Plague of Memory (35 page)

I spent the night with the man I loved, and for the first time since I had agreed to become his woman, we truly explored that love. We talked and we laughed and we gave each other pleasure. We shared memories and fears. We slept as if welded together. Not once in all those long hours did I feel guilt or shame for being with him when I could have been in Medical. I needed this time for us, to prove to my husband that he was the center of my life, and to prove to myself that I was his.

No more was I to be Cherijo's ghost.

I left Reever sleeping when I rose early the next morning to report for duty. As I walked alone to the lift outside our quarters, I felt a strange tingling sensation in my head.

"That would be my fault,"
Maggie said.
"I have to leave you now."

I stopped and braced myself against one wall.

Why?

"Duncan's memories of you two lovebirds and all I have stored won't fit in the one functioning implant you have left,"
she told me.
"One of us has to stop imprinting you, and I figure you need him right now more than you need me."

I didn't like the red-haired woman, so I felt little regret at the thought of her disappearing.
Where will you go? Will you be contacting me again?

"I go to merge with what is left of the Jxin. We keep each other company in the void. By the time you need me again, Jafn, you'll know how to make the connection."

The tingling sensation disappeared, and after a moment I sighed and continued on to Medical.

ChoVa remained closeted in the lab, and Squilyp was busy performing rounds. I apologized to the Senior Healer for my absence, but did not bother to make excuses.

"I will relieve ChoVa once I have checked PyrsVar's vitals," I promised as I picked up the renegade Jorenian's chart. I looked over at the view panel into his isolation room, saw his form huddled under the berth linens, and frowned. "He has not yet risen this morning?"

"No, I told the nurses to keep him sedated." He looked around. "The night shift charge nurse didn't leave a report for me before she went off duty."

"Perhaps she left it in his room." I went back and unlocked the door. The room was a disordered mess, and I sighed as I reached to draw back the berth linens covering the outlaw's head—and uncovered the head of the unconscious, gagged charge nurse instead. "Squilyp," I called, dropping down to look under the berth. "Squilyp, PyrsVar has escaped."

The Senior Healer hopped over, took in the scene with a single glance, and went to the nearest console to signal the captain. Xonea replied with the news that the launch bay crew had been found gagged,

ound, and drugged a few minutes ago, and that a launch was missing.

I scanned the nurse, who had been given a massive dose of sedative, and released her bonds before the ward nurses came to transfer her out of the isolation room. ChoVa had not yet emerged from the lab, so I went to tell her what had happened, and found the lab in worse condition than PyrsVar's room.

An infuser that had been used to administer a sedative for a large female Hsktskt lay on the deck next to ChoVa's empty seat. Subsequent signals to her quarters and the captain revealed that the female Hsktskt was no longer on the ship.

"He must have abducted her and taken her with him," I told Squilyp as we searched the lab.

He went to the analyzer that had been left running and pulled up the last of ChoVa's tests. "Jam, come here."

I went to look at the data. Beneath the long list of tests on the bone dust and PyrsVar's biopsy tissue were the same results:
positive.

"She found the cure." I checked the components of the compound that had been used for the test. "We have everything we need to synthesize a countermeasure. Enough for the entire population of Vtaga." I looked up at him. "Do you think she tested it on PyrsVar?"

"We cannot know. I will have the nurses begin processing," the Omorr said. "You and I have been ordered to report to command."

We left the staff busily producing the necessary
medicine and hurried to command for an emergency meeting with the captain and his officers.

"How much worse were PyrsVar's symptoms last night?" I asked Squilyp.

"He threatened to blow up the ship and everyone on it if we did not release him," the Omorr told me, and then lifted a hand. "I have already signaled engineering and environmental services. As far as we can tell, he did not have the opportunity or the means to plant any explosive device or sabotage the star drive or the power systems. I do not believe in his state that he could have done much damage. He was too unsteady."

