Bei stepped forward.
Doc stayed him with a touch. “Let me scan her first.”
“Do it.”
Green light fanned out of Doc’s wrist and swept over Nell.
Bei switched back into cyberspace.
Richmond highlighted the entrances clear of rubble. Four purple lines wormed separate paths through the most intact tunnels, followed spiral staircases to the fifth sub-level, and ended in a vault with three steel doors, guarded by checkpoints. These are the most secure areas in the facility. The most likely spot to store data crystals.
Bei tapped the two to the South. Richmond and I will search these areas. Juneau, Portland, and Liberia search these. Any sign of the Scraptors?
Pink question marks sprouted at six points along the complex’s interior. These are suspected contacts. I was unable to confirm the hits, Admiral. Their armor seems to detect our scans and mimic our frequency, sending a signal to fool our systems into thinking they’re not there.
Bastards. Their frequency cycled every ten milliseconds. Bei would have to talk to Apollie and see if such stealth technology existed. The Syn-En would adapt it for their own use. Camouflage yourself as soon as you leave camp. Do not be seen by the enemy. I don’t want the Bug-uglies to know their secret is out.
He left the WA.
Doc frowned.
Bei’s gut tightened. “How bad is the damage?”
“No damage, but her delta waves are off the charts.” Doc switched off his diag beam. “Her power cells are at a hundred percent. I’d say she’s adapted to the fermites.”
Or the atomic pests had adapted his wife to them. Bei waded through the fog. “And Apollie?”
“Clear of infection.” Doc shrugged. “But I’d prescribe another six or seven hours of bed rest and an IV of electrolytes to flush the stuff out of her system.”
The featherhead yawned. “As much as I hate missing the search for the Scraptors, I’ll stay here and follow his recommendations.” She brushed her pale cheek. “Besides, it’s not much fun when we can’t kill what we hunt.”
Bei grunted. “I’ll send you the video.”
“And the data.” She swatted the fermites buzzing her braids. “I really want to look at the weapons the Founders had under development.”
“Will do.” Bei traced the curve of his wife’s spine. His fingers tingled for a moment then there was only the feel of her. Relaxed. Sated. The way she usually woke in his bed. His muscles twitched. He wouldn’t be jealous of the atomic pests. “Nell?”
“Hmm?” Swaying into his touch, she stared unseeing at the far wall. Fermites formed silver clouds in her eyes.
“I need you to come back to me.”
Sighing, she stared up at the ceiling. “I don’t want any more pie. I want to swim.” Her nimble fingers trailed down his chest and hooked his waistband. “Wanna swim with me? No one will interrupt us.”
His blood quickened and his sensors registered the rise in body temperature. Bei stopped her explorations before they dropped lower. “Nell, I need you to wake up.”
Apollie squeezed her eyes closed and flopped against her mattress. “Ugh, take your Human mating rituals to your room.”
Behind Bei, Doc chuckled. “I think I’ll check on my guinea pigs.”
“Doc?” Nell blinked then shook her head. The fermite mist burned away. She laid her head against his chest then stiffened. “Oh, hey. You could have let me dream for another five minutes.”
Bei kissed her temple. His wife had perfected the art of adapting, but there were some things he wouldn’t let her do alone. “You would have needed another fifteen minutes in the water, not five.”
Her skin flushed pink. “Oh, God, what did I say?”
Apollie threw a pillow at Bei, then covered her head with another. “Out. Get out.”
The pillow landed on the toes of his boots. He kicked it back on the foot of the bed, then turned his wife toward the door. “I’ll tell you when I return.”
“In my defense, I was under the fermites’ influence.” Nell’s skin returned to its normal peach color. “When you get back from where?”
“The Founders’ labs.”
Her hand spasmed on his chest. “You’ve found them?”
“Yes.” He closed the door behind them.
“Don’t forget my IV.” Apollie shouted through the door.
Leaning backward, Nell opened it a crack. “I’ll be back in five minutes with it.”
“More like fifteen.” The Skaperian grumbled, subsiding into the bed.
Nell glanced at him from the corner of her eye. Desire dilated her pupils.
