Ria's Visions (Hearts of ICARUS Book 6)

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Ria's Visions (Hearts of ICARUS Book 6) Page 39

by Laura Jo Phillips


  “What’s the matter?”

  “I apologize if I said something inappropriate.”

  “You didn’t,” Ria said. “It just surprised me and I thought it was funny.”

  “All right,” Star said, taking her at her word.

  “To answer your question, no, I don’t have to wait. I just don’t know if they want that.”

  “They do,” Star said calmly.

  “How do you know?”

  “I can smell them, of course. They honor you by withholding their urges until you are ready, but since you’ve been as ready as they are for several days, I’ve wondered why you held back.”

  “My body has been ready, that’s true,” Ria said. “But my mind wasn’t.”

  “Oh.” Star said, chewing thoughtfully. “That makes sense. I think.”

  “I have another problem, too.”

  “What is that?”

  “We’re pack, Star. If I sleep in the same room with them, then I’ll feel like I’m ignoring you and Belle and Lonato.”

  Star looked up from her breakfast. “Ria, I admit that I would be hurt and upset if you forgot about us, but I know you’d never do that so it’s not a concern for me. And being pack doesn’t mean you have to sleep in the same room with us. Even when I was with my Brun pack we didn’t all sleep in the same room, or cave, or den, whichever it was at the time.”

  “You didn’t?”

  “No,” Star said. “We all like to have a bit of privacy, Ria. Especially if we’re mated. It wouldn’t be right for you to sacrifice your mates just to sleep in the same room with us, and it’s certainly not necessary for you to do so.”

  Ria smiled. “Thanks, Star. I was worried about that. You three mean so much to me, and I couldn’t bear to hurt your feelings even a little bit. You’re the first real friend I’ve ever had.”

  “I am?” Star asked in surprise.

  “Yes, you are.”

  “I do not understand. You are nice, and generous, and thoughtful. You are a good friend, Ria.”

  “Thanks Star. You’re a good friend, too. I trust you, and I’m more relaxed with you than I’ve ever been with anyone before. I definitely talk more. In fact, I had no idea I talked so much because I’ve never had a friend to talk with.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s hard to be friends with people when you know every time they lie to you, or pretend to feel things they don’t and oh my goodness I just realized something!”

  Star’s head came up again. “What?”

  “See that closet?”

  “Yes,” Star asked, her ears folding down in confusion.

  “Do you know what’s on the other side of it?”

  “No. Should I?”

  “The master suite is on the other side,” Ria said, grinning. “They thought this out.”

  “I know I say this a lot, Ria, but I do not understand.”

  “The master suite is always reserved for a male-set and their berezi or Arima. No one else can use it. Not ever. The Katres chose this room for us because it shares a wall with the master suite. I bet they have plans to put a door there so that we can go back and forth without having to go into the corridor.”

  “I’d like that very much, Ria,” Star said, her tail thumping in the floor.

  “Me too,” Ria said.

  “Good. All you have to do now is tell them you are ready.”

  “Yeah,” Ria said. “Somehow, I think that’s going to be the hard part.”

  After breakfast Ria went to take a shower while Star watched a vid on Jasani ranching techniques. When she came out of the bathroom she felt much more awake.

  “Would you like to go for a walk, Star?”

  “Yes, I think that I would,” Star said. “The thought of doing nothing all day is nicer than actually doing nothing all day.”

  Ria grinned. “You’re starting to sound like me, Star.”

  “I consider that a compliment,” Star said, turning off the vid with the extra-large remote and stylus engineering had built for her. It had taken her a few days to get the hang of holding the stylus in her mouth to press buttons, but now she had it down to where she barely had to look at.

  Ria followed her over to the bed in the corner where the cubs were sleeping. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Nothing big,” Ria said as she picked Lonato up and settled him in the soft nest of blankets in the wagon. “Maybe just a stroll to the observation deck. What do you think?”

