H.A.L.F.: The Makers (12 page)

She had learned the art of needlework and passed this art along to their daughters. Together they had crafted for U’Vol and all his sons resplendent Vree robes. U’Vol’s ceremonial and dress robes bore scenes of his victories, both on the field and in council. Eponia’s threads were so fine – her hand so skilled – that U’Vol’s council robe was more fine even than the Lij’s robes.

Eponia’s learned skill gave U’Vol the ammunition he needed to quash any suggestion by either his other wives or the D’oj that Eponia be cast down. And for that he was grateful to her. He needed her more than he dared speak of.

U’Vol entered Eponia’s small, softly lit chambers. He expected to find her curled in the silks and pillows of her bed, ill and aching. But her bed was empty, the deep purple and brilliant orange silks smooth, the pillows fluffed and tidy.

Their daughters were in the bathing room. The water tinkled as they splashed and laughed, chattering away as young girls do. They were in the care of their bajis, the female servants that were like second madis to their children.

A breeze tickled his slick skin. The balcony door was open, a warm wind lifting the cobalt-blue curtain and blowing it into the room.

U’Vol tiptoed, as light on his feet as the felines on Navimbi despite his great size. Eponia stood staring out toward the sands that separated their compound from the wall of the inner city of Zhichta, the capital of Uktah. The warm morning air blew her long, free-flowing wavy hair off her bare shoulders, revealing her golden, honey-colored skin. Her tresses were uncommonly light for a M’Uktah, the color of the sands that she stared at. Being entirely hairless himself and the rest of his growing tribe of a family having the dark, coarse hair that most M’Uktah had, U’Vol was fascinated with her plentiful, fair, silky hair. He loved to nuzzle her neck and drink in the aroma of her hair that the servants dressed with sweet almond oil. Her lithe frame was supple, her breasts swollen with the milk needed to nourish their youngest child that she’d whelped only a year ago. U’Vol’s loins tightened at the sight of her. He wished he had the time – and freedom – to tumble her into her freshly made bed and make a mess of it.

He settled for sneaking up on her and planted a light kiss on the back of her neck. She had been in her own world, oblivious to the patter of his large feet on the stone floor. Eponia jumped when his lips met her skin.

“U’Vol! I nearly fell over the balcony.” Though she chastised him, her plump lips curled into a smile.

He wrapped his thick arms around her middle. It was already firm and toned after giving birth to their youngest. He breathed deeply, capturing her scent and savoring it. She smelled of tangled zheshamine blossoms and manthruin spice. The memory of it would have to carry him through the years until he could be with her again.

“What causes my third to miss first meal and stand casting her gaze on sand rather than the countenance of her lord husband?”

Eponia turned in his arms. She reached her long fingers to his neck and pulled his lips to hers. Her kiss was languid but firm. He was ready to push her away to save himself from taking her to bed, but she pulled back first. Her orange eyes were wide, the pupils two black orbs, dark with fear.

“Eponia, what is it, my dashi?”

“You must convince the council today, U’Vol. I sought wisdom from the scryr. She said there was bad fortune in the leaves for you. These – Sarhi, you call them? The scryr saw these people in the leaves. I am frightened for you, dashi.”

U’Vol let out a thunderous laugh, deep and robust. “The words of a scryr? That’s what causes my sweetest dashi to have a troubled heart?”

Eponia nodded.

U’Vol hooked his thick finger under her delicate chin and lifted her face with the finesse and grace of a skilled water dancer. “Dashi.” He kissed her gently. “I have been hunting since I was weaned from the breast. Your U’Vol is the youngest captain of a Vree’Kah ship in the history of the M’Uktah. I commanded during the Kreelan uprising and successfully put it down. You will not lose me to these Sarhi.” He kissed her again, more deeply this time. “Do not worry your mind over it, dashi. You will see me again. And when I see you next, you’ll have my new son at your breast. You are with child, no?”

She gazed downward and the small smile that she’d worn disappeared. “Sadly no, my husband.”

“Then we must try again.”

Though he had intended to speak with her about his own concerns, she was agitated with worry both for his safe return and for the lack of child in her belly. She was in no state to give him counsel.

