First Watch: A Watcher Bay Adventure (8 page)

“Thank you, Officer Moore. You as well.”

“Call me Morgan. You aren’t one of my soldiers.”

“You are Gunnar’s second-in-command, though. Maybe I should call you captain?”

Morgan laughed. “Not unless you left your civilian status behind in New Seattle. I heard about the work you do with the Ddaerans at Dwyr. I admire your love for them.”

“They are a wonderful people with a rich culture. We have much to share with them, and they have much to teach us as well. I hope we find a similar situation at our destination as I enjoyed at Dwyr. Gunnar said there is a rumor about these particular villagers possessing extraordinary abilities.”

A strange look passed over Morgan’s face. “Let us hope not. If you wish peace for the Ddaerans at Glanmorr, you should hope they are very ordinary.”

“What do you mean?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. Nevermind. I shouldn’t have said anything. Forget I did.” Morgan took a deep breath. “One more thing, Mrs. Shield.” She looked around for something and continued hesitantly. “I really shouldn’t say this, but you should know. It’s only right for women to stick together.” Her voice lowered considerably. “You shouldn’t trust Ana. With your husband, I mean.”

And then Officer Morgan Moore walked away. It was a strange comment for her to make, and Levra hadn’t forgotten it, but she also didn’t feel comfortable discussing it with Gunnar. She had an instinct he shouldn’t know about Morgan’s suspicions about the mission. Officer Moore seemed like a nice person, and she didn’t want her to get in hot water with Gunnar.

It was after midnight now, and the sky outside Levra’s window was dark. Now the turbulence tossed their craft around in the sky and Levra contemplated Morgan’s words. She’d rather think about the accusations the officer had hinted at than envision their plane falling from the sky.

The comment Morgan had made about Ana was difficult to shake. Ever since she’d made those remarks earlier on the voyage, Levra paid a little more attention to communications officer Ana Chekhov. She seemed very nice.

When Levra first met Ana two weeks ago, she’d seemed a bit phony and awfully comfortable with Gunnar, but Levra had tried to put her suspicions and feelings of jealousy aside. Ana did seem a little over-friendly with some of the guys, especially Gunnar, but Levra had never seen her do anything inappropriate. Perhaps Officer Moore had some issues. Levra would watch all of them. She wasn’t sure who to trust at this point. She wished she could at least rely on Gunnar, but it wasn’t a sure thing in her mind anymore.

Gunnar sat back down next to Levra in time for the landing.

The captain’s voice came through the ship’s loudspeakers and broke through her thoughts before Gunnar could sense something was wrong.

“We are approaching our destination and will begin our descent. Please be sure your straps are fastened securely. There’s a large, very powerful storm on the radar. We will be landing in rough conditions, if we can land at all, and the ship can’t stick around for long. We’ll be back in a few days with more supplies once the storm clears. Unloading will commence immediately upon landing. Prepare your belongings.”

She glanced at Gunnar, trying to hide her anxiety. She’d been nervous about flying even before the accident with Mitch. Since then, her anxiety was nearly crippling. She didn’t like to fly. At all. She whispered quietly, hoping Enric wouldn’t pick up on her anxiety.

“How rough, exactly, do you think?”

He squeezed her hand and chuckled lightly, possessing the calm demeanor of one used to space travel.

She rolled her eyes. “We can’t all be daredevils, Gunnar.”

They didn’t speak again. The turbulence was too rough, and Levra wasn’t in the mood to talk. The ship tipped from side to side, tossing Levra around in her seat with every bump. She squeezed Gunnar’s hands until her own knuckles were white as they jostled their way toward the ground. Her palms were sweaty and she was nauseated. Even with the magnetic motion bracelets she wore, she felt like she might throw up on her husband at any moment.

She willed herself to think about something other than the storm raging outside their ship. Watcher Bay was now visible outside her window. Even through the pelting rain, there was enough moonlight for her to see the massive bay clearly. A small village sat on the north side the bay, in the shadow of a massive white-capped mountain. Near the south side of the bay sat what must be the Outpost where her and the crew would stay, at least temporarily. The buildings there were more angular and taller than those of the buildings in the village of Glanmorr.

From her vantage point she could see miles of white sands, practically glowing in the moonlight. The sand stretched across the crescent shaped shoreline. The beaches were broken up by short stretches of shear cliffs that seemed to fall hundreds of feet from the shore into a very turbulent ocean.

Her mind went unwillingly to the strange comment from Morgan Moore. She needed to distract herself, but the idea that there was some secret plot to toy with the Ddaerans didn’t make her feel any better. Especially if Gunnar had anything to do with it. The choice between a dark conspiracy or falling out the evening sky was no choice at all.

She sighed and shook her head. She was going to throw up no matter what.

“Don’t worry, Lev.” Gunnar whispered in her ear. “We’ll be landing very soon. Try not to think about it.”

She gulped and nodded. “I know. It’s hard not to think about Mitch in situations like these.” She had a thought, something she hoped would make her feel better.

He didn’t respond.

“Hey, do you have the coin? I think I’d feel better right now if I could hold on to it.”

Gunnar looked at her with a blank stare. “Coin?”

Levra couldn’t believe her ears. “Seriously? The coin I gave you before you left?”

He tried to laugh it off. “Oh, yeah, right. The coin you gave me. No, sorry. There was an accident on-planet in the Altius system—at Tortia—and I think I lost it there. I haven’t seen it in years.”

As though feeling her devastation at his words, the ship touched down rather roughly, and then the unloading began in something of an ordered chaos. Levra kept Enric close while the crew unloaded, grateful there wasn’t an opportunity to talk to Gunnar right now. If she spoke to him now, he might not survive the hostility. When she stepped off the ship and touched Rasian soil for the first time, she didn’t have time to process that she was one of the first Founders to touch the ground here on this portion of the Iantha continent. The gravity of the moment was swept away by the unforgiving conditions outside the ship.

