Experiment (Hybrid Book 2) (10 page)

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C
hesara jerked awake covered in sweat, heart racing. She’d been back in the woods with Thompson, feeling him paw at her, feeling her anger at her traitorous body, feeling him die at her hands. Sitting up, she told herself it was only a flashback, and flashbacks were a normal part of recovery. But it didn’t stop her heart from pounding and her hands from shaking.

“Stupid cow,” she muttered to herself as she quickly pulled herself out of bed and into her bathroom, she forced herself not to retch, despite her rolling stomach. After a quick shower, she dressed herself in a plain white T shirt and grey fleecy pants before making a cup of coffee in the ‘kitchenette’ attached to the living area.

It wasn’t big enough to cook anything fancy, but the small hot plate, microwave, kettle and toaster sorted her out most of the time. If she wanted something more substantial she went to the cafeteria, and she was positive it wouldn’t happen much in the future. People avoiding was going to be her new hobby.

A knock at the door had her peering through the spy hole before letting the Councillor in.

“Coffee?” she asked, and poured Dr Henderson a cup before joining her on the sofa.

“I had an acute stress reaction, didn’t I?” The older woman’s eyes widened a little in surprise.

“Yes you did, and I think it’s likely to cause you a few problems for a little while.” The Councillor had her ‘kindly face’ on, but instead of finding it reassuring, today Chesara found it irritating.

“Yeah I know flash backs and the like, but I’ll cope, I’m not some trembling weakling.”

“You were two days ago.” Again with the ‘sympathy’ face.

“Well that was then, and this is now.  Now much as I appreciate your efforts, I’m not in need of your services anymore, Dr Henderson.” She was impressed with the sound of her own voice, she sounded firm and in control. She mentally high fived herself.

“So you’re ready to go back to work?” Chesara hated the condescending tone in her voice, but the question had made her take a sharp breath.

“I’m not going to go back into the same line of work, perhaps you could leave a message with whoever hands out assignments for me. Now if you’re finished, I’ve got some research to do.”

Chesara stood, hoping the doctor would follow social norms and leave when requested to do so.

“I think we need to chat a little more about your role dear, but that can wait for another time. Enjoy your day, but don’t push yourself too hard, with what you’ve gone through, a relapse is possible.”  Chesara managed to return her sickly smile through clenched teeth as she showed her out the door, then parroted, “a relapse is possible you know, what a zalupa.”

Pouring herself a second cup of strong coffee, she began pondering her options. She remembered what Connor and Tenset had said about being ‘property’ but she decided that they couldn’t force her to heal people, they’d have to find something else for her to do, or she’d simply jump ship as soon as possible.

She remembered the offer Tenset had made her. The thought of him made her tear up, she couldn’t quite accept the twinkling eyes and grin was gone from the galaxy, she’d heard Melton say he was ‘gone’.

Apart from the political aspect of living on Kalzir, the thought of living a simple life and raising horses or other livestock was tempting. She could keep herself to herself and not bother, or be bothered by anyone. It’s be lonely, but then again, she’d always been lonely if she really thought about it. She was the only one of her kind.

Sitting down at the terminal, she began researching immigration criteria for a number of planets, specifically agricultural ones.

A
fter leaving Chesara, Connor returned to his quarters, which were a slightly smaller and ‘bluer’ version of Chesara’s and monitored her implant. He’d been expecting her to have a disturbed night, but after an hour her levels dropped, and she dropped into a normal sleep pattern.

He’d contacted the Councillor, just as Chesara had said he would, although ‘huddle’ hadn’t described the brief conversation via their com implants. The Councillor had of course, been watching their journey through the ship, and had been extremely pleased at the result. The luckless crewman was enjoying sweeping the shuttle bay with a broom, even though the maintenance bots usually performed the task.

An insistent buzzing from his communication implant woke him several hours later, and he absently tapped the button behind his ear.

“Connor, is that you, you big Troll?” Tenset voice had his eyes shooting open, and he nearly fell off his easy chair where he’d been resting when he’d dozed off.

“Tenset? How are you? Where are you? Actually you’d better not tell me that, how did you get my com code?”

