Endurance

by Richard Chizmar

  “Get out of here!” I yelled. “Secure the door!”

  The Chakacat saw the infants, dropped onto all fours, and went into its fake-ferocity act. That drew the three infants’ attention, and they moved away from the wall and toward my friend.

  “Alunthri, don’t hurt them—they’re just babies—” Quickly I inched back down the wall, spied my medical case, and made a run for it.

  The big cat yowled and hissed as one of the infants jumped at its face. Reever grabbed another before it could do the same. I retrieved a syrinpress and made a dive to clutch the third. The tiny claws swiped at my face, then sagged as the tranquilizer I injected it with took effect.

  Reever’s hands and wrist bled but held firm as I took care of the one he held. He had a small cut on his cheek, but otherwise had survived intact, so I went to aid Alunthri.

  The last of FurreVa’s brood had latched on to the Chakacat’s throat with its small jaws, and was now trying to bite through the thick silvery fur. Alunthri struggled to loosen the tiny reptile’s grip, then with claws sheathed, knocked it away. The infant landed on its chest and released a squeal of distress.

  “Damn it.” I knelt beside it, eased it over, and placed a palm on its heaving torso. “Signal the infirmary, Reever.”

  Alunthri crouched beside me and gazed at the little Hsktskt with a grave expression. “I am sorry, Cherijo. I tried not to harm it.”

  I pressed finger to my lips in warning, then swiftly examined the Chakacat. The small Hsktskt had done a good job, I saw, and put a temporary pressure dressing on the neck wound it had inflicted. Since Reever was at the console, I dipped my head down next to one flickering ear. “It wasn’t your fault, my friend. We’ll talk later.”

  Alunthri uttered a single hnk.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Fully Restored

  FurreVa’s daughter required cardiac surgery, which I performed immediately after placing her two siblings in reinforced incubator units and dealing with an extremely angry mother lizard.

  “Terran!” FurreVa left her berth and stomped toward me, sending my nurses scattering. She saw her young and activated her weapon. “You took my brood from my chambers.”

  “No, I found your brood in mine.” I put myself between her and the infants. “Put down the gun, we need to talk.”

  “They were in your chambers?” She scanned me from crown to ground. “Who placed them there? Why are you not injured?”

  “Yes, I have no idea, and pure luck.” I wasn’t going to tell her about Alunthri’s timely intervention. “Power down that rifle. I’ve got to get one of them into surgery.”

  She complied and went from outraged straight into classic maternal panic. “Surgery? On my female? Why?”

  I gave her an abbreviated diagnosis, including the fact that if I didn’t perform the surgery, it was unlikely that the little female would survive another rotation.

  “I will wait here until this surgery is completed.” FurreVa took a position beside the incubator units. “You will save her, Terran.”

  She didn’t have to say Or else. “Right.”

  Vlaav and I prepped the tiny Hsktskt, and moved her into surgery. My resident had identified the source of the cardiac distress, but was unfamiliar with the treatment.

  “Premature infants sometimes have PDA, a heart duct that remains open. I initially treated this female with indosyne in small doses to protect the kidneys,” I told him as I made the midchest incision and exposed the tiny heart. “Unfortunately in this case, it didn’t close the duct, so I have to try PDA ligation. Surgery is always the last-resort treatment in these cases.”

  The procedure was successful, and after reassuring FurreVa she had no further reason to shoot me, I turned the critical, but stable, infant over to the nurses for postop care. From there I went to check on Alunthri, who was occupying a berth in an isolation chamber.

  “Nice acting job,” I said as I scanned its throat.

  The Chakacat began to say something, then turned it into a patently false yowl as Wonlee appeared at my side.

  “Don’t worry, he’s a friend.” I turned to the Lieutenant. “Were you able to get in touch with Noarr yet?”

  “No.” The fierce scowl drooped. “I have other information I must relay to you.”

  “You can talk in front of Alunthri.”

  Won nodded. “There were several recent direct relay transmissions received by the Hsktskt that we’ve been able to access. You should know that the Terran doctor—Joseph Grey Veil—is enroute to attack Catopsa and to free the League captives.”

