Sons of Lyra: Fight For Love

by Felicity Heaton

  A fighter leaving the surface caught her eye. It was followed by one of the larger transport ships that the soldiers had gone to the surface in.

  She stared at it, fearing that this time Remi would be in it.

  The sound of the infirmary behind her came back, the noise of nurses and doctors rushing around and trying to save the lives of the soldiers clamouring in her ears. Duty called. She raced to help, assisting those that needed it most first. Most of the last group of patients to come from the surface were stable now. She helped the nurses move them out of the operating theatres and into the wards. They were quickly filling up. Someone would need to check all the patients and see which ones could be discharged to make more room.

  The ship rocked as the fighter and transport vessel docked with it. Soon, the halls would be pandemonium as the new casualties were brought in. She finished hooking a man up to the bio-scanner and monitors above his bed and then went to her office. A quick clear up and she was ready for the next set of patients. She could handle any wounds that didn’t require surgery. She swiped the beam of the sterilizing device over her tools, preparing them. Anything that was life-threatening had to be handled by the doctors. She had faith in them. They were some of the best in the fleet.

  A murmur swept down the corridor, growing louder. The rush of feet followed it. Her hearts thundered as she waited to see if this time it would be Remi lying on her inspection table. She went out into the hall, watching the passing hover-stretchers as they were pushed by almost at a run. The clamour of voices reached a crescendo. The smell of blood filled the air. These soldiers were injured worse than any she’d seen so far. Most needed the doctors’ attention. It was ghastly. Blood covered them and the wounds were deep. Some were missing limbs or were badly burnt. Her stomach churned. Fear pounded down on her.

  She looked down the hall.

  Her hearts almost stopped beating.

  Remi.

  Alessandro was supporting Remi as he hobbled down the hall, covered in blood.

  She ran to him, her mind filling with his brother’s words about protecting him. She had to help him. He needed her now more than ever. She grabbed his empty arm and gently placed it around her shoulders, helping Alessandro support him and leading the way to her office. Remi slumped against her. She gritted her teeth and forced him upwards, intent on supporting his weight and getting him to her table.

  It seemed to take forever to get him into the room and there was no sense of relief when he was finally on the inspection table. He collapsed. She shouted for a nurse to assist Alessandro and then ran around the table to her tools. Leaning over Remi, she patted his cheek, faster and faster, matching her racing hearts. He murmured something, barely conscious.

  “Remi, Remi... Remi!” she said, frantic and terrified by the sight of so much blood on him. It plastered his face and his clothes. There wasn’t an inch of him that didn’t seem to be coated in it. “Don’t die on me!”

  His hand weakly caught hers and stopped her from patting his cheek.

  “I’ll live for you instead,” he croaked and frowned as he opened his eyes and looked at her. “I’m fine... Jericho.”

  She wasn’t at all convinced that he was fine.

  “What about him?” she said.

  “It’s his blood... a Heavy Armour... it tore him apart. He didn’t stand a chance.” He threw an arm over his eyes and swallowed hard. His tight voice, laden with emotion, said that he was close to tears. It was understandable. He loved Jericho like a brother.

  A noise in the hall made her look up, the sound of rushing feet and shouted commands.

  “What about Ambra—” Her question seemed redundant when the doctors rushed past with a hover-stretcher, Ambra running behind them. Emmanuelle swallowed. The entire blanket covering the patient on the stretcher had been red with blood. There’d been life support equipment onboard.

  “Jericho... he tried to protect Ambra. He... don’t let him die. Do whatever you can for him... even if it’s...” he trailed off and flexed his cybernetic hand. “I couldn’t protect... we were separated... I was too late. I should’ve been there. It was my fault.”

  Emmanuelle held him down when he tried to sit up. He winced and pushed against her. She pushed back, determined not to let him aggravate his injuries and put his own life at risk.

  “Calm down. It’s not your fault, Remi,” she whispered, her hand against his cheek. His tears dampened her fingertips and cut through the blood on his face.

  “Whatever it takes...” He looked up at her, tears shining in his eyes. “Save him.”

  Tears filled her own eyes when she saw all the hurt in his. He and Jericho had been inseparable since the academy. They were closer than brothers.

  “A normal soldier won’t be given such treatment.” It broke her heart to tell him that and see the realisation dawn in his eyes. Jericho would likely die.

  He went to sit up again. She pushed him back down. Anger flashed in his dark eyes, red with tears.

