CHAPTER NINETEEN

The Last Captive

Squilyp and I argued for an hour after I nearly fainted, then decided on a course of action to our mutual satisfaction.

“I expect you to report to Medical as I’ve indicated.” The Omorr handed me a copy of my treatment schedule. “Or I will have you restrained to an inpatient berth.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be here.” I climbed down from the exam table. “I bet you’re going to enjoying ordering me around.”

“Of course I will.” He finished his notes and switched off my chart with a snap. “You certainly enjoyed being my supervisor when you were Senior Healer. Actually, this has a sort of poetic justice to it.”

His smirk really annoyed me. “Oh, go jump in a pressure lock!” Later that day, the Jorenians began bombarding the surface again, and dodging the reflected sonic fire. Since my condition wasn’t anything that would slow me down for a while yet, I’d convinced the Omorr to let me work a shift. Good thing, too, since the few crew members reporting with minor injuries soon became a steady stream.

“We’ve received a signal from the stockade,” one of the communications officers told me as I splinted his sprained knee. “League captives have been effective in taking control of several tiers.” So Wonlee’s plan had started to work. “What about the rest of the compound?”

“It remains under Hsktskt control.” The officer didn’t want to tell me the rest, but I harassed him until he did. Less than optimistic reports had also come in, that the centurons had begun methodically executing prisoners inside Hsktskt-controlled areas.

I signaled Xonea, and requested that I be transported back to the surface.

“That is impossible, Cherijo. We have ground forces preparing to invade the compound.”

“Then I’m going with them.” When he would have yelled at me, I shook my head. “I have friends down there, Captain. And you need someone to head the medevac team. There will be plenty of work waiting for me.”

Reluctantly Xonea granted my request. That made Squilyp throw his own temper tantrum, and upon hearing I was returning to the surface, half the inpatients in Medical began verbally threatening to mutiny and throw me into detainment.

“I know the compound better than anyone on the assault teams,” I said, crossing my arms and looking down the row of grim faces and emerging claws.

“In your condition-”

“Space my condition,” I told the Omorr. “There are over fifteen thousand prisoners down there-the Hsktskt are shooting them, and I left a first-year resident in charge of the infirmary.” He glowered at me. “Just remember, Doctor, you have other responsibilities.” Before I reported to the launch bay, Salo relayed a direct signal from the Hsktskt Central Command, sent by OverMaster HalaVar.

“Reever?” I took a medevac pack and slung it over my shoulder, then accessed the signal.

“What’s your status down there?”

“OverSeer FurreVa and a portion of the guards have deposed SrrokVar and placed me in charge of the compound.” He looked sweaty, and grime streaked his hair, but other than that, he could have been having tea with the Hanar.

“Why’d they do that? I thought you weren’t a member of the Faction anymore.”

“Upon arrival on the Hsktskt homeworld, TssVar officially reinstated my rank. The order to depose SrrokVar came from the Hanar himself.”

“That was nice of him.” I checked to make sure I had enough suture packs. “Tell FurreVa to stop executing the prisoners.”

“I have. There are still some centurons loyal to SrrokVar, however, who have disregarded my orders.” He turned away for a moment to consult with a waiting centuron, then addressed me once more.

“Stay with the Jorenians, Cherijo.”

“Uh-uh. I’m on the way.”

“You will not be safe.”

“You’ve got wounded down there. I’m coming back. Tell the guards not to shoot at me or the launch.”

“They won’t.” He paused. “As long as you officially surrender to me.” There was always a catch. “Fine. I’ll be there in an hour to give myself up.” The surface was littered with shattered black crystal and the smoking remains of Hsktskt launches. I insisted the Jorenians stay out of firing range as I went into the main compound entrance.

Xonea didn’t like that, and told me. At length.

“I’ll keep you informed as to what the situation is in there. Keep monitoring this.” I tapped my slave collar, which had been removed, altered, and refitted to transmit audio signals directly to the launch and the Sunlace. “For now, you’re going to have to sit tight and wait.” Reever and a detachment of centurons stood just inside the compound pressure locks. As soon as I stepped through, rifles were activated, and my pack was confiscated.

I held out my empty hands. “I’m unarmed. I surrender.”

One of the guards grabbed me by the collar, but Reever stepped forward and ordered him to release me.

“You will return to the infirmary and treat the injured,” he told me. His voice may have been as flat and cold as ever, but there was an edge to it that made me look at him sharply. “Come. I will take you there myself.”

