Nova

by Lora E. Rasmussen

  In late afternoon, they stopped in a small clearing for a welcome rest and to take a full swallow of hydro–fluid, essentially the equivalent in hydration value to a generous glass of water. Consuming the sweet fluid, K’llan fought a stab of dizziness and nausea and for a moment, struggled to breathe before the sensation slipped away.

  Picking up on her broadcasted feeling of physical distress, Serros turned her head from her survey of the path. “K’llan, what’s wrong?”

  “I believe… I may have hit my head harder than I thought and so the exertion is getting to me.”

  “I see.” She responded, and Z’arr did not have to struggle to interpret the distinct note of displeasure in the Captain’s voice at K’llan not having volunteered the information earlier. Saying nothing of the sentiment, Serros lifted her arm and began a full bio–metric scan with her CPA. Minutes later, she reported “You have a mild concussion and extensively bruised ribs. Both would account for the nausea, especially in tandem.” Gesturing to the immediate surrounding area, the Captain remarked “I think here is as good a place as any for making camp for the night.”

  Concerned with their lack of progress, Z’arr shook her head. “I do not think that is necessary, Captain. We should at least spend our allotment of capability and travel for an hour at Arca speed.”

  “No, it’s more important that neither one of us pushes ourselves to injury. There’s no local med–center that we can call upon, after all.” Seeing that she was about to protest a second time, the Human added, “Head wounds are tricky, Lieutenant, and you’re not a PV. I think we need to do something about it before we move on.”

  “You mean use your Synergy Enhancement?” Z’arr asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Yep.”

  “But Avara… our food supplies are limited, and such an expenditure of energy will only increase your hunger; it will speed up the rate of deprivation.”

  “I see the concern, however, if wait for natural healing, the result will be the same except we’ll have covered a significantly reduced amount of distance in the meantime.”

  Reluctantly, the Vosaia nodded, unable to refute Serros’s logic.

  “Let’s set up camp first, and then proceed.”

  The two made short work of preparing the site: clearing the brush from the area to discourage insect and reptile visitation, setting up a latrine three–dozen paces away, and positioning the auto–assemble tent and miniature generator. Serros also took care to place alert nodes around the immediate area of the camp, each wirelessly connected to the generator and programmed to belt an alarm if any life–forms over fifteen pounds in size entered the perimeter.

  When their efforts were complete, Serros had K’llan sit cross–legged on the ground and the Captain knelt down before her on one knee. “I will warn you, it is not an entirely pleasant sensation.” Avara informed her, gaze almost uncomfortably direct yet warm as always. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes.”

  With a nod, the Human Shield placed a palm on each side of K’llan’s neck and then closed her eyes. For several seconds, nothing happened. K’llan sat watching Serros’s becalmed face and dark–crowned head as she listened to the sounds of Dantis’s surrounding wildlife either settling in or beginning to move about with the approach of dusk.

  Then gradually, K’llan became aware of a … vibration, undulating from the Human to herself, energy rippling from Serros’s palms to Z’arr’s neck, then flowing throughout her entire frame. Minutes seemed to pass, then the impression increased in agitation and shifted from vibration to a prickling sensation, almost like a thousand slender needles were being carefully inserted one after the other into flesh and bone.

  With a gasp of pain, Z’arr’s own hands flew up to grasp Serros’s wrists, but the Human did not release her hold. K’llan could feel Avara’s determination and empathy swelling within her nya and flowing from her consciousness to meticulously inspect Z’arr for any sense of unwellness or injury. Soon the stabbing prickles faded away entirely to be replaced only by gentle yet sustaining heat.

  In that warmth, the Vosaia suddenly felt as if a doorway between their minds had been cracked open and she felt her consciousness moving towards the beckoning light. Essential components of the Human’s soul and will spun about and fused with K’llan’s nya, as she further opened that portal and peered within. Strength, purity of purpose, concern for K’llan’s injuries, fear for the wellbeing and status of Marcus, Ca’rrakk, Dane, and Belgrum as well as for the entire crew of the Excalibur. Lingering horror over what they had witnessed onboard the TS Ardent… All this and more swirled within the confines of Avara’s self and were recognizable to K’llan in the form of a scattershot of images, pictures, and feelings.

