The Theron Residency (Brides of Theron Book 4) (35 page)

              Manko was running as fast as he could from the brig to the bridge, “Excuse me! Clear the way!” He shouted as he ran, shoving people into the walls if they didn’t heed his warnings. He cleared the doors and saw Zirlo in conference with several other ships. They spoke of victories and some battles being hard fought. King Og of the Blacknor people pleaded for more soldiers to join his fight. His people were being forced into the dense forest and were having a hard time rallying against the enemy.

              “As soon as I have a report on the status of our offensive, I will send some men. Until then, I have sent several Sirian fighter crafts to the area to help fend off your enemy. You have my word that help will arrive soon.” The screens went dead and Zirlo turned his head to face Alista. “Any news?”

              “Ceran and Laura have just returned, and the soldiers that came with them are being transferred to the loading dock for reassignment.” Alista said. “There are only three areas left that are requesting help. I have sent a message to all the ships involved to gather what troops they can sacrifice and send them to the coordinates I have transmitted.”

              “Well done, Alist,” Zirlo said as Manko approached. He waited to be addressed by the commander. “Yes, how can I help you Manko?”

              “Can I have a word in private, sir?”

              “Yes, of course.” He looked to the third ranking officer on the bridge and said, “Biman, you have the bridge.”

              “Yes, sir,” Biman said as he checked the communications that were coming in.

              “Let’s talk in my office,” Zirlo said and they walked there in silence.

              Manko didn’t know what happened to the prisoners in his charge. He checked with the Eternity’s crew to see if they were mistakenly transferred to that ship instead of the Pyxis, but they weren’t. “I have come to report that Harec and Carel, the man possessed by Gatton, are missing.”

              “What?” Zirlo looked at him intently. “Explain!”

              “Harec cuffed the man they called Carel in the throne room. Zeb told us all to report to the brig. I was ordered to lock up the prisoner securely until such time that we could figure out how to contain the ‘demon’ from the Drylon man’s body.” He swallowed hard worried how the commander would take it. “When I returned to the brig alone, I contacted the Eternity immediately to see if they had been sent there. They hadn’t. So, I am here telling you that I believe them to be missing.” Zirlo stood in silence rubbing at his temples with thumb and forefinger. He took several paces back and forth across the room deep in thought. Manko remained at attention and completely silent. He knew deep down that the fault did not lie with him. However, he knew in all times of bad news, someone had to take the fall for mistakes made. He just hoped that it wouldn’t be him filling this role.

              “Alista, I need Zeb, Ceran, Roran, and Zion in my office now.” Manko’s skin was cold and he was sure that he was pale when Zirlo looked at him and said, “You will stay until we figure this out.” Zirlo walked around and had a seat behind his desk and pointed at the chair across from him, “Please, sit.” When Manko stumbled and fell ungracefully in the chair, Zirlo looked at him with the first sign of compassion he had shown since he entered this office. “Are you alright, son?”

              “Y-yes sir, I am. I just want you to know that I played no part in an escape plot or neglected my duty in any way. Engineering had electronportated us and that was when I noticed the men were missing. I followed protocol to the letter. I did…”

              Zirlo put his hand up to interrupt, “Manko, I want you to know that I believe that more sophisticated measures were taken to thwart our plans of capture. I assure you that you are not in any kind of trouble. We just need to figure out how and what has happened.”

              Zeb arrived, followed by the rest of the men. Ceran and Zion were the last to arrive. Zeb was the first to speak. “What’s this about?”

              Zirlo stood and looked his son in the eye, “Gatton is missing, and so is the young soldier Harec.”

              “How can this be,” Zeb looked at Manko, “You were supposed to secure him in the brig.”

              “Zeb, it wasn’t his fault. That is why I called Roran here. I need him to access the details of the transfer and see where it went awry.” The men all looked over to Roran, who was turning green. “Look Roran, we are not blaming you for what happened. I think there is something more to this that I believe you can help us figure out.”

