by Lea Kirk
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He waved one hand in the general direction of the table. “I’ll get to it. Good morning, K’rona.”
“Gode morn-neg, Nicholaus,” she responded in English. Even though she still wore her translator, she kept it off most of the time. She was that determined to learn English properly, which was amusing in a way since neither of her teachers had finished high school, and one of them had learned English as a second language.
“You know, calling me Nick would be easier.” He passed the table of dirty dishes, going directly for the green reference book of Anferthian health on the bookshelf. Sakura had dubbed it their green bible.
Faint furrows appeared between K’rona’s brows as though she was translating his words in her head. Then she nodded. “No.”
Nick grinned and gave his shoulders a shrug. “Up to you.”
“What are you doing?” Sakura tipped her head to one side, her expression openly curious.
Hefting the book into his arms, he turned. “Refresher course.” He set the green bible on its spine at the clean end of the dining room table.
The book pages parted to…. “Oh, so we’re back to this again.”
The full size drawing of the male Anferthian and all his parts remained silent, pretending to be oblivious to the awkward history they shared. Nick frowned. He and Sakura had covered every bit of physiology, except reproduction. “I wonder.” His gaze moved to the top of the next page and he began reading.
“Anferthian males are endowed with tiny receptors in the shell of their fan-shaped ears. When these receptors are stimulated—usually by the touch of their lover—the male will be aroused into a wild state known as The Frenzy. There are only a few ways to alleviate this passionate state, the most preferred being sexual egress with the male’s partner. During the consummation, a male will ejaculate….”
“Holy shit!” Nick whirl around and fixed K’rona with an incredulous look. “Three times?”
She furrowed her brow, then she tapped her translator to turn it on. “Again, please, Nicholaus.”
“An Anferthian male can climax three times in one sexual encounter?”
Sakura’s entire face turn beet-red and she looked down at her hands in her lap. K’rona just gave him a smug look. “During the frenzy, yes.”
“Oh, man, some guys have all the luck.”
K’rona’s expression darkened. “If you consider how easily Anferthian men can be raped lucky, I suppose so.”
Well, that might have been the wrong thing for him to say. Sakura kept staring down. Could she be embarrassed for him? He spread his hands, palms up, and bowed his head in the Anferthian manner of apology. “I regret if I’ve offended you.”
K’rona studied him for a moment. “You meant no offense, Nicholaus.”
“No, I didn’t, but my words were poorly chosen. As the Profeta’s brother, I know the dangers of speaking without thinking. Out of medical curiosity, though, may I ask you a few questions?”
“Of course,” K’rona replied graciously.
Nick moved to sit in the chair next to Sakura, putting him at eye-level with the Anferthian woman. This seemed to be the manner the Anferthians preferred to use while conversing with them. “How is it the sanctuary is not experiencing an over-population crisis?” After nearly eight years in this place, there should at least be a few children. He had yet to see a single one.
Again she studied him, this time as if giving him the information would somehow compromise intergalactic security. He gave her a reassuring smile. “Both Sakura and I have gamma level security clearance. We had to in order to come here to help the dissenters.”
K’rona relaxed somewhat. “Atolce.”
“Atolce? What’s that?”
“Anferthian contraception,” she replied. “Both males and females get a shot annually. Sadly, it is difficult to get here, but the Matiran government does not want us procreating on their soil, so they make sure we have a generous supply, no matter what the cost.”
Nick twisted his mouth. “What happens if one of you gets pregnant?”
“We lose our home here. All of us must leave.”
“Seriously? They can do that?”
“It is in the parameters of our agreement with the Matirans,” K’rona shook her head. “It is a small thing to sacrifice in order to stay alive. Besides, would you want your child exposed to potential discovery and death every day?”
“Is the atolce very expensive?” Sakura asked.
“The way the Matirans are purchasing it, yes. Very,” K’rona confirmed. “It is not something that they can get from Anferthia at this time, for obvious reasons.”
“And no one has taken the time to replicate and manufacture it here for you?” Probably not, but he had to ask.
K’rona shook her head, just as he’d expected. Were governments run by monkeys everywhere?
He glanced at Sakura. “I bet they buy it from the intergalactic version of the black market.”
She nodded. “One fake batch and we will be delivering babies.”
“Or one contaminated batch….” He trailed off. Holy shit, it couldn’t be. “You don’t suppose…?”
Sakura’s eyes widened and her complexion paled. “I do,” she whispered. “I really, really do.”
K’rona had blanched, confirming that she too understood the direction this conversation had gone.
“Where is the atolce stored, K’rona?”
“Each village has its own supply.” She rose, still looking ill. “I will take you.”
~*~
Nick tried to keep up with K’rona and not leave Sakura behind as they hurried through the dirt streets. The temperature had cooled over the past week, giving the air the definite crisp feel of autumn. The prolonged winter of the southern hemisphere of Matir would be here within a week, more or less.
“The injection is administered by B’iha,” K’rona explained in a low voice as they moved through the streets. Occasionally, she’d return a greeting from others as they passed, but otherwise seemed focused on their destination.