“Slow down hotshot, let me get a word in edgeways will you?” The amused edge in his voice had Connor’s heart soaring. Whatever had happened to Tenset, it hadn’t broken him as it had broken Chesara.

“Sorry, I’m just a little shocked at hearing from you. The last thing I heard was that you were minus an eye and being hunted by both planetary and Federation authorities.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. I told you that you couldn’t get rid of me that easily. Firstly as to your com code, didn’t I already tell you how corrupt the Federation is? Secondly, yep, the eye thing is true. It smarted quite a bit at the time, and it’s still a little sore to tell the truth. And Connor?  You and I need to have a little chat about you letting my dear uncle go to meet his maker quite so easily.”

Connor was amazed at how ‘normal’ Tenset sounded, he wasn’t sure he’d be coping as well under the circumstances.

“Sorry about that. He bargained hard over information about Chesara’s whereabouts, and yours for that matter, and he did indeed suffer, although not for as long as either of us wanted.”

Connor heard him blow out a hard breath. “Wish I’d been there to wave him goodbye though, but that’s done and dusted now. It’s about Chesara I called; do you think she could help me out? The pirate look is overrated, and I’d prefer my depth perception back.”

Connor sighed, trying to work out what to tell him.

“Is there a problem?”

“Yeah I’m afraid there is.”

“She’s all right, isn’t she?” Tenset’s voice was no longer relaxed.

“Can we meet?”

“That bad huh? Get back to the embassy in the morning, I’ll find you.”

Connor started to reply that it wouldn’t be possible, when he realized Tenset had disconnected.

Unable to sleep, he showered and went to find the one person he could probably persuade to smuggle him down to the surface without having to fill in multiple forms.

It’d been rather tricky locating Lieutenant Dagus just before dawn, but eventually he’d tracked him down to the quarters of a pretty brunette yeoman. It had been much easier to persuade the man he’d left something ‘secret’ at the embassy that he needed to retrieve in person as soon as possible.

Dagus had a routine flight planned to pick up some fresh supplies and hard copy paperwork from the planet. It just meant going a little earlier than he’d planned. The shuttle controller had barely batted an eyelid when Dagus requested the alteration, or rather she’d batted her eyelids a great deal. A wink, a smile, and the promise of a meet up later in the day, and Connor was on his way.

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I
t was still early morning, and the hazy sunshine made it difficult to recall the horrors visited on him and Chesara two weeks ago. The air smelt sweet, and the insects were just starting to buzz in the short grass. Remembering his supposed errand, he walked the several hundred yards across the landing field to the building that served both as a spaceport, and the Federation embassy.

The corral still contained a few horses who hadn’t seemed bothered by the arrival of a shuttle. The relatively small vehicles, built to carry up to twenty personnel and two pilots, weren’t particularly noisy. Once animals and people had become accustomed to the sight, they weren’t interested in them anymore.

A man was grooming one of the sleek black animals, and Connor’s eyes widened as he recognized Tenset’s characteristic, powerful movements. Unfortunately, a member of the embassy staff waved so he walked over to greet him.

Connor was shown back to the room he’d occupied so briefly, and he pointedly stared at the official until he left. He was, after all, meant to be retrieving something ‘secret’. Ruffling a few pillows and adjusting a few drawers made it look like a search had occurred, before he quickly went back downstairs.

“Did you find what you needed, Sir?” The official appeared beside him as if by magic.

“Yes, thank you. As I’ve got a little time to kill before the shuttle is ready to return I’ll take a stroll around the grounds if that’s ok? It might be a while before I get ‘real air’ again.”

At the man’s sympathetic nod, Connor began to amble round the building, in the direction of the ‘business’ side of the grounds that contained the stabling, vehicle sheds and corral. He hadn’t had a chance to look over the grounds on his previous visit, but he had to admit they were well kept with manicured lawns and beautiful flowering borders.

As he passed the stables, he saw Tenset working on another horse, and made his way over to him.

“Nice animal.”

“Bred him myself, or rather Lord Tenset did. Here I’m ‘Baxter the groom.”

Connor winced. “Did you have to use that name?”

