Endurance (22 page)

Twists and Turns

The Hsktskt grudingly transported the entire group of females to an isolation chamber near the infirmary, where I spent the next several hours treating and monitoring them. After the last patient stabilized, I returned to the infirmary to check on the injured Hsktskt and Wonlee.

I found the Lieutenant sitting alone at the end of the inpatient ward. On the berth beside him lay the body of his wife. He held her claws in his and stared down at her slack face, grief etched in deep lines around his eyes and mouth.

One of the Lok-Teel had attached itself to the dead female’s leg, cleaning the encrusted bodily fluids from her cold skin. I gently removed it and set it on the floor.

“Excuse me for intruding, Lieutenant, but I need to speak with you.” I sat down beside him and hoped he would confirm my suspicions without going ballistic on me. “Can you tell me what happened? How long ago did the females become ill? Why didn’t your wife and the others come to the infirmary?”

“They have shown signs for several days. My wife, Mareek fell sick last night. They would have reported, but Shropana and Devrak convinced them that you would have them killed. This morning Mareek became confused, nearly incoherent.” Something tore in his voice as he added, “I argued with her. Our last words to each other were spoken in anger.”

I couldn’t touch him, or I’d have put an arm around him. “I’m sure Mareek knew how much you loved her, Lieutenant.”

He made a harsh sound. “Wonlee. Just Wonlee.”

“How did the females end up in the male tier?”

“I don’t know. They appeared in our commons a few days ago. We hid them in our berths at first, but the beasts are everywhere and”—he gestured toward the see-through walls around us—“our deception was discovered.” He tenderly placed the female’s claws on her spiny breast
and got up slowly. “Last night, their temperatures spiked. They caught me trying to cool them down.”

“You’ve had some kind of medical training, haven’t you?”

“I was a medic on our homeworld. That’s how I met Mareek, during one of her furloughs. I worked in the Star Surgeon’s Office, and she needed a deep-space eval. We married and I joined the League, to be with her. It would be an adventure, she said.” He closed his eyes briefly. “Now they’ve killed her.”

“I’m very sorry, Wonlee.” I didn’t like the way he stood, favoring one side. “I should take a look at you now, okay?”

He nodded. “Doctor, I know it doesn’t matter anymore, but I have resigned my commission from the League. As long as I am here, I will do what I can to aid you.”

“I can always use another pair of hands.” I pointed to the exam area. “First let’s make sure you’re going to stick around for a while.”

Devrak had nearly shattered Wonlee’s diaphragm which, unlike the Terran version, was composed of bone. Had it not been for the band of cartilage that allowed it to naturally collapse under stressful conditions, his chest cavity would have been crushed. The Lieutenant’s entire skeleton was similarly designed, another plus. Support braces and some analgesics for the inevitable inflammation were all he needed to remain mobile. I admitted him to the inpatient ward anyway.

“The last thing you need to do,” I said when he started protesting, “is to go back to the prisoner tiers right now. So keep your promise, shut up, and get some rest.”

Dchêm-os had finished the hematological work-ups when I emerged from the ward and offered a data pad with the results of her analysis. I didn’t bother with niceties. “Well?”

“Cell levels, decreased glucose, elevated protein and white blood. Nothing, the cultures revealed.”

That meant something more serious, but I’d have to do a spinal tap to confirm my suspicions. “Set up to perform lumbar punctures. Orderly.” I pointed to the Lok-Teel, who were climbing up the sides of the berths. “Move those blobs away from the patients, will you?”

Later that day I lifted my face from the electroniscopic scanner and let Zella and Vlaav have a look.

“I’ve seen something like this before.” The Saksonan peered again into the viewer. “Is it a microbe?”

“Give the intern a cigar.” I shut off the scanner and rubbed my fingers against my tired eyes. “They all have bacterial meningitis.”

Zella gasped. “Assassinate us, the beasts mean to.”

“I don’t think so.” I sat down and studied the reports. “Vlaav, start the patients on the intravenous cephalosporin antibiotics, compatible with their individual species.”

The nurse wasn’t finished. “Poisoning us, they are—”

“Nope. It didn’t originate from tainted food, or we’d all be infected. Something else did this.” I decided not to tell them I’d never seen this particular microbe before, and that it didn’t register on the medsysbank. Bad enough I was shaking in my footgear. No need to start a panic.

