Blood Soaked and Invaded - 02 (38 page)

“Shit! You tell Bajali he’d better get his ass in gear with the new nanos so we can repair our people! Charlie’s not much better off than he is. Something needs to happen now!”

“Charlie,” I whispered.

“Aw, fuck me!” Shawn covered his face with his giant hands. “Go to sleep, bro. Just sleep. We’ll talk about it later.”

“Tell. Hairy. Ape. Fucker. Now.”

“Shit. Okay, Frank. Keep your pants on.”

“He isn’t wearing any,” the nurse interjected.

“Damn! You’re literal, aren’t you?”

“Tell. Now.” I didn’t care I was interrupting them.

“Buttons assaulted her during his appointment–right after the EMP went off. Chu and I were at my place, in the garage. The pulse grounded in all the metal around us. Our nanotech is still up and running.” He looked confused, almost as if he wanted to put his hand on me to keep me calm, but couldn’t find a convenient place to touch. “She got a bad feeling and we rushed next door. Charlie was pretty cut up, so we rushed her over here. She’s the first person Jayashri worked on. She’ll recover, okay. Just keep calm.”

“Kill Buttons,” I rasped.

“We will, once we find him. He got away.”

“How.”

“The Progeny came and got him. We rounded the corner of my place, and he was being levitated into a big black UFO. Neither of us had guns, so we couldn’t do anything.”

“Fuck. Want to see her.”

“Soon. She’s still sedated and recovering. I promise.”

“Promise. Again.”

“I promise. Cross my heart and hope to kill the fucker who hurt her.”

“Accepted.”

“You should sleep, Frank. Really.” He sounded sincere, and I grudgingly admitted he was right.

“Omura died,” I wheezed.

“Yeah. I know. We lost a lot of good people yesterday. I don’t want to lose you, so sleep. All right?”

I would have refused, or tried to fight it, but the drugs wouldn’t let me. It pulled me under, slowly, inexorably and completely. I didn’t dream.

There was an argument in the doorway, and it woke me up not too long before the pain started to come back. Bajali, Jayashri and somebody else were going at it about something. I was curious enough to try to listen, but I couldn’t really hang on to the fragments of words. Eventually, they came to some sort of conclusion, and entered the room.

“Frank? Good, you are awake.” Baj knelt down beside the bed to look me in the eye. “I want to tell you what we are going to do. I have a syringe loaded with nanomachines. They are slightly different from what you have had before, but I believe they will help get you back on your feet. Do you wish me to inject you with them.”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“I want you to know that what you will endure will not be pleasant. I did not have time to devise a way to make it so. Are you still willing?”

“Do. It.”

“Very well.”

He took a large hypodermic needle from Jayashri’s hands, and she walked around to the other side of the bed. A moment later, all the color drained from his face and he whispered something in a language I didn’t recognize.

“Krishna, be merciful.” He whispered, and his face changed expressions so quickly I couldn’t track them. “My wife has removed the dressings from this side of your face. I have to inject these into a major blood vessel. This may be uncomfortable, but please do what you can to stay still.”

I saw his hands move, and the needle on the end of the syringe looked like the opening to a huge metal tunnel as it got closer to my neck. I didn’t feel anything until he pushed the plunger down. It felt as cold as ice.

The cold flowed down to my heart and spread out from there with every beat. In three heartbeats my whole body felt chilled to the bone and I couldn’t help shivering. It was a nasty sensation, but nothing compared to the pain I’d experienced from the burns.

“Normal?”

“Yes. You are not the first person who chose the injection.” Baj squatted down beside me and put his fingers on my forehead, above my remaining eyebrow. “For two minutes or so, your body temperature will be dangerously high. It will drop to normal after.”

“Bajali, I am going to fetch a new IV bag.”

“Yes. I will stay here with our friend.”

I shivered. My mouth was dry, and I felt really strange.

“Uh,” I sighed.

“The first person I administered this to was myself, unlike last time. These machines are a version of the upgrade I created, but are more limited in function than the original machines. They are faster at mapping the host, but it feels very disconcerting while it is going on. You will find the healing process more manageable than in the past.”

“Yeah.”

“The good news is they will scavenge your damaged nanobots in order to replicate themselves. You will not need to lick shovels.” He smiled and ran his thumb over my eyebrow. “It will take them days to cope with the damage you sustained, so do not push yourself to be back on your feet instantly.”

“You sad?”

“Yes. Bravo Euro stole the original, contagious material, not the upgraded version. I am sad and very worried for the world.”

“Jeff?”

“He was not one of the thieves. He tried to stop them, and it may yet cost him his life.”

“No,” I rasped.

“There is nothing you can do for him that we have not already. His body was starting to repair the major injuries by the time the EMP brought us down. It is why he survived this long enough for us to attend to the un-repaired damage. We found him shortly after he was shot, and Dr. Lucas put him on a ventilator after closing what the `bots had not. He is healing, but slowly, and not out of the woods.”

Something in my body changed and I stiffened like a board under Baj’s fingers. The shivers disappeared like they’d never happened. Jayashri returned at that very moment, and hooked up a large bag of clear fluid to the IV line.

“How is he progressing, Bajali?”

“The new infusion is taking hold, and I believe he is feeling thirsty. I would say everything is working just like it has in everyone else so far.”

“Good. Frank,” she said, coming around beside her husband, “the thirst will go away shortly now that you have a new bag of fluids. If you feel hungry, let someone know and we will add nutrients to the IV. Eating solid food right now might be fine, but I would rather you not vomit and rupture your sutures before you have healed more.”

“Okay.”

“You will be fine,” she said softly, “just be patient.”

