Miranda followed his instructions, flipping on the scanner. Fumbling, she managed to shine it in her own eyes before getting it turned around to scan the mess. She scanned carefully, overlapping each pass just to make sure Gene got everything he needed.
“That should be enough, jack it in just like the samplers.” Gene suggested impatiently. Sandy handed Miranda the pop-pad. Miranda made the connection and watched the screen go blank.
“So where are you from?” Sandy asked, kicking aside an empty beaker.
“Around,” Miranda stared at the darkened screen.
“You sound just like Ellie!”
Those words jolted Miranda’s brain enough to finally complete the shuffle and deal out the pattern. Scenes, planets, and faces flashed behind her eyelids. They were out of sequence, but not without an increasingly chronological order and pattern. Ellen the healer, the gardener, the kind woman on the pier, the old woman of the desert, Aunt Ellen, and Ellie - the woman here, faces which all belonged to a single woman, a single frightening pattern. Ellie- Ellen had trashed her own lab. Why? Simple, this place wasn’t here to help, and neither was she.
Miranda’s mind rejected the conclusion. It was only a guess, a gut reaction. Miranda’s stomach flipped at the thought, bringing bile up into her mouth.
“Miranda! Snap out of it!” Gene’s shout broke through Miranda’s turmoil, “Listen to me!” She brought her focus to his lips. “You have a big problem. I watched you scan yourself for a second when you switched it on. It’s a good thing you did! You’re infected too. Given what I’ve figured out about the derivation of this disease, you don’t have long. It’ll hit you harder and faster just because of what you are. It’s already affecting you. You need to clear out that freezer, and shut yourself in. That should induce a state of hibernation, go with it. It’ll keep you alive until I can come up with a treatment or a cure. Do it now!”
“What?” Miranda asked, her thoughts having slipped from hyper-sensitized sharpness to fuzzy lint in the span of his warning.
“Get in the freezer!”
Miranda staggered forward, with a helpful shove from Sandy. Slipping slightly on blood, Miranda offhandedly teleported the mess away. Sandy’s gentle hands lowered her to the floor of the freezer. Miranda let her eyes slip shut. She fell asleep chanting silently to herself, “Remember the answer.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Chapter 21
... Or Is It Triangles?
-----------------------------------
Tina reached for a third pop-pad and called up another reference on neuropathology treatments. She directly compared the frequencies used with the brain wave patterns indicative of a case of Tennerth syndrome. To her it seemed to be perfectly obvious that the device could be used to treat if not cure the supposedly incurable syndrome. A simple conclusion that most people didn't make because the two obscure notations were separated by years in the usual course of training.
Her train of thought was derailed when Johnny, one of the emergency med-techs, poked his head in. “Hey, Tina can you find a clear, secure room for me?”
“Yeah, sure.” Tina highlighted the lines with her thumb then stepped out into the hall. Johnny wasn't alone. He had what could only be considered an entourage, three watchers and a crew of medics, all surrounding a man strapped to a stretcher. Tina had to step very near the stretcher on her way down the hall to the isolation ward. At her closest, Tina's nose came to the very certain conclusion that the man on the stretcher was very much Briaunti. His smell tickled the back of her nose and almost made her want to giggle. For the first time in her life, Tina felt more than plain old human.
“Here this one is free.”
Johnny and the other medics filed in with the patient, but the three muscular watchers just took up guard positions in the hall. Tina started to follow the medics in, until by posture and position the guards made it clear she shouldn't.
“What did he do? Rob a store room?”
“No. He came from outside,” The guard mumbled in heavily accented English, a few minutes later. His distaste at having to communicate verbally was clear on his face.
“A refugee? Under guard?” Tina ducked through the door despite them.
The smell of the man drew her closer. The medics had moved him to the bed and were in the process of strapping him down. All of them retreated and Tina noted the green suppresser light on the life sign display over the bed. A glance over her shoulder revealed the glares of the watcher-guards. She knew they wanted her to leave too, but she couldn't conceive of how the unconscious man could be dangerous if he really came through the shields. Tina went to the instrument cupboard and pulled out a general scanner.
