Tinaree: Trial By Inferno (Shadows Of Peace Book 1)

by Nic Plume

  "Yes, sir."

  "How do you know they’re the same people?"

  Mica started to speak, but Kaydeen was faster. They didn’t have time to play twenty questions.

  "He doesn’t, and we can’t be sure that you’re with the Resistance as Nitus said." She nodded at Nitus. "I really would love to take the time to verify each other’s credentials, but I have a man dying here, so we’re not going to."

  He raised his hands in appeasement. "Of course, I’ll treat your friend. Please come in." He ushered them into a short hallway. "What happened?" he asked as the door slid shut behind them. He motioned for them to precede him into the kitchen ahead. Salayla declined, eyeing the two closed doors at each end of the small hallway.

  He hesitated and looked at the doors. "They’re storage rooms."

  When she didn’t budge, he added, "You’re welcome to check them."

  At her answering nod, he raked his hand through his hair and slid past the others through the kitchen.

  "A plasma slug entered his left abdomen," Kaydeen explained as they followed him.

  The kitchen opened into another, longer hallway with three doors on each side and one at its far end. Pictures of children playing and medical holograms decorated its walls.

  Mitalius stopped in front of the second set of doors and looked at her.

  "Plasma?" His eyebrows arched up.

  "I removed the slug and most of the plasma before it fully activated, and neutralized the rest," she explained as he waved his hand over the access panel beside the door on the right. It opened and revealed a white exam room with a trauma table in its center and a full-size med scanner hanging from the wall. Tonee followed the doctor into the room and, with help from Mica, Nitus, and Leer, laid Taylor onto the table.

  Kaydeen looked back up the hallway. Salayla was in the kitchen, taking her time to check every door as she went along.

  "What did you use to remove the plasma?" Mitalius asked as he powered up the room’s control panel.

  "My fingers."

  He looked at her wrapped hand.

  She indicated Taylor. "He’s the priority."

  Mitalius nodded and turned to the counter folding down from the wall. It revealed a line of recessed shelves holding an assortment of medical equipment. Above and below, the wall turned translucent, revealing doors behind which more medical supplies were stored. He pulled out a bottle and dumped its content into a pan.

  "Soak your hand in there," he instructed as he activated the med scanner.

  Kaydeen unwrapped her hand and placed it in the liquid. It tingled her skin.

  "Neutralizer?"

  "Not quite," the doctor explained without looking up, "but close enough, especially since you already used neutralizer. This will kill the last traces of the plasma and start the healing process. You really stuck your fingers into a plasma-filled wound?"

  He was impressed.

  "Had to get it out somehow, or it would’ve eaten him alive."

  He nodded his agreement as he studied the display. "You did good work. The plasma didn’t get very far."

  "But, was it enough?"

  "He’s alive because of it."

  Dr. Mitalius settled in treating Taylor, drawing on Nitus’ help to hand him tools and supplies. Tonee left the room to help Salayla while Mica and Leer stayed by the door watching the doctor. A few minutes later, Salayla entered the room indicating the rest of the office was secure.

  Dr. Mitalius looked at her. "It’s nice to know I’m safe in my office."

  "Yes, sir, it is," she replied with a smile. It never reached her eyes.

  She looked at Kaydeen, her gaze flicking to the pan Kaydeen’s hand rested in. She didn’t voice her concern, but it came across loud and clear.

  The plasma had eaten most of the skin, but none of the underlying tissue. Kaydeen was still able to move her fingers. Nothing a little regen tech wouldn’t be able to fix.

  "It doesn’t look like the damage is too deep," Mitalius voiced Kaydeen’s thoughts. "I’ll be able to tell more once I scan it, but, considering that she’s able to move the hand, she should be able to regain full functionality."

  Salayla nodded and then looked at Taylor. "And he?"

  "That’s a different story," Mitalius answered, "but a full diagnosis will have to wait until the rest of my scans and tests are complete." He paused. "Meanwhile, I have a few questions."

  Salayla cocked her head at him. "Go ahead."

  He studied her, and then turned to Mica. "So, these are the people you told your parents about."

