Aurelia felt nauseated and sat up, pulling off the blanket she had been given. It smelled as if someone had dipped it in the river, wrapped rotting fish carcasses in it, allowed it to dry then tried to make it smell better by drenching it in cheap perfume.
Reading her watch, she saw it was 2300 and she had been lying there, sleepless, for three hours. The rest of the camp was quiet. Everyone had been too tired for the bonfire party to last much over an hour. Of course, none of them could go to sleep in a hurry and certainly not without noise. She had spent forty-five minutes lying there with her fingers in her ears while they all chattered and laughed about who was sleeping where.
Wrapping her arms around her knees, Aurelia looked up at the stars, but that only reminded her of the
Pasteur
and Chief Rekhaan who was probably sleeping soundly. She could feel her blood pressure starting to rise.
Pulling herself awkwardly to her feet, she stood and listened to the night. Breathing, snoring and rustling were the predominant sounds and farther away the gurgle and rush of water mixed with the low hum of pumps sending the water back behind the dikes where it belonged. Jidal IV had a small insect population and few nocturnal animals.
Only the smallest moon was visible, peeking out from the clouds. Aurelia felt chilled but she certainly was not going to use that blanket again. Folding her arms across her chest, she walked the long way around the camp to avoid stepping on bodies and limped up the trail to the bluff.
Another moon broke free from the clouds, spreading orange light over the river valley as she reached the top. She could now see another trail leading down from the bluff and running alongside the river. It didn’t look like it ran too close to the water so she started down the path.
As Aurelia neared the bottom of the bluff, her right foot slipped in the mud and her left leg, unable to handle the sudden weight shift, collapsed beneath her. She slid the rest of the way down the hill on her backside and lay at the
bottom gasping as pain stabbed through her leg. When the worm finally stopped twisting to convey its annoyance at being disturbed, Aurelia rested a few more minutes feeling the wet ooze soaking into her hair and clothes.
“I hate this place,” she muttered as she sat up, looked at the mud on her hands, sighed and wiped them on her shirt front. “Dammit.” On her feet again, she turned right onto a trail that ran parallel to the river a safe distance away.
I can’t remember a mission that tops this one for sheer annoyance, she thought. They had been through worse on less sleep but it was the little things piled on top of each other that seemed harder to handle. She didn’t like being cut off from her ship, and she didn’t like the sense she had of impending disaster.
Pulling up short, Aurelia saw that water covered the path a few feet ahead. The trail dipped low at that point then rose again up a fairly steep hill. Stooping to pick up a rock, she pitched it into the water. It hit with a heavy plunk then a splash. She shivered, deciding it sounded too deep to pass through. As she half-turned to start back, another splash from behind the hill made her snap her head around. That had been too loud and too heavy for a fish. If she went to the right off the trail, she could avoid the water and, with a little climbing, come up the far side of the hill.
By the time she reached the top, her mood had suffered no improvement. Rocks and two ganberry bushes with thick burrs had scraped her hands and face. Just as she rose to her feet, a third moon broke free from the clouds lighting up the end of the trail below her.
“Shilzit!” she whispered and dived behind a boulder. Her heart, already pounding heavily from the climb, started to race faster. Peering out from her cover, Aurelia watched the two black-robed figures moving around the bottom of the hill, arguing over what appeared to be a body. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but one voice sounded vaguely familiar. One of the beings finally picked the body up and as the light struck the white, unconscious face, Aurelia sucked in her breath. Steve Miller was being carried toward the river.
“Stop! Police!” Aurelia yelled, breaking from cover and slipping and sliding down the hill.
The being holding Miller dumped the body into the water. Both black-robed figures ran to a waiting flitter.
With no time to think, Aurelia frantically tugged off her boots and socks. She ignored the sharp rocks biting into her bare skin as she raced to the riverbank, keeping her eyes on Steve’s body already moving swiftly downstream.
The instant she struck the water she knew she was in trouble. The swift current forced her head under.
Oh, God, help me. Her hands beat against the water. She choked on the thick, sour stuff and kicked for the surface.
“Miller!” she screamed as she broke free. She had no idea if she was still trying to find him or hoping somehow in the insane part of her mind that he would find her. She hit slight rapids and went under again.
No sight.
No sound.
Lungs burned.
Relax. Move your arms.
It’s cold.
You can do this or die, dammit.
Strong fingers gripping the back of her neck shattered all rationality.
Oh, God, no! Braden, stop, please!