"That may have changed." I could not believe ChoVa would wait to administer the compound. "If she tested him with the successful enzyme, and he reverted to what he was before being exposed to the bone dust..."

"Let us deal with facts," the Senior Healer suggested. "Of which we have few."

Reever met us at the command center. After he gave me a brief, warm embrace, he nodded toward the helm. "We have located the launch. PyrsVar left it in the desert. We think he may have taken ChoVa with him to his final destination."

Perhaps she had not given him the compound. "Why would he take her? And where?"

"ChoVa understands this epidemic as well as Jam does," Reever said. "She is also the daughter of the ruling Akade. There was no one more valuable on this ship to him than her, except perhaps you."

We went in and briefed the captain and his officers with what we knew. They in turn filled in some of the gaps.

"Before he left the upper atmosphere, PyrsVar sent a signal to this location in the mountains," Salo said, pointing out one of the tallest peaks in the range being holoprojected over the conference table. "This is approximately three hours due north of the desert."

"SrrokVar's stronghold," I said. "That must be where he was taking her." I shuddered to think of my friend at the mercy of that madman. Would he expose her to more of the dust? "Have we informed the Akade of what has happened?"

"TssVar acknowledged our signal, but did not respond," Salo said. "The rioters are massing around the Palace. He believes his security grid will be overwhelmed sometime today, unless help from Tlngal arrives."

"Will the Tingaleans arrive in time?" I asked the captain.

"We do not know," Xonea admitted. "The last signal they sent indicated they would send assistance, but with their usual reticence, they did not specify when, or how much."

"Then the responsibility rests on us." I looked at my husband. "We must go to the planet and find ChoVa, and do what we can to help TssVar until reinforcements arrive."

"We cannot fight an entire population of Hsktskt gone insane," Xonea said, very gently.

"I am not proposing that we do." I turned to Naln, the chief of engineering, who sat beside me. "I can synthesize a large amount of the enzyme that

will end this epidemic, but it will be impossible to administer it in the traditional fashion. Is there some way we can put it into the water or food supply?"

"Not without great difficulty, and there is no guarantee all those infected would ingest it." The engineer considered my question. "There are atmospheric drones we use to test alien air quality and content. I may be able to modify them to fly low and release the substance in a mist over large masses." She grinned at me. "Every Hsktskt on the planet may not eat or drink, but they must all breathe."

The Adan were happy to have something to do, and armed themselves for battle as we prepared a rescue team to jaunt to the surface.

"There will be wounded to deal with," the Omorr said. "I will begin assembling medical teams to go in once the population is under control. Our first priority will be to assure that all medical facilities are open and fully functional."

Naln made a discovery with a trial run of the modified atmospheric drones that she reported to me at once.

"I know how this dust is being delivered to the inhabitants," she said over her relay to me. "Very small drones, not dissimilar to the ones I have made to disperse the countermeasure, are being sent into the populated areas in the rrjidst of each night. They have been releasing tiny amounts of the dust into the mist-venting systems of every building during the time when most of the occupants are sleeping. They return to their point of origin immediately after, so they have not been discovered. We have the entire process captured on vid now."

"Can you tell from where the dust drones are originating?" I was almost afraid she might tell me the desert, but she gave me surface coordinates that matched those of SrrokVar's stronghold.

"The Hsktskt will need to do much to prevent future outbreaks once they have been dosed with the countermeasure," Naln warned me. "Given the rate of dust dispersal, by now every edifice in the city will be contaminated."

It seemed ironic that the Hsktskt had been living with and willingly breathing in the very thing that was driving them insane.

Reever did not wish me to go on the rescue mission, and spent some moments trying to persuade me to remain on the ship and wait for him.

I waited until he paused for breath, and then I kissed him in front of the captain and most of the officers on the ship. "Nothing comes between us. Not the Hsktskt, not Vtaga, not this mission. Wherever you walk, Husband, shall I follow."