  “He transmitted this?” I asked. Wonlee nodded.

  “Why would he tell the Hsktskt they were coming to raid the slave depot?”

  Won shrugged. “He’s one of their collaborators. It’s said they have many among the League worlds.”

  “No.” I realized what my creator was doing, and it appalled me. “He’s trying to make a deal with TssVar—information in exchange for something he wants.”

  “What could be that valuable?”

  “It might sound conceited, but”—I finished dressing Alunthri’s wound—“he wants me.”

  “HalaVar won’t allow him to take you.”

  I thought about the consequences of a League attack. “One Terran in exchange for an entire slave-depot. He won’t have a choice.”

  The partition separating Alunthri from the rest of the inpatient ward was suddenly jerked aside. Reever stood there, holding his bloody wrist and looking highly peeved.

  “If you have a moment, Doctor?” He held up his wounded arm.

  “Sure. Excuse me, Lieutenant.”

  I cleaned and dressed the bite, which required no sutures. Reever questioned me about FurreVa’s injured infant, and I gave him a concise report on the cardiac surgery.

  “I have to stick around for a few hours and monitor the baby,” I told him. “Don’t wait up for me.”

  “I will not be in our chambers when you return.” He stood and flexed his arm. “Secure the door before you go to sleep.”

  “Aye-aye, Master.” I watched him go, then sagged back against the exam table with a sigh of relief. Won reappeared.

  “Did he hear what we said?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so.” I was tempted to tear out a handful of hair. “Get in touch with Noarr, Won. We need some help, now, before this situation gets out of hand.”

  I never went back to Reever’s quarters that night.

  A few hours after the Hsktskt infants’ attack, I saw the back of the infirmary wall move slightly. Without hesitation I slipped behind a partition and into the hidden tunnel.

  A tall, dark-cloaked figure pushed the crystal hatch closed behind me.

  I didn’t wait to say, “Hello” and “How are you?” “Where have you been? Do you know how long I’ve been trying to get in touch with you? Have you ever thought about checking in once in a blue moon?”

  The hooded head turned toward me. “There are no moons around Catopsa.”

  “Hmph.” I tried to sound disagreeable, but I was too relieved and happy to see him. “I’ve got problems, Noarr.”

  “You are not the only one, woman.” He took my arm and started walking me away from the infirmary. “Come. We will talk along the way.”

  “Along the way to where?”

  “I have something I want you to see.”

  As we made our way through the tunnel labyrinth, I filled him in on what I’d learned since FurreVa had released me. He didn’t seem surprised to hear about the League’s plans, or my creator’s latest treachery.

  “This Terran, does he have that much influence with the Allied League?”

  “He does if he’s promised to give them the secrets of an indestructible life-form.” That made him stop and stare. “Oh, I don’t know if it’s true. All I know is, I’m not aging anymore. Also, my immune system seems to get stronger and more aggressive every time I’m wounded. Take this stupid PIC they keep burning into me”—I jerked up the sleev
e of my tunic to show him the unmarked skin—”the marks don’t last more than a few hours lately.”

  He gently rolled down my sleeve and grasped my forearm with his flipper. “That would be enough to convince the League to attack the Hsktskt Faction.”

  “Yeah, promise them immortality and they’ll jump through plenty of hoops to save one genetic freak.”

  Now he touched my face. “You are not a freak, Cherijo.”

  I could have stood like that for several years. “Okay. An immortal genetic construct. Now where are we going?”

  “I will show you.”

  He steered me through to the last passage. A pair of odd-looking garments and helmets sat by the final access panel. Some kind of envirosuit, I decided, and climbed into the one he handed me. He switched on an oxygen pack and donned the other suit, then opened the panel.

  The tunnel led directly onto Catopsa’s surface.

  Despite the suit’s thermal regulators, cold instantly seeped through my skin. I shivered as I walked through the opening onto the irregular surface of the asteroid, then glanced at my companion.

