“The Groskin’s is being excreted, just as it was for his mother,” Mrs. Fenn observed hopefully.
“I see that but somehow, maybe because he’s a child, the buildup of decomposing microorganisms has overwhelmed his circulatory system.” Emily clenched her fists for a moment, thinking hard.
“Do something, Doc.” Mr. Enzell’s voice was frantic. “Don’t give up on him. You promised me!”
“Maeve, I want one dose of cardioarmalav. Old style, long needle, self sealing, stat.” Hurriedly Emily swabbed the boy’s chest with disinfectant.
“Are you sure, doctor?” Vicente was startled.
Working.” Maeve’s voice stayed calm. “In the dispenser now, Doctor.”
“No oher choices left,” Emily said, holding out her hand for the antiquated inject that the AI had just fabricated. “I used it a time or two on Fantalar. There’s a Mawreg nerve gas that creates a similar circulatory problem. There’s nothing to lose now, and I’m not giving up on this boy without trying everything.” The red medication inside glowed as the nurse laid it in her gloved hand. Lining up precisely over the heart, Emily plunged the needle directly into Marc’s chest, ignoring the gasps from the nonmedical personnel still crowding the space around the bed. She administered the full dose, triggered the automatic cauterizer in the tip to keep Marc from bleeding to death from the tiny puncture wound in his heart, and handed the now empty container to Vicente. Scanning the monitors, she saw that Marc’s heart had gone still but nerve impulses were running through his entire system, ordering the organs to resume normal functioning.
“What do we do now?” asked Mr. Enzell.
“Pray.” Emily kept her eyes on the readouts. With a delicate probe, she administered a tiny impulse to Marc’s chest, hoping to encourage the heart to take up its duty. If the medication could circulate through the body, it would clear the Groskin’s detritus. Again she triggered the equipment to deliver a small charge of energy to the heart muscle.
A single strong beat as Marc’s heart contracted powerfully. Holding her breath, Emily waited, rubbing his arm gently. The next few beats stuttered but then the heart found the right rhythm and began driving the medication-infused blood through the boy’s arteries and veins, and he drew a long breath on his own.
“Yes.” She felt like cheering and crying at the same time. She turned, looking for Mr. Enzell. “He’ll be ok now, maybe a few setbacks but the worst should be over.”
Weeping, the father pushed past her to embrace his son, who was moving a bit and muttering.
“He’ll need very close monitoring,” she said to Vicente.
“Yes, Doctor.” The nurse’s voice was awed. “If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“Should we administer more doses to other patients now, or wait to see if there are secondary side effects?” Mrs. Fenn asked.
“I need to examine both patients, but we don’t dare delay, as critical as many of the survivors are.” Emily knew she wasn’t going to have the opportunity to study these two patients for a few more minutes, as the two older Enzells clung to each other and wept. “Go ahead and prepare ten more doses. We’ll treat the next most critical while we keep an eye on these two. We should keep cardioarmalav at hand for the other pediatric patients.”
Mrs. Fenn rushed off.
“Can it be this simple?” Meg moved closer to Emily and lowered her voice.
“I know. Almost like a miracle cure,” Emily said. “Too good to be true after all these days of people dying. But the cure seems to take quite a toll on the patient in the process of killing the organism. Not everyone can survive a direct inject of cardioarmalav. I lost a few soldiers on Fantalar who couldn’t tolerate the drug, but we saved more than we lost.”
“Magic spice.” Red shrugged. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Doctor.”
“I detect no Groskin’s in either patient,” Maeve said subvocally to Emily. “None. Their vital functions are rebounding. Overall conditions are weak and debilitated. The infusion of the spice does seem to put quite a strain on the heart and other organs until the spores are excreted.”
“We’ll have to keep the Enzells here for a day or two, replenish their strength, make sure there are no other complications presenting,” Emily said as Jake returned.
“Whatever’s in that medicine packs a punch, Doc,” Sid said. “I wasn’t sure either one was going to make it through.”
