Diffraction

by Jess Anastasi

  Lianna pulled out her comm, glancing at the screen. “Sorry, that’s not a conversation I’m willing to have with you.”

  She held her comm up to her ear and turned away.

  Jase looked to Varean and her, but before the baffled guy could even say a word, Varean held up both hands. “I’m not saying anything that’ll risk me getting shot again. Technically, I’m their prisoner.”

  Jase’s expression twisted into one of confused puzzlement, but he didn’t reply as Lianna put her comm away and stepped closer.

  “Rian sent a message. He’s made some progress on the shopping list and wants us on Dunham’s moon, Forbes, ASAP.”

  “What about the tests?” The words were out of Kira’s mouth before she’d considered if she should bring it up at all, after this latest revelation and Rian’s demand.

  Lianna’s expression turned tense, and for a second Kira thought she was going to renege on the deal. “How fast can you get them done?”

  “With the right equipment, two hours.” She clamped down on the urge to simply launch into an argument. Lianna was stubborn and one tough chick. Head-butting her in the face with a demand wouldn’t get her anywhere.

  “We still haven’t heard from that friend of yours, the one you’re relying on to get you into a lab.” Her words weren’t an accusation that her plan had failed, more a question about what it might mean without Mel’s help.

  “It would have been easier to get in with Mel organizing clearance, but Callan’s forged med ident should hold up either way. I’ll just have to talk my way in. It’s the next best option.”

  At her last few words, the door opened, Zahli and Tannin emerging.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said, his tone understandably grim, not waiting for anyone to answer as he headed for the corridor.

  “What about Jase?” Lianna asked, making Tannin pause.

  The ship’s tech analyst glanced over his shoulder, eyes red-rimmed but no less resolute. “Bring him with us.”

  “Seriously?” Lianna muttered, as they left the house and stepped into a peach-colored dawn. “How many more strays are we going to take in?”

  …

  Despite the fact that she’d gotten nothing but silence in response to the message she’d sent Mel, the first thing Kira did when she got to the hospital was look up her old friend’s private consulting rooms. Mel had ended up specializing in neonatal pediatrics and, as well as treating patients on the wards, also saw patients in her clinic.

  It was still early as she led the others up three floors, the consulting rooms devoid of patients but lights on with doctors and nurses getting ready for the day’s sessions.

  When they reached Mel’s rooms, she paused, surveying the group behind her, which now included Tannin’s ex-IPC friend from Erebus, Jase, who was obviously curious about what he’d inadvertently landed in the middle of, but to his credit hadn’t asked a single question since they’d left the house.

  “You all mind waiting out here for a minute?”

  Everyone agreed, taking seats along the corridor walls.

  Tightening her grip on the container with Varean’s blood, Kira continued into the office, half hoping that Mel wouldn’t be in yet. She didn’t want to get her old med school friend involved in this mess… But there was more to her reluctance than that.

  Part of her was deeply worried she was about to find out Mel was no longer her friend, that the things she’d escaped when she’d joined the Imojenna’s crew had completely destroyed everything she’d left behind. Not that she ever planned on going back, but it left a gaping hole in her chest to think that everyone she’d ever known now hated and believed the worst of her.

  There was no receptionist at the desk, so she went through the second waiting room and knocked firmly on the door.

  An old familiar voice bade her to enter and, with a ripple of apprehension, she stepped through.

  Mel sat behind a neat desk, features freezing with surprise. She stood slowly when Kira stopped on the opposite side of the desk.

  Mel hurried around the desk and pulled her into a tight hug. Kira returned the embrace fiercely, not realizing how much she’d missed her until that moment.

  “I can’t believe you’re really here.” Mel pulled back, but held on to her shoulders. “After you left Jacolby and no one knew what had happened to you, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

  “You probably wouldn’t have, if I’d never had good reason to step foot on Barasa.” Despite the hug and Mel’s apparent happiness at seeing her, she still felt on edge. Mel hadn’t answered her message, and every minute she spent in this hospital with the advanced security system came with the risk of her or the others being recognized.

