Experiment (Hybrid Book 2) (8 page)

Seeing the wisdom of her words, he nodded and left.

The Apollo continued to orbit around Kalzir while the authorities, both Federation and planetary investigated the incident. It seemed that at least some of what Shamir’s had claimed about their society was correct. The Federation was sending a full investigation and diplomatic mission to help the citizens sort out the mess and the Apollo would stay until they arrived. Besides, what else did they have to do with Chesara out of action?

Connor again sat in Chesara’s room as he looked over the latest reports from Kalzir. To his surprise, the Harmon’s were providing full cooperation. Apparently, a female servant had confessed to dosing Lady Harmon’s wine with contraceptives after the disappearance of Lord Tenset had been widely reported along with the death of his uncle.

It seemed that the prospect of being able to have a child naturally had changed their outlook on life. What Tamas and Tenset had worked towards was actually occurring, but rather than the Harmon’s family line paying the price, they themselves had paid the ultimate price.

He didn’t think Tenset would actually care, apart from being concerned about the people who depended on the Shamir estate and his horses. Connor bet Tamas would be turning in his grave though.

Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw one of her fingers twitch, and he immediately dropped the screen on the bed.

“Kittycat?” Connor took her hand as he watched for any sign of response. He briefly looked around the stark medical room, filled with beeping equipment, then sighed and turned back to Chesara. It had been nine days since he’d carried her on board the shuttle, but nothing had changed.

“Chesara, Kittycat? If you can hear me, give me a sign, anything...” He gently touched her pale cheek, and again bottled up fury at what had happened to her.

Connor turned towards the door when he heard a quiet knock.  Clara came in without waiting for an acknowledgement, holding a steaming cup of coffee. “The Doctor thought a familiar scent might help, and I thought you could use this.”

Connor nodded rubbing his face with his hands; he certainly needed a shave and a shower. He watched the middle-aged nurse step up to the bed.

“Chesara, I brought you some coffee.”

They both waited, but she didn’t move. “If you want it you’d better hurry, Connor’s gonna grab it if you don’t.”

He smiled. If anything would get her going, it was him pinching her coffee. Happy memories of being chased through the clinic cafeteria when he’d done just that came back to him, she’d laughed and shouted ‘son of a Kackbad’ at him

The next day they tried the coffee trick again, this time in conjunction with a bacon sandwich. He suspected Clara was just using the excuse of aromatherapy for Chesara to get him to eat.

He watched Chesara carefully as the nurse put food on the table, but his eyes widened as her saw her lips twitch slightly.

He jumped out of his chair, reaching for her hand.

“Chesara can you hear me?”

Her eyes opened slowly, still unfocused, blinking against the light, but open all the same. Her mouth looked as if it was trying to form words, but strain as he might, he couldn’t hear anything. The door opened behind him, and the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Singer barged into the room with uncharacteristic haste. He quickly began checking the monitors.

“Is she ok, is she going to be all right?” Connor’s voice sounded frantic even to himself, so he gave himself a mental slap. Panicking wouldn’t help, she needed him calm and dependable to help her cope with what had happened.

As he looked into her eyes, they focused blurrily, then widened in terror. She drew in a sharp breath then pulled her hand out of his, scooting up on the bed, causing the various IV stands to clatter to the floor. She gasped as the needles were pulled from her arm and the back of her hands, but her need to put distance between her and the others in the room clearly outweighed the pain. With people on either side of the bed she had no escape route.

As she looked at them with wild eyes, she wrapped her arms around her drawn up knees, and she started rocking. Connor swallowed hard, afraid even to speak her name in case it made things worse “Chesara?”

She continued to rock, not responding to them, even burying her head in her arms so she couldn’t see them.

Connor reached out slowly, gently touching her arm. “Please, look at me.”

Again she jerked away, and he withdrew his hand quickly, not wanting to scare her further.

The Doctor moved forward and gave Connor an apologetic shrug, before turning to Chesara and raising his voice.

“Look at me right now.”

She trembled at the fierce command, slowly raising her head briefly before swiftly returning it to her arms.

