Syn-En: Registration (16 page)

Groat blinked. The Human’s mouth was moving.

“—she even has an Amarook. I—”

“Repeat that.”

The male’s eyes widened and he stepped back. “She has an Amarook. It can’t be real because it speaks, but it definitely looks like one. I don’t know where she found it. Maybe the Decrepi are experimenting with—”

“Not an Amarook.” Groat punched the table. This dent went deeper than the others. The Decrepi wouldn’t dare. He’d snap their stick-like necks and bust their bony wings into splinters. The Skaperian had done too much damage to the Scraptor ranks with those infernal beasts.

It was why the featherheads had been stopped.

The Human shrunk on the screen. “It definitely looked like an Amarook.”

“Bring them to me. The usual spot and time.” Groat killed the connection and shoved out of his chair. The seat glided over the marble floor and slammed into the wall. If the female is from Earth… If there really is an Amarook…

If. If. If. He needed information, not questions. “Daget!”

The massive metal door to Groat’s office creaked open and his second-in-command stopped on the threshold. “Yes, Superior?”

“I need to see that explosion of the Human ship.” He would look for a life pod or anything else that would indicate something survived.

“Yes, Superior.” Daget respectfully clasped his claws behind his back. He tugged an electronic tablet out of his pocket and tapped on the flat screen. “I shall make it available after you read the patrol reports.”

After
? Groat stiffened and his claws clacked together. His second should know better than to ignore a direct order. His second
did
know better. Groat yanked the tablet from his underling’s hand. “What did they find?”

“Two Earth-based crafts headed for Erwar.”

Groat skimmed the contacts. Zeta quadrant six hours ago. Turay quadrant four hours. Leven quadrant only two hours ago. Sour sweat fogged his helmet. He scrolled down, faster and faster, looking for images. “Where are the visuals?”

“There are none. All we’ve been able to find is a hot Helium trail.” Daget stopped the screen and opened a file.

Scrum! The trail was huge! Nearly as big as a Scraptor battle cruiser. And without a visual, he wouldn’t know the armament’s capabilities. “The engines are rudimentary.”

“They could be inefficient, wasting so much energy they appeared larger.”

“Negative. They’re advance Helium-3 fusion reactors. Maybe four generations behind ours.”

“And we don’t even know if they’re the advanced ships or the sacrificial ones.” Groat would send the expendable ones first to test the waters. But he’d blown up his chance to see if Humans had done the same thing. “Order two
kerlium-
class ships to the debris field. Scoop it up and analyze the parts, then get Mopus on the com.”

“Yes, Superior.” Daget’s mandibles ground together and he remained in the room.

Obviously, the story remained incomplete. “Say your piece.”

“What are your orders regarding the new diggers?”

Groat cracked his knuckles. “Give them an incentive to escape, then bring me their corpses.”

Chapter 17

Nell slowed upon reaching the walkway. The pack of supplies shifted on her back, and her fingers dug into the first aid kit tucked under her arm.

Daylight streamed through the exposed dome several blocks behind her but the three-story row homes nearby cast long shadows over the rest of the neighborhood. Dim street lamps illuminated the yellow grass and drying bushes. Decaying leaves edged immaculate marble facades glowing in the spray of spotlights.

Zahar rushed down the clean walk, jumping over a fuzzy Padgow cleaning crimson dots off the white stone. Her brother sprawled on the stoop, holding a pale child in his muscular arms.

Blood filled the seams of the young boy’s lips, but his leg caught Nell’s attention.

“It’s broken.” She didn’t know if she could deal with broken. She’d expected sniffles, runny nose and a fever when she’d volunteered to help the boy.

“Obviously.” Elvis trotted beside her.

The jagged edges of white bone stuck out of the boy’s pale shin and his foot flopped nearly backward on the step.

“What if he’s severed an artery?” Or worse? How was she supposed to fix this? She wasn’t a doctor. She never even played one on TV.

That’s why you have me, Dear.
Mom’s voice soothed inside Nell’s head.
And he would have bled much, much more if he’d severed an artery. In fact, given that it has taken us two minutes to arrive, he would probably already have died.

Well, that’s something to be thankful for.
Nell’s fingers relaxed on the first aid kit.

