It was Dr. Crhm who finally isolated the cause behind the Jorenian’s decline. When I received its findings, I sat down and stared sightlessly at the data pad for nearly a quarter hour.
“Kao.”
I dropped the report and hurried off to the wards. When I arrived at his bedside, he smiled up at me, “Healer Grey Veil,” his lyrical voice was thin. He frowned when he saw my eyes. “What has happened?” When I searched for the words, his hand crept over mine. “Tell me, Cherijo.”
I broke down Dr. Crhm’s report to terms he could understand. Not that it took a genius to figure out what was happening. My blood had killed the Core and cured him of the contagion. Now it was working on Kao’s own tissues, infiltrating them like a poison on a cellular level. Several internal systems were already compromised.
“I would have died, had you not given of yourself to me,” he said. That unshakable Jorenian tranquillity only made me feel worse. Illness had drained his skin of its brilliant color, and his white eyes were deeply sunken. “That I am still alive I must see as a gift from you.”
I squeezed his hand. Some gift. “We’ve sent a transmission to the Varallan Quadrant. Someone on your homeworld will advise us what to do.” I kept my grip firm so that he wouldn’t feel me shaking. “You know we don’t have much on Jorenian physiology in our database. I’m sure your people can help us reverse this effect.”
“And if they do not, my heart?” he said, already slipping away. “Will you... forgive... yourself...?”
“No.” I put his hand down and turned away from his unconscious form. “No, Kao, I don’t think I’ll be able to do that.”
When I returned to Trauma, I found yet another summons from the Council waiting for me. It was too much. T’Nliqinara snorted rapidly as I told her what to transmit back to the Council chambers in response.
“Doctor, that sort of language is a direct violation of the Charter,” my charge nurse said, then gave her version of a wicked grin. “I’ll relay your message personally.”
Halfway through that shift a Security team entered the exam room, carrying weapons. I looked up from the child I was treating. All the guns were pointed at me.
“Put those down. You’re scaring the kid.”
“We have orders-“
I sighed. “I know.” I sent the child out and regarded the team. “Do you have any idea how many patients are waiting out there in Assessment?”
The officer in charge shrugged. “You received a summons, Dr. Grey Veil. We’re only assuring you respond to it.”
“Oh, just go ahead and shoot me now!” I said.
They didn’t have to. They were bigger and stronger than me. I did manage to signal the MedAdmin office before I was half dragged from the facility.
“Tell Dr. Mayer I’ve been forcibly removed from the clinic. The Council sent a whole team this time.
Oh, and I’ll need representation. Again.” x The new Council was up and running, at full bureaucratic throttle. When the Security detachment dumped me in their chambers, I was ignored. Apparently the five new members couldn’t decide what portion of the Charter prohibited the use of native materials to repair housing units. A real riveting debate.
I was just starting to nod off when a human voice called my name.
“Dr. Grey Veil.” The chief Council member was Terran, oddly enough. He was a middle-aged man who wore the dark green jumper I’d seen on researchers at the Botanical Project. “John Douglas,” he introduced himself. The balance of Council members included three other humanoids and one native ‘Zangian. “We would like to begin by extending to you our personal thanks for your past and ongoing endeavors through this crisis.”
“You’re welcome,” I said. “Can I go now?”
“A serious charge has been filed with the Council, one that pertains to your status as a practicing medical physician.”
Rogan? I thought uneasily. Then I saw the chief linguist enter the chamber, carrying with him, of all things, a container of golden gnorra resin.
“Ah, here is Chief Linguist Reever, who has filed the charge.”
Reever had filed a charge against me?
The chief linguist placed the container carefully on a table and addressed the board. “Council members.”
He inclined his head, then glanced at me. “Doctor. I am here to interpret on the behalf of the life-forms known as the Core.”
No one looked surprised but me.
“What?” I pushed my chair back and stood up to face Reever. “What does the Core have to do with this?”
“We will proceed,” John Douglas said, and motioned for both of us to sit down. “First the Council will affirm their individual commitment to treating this case without bias. Given the nature of the recent epidemic, it is vital that such statements be recorded prior to presentation of evidence and rebuttal.”
