When Stars Fall (The Star Scout Saga Book 4)

by GARY DARBY

  Shanon sobbed, covered her mouth with one hand, and turned away.

  Jadar, who was struggling to hold back his own tears, said, “Dason, there’s something I need . . . Something I want to tell you. Maybe I should have told you long before this but I—”

  The door to the infirmary burst open, and Captain Federov hurried over to Jadar. “Please forgive me for the intrusion,” he murmured. He leaned over and whispered into Jadar’s ear for several moments.

  Jadar jerked his head around and faced Federov. “You’re sure?”

  “We asked them to repeat the message,” Federov replied. “Both times it came across in perfect Imperium lingo.”

  “Give us a minute, and we’ll be up,” Jadar responded. Federov gave a curt nod and hurried away.

  With a stunned expression, Jadar turned to Dason. “Do you know a Sha’anay by the name of El’am?”

  Dason gave a little nod. “He was on the AP planet when the Mongans attacked. I rescued him. It was the two of us who discovered that someone had kidnapped Tor’al and he was with us in the fight on Marsten’s. Why?”

  “We’re surrounded by a fleet of Sha’anay cruisers,” Jadar explained. “And have been for several hours. For obvious reasons, we haven’t tried to fight our way out.

  “Captain Federov just informed me that another Sha’anay warcraft just appeared, and they’re saying that this El’am is looking for you. Wants to talk, apparently. Are you up to it?”

  “Talking, yes,” Dason answered with a little grimace of pain. “But someone is going to have to help me with the walking part.”

  “No walking needed,” a voice from behind declared. “The bed transforms into a powered chair.”

  “Doctor Stinneli,” Dason replied in recognition. “I kept hearing voices, thought one of them was yours.”

  With a few inputs to the control panel, Stinneli set the frame in motion. Without disturbing the patient, in deliberate and slow steps, it converted from a hospital bed into a powered chair.

  “Leg and body angles satisfactory?” Stinneli asked.

  “Yes, thank you,” Dason replied. He glanced down at his lean frame. “I’ve got more tubes and wires running out of me than a junction box under a scouter’s control panel.”

  He glanced up at Shanon. “Where are—”

  “Waiting outside,” she answered. “There wasn’t enough room in here for all of us.”

  Dason gestured to Jadar. “Let’s not keep the Sha’anay waiting, sir.”

  After a quick, emotional reunion with his teammates, Dason and the group made their way to the Intrepid’s bridge.

  As soon as Dason entered the control room, Federov made a quick motion to his chief of communications and a holographic image of El’am appeared at the bowl-shaped room’s front.

  Dason wheeled to the holo-dais so that the Sha’anay ship would receive his holographic projection. “El’am,” Dason began in Sha’anay, “honored Sha’anay warrior of the House of Na’thic. I, Dason Thorne, friend of Tor’al, greet you.”

  El’am bowed his head in return. “And I greet the human Dason Thorne, friend to Tor’al.” He raised both arms with clenched fists shoulder-high. “We have fought together.”

  Unable to raise his own arms in salute, Dason bowed his head respectfully. “We have fought together.”

  El’am leaned forward and peered at Dason. “They did not tell me that you sustained injuries. Wounds from battle, no doubt?”

  “From a different sort of battle than we fought,” Dason returned. “My wounds are from what we call radiation poisoning.”

  El’am’s eyes narrowed, and he growled, “I know of what you speak. Your healers are able to cure you, yes?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Dason answered. “In less severe cases, yes, but I’m afraid—”

  He stopped and swallowed, trying to find the words. He then mumbled, “In my case, they can’t. My body is too damaged.”

  “Then we will,” El’am stated.

  Dason was stunned for just a moment before he turned and said, “El’am says the Sha’anay can cure radiation poisoning.”

  “What!” Jadar snapped and stepped onto the dais next to Dason. “You can heal someone with severe radiation poisoning?”

  El’am turned disapproving eyes toward Jadar.

  Dason quickly interceded, saying in Sha’anay, “El’am, this is Star Scout Lieutenant Colonel Jadar Marrel. He is my father’s brother, my honored mentor, and considered an Elder in our House. We have fought together.