  “I’m a normal soldier like him! Like all of them!” He tried to push her away but she held him down. Her hands shook against him, trembling with fear as his whole face darkened. “Let me go!”

  “No!” She pressed her hands against his shoulders and shoved him back down, pinning him against the table. “You’re not a normal soldier. You’re a prince, a son of Lyra. Your kingdom would do anything for you.”

  Fear shook her when his cybernetic hand closed tight around her wrist, making her bones creak. He gritted his teeth and pushed her away. She stumbled backwards and put a hand out behind her to grab the cupboards there and stop her from hitting them.

  He was off the inspection table before she could stop him.

  “They’ll do this for me then!” He limped from the room and she followed him as he shoved people in the corridor aside and pushed through.

  The gaps he’d made for himself closed behind him, hindering her. Before she could reach him, he was opening the doors to the operating theatre. She grabbed his arm and he turned on her. In his eyes, anger overruled pain.

  “Leave me alone!” He pushed her hand off him. “Let me do this.”

  She grabbed him again, unwilling to give up that easily. She had to get him back to her inspection table before he passed out. It had to be purely adrenaline keeping him going now. “What are you going to do?”

  He turned away and looked into the operating theatre. She looked past him at the doctors and Jericho where he lay on the table. A glance at Remi made her heart ache. The tears trembled on the brink of falling, his face ashen beneath the blood. The theatre lights reflected in his eyes. She could almost see Jericho in them. She didn’t want to look at him. There was no way the doctors would be able to save him.

  Remi swallowed and then frowned.

  “Whatever it takes, understand?” he said when the doctors looked his way, voice showing none of the raw emotions she could see in his eyes. There was only determination and anger in it. “On my authority, do whatever it takes. If Jericho dies, I will never forgive you.”

  Ambra pushed past her and Emmanuelle was glad when Remi stopped her. He held Ambra close, his broad frame protecting her from the sight of Jericho. Ambra shook, trembling in Remi’s arms.

  “I won’t let anything happen to him, Ambra,” Remi said and held her closer. Emmanuelle stepped back to give them more room. “I’ll bring him back for you, but he might not be the same.”

  Ambra looked up at him with wide eyes and understanding gradually dawned in them. She touched his cybernetic arm and forced a smile.

  “I’ll always love Jericho... always. It doesn’t matter what it takes to save him. I’ll always be there for him when he needs me.”

  Remi’s hand covered hers and held it.

  “Thank you Remi... I know that if it weren’t for you... he’d be dead already,” Ambra said with another smile, this one holding more feeling.

  “I’ll be there for you both—” He wavered on the spot, swallowed hard, and then co
llapsed to his knees.

  Ambra looked horrified.

  Emmanuelle rushed to his side, crouching close to him and placing her hand against his back. He wearily raised his head and looked at her. His pupils dilated and contracted, clearly struggling to focus.

  “Will you let me attend to you now?” she whispered.

  He nodded.

  She pulled his arm around her shoulder and helped him stand with the aid of a male nurse.

  “You were fooling nobody by saying you were fine,” she muttered and took him back to her office.

  It was an effort to get him onto the inspection table and lay him down. The weight of him drained her strength and she was breathing hard when she finally ducked out from under his arm. She carefully opened his armoured jacket and his shirt. He grimaced when she made him sit up again so she could remove them completely. They dropped to the floor at her feet.

  Several men in black rushed past her office. One stopped in the doorway. The intricate white logo emblazoned on the left side of his chest told her that he was a bio-engineer.

  She grabbed the scanner and ran it over Remi’s torso.

  “Does Lieutenant Lyra IV need anything?” the man said.

  She shook her head. “I can handle him and his arm is fine.”

  The man nodded and left. She pressed the button on the control panel and closed the door so she wouldn’t be disturbed again. Running the scanner over Remi’s legs revealed that he had a weapons fire wound on his left thigh and his right knee was badly damaged. There was a burn mark and hole in his right upper arm too, and several lacerations across his stomach. It was nothing she couldn’t repair or aid towards recovery. His knee would be the hardest. All she could do for it was use the binder to bring the flesh together again and then bandage it. It was down to his body to heal that one.

  He winced and muttered something. She pressed a hand to his forehead. His skin was red hot and damp with sweat. He was becoming feverish. Picking up the injection gun, she loaded it with painkillers and then pressed it against the side of his arm. She fired it and he winced again before sleepily opening his eyes to look at her. Her fingers brushed his cheek and she smiled at him.

  “Rest,” she said and his eyes closed and then opened again, as though he was fighting the effect of the drug. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Remi.”

