Winter Dread, page 14
“What do you think?”
“I think they’re from somewhere else, yes. I don’t know if there’s a breach in their base or security. At their level, if there was then I’d think all of us should be worried.”
“I’m worried, Hiroto,” I said. My mind drifted back to the beating. The events afterwards. “Los?”
“She’s in a pod for now while her burns heal and her injuries are stable.”
“She okay?”
“She’s doing okay. A lot more pain than I think I’d have liked to go through. It proves the M-Wolves are really strong.”
“They are, I know that much. I’ll try to get to see her or talk to her. Somehow.” I let out a sigh, looking over to all the pieces of equipment in the doctor’s lab. “Can you help me over to the lab, I want to go through Dr Herin’s research while I’ve got chance, and he’s not here.”
“Does it really look like I can help?”
“Not much, no. Maybe get me a chair like you have?”
“I can do that, if you think you can get in it?”
“I’ll be ready, get me the chair.”
Hiroto didn’t really smile, but he moved away. “They’re still watching us, you know that.”
I looked around the hangar, and yeah, I could see they were. “I don’t think they’ll stop us, though.”
If I could stop you, you know I would. Xe’s voice came to me.
You know I need to do this, no matter if I still need to heal. I can do both. I can’t sit here and not do anything.
Well, I’m going to poke you if you do.
I can agree to that.
Hiroto came back, pulling another chair with him. I hadn’t moved, but pushing myself, I managed to hang over the side. I realised my legs had steel rods inside them, and they bent with the movement I asked.
That was some beating I took, ugh.
It really was, Xe said.
Hiroto held the chair for me, and I lowered myself down. The pain was intense.
Waves of pain, and I felt a kenosi fluctuation coming. I steadied my shaking form as best I could . . . waited.
I flopped down into the chair, and the kenosi sparked around the room. I set off alarms around the hangar though, and the nurses were soon rushing over. Dammit.
Luke took one glance over at me. “What are you doing?”
“I need to do something, help me over to the lab. I want to study me. To help.”
“You can help by staying in bed, really.”
“Just a little time to look. I’ll listen to all of you if you say get back in bed . . . but I’m here now.”
Luke glanced to the other nurses. “I’ve got this.”
They all moved away, and Luke came up to us. “I’ll settle you in, then if you need me shout.”
“I can do that. Thank you.”
He eased me over towards a different side of the hangar where there was a full lab. Some of the pieces in here I knew nothing about. But I would learn if I needed to. I was sure that Xe and Asht would be able to guide me to where I could find help.
“You know what you’re looking for, or doing?” Luke asked.
“We’ll be fine, yes.”
“Okay, I’ll let Dr Herin know you’re both up and about. I would be remiss if I didn’t.”
When he walked away, I looked to Hiroto and the computers around me. “Feeling up to some digging?”
“You’re sure you can discover something they won’t?”
“Not sure. I think I can point them in some other directions. This poison’s spreading through to you guys. I don’t think even you’ll be able to hold a mega merge.”
“Think we can solve it while we’re healing up?”
“I hope so. I think this is the best time to get it sorted while we’re all down. They can’t practice anything without ten members of the team.”
“Right.” Hiroto moved over to the computer station and started to turn things on, then with the deftness I had always known of him, he started to bring up code and show everything Dr Herin had on all of us. He had quite the extensive amount of stuff.
I looked to Hiroto, my hands fidgeting, excited and nervous to see what they’d been doing. “This is pretty interesting stuff,” I said, my fingers now flying over the keys. “You keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll dig in on the breakdowns and my own stuff.”
“Fair. Most of this is pretty well locked up. I already probably broke his code of ‘not sharing’.”
“Yeah, you’re my trusted, and everyone that’s out there trusts us with their lives. This isn’t something they’d be worried over.”
“No, but Herin might be.”
“Meh.” I moved in closer to the desk and started to dig into what I wanted to know. The injuries I’d sustained, that my team had because of me, and the poison. How was it crossing over to all of them? Something in the mech? The mega merge itself?
The more I thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense. It couldn’t have been for me; it must have been for another reason.
I turned to Hiroto after a while. “This is more serious than any of them have realised. This hasn’t come from those wanting to kill me or punish my team. Jealousy from Edward’s side, any other side.”
“What makes you say that?”
“It’s too complicated, too risky. Why would anyone risk being caught for us?”
“Then why?”
I saw images flash before me then. Outside. Space. The megas on the front line. Then I saw them fall.
My blood ran cold, shivers spread up from my spine, down my arms. “Fuck me. It’s from outside. I think it’s from the enemy. This poison will cross over from me, to you, to the rest of the mega-merge, even to Edward. No one is going to be immune, and once it starts to spread—”
“Fuck, they’ll lose the whole war?”
“Exactly. We have to stop this now before it gets to that point.”
I noticed one of the nurses looking over and I waved at her, Luke followed. “How far out is Dr Herin?”