The tension in Roran’s body released and he approached the desk to pull up records from the electronportation room. He knew the engineer to always be sharp under pressure, second in skill only to Brylon. With a finger, he swiped with his finger upward until he identified the record he was looking for. Manko’s ID number as well as picture along with a box filled with fuzzy strange lines. Zeb stepped forward, “This can’t be.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Ceran. They were all studying the top of the desk now as Roran manipulated the data some. “It is like they bent the direction of the electrons and went into an entirely different destination. Is that possible Roran?”

“It is possible to have certain signatures rerouted if the person is equipped with some type of interference device. I’ve never seen one of these devices for myself, but I have heard of them. I have also heard that they are very unstable and the reconvening of electrons can be misaligned. They are not something one would want to play with unless they were extremely desperate.”

“That would explain Gatton’s state of mind, but what of Harec?” He looked up at Roran. “Do you think you could determine where they went with the data we have at hand?”

“I could try. However, I would be better equipped in Engineering to handle a trace of this magnitude.”

“Okay, go to it. You might be able to pick up on Harec’s translation chip or communications badge. We need to determine if they were transferred to a safe house on Drylon or to a ship,” Zirlo said.

“If it is a ship, we need to map all the ships that were leaving the planet at or around the time that the interference was detected. They would be stupid if they didn’t enable a cloaking device or some other measure to hide themselves. I want you to put together a team to look for any anomalies in space at or just after the time that the prisoners were electronportated,” Ceran added.

“Yes, sir,” Roran said as he turned and walked out the door.

“Sir, if I may,”
Zion stepped forward.             

“Of course Zion,” Zirlo beckoned him forward.

“I might have some information that might explain why Harec is missing.”

“Please share what you know with us,” Zirlo said. “Ceran has told me that you have known Gatton in the past.”

“Yes, I met him many years ago. Although, it was not Gatton that possessed my sister.”
Zion looked around the room to ensure that he had their full attention.
“When I was a boy I lived in a tribe. At this time, our planet was not affiliated with any interplanetary councils or command directives. A woman came into our village with two young boys at her side. She had eyes as green as ours and her sons had black eyes, dark as coal. The people thought she was a gift sent to us from the Gods. We loved her because she was a kind woman full of grace and honor. Her younger son Uphir also showed the same tendency. But, her older son was evil to the core. He did not honor life, he destroyed it every chance he got. When his mother died, he took over in her stead and taxed our people to no end. Our people were suffering greatly with him as a leader.”

“His brother Uphir would spend a lot of time with my sister Leela. My parents liked him and knew that their relationship would not progress beyond friendship because they were not sexually compatible. I was weary of their friendship from the start. One day, Gatton was in a foul temper that meant someone was going to die. He had killed our kind before. He justified it as a sacrifice to the Gods. Uphir stepped in to defend one of our people. It was then that Gatton bashed in his head with a stone the size of my fist.”
He closed his fist to emphasize the size.
“I don’t know how long it was that we stood there watching the evil one cradle his dead brother in his arms.”

“I noticed her walking toward the crowd, but something was different. It wasn’t her hair, her body, her clothes, but it was something in the way she moved her body that alarmed me. I thought something was wrong that maybe she had found out that Uphir had died and had come to see for herself. My father went to her first to stop her from seeing the bashed remains of her friend and when she looked up into his eyes, my father screamed. Her beautiful green eyes were now the color of the darkness. Several shouts came from behind. ‘Demon,’ they all cried as Leela kneeled down to Gatton and pulled him away from the body. The crowd became violent and the two of them ran from our camp screaming.”

“I followed them and lost track of them after several days. I found a cave several weeks later and saw the fresh tracks leading away from the village into the forest. I followed them and came to a lake where I found Gatton’s freshly dead body along with the body of three men I would later identify as coming from Gunthra in the Guantara System. I never did find my sister, but I know now that they have killed her as well.”