“Everyone may not. Both of the Enzells were mounting strong resistance to the organism all along.” Emily surveyed the expanse of beds and patients. “We’ve lost so many others who couldn’t muster the same sustained immune defense. Through no fault of their own.”
“Not your fault either.” Jake squeezed her elbow as Mrs. Fenn slowly made her way into the ward, holding another box of doses. Jake hugged her. “We did the best we could at each step. I need to let the captain know what’s going on.”
Red put away his com. “We gotta bounce, boss. Urgent alert. Princess Falyn has gone missing.”
“Kidnapped?”
“Unknown. Lady Scorsshyn checked on her, and she wasn’t in the suite anywhere.”
“You go,” Emily said, although what she really wanted to do was retreat to her office with Jake, shut the door and have a long cry to vent her pentup emotions from the past few hours. No time to indulge myself. I can bottle it up, just like I used to do on Fantalar. Only now there was the garden and Jake to help her ease down when the crisis was over. Smiling, she said, “I can handle this and I’ll call Captain Fleming, don’t worry.”
He kissed her cheek. “You be careful.”
“You too.”
“Did our guys see anything?” Jake asked Red as they made their way to the Hereditary Princess’s suite.
Red shook his head. “Nothing unusual. People coming and going, but our lookouts didn’t recognize Falyn. Doesn’t mean she couldn’t have gone out in disguise maybe. She’s tall for a kid.”
Jake cued his subvocal link to the ship. “Maeve? Where is she?”
“I’m reviewing the records now.” Maeve sounded defensive.
“Smart kid. Got past us and the Ship. Which is not good. Exposes a hole in our coverage,” Red said.
“I’ll be dealing with the security issues later. Right now we’ve got a child on the loose in a population of passengers sprinkled with people who don’t wish her well.” Jake stalked past the bodyguards stationed in the corridor, knocked on the portal and led the way inside.
Lady Scorsshyn sat in a chair, ashen-faced. One lady-in-waiting hovered.
With unease, Jake expected to be calling sickbay for the elderly regent next. To his untrained eye, she gave the appearance of someone on the verge of a heart attack, hand pressed tight to her chest, blue tinge to her lips. “Any idea what happened?” he asked her.
“You must find her,” Scorsshyn said. “There have been threats on her life.”
Jake and Red exchanged glances. “I intend to find her and bring her back safely. What can you tell me? I wish you’d been candid with me sooner about these extremely serious threats, rather than minimizing the situation as you did, every time we talked.”
Scorsshyn didn’t dignify his criticism with a response, ignoring it as if he’d never uttered the words. “I went to summon her for afternoon lessons, and she wasn’t in her chamber. The pet is also missing.”
“The Ship is scanning for her now,” Jake said. “As soon as we get a fix, I’ll have my security forces converge.”
Maeve spoke to him subvocally. “I believe the girl left the suite with one of her ladies-in-waiting and a guard earlier today. She was disguised as a servant and didn’t appear to be under any duress.”
“Odd,” Jake said thoughtfully. “Maeve tells me Falyn walked out of here on her own, with two other people from this group. So why don’t you know about it?”
The regent let out a string of curses, the coarse language shocking from her thin lips. She collapsed against the chair, gasping for
breath.
“Damn it, get sickbay to send someone over here,” Jake said. “Red, see what you can do to help her in the meantime. And you”—he crooked his finger at the other lady-in-waiting—“you’re going to tell me what you know.”
She nodded, stepping aside. “My name is Melann. I’ll be regent if anything happens to my Aunt Scorsshyn today. If Falyn remains with our coalition. I counseled my aunt many times, but she wouldn’t listen. She was harsh with the princess, she didn’t trust you, and she trusted the daughter of her close friend too much.”
“The daughter? Are you referring to the missing lady-in-waiting?”
“Sylvann, yes. She played the role of devoted sycophant to my aunt until today.” The woman sat down at the table, and Jake followed her. “Falyn is a pawn. Whoever controls her, controls the Tregallovan planetary system and all the resources. You know this, yes? I can only give you my guesses, but I believe Sylvann was a sleeper agent from one of the other factions on our world. She’s been less than subtle about working to transfer Falyn’s trust and affection to herself. I credited her with outrageous ambition within our own hierarchy, but now I see she had other motives.”