“Oh, my God,” Connor gasped at utter terror, the brief look had shown him.

Chesara resumed rocking. His instincts to comfort her took over, and he again reached out to hold her, arms going around her shoulders. Her blood curdling screams pierced the medical bay, and the corridors beyond, and he automatically let go of her.

She scrambled sideways, towards Clara, falling off the bed. Scuttling into a corner she again hugged her knees, rocking as she stared at them in terror. She didn’t even seem to notice the blood dripping from arms where the IV’s had been ripped out.

“Leave her for now, we need to think about this.” the Doctor had to tug on his arm to get him to leave the room. He couldn’t take his eyes off the woman in the corner, not able to believe this was his feisty Chesara.

As he was pulled from the room he felt a hypo spray hit his neck. Turning, he saw Clara’s apologetic. “For shock, Doctor’s orders.”

She guided him to a seat in reception, and he sat, trying to come to terms with what he’d witnessed. He was starting to feel a little less like passing out himself when a woman entered the med bay reception area. He vaguely recognized her as the ship’s councillor, Dr Henderson, a thin middle aged woman, who smiled reassuringly at him.

“Mr Temple, the doctor has filled me in on what’s happened. From her behaviour, I think her previous catatonic condition and her current state are probably due to mental breakdown rather than an overuse of her ability.” She smiled brightly. “It’s highly possible her ability is completely unaffected.”

He managed to stop himself from telling them what was crucial in this situation, and it wasn’t her damn gift.

The councillor continued with that same ‘I’m so concerned’ look on her face. “It’s essential that we don’t frighten her anymore, and since it’s probable that a male caused the trauma, we’ll keep personnel interacting with her, female only for now.”

“I don’t care who you are, there is no way I’m..”

She held her hand up. “Connor, we still need your input. You know her better than anyone, so we’ll set up an interface screen in the next room so you can observe her and advise at all times, ok?”

He didn’t like it, but they could have banned all contact with her, so something was better than nothing.

Over the next few days, he watched as food was brought to her by Clara only, to keep things familiar. After the first day, she ate when alone in the room and used the toilet. She preferred to stay on the floor with her back against the far wall whenever she could and she wouldn’t acknowledge anyone.

The councillor visited several times a day, talking to Chesara but getting no response. Although after three days, she did appear to be listening, instead of just rocking.

Any attempt to touch her brought an immense surge of anxiety and rapid retreat. Connor reported that her vital signs were stable, and the shoulder injury appeared to be healing so they didn’t resort to sedatives to examine her.

To his great annoyance, the councillor also insisted on visiting him, trying to get him to talk about his ‘feelings’. He kept up a stoic exterior, telling her that he was merely concerned for his charge. He doubted he’d fooled her, but he started to make a concerted effort to look after himself more, if only to stop them taking him off her case.

When she was in the toilet on her second waking day, the nurse and the councillor pushed the bed up against the wall in her preferred location, so at least she didn’t feel the need to sleep on the floor anymore. She spent a great deal of her time sleeping, as if the real world was too difficult to deal with. Effectively she was hiding in unconsciousness.

Connor saw her hair and body getting steadily grubbier. On the fifth day, he suggested that perhaps a shower would help. As there was no shower in the bathroom attached to her room, they cleared the med bay to let her use the one in the staff changing room. Connor retreated back to the room they’d set up next to hers so he could track what happened on the monitors.

The councillor went into Chesara’s room and spoke to her in a soft, but firm voice although she lay on the bed with her eyes closed. Connor had confirmed she was actually awake via the implant.

“Time for a shower I think, don’t you? I’ve put some clean clothes in the staff shower room and we’ve cleared the med bay, so you don’t have to worry about meeting anyone. It’s only me in here, and I’ve locked the main doors.”

Connor nearly did a fist pump, as Chesara looked up, obviously interested in the idea.

“Do you want me to come with you, or wait here?”

Chesara shook her head slightly as she sat up.

“I know you’d rather I waited outside dear, but those worriers wouldn’t let me leave you entirely alone. I promise to stay in here if you like.”