  "Yes, sir," Mica replied, "but I thought they didn’t believe me."

  "Just because they thought it wasn’t plausible doesn’t mean they thought it wasn’t possible."

  "Then, why didn’t you do anything about it?"

  Mitalius held up his hand. "How do you know these people are who you saw back then?" He looked at Kaydeen, Salayla, and Tonee in turn. "I’m not implying you’re imposters," he backtracked.

  "Yes, you are." Tonee crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned his shoulder against the doorframe, effectively blocking the door.

  "Vetting identifications is a good practice." Salayla interjected. She looked at Tonee, then Mitalius, and then Mica. "How do you know we’re the people you saw in the transport?"

  Mica frowned at her.

  "You didn’t see our faces," Salayla continued, pointing at Tonee, Kaydeen, and herself.

  "No," Mica answered, "but I saw his." He pointed at Taylor.

  Mitalius nodded at him reassuringly and then looked at Tonee. "What unit were you with and what was your mission?"

  Tonee studied him. Could they trust him? Nitus had declared Mitalius as part of the Resistance, but what if he was wrong? Tonee looked at Salayla and Kaydeen. His eyes mirrored her concerns. But, they had to start somewhere. She nodded. So did Salayla. He returned their gestures in kind and turned to Mitalius.

  "315th SF, First Squad," he identified their unit. "We were to secure a power plant in Heidene Valley."

  Heidene was a small mountain valley four hundred klicks east of Mannahe. They had never been intended to come this far west, so they hadn’t been provided intel on the city or its surrounding region.

  "The Heidene power plant." Mitalius nodded, "What kind of power plant is it, and how were you supposed to secure it?"

  Tonee shook his head. "The power plant is a hydromagnetic generator and the mission details are classified," he answered without pause.

  Not that he could give details if he wanted to. They hadn’t been given any past their orders—protect the squad’s egress and secure its Infiltrator’s landing site.

  Commander Tess hadn’t been happy when he’d received four newly-minted Academy graduates instead of the seasoned fighters he’d requested to fill his unit’s empty slots for this mission. His command staff had been even less thrilled to hear that four CHiTs, as veterans called unproven rookies, had earned the team assignment privilege. Graduating the Academy with honors and at the top of the class looked good on the screen, but in practice it was a pain in the ass for the receiving unit. It was hard enough to break in individual CHiTs, never mind assimilating a fully-formed team.

  It had helped that Salayla and she were Din, since everyone clamored for the opportunity to add Din gifts to their unit’s arsenal. This, of course, had started the argument against upholding the promise of the team assignment privilege.

  Commander Tess had understood that Din gifts weren’t communal tools to be assigned or used as a commander saw fit, and that most Din considered them an intimate and private part of their person. Yet, he’d never attempted to clarify that point for the more ignorant members of their unit. That job had fallen to Salayla when Hix and Tooley had loudly stated their opinion on the subject one day in the mess hall. "Excuse me, Chiefs," she’d asked in honeyed tones as she slunk her way around the two tables between them, "do you prefer to be serviced from the front or the back?" Her voice carried loud and clear across t
he hall, instantly muting its cacophony. "If my personal gifts and talents are open for assignment and general use at your discretion, and I’m transferred to your team, it would be advantageous to know if I have the right plumbing or if it would be advisable for me to accessorize before I report for my incoming skills evaluation." She smiled sweetly. "And if I am assigned to your team, Chief Tooley, I would like to request you assign Dieran as my mentor, if I may. From listening to his stories, you seem to be making good use of his talent to keep up the ship’s morale, so I think he’d be an excellent choice for me to shadow for a while."

  Commander Tess, who sat a few tables away, had nearly lost his lunch he’d laughed so hard. XO Churec, from a more prudish society and almost on the receiving end of the food-spewing catapult, had not been as amused.

  In the end, Tess had assigned them to his squad and Churec had made sure they always received the shitty end of the detail assignment list. ‘To ensure they learned the value of teamwork,’ as he’d put it.

