The Significant (66 page)

      
“It’s going to kill her.”

      
“It’s not just these kinds of attacks we
have to be concerned about,” Paul said, shaking his head. “She is suffering
reconstruction deterioration, isn’t she? Her system is poisoned.”

      
“I can’t operate on her if Venus is going
to be doing this. It’s too dangerous.”

      
“I know,” Paul said. “But if she keeps
this up, Isa is going to get worse very quickly. And if there is too much
deterioration of the skull…” He sighed heavily. “No one, Elite or human, has
ever had a skull reconstruction and survived before, so there’s no data. I can
only hypothesize.”

      
“You don’t have to,” Remus said, “I can
imagine.”

      
“There has to be a way to jam the signals
coming from Venus,” Paul said, looking at Dr. Busen. “Can you think of
anything?”

      
“I’ve never seen the processing system
she holds,” Dr. Busen said, shaking his head and running a hand through his
hair, frustrated. “And I can’t very well look at it. It’s in her chest cavity.”

      
“She gave you the information she had,”
Remus said.

      
“I would like to remind you that I am a
doctor, not a programmer. There is a lot of information I don’t understand, and
I sure as hell don’t understand how they managed to match all this with
biometrics as they did.” Dr. Busen groaned. “I would have to talk to a doctor
that performed the transfer, but there are no names mentioned.”

      
“There wouldn’t be,” Remus said darkly,
shaking his head. “They’re killed before they leave the operating room.”

      
Dr. Busen and Dr. Arre both blinked
incredulously at Remus, shocked. The Silver Elite glanced back at Isa.

      
“Venus guides them through the
procedure,” he continued. “And then she has them killed before they leave the
room, along with the previous Golden Elite. That’s how she protects the
information.”

      
“Then how do you know about it?” Dr.
Busen asked.

      
“Isa told me,” Remus murmured. “She saw
Gattriel killed, and she saw the bodies of the surgeons when she woke. She
couldn’t handle that alone.”

      
“Did you know about this?” Dr. Busen
asked, turning to Paul.

      
“If I did, don’t you think I would have
told you?” Paul said. He sighed heavily and looked over the monitor on Isa’s
brain. “That processing unit is toxic, the deterioration is releasing toxins,
and she’s regressing to defensive behaviors she exhibited when Colonel Amori
was around—not eating, not sleeping…”

      
Dr. Busen groaned, once again running his
hands through his hair, closing his eyes and trying to think.

      
“You don’t want to medicate her with pain
management medication?” Dr. Busen asked, turning to Paul.

      
“We’re going to need to increase the
dosage every week,” Paul told him. “Her brain adapts too damn quick. That’s a
big part of the problem. Soon we’ll be destroying her liver if we prescribe
pain medication regularly to manage this kind of agony.”

      
“There has to be something you two can
do,” Remus said, worried. “I’ll do whatever I can. She can’t function when in
this pain, and we are at war. We can’t afford to have her out of commission
like this.”

      
Both doctors went silent for a very long
time. Isa slowly felt the pain easing. After thirty minutes of silence from
both pensive doctors, she was able to open her eyes and look around the room.
Breathing came a little easier, as well. Paul was staring at one of the
monitors, his hand over his mouth as he thought. Dr. Busen was pacing at the
far end of the room, his head down and his hand raised slightly in the air,
moving as he thought through different solutions.

      
The two doctors did not notice that Isa
had woken.

      
“Michael,” Paul said, not tearing his
eyes from the screen he was staring at. The other doctor turned, startled. Paul
motioned Dr. Busen over. “Do you notice how all the systems are stressed, but
when you did the stress test on her heart, it showed no anomalies?”

      
Isa glanced at Remus and rolled her eyes
with a playful smile at the doctors’ discussion. Remus smiled as well, reaching
forward and gently placing a hand on her cheek, silently communicating with
her, still holding her hand.

      
The doctors were locked in a heated
discussion, pointing to different monitors and test results as Isa and Remus
remained silent, listening half-heartedly. Isa closed her eyes, resting as
often as she could. She still felt twinges of pain, which caused the doctors to
both point and talk about what showed up on the screen. Isa did not understand
most of what they were discussing. Even though she had read all of their
academic papers, she was in too much pain and too tired to try and follow a
language she barely knew.

      
Suddenly, Dr. Busen’s expression lit up and
he turned to Paul, saying something that had both Elites looking at one another
in intense confusion. Paul asked a clarifying question and Dr. Busen answered.
Paul’s face also lit up and they both started walking to the door, discussing
the technical aspects of the treatment.

      
Isa chuckled, shaking her head.

      
“Do they seem a little too excited about
the challenge?” she tried to tease.

      
“They don’t want to see you in pain,”
Remus said, squeezing her hand. “Dr. Busen was frantic trying to find a way to
help you.”

      
They both fell silent again for a very
long time. Isa fell asleep once more and Remus leaned forward, resting his head
on his arm on the bed next to Isa, keeping her hand in his.

      
A nurse walking into the room stirred
both of them.

      
“My sincerest apologies, Elite Isa, Elite
Remus,” he said, bowing his head slightly. “Dr. Busen said that he will perform
your surgery in about an hour and he would like you prepped.” The nurse walked
forward slowly. “He…he’s not putting this surgery in our computers. Something
about Venus’ mainframe being locked down?”