Chesara glanced between the door and Dr Henderson, clearly torn.

The councillor started rummaging in her bag. “Take as long as you want, I’ve got a book in here I’ve been dying to finish, go ahead when you’re ready.”

Ignoring Chesara, she settled down in the comfy ‘visitor’ chair, and turned on her reading device.

Watching the screens in the next room, Connor had to acknowledge the councillor’s skill; leaving the decision up to Chesara certainly lessened the stress for her. Chesara just sat where she was watching the councillor for around ten minutes, then she stood and moved to the door of the room, it was the first time she’d gone that far. Connor clapped a hand over his mouth to stop the loud ‘yes!’ from being heard.

Chesara kept a constant watch on the councillor until she got to the open door that led into the main area of the med bay. It took her another thirty minutes before she ventured out towards the staff section, keeping close to the walls, constantly alert for anyone approaching.

His heart ached for her. Her fear was almost a living thing, but she was bravely fighting through it. It made him more proud of her that he thought possible. He consciously relaxed his hands as he was making dents in the plastic chair. Clasping them together, he continued to watch and monitor her via the implant.

She slipped quickly into the wash room, locking the door behind her immediately. Connor noted with satisfaction that her heart rate had slowed significantly after the door was locked, then smiled as the sounds of running water could be heard.

There was a feed from the washroom, but respecting her privacy, he didn’t activate it. He heard the water stop after about half an hour, she’d certainly enjoyed her wash he thought and waited expectantly for the door to open again. Nearly an hour later he tapped his com device, connecting to the Councillor.

“D’you think something’s wrong? Shouldn’t she be out by now?”

“I should have anticipated this, I’m sorry.  I think she may be having trouble leaving the safety of that locked door. She’s not sure whether anybody is out here, and she feels in control in there.”

“What do we do?” 

She took a deep breath. “Well, we have a few options. Firstly I’ll try coaxing her out, but if that doesn’t work, we’ll have to consider either opening the door ourselves, or sedating her while she’s in there and carrying her out. Personally, I think if option one doesn’t work, firmly pursuing option two is better than sedation; she’ll see that as a betrayal. We’d lose a lot of ground with the trust we’ve built up.”

“I agree, go for it,” he said trying to sound as if this was just another day.

Dr Henderson made her way to the shower room door.

“Are you all finished in there? It’s time to come out now, open the door, and we’ll get you back to your room, it’s only me out here.”

The silence from behind the door was deafening.

“Come on Chesara, we need to think about re-opening the clinic. We’ve got patients waiting, and I don’t think you want to walk through a bunch of people.”

Appealing both to her deep-seated sense of compassion for others, and her fear of contact with others would hopefully prove a successful strategy.

“I want to go home.”

Connor nearly fell of his chair at the barely audible words.

“I’m sure we can sort that out, but it’ll take a while to clear the corridors. It can’t be very comfortable in there dear. Why don’t you come back to the room here for a while I make the arrangements?”

“Please, don’t call me that,” the soft voice was pleading.

Connor mentally kicked himself, Tamas had always used that endearment, and it was also one of the councillor’s habits. Way to go numbskull.

“Ok, not a problem.” Dr Henderson said, but Chesara remained quiet behind her door.

“Chesara, I’m going to help you now by opening the door for you. I give you my word that there isn’t anyone out here but me.”

She looked back at one of the cameras.

“Go ahead, she’s quite calm,” he spoke into his implant.

Taking a deeper breath, the councillor clicked open the door with a pass key and opened it slowly. Stepping away from the doorway she let the figure pressed up against the far wall of the washroom see that she’d been telling the truth about the area being empty.

“Don’t touch me.”

“Don’t worry; I know you’re not comfortable with that, small steps are fine. Do you want me to go and wait in the reception area while you go back?”

At quick nervous nod, she smiled again and went to sit in one of the ‘waiting chairs’ while pretending to read some of the magazines left for nervous patients. After about five minutes, Connor told her that Chesara was back in her room via her com implant.