Guardians (Caretaker Chronicles Book 2) (28 page)

Reagan thought the communications officers had
done a good job with the message. It was not too aggressive, but commanding
enough to encourage compliance. They had received no response, however. Though
there was no way to be sure if he was receiving them, all indications were that
this Galo seemed to be ignoring their hails.
That alone
made Reagan nervous. If the aliens were, as they said, searching for something,
why didn’t they move to the SOA and allow the humans to work with them
peacefully instead of continuing to glide ominously over every city?

Reagan reached for his mug of hot, gray sweetbean
drink. Its bittersweet flavor filled his mouth and cleared his mind as he
pulled up the live feed from Minville and saw that the big Asgre ship was
leaving. It was headed, he knew, to the next settlement.

***

It took Galo many sun cycles to search the next
four settlements. He had great trepidation as he left the settlement which the
translator called “New Alliance” and moved across the Eastern plains to the
only city he hadn’t inspected: “Coriol.”

Approaching, Galo saw the blue soil piled at the
mouth of the mining tunnels and the bright orange veins of the humans’
sought-after mineral peeking through the bare dirt. He saw wide, flat farms at
the top edge of the city and the towering spaceport on the far side. This was
the last city. If there were no signs here, his efforts had been in vain. If
there were no signs here, he would have to consider seriously the possibility
that he would not retrieve the lost Vala. His business would be decimated and
he would have to begin rebuilding as best he could.

He settled into the now-familiar scanning pattern
over the city. This one was rectangular, with the mine, the industrial
buildings, the spaceport, and the jagged peaks of the strange mountains at the
four corners. The rest of the city was made up of tall buildings and small blue
dwellings just as he had seen in the other settlements.

 Galo heard the scanner ping, once and
fleetingly. He rushed to his readouts. It was the slightest of positive scans,
but it was more than he’d had yet and his hope soared. No doubt the Vala had
been here, perhaps were still here. Galo was disappointed to see that the
scanners could not pinpoint the exact location of the trail from this altitude.
He thought about descending further, but that was likely to make the humans
nervous enough to become hostile, and he couldn’t risk that, not when he was
this close.

He walked around the bridge, once, twice. A pile
of loose garbage overflowing the bin in the corner caught his eye. It was a
mess in here. He’d have to get the old Vala in here to clean it up. The jumble
made him think of a mess one of his skybarges had made a few cycles before the
Vala trouble started. They had accidentally jettisoned a load of cargo. To find
it all, Galo had used remote sensors. Perhaps he could send those out and gain
a more precise idea of where to search.

His fourth hand trembled with excitement as he
extended it to engage the translator. “Humans of Coriol,” Galo tried the name, “I
have come to retrieve my property.”

He waited for a response as he passed over the
city. As usual, none came. Galo felt jumpy with irritation and fear. He knew
conclusively that the Vala had been here. The humans’ silence could suggest
that they were hiding the slaves.

Galo contacted his remaining ships, instructing
them to join the eight in orbit. He was close. When he found the Vala, he had
to have sufficient backup to ensure he could reclaim them. He tensed as he saw
the ships begin to appear above the planet. He hated pulling them out of the
shipping lanes. Every day here was costing him hundreds of thousands of rhu.

“Uumbor,” he barked, and his assistant scuttled
to his side. “How many remote sensors do we have on board?”

“Sixteen, sir.”

“Can you calibrate them to detect the Vala trail?”

Uumbor considered, then nodded slowly. “Using the
settings from the onboard sensors, I should be able to.”

“Get to work on them. Let me know when you are
finished and we can deploy them.”

***

When Marcos walked into Dr. Zuma’s office, her
nervous eyes told him she knew exactly what it was about.

“It’s time your people got this thing stopped,
Dr. Zuma,” Marcos said. Especially with the educated, it helped to be
aggressive.

“We’re trying, Mr. Saras. This is a complex
illness that we haven’t seen before. We’re on an alien planet, you know, it’s
pretty impressive that we can even—”

“I’m not impressed,” Marcos cut her off. “Have
you seen the people? It’s starting to look like a horror movie out there.”

Zuma seemed to harden. “I’ve seen them up close,
Mr. Saras. It’s even more like a horror movie on the inside.”

“What do you mean? What is this thing, Zuma?”

“It seems to be related to anemia. For one reason
or another, their bodies aren’t absorbing iron correctly, in addition to many
other nutrients. We’ve also observed a breakdown in the walls of the
capillaries. We’re not sure what’s causing it, but it is the reason for the
bruising.”

“Is it a virus? Can a vaccine be made?”