  “He was merely expressing great gratitude to the Sha’anay for your wonderful and life-saving offer.”

  El’am gave a slight nod to Jadar. “I greet the esteemed mentor of my friend.”

  Turning back to Dason. “Though we have the ability to rid the body of this poisoning, we must act swiftly ere the damage becomes too great.

  “I will send a ship for you, human Dason. Once you are well, we will talk, for I bear a message from the Korha’pec and it is to you that I must speak.”

  Minutes later, after a fast transit in a small Sha’anay corvette from the IntrepidX to the Sha’anay cruiser At’agi, Dason found himself in the ship’s sickbay, where several Sha’anay physician-healers waited.

  Abi’lar, the head physician, explained in haste what they could offer Dason. “This technology was a gift from a race called the Kalliarians to the Sha’anay for defending them against the Mongans. The Kalliarians are very advanced in the healing techniques, but very limited in war making.

  “If you decide to proceed, this is what must happen. We will place you in a bio-stasis chamber to lower your core body temperature. That and a regimen of drugs will put you into a form of suspended animation.

  “Your metabolism will slow to the point that virtually nothing happens at the cell level, where the harm from the radiation occurs.

  “We will scan your body to see where the damage lies and what is undamaged. Where the radiation has severely injured an organ, we will take your own stem cells, run them through a three-dimensional tissue regenerator and either replace the organ’s affected portions, or if needed and possible, replace the whole organ.

  “Nano lymphocytes will cleanse your blood of damaged hemo-cells and we will treat your nerve cells with a nervostatic wash that will restore the chemical balance.

  “We’ll replace any corrupted bone marrow that we find and if you have bone structure that’s degenerated or fractured, we will repair that as well.”

  He leaned forward until he was just centimeters away from Dason’s face. “You need to understand that there are some potentially serious drawbacks to this procedure.

  “First, human Dason, we have never done this procedure on one of your species. Our instruments and medicines are meant for Sha’anay physiology.

  “The drugs alone might kill you or the tissue regenerator may not accurately replicate a human cell, which could lead to organ rejection.

  “So that you don’t misunderstand, this procedure will and can repair much, but it is not a complete cure. Even if the treatment works, because so much of your body is broken, there will always be weak spots that later may break again.”

  His face turned grave. “Lastly, in a few cases, the chemicals used to restore nerve function have been known to block an individual’s memories and learned behaviors.

  “You may well end up not having any memory of yourself, your family, your House, or of your life itself.”

  Dason sucked in a breath. “Are you telling me that I could wake up from this and not know who I am, or who any of you are?”

  The Sha’anay physician met his stare and gave him a slow nod. “It is not only possible, but we have seen it happen in the past.”

  Hanging his head at the thought that the dire prediction might come true, he heard Shanon’s gentle voice next to his ear, “Dason, you have to do this, even if it means—”

  “Forgetting you?” he said so softly that only she could hear. “Then I surely will be dead.”

&n
bsp; “No,” she murmured, “you’ll be alive and I know, I just know, that we could restart again.”

  “Is that what you want?” he gently asked.

  A single tear rolled down her face, where, as a silvery sphere, it quivered on her chin for an instant before dropping silently to the floor

  She put her forehead against his, her hands gently holding his face. “I want you Dason Thorne,” she softly cried, “can’t you see that?”

  Dason drew in a shuddering breath. “I feel the same about you, Shanon,” he murmured.

  Raising his head away from her, he said to Abi’lar. “I understand. How long will I be in this suspended animation state?”

  Abi’lar straightened and considered Dason’s question. “Each case is different. It may take a few days; it may take weeks.”

  “Hey,” Sami quipped to Dason, “look at it this way—you go to sleep, you wake up to find we’ve defeated the Mongans, the Imperium is back on its feet, you’re good as new, and I’ve been elected president of the General Assembly.”

  “Let’s stick with just the first three,” Dason replied. “I don’t think any of us is ready for that last one.”

  He gave a little hand gesture to the group. “All right, I’m ready, let’s get on with it.”