U’Vol lifted her as though she weighed no more than a child and took her to the neatly made bed.
The Council of U will have to wait.

Erika floated on a raft. It had been thrown together from bits and pieces of the cot from her cell at A.H.D.N.A., lashed together with strands of her own hair and ripped pieces of her pants. Her legs were bare.
I don’t remember taking my pants off.

The raft moved swiftly down a river that was black as night. The air wafting from the water was frigid, knives of ice going through her. The water roared as it tumbled over rocks, barely drowning out the chatter of her teeth. She was on her knees and gripped the sides of the raft, desperately trying not to get thrown into the freezing water.

A column of flame erupted ahead of her. The sudden, intensely bright light stung her eyes. Erika searched for some way to steer away from the plume of fire. Though she had not seen it before, she found a thick stick about a meter long. She paddled madly. Her arms ached and her fingers were stiff. She nearly dropped the paddle in the icy water, but somehow she was able to maintain her grip on the paddle, and she missed the towering inferno by inches.

Fire erupted everywhere around her. Though now only clad in her black tank top and a pair of underwear, she was covered in slick sweat. She considered jumping into the icy cold water to escape the intense heat of the fire. But she somehow knew that if she leapt into the icy, fathomless black river, she’d never surface again.

Erika called for Ian. There was no answer. He’d been right next to her.
Wasn’t he?
Yes, he had been. But he was nowhere to be seen – or heard – now.

She called out to Jack.
No, that’s wrong.
He’s not here. He was never here.
She called for Dr. Randall. No reply. Desperate to find someone – anyone – who could help her find her way off the river, she screamed out for the betrayer, Tex.

He didn’t answer her call either. She was entirely alone on a deep, frigid lake wedged between towering cliffs on either side.

Erika was tossed about on the raft. It wobbled on glacial waves that loomed larger and larger. She hunkered down in the center of the raft.
I have to keep it from tipping.
If she fell into the water, she’d either burn up or drown.

“Erika!” someone called.

Ian?
She tried to call back, but her voice was stuck in her throat. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out.
Like in a dream.

A dream.
Open your eyes.
But her lids were heavy. She tried and tried again to blink them open, but she was so tired.

I’m always tired here.

Another plume of flame whipped past her. She felt like it had singed her eyebrows off.

Again someone called her name. Louder this time and more insistent. The raft tossed wildly and she was almost thrown off as it careened and went nearly vertical. She clung to the edge of the raft with her fingertips as a spray of icy water stung her hot face.

“Erika? Can you hear me?”

She knew the voice. A man.

“Dr. … Dr. Randall?” Her hoarse voice was barely a whisper. Her throat burned from breathing the fire and smoke. She forced her lids open. Even the dim light of the room on the alien planet made her eyes feel like they’d been stuck with sharp needles.

“Yes, dear. I’m here.” Someone patted her hand. “You’re burning up with fever.”

“What …” Erika tried to speak, but she had trouble remembering what it was she had intended to ask. The thought was there one minute, gone the next. “Did … What did –”

“The Conexus injected you with an extremely virulent virus. They plan to unleash it soon on the whole of the Earth. Apparently they’ve been testing viruses on humans for years.”

Erika’s mind was still fuzzy from fever.
Did he just say they’ll unleash it on Earth?
She had to warn people. But she was so tired.
Was this what Sturgis was talking about?

“I’m afraid this is the nastiest one they’ve come up with. And there isn’t anything I can … I can’t do anything for either of you. Not here.” Dr. Randall’s voice sounded panicked.

Erika tried to focus her eyes so she could see Dr. Randall clearly. But it hurt to keep her eyes open.
‘Either of you,’
he’d said. “Ian?” Erika tried to raise herself off the ground, but she was too weak to do more than raise her head a few inches. Even that caused needles of pain to shoot through her back.

“Lie still. Ian is here. He has the virus too. He’s sleeping now, though fitfully.”

Erika allowed her heavy lids to close again. She almost preferred the raft of fire to the ache in every centimeter of her body.

