Endurance

by Richard Chizmar

  Wonlee found me during the next hectic hour, and informed me that SrrokVar had escaped from Catopsa on a small scout ship he’d apparently hidden outside the compound.

  “He is badly injured, according to witnesses. Some kind of severe head injury.”

  He’d finally gotten that last bonesetter off. I wondered how pretty his face was now. “Pity. I planned on turning him over to his victims and let them finish the job.”

  A few of SrrokVar’s loyalists continued to fire upon the prisoners, but Wonlee and the Kevarzangian engineers took care of them in short order.

  Reever and the remaining Hsktskt surrendered in the prisoner commons on tier nine, just as the Jorenians and Aksellans breached the last of the security barriers and entered the compound.

  “I don’t want these guards, or the unconscious ones, killed.” Reever said to me as he watched the advancing arachnids swing in through the door panels on their silvery tethers. “Talk to them, Cherijo.”

  I did. It took a few minutes, but I managed to convince the Aksellans and former slaves not to execute the Hsktskt.

  “They harmed our femalez,” Clyvos said, acidic poison dripping from his leg fangs.

  “They can help us transport these prisoners to the launches.” The floor rumbled beneath our feet, and I sensed that the pel had begun gathering for its final assault. “We’re almost out of time, pal.”

  “Very well. Let uz make hazte.”

  There was a lot to do. Since the surface bombardment had destroyed all the conveyance units, envirosuits had to be distributed and fitted. Litters were brought for the severely injured prisoners and unconscious Hsktskt.

  “Did you bring the grav-lift I ordered?” I asked the former League crew when they came to the infirmary to help me with FurreVa.

  “No, Doctor, the only one available is being used.”

  That meant I needed someone very strong and dexterous enough to avoid hurting the Hsktskt female. “Get Geef Skrople over here, then.”

  The small, wiry engineer appeared a few minutes later. “Doc, you’ve got something for me to lift….” He eyed FurreVa. “Oh. Her.”

  “Yes, her.” I finished sealing the envirosuit over the Hsktskt’s unconscious form. “Don’t worry, she’s in a state of hibernation. Be careful and try not to jog her too much.”

  “Will do.” Demonstrating his tremendous strength, Geef hoisted the big female carefully into his upper appendages, then turned to me. “Where should I put her?”

  She needed to be stabilized before I sent her up to the Sunlace. “Out to the surface, for now.” We were going to need shelters to house the prisoners until they could be transported up to the liberation fleet, I thought, and made a mental note to request it.

  Geef managed to move FurreVa without difficulty, but there were simply too many other Hsktskts for him to handle. The sheer weight of the reptilian beings proved a problem, until Major Devrak appeared with a huge cargo storage container strapped to his broad back.

  “I can carry ten of them at a time,” he said.

  I checked his injuries to see if he was in any shape to try. “No more than ten at once. If you get hurt, I know we won’t be able to move you out of here.”

  The spiders silently watched the Hsktskt as they all moved through corridors toward the surface access hatches. I watched the spiders, and hoped they would hold on to their tempers.

  We guided the continuous stream of happy ex-slaves through the tiers, releasing the locking mechanisms as we went to free the last of those in lockdown. Once we reached the access hatches, Paul and Geef organized the evacuees into manageable groups and started sending them out to the launches.

  I followed the last group out to the pel crystal plain, and gasped when I saw the massive collection of Lok-Teel eating away at the tul growths they could finally reach.

  “Soft auld day, isn’t it, dote?”

  Gael’s green eyes glowed through the plas face-plate of his helmet, and I nearly dropped the patient I was helping to the launch in astonishment. “Gael! I thought you were—”

  “Gone? Takes more than a thick to get rid of a jackeen like me, dote. Let me help you now.”

  He got on the other side of the prisoner and supported some of the weight. I started to demand to know what had happened to him, when a terrifying crash made us both stop and look back.

  Streams of the molten pel punched through Catopsa’s surface, all around the borders of the compound. Like huge sprays of water, the streams shot hundreds of feet into the air, then curled over the highest of the prison towers. The ends met with such precision that in the blink of an eye the pel had formed an enormous cage over the tiers.

