Dalton, Tymber - Bightmares [Deep Space Mission Corps 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (14 page)

Emi helped Taber reconfigure Dr. Martinez’s restraints and restart the IV. “You need to warn the other women,” Emi said. “If he reverted, they will, too. Don’t wake any more patients until we get some lab results back.”

“Okay.”

She stepped away from the table and over to the governor’s side. With Dr. Shourpa’s assistance, Emi helped the woman stand and walk from the room. Behind her, she heard Aaron’s com link whistle and Rob page him. He walked outside the clinic to talk to him.

“Let’s get you home,” Emi said to the governor. “You need to rest.”

She nodded, too distraught to argue. The two women walked her across the compound to a small, nondescript residential pod. Inside, she’d made it look as homey and comfortable as she could in their still relatively spartan setting. Everything was neat and tidy and smelled of cinnamon and baked goods.

Six fresh loaves of cinnamon bread sat on the counter. In a daze, Ilse walked over to the kitchen, retrieved a large plastic storage bag from her cabinet, and put the loaves in it. “Here,” she softly said, handing the bag to Emi. “Take these for your men.”

Not wanting to hurt the woman’s feelings, Emi did. “I will. Now, you need to go lie down and rest. Do you want me to give you a sedative?”

Ilse shook her head. “No.” Finally, her eyes focused. She looked at Emi. “Please, just figure out what’s wrong with them!”

“We will.”

* * * *

Aaron waited for Emi outside the governor’s house. From one grim reality to another, Emi didn’t need her empath skills to know something was seriously wrong.

“What happened?”

He shook his head and indicated they needed to return to the lander. Inside, he removed his protective suit after going through a decon cycle in the air lock. Sam and Gregor looked equally grim. “We’ve got a serious problem.”

“What?” She dropped the bag of bread loaves on a crate as she took a seat.

“ISNC has taken over,” Aaron said. “Unless we figure out what the hell the problem is, the colonists will be evac’d, and the planet will be sterilized.”

“Sterilized?”

“Destroyed, in other words.”

Emi blinked. “They can’t do that!”

Gregor nodded. “Oh, yes, they can. And they will. The ISNC forces coming have orders to evac only people without symptoms and decon the planet.”

“But what about those infected?”

Aaron shook his head.

Emi gasped. “That’s murder!”

“They won’t risk the condition spreading,” Aaron said. “Once they give the final order, that’s it. Anyone who’s infected will be left on the planet and…” He didn’t finish.

“You cannot tell me you’re fucking okay with this!”

“No, I’m not. None of us are. The ISNC underwrote the initial colony and mission expenses to get it up and running. Contractually, they get to have a say in it. The colonists signed contracts with the DSMC to that effect. They understand that.”

“No, I’m sure they don’t understand they can be left behind to be murdered!” She alternately felt stunned and like screaming. “What the fuck, Aar?”

“We have to work fast.”

* * * *

Emi had sent a preliminary shipment of samples up to the
Braynow Gaston
in an unmanned drone. The three scientists were already crunching results, trying to find a commonality to work with, but had not as of yet figured it out. Later that night, Aaron ordered an exhausted Emi back to the lander so they could return to the
Tamora Bight
. Gregor and Sam would bunk with them that night, in the cargo bay, and return to the planet with them in the morning.

Emi and Donna sat up half the night on the com link, wracking their brains to come up with something, anything. Captain John Tarrence from the
Braynow Gaston
hailed them.

“We’ve gone through all the samples you sent. Nothing. There is no reason for those men to have gotten sick. They are, with the exception of some standard conditions like hypertension, healthy. The only common link we can find is that they’re adult men.”

Emi scrubbed her face with her hands. “There has to be something.”

Aaron leaned against the sick bay counter, his arms crossed, listening.

“I’m sorry, Emi. There’s nothing we can find.”

“Look for any genetic differences between the sick and unaffected men.”

“We did. We traced the genetic code. There is nothing.”

Aaron stepped forward. “Thanks, John. We’ll talk to you in the morning. Page us if there’s anything new.”

“Sure thing, Aaron.
Braynow Gaston
, out.”

Aaron caught Emi’s hand and pulled her to her feet. It was the middle of the night their time, and she was wiped out. “Come on, Doc. To bed with you.” She offered no protest when he scooped her into his arms. She felt bone-weary and couldn’t get Ilse’s haunted look out of her mind.

She couldn’t let them die.

Ford had watch that night. Caph already slept sprawled across their large shared bed. Exhausted, Emi curled up next to him as Aaron settled against her other side and wrapped an arm around her waist.

He kissed the back of her neck. “You’ll figure it out, sweetie. I know you will.”

She didn’t feel so confident. She hoped he was right.

Chapter Nine

Emi found herself alone in bed the next morning when the smell of breakfast awoke her. She grabbed a quick sonic shower, and after she emerged, Ford walked in with a steaming cup of coffee for her.

