Endurance

by neetha Napew

  Although I’d tried to keep the postmortem report quiet, it was inevitable the staff would gain access to the records. Too many of them had seen the victim’s remains, and rumors began to fly.

  It didn’t help when I finally identified the remains as one of the original escapees from Detainment.

  Colonel Shropana decided the circumstances made excellent ammunition, and he didn’t waste any time in using it against me. At first he restricted himself to snide remarks about how no one had disappeared until I’d left isolation, or how convenient it was that I was in charge of injured, helpless prisoners.

  Things got progressively worse. Patients began watching me with intent, leery gazes. Nurses followed up behind me, checking everything I did on rounds. I was having an argument over proper diagnostic procedure with one of the junior residents when it finally got out of hand.

  “Do not listen to her,” Shropana said, interrupting us from his berth. The surrounding inpatients became very quiet. “The Terran traitor will only murder more of us.”

  I told the resident to take the rest of the shift off, tried to ignore the voices, and went to perform my rounds. Patients started cringing or shouting at me whenever I approached. To complicate things further, all the nurses collected at the prep units and went on a mass beverage break.

  “Look.” I set down my charts and addressed the entire ward. Better be up front and blunt. “I didn’t kill anyone. I’m a doctor. We’re not allowed to do that.”

  “Crew members have been disappearing since you became Medical Primary,” the Colonel said, his face an ugly purple color. At the side of his berth, a monitor began bleeping. “You turn them over to the monsters, to conceal your own incompetence and better your own situation!”

  Patril always gave me such tempting ideas. I didn’t have time to act on this one, as half of my ward began trying to leave their berths, a few with the assistance of the staffers.

  I was shouting and wrestling with a patient who had tangled herself in monitor leads when an emergency signal from Command came in over the main console. “Medical Primary, report to level twelve immediately.”

  “I’m a little occupied right now!” I yelled back.

  Whoever manned the Command console was nice enough to send an armed detachment of guards to Medical. Once they had intimidated the frightened patients back into their berths, I went to Shropana. Ignoring his mouth was easy, doing the same with his readings wasn’t.

  “You are bordering on full arrest,” I said as I pushed him back and strapped him down. He was so weak I had no problem handling him. “If you don’t calm down, you will have a heart attack and you will die.”

  He didn’t believe me-until the resident shoved in my direction saw his monitors, and started spouting the same thing.

  I injected him with digitalizine-the irony of that didn’t escape me-and instructed a nurse to run another full cardiac series. Before I could do anything else, one of the centurons grabbed me and dragged me out of Medical.

  “Hey. Hey!” I couldn’t get his attention. “I’ve got patients to see to back there!”

  I was manhandled all the way to level twelve, where a full squad of lizards had a section of the corridor blocked off. They were wearing protective gear and looking quite grim. The guard hauling me shoved me toward the temporary barrier.

  “Deal with her.”

  I pushed through the centurons and climbed over the four-foot panel. “Her” turned out to be FurreVa, who was on her back ruining all my transplantation work right in the center of the deck. She saw me, but still lifted a pulse rifle and fired it.

  I ducked and swore. “Don’t shoot!” I kept crouched over as I moved forward. “I’m here to help you!”

  She fired three more times, but it was obvious she wasn’t going to hit me unless I took the end of the rifle and pressed it against my chest. Her eyes appeared clouded and unfocused. Her abdomen swelled and bulged.

  Mother of All Houses, I thought. Not now.

  “OverSeer, put down the gun.”

  “Terran?” FurreVa’s rifle sagged as she raised her head and finally recognized me. “Terran... the brood... the brood comes... too early.”

  Yes, they were definitely doing that, judging by the condition of her oviductal flaps. I looked back at the waiting centurons, all of who had trained their weapons on me. “I need some incubation units and a nurse to help me.”

  One of the Hsktskt threw a heavy storage container over the barrier at me. It was an empty alloy box with a sturdy-locking mechanism. “Put them in that.”