  “I think that sounds just right,” Star agreed. Ria went back for Belle and put her in the wagon with her brother. Both cubs were so used to it by now that they didn’t even wake up.

  They left their room and walked up the corridor to the elevator with Ria pulling the wagon. It took just a couple of minutes to reach the observation deck. Ria couldn’t see through the viewport herself, but she knew how much Star enjoyed looking out into space. Ria pulled the wagon close to the viewport and sat down, then Star laid down beside her.

  “I appreciate you coming here with me so often, Ria,” Star said as she gazed out at the stars. “I know you can’t see anything and that you do it only for me.”

  “That’s not true,” Ria argued. “I do it because it makes me happy to feel how much you enjoy it.” Ria frowned. “Star, do you see something out there that’s round and red?”

  “No, I don’t,” Star said after looking carefully. “Is it big?”

  “It looks about this big,” Ria said, holding her hands two feet apart. Then she pointed. “It’s right over there.”

  Star searched again. “No, Ria, I don’t see anything.”

  “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” Ria said. “I see so many weird things that I don’t understand.” They sat for a while in silence, Ria watching the round red thing vanish in the distance, still wondering what it was.

  Suddenly white dots filled the dark purple of the viewport. She blinked a few times, then rubbed her eyes, but the dots remained. She squinted, then rubbed her eyes again.

  “Ria, is something wrong with your eyes?”

  “I’m not sure,” she said, turning to look at Star. The white dots vanished and she saw the Brun’s heat signature as usual. She turned to look at the rest of the room and saw it in cool blues with yellow areas of warmth on the interior walls.

  “I guess I must be tired.” She turned toward the viewport once again, frowning when she saw the white dots again.

  “We should go back to our room now,” Star said worriedly.

  “Good idea,” Ria agreed. They got up and Star checked on the cubs while Ria picked up the handle. Then they left the observation deck and turned up the corridor. “What are you thinking so hard about, Star? I feel your worry.”

  “I’m thinking that I have no way to summon help if we need it,” Star replied. “And I’m worried about you.”

  Ria started to tell Star that she was fine, but stopped herself. Star was her friend, she trusted her, and besides, the Brun could feel her emotions. She’d know she was lying and she’d made up her mind to never lie to Star, or the Katres.

  “I’m not sure, but I think something is changing in my eyes again.”

  “Again?”

  Ria explained about the nano-bots and the changes in her eyes as simply as she could. By the time she was finished they were back in their room.

  “I’m sorry, Ria, but I do not understand these nano-bots you speak of,” Star said after Ria put the cubs back on Star’s bed. A moment later their hungry cries filled the room, making Ria smile.

  “You’re not alone, Star. I don’t understand them either and they’re in my brain.” Ria put the wagon away, kicked off her shoes, grabbed a bottle of water from the chiller, then went to sit next to Star’s bed while she fed the cubs. “Think of it like this,” she said slowly. “There are a handful of tiny little creatures in my head that are really smart. They figured out that the injury in my brain prevents me from seeing, so they found a way to fix it. But, since they only know Doftles, and
they only know what seeing is for Doftles, they fixed my vision so that it’s the same as how the Doftles see.”

  “And the Doftles see heat, like you do?”

  “Well, strictly speaking they see invisible light and infrared is in that category, but you’re on the right path.”

  “I think I understand now. What is changing?”

  “I’m not sure,” Ria said. “First I saw the red thing that you couldn’t see. I have no idea what that was. A while later I saw a bunch of white dots. At first I thought I was seeing a different type of light. But when I looked at you, I was still seeing infrared. I looked out again, and the white dots were still there.”

  “White dots?” Star asked. “Do you mean like the stars?”

  Ria stilled. “Yes, like the stars,” she whispered. “I didn’t think of that. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “I don’t know,” Star said. “Ria, do you think the nano-bots discovered you’re supposed to see differently than Doftles and are trying to fix it?”

  “I don’t know, Star, but that’s exactly what I’m wondering.”

  “This is very exciting,” Star said. “How long until you know?”