  Then, like a child ripped from her mother’s grasp, Z’arr felt the doorway simultaneously begin to close and recede. The enveloping swell of Avara’s nya slipped away like breakers over a sand–crested beach.

  Taking stock, the material world gradually came into focus once more, grounding her. Though physically drained, K’llan felt entirely whole, without the slightest trace of lingering pain or dizziness. Yet emotionally, she felt a stabbing ache of absence at the loss of their amplified connection.

  “Wow. That was unexpected.”

  K’llan lifted her heavy lids to meet the somewhat wide–eyed gaze of Captain Serros, the blue of her eyes so bright that Z’arr had blink to see beyond the fading kobalt light to clearly make out the Human’s features.

  “Yes…” K’llan found that she was not sure how to respond. In her years as a SFT Agent, she had undergone healing from four separate people with a Synergy Enhancement, but those experiences were nothing like what had just occurred. In tone and flavor, the exchange of thoughts and feelings was much more like the experience of union between closely bonded Vosaia.

  “Felt like I was actively trying to get a read from you,” Avara mused, “But I wasn’t. And the images and emotions were so clear… I’ve never experienced that before.” Then, almost with a trace of awkwardness, Serros realized her hands still rested on K’llan’s neck and she quickly pulled away, concerned that the contact was unwanted.

  Z’arr could feel the lingering warmth of Serros’s touch begin to fade in the now falling night. “No, I have not either.” She eventually responded, almost irresolute in regards to what she could, or should, say. Again she was struck by the maddening query of how much the Human woman understood about the connection that had developed between them. Or what her response would be if she did.

  K’llan was saved from the questioning look Avara was shooting her as a moment later, the Captain sat back onto the ground, overcome by weariness.

  “Are you well?” Z’arr asked, a nail of concern puncturing her thoughts.

  “Yeah. I think our day’s exertions are now getting to me.” She responded, tiredly rubbing her forehead.

  “I can only imagine. Time for our rations, I think.”

  It took only minutes for the two to switch their portable generator on to stave off the growing cold and then to retrieve their rations; a rather unappetizing two inch square of tan nutrient matter for Avara, and a three inch syringe–vial of Vitani for K’llan.

  K’llan watched Avara watching her as the Vosaia inserted the short needle into the vein of her left inner forearm, and then dispense one–half a dose of the life–giving serum. As always and especially when around non–Vosaia, the scrutiny of another viewing her daily injection of sustenance left her feeling vaguely disquieted, like a stranger observing her in an intimate act.

  “Sorry; I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” Avara spoke into the silence, eyes reflecting the muted light of the generator.

  Of course she’d picked up on what K’llan was feeling. “It is all right. I am just not used to administering my injections while in the company of others.”

  “You worry about being judged?”

  Suppressing an internal sigh at the Human’s ongoing habit of being both ridicul
ously insightful and occasionally obtuse, K’llan nodded in response. “The feeling is not uncommon; it is the association between Vosaia history and Feeding.”

  “Make’s sense.” Serros remarked thoughtfully, then out of courtesy, K’llan was certain, said no more.

  “You are still hungry?” K’llan asked, quite aware that Avara had ingested only one–third a standard, normal ration allotment for a Human in an attempt to stretch out their supplies.

  “Suppose you’d call me a liar if I said I wasn’t.” Avara answered with a faint, softly crooked grin.

  K’llan offered a smile of her own. “Not at all. I would and will simply say, I think you should eat a full day’s food allotment given our activities and the healing you just administered.”

  “I’m not sure that’s wise, K’llan. We have a long journey before us.”