She ran it, and her eyes, over the man. He was bruised almost everywhere but there weren't any life threatening injuries. The scan confirmed he was Briaunti. She changed the parameters. His hormone trace indicated he wasn't much older that she was. Just what she didn't want, yet another reminder she was developmentally far behind her peers.
On the bed the man began to stir against the restraints. Evidentially the guards in the hall noticed, because Tina soon heard the door hiss closed behind her. She turned to confirm it, and when she looked back the man was staring at her.
“Have I gone back in time? Miranda is that you?” His voice surprised Tina almost as much as the words. Trust Miranda to have met and made an impression on this man too. Tina batted away the quick flare of jealousy.
“No,” Tina blushed, “ to both questions. I'm her sister, Tina.”
“Well, Tina can you explain why I'm strapped down?”
“No, again. They brought you here under guard. Somebody must be awful stressed over you,” Tina answered.
“Not a real huge surprise, I suppose. This is Sanctuary isn't it? I guess I shouldn't expect very much in the trust department right away.” he huffed, “ My name is Nicholas D'Fauli, my mother is dead but she used to be one of the brides of the Darkone.”
Tina's eyes opened wide. If his mother was... Did that make him...
“My father was a prisoner in a dark camp and my mother helped him escape.” Nick said answering Tina's unasked question.
Tina relaxed slightly, “ So you were raised by the dark, is that how you met my sister?”
Nick grimaced, “Yeah, I spent a lot of time as one of her keepers. That's how I got here. At one point a light came on in my head and I realized she had the right idea. I started rebelling, thus I got the crap kicked out of me and I was on the fast track to a slow execution. Your big sis got me out just in time.”
“Okay, if you really aren't dark why do they have you restrained?” Tina asked herself out loud.
“Hey, I asked you remember? No doubt none of them trust me. When we arrived none of them even wanted to speak to me. You have no idea how it feels to have people looking down their noses at you.”
“Don't I? I am a telepathic deaf-mute, or hadn't you noticed? Around here you suffer less pity if your limbs have been permanently severed. Sure they can grow them back for you but still. Do you realize that up until a few weeks ago I was treated like an invalid? I know how people with screwed up ideas in their heads can treat a person!” Tina exploded.
“Whoa! For one, I assumed it was just the suppression field. I can feel it you know. For two, telepathic mutes ain't that uncommon where I come from. Heck mutes of the verbal kind aren't either. They actually cut tongues out as punishment for speaking out of turn.” Nick replied softly.
Tina blushed again, “I'm sorry you didn't deserve that.” The door hissed open and Tina readied the scanner as an excuse in case it was one of the guards coming in to shoo her out.
“Relax Tina, it's just me,” Ben's soothing voice and somewhat tired face disarmed her.
“Ben? What're you,” Tina slapped herself on the forehead of course Ben had helped Miranda with the rescue, “Never mind. Miranda introduced you of course.”
“Not really,” Both men said in wary unison.
Nick deferred to Ben who continued, “She just said she knew him, that his name was Nick, and then she prodded Gene into a disruptive revelation.”
“Oh really?” Tina asked wondering what could be more disruptive than the arrival of a formerly, dark agent.
“Yeah, turns out you know Nick's father. He's your boss.”
“What!” Tina blurted in comfortable unison with Nick.
“Gene is Nick's dad.”
“My father is alive and here?” Nick sat up against the restraints. Tina saw tears behind his eyes and an empty longing. Automatically she went to remove the restraints.
“Should you?” Ben asked.
Tina paused and really looked at Nick using every trick and nuance she knew. Then she unbuckled his wrist. Ben silently undid Nick's ankles. She almost wanted to cry. Ben trusted her judgment. Nick sat up and looked at the two of them. Finally, Nick did cry. It was brief not more than a couple tears. They evaporated into an emotionless stare.
“I apologize, I never thought... Actually I thought the Darkone had my father hunted down and killed.”