  “Wait.” After all we’d suffered here, it seemed appropriate to stick around and witness what would happen next. “Watch.”

  The pel cage slowly began to collapse in on the compound. The guard towers were the first to shatter. The weight of them in turn collapsed the lower structures. And still the pel kept shrinking, tightening, until the individual streams began to meld together at the top of the cage.

  A yawning sinkhole formed all around the compound, and the streams solidified into a solid bubble of pel, still descending and contracting with the same inexorable force. We could see through it, and watched as the entire compound was rapidly reduced to shards. The pel pulled the engulfed, shattered structures down into the crater, and filled in the hole with itself.

  The end result was a featureless, smooth stretch of crystal. As if the compound had never existed. The Hsktskt wouldn’t be using Catopsa as a slave-depot ever again.

  Moving more than twenty thousand beings from an asteroid couldn’t be done in a day. I instructed the liberation force pilots transporting the prisoners to bring down emergency shelter units on every return trip. After being allocated their own, the Hsktskt sullenly provided their silent assistance in setting up the other temporary habitats.

  I used one strictly as a primary-care unit and continued to treat prisoners and Hsktskt alike. Since she was too critical to move, I kept FurreVa there, too.

  Vlaav stuck by me like glue.

  “Doctor, you should take a rest interval.”

  “I will.” No, I wouldn’t. I gestured to Zella. “Next patient, please.”

  “What are your plans, when you leave this place? Will you resume your position on the Jorenian vessel?”

  “I’m not sure what I’m going to do.” That was the truth, and it surprised me anyway. I looked over at the Saksonan. “Why?”

  The red nubs on his face glowed brightly. “I have learned much from working with you. I would appreciate the opportunity to finish my residency under your tutelage.”

  I knew he had a bit of a crush on me, but I wasn’t going to encourage it. “Don’t you want to go home, Vlaav?”

  “No. Not if I can learn to be half the surgeon you are. Will you teach me?”

  “Flattery won’t get you any slack.” I’d helped train other interns and residents in the past, but I’d never been asked to be a primary instructor before. If I’d possessed hemangiomas, they would have been popping like champagne corks. “Are you sure you really want to be my student?”

  “Yes.”

  The other problems I had to deal with made my grin fade. “Let’s get off this rock, then we’ll talk about it.”

  Vlaav happily performed rounds for me after that, and came back to report on the half dozen prisoners we’d kept in the shelter for observation.

  I listened, and imagined once more teaching this kid to be a cutter. I could do that, I thought. If everything else worked out. “How’s the OverSeer doing?”

  “She cannot remain in artificial hibernation much longer,” he said as I finished medicating yet another former prisoner suffering from mild hypothermia. He gave me a rundown of scan results from her chart.

  He was right. If we didn’t get her up to the Sunlace and on an operating table soon, she’d never come out of it. “Keep close monitor on her vitals for me.”

 
The massive transport operation slowly came to a close. Salo and a warrior party arrived as we were loading the last of the prisoners into the Akesellan launches, and I had saw their collective reaction toward the remaining Hsktskt.

  It wasn’t a desire to hand out Jorenian kisses of peace.

  “Salo, the compound has been completely destroyed.”

  “A pity.” The big warrior removed a large, bladed weapon from his sojourn pack. “I would have decorated it with my ClanSign.”

  ClanSign was what Jorenians did with the bodies of their enemies after they disemboweled them. I saw Wonlee join the Jorenians. Beneath his envirosuit, his spines flexed. He was carrying a Hasktskt pulse rifle in each hand.

  “Stop right there, Lieutenant.”

  My prickly friend’s voice transmitted his rage and fury over my comunit. “They enslaved us. They killed or sold thousands here.”

  “Which was my fault, remember?”

  No one seemed to care. The lizards collected in a tight mass, ready to defend themselves. HouseClan Torin started swinging their blades in what looked like massacre warm-up exercises.

  Time for me to play referee again.

