His muscles trembled with the strain of containing her pain and he hung on still. He told her so. She believed him. She didn’t know how or why, but he was there. She sobbed because she couldn’t understand.
“I love you Nina. I have since the moment I saw you.” He repeated his mantra over and again.
Rachel was still moving, but suddenly it was she who stood between Nina and the violence. Penny and Andre had appeared in the room with rifles aimed at Nina as she fell. Donna was on her feet Grappling with Azin, but they both stopped and stood to stare at Nina on the floor. Rachel’s voice returned, and she bellowed, “Hold your fire! Stop! Nobody touches her! Clear the wounded! Everyone out!”
Rachel moved to help Arnold. Blood dripped from this ears. She pulled him up with his arm around her shoulder, pressed her lips into his bloody ear and shouted, “We have you. It’s OK, we will get you fixed.”
“What! Fuck!” Arnold shouted without hearing himself. “Ouch, Colonel! Fucking ouch!”
They made brief eye contact and somehow this made them both laugh together through their tears. They left the room to Nina, Chase and Ray.
Ray sat there in the bright light. His redundant eyelids came down. The scene was blinding to him. He felt he had to see it like this, in the light both Humans and Advocates shared. He stared and repeatedly lifted his four-fingered hand a few inches from the table and let it fall. The fingers were trembling. He couldn’t touch this. He felt her. He felt Chase. It appeared that she had struck him but he was not damaged. It took him a while sitting there to realize he experienced emotional pain. He made a note of this sensation that his race was not supposed to feel. He felt her pain, just as everyone in the room. And there was Chase. He could hear Chase’s thoughts. Ray was waiting for this, and it finally happened. Chase now understood his ability.
At some point Nina became conscious that she was on the ground and that the room was empty save for Ray and Chase. The next thing she noticed was the wet stain of snot and spit that she left on Chase’s uniform. He saw her hand fumble toward the stain as her sobs tapered off. She tried to wipe it away. He caught her hand firmly with his own. The fingers were hard and the palm felt sandy, but she found the skin on the outside soft and warm as she gripped back.
“Don’t you worry about that. You wouldn’t be the first daughter of mine to get snot and spit on my uniform. Consider yourself adopted.”
At first she thought she misunderstood. Did he say “daughter?” Did she want to hear that? Why would he say that? The room was too bright and she squinted at it. Chase felt her weight lessen as Nina slowly gained the ability to deal with gravity again. Then she noticed his legs. One of them seemed bent at a painful angle. He looked down at her. The smile she saw there made her eyes mist again and she shook her head, confused.
“Welcome back,” Chase said.
They helped each other stand. He tried to hide the pain on his face. She noticed he was very good at it, but Nina was also practiced at spotting the wounded. His left leg was damaged in their fall. Nina subtly shifted her weight under his so he could pull himself up and still save face. Chase was still smiling as he righted the chair for Nina and guided her the seat in proper gentlemanly fashion. Nina lowered herself heavily. She was exhausted. The world seemed very different.
“Nina, I am sorry,” a voice said in her mind. It sounded much like her own, but the pacing was off and it spoke with very little inflection. She blinked in confusion a few times before she realized the voice was Ray.
“So sorry your people hurt so much. So sorry you hurt so much. Especially you,” Ray said, searching both their minds for common thoughts. Communicating telepathically with another species was different each time. Ray and Nina searched their merged thoughts for common terms. Impressions drifted back and forth in place of words. They understood. She found herself adrift in Ray’s nebulous eyes.
They spoke verbally again.
“I am also sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” Nina said.
“I think I know, but do not have a name for it. I felt it. My species is not supposed to experience such things.” Ray said.
“Maybe it is time for that, then,” Nina replied.
“Perhaps,” Ray said. “We should speak with the others now.”
Nina turned to the old human man and opened her mouth to say “I am sorry,” but the General interrupted her.