  “I can’t. They’re premature, you dimwit, they need specialized equipment.” I watched the lizards exchange significant glances, but did nothing. FurreVa screeched as her belly rolled from within. “Okay, either you go get what I need”-I picked up FurreVa’s rifle and pointed it at them-“or I do the shooting for her.”

  One of the Hsktskt disappeared. The others gave me nasty scowls. I kept the weapon up and on them as I knelt beside my patient.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were in labor? I might have been able to suppress it.” I didn’t wait for an answer but rolled her to her side. Her back was bleeding freely. “Nice work. You’ve ruined half of my grafts, too.”

  “One of the young... emerged,” she said, then writhed under my hands. “Beware... of it.”

  “It’s loose?” I jumped up and scanned the corridor. Nothing in sight. No wonder they’d put up a barrier and gotten the rifles out. “Have you seen it?”

  “It will not... attack... if you stay... close to me,” she said, and groaned again.

  So I could just sit back and relax? Not a chance. “Listen, Helen, I’ve done this before. The little darlings love to attack soft-skinned, warm-blooded doctors who should have minded their own damn business.”

  She stopped moaning and lifted her disfigured head. “Helen?”

  “Never mind.” One of her oviduct flaps opened wider, and the curve of a miniature, sac-covered Hsktskt skull bulged out. I had no choice but to deliver it. I grabbed the storage container, shoved it next to FurreVa, then cradled the infant’s crown in my hands. “On the next pain, push as hard as you can.”

  She did, and bellowed with maternal agony. Loud enough to make my eardrums compress.

  The baby Hsktskt didn’t pop out, but slid into my palms still enveloped by its embryonic sac. I guessed like most reptiles it was the first thing they ate after birth, so I merely tore a hole to check its airway, and placed the entire bloody mass in the alloy box. The infant coughed a few times, then went to work on the sac with its tiny, sharp teeth.

  I should have performed a more thorough eval on the baby, but FurreVa clamped a limb around my waist and dragged me around. “More... come.”

  “Hooray.” I checked her vitals with my scanner and delivered the next infant. “I can’t put them together, they’ll try to eat each other.” Holding the sac in my arms, I glanced at the fascinated centurons. “Hey! Where’s my equipment?”

  Nurse Dchêm-os and two interns appeared a moment later, pushing a cluster of portable incubator units. Before I could yell out a warning, they crossed the barrier. At once something small and lethal dropped down on them from the upper deck.

  “Here.” I handed FurreVa the second struggling infant, who was already tearing free of the sac. “Bond for a minute. And whatever you do, don’t push.”

  One of Zella’s ears was half gone, and the infant was busily gnawing at an intern’s throat when I got to them. I shoved the nurse to one side and grabbed the still-damp Hsktskt baby by its thin torso.

  She was far too small and showing signs of respiratory distress, but her teeth worked splendidly. I got her as far as the incubator unit when she sank her teeth into my forearm. I shrieked. She kicked free and jumped to the deck to land on all sixes. A moment later she was over the barrier and down the corridor, with half of the centurons in hot pursuit.

  I’d never dropped an infant before, but I couldn’t exactly feel terrible about this one
.

  “Terran!” FurreVa still held her baby, but another had emerged halfway out her flap and was snapping at its sibling’s little tail.

  “Coming.” I checked the intern, whose throat was a bloody mess, to make sure he’d survive. He would. The other intern was unconscious. Zel cowered when I reached for her.

  I didn’t have time to indulge her. “If you can knock out your own tooth, you can handle a chewed-on ear. Come on.”

  I delivered the fourth infant, which was in better shape than the others, and placed it in the incubator at once. Zella managed to do the same with the one FurreVa held. All that was left to do was transfer the first from the storage container to the unit, then deliver the last three.

  After a minute with no further progress in the delivery, I scanned the Hsktskt OverSeer. She was panting and exhausted, but no longer experiencing active labor.

  I had to tell her why.

