Her fingers closed around his throat, her thumb pressed into the soft skin beneath his Adam’s apple. He couldn’t breathe and she appeared to be enjoying herself a bit too much.
“I’m your superior officer –” he began, barely managing to get the words out.
She eyeballed him, her face only centimetres from his. “Not as far as this sort of behaviour goes, you aren’t,” she warned him.
It sounded like something he would have said. In fact, somewhere in the back of his mind it was familiar, as was his own preceding statement.
Having got her point across, she released him. He gasped deeply, filling his lungs. She hadn’t completely cut off his air supply, but what surprised him was the complete control she had had over him. He hadn’t resisted her hold. It would have only taken a fraction more pressure to choke him fully, and he had no intention of provoking her further.
Secretly, he was glad that she had interrupted him. Maybe not at the time, but now that he was back to his senses. Possibly because of the lack of respect he now held for himself, he allowed her her anger.
She sighed, shaking her head slowly. “Doctor Dunlop needs you.”
John nodded. He knew it would be a mistake to open his mouth.
McReidy led him to the nursery where Dunlop was deep in debate with Bela. Every time he tried to reason, she blocked him. Her charms weren’t working. He had eyes only for the child, who was subconsciously wielding a magic of her own.
Bela knelt down beside the bed. She took the child’s hand in one of hers, gently stroking it and speaking softly.
The child began convulsing. Dunlop’s held down her shoulders, fearing she would throw herself off the bed. Bela was horrified. She stood up and stepped back from the child, her hand over her mouth.
After a few minutes of violent struggling, the small body went limp, gasping for breath.
Bela froze, even after the child lay still. Green eyes lost their brilliance as confusion, doubt and fear took over.
“The child is mine,” she told Dunlop. “Do whatever you must to save her.”
The doctor was fuming; eyes narrow and breath short. As he lifted his gaze from the child to Bela all he saw was a scared mother. He checked his voice, keeping it calm and quiet. “Then I need blood.”
Bela hesitated momentarily, apparently weighing up the escaping life force with the escaping life. She nodded.
“And I’m taking her back to our ship.”
Bela nodded again.
“I also need complete biological information on your people.”
“It will be provided.”
“And no interference. My instructions are to be carried out to the letter.”
She nodded a third time.
He switched on his communicator before she could change her mind. “Doctor Dunlop to Bismarck. Two to transport to sick bay immediately. Have a medical team ready.”
“Yes, Doctor,” Andrews answered.
He spoke briefly to his nurses. “Let me know if anyone else develops other symptoms.”
With the child gone, Bela found she had other business to attend to. A cold glare made John shiver as she walked past him. How did she do that? She could turn him off as quickly as she turned him on. He decided the safest place would be back on the ship. He still had a treaty to negotiate but that just wasn’t happening at the moment.
McReidy decided to stay and help the nurses.
John set about rounding up Gillespie and Giacomo. He wondered what they had been up to but there was no way he was going to broach the subject. They probably didn’t want to discuss it any more than he did.
McReidy walked slowly from bed to bed. Her heart went out to the children. Many of them were sleeping. Beads of sweat covered their brows; some were covered in a rash. They tossed uneasily in their sleep; their hair and pillows soaked.
She wasn’t aware of someone behind her speaking to her, and jumped when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She spun around quickly. It was one of Bela’s aides. She recognised the woman who had first shown her to the nursery. Twole, she had called herself.
“You do not approve of our ways.”
“No, I don’t,” McReidy confessed uneasily.
“Tell me,” the woman encouraged, her eyes lifting and maintaining contact.
“I don’t like the way you control men.”
“Men need to be controlled. They cannot be trusted.”
McReidy must have looked confused, so Twole began to explain.
“Hundreds of years ago, our planet was dominated by men. There was continual warring, the victors taking whatever they wanted. Never satisfied, they took more and more. Discovering other worlds to take, they were off again. They were gone for months, years at a time. We learnt to do without them. Some returned with new women. Many never returned at all.”
McReidy sympathised. It reminded her of the stories of ancient Earth. Of Vikings and barbarians.
“We learnt to control our own lives and in turn, our men. They are happy. There is much work to keep them busy.”
“I see only women.”
Twole smiled knowingly. “A man in a position of power is easily corrupted. Did you not just see for yourself?”
What McReidy had seen was another power just as corruptible.
“What about love?” she asked.
“What is…” Twole frowned, “love?”
McReidy looked around for something she could relate to. The child beside her stirred, attracting her immediate attention. “It’s what you get when you hold a child in your arms. It’s waking up every morning with the sun streaming through the windows, the scent of flowers in bloom and the birds chirping in the trees. It’s the feeling that nothing could ever go wrong. When he smiles at you, your heart skips a beat. When he holds you in his arms, you know that nothing can hurt you. And when he kisses you…”
McReidy stopped when she realised that Twole was staring at her in utter disbelief. So was every other Lushon woman in the room. She knew she was getting carried away and better stop while she could.
