Sgt Reaux stepped out of the cargo bay, followed by a distraught Rawmik. The young Kawmari boy had failed to find his sister in the heartbreaking mayhem broiling behind those doors. “I don’t understand. You said we got everyone out of the ship.”
Sean took a deep breath, kneeling down to face the boy at his level, “We are still sorting out everyone, but I can’t promise you anything Rawmik. When we got to the prisoners, the guards were shooting into the crowds. We still don’t know who survived and who didn’t.” The soldier’s face fought for control as the shock hit the brave little boy full-on. “Hey, there is still one place we haven’t gone. Like I said, we got everyone out; even the dead. But most importantly, we got out the injured.” Reaux watched the boy straight his shoulders, even as his eyes glistened with unshed tears, “If your sister is hurt or….. well, she’ll be in the infirmary. Come.” Sean stood, feeling one clawed hand take his as they departed toward the cargo bay turned medical wing aboard Olyvia.
The two walked in silence, ignoring the odd glance as Rawmik was the only child not either in the dorm-converted cargo bay or the infirmary. The young avian boy’s clawed feet clacked against the deck plating in his species off elongated semi-hopping rhythm.
Sean and Rawmik’s Solemn voyage down the pristine corridors terminated at the infirmary doors, “You ready?”
Rawmik took a deep breath, and a low whistling sound wafted as he exhaled through his nasal passages “…no…. But I…”
Sean Reaux put a hand on the boy’s shoulder, hoping to comfort him, “I’ll stand with you, in your own time.”
The avian boy looked up at the Human soldier for a moment before he ruffled his feathers and stepped towards the doors. A hiss, more imagined than felt, whispered as the doors slid open. Their retraction revealed an explosion of motion. The Infirmary was packed with the wounded and dying, and white coated physicians rushed about as patients were frantically triaged and tended to. Rawmik felt Sean at his side, as promised, as they waded into the fray. Sean guided them around the edges of the room, working their way to a singular makeshift desk with a pile of data pads on it. A haggard Delmar female looked up as they approached, “Name, age, and injury please.”
Rawmik faltered a moment, but answered. “I am.. Rawmik.. I am uninjured. I’m looking for… Serawh, my sister…. Or her body..”
Sean’s chest seared with the boy's ending tone, resolute in not allowing this boy to do the terrible chore alone, “Nurse, are there any Kawmari females, 8 or 9, in the infirmary or the morgue. He was separated from the group during the rescue.”
The Nurse slowly pulled a pad from the pile, clearly. Playing for time under the desperate gaze of a brave little boy, “I… I have two entries that match… one is in surgery, the other…..” her voice trailed off, and her eyes locked with Sean’s. Time stopped as the insinuation sank in.
“I would like to see her body…” Rawmik broke the silence with a crushed tone. The nurse nodded slowly and led them through a pair of doors behind her. The four of them walked up to a preservation chamber simply labeled “Kawmari female, 9” and Rawmik’s hand trembled in Sean’s.
A slight hiss puffed, and the sliding door opened, pulling the mutilated body from the compartment. The girl had taken a protracted laser blast to the abdomen that cut up diagonally across her lungs and heart.. Sean almost pulled the boy back when Rawmik released his hand and stepped over to her face.. “It’s… this isn’t my sister…” he said slowly, “her name was Kiraw… Serawh would play with her when the guards weren’t looking.. I..”
The Morg door’s activation startled everyone in the room as a second nurse, pushing an antigravity chair stepped inside, “Rawmik?!?” A high-pitched squeaking chirp cause the boy to spin I shock, and Rawmik’s composure shattered. He reverted to his native language, rushing to the figure in the chair. Her left arm was missing and she has a heart burn across her beak from an extremely near miss by laser rifle.
Sean stepped over to the nurse who accompanied them, “This is one silver lining I will remember. What’s your name?”
The Nurse hurriedly wiped her face and sniffed, “Mika,” she said softly. “He’s braver than most.” The human warrior and two nurses gave the siblings space, letting the moment continue unhurried by the chaos outside.
___________
Cammy wandered listlessly through the halls, unaware of much of her surroundings. She replayed Patrick’s final moments over and over again, ripping herself apart from the inside, cursing her lack of accuracy, her lack of foresight. Her Red was gone, and it was he fault… somehow.. She had kill…
A chime on her com interrupted the brutal spiral inside her mind. It was from Jacky, requesting her to report to the infirmary. Cammy closed the com and dragged herself back towards the horrors awaiting her. The infirmary was just as busy as when she was there. Jacky had rushed Patrick to surgery, but Camorra had felt him die… and she was close enough to know it to be true.