  His eyes closed. She checked his vitals on the large monitor above the head end of the inspection table to her left and then set to work. It was going to be a long night. She only hoped that the bio-engineering team would be able to save Jericho.

  She picked up the skin healing device and ran it over the cuts on his stomach and any other shallow wounds she could see. When they were closed, she carefully removed his trousers and boots, leaving him in only his underwear. She blushed when she remembered when they’d last been in this room together and then forced those thoughts out of her head. It wouldn’t do to get distracted now. She had to focus so she could save him. One mistake could cost him his knee. If they had to replace it, it would be months before he would be allowed to return to duty. He’d miss his chance to enter the pilot academy. She knew how important that was to him, and how important it was that he entered there as just another soldier. No doubt his parents could get him in at any point in the course if he missed the start, but it wouldn’t be what Remi wanted. He wanted to be treated as a normal soldier. Normal soldiers couldn’t jump in mid-way through a course.

  Healing the smaller cuts on his legs, she paused briefly at his knee to check on it. The wound was deep enough to reveal bone. It needed to be healed quickly to avoid more blood loss or permanent damage. She placed the skin healer down and picked up the next device. The instant she ran the blue beam over his knee, the bone began to disappear, his flesh knitting back together. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but the blood vessels and muscles would heal given a few weeks rest.

  She stifled a yawn as the hours drew on and she stood holding the device. It was slow work and she was beginning to tire. There were still another two wounds to fix. She glanced at them, checking they weren’t bleeding, and then looked up at his face. It was ashen. The image of his body on the monitor said he was stable, but the sight of him so pale and drawn made her worry. The device in her hands beeped and she looked down to see that it had finished its job. She applied some salve to his knee and then bandaged it.

  Another hour and she’d healed the wound on his other leg and his upper arm. She placed the device down, dragged a stool over, and slumped onto it, ready to collapse.

  Her fingers smoothed the hair from his forehead, stroking it gently. The medication would keep him asleep for a few hours more yet and then she’d give him another dose. The hall outside her office had gone quiet. She leaned over and pressed a kiss to Remi’s lips, and then folded her arms on the table beside him and rested her head on them. She wanted to keep an eye on him but it was impossible to keep them open. Closing her eyes, she yawned and drifted away.

  ***

  Remi frowned and then internally grimaced when he tried to move and found he couldn’t. He focused, feeling groggy and weak, and tried to figure out what was happening. Slowly, feeling in his hands and feet returned. Pain burned in his knee and his right arm. He swallowed it and blinked his eyes open. The lights were too bright. He squinted and then smiled inside when the fuzzy shape of Emmanuelle gradually came into focus.

  She leaned over him, running the healing device over something. His knee. Now that his head was clearing, he could feel the warm tickle of the red beam over his skin.

  It gradually turned from a warm tickle to a burning pain.

  He grimaced and flexed his fingers into fists.

  “Keep still,” she whispered, voice soothing and gentle as always. It warmed his heart to hear the concern and affection in it.

  She put the device down on the table near his feet and walked up to him. His eyes followed her every move and he frowned when she picked up an injection gun and loaded it with a clear liquid.

  “Don’t knock me out again,” he croaked, throat parched and sore.

  She smiled and her grey eyes shone with it. Her fingers brushed his forehead and he closed his eyes at the calming touch.

  “It’s only a painkiller,” she said and he flinched when she shot the injection into his neck.

  The whole world suddenly seemed more hazy and warm. He looked up at her, smiling dazedly as the heat rushed through him to fill every inch of his body. His head felt fuzzy. He felt like he had after their moment together.

  “Better?” she whispered close to his face, her soft breath fanning his skin.

  He nodded and then frowned when she disappeared, walking back down to his knee. She picked up the device and ran the red beam over his leg again. This time he didn’t feel a thing.

  He watched her for a while, too dazed by the drug to think straight. When his head cleared, leaving only his body numb to pain, he remembered why he was here and what had happened.

  “Jericho?” he said, unable to say anything more for fear of his emotions getting the better of him.

  She looked at him with such worry that he could feel her anxiety reflected inside him.

  His heart clenched, fear crushing it as a whispered voice in his head said that Jericho was dead. He went to sit up, but she was too fast for him and her hands were pressing him back down onto the padded table before he could move an inch.

  “He’s stable,” she said and relief bolted through him. It only lasted a moment before his better sense said that stable didn’t mean safe. “They’re having to do more work.”

  “How much?”