If art was more appreciated these days, Hunt’s assistant would have desperately missed a more lucrative calling.
Out of curiosity, she checked the metadata on the image. It came from Tabitha Shrive’s LightTab. Hunt burst through the door, coming to an abrupt stop when he saw her in his chair. He said nothing, but sat in the chair across from the desk. She said nothing for a moment as he glanced around the room awkwardly.
“So?” she asked when he seemed too uncomfortable to speak.
“Um, yes?”
“My god, Hunt. What did you think of Tani’s work? Will it help us get any closer to discovering what the Blight crystals can do?”
“Oh, uh, yes. I will need to do a more thorough analysis in a report. But, for now, I think its safe to say the work is fascinating. I had no idea she was using Blight crystal in her patients.” He paused for a moment, then pulled out his own LightTab, thumbing through the pictures. He came to the beautiful extraction photo. “Look here.” He pointed to the edge of the crystal near the top. “Do you see that hard line in the crystal? It was easier to see in person.”
Ayna leaned in over the desk and squinted at the photo. Sure enough, a single line of deep crimson ran through the crystal with no translucence. “I see it. What is it?”
“I think that is the original crystal. It butts up right against the start of the diamond. I think she used small shavings to wrap the diamond, creating a buffer between the patient and the source crystal. The Blight crystal then grew together into a hard shell that blended into the flesh. It adapted the flesh to accept the crystal.”
“Is this process from the Xenai docs?”
Hunt shook his head, “No. The implantation location is from the docs. Everything else is something she must have figured out. The Xenai as a race, we have to assume, is Source-attuned like the Illara. They wouldn’t have an extreme rejection reaction to the Source crystals. As we have seen from other attempts on the SatNet to recreate the Xenai docs, Terrans definitely do. This buffer she has created that becomes part of the patient’s body is unique. Without it, her patients would all die on the operating table.”
“So, the crystal adapts to its surroundings. Can we use this to figure more out about it?”
Hunt squirmed, “We could... But, it’ll be—unethical.”
Ayna raised an eyebrow at him, “And—how could we use it?”
“We could—and I’m not saying we should—do our own implants. Across a variety of people. Some Source-casters, some Terrans. And see what the single implant does on its own.”
Ayna stood, “Good. We’ll start with Kaiban. I’ll find us other volunteers, but we should start right away.”
Hunt looked around the room, “Are you sure? I mean—we don’t know what will happen. This could be a death sentence.”
Ayna sat back down, reaching across the desk and squeezed his hand, “I know. If something horrible happens to Kaiban, it’ll be a tragedy. The rest of the volunteers I’ll pull from the jails.” She paused, offering another squeeze to comfort him, “And if nothing horrible happens, they’ll have all helped us and earned pardons.”
Hunt nodded, “Okay.” He continued nodding to himself, as if he was convincing himself everything was fine with each nod. He looked up to her as she stood, “So—how long do you think it’ll take to find—uh—volunteers? We’ll need the data from them pretty quickly.”
“I’ll have them here tomorrow, then.”
54
Tani
The request shocked Tani. It was presumptive, and she hated the Uppers assuming that she would just do as they commanded. She pushed down the urge to write a curt response, denying the request, even though it would also be safer to reject it and stay out of the Topsiders’ awareness. Bringing in a personal friend of a Topsider as a patient? She could practically taste the ashes of her project in her mouth when something went wrong. It wouldn’t matter if the patient died from overexertion or was run down by a moto. A Topsider death would cause the end of everything she was working to achieve.
And yet, she couldn’t stop rereading the message. Kingston Cross posed an intriguing question, even if his way of going about it was distasteful. She read the message a fifth time, taking comfort in the fact that he had resorted to a message: this likely meant that Ayna Shae had not located the new facilities yet.
Tani,
I have heard of the success of your basic tests with Terran embeds to combat disease. As you may be aware, our tests at the Prin States Labs with the crystals from the Blight Field have been largely unsuccessful. I would like to investigate the use of the crystals for healing, without drawing attention to myself from the Labs. I have a sick subject, who is one of the first Terran embeds. His embed has prevented aging, but he is as old as the Sundering itself. He now finds himself with failing faculties. He has issues with balance, and a persistent cough. Come to the attached waypoint at midnight tomorrow and update me once you have examined him.
She closed her LightTab and went to the small station that Vin had set up in her cube, across from her cot. It was fully enclosed until she unlocked it with her passcode, turning the glass from a misty dark gray to clear. It protected her secret project from prying eyes. Inside, several rats moved about. Half of them had been embedded with small Blight crystals, after she had introduced them to various ailments. The crystals worked quickly. The rat whose legs and back she had broken just that morning was now skittering around with no noticeable movement difficulties. From the outside, it looked like a normal rat. She wondered how far into the rat she would find the crystal when she dissected it later.