“Stop. Don’t apologize to me.”
“How did you know what I was going to say?” Nina asked.
“Because I know soldiers. I’ve been one my whole life, too. Where will you go now that you understand you have a choice?” He left out the fact that he was able to perceive her thoughts. He didn’t understand the words, but he grasped the emotions, which turned out to be nearly the same. He also had brief glimpses of things she had seen. He didn’t tell her because he wasn’t sure why this was happening. The experience was new and unnerving.
Nina sat with his words for a long while, then said, “I understand the choice now. I am with Humanity.”
Chapter 22: Earth, Antarctica, Meeting
Back in the ship galley, Rachel and Donna dealt with Azin, who paced back and forth like the new tiger in a zoo. Rachel had ordered Sergeant Nichols to help Lieutenant Triska. The Lieutenant was waiting near a medical bay for aid, but Rachel couldn’t assist him because she had to deal with Azin. She was growing frustrated.
“Azin,” Donna said, “Please put down the staff.” The only thing that kept Azin from attacking was the fact that she was outnumbered. Donna could almost see the calculations taking place behind those onyx eyes. Azin was searching desperately for some tactical advantage that would let her achieve her goal. Donna had no idea what that goal could be.
“Let me see my Captain and we will go,” Azin demanded. Azin stopped pacing and took a stance. Donna sighed.
“Azin, you misunderstand. You are free to go at any time. Nobody is keeping you or Nina here. We all had a big shock. Just put down the staff and we will resume talks.”
Azin said nothing. Donna and turned her back to Azin. “Take my staff,” she said. “That will prove to you that this is not a fight. There is nothing to fight here.”
That got Azin’s attention. She considered the offer. Rachel could smell the energy coming from Azin. The soldier was struggling to keep her sheath down. She was aware that raising her armor would provoke a fight she was not likely to win.
“Azin,” Nina entered the room. Azin lowered her staff.
“Captain,” Azin replied.
“We will make this alliance.”
Azin fastened her staff to the back of her robe again, asked, “What happened to you?” The question was an accusation.
“Probably the same thing that should happen to you. I am free.”
“What did they do to you?”
“Nothing. They did something for me.”
“You talk nonsense. Do you still serve the Queen?”
Nina had to be very careful here. “I serve the Purpose and the Intention and Life. If the Queen represents those things, then my answer is ‘yes.’” Her reply let Azin save face. She realized the scarred Warrior was very confused. Her world had fallen apart over the past three days. Nina was still adjusting herself.
Donna turned around slowly to face Azin again. “You have not tried the coffee." She ignored the strife and filled a pot with water and then put it on her improvised burner. The live-wire smell from Azin was fading, but her posture was still defensive.
Rachel said, “OK, I have a wounded soldier to attend,” and she went aft to see Arnold, who represented one more crisis among a growing number.
Lieutenant Triska was in bad shape. They’d given him some morphine for the pain. From the amount of blood coming from his ears, and the signs of pain he displayed, Rachel knew the eardrums were essentially gone. The healing chamber would fix him, but it would be a while. The Lieutenant tried to stand when she entered and he almost fell over. His eyes were glassy from the drug. Rache
l motioned him to sit.
Everyone jumped when the Lieutenant spoke. He couldn’t hear his own voice, so he shouted, “What’s going on? Is everyone alright?”
“Yes, everyone is fine. You are the one who needs help.”
“What?” Arnold shouted.
“Colonel, that explosion, or whatever it was, rang his bell,” Sergeant Nichols said. “He’s disoriented. Keeps asking if everyone is OK; wants to go forward and help. I’ve seen guys get like this before.”
“We share the same experience then. We’ll get him fixed up, Sergeant.”
“Colonel, what happened to him?”
“He had close contact with Nina when she raised her energy sheath. The energy armor can displace air if it comes on strong enough. He was right inside the pocket. Everyone else got tinnitus; he won the jackpot.”
