"Odo-- if your labor-- was this painful-- I c-can see why you-- struggled-- before you relaxed..."
"That was an entirely different situation, Doctor Mora." Odo knelt beside Kejal. "Is the hot water helping?"
"A little...oof..." Mora's breathing accelerated again.
Odo leaned over and took Mora's hand. "Don't try to speak. Focus on relaxing. Aleexa will be here shortly."
Mora nodded once, closing his eyes.
"Aleexa is here." Kira whispered. "I'll go let her in."
Moments later, Aleexa slipped into the bathroom wearing a dark orange nightgown and slippers.
"All right, sweetie, let's have a look." She wasted no time hiking up her nightgown's skirt to kneel between Kejal and Odo. Her tricorder ran silently.
Kejal's jaw dropped at the reading. Mora's left kidney was twice its normal size! He felt sympathy pains in his own lower back, and he didn't even have internal organs.
"Pol? Are you with me?"
"Yes..." Mora panted. "What's happening to me?"
"The antibiotics I gave you aren't strong enough. The infection is getting worse. Your left ureter is completely blocked by swelling. It's causing a condition called hydronephrosis."
"I know what that is. Can you help?"
"Yes, Pol. This requires more intensive treatments than I can give you here. I need to transport you to a medical facility."
Grimacing, Mora gripped her wrist. "Can they stop the pain?"
"Definitely. They'll put you in a specialized biobed and block the nerve impulses responsible for your pain. You'll get stronger antibiotics to take care of this kidney infection. Aw, sweetie..." She stroked his shoulder. "I said I'd get you through any pain you have. You're going to be feeling better in a few minutes."
Kira passed a faded old bathrobe into the bathroom. Mora pulled the plug in the tub and Aleexa covered him with the robe once the water drained out.
Aleexa spoke into her combadge. "Palliative unit, we have an incoming pain emergency. Requesting transport." She handed out reflective white stickers full of circuitry. "I'll get him transported, and then I'll have the rest of you transported. These will help the facility lock onto you, so don't lose them."
"Understood." Odo nodded.
Kejal leaned over and kissed the top of Mora's head. "Don't leave me, father."
Mora touched his hand. "I'm not leaving you yet. I have a wedding to attend...ooh," his face contorted. "It's coming back again."
"Wedding?" Aleexa spoke as the transporter beam made her and Mora shimmer into nothingness.
Kejal hid his face against Odo's shoulder. Kira leaned on his back.
Ten minutes later, everyone else was transported directly to Mora's location.
The room didn't look like a hospital at all. A large window overlooked the city, and the walls were painted warm brown like deka tree bark. Soft recessed lighting lined the crown molding in the ceiling.
The only visible medical device was the casket-like bed. Mora looked so small in it, but he appeared much more comfortable. He wore a purple standard issue hospital gown and his robe hung on a hook in the corner.
Aleexa joined them. "I had him sedated to make him more comfortable. He might be groggy for awhile. We were able to find out the exact bacteria causing the infection and we're adjusting his antibiotics accordingly. He'll be just fine in a few days."
"Thank you." Kejal said shakily. "What exactly is hydro-- what was it again?"
"Hydronephrosis is kidney swelling due to urine backup."
"Ew."
"You asked." Odo snorted. He peered at Mora. "Perhaps we should return to the house and visit in the morning."
Kejal hung his head. "You can go. I want to stay."
"I don't see how it will help anything."
"Mother, I want to be here if he wakes up."
"Odo," Kira kept her voice low, "let him stay. We'll come back tomorrow."
"What about visiting hours?" asked Odo.
Aleexa examined the monitors above the bed. "There aren't any in this wing of the facility. This is the section for terminal patients. We never turn away family. Kejal is welcome to stay if he wants to."
Terminal. The word cut through Kejal like a phaser.
Mora opened his eyes. They didn't quite focus. "Odo."
"Doctor Mora?" Odo approached his bedside. "I'm here."
"Yes," he smiled slightly. "When you return to my house, look for a small white box in the chest under the oval window. You'll find something that should go to someone I will soon consider a daughter-in-law."
