The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series (14 page)

Various sized objects covered in the black slime littered the air, floating around in the steam clouds. Some as large as a canoe and others as small as a skull bobbed around us. The quake on the surface calmed and dissipated. Trip made swimming motions until he reached one of the larger blobs.

“Corey, over here. This one shot from our mound.”

I made my way over to Trip and the ovoid sack of black tar. The obsidian-hued substance encapsulated something. It writhed around, pressing out on the film like a fist pressing against a balloon. I whipped out my short sword and grabbed the sack.

“Careful, Corey,” Eunavae cautioned from her perch above us.

I stretched the sack as far as possible and nicked it with my blade. Trip took one side and I took the other. We ripped it apart. Kate gasped for air and shrugged out of the sack like a snake shedding her skin.

Coated in thick green mucus, Kate gagged and retched. I wiped the thick slime away from her face. She coughed, sputtered, and blinked away the ooze. “Corey,” she gasped and her eyes flitted back and forth between Trip and me.

The sphere popped into place enclosing the eight of us in its swirling white rapids, and then it took us back to Heartwork Village.

It regurgitated us onto the QHR floor with no decorum. Kate, covered in slime, made a gagging sound. Trip fell to the floor with a crash, suddenly very heavy in the old gravity, and he yowled in pain. He arched his injured back away from the chair he tumbled over. Tara landed on her feet and skipped to a halt. She whirled around and ran to Trip as we all wrenched our heavy limbs up from the floor. I took Kate’s hand and had to support her with my other hand behind her back to keep her from slipping out of my grasp.

She shivered so severely, I wondered if she were convulsing. The white coats ran into the room and separated us, taking each one of us to a private detox chamber. The usual questions were posed. Where did we go, what did we encounter, who was the target?

The last question stumped me. We’d planned for Eunavae to be the target jumper. We had arranged it so. But nothing happened to Eunavae. Nothing happened at all, except Kate took a journey to the center of a giant planetoid.

It didn’t make sense.

They ran me through the showers, gave me new jumpsuits, and released me. I waited in the hall for my jump mates.

Tara and Donnie came out first and stood alongside me, leaning against the wall while we waited. A few moments later, Dirk walked out of a door with Eunavae and Kim.

“Hey,” he nodded at us, signed the clip board in Kim’s hand, and then walked toward us. Eunavae waved as she exited the corridor with Kim.

“They are keeping Trip and Kate overnight.”

“Why?” Tara and I cried in unison.

“Trip’s injuries didn’t heal in the return. That’s not supposed to happen. We are supposed to reset to our prior DNA pattern.” He glanced at Donnie for confirmation, and saw his concern. “Oh, Mel is fine. Her steam burn healed in the sphere. She’s just finishing up in the car wash.”

We had nicknamed the detoxification showers early in our team experiences, related to how they dragged you through several levels of scans, purges, and blasts on a conveyor belt.

“Why Kate?”

“That foreign goop covered her from head to toe. Nothing is supposed to come back from the jumps that didn’t go into them. We can’t figure out why the filters didn’t purge the slime. They just want to do some tests overnight.”

“I’ll go stay with her.” I stepped forward.

“No can do. She’s in quarantine.” Dirk placed a hand on my shoulder. “There’s nothing we can do here. Let’s get back to the cabin so we can talk.” He cast a furtive glance to a medic standing nearby. Mel stepped into the hall, caught Donnie’s wave, and we met her on the way to the door.

I glanced back at the medic to see her watching us suspiciously. She seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t place where I had seen her before. I shrugged the impression off, thinking she just reminded me of someone from the two century jump. She resembled Taylia or one of the Darchori students with her creamy brown skin.

We burst through the metal double doors and hopped into the cart waiting at the curb. Dirk drove us back to First Cabin, and we all headed straight to the kitchen and scavenged a smorgasbord of leftovers, fruits, and breads.

We gathered around the table and dug in with relish. I couldn’t remember the last time we ate anything. My limbs were still far too heavy. I knocked things over and stubbed my toes. We all had difficulty adjusting to normal gravity. Well, not Tara, she seemed completely unfazed.

When the munching died down, Dirk leaned onto his elbows. “I can’t understand what happened.”

“The jump did not target Eunavae,” Mel agreed.