Zuma actually rolled her eyes at him. “Everyone
always wants a quick and easy shot to solve every problem,” she said, “and
honestly, I wish we had one. But we haven’t been able to identify it as a virus
yet. That doesn’t mean it isn’t one, just that we don’t know how to detect it.”

“Then what am I paying you for?” Marcos paced,
agitated, around the room.

“Your scrip doesn’t buy us super powers, Mr.
Saras.” Her voice was acidic.

Marcos stepped closer to her. “I want answers.
You’d better be able to show me that you’ve got doctors on this around the
clock.”

“Of course we do,” Zuma snapped. He saw her
hesitate, then she looked him defiantly in the eye. “Do you truly want answers,
Mr. Saras? I’ll give you answers. Our preliminary findings suggest, Mr. Saras,
that something in or near the mines is making these people sick.”

Marcos felt himself flinch as if she’d slapped
him. He collected himself, sucking in a breath and letting it out very slowly.
He met Zuma’s gaze.

“That is not a statement you should be tossing
around carelessly,” he warned. “In fact, I never want to hear it again. The
mines have cutting-edge technology to detect hazards. None of them have
reported anything out of the ordinary.”

“But Mr. Saras, you don’t—”

He didn’t let her finish. “This is
non-negotiable. If you want to remain my head of pathology,—in fact, if you
enjoy practicing medicine on Minea at all—I won’t ever hear that allegation
again.” He stepped menacingly toward Zuma. “Keep looking. It’s not my mines,
Dr. Zuma.” It was less an opinion than a command.

She stood still and quiet, and then she spoke. “If
I had known back on Earth that the job awaiting me was not medicine but acting
and cover-up, I’m not sure I would have come to Minea.”

Veronika scoffed, toying with her ruby pendant,
and spoke up. “Nobody knew exactly what it would be like here. But it’s a long
way home, Dr. Zuma. And you probably ought to remember that the other colonies
have their own contingents of doctors. If we find it necessary to fire you, you
won’t have a good reference from Saras company.” Veronika leaned in,
confidentially. “Regardless of your skills or education, you’ll be in the mines
or the refineries just like your patients. Your family will be just as hungry,
your living conditions just as crowded. You see, every day, where that leads.”
Veronika swept her hand wide, indicating the floors of people struck with
Minean Fever that lay just outside Zuma’s office door. “That’s not really an
option, is it?”

Marcos saw Zuma’s defiance crumble. She nodded
briefly. Veronika was adept at getting what she wanted. He stepped in to
lighten the mood.

“Great,” Marcos said. “You’ll continue working on
a cure, I’m sure. The sooner the better. I’m glad we were able to chat.”

Zuma sunk onto the exam table. He knew this was
not the adventure she had signed on for. But her job was secure and fulfilling,
her house was comfortable, and her groceries were delivered every Thursday
without fail. He couldn’t allow her to think things here were tougher than they
were. Back home she would have had difficult administrators to deal with, too.
Back home there would have been mysteries to solve and patients she would lose.
He shook her hand and turned toward the door. From the corner of his eye he saw
Veronika reach to shake the doctor’s hand as well.

When she drew back her hand, Marcos saw she had
left Zuma holding a small silver vial. He opened his mouth to ask about it, but
Veronika strode past him, out the door, and by the time he had fumbled his mask
into place she was halfway down the hall.

When he caught up to her, she looked him in the
eye. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answers to,” she said
sharply. “But you always know I’m looking out for Saras Company.”

She didn’t say, “You know you can trust me,” or “You
know I’m looking out for you,” and Marcos wasn’t sure what her answer meant for
him, personally. But he did know that plausible deniability went a long way
with the UEG, so he bit back his questions.

 
Though the
dawn was breaking across the river and Ethan wanted to run as fast as he could
out of the cave, he waited at the top of the Yynium staircase to help the crew
get out. Brynn and Maggie were the last to come up.

Brynn was walking very close to Maggie. When
Ethan reached out to steady the two women, Brynn seemed to trip and lunged
savagely forward, toward Maggie. Ethan, knowing Maggie was still too unsteady
to catch her, stepped between them, reaching for Brynn. He felt a sharp pain in
his side as her weight hit him and figured he must have pulled a muscle. That
would make crossing the river and running for home a bit more uncomfortable.

Brynn pulled back from him. He couldn’t tell if
she was embarrassed that she’d tripped or if she was angry that he’d caught her
instead of letting Maggie. But he was glad he did or both women could have
fallen back down into the pit. And now they were walking, all five of them, out
of the cave and into the growing sunlight of dawn. He reached around and rubbed
the sore spot on his ribcage as his eyes played across the surface of the
water.

