My Enemy's Son (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 2) (8 page)

“SdK Corporation?” I asked.

“How did you know?  Did Ron tell you?”

“Sort of.  I think you'll be very
successful.”

“I think so too,” Thad replied happily. 
“Do you have any idea how brilliant Ron is?”

“I do.”  I nodded, glad that Thad was
happy.  He even started dating some of the bimbos that Ron had cast off.

Ron was still having some problems
though.  There was a lot of resentment among the senior staff at the hospital
because he had basically skipped through internship and most of the residency
requirements.  He was commanding higher fees than any of them and for the most
part ignored rules, regulations and hospital procedures.  He was constantly
getting reprimands from the head of neurology, head of surgery and hospital
administration.  He ignored all of them which caused even more resentment. 

On top of that, as his notoriety spread,
the Saintists came out in force.  Janet and I were walking across campus to a
little lunch place that we liked one day while a demonstration was being held
right in the middle of Central Square.

“What's that all about?” Janet asked as we
came into a crowd of a hundred or so Rozarians.  “I've never seen any kind of
protest here.”

“Me either.”  I shrugged as someone handed
us a flyer with none other than Dr. Ron's picture on it.

“The Infidel has returned!” The flyer
screamed and showed a picture of Karukan de Kudisha right below Dr. Ron's.

“Whoa!” Janet cried.  “Is he like his
great, great, great, great…”

“Yep.”  I pushed my way back out of the
crowd.  “I don’t know why these people have to drum up all this stuff about the
Infidel.  Even Kenak and Donak were worried about that at first until I told
them to forget it.  That war was over a thousand years ago.”

“Wow,” Janet said.  “I wonder what it
would feel like to be related to Genghis Khan or somebody like that.”

“Yeah, well, get this.”  I pulled open the
door to the restaurant.  “He's also the great, great, great whatever of the
Saint.”

Janet nearly fell over.  “That's like
being related to Jesus.”

“Mhm,” I laughed.  “Imagine if Jesus's
granddaughter married Genghis Khan's grandson.”

Janet and I were laughing so hard we
couldn’t even eat our lunch.  We spent the whole hour making jokes about what
living in that house must have been like.

About a year after I switched jobs, Tim
called me at work asking for a favor.

“I need you to get someone in to see your
doc,” Tim ordered in his commanding Admiral voice.

“Well honey, the waitlist is really long,”
I replied.  “How does next year sound?”

“Shel, I've got a gal who was injured on a
ship.  The ship is being towed right now to Spacebase Rozari.  We don’t have
any brain surgeons on staff here and the ship’s doctor thinks she needs to see
one.  Your guy, Dr. Ron is supposed to be the best, so do your old man a favor
and make room for her in Ron’s schedule tomorrow.”

“What happened to her?” I asked.

“The ship had an accident and she was
pinned beneath an engineering console.  Damn thing fell and hit her head and
according to the ship's doc, she's got a brain swelling or something and she's
been unconscious for several days.”

“Ok.”  I opened up the schedule.  “Dr.
Markoff can see her tomorrow.  He’s the head of the department.”

“No, I want your guy.  This girl is
special and I want her treated by the best.”

“So what makes her so special?”  I
squeezed her in between two other patients at 3:15.  Ron would probably be okay
with it.  He spent a minimum of time with everyone anyway, no shooting the
breeze with him.

“Well, if she wasn't under the console
trying to hotwire the fire suppression system, the whole ship would have blown,
so I guess that makes her some kind of hero.”

“Oh,” I gasped.  “Ok.  Poor thing.  Well
don’t worry, Ron will get her all fixed up.”

“I hope so, babe.  I hate to lose a good
officer like this one.  She was on the fast track for a command.”

“I’m just booking her a room at the
hospital tomorrow.  I put her on Ron’s schedule for mid-afternoon.  Will that
work?”

“You're a gem, Shel.  Love ya, baby.”

“Meatloaf for dinner.  Thad's got a date
and leaving us with the kids.  Bye sweetie.”

LCDR Katelina Anne Golden.  I typed it
into the schedule after Tim's yeoman emailed me the records.  I didn't think
anything of it beyond what a brave girl she must be, but then I wasn’t the
clairvoyant one.

It was just after 5pm the next day and I
was packing up my stuff to head home when Janet opened the office door and
collapsed in the first chair.  She was white as a sheet.

“What happened?” I cried.

“Ron's in big trouble,” she said and shook
like a leaf.  “He's going to get his privileges pulled.  We're all dead meat.”