Tina's remote pin bleeped, interrupting the awkward silence that followed. “Where are you Tina!” Gene's agitated voice issued from the pin.
“I'm in iso-seven, with Gene Jr.” Tina answered.
“This is no to time to be flip girl!” Gene growled moments later when he stormed into the room with a pop-pad in hand. “Have you started studying the Briaunti plague?”
Gene's words made Tina cold and drove her thoughts towards Miranda. “Yeah, I was working on that as an adjunct to the Agurian plague.”
“Good, but it's the other way around. I need you to help me with some data.” Gene said briskly starting to rush her out of the room.
Tina dug her feet into the carpet. The more agitated he got the more she knew he was talking about Miranda. “Miranda can't have caught it. She would have been born with the active form of immunity. Our mother got the immunity from father. The only way she could have caught it is if it is a new mutated or re-engineered strain."
Gene did a one hundred eighty degree turn to look her in the eyes. "How'd you come to that conclusion?"
Tina frowned and glanced between poor clueless Ben and Nick, who displayed a rising sense of dread. Tina felt an almost possessive stab of jealousy that Nick felt so strongly about Miranda.
"I just know!" Tina finally growled back.
"How!" Gene was frantic, "Never mind, just come along I need your help. We must formulate an antigen quickly."
"I'll be there in a minute," Tina growled with such force that Gene twitched before turning and heading for the lab.
Ben rubbed his head, "Briaunti plague, is that as bad as it sounds?"
Tina started to answer but Nick answered for her, "Worse." Tina stared at him wishing-willing him to forget her sister.
"Okay, with all the filters, how'd she catch something that nasty here?" Ben asked.
"She's not here, she went off on some stupid search for something. She's on an Earth somewhere. Gene knows where she is." Tina answered offhandedly, too busily absorbed in Nicks eyes to notice her own words.
"Tina, come on!" Ben growled and grabbed her by the shoulder, roughly.
"Owe! Why'd you do that?" Tina slapped his hand away and shook her brains back into order. She didn't notice Nick shaking it off at the same time.
"Where is Miranda?" Nick asked disjointedly.
"Stuff Miranda!" Tina exploded. Ben glared at her and slapped her.
"What is the matter with you?" Ben asked softly, obviously sorry.
Tina shook her head again, "I need air."
Ben grabbed her shoulder loosely and teleported them both to Gene. Tina's nose noticed the difference immediately. Gene smelled like Nick, but different. Her thoughts cleared.
Ben and Tina verbally stumbled over one another with simultaneous, "I'm sorry," s and "forgiven" s.
"How wonderful for the both of you, but we have to get this synthesizer on the problem. Then I-no-we need to talk to Angela!" Gene retorted.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ben shuffled his feet under the table. For disastrously urgent business this meeting wasn't getting started very quickly. Angela hadn't arrived, and half of the other chairs were still empty. Gene and Tina sat side by side rapidly exchanging dialog so thick with jargon that it sounded like another language. A language- Ben thought- Tina had only begun to learn after they had met. He watched them because he didn't know anyone else. Nor did he know what any of them had to do with Miranda.
The various conversations stopped short, with the exception of Gene and Tina. Then a tight cluster of people entered the room. Angela was at its center, with Daniel and Penelope. Once in the room the group dispersed half taking chairs at the table, the other half taking seats behind those at the table.
“Ladies, Gentlemen, we've a great deal of important business. The dark advance in cohort seven has inexplicably stalled, and it appears that three dimensions in cohort four have disappeared. Also a new form of the Briaunti plague has appeared. It is close to one hundred percent lethal to humans, transmissible to Briaunti and we aren't sure what else." Angela said on a single breath before taking her seat. The respondent silence lingered until Angela continued, "Anybody else with new business?"
"I've got the promotion lists on new factors. Erica's ready to fly solo," Ben recognized Sinclair Chavez. He'd come in with Angela and sat near her. Niri sat in a seat behind Chavez balancing an array of thin pop-pads on her lap.
Angela sighed and nodded, "This urgent?"