“B’iha?” She had no medical experience that he was aware of.
“She would not have known, Nicholaus. There is no reason for her to even suspect contamination.”
Of course not. None of them had, until now.
They stopped in front of one of the multitude of identical cubes that made up the village. All the villages, in fact. The words from a mid-twentieth century song he’d recorded over a year ago floated through his mind. Something about the houses being tacky because they all looked the same.
K’rona knocked lightly, a warning to anyone inside that they were coming in, then she opened the door. In the antechamber beyond, a male Anferthian occupied a chair. “K’rona.” He smiled his greeting, then directed a respectful nod toward her Terrian entourage. “Healers.”
“Nero,” K’rona replied, spreading her hands and bowing her head. “Forgive me for this personal question, however, are you here to receive atolce?”
Nero’s gaze darted between the three of them. “I have already received.”
Sakura mutter something under her breath in Japanese.
Nero continued, “Dacey is in receiving hers now. We are to be married nex—”
K’rona charged the closed door to their left. The resulting crack could have been the latch, the hinges, or the door itself, but it didn’t matter. As long as they got into the room beyond and stopped what was about to happen. The door gave under K’rona’s attack, and a woman’s shriek came from inside the room.
“Stop!” K’rona’s voice boomed with the strange echo effect Anferthians had when using their vocal cords to the maximum capability. B’iha froze, wide-eyed, a large needle in one hand. A second woman sat in a chair, her mouth forming an O of astonishment.
“B’iha, put away the syringe,” K’rona told the other woman calmly. “The healers have something to tell you.”
~*~
>
“Well, that was the last one, and it’s clear.” Sitting sat back on her lab stool, Sakura rubbed her eyes until she saw weird geometric patterns.
“So, just over an eighth of the Sanctuary’s supply of atolce is contaminated,” Nick concluded. “Not a huge number, but enough to begin the systematic wipe out of the dissenters.”
“Systematic wipe out?”
Nick looked up from the report he was writing. “My personal theory.”
A derisive laugh slipped out and she shook her head. “I think even the committee had its suspicions, but no proof, until now. It would be nice to know who is behind this.”
“The Arruch, obviously. Who else would want them all dead?”
His answer to every bad thing that had happened since the Anferthians had shown up, apparently. “But that would mean they would have to have someone on the ground here on Matir.” She leaned her elbows on the countertop.
“A traitor in our midst?”
“Essentially.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth.
Nick stood up, removed his lab coat and stretched his arms above his head. “I’ve been hunched over this table way too long.” Her gaze was drawn to the way his muscles flexed under his navy blue t-shirt.
“Do you think it’s B’iha?” he asked.
Sakura started, then squished her nose. “I do not think so. You saw how devastated she was when she learned she had been injecting the disease into her own. She feels she killed them, and the rest of the dissenters have her under their version of a suicide watch.”
None of the dissenters she had met seemed capable of such duplicity anyway. “Nick, do you think the Matiran government is behind this?”
“Nah.” He completed a leisurely stretch, his t-shirt still pulled tight over his abs.
Had he done that on purpose? Did he want her to watch? “Why not?”
“Three reasons.” He held up the requisite number of fingers and began ticking them off. “First, they wouldn’t have assigned us to take the case. Second, to betray the trust of the Profetae is treason. The Matiran government may have their share of idiots, but they’re not that stupid. Even they know they’d have a full blown rebellion on their hands the moment that was exposed. Third, the contaminated vials are too random, like someone knew that they only had a limited amount of time to get the job done. I think whoever it was tried to infect as many as possible without getting caught.”
Now that was an interesting theory. “The ampules are stored in a warehouse briefly before being transported here, we do know that much. I wonder if that is where they get access to them.”
“It’s possible. We should viscomm Dante and update him.”
“Yes. If we can reach him, and if we can get a secure comm-line.”
~*~
It took nearly thirty minutes for Nick to track down their mentor while Sakura cleaned up the lab and secured the evidence. She had changed out of her lab uniform when she joined him in the conference room, and he squashed down a surge of disappointment. In her lab coat, she looked borderline adorable with her hair peeking out around the edges of her cap. Although, having her hair down like it was now gave her a softer, more approachable appearance. What he’d really like to do was to run his fingers through the silky strands.
“Hello, Nick. Sakura.”
Nick shook off that day-dream and turned to face the viscomm. It was a relief to see the comforting familiarity of Dante’s blue face. After they had exchanged greetings, Nick reported their findings and speculations. “At this point, we feel it’s time for the Matiran government to open an investigation, quietly of course. Sakura and I have isolated the contaminant that we can use to develop a cure.”
Dante nodded. “I will speak with Administer Corvus and tactfully suggest the investigation. You say you don’t know if the young man who received the shot yesterday is infected?”
“No,” Sakura replied. “We both probed him, and he seems clear.”
“So, can you sense the disease in the bodies of those showing active symptoms, but you cannot see it in the blood samples?”
“Yes.” Sakura nodded. “Now that we have the contaminated vials, we may be able to unlock the secret to how the disease is camouflaging itself within the blood samples.”