“The best part,” she hurriedly finished, “is that he does this because he wants to. Because you are the most important thing in his life.”
“You have man to give you this love? You are most fortunate.”
“No, I haven’t. But I know he’s out there somewhere. And I’m going to keep looking for him.”
Twole walked slowly away, shaking her head. It seemed unbelievable that a man could behave like that of his own free will.
“I think I overdid it a bit,” McReidy apologised to her captive audience, blushing heavily.
“I think you did just right,” winked Kat.
Great, McReidy groaned to herself. Kat was incorrigible enough as it was.
* * *
Dunlop held the child in his arms as they transported directly to sick bay. He placed her gently on the examining table and pulled on a pair of gloves.
“They’re going to send us biological information but I want full body scans,” he told Andrews. “Complete anatomy. She looks humanoid, but that doesn’t mean she is.”
Andrews busied himself with the imaging system that would take full scans of the child. Brenda wheeled a cart of instruments to the table.
Dunlop was going to do all the tests himself. The child was quiet while he took the blood. When it came to the spinal fluid sample, she cried out weakly. It was something he couldn’t rush.
“Hold her still,” he told Brenda.
Brenda moved into the child’s view and squatted down. She smiled, her voice gentle as she brushed her fingers softly over the child’s forehead and moved to her shoulder to hold her still.
The child tried to turn away, eyes darting in Dunlop’s direction.
“Ssh,” he calmed her, his voice having more affect than anything Brenda was doing. The crying turned to heavy sobs that tore at his insides.
When he finished, he put the sample on the tray next to the blood.
“I’ll –” Brenda began.
/> He shook his head, cutting her off. “I’ll do it myself.”
“Ready for scanning,” Andrews said.
Dunlop ran his hand soothingly over the child’s head, her sweat hot and sticky, talking softly as the machine hummed. She was too sick to be scared; she didn’t understand a word, but his touch and his voice were comforting. She looked up at him with big tearful eyes.
A few minutes later, Andrews turned off the machine and wheeled it away from the examination table. “I’ll have full pictures for you in a couple of minutes.”
Dunlop nodded. “Thanks.”
Exhaustion took over the small body and he soothed her to sleep.
Dunlop ran the samples, then ran them again. He studied the scans. Her anatomy wasn’t a whole lot different from human; an extra liver and no appendix the main differences.
He leaned back in his chair and ran a tired hand through his hair and turned to Andrews. “Your opinion?”
“Don’t you want a healthy sample to compare?” Andrews asked.
Dunlop shook his head. “No need.”
Andrews checked the results and scratched his head. “You’re kidding?”
“You agree?” Dunlop asked.
Andrews nodded. The results were unquestionable.
Dunlop switched on the intercom. “Sick bay to Commander Madison.”
“Madison here. Have you figured it out?”
“It’s not something I’ve seen personally. At first, it looked like meningitis or encephalitis.”
“Have you figured it out?” John wanted a simple yes or no answer.
“It’s measles.”
“Measles! But that’s not fatal.”
“It is to those who’ve never seen it. This little one’s also got complications. Bronchopneumonia.”
“English, please.”
“She’ll be fine. So will the others. Bed rest, fluids, and I’ll make up some antibiotics to prevent complications setting in. I’m keeping this one until her fever breaks. Do you want to tell her mother?”
“I think it’ll come better from you.” John had no desire whatsoever to speak to Bela.
With the disease identified, treatment was easy. Unfortunately, many children had also contracted bacterial complications. Leaving Kat and Wanda on the planet to identify and isolate them, Dunlop set about preparing antibiotics. Measles had been almost eradicated on Earth, therefore it was not something they were familiar with, nor did they have the necessary medicines. The lab was nothing if not complete and it didn’t take long for the various drugs to be produced.
As Dunlop injected the child, he hoped desperately that there would be no side effects.
Andrews transported down to the planet with a batch of vaccines. Every child was inoculated under the scrutiny of Bela who demanded and received the explanations with the same cold demeanour. McReidy stood her ground, providing the much needed buffer between the woman and the medic.
Andrews returned to sick bay, muttering incoherently to himself and glared at Dunlop.
Dunlop sat with the child for the entire night, cooling her fevers and warming her chills. She slept uneasily, stirring many times. Every time she opened her eyes, she saw his face. He was calm and relaxed, and soothed her back to sleep.
He brushed away everyone’s attempts to make him take a break. He didn’t object to coffee or company as he studied the information that had been provided and familiarised himself with the biology of the race.
By morning, her fever had broken. Her eyes opened clearly and she looked around, suddenly jerking upright.
Dunlop was half asleep. He felt the little body move beneath his hand and lifted his head.
“Good morning, Princess,” he whispered.
She recognised his face and his voice and she wasn’t afraid. She relaxed and lay back down.
He placed his hand on her forehead. “You’re looking brighter. Let’s have a proper look at you.”
Her temperature was normal; her eyes had cleared to a brilliant green. Her breathing was heavily congested, though easier than it had been the night before. He spoke softly to her all the while. She answered him, her voice weak. He didn’t understand a word she said any more than she understood him, yet they communicated perfectly.