“Oh, it can't be that bad.”  I got up and
went to pat her on the shoulder.  “He's always getting in trouble.”

“Not like this.”  Janet shook her head. 
“This is worse than smoking in patient rooms.”

“So, what happened?”  I took the chair
next to her and slipping off my shoes, I put my tired feet up on the coffee
table.

“You know that girl, the Spacegirl that
came in this morning all concussed?”

“Yes,” I nodded.  This was the special
case that Tim had asked me to squeeze in.

“Well, she was on the 3pm rounds and when
we got to her room, nobody was there.  So I asked the duty nurse what happened
to her and the duty said that Dr. Markoff came in and decided to treat her
himself and diagnosed her with excessive fluid and spinal edema and took her
stat to surgery.”

“Ok?” I prompted.  “What's wrong with
that?”

“I don’t know.”  Janet shrugged.  “That's
a pretty basic treatment and not all that difficult but Ron went ballistic.  He
literally turned and ran down the hall to surgery so I ran after him and
everybody was like calling 'what's the crisis?' and I had no idea.  So we burst
in to surgery, not even taking time to scrub and Markoff had the girl on the
table and the patch was already shaved and he had the drill like an inch from
her head and Ron was like 'what the fuck are you doing?'  Markoff looked up and
he said, 'Gosh Ron, this procedure is called a ventricular shunt.  You might
have known that if you bothered to go to med school.’  He put the drill to the
girl's head but then the drill went flying out of his hand and across the room
straight into Ron's hand.”

“Oh my,” I gasped.

“Yeah, well, everybody was totally shocked
and that ditz Gina Gibbons, who was assisting, started screaming and Markoff
looked like he was ready to kill someone, namely Ron.  Ron told him that the
girl was his patient she wasn’t going to get a shunt.  He handed me the drill
which I then dropped on the floor and so he yelled at me to get scrubbed and
told ditz Gina to shut her trap and prep for .1mm laser sutures and that we
were going to go in through the left Eustachian tube.  Markoff started
screaming that we couldn’t do that, we would make her deaf and Spaceforce was
going to sue us up one side and down another but Ron was like, 'Markoff, shut
the fuck up or I'm going to throw you out.’”

“Oh lord, we are so dead,” I muttered and
wondered if Thad could get me a job or if Kenak would take me back.  “So what
happened next?”

“Well,” Janet shuddered and took a deep
breath, “Ron had this idea that she had a couple of bleeders hidden underneath
the temporal lobe, but nobody could see them on the scans because they were so
tiny.  He didn’t think that the concussion and infection were all that bad,
that they didn't need to be drained anyway, but would clear by themselves when
the bleeders were cauterized.  And, he wanted to go in through her ear so she
wouldn't have a hole in her head and be out of commission for three months or
more.  So, he did.  Then, he resealed the ear drum after he came back out so
she shouldn't have any hearing loss despite what Dr. Markoff said.”

“And, she's okay?” I prompted.

“Think so.  She went into recovery when I
left and her numbers looked good.”

“Was this a new technique or something? 
Is that what the problem was?”

“Oh, totally,” Janet replied.  “Nobody
ever goes in that way.  So, I'm sure Ron didn't have permission to do it from
Admin and he cussed out Markoff who left in a huff when she went into
recovery.  But, let me tell you, before Markoff left he announced to everyone
that Ron was the Infidel returned and the Saintists were going to kill him
before he destroyed what was left of Rozari.”

“My goodness,” I snorted.  “All this
because they were fighting over a patient?”

“Did you know that he could do stuff like
that?”  Janet narrowed her eyes at me.

“What?  Go in through the ear drum?”

“No, the flying drill!  Like…like magic
kind of stuff.  Telekinesis.  Do you remember when he first came to the
hospital and made that pitcher of water fly?  I forgot all about that until
now.  Did you and Dr. Kenak know about that?”

I was about to answer but the door swung
open and the doctor himself stormed in.  Without acknowledging us, he went into
his own office and slammed the door.

“Wish me luck,” I said to Janet and
slipped my shoes back on.  “I'm going in.”

“Luck,” Janet mumbled and frowned.

Ron was leaning back in his chair smoking
a cigarette.  He had his bare feet up on the desk.

“Didn't your mother ever tell you not to
put your dirty feet on the furniture?” I said.

“Nope,” he replied, blowing smoke into the
air. 

“She left that to the servants?”

“She left everything to the servants.”

“Royal prerogative?”

“Shelly,” he said tiredly.  “On my trip
through her birth canal, I shredded her uterus with my …uh…toe nails, and she
bled out.”

