Girl Gone Nova (33 page)

He secured one of her hands, feeling her pain as his own, but he couldn’t use medication to ease this pain. It lived inside him, though he willed it gone. This was why he kept his lives, his worlds apart. He realized now that it wasn’t about control, but about managing loss, denying pain.

“Don’t die.” It hurt to say the words. With his free hand he smoothed her hair back off her face, feeling the heat radiating from her skin. “Fight to live. Find a way to live. I can’t…I don’t want to live in a galaxy that does not contain you.”

Her husky chuckle broke on a cough. “…do the impossible…not miracles…” The words cost her. This spasm of coughing was painful to watch and to hear. Her eyes had sunk deep in the sockets, the skin around them darkly bruised.

This time it was Hel who dialed up her medication. “Are
they
causing you distress?” The question felt odd, but he knew no other way to ask it.

“Some.” Her mouth moved, as if she thirsted.

Hel poured water into a medical cup and held it to her mouth. Even this small action appeared to exhaust her.

“You are not your brother.”

Her lashes lifted. He felt her struggle to focus on his words.

“You have fought…
them
successfully for many years.” He saw in her eyes what she wanted to say and answered, “It wasn’t just physical strength. If that were true, you would already be lost.” He touched his temple. “You are strong here. This is why you have defeated them for so long.” He leaned closer. “Use your strength to survive. The knowledge is there. I feel it here.” He touched his chest. “
Live.
”

He saw, he felt her try, but despite the effort her gaze blurred more, her body slackened. Her lips moved. He leaned in. For a moment her gaze sharpened, as if she saw something he could not.

“I can’t hear you. Tell me again.” He almost shook her.

“…lab…outpost…Miri…”

“What are you trying to tell me? How can Miri help you?” Miri, the Garradian Key, had died long before Hel had been born, despite the long belief of his people that she would return and unlock not just the outposts, but the door to peace in this galaxy.

Her lashes drifted down, and she lapsed into unconsciousness.

His wrist control pinged a warning. He had to return to the bridge
.
Hel stood, staring at her for a long moment. It felt wrong to leave her, though he could observe her from the bridge. It wasn’t enough, but all he could do now was honor her last request. He gathered up the pile of weapons and secured them, then made his way to the bridge. He opened the secure channel to the General, who came on immediately. His face was set in its usual grim lines. This time Hel did not mind. He could not even find it in him to be amused that the General had all four squadrons on his six.

“I am on approach, General. Requesting landing coordinates. I will drop cloak when my ship is aboard, and your people can come aboard.” He kept his voice steady and detached. The General was the last person he wished to see him lose—what? What had he lost to Delilah? There was an answer there, but he shied away from it. He could barely deal with the possibility of her death. His feelings could wait.

“Transmitting coordinates.” Halliwell reached to cut the connection.

“General. The doctor said something that might mean something…” Was it a real hope or a desperate grasping for nothing?

Halliwell leaned into the screen. “Yes?”

“Something about Miri’s lab? On the outpost?”

He frowned. “There are medical facilities there, but we have had limited success in getting any of the technology to work. I will check with our people—” He stopped, an odd look taking the grim off his face.

“You have thought of something?” Hel could see Halliwell struggling with his instinct to conceal against his avowed willingness to share outpost information.

“If I have, it’s a chance, but a thin one. I need to think. We can talk when you are on board.”

He cut the connection.

* * * * *

Halliwell stared at the blank screen.
Miri’s Lab.
He remembered the report on that lab. Was it possible the nanites discovered there could be used to cure the Doc? Nanites had cured the Key, had cured him. But they didn’t even know how old the microscopic computers were, if they were dormant or defunct. No one had dared do more than look at them through the microscope in the lab. They had no documentation on what had been left, so they didn’t know what they’d been designed and programmed to do. There was an inherent fear, even among the scientists, of being taken over by them. All the geeks were
Stargate
fans, so the fear wasn’t a huge surprise.

