Crystal Healer (35 page)

I grabbed a first-aid pack from a storage unit and brought it to the console. "You're bleeding," I told her when she protested. "We need you conscious."

While Reever and Shon boarded the scout and read ied it for launch, I applied a coagulant and a field dressing to the wound on the Takgiba's shoulder.

"He told me that you have a daughter," she mentioned as she worked on the console. "What is her name?"

I secured the dressing. "Marel."

"Does she look like you?"

I thought this was a strange conversation to be having under the circumstances. "She is small like me, and likely inherited my nose, my feet, and my temper, but Reever gave her the color of his hair and eyes."

"I wanted to give him a child," Uorwlan said. "My kind can't breed with Terrans, so I knew it was impossible. Still, I thought he would make a wonderful father."

I glanced over at the scout. "He is."

She nodded slowly. "I wanted to tear your throat the moment I saw you, and then I saw the way he looks at you. He told me he couldn't feel love, but I knew different. He only had to find his other half, and it wasn't me." She gazed at me. "That's why I left him, you know. To give him the chance to find you."

I felt relieved and terrible. "What about you and Shon?"

She laughed. "I enjoyed him, but he's too much like me. You'd better get on board now. I'll have this patch finished in a minute."

I felt reluctant to leave her alone at the console, but nodded and went to the launch. Inside Shon sat behind the helm with Reever at copilot; the two of them were finishing the preflight checks.

I surveyed the interior. The scout had not been designed to ferry passengers, but there were two emergency harnesses in the back that the Takgiba and I could use to secure ourselves for launch.

"We're good," Uorwlan said as she boarded and secured the ramp. "That bypass won't hold forever, so get this dink moving."

Shon initiated launch and eased the scout into the airlock. Weapons fire erupted behind us as the massive doors closed and the outer hull doors parted.

"Fasten your harnesses," Shon called back to us. "This won't be a smooth ride."

It wasn't. As soon as the scout departed the ship, the vessel came around and began firing at us. Shon and Reever worked grimly to evade the volleys, but as the scout turned and twisted the hull began to shudder under multiple impacts.

I cringed as I heard the boom of a sonic cannon. "We will never make it out of here."

"Don't be a mewling kit," Uorwlan told me. "We've got friends out there now."

I glanced through the viewport and saw two ships pass the scout--a small, fast trader transport and a massive Jorenian star vessel.

The
Sunlace
's sonic cannons boomed again, forcing the mercenaries to break off their attack to evade impact.

Shon did something that made the scout turn end over end, and flew after the
Sunlace
.

"We can't risk docking in midflight," I heard Reever say to him. "If the clamps are not perfectly aligned, we'll collide."

"The 'Zangians taught me how to do it," Shon assured him. "They call it poking the shrike."

I held my breath as the scout darted under the hull of the
Sunlace
and into docking position. Clamps extended, reaching for our tiny ship, and somehow the oKiaf managed to catch on to them a moment before we would have smashed into the bigger vessel. Above our heads I heard the rumble of retractors as the scout was lifted into an airlock, and then space disappeared.

"Welcome on board, Major Valtas," Xonea's annoyed voice said over the com. "I assume you did not kill anyone on board your launch with that foolhardy maneuver."

"All present and accounted for, Captain." Shon powered down the engines and glanced back at the Takgiba. "I would have told him myself."

Uorwlan made a casual gesture. "I saved you the trouble." She released her harness, but instead of moving to the docking ramp she went to the pilot's seat. "Let me at the console. I want to see how you did that."

Shon rose and then staggered, putting out a hand to brace himself. Crystal claws cut into the plas seat covering.

I went to the docking ramp, lowered it, and then hurried over to the oKiaf. "Reever, help me."

Between us we supported Shon and walked down the ramp.

"I need a gurney," I said, bracing myself as the oKiaf's knees buckled. One appeared a moment later, and two crewmen helped us lift Shon's unconscious body onto it. "Signal medical. I need an isolation room set up with a dialysis unit, stat."

The deck rocked under my feet as the ship took a massive blast to the starboard hull. I heard alloy groan and emergency alarms going off as a calm Jorenian voice ordered the bay to be evacuated.

The airlock doors began to close behind us, and I turned to see Uorwlan sitting in the pilot's seat. As the scout's engines engaged, she strapped herself in and disengaged the docking clamps.

Reever ran over to a com panel. "Uorwlan, shut down the engines and come out of there."

"Not on your life, lover," she replied.

The outer doors opened and the scout flew off, heading for the Odnallak raider.

I sent Shon ahead to medical and went with Reever to the nearest communication station, where he brought up the scout on the viewer and signaled the Takgiba.

"Turn around and come back to the ship," he ordered. "You can't fight them in a scout. You don't have any weapons. Uorwlan."

"I don't need them," she replied as her image appeared on the screen. She seemed amused. "I'm just going to run a little interference and give you and the Jorenians some time to get out of here."

"We're not leaving without you," I said.

"Hold on." The Takgiba maneuvered the scout around a heavy burst of pulse fire. "I don't know who that shifter has on weapons, but they're good. They've taken out your long-range signal array. A couple more hits and they'll take out the Jorenians' propulsion. I can't see you finding a cure for Shon while you're drifting around the quadrant."

"Shon needs you," I said, seizing on that.

"Shon has everything he needs. So do you." The Takgiba muttered something under her breath as the scout rocked. "I've got to wrap this up; things are getting snarled out here and it'll be a tight fit as it is. Duncan, I love you. Always have, always will."

"No." He reached out and touched the screen. Uorwlan, no."

"Keep your promise." Her image disappeared, and the signal terminated.

Reever tried signaling again, and then put the view of the scout on the screen. The small ship flew directly into the path of the alien raider, artfully dodging most of the pulse volleys fired at it.