  But the commander had shown his prejudice, or finally given in to his command staff’s pressure, when he’d ordered the CHiTs to guard the Infiltrator and its landing site, a job usually handled by the Infiltrator’s crew without help. Even Tess, with his forward-thinking and supposed willingness to let each person and team prove themselves on their merits, hadn’t been able, or willing, to shake the long-held tradition that CHiTs were incapable and unwarranted risks in the field.

  Mitalius nodded at Tonee’s answer but didn’t press him for further details. He didn’t offer any information about his connections with the Resistance, and Kaydeen was fine with that. The less they knew, the less they could reveal if they were captured. He finished treating Taylor and then turned his attention to Kaydeen’s and Tonee’s injuries.

  "I don’t have regen tech for internal caustic wounds," Mitalius explained as he treated Kaydeen’s fingers. Plasma wasn’t acid, but the damage it caused was similar enough so that it could be treated with the same regen tech. "Your friend will need extensive in-patient treatment, and I don’t have the facility or the time for that. You’ll have to take him to a hospital or your medical facilities. I suggest you choose the latter." He looked at Kaydeen, Tonee, and Salayla in turn for emphasis before continuing. "I gave him a sedative with a heavy dose of painkillers that’ll keep him out for a few hours. The neighborhood is probably swarming with Traverse right now, so you’ll have to wait until things settle down, anyway." He looked at a clock on the wall. "I can give you four more hours, then I’ll have to leave. You’re welcome to stay, but it won’t change his situation. I’ll give him X-3 before you leave and supply you with enough doses to make it to the next pickup point, but you’re going to have to get there on your own. With X-3, he’ll function well enough to do so, though you’ll need to make sure he doesn’t crash and doesn’t overdo it. That shouldn’t be a problem since he’ll still be in pain. X-3 doesn’t eliminate that completely."

  "I didn’t know civilians used X-3." Tonee eyed him.

  Mitalius grinned. "We do when we’re part of the Resistance."

  Mitalius gave Taylor an injection to counter the anesthetic sedative he’d given him earlier. Kaydeen reached for Taylor’s neck, steeling herself for what might come. She hadn’t felt anything while treating him in the plaza, but the adrenaline in her system at the time might have blocked the sensation. A tingle ran through her fingers the moment she touched his skin, but nothing like before. Either it was diminishing or her control was improving.

  His presence, his energy, was blocked off and distant, as if a wall had been erected around him. The deep sedative Mitalius had given him must have shut him down to the point that there wasn’t enough activity for her to sense. As the drug took hold and slowly countered the sedative, Taylor’s mind stirred. The wall became less tangible, like a haze or a thick fog. She pushed through, searching. Then his pain returned, clear as a beacon. He gasped. She zeroed in on him, pushing through the fog as if wading through gel.

  Mitalius gave him a dose of X-3. The nanobots the serum carried took hold quickly, swarming over him like insects over a carcass. It felt wrong, unhealthy and deadly. But, X-3 was there to help. It would take over some of his systems to help him function. It had to invade his cells to do that, to keep him from bleeding out and his organs from shutting down. X-3 was a good thing—it would help him survive and keep going.

  Then, why wasn’t she able to shake the feeling of dread, the sense that his body was being invaded, dipped in a flood of deadliness intent on eating him alive? She shook off the notion and entered his mind. He wasn’t as open as he’d been the day before at the apartment, but he welcomed her touch, her energy. She sorted through his feelings, drawing on the pain to bleed it off.

  He struggled to keep from drowning as the flood of X-3 took hold. It was a strange and unnatural feeling, as if another entity had entered his body and pushed him aside to watch from a distance.

  Was this how it felt to be treated with X-3? She immersed herself in it, shared it between them, buoying him with her presence and then sent her logic and reason to spread between them and overshadow his growing panic. He calmed, saw and understood what was happening, and took back control. He slowly came to, and the old comfortable and known feeling of his dislike for Readings returned. She smiled.

  "You are Din." Mitalius announced in amazement.

  Taylor’s hand shot out, aiming for the doctor’s throat, but the sudden pain shooting through his abdomen cut his reach short and he settled for the arm. The doctor yelped in surprise. She reached for Taylor’s outstretched arm, soothing him through their mental connection.