“Is Falyn subject to being easily influenced?” Jake asked. “I know she’s a kid, but the few times I met her, she seemed pretty well-grounded and sure of herself.”
“Swaying her loyalty was probably easier after Arln died, because the princess regarded him as family, like an older brother perhaps. He could talk my aunt into being more lenient. Arln gave Falyn treats and small escapes from the toil and formality of being Hereditary Princess. Bought her the pet. He even took her to the beach deck one afternoon, and he’d promised to bring the other children that Mr. Thomsill spoke of, the contest winners, to play. But then Arln fell ill and was gone.”
“He didn’t take the princess into the water on her visit to the beach, did he?”
She shook her head. “Not to my knowledge. You saw how formally the princess is always dressed. Hardly appropriate for wading in the ocean. I doubt the activity would occur to Her Highness.”
A medical team burst through the door. Jake directed them to Scorsshyn. “I think it’s a heart attack, not Groskin’s.”
“Not to be callous, but I’m relieved to hear your diagnosis,” Vicente said as he unpacked his scanner and went to work. “Hearts we can probably fix.”
Red joined Jake and Melann. She cast a scornful glance over her shoulder at her stricken aunt. “If Falyn agrees to accept fealty and service from Sylvann and whoever she’s working with on your ship, then my family has lost. There’ll be a new regent, and the balance of power will be altered. I wish we’d stayed immured in our fortress, but the one-a-decade religious ceremonies demand Falyn’s presence on Sector Hub.”
“So the other faction Sylvann might be working for doesn’t want the princess dead?” Jake wished they’d all shipped out on some other cruise liner, frankly. Interstellar politics were a tangled web, and he didn’t need the complications on his plate right now.
“Any other coalition needs her alive as much as we do. Or did.” Melann got a gleam in her eye that Jake didn’t care for as she contemplated Falyn’s mortality for a moment. Then she visibly resigned the idea of Falyn’s convenient death. “If Her Highness has been gone for hours, as your ship believes, the oath may have already happened. In which case my aunt and I have no right to be in this suite. We’d have no power or standing.”
Not his problem. “Any luck?” he asked Maeve. “We can’t take Falyn’s safety for granted. As the CLC Line rep, I need to see for myself. We might have to declare her under our guardianship until we arrive at Sector Hub and let the government there sort it all out. Diplomats and whoever.”
Melann straightened her spine. “Yes, a creative idea which would stave off more trouble for all of us on board the ship. Your captain can become Falyn’s guardian for the duration of the trip, since he’s a neutral party.”
Fleming was going to love his new duty. Not. “First we have to find her.”
“Hey, Jake, the old lady wants to tell you something,” Vicente said. “Make it fast. We need to get her into the OR. Her heart is failing.”
Jake scrambled to the antigrav litter and took the cold, skeletal hand Scorsshyn held out to him. Her voice was thin, tired, so he bent close. “There were also threats on her life.” She struggled for breath. “A small but bitter group of radicals believes there should be no royalty. They’ll stop at nothing to eradicate her blood line. The fact she’s a child means nothing to those fanatics.”
“We’ll look out for her, I promise.” He squeezed her hand gently.
Scorsshyn’s face contorted, and she grabbed at her chest. Medical alarms shrilled, and Vicente shouldered him out of the way. “Conversation’s over. We gotta go now.”
“The princess and her companions are on the beach deck,” Maeve announced. “Conducting some sort of a ceremony.”
“Can’t we keep anybody off a closed deck? Seven hells, Maeve, you’ve got to work on your internal security,” Jake said, rolling his eyes. “Let’s go.”
“I can only work with the tools I’m provided, within the specified rules.” Maeve’s voice had a definite edge.
“I’m coming with you.” Melann rose from her chair. “Perhaps Falyn will listen to me. It may not be too late.”