She had infected several of the rats with systemic diseases as well. However, the crystals had acted erratically to disease, healing in a few cases, but amplifying the illness in others. She would need more rats to test how they interacted with other implants. Once she had examined the implant in her new patient, she could easily perform several tests to make sure she wouldn’t kill him.
She sighed. She was already thinking of the unknown man as a patient. She would have to use Kingston’s desire for secrecy to her own advantage. She hated looking for weaknesses in other people that she could use; it required so much energy from every interaction. She grew tired just thinking of it. But the health issues this man was experiencing were unlike anything she had been able to create with the Blight Crystal. If her assumption was right, she could add a second new source element to her repertoire, which would make her work invaluable. Consequently, she would become untouchable. It was the only way to rise above the Topsiders, and she would have to take risks along the way.
She slid the lock on her LightTab and hit reply.
I will be there. I have to bring an assistant, but he is discreet.
She had barely had time to look at the waypoint location on the original message before a response popped up.
If you need to bring someone to carry supplies, that is fine. However, they must remain outside.
She didn’t respond, as she felt her anger rise again.
* * *
Tani stopped outside the small, makeshift hut. It had been constructed recently, from whatever materials the builder had been able to find discarded. The roof was a series of light ceramic panels, all broken and misshapen in odd patterns, likely discarded from some of the nicer homes in Upper Prin. The sides of the hut were pieced together out of lumber, too short to properly construct walls, resulting in overlapping pieces that flared out at the bottom like the rotting wood shingles in the lesser areas of Prin. The small shack was barely larger than a closet and had no windows. Its door was made like the walls, and hung precariously from treated leather strips.
She looked over at Vin and nodded toward the right of the door for him to drop supplies. They had already arranged for him to stay near a window and listen for a code phrase if Tani needed to signal him. The lack of windows was made up for by the shoddy construction, and she didn’t doubt he would be able to hear every word said inside the hut. He slung the b
ag off his shoulder and dropped it to the ground where she had indicated, before scooting back to the corner of the small building. She stepped inside.
A small light bloomed from the corner, revealing a man who looked barely over 30 sitting on the chair by the light. He smiled at her in a way that betrayed his age and the tiredness of his body. She nodded, stepping forward and raising a hand in greeting. “Tani.”
He shook her hand. “Olivier.”
“We are going to need more light.”
He chuckled to himself. “Bring in your other bag. I doubt we will need more light.”
She eyed him cautiously, but did as he said, stepping out to grab the bag and stepping back inside, placing it on the dirt floor.
The light sat on a square table that was solid. She began to lay out things on it, including her sampling kit.
“What type of embed do you have?”
He shrugged. “Not sure, really. It was an accident. I was in a fight and fell on a stone. The stone itself shattered, but a sliver of the material that ran down the center of it pierced through my skin.” He began to unbutton his shirt. In the dim light the scar-like formations were visible, running out from a central welt of white flesh next to his right shoulder blade.
“You fell?”
He nodded.
“I am going to need more light,” she repeated. She stepped toward the man as he pivoted, pulling the chair towards him then sitting on it backwards with his back to her. She prodded at the lump of flesh, which turned out to be completely solid. “The implant is under here?”
He nodded again, taking a deep breath and exhaling. “Here is your light.” His hands tightened on the back of the chair and the lump of flesh began to glow with a golden light. The light spread from the center, out along each of the white lines that had looked like scars. She took a step back, her eyes widening. She had never seen an implant do anything other than sit inside of its owner, let alone glow. The light grew bright enough that she could easily see in the hut, the dark corners lighting up with the golden hues.
“Well, that is interesting. Where did you find this stone?”
He shrugged again. “I assume Kingston gave you some background on me?”
“Yes.”
“I am not from this world. I lived in another. I found the stone there, near where I worked. It was very porous, with a vein of transparent gold running through the center. I kept it as my lucky rock.”
“How? If this happened before the Sundering, how are you still alive?”
He looked over his shoulder at her and she felt his eyes looking over her as she leaned in close to the implant, feeling the change in the flesh and lines from it since it had started glowing. “Yes, it was before the Sundering. When the Sundering happened, I dropped the stone from high up on a tower, which I later fell off of, landing on it.”
She snapped her head up to meet his eyes. “How are you alive?”
“A friend tried to save me from some wolf beasts that were advancing to where I had fallen. He was going to get killed. All I remember is a feeling that I had to help him. My shoulder burned, and as I stood, a wave of this light—but much stronger— flew out from me. It killed the wolves… they disintegrated. And then I was somewhere else. I never saw my friend again, or that world, even though I am certain that he lived.”
She stared at him, mentally telling herself to shut her mouth. She closed it abruptly, but couldn’t turn away as his words played over and over in her mind. Did Kingston send me this guy just to fuck with my data? She turned back to the implant. The truth wouldn’t hide from her for long, “Alright. So lets say you did use this implant to save your friend then survived the Sundering somehow… What has it done since then?”