Tenset shrugged. “It’s convenient, Baxter knew horses, and his body was never found.”

“He’s dead. I killed him.”

“Yes I know. The guy you knocked out has been working with me. You’re crap at tying people up by the way. He buried the body before the federation search party got there.”

His hands continued the measured sweeps down the animal’s sides for a few moments before standing up and facing Connor.

Connor gasped as he saw the barely healed wounds that criss-crossed Tenset’s face. The wounds were raw, scabs still cover many of them and just about all of them were inflamed, showing red against his tanned skin. The deepest started from the left side of his forehead and ran down underneath a black eyepatch, to his jaw in a straight line. It still had the black lines of stitches across it. A wry smile twitched his lips at the look on Connor’s face.

“Not too pretty any more am I? But you look pretty shitty yourself. Don’t they feed you up there?”

Connor hastily tried to rearrange his features into a more neutral expression, but he’d been genuinely shocked at the state of Tenset’s face. The mention of the word ‘pretty’ brought back memories of what else Tamas had said he’d done to his nephew.

“Did he just do your face, or...” Connor left the question hanging although at the immediate stony expression on Tenset’s face he decided that maybe he didn’t want to know.

“Right, ok none of my business, the bastard’s dead anyway. I wish I could kill him all over again though.”

“You’re babbling troll. It makes you look even more stupid than normal. How’s Chesara, why wouldn’t you talk over the link?” Tenset’s one eye narrowed at Connor’s expression.

“What’s happened to her?”

“She’s recovering, she got a crossbow bolt in the shoulder, but she had a severe mental breakdown. One of your uncle’s staff decided to take advantage of her.”

“Who was it? I’ll deal with him myself.”

Connor almost shivered at the cold intent in Tenset’s voice, and he rubbed the back of his neck, trying to relieve the tension. Keeping Tenset calm whilst relating this story wasn’t going to be easy, and he couldn’t risk him being caught by the planetary or Federation authorities.

“Keep your hair on, that’s sort of the problem, she ‘dealt’ with him herself. She stopped his heart; actually the post mortem showed several coronary arteries had been ripped open. She wasn’t responsive when Melton brought her in, she sort of ‘shut down’ for a while. She’s awake again, but she still can’t stand being touched, by anyone. She’s adamant she won’t use her ability again.”

“That’ll cause trouble with your bosses. A healer that won’t heal?”

Connor felt a flash of pride that Tenset’s immediate reaction was for Chesara’s welfare, rather than himself.

“Yes it will, she has some daft idea that she’ll be able to ‘change careers,’ but I can’t see that happening.” He tapped into his com link feed for a moment. “She’s currently looking up agricultural planets she could emigrate to.”

The embassy official walked around the building, and Tenset began brushing the gleaming black hide of the horse again although his movements were a little stiff.

“Everything alright Mr Temple, is that man bothering you?”

“No, no it’s fine. Quality livestock is an interest of mine; I hope you don’t mind me keeping him from his work?” The man waved and returned to the building.

Tenset kept his head towards the horse, and Connor felt ashamed for staring at his wounds. Despite his feigned nonchalance, he knew Tenset was embarrassed about his ravaged features.

“So what’ll they do?”

“Try to persuade her I suppose, although the ultimate solution is probably a memory wipe, but there’s no guarantee it’ll work on her.”

“If it doesn’t, what then?”

Connor sighed, that was something he didn’t want to think about, but Tenset deserved an answer.

“Back to the research facility where she grew up. I’d think they’ll try to do exactly what you were intending.”

“Don’t rub it in; I think I’ve paid a suitable price for that mistake, don’t you?”

Connor had nothing to say to that.

“If the memory thing works, how far back would they go?”

When Connor didn’t immediately reply he had his answer.

“She won’t remember me will she?”

“No she won’t.”

Neither of them voiced the conclusion that the possibility of the Federation’s prime asset taking time to heal a lowly groom was non-existent. The silence stretched, and Connor fidgeted in the growing heat.

“Has she asked about me?”

“She only started speaking again last night,” Connor said softly.

“So that’s a no.” He rested his forehead against the broad flank of the animal for a moment.