“How is George?”
Henry stops, then turns to Cindy, his face breaks into a smile.
“Why don’t you come and see for yourself.”
She follows him into a separate room when a single bed has been set up. George is sitting up in the bed, a few wires trail from him to various medical equipment.
“Well, doc, can I get out of here now?”
Cindy heart jumps for joy. “You’re alright!”
He lifts his arms up, then lowers them. “If Henry here would get these wires off me I can go and check on the suit.”
Henry walks over to George and begins to remove the dozens of electrodes and sensors.
“You need to rest for a while, you have a lot of new skin that’s still healing. How you even survived, I will never know.”
Cindy puts her head down, not sure how to say what has to be said.
“We lost a lot of good people in the attack,” she looks up meeting George’s gaze, “including Olaf.”
George tilts his head to one side and frowns. “How did Olaf die? I thought he was in reactor control.”
“It was my fault. I told him we needed more power to escape the raiders.” She pauses for a moment, then takes a deep breath. “Olaf made it happen, and in doing so saved us all, but he sacrificed himself in the process.”
George ponders her words before replying. “We were able to convert radiation into power using the suits, but only a little at a time. He must have tried to convert a lot at once.”
Cindy lowers her head. “He gave us a tremendous amount of power. It took us hours instead of weeks to get here.”
George frowns a little in confusion, “here! Where are we?”
“Inside a Kord base,” she smiles, “the ship is being repaired as we speak.”
George slowly sits up. “Get me to my suit, we have a lot of work to do.”
Cindy smiles again as she gently pushes George back down.
“You are not going anywhere mister. Rest. That’s an order!”
He is feeling very tired and does not argue with her. After she leaves, he lays there for quite a while. The ship is going to feel a little empty without the big Russian’s bravado. Are we a modern day voyage of the damned? He slips into an uneasy sleep as his battered body heals.
Cindy takes her time wandering around the ship, offering words of encouragement as she goes. By the time she makes it to the main cargo area, she is surprised to see a delegation of Kord. One of them steps forward.
“You are the one called Cindy, Golward spoke well of you.”
Cindy is a little taken aback. “Yes I am, I hope you were not waiting for me?”
“It is of no consequence. What we are here to tell you is, Golward, you have the honor.”
Cindy maintains a neutral expression while the small furry alien paces before her. She can’t tell them apart from each other as another steps forward. Golward? She wonders.
“Cindy, we thank you for rescuing us, protecting us, and then delivering us to our safe haven. We give to you a gift.” He waves his hand behind him.
Six Kord walk up the ramp, between them is an oval object that rests in an odd looking cradle. The egg shaped object shines like chrome, and is just a little taller than Cindy. She tries to maintain her demeanor, but finally has to ask.
“I thank you, what is it you’re giving us?”
A few of the Kord seem to chuckle as they walk away. Golward steps closer to Cindy.
“This is an energy cell from our base. It is fully charged and should get you most of the way home.”
Cindy’s jaw drops in amazement. “This one small object stores that much power? I mean.” She stops as she realizes she is being rather rude to her hosts. “I apologize and thank you for your generous gift, and for repairing our ship.”
Golward does a small skip in the air, he seems excited.
“This energy cell can power your systems, but you will not be able to recharge it. Your technology is insufficient.”
Cindy stares at the amazing gift in shock. “How can we ever repay you?”
“You brought us home. The least we can do is to help you get home as well.”
The six Kord carry the device to the far wall, then begin removing panels. While they work, Golward hands Cindy a black, oval shaped object. It easily fits in the palm of her hand, and has a small depression in its midsection.
“This will activate and deactivate the energy cell, allowing you to choose when to use it.”
She cups Golward’s hand and smiles. “Thank you again.”
Cindy stifles an unexpected yawn, they have all been awake and on edge for so long. Feeling safe in this refuge is making her sleepy. With little ado the Kord all leave, their work apparently complete.
“Cindy, come in.”
The voice wakes her from a deep sleep. She does not even recall going to bed.
“Cindy here, what’s up?”
“We’re being towed out of the base.”
She bolts up in her bed, gets dressed in a record time, and sprints for the bridge. Sure enough, she is met by a dazzling star field, and the massive Kord base off behind them. Edwards turns to her and shrugs his shoulders.
“They sent a message of thanks, and wished us a speedy journey home.”
Cindy frowns as her mind races. What of Olaf’s body?
“You get the feeling they don’t really want us around?”
Edwards stares at her intently for a few seconds.
“You know, none of us were allowed on their base, and the Kord that came on board avoided us completely.”
“Yeah, we pretty much only ever dealt with Golward,” she replies a little absentmindedly.
The main bridge crew begins to make their appearance, Edwards apparently woke them all. John stops stretching mid step as he enters the bridge. His eyes fixate on the tiny ship that’s towing them. Andrew and Joe turn up a few moments later, just in time to see the little ship moving off.
John takes the helm, and in short order checks the ship’s systems.
“I guess our stay is over,” John states bluntly.
Cindy chews on her lower lip, something about all this is bothers her. Glancing around the room, she issues her orders.
