The Caverns of Mare Cetus (28 page)

   "Blue tablets," said Hunter. "In one of the containers. Just look."

   Devon dropped back to her hands and knees, and began opening one container after the next, emptying their contents on the ground.

   Arielle's arms suddenly fell limp, her eyes staring off into space as she continued to wheeze unrelentingly.

   "Don't do this to me, dulzura," said Ramon. "Don't you know how much I love you?"

   "Find those pills already!" shouted Renata as she watched the life draining out of Arielle's eyes.

   "Uuuuuuh. Uuuuh. Uuh." At once she stopped breathing.

   "Shit!" cried Hunter. "Take her pulse. Watch her heart." He took out his electra, opened its stock, and began hurriedly reconfiguring it.

   Ramon and Renata quickly laid Arielle on the ground, and Renata began giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

   "I've got a pulse," said Ramon. "It's rapid—but weak."

   Renata gave her a breath, then another, but Arielle wasn't responding. Renata looked at Hunter, horror in her eyes.

   "Keep breathing for her," said Hunter as he closed the stock on his electra. "Keep the oxygen going in. Quick, short breaths if you have to."

   Renata continued to give Arielle mouth-to-mouth as Ramon and Hunter gauged her heartrate. The increasing anxiety in Ramon's face told her things weren't going well.

   "Found them!" exclaimed Richelle. She had picked up a yellow metallic container and had opened it, shaking out a number of small blue tablets into her hand. She rushed to Arielle and pushed two of them into her nostrils. They instantly liquefied and moved up into her nasal passages.

   As Renata went to give Arielle another breath, she could feel air coming out of Arielle's mouth. Within seconds, Arielle began breathing again—short, shallow breaths at first, but they gradually became longer and deeper. As the color in her face returned, life came back to her eyes. She gasped deeply, then continued breathing normally, at least as normal as one could breath using OPP technology. The OPPs were a fabulous nanobot-driven innovation that completely replaced particulate respiration devices. The OPPs were basically self-regulating oxygen generators that migrated to a person's lungs, matching specific oxygen needs via a continuous analysis of metabolic functions. All of Arielle's oxygen would come from the tablets for about the next hour, and though it appeared she was breathing in air from outside of her body, she was actually only exhaling.

   "Damn," said Hunter. He started to reconfigure the electra again. "What's next? Could this have been caused by her shock?"

   Richelle ran a Mediprog scan on Arielle. "Her bronchial tubes are really constricted," she said as she perused the results. "There's a lot of mucus too, but her tubes are opening up some. It's asthma all right. Pretty b-b-bad too. Electric shocks can mess up the lungs and muscles sometimes. I don't understand why we d-d-didn't pick that up before. Damn. The system just hung up again." She restarted the Vimap, then began discussing the value of the OPPs, not just as replacements for respirators but how they were sometimes used for lung dysfunctions, including asthmatic attacks.

   Once Renata had watched Arielle for a while and was satisfied she was going to be okay, she stood up, took Devon by the arm, and pulled her toward one of the walls. "Did you do this?" she whispered in anger when she felt they were out of hearing range of the others.

   Devon shook her head as if she was trying to shake dust out of her hair. Then she stuck her index finger in her left ear. "Do what?"

   "Do this to Arielle?"

   She took her finger out of her ear. "Here. Take this." She touched the back of Renata's right hand with her finger.

   "This is no time to be funny. I need to know if you did this to her. If this is what you were going to show me, it was a pretty crappy thing to do."

   "I didn't do that," whispered Devon, appearing insulted. "She has asthma. I can't give her asthma. Didn't you listen to Ramon?"

   Devon had Renata confused—again. "You said you were going to do something that would be obvious to me."

   "I did," said Devon. "Ramon called you sister. He said it three times, the same number of times Simon Peter denied he was a disciple of Christ. I thought that was appropriate since you're still in a state of denial."

   "That's your proof? You've got to be kidding."

   "What did you want me to do? Hurt him in front of his girlfriend? Do you despise him that much? You need to control your anger—I can't." She put a hand to her forehead. "Damn. My headache is back."