Halliwell could have told them what some of them had been used for, but he’d made a promise that he intended to keep. Up until now the risk of using them outweighed the potential benefit. It seemed wrong to experiment on the Doc, but if they didn’t do something, she would die. Did she think the nanites could save her life or was she delirious from the flu? There was no way to ask her now, and she had hours to live, if that. She was an asset they couldn’t afford to lose, he told himself, though he knew that wasn’t the only reason. He’d let her go out there alone. He owed her any and every chance to survive. And he owed it to the people he’d lost two years ago.

He keyed his intercom. “Open a channel to the outpost.”

* * * * *

Vidor found the behavior of the Earth ships inexplicable. Why had they merged at that point? They were on course for the Kikk sector. They appeared to be in escort formation, but there was no ship in the escort position. There could be a ship there, a cloaked ship. But why stay cloaked if the Earth ships could see it, were protecting it? If there were a ship there, it would have to drop its cloak to board the Earth ship.

The bridge was silent, the way he preferred it. His men had left for their ships, orbiting their targets. The wives, the new girl and Bana were safe with Cadir in a ship poised to return home if something went wrong.

He had not been himself. His focus was less clear than it had been. He knew this. Would they be as quick to judge if it were
their
women missing? Bana’s words rang in his ears.

She won’t be forced.

Then he’d find a way to persuade her. The right suggestion should persuade her to
choose
.

The Earth ships reached their destination, their tracking signatures disappearing one by one as they merged with the larger ship. No other ship dropped cloak. Had he been hoping for a sight of the trader that scooped her up?

Probably.

He tried to remember what it was about her that convinced him she was unclaimed by any man. She was of an age to know about men, but the way she’d moved had showed little awareness of her essential feminine core. Even Bana had agreed she seemed untaken. But this did not mean some other man had failed to notice her. It amazed him she’d lived so long without collecting many men.

If she wasn’t aboard her ship, his chances of finding her in time were slim to none. If she were on her ship, he could tag and transport if their shields were down. Unfortunately, unusual activity by the Gadi had both Earth ships orbiting with shields up and weapons hot. If he did nothing, she would die with her people.

There was risk in exposing himself to them, but the success of their mission did not depend on his presence aboard this ship. All sixteen ships were fully automated and programmed to continue attacking until disabled, destroyed, or ordered to stand down by its pilot. He did not anticipate much resistance. Their ships were superior, but each ship was equipped with a smaller drone ship, preprogrammed to return survivors to Keltinar.

Nothing, not even the quest for wives to rebuild their civilization, could be allowed to interfere with their mission. If history could be changed, they would do it, though it cost them everything. But while they waited, he could open a dialogue with her people. As Bana liked to point out, he was here to learn.

* * * * *

Halliwell wearing a medical face mask, waited in the cargo hold, feet planted, arms crossed, while he watched Kalian’s ship appear. Security cameras had been disabled in the bay. Halliwell wanted as few witnesses as possible just in case the nanites did manage to cure the Doc. The hatch at the side of the ship lowered, becoming a ramp. At the top Kalian waited. He’d done something to his eyes, so even those weren’t recognizable anymore. Those eyes looked past him.

“Where is your healing team?”

Halliwell closed his fingers around the cool surface of the test tubes in his pocket.

“I have something to try before we involve anyone else.” Halliwell also had a concealed side arm. He didn’t trust Kalian, wasn’t convinced he’d have brought the Doc home if he hadn’t thought she was dying.

“The lab.” The words were flat, but the man couldn’t hide the flare of hope in his strange eyes.

“The lab.” Halliwell paced up the ramp, without waiting for an invite. It might be too late, even if the nanites worked. “We should hurry.”

“This direction.”

Even worried, Halliwell was human enough to look around and like what he saw. It was a side to the man he hadn’t expected. In other circumstances, could they have been…friendly? No, he decided, but he might have respected him. Respect was better than friendship between two warriors.

Kalian led him into a small, dimly lit cabin.

“The light bothered her eyes,” Kalian said, as if Halliwell had asked a question. He turned the light up just enough for Halliwell to see the bed.