  "It’s fine. He’s a friend." Her alarm mirrored his, but hers was for the doctor’s safety, while Taylor’s was for hers.

  Their eyes met. He studied her, reading her in turn. Friend or foe? Protect the team above all. Is it safe? Her true nature identified, compromised. A threat?

  No.

  Taylor relaxed and closed his eyes, concentrating on controlling the pain. The X-3 hadn’t fully taken hold yet, and the quick movement had been excruciating. His breathing was ragged, but quickly evened out.

  "What happened?" Mitalius, who had stumbled backward when Taylor had released him, approached slowly, watching Taylor warily.

  "He thought you might be a threat."

  "How? I’ve been treating him. I’ve done nothing to threaten him or any of you. I only thought that you might be Din because of the way you’re cupping his neck and were looking at him. I’ve never seen a Din in action—I don’t think I’ve ever met a Din in person, for that matter, or at least not that I’m aware of. But I’ve seen pictures and that’s what it reminded me of. I didn’t think it was a bad thing to…" His voice trailed off and then he looked at Tonee and Salayla who had entered the room behind her. "Oh, unless you’re trying to hide the fact that you are Din and I blurted it out." His eyes widened and he backed up a step.

  "You’re fine," Kaydeen soothed him. " Yes, I am a Child of Dinai and yes, we’ve been hiding that fact." She nodded slowly, "Traverse have been known to do some bad things to my kind."

  Mitalius raised his arms. "I’m not Traverse."

  "I know you’re not Traverse, that’s why I didn’t mind Reading him in front of you." She nodded at Taylor’s prone form. "But he didn’t know that, and he’s a little protective of us." She motioned to encompass the whole team.

  "I’d say it’s more than a little." Mitalius nodded his understanding. "It felt like he would’ve ripped my throat out had he been able to reach it." He edged forward again.

  "You’re fine." She smiled. "Now he knows that you’re a friend." That was true, at least for the moment, though she’d sensed Taylor’s alarm and his intent when he’d reached for the doctor, and it hadn’t been to give him a hug. But the doctor didn’t need to know how close to the truth his statement was.

  Mitalius picked up the injector he’d dropped and removed the now-empty cartridge.

  "The X-3 will take a litt
le while to fully take effect. Adrenaline will hasten the process, but it’s better on his system to go the slower route whenever possible."

  He returned the injector to the pouch he’d pulled it from, closed it, and handed it to Kaydeen.

  "What’s ‘a little while?’" Tonee asked from the door.

  Mitalius looked at him. "Exact timelines depend on the wound and his physiology." He shrugged. "Each dose lasts three to three-and-a-half hours," he looked back at Kaydeen, "so it’s recommended you administer a new dose every three hours."

  Kaydeen nodded. She knew all aspects of X-3 and its administration, but she didn’t interrupt.

  "Don’t allow the doses to lapse," he instructed. "Once the serum’s effect runs out, his body will crash, meaning, at minimum, he’ll be in severe pain and possibly unable to move. A crash could also cause unconsciousness, shock, and collapse of the nervous system, so it’s highly recommended to discontinue the serum only under full medical support."

  She knew that, too. Few people who crashed survived, and of those, none had survived more than two crashes. X-3 did wonders for a wounded soldier’s survivability but the moment the nanobots stopped managing the wound and the surrounding structures, the body lapsed back into its pre-X-3 status. The resulting shock was usually too much for an already-weakened nervous system to handle.

  She took the pouch from Mitalius and opened it. The foam bed inside the hard shell held nine fingertip-sized cartridges and a palm-sized injector, with an empty slot for the cartridge Mitalius had just used. She had enough for thirty hours of treatment. The pickup was in seventeen-and-a-half hours, so she had almost twice as much X-3 as she should need. Good. She verified that the command module embedded in the shell was powered and actively communicating with the nanobots, then closed the pouch again and stowed it in Taylor’s right pant leg pocket. It was a perfect fit to take the spot of a blow-out kit.

  His breathing had settled, but she was sure he wasn’t asleep. When she was done, Mitalius handed her another pouch, this one holding a handheld med-scanner.