and the coming attack. “Trust me, Noarr had his reasons for refusing.”

  “Away on.” Gael got to his feet. “I’ll not give out to you about Noarr. You’ll see what he is, when they come for us.”

  “We’re not going to die,” I said, not totally convinced I was right.

  “Everyone dies, Doc.” He gave me a strange smile. “Some poor bastards a little sooner than others. This time, you get to pick when.”

  I didn’t get to pick anything that happened after that. I barely got the details, and those left me stunned.

  TssVar’s stubborn refusal to execute me, Reever, Gael, or any of the injured prisoners created a rift straight down the center of his ranks. Half the centurons apparently agreed with SrrokVar’s demands to rid the compound of the unhealthy and the perennial troublemakers. The other half were intensely loyal to the OverLord and supported his decision.

  In the end, it didn’t matter whose side anyone was on. SrrokVar directly petitioned the Faction Hanar, the supreme ruler over all Hsktskt, and demanded TssVar be replaced immediately.

  In a completely unexpected, stunning move, the Hanar agreed and sent back orders to do just that.

  SrrokVar was promoted to the rank of OverLord and given full command over the Catopsa facility. After being publicly reprimanded and demoted to Lord, TssVar was to return to the Hsktskt home-world.

  As his last official act, TssVar had me removed from the holding cell and returned to the infirmary. There he brought his mate, FurreVa’s brood, and the quints just before they were scheduled to leave the compound.

  “OverLord.” I nodded to his mate and gave the kids an encouraging smile. “I was sorry to hear you’re leaving.” Sorrier than he could ever know, now that I faced the prospect of the sadist running things on the rock.

  “I regret it has come to this absurdity.”

  “SrrokVar will do a lot more than that.” I lowered my voice. “We may not have much in common as people, but what he’s doing to these prisoners is insufferable. Is there anything you can do to get your ruler to prohibit this research of his?”

  The huge yellow eyes blinked. “Even now, you do not try to plead for yourself.”

  I lifted my shoulder in a helpless shrug. Pleading for myself wouldn’t do anything.

  TssVar glanced at his brood, then drew me to one side and bent his massive head down. “I will go before the Hanar when I return, and inform him of the damage being inflicted on Hsktskt property. That is all I can promise, Doctor.”

  “That should be plenty.” I curled my small hand around one clawed appendage end. “Thank you.”

  Before they made their dignified exit, my namesake tugged on the edge of my tunic. “I will continue to work hard at my studies. You will find no fault with me when I become a physician, Designate.”

  I couldn’t exactly hug her, but I gave her an affectionate stroke on one limb. “I know I won’t.”

  TssVar and his family left without looking back. I made unnecessary rounds and swore under my breath every time I sniffed.

  We waited to hear when the first of the executions was scheduled to take place. I kept my fingers crossed, hoping the Aksellans and Jorenians would be ready in time to stop them.

  No one quite knew what to do when SrrokVar announced that he had cancelled every single one of the executions.

  Paul Dalton came in for treatment the next day for a wrenched back that was perfectly fine.

  “You tried to get out of work on K-2 doing this, if I remember correctly,” I said as I scanned his back, keeping the display averted from Zella’s sharp gaze. “Nurse, prepare a therapeutic bath. Make it nice and cool.”

  She eyed Paul, then me. “Seems very minor, this male’s injury.”

  “When I need a consultation, you’ll be the first to know,” I said, which made her stomp off toward the treatment room.

  I removed our headgear as soon as she was out of sight.

  “You haven’t told your staff yet?” Paul asked as he feigned stiffness and reclined on the treatment table.

  “Not a good idea.” Now that I knew Noarr wasn’t the Hsktskt informant, everyone looked suspicious to me. “Tell me what the status is on your preparations.”

  My engineer friend quickly related how he and Geef Skrople had rallied support among the population, including the League prisoners Wonlee felt could be trusted.

  “We’ve created a grid of the entire compound, and planned escape routes. The guards should be no problem, if you can pull off your end of the plan.”

  “I’ve almost got enough supplies synthesized.” Which hadn’t been easy, especially with the League staffers constantly underfoot. “I’ll need a couple of trustees to handle the distribution from here—food prep would draw the least notice.”

  “We’ll start moving it, then.” He smiled up at me. “Don’t look so worried, Doc. This will be a piece of cake.”

  “Be cake, it will not.” Zella appeared beside me and tugged off her headgear. Her tail slapped the floor beside my feet a few times. “To move the drugs, what containers do you plan to use?” Her teeth glittered as Paul and I gaped at her. “That happens in this facility, the nurses know everything. You had us fooled, you didn’t think?”

  “Who else knows?”