Bei wished. He had an appointment to keep with his newest security officer and data to retrieve. He stopped.
Fisting his shirt, she rose up on her toes and flattened herself against him. “You better make it up to me. I almost lost you, you know?”
“I will.” He’d been hours away from critical failures, but he understood the need to reaffirm life in the most basic way all too well.
Doc staggered out of the room closest to the dining area. The stench of decay fogged the air around him. Holding his arm against his nose, he surveyed them with slack features.
“The Plague?” Bei increased his pace.
Nell jogged at his side. “I thought I cured everyone.”
Doc nodded then shook his head. “No, it’s not the Plague. Yes, you cured them, too. The disease overwhelmed their compromised systems. Every organ in their bodies is failing.”
“Replacements?” Already suspecting the answer, Bei swore. He may not have trusted the biologics, but he hadn’t wanted them dead.
“I don’t have any on the shuttles, and they don’t have the time I’d need to grow new ones.” Doc banged his fists on his temples. “I should have thought of this. After the experiments the Founders performed on them…”
Nell rubbed her hands together. “Maybe I can get my fermite buddies to help out.”
Doc’s attention skipped to Bei.
A refusal perched on Bei’s tongue. Nell had already done enough, but his wife would not see it that way. As a bonus, it might keep her out of trouble until he returned. “Let her try.”
She bounced on the balls of her feet. On each rise, she kissed his neck, his jaw, his cheek. “Thank you.”
He held her still and kissed her properly—full engagement. Before he had to switch on his internal fans, he set her away from him. “Don’t over do it.”
“I won’t. Scout’s honor.” She licked her lips.
Bei leaned in for another kiss. His internal com buzzed.
Admiral, Ensign Richmond’s voice swirled inside his skull. I have an incoming message from the NSA transport ship America.
Patch it through. Bei released his wife. “Don’t over do it.”
“I won’t.” She hummed. Fermites orbited her hands.
Doc backed into the sickroom. “I’ll monitor her.”
See that you do. Bei jogged down the hall toward the dining room. A security prompt flared in his skull. Why would a transport vessel send a top clearance message? His defensive armor activated then switched off. The threat could be anywhere.
This is Captain Amazon of the NSA ship America to Admiral York and the NSA Command Center. Captain Amazon’s voice quivered and the com picked up on her hard swallow. Admiral, we are picking up coded messages between all registered sentients. They are sending intercept vessels to Surlat. Their orders are to prevent anyone from leaving the planet. Ultimate force is authorized. I repeat, ultimate force is authorized.
Bei climbed the stairs three at a time. Damn, the entire universe was about to screw up his mission. ETA, Captain?
Six hours. She drew a ragged breath. Engines are hot.
At that rate, he’d bet the repurposed space pleasure cruiser was frying circuits in the Syn-Ens controlling her. And the hostile’s ETA?
Six hours, fifty-five minutes, twelve seconds. Dead space filled the com for a second. I’ve two Orion-class vessels
leading the calvary. Even with maximum Helium-3 burn, their ETA is over eight hours.
Understood. Admiral York out. Forwarding the message to his men, he pushed his upgrades to their limits on the long sprint to the exit. His internal clock counted down. The Neo-Sentient Alliance couldn’t afford to take on the Founders and the rest of the universe, too.
Chapter 24
Sweat snaked down Nell’s cheek. Leaning over the prostrate form of Erin, Nell repeated her umpteenth refrain of the Gilligan’s Island theme song. Fermites swarmed around her hands, sprinkling the air like mad pixies. None of the little buggers approached Erin.
The woman groaned and clutched her stomach. Yellow skin moulded the hollows of her cheeks. Blood surrounded her eyes in a raccoon mask. Air rattled inside her collapsing lungs. The room reeked of spilled blood, rot, and death.
Nell sank onto the chair Doc had provided. The curved metal supported her backside, but her spirits drooped. Why weren’t the fermites working? What was she doing wrong? The song lyrics twisted in her mind and she cradled her head. God, she’d been kicked off the island.
And now people would die.
A presence filled the doorway.