“I have spent my life researching stories about the demon brothers. They kill themselves and possess innocent beings when confronted. Now that Uphir is likely in Harec, my sister can’t possibly exist anymore.”

“How do we capture him?” Ceran asked.

“We must go to Nero in the Claudian system. There is talk of an old priest that makes vessels that contain such types of evil.”
Zion said.

Laura spent the last two hours running lab tests on Mattie to see where she needed to focus more of her energy. The results from the tests on her blood and tissues said that her care would require additional methods to be used.  She immediately asked Jeeka for a transfer to the Eternity so that they would be closer to Brylon, who she imagined would be Mattie’s best hope for recovery. The reconciliation of Brylon with his parents was tearful and she decided to leave the room and check in with Zane.

“Is there anything that I can do to help over here?” she asked as he came out of the patient’s room.

“All is completed. We are waiting for the last of the survivors to be transported aboard the ship and our ships will make the transfer to help the wounded at the other camps. There is talk about you among those that saw your work on the surface.”

“What talk?” Laura asked.

“You helped the man in there didn’t you?” she looked inside to see Rog Gizzeppli asleep on the bed and nodded.

“Yes, I haven’t yet seen his tests since he was transferred. Is he alright?” Zeb had him transferred the minute that his wife was brought aboard the Eternity. The woman was sitting in the chair next to him now, quietly holding his hand.

“Actually, he is perfectly healthy. I just can’t release him until he regains consciousness. It must have taken a lot of energy out of him to heal as fast as he did. Did you know that one of his vertebrae is crystalized?” She looked surprised and shook her head no. He looked down the hallway where he could hear Mattie’s cries for her son. Brylon was emotional too. “How is Mattie? What are you planning to do with her? Jeeka said that you spent a great deal of time in the lab. Is there something that you learned in your medical school on Earth that might help Brylon’s mom?”

Laura took a deep breath, “Let’s just say I have looked at it from all angles. Her diagnosis is stage three melanoma, but she also has a rare form of leukemia. The easiest treatment would be to give her a bone marrow transplant, which is why I asked to transfer her here. Brylon is the most likely donor candidate because he’s her son. I just need to get a sample of his blood to the lab, but seeing that he has just been reunited with his parents, I thought it might be a good idea to give them some time before I start questioning the logistics of the procedure.” She caught the look that he was giving her as if beckoning her to further explain, “Do you have such a thing as organ transplants? What I mean is, the act of giving one person’s living body parts to replace sick or dying organs or tissues in another?”

“I don’t recall a case where we have encountered someone sick enough to require an…organ transplant. How would you propose to do such a transplant?” Zane asked curiously.

“Well, we usually use a large bore needle to drill through the iliac crest of the pelvis and then suck out the marrow tissue through syringes. It is a rather invasive procedure and I don’t have the necessary supplies to do it here. However, I was thinking. What if we could transfer it via electronportation?” If you can transport people and other items up into the ship by this method, why wouldn’t you be able to take bone marrow from one individual’s bones and put it into another? “What do you think?”

“I think you should talk to Brylon. If anyone can figure out how to do this, he is the man.” He checked his tablet and saw a message from the triage area and showed it to her. “Why don’t you come with me to triage. Several of the people we brought up from the camp that have been cleared of illness are learning that their families died in the attacks ten years ago. Grace is down there helping. I thought that she might be able to relate to their circumstances, being that she lost her family in a like manner. I want to go and check on her.”

They walked together down the corridors and rode the elevators down to the food court. Grace was standing along the wall helping the people find their loved ones by using the bank of touch screen terminals that were loaded with the census data taken after the attacks. She was comforting the woman standing beside her. “I know how hard this is for you. I lost my family in much the same way. I understand what you are going through and I will be here for you in any way I can.” Her arms encircled the woman as she rocked and patted her like you would a small child. As Laura and Zane drew closer, Grace gave them a look borne from devastation.

Zane walked up to the grieving woman in Grace’s arms and put a large hand on her shoulder, “I am so sorry for your loss. I can give you something to help you rest if you’d like.” The woman shook her head and walked off to the nearest group of grieving newcomers. He looked lovingly at Grace, “Are you alright?”