“Take us out of this system. Let’s put some distance between us and that base.”
John waits until Joe and Andrew have had time to plot them a safe course. Joe turns to Cindy and grins.
“Well if that Kord power cell does what they say it does, we can fly for almost four thousand light years before we need to make a course correction.”
Cindy raises her eyebrows.
“They must really want us out of their neck of the woods.”
She looks at the small device in her hand, then touches the depression.
“Punch it.”
John taps the main drive symbol and quickly ramps their speed up.
“Factor seven.”
Joe whistles as he stares at his panel in surprise.
“We have one hundred percent power, but I can’t get any readings on the status of the power cell.”
The ship is not shaking or shuddering at all. John stares at his panel, then glances at Joe, who simply shrugs his shoulders. John slides his finger gingerly up the side of his console, increasing their speed as he does.
“Factor seven point five. Those Kord really did a good job fixing the hull.”
Peter has been rather quiet lately, so they are all surprised when he speaks up.
“They wanted us gone because this is a Gamin ship. Bet they don’t want to be seen associating with them. These Gamin are starting to look like they are the pariah’s of the galaxy.”
Cindy nods her head in agreement. It looks like we flew into a hornet’s nest. She sits in the command chair and watches Joe, Andrew, and John, as they talk excitedly about the ship’s systems. They are definitely running much better with the influx of energy. Her thoughts drift to Olaf, his body left behind on an alien space station.
Chapter
Seven - Are We There Yet?
The bridge crew barely gets any time to rest before John is reducing their speed. Cindy deactivates the Kord power cell using her hand controller. Joe watches in disappointment, as the ships power levels drop back down to the usually low levels of only one to two percent.
Emma makes a surprise appearance on the bridge, her earlier unbalanced behavior being overlooked, for now.
“We have a new problem.” She says, her voice becoming quite despondent. She lets out a huge sigh. “Patrick had repaired the fractured water tanks, but I just tested them, and they are contaminated.”
Peter leans forward, gives Cindy a discrete look, then stands authoritatively.
“Contaminated! How? And by what?” He questions bluntly.
“Oh, it’s just a pretty normal bacteria, coliform. I really don’t know how it got there.”
Cindy groans inwardly. Damn, it would have been too easy just to get home.
“What do we have to do?” She asks with a sigh.
Emma gazes around the room a little confused. “We have to drain the tanks, sterilize them, then refill them.” She answers as though they all should know.
Cindy puts a hand to her head, and closes her eyes in frustration.
“And just where do you think we can refill them?”
Emma still seems perplexed by their concerns.
“Just about any water source will do, all we have to do is test the water, then filter it.”
Cindy blinks in disbelief. How can this woman be so disconnected with their situation. Just any water source, right!
“Alrighty then. Andrew, Joe, find us a planet with a suitable water source.” She sighs. “John, take us wherever we have to go without using up our Kord power cell. I am going to get some rest.”
Just as she stands, a familiar figure blocks the doorway to the bridge. George is wearing his Gamin body suit, its scorch marks having been polished away, or repaired.
“I may just have the solution you need to bring water up to the ship.”
Cindy grins. Of course he does. “Great to see you back on your feet.”
The rest of the bridge crew stands, and greets George warmly.
“Cindy, come to the infirmary.”
She stares at the bridge speakers, then frowns. What now?
“On my way,” she replies, shaking her head.
Cindy makes great time in getting to the make shift medical area. She stops in her tracks, as she sees Henry rushing from bed to bed. The area has three motionless people laying in beds, each with intravenous drips. Henry looks up with frantic eyes, she is chilled. What the hell could panic this man? The hairs on the back of her neck crawl as she wonders if this is connected to Emma’s discovery.
Henry walks to her, carrying a needle. “Your arm!” He states firmly.
She holds her arm in obedience, and flinches as he takes a blood sample. He takes the sample to a workbench and smears a drop onto a microscope slide. Looking through a powerful microscope, he stands hunched over with his back to her. After a few minutes, Cindy can’t stand it any longer.
“What’s going on?” Her normally firm voice falters.
Henry steps back from the bench, his shoulders sag in defeat.
“Emma just told me the water tanks are contaminated.” He gulps. “Well, these people came in here this morning with fever like temperatures. They were complaining of dysentery, and stomach cramps.” He looks over at the three beds. “About an half an hour ago the first of them lost consciousness, quickly followed by the others.”
Cindy’s heart races, she is quite familiar with viruses’ and diseases. She gulps.
“What are we facing?”
Henry looks down at the floor and paces the room for a moment. He gulps, then says to her quite sternly.
“Do you have a strong stomach?”
She frowns in confusion. “Uh, well sure. I have seen my share of viruses.”
He shakes his head slowly. “This is unlike anything you have ever seen.” His eyes gravitate to the work bench.
Cindy makes herself walk over and look into the microscope. At first she is confused by the sight, suddenly she bolts upright, runs to a garbage bin, and throws up.
“That’s in my blood?” She says between heaves.
Henry sits down, defeated. “We are five for five now.”
“What does it do?” She asks, more out of fear, than anything else.