  “Yes, we do, and no matter what else occurs, at some point very soon, we are going to have to obtain provisions. Yet just as you pointed out to me earlier, we need to guard our health to make the journey at all. Starvation would most decidedly prove to be a barrier.”

  After a minute’s regard, Captain Serros shrugged in acquiescence. “Fine, if you’re going to use my own logic against me, the least I can do is have the good grace to accept.”

  Laughing, K’llan responded, “Well, I’m pleased you do not intend to be difficult over the matter.”

  “Ha–ha. I think you’ve been spending too much time with Marcus.” The Shield quipped, taking a second bite of the remaining portion of the first of her two ration–cubes.

  “He is becoming a good friend.” K’llan agreed easily.

  “Mm.” Was Avara’s only response as she finished the rest of the large bite and took another swig from her canteen. “I hope he and the others are okay. They may have made planet–side as well, though with any luck, Excalibur picked them up instead.”

  K’llan collected and processed the shafts of emotion that accompanied the Captain’s words with ease. “I am sure he is well, and Ca’rrakk, Belgrum, Dane, and the crew of Excalibur.” The Vosaia deliberately projected a feeling of certainty and comfort with her words.

  Avara smiled in gratitude. “Yes, no doubt.”

  Standing with a slow stretch, Captain Serros said “I think we should try and get some sleep. It has been an eventful two days, to say the least.”

  “For certain.”

  Saying their goodnights, the two zipped themselves up in their sleeping rolls inside the small tent, and in fairly short order, K’llan was able to detect that the Human Captain had already fallen into a deep, exhausted slumber as her pattern of inhalation and exhalation metered out into a strong, steady rhythm.

  Considering the day’s events and still buzzing slightly from the Synergy induced healing, K’llan found sleep a harder partner to court. Worries and questions circled each other in her mind, everything from the status of those left behind to face the dangers of Black Space and Karukai destination–point, to the ongoing, mysterious and laden reality of the bond that even now, K’llan could feel thrumming with low insistence between herself and Avara. Most pressing, however, were the very real concerns regarding the journey that lay ahead of the two, and especially the troubling need for sustenance.

  Finally, K’llan let the assurance she’d felt silently stream from Avara at the initiation of their journey, wash over her along with the soft sounds of her companion’s breathing. Despite her nagging concerns, she felt the gentle lethargy of sleep caress and finally claim her.

  *

  The next four days went much like the first except that having taken the time and made the effort to recuperate, their pace, which they kept at a sustaining low–jog for much of the day, was decidedly quickened. The monotony of their travels was broken up by a steady stream of conversation, creating a new suite of insights into the Human Captain’s character and experiences just as, K’llan knew, was true in reverse. When not speaking, the silence that stretched between them was companionable rather than disquieting or a sign of disinterest. The comfort K’llan felt in Avara’s presence made the pressing journey bearable.

  The geographic features remained much the same during their trek, though at the midpoint of the third day, they came across a low–trilling stream crisscrossing and then joining with the series of game trails they had been following. It was a reality that aided their navigation efforts. Furthermore, the water made for welcome respite in the form of providing a means for the two to clean both themselves and their equipment. However, it also meant an increase in the number of animals they came across. Not surprising, since the waterway provided a significant supply of vital sustenance not only in the form of water but also as a source of prey stopping at the drink.

  The point became manifest when, by the end of the fifth day, the two began to hear persistent yipping noises punctuated by high–pitched howls. It was not long before K’llan and Avara caught sight of movement rippling through the tall grass, like sharks knifing through the spray before striking.

  “What do you think?” K’llan asked when the two came to an alert induced halt at the right bank of the stream.

  Eyes and ears straining and her head moving slowly back and forth as she scanned the sea of surrounding grassland, Serros answered “I think we may be in trouble.”

  “Not entirely helpful, Avara.” K’llan responded drily.

  Whatever the Shield’s answer was about to be was lost as K’llan caught sight of a blurring missile of wheat–yellow and ash flying out of a clump of grassy verge to dart straight at the Human’s unprotected back.