  “Probably not very long,” Ria said. “It only took a couple of hours last time. I think I should call Dr. Jula.”

  “Yes, I think you should too.”

  Ria pulled her hand terminal from her belt and made the call.

  ***

  Half an hour later Ria was in the infirmary, lying on a medi-cot with a neuro-cap on her head. Vari and Dr. Jula were staring at a vid-screen while Thorn stood on the other side of the medi-cot, holding her hand.

  “What’s going on?” she asked after listening to them murmur at each other for a couple of minutes.

  “There are changes,” Vari said, turning toward Ria. “But they’re very small ones.”

  “Vari, I know you’re not telling me something. I really don’t need to be protected from the truth.”

  “I know, Ria,” Vari said. “We’re not trying to hide things from you. We just don’t know what it means.”

  “That’s fine. Just tell me what’s happening. Please.”

  Vari nodded. “Remember when we explained that the nano-bots had created a series of bridges across the gap left in your brain?”

  “Yes.”

  “It appears that they’ve somehow…altered…your brain tissue so that it’s taking the place of the nano-bots. Just in one small place, one of the tiny bridges. The rest is the same.”

  “When you say altered what you mean is mutated.”

  “Yes, that’s what I mean.”

  “Dr. Jula, when you scanned my head after I fell on the stairs, did you notice any changes?”

  “I didn’t look for changes, Ria, but that’s an excellent idea.” Ria heard some tapping but was distracted by the sound of the door opening.

  “What’s happening?” Talon asked, approaching the medi-cot with Star beside him. Star placed her muzzle on the medi-cot near Ria’s head, and Ria immediately reached up to pet her.

  “Where are the cubs?”

  “Tee is watching over them,” Star replied. “I was getting a little frantic I’m afraid.”

  “It’s all right, nothing to get frantic about,” Ria soothed. She saw Thorn and Talon not too far away, their heads together, and knew Thorn was explaining what little there was to explain.

  “I don’t get it,” Vari said.

  “What don’t you get?” Ria asked.

  Vari turned to face her. “The change that we see now has been there for at least two weeks. It’s not new.”

  “It’s exactly the same now as it was when I fell?”

  “Yes,” Dr. Jula replied. “As exact as we can see. What are you thinking, Ria?”

  “I’m thinking that I can see grayish shadows overlapping the infrared.”

  “Grayish shadows?” Vari asked in surprise.

  Ria nodded. “This will sound wild, I know, but…,” she trailed off.

  “Go on, Shiaki,” Thorn said, returning to stand beside the medi-cot with Talon.

  “Well, what if the nano-bots were trying to mutate brain tissue to do what they’re doing with my vision. And what if, in the process, they figured out that I’m not supposed to see invisible light, but visible light. So they stopped the mutation to correct the error.”

  There was absolute silence for several long seconds. “Or, maybe not,” she said.

  “I think you may be right, Ria,” Dr. Jula said. “It makes as much sense as any of this does.”

  “Ria, can you separate the gray shadows from the infrared?” Vari asked.

  Ria closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. When she opened them again, the heat signatures of those standing around her were gone. In their places were the shadowy figures.

  “I did it,” she said, then swallowed hard. “I don’t see color, but I can see where you all are. No details, just shadowy areas.”

  “The last time this happened I gave you a mild tranquilizer to help you relax,” Dr. Jula said. “When you fell asleep, everything progressed much more quickly.”

  “I’m all for quick,” Ria said, nodding. A moment later she felt a tiny pin prick on her arm, then nothing.

  ***

  The moment Ria started to wake up she remembered all that was happening. She kept her eyes closed while she tried to prepare herself for whatever she was about to see. Then she opened her eyes slowly.

  Tears filled her eyes and overflowed, streaming unnoticed down the sides of her face as she looked around. When she saw Thorn standing beside the medi-cot, her hand in his, she smiled.

  “You can see me,” Thorn said softly. She nodded.

  “Not in color,” she said. “But I can see you. I can see your face, and I can see your eyes.”