“Oh!  Poor thing!  I hope you don't blame
yourself for that.”

He didn’t respond.

“Well,” I continued brightly.  “As your
adoptive mother, I'm telling you to take your dirty feet off of the furniture.”

He looked at me through his dark glasses
as if he didn’t know who I was.

“Really?”

“Yes,” I said.  “About time you got some
manners.  Don't mess up the furniture, don't cuss at your bosses, don't make
things fly about the room, and don't do procedures if you haven't cleared them
with Admin.”

He smiled.  “Ok, Mum.”  He didn't move his
feet.

“So did your privileges get yanked?” I
prompted.

“Temporarily,” he sighed.  “But I was
planning to take a few days off anyway.”

“Thanks for informing me,” I replied. 
“Shall I close the office?”

He shrugged.  “Ask Janet if she wants to
see patients.  Otherwise, let Markoff have them all.  I don’t give a damn.”

“When will you be back?”

He stared at the ceiling for a moment.  “I
won’t.  I’m going to be permanently suspended tomorrow.  We shall have to move
over to my new hospital even though it's not quite ready yet.”

“What new hospital?”

He took a long drag on his cigarette. 
“The one that Thad has built over in Kalika-hahr.”

“SdK Corporation?” I asked.

He nodded.  “Mhm.”

“Ok,” I said.  “I’m going to go home now. 
The grandkids are coming over.  Let me know when and where I need to come back
to work.”

“Ok,” he shrugged.

I walked to the door.

“You take it easy these next few days. 
Don't worry about anything.  Just stay home and rest.”

He laughed.  “Oh, I intend to.  I promise
not to get out of bed for three days.”

“What does that mean?”

He smiled wickedly, showing all of his
beautiful white teeth.

“I don't want to know,” I decided and
walked out the door.

Chapter 2

Katie

My head was splitting.  It hurt worse, a
thousand times worse than my worst migraine.  I couldn’t open my eyes.  I
couldn’t speak.  I didn't know if I made any noise or not but I felt like all I
could do was whimper.  Then there was a cool hand on my head.  It sucked the
heat right out from my skull.  It stroked my face and the pain poured out into
it.  I started to cry because the pain was leaving me and I could breathe
again.  I opened my eyes into the silver light.

“Senya!”  I opened my arms to him and he
climbed into bed with me.  His skin was cool against mine and both familiar and
new.  He was no longer a teenager and his beard stubble scratched my cheek.  He
kissed me and touched me with his hands and his mouth.  “Senya,” I cried over
and over though the words never escaped my lips, never left the depths of my
mind.

He was saying something to me, speaking to
me but I didn’t understand him.  The words were foreign.  He pushed himself
into me and it hurt.  I was so confused.  Senya never hurt me.  Senya and I fit
together like pieces of a puzzle.  Senya was a figment of my imagination.  I
didn’t know who this man was and why he was doing this to me or how I came to
be so weak that I could only lie here and let him.

I opened my eyes.  It was morning and
sunlight was streaming in from the windows.  I had no idea where I was or how I
got here.  It looked like a hospital room but definitely was not the sickbay on
the ship.  My head hurt in a bruised way and my left ear felt like I had an ear
infection.  I held up my arms and examined the cuts and bruises on them.

“Well, there she is, back with the
living!”  It was Jerry coming through the door.  “How are you feeling, Goldie?”

Caroline followed him.  “Did breakfast
come yet?”

I stared at them totally confused.

Jerry sat down and took my hand.  He told
me about the fire on board the ship and the console that fell on me.  “So
Command wanted you treated by Dr. de Kudisha and so you had surgery yesterday
and now you're going to be fine.”

“What kind of surgery?”  I wiggled my
fingers and toes.  Nothing felt too sore. 

“You had brain surgery, honey,” Caroline
said, taking my other hand.

“I had brain surgery yesterday?”

“Yes,” Caroline gave my hand a squeeze. 
“But the Rozarian doctor used this brand new procedure on you so you don't have
any holes in your head and you're good to go.  You may even get released today
if you feel up to it.”

“Oh,” I said.  “Great.”  I had brain
surgery and hallucinated Senya again.

The door opened and a young Human nurse
came in with a breakfast tray.

“Here you go, Commander Golden,” she said
and placed it in front of me.  Doctor will be here shortly.  He said he's going
to release you this morning.”

“See!” Jerry cried jubilantly.  “The
ship’s going to be in dry dock for a few more days so we can all have a bit of
leave here on Rozari.  That'll be fun.”