“It should have.” Donnie bit into a bacon sandwich.

“There didn’t seem to be a target. We just sat around for most of the time,” Tara said, licking mango juice from her fingers.

“Kate was the target.”

Dirk narrowed his eyes at me. “Maybe,” he grunted and scowled at the empty bag of chips.

We didn’t talk about it anymore, and the meeting broke up quickly. Mel and Donnie left early to their apartment over the boathouse. Tara went to soak in her Jacuzzi tub, and Dirk decided to swim some laps in the pool before he turned in.

I went to the room Kate and I shared and stood at the foot of the bed, staring. I didn’t want to sleep in our bed alone, so I grabbed a pillow and blanket and closed myself in the study. I camped on the couch for the night while I worried about Kate.

I dreamed of her and woke with the perfume of her nearness. I didn’t want to open my eyes for dread the dream would end, and I would lose the scent of her. Soft lips brushed mine, and I smiled.

“My wife could be here any second, you know.” I gathered the beauty into my arms.

“Really? Well she deserves to find us together, abandoning you to sleep on this old couch.” Kate stretched out to snuggle beside me.

I kissed her hair. “No longer contaminated, I see.”

“Evidently, not.” She fingered my hands.

We dozed together for a few more minutes until the inhabitants of the cabin began stirring. We stretched and yawned. Then plodded out of the office to join our teammates in preparing breakfast.

The jump exhausted us. Normally free time would find us all over the campus, swimming, joining in a game of ball, canoeing, or jogging. Not today. We all gathered in the living room and sat around on the couches and recliners, dozing in and out. It reminded me of a Thanksgiving turkey buzz. Occasionally someone would get up for a drink or a trip to the bathroom but would amble back to a comfy spot and nestle back down.

Donnie and Tara roused enough to play a game of checkers by the fireplace, but one game found them with heavy eyelids and sluggish movements. I wondered if something in the steam on that planet had poisoned us, but couldn’t keep the thought in my head very long. I had Kate with me, our teammates were safe, and this recliner enfolded us in comfort.

We woke when the screen door slammed. We roused from our lethargic repose to greet Trip and Eunavae.

“Did you guys all sleep in here over night?” Eunavae asked as we poked our heads over couches and makeshift beds.

“All night?” I pressed a fist into my bleary eyes. “What time is it?”

“10 AM.”

“No, it can’t be, it’s just 4 in the afternoon.” I glanced at the clock. “Whoa.”

We wriggled out of our nests. Groggy and stiff, we stretched.

“I slept all day too,” Eunavae admitted.

“Yeah, me too, but I thought they had drugged me,” Trip added.

Dirk pointed at the neatly stacked supply trunks. “Who packed the crates?”

We all stared at each other blankly.

“I never heard anyone.”

The screeching sounded and the sphere fell right in the middle of the living room, whisking us away.

WE LANDED IN
a copse of trees and Dirk barked out orders. “Trip, Donnie, check the perimeter and set up a watch. Eunavae, make a fire ring at the center. Mel set up an area for first aid and meals. Corey, help me with latrine. Tara and Kate, get the tents set up. You know what to do. Break!”

We groaned, yawned and stretched some more before donning our jumpsuits. We collected our weapons and tools, woodenly stumbling to our assigned tasks. Dirk and I dragged shovels a few hundred feet from the campsite and completed our chore thoroughly if not quickly. I had my share of digging for a while and said so. Dirk chuckled as he slung soil over his shoulder.

“Well, all we can do now is wait.” Dirk wiped dirt on his pants as everyone trickled back into the campsite. “Unless anyone wants to volunteer to gather firewood?”

“Kate and I will go,” I said tucking my Gladius into a holster strapped across my chest. I turned and helped Kate into her jacket. I wanted some time alone with my wife.

“Let’s go with them,” Trip suggested to Tara, who nodded and strapped her scabbard to her hip.

Okay, so no time alone for now
. We decided to start at the perimeter of camp and work our way in, so we strapped on our packs and struck out at a leisurely pace. Several hours before sunset, we felt no pressure.

“The trees look familiar.” Tara tipped her head back and pointed into the canopy.

I glanced up and noticed they were very similar to our trees in Jewel City, large branchless bases with upward reaching limbs in the heights of the trees.