`Aye, Captain. We picked up the sonic blast.'
"Sonic grenades? That explains the lack of damage to the surrounding area. Get on the rescue efforts."
`Teams have already assembled. Beginning transport to your location.'
Only two teams had time to appear around him before the efficient Seleen got back to him with Cat's whereabouts.
"Her condition?"
`Unconscious due to undetermined trauma. That's all the information I'm able to gather.' Seleen gave a frustrated hiss.
"Stay alert. I'll get to her."
Wulfe raced between pools of light to the coordinates provided by Seleen. Extra flood lights came on to push back encroaching darkness. The farther he went, the more fallen bodies he had to step around and over. The mounting body count confirmed his dread. By the time Wulfe hunkered down next to Cat, he realized she lay at the epicenter of the injured Nutralians.
Albright sparkled into existence two meters away before Wulfe touched his comm tag again. She knelt across from him, her bioscanner taking Cat's vital signs. "Don't move her until I get some readings."
The sluggish line of blood oozing from Cat's right ear and across her pale cheek convinced him not to move her when he only wanted to feel her in his arms. Fear burned through his veins, lodged in his midsection with menacing force. By the gods, no! Not now! Not when he stood on the verge of fully realizing the depth of his feelings. "Her condition?"
"Considering she seems to have been the target..." Albright's voice trailed off. She handed over two small pieces of debris to Wulfe. "What's this? I found it under her."
He spared a glance for the scrap, shrugged a shoulder. "Part of a sensor, I'd guess."
"Catherine's stable enough to move now. I'm transporting her up to the Falchion."
"Will she be all right?"
"You know we'll do everything we can."
"Answer me, narg it! She's been through so much."
"Kneeling here in the dirt talking about it isn't improving her chances."
"You're right. Go. Take those pieces with you. Have Mykal Lyon do an analysis on them. Maybe they'll give us a clue who caused this."
"Right you are."
Wulfe brushed the back of his fingers to Cat's cold lips. "I want Cat fit enough to hold the children when they come home. Contact me if there's any change in her condition. Either way."
"As if I wouldn't." Albright faded from sight, taking Cat's unconscious form with her.
Wulfe watched, knowing his heart went with Cat, as surely as his mind stayed on Nutralis. He organized the congregating Falchion personnel. The task took little time; his crew functioned effectively without someone overseeing their every movement. The most difficult chore weighed on his shoulders--telling the Dove her older daughter was now injured. He'd face that obligation right after he personally confirmed the chairman's well-being.
Ten minutes later, Wulfe and an entourage of council aides still couldn't find the council chairman anywhere in his private rooms or the council chambers. The aides spread out through the complex. Wulfe zeroed in on Cat's rooms, thinking the chairman might have gone there to see her or the Dove.
He found the annex containing guest accommodations deserted. No chairman. No Dove. No M'Lissa. And no messages. What the narg now? One disaster on top of another. Frak.
Wulfe pressed the comm tag on his collar. "Seleen, is the council chairman aboard? How about Lady Burnelle?"
`Neither are aboard, Captain.'
"Have you at least head from them?"
`No, Sir. Not a word.'
"...HOW MUCH longer, but at least I had the chance to repair her eardrums. She'll be able to hear the bad news right from your mouth."
Bad news? Cat resisted the impulse to demand immediate answers. The children? Sweet Creator, no! Take my life, not theirs! She kept her eyes closed and her breathing steady, thinking she might hear something important. Who was Albright talking to? Had to be Wulfe--she'd caught his earthy scent with the first conscious breath she'd taken, and could feel his concern spread over her like a warm blanket.
"Why hasn't she awakened?"
Aye, Wulfe. Only he could infuse so much command into a simple query.
Albright made a strangled sound. "Why? Why do you think?"
"How the narg should I know? You're the doctor who said Cat wasn't injured that badly!"
"She's not. Catherine is completely and utterly exhausted." Albright mumbled something else Cat didn't quite catch.
