The Anuan Legacy

by Traci Ison Schafer

  CHAPTER 94 -

  TAS

  Gaige, holding the Kian, fell to the floor of X-Tran in a heap, blood everywhere.

  “Transition them to sickbay, Trigget, now!” I yelled.

  “Report!” Daigon shouted over the mission channel.

  Disconnected from the reality of it, my shaky voice answered as if acting on its own, not a part of me. “It’s bad, Daigon. Get to sickbay as fast as you can.”

  I reached sickbay, with Daigon bursting in only seconds behind me. Gaige lay on a bed with Zada hovering over him. Bright red blood pulsed onto Gaige’s cloaking suit from a wide-open gash in his neck. Victoria and the Kian lay on their own beds, still and unaware. Bec, there with Victoria, cried quietly while she tried to link to Sena.

  Daigon took hold of Gaige’s hand. “Come on, son. You’re strong. You can do this. Fight!” He repeated encouragements over and over again with no response from Gaige’s blue-gray lips.

  Zada worked fast, never taking her eyes off Gaige. “I have the hemorrhaging stopped now, but he’s already lost so much blood.” Her voice cracked as she spoke. She didn’t let her emotions slow her down, though. She held the wound closed with one bloody hand and with the other, waved a medical wand back-and-forth over it. “Miccan, regeneration patches,” she called out.

  While Zada continued to work to mend Gaige’s wound, Miccan opened the front of his cloaking suit and applied two blood regeneration patches to his abdomen. She loosely refastened the closures of the suit when she’d finished.

  After several minutes, Zada finally had Gaige’s wound completely seamed together. The mark left behind was thick and bright red, but at least it was mended.

  Sena ran into the room. Her tear-filled eyes fixed on Gaige immediately. She rushed to him and, hanging over his lifeless body, lay her hands on his chest. Soft whispers escaped her barely moving lips. “No, no, no, no.”

  Thankfully, she had been spared the initial gore of her son’s condition. The sight that remained told the story well enough, though.

  Daigon overlaid his hand with one of Sena's on Gaige’s chest and put his other arm around her shoulder. The two, mother and father, with one mission, continued to will Gaige to live. Conner had slipped into the room and put an arm around his still-crying mother. I couldn’t believe the scene before me. Gaige looked bad, really bad. There was so much blood. The wound was unmistakable. They were back.

  “Zada,” Miccan whispered. “His numbers are fading.”

  “No!” Sena cried out.

  Throughout the room, voices wrapped themselves together into white noise praying for Gaige’s recovery, willing it, affirming it, over and over. I’d watched Gaige grow from an infant into a man, like another son to me. I couldn’t grasp what might happen to him now.

  “Zada,” Miccan said. “It’s Victoria. Her numbers are fading, too.”

  Zada snapped her head around to Victoria, then to me. We locked eyes, knowing.

  “Bring her out!” I shouted.

  The room quieted and heads turned to me, to Zada, to Victoria, to Gaige, as the pieces came together.

  I ran to Victoria’s side and took her hand. “Seeing him like this will scare her.”

  “Yes, it will,” Zada said, looking at me, waiting.

  “Do it,” I nodded.

  Zada waived the medical wand over Victoria’s face. Victoria opened her eyes. “What happened? My dream. Is Gaige all right?”

  I leaned over Victoria to block her view of Gaige until I could explain. “I need to talk to you about something.”

  She sprang up in the bed, eyes searching. “Where’s Gaige?” Her eyes fixed beyond me. She’d found him. “No!” Pushing past me, she ran to him. She took his face in her hands and laid her cheek against his. “No. Don’t leave me. Please.” With tears streaming down her face, she stroked his hair. Smears of his blood covered her face and hands.

  Opposite Victoria, Daigon and Sena remained by Gaige’s side. Desperation clung to their faces. The rest looked on, watching and waiting and praying. Silent hope hung in the air.

  I took Victoria by the arm and turned her toward me. She fought to turn back, but I forced her in my direction. I had to. “Victoria, listen to me.” She still fought me. I had to make her understand. “You can help him.”

