The Entean Saga - The Complete Saga

by C B Williams

She nodded. “Can I sleep on it?” she asked Aiko. She had already decided it was best for everyone if she stayed, but she needed to settle into the idea.

  “Sure. Why don’t you rest now, Wren? Eloch, you know where the galley is. I’ll meet you there.”

  “I’m going to give you something to help you sleep,” Genji told Wren. “It’s a painkiller as well.”

  Wren nodded. “That would be nice. To not feel any pain for a while.”

  With a nod Genji went to get the injections.

  “What do you think?” Wren asked Eloch. “About me staying here for a couple of months?”

  “You will get the care you need,” he said slowly.

  She wrinkled her brow. “I don’t know these people. Don’t know if I can trust them.”

  “I trust them,” Eloch said. “They could have abandoned me after the Board of Colonizers got through with me. Instead, they took me where I wanted to be and bring me supplies regularly.”

  Wren nodded. “True.” She reached for Eloch’s hand. “I feel wounded and vulnerable, and I’d rather be holed up somewhere nobody can find me until I’m better.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I think you will be safe here, Wren. I do.”

  “And nobody from below can find you in a ship docked off planet,” added Genji, returning with a prepared injection. “For now, sleep.” He shot the drugs into her vein.

  Wren sighed as she felt them taking affect, pulling her under. Her hand would have slid out of Eloch’s had he not continued to hold it.

  “Now she is unconscious again, we should move her to her cabin, where she’ll be more comfortable.” Genji said.

  Eloch nodded and gathered her into his arms, carried her next door and gently laid her in her berth. As he covered her sleeping form, he noticed how bony her legs had become, how prominent her ribs. “She should stay here and heal,” he told Genji, who had followed him in. “Rubble is no place for the injured.”

  “I agree with you. Aiko is waiting in the galley for you. I’ll come too.”

  “How long will she be asleep?”

  “As long as she needs. I gave her a mild sleep aid. If she weren’t so exhausted, it would have taken her longer to fall asleep.”

  Wren had been dreaming of bread when she slowly came awake. She still smelled it as she lingered between sleeping and awaking. Then she opened her eyes.

  It took her a while to realize where she was. On a ship docked at a space station orbiting Spur. Imagine that. Her, a Sub-City dweller, orbiting Spur in a ship. And the room wasn’t half bad. It was small but had a bed which felt like heaven compared to what she’d been sleeping on for the past four months, a shower and head only a few steps away, a small desk (was that actually an info console on the desk?), a couch where Eloch sat watching her, and a coffee table.

  She focused on the coffee table. Was that—? “Bread!” she exclaimed happily. “I was dreaming of bread, and there it is!”

  Eloch chuckled deep and low. It felt like a ripple over her skin. “You have been sleeping for nearly twenty-four hours. I thought you might be hungry by now.”

  Her stomach growled and she grinned. “There’s your answer.” She scooted up to a sitting position, and tugged her blanket up to cover her front. Securing it under her armpits, she held out her hands, ignoring the familiar pain that radiated up her leg. “Gimme.”

  Eloch handed her a slice slathered with nut butter.

  “It’s still warm! Oh, and it smells so good.” She took a bite and purred her pleasure.

  Eloch watched her with a grin. He’d never seen anyone take such pleasure in the smallest things the way Wren did. “Feeling better?”

  She nodded, took another bite, and kept chewing as she answered. “The sleep felt good.”

  “How’s The Sausage?”

  “Hurts. But it seems to only hurt when I move. That’s new. Until now, The Sausage has been a constant complainer.”

  “When you finish, we’ll have Genji come and take a look at it. Tea?”

  At her nod he poured her a cup and handed it to her. She held up a finger, popped the last bit of bread in her mouth, and accepted the cup.

  “More bread?”

  “Please. How do they get fresh bread and nut butter way up here?”

  “The bread’s cooked here, and I don’t know where the nut butter comes from,” he said and held out another slice. “If you stay, you will enjoy the food. Aiko told me she only lets the cook take a leave when she herself takes leave.”