Elvis fumbled in his saddle bags for the diagnostic unit. “This has complete first aid and emergency protocols for Humans and Amarooks. It will tell you everything you need to know.”

“It will tell Mom.” Mom would tell Nell through her cerebral interface.

Zahar fell onto the stoop besides her brothers. She picked up the boy’s hand and held it in her lap. Her emerald green eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “Can you help him?”

“Yes. Of course.” Nell clicked her jaw shut. That sounded like her speaking but Mom had told her brain what words to say.
Dammit, Mom, I told you no hijacking my body. Not now, not ever.

Never again would she be trapped inside her head while some stupid program usurped her free will.

Dear, I can treat the child faster if I do not have to run everything through you.

The boy groaned. His muscles spasmed. The oldest brother laid the child on the porch as the seizure wracked his frail body.

Nell’s heart leapt into her throat. Jeez, the kid was sicker than she’d thought.
Alright, Mom, do what you have to.

Thanks, Dear.

Blood dribbled from the boy’s fractured leg. A mophead scuttled forward, scrubbing up the blood and zapping the injury with a wayward tentacle.

“Hey!” Nell raised her hand to pull the Padgow back, but her arm flopped back at her side. She grit her teeth. She knew giving control over her body to a computer would return to bite her on the butt. Programs lacked empathy.
Mom, those things sting like a son of a gun. The kid doesn’t need that on top of everything.

The stings are numbing him, so he doesn’t feel any pain.

Oh.
Guess the mopheads saved that little perk for people they liked. Nell’s scalp tingled as Mom extended her reach fully into her brain, making them inseparable. “What’s his name?”

Zahar smoothed the boy’s oily bangs off his forehead. “Iness.” She jerked her chin to the man that had offered his fertility services earlier. “That’s Anwar.”

Anwar pulled his strong, hairy legs close and wrapped his arms around them. “Can you really fix my brother?”

“Yes. It will take time to make him healthy, but we shall make a start.” Nell set her first aid kit on the landing near the boy’s broken leg. Calm flooded through her. She knew what to do, how to do it. Everything would be alright. Shrugging off the pack, she propped it against a Doric column. Brown leaves fluttered to the ground when the pack brushed the dead vine.

The mophead zigzagged over the stoop, cleaning up the debris. “Can I help?”

“You’re helping a lot as it is.” Nell reached out to pet the Padgow then folded her hand close to her body. No touching. She needed the feeling in her hands. “Keeping things clean and managing Iness’s pain is very important.”

The mophead glowed a bright pink and scuttled closer. “You can pet me. I shall not hurt you.”

Tempting. The creatures looked so soft…

“We should focus on healing the child, not petting.” Elvis dropped his saddlebags between her and the Padgow, sliding his head under her palm.

“Yes, of course.” Nell patted the Amarook’s head. He had no reason to be jealous. Or territorial. “I’ll need you to scan the break with the diagnostic unit.”

She would know the results as soon as the unit diagnosed his injuries thanks to Mom.

Holding the smartphone-sized device, Elvis swept it down the broken leg from Iness’ thigh to his ankle. “X-rays are coming online now.”

Images formed in Nell’s head. The femur had three cuts across the long thigh bone. Below the knee, the tibia had snapped in two. Both legs were bowed and their ends were thickened like fat beads. Nell caught her breath.

Zahar glanced up. “Is it bad?”

“Too bad for you to fix?” Suspicion darkened Anwar’s eyes.

“He has rickets.” Mom had known it the moment Nell had looked at the boy. Living in the Valley of the Sun, she had never heard of the disease, would have believed it was all but extinct.

Anwar picked up his brother’s floppy hand. “He probably caught it from the neighbors.”

“You don’t catch rickets.” She eyed the sand canopy pressing against the force field then the artificial lighting holding the darkness at bay. “You get it from lack of vitamin D, from living without sunlight.”

Zahar turned toward the center of town. “We can move into one of the bigger houses. Will that cure him?”

“It will be the first step.” The rest, she’d wait for the professionals to do.
He’ll need more drastic intervention to correct the curving of his spine and legs. He will probably never achieve the height of his brother.

Elvis unzipped the first-aid kit. He sorted the supplies—bandages, antibiotics, skeletal mesh and the portable operating box. “The first step will be setting the bone and beginning Vitamin D therapy.”