That meant I had to sit there for another hour. Listen to each Council member tell me how grateful they were for my work during the epidemic. And how despite said gratitude, if I was found guilty, they’d throw the book at me.
I didn’t know what was worse - listening to the bureaucrats or knowing the chief linguist was trying to get me barred from practicing medicine. Or why I felt hurt by the knowledge that Reever would do such a thing.
Negilst, Ana Hansen’s assistant, entered the chamber and hurried to my side. “Administrator Hansen is with the Quadrant Inspection Team,” I was told in a whisper. “I was sent to assist you until she can join us.”
“Great.” I motioned for the dark-skinned humanoid to sit beside me. “Make yourself comfortable. This sounds like it’s going to take forever.”
Douglas gave a moving speech, Negilst commented when he was finished. Uh-huh. I would have clapped, but I was busy trying not to fall into a boredom-induced coma.
“Although Dr. Grey Veil may not remember,” Douglas said, “I was among the first of the cases brought to the groves. I saw what she did for our people. She saved me from dying of the contagion, and saved our colony from planetary sterilization.”
All this gratitude made me want to squirm. I didn’t want accolades, I wanted to go back to work.
“However, no one individual’s actions can provide any type of immunity from the Charter, and a valid charge has been filed.”
At this rate I was going to nod off again. “What exactly is the charge, Council Chief?”
Douglas consulted his data pad. “You are charged with causing the deliberate eradication of Core life-forms. The Core occupied this planet long before the colony was settled. As recognized sentients, they have the same rights under the Charter as any colonist.”
So much for gratitude from the bug. Maybe I should have let that Yturi know where he could find some more thermal pruners.
“What did you do to the Core?” Negilst whispered next to my ear, and I shrugged.
“Got them back in their damn trees, far as I know.”
Douglas frowned at my lowered but still audible tone as he turned to address Reever. “Chief Linguist, you may begin.”
Reever stood and carefully inserted his fingertips into the opening of the container. A thin layer of the resin ran up his arm and into his ear.
“Are you nuts?” I shouted, and jumped to my feet, knocking over my chair. I had to stop him. Negilst grabbed my arm.
“No,” it told me. “He’s acting as a translator.”
“We represent the Core,” Reever said, while his eyes rotated up into his head. Ana’s assistant picked up my chair and forced me to sit down.
“Present your evidence,” Douglas said.
Reever’s body trembled as his link with the Core intensified. I swallowed against the fear rising in my throat, but never took my eyes from him. If he showed even one sign of seizure, I’d definitely exterminate every Core life-form I could get my hands on.
“The one who discovered us, the one who ingested us, passed us to this one. She was unlike the others.
We were unable to infiltrate the cells. We attempted to communicate and were ignored.”
“I ignored them?” I shot ‘up again, and this time I shook off Negilst’s grasp. “Do you know how many rotations I spent just trying to identify them?” Douglas motioned to the Security guards, and they made me sit back down with a nudge from their rifles.
Reever went on. “Her biological response exterminated our kind. All within her body were destroyed.
She is a threat to our continued existence.”
“See? My biological response didn’t ignore them,” I j said, then my eyes widened. “They’re talking about-“
I grabbed Negilst. “Go get Ana. I don’t care if you have to tell QIT to jump in the nearest body of water. Get her over here, now!”
Reever ended the link, and the fluid left his body to ooze back into the container. I imagined dumping the Core into a waste receptacle. No, not horrible enough. I know, I thought. I’d slosh that resinous glop over the GravBoard track, and see how the kids liked Core lubrication under their rollers.
The chief linguist sat down, his face grey with fatigue, and I saw his eyes return to normal. He gazed over at me without reaction. Douglas and the other Council members conferred for a short period of time, then addressed me directly.
“Dr. Grey Veil, you may now respond.”
I stood up, wishing I had taken a few more political classes as a student.
“I’m accused of murder by the Core, a species that no one knew existed until I established contact with them, through Linguist Reever. I’m not guilty. A physician is required to take an oath to do no harm to any patient. Once identified, the Core life-forms were as much my patients as the living organisms they infected. I didn’t exterminate them. I helped them go home.”