Sergeant Nichols whistled and shook his head.
Penny busied herself organizing the already organized gear. She looked worried and couldn’t find anything else to do.
“Corporal Makon,” Rachel said. “Why don’t you go forward and see if you can help Donna.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Penny said and hustled forward.
Rachel concentrated as she accessed the ship’s medical system. She instructed it to deal with a human. As the healing bay prepared itself, she considered Arnold. He would need to be asleep for this, which meant immersion in the chamber. She considered the possibility that they might have to knock him out before getting him into the chamber. He was very much out of it.
“Sargent, do you have a pen and paper?” To her surprise, Sergeant Nichols produced a small notepad and pencil from his hip pocket.
“Always, ma’am,” he grinned like a boy scout.
“Very good,” turning to Arnold, she held up the pad and pencil, pointed to it. Arnold understood. “You need to go to the healing chamber,” Rachel wrote. “You will sleep 8-10 hours.”
Arnold shook his head vigorously. He grabbed the pencil.
“No,” he scribbled and underlined the word. “Human medicine,” he scribbled beneath.
Rachel considered her options. She was low on patience. She could order him to use the healing chamber or she could knock him out and throw him inside. She would rather convince him, but that would take the time she didn’t want to spend.
“Colonel, may I,” Sergeant Nichols asked. Rachel handed him the pencil in frustration.
“Is OK,” Andre wrote, “Done it myself. Good as new," he lied. "You trust me?”
Arnold cocked his head. He was high as a kite but coming around. His shoulders sank in resignation, and he headed, or rather swerved, to the healing chamber.
Rachel got him inside and put him to sleep as soon as he lay down. He would be able to breathe the liquid once the chamber was filled, but the ship logic would take a while to adjust to the human physiology. She gave extra instructions to build in redundant checks. She wanted to be sure there would be no harm.
Turning to Andre, Rachel asked, “When were you in a healing chamber?”
“Sometimes lies are true when you tell them for the right reason.”
“Dangerous, but OK. Whatever works, I suppose, Thanks,” and Rachel went forward to check on the Nina situation.
She was pleased to see Azin sitting opposite Penny at a little table and benches Donna formed from the galley wall. Penny was describing her work with the Military Police in Iraq. Azin had shared a similar story about a pacification deployment she had on a civilization fighting itself after Silicoid incursion. If Rachel were not so worried about everything else, she would have smiled.
It turned out that Azin also enjoyed coffee. It seemed fitting that she took it black and double strong. As she made her way to the bridge, she thought it a pity that her introduction to coffee was powdered U.S. Army issue. But that was a distraction. They hadn’t taken any reports from their command station in several hours. Rachel configured her flight couch to an upright position and opened a channel back to Maryland.
***
Donna built the small conference room with a traditional hinged door. She did a decent job of simulating wood from formed stone and even used the embedded lightcasters to simulate wood grain. Nina left that door open a crack when she left the room. She was gone from the room, but her presence remained with Chase. She was an afterglow.
He heard voices taking urgent turns in the galley but he could not make out the words. Soon he would have to get back to work, and he was indeed pulled that way. Marines do not like to sit idle. But his injured knee was not the only thing causing delay.
“When were you going to tell me?” Chase asked.
Ray responded through his voice box, “I thought it important that you realize the ability on your own.”
“What a time to find out, though.”
“Perhaps we should develop predictive models for such events.”
The laughter hurt his knee as it surged in his chest and traveled to his feet. He also felt the laughter from Ray. The dry humor of an advanced being. He didn’t think Ray capable.
“Well, sarcasm is a low form of humor, but you use it well. It’s my favorite brand.” Chase said, then drew up a serious tone. “But why can’t I perceive your thoughts?”