  “Hold it.” I placed myself between the two groups, and held up my gloved hands. I’d already gotten the Aksellans to back off, and knew how to stop the Jorenians. “Salo, I shield these Hsktskt.”

  “You would protect these monsters, Healer?” Salo asked me.

  “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m doing.” I walked over to the largest of the Hsktskt. “I want you to tell your people to stand down. Now.”

  “Hsktskt do not surrender to slaves,” the centuron said with chilling conviction.

  “The Hsktskt are going to end up as fodder if you don’t back down and let me negotiate a compromise here.”

  It took a few more minutes, but I convinced the lizards to stop putting on the aggressive act. Finally, I had to deal with Wonlee, who didn’t care what I shielded.

  “Lieutenant.” I intercepted him as he started toward the group of Hsktskt. “Don’t do this. This slave-depot is useless now, and the pel won’t let them build another one. We can let them go.”

  “They killed my wife.”

  “A lethal mineral called the tul killed your wife.” I put my hand on the barrel of one pulse rifle, and hoped he wouldn’t shoot me just to get at the lizards. “Wonlee, we’ve been through so much together. If I can let them go, so can you.”

  “You are a physician. You do not understand the need for justice.”

  Oh, but I did. “You were a medic. You know how fragile and brief life is. Let the violence and hatred end, here and now.” I glanced over at the Hsktskt, and thought of the coming League invasion. “Believe me, they’ll get what they deserve, soon enough.”

  Another round of negotiation convinced the Jorenians to allow the Hsktskt survivors to take a ship and return to Faction space.

  “This was not the end I envisioned,” the Jorenian said as we watched the Hsktskt launch lift off. “Releasing the beasts was never a consideration.”

  “They’re not all beasts.” I thought of FurreVa. They were—what they were. “Come on, big guy. We’d better get off this rock and back where we belong.”

  Zella met me halfway down the entrance ramp. “Continues to weaken, the Hsktskt female. In critical condition now, she is.”

  It was time to go home.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Masks Off

  The last jaunt up to the Sunlace seemed to take forever. I couldn’t stay in my harness, not with FurreVa stretched out on a litter, so I planted myself beside her for the duration of the trip. Her monitors didn’t look good.

  The surgery couldn’t wait any longer.

  “Signal Medical for me,” I asked the pilot when we were halfway to the ship. “Tell them I need a thoracic team scrubbed and ready for us.”

  By the time the pilot docked in launch bay, I stood at the hull doors with the OverSeer, and pushed her out onto the docking ramp the moment the panels opened. Once off the shuttle, I had the Jorenians load her onto a gurney, and signaled Squilyp.

  “Are you ready to go?”

  “We’re prepared, Doctor,” the Omorr said. “What’s the patient’s condition?”

  “Bad. Direct displacer blast to the upper torso. Multiple internal trauma, definitely cardiac and liver, God knows what else. I had to induce artificial hibernation just to keep her alive.” I checked her infuser lines, then nodded to the crew members helping me. “Have the team in the suite. We’ll be there in a minute.”

  I paused long enough to snap out orders for the injured to be taken to Medical, then accompanied FurreVa’s gurney into a gyrlift. Every step made my stomach clench. Every glance down at the motionless Hsktskt female made me move that much faster.

  Adaola, who was wearing a first-year intern’s tunic, manned the gurney from the moment we entered the bay. “Go and scrub, Healer. I will prep the patient.”

  “Where’s Squilyp?” I stripped off my outer garments as I headed for the cleansing unit. “I need him to assist.”

  He hopped out of the surgical suite, already scrubbed and gowned, and lifted his gloved membranes. “As I anticipated, Doctor.”

  “Mr. Wonderful. Still as exemplary as ever.” My mouth hitched as I thrust my hands under the biodecon port to sterilize. “As soon as she’s under, get her chest open. I’ll be there in a second.”

  My eyes went to the monitors as I entered the suite, and waited for a moment as Squilyp lowered the sterile field. FurreVa’s heart rate was erratic, and she’d lost too much blood. I was pleased to see Adaola had already initiated the synplasma infusers and had the heart/lung array standing by.