I gazed at each Council member before I continued.
“The Core charge that my biological response killed them. That’s true. I was never infected, despite constant exposure. However, if I’m to be held accountable for my immune system, then the Core should be, too.”
“Clarify, please,” Douglas said.
I stared at Reever. “The Core deliberately infiltrated, destroyed, and replaced tissue in order to secret themselves from detection. They induced pneumonic symptoms to fortify their positions and provide escape routes from their hosts’ bodies.” I smiled sourly. “That biological response killed over seven thousand colonists. Sound familiar?”
Ana appeared with Negilst just as I was taking my seat. She immediately addressed the Council. “I have been monitoring this hearing and only wish to add that the PQSGO will support all of Dr. Grey Veil’s actions-voluntary and otherwise - during the time of the epidemic.”
That seemed to shake up the Council members, who took another interval to discreetly confer. Ana glanced at Reever before she leaned close. “Sorry I’m late. They’re ready to lift the quarantine, and the adminwork is a nightmare.”
“Tell me one thing,” I said. “How did Reever get involved in this?”
“Duncan was summoned to the Botanical Project by the Core themselves yesterday. He had no choice but to act as their representative.”
“He had no choice. Of course. That explains everything.”
Ana nudged me. “Joey, I can sense what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong. He’s only doing his job.”
“His job reeks.”
The Council completed their discussion, and all five rose.
“We find the charge of extermination of the Core life-forms to be substantiated, but in doing so find the Core also guilty of the same against the victims of the epidemic. Both charges can be enforced under the Charter.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means,” Reever said as he touched the surface of the resin once more, “that if you are found guilty, so are they. I will relay this to the Core.”
After a short silence, the Core spoke through Reever again. “We will withdraw the charge against Dr.
Grey Veil, if she does the same.” Reever’s voice shook badly. “We request Dr. Grey Veil be prohibited from any future contact with our dwellings.”
“Right,” I scowled. “I’m heartbroken. As if I wanted to poke around the damn dirt or those ugly purple -
Ana clapped her hand over my mouth. “She agrees.”
“Charges are dismissed. Dr. Grey Veil.” Douglas smiled at me. “You are free to go.”
I hurried over to Reever to examine him. “Notify medevac and have them send a unit. Now.” I eased him back down in his chair and leaned closer. “Don’t say another word, or I swear I’ll sedate you.”
I beckoned to one of the Security team, and shoved the container of resin in his arms. “Get this glop away from me, before I end up with another set of homicide charges.”
Dhreen was hovering outside of Trauma hours later, when I finally dragged myself off duty. I had every intention of going home and sleeping for a week. I barely managed a wave when I saw him. He was still using limb supports to walk while his broken legs healed.
“Dhreen.” I tried to smile, but my facial muscles wouldn’t cooperate. I was that tired. “What are you doing here? You should still be confined to a bed. Wait-“ I held up a hand, imitating a gesture he’d made to me in a tavern, a long time ago. “Don’t tell me. I’ll probably have to testify against you.”
The Oenrallian tried to look wounded. “Just came to .see my favorite Terran. Who happens to be too conscientious for her own good.”
“Who happens to know you too well,” I said. “I’m headed for home. Can you walk with me to my glidecar? I need to keep moving or I’ll drop where I stand.”
“I know the problem.” Dhreen shifted the supports under his arms awkwardly. “Right behind you, Doc.”
I managed to snare a space for myself close to the entrance to Trauma earlier, so we didn’t have far to go. Dhreen seemed nervous, and started to say something several times, only to break off.
“Here, sit down.” I opened the passenger’s panel for him, and gave him the once-over. He seemed to be healing satisfactorily. “If you want to come home with me, you can watch me sleep for ten or twelve hours,” I of fered wryly as I went around the vehicle and slid behind the controls. The orange head shook as he hiccuped.
“No, but thanks. I just wanted to tell you I’ve gotten a position on one of the Quadrant’s long-range freighters. As soon as I heal, I’ll ship out.”
“That’s good news, right?”
He nodded. “Now that the Bestshot is gone, I’ve got to have steady work. I was lucky the Quadrant needed a pilot who’s jaunted the territories.”