Kira blushed at that.
"A small white box? Very well." Odo patted Mora's shoulder. "You should rest. We'll see you again in the morning."
"Thank you." Mora replied, his eyes already fluttering shut.
Kira lightly touched Odo's arm. They stepped back onto the transporter pad and Kejal heard them shimmer away.
Chapter 11: Abreaction
Mora's dreams were strange and terrifying. Somehow, he'd gotten lost within the Fire Caves, and he felt a pah-wraith pressing into his back. Instead of running from it in fear, he turned and cursed its existence.
He awoke feeling angry. Angry at the Delfeya syndrome, angry at being in a medical facility again and angry that he couldn't do the things he used to.
Yawning, still tired, he checked the time. Oh three-hundred. Blast it all, he hadn't slept more than two hours and his bladder needed emptying.
His back gave him a few twinges. He calmed himself down and touched the call button next to his head.
"Pol?" Aleexa's voice offered reassurance. "What is it?"
"I need to make water."
"I'm on my way."
"Father?"
Mora blinked. "You're still here?"
Kejal approached his bedside. "I couldn't leave you here alone."
Aleexa slipped into the room with a clear container in her hand. It was hardly more than a long plastic tube inside a bag.
"Here you go. Do you need help?"
Mora shook his head. "May I have some privacy?"
She smiled. "Of course. Kejal? Come on."
Kejal offered a little protest before Aleexa convinced him to leave the room. She pulled the curtain around the biobed and waited just outside while Mora took care of his bladder.
He didn't think the bag would hold it all, but to his relief it expanded as he filled it.
"I think the blockage is gone. I never go this much."
"That's good to hear!" Aleexa said cheerfully. "Does it hurt to pee?"
"No." Mora finished and tucked himself back into the facility-issued shorts. "I'm done now."
"And decent?"
"Mmhmm."
Aleexa moved the curtain and took the bag. The contents were cloudy with blood. "Oh, yes, I think you're definitely emptying out the swollen kidney." She swished it. "Is it usually this bloody?"
Mora nodded once and shifted his position. "Some days it looks like that, but not always." He cleaned his hands with the provided wet sanitation wipes.
"That's how it usually is with Delfeya syndrome." Aleexa noted down the amount in the bag and discarded it in the waste extraction unit. She used an ionizing station to disinfect her hands and came back to take his temperature.
Mora didn't mind the cool probe being rubbed across his forehead. It soothed his pulsing headache. "Do I have a fever? I feel like I might."
"Yeah, you do. It's the antibiotics you're being given here. They pull your own antibodies towards the source of the infection, so I'm sorry, that means I can't give you anything to lower the fever without disrupting the process."
"Mm...I understand. Compared to how I felt earlier, a headache is nothing." Mora wiggled on the bed. "Can you up the field strength a little? I'm getting twinges."
"Sure." Aleexa adjusted something above his head and the pain faded. "How's that?"
"Better, thank you."
She smiled kindly. "You're scruffy." Her fingernails scraped lightly at the stubble
on his chin. "I like scruffy men."
Mora chuckled at her. He scratched his chin and made a face. "It looked better when I was younger. Now, I just look like an old, dirty goat."
"You certainly do not! You're still quite good looking, sir." Aleexa balked. She replicated a tall water glass with a spill-proof lid and a flexible straw. "Here's some water. Your mouth looks a little dry."
"Thank you." He took a generous drink. Until then, he didn't realize how thirsty he was. The cold water felt wonderful on his parched throat. He set the glass on the bedside table. "I think I'll rest a little more."
"That's just fine. Rest is the best thing for you." Aleexa reached down and gave his hand a friendly squeeze. "Don't hesitate to call for me if you need anything else. I'm always available."
Yes, I have to bother other people to tend to my most basic needs...
Mora resisted snapping the comment running through his mind. He smiled instead and patted her wrist. "I appreciate it, Aleexa. I apologize in advance for any further interruptions I may cause."
"Don't, sweetie. It's what I'm here for." She straightened the blanket for him, smoothed his hair and padded out. "Keep it down in there. He wants to rest."