      
“It’s locked down for safety,” Remus
said, quickly making up a plausible lie. “We received threats from Gihron. We
took precaution.”

      
“I understand,” Isa added. “It’s alright.
The information will be added later to her mainframe.”

      
The nurse seemed more at ease after
hearing the explanation. He approached the Elite and began hooking the Elite up
to even more monitors, though it was difficult for him to place them all
correctly when there were already so many machines attached to the Elite. Isa
did not bother to ask what surgery Dr. Busen wanted to perform. She trusted him
entirely.

      
“You also have someone that wants to see
you,” the nurse said.

      
“Who?”

      
“A woman. She said she’s a close friend
of yours and the Syndicate sent her over,” the nurse elaborated. “Someone named
Vanessa Henrick. Does the name sound familiar?”

      
“Yes,” Isa said. “I’ll see her. Can you
show her up before the surgery?”

      
“Isa, can you handle that?” Remus asked,
worried.

      
“I don’t know what state I will be in
when I wake up,” Isa said. “But judging from past experience, I will be nearly
incoherent. It won’t take long.”

      
“You can see her later.”

      
“Remus,” Isa said, looking at him
seriously, “I need to speak with her. It concerns this treatment.”

      
Remus blinked at Isa and then sighed
heavily, nodding, understanding what the Golden Elite meant.

      
“Alright, but a
short
visit.”

      
The nurse nodded, lifting his wrist to
his mouth.

      
“Waiting room, send Henricks up to fourth
floor security window.”

      
Remus looked at Isa seriously.

      
“Don’t you think it’s weird that she just
showed up now?”

      
“I do,” Isa agreed with a nod. “But I’ve
been asking around, gathering all information I can on where she’s been all
these years, and I’ve noticed that there is a very good trend wherever she
appears. She helped guide Kreon through the social upheaval nine years ago,
she’s been jumping around the smaller planets, negotiating stronger trade
routes with the larger planets on their behalf, she’s clearly working to strengthen
the Alliance.” She sighed heavily. “And she promised that she would help us,
should we ever need it.”

      
“And you’re going to trust her word on
that?”

      
“Don’t you remember what she was like as
a teacher?” Isa asked.

      
“We were children,” Remus reminded her.
“We were ambitious and more than a little stupid. You know this. Venus had her
exiled.”

      
“I lifted her exile status. She was
always different from every other teacher we had at the Academy, and Venus was
quick to fire her and throw her into exile when we started making some serious
headway. Clearly, she understands more than she’s letting on.”

      
“And that doesn’t concern you?”

      
“Of course it does,” Isa said. “But we
should listen to what she has to say. With Gihron attacking and the threat of
the rest of the Ninth Circle weighing on us, we need to take a few risks.”

      
Remus sighed heavily, lowering his eyes
and shaking his head.

      
“I’m not sure I have the same faith in
her that you clearly do,” Remus murmured. “The timing is just too
coincidental.” He pursed his lips and looked at her seriously. “But, you know
that I will stand by any decision you make.”

      
The two Elites were silent for several
minutes. The nurse left when he was called by the security office and the two
members of the Syndicate waited for Vanessa Henricks to be guided to the room.

      
When the woman walked in, she looked as
she always had—beautiful with the most powerful eyes anyone had ever seen.

      
“I was worried when the Syndicate said
you were in the hospital,” Vanessa said, walking forward as the nurse left the
room.

      
Remus backed away from Isa, allowing
Vanessa to come forward and sit next to the Golden Elite. He leaned against the
wall, watching warily. Vanessa sat next to Isa and looked over her.

      
“Are you alright?”

      
“Not really,” the Elite chuckled. “But
I’m still breathing.”

      
“That’s a good start,” Vanessa said with
a smile. She turned to the Silver Elite. “Hello, Remus. How are you?”

      
“I’m well, thank you,” he said stiffly.
He nodded to Isa. “It has been a trying day.”

      
“I can imagine,” Vanessa said. She looked
back at Isa and took a deep breath, looking over the Golden Elite once more.
“How did this happen?”

      
“Oh, the same way it always does,” Isa
chuckled. “I was not being as smart as I should be.”

      
Vanessa smiled at the joke. “It does
sound familiar,” she teased. “Where is your doctor?”

      
“Prepping for surgery.”

      
“What kind of surgery?”

      
“I actually don’t know,” Isa chuckled
brokenly, cringing at a sharp flare of pain.

      
“That’s a leap of faith, don’t you
think?” the older woman laughed.

      
“I trust him immensely,” Isa assured. She
took a deep breath and shifted in the bed, smiling at her former teacher. “I
wasn’t aware that you were on-planet.”

      
“I arrived this morning,” Vanessa
explained. “I came because I have some news for you.”

      
“What kind of news?”

      
“After some…
heated
negotiation,” she started, “I managed to get Ulam to
withdraw their support to the Gihron Army. This will drop the Gihoric defenses
severely.”

      
Isa’s eyes shot wide.

      
“How did you manage that?”

      
“It was not easy,” Vanessa admitted. “I
had to play a card I was trying to avoid.”