Wulfe made a sound of irritation. "I didn't hear you."
"I said, she's still asleep because once I repaired the trauma, I slipped her a tranq."
Cat raised herself to lean wearily on one elbow, grimaced at their backs. "Is that ethical?"
They both whirled, Albright with the elegance of a dancer, Wulfe with the grace of a hunting panther. Albright managed to look like the clumsy one of the duo.
Wulfe reached Cat in two steps. Between one heartbeat and the next, she found herself enfolded in his arms.
"Cherished one," he murmured, his voice husky with emotion.
Cat's heart soared. Cherished one. Days--what seemed a lifetime--since he'd called her that. She pressed her fingers to his temple, tested for the bonding link with newfound eagerness. No connection. She buried her face against his neck to hide her letdown, soothed herself by inhaling Wulfe's scent, then looked up into his face. "How long you going to try to keep the bad news from me?"
Wulfe glared over her head to Albright. When he looked back to Cat, his expression softened. "Heard that, did you?"
"How could I not? You two argue as loudly as limbed vipers fighting over carrion."
A tired, mirthless chuckle filtered from Wulfe's throat. "Much better, aren't you?"
"I-is it a-about Garrett and Morgan?" She bit her lip, shamed at the way her voice cracked.
"No." He put her down so she sat on the edge of the recovery bed. "But what I have to say will not please you."
"I already figured out that much." Cat shook off some of her grogginess. "Don't tell me someone got to the chairman."
"The chairman has disappeared."
"Frak."
Wulfe met her gaze, his dark eyes troubled. "Along with Dove and M'Lissa."
Cat launched herself off the bed, adrenalin washing more of the tranq from her system. "What? How?"
"We're not certain. I went back to the guest annex after I found you--"
"Found me?" Cat raked loose hair back from her face. "How did you find me?"
"I went out--"
"My mother's gone because you left her? You told me you'd stay with her and protect her!" She clenched her hands into fists until the fingernails gouged into her palms. Anything to keep from backhanding Wulfe to vent her frustration and anger. "I accepted your word as oath!"
"If I could change the results, I would, but nothing could make me ignore your need for my help."
That threatened to take the majority of solar wind out of her sails. She couldn't let it. "How long have I been out of commission?" Cat grabbed his brawny forearm. "Has Seleen decrypted the message about Garrett and Morgan? Or have we received another one? Has anything good happened? Do we know who took Mother?"
Wulfe shook his head. "No new messages, of any kind. Seleen is still working on the latest we received."
"Blast it, I didn't need your help, Mother did!" Cat shoved away from Wulfe, sagged against the edge of the bed, weighed down by the burden of despair, coupled with Albright's tranquilizer. She'd almost forgotten what it felt like to hold the children. No! Her arms and heart would never lose that sweet memory. "How could someone spirit away three adults without leaving some sort of trace?"
"We're trying to track their movements now. Between the concussion grenades on the ground, the Falchion transporting personnel down and the Orion using her translocator a few times, we're trying to trace something unauthorized. So far, no luck, but if they were taken off planet, we'll find the pattern eventually."
The dis
tinctly male sound of someone clearing his throat came from the open doorway.
Mykal Lyon's concerned gazed touched the three occupants of the room one by one. "I finished the analysis, Captain. You were right. Commander Culver definitely was the target of the blast."
A low growl issued from Wulfe. "You're certain?"
"Aye. Pheromone sensors guided the concussion grenades. The sensors were Mallochon."
Cat nearly choked on the combination of vivid anger boiling off Wulfe and her own violent indignation. She shivered to think a Mallochon or someone under Mallochon influence had gotten so close to her. "How the bloody hell did a Mallochon get a sample of my pheromones?"
Wulfe moved closer to her as though to protect her with the bulk of his presence. "I want the answer to that one myself."
Lyon's scowl revealed his frustration. "I haven't been able to figure it out yet, unless it's someone on the Falchion, which could make sense, considering the source of the first message."