  She stopped resisting. “How?”

  “You and he are one. Reach out to him. Help him back. You’re the only one who has a chance.”

  As if in a trance, she turned back to Gaige and placed her hands on his face once more. This time she didn’t cry or beg. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Daigon and Sena stepped back. Victoria moved her hands down Gaige’s face and onto his wounded neck, then glided them onto his chest. She spread her fingers, covering as much of his chest as her relatively small hands could.

  Zada, Miccan, and the rest of the sickbay team watched Gaige’s numbers with stark faces. I held on to hope as Victoria continued to move her hands over Gaige, forcing her energy into him. Red on black, her bloody handprints covered his suit. Minutes felt like hours. Eventually Gaige’s skin turned from blue-gray to a pale white.

  A cautious smile crept across Zada’s face. “His numbers are rising.”

  Victoria continued to work. Gradually Gaige’s color improved to a light cream. Not his usual tan complexion, but still, a living human shade.

  After a few more minutes, Zada gave another update. “His numbers are steady. Not quite normal, but close enough.”

  Victoria let out an exhausted breath and laid her head on Gaige’s chest. She remained that way for only a moment before crawling in next to him. She immediately fell asleep, her energy depleted.

  “Let’s leave them,” Zada said. “Her presence is the best medicine for Gaige right now. He’ll continue to improve as long as she’s with him. We’ll clean them up later. Miccan, transfer Brian to the next room.”

  I patted Victoria on the arm softly as she slept, thanking her. Then I went to Bec and Conner and hugged them. Members of the medical team moved Brian to the next room. The rest of us filed out of sickbay, with the exception of Daigon and Sena. They stood silently next to Gaige for another minute or two before leaving him with Victoria.

  Gaige looked so much better than when we’d first pulled him on board. But only time would tell how successful his recovery would be.

  CHAPTER 95 -

  VICTORIA

  I woke with a gasp. A vision of snake eyes lingered in my mind. Gaige lay next to me covered in dried blood. It caked his neck and the top part of his suit. Handprints spread across the rest of the black mesh outfit. A thick, pink scar stretched from just under his left ear to the top of his right collar bone. Fuzzy scenes came back to me and I remembered what had happened.

  Shaking, I held my hand underneath Gaige’s nose. His breath warmed my fingers. I didn’t want to take my hand away from the validation that Gaige was alive, but I couldn’t see him like that.

  I figured a sink must be tucked away somewhere in all the hidden compartments. Too impatient to figure out where, I rolled off the bed and went to the constructor. I told it to give me a warm, wet towel, and a dry one, too. After some exchange about how, exactly, I defined warm, it provided what I’d asked for.

  I squeezed a corner of the wet towel over Gaige’s raw wound. Drops of water trickled onto his neck. He made no movement. Barely touching the area around the freshly healed gash, I dabbed the blood from Gaige’s neck. I continued to clean him until his neck and face were free of blood and glistened with moisture. After patting him dry with the other towel, I disposed of them both in the constructor.

  If not for the scar on Gaige’s neck and his soiled clothing, I’d have never known he’d been injured. His skin coloring had almost returned to its normal bronzed shade and his chest rose and fell in an easy rhythm. I knelt down at eye level with his chest and watched, thankful for each breath he took. I’d feel even better once he woke. Please wake.

  After an hour or so, Gaige moaned and raised his ha
nd to his neck. He didn’t open his eyes.

  “It’s okay. Zada healed it.”

  His hand relaxed and dropped to his chest. Then he was still again. I pulled a chair up next to him, watched, and waited. After another couple of hours, Gaige stirred and opened his eyes. They fixed, lifeless, on the ceiling.

  The way he looked scared me and I jumped up. “Gaige?”

  His eyes closed. He was trying to come back to me, but he’d been through so much. I’d helped him before. I had to help him finish this. Crawling back into bed with him, I lay on my right side and wrapped my left arm and leg over his body. Focusing on nothing else, I willed all the energy I could gather into him. Concentrating and concentrating, willing and willing, I kept on until finally he pulled in a labored breath and tried to clear his throat.