   "The only one I'm angry with is you," said Renata. "I'm fed up with all the crap you've been feeding me. The only thing you've proven to me is I'm deluded for thinking there's something more to you." She turned to walk away.

   Devon grabbed Renata's shoulder, turning her toward her. "Don't walk away from me—we're not finished."

   "Oh, yes, we are." She turned and Devon grabbed her shoulder again.

   "You have no idea who you're dealing with," said Devon.

   "I have a pretty good idea of what you're not dealing with."

   "Fuck you, Rene." A dark anger spread across her face. "I'm fed up with your stubbornness. It's time you understood. I don't care if you don't want to believe. It doesn't matter what you want. What matters right now is me."

   Renata put up her hands. "Listen, Devon. You haven't told me…"

   Devon grabbed Renata by the left wrist. "Heart rate—74 beats per minute. Blood pressure—110 over 72. Temperature—37.03 degrees. Height—178.4 cm. Weight—59.8 kg on this stinking planet. Blood type—AB, RH positive. The polish on your toenails right now is cherry red…"

   Renata tried to pull her hand away, but Devon wouldn't let go.

   "You have 116,220 hairs on your head. You broke your little finger and ring finger on your left hand—pretty badly—not too long ago. You've broken your middle toe on your left foot and your middle and second toes on your right. You also broke your right ankle—quite a while ago."

   "What is this crap?" Renata tried to pull her hand away again. "How do you know I broke my ankle when I was a girl? And my fingers just a few years ago? Are you reading my mind?"

   Devon looked directly in Renata's eyes. "No. I can't read your mind. Your ring finger on your right hand has a chipped nail. Your index finger has a hangnail. Now your heart rate is 92 beats per minute. Your blood pressure is 122 over 78. You ovulated six Novian days ago from your left ovary. Your right ovary is slightly larger than your left. The last time you had sex was 122 Novian days ago. You've been pregnant once—a long time ago—but you had a miscarriage after 52 Novian days. It was a girl. Even if you took medication, I'd bet you still threw up almost every day from morning sickness. That's a guess though based on your unique hormonal balance. That balance also makes you highly…"

   "Okay, okay, okay," said Renata. "Stop it already. I believe you. I don't understand how you're doing this, but I believe you."

   Devon released Renata's wrist.

   "How can you know all these things about me?" She looked at her right hand, seeing the hangnail and the chipped nail. She bit off the hangnail, then anxiously looked around, expecting the others to be standing behind her, sucking in all the private things Devon had just told her. But they weren't. Ramon and Arielle were sitting a short distance away, talking quietly. The others were farther down the passage, returning Edison's storehouse of supplies to his pack.

   "How I did it isn't important. I didn't intend to kick you in the teeth like this, but you forced me into it. We've connected. You're my Sister. That's all that matters."

   "So what can you do? Can you control a person's mind?"

   "That's hardly what I'd call it. And stop saying people. Follow me." She started toward Arielle and Ramon and after walking directly in front of them, she stopped beside a dark gray blocky limestone wall a short distance beyond them. She motioned for Renata to come to her.

   Renata followed, smiling down at Arielle and Ramon as she passed in front of them, but they didn't respond, appearing too caught up with each other.

   Devon put her right hand on the wall, as if feeling for something.

   "You just about made me wet my pants back there," said Renata. "What were you doing to me? Were you doing something to my mind?"

   "I didn't mean to frighten you. Don't fear me. Please. And no. I wasn't doing anything to your mind. I can't do what you think."

   "But if you made Ramon call me sister, you must have been doing something to his mind."

   "I didn't make him do anything. He did that on his own."

   "You said you could have hurt Ramon. Garrett always said the Mendrax could hurt people, even kill them. He said they fought in wars back on Earth and did horrible things. Is any of that true?"

   "I never said I would hurt Ramon. I asked you if that's what you wanted me to do. And you need to stop saying people, please." She smiled at Renata. "Look at me. Do you really think I could hurt someone? Do you see anything horrible in me?"

   Renata gave Devon a good hard look, from her feet to her head, seeing nothing more than a young pretty woman with a gleaming smile. "Well, uh…not really. You don't look like you could hurt anybody."