“He stays right the end of his base with his family. There’s been an issue, so he went home. Usually he stays around here, sleeps at the base. Why?”
“Okay, as long as he’s on his way here. Luke, can you call the other lead doctors in from around the training grounds?”
“Probably not, I think only General Veti would be able to do that.”
I turned to Hiroto. “Can you?”
“Of course. They might not like the personal call, but like you said, this needs to happen, now.”
“We’ll get them all here as soon as possible.” Pain rippled through me as my back arched. A spasm starting. Sitting in this chair was not good for me.
“Get me on the floor,” I just managed to get out before the spasm started to wreak havoc through my body.
Luke was at my side with the nurse and was helping me at the same time. I eased to the ground, and the spasm took me.
Luke held my head gently so I didn’t bang it, and I let the waves wash over me as usual. It would be over soon.
“They’re getting worse,” Hiroto said. “The energy its pulling is much stronger.”
Luke glanced to him. “What’s with calling the other doctors in?”
“The poison will spread through everyone here, every single mech and denti. There won’t be a mega-merge capable in a few months.”
“You’re not joking, are you?”
The spasms started to wane. When he looked to me, I closed my eyes. “No,” I said. “I don’t think I was a specific target I just think I was a target. I do think it was injected, put in me before the merge. The guys that kicked my ass were not from here. We proved that when everyone was accounted for. Earlier.”
Hiroto moved back to the computers and I could see him bringing up a list of the doctors, then tagging them in. I waited.
I didn’t know what was with poisons, sickness, or attacks from within, but they were a huge part of this world. Everyone seemed to have something sinister around them. Internal warfare was huge, and I could see why—it meant less damage on the battlefields. Made more sense to attack and let things go from within.
It didn’t make me feel any better.
As Luke and the nurse tried to sit me up. I winced with the pain.
Xe said simply, You busted the work I was doing on your hips. But we’ll fix it.
There were several pings back from the doctors and quite a few video call prompts. “You want me to take this?” Hiroto asked, his face paling.
I nodded. “If the line’s secure, yes. They need to know if it means they’ll hurry the fuck up and get here.”
Several faces appeared before him, and I could see they weren’t happy.
“What is the meaning of this? Who are you?”
“Why are we called into Hangar One?”
They all looked to each other, then back to Hiroto.
“I’m sharing what is going on right now with one of the new recruits in my mega-merge team. You can scold me later for hacking the system to message you. We need you here ASAP to look over this, and everyone to help work on a cure.”
I could see him then send out the details of what was going on. There were several faces that dropped, one of them turned away from the screen and I heard him swear.
“Can we get you back in the chair?” the nurse asked.
“I don’t think I can,” I said honestly. “The pain’s much worse.”
“I’ll get you something,” she said, moving away from me.
Hiroto looked my way. “You realise you’re patient zero—whatever you’re going through now we’re all going to go through at some point.”
“I know. I just don’t know how quick you’re going to develop this or how long I can hold out for.”
Xe’s voice then came through over the computer before Hiroto. “You will hold on because Asht and I won’t let you do anything else. I’ve found something I can run to stem it. It’s not a cure.”
“What?” Hiroto asked.
“Coming through now, we’ll run it on Kyle as soon as we can get it replicated.”
Hiroto looked over what she sent him. “I can get working on that right now, if you guys can give me a hand?” He waved enthusiastically at Luke and Trin. “There’s enough equipment here to start it.”
“Let’s get Kyle back to bed. Then I’ll be right over,” Luke said.
There was a soft rumble outside as the shutter door started to move. “You think that’s—”
“Dr Herin. He’s going to punish me for sure with you on the floor.” Luke cringed.
“Why? It’s not your fault,” I said. I could see he was worried. “If he says anything, I’ll make sure he knows this is on me, not you.”
Dr Herin whirled inside as the nurse came with some oral pain meds, which I took right away.
“Won’t make me drowsy, will it?” I asked.
“I think it will at first,” Luke said. “But we’ll make sure you’ll be awake when everyone else is here.”
“I need to be part of what’s going on. Make sure you do.”
When they lifted me up and onto a flatbed to transfer me to my own bed, I didn’t feel the pain, but I knew it was there.
“There’s nothing we’re going to do without running anything by you, don’t worry. They’re your team, and if this infection does start to spread as much as we think it might, then we all need to work on it.” Dr Herin looked to Hiroto. “I am a little annoyed you broke protocol and hacked my system though, Hiroto. But I am glad you have things moving already.”
“Apologies, I’m used to doing things fast and without thought to the repercussions.” Hiroto lowered his head, face flushing.
“There won’t be any,” Herin said. “I am sure you’ve seen things you weren’t meant to.”
Hiroto paled, but he also knew better. “I have,” he said. “I’d like to talk to you about some of it, if that’s okay, when Kyle’s resting.”
