by Viola Grace
Under the table, their hands were woven together and their thighs touched. It was a comforting closeness that Vexa wanted to have again and again.
Storic was saying, “So, tomorrow, we have a new assignment. Weeker needs help with a glacier. They need some time before their ice age takes over the continent and they need you two to help.”
Vexa winced. “The professor won’t like that.”
Burn grinned. “He will just have to go about his job like other archaeologists, and we will get to go play with a glacier.”
Storic shuddered. “More ice. Wonderful.”
Burn laughed. “We will take care of it. You can stay warm and toasty in the shuttle.”
She smiled ruefully. “Fine. I will prep the shuttle for dawn take-off. I will leave you to inform the professor.”
Vexa laughed. “Coward.”
“Yup. You are the Specialists, I am merely a novice. Deal with it.” Storic ate her breakfast with a smug grin.
Vexa ate her grain mash and kept the small smile on her lips.
The smile stayed on her face all day no matter what the frantic professor asked her to do. Burn remained near her at all times, powering her efforts to open the city hall records of the frozen world so that current generations could find out what their social structure had been like.
Her day passed quickly, and when she was done for the day and her dinner was gone, she and Burn paused in her quarters to gather her things before they retired to his dome for the night.
They kept each other warm in the frozen darkness, and when dawn arrived, they were respectably dressed, a little flushed and ready to leave for Weeker.
Storic was ready for the flight and eager to leave the site. She took off, and they were soon skimming through the blackness on their way to a jump site.
Vexa got a little nervous, but Burn unbuckled her harness and pulled her into his lap. “Easy, Vexa. I am here to help.”
She shivered and buried her head against his neck, inhaling the scent of him. She didn’t sleep but she rested against him, his body acting as a touchstone to the rest of the universe.
Three jumps later, they were on their way down to Weeker.
The people of the city were in full evacuation, but the glacier looming above them was a definite threat. Vexa frowned at the wall of ice as they landed and tried to work out a plan of attack.
The mayor of Yuseth City met them, and he explained the situation. “We have been watching the encroaching glacier for years, but suddenly, the shift in temperature has caused a rapid escalation in its progress. One year from now, this city will be under a casing of ice or scraped from the surface. We need a few more weeks without our power supply being cut off. The plant is about seven days from being overtaken. How soon can you start?”
Burn inclined his head. “I am Burn, this is Elemental, and we will begin as soon as we have quarters to rest in and a hot meal. After that, we are at your disposal.”
Vexa was staring at the wall of ice and frowning.
The mayor asked her, “Why do you look upset?”
“I am trying to figure out where the water will go. The amount of energy to turn the water to vapour is prohibitive. I need to make sure that there is drainage before we start.”
The mayor blinked. “Can’t you just make the ice go away?”
Novice Storic snorted.
Burn shook his head. “Ice turns to water, and water can turn to vapour. Vapour goes into the atmosphere and changes your weather patterns.”
Vexa suddenly had an image in her head. “That’s it! Hot air.”
The mayor was the one who now looked confused. “I beg your pardon?”
Burn grinned. “Show us our quarters, and she and I will discuss a battle plan.”
They were shown to a small apartment on the edge of the city where they could come and go without difficulty. Food was provided in the form of compressed ration packs with a heater.
When they were alone, Burn sat her down. “Now, what were you thinking?”
“If you provide a portion of the heat and I can anchor to the ground, I can produce a hot and melting storm with dirt particles in it that will rapidly chew away at the glacier. The particles will carry heat and attract light to continue the degradation after we are gone.”
Burn grinned. “That will work?”
She shrugged. “It should. If not, I can take sand and heat it before blowing it over the glacier then keep the heat going until there is a huge puddle where the rock used to be.”
“We will start with the dirt and go from there.”
This was exactly what they did. The first blankets of red earth coated the area around the power plant, and slowly, ever so slowly, the wall began to melt.
Once there were rocks exposed, Vexa heated them as well, and soon, the glacier was retreating back, inch by inch.
Burn called a halt to their activities after a few hours. “Time to rest so that we can attack fresh in the morning.”
In one day they had bought two months for the power plant.
The mayor had been watching, and he was delighted with the early results. He thanked them profusely, and Burn had to delicately extricate his hands before he and Vexa could leave.
She was chortling. There was a no-contact rule out on her participation, and at a time like this she didn’t mind at all. Burn was going to take the brunt of the handshaking, and she got to enjoy the smiles and words of gratitude.
They took the small skimmer back to their apartment. Burn was looking extra exhausted. “Are you all right?”
He coughed slightly. “Fine, tired, I think. A quick dinner and some rest are on the agenda.”
She agreed and was very concerned. Unless she drained him too much, he had a natural energy that seemed to be missing at the moment.
“Of course. Quick dinner and then rest.” She tried not to worry. Everyone had their downtimes now and then.
Chapter Ten
Burn was on fire. He shifted restlessly and coughed as he tried to sleep. He wasn’t asleep, and he wouldn’t wake. That was a very bad sign.
