Keir (7 page)

* * * *

In the medical center, Keir’s monitor display flattened into horizontal bands of color and Quin slithered limply to the floor.

Surei knelt and searched for a pulse, finding one that was weak and irregular. “Taler, help me move her.”

Taler lifted Quin’s body and carried her to the nearest bed. Surei activated a monitor–which showed feeble signs of life–while Taler fastened a metal feed collar around one wrist.

“Hypo,” Surei demanded, and Taler slapped the syringe into her hand. She pushed five milligrams of eximodrenaline and waited, eyes on Quin’s stats, but it soon became clear the drug had been unsuccessful. Surei’s feathers ruffled in vexation.

“Isn’t there anything else we can try?” Taler asked.

“Nothing,” the avian medic sighed. “She failed. We can only wait and see if she recovers, but I doubt it.”

She glanced over at Keir’s bed with a pang of regret. Despite what she had said to Quin, she hated to lose anyone. She saw each and every death as her own failure, even when she knew without doubt the patient was beyond help. Even though she had long since accepted she could not save everyone.

“Taler,” she murmured, gesturing with her head. “Can you pack him away, please? If she wakes, I don’t think it will help her to see him like that.”

The haemovore nodded and went over to his pallet. She took his arm to remove the feed collar from his wrist, and paused. She sniffed, pale eyes uncertain as she slid one hand to his throat. “Surei?”

It took Surei a moment to shake off her disappointment. “What is it?”

“He isn’t dead.”

Surei stared at her in disbelief then glanced meaningfully at the silent monitors with their trail of flat lines radiant against the black surface.

“I know,” agreed Taler, purple hair bobbing in excitement. “But I am never wrong!”

Surei didn’t contradict her, whatever her doubts. She knew her assistant’s abilities well–haemovores could detect the faintest trace of life, a natural instinct that had enabled them to find food in their earliest form and a talent that made Taler a first-class medic.

Automatically, she passed the scanner over Keir’s lifeless figure and found nothing, not the slightest sign.

“Taler...?” she queried, but the haemovore grinned, showing her delicate fangs.

“May I?” she asked eagerly.

Surei gestured for her to proceed, curious to see what the girl intended. Taler filled a hypo with a mixture of resuscitants and used it, then ushered Surei away from the bed as she issued firm instructions to the medical computer.

“Prepare for resus,” she ordered.

“Stand by,” the expressionless voice of the computer responded, followed by a series of rapid beeps. “Defib ready, level one. Stand clear.”

A jolt of energy shot through Keir’s body, making him jerk in response. The monitors remained unchanged and Taler gave him another hypo, repeating the instruction.

“Defib ready, level two. Stand clear.”

Another bolt of charge was delivered, and this time the monitors flickered into life. Stunned, Surei checked manually for a pulse as Taler grinned, her white face luminous with triumph. Keir was breathing, and the monitors showed a steady heartbeat and brain activity.

“Brilliant work, Taler.”

Surei patted the beaming young medic on the shoulder in admiration before an urgent beeping from Quin’s monitor drew her away. While the pulse was still lower than normal, her brain activity was also returning to a more acceptable level. Taler’s resuscitation of Keir seemed to have brought Quin back too.

Relieved beyond measure, Surei placed a hand on Quin’s forehead and offered a silent prayer of thanks.

1.       
   Chapter 4
   

He hung suspended in a moment of utter stillness before sudden awareness sparked–a splinter of light in the darkness. A voice called him back. A hand grasped his and refused to release him to the depths below, where Death awaited him in ravenous anticipation.

His eyes snapped open. Something pressed across his mouth. He reached up and tugged at it, pulling the mask away. Though his body still ached and fatigue lay on him like a weighted blanket, the worst of the pain had eased to leave him feeling better than he had in a long time.

He lay quietly, not moving anything other than his eyes as he surveyed his surroundings. A simple white blanket covered him to his chest and the warm mattress supporting his body seemed to have molded itself against him. His left arm lay across his stomach, but his right rested by his side, encased in a heavy metallic band, its tight grip uncomfortable. He flexed his hand curiously, but could not find the energy to lift it and investigate.

The room itself had no windows, just white walls as far as he could see. The ceiling radiated a diffuse, off-white glow that was easy on the eyes. Blocks of glossy black stone–marked by tiny lights and patterns of shimmering lines–seemed to be making quiet noises, a faint background hum that lingered on the edge of his hearing.

Everything was slightly strange, a degree away from familiar, but there seemed to be no threat and he felt no fear until he turned his head and saw Quin lying nearby, her skin very pale against the dark fabric of her clothing. She lay so still, her gray eyes closed and small hands folded across her stomach.

After watching her anxiously for a while, he saw her breathing, saw a tiny flicker of her eyelids, each a reassuring sign of life. Had she been injured? It disturbed him to not know for certain, but if he was alive surely nothing worse could have happened to her?

He tried to lift his head and a warning pain speared through his chest, discouraging further movement. Lying back, he abandoned any attempt to rise. For the first time, he was truly safe–somewhere his past could not reach him. With his head turned toward Quin, he closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.

* * * *

Quin had her own nightmares. Scarlet coals blazing and hooded figures waiting in the dark. Darion, as handsome as ever with his long, serious face and brown hair, watching her with somber green eyes. The Sentiac’s dark talons reaching out for her, again and again. Keir, his face bloodied almost beyond recognition.

She fought to wake up, but when she did, she wished herself back to sleep again. A supernova of pain exploded in her head, surpassing anything she could remember. Easing herself upright, she pressed her hands against her throbbing head and groaned. The agonizing aftereffects were yet another reason sharing someone’s mind was a bad idea, particularly on the threshold of death.

Never again,
she vowed.
Even miracles aren’t worth this.