"Corps does not--"
"For the love of the Creator, Wulfe, face reality!" Cat moved out of the shadow of his big body, paced the recovery room. "Someone in the Corps has! Until we know for certain who, none of us are safe!"
Lyon cleared his throat again. "I have those other reports for you, as well, Captain."
"Go ahead, Wulfe." Cat took advantage of his hesitation. "I have a couple of questions for Nora anyway. I'll catch up with you."
Albright waited until the men cleared the room and gave Cat a stony face. "You're not catching up with anyone until I certify you fit for duty."
"Fine. Great. I want you to contact the Orion's CMO and find out if he's been testing Wheeler for Endorphidrine."
Albright gave her an impatient look. "You think I didn't do that already? How well do you know me? The second I realized the Orion was parked in orbit, I went on channel. Erich Wheeler hasn't had a trace of the stuff in his system, and Doctor Jafari tests at least twice every twenty-five hours, at random times."
"This Jafari's on the level?"
"Absolutely. Why?"
Cat shrugged. "When Wheeler popped into Nutralia...I don't know. He still felt...wrong."
"It hasn't been that long since he's been off the stuff. He could still be suffering the after effects."
"I suppose. Clear me for duty so I can get out of here."
"We need to discuss something first. It might even make you feel a bit better about things."
"Your topic of discussion is going to have to be very good to do that."
"Moira and I finally made the time to do some digging once we left Sisyphus. We believe we know why you lost your empathic talents for a while and still haven't managed to repair your bond with the captain."
"I can't wait to hear this." Cat refused to allow herself any hope. Nothing had gone in the right direction for far too long, and she couldn't see things changing now. Somehow, though, that didn't squelch the thrill of optimism, the eagerness to hear the explanation.
"Our speculations also provide very strong clues about what happened to the captain's memory."
"Fine, I'll bite. What's your theory?" Where a reason existed, a solution might be realized.
"Moira and I went over all the ship logs we could find and pieced events together. Three incidents happened within a fraction of a second of one another. To confirm our hypothesis, I need to ask you one question."
"What's that?"
"When the Mallochons attacked our launched shuttle back at Uhlein, did you experience anything out of the ordinary?"
"No. I--" The memory flooded back, chilled her to the core. Her stomach rolled with sickness, as if the crew members died all over again. "Oh, gods, the death screams of the dying. I heard them in my mind, felt them all die! Creator, I will hear those shrieks for the rest of my life."
Albright nodded and looped a supporting arm around Cat. "Moira figured as much, especially once she saw all the logs. Me, I never would've pieced it all together. Catherine, when you heard the death screams, your mind immediately shut down, closing off the empathic links, and even the bonding link, anything that gave you sensory input at that second. I can't explain it any other way than to say your psi abilities are so closely intertwined with each other, they all froze."
The nausea gradually subsided. Cat stepped away from Albright's supporting arm, away from the yearning to lean on her friend. Gods, if the doctors were right, hope might still exist. "What does this have to do with Wulfe's memory?"
"He'd already entered the shuttle bay and as a result, he saw what he believed to be the Righteous explode at the same instant the empathic portion of your mind shut down. The captain assumed you and the children were on that shuttle, and in that brief fragment of time, he saw you all die and felt the bond with you disintegrate. The captain witnessed what he perceived to be his worst nightmare come true. Then, within seconds, the bay exploded around him, injuring his body and head."
Relief, swift and sweet, made her bones feel like jelly. She'd been so afraid, for so long...fragments of her self-confidence glued back together and held fast. "So Wulfe didn't necessarily want to forget us!"
"Absolutely not. He forgot because he loves you all so very much. Emotionally, the captain couldn't accept his perceived reality, so his subconscious created an alternate truth where the losses didn't exist. His mind's denial of your existence and the children was simply its way of preserving his sanity."
Cat's throat filled with barely checked emotion. Her eyes burned. Sweet Creator, she felt like crying, something she hadn't done more than two or three times in her adult life.