"Okay," Kejal's voice filtered through the door.
Mora sighed, closing his eyes. Kejal entered and Mora felt the air disturbance of him leaning over the bed. Then he moved away to sit by the window. Mora cracked an eye open.
Kejal didn't look happy. He seemed haggard, as if he hadn't relaxed once in the past several hours. Sitting on the floor like that made him appear far smaller than his actual size. Amusingly, he was barefoot and shape shifting his fingers and toes into different flowers from the garden back home.
Seeing Kejal doing something so silly dissolved Mora's anger. He could always chase away Mora's darkest mood just by entering a room. A talent he possessed since being born on Leruu's death anniversary.
That date used to drive Mora into drinking himself numb. Now, it had a new, wonderful meaning, and he still believed Leruu talked the Prophets into planning it that way.
"Kejal," Mora whispered.
Instantly, Kejal's face lit up. He clambered towards the biobed. "Father! How do you feel?"
Mora crinkled his nose. "Old."
"Pfft!"
He yawned and fought down his amusement at Kejal trying and failing to imitate it.
"Infections are exhausting," muttered Mora. Then his nose started to leak blood. "Augh, wonderful! Kejal, get me a-- "
Kejal handed him a handkerchief. "Should I call Aleexa back in?"
"No. This is a minor issue."
"I wish I could lay down with you." Kejal said quietly. He glared accusingly at the bed and all the gadgetry attached to it. "I don't like this bed. It looks like a casket."
"I feel half-dead. I think it suits my condition."
"That's...almost funny right now." Kejal gave a half-hearted chuckle.
Mora's head pounded. He rubbed his forehead and blew his nose to clear it. The coppery taste of blood clung to the back of his throat. Damn nosebleeds.
He set the bloody handkerchief down without caring where it landed. "I'm going to fall asleep pretty soon." Smiling a little, he added, "Sing something...would you please?"
"Oh! Gladly, father." Kejal cleared his throat and launched into a quiet, hypnotic melody about a butterfly in a well. His clear tenor voice rose and fell like pure light finding its way through darkness.
And Mora felt himself slipping into slumber...
.o
Odo sat silently on the edge of the bed. Kira was settling down to sleep.
"Are you coming to bed?" she asked.
"I might later," he replied. "I don't feel like sleeping right now. I'm sorry."
Kira nodded and closed her eyes. She rubbed his leg in a sleepy attempt to soothe his troubled mind. Odo's expression softened at her kindness. He brushed a strand of hair off her forehead and kissed her above the ear.
"I love you, Nerys."
"Love you, too," she yawned. In a few minutes her breathing shifted into soft, kitten-purr snores.
Odo padded out of the bedroom. The square white box Doctor Mora told him about sat unopened on the kitchen counter. Odo had been afraid to look inside.
Ridiculous...me, afraid of a box? Odo, get a hold of yourself.
He steeled himself and pressed the button that made the lid pop up. The gold betrothal bracelet gleamed faintly in the dim overhead lights. It consisted of five long bars with small red beads in between. Vows of love were engraved on each bar.
I promise you my love.
I promise you my devotion.
I promise you my strength.
I promise you my faith.
I promise you my everything.
Underneath the bracelet was a tiny piece of parchment listing the people who wore it before.
Mora Leruu
Mora Sirah
Mora Y'lai
Mora Ival
Mora Myrna
A prickly feeling bothered Odo's eyes. Rubbing them made it go away. He tip-toed into the guest bedroom and gently slipped the betrothal bracelet onto Kira's wrist without waking her up. Then he kissed her cheek and walked back out.
He spent the next three hours reading one of the Shaarlek novels. The story revolved around a Ferengi named Murg hiding in a science lab after being framed for murder.
Wonderful.
Odo dropped the PADD, held his head in his hands and sighed. No getting around it. This needed to get done.
The communications console lit up when he tapped the touchpad. He asked for a hover tram and paid the fee in advance.
"Odo?"
"Nerys...I didn't mean to wake you."