“Suit yourself, lady. If you can keep up, you can come.”
Jake and Red sprinted from the room. He heard footsteps behind him as Melann and at least one guard gave pursuit. The Tregallovan contingent shied off at the crew gravlift and headed for the civilian tube. Yelling for crew members to get out of his way, Jake arrowed up the priority grav stream, Red on his heels.
“What’s our play, boss?”
“I’m making this up as I go,” he admitted. “I’m no diplomat. We get there, make sure the kid’s okay, see what she wants to do. See who she’s with. Ask Captain Fleming for orders. Like I told Scorsshyn, CLC probably only cares we deliver her to Sector Hub in one piece. I care she’s okay.” He asked Maeve to connect him with the captain and held a brief discussion with Fleming while leaving the gravtube on the beach deck. He hastened onto the beach itself, Red on his six. “Stay away from the water,” he said over his shoulder to his deputy as they crunched onto the sand.
“Absolutely. You couldn’t pay me to dip a toe in there. Just being close to the damn stuff is making my skin crawl.”
Jake slowed as he came to the picnic grounds, where about ten people were standing in an elaborate formation, surrounding the princess. An older man spoke to Falyn briefly, then came to greet them. “There is no cause for alarm, Officer. The Hereditary Princess has chosen this day to accept the oath from House Derondor, which I have the honor to head. We shall be conveying her to the religious observances and then return to our world.”
“I’ll need to hear from Her Highness myself, sir. And Captain Fleming is on his way down to talk to her and you.” Jake holstered his blaster. “We have to wait for him.”
Falyn came forward, holding her pet. Her face was as grave as usual. “I’m fine, Officer Dilon, I assure you. Sylvann and her husband helped me get away from Scorsshyn. We’ve been planning the revolt for a long time. I was only hesitating because of Arln, trying to talk him into coming with me.” She closed her eyes for a moment, and Jake saw tears on her cheeks. “But he died.” She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and sniffed. “I’ll be much happier now, with House Derondor. I have distant cousins in Derondor.”
He bowed slightly. “I’m happy to hear that, Your Highness, but it’s my job to ensure your safety on board this ship.”
“I won’t return to Scorsshyn.” Reacting to the intensity of her tone, Midorri scrambled from her arms to crouch, bristling, at her feet. The pet unsheathed impressive claws, raking deep ruts in the sand.
Keeping one eye on the unpredictable animal, Jake nodded. “No one’s going to try to make you, I promise. Lady Scorsshyn is in sickbay right now anyway. Her hea
rt is causing her serious problems.”
Falyn didn’t say anything.
More people were coming onto the beach. “What the hell?” Red took a position protecting Jake’s flank. “Who are all these people?”
“Falyn has requested all passengers from our planetary system to assemble here in order for her to make her change of regent known,” said the head of House Derondor. The beach is a deserted area, thanks to your captain having closed it four days ago.”
“Sir, this deck is unsafe. It’s the hot spot for the outbreak of a disease we’ve been fighting. The last thing we need here today is a crowd.” Jake ordered Maeve to seal the deck and not allow anyone else onto the level except Captain Fleming.
“The captain requests that the assembly be moved to the main theater on Level A, where the dance troupe performs. It should hold the Tregallovan passengers aboard and Your Highness can speak from the stage. He will be there in approximately five minutes,” Maeve reported. “I believe the blind-eye device the Socialites used on my ganglions on this deck has damaged the controls. With my renewed focus on the issue, I find I’m unable to seal the deck, although my indicators show the portals as closed and locked.”
“Kid left himself a back door,” Red said. “Figures.”
“We’ll have to do an after-action report on this entire cruise. Work on some things.” Having just received a subvocal message from the captain himself, Jake redirected his attention to Falyn and her new regent. “The captain wants a few minutes with the two of you alone before the meeting. He’ll meet us there.”
“Your proposal will be completely acceptable,” the Head of House Derondor and now the new regent as well, said after checking with Falyn. “You may escort us to the venue.”
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