“Their side, you would take.”

“If I had, poisoning you would be number one on my list.” I switched off the scope. “Prep for a postmortem.”

The autopsy on Wonlee’s wife took nearly two hours, but I wanted to go slowly and rule out every other possibility. I knew Mareek had died of meningitis the moment I cut away the swollen meninges—mucosal exudate clogged the sulci fissures in the brain surface, and scanning revealed a massive release of proinflammatory cytokines in the basal cerebral arteries.

However, confirmation of cause of death was all I got from the autopsy. Nothing Mareek had ingested had caused the disease. Comparative scans of the survivors revealed that only two had eaten the same food within the last twelve hours. The others had been served a variety of meals, all based on their species requirements.

The worst part? I found no trace of the microbe in her corpse.

I performed spinal taps on the survivors, and verified that each of them had been infected with the bacteria. The microbe itself was very odd. The hexagonal-shaped bacteria possessed a tough outer cell hull unlike anything I’d ever seen. The dark green-colored wall darkened a few minutes after removal from the body, and completely concealed the cell nucleus. It resisted all my attempts to probe the interior as well.

Since the bacterium causing the meningitis could have been introduced to the victims through a wide variety of means, I was back to square one.

“So it didn’t come from what they ate.” I stripped out of my gear, handed Zella the data pad with the forensic analysis, and yawned. “I can’t think straight.”

“Sleep, you go to.” Dchêm-os annotated the appropriate chart, “One of the beasts for you, I will send, should they change, the females’ conditions.”

“Why are you suddenly being so helpful?”

“My friends, they are,” Dchêm-os said.

Right. Had nothing to do with me, of course. What was I thinking?

I waved at a guard to escort me back to my chamber, but he didn’t budge. “Come on, I’m tired.”

“OverMaster HalaVar instructed us to allow you unrestricted movement,” the Hsktskt said, and handed me a trustee’s tunic.

I wondered why. “About time. I’m sick of wearing yellow.”

I walked over to my room and found the door panel slightly ajar. That didn’t sink in for a few minutes, until I sat on my pallet and realized who was missing. “Jenner?”

He was gone.

Since I’d been given unrestricted access to the compound, I didn’t bother going to the Hsktskt about my missing pet. I looked myself, starting with all the chambers in proximity to my quarters.

I know I left that door panel shut
, I thought as I peered in room after room, around and under anything that would conceal a small feline. If I hadn’t, and a hungry centuron found Jenner first …

My pace quickened, along with my fear. I ran down the rows of prisoner cells, and pretended not to hear the angry jeers. A search of each tier’s commons turned up nothing.

Where was he? What happened to him
?

This was all my fault, I decided as I hurried into a corridor I hadn’t taken before. If I hadn’t let Jenner run loose on the
Sunlace
, he wouldn’t have wandered out of my quarters here. I’d given him too much freedom, and not thought about the danger that posed.

A forbidding weight collected under my sternum.
Oh, God. If I lose him, I won’t have anything left
.

The corridor arrived at a bewildering enclosure spiked with innumerable quasi-quartz columns rising from the floor. They were smaller and more tightly packed than the tower structures. It transformed the interior to a huge, glassy labyrinth.

I stopped. If I walked into the glittering maze, I might never find my way out. “Jenner?” I called out in a low voice. “Pal, are you in here?”

Something on my right made a scuffling sound, and I hurried around the pillar. And nearly stepped on the two adolescent Forharees entwined together on the floor.

“Hey!” The teenagers sprang apart and scrambled to their feet. “What is it with you two?” I looked around and lowered my voice. “Haven’t you ever heard of holding hands?”

Kroni’s beak arched with indignation. “We would rather die—”

“—’together than live apart.’ You told me before, I know.” I tossed her trustee tunic at her and made a shooing motion. “I swear, I’m going to
inject both of you with chemical inhibitor myself. Get back to your tiers,
now
.”

I waited until the grumbling kids hurried off, then pushed aside caution and walked into the labyrinth, calling Jenner’s name again. The central pillars had grown in tightly fitted rows, which made navigating the corrugated walkway a challenge. A few times I had to squeeze through narrow gaps to continue on.

“Jenner?”