“Headache?” Surei stood at the foot of the bed, crossed arms and tilted head clearly indicating her disgust with Quin.

“Please. Don’t tell me it serves me right,” Quin begged, flinching even at the sound of her own muted voice. “I know. It was stupid. You can shout at me all you like as soon as you’ve doped me up enough to stop my head exploding.”

Sighing, Surei pressed a hypo to her shoulder. The brief sting soon gave way to a delightful warmth that shot through her body, replacing the pain with light-headed euphoria. She lay back dizzily.

“What was that?” she slurred.

“New recipe, endorphin-based,” Surei told her as she replaced the hypo, and then waved a scanner over her patient’s head. “Those journals from Edarius you gave me contained medical research on telepathic talents and associated ailments. Feeling better?”

“I feel wonderful. This is marvelous!”

“It can be addictive, so don’t expect it as a regular thing.” Surei clicked off the scanner and waved it at Quin. “It can also be mildly hallucinogenic, so you’re confined to medical until it dissipates, as a precaution.”

“That’s fine,” sighed Quin, easing herself back into her bed. “I don’t feel much like moving, to be honest.”

“How about talking?”

“About?”

“Tell me why?”

Quin opened her mouth to counter with “why what?” but the expression on Surei’s face warned her it wouldn’t be wise. She hesitated, allowing the drug to banish the last traces of discomfort in her head before speaking. “Because, despite the appalling way his own people treated him all his life, the terrible things that were done to him, he still cared enough to save my life. He saw value in someone else’s existence despite condemning his own.”

“So you risked your mind and your immortality because you felt you owed him a debt?” Surei sounded scathing.

“No, there’s more to it than that.” Quin spoke slowly, trying to think of a way to explain her decision. “Salusan is a human colony, even if they don’t seem aware of the fact. Nothing remarkable about them at all. But Keir…” Her breath caught as she recalled the ephemeral mental connection that had sparked each time she touched him. “It wasn’t quite telepathy, but there was something there. A sense of familiarity. I haven’t felt anything like that in decades.”

“And on that vague ‘something’ between you, you save his life and bind yourself to him for the rest of yours?”

“You’re not a telepath, Surei. You wouldn’t understand. You’ve no idea how rare that is. How special.”

Surei folded her arms across the front of her pale blue tunic. “‘Special’ is not a logical justification. It’s a gamble, and if you’re honest with yourself, Quin, you’d know that. Altruism is a very noble characteristic, but one day it’ll kill you.”

Quin darted a glance across to his bed and watched him breathing steadily, his face turned toward her. “It worked then.”

“Yes, it worked. Let’s hope you don’t both regret it.”

Quin smiled. Although still battered and bruised, she could see the color in his face and feel the life in him.

“Quin!”

Her head snapped back and she closed her mind before she lost herself. She would have to learn to control the link she had forged with him. “Sorry.”

“I discovered some interesting things while you were out of it, some of which might explain the connection you felt,” Surei continued, her speech clipped. Quin hid a yawn and settled back, recognizing the start of a lecture, but too relaxed to care as the Memorphorm bed molded comfortably around her. “I now know how he survived so long without advanced medical attention. He has amazing self-healing abilities. Well above average.”

“Maybe the mutation that made him look different gave him some sort of accelerated healing,” Quin suggested.

The medic gave her a severe look. “Come now, Quin. I thought you knew better than to judge by appearances,” Surei scolded.

Quin stared at her. “Are you telling me he’s human? It isn’t a mutation?”

“Not only is he human, his genetic signature matches yours.”

“He’s my descendant?”

“No, his DNA doesn’t match, but he carries a marker from the same Sentiac.”

“That’s not possible,” she told the medic, shaking her head. “What happened to me was a bizarre accident, a chance in several centillion. Could you imagine the chances of it happening twice? ”

“Nothing is impossible, Quin. In any case, I didn’t say it
had
happened twice. What I’m saying is that we may have found your Sentiac.”

“Keir isn’t the Sentiac.” Quin sighed with a touch of irritation. “That much is obvious.”

“No, he isn’t,” Surei agreed, “but he is its descendant.”

Quin bolted upright and grabbed Surei’s arm, almost pulling the diminutive medic off her feet. Behind her bed, her distress sent the monitors into a flurry of spikes and troughs. “Are you sure?”

“DNA doesn’t lie. There is no doubt Keir is a fifth generation descendant of the Sentiac.”

Quin lay back slowly. It explained Keir’s appearance but, Powers, this complicated everything. “How is that possible? Rulk needed a planet with technology to create a sentiac-human hybrid. Salusan doesn’t have anything close to what she’d need.”

“I don’t know how it’s possible. I don’t know enough about Rulk’s capabilities or Sentiac biology. You’ll have to find her and ask her yourself.”

“If I can.” Quin dragged her fingers through her hair, smoothing it back from her face. “At least now we know for sure the Sentiac was there. How far back in time do you think we need to go?”

“A hundred and seventeen years before Keir’s birth there was an unusual plague in Adalucien, well documented by the city’s medical fraternity. Evidence points to the cause being the arrival of outsiders carrying alien microbes to which the natives had no natural immunity. Judging by the symptoms and the rapidity of its spread, I can give you a window of ten days for the newcomers’ arrival in the city. The rate of infection was very consistent.”

“You think the Sentiac caused the plague?”

“Yes, I do. People crossing from one continent to another can bring even mild diseases into a population that has never been exposed to them before, and so prove fatal. Imagine how many contaminants someone from another planet might carry. Even with the difference in physiology, it would only take a single contagious micro-organism carried by the Sentiac, and finding a viable host, for the damage to be done.”

“How can you be sure it came to the city, though? Couldn’t it have infected one of the outlying villages?”