Erika had no idea how long she’d slept. When she next awoke, it was from the need to puke. She tried to roll herself to the side, but it was no good. She lacked the strength, so she merely turned her head sideways. Her head was like a bowling ball on her neck. She retched up the contents of her stomach all over the hard floor on which she lay. It felt like someone had hammered a spike through her from head to pelvis. Someone moaned and she realized she’d made the sound.

“I’m sorry,” Dr. Randall said. “There’s nothing I can do for you. Nothing I can do.” His voice was quiet and quavered slightly.

Is he crying?
Erika didn’t have the energy to open her eyes to see him. Her only desire was for the pain to end. She no longer cared if she had to die for that to happen.

There was an intense white light overhead. Even with her eyes closed, the light was so bright that it caused prickles of pain to shoot through her eyes. She tried to pull her hand to her face to cover her sensitive eyes, but her arms were once again plastered to her sides.

“Dr. Randall.” She tried to scream his name, but her voice was as soft and low as the mew of a newborn kitten.

The table was hard and cold beneath her burning skin. Metal clanked against metal. There was the whir of a motor. It was the same sound she’d heard before when the robotic arm moved toward her.

She braced herself for the pain of the needle as it plunged into her abdomen as it had before.
Kill me. End my agony.
She knew the Conexus were there, just outside the cone of light. Watching her. She hoped they could read her thoughts. She hoped they’d oblige her request.

Erika’s blood boiled in her veins, immolating her from the inside out. Her heart was like a crazed monkey beating inside her chest. Her skull felt like it was being slowly crushed in a vice.

And she was alone. Her mom and Jack so far away. Ian was as much of a goner as she was. And Tex the traitor was dead to her. He could have been in the dark shadows beyond the light for all she knew, watching her suffer.

She was done with having only pain for company.

“End it,” she managed to croak. “Go ahead, you little grey monkey men. Kill me and have it done with.”

Erika forced her eyes open despite the pain. The metal arm wielding its needle of death tilted ninety degrees, lowered toward her and jabbed into her stomach. But this time, the pain of the needle was like a fluttery kiss compared to the agony of the fever that raged through her.

She did not scream. She did not cry. She could do nothing but smile with relief that now at least her ordeal would be at an end.

Jack woke more rested than he’d been since the night they met Tex in the desert. The sun was high and the room was bright with midday light spilling in from the two windows in the small corner room.
She let me sleep in after all.
Jack stretched his arms and shoved out of bed.

He’d slept in pajama bottoms Anna had given him and nothing else. He wanted to brush his teeth and shower before he did anything else, as was his habit before he’d been thrust into Sturgis’ hell.

The house was quiet.
Maybe Anna’s gone.

He popped his head out the door. Hearing nothing, he padded softly down the hall to the bathroom. It was empty, as was the hall. He was glad to see that Anna had anticipated his need for a clean mouth. There was a new toothbrush still in its packaging and a tube of toothpaste.

Jack took care of his hygiene and enjoyed feeling human again. His stomach growled and he hoped Anna at least had some cereal in the house. He sauntered to the kitchen and nosed through Anna’s cupboards and refrigerator in search of a meal.

The coffee was nearly done brewing and his breakfast potatoes and sausage ready to make their way to his plate when the back door opened. Anna’s face was red and sweat dripped from her hairline. She was dressed in black running tights and a salmon-colored running crop top. Jack had a hard time pulling his eyes away from her bare, well-toned stomach.

She made her way to the refrigerator and pulled out a chilled water bottle. “Did you sleep well?”

“Best sleep I’ve had in weeks.”

Anna sat at the breakfast bar across from Jack. “This is a strange sight.”

“What’s that?” Jack asked. He slid the greasy eggs on top of his plate of potatoes.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone else cooking in my kitchen. And definitely not a half-dressed guy.”

Jack had been so hungry, he set about cooking without bothering to put on a shirt. His face flushed crimson. “Sorry. Probably a major faux pas, huh? Cooking without a shirt.”

Anna’s face colored as well, her eyes glued to his chest. “No,” she stammered. “Not – it’s – well, just a surprise, that’s all.”

Jack suddenly felt naked. He wanted a shirt and maybe a jacket too. But he was more hungry than embarrassed, so he sat on the stool next to Anna and inhaled his breakfast. “So, have you figured anything out yet?” he said with a mouthful of food.