“Kill Buttons.”

“Oh yes,” Bajali said as his eyes narrowed down to slits. “That is ever a part of our plans. In the meantime, rest. Sleep is golden.”

They stood up and I moved my head enough to track them. Jayashri kissed her fingertips and touched my nose.

“Do not forget we love you. We are leaving Dr. Lucas with you. She will help you, or fetch either of us if you need us.”

“Ok.”

They left the room holding hands and seeing that made me feel a little better somehow.

Dr. Jenny “I talk a lot” Lucas came in on their heels, and sat beside me in the chair Shawn had occupied before. I realized I didn’t even know what day it was or how much time had passed since I’d seen Shawn in the first place.

“Jenny. Wha’ day is it?”

“Shush, you’re supposed to be resting.”

“Tell me.”

“It is Tuesday, the 18
^th
.” She looked up at nothing and added, “It is 2:21:35am. You slept most of yesterday.”

“Uhg.”

“If you don’t rest, I’ll tell you all about my college years and medical school. I’ll even tell you about all the strange objects I removed from rectums when I did my ER rotation in Residency.”

“Resting now.”

“Good. Charlie told me to take a firm stance with you if I expected you to listen. I like her a lot.”

“How is she?”

“She’s resting comfortably. Shawn and Chunhua won’t leave her side, and they’re all going to come see you as soon as you heal up. You’re a big open wound right now, you know.”

“Oh. Resting again.”

“Good man, Frankie Stuffed with Socks. She told me to say things like that, too.”

“Can I rest now?”

“Yes.”

That’s all I needed after losing an arm and an eye: someone else to boss me around and add things to my name. I had to remember to tell Charlie to keep that stuff to herself. A one-armed, one-eyed, hobbling zombie exterminator needs to keep some sort of credibility in this fucked-up world.

Dr. Lucas, my well-trained babysitter, settled down with a romance novel and read silently. I tried to ramp myself down into something approaching a restful state. It didn’t go easily or well, and I didn’t want to test the meds by shifting position.

Eventually–don’t ask me how long it took–I dozed off. It wasn’t a deep sleep, more like one of those naps you take on boring Sunday afternoons when there aren’t zombies to kill. You float in a dark place, nearly aware of your waking surroundings, knowing that time in your head and time in the world are not in synch. It was like that, but with a sense of motion, almost as though I was traveling on the backs of millions of ants.

“Frank,” a deep voice from somewhere addressed me.

I opened my eye. Chunhua was standing in the doorway of the Physical Therapy room. I looked over and noticed Dr. Jenny was sleeping like a log.

“Don’t worry about Dr. Lucas. She’s asleep. It is rather late.” Chu came closer. “If you remember, I told you I have something for you when you’re recovered enough. Oh, feel free to speak if you like, or not. I can read your thoughts if you prefer not to stress your larynx.”

“Why? You said you were leaving and wouldn’t interfere.” I took advantage of his offer to read my thoughts.

“Like anyone, we needed a little time to think the situation over. None of the other races will know of our part in your conflict until it is much to late for them to complain. It isn’t as though we are cleaning up the mess for you. Winning is up to you. We simply wish to give you a better chance.”

“Why?”

“You ask that so often. Is there no such thing as accepting a gift without question?”

“No, Biggie. We don’t work that way.”

“No, Frank,” he laughed at me, “you do not work that way. Many other people do. I point to a number of your major religions as an example.”

“Don’t debate the nature of God with me. Just answer the damned question. Why?”

“Allow me to do something we have wished to do all our years on your world.” Chunhua held up her finger, and her body slid to the floor. What stood over her was not at all human. “We have never stood on your world in our original form.”

Biggie was, in a word, huge. The only description I could apply before my mind refused to go further was “abominable snowman.”

“As you see, in form, we were not so different from your simian ancestors... or from you as your species is today. Bipeds with imperfect bilateral symmetry, eyes, and hands.” The huge thing inhaled and sighed so hard it ruffled my bandages. “Frank. We are lonely. We have met your people, with all their madness and contradictions, and for once we do not feel like orphans in the expanse of space and time.”

“I’m sorry, Biggie. I can’t imagine it.”

“In truth, we would be worried if you could.” He smiled, revealing enormous, ridged, block-like teeth. “We decided to stack the deck in your favor, more than we already have. Much discussion and exploration of impact on galactic ecology went on before we made up our mind.”

“You’re full of shit, Biggie. It is an emotional decision. You’ve got a baby brother species now, and you don’t want us to die before we can grow up and beat you at basketball.”

The pearly white monster wrapped both sets of arms around his midsection and laughed like a freight train. Teeth. Huge teeth.

“Guilty as charged. It isn’t basketball, though. We want to see you beat the Progeny. If you can manage to do that without destroying your world in the process, your species may realize the unity you crave so much, yet are terrified of. It is a miracle we wish to be a part of, little brother.”

“How do you plan to stick those paddle-like fingers on the wheel of fate?”

“Two things, and only two. The first is this,” it reached over and touched me with a monster finger. “The second will only unfold if you have no other resources. It may secure your victory, or snatch it from your enemy.”

“Why are you advanced species always so goddamned cryptic? Can’t you just come out and say ‘spit on this paper and your enemy will suffer explosive flatulence’?”

It barked a laugh.

“It is the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching him to fish. This is a metaphor you humans know very well and usually ignore.”

“Having a whole alien species as a big brother is going to be a bitch.”

“Quite likely. We will take our leave of you now. Doctor Lucas will not remember this discussion or notice gaps in her memory. You will remember, but I urge caution in speaking about it to anyone other than Chunhua Yan.”