  “Don’t blame her.” Wren took the second piece of bread and tucked into it.

  “So what have you been doing while I’ve been sleeping?”

  “Making plans. Gathering supplies.”

  “To go south?”

  Eloch nodded.

  Suddenly the bread lost its appeal. Wren set it down on the table beside the bed and licked her fingers.

  “Wish I could tag along.”

  “Don’t you think it would be wiser to stay here and heal?”

  “Yes, of course I do. And I need to get back to my Kin as well. But still…” she sighed. “It would have been quite an adventure.”

  “And one I need to make alone.”

  “And I’ve delayed you, I know. When do you leave?”

  “Soon.” He stood, towering over her. “I’ll let Genji know you’re awake so he can look at your leg.”

  Wren watched him stride away. He paused at the door and smiled. “I’m happy to see you awake and refreshed.”

  She returned his smile, pretending she felt like it.

  “Where’s Eloch?” Wren asked when Genji came in and approached her bedside. He carried his reading device along with casing, sterilizer canisters, and a medical kit.

  “With Aiko in the stores room. She’s outfitting him for his journey.”

  Wren nodded and lifted her blanket off The Sausage. “I haven’t looked at it yet,” she commented.

  Genji glanced at her and down at her leg while he pulled up a chair. He spread his supplies on the bed alongside her leg. “Well, we can look at it together.” Taking up his scissors, he began to gently snip off the casing.

  Wren flinched and willed herself to hold her leg still.

  Silently they both watched while the leg was exposed. Ragged scars ran the whole circumference of her calf, but there was no more seepage.

  “Wow. It looks so much better than it feels.”

  “Hurts, does it?”

  “Like the sniffer’s still attached to it.”

  Genji glanced at her and grinned. “It’s because the muscles are busy attaching to your skin at all these laser sites. I will need to begin massaging the skin loose in a day or two. Then the muscles will recreate their membranes. In the meantime, we will keep your leg elevated for a couple of days.”

  Wren sighed. “That means bed rest, doesn’t it?”

  Genji did not answer as he scanned her leg with the reading device. Wren glanced at him when he made a sound deep in his throat.

  “That sounded an awful lot like a groan. What’s up?”

  “The readouts say you’re not getting enough blood flow to carry oxygen to your cells. The small arteries are too damaged. Without the oxygen, there’s no way you will heal internally. The leg’s got to go.”

  Genji watched silently as the color drained from her face. “I’m sorry,” he told her and meant it.

  “Why can’t you heal the arteries?”

  He shook his head. “I tried. And I doubt anybody could have done better at a Med Lab.”

  Wren, her mouth covered with her hand, looked at the ceiling and willed the tears to stay where they were. “So that’s it, then. No other option.”

  “Death is the other option. This leg will eventually kill you, Wren. I’m sorry,” he said again.

  “Well,” she said and let her hand fall. “If you put it that way. Do it as soon as you can. Poor Sausage never stood a chance.”

  Two weeks later, Wren gazed down at her Animate leg, shiny black from the t
high down. She looked up at Genji and Aiko. “So this thing never comes off?”

  Genji shook his head. “Never. It’s a part of you, all your nerve endings attach to it. It will work just like your old leg did. Better, in fact. It will never tire. Never age.”

  Wren tapped it. It sounded hard and hollow, although it wasn’t. It was filled with machinery. An artificial Animate. Nothing human about it. “This must have cost your whole commission for a year. I owe you, Aiko. Both of you. I’m in your debt, and I pay my debts.”

  “It wasn’t as expensive as you think,” Aiko said. “It came from a Pawner. He’d gotten it free from an UpperUpper who bought it for his daughter. The girl never had the opportunity to use it. The grieving father wanted it out of his sight.”

  Wren shook her head and stroked the leg’s slick surface, studied its contours. A cold, smooth replica of a human leg. Top of the line. “Poor girl. Sad story.”