The sound of a strange Terran voice made me freeze. “Stay where you are, dope.”

Astonishment left me mute. There were no other humans on Catopsa except Reever, and he barely qualified. I’d even verified it through the database. So who was this guy?

I got my answer when a slim, brown-haired Terran male dressed in a slave tunic appeared from around a corner. He had a narrow, clever face and the biggest, softest green eyes I’d ever seen. In his hands he held something wrapped in cloth, which he handed over to me.

“Who are you?” I took the heavy bundle and gasped when it moved. “Jenner?” I unwound the cloth and exposed silver fur. “Is he all right?” It took another minute to uncover him completely. He was unconscious, his regal head lolling against my breast. “What happened to him?”

“Shhhh. He tried to do a bunk through an exterior hatch and made a right hames of the job.” The Terran kept his voice low as he scanned the walls around us. “Sure and I was trying to do the same thing myself.” He touched my arm tentatively. “Slàinte, dope. You’re the first blessed Terran I’ve seen in ages.”

“Then why are you calling me a dope?” I wanted to know.

“
Dote
, not dope.” His hand stroked my arm, then Jenner’s head. “It means ‘lovely little person.’ Grand to see you,
dote
.”

I was so preoccupied with examining my cat that it took a minute for his words to set in. What of them I could understand. “I checked the database, there weren’t any other Terrans currently listed among the prisoner population.” Then I noticed the stains on his tunic. “Are you injured?”

“Did it arseways, this.” He tugged at his tunic, then gave me a grin so brilliant that it rivaled the crystal walls. “Coddling my own death, and the gammy thicks fell for it.” He curled his fingers around mine. “Gael Kelly, from Clare.”

I returned the warm grasp. “Cherijo Torin, from New Angeles. Clare? That’s in the Celt Republic?”

He gave me a charming grin. “The very same. Now,
dote
, I don’t suppose you’ve be having any scran on you?”

“Scran?”

“Rashers and poppies. You know, food?”

“Oh. No. Sorry.” I performed a visual; he was on the thin side. “How long have you been hiding here?”

“Ages.” Gael kept smiling, but his constantly darting gaze made me uneasy. “Got to find myself a new kip. They’ll be inspecting this section soon, and I’ll have to scatter.”

No one inspected my chamber, and I had enough room in my storage unit to conceal him. “If you can lead me out of here, I think I can help.”

“Grand.” Gael pointed in a different direction from the way I’d come in. “Follow me,
dote
.”

We got back to my quarters without being stopped or questioned by the Hsktskt guards. Recalling what Zella had done for me onboard the
Perpetua
, I wrapped Gael’s head with the extra cloth and had him make a pretense of leaning on me.

“Don’t say a word, and they’ll think you’re just another of my patients.”

“You’re a patcher?” He sounded incredulous. “Sweet Mary, a wee
dote
like you?”

“Yep. A wee
dote
like me.” His fascinating speech patterns were far too distracting. “Let’s go.”

There was no one to observe us as we went into my quarters, and I had Gael slide into the storage unit. Then I went to my prep unit and dialed up a substantial meal for him. I couldn’t program “rashers and poppies,” whatever that was, so I made some simple synpro and vegetable stew, and plenty of synwheat bread to go with it.

“Here.” I handed him the tray. “Eat this. Stay out of sight. I’m taking Jenner over to the infirmary to check him out. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

He was already chewing, and had to talk around the food in his mouth. “I thank you for your kindness,
dote
.”

Dchêm-os wasn’t please to see me, and her ire deepened when she saw who I was carrying. “Dead, is it?”

“No.” I placed Jenner’s limp body on an exam table and started an internal scan series. “He got loose and ran into something that stunned him.” Normal readings, and no indication of injury or trauma. Finally, I could take a deep breath.

Vlaav appeared. “Doctor, what happened to your animal?”

I repeated what I’d told Zella. “Update me on Wonlee and the meningitis cases.”

“All are on the prescribed antibiotic therapy and seem to be stabilizing. Lieutenant Wonlee discharged himself voluntarily.”

“Stubborn male.” I made an exasperated sound. “The minute I turn my back, too. He’d better stay away from Shropana and Devrak.”

“That you caused the females’ illness, there are rumors.” Zel’s cheek pouches puffed out.