“There’s my girl,” he said, giving her a quick peck. “Everyone’s in the galley, eating breakfast.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” she groused.

“We were going to if you hadn’t got up. We wanted to make sure you got as much rest as you could.” His blue eyes darkened with concern. “You’ll figure it out. Don’t panic, sweetheart. It’ll just cloud your judgment.”

When she broke down crying, he enveloped her in his arms. “What if I can’t?” she whispered. “What if those men die because of me?”

“Don’t think like that.” He led her to the galley where the men, including Sam and Gregor, chowed down on eggs, bacon, and what smelled like cinnamon toast. Emi’s stomach, already bound in knots, wouldn’t tolerate anything more than one egg.

Aaron acted unusually quiet and brooding. She didn’t press him, knowing this situation weighed as heavily on him as it did her. She tried to read him and felt a dark cloud of gloom. Since that didn’t help her confidence, she tuned him out.

Emi spent the trip to the surface in quiet contemplation. She had an idea and hoped the governor would go along with her. Aaron wouldn’t be thrilled, but she had to do it.

“I need to wake Dr. Martinez again.”

Aaron shook his head. “Absolutely not. I don’t want you anywhere near him.”

“We’ll take him to their brig. He won’t be in a rage the entire time. You saw him. He was fine for hours. He might be able to help me and Donna figure this out!”

Aaron looked to Gregor and Sam. “What do you think?”

Sam shrugged. “I’m not really thrilled with the idea either. I’m even less thrilled about standing by and watching people die.”

Gregor nodded his agreement. “The three of us can keep her safe. We’ll tether him with the energy shackles. If he rages we’ll just step out of the cell and let him be until he settles down.”

Aaron leaned in and kissed her before he stood to put his protective suit on. “Please, be careful.”

“I will.”

* * * *

Governor Martinez was more than happy to allow it. Taber helped them move the doctor to a brig cell they emptied. Then they secured him. Taber waited for everyone else to step out of the cell before he gave Dr. Martinez the shot to wake him up.

Dr. Martinez’s blue eyes slowly fluttered open as they filled with confusion. “Where am I?”

Emi stepped forward. “The brig. I’m sorry, but we need to keep you awake. Maybe you can help us figure this out.”

He nodded. His eyes focused on his wife, who stood in the hallway. “Can you all excuse me for a moment? I need to talk to Dr. Hypatia alone.”

Aaron started to protest, but Emi held up a hand. “No, it’s okay. He’s okay. Just keep the cell door open. I’ll run if he rages.”

Taber stepped out as Emi knelt beside the doctor’s bunk. She didn’t dare touch him but sensed his deeper purpose. “What is it?”

His eyes flicked over her shoulder, to everyone watching, then back to her. “I’m a class 1 empath, Dr. Hypatia. And a class 3 clairvoyant. Natural, not trained.” He studied her, his eyes full of unspoken meaning.

Emi silently swore. He knew.

“We have a serious problem, don’t we?” he softly asked.

She nodded.

He glanced over her shoulder, then back to her. “Do they know? Your captain does, I feel it. Do the others?”

“No.”

“How long do we have?”

“ISNC forces will be here in a few days. We have until then.”

He smiled. “Nothing like trying to beat a deadline, huh?” Then his face grew serious. “I worried about this when it first started because I know full well what was in the contract we signed. As a doctor, I know they’re right, that they can’t risk it spreading. But, frankly, I don’t want to die.”

“I know.”

He nodded to the observation window that looked into a conference room. “Can you set up a large display in there? There’s a two-way com. We can go over data together.”

“I’ll get it done right away.”

He nodded and laid his head on the bunk. “Okay. I’ll wait here.” Then he smiled, his blue eyes twinkling with mischief. “I’m a little tied up right now or I’d be a gentleman and help you set things up.”

Emi laughed. She had to save him. All of them.

“Promise me one thing, Dr. Hypatia,” he said.

“Only if you call me Emi.”

“Emi.” He grew serious again. “By whatever means you have to, if we can’t figure this out…” He looked grim. “Drug her if you have to, but get her off this planet if we run out of time. Promise me.”

“I promise. But it won’t come to that.”

“I hope you’re right.”

* * * *

Within two hours, Dr. Sascha Martinez sat in a chair by the observation window, going over everything point-by-point with Emi and Donna via a three-way com link. He’d waved off his wife’s offer of toast in lieu of chicken broth. He sipped it as he studied the files on the screen.

“I feel like I’m missing something huge,” he said. “Like it’s right in front of us and it’s so freaking obvious that we’re overlooking it.”

“Sascha, we’ve gone over and duplicated your preliminary results,” Donna said. “Water, food, air, ground. Nothing in the samples indicates environmental. There are no abnormal results.”

One of Sascha’s specialties was epidemiology. Of all the people to figure it out, he should be the one. “Did the supply ship crew come back clean?” Emi asked.

“No problems reported,” Donna said.