He could have switched the translators on. It seemed too much of an effort.
A sudden look of caution in the child’s eyes told Dunlop they were not alone. He turned and met the bright eyed smile of Kat coming on duty.
“You look awful. Why don’t you go and get some rest. I can take over for a while.”
“I guess you’re right.” Dunlop trusted no one of his staff more than Kat. “She’s past the worst of it and her readings are normalish.”
He stood up slowly. He was exhausted. Two little hands grasped one of his and clung tightly, followed by a spiel of unintelligible dialogue.
“Ssh,” he soothed her, collapsing back to his seat. “It’s all right, Princess. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Princess?” Kat asked, a note of surprise in her voice.
“No one bothered to tell me her name.”
“It suits her.”
* * *
Princess she became known as for the rest of her stay. She came to know the rest of the medical staff, but her face lit up the moment she saw Dunlop. She wanted him with her all the time. Although she didn’t complain when he had other duties to attend to, she had a way of making him feel guilty.
He arranged for her to speak to her mother. Bela was overjoyed at her daughter’s recovery and happily agreed to the few more days the doctor wished to keep her. The other children were recovering nicely. While he trusted the reports from his staff, he returned to the planet twice daily to monitor their progress.
John refused to allow anyone but medical staff down onto the planet. Several times, he tried to contact Bela. He still had a treaty to discuss. She refused to answer him, even to acknowledge his existence. And his stubborn refusal to allow any of his men onto the planet only seemed to make things worse.
After two days, Princess was ready to return home. John decided he had to try to speak to Bela one last time before leaving. He took his original landing party and transported down.
Bela held out her arms to her daughter. Still holding Dunlop’s hand, Princess stepped forward. She turned back and looked up at him. He knelt down to her level. Without warning, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. His arms cradled the little body against his chest; one hand went to the back of her head and stroked her hair. Just as quickly, she pulled away and flew into her mother’s arms. He didn’t miss the smile that was meant only for him.
Twole was standing beside McReidy and whispered in her ear. “This is love?”
“Sort of,” McReidy whispered back.
“I did not think a man capable of affection with no reward.”
McReidy smiled to herself. It looked like she had changed someone’s thinking.
Bela hugged her daughter and spoke quickly to her. Princess nodded and happily left the room with two aides.
John figured there wasn’t going to be a better time. “I –” he began stepping forward.
Bela stepped straight past him to Dunlop, effectively cutting John off. “Thank you, Doctor. If there’s anything I can do to repay you?”
“It was my pleasure,” he answered.
John grabbed Bela’s arm, pulling her around to face him. Before he could say anything, she started on him.
“Let go of my arm!”
“We still have a treaty to discuss.”
“I have nothing to discuss with you!”
His temper peaked. “Then it looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way!”
He slung her over his shoulder and marched through the nearest doorway, slamming the door shut behind him with his foot.
The Bismarck crew suddenly found themselves surrounded by angry women. The Senate Councillors lounging in the foyer were on their feet, armed with phasers taken from ben
eath their robes. Two aides rushed to open the door, but it was locked and they couldn’t get in. Nothing could stop the sense of panic that filled the foyer. John had just broken every rule in the book.
Even Twole turned on McReidy, a small weapon pointed at her chest. “Your men are not so different. They still take whatever they want. If he hurts her, we will kill you.”
“Everyone calm down and take it easy.” McReidy’s focus lifted from the weapon. She was furious, but something inside her told her to trust John. She had seen the affect Bela had had on him, the way he had felt when she left him cold. Surely he had more sense than to let that rule his judgement.
“And he was worried about me behaving myself,” Giacomo burst out.
“I think we’ll just have to wait and see what happens,” Gillespie reasoned. “And hope like mad he knows what he’s doing.”
*
John cringed as he realised they were in Bela’s bedroom. He didn’t have time to focus on the repercussions as he dumped her unceremoniously onto her bed. He followed her down, his forearm across her shoulders pinning her to the bed. For a moment, he saw genuine fear in her eyes.
“You really are beautiful,” he told her softly.
Her eyes turned warm, trying to distract him. He felt himself wanting her. The closeness of her body sent his blood boiling. His heart pounded, his breathing became heavier. He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth.
“Don’t do that!”
She stopped and he shivered. She could turn off her desire as quickly as she could turn it on.
“That’s not what I came here for.” He slowly opened his eyes. “That’s not what any of us came here for.”
“Then why did you come?” He had piqued her curiosity and she was willing to talk seriously to him. Not that she was in a position to do much else. “Your treaty?”
“Yes… But you asked for help.”
“Without encouragement –”
“I would have come anyway,” he interrupted. One look in his eyes showed he was telling the truth. What he was offering was genuine friendship. “All children have the right to live. Doctor Dunlop’s pleasure in seeing your daughter well again is reward enough for him. You don’t have to behave like this.”
When the Dust Settled Page 17