She could see the gray sides of the stone trough now. Braden pressed her head down in the water, pulled her back, laughing as she sucked air.
Her head was yanked until she thought her neck would snap. Master Braden stared at her with his red, slitted eyes and whispered, “Slaves will do exactly as they are told.” The smell of his scaly, reptilian body brought bile to her throat.
“Do you understand, Number 82?” His forked tongue flicked out, raked across her skin.
She flinched.
He laughed and shoved her head under the water again.
She struck out with her small, bare feet against his rough, thick hide.
“It will only make him madder.” the others told her. “Don’t fight him.”
But she had to.
Their voices were coming from a long tunnel. She could hear them now, “Don’t fight!”
She gasped for air and choked on water. Her lungs hurt. A sudden sharp pain in her jaw brought darkness.
The next thing Aurelia knew, she was lying in mud on the banks of the Talax River, screaming up at Jak.
“Stop it, Aura!” Jak yelled, shaking her by the shoulder. “Or so help me I’ll hit you again!”
Aurelia sat up, coughing then threw up, most of it black river water. “Miller. Did you see Miller?” she asked, her voice a hoarse whisper.
“He’s right here,” Jak replied motioning to Steve’s still unconscious body lying a few yards up the bank. “I saw him first. He’d gotten hung up on some rocks then I heard you yell. What are you doing trying to rescue somebody if you don’t know how to swim?!”
“I know how to swim,” Aurelia said between clenched teeth. She raised her hand to her jaw that felt hot and swollen. “What’d you do, hit me?”
“You bet I did! Damn near broke my hand. What were you fighting me out there for? We both could have drowned.”
Climbing slowly to her feet, Aurelia pushed the heavy, wet hair back from her face. She tried to smooth her shirt. Every muscle in her body began to twitch. She clenched her hands together but the trembling was uncontrollable. She had to force the words out of her mouth, “You should have let me go.”
Jak rose from his kneeling position and laughed. “Yeah right. And entertain some very interesting questions as to why I let my boss drown?”
“So you saved me just because it would inconvenience you. That’s all you ever care about isn’t it? Whatever makes you look good. Whatever puts you ahead!” She had no idea what she was saying, part of her mind was still a terrified ten year old being tortured unmercifully.
“What are you talking about? You know I wouldn’t let you drown.”
Staring at Jak, Aurelia had to stab at him. Inflict pain. As if that would help her own. She knew exactly what would hurt the most.
“Look at you. You’ll never make chief surgeon you incompetent half-breed. Your grandmother sure must have lowered her standards.”
She gasped at the stinging pain from his hand striking her flesh. “I can have you fired for that!”
“Go ahead! You have no right to insult me!” Jak’s voice held a note of bewildered shock.
“My mistake. I didn’t think you were intelligent enough to know an insult when you heard it.”
“Can’t you two shutup!” Steve groaned.
Aurelia went charging up the bank, slipping twice in the mud, until she stood over Steve. She slid her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him to his feet with more strength than a woman her size should have possessed. Steve staggered and struggled to release himself from her grip.
“I want you back on the ship as quick as you can get there, Mister! I knew you’d be nothing but trouble!” Aurelia hissed in his ear.
“I can’t go back!” Steve protested, his voice cracking. “We’ve gotta find those guys. They’ve got my dad. I don’t know...maybe he’s already dead! I’m not leaving. No way!”
“You’ll do what I say when I say it,” Aurelia told him, then shoving him away from her, she added, “Get back to camp.” Turning, she started for camp herself walking in a wavering line.
She dimly heard Jak telling Steve that he couldn’t do anything for his father at the moment, but Aurelia’s mind continued to struggle with the flashback. At times the dirt path beneath her feet seemed to disappear, her fevered brain replacing it with the blue marble of Delsyn House where she had been a slave for four years under her third master, Braden. Her body still shook uncontrollably and her jaw ached. She was past the bluff and just a few feet from camp when her left leg gave out and she fell to the ground.
She heard footsteps behind her. As Jak knelt beside her, Aurelia whispered, “Leave me alone.”
“Just shut up for once,” Jak replied and lifted her into his arms.
Millie opened one eye. A strange, dark shape with two antennae loomed over her.
She sat up, heart hammering, the blood rushing past her ears.
“Millie,” came Jak’s familiar voice.
“Shhh!” Jak warned. “Get up, Millie. I need your help.”