  Zella nodded toward Pmohhi and the Saksonan resident. “Be trusted, they can. To help, we want.”

  Paul stayed quiet as I considered what I saw in the nurse’s keen black eyes. “I’m not so sure I trust you, Zel.”

  “The feeling
, I know.” She helped Paul up into a sitting position, then slapped his chart in my hands. “No choice, you have.”

  She’d forgotten a vow. Maybe I could do the same. “All right. Let’s get Pmohhi and Vlaav to give us a hand, and I’ll fill you all in.”

  I was astonished to find out how much of our plans the nurses and resident had pieced together. They seemed eager to help, too.

  “Those drugs need to be infused, not ingested,” Vlaav said. We’d kept our headgear off, and the sound of the therapy bath jets concealed our voices. “We do not have nearly enough syrinpresses for our own use, much less this.”

  “Since we’re not dealing with intravenous infusion, we’re not going to use instruments. Intramuscular will work just fine.” I told them what we planned to resort to. “Wonlee has been hoarding them every since we got here.”

  “That’s … barbaric,” Pmohhi said.

  “If the shoe fits,” I said, and turned to Paul. “Stop relaxing, pal. You’ve got to get back to the tiers and spread the word.”

  “Maybe I’ll sprain my ankle tomorrow,” the Terran said, grumbling as he climbed out of the bath.

  Pmohhi and Vlaav helped Paul into a support brace he didn’t need, while Zella and I cleaned up the therapy room.

  “Someone has been working as an informant to the Hsktskt,” I said as I drained the tub. “I need to know who.”

  Her fur rose around her neck. “One of us, you think it is? Impossible, that is.”

  “Don’t be so sure. This place makes even the most virtuous souls desperate. Someone might be trying to earn back their freedom.”

  “Coming for us, they say the League is.” Zella disposed of the used linens and gazed at me. “Will be over if they do, your freedom.”

  Joseph would see to that. “Maybe I’ll stay.”

  “Testify to help you, we will.”

  Like the colonists had on K-2. I let out a single, sad laugh. “It’s been done before. Didn’t help. Thanks anyway.”

  A paw touched my arm. “Why you are so driven, that is. For you, there is no freedom.”

  “No.” It struck me again, hard. If the Jorenians and Aksellans arrived first, I’d get a headstart. But Zella was right. I’d never be free, not as long as the League thought I was alive. “There never will be.”

  “A way, there could be.”

  I listened as Zella described her idea, then shook my head. “Won’t work.”

  “Unless you attempt this, you’ll never know.” She seemed a little ashamed when she added, “As a slave forever, I do not wish to think of you.”

  “Me neither.” I sterilized my hands and picked up Paul’s chart. What she’d said made me feel better than I had in weeks. “Let’s get moving on rounds. We have a lot to do before the food prep team gets here.”

  “Doctor.” Pmohhi stood in the open door panel, looking rather flustered. “The female Hsktskt is here.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Abrupt Offerings

  Shortly after I began FurreVa’s final postop evaluation, she informed me that she was getting married.

  To SrrokVar.

  It took a minute to comprehend what she’d said. “You’re going to what?”

  Pmohhi had been standing between me and FurreVa while I performed the final postop evaluation. She squeaked and darted out of the way.

  The big female Hsktskt glowered at me. “As I indicated, SrrokVar desires to unite with me. I have agreed.”

  I wanted to put her face back the way it was. With a blunt object. “When did this happen?”

  “SrrokVar has expressed interest in me for some time now. GothVar threatened to harm my brood if I returned the OverLord’s favors.” Her tail smacked the base of the table, making it rock. “He used the same intimidation to compel me to discontinue the reconstructive surgery.”

  That explained why she had refused the work and stomped out of the infirmary. “He was a genuine maniac, FurreVa, and put you through hell. Wasn’t that enough? Why get involved with another one?”

  “OverLord SrrokVar is an honorable male.” She pushed the magniviewer arm aside and slid off the exam table. “You are welcome to attend the ritual.”

  “Has your brain leaked out of your ears?” I blocked her path. “An honorable male. Mother of All Houses. He’s a monster!”

  “SrrokVar will not harm me. I must join, or my young will never attain rank.” With one limb she picked me up and set me out of the way, then awkwardly patted my shoulder. “His status makes him a desirable mate. He will ensure my young realize their place in the Faction.”

  I finally broke out of my slack-jawed trance. “Fine. Marry the perverted brute. You have to live with him, I don’t.”

  She left, and I performed rounds in complete silence. Zella eventually got up the nerve to approach me, and slapped her tail on the floor to get my attention.

  “What?” I caught myself and grimaced. “Sorry. What do you need?”

  “Upset, I know you are. In a position to help us, she will be.” The nurse said. “His mate, being.”