“No, it won't,” Caroline replied.  “This
place is hot and boring.  Besides, we’re probably being radiated just by
standing here.”

“You’re not, it’s safe,” the nurse said
and straightened the sheets beneath me.  “But it is hot and boring.”  Her
blonde ponytail flopped down on the bed as she leaned over.  “What's this?” 
She pulled a black ribbon out from under my pillow.

Caroline and Jerry stared at it as if it
were alive.  I stared at it and wondered what it was. 

The nurse carefully picked at a strand of
long black hair attached to the ribbon.  She pursed her red lips and narrowed
her eyes.

“Was he here?” she accused me.

“Who?” I mumbled, staring at the hair
between her fingers.

“Who?” She repeated as if she didn’t
believe me.  “Last night.  Did he?”  Her brow furrowed.  She looked at me
askance.  “Did you?”  Now she put her hands on her hips.  “Here?  I can’t
believe that bastard!  This is a hospital you know, not his apartment!”

Caroline gasped.

“What exactly are you accusing LCDR.
Golden of doing?”  Jerry stood up between us and crossed his arms in front of
his chest, blocking me from the wrath of the nurse.

The nurse pushed Jerry aside and leaned
down into my face.  “Let me tell you Miss Spaceforce,” she spat.  “It's one and
done with him so don't think you'll ever hear from him again and believe me,
the Hospital Administrator is going to hear about this.”   She scrunched up the
ribbon and made a fist as if she were going to throw it at me.  “So help me…” 

The door opened again and this time Senya
walked in.

I made a sort of screaming noise.  The
kind of noise you would make if your lifelong hallucination just walked in and
was real flesh and blood.  The blood pressure monitor over my head started to
make a screaming noise too.  Caroline also made some sort of noise though I
wouldn’t classify it as a scream.  It was probably the kind of noise you would
make if the hottest guy you ever imagined just walked in wearing a lab coat
that said
Dr. Ron
over the breast pocket.  Jerry was silent and
thankfully got up to turn off the sound on the blood pressure monitor.

“Is this yours, Ron?”  The nurse dangled
the ribbon in front of Senya.

“Yes, thank you,” he replied and took it
back.  I think this was the first time I had ever really heard his voice
because I didn’t recognize it.  I did recognize his long wavy black hair which
right now was tied back with another black ribbon.  I remembered climbing on
his back and brushing his hair until it shone.  I remembered sticking my hands
in it and twining it around my fingers.  I giggled nervously.

Caroline looked at me with enormous eyes
and mouthed “What did you do?”

I shrugged.  I had brain surgery.  Who the
hell knew what I did last night?  In fact, who the hell knew what I was doing
now?  I was probably hallucinating all of this. 

In the meantime, Jerry was double teaming
with the nurse, ganging up on Senya and demanding to know exactly how the
ribbon got under my pillow.

“Excuse me,” Senya said in English and
indicated for Jerry and the nurse to move aside. 

“I'm reporting you to the Director, Ron,”
the nurse said a bit snippily.  Senya ignored her and came right up to my
bedside.  He looked up at the monitor which was flashing all sorts of warnings.

“You feel okay now, yes?” he said in
Rozarian, turning his gaze down on me. 

I spoke Rozarian because it was the
foreign language I randomly chose to study at the Academy.  How he knew that, I
had no idea and though I was far from perfect in it, I could tell that it was
not his native language either.

“I don't know,” I replied, staring up at
him.  “Are you Senya?”

He put his hand on my scalp and pressed
with his thumbs.  He cocked his head as if he were listening to something. 
“You do not have a headache?”

“No.”  I shook my head which actually did
give me a headache.  The doctor felt the back of my neck and then a spot right
below my left ear.

“Very good,” he said and smiled a little. 
“I will sign off your release.  You will get dressed and be at the entrance to
the hospital in fifteen minutes, yes?”

“Why?” I tried to see inside his mouth. 
If he was Senya, he’d have fang-like incisors.  His mouth was shut though and
he was already walking away from me.

“Katie, your blood pressure is awfully
high right now,” Jerry piped up, his voice cold and authoritative, which was
unusual for Jerry.  He made a show of adjusting the monitor.  “I'm a little
concerned about this.  I don’t think you are ready to be released.”

“You are the ship's doctor?”  Dr. Ron
turned to him.  He said this in accented English.

“Jerry Waldman,” Jerry replied and
hesitantly held out his hand to shake.  Dr. Ron didn’t move.  Jerry eyes
crossed and he looked confused.  Then, he closed his eyes as if he was suddenly
very sleepy.  Dr. Ron turned back to the vid on the wall.  He typed something
on my chart.  Jerry woke up with a start.