  “First-year intern, huh?” I studied the instrument setup with approval. “So you were serious about becoming a physician.”

  “Senior Healer Squilyp has been an inspirational instructor,” Adaola said, her white-within-white eyes crinkling above her mask. “He has encouraged me to pursue a surgical residency.”

  Squilyp had once treated nurses with the same compassion he would a lascalpel: to be used until they no longer functioned. He’d grown up a lot since those days. “Couldn’t help infecting her with the bug, could you, Squid Lips?”

  He winced at the old nickname. “I feel certain Adaola will make a competent surgeon.”

  “I always thought she was wasted as a nurse,” I said as I went around the table and took my position opposite the Omorr.

  The big Jorenian female made a modest gesture. “My thanks, Healer.”

  Squilyp had already made the initial incision and opened FurreVa’s thorax from her neck to her pelvis, and was now clamping back the subdermal layers to expose the chest cavity. I pulled the primary laser rig down and activated the lascalpel, then leaned over to have a look.

  “Son of a bitch.” The Omorr lifted his head, and I shook mine. “No, not you, Squil. The one who did this to her.” And had gotten away with it, which still infuriated me.

  Squilyp ran an organ series as I performed the visual and probe assessments. “Significant vessel damage to both chambers of the heart. Right kidney is compromised, and there are dozens of perforations in the superior colon.

  “She never could do anything the easy way.” I couldn’t get a clear take on the central region of the chest cavity—there was simply too much blood and tissue occluding the area. I ordered more suction. “What about the liver?”

  The Omorr scanned the female Hsktskt a second time. “Elevated bilirubin, serum alkaline phosphatase, serum aminotransferase, decreased serum albumin and prothrombin time.”

  SrrokVar had known exactly where to shoot her to cause the maximum amount of damage. “What else?”

  “I’m reading no organic cohesion. Liver cellular loss stands at …” Squilyp scanned her again, before he gazed at me with solemn eyes. “It’s ninety-seven-point-four percent.”

  That meant—”No. You’re wrong.”

  I thrust his scanner aside and took the suction tube
from the nurse using it. Blood and body fluid swamped the cavity. I’d simply evacuate it myself.

  “Cherijo—”

  “It’s displaced from the impact. I’ll find it, it has to be here.”

  A moment later, I pulled the tube from her chest, and the Omorr cleared his throat. In the old days, when we’d been competing for the Senior Healer slot onboard the Sunlace, he would have gloated over this. Now all he offered was a silent gaze of sympathy.

  “You were right. Okay. I’ll harvest viable cells and clone her a new one.” I pulled a specimen tray, and began to search for a shred of the organ. “We’ll keep her going until I have a replacement organ.”

  Membranes took the probe from my hand. “Doctor.”

  I grabbed another one from the tray. “No, Squilyp. I’ve put her back together twice before. I can do it again.”

  “If there were no other injuries, I would agree with you.” The Omorr came around the table and pushed the tray aside. “Cherijo. She took a full burst, at point-blank range. You have to accept the facts. Her liver has been destroyed.”

  I stopped probing the chest cavity and pulled the laser rig down. “Then we’ll keep her in sleep suspension until I can locate a transplant.”

  The monitors went off, and Adaola gave me a despairing look. I began resuscitation, biting into my lower lip with each compression. She couldn’t die on me. We’d been through too much together. Echoes of her low, rough voice pounded inside my skull.

  Angry. You are called SsurreVa? Suffering. Let me die, Terran. Wistful. Reconstruct … this? Determined. There will be no more arena games. Dying. My young are safe. You are safe. It is enough.

  The monitors slowly flat lined.

  We tried electro-stim. More drugs. Nothing worked. The Jorenians stayed out of my way. Squilyp and I worked on her body for a half hour before I finally straightened and slowly stripped off my gloves.

  “I’m calling it. Time of death is”—I glanced at the wall console—“oh-nineteen, twenty-two hours.”

  The Omorr looked down at the dead Hsktskt. “I’m sorry, Doctor.”