Jacky awaited her at the door, covered in the still odd to Cammy red human blood, and she pulled her quickly down towards a stateroom “Cammy, I need you to stay calm… and I need you to know that what you are about to see is a military secret.” The urgency in Jackie’s voice pulled Cammy partially out of her own mind.
“Uh, ok.. but..” she began, but was cut off as Jacky slipped her through the door.
The doctor turned and locked the door behind them, and Camorra gasped at the scene inside… Her Patrick’s body was lying on a biobed, his chest rising and falling. The holographic readouts betrayed the nanites inside of him as they finished the last of the major repairs or his internal organs. “Why are you keeping him alive…” Camorra rounded on Jacky, practically yelling at her friend, “He’s dead! I can’t feel him! There’s nothing!! Nothing left!!!”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Jacky took a deep breath, “Cam, he is not Delmar… come here.” She gently pulled the irate bit sobbing Cammy to the holoscreens and began, “He lost a lot of blood, but he did not die. His brain scans show almost no activity, but there is an under current of electrical signals… here…” she pointed to a particular spot, “where we have learned the Delmar claiming ritual binds to the human brain.”
Cammy stared at the image for a moment, “what are you telling me… he only mostly dead?!?”
“No,” Cammy whirled as the disembodied heads of Admiral Grarzia and Lyrian Grarzia appeared behind them, and Camorra’s eyes widened as their voices blended together in perfect sync, “We believe he is still in there, but his mind needs a little jump” the blended voice spoke as one, before Lyrian’s voice seemed to take over, “Dear one, you’ve claimed him. Now, you can save him, but I warn you. Doing this will be dangerous, for your own mind, and should you succeed….” Both voices returned, “Neither of you will be the same.”
Camorra’s gaze flickered between the three of them before resting on her Patrick, “I… I don’t care… do it…” her hoarse voice croaked, her mind fighting hope.. “What do I have to do.”
Jacky stepped over to a box, pulling from it a pair of silver bands, “This is an alpha sync device, designed to link two people. it’s never been tested… on a patient… we don’t know what will happen.” Jacky then rolled out a Matt on the ground, “Lie down, you will not have control of your body while the sync is active.”
Cammy lay down, and Jacky slipped the band over her head before putting the second on Patrick, “What do I do?”
“I.. “Jacky paused, “I don’t know..”
“You must reach him,” the synced voices of Mac and Lyrian answered, “follow your instincts, and trust yourself.”
Jacky pecked at a data pad for a moment before heaving a breath, “ready?” Cammy nodded weakly, closing her eyes. “Sync in 3…2…1…
Cammy opened her eyes…. And saw nothing… she was floating in a blackness that felt both thick and nonexistent at the same time.. *Red?* she heard herself speak, but could not move her mouth. Camorra recoiled as she felt something brush her ankle. A coil of… something, startled by her presence, released her and disappeared from touch.
Cammy took a deep “breath” before trying again *Red? Patrick?* she tried again, and the coil of something slipped around her wrist this time. Camorra fought the instinct to recoil in terror, reaching out with her other hand to touch whatever had grasped her, *Red?* she asked, her hand stroking whatever had hold of her.
She felt it pull her, and Camorra’s surroundings burst into light. Images flooded her mind, both impossibly fast and in perfect clarity. Her Patrick’s entire life poured itself into her very soul as she felt herself being dragged deeper into… wherever she was… Her mind was forced to watch Patrick’s death from his own eyes, the brutal pain searing her side as she felt him be murdered.
Then it was over… back to blackness, save for the singular tentacle still grasping her arm. Camorra was sobbing now, but felt a second appendage’s brush as her tears were wiped by another Invisible entity. Camorra reached for it and found purchase. She could see nothing but black, but she began to work her way up this new arrival. She moved carefully, hand over hand like she was taught in zero g training. She never let go, pulling herself through the strange existence until a faint light of blue and white appeared and began to grow closer.
That light began to take shape. An outline of a human form matured as she got closer.. *Red?* she asked again, and the form turned to face her. She knew, reaching for its glowing hand as she let go of whatever she had been climbing. The glowing form lifted its wrist, as if confused at the sensation of her touch, but she pulled herself close. The words of Doctor Young echoed in Cammy’s mind as she “stood” in front of this new figure, remembering the data from the brain scan.