“Ron,” the nurse said, now all sweetness
and light.  “You don't really want me to have to go to the Director, do you?” 
She hung on to his arm.  “You’re already in enough trouble, aren’t you?”  Dr.
Ron shrugged her off and left my room.  The nurse ran after him and then the
door slammed shut.

“Are they giving me Vicodin?” I said to no
one in particular.  “I think I’m allergic to it.”

“Holy moley,” Caroline gasped.  “What the
heck was that about?”

“No, no Vicodin,” Jerry replied, walking
over to the vid.  “He signed you out.”

“I'd want to stay in if he were my
doctor,” Caroline sighed.  “I think my head hurts real bad.”

“I need to get dressed,” I said and sat
up, putting my feet over the side of the bed.  “Could you guys please leave?”

“What did you call him, Katie?” Jerry
asked, coming back to my side to stare into my face.

“I didn't call him anything.”

“I called him one smoking hot Rozarian
stud muffin brain surgeon,” Caroline said.

“You called him a name,” Jerry insisted. 
“When he first walked in here.  Senya?  Do you know him, Katie?”

“I want to know him,” Caroline said.  “I
want to know him in every way there is to know a man.”

“Can you guys go now, please?  I want to
get dressed.”  I pointed at the door.

“How did that ribbon get under your
pillow, Katie?”  Jerry demanded again, crossing his arms in front of his
chest.  He used a middle finger and pushed his glasses back up his nose.

“Looks to me like she ripped it out of his
hair in a moment of passion and glory,” Caroline stated.

“Stop it,” I snapped, getting very annoyed
at the both of them.  “I don't know how that thing got there.  I don't know
what the heck's going on.  I just had brain surgery!  I want to get my clothes
on and get out of here, so get out of my room!”  I wagged my finger
emphatically at the door.

“Ok.”  Jerry sniffed and twitched his
shoulders.  “Come on, Caroline.”

“You go,” Caroline replied.  “I'll stay
here and help Katie get dressed.”

Jerry slunk out and closed the door behind
him.

“Oh geez,” Caroline nearly screamed.  “He
makes you feel like you just ran over his dog with your speeder.  Sorry honey,
but I'd take Dr. Ron in a heartbeat too.”  I climbed out of bed as Caroline
stared at me.

“What?”

“What's that?” she giggled.

“What?”

She pointed at the bed sheets, the stain
on my hospital gown.

I gasped.

“He was here,” she narrowed her eyes
wickedly, “my word, Katie Golden, you are full of surprises.  Don't tell me you
were a virgin too?”

“Shut up!” I said.

“You were!  How old are you? 
Twenty-seven?”

“Shut up, Caroline!” I snapped, pulling on
the uniform that was in my overnight kit.

“Did it hurt?”

I glared at her as I zipped my tunic.  She
stared at me waiting for an answer, a crazy smile on her face.

“A little,” I relented.  “It kinda hurts
now.  Where's a tooth brush?”

“Oh, that'll go away,” she sighed and spun
in a circle, hugging herself.  “Lordy, Katie, if he ain’t the most gorgeous
thing you ever laid eyes on!  I wish I was a virgin again too if that's what he
likes.”

I didn’t answer because my mouth was full
of toothpaste.

“Golly,” she cried.  “Here we assumed you
were in recovery and poor Jerry was calling the nurses' station every five
minutes all night long and you're busy cuddling up to your surgeon.  Honey
girl, did you score big time or what?”

“Where's the main entrance?”  I grabbed my
kit.

“Why?”

“I'm supposed to be at the front of the
hospital.  You want to show me where it is?”

“Why?  What are you doing there?”  We went
out into the hallway.

“I don't know,” I replied.  “He just told
me to be there.”

“My oh my,” Caroline said.  “You’re
leaving with him?  I guess he ain't one and done after all.”

“Caroline, this is really none of your
business.”  We walked past the nurse's station.

“Well don't worry, honey.  It only hurts
the first time.  After that, well, I bet that man can make you sing an aria,”
Caroline sighed.

“Caroline!”

“Honey, that is one hot Rozarian doctor
and you better tell me everything when we get back to the ship.”

We went through the double doors at the
hospital's main entrance.  He was waiting there, smoking a cigarette and
leaning against a black Porsche.  He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with a
hole in it, sneakers without laces or socks.

“I hate you,” Caroline moaned in my ear. 
“I hate you, I do.  Ask him if he has any brothers.”