He thought he heard someone call his name.

That’s when he saw her. Aria was coming towards
him on a boat, looking like a goddess with the wind in her hair. She jumped out
before the boat was all the way to the bank and waded through the river calling
his name. He went to her.

He held her without breathing, soaking in her
hair against his face, her arms around his chest, her voice repeating, “Ethan,
Ethan. You’re alive. You’re alive.” And, lost in the rhythm of her, he closed
his eyes and felt himself falling.

***

Aria had not known Hank was nearby until he was
there beside her, helping the two dark men from the survey crew lift Ethan into
the boat.

Aria’s head was spinning, and Hank threw an arm
around her shoulders. She was enveloped in the pungent aroma of pine and dirt
that always accompanied him. “He’s likely dehydrated and sunsick. You get him
back to the city,” Hank said. “He’ll be all right.”

She looked at the strange man who had taught her
so much. She didn’t know if she’d see him or the other Evaders again.

“Tell them we found him,” she said.

“I will.” Hank smiled encouragingly.

“And tell them thank you.”

One of the men who’d staggered out of the mine
stepped up to take the pole and maneuver them onto the water. Aria waved to
direct him down the river, toward home. She was grateful to him as she sat in
the bottom of the boat with Ethan’s head in her lap. She couldn’t believe that
he was in her arms, and she was paralyzed by the terror she felt at his
collapse. She wished Luis were here, or Kaia. She tried to calm her fears and
sent a message to both of them, letting them know he’d been found.

Glancing up, she saw that she was surrounded by
strangers. The little boat was full to capacity with the quiet, weary crew. But
they loved Ethan, too. They didn’t speak, but she saw it in the way their eyes
lingered on Ethan’s still form. One of them began to sing, a hopeful, but
somber, song in a language Aria had never heard. She hoped Ethan could hear it.

Kaia saw from the set of her father’s jaw that
the Asgre had finally crossed a line. They had gone to Coriol and dropped
devices from their ship, scattering them throughout the city. Upon receiving
the news, Reagan and Kaia, along with a large contingent of the defense force
from Lumina led by Sergeant Nile, boarded
Champion
and went directly to
Coriol.

It was the first night they’d spent at home in
their cottage. Though Kaia didn’t miss the bare walls and thin mattresses of
the barracks they’d stayed in at Lumina, the alien ship sweeping over the city
robbed even their home of its feeling of security. She got little sleep that
night, keeping watch out her bedroom window and listening to her father’s
snoring in his room downstairs. She was relieved when morning came and they
left for the base.

They had a full debriefing that lasted most of
the morning. By the time it was done, the devices had been collected from
around the city and teams had begun analyzing what they were and what dangers
they posed.

As she followed her father into the lab at Coriol
Defense Headquarters, Kaia realized she’d left her missive back at the cottage.
She didn’t use it much, but there was a certain security in having it with her.
As they entered the lab she saw a tech team bent over a smooth white table. In
the center of the table was a piece of alien tech.

The metal emitted a smoky odor, and Kaia blinked
as it stung her eyes.

“What is it?” Reagan barked.

Kaia was guessing a measuring device.

“An instrument of some sort. It was transmitting
readings before we disabled it.”

She’d been right, then. She smiled a little. “What
does it measure?” she asked.

“We don’t know yet. Maybe surface radiation,
maybe air quality, maybe some element we don’t even know about. It’s
alien
tech
.” Kaia heard the excitement in the technician’s voice and couldn’t
blame him. Reagan heard it, too, and she could tell he was less enamored with
the idea.

“Don’t forget that we’re here to make sure these
things aren’t going to hurt anyone.” He said gruffly. “If you find out what it
does, I want to know immediately.”

He walked out before they had a chance to answer.

Kaia’s head was spinning. She felt a bit weak
after all the excitement of the last few days, and the ship above the city set
her on edge more than she had anticipated. The summer air hummed with
expectancy. Something big was coming. She felt it.

Military personnel flowed around them in the
narrow corridor. Many of them had swirling purple bruises on their forearms and
necks. They looked afraid. Though she had on her thought blocker and she couldn’t
hear their minds, those first few months on Coriol came back to her, when she
and Ethan were so overwhelmed with the constant thoughts of everyone around
them. Now, she felt their presence as an overwhelming weight, hanging above
her, waiting to crush her if she were to lose her thought blocker. Her
breathing was shallow. She wished for Ethan, wished for his calming presence.
He was the only one who really understood her, on every level. But Ethan was
gone.