  “FurreVa. We’ve got three of them safe. The centurons will get the other one.” I didn’t want to upset her, but she had to know. “The remaining three young in your body are dead.”

  She turned her head and made a sound of grief.

  I placed a hand on her scarred face and made her look at me. “We have to do this together. I want you to push when I tell you to, and let me take care of them. Okay?”

  Delivering the stillborn proved a grim, silent task. Two were perfectly formed, but far too small. The last was huge, but from my scans possessed a congenital heart defect, which had caused the infant to die in the womb some time ago. The resulting toxic reaction within the mother’s body explained the premature labor.

  Unlike TssVar’s mate, FurreVa wouldn’t be naming this one after me.

  “Let me look upon them.”

  Carefully I presented each one to their mother, allowing her to hold them before gently taking them from her. I carefully placed the bodies in the abandoned storage container, then attended to the cleanup.

  “All right.” I looked at my ravaged medical team. “Let’s move them to Medical.”

  I stopped by Reever’s quarters for a clean tunic on the way back to Medical. As soon as I stepped inside, the yowls and crashing sounds made me snap out an order for lights.

  “What’s going on in”-something large and solid whizzed past my face, and I ducked-“here?”

  The tableau before me bordered on absolutely ludicrous. Jenner stood perched on top of the garment storage unit, his tail and back swelling with stiff, raised fur. He was peering over the edge of one side and yowling furiously.

  I saw some League footgear sticking out, kicking and jerking, and strode over to confront the intruder. A familiar spine-covered being was cornered between the storage unit and the wall panel. The object of Jenner’s displeasure paid no attention to me as he busily wrestled with something smaller, scaly, and quite determined to rip out his throat.

  “Lieutenant Wonlee?” Then I saw what he was clutching between his talons. “God.” I looked around for my medical case. “Whatever you do, don’t let go of it.”

  “I have... no intentions... of doing... so...” He had to keep dodging the hungry, snapping miniature jaws.

  I noted with approval that he was trying to hold FurreVa’s missing infant as far away from his spine plates as possible. Then I spotted my case shoved under a chair, grabbed, and dumped the contents on the deck.

  Easing the Hsktskt infant from Wonlee’s sharp claws proved no simple task. A few minor lacerations later, I wrenched the baby free, thrust it into my case, and snapped the lid shut.

  “There.” Panting, I pushed a handful of hair from my eyes before I went to the console and reported that I’d captured the last of the infants. Then I turned to address the Lieutenant. “How did you get in here?”

  “Ventilation shaft.” He pointed to a small open hatch on the upper deck. “I’ve been using them to collect reconnaissance information for Major Devrak.”

  “Really.” I wondered what else they’d been using the shafts for. Wonlee held out his arms and began trying to coax Jenner down from his perch. “Um, I don’t think he’s going to come to you.”

  “No, he’s not.” Wonlee dropped his clawed hands and gave my pet a disgruntled glower. “Ungrateful creature. I saved his life, you know.”

  “Did you?” I picked up the case, which was rocking back and forth from the furious struggles within. “Any particular reason why? I can’t imagine it was out of fondness for me.”

  “I came here to... talk to you.” Wonlee straightened his tunic.

  I’d already noticed the outline of a displacer pistol standing out under his tunic. “Your nose is getting longer, Lieutenant.” He gave me a puzzled frown, and I tightened my grip on the case. “You came here to kill me.”

  “All right.” He folded his arms. “Originally, I was ordered to come here to kill you.”

  “Maybe next time, huh?” I tucked the case under one arm, shielding it with my body, and backed toward the door panel. “Thanks again for saving my cat.”

  “Wait. We need your help.”

  “Is that right?” My brows rose. “Why would you need help from a traitorous Terran beast-lover like me?”

  He averted his gaze. “Doctor, we’re going to arrive at the slave-depot soon. Many of the crew are injured, and if the slavers decide we’re not worth selling...”