  “Yeah, but it worked in your favor,” Genji said. “And now you get to try it out. Want to stand up? I’m going to warn you, it will hurt until your body adapts.”

  Aiko laughed and shook her head. “The ever-practical Genji, who wants to see how this new toy of yours functions, Wren. Are you ready?”

  “After, what, more than four months now? I’ve been either hopping, shuffling with a crutch, or lying around in agony. You think I’m ready to stand crutchless? You bet I am. And don’t worry, Genji. Pain and I are old friends. Lets me know I’m still alive.”

  She reached for his offered hand and hauled herself up. There was a wave of vertigo, but she took a deep breath, waited it out then dropped Genji’s hand. “Wow,” she said. “Look at me. I’m actually standing on my own!”

  “Does it hurt?” Aiko wanted to know.

  “Not bad. Not bad at all.” She took a step, teetered a bit and flung out her arms before she took another step. Then another. And another.

  “This is amazing!” she said as she haltingly turned around to face the two. “I think I can get the hang of this pretty quick.”

  Genji beamed and Aiko applauded. “Now we just have to get you fattened up and healthy, and you’ll be as good as new.”

  Getting fattened up and healthy meant days of exercise while being scanned with reading devices, followed by endless plates of food, followed by sleepless nights of pain.

  But the pain wasn’t the throbbing, wounded kind. This pain was the result of strenuous exercise. And she should be sleeping, but she missed her leg. The Sausage was gone. Lopped off and destroyed…and she missed it. Granted, the animated leg was far superior, and she was beginning to trust its abilities, but it wasn’t and never would be a part of her body. And what was it with the sudden itching that she couldn’t scratch and something Genji kept muttering about a ghost limb? Was she going to be forever haunted by The Sausage now?

  With a growl, Wren threw the blanket back and got out of bed to begin pacing. Back and forth she strode, fueled by her anger and frustration, determined to once and for all get over her self-pity.

  It was time, she decided, to stop feeling sorry for herself and her plight. Start being grateful. She was pretty lucky to be here where she was. First Eloch saved her life, then Genji had saved her life, and Aiko gave her shelter and the perfect hiding place to recover. It was time, she decided, to start paying back those who were being so kind to her, beginning with the man who saved her life. After Eloch accomplished whatever he wanted to accomplish on Spur, he was going to want to go home.

  Wren was going to help him do that.

  Next, it was time to rise from the dead and check out the state of her Kin.

  Chapter 12

  South

  He missed her. It wasn’t just one thing about her that he missed. It was the whole her.

  The whole package.

  At first he thought he missed the company. When Aiko dropped him off at the encampment, it had been stone silent. He thought when Little Sister made her appearance, when she joyfully slammed him to the ground by way of a greeting, the need for companionship would dissolve. But it hadn’t. And worse, Little Sister missed her as well. There was a huge emptiness where Wren should have been.

  It left him baffled. She wasn’t even of Entean. She was an alien who belonged to Spur. Nothing to do with him. Yet it didn’t seem to matter to his heart.

  It didn’t matter to his heart.

  Eloch groaned aloud.

  When had that happened?

  Eloch sat up in his bed—her bed, for her scent still lingered—and slid from beneath the bedroll. Naked, he walked toward the entrance, careful not to disturb Little Sister where she lay at the opening. He shivered in the chill night and paused to throw a blanket over his shoulders before walking out into the black. When his eyes adjusted, he looked up and north.

  Up and north was where she was.

  Just after reentry, Aiko had informed him Wren had decided to have her leg amputated.

  “Why didn’t she tell me?” he had asked while the news squeezed his heart.

  “She knew you’d stay, and she felt she’d kept you from your mission long enough. She made us promise not to tell you. Had she not, I surely would have, Eloch. Whether she realizes it or not, she needs you.”

  It was then when he began to realize he needed her as well. He might even have even blurted it out to Aiko if she hadn’t changed the subject.

  The night was clear and cold. After studying the sky carefully, he thought he could just make out the space station as it orbited above the City, despite the glow of lights.