She called Novice Storic as per protocol. “Storic, Burn is unconscious, running a fever and coughing. He won’t wake up, so this isn’t normal.”
Storic went from sleepy to alert in seconds. “I will bring a med kit and ask the mayor if he knows what it could be.”
Vexa put on her bodysuit and waited for a call through the built-in com. In ten minutes, her suit chirped.
Storic said, “Elemental, the fever is most likely the Weeker Plague. The locals are immune due to generations of exposure. The last outbreak was eight hundred fifty years ago, but they still immunize.”
“Do they have any vials of the cure?”
“They do, but it might not work on him. He is a crossbreed of two different species. I have a call in to the Citadel, and they are going to get me a treatment centre as soon as they can.”
The fact that Storic was taking it so seriously indicated that the mayor had described a series of symptoms that would not end well for Burn.
“Keep me posted.”
“You are not showing any symptoms?”
“No. I am not designed to fall ill. My body doesn’t allow any foreign bodies into my bloodstream.” She pressed a compress to Burn’s head while she spoke, and it went from damp to dry in seconds.
His marks were acting in their capacity to draw heat from his body and concentrate it on his skin. She didn’t have anything else to do, so she took the heat from his surface and kept putting the compresses on his forehead and chest.
When Storic spoke again, Vexa replied with relief. “What did you find out?”
“There is an emergency evac coming to get you. They are going to put you both in a contaminant bubble and take you both to Udell where Flame will treat him.”
“Why can’t Flame come here?”
“He is on assignment. They are pulling him for Burn and Udell is the halfway point between you and him. After Burn is stable, yo
u will be taken back to the Neehash station where Dr. Argee and Dr. Heshla will work on a treatment. The Weeker Plague is pernicious. By now, it has bonded to his DNA, and they need to work with the existing cure to find one for Burn.”
“So the treatment with Flame…”
“It will save his life and stabilize him. You will have to do the rest of the running around for him.”
“Fine. I will keep him cool while we wait.”
“Good. I will steer clear and remain inside the ship. If I am the only one not immunized, I am not going to enjoy the fresh air until I am off this rock.”
Four hours later, there was a knock on the door and the evacuation got underway. The Udell personnel were wearing sealed suits, and they carried Burn out into the hallway and down to the main entrance where Burn was placed on a gurney and Vexa knelt at his side.
She stayed in the sealed box with him, a medical attendant kept her supplied with water, food and compresses to keep Burn cool.
Vexa kept her focus on him and ignored the hard wrench of the sudden jump that took them into the system that housed Udell.
Once they were on the ground, a Guardsman wreathed with green flames entered their secure bubble and inclined his head toward Vexa. “May I burn off any pathogens you are carrying?”
She nodded. “Please. I don’t want to make anyone else ill.”
He sent a stream of flame toward her, and she stood passively as it skimmed along her body. His brows knit in confusion. “You aren’t sick.”
She shrugged. “I am not designed to get sick. That is the province of the evolved, not the designed.”
He blinked and moved his focus to Burn.
She closed her eyes as Burn arched in pain and shouted. Green flame wreathed him, crawled into his mouth and nose and burned in the streams of tears from his eyes.
Flame concentrated, and after long minutes of agony, Burn relaxed against the small medical bed. He opened weary eyes and Vexa stayed nearby. “What happened?”
Vexa answered. “Weeker Plague. You were susceptible, and melting the glacier set it free.”
His expression grew worried. “You are not sick?”
She sat at his side, elbowing Flame out of the way. “No. I am fine. I don’t get sick.”
“I wish I could say the same. I feel like I was run over. Where are we?”
Flame stood by silently, so she filled in the details. “We are on Udell. Flame was needed to bring you down to a more reasonable temperature. You were running hot, even for you.”
“What happens next?”
“Well, the plague is pernicious, so you have to stay here on Udell. I am taking samples of the inoculation to your parents, and they are standing by to work a custom cocktail for you. Apparently, you are special all the way around.” She smiled and brushed his hair off his forehead.
He coughed slightly. “Tell my mother not to worry, and then, tell my father to distract her. She’s gonna worry anyway.”
Vexa grinned. “Well, if Flame will burn off any surface germs, I will be on my way. Behave and keep cool.”
She kissed him, and he ran his hand through her hair as he held her lips to his.
When they parted, he whispered. “Stay safe.”
She pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I will. You stay alive. That is an order from a goddess of Ichadra.”
“Yes, dear.” He laughed and relaxed into the bed.
A medical aid came in wearing a full coverage suit and withdrew blood samples that he slipped into a sealed case that he left with.
She got to her feet, and Flame’s eyes were less businesslike and more kind. “The flash will take care of the surface germs. You aren’t carrying anything else.”
He extended his hands, and the fire coursed around her in a head-to-toe spiral that reversed direction before dissipating. “You are cleared to leave. I will remain with Burn until you return. Be quick. My wife gets agitated if I am gone too long.”
A pilot was waiting for her on the other side of the security seal. He handed her the pack of the treatment, and they walked to the shuttle without another word.