  “Gaige? Can you hear me?”

  “Mm-hm,” he said in a raspy voice.

  “Can you open your eyes?”

  His eyelids flickered, were still, then flickered again and opened. The life was back in them this time. I leaned over so he could see I was there. His eyes grew large. He tried to grab for me, but his arm didn’t work quite right. It dropped to the bed after only rising halfway.

  “Gaige, what is it?”

  He raised his arm again and managed to touch my face this time. “You’re . . . hurt!”

  “No. I’m not hurt.”

  His arm dropped. His eyes rolled back and he struggled to breathe.

  “Gaige, stay with me.” I placed my hands on him and saw what he’d seen. Except for where I’d touched the wet towel, my hands were covered in dried blood, just as my face must have been. I’d paid no attention to myself before, but now I saw plainly what had scared him. “It’s not my blood. I’m not hurt. I’m fine. Please come back. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I pushed more of my energy into him and willed him calm.

  Gaige’s breathing slowed and his eyes looked straight at me. He reached for my face again and rubbed at the blood on my cheek. “Not . . . yours?”

  “Not mine. I’m not hurt.”

  He slid his hand behind my neck, pulled me against him, and fell back to sleep. Only a few minutes later he tried to clear his throat again.

  I eased myself from his loose grip. “Would you like some water?”

  “Yes. Please.”

  I made out his hoarse words and ran to the constructor, bringing back a container of water. He took it. I held his head so he could sit up enough to drink. The bed quickly adjusted, providing the support he needed.

  He emptied the container in one long gulp. “Thank you,” he said, his voice clearer.

  I took the container from him and set it on the floor. “How do you feel?”

  “After my injury?” He paused as if gathering strength. “Or the heart attack you gave me . . .” He took a breath. “. . . with all that blood on your face?” He smiled. Gaige was back.

  I crawled in next to him and tucked myself under his arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was such a mess until I noticed my hands.”

  He lifted one to examine. “That’s a lot of blood. Mine?”

  “Yours.”

  “You should shower and get some rest.” He paused. “I’ll be okay while you do.”

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  He sat completely up. “I’m fine.” He placed his feet, still in the boots of his black mesh outfit, onto the floor and started to stand.

  I held him back. “You need to stay in bed.”

  He swayed and lay back down. “Maybe another few minutes wouldn’t hurt.” Within seconds, he’d drifted off.

  Exhausted after expending so much energy helping Gaige, I must have fallen asleep, too. I wasn’t sure for how long, but the next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and Gaige was sitting by the bed in a clean robe, quietly watching me.

  “Feeling better?” I asked.

  “Much. But I can’t stand to see you like that. You look injured. There’s a shower here where you can get the blood off.” He stood and took one slow step. “Come on. I’ll take you to it.”

  I’d felt exactly the same way about seeing him all bloodied. He didn’t need to overdo it, though. “Can’t you just tell me?” I asked, getting out of bed.

  “No. I need to stretch and move around. I’ve been in that bed long enough.” He took my hand and moved a few more steps forward. “See? I’m steady.”

  His hand felt warm and his healthy color had improved even more. He took one solid step after another with no wobbling, sweating, or anything else that might indicate he struggled.

  “Use your other senses,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Your other senses. Don’t judge by what you see. You can know with certainty how I’m doing.”

  I moved past sight and sound and touch. I tapped into him, beyond all those things, as easily as if I’d stepped into a pair of shoes. He was well. “Okay, I believe you. You can show me the shower.”

  He pushed a button on the wall. An outline next to it opened to reveal another room, a bathroom.

  “Water?” he asked.

  “Yes, water. I’ll try the ion thing another time.”

  With smooth, strong movements, he started demonstrating how to use the shower. I no longer worried about his well-being and my mind filled with other things. His words drifted into the air and never met my ears. My eyes were too busy poring over him for my ears to function.

  “. . . then select this one.” He slid his finger across a symbol on the wall and water blasted down next to us from the ceiling. “That’s all there is to it.”

  I’d missed most of what he’d told me. But how hard could it be?—if you were an Anuan who could read the written language.