The answer came in his mind. He saw colorful kaleidoscopic shapes and heard layers of rhythmic sound that should be white noise, but somehow made sense. The experience happened at a level just below articulation. It felt like searching for a familiar word he just couldn’t place. It was knowing and not knowing at once. At the same time, his awareness included himself in a chair, on a ship while looking at a door cracked open.
“Oh,” Chase said. “Now I get it. I suppose it will take us a while to find the same terms, even though … Is this telepathy?”
Ray spoke audibly again, “That human word does fit. We have known for some time the human brain is capable of this perception. It appears that the prolonged contact between us has brought out this ability in you.”
“So all those kooks on the internet talking about psychic powers might be on to something after all,” Chase mused.
“If you put it that way,” Ray said.
The General drew a long breath and released it again. When he took his next breath, he was no longer “Chase,” but “The General” again.
“Ray, our meeting is over. You’re free for the moment. You might not want to share my experience of the next few moments. Friendly warning,” then to the ship, he said, “Donna, are you available?”
The reply came after a minute rendered much longer by the pain in his knee.
“Yes, General,” Donna’s disembodied voice replied in the air without discernible direction. Chase still wasn’t sure how that was accomplished.
“Would you meet me in the conference room?”
She was just in the galley and showed up immediately. Ray excused himself and took his sweet time leaving. Donna sat down and waited patiently.
“Do you think you could rig up one of those healing boxes for me?”
Donna, looking concerned, asked, “What’s wrong?”
“My knee got twisted bad in the fall.” He couldn’t move it to show her. Donna saw the swelling through the uniform trousers. She didn’t need to rely on her training as a physical therapist to know how bad that was.
She whistled, said, “That’s an understatement. You have a torn ligament and then some. We’ll need to get those pants off.”
“Donna, please, you flatter me, but that’s not the way I think of you …”
It was good to hear her laugh freely.
“Chase, you are one of the handful of humans who can make me laugh like that. One of them is Carmen.” With the mention of Donna’s partner, Chase felt the sadness. He was conscious of his ability now, and was gaining some will over it, but the flood of sadness overwhelmed his efforts.
“We’ll get you two back together soon,” he said reflexively, followed by regret. He’d made a promise without knowing how to deliver it or if it wa
s possible. Then came an idea. “Bring her to the farmhouse. There is plenty of room. It will be safe.
Donna brightened, exclaimed, “Are you sure? I … I’d love that.” Her eyes clouded. Chase took her hand, smiled.
“I will make that happen.”
“We should work on that knee,” Donna said and considered her options as she looked around the room. “I have it.”
She carefully dragged the old man back on the chair to make space around the table. A moment later, the furniture melted into the floor and another flight couch grew up in its place.
“So this will be your new office. I know you well enough to get you don’t want people to know you’re hurt, especially Nina. We can keep things quiet this way. The repair should take three or four hours,” Donna said. Chase grimaced. “And I will need to cut those pants off, at least, to mid-thigh. It would be better to remove them for better circulation.” The General was already head-swiveling and emphatic “no” to that.
“Stubborn, tough old man,” Donna said, not hiding her annoyance.
“That’s ‘General Stubborn Tough Old Man’ to you, soldier,” Chase replied. She pulled up a chair beside him and took his hand.
“But I wonder one thing. Are you going to adopt all of us?”
Without hesitation, he replied, “Every one of you that I can.” The metal in his eyes told Donna he meant every word without exaggeration.
“Nina was a tough case. I wasn’t expecting her to break like that.”
“Almost catastrophically.”
“Azin needs to be next. I’m not sure she will come over. Her conditioning seems far stronger.”
“Stronger than yours?”
Donna leaned back in the chair remembering, “Possibly,” she said.
“I seem to recall one Advocate living in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. She was covered in moss and ate only what she could forage or catch. She was responsible for at least two Bigfoot sightings.”
Donna had a girlish laugh and covered her mouth. “Oh, stop!" then she paused, said, “You sound serious about the Bigfoot thing.”
The Genetic Imerative Page 33