  “I never believed it, you know.” Mel leaned closer, as if they were at risk of being overheard here, even though they were alone. “Everyone heard the whispers about Doctor Eon. I knew whatever happened, you weren’t the one at fault.”

  Ice rippled beneath her skin at Mel’s mention of Doctor Eon, and she crossed her arms, holding the case to her chest to clamp down a shiver. “I didn’t come to talk about that.”

  Mel shifted away from her and sat in one of the two patient’s chairs in front of the desk. “You need help. I read your message last night. I’m sorry I didn’t reply right away. I was going to. Believe me, I didn’t think about anything else all night. I just didn’t know what to say.”

  She dropped into the other seat, sitting stiffly on the edge. “Because you didn’t want to help me?”

  Really, she couldn’t have expected Mel to put her job and career on the line for a doctor who was both banned from practicing in the central systems and wanted for intergalactic terrorism.

  Mel placed a warm hand over her own cold fingers.

  “No, that wasn’t it at all. I felt guilty I hadn’t tried to find you or help you after what happened. I didn’t know how I could ever apologize or make up for that. I was going to answer you today—it just took me a while to work up the courage.”

  Kira blew out a breath of relief, sagging into the chair. Hell, she’d been half convinced they’d have to make a quick getaway from the hospital without Varean’s tests when Mel reported her to the authorities.

  “You don’t know how much it means to me that you didn’t believe the news reports.”

  Mel made an indignant face. “Of course I didn’t.”

  “So you’ll help me?”

  “What do you need?”

  Kira straightened, running a hand over the smooth top of the case. “These blood samples I have, I need to run DNA and genetic sequencing on them.”

  “You want me to push them through the lab under my own name?” Mel started reaching for her commpad, but paused when she shook her head.

  “The results might be…sensitive.” Maybe that wasn’t exactly the right word, but it was the best she could do right now. “I need to run the tests myself.”

  Mel sent her a half smile. “You took an interest in genetics since you left Jacolby? I seem to remember that sort of thing used to put you to sleep. You were more interested in the high-risk, innovative surgeries.”

  The smile she sent Mel in return was underlaid with the shared memories of her friend helping her get through the subjects and classes she found snooze-worthy, when all she wanted was to get into a hospital, get her hands dirty, and start saving lives.

  “Not in the least. But this is important. Really important, so I can’t leave it for anyone else to do.”

  Mel pushed to her feet and rounded her desk to face the inset display screen in the surface. “Let’s find you a lab then.”

  Pulling the case closer to herself, and all but white-knuckling the handle, she shifted to the edge of the seat, while Mel worked in silence.

  She was so close to being able to get the answers for Varean. The closer they became, the more he trusted her, the weightier her responsibility to help him find the truth. She’d been his one constant since they’d taken him o
ff the Swift Brion—she couldn’t fail him now. And considering the depths of her emotions for him, she’d no doubt feel the results almost as acutely as he would.

  Whatever the tests revealed, it would change everything for Varean. It was almost like she held his future in her hands, and it was nothing but doom and disenchantment. Somehow, she had to make sure that wasn’t his fate.

  “Okay, I got you a free lab on the fifth floor. It’s an entire pathology and screening unit that was closed down several months ago due to lack of funding. That entire half of the floor has been decommissioned, pending a review next year. You won’t be disturbed.”

  Kira pushed to her feet as Mel took a blank ident card out of her desk and flipped it over to write on it. “Use these codes once you get on the elevator, and you won’t trip any alarms.”

  “Thank you.” The words didn’t seem like enough as she took the card.

  “It’s the least I could do. Come and see me before you leave? I’ll be here until at least eight tonight. Maybe we can get dinner.”

  She tucked the card into her pocket. “I can’t stay that late, but I’ll definitely come back and say good-bye before I leave.”