  “Noarr, it’s freezing out here!”

  “We are not far from the field.” The comunit inside the helmet made his voice sound slightly distorted as he raised one glove and pointed to a clearing beyond a range of free-standing crystal growths, several hundred yards beyond us. “There it is.”

  It was slow going. The asteroid had less than one-sixth the gravity I was used to, and the effect made every step into an awkward sort of bounce. By the time we passed through the rows of transparent towers, I felt more than a little disoriented and slightly nauseated by all the jolting.

  Then I saw what Noarr had brought me to look at, and forgot to breathe. “How …?”

  “I don’t know.” He led me out to the clearing, and to the first of the growths emerging from a fissure in the asteroid’s surface.

  It wasn’t transparent, or symmetrical like the crystal towers occupied by the Hsktskt. Enormous, solid black spirals jutted in beautiful, erratic eruptions that flowered far above our heads. The smallest was at least fifty meters tall and had a variated diameter ranging from twenty meters to a half centimeter. Some of the formations reminded me of clouds; others resembled intricate veils of lace. It didn’t glitter like the crystal, either. It glowed with a faint oily sheen. I’d never seen anything so beautiful or so strange in my life.

  “Have you scanned it?”

  “Yes.” He reached out and placed one flipper on the surface of the black formation. A more intense glow surrounded his glove. “It absorbs heat, produces random vibrations, and is incredibly dense. So much so that I cannot take a sample of it back to my ship for analysis.”

  “Okay.” An irresistible urge to touch it made me lift my glove and place it next to his. The icy atmospheric temperature leaking into my suit seemed to intensify. I snatched my hand away. “God, it almost feels like it’s—it’s—”

  “Drawing the warmth from your body?”

  I looked at him, and nodded slowly.

  “I think it does.” He dropped his flipper and turned to sweep one arm around the entire clearing. “Whatever it is, it is ancient. Readings indicate most of these growths are more than a billion years old.”

  “Noarr. Why did you bring me here?”

  “I found more of these. Inside the compound. They’ve started appearing in some of the outer tunnels.”

  I had no idea of what to say. It was possible the black growths were some kind of seismically generated magma, which had frozen upon emerging onto the surface. But logic dictated that the oldest would have crumbled millions of yeas ago. There wasn’t even regolithic dust on any of them.

  And no magma I’d ever heard of absorbed heat from a living being.

  We returned to the compound, removed our suits, and went to the tunnel where Noarr had discovered the first of the new growths. They were smaller, but just as bizarre and stark and mysterious as the ones on the surface.

  I should have thought they were beautiful, but all I could summon up was a steady sense of aversion.

  “The Lok-Teel seem to dislike them,” I said as I watched one of the busy fungi give the growth a wide berth, and went down to give the little house cleaner a fond caress. “You’re worried they’ll collapse the tunnel network.”

  “Yes.” Noarr didn’t touch the Lok-Teel, but paced around the growth. “At the rate they’re appearing, the tunnels will be destroyed or rendered impassible in a few weeks.”

  That meant no more slaves would escape Catopsa. “I’ll see if I can figure out what’s causing it. Now I have to get back, or I will be missed.”

  “Woman.” His cloak swirled around me as he put an arm around my waist. “When I leave Catopsa, you are coming with me.”

  My jaw nearly hit my chest. “What?”

  “You can no longer remain here. The Hsktskt will either kill you, or turn you over to the League.”

  “I can’t just fly off and pretend none of these people exist,” I said, trying to step out of the embrace.

  “And me? You have no attachment to me?”

  That was the whole problem. Somehow I’d managed to transfer all those disastrous emotions I’d had for Reever to this slave-runner, who I knew next to nothing about.

  “Don’t be an ass,” I said, not sure if I meant him, or me.

  Noarr pressed his mouth against my throat. “You’re coming with me.”

  He had a very talented tongue. “No, I’m not.”

  The fabric of my tunic bunched as he ran one rough fin up from my waist to the nape of my neck. I felt the edge of his teeth, the strength of his grip. When he bit me, it didn’t hurt. Somehow I understood the inexplicable need. Marking me as his, I thought. His woman. Kao had done the same.