   "Good. Even you can empathize. For now."

   "Damn, Devon. There you go again. More riddles. Why do you keep jerking me around like this? Don't you realize what you're doing to me?"

   "I know exactly what I'm doing…be quiet, and put your hand on top of my hand, okay?"

   Renata put her left hand on top of the hand Devon had on the wall.

   "Listen. Listen with your hand."

   Renata had no idea what Devon was talking about.

   "There's something in here," said Devon. "Something inside of the rocks. Can you feel it?"

   "What?" whispered Renata. "Feel what?" She felt a trembling in Devon's hand, nothing more, but it bothered her. She pulled her hand away.

   "There's something in these caves, and it's trying to kill us."

"There's something alive down here? You're certain of that?"

"I suppose you could say it's alive," said Devon.

"What is it then? Some kind of creature? An animal?"

"If it lives in the rocks, would you call that an animal?"

   Renata hesitated before she answered her. "I don't mean to insult you, Devon. But something living in the rocks doesn't really make sense…"

   "I suppose it doesn't matter one way or the other," said Devon. "All I know is I have to protect you. I'm obligated to that." She turned her head and looked down the passage. "Damn. I don't like what I see right now."

   Renata followed Devon's gaze. Richelle was a short distance away, watching them. Edison and Hunter were behind her, discussing something.

   "She worries me," said Devon, turning back toward Renata. She took her hand off the wall. "Promise me you'll never let her get close to you, okay?"

   "What do you mean?"

   "Promise me. Now."

   "Okay, okay, I promise, but why?"

   "You're
my
Sister. I can't have it any other way." She turned her gaze. "Here they come. I think it's time to go."

   At once Hunter came up to them, the others beside him. "We're ready to go." He handed Devon her backpack. "Your lead, Rene. What's our next step?"

   Ramon handed Renata's backpack to her, thanking her for what she had done for Arielle. Arielle gave her a hug.

   Renata's head still spinning from everything Devon, she stuttered. "Same p-p-plan. Out this passage and past the chasm. Then down the passage to Trent and Isis. Let's get rolling and pray the lights stay on. Let's have one of the Vimaps scanning for unusual physical phenomena. It might warn us if it's about to happen again. Can you handle that, Ramon?"

   Ramon nodded. "Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it— Commander."

   She quickly explained what she needed, then Hunter took her hand and began leading her down the passage, the others following. After a short hike, the group reached a connecting passage, then headed in the opposite direction from which they had come. Within minutes they were traversing the wide looping route that connected with the chasm. Ramon tried repeated communications to Trent and Garrett but received nothing in reply. That didn't surprise Renata though, as she was certain now what had caused their equipment blackout was somehow tied into their com problems. She figured once they got closer to Trent, the communications would pick up again. At least she hoped they would. As they hiked, she also tried to piece together how much time had elapsed since Isis had been injured. Her watch showed it had already been over four hours, but she couldn't be sure it hadn't been affected by the blackout as well.

   Moving quickly now, since the passage was wide and the ceiling high, it didn't take long for them to reach the chasm, which was little more than a cleft in the cave floor that widened and deepened as they continued along it. Renata asked Edison for an update on the Kalos.

   Edison told her Kalo One was still with Trent and Kalo Four was on the same level as the party, about a kilometer in front of them. Kalo Three was a short distance behind them but was on a level directly above them. It was on an interception course with a steep, winding, rubble-strewn passage that intersected with another passage that led away from the chasm, but that intersection was quite a distance from their present location. Both units were still shooting neutrinos at each other, their high level capabilities minimized. Edison had also been trying to determine if either of the robotics had been shut down during the blackout, but based on the telemetry data, it appeared they hadn't been affected at all.

   Renata checked the routes on her Vimap, then glanced up, noticing Richelle walking beside her. Richelle had her Vimap up to her forehead and was running a neural scan. Renata returned her attention to her Vimap.

   As the path began to narrow while the chasm deepened and expanded, sucking up more of the cavern floor, Edison was the first to notice the groups of strange looking minerals adhering to the passage walls, appearing like collections of eggs. As the group continued forward, the number of fluffy grayish-white minerals increased in abundance.