The hours of flight and jump after jump, creating an edginess in her system that she pushed aside. She didn’t care if she was getting hungry, Burn needed help, and she was going to get it for him.
His parents met her at the dock. They took the samples of blood and cure, moving to their labs immediately with focus and intent.
Vexa grabbed an assistant and muttered a list of items that she needed, along with access to the fire room.
With the supplies in hand and Burn’s parents tailoring the cure into something he could use, she went to feed herself.
She entered the burn room and created a pool of flammable chemicals and oils. Vexa stood in the centre of the pool and flicked a spark from one finger into her collection.
She pulled the heat from the blaze and fed her hunger. Her arms ached to hold Burn and feel the strength of his body wreathed in flame and heat. Since she couldn’t have him, she would have to feed her urges in other ways.
Chapter Eleven
Vexa sat at the dinner that Dr. Heshla insisted she join them for.
Dr. Argee was sullen at being pulled away from the machines currently whirring away at a cure.
Finally, Vexa broke the silence. “Burn asked me to pass along a message to you both.”
Dr. Argee looked up with narrowed eyes. “What?”
“Leera, don’t jump on her like that. What was the message, Vexaniali?” Dr. Heshla was tired, but his gaze was kind.
“He told me to tell both of you not to worry. And Dr. Heshla, he said that you were to distract Dr. Argee.”
Dr. Argee gasped and dropped her fork.
Heshla’s polite smile turned into a full grin. “You and he…”
Vexa’s blush gave her away, she was sure of it. “I am very worried about him.”
Dr. Argee got up from her chair and hauled Vexa to her feet, hugging her tight.
Vexa throttled down her panic at the sudden contact as Heshla got to his feet and enveloped her from the back, his wings creating a feathered cocoon.
She waited, and the tears in Dr. Argee’s eyes were genuine when she was finally released from the group hug. “We never thought he would find someone he could be with.”
“Well, he is sort of warm, but I enjoy it. He feeds me, and I energize him. It is a fair trade. The words were a code, weren’t they?” She finally clued in.
Heshla held her chair out for her again, tucking her back to the dinner table. “They were. He said he would only tell one woman how to handle us and that was the one that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.”
“Oh.” Vexa was suddenly the focus of direct attention. She squirmed a little in her chair.
Dr. Argee smiled, “So, how old are you?”
Dr. Heshla laughed. “Indelicate but to the point. That is my Leera.”
Vexa realized that they expected her to answer. “I can remember seventeen hundred years.”
If there was anything that could shock a Dhemon, that was it. “Really? That old?”
Vexa sipped at her tea and returned her attention to eating. She got the feeling she would need the distraction. “Really. That is what I can remember, but I have no idea how long I was in the canister before I was decanted.”
“Can you have children?” Heshla cocked his head as he returned to his meal as well.
At least grilling her had served to reawaken their appetites.
“I don’t know. I do doubt that I can carry a child, though I would not be averse to having a child carried via tank or surrogate.” She worked through her meal as her companions looked at each other, silently formulating their next question.
“Why couldn’t you carry your own child?” Argee was scientifically curious.
“My body is designed to be a conduit for power just as my sisters were. While we look female, have the structure of females, we were built to channel energy, like a power plant. Rep
roduction was never a concern. They could just make a copy.”
Heshla finished his meal and leaned back. “Did they?”
“I do not believe so. We were an experiment that was fascinating at the time, but they could not replicate our powers precisely in the following generation. So, I was sent to Ki after a problem in a lab, and I stayed there until your son came knocking.”
Dr. Argee was shocked. “You did not speak to another person in all that time?”
“At one point, I made companions out of stone sculpted with air and sand, but they ended up being turned into furniture.” She shrugged and finished her own meal. “I played games with the elements of Ki. Moved the water under the surface and filtered it through carbon layers. I generally enjoyed myself in any manner I could think of. Time passed fairly quickly, but I can put myself into a coma for decades if I need to.”
One of the machines running a propagation sequence chimed, and Dr. Argee launched out of her chair and into the lab on the other side of the glass doors.
Dr. Heshla followed suit, and Vexa trailed after them.
Dr. Argee’s hands were shaking as she removed the vial from the incubator.
Dr. Heshla took the sample from her and put the sample of their experimental cure onto the sample of Burn’s infected blood.
They held their breath for a moment and then sighed. Heshla blinked, “It works. It is good that the Citadel called us on this. We have gotten used to altering vaccines for Burn over the years. It requires a specific combination of enzymes and chemistry that is simple now but was hard to figure out when he was ill as a child.”
“Why doesn’t his body’s temperature fight the infection with heat?”
“It does, but this plague is not temperature sensitive. Burn is usually fairly healthy, but every now and then, something that is attracted to or stimulated by heat gets through, and then, his mother and I have to get to work. It does keep us sharp, I will give it that much.”
He had his arm around his wife, and she was leaning against him while she prepped the cure for transport. When she handed the box to Vexa with shaking hands, there were tears in her eyes. “Tell him we want a visit to prove our cure was effective.”