A simple chain of events. No intentional betrayal. Dozens of fresh questions flooded her mind. "How do we fix this mess? Can we finally tell Wulfe the truth, now?"
"I'm sorry, but, no. The captain must be left to remember the events on his own. If we force the issue, we could still do great harm. We have no way to guarantee how his mind would process the information. The situation is made even trickier because of the mental link. A bond like that is totally out of my realm of expertise. Even Moira is stymied."
Cat's shoulders slumped under the weight of disappointment.
"The situation is complicated by guilt, too, Catherine."
"Whose guilt?" But Cat knew. Of all the suffering and carnage she'd witnessed in her life, she'd never had to shoulder the brunt of being directly responsible for the death of her own comrades.
"Yours and the captain's, both of which are misplaced, I might add. Captain Kincade, subconsciously at any rate, because he ordered your shuttle to be the first launched out of the bay. The Mallochons destroyed the first one out. You carry the guilt of believing you ordered those crewmen to their deaths when you changed the sequence of shuttle departure."
"That's exactly what I did. I sent them out to die in my place. They died because of me!"
Albright muttered a frustrated expletive. "God's stars! If you and the children had launched first--no, I can't bear to think of those innocents losing their lives at the hands of the Mallochons! If anything, the change you made saved a dozen lives that had barely begun."
"True enough, but consider this: I would've been the only one on that shuttle to realize death was screaming down on us. I guarantee you that every crew member aboard the shuttle Dauntless knew they were doomed."
Albright nodded. "But I have something else for you to consider. Every adult on the Dauntless took an oath to Space Corps, same as I did. The children certainly did not."
Cat clenched her hand around the hilt of her dagger until the scroll design indented into her palm. "I still should have sensed the danger."
"If you and the children had been the ones to die, would Captain Kincade have been to blame for your deaths?"
"Of course not! He'd have no way of knowing what would happen."
"I agree. When did you become capable of seeing into the future?"
"I don't have precognition," Cat expelled a deep breath. She suddenly knew what Albright needed to hear, what
would make the doctor happy enough to put her mind at ease. "So the crewmen's deaths couldn't have been my fault. Nora, you're as devious as a Bartern trader." And as transparent as a butterfly wing-dancer.
Albright looked relieved. "It's just the tranq dulling your mind." She leaned against the side of the recovery bed, companionably close. "Catherine, if I could do anything to find Morgan and Garrett or your mother, even help you discover what really happened to your sister, I'd do it without hesitation."
The warmth of Albright's friendship spread over Cat like a downy cloak. "Your concern touches me deeply."
Too deeply, Cat realized with a bit of a jolt. She couldn't allow herself to remain at the mercy of soft, tender emotions like hope or gratitude. Only the pull of duty and the drive for revenge would propel her with sufficient energy to see this disaster through to its inevitable confrontation.
Revenge. The impetus that could push a person to the ends of the universe. The Mallochons had taught her that, and she was nothing if not an apt pupil.
Chapter 20
"I THOUGHT you were in sickbay to rest, not wear a path in the deck."
Cat glanced up at the sound of Seleen's familiar voice. "Not very productive, is it?" Disgusted, she waved a hand at the bedside computer terminal as she passed it. "Albright even disabled my access from here."
"Good thing I brought this."
"Bless you!" Cat stopped midstride and appropriated the offered handcom from Seleen.
"When the captain informed the senior staff of your temporary restriction to sickbay, he didn't specifically order we not bring you anything." The communication officer blinked once, slowly. "You'll find a message coded for your eyes only, and since the captain wasn't on the bridge when it arrived, my only course of action was to bring the dispatch to you. The transmission arrived only moments ago."
Cat tried to quell the upsurge of expectation, but her hand shook as it closed around the small piece of equipment. "The children?"
"I don't believe so, Commander. This transmission has none of the trace signatures of the others. As for the one I'm working to decrypt, I have failed."
Devoted Deceptions, A 4th Millennium Adventure, Book 3 Page 28