“I’ll be resting as soon as they settle me in bed,” I said, really feeling like piggy in the middle. Hiroto’s statement worried me, though. If he’d seen something that concerned him, but he didn’t want to share, it must have been something worth noting—and now worth worrying about.
When the beds aligned and I was asked to scoot across, I didn’t know that I could. My body felt numb. But with the help of Luke and Trin, I was soon back in the bed I shouldn’t have left.
I knew it, and they did. But meh, that was me all over.
I let the room darken around me, listening to the voices of the nurses as they checked my stats and made sure that everyone else in the hangar was okay. I did look around, seeing that my team was for the most part asleep. They needed it.
So do you, Kyle, Asht said. I’m going to flip that switch for you, so you do get some rest. When the others are here, I’ll get you up. Don’t worry.
I’m worried for all of us, I said.
15
It was easy to sleep when Asht had flipped the switch. The others are arriving now; I know that Dr Herin is going to be meeting them in a boardroom at the back of the base, Asht said softly, waking me.
“I don’t think I can sit in a chair just yet,” I replied with a sigh.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to let you wire in video so that you can listen and still rest while they talk. Mostly it will be a lot of things you’re probably not going to understand, especially if they’re talking real science.”
“Yeah, I’m no doctor, but I’d still like to listen in.”
“Fair. I’ll link you in now.”
A 3D view popped up before me, and I could see the room of faces around me as if I was actually there.
“Thank you for joining us, Kyle. I know you’re in a painful position. Luke will monitor you while you’re with us; if you need anything, just make sure you ask him.”
“Right here, doctor,” Luke called, appearing behind me, his hand on the side of my chair.
“You’re not worried about security or anything in this hangar?” I asked.
“No,” Dr Herin said. “Everyone here is well above the security level that this runs to.”
“Okay.” I looked to all of the faces that were around him. The room was more crowded than I’d anticipated, with nearly thirty people crammed around his table. “How many hangars and bases are on here again?”
“There are many more. These are our top tier doctors. I’ll introduce them all to you, when you’re feeling better.”
That was more than fair. Asht? Can you get their names above their picture?
Yes, of course.
A moment later and their names all flashed as I looked at them. I wouldn’t remember them, but I could at least address them personally if I needed to.
“We’re good to start the meeting,” Herin said. “I’m going to start first by bringing up the DNA sequence of what we discovered inside Kyle yesterday and how it’s affecting his kenosi. It disrupts not only the pulling, but delivery. The fluctuations around him are extremely strong and powerful. They’re also starting to affect those who he has merged with, as well as those around him on a more personal level. So . . .” He brought up the view of the other team members in here, and I pushed my first thoughts aside. He flicked to pick three of them and amalgamated them into one graph. “This is a graph of the kenosi for three individuals on the team. You can see it has invaded their system already, though. They’re not experiencing the effects like Kyle as yet, but I don’t think it will be long before they are.”
“No one has any idea how this got onto the planet?” A man with deep brown hair looked to me. “Do you think maybe you brought it with you?”
I shook my head. “No, Dr Yil, I didn’t bring it with me. I think it was one of the weapons I was attacked with. If I could look back at that maybe, we can pinpoint it?”
Xe’s face came onto the screen. “I have been able to reconstruct the fight for you to watch, with cammo shots from around the base, and through Kyle’s memories. If you’ll turn your attention to the screen.”
As we watched the fight, I could hear some of the talk through the other doctors still wondering the how and what, but then Asht said to me, “That was it, where you broke his nose, and then your injuries mixed blood. I would almost guarantee it.”
Xe relayed the comments to the others, and there were a few shaking heads, but then others agreed with them.
“We might be able to find some more evidence at the area where you were attacked, even though it was quite some time ago. I’ll get some drones over and we’ll pull the place apart; they might have even left something else around so that we can find it. Maybe the weapons? Or a clue to how the hell they even got here.”
I’d like to discover that, if there was a way on this base that no one knew. The fact these guys had come on in the first place and then had come back was horrid.
I listened to Xe as she explained what she and Asht had been doing to filter and cycle the kenosi that was bad to save it a little more so that the bad fluctuations were only coming now and then and not hurting as much. I wondered where I’d be without her and Asht. Probably dead. Then I focussed in and let her talk. Then they all talked through her findings. Their minds were sharp, and although Xe knew my body, it seemed they were miles ahead of her in terms of understanding what was going on. But their debates were exhausting. I locked eyes with Dr Herin, who had sat back listening as the debates began in intensity.
You think they’ll get anywhere? I asked inside to both of my friends.
They’re some of the brightest minds I’ve ever seen, Asht said.
Xe agreed. Just give them some time. We’ll all get to the bottom of this, and the security breach.
I think I might be able to learn more with a few drones. I think I can leave the meeting now while they’re all talking, but I’m still only a comm away. If you’d let me, I’d like to go exploring the base and the planet.
Xe, I’m not really comfortable with you going off on your own. This place is huge.