  “I guess I shouldn’t quiz you, huh?” His dimples punctuated his smile this time. “How about you just tell it instead?” He reached his hand into the water and rubbed it across my cheek, rinsing the blood from it. He did the same for my other cheek, then my forehead, my chin, my nose.

  I couldn’t move. His touch hypnotized me. Paralyzed me.

  “I should let you finish.” He traced my lips with his index finger then removed his hand from my face. He didn’t leave, though. Instead he leaned in. My heart leapt, jumping toward him and the moment I’d been waiting for. He shook his head and took a step back. “You should finish. I want things to be better than this.”

  Better? I didn’t care if we were in a cave. But the experience belonged to both of us. If he wanted better, then better it would be. “I’ll hurry.”

  He left me standing next to the flowing water. I stepped under the stream and took the quickest shower on record. When I finished, I towel-dried my hair and smoothed it out the best I could. With no constructor in the bathroom, I wrapped the towel snuggly around my body and left my blood-stained nightgown abandoned on the floor. Checking myself in the mirror, I decided that, under the circumstances, it would have to do. We didn’t need to wait any longer for makeup and sexy clothes that wouldn’t stay on long anyway. I pinched my checks to add some color and stepped out of the bathroom.

  Gaige stood nearby, a fluffy white robe in his outstretched hands. He wrapped it around me and I let the towel drop to the floor.

  “I’ve been cleared to leave,” he said. “Are you ready to go back to your quarters?”

  “Are you sure? Was Zada here?”

  “I linked to her. My medical values were being monitored from another section of sickbay. Thanks to you, Zada, and a couple of blood regeneration patches, my numbers are all back within normal ranges. The worst is over.”

  I let out a sigh. “Oh, thank goodness.”

  “So, are you ready?” Gaige held out his hand and I took it.

  “We’re not really dressed for roaming the halls.” With my free hand, I lifted the hem of the robe, soft as a cotton ball between my fingers.

  “No one should be in the medical section right now unless it’s one of the medical staff. They won’t mind.”

  My room seemed so homey, I
’d forgotten it was a converted well room—the Anuan version of a hospital room. “Okay. I’m ready.”

  But was I? The closer we got to my room, the more my heart raced. Not with excitement. With fear. My raw nerves twitched with anxiety, causing a chill to settle on me. What if I did something wrong? What if he didn’t like the way I did it? I squeezed Gaige’s hand, hoping to draw strength from him.

  “It’s the same for me, you know?”

  “It is?” Gaige’s words caught me by surprise. Always so strong and capable, I’d forgotten this would be new to him, too.

  “Mm-hm. But, I think we’ll figure it out.” Despite his words, Gaige looked hesitant when we stopped in front of my door. “Victoria, maybe we should talk about what happened—”

  I put my finger over his lips. Not even monsters would make me change my mind. “It doesn’t matter. My decision is made.” But it occurred to me that something else did matter. I couldn’t give myself to Gaige looking like a marshmallow. “Wait here.”

  I left Gaige in the hall so fast he didn’t have time to ask why. Shucking my robe in the floor on my dash to the constructor, I ordered a silky, and very skimpy, nightgown. And candles. I slipped the gown over my head and placed the candles around the room, lighting them as I went. After commanding the room to go dark, I watched the orange flames flicker in the blackness. They provided just enough dancing glow for us to find our way around each other. Perfect. I kicked the robe under the bed and let Gaige in.

  He’d been resting his back against the wall, but stood away from it as soon as I opened the door. His eyes glided over my scantily clad body and his jaw dropped open. “Whoa.”

  “Don’t talk.” I pulled him into the room and kissed him.

  From that moment on, neither of us worried about what to do. We explored each other, moving from the small, gentle touches in places so natural to us, to those places less familiar, to the intimacy of togetherness. His body warm against mine, parts of him touching me, in me, that no one but me would ever know. Every touch of his hands, every kiss of his lips, every movement of his body resonated through my entire being like I might explode into tiny bits of sensation. Our bodies, locked in rhythm, soon became overtaken by a pleasure beyond imagination.