Hope fluttered in her throat and she glanced up. “Rayem?”
Doc clenched two syringes in his fist. “Any change?”
Nell peeked at the fermite-repaired medical analyzers bracketing her boots. Red lines, numbers, and blips crossed both screens. “No. No change.”
He slipped inside the small room. Two steps took him to the foot of Karl’s bed. “Why don’t I give them a little morphine for the pain? Maybe they need to be relaxed for the atomic pests to do their magic.”
“They’re not the only ones.” Rubbing the hard knots on her shoulders, she pushed from her seat. Her knees ached and feeling returned to her bottom in a flood of stinging tingles.
Doc fed the painkiller into the inlet of Karl’s IV then frowned at the still liquid. “I think his vein has collapsed.”
Nell blew the bangs out of her eyes. That made the fourth one since she’d started a half hour ago. “Any word on Bei?”
“He’s approaching the first lab entrance now.” Removing the needle from the back of Karl’s hand, Doc relocated it between the sick man’s toes. He checked the drip bag then nodded.
“And the America?”
Doc checked Erin’s feed. “Her ETA has decreased by forty minutes.” Doc chucked the used syringes into a biohazard bag tied to the head of Erin’s bed.
Ten extra minutes to convince Davena and her people to give up the only home they’d ever know. Ten extra minutes to know, the villagers wouldn’t change their mind. Karl and Erin would have died for nothing. Nell blew on her fingers. “Okay, let me try again.”
Shaking his head, Doc cupped her elbow. “No, you’re exhausting yourself over a lost cause.”
She tugged on her arm. She couldn’t let them die. What would Bei think if she did? “I need to try.”
“You did try.” Furrows plowed Doc’s brow. “I tried. They were damaged when we rescued them. They died six times while I was chopping off their limbs, scooping out their eyes, and replacing the worst of their organs. I spent a month at their side, working twenty-two hours a day to save them, to keep them alive.”
“But I—”
“I know, Nell Stafford. I understand the need to keep fighting, to try just one more thing.” Doc’s hands swung at his side. “But in the end, the chariot collects us all. For them, death might be a mercy.”
Her vision shimmered. She wanted to argue the point, but her vocal cords remained still. Many had welcomed death when the Plague stalked the Earth. And she hadn’t blamed them.
“Thank you for agreeing with me.” He checked their readouts before tucking the edges of the blanket around a shivering Karl’s shoulders.
Nell wiped the sting of tears from her nose. “How do you know I agree with you?”
“Because you didn’t sic your fermites on me.” Doc shifted the chair closer to the wall and sat down. “When your atomic pests are up in arms, only Bei’s allowed to touch you.”
“Have you told my husband the good news?” Nell pushed another stool between the two twin-sized beds.
“Nah, I think he’s looking forward to Elvis flying across the room when the Amarook snuggles up to you.”
She knew her husband wanted a little payback for Elvis sleeping on Bei’s side of the bed and drooling on his pillow.
Erin’s eyes opened. She thrashed about and clawed the air, her fingers bulged with excess fluids as her kidneys began to shut down. “Seventy-five. Seventy-five.”
Nell held her hand. “It’s alright. You’re safe.”
Shaking her head, Erin left bits of her hair on her pillow. “No. No.”
“Shh. No one will hurt you anymore.” Nell stroked the swollen arm.
Doc checked her life signs. “She must be remembering her time in the lab. The Founders gave them numbers, not names. She said if they survived the experiments, they received a new number and a new drug trial. She had over a hundred numbers. None of them were ever the same and some contained four digits.”
Nell tightened her grip. “God.”
“I’m sorry, Seventy-five. So sorry.” Erin sank into the mattress. Sweat roped her remaining locks.
“Who’s Seventy-five?”
“Karl.” Doc set his hand on the man’s chest. “They were fraternal twins, but the Founders tried to inbreed them since they survived so many clinical trials.”
Her ears buzzed. The Founders were monsters. Absolute monsters. “Tell me they didn’t succeed.”
He studied his palms. “Neither ever said, but I know she’s been pregnant eighteen times.”
“Good God.”