"What is she doing?" I murmured. "She can't destroy the ship by ramming it."

"She isn't trying to collide with the ship," he said, and took my hand in his.

At the last minute Uorwlan cut the scout's engines, and the nose of the small ship drifted into the large emitter of the sonic cannon. The impact breached the scout's hull, which imploded, along with the power cells. A brilliant flare of light engulfed the display. It had barely begun to fade when a second, much more powerful detonation tore the alien raider in half.

I held on to the side of the console and Reever's hand as the shock wave rocked the
Sunlace.

Eighteen

Xonea transitioned as soon as the ship was secured, and then performed another two jumps to evade the other alien raiders pursuing us. The attack had resulted in several casualties, a few serious, but no deaths. Once reality stopped melting into a transitional swirl, I spent the next twelve hours alternating between surgery and the isolation room where Shon was being treated.

Although I no longer had the supply of heartwood I had collected from the oKiaf--the Odnallak had confiscated it--I was able to glean enough carvings from the remnants of our native garments to keep the crystal infection in check. The oKiaf drifted in and out of consciousness, and I directed the nurses to keep him under close monitor.

Herea efficiently managed triage and supervised the treatment of the ambulatory patients, and to reward her efforts I brought her in to operate on a crew member with a severely fractured pelvis. She didn't hesitate as she gloved and masked and reached for the lascalpel.

"This left hip will need to be replaced as soon as the pelvis heals," she said as she studied the skeletal scans. She glanced at me. "That is, if you agree, Healer Jarn."

"That's not the standard treatment," I said, and then smiled under my mask. "But you're right. Given her size and weight, performing the usual reinforcement procedure will only delay the deterioration of the joint. I believe she serves as a security officer, which means she spends most of her duty shift on her feet. I agree. A replacement is a better solution for the patient."

She sighed her relief. "For a moment I thought I might have to argue the point." Her tone turned curious. "Can you say what happened to Resident Jylyj? That crystal embedded in his hide--it looks very serious."

As we worked, I related an abbreviated version of what had occurred on the planet, and discussed possible treatment options.

"I can synthesize the resin and continue dialysis until we reach Joren, but we have to purge the protocrystal from his bloodstream." I handed her the retractor she needed and watched her skillful hands as she exposed a jagged break in the right pelvic bone. "The only substance that repels it, Cu
²
Au, would also poison him if I introduce it into the bloodstream."

"It's a pity it isn't attracted to his fur, Healer," the nurse monitoring the anesthesia said. "It would exit the body through his hair follicles and give him a very pretty pelt."

I stared blindly at her as I remembered fifteen blobs of mold following Shon around the ship like pets eager for attention. "We've used the Lok-Teel before to remove toxins from patients." I turned to the intern. "Herea, can you--"

She nodded, understanding. "The patient is stable and her vitals are strong. I know what to do, but I will call you if I need any assistance."

I ran out of the surgical suite, stripping out of my mask, gloves, and shroud as I looked for one of the helpful little housekeepers. One crawled up to my feet and sat there as if waiting.

"Hello," I said as I bent to pick up the mold. "I have a job for you."

I took the Lok-Teel into the isolation room, where Shon was presently sleeping. Gently, I placed the mold next to the oKiaf's crystal-covered arm, and thought of Shon's paw as it had been. I couldn't force it to attempt to absorb the protocrystal in Shon's bloodstream, but if it was willing . . .

The Lok-Teel read my thoughts as clearly as ever, for it slowly crawled over the paw and stretched itself out over it. At first it settled down and didn't move, and then it began to undulate and expand.

"What is this?" Shon asked, his voice slurred. "A new type of berth bath?"

"An experiment." I scanned him and checked the level of crystal infection. It had not decreased or increased. "How are you feeling?"

"Heavy-headed." He turned his face toward me, and I saw solid crystal now covered half of it. "It doesn't blind you, you know. I can see through it, although it does make everything look as if it is composed out of colored light."

The Lok-Teel, now bloated and bulging, inched away from Shon's paw. Crystal still covered it, however, and I felt a crushing sense of disappointment.

"That didn't work," I told him. "We'll have to try something else."

"I thank you, Jarn, but you cannot cure this thing." His remaining eye closed. "Not even if you were the Crystal Healer."

"I'm not giving up," I told him, and picked up the Lok-Teel, which had gone stiff and still. "Rest now. I'll be back to check on you shortly."

I took the mold to the biopsy room and placed its inert form on the dissection table. It appeared lifeless, and I worried that I had killed it by exposing it to the crystal, but then it suddenly began bubbling and dividing.

I scanned the mold as it divided into two and then four individual Lok-Teel. Their readings were healthy and, thankfully, free of crystal.

"It was worth a try," I said ruefully as the four little molds moved toward me and caressed my hands with their cool, soft surfaces. "I hope you enjoyed whatever you
did
absorb from Shon."

The Lok-Teel began moving to climb off the table. Doubtless they were hungry, I thought, and removed the lid from the room's waste container before I went out into the ward.

There were no more surgeries to perform, so I made rounds of the patients in post-op, wrote up orders for the nurses, and looked in but didn't interrupt Herea's procedure, which she had almost finished. A yawn almost split my face in two as I watched from the view panel.

"Healer Jarn."

I glanced back at a nurse. "Yes?"

She pointed to the floor, and when I looked down, I saw that every Lok-Teel in medical now waited in a wide mass around my feet.

"What is this?" I tried to step over them, but the Lok-Teel crawled out from beneath my feet and formed two groups on either side of me. Then I looked down at my tunic, which I had not changed since boarding the
Sunlace
. "Is this your way of telling me that I need to cleanse?" To the nurse I said, "Signal me in my quarters if Major Valtas's condition changes."