  “You can see?” Vari asked, approaching the other side of the medi-cot.

  “Yeah, I can see,” Ria said, looking at her sister like she’d never seen her before. “Not in color.”

  “I suspect color will return before too long,” Dr. Jula said before turning away from the vid screen to smile down at her. “I’m curious about something though.”

  “Yes?”

  “Can you still see in infrared?”

  “Let’s find out,” Ria said. She felt Thorn’s hand tighten on hers and she turned to smile up at him again. Then she closed her eyes and concentrated. When she opened them again she wasn’t the least bit surprised to find that her infrared vision was still intact.

  “It seems the nano-bots have decided I should be able to see in both spectrums.”

  “This is astounding,” Dr. Jula said. “If I weren’t seeing it for myself I might have difficulty believing it.”

  “Yeah, that goes double for me,” Ria said. She closed her eyes, then opened them again to a black and white world. “Are there any changes in the scans?”

  “No, not a single one,” Vari said. “I agree with your theory, Ria. This is something the nano-bots are doing internally.”

  “I agree as well,” Dr. Jula added. “The question is, do we want the mutation to continue?”

  “Yes,” Ria said firmly.

  “Are you sure?” Vari asked.

  “The gap in my brain tissue is still there. Without the nano-bots, I’d be blind. Completely blind. They’re not attempting to hurt me. They’re attempting to fix what’s broken. I’m all for that.”

  “How would you go about stopping them, anyway?” Thorn asked.

  “I don’t know,” Vari admitted. “I just don’t like the fact that Ria has Doftle technology running around making changes in her brain. It makes me nervous.”

  “The thought of you trying to destroy the little cooties makes me nervous,” Ria said.

  “What’s a cootie?” Thorn asked.

  “No idea,” Ria said. “Whatever they are, I think we should leave them alone.”

  “Agreed,” Dr. Jula said. “Ria, I’m going to take this neuro-cap off but I want you to come in for a sca
n every day from here on out.”

  “That sounds like a plan to me, Dr. Jula.” She looked at Vari. “Don’t worry, Vari. Somehow, I know this is supposed to be. I don’t know why, or how, but it feels right to me.”

  “I’m glad you can see again, Ria,” Vari said, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead.

  “So am I,” Ria said with a faint grin.

  While Dr. Jula removed the neuro-cap, Ria kept her eyes fixed on Thorn. “Where’s Star?” she asked, suddenly realizing the Brun was gone.

  “She had to go feed the cubs,” Thorn said, his voice slightly hoarse. She frowned, but didn’t say anything. After promising once again to come in for a scan the following morning, hugging her sister, and thanking Dr. Jula, Ria left with Thorn. She paused just outside the infirmary and looked up the corridor.

  “What are you looking for?” Thorn asked.

  “Someplace we can go that’s private.”

  Thorn nodded, then headed for comms. As soon as the door closed behind them she turned to look up at him. “Tell me what’s wrong, please,” she asked as she let her eyes roam over his face as though she wanted to memorize every pore.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Thorn said. “I’m just very happy that you can see. That’s all.” She frowned. He sighed. “Okay yes, I was nervous about you seeing my face. Then, it was like you didn't even notice and I can see from the look on your face you have no idea what I mean.” He grinned. “Until now.”

  She reached up and placed her hands on either side of his face, her thumbs stroking his skin lightly. “After I heard you guys talking that day in the cafeteria I tried to decide whether or not to look you up on the vid terminal, to see what you looked like. I debated with myself for weeks before finally deciding not to look.”

  “Why’d you decide not to?”

  “I was having a hard enough time trying not to think about you. I didn’t want to make it harder for myself.”

  Thorn tilted his head at her, a little smile turning up the corners of his mouth. “There’s another reason.”

  “There is,” she admitted. “I didn’t want your faces added to my nightmares.”

  “Nightmares?” Thorn asked, frowning. Ria nodded, but she didn’t want to talk about that at the moment.

 

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