  “You’re probably right.” I sighed as I wrote up a schedule of antibiotics for a patient with infected lacerations—inflicted by the prospective bridegroom. “Just don’t expect me to throw rice at them.”

  Pmohhi, who was standing nearby, started to ask me why Terrans pelted newlyweds with grain, but Vlaav interrupted her and asked to speak with me privately. Since his angiomas looked ready to pop, I handed the nurse the chart I was working on and walked over to the empty side of the infirmary.

  “What’s the problem?”

  “Lieutenant Wonlee asked me to relay a message—”

  That was as far as my resident got, because the walls around us began to shake. Huge, booming explosions went off above the compound. Nothing shattered, but I didn’t like the way the rock was trembling under my footgear.

  “What is that?” Vlaav began trickling all over his tunic. “Seismic tremors?”

  I handed him a square of linen. “I think HouseClan Torin has arrived.”

  The Hsktskt had been smart enough to get their ships out of firing range, which obliged the liberation forces to begin the surface assault. Trustees with access to Central Command told me the Aksellans and Jorenians weren’t firing on the compound itself, only bombarding the area around it. Still, it was enough to mobilize the Hsktskt centurons, who immediately began herding all the trustees back to their tiers.

  No injured were reported, but the guards may have been keeping them in lockdown. We made the patients as comfortable and safe as possible, then began our final preparations to aid the assault teams. Since we’d reached zero hour, I briefed the remainder of the medical staffers on the details of our inside job.

  “If Paul Dalton and Geef Skrople manage to get a food prep team in here, give them the last of the synthesized stock,” I said, after checking what we had in the drug storage unit.

  Pmohhi exchanged a troubled look with the other nurses. “We may need it to treat the injured.”

  “We can get everything we need on the Jorenian and Aksellan vessels,” I said. “Or we won’t need it at all.”

  “Doctor.” The Saksonan kept glancing at the centuron guarding the entrance to the infirmary. “We should prioritize by location.”

  “Absolutely.” I gave him an encouraging slap on the shoulder, then had to wipe my hand on my trousers. “Just do the best you can, Doctor.”

  The signal from tier nine came in, and I left Vlaav in charge and went to find Wonlee. A couple of centurons stopped me in the main corridor, but they all believed my story about being summoned to the tier by the new OverLord.

  The Hsktskt should really learn the fine art of falsehood.

  “I need to see prisoner Wonlee,” I told the guard on tier nine. He showed me to the cell and opened the panel. I wasn’t terribly surprised to find it empty, but he was.

  “I’ll report the escape to OverLord SrrokVar,” I said when he had finished throwing his tantrum. The shaking and ex
plosions had stopped, which had me worried. “He can’t go anywhere, not with those ships firing on the surface.”

  “They will not be firing much longer.” The Centuron displayed his toothy pleasure over that. “The enemy’s attack was reflected back at their own ships.”

  Great. I needed to talk to the pel, too.

  I made my way through the tiers, but no Won. As I crossed the prisoner commons on tier fifteen, someone called my name from the depths of the labyrinth.

  “Gael?” I whispered, then nearly jumped out of my skin when Alunthri and Jenner crept around a corner. “God, what is it with everyone sneaking up on me?”

  “Forgive us, Cherijo.” My eternally patient friend looked calm, but my poor cat was frantic. “Will they destroy the compound before we can escape?”

  “No. Hey, pal.” I picked up Jenner, then curled my arm around the Chakacat and gave it a hug. “Don’t be afraid, we’ll get out.” By my estimate it was time to get to the pits. “Come with me. I could use your help.”

  Alunthri followed me to the isolated corridor which led to the solitary confinement area. Before it entered, it came to a shocked halt. “Cherijo, we can’t go in there. The guards—”

  “Are taking a nap.” I pointed to an unconscious centuron huddled beside a deactivated console. “Trust me, it’s safe.”

  Jenner went over to sniff at the Hsktskt, while my friend eyed the small spot of blood on the guard’s tunic. “What is this thing in his chest?”

  “One of Lieutenant Wonlee’s quills.” I plucked the spine from the lizard’s chest and held it out for Alunthri. “See? It’s hollow. Won sheds them like hair; he’s been hoarding them for weeks.”

  “But how does it make the beast unconscious?”

  “It doesn’t.” I tucked the spine in my tunic pocket. “The neuroparalyzer we filled it with did. Over here.”

  The big cat accompanied me as I went to open the hatch to one of the deep pits. Jenner, who had apparently appointed himself guard dog, paced back and forth between the entrances. “Who is in here?”

  I pried the hatch off and pushed it aside. “Reever.”

  “We are freeing Duncan?” Colorless eyes regarded me with renewed alarm.