  “Avara!” Z’arr found that she was screaming warning and drawing her pistol before she was even aware that thought had fired to body.

  The Human woman had also caught the danger and in response, crouched low to the ground and executed a swift roll right before eight appendages armed with rending ivory claws, ripped at her backside and a fang–filled, gaping elongated jaw snapped at where the base of her neck had been poised a breath before.

  Rising gracefully to her feet and with a response time so quick as to be automatic in nature, Avara racked off two shots directly into the furred, sloping forehead of the canine predator just as it sprang through the window of space between them. Z’arr fancied she could actually feel the quaking thud as the easily two–hundred or more pound animal dropped to the ground. The dripping cerise of blood was a slashing contrast to its ash–hued fur.

  Relief short–lived, Captain Serros shifted her pose and unerringly shot off another round, this time into a second like–formed beast at her two o’ clock, and then a third at Z’arr’s five, behind and to the side of the Vosaia.

  It was a favor that K’llan returned a heart–stopping second later, as yet another of the four–footed creatures sprang at Avara. Regrettably, their good fortune was not to last as yet again slavering jaws made for both people and each was occupied with their own primal struggle for life in the face of death.

  K’llan’s pistol–fire ripped into the falling light of day as three shots snicked into another beast’s flank. Yet even as the beast tumbled to the ground in a futile battle to continue its own existence, one of the massive canine’s two upper–lateral appendages, reminiscent of underdeveloped and stubby, paw–tipped arms, lashed out and raked her left thigh. Immediately, burning pain evocative of chemical fire shot through her thigh to calf to hip.

  Clenching her teeth with all but shattering force to keep the searing pain at bay, K’llan frantically cast her gaze. She caught view of Avara just as she rammed the activated blade of her long–knife up through jaw and jugular of a final attacker, half–falling to the turf to avoid the animal’s dying weight pinning her to the ground.

  With a final heave, the Human freed both self and blade, picked up her fallen pistol, and then after ascertaining a lack of imminent threat, moved towards K’llan.

  For just a moment, Z’arr thought the resemblance between Avara and their now still mammalian hunters was remarkable. Capturin
g the murderous glint in the woman’s fire–flash eyes as she stalked through grass and mud towards K’llan, blood weeping from wounds at her upper shoulder and across her left collarbone, Avara Serros looked no less the predator than the slain beasts at her booted feet.

  Killer and savior, warrior and poet, she is my life and death both.

  The line from the old Vosaia Third Period poem raced and chased through K’llan’s mind as she tracked Serros’s approach, the verse strikingly appropriate.

  Stopping before K’llan, Serros grasped Z’arr’s arm in a quiet symbol of support. “The claws are poisoned; I’d wager some type of natural numbing toxin to make the capture of prey easier.” Avara’s melodic voice was tight as she quickly reviewed K’llan’s dripping thigh wound.

  “Yes.” K’llan confirmed, and she could hear the edge in her own voice as Serros quickly sprayed Salu–Salve on the wound, the liquid both a disinfectant and pain numbing agent. Without discussion, Z’arr kept her gaze locked for an attack.

  It took only seconds for the sweet relief of the medicine to wipe away the persistent pain of the injury. “Not you?” K’llan queried as Serros quickly returned the spray to its place in the first aid kit, storing the whole in K’llan’s pack.

  Shaking her head, cowlick brushing across her forehead, Serros answered “No, I’m fine. My PV already has it under control. Plus we may need the kit later. And,” she began, head cocked and catching sound of movement in the grassland beyond, “We need to leave… now.”

  “Right.” Z’arr answered, her own determination matching her companion’s.

  With what was proven to be well–founded caution, the two had made it a habit to wait until just before day’s end to Arca enhance their speed to a mile–eating rapidity. It was a practice that served them well now.

  At a nod indicating she should go first, Z’arr consciously called upon her DSA and launched forward along the game trail twining the stream like a starfighter pilot yanking her throttle backward to climb into the stars.