  The Hsktskt would have a cookout. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me, either. “Let me see if I follow. Major Devrak considered me unworthy of sharing the same oxygen with you people, and sent you here to assassinate me, but now you’d like me to treat the injured crew members so they’ll pass slaver inspection. Have I got this right?”

  He had the grace to look ashamed, then nodded.

  I was tempted to tell him where to shove his weapon, then I sighed.

  “I’ll see what I can do.” I opened the door panel, checked the corridor, then gestured toward the hatch. “You’d better crawl back there before you’re missed. And do something with that pistol before they find it on you.”

  He patted the weapon, gave me a grin, then hoisted himself up through the narrow opening.

  I thought about Wonlee’s earnest request as I made my way back to Medical. Were the League prisoners in such bad shape? Shropana had likely poisoned everyone with his lies, and the sick or injured might have been too afraid to report for treatment.

  Maybe I’d just let Patril have that heart attack.

  FurreVa was back in her foam cradle and being assessed by Vlaav when I came in and placed the last of her infants into the incubator array. I did a quick scan on the babies and found them in tolerable condition.

  “Schedule surfactum treatments for all of them,” I told the Saksonan when he came over to report.

  “Those require induction of an endotracheal tube.” Vlaav peered at the infants’ glittering teeth and audibly gulped. “Do I have to do that to these creatures?”

  “If you want to create the proper spaces in the bronchial tubes and aeviolii, yeah, you do.” I adjusted the incubator arrays to keep the internal temperatures warm and dry. “After you tube them, set the respirators to provide continuous positive airway pressure, so their lungs won’t collapse.”

  “You’d better have a look at the female. The graft work has sustained considerable damage.”

  “Wean them off the surfactum once the lung scans clear. Remember to use gentle shaking if they experience bouts of free-breathing apnea,” I told him as I cleaned up. “If apnea persists, we’re going to have to keep them tubed.”

  Before I could go and check their mother, a familiar figure stepped forward to block my path.

  I had no more patience, not even a millispec left. “What do you want, OverCenturon?”

  “You have been wounded.” He nodded toward my arm, still oozing blood from where the Hsktskt infant had taken a bite.

  “So?”

  He reached out and ripped the sleeve of my runic completely off. Not to bandage it, of course. He jerked my arm around t
o display the wound. Beneath which should have been a PIC. “You have removed your identification.”

  “No, I didn’t.” I glanced around wildly. The medi-cal staff couldn’t help me. Maybe I could get to a console. “It healed. Burning me doesn’t work.”

  His tongue touched my cheek. “I will make it work.”

  I should have screamed or fought or something, I suppose, but I was positive the nurses would carry out my orders and signal Command. Convinced, too, that Reever would come to the rescue.

  After all, he always came to my rescue.

  I told myself the same thing over and over, as GothVar marched me down the corridor to the launch bay, where the blood and gore-splattered discipline post still stood. I felt confident as he secured the door panel. I even smiled bravely when he bonded me to the post.

  “Reever won’t let you do this.” Would be nice if he showed up right about now, too, I thought.

  “HalaVar is not here. He cannot stop me.” FlatHead stretched my wounded arm above my head and lashed my wrist securely. His heavy body crushed mine into the hard, crusted surface of the post. For a moment, our faces were only a centimeter apart. His repulsive breath made me hold mine. “I will drink of your pain, Terran.”

  “Herbal tea is much easier on the digestion.” Come on, Reever, now is the time to come charging in to save me. “I can prescribe something for you, if you’d like.”

  He wasn’t listening, only fiddling with something on the floor.

  “Why did you let FurreVa take the blame for what you did to those prisoners?”

  “She will capitulate.” His tail slammed into the post, just below my feet. “As will you.”

  What was he talking about? I leaned over to get a better look at him, and saw what he was fooling with.

  “You can’t use that.” Sweat that had been beading around my brow suddenly streaked down my temples. GothVar stopped for a moment to gaze at me. “Um, you have to do this with a laser.”

  “As long as the designation is legible,” he said, activating the thresher unit, “I can use any means I wish.”