“I don’t know yet, I am still trying to find out where it came from, in the hopes of figuring out a cure. It was only minutes before I called you, that I noticed the spores in their blood.” He nods toward the three beds.
“You will have every resource you need to find a cure, including my expertise.”
Henry stares at her, his expression quite bleak. “We must test everyone, but without alarming the crew.”
Cindy tries to get the image she saw out of her mind. “Agreed.”
The next few hours are a blur as they test the crew, and examine sample after sample. During this time, five more people are admitted to the infirmary, they too, each lose consciousness soon after arriving.
Cindy rechecks her own blood, and is again repulsed at the sight. Tiny spores that whip out tendrils as though they were actually alive, swim around in her blood. She can only imagine what the spores are doing to their bodies.
Patrick comes barging into the room, his body suit collides with the door frame as he stops. “We found the source!”
Henry looks up as he has a revelation. “Patrick, I need to test your blood. You have not been tested yet.”
The blood sample is extracted, then examined, while Cindy follows Patrick to investigate the source. Arriving at their destination, she shakes her head in annoyance. I should have known better! The room reeks of rotting vegetation. The numerous plant samples taken so long ago, have been subjected to all the rigors of their trek. Smashed and destroyed containers lay in ruins, the floor has become a solid mass of mold and fungus. The far wall is covered in ropey green vines that disappear into cracks. Shining a bright light into the largest of these cracks, Cindy can see where vines have wrapped themselves around pipe work, and cracked it. Looking around, she can see the ventilation ducts in the area are all caked with multicolored fuzzy mold.
Cindy stares at the area in disbelief. “I can’t believe that no one noticed this was going on.”
Patrick shrugs his shoulders innocently. While she wants to destroy everything immediately, she knows she has to wait. The cure to their plight may well be in that room. She arrives back at the medical area to see Henry doing something to the head of one of the patients. He jumps back in surprise. “Ohh my! Do NOT come over here!”
Cindy turns toward him bewildered.
Henry steps from behind the patient, removes his bloody gloves, then puts a hand to his head. Looking at Cindy, he reports his grim findings.
“The spores grow until they are too large to pass through the smaller blood vessels, where they become lodged. It is at this point that the spores send out tendrils into the surrounding tissue.” He hesitates for a second. “Our brains are full of tiny blood vessels.”
Cindy’s jaw drops in horror. “So If we don’t find a cure soon, we will all die?”
Henry stares at Patrick. “Nope, we will have two survivors,” he nods at Patrick, “those Gamin body suits have, I should say are, protecting them.”
Cindy slumps down in a chair. “Can’t we all just do a stint in one of their suits?”
Henry shakes his head. “No, the suits must be compatible in order for their inbuilt systems to work.”
Cindy stares at the beds, her mind kicking into high gear. “Who are these people?”
Henry hands her a sheet of paper. As she runs her fingers down the list, she stops.
“They work in the reactor rooms. All of them.”
Henry frowns. “But, we’re all infected.”
“Yes, but it’s the reactor workers that are showing the worst symptoms. The
spores in their systems are growing faster.”
Cindy stares at the beds for a moment, then turns to Patrick.
“Evacuate all the reactor rooms, bring everyone one here.”
The next few hours go by with neither Henry, nor Cindy, finding a solution. Four more patients have died silently, their brains shutting down due to the heavy infiltration of spore tendrils. Cindy works on, her fear of falling asleep a genuine one. George and Patrick do their best to run the ship as more and more of the crew succumbs to the infectious nature of the spores. The bridge crew is the least effected, mostly because they are furthest away from the reactors. Another reason that crosses Cindy’s mind is the fact that they spend most of their time on duty, the remainder is spent sleeping, they hardly ever go elsewhere.
Six more precious hours go by, and still there is no sign of a cure.
Squelch!
The disgusting sound makes Cindy and Henry stop what they are doing. They both look over at the row of beds with trepidation. Cindy looks to Henry nervously. He walks to the bed that was the source of the noise. Slowly, he slides the sheet back. The spores, having outgrown their confinements, have pushed the man’s eyes out from their sockets. Adding to the ghoulish appearance, tendrils extend from the victim’s ears as well.
Three more people die while they continue to run around in circles. Cindy calls upon all of her experiences with germ warfare, but is at a loss. Henry slips and falls to the ground, his eyes flutter as he tries to speak before losing consciousness.
“Ask the Gamin.”
Cindy stares blankly at the far wall. How could I have overlooked that? She rushes as fast as she can to the bridge, aware of a building pressure in her head. She is shocked to find that George is the only one on duty. Staggering to her chair, sweat pouring down her face, she gasps.
“Get hold of the Gamin and ask them for help.”
George stares at the disconnected console, then looks back at Cindy. She has passed out in her chair, her breathing irregular. Connecting the console takes a little time, even with his suit. He activates the Kord power cell, to boost the unit’s range, then sits back and waits for a response. His hopeful smile turns to a grim repose as nothing happens. Neither Sharz, nor Regent Voknor contact him. In alarm he realizes that he and Patrick are on their own. Think. Think!
Discovery (Terran Chronicles) Page 27