  Jadar, followed by both human and Sha’anay physicians, wheeled Dason over to a long, transparent cylinder. At a touch from Abi’lar the lid opened like a clam shell.

  The Sha’anay physicians reached down and gently lifted Dason into the oblong cubicle.

  They removed all his tubes and wires as a warm, salty-smelling liquid began to flow from underneath him. In moments, he found himself floating in the dense fluid.

  Stinneli addressed the assembled group who watched with somber, but hopeful eyes. “The liquid vapors carry a form of anesthesia. He’s going to get sleepy real soon, so now’s the time for goodbyes.”

  In quick succession, his scout mates bade Dason farewell until only Shanon and Jadar remained. Shanon leaned in to press her forehead against his and whispered, “Don’t you dare forget me, Dason Thorne, because I won’t ever forget you.”

  “Never,” he whispered back.

  Dason’s eyes were growing heavier and heavier, and he fought to keep them open so that he could say goodbye to Jadar.

  He saw his uncle bend over, heard him whisper, “I am so proud of you, my—” and then blackness took him, and he fell into a dreamless, deep sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Star date: 2443.103

  Aboard the Sha’anay Battle Cruiser At’agi

  “Dason,” a voice called to him. The sound was so soft and melodious that Dason decided that he had died, and now an angel called to him. An angel with Shanon’s voice.

  Wait, his muddled brain told him. If Shanon were an angel, that meant that she had died as well.

  It saddened him that he was dead but it broke his heart that Shanon had died and just as it seemed that they had found each other. Soulmates.

  He grew angry. He knew that life wasn’t fair, but it inflamed his very being to find out that death wasn’t fair, either.

  “Dason,” the angelic voice murmured. “Wake up.”

  Dason’s eyes fluttered open, and he found himself swaying in a warm, placid bath.

  He realized two things first off—one, he was still in the bio-stasis chamber, and second, he wasn’t dead. To him, the first was okay, and the second was much more than okay.

  A moment later, the liquid drained from under him, and he lay on thin, velvety cushions. A row of heat bulbs snapped on, and balmy air blew across his body leaving him dry and warm.

  He turned his head to see a smiling face. Her apple-green eyes were big, wide, and full of concern. In a throaty rasp, he said, “I dreamed that there was an angel calling to me.”

  Smiling broadly, he murmured, “I wake up and realize it wasn’t a dream.”

  The young woman dimpled at his comment, leaned closer, and asked, “Do you know who I am? Do you know my name?”

  Dason nodded in reply. “Of course I know your name. It’s—uh—uh—wait. I’ll get it in a second.”

  She bit down on her lip. “Dason, you don’t know me? You really don’t know me?”

  Waiting, Dason let a small smile play across his lips, and for an instant, there was a tiny mischievous glint in his eye. “Shanon, I told you that I would never forget you.”

  “Dason Thorne!” Shanon sputtered at him, her face a mixture of happiness and anger. Then, a full smile split her face. “That wasn’t very nice, you know. You scared me there for a second.”

  To Dason, her broad grin and laugh were better than any medicine to lift his spirits. “Sorry,” he answered, “I just couldn’t resist.”

  She reached down to squeeze his hand. “I forgive you. Oh, Dason, I’m so glad you’re all right. When they put you in the chamber, you were hurt so badly. I know; I saw.”

  “And now?” he asked.

  “And now,” a gruff voice answered, “we need to shoo this young filly away for a bit while we check you out.”

  “Doctor Baier,” Dason declared.

  The stout man nodded and leaned up against the bio-stasis chamber. “How are you feeling, youngster?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Dason replied. “How should I be feeling?”

  “Actually, pretty good,” Doctor Stinneli chuckled as he stepped next to Baier. “In fact, if you were one of my SimLife creations, I would say that your operating systems are all within normal and satisfactory parameters.”

  “What he’s trying to say,” Baier explained, “is that all of our tests show that you’re back to fair to middlin’ health.”

  “Middlin’,” Sami called over. “Is that good or just middle of the road sort of thing? If it’s not perfect, TL, tell’em to put you back in that thing until it is.”