The realization hit Cam like a falling limb, and she cupped the back of the glowing figure with her free hand, pulling her forehead to where its would be. A gentle pressure assured her as they touched, *Red, come to me…* she whispered, and she felt a slight flicker.
It was her only warning. Her and this being were ripped violently through Camorra’s memories this time, her entire life being ripped through the space that floated in. Camorra was wracked with the memories of Patrick from her perspective this time, followed by the self flogging and psychological shattering of feeling his “death”
*It wasn’t your fault* Patrick’s voice drew a desperate gasp from Camorra as the form spoke, its face slowly modding and gaining detail. Memories from both of their lives swirled and blended around them in a hurricane of emotion and history before screeching to a halt… a bedroom. The night Camorra claimed Patrick, watched and felt from both side’s memories played out as the glowing form of Patrick finished taking on his features.
Camorra pulled his heat o hers again *I’d claim you a hundred times over, come back to me* she whispered again, pressing the full. Force of her mind into his. The images flared then flashed blinding white….
Camorra bolted upright. Heaving for air, and ripped the band from her head with shaking hands… words failed her, her mind raced as she struggled to calm herself.
*Easy…. I’m here…* Cammy froze, unable to speak as Patrick’s voice flooded her mind. She slowly stood and stepped up to a shocked Jacky, who was frantically tapping on the biobed. Patrick’s eyes fluttered open, and his gaze fell on Camorra *I guess I owe you my life.*
“We’ll call it even” Cammy spoke. Tears streaming down her face.
Jacky stepped over and release Patrick’s restraints from a separate control, “It’s good to have you back, Red.” She said formally, “Cammy, I’ll need you to get him to your quarters. He’ll need about 72 hours for the nanites to finish up. I’m putting him on light duty until I can make heads or tails of his brain scans.”
“Thank you.” Patrick croaked, not taking his eyes off of Cammy, “I’m not going anywhere.” The two of them, Cammy pushing Patrick in an antigrav chair, left the room after a frantic thank you and hug for Jacky.
Jacky shut down the biobed and pulled all the data to a pad that she put in her coat before wiping the mainframe of any copies. “Care to tell me what the actual fuck is going on? That should not have worked… I don’t know what the fuck actual happened, care to elaborate?” She glared at the two holographic heads.
“We will, but not now. We get the children home, and we will speak to you more when we reach Delmar.” the two voices spoke as one, “Dissmissed, Doctor.”
__________________________________
Admiral Clint Stevens leaned back in his office chair aboard Tharsis, “Captain Galanis,” he spoke into the screen in front of him. A shaky image of the massive Texan saluted to him.
“Sir, he ground facility is secure. I have a team out in search of a contact among the native population. We’ve rounded up more stragglers than I would have wanted, and I suspect that we will need to keep a sharp eye out for the near future. The computer logs Show several “missions” to be ongoing at the time of our attack. We need local knowledge to button this up properly.” Galanis leaned to look past the transmitter, “Got to Go, we got a hot one.” The Captain stated.
“Update when you can, dismissed.” Clint disconnected the call and returned to the console to a readout of the system. His fleet was spread out through the system, deep detail scanning both the asteroid field and sweeping for intelligent devices. The entire complement of Tharsis’ fighters and attackers were currently seeding the newly sealed channel by strategically blasting asteroids to fill in any potential gaps, and adding their own sensor net hardware to the mix. The Admiral’s job was simple: build a fortress of solitude.
Clint spent the next several hours, and several cups of coffee analyzing the information coming in in real time. Lurix would not be able to be helped in the same way as Rawkir. No GHO platform would be able to be jumped in here, but Clint had a bigger problem. The inhabitants of Lurix were traumatized and trusted no one. The heavily armored Human and Delmar looked all too familiarly like just a new form of conquering jackboot. Clint groaned under the weight of this new task ‘This is going to take a while.’
Clint pulled up a new tab, turning on a video of his wife playing with his daughter. The images brought a double edge of both soothing happiness and sharp loneliness. Mac had spent a long time away from his children because of this new war.. and now it was his turn. While the Delmar were well accustomed to this type of life, Clint was all to aware of what he was missing. The video ended all to soon, and Clint fired up the recording camera on his desk. His message was short, but heartfelt. He packaged it up with the rest of the report for home and sent it to be transmitted on the next secure window.
This time, he did not go back to work. No good could come of him reducing his abilities through excess sleep deprivation. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