He shrugged again. “Nothing, really. It’s kept me alive. I’ve aged some over the last eighty years. I was seventeen when I fell on the stone. Now I appear somewhere around the age of thirty, comparing myself to a normal aging process, but—” he was cut off by a series of sharp coughs. The light from his implant flared brighter with each cough, making the room feel like it was pulsing. He cleared his throat, “I do feel like I am eighty.”
“I am going to need a sample of this material.”
He nodded. “I figured you would.”
She picked up a scalpel from the table. “If this hurts too much, I have some topical pain relief I can apply, but I wasn’t expecting anything so integrated into your body. I can bring more surgical tools next time, if this doesn’t work.”
He shook his head. “I can’t come here often. Do what you need to for now. I’ll manage.”
“Okay.”
She quickly pulled her mask up from around her neck and leaned in close, pushing the scalpel into the glowing flesh at the center. Olivier took a sharp breath and his hands wrenched down on the chair as she cut from top to bottom, nearly an inch. She made a smaller incision from left to right, allowing her to peel up a flap of skin and look beneath. The implant swirled in the man’s body, like a current of molten material, moving in a slow circle. She controlled the gasp that welled up inside of her and pressed the scalpel tip against the implant. It was solid, despite the motion and dewy appearance of it. She scraped lightly at it, feeling the gem push deeper into the soft flesh of the man’s body. He stiffened with pain but said nothing. She pulled her scalpel away. There were no chips on the scalpel. The implant surface looked smooth. She hadn’t gotten anything from it.
“Well, my scalpel doesn’t seem to be doing the job. I’m sorry. I have another tool to try, but… it might be unpleasant.”
He coughed and laughed. “It’s been such a pleasant experience so far…”
She found herself smiling as she dug into the second bag, pulling out a heavy canvas wrap. She unrolled it on the table, running her hands over the silk that lined the wrap. It held her only diamond-tipped chisel. She had bought it to use with the Blight crystals, which also acted differently than you would expect from looking at them. The diamond chisel was the only tool that had worked to scrape samples, and it had cost nearly as much as every other instrument in her lab combined. She had tossed it into her bag on a whim.
She moved back into place, holding a small metal container underneath the glowing implant. She used the chisel to push the small flap of flesh out of the way, surprised to discover that the top of her first incision was already healing. She had enough movement left to push the skin away, but just barely. She scraped and was happy to see a thin shaving of implant flake away from the stone and fall into her container. It would take far too long to do it this way, though.
“You might want to—uh—hold on to something.”
Olivier moved his arms, gripping onto the top rail of the back of the chair. Tani gave him a moment to settle and then rearranged her hand to hold the container in her bottom fingers while holding the flaps of skin open with her top fingers. She took a deep breath, noticing Olivier tightening his grip on the chair in response to her loud inhalation. She gave him no further warnings and jammed the chisel down like a pick. It hit with enough force that the implant pushed down on his flesh. Olivier screamed. The chisel still scraped along the surface, not cutting into the material, but a long curl of the glowing material fell from the stone, immediately dimming as it landed in the container. As Olivier’s scream tapered off, Tani heard Vin scuffling outside, and the door burst open.
“Get out!” Olivier yelled as Tani shoved the chisel into the embedded element again. Vin jumped back from the threshold and slammed the door shut. The hut shook as Tani kept up the violent scraping, and Olivier continued screaming.
* * *
Tani scrambled up to her quarters above the lab. It had taken her and Vin the rest of the night and several hours into the morning to get back into Prin unnoticed. She ignored the looks of the patients on the bottom floor and whirled up the ramps, throwing open the flap to her cube. She gestured at Vin to drop the packs on the floor as she turned to defog the dark glass of her personal experiment. She jumped when Vi
n finally spoke, unaware that he had not left after dropping off the packs.
“What was that?”
Tani shrugged, glancing over her shoulder. “I don’t know yet.”
She pulled a small cloth-wrapped package out from under her shirt, where she had strapped it to her body for the trip back. Vin stepped closer as she began to unwrap the glass container that held the samples she had taken from Olivier. She held it still for a moment so that Vin could look.
“It doesn’t look like much.”
The samples looked like lines of dried sap.
“When you came into the hut, did you see him?”
Vin shook his head. “As soon as he started yelling, and I knew you didn’t need help, I got out of there as quickly as I could.”
Tani laughed. “You almost made the hut crash down on us.”
He shuffled his feet and looked down from the sample.
She continued, “No harm done. I assume you noticed the glow in the room, though?”
He looked up and nodded.
“That was this. When it was in him, he made it glow. He controlled it. When I scraped off the samples, they stopped glowing. But this isn’t like any other implant we have ever seen.” She glanced behind her at her glass cage of rats. “Well… it isn’t like almost any other implant we’ve seen.”
“You think it’s related to the Blight crystals?”
She nodded. “In some way, yes. They react similarly to having samples taken. I had to use the diamond chisel. They also seem to work with the organics they are placed into. So, that’s two ways… They have their own power, instead of just amplifying the latent powers of the carrier.”
Song of Sundering Page 32