  Mel nodded, seeming a little disappointed. “Well, good luck with those tests. Comm my office if you need anything.”

  Mel sent her a wave as Kira stepped out the door and quietly pulled it shut.

  One more obstacle down.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Varean pushed to his feet as Kira emerged from the offices she’d disappeared into a few minutes ago, her expression far less tense than it had been since they’d come here.

  “There’s a vacant lab on the fifth floor we’ll be able to use.”

  Her words sent an unexpected jolt of apprehension through him, the sensation unfamiliar and unwelcome. It had been a damned long time since he’d felt anxious about anything. Commandos were taught to fear nothing, and with nothing to lose in life, he’d been better at that aspect of training than others.

  But getting that much closer to the truth stirred a kind of fear he’d never experienced, never considered could affect him—fear of himself.

  If he were a different kind of person, he might have been running as far and fast from this as he possibly could. Found a dark corner of the universe to lose himself in and never face the light of reality again.

  But the swell of trepidation instead made him want to fight, probably a response conditioned into him by his military training. And that was fine; the instinct had kept him alive all his years in the IPC. Except he was fighting only himself.

  Whatever the results revealed, they wouldn’t change who he was, who he’d been, and what he’d done until now. Except the banality of those assurances sounded hollow.

  They stepped out on the fifth floor, which was completely deserted and dimmed. Tannin accessed and looped the security feed in the lab so it would look like the room was empty if anyone happened to check. The ex-Erebus inmate had some serious tech skills, certainly coming in handy for these types of jaunts. He could see why Rian had deemed him useful enough to risk breaking him out of the infamous prison world.

  Once they entered the lab, Kira visibly relaxed, clearly feeling at home surrounded by the medical equipment. She did a lap of the room, turning on lights, machines, and display screens, bringing the lab to animation in an almost indiscernible buzz of mechanical life.

  A door opened into what turned out to be a staff room—a table with six chairs, a single small couch, and an empty fridge. Luckily the condiments dispenser was still connected to the hospital’s main supply, and the others didn’t waste any time helping themselves to the repli-coffee, tea, and juice.

  Though he hadn’t eaten much in the last twelve hours—only a few snacks at Tannin’s parents’ house—Varean didn’t bother making himself anything. He did grab a juice for Kira, figuring her brain needed a sugar hit to work on whatever it was she planned on doing with his blood samples. He took the drink back into the lab as the others switched the viewer on and looked to be settling in for the next two hours.

  Kira was already accessing some kind of program on one of the crystal screens, and while the case with his blood stood open, she hadn’t done anything with the samples yet.

  “Thanks,” she said without looking as he set the juice on the desk next to her.

  “So?” He shifted to the adjacent empty desk and hopped up to sit on it.

  “So you might as well go hang out with the others. It’s going to be at least two hours, if not longer.” She still didn’t look at him as she took one of the blood samples out and shifted to a nearby machine.

  “What if I’d rather hang out here with you? The company might be better.”

  “The company will be busy. And if you distract me, this will take even longer.” She turned from the machine to scrutinize him. “I know you’re probably nervous about the results—”

  “Nervous isn’t quite the right word.”

  “Sorry. I’m sure the big tough AF commando never gets nervous about anything.”

  He caught a hand on her hip.

  “I never said that.” Tugging her closer, he lowered his head. “Truthfully, I’m petrified of what you’re going to find out about me.”

  She cupped his face with both hands, expression taking on a tender edge. “Whatever the results are, we’ll deal with it.”

  Her utter confidence that these tests weren’t going to be that big a deal clashed into the knowledge that as soon as he had the truth he was walking away.

  Closing the short distance, he caught her mouth beneath his, tasting the reprieve against the sins of his possibly Reidar-corrupted body only she could deliver. The kiss had a definite edge of somberness to it, as if maybe she knew as clearly as he did there was likely no help for him, no matter what she said.