  Baier let out a big sigh and turned exasperated eyes on Dason. “How have you managed to put up with him all this time? I’ve just had to deal with him for a few days, and I’m about ready to prescribe myself some anti-anxiety meds.”

  Dason couldn’t help but laugh. “Sami? Couldn’t do without him, doc, he makes things interesting. How are you doing Sami? Back to normal?”

  “Sami? Normal?” TJ chortled and stuck her head between the two doctors to smile at Dason. “But if you’re asking if his blood chemistry is back to normal, it is.”

  “Yep, and it’s the red kind too, not like ol’ blueblood, here,” Sami quipped as Nase stepped next to Doctor Stinneli.

  Nase gave Dason a nod and a sincere, “Glad to have you back, TL.”

  Dason raised a hand in answer. “Thanks, Nase, it’s good to be back.”

  There was the sound of hurried footsteps coming into the room, and Shanon gave a jerk of her head to the other scouts to signify that they should step away from the chamber. Jadar slipped through the group to stand next to Dason.

  “Hey,” he said, his eyes lighting up at Dason’s smile. “Sorry, I wasn’t here when you woke up, I broke away as soon as I could.”

  “That’s okay, Uncle Jadar,” Dason replied. “I understand.”

  Jadar’s mouth sagged open and he peered at Dason with a puzzled expression. “Didn’t you—” he began, before he stopped and glanced around the room.

  He shook his head and turned to the two doctors. “How’s he doing?”

  “Fine,” Doctor Stinneli replied. “The scans all came back clean. He’ll be pretty sore in a few places for another week or so where we had to do some organ reconstruction and bone work, but other than that, he’s good. One nice thing about being young—you heal quickly.”

  “But he’s probably a mite hungry, I suspect,” Doctor Baier replied, “considering he’s been living off a strictly liquid diet these last five days.”

  “Five days,” Dason breathed out. “Has it been that long?”

  “Yes,” Jadar answered. “And a lot has happened, too.” He turned back to the two physicians. “I hate to rush this, but do
you think he can at least return to light duty?”

  The two human doctors conferred with their Sha’anay counterparts. After a few moments, Stinneli turned to Jadar. “Yes, but go easy on him. He’s still healing and is going to be very weak for some time.”

  “And,” Doctor Baier added, “he doesn’t go anywhere until we get some food into him.”

  Jadar turned to Dason, “How about it? Think after we feed you, we can get you up?”

  “Sure,” Dason answered. “But Doctor Baier is right, I really am hungry.”

  He glanced down at his nearly naked body. “And it would be nice to have my clothes back. Swim trunks were okay for that bath I was in, but not for strolling around the ship.”

  “Or meeting with the Sha’anay,” Jadar replied. “After we get you fed and dressed, that’s our first order of business. We have a lot to talk about.”

  He turned to Shanon, who quickly replied to his unspoken request, “We’ll get him some food and clothes.”

  The Sha’anay physician-healers were standing nearby and to them Jadar said, “On behalf of my House, I thank you. You have worked a miracle, and we are forever grateful.”

  The two Sha’anay nodded in response, and Abi’lar said, “We will let the elder know that your cub is awake and well.” With that, they left the room.

  “Uncle Jadar,” Dason gushed, “you speak Sha’anay.”

  “We all do, Dason,” Shanon explained. “Those sensators are awesome.”

  “Yeah,” TJ quipped, “except for how they translate Sami’s mangled idioms. You don’t know how many times we’ve had to backtrack and explain him to the Sha’anay.”

  “Not my fault,” Sami grumbled, “that their stupid sensory ma bobber didn’t understand when I said that we’d let the dogs out of the bucket.”

  “See what I mean?” TJ said. “For a while there, the Sha’anay thought he was saying that they had Mongan devil dogs on their ship.”

  A few minutes later, having had a few spoonfuls of a clear, but nutritious soup, and fully dressed, Dason stood waiting for his Uncle Jadar. It wasn’t long until Jadar entered, accompanied by a man Dason didn’t recognize.