The weather raged around her. The rain came in from a sideways direction, pelting her skin roughly, and then the wind blew fiercely around them in a circular motion. She couldn’t get her bearings. Which was up or which way was sideways was impossible to determine. She held Enric close to her. The wind seemed to be picking up in intensity in the few moments since she’d stepped off the ship. Levra looked around for some kind of shelter for Enric while the ship was being unloaded, though she couldn’t see how they could unload in these conditions, or even how the ship had landed. To her left, she saw a tree in the distance and took Enric to stand under it. It helped a little but not much.

A bright light in the night sky followed by a crack and large explosion nearly blinded her. Blue, green, and purple bolts of lightning struck in several places. It was the most beautiful and dramatic display of weather she’d ever seen. She stood breathless for a moment as she took in the splendor of nature’s display. One of the bolts slammed into a crate carrying cargo, sending the men carrying it sprawling and disrupting her admiration. The tree they were under lost a large branch which came crashing down on top of them. She watched in horror as the tree branch fell, as though in slow motion, toward her. She pushed Enric to the ground and covered him with her body as the branch landed on her and the world faded to black.

When she woke, she felt the rain on her face. “Levra. Are you all right?”

Someone pulled the branch off of her, and she rolled over to free her child.

Enric’s body lay lifeless and limp under a heavy tree limb and Levra screamed as she reached for her baby boy.

“Gunnar! Help!”

CHAPTER 10

Landing Site, Rasia, New Eden

Midnight, October 16, 12 AA

“Enric!” Levra called out. “Enric.” Then she turned on her knees to face Gunnar. “He’s barely breathing.”

Levra looked around, her heart pounding in her chest, and saw through the deluge of rain the empty space where the SS
Horizon
was only a few moments before. It must have had to leave quickly given the worsening storm. “Gunnar, where is Dr. Sanchez?”

Dr. Sanchez came through the crowd and knelt down by Enric’s still form. The doctor’s normally calm face seemed shocked by what he saw. He checked his pulse and frowned. “I’m not sure what’s wrong, Mrs. Shield. He may have been hit with the tree, but his pulse is weak. There is something going on here besides a concussion.”

The doctor gently examined Enric’s head, and when he pulled his hands away, Levra saw they were covered in bright red blood.

“He appears to have severe head wound. His skull has been fractured.”

Levra looked at Gunnar and reached for his hand.

“What can you do? Is he going to be okay?” She felt bile rise in her throat and choked on the last words she uttered. He had to be okay. He had to be.

“Get my kit,” Dr. Sanchez snapped at one of the crew, ignoring Levra’s questions.

The crewman ran toward one of the supply crates and returned immediately with a shiny silver briefcase filled with medical supplies. Levra watched as he pulled out a medical scanner and proceeded to sweep her son’s body from head to toe. As it beeped and whirred Levra kept her eyes on the digital read-out displaying time left until expiration of life.

Bright orange numbers filled Levra’s vision: twenty-seven minutes left.

He turned the device off, and took a deep breath before looking Levra in the eye. She didn’t like what she saw there.

“I’m sorry. The damage to his nervous system is too great. There is nothing I can do.”

Levra heard his words amidst the howling wind and the sharp rain. The sound of crates being stacked and crewman calling out to each other cut through the wind behind them. She felt a million miles away. Her world was falling apart, and she couldn’t focus on anything but the feel of icy rain dripping down her face and sliding off her chest.

Twenty-seven minutes. That's all she had left with her son.

Gunnar spoke for the first time. “Nothing you can do? That is impossible. In this day and time of medical advances? We can keep people alive and healthy for nearly three hundred years, and you are saying we can’t save a boy from a simple head trauma?”

The doctor shook his head. “If I had a full medical suite, I could save him. I’m certain of it, but here I have minimal instruments and equipment.”

“Then we must take him back to New Seattle right away.”

The doctor shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry. We can’t.
Horizon
had to take off in a hurry because of the storm.”

“Call them back. It’s an emergency,” Levra said.

Gunnar shook his head and spoke quietly to Levra. She heard despair and desolation in his words.

“The lightning took out all of our communications systems. We can’t reach the ship.”

The doctor spoke again. “I’m afraid it will be too late for Enric. He has only minutes to live. I’m so sorry, Levra. Commander Shield.”

The doctor averted his eyes from Levra and Gunnar and turned his attention back to Enric.

“I suspect he might be able to hear you if you’d like to comfort him. Say your goodbyes.”

She glanced at the scanner’s display. Twenty-five minutes.

This cannot be happening.

Levra heard the doctor’s words and felt like she was in a bad dream. A bad dream that was turning into a nightmare. Poor little sweet Enric. What kind of mother was she to bring her son into the wilderness? She stood there, staring at Enric’s dying form and felt her grief turn into a white-hot fury at her husband.

“What can we do? Do something, Gunnar. Please do something. There must be some way to save him.”

Ana spoke, pulling Levra sharply from her spiraling hatred of Gunnar. She redirected her emotions at the tramp who was entirely to comfortable interacting with Levra’s husband.

Levra heard a commotion on the outskirts of the crowd of crew members who had gathered around her family. A little girl spoke in the familiar Ddaeran tongue.

“Let me through. I can help him..”

The crew member she was talking with clearly didn’t understand what she was saying, but Levra did. She stood. “Let her through. She can help us.”

The crew parted, and Levra watched her as she approached. “You can understand me?” the girl asked.

Levra nodded. “Yes, a little.” She understood more than she could actually speak. But it would be enough. “My son,” she said awkwardly in the Ddaeran tongue. “Can you help? A tree fell on him. His head is bleeding.”