Her father was looking at her strangely. “You’d
better get some rest,” he said. “You’re worn out.” She didn’t argue. “Go home.
Eat something. Sleep a while. I’ll let you know if anything important happens.”

Kaia looked at him. She looked at the people
swarming through the building. She needed to be alone. Nodding, she walked out
into the sticky Coriol air to catch a hovercab home.

***

Aria watched Ethan for signs of improvement. He
had been home almost a full day and there was no change. The doctor had no
theories about what was robbing him of his consciousness. Aria could not—would
not—believe that she had regained him only to lose him again to this mysterious
illness.

She watched as he lay in their bed. Ethan still
flinched like he’d been struck when the light fell on his face, so Aria had
draped the windows with heavy blankets. The jingle of her missive brought him
nightmares. He cried out. So she had stashed the missive in a drawer downstairs
after the third time his new friends from the survey crew called to check on
him.

When she sat with him she talked to him. She told
him about the children, about the plants, about Kaia’s departure for Lumina and
about the mysterious ship above the city. And she talked about her love for
him, because his love was what always pulled her out of her own stasis
nightmares.

“I have waited every day to see you come through
that door,” she said quietly. “Every day, Ethan.” She slipped her hand under
the heavy press of his unmoving hand. “I don’t care how I got you back. It only
matters that you’re here.”

She knew he was still in there. He did respond,
sometimes. He tensed whenever she left the room, and she saw the strain of it
on his face when she returned.

“I’m here, Ethan,” she said quietly. “I’m not
leaving. You’ll never be alone again.”

She smoothed the knots of his dark hair, trying
to see through the dark to the familiar lines of his face. She lay beside him
and moved closer. Only when she wrapped her arms around him did she feel his
body relax. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Later, she shaved the curly beard from his face,
finding him again beneath its wild tangle. Gently, she removed the thought
blocker, sending her thoughts willingly to him, hoping they would reach into
the darkness and pull him back.

She washed him, running a warm cloth over his
cheeks, over his forehead, over his neck and shoulders, rinsing it again and
again as layers of cave dirt came away. It was then that she saw the marks:
three pinpricks in a triangle, slightly bruised, hidden on his side just under
his elbow. He was covered with strange scrapes, so she wasn’t sure what it was
about this one that disturbed her so much. She put a bandage over it and reminded
herself to ask the doctor about it.

Aria was downstairs when she was startled by
frantic pounding on the door. When she opened it, she found Kaia. The message
had finally reached her.

“He’s home?” Kaia’s voice was breathless,
unbelieving. Aria nodded.

Kaia didn’t hesitate. Aria followed her to Ethan’s
side.

Aria watched as the frail old woman stroked his
hair and his cheek.

“Oh, Ethan.” Her words fell as soft as leaves.
Aria saw her slip off her thought blocker and felt a surge of hope. But Kaia
turned and caught her eye in the dim light, shaking her head softly. Even she
couldn’t hear him.

They stayed at his side, unmoving, speaking
softly to him and to each other, until evening, when the Saras Company doctor
arrived to check on him again. Saras was, Aria was sure, less worried about his
health than about their liability and Ethan’s role in the Colony Offices. Later
that evening, Saras also sent a psychiatrist, who had just come from evaluating
the members of the survey crew who had been with Ethan.

He said that the strain of the ordeal had
fractured their sense of reality. He said they’d had hallucinations in the
cave. It was likely, he said, that Ethan was suffering from a breakdown.

But Kaia scoffed at that. “Ethan has been through
much more than that,” Kaia said, her voice rough with emotion. “Five years in
space didn’t break him. Genetic manipulation at the hands of aliens didn’t
break him. What makes you think that a few weeks underground would break him?”

Aria didn’t want to say it, but she was afraid he
had broken. She heard him last night calling the names of the people whose
bodies remained in the cave.

After the doctor left the cottage, she tried to
explain it. “They didn’t all make it, Kaia. He still feels like the Caretaker—of
us, of Coriol, of that survey team—and they didn’t all make it. He lost over
half of them.”

Kaia quieted, but she still clung to Ethan’s
hand. “He’s stronger than this, whatever it is,” she finally said.

Kaia stayed another full day, then her missive
buzzed. She was needed at the base.

Aria walked her to the door and they embraced.
Kaia caught Aria’s gaze with her gray eyes. “Take care of him,” she said.

Aria closed the door and leaned against it. The
weight of Kaia’s words settled on her. She felt her bravery melting and she
imagined Ethan on the ship all those years. She imagined him holding all those
lives in his hands, going on even though he didn’t know if he would ever see
her awake again. Now it was her turn to be the caretaker, and she didn’t know
if she could do it.