“You’re dripping all over...” Millie blinked the sleep from her eyes. She realized he was holding Aurelia. “What happened?! You’re both sopping wet.”
Jak lowered Aurelia to her feet keeping an arm around her waist. She was only half-conscious and muttering in some strange language.
“I’ll tell you about it later. Get her into some dry clothes. She can have my place in the dome. It’s number three. I have to take a look at Steve then I’ll come help you.”
Millie nodded. She could tell from the sharp bend in his antennae that Jak was in no mood for questions. Slipping an arm around Aurelia’s shoulder, Millie urged the doctor toward the big, blue and white dome.
“What’s going on?” someone asked sleepily.
“Hey, people are trying to sleep over here,” someone else called out.
“Shhhh!” Millie cautioned. She glanced back at Jak who was kneeling beside Steve sitting on the ground. More questions popped in her head but she could feel Aurelia’s body shaking and hurried to get her into the dome.
Inside, it was warm and dry with the quiet sounds of people breathing. Zimbin apparently was sleeping closest to the door as Millie heard him whisper, “Who’s there?” as the door slid open.
“Millie,” she answered shortly.
“Something wrong? Do you need help?”
“No, it’s all right. Go back to sleep,” she replied and pulled Aurelia into the P.H.C. Millie sat the doctor down on a heavy case of medical equipment and got her out of her wet clothes with some difficulty.
Aurelia sat with her eyes staring ahead, still muttering.
“Aura, snap out of it,” whispered Millie as she struggled to pull a shift she had found hanging on the rack, over Aurelia’s head. “You’re not helping me at all here.”
There was a knock on the door and Zimbin called, “Do you need help, Millie?”
“No!” She sat back on her heels. She knew Aurelia would loathe having anyone see her in this condition. She heard a couple of other people call out and suddenly grew exasperated.
Stepping into the main room, Millie stage-whispered furiously, “If you people don’t go to sleep now you won’t wake up in the morning! That’s a promise.” For a moment she thought she was going to have to make good her threat but the room soon quieted.
The outer door opened just then admitting Jak but no one in the room said a word. Millie motioned him into the bathroom.
“She’s completely out of it,” Millie whispered as Jak knelt beside Aurelia and took a bruise reducer from the bag he had brought with him. Turning it on, he held it to her swollen jaw.
“Millie, give her a shot of xillonex, 3 cc’s,” Jak instructed.
“That much?”
“Yes! You know it practically takes a mohan dart to knock this woman out. It’d be nice to have her unconscious for twenty-four hours but I’m not counting on it.”
Digging into the bag, Millie pulled out a syringe gun and vial of xillonex. Loading the vial into the gun, she pressed it into Aurelia’s arm and pulled the trigger. The doctor flinched once then went limp. Millie scanned her vital signs and nodded at Jak.
He finished taking care of Aurelia’s jaw then picked her up and carried her into the other room. Placing her on the only empty bed, he covered her with a light, clean blanket and followed Millie out of the dome.
Under the moonlight, Millie could see Jak’s antennae drooped completely flat to his head. Gently putting a hand on his arm, she led him to one of the logs around the still glowing campfire and made him sit down. His clothes felt wet so she knelt down to coax a flame. Looking up at Jak, she asked, “What happened?”
He told her. From the last disappointing moment with Co-Lanen when he had walked out the door and headed toward the river to the moment when he had pulled Aurelia out of the water.
Millie watched his face and said nothing until he finished. Then she prodded gently, “So what’s bothering you? Heroes don’t usually look so depressed.”
“I’m not a hero. I just happened to be there.” He got up abruptly, shoving his hands into his pockets and stood kicking at the dirt around the fire. “She called me a half-breed,” he finally blurted out. “Practically called my grandmother a colo!”
“Who? Co-Lanen?” Millie asked in surprise.
“No! Aurelia.”
Millie stared. That was not like Aurelia. Not at all.
“You’re kidding? Maybe you just misheard what she said.”
One antenna waved. “Nothing wrong with my hearing. I always thought I had her respect at least.”
“When did she say this?”
“On the shore, after I pulled her out. That’s gratitude for you.”
Millie shook her head. “Jak, she was upset. She probably didn’t even know what she was saying.”
“I saw the hate in her eyes. What am I, some kind of private joke between her and Meng all these years?”
“I’m sure she didn’t mean a word she said. You said it yourself, you just happened to be there. She would have yelled at whoever. You know Aurelia.”