"Yeah, I think she could handle a placement in cohort seven. There's not going to be a better time to place her."
"Whoa! Are we talking about the Erica I'm thinking of?" Ben leapt in, only barely veiling his outrage at the idea of her going in to danger.
Angela blinked at him. "Ben's right. That's just a little too hot to send a rookie into. I'll let her know tomorrow, but I'm thinking somewhere safe, small and simple to start out."
"What are we doing talking about Erica? What are we going to do about-" Ben blurted.
Angela cut him off cleanly, “What do you want me to do? Gene's working on a cure."
"Send someone to take care of her!”
"Who? You? Haven't you been listening? Nearly one hundred percent lethal to humans and it's taken down a Briaunti. We don't know if anything is immune. I can't order anyone in there."
"I'll..." Ben was cut off by Gene who leapt up and shouted.
"Yes!" Gene blushed, surprised by his own volume, "She's okay. She woke up. She came out of it on her own." He mumbled into the screen; then turned to Angela, "I'm going to put her on the display." Angela nodded and with a few taps on the pad and Miranda's face lit up small screens all the way around the table. She looked pale and weaker than she had when Ben rescued her.
"What have you got for us?" Angela growled.
"This plague was designed to wipe out this world. It nearly wiped me out too. Things are fuzzy but I think I know who did it." Miranda answered holding the side of her head.
"Who? -You mean it isn't a dark plot? -Can you stop them or do you need backup?" Several voices from people Ben didn't recognize all asked at once.
Miranda blinked and shook her head, "I can't remember. There's dark to it but..." The focus of the screen shifted rapidly to a sickly blonde woman with several sores on her face.
"She's doing better but not quite tops. Don't send anybody here unless you've figured out how to stop this thing. They'll just get sick." Then the screen went blank.
Angela looked to Gene, "Who was that?"
"Her name is Sandy. She's been helping from that end," Gene supplied, "and she's right."
"Okay then, let’s move to other business."
Ben couldn't believe what he was hearing. Evidently neither could Penelope. She quickly left the room. Knowing he'd be nothing more than a disruption, Ben followed her. Out in the hall Penelope sat on the stone floor with her arms wrapp
ed around her knees. Her bottom lip bled from obvious tooth marks, and hastily wiped tears had blurred her makeup.
Ben unzipped one of the pockets of the dark uniform he still wore, and pulled out a tissue. "Here."
Penelope took it, dried her face, and blotted her lip. "She just went out on her own, and look what happens. Man, I really have become my mother. She was so protective of me when I was little. She did everything she could do for me and in the end I abandoned her. I didn't really have a choice. No one asked me if I wanted to become a Briaunti. I just wanted to be smart like everybody else." She started sobbing and rocking.
Ben patted her back, "It's okay."
"Is it? She wouldn't be out there if someone hadn't slipped up. I should've been just a normal girl. I would have grown up human, graduated and married a human. Miranda would never have teleported into harm's way, now or before."
Ben nodded and patted. He was slow to absorb what she was saying, when his thoughts went into playback mode. "It's possible for a human to be turned into a Briaunti?" He finally blurted.
"Yeah," Penelope answered in a refreshed if confused tone.
"And Briaunti can pass on immunities?"
"Yeah."
"How?"
Penelope licked her bottom lip," Any exchange of body fluids, blood, spit, snot, it can be oral, absorbed through the skin or intravenous."
Ben leaned against the wall. He could go after her. "Can Gene do it?"
Penelope stood and nodded, "You'd have to talk to Angela about it, get her behind you. Gene doesn't like to meddle in things like that." She patted her face with the tissue and started off down the hall.
Ben sat to wait out the meeting. It was a while before the meeting ended. By the time the people started trickling out, Ben had dozed off. Someone tripped over his foot waking him. He leapt to his feet and discovered he would have to chase Angela to catch up to her. When he caught her, he was greeted by a defeated expression. She didn’t stop to converse, but she did slow to allow him to follow.
"Frustrating, eh." Ben said thumbing back towards the meeting room.
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