She nodded, “It is hard to watch them go through all of this. It just opens old wounds inside of me and breaks my heart all over again. But, I need to be here. I feel like I can and have given them some comfort. I just listened to them as they remembered their family members. I remember from my own experience that was all I wanted when times were tough.” Laura reached out and squeezed her hand. Grace turned to her and looked her over, “You look exhausted, Laura.”

“I am. But, I still have so much to do.” She surveyed the room and the medical attendants bandaging cuts and abrasions. “I am going to check and see if anyone needs anything before I go back to sick bay to talk to Brylon.”

“Alright, I will see you later. I am going to get her something to eat.” Zane said as he tucked his wife in his arms. Her eyes closed on reflex. He kissed Grace’s forehead and she nodded. It was such a comforting feeling to be in the arms of the man you loved, Laura thought. She would find her comfort much later in Ceran’s arms. Right now, they both had work to do.

She looked around for anyone needing her help. Most of the people had been brought aboard from the camp and had already been assigned rooms on board the Eternity. The few that were left still were waiting to have minor wounds tended to. Many came down when they found the courage to see if their families had survived the attacks 10 years ago. A census was completed when they started to move into the forests. All of the survivors were recorded in the database that these people had come down to access.

When it seemed that all was under control and that enough time had passed for Brylon to reacquaint himself with his parents, she returned to sickbay. She passed by Mattie’s room and Emma was now there to meet the newest members of her growing family. It was nice to finally see the girl receive the love that she deserved after a childhood of wanting. Just peering into the room full of smiles and laughter, she knew that Emma had finally found what she was looking for, a real family. She figured she would give them a little more time and walked across the hall to check on Rog. Sitting in a chair next to the bed was a beautiful blonde woman she assumed was his wife, Araime.

“Hi, I am Dr. Mason. I helped your husband on the surface. I just wanted you to know that he is going to be alright.” The woman looked up at her with pink puffy eyes.

“Dr. Zane had said as much. I just want to thank you for all you did for him. Garrett told me that it was nothing short of miraculous.” She watched as the woman looked her over curiously. “I’m Araime.”

“It’s nice to meet you Araime. I only did the best that I could. If I hadn’t stepped in he would likely be paralyzed from the waist down. I only hope that I did enough to fix the damage. He may not be able to walk right away, but he will walk again. It will be up to him to rebuild those neural pathways to move his legs like he used to be able to do before this happened. His brain will have to make new connections. But, from what I heard about him, he is brilliant and determined. He will be walking before your child takes his first steps.”

“Child?” Araime looked shocked. Laura was overcome with the heat of revealing too much information. Indeed, she should try to hold back sometimes and not assume that everything she saw was just as obvious to everyone else.

Seeing no way out of this revelation, “Yes, you are with child.”

“Are you sure? We have been trying for ages and have only met disappointment.” She turned away and looked at Rog, “How can you tell just by looking at me?”

“Well, it’s kind of hard to explain. I see the energy around you like you are in a cloud. Inside of that cloud, I see another ball of energy around your center that is tinted a light blue color. It is connected by a line to Rog, so I know that it is his child. You see, if the baby were a girl, the light would be pink.” Araime gave her a look of confusion. “I’m different. I can perceive the energy around everything and I can manipulate it when necessary to heal others. That is how I healed him,” she pointed to Rog on the bed and focused on the chart she had taken from the end of the bed.

Araime was quiet for a moment and looking as if she didn’t know if she should say what was on her mind. Laura waited as Araime started and stopped. Araime apparently wanted to ask her something, but was having trouble finding the words to do so. “Do you have any questions?”

“Does this energy that you see, say whether or not the baby will survive and be born alive?” Araime’s voice shook with emotion.

“I can understand the desire of wanting a child and never having the joy of that dream realized, but I can assure you that this child will be born strong and healthy. I can tell.”