  He wondered how Wren was adjusting to her new artificial limb. He knew what giving up The Sausage had cost her. He had felt her fear, her need to keep everything together. She must have lost a great deal over her short life. A life filled with violence. He ached for her loss. If only they had been on Entean! With Entean’s help, he could have healed her. Painlessly.

  Silently, Little Sister slipped her muzzle into his hand. He looked down and smiled. She whined and he squatted down to give her a one-armed hug, hiking up his blanket. She leaned into him, licked his face. They stayed that way for several moments. It was a comfort.

  “We should sleep, my friend,” Eloch finally said, his voice rough to his ears. “Tomorrow we go south.”

  Her excitement was palpable and that helped him smile.

  Everything was packed. Aiko had given him the same instructions she’d given him nearly five months earlier—she would occasionally fly by to see if he was back, and if he ran low on supplies he should go to the City and look for Manabu…and did he still have the plastic card to give the Martial at the gate?

  He had. It was stored safely in the pack.

  Aiko promised she would look after Wren and return her to her Kin. But when he had gone to say good-bye to her, Wren had other plans. She told him she’d see him when he got back from the south. He had smiled then, and he caught himself smiling now.

  He would see Wren again.

  With that thought, Eloch folded himself back into the Wren-scented bedroll and drifted to sleep.

  The early morning hours brought the first frost the pale sun refused to warm away. The gravel under Eloch’s boots crunched and crackled as he made his way south through abandoned streets and buildings, which sparkled under their frost blanket. Little Sister darted back and forth across his path, chasing various scents, her breath puffing little clouds, and he frequently got glimpses of green and free-flowing water from the sniffer’s mental projections. How in all this rubble had she found green grass and flowing water?

  At midday he stopped, took off his pack, and stretched to ease the kinks out of his back. He leaned his pack and staff against a wall and slouched against it. Little Sister came back to lean against him while they shared a meal bar. It felt warmer to Eloch, but the sun still shone pale against a pale sky. This far from the City, the rubble was more broken down, less easy to recognize, the buildings more fragmented, and none of them had a roof. After he ate, he used his staff to look under stones and
chunks of concrete as he sought for any sign of life. Little Sister whined, eager to be on her way.

  By the third day, Eloch was beginning to lose hope he would ever find anything other than abandoned and collapsed buildings. He paused on a small rise to see into the distance. All he saw were piles of stone, concrete, and rebar exposed like ribs. There was no wind. Just the same pale sky. It smelled of dust and age. Cold and empty.

  By day four, Little Sister was scampering loops around him like a puppy. She kept urging him on, first racing away and then coming back to nip at his heels. Eloch laughed. “So I am your flock now?” he asked the excited beast.

  She looked at him and woofed, then dashed off till she was no more than a faint dot on the horizon. Eloch watched her disappear into the shadow of a high-rise building that looked as if it would topple any moment, its broken glass like mirrored teeth reflecting back the pale sun. When she didn’t reappear, he stepped off the road to follow, rounding into the shadow where he had last seen her.

  Eloch stopped in his tracks, astounded. Here was a place as beautiful as Entean. Here was the green and the flowing water he’d glimpsed in Little Sister’s mind! Trees, flowers, a perfumed breeze and…was that birdsong?

  A fast glimpse of this paradise was all Eloch was allowed before Little Sister attacked, catapulting herself onto his back and threw him to the ground, her teeth straining for the neck kill while she clawed at the backpack which kept her from reaching it.

  Foreigner! Not of me! Not of me! Foreigner! Not of me!

  The words rang in his ears, repeating over and over.

  “No!” Eloch shouted.

  Using all his great strength, he flipped himself over, pinning Little Sister and knocking the wind out of her. Without hesitation, he twisted so he could kneel over the sniffer. With his staff on her neck, he kept her from his throat, although her claws, no longer blunt from when he’d clipped them, were doing their best to break through the leather of his tunic and reach his flesh.

  She was so much more powerful than when they’d last fought. It wouldn’t be long before Little Sister succeeded in ripping him to shreds.