Dante grunted softly. “All right, keep up the great work. Someone from the committee will get back to you in a day or two with what we are able to accomplish on our end. In the meantime, get to work on that antidote. I understand these things plus caring for your patients will occupy most of your time, but I would also very much like to know what the trigger is that makes it go active.”
Nick exchanged a knowing glance with Sakura. “We’ll do our best.”
“I have every faith in the two of you.”
Chapter Ten
Fuck. Nick pushed through the front door before it had opened completely and stomped through the common area toward the lab. Just when it seemed impossible for things to get any worse, they had.
He opened the lab door and slammed it behind him with enough force to shake the wall. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”
Sakura startled on her lab stool, emitting a small squeak. “Nick!” She pressed her hands on the counter in front of her, stabilizing the wavering images disturbed by his violent entry. “What happened?”
“Storo is ill.” Nick rounded the lab table and pulled the Hello Kitty duffle from its cabinet and placed it on a stool. “One moment we were walking and talking, the next—bam.” He mimicked a firework explosion with one hand. “On the ground, writhing. Fuck.” Some things were worth repeating. He unzipped the bag and rummaged through its contents. Not that it was necessary to make sure everything was there; he and Sakura were sticklers about restocking it every time they came home. The action did give him the illusion of being in control of something.
Sakura shuffled through images on his data device until Storo’s medical record appeared. “He received atolce the day before we arrived. Was he doing anything that might have trigged it?”
“I doubt walking and talking would be a trigger.”
“Maybe, or maybe not.” She tapped the keyboard image. “What time did he become ill?”
“How the hell should I know?”
“You were there,” she pointed out.
He froze mid-rummage, set his jaw and gave her a fierce frown. “I didn’t want this. I never asked for it.”
“Asked for what?” Genuine confusion clouded her eyes.
“The damn healing Gift.” It was a disgusting word, and worthy of being venomously spat when speaking. He turned away from the bag to pace the room.
“Nick, you understand there is a reason we have the ability to heal, yes?”
How could she be so calm when everything was falling apart around them? He gave her a narrow-eyed glare. “If I didn’t have it, Sakura, my sister and her husband would be dead. I know there’s a reason for everything, and I wouldn’t exchange either of them for being normal again, but I never wanted it. I still don’t, particularly at this moment. What’s the point when we’ve already lost six Anferthians since we arrived, and we have at least one new case every other day? We can’t save them.” Ninety-nine lives lost already. Would number one hundred be Storo?
For a long moment they stared at each other, then she softly said, “Kokoro heiwa no moto.”
“What, is that some kind of Japanese voodoo spell?”
Her mouth twitched as if she was trying to come up with some sort of zinger to throw back at him, then she sighed. “Nick, I ask for your trust. There is something very important you need to see, and I can show you. But only if you allow me.”
There was something he’d like for her to show him…. Shit. Where’d that inappropriate thought come from? Never in a million years would that happen. She rarely even allowed him to touch her. In fact, she didn’t seem to let any man touch her. What had happened to bring on that phobia?
Sakura walked around the lab t
able, her hand extended palm upward in invitation. What was this? She was actually initiating contact? He raised one eyebrow at her.
“Take my hand, Nick. You need to see this.”
Something like excitement—or was it joy? Hope?—bloomed to life in his chest. Take her hand. The one thing he’d never expected her to say to him, and the one thing he’d apparently wanted to hear. Very slowly, he reached out until his palm brushed hers and her fingers curled around his hand. A gentle tug from her urged him to follow her. She led him out of the lab and across the common room to the couch.
“Sit.” She patted the cushion next to her. “Right here.”
To say his curiosity was piqued would be an understatement. He lowered himself until he perched on the edge of the couch.
“Now, put your head in my lap.”
“Excuse me?” This adorable stranger looked an awful lot like Sakura Yamata, but was saying things to him she’d never say. “Are you serious?”
“Serious, yes. Thrilled, no. Do not read too much into this.”
He swallowed back a laugh. It’d probably be inappropriate to ask “face first?” She’d slug him for sure, then leave him sitting on this couch without showing him whatever it was she thought was so all-fired important.
“All right.” Nick moved slowly as he stretched his body the full-length of the couch, in case she changed her mind.
Once his head rested on her lap, he met her gaze. Her eyes were such a deep brown they appeared almost black. Studying her face, he saw things he’d never noticed before. The arc of her eyebrows, the sweep of her lashes, the heart-shaped bow of her pink lips. If this turned out to be a dream, he wanted to explore it, explore her.
“Trust, Nicholaus,” she reminded him.
Right. In other words, keep your lecherous thoughts to yourself, Mr. Bock. He licked his lips. “Okay, now what?”
Sakura placed his hand over his heart and covered it with her own. “We are going into you, but this time you will follow me.” The bronzed warmth of the healing light appeared in her eyes. Her Gift signature of fragrant cherry blossoms seeped into his senses the same way it would if she were conducting a probe. He allowed his Gift to flow, drifting in her wake as he followed her into his own body.