“Will it hurt him?” Zahar finger-combed Iness’s hair.

“Not anymore than it already does.” Nell sorted the foil wrapped packets of Vitamin D from the other medical supplies. Forty-five doses. The emergency rations for the crew. Sailing among the stars wasn’t the best place to lay out for a suntan. “How many of your neighbors have this disease?”

Eying the supplies, Anwar licked his lips. “Six or seven of them.”

Zahar tsked. “More than that. Nearly a dozen if not more. It seems as if all the young ones have it.”

“If the mother didn’t receive enough sunlight during her pregnancy, that could affect the fetus.” Elvis filled her head with an image of a line of children and her at the head with the diagnostic unit.

Right. Another opportunity to dispel Pet’s rude insinuations. “I’ll check everyone out before dispensing the doses. Perhaps you should tell your neighbors to bring their affected to the ambassador’s palace. Natural exposure to sunlight will prevent them from getting worse.”

If ultraviolet light penetrated the force field above them.

It must. The plants still grow where the sunlight reaches them.
Hope fluttered inside Nell. Sometimes, she appreciated having Mom around.

Elvis separated one foil packet from the strip. Slicing it open with his claw, he popped out the tablet and handed it to Zahar. “Place this on his tongue. It will dissolve on its own but you may wish to give him a glass of water to help wash it down. I find the residue to be quite chalky.”

“Open, Iness.” Zahar eased her brother’s lips back. Red gums pulled away from his teeth. As soon as his jaw slackened, she set the tablet on his tongue. “Anwar, get us a glass of water, then go spread the word to assemble in the ambassador’s gardens.”

Anwar pushed to his feet. “Why don’t I just take the tablets to hand out? It would be faster, and I can tell who has these rickets with that thing.” He pointed to the diagnostic unit.

“I need it to set your brother’s leg.” Nell unfolded the rectangular operating box then checked for the goo needed to complete the seal with the leg. “Padgow, I’ll need you to numb his leg again.”

“Happy to.” The mophead scuttled closer. His pink tentacles slapped three places above and two places below the knee. “That should be enough for his size.”

“Thank you.”
He is quite an effective anesthesiologist.
Nell nodded then sighed. Anwar still hadn’t moved. “Please, spread this important news. I’m sure worried parents will welcome news of a cure as much as everyone’s liberation.”

Finally, the man rose. “I’ll be back shortly.”

Take your time.
Nell clamped her lips together before she uttered the words. She didn’t blame him for not trusting her. After all, she was a stranger. “Elvis, could you cut his pant leg away?”

The Amarook fished out the scissors. Starting at the ragged hem, he ran the shears nearly to the groin. The fabric parted like butterfly wings. Blood dribbled from the exposed injury. Elvis stared at the wound. Drool hung in strings from his muzzle. Shining rivulets pooled into the injury. “Shall I clean it up?”

“Do it.” Nell shuddered. Amarook spit had many medical benefits, but she couldn’t get over the fact that they licked themselves clean. Still… Her supplies could quickly disappear if everyone else was in such poor condition. Besides as a topical antiseptic, his drool ruled. 

Elvis licked the wound in broad swipes. He eyed the portable operating box before widening the area he cleaned.

Nell watched the sister. No reaction to the Amarook’s ministrations. Then again, Zarah allowed a stinging mophead to numb her brother’s pain.

“I’ll need you to place Iness flat on his back and hold his shoulders. He must remain still when I set the bone.”

“It is a great honor to be tended by an Amarook.” Zahar lay her brother against the stone.

Iness groaned and his eyes fluttered. “Just like in the stories of the Skaperian Empress and her faithful Amarook.”

Elvis growled and sat back. “We have broken our ties with the Skaperian Empress and have allied ourselves with Humans.” With a twitch of his tail, he began licking his hands.

Nell tamped down the flare of annoyance. She didn’t need his emotions clouding her thoughts. She had too many people inside her head already. Setting the portable operating box in place, she pushed it against Iness’s leg, setting the seal.

Goo oozed down the boy’s bowed leg but he didn’t make a sound.

Being unconscious would be a mercy. Nell’s stomach turned. Too bad she couldn’t exercise the option. She placed a roll of hard-setting bandages, two strips of skeletal mesh and antibiotics into the box’s sleeve.