With a smile and a tear, Araime was looked above her whispering, “Thank you, thank you,” as if to the Gods. Now, if only Rog would wake up and share in her joy. “Do you know when he will wake up?”

“Waking up is on him. In fact, that is what we are waiting for him to do. He has been through so much that I wouldn’t doubt that he sleeps for a while. It takes time for the body to recover from such a traumatic injury. Once he wakes up, he is free to go. We have scanned for everything and he is fine. He just needs his rest.” She paused for just a moment before saying, “You realize that he isn’t going to walk out of here.”

A tear trailed down her cheek. “I know. That is what Garrett told me. I can’t imagine how he is going to react to that. But, I know that he will do everything he must do to walk again. Even if it is to invent some sort of hover belt to keep him upright and out of a chair.” Araime stood and reached out for Laura’s hands and grasped them tightly, “Thank you Dr. Mason for all you have done for us.”

“It’s Laura. Call me Laura.”

Araime chuckled, “Thank you, Laura.”

“I am glad I could help. Let us know when he wakes.” Araime nodded and took her place in the chair beside the bed. Laura couldn’t help but to notice her hand protectively cover her abdomen as she sat down.

Laura walked back across the hall to the sound of quiet laughter. She cleared her throat before entering, “We have sleeping patients in the rooms around you. You really need to quiet down in here.” She chuckled when they finally realized that she was joking. “It is good to see you all in such good humor. I hate to interrupt the reunion, but I think we should discuss Mattie’s prognosis and what I propose to do to help her.”

She walked them through what her tests revealed and the proposed bone marrow transplant. Brylon was optimistic that the tissue could be transferred via electronportation and was working it out on his computerized tablet as she left. She had drawn some blood from him and was taking it to the lab.

“Decame, can you run a DNA analysis on this sample. I have put the locations of the HLA typing loci in the database and we need to test for those markers.” The truth was that she had put the Human leukocyte antigen gene typing locations in for Earthians, not for those of Theron decent. Hopefully, the genetic similarities between their races were close enough that this would not pose a problem. When transplanting bone marrow, the HLA genes need to match as closely as possible to be successful. If not the donor’s cell would be attacked or rejected by the recipient’s immune system. The lymphocytes must match as well to prevent graft-versus-host disease which would make it more difficult for Mattie to recover quickly.

If Brylon weren't a match for the bone marrow markers, she would have to come up with other options. Other people would have to be tested for compatibility to give Mattie this much-needed boost to her immune system. Hopefully, she prayed, Brylon had inherited the same genetic makeup of the surface proteins in his nucleated cells. If that were so, it would be enough to make all the extra worrying she was doing right now unnecessary.

She watched as the results of the test were displayed on the screen. Already, the blood types were a match. That is a good sign, she thought. She had put in the ten HLA markers and one by one they were coming up. The first one didn’t match. “That’s alright,” she said to Decame, “in order to have a successful bone marrow transplant, only 8 of the 10 need to match.” The next was a match, three was a match, four a match, five a match, six a match, seven matched, eight was a match, nine a match, and ten was a match. 9 out of 10 of the markers matched. “Thanks, Decame!” She hugged him and check to see that the results displayed on her tablet. She would need to consult with Zane to make sure that she had his approval to proceed.



              Ceran was sitting at his workstation looking for anything that might lead him to how Gatton escaped. Nothing was coming up and every second that passed would make him even harder to find. He was so focused on the screens in front of him that when he heard the sound of an unknown deep voice speak to him, he jumped. Zion stood in front of him and said,
“It is alright, I have brought my commander to meet you.”

              Over to his left, he saw a man who stood 7 feet tall with large blue eyes, the same shade as his. He had a long white beard that partially covered his chest and was ornamented with braids and gold and silver beads. He recognized him immediately and his heart dropped. “I thought you were dead,” was all he could manage to say. The man he had known since infancy as Iain Moor, his grandfather, stood in front of him in full uniform.