  Kao, I realized with a start, would have liked Noarr. A lot.

  “Look. I’m flattered, but we hardly know each other,” I said. “Stop nibbling on me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because …” I couldn’t think of a single reason. I couldn’t think, period.

  Noarr stripped my tunic away, spanned my waist with his long fins, and lifted me up. His tongue caressed the stiff peaks of my nipples, the lines of my ribs. My breasts felt painfully full, and swelled even more as he rhythmically stroked them with his flippers.

  “Noarr.” I took in a deep breath as he pressed me against his full length. We fit together, without a single gap between us. “Much as I would like to …”—God, would I have liked to—”… this isn’t the time or place.”

  “Very well, Waenara,” he said, then replaced my tunic and let go of me.

  “What’s that mean?”

  He hesitated. “A term of affection.”

  “What’s the corresponding term for a guy?”

  “Osepeke.”

  “I’m taking a raincheck on this, okay? Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.” I smiled. “Osepeke.”

  Noarr led me back to the infirmary, where I made final rounds before leaving to get some sleep. True to his word, Reever was gone, which suited me fine. I was exhausted, worried about the threat to the tunnels, and ready to bang my head against the nearest hard surface. Surely nothing else could go wrong.

  Before I could drop onto the berth, however, Gael Kelly slid out from under it and gave me a cheerful grin.

  “Pull your socks up, dote. Haven’t seen you in donkey’s years. Howya?”

  “Gael.” Guilt over leaving him behind in the crying chambers rushed back over me. “Did SrrokVar release you?”

  “Won’s recycler crew smuggled me out of there a few days ago.” He glanced around and rubbed his flat abdomen. “I could use some scran, if you can spare it.”

  “Of course.” I rushed over to the prep unit and quickly prepared him a meal. He didn’t bother to sit, but devoured everything in short order.

  “Ah, that’s a gift. I’m knackered.” He rubbed a hand over his weary face. “Barreling about dodging the thicks has me flah’ed
out, dote.”

  I didn’t need a translation of that. “These are Over-Master HalaVar’s quarters. Not exactly the best spot in the compound to lay low.”

  “Eejit won’t be finding me.” Gael put down the servers. “I can have a kip in the back of one of the storage units….” He glanced at the berth. “Unless I’d be intruding on you and your old man.”

  “Please.” I snorted. “The only thing you’ll be listening to is the sound of me and the old man snoring.”

  A signal came in over the console, and I motioned Gael to hide. He dropped and rolled back under the berth. Once he was out of sight, I answered the signal.

  “Doctor.” It was TssVar.

  “Change your mind about vaccinating the prisoners?”

  “I require your presence in the guard barracks.” He motioned to someone, and I thought I saw Reever walking past one edge of the screen. “You will accompany me to the arena games.”

  “Can I refuse?”

  He didn’t bother to say no. “A centuron will escort you.”

  I terminated the signal. “Stay out of sight, Gael. I’ve got to go watch helpless prisoners beat each other to death.”

  The Terran’s muffled voice drifted out from under the berth. “Don’t be letting them get you up to ninety, dote.”

  “Up to ninety?”

  “Ready to explode.”

  “Too late.” I was way past ninety already, and speeding out of control.

  OverLord TssVar and I were given deferential seating in the makeshift arena’s gallery, and I sat beside him in absolute, stony silence. GothVar, I noticed, was busy handpicking which of the assembled slaves would fight each other, and seemed to be having a good time.

  Reever was nowhere in sight.

  “The first match should be of great interest.” TssVar sat back as someone led a huge figure out from another chamber.

  Devrak.

  Someone pushed a mild-looking humanoid female from the group of slaves GothVar was currently terrorizing. She wouldn’t last long against the Trytinorn, I thought, and leaned forward, my hands gripping the chair. “OverLord, does anyone even care to make these challenges equitable. Look at her, she’s too little. That jumbo bully will flatten her in about two seconds.”