He whirled around to face her. “No, I don’t! I don’t know her at all. And I don’t want to.” Turning he stalked away into the night.
Millie let him go. His voice had been filled more with pain than anger. Usually the one to hand out advice, she was at a loss for words. In some ways Jak was almost more difficult to understand than Aurelia. The chief surgeon had certain walls and boundaries you simply didn’t cross, but Jak often had mood swings when it was hard to judge whether to try and talk to him or not.
Oh, what a strange day and night, Millie thought, standing to stretch her arms above her head. Three more hours to sunrise and I’m wide awake. I don’t suppose a walk by the river would be such a good idea. She smiled to herself in the dark and rubbed her still sore neck. The Talax seemed to be claiming all kinds of victims.
She put out the sputtering fire then, stepping carefully, she moved among the sleeping bodies, pausing to look down on Steve Miller. His color didn’t look good but his breathing was soft and even. Come to think of it, Jak hadn’t told her how Steve had come to be drowning in the river in the first place. And Aurelia! Millie had suspected for some time now that Aurelia was terrified of water. So what had she been doing in the Talax?
Millie’s stomach growled. She remembered she hadn’t eaten much besides the chili. There had been a small, 26-hour grocery store at Linden Court, so she decided to walk into town. She stepped briskly as the air was still chilly. About ten minutes later, winding her way through the exam booths strung across the court, she paused to peer at a figure just ahead. That looked like...Yes, it was! She would know that profile anywhere.
“Neil! Neil Sanders!” She laughed as she called out his name.
He turned to look and grinned, jogging toward her. “Mahealani!” His deep voice echoed through the quiet court.
Millie reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, exclaiming as she did so, “But what are you doing here? It’s so good to see you.” She caught the light musk scent of Rhapsody, her favorite aftershave and felt her heart begin to thud against her chest.
Pulling back she looked up into his face with a questioning look. She had the sudden urge to touch her hand against the blonde stubble on his chin and hastily tucked both hands behind her back. What are you doing? she thought to herself, her mind swirling like a kaleidoscope with emotion.
“I guess I’m checking up on you, Mahealani.” Neil smiled, his voice low and warm. He seemed to realize his hand was still on her waist and dropped his arm to his side. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”
“Uhhmm, Yeah. I was just about... I was just getting something to eat,” Millie said. She looked around, still confused by his sudden appearance. “We could sit in the booths... I guess. Nobody’s around. I’ll buy breakfast.”
Neil nodded and followed her into the little grocery store. Millie had no idea what she bought. Her heart had calmed but she still felt as if her feet might leave the ground if she gave them the chance.
When they were outside again and picked out a booth, Neil asked, “Why are you up, anyway, Millie? It’s early for you isn’t it? I came in on an Oralanite freighter so I’m still running on their time.”
She had completely forgotten Aurelia and wondered fleetingly if she should check on the doctor but decided Aurelia would still be asleep. “I had a rather interesting night,” she told Neil. “Please don’t mention this to anyone else but our chief surgeon almost drowned in the river tonight.”
“Is she all right?”
“Physically, yes. Emotionally, I don’t know,” Millie shook her head. “I’m sorry I don’t feel I can give you the details.”
“I understand,” he said quickly and reached for her hand. “I bet you’re a great nurse. You know I never had the chance to see you in action.”
Millie smiled, a warm tingle running along her spine at his touch. Goodness, had it really been so long since she had enjoyed a man’s company or was her pleasure at his presence just because having him here seemed like having a piece of home? “How are things at home?” she asked out loud.
“Fine. I saw your Dad about three weeks ago.”
“How is he?” Millie asked eagerly, although she and her father called each other quite often.
“He looked great. He was with a woman-a red-head.”
“Oh. Sally I presume.”
Neil looked amused. “You don’t like her?”
Millie lifted her shoulders, “It’s difficult to get to know someone over a comm-link. It’s just that she...forget it I won’t say it. I trust Dad’s judgment. What about you? Why are you here?”
Neil’s face grew serious and his grip on her hand tightened. “After your call, I got digging into Althan Tahk’s background as you asked me. Millie, how do you know him?”
“I met him on Davis. Wait a minute, you came all the way out here for me?”
“I don’t want to scare you but when I saw this guy’s record I got concerned about you and why you wanted to know about him.”
“Just idle curiosity really. Is he that bad?” Her heart was beating fast again.
“Worse. I hope you don’t meet up with him again.”
Millie’s eyes widened, “But he’s here.”