Two strides put him at the bedside. Even the low lighting couldn’t hide what the flu had done to the vibrant, dangerous woman who’d left the
Doolittle
four short days earlier. She’d looked bad when they’d called him, but now she looked worse. The only color in her face was the dark circles under eyes sunken into her skull and two patches of fever flush on her cheekbones. Even her lips looked bloodless. The blanket over her chest barely lifted with each shallow, painful breath. She was almost out of time.

Halliwell realized he had no idea how to administer the nanites.

“What do we need to do?”

The “we” was reassuring, though Halliwell was loath to admit it. He pulled out one of the tubes. The thick, yellow goo looked unimpressive.

“What is it?” Kalian sounded as dubious as Halliwell felt.

“We call them nanites. Microscopic computers.”

“You believe they will help her?”

“That’s what I hope.” Halliwell hesitated, but he’d gone this far. “I’ve seen the Key heal using them, but these might be inactive. We don’t know how old they are.”

“If the Key were here, she could heal Delilah?”

“She healed me after the battle.” Halliwell flexed the arm that had been broken, while he processed the fact that Kalian called the Doc, Delilah. He hadn’t even known her first name.

“We need to get them into her body to work.”

“That’s the plan.” Not a good one, since he didn’t know how to do that. He should have brought a doctor or a geek with him, but he didn’t want them to know or wonder why he’d been willing to take this kind of risk. If the Doc survived, they needed to maintain her cover. The Major had a long reach, and there was also the problem of the leaks aboard the
Doolittle
.

Kalian held out his hand. “We can use this.” He pointed to a device that somewhat resembled an IV, though this one had no visible needles. A tube reached down to a band wrapped around the Doc’s forearm.

“Right.” It took considerable resolve to hand Kalian the tube. He curled one hand around his weapon as he watched him pour the yellow goo into the device. After a pause, the tube changed from clear to yellow as the fluid flowed down the tube toward her arm.

Kalian looked at the empty tube, then at Halliwell. “What will happen?”

Halliwell remembered his healing. “I…glowed and the pain left. It was fast.”

They both stared at the Doc. In his mind, Halliwell followed the progress of the nanites into her body. They’d go into her bloodstream and spread. Could they move fast enough to repair the damage? He looked at the scratches and bruises, hoping for some sign of healing, but saw nothing.

“Perhaps they no longer work,” Kalian said, his voice edged with grim.

Halliwell pulled out another tube. “Let’s give her more.”

Kalian added a second tube and then a third.

“She does not glow.”

“Do you have a way to look at her vitals? Heart beat, temperature? Stuff like that?” They
had
to work. He’d been so sure…

Kalian left the room and returned with another small device. He attached this cuff to her arm and a HUD similar to the equipment in a hospital appeared at the head of her bed. They both stared at it.

“Do you know what these readings mean?” Kalian asked.

Halliwell shook his head. “I guess I need to get one of the docs in here.” He started to turn.

“Wait.”

Kalian’s voice halted the turn. Halliwell turned back, his gaze sweeping the prone figure. At first he didn’t see it. Still no glow, but one of the bruises on her face began to fade, leaving the spot clear and unmarked. Next the wound on her temple healed, though without a glow.

Kalian laid his hand on her forehead. “She is cooler. Her fever is breaking.”

Halliwell yanked off the mask and bent over her. “Doc? Can you hear me?”

“There is much damage. Perhaps it will take time for her to awaken.”

If she did. Could the nanites complete the job? What if all they could manage was superficial healing? She hadn’t glowed. He’d been hoping for a glow.

“Her breathing is easier, better.”

Halliwell touched his radio, calling the small medical team he had standing by, his gaze on Kalian, still not sure the man wouldn’t try something.

A crooked smile flashed briefly on his face. He brushed a finger down the Doc’s cheek and then stepped back.

“I prefer not to be seen by your team. When you have cleared this area, I will take myself and my ship off the
Doolittle
.”

“Just like that?”

He shrugged.

Halliwell hesitated. “Thank you.”

“I did it for her.” Kalian gave a wry smile and faded away as the sound of booted feet on the ramp echoed down the small corridor.