Kira rubbed her eyes. "You didn't." She looked down at the bracelet and smiled. "It's beautiful."
Odo dipped his head politely. "A gift from Doctor Mora. It's been in his family for generations."
"I'll be sure to thank him." Kira indicated the communications screen. "What's going on?"
"I'm doing something I should have done a long time ago." Odo tapped his thumbs together as he paced the length of the couch. "I'm going to see the lab."
"I'm coming with you."
"Nerys-- "
She was already in the bedroom pulling on her clothes. When she returned, she said, "Don't face this alone, Odo."
He met her eyes. She wouldn't back down.
Sixty minutes later, they stood together outside the intimidating black building. The fog swirling around its angular edges made it seem alive. A huge, dark monster about to devour anything in its path.
Odo took a breath. Kira squeezed his hand. Together, they stepped through the main entrance and slipped past the snoozing security guard. Odo led Kira onto an elevator to the second floor. He walked swiftly, hoping the trepidation he felt stayed two steps behind.
The laboratory was the first door Odo saw when the elevator arrived.
"Come on..." He muttered more to himself than Kira.
Fashioning his thumb into an exact replica of Doctor Mora's, he pressed it to the identification panel beside the double doors. They slid apart and revealed the last place in the universe Odo ever wanted to see again.
It looked exactly like he remembered it. From the cold black countertops to the gleaming metal table running down the center. A layout so familiar he could find his way around blindfolded.
Odo headed straight for the shelf on his right. He plucked up the beaker and handed it to Kira. The label was still there.
Odo'ital.
"Oh..." Kira turned the beaker over in her hands. "The Cardassians called you nothing?"
Odo nodded slowly.
"Once, I believed that label. The Cardassians didn't know what I was, so they chose Doctor Mora to find out. He labeled my jar as 'unknown sample' and the Cardassians translated it into 'nothing.' Nobody realized I was a life form for a long time. Doctor Mora's experiments revealed that by accident.
"I didn't have a name, then.
I was the unknown sample, the creature, the specimen, the alien...the beaker of nothing. Once I started taking humanoid form, the Bajorans in the lab started calling me Odo Ital, as if the two words were a Bajoran name. Over time, it was shortened to just Odo. No matter how they changed it, I always heard nothing when people called my name."
Kira cupped the beaker against her chest and squeezed his hand. Her eyelashes were damp. "You were never nothing to me, Odo." She cracked a small smile that he mirrored effortlessly.
"I know. The first time you said my name to me, I stopped hearing it as nothing."
She pulled him close and kissed him deeply. "If I hadn't seen Kejal after he was born, I never would've believed you fit in this beaker."
"Sometimes I can't believe it myself." Odo laid a hand on his chest. The very spot from which Kejal emerged. His eyes roved over the menacing gadgets tucked neatly into the walls. Larger pieces of equipment were positioned near the windows.
He tugged Kira's hand and showed her the electrostatic dish. "This is the device that first induced me to shape shift."
The memories came up, unbidden...
Most of his existence had been vibrations, stirring, suction, stinging and tingling.
And then, out of nowhere, agony! Disorientation! Burning! Spinning and confusion and terror!
Then nothing...for a long time, nothing.
Suddenly, IT happened.
Something poured him onto a flat surface. The smooth, cool environment seemed safe enough until the cruel Pain Thing bombarded his entire being! He discovered he could move; he stretched until he found a place of no pain. Parts of him still touched the Pain Thing. He compacted himself until the zapping stopped.
Later on, he experienced the Pain Thing again. Only now, the Safe Place was blocked! He extended desperate tentacles and palpated the cylindrical obstacle. The top was open. He rushed for the container and poured himself inside.
He began to perceive the outside world. Shape, form, texture and vibration. The alien who exposed him to the Pain Thing looked different than the other shapes around it. He began recoiling inside his beaker each time that alien turned on the lights and stretched out its limb.
The alien put many shaped containers inside the Pain Thing. He memorized them all. Then, suddenly, no shapes. What did this alien want?
Beginning: A Star Trek Novel (New Frontier Reloaded Book 2) Page 16