There were some tense moments in the launch bay when Qonja and Hawk showed up to join the sojourn team. The Adan were clearly unhappy at being in the presence of the ClanSon they had just repudiated, but the ClanLeader made a point of showing willing if somewhat distant courtesy to the two men.

On the way down to the surface we reviewed the tentative plans we had made to approach SrrokVar's stronghold.

"I can fly reconnaissance over the structure
before we bring in the ship," Hawk suggested. "I am accustomed to heights and the low temperatures, and I am able to evade weapons fire more easily than the launch."

Reever nodded. "What we are interested in knowing is what manner of defenses the stronghold has. Jam was not able to see much of the outside of the structure when PyrsVar took her there. Whatever is there, it will likely be well disguised."

"I do not think he will have much in the way of weaponry," I said. "The low temperature is his main defense against any Hsktskt, and he will not be expecting humanoids to attack to save ChoVa or the Hsktskt."

We saw columns of smoke rising from the city as we descended to cruise level and changed direction for the mountains. I stared at them, wondering if UgessVa and her household had gone with TssVar to the Palace.

"They are one of the strongest and most dominant of the Hsktskt lines," Reever murmured to me, folding his hand over mine. "If anyone survives this, it will be TssVar's blood."

Salo, who was piloting the launch, spoke over the audio com. "I have just received a message from the
Sunlace.
The Tingaleans have sent five battalions and most of their fleet, which have just arrived and are moving into orbit. They have brought cryoweapons with which to subdue the rioters."

"That should be effective," the Adan ClanLeader said. "Pilot, how long before they begin landing their forces?"

"The captain said the first troop shuttles have already launched for the surface," Salo answered.

"This madman may wish to send out his drones to dose the Tingaleans with this fear dust," the Adan said. "Hawk, while you are scouting, see if you can determine from where they are being launched. It should be our first target when we strike."

Salo flew over the stronghold, using a neighboring mountain as cover while he put the launch into a hover and opened the hull access doors to permit Hawk to fly out into the icy winds.

"Come back to me," Qonja said, clasping his lover's hands in his briefly.

"I will,
evlanar."
With a grin Hawk jumped out of the launch and spread his wings, sailing up and away from us.

I had observed most of the Adan looking away from the show of affection between the two men, and clamped down on a surge of anger. Now was not the time to address the ridiculous prejudice of the Jorenians. I would attend to it once this epidemic was over and we had saved the Hsktskt from mass suicide and murder.

Salo reversed the engines and landed on an outcropping, and the men began to prepare their supply packs, body armor, and weapons. Reever made me wear one of the lightweight vests designed to protect the vital organs of the chest, and placed a too-large battle helmet on my head.

"I cannot see." I pushed up the edge of the helmet, which had sunk down over my eyes. "I might as well blunder into a weapon."

"You will stay behind me," Reever said. "I will be your body shield." "I make a better shield than you do," I reminded him. "I am quicker and more agile." He adjusted the fit of the helmet. "Indulge me on this."

Hawk returned a short time later, his immense brown wings filled with snow, which he shook off before reentering the launch.

"I have located SrrokVar's drone launchers, and what I think is the main staging area. A few pulse grenades should destroy both." He glanced at me. "Healer, I saw no signs of life, but the stronghold is heavily barricaded and all of the viewers blacked out. This SrrokVar does not intend to come out, or let anyone so much as look inside."

"Did you see how we can best enter the structure?" the Adan asked him.

Hawk nodded, and went to the console to pull up a schematic of the mountain and the stronghold. "There are air and water conduits here and here." He pointed to the spots at the very top of the structure. "Several vent panels at the base also looked promising, but they are more likely to be mined, or otherwise fortified and defended."

"We will create two diversions," the Adan decided. "One by firing into the snow on the ridge above the structure, which should fall and knock out any surveillance drones SrrokVar is employing to monitor his perimeter on the main entry level. The second will be smoke charges, fired into the flanking vents here. If they are mined, we will know." He turned to my husband. "You and your