Fabric swished in the hallway. Davena shuffled into the doorway. “May I help?”
Nell clamped her lips shut, caging the yes behind her clenched teeth.
Doc rolled his eyes at her, but the pinched skin around his mouth loosened when he gazed at Davena. “Yes, please.”
The oracle’s nose wrinkled. Her lips moved but no words came out. Fermites spun around her hands. She glanced from Karl to Erin before setting her hands on the ill woman’s chest. “Is this the Plague?”
“No, the Plague is worse.” Propping her elbows on her knees, Nell leaned forward.
The fermites rained through Erin, made a U-turn, and rejoined the rings surrounding Davena’s caramel colored hands. She frowned. “Worse?”
Doc’s nostrils flared and he hopped off his stool. “Yes, this is what the Founders do to their lab rats. This is what will happen to you if you keep refusing to leave with us.”
Nell twisted on her seat. Maybe she should let the two of them hash this out in private.
“I cannot leave my people.” The oracle drew in a deep breath. The glitter left her petal pink robes and joined the swarm. Fermites misted Erin’s abdomen. They sunk inside her, but none of them stayed. “The Meek wills that they both shall perish.”
Snorting, Doc crowded Davena. “Like the Meek wills that you stay and die just like them?”
The oracle tilted her head and looked up. “The others say that more ETs are coming to prevent anyone from visiting our planet. We shall be safe. The Meek have intervened on our behalf.”
Doc gripped her shoulders and hauled her flush against his chest. He dipped his head until their noses nearly touched. “The others can send a thousand ships. Nothing will stop the Founders from returning, from killing you.”
Nell studied her hands. She really should leave. Really. She peeked at the two of them, so close they almost kissed.
Davena’s chest heaved. Her eyelids fluttered. “You could keep me safe. You could stay.”
Doc squeezed his eyes closed and threw back his head. Tendons corded his neck. He pried his hands off her, one finger at a time. “I have others to save. Ones who want to live.”
Ooh, that’s harsh. Nell hugged her legs close as he stormed past.
Davena
sunk to the floor. Her robes folded around her waist like a flower bud. “He hates me.”
“Just the opposite.” Sliding off the stool, Nell sat next to the oracle. Cold pressed against her bottom. “Would you stand by and not use your fermites to help him, while he chose to die?”
Her shoulders sagged inside her robes. “I would respect his wishes.”
“But would you like it?” Nell set her hand on Davena’s knee. Blue light danced up her arm.
“No.”
“Doc doesn’t like it either, but he’s trying to respect your wishes.” Bei would be irritated at her interfering, but he wasn’t here. Besides, if it helped the two star-crossed lovers, then it would be worth it. “Of course, he’s not going to give up trying to change your mind until the very last minute.”
Davena held Nell’s hand. “I don’t want to refuse him. If I wasn’t the oracle, I would go with him.”
“I understand.” Nell uttered the words, but deep down, how could she believe them? She would move hell in a hand-basket to be with Bei. Perhaps Doc and Davena’s love wasn’t as strong.
Karl flopped onto his side and vomited blood.
The oracle rose to her knees. Her lips moved and fermites gathered around her.
Right, time to try again. Nell sang her theme song inside her head. Her swarm looked anemic compared to Davena’s. Maybe she should switch tactics. “Will you teach me your song?”
Davena froze. “My song?”
“Yes, the one you use to call the fermites, er, Meek.”
The oracle pursed her lips. “Who told you I sang?”
The skin between Nell’s shoulder blades itched. Had she been lied to? “Rayem.”
“Even as an instrument of the Meek, my sire did not lose his sense of humor.”
Nell blinked. “Rayem is your father.”
“Was.” Davena tilted her head. Black curls brushed her shoulders. “He died just as your shuttle passed overhead and the Meek claimed him.”
Rocking back on her heels, Nell connected stray thoughts. Davena had known there would be a test because of the pillar and its results. She’d known about her zombie father and the Meek’s hatred of violence. Yet, she had said nothing to warn anyone, not even Doc.
Syn-En: Plague World: The Founders War Begins Page 20