  He pulled back, taking in a choppy breath. “I appreciate you trying to soften it for me. But when this is done, I’m going to leave, and you’re going to forget about me. You’re smart enough to realize there’s no other option.”

  There was a stubborn gleam in her gaze, but she nodded, not offering a single argument. Leaning up, she pressed a kiss onto his cheek and then returned to her work.

  Despite the few short steps separating them, it felt like he’d already said good-bye.

  …

  Two hours later, Kira roused Varean from where he’d slipped into a very light combat nap on a nearby stool.

  “Is it done?” He rolled his shoulders, feeling stiff from dozing upright.

  “I’ve done my part, yeah. Now we have to wait for the computers to finish analyzing and compile the report. Hopefully it’ll be ready in another fifteen or twenty minutes.”

  He crossed his arms, his brain clearing the remaining tendrils of sleep on a small spike of adrenaline. They were literally on countdown to getting the truth.

  Kira sat on the stool next to him, pinning her hair back from her face where it had fallen loose while she’d been working. When she was done, she placed her hand on his knee.

  “I don’t want to scare you, but I want you to be prepared. From a few anomalies I’ve found, I’m already certain the results are going to confirm that at some point, you were altered on a genetic level.” She had her doctor mask on as she said the words, the one she’d probably perfected while she’d worked out of a prestigious central systems hospital. However, he needed her to be more than just his doctor.

  “I’m ready for it, Kira. But do me a favor, let’s talk about something else until the results are in.”

  She nodded, a gleam of detached understanding in her gaze. “Okay, sure, what would you like to talk about?”

  “I want you to tell me what happened to you, why you got banned from practicing medicine in the central systems.”

  Surprise shoved the detached professionalism right off her gorgeous features. She audibly swallowed.

  Glancing away from him, this time her distance was completely different.

  “That’s not s
omething…” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I’ve only ever told one person since it happened. Not even Rian knows the truth.”

  “I’m not trying to upset you, and I’m not asking because I think it’s some trivial thing. Whatever it was, I can’t believe you did anything wrong. I just want to know who I have to track down and kill for ruining your life after I leave here today.”

  She snapped her eyes open and stared at him with so much disbelief, it almost made him laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”

  He allowed himself a grin. “Mostly. Unless there really is someone you want me to take out. I would do it if you asked.”

  “No! Please. There’s been enough death.”

  He traced a finger along her jaw. “You’re a better person than I’ve ever been. I can’t believe that, with everything you know, everything you’ve seen, you still have such a pure light of optimism in you.”

  “I’m stuck in the dark like everyone else.”

  He shook his head. “No, you’re one of the ones who keeps the light burning for the rest of us poor damned souls.”

  She leaned in to his touch for a brief moment, then straightened, visibly preparing herself.

  “We had a patient come in from a sister hospital that specialized in rehab and psychiatrics. While she was physically capable, able to understand and follow direction, years of drug use had made her paranoid, prone to periods of delusion, and at times she talked nonsensically of things that had never happened. She had fallen in the shower and broken her collarbone. We did a very minor surgery to repair the break and admitted her as a day patient to give her a few hours while her body adjusted to the rapid heal and regeneration.”

  Kira shifted on the stool, hands gripping the edge of the seat near her upper thighs, posture rigid and expression distant. Instinctively, he wanted to reach out and comfort her, but he instead crossed his arms and kept his hands to himself.

  “That day wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. We were slammed in the ER, and I missed lunch. Later in the afternoon, between patients, I managed to take five minutes to get some fresh air and eat a protein bar. On the way back, I decided to check on the female patient. When I walked into the room I caught Doctor Eon—” She clenched her jaw, taking a quick breath. “He had given her a sedative and was performing some kind of unsanctioned internal examination of her uterus and vagina. Not only that, he was clearly enjoying it the way a doctor shouldn’t be enjoying that kind of thing.”