He sent the centurons to work riot control in the tiers, and marched me down the corridors.

Once we were out of sight of the beasts, he released my arm.

“Half the guards have been drugged and disarmed by the prisoners,” he said.

“I know. Have you convinced them to surrender?”

“The Hsktskt do not relinquish their territory to inferior species.” He turned a corner, then stopped me in the middle of an empty corridor. “This may end with a fire fight, Cherijo.”

“Not if Wonlee has distributed enough of his quills.” If only we had an extra edge… of course, the pel! I felt like smacking myself in the forehead for forgetting about them. “See what you can do to talk them into it. The Jorenians are starting to get tired of orbiting this rock.” The infirmary was in complete upheaval. Wounded prisoners lined the passages for hundreds of yards leading to it. A couple of them I stopped to check before I entered and yelled for Vlaav.

He yelled back from a treatment room. “Over here, Doctor.” The next several hours were devoted to emergency care and restoring some partial order to my facility. The nurses had become overwhelmed, and the renewed orbital attack did nothing to calm the prisoners. In addition to that, several centurons had reported with serious injuries, and got nasty about priority.

I’d just cleared the last serious case when someone gestured to me from the back of the infirmary. It was Wonlee. I hurried back and saw him point to a section in the wall.

“Noarr?” I asked, and he nodded. I pulled a privacy screen over and dodged behind it. The passageway opened to reveal the silhouette of a tall cloaked figure.

“God.” I ran, threw myself shamelessly at him, and groaned as his arms closed around me. “I was so worried.” I lifted my head and then thumped him on the chest. “Are you trying to make me go insane?”

“I am glad to see you, too, woman.” He drew me back into the passage and closed the entrance.

“It is time we liberated the population. I will need your help.” I grinned. Good thing I’d remembered about the one ally we had that no one else knew about.

“Not just mine.”

I turned and placed both hands against the wall, and concentrated. A minute passed, then a clear, gelatinous glop oozed down from the tunnel’s ceiling. It dropped between us and collected itself into an amorphous, shimmering form.

*pel*here*

“Pel, this is Noarr.” I looked at my lover’s astonished expression and bit my lower lip before continuing the introductions. “Honey, meet the rock.”

Once we’d managed to communicate what we wanted to the pel, the Jorenians, and the Aksellans, Noarr left to attend to freeing the prisoners in the tiers still controlled by the Hsktskt. I went back to the infirmary to get things ready there.

Zella and the nurses handled triage, while Vlaav and I prepped the patients for transport.

“The Aksellans have landed outside the compound,” one of the prisoners told us. “We saw their tethers through the walls.”

I briefed the inpatients on what we planned to do once the liberation forces took control of the compound, then sent every staff member to put together field packs of supplies. Wonlee appeared briefly with instructions on where to go and how to find enough envirosuits to outfit the patients.

Everything was going well when a detachment of battered-looking centurons burst through the door panel, led by a very unamused former-OverLord SrrokVar.

“I expected to find you here, Dr. Torin.” He came at me, and I grabbed a syrinpress. He knocked it away with one flick of a limb. “Your misguided sense of compassion will be the death of you, my dear.”

“Zella,” I called out, never taking my eyes from the madness gleaming down at me. “Clear the infirmary. Evacuate the patients. All of them. Now.”

“You have proved resilient and resourceful. I particularly admire your Terran survival instincts. I had thought releasing FurreVa’s brood in HalaVar’s chambers would be the end of both of you.” So he was the one responsible. “I heard you got fired by the Supreme Lizard,” I said, hoping the taunt would keep him from firing on the fleeing patients. “Guess TssVar was pretty convincing, huh?” I didn’t have a chance against a psychotic Hsktskt, so I dodged SrrokVar’s next blow and dove around him. Dropping and crawling under an unoccupied berth gave me a few seconds to collect my wits. I rolled out just as SrrokVar lifted the berth and tossed it out of his way.

“You cost me my research, my mate, and my command. Now we will settle accounts, Doctor.” I didn’t have time to get out of the way. Three limbs began descending with lethal force. I closed my eyes.

Because I did that, I missed watching the displacer pulse burst behind SrrokVar.

“You harmed my brood!”

He turned, and lunged toward the door panel. That’s when I propped myself up and saw FurreVa fire her rifle again.

The thermal uniform he wore seemed to dispel most of the blast. He pulled a weapon from his lab coat, aimed, and shot the big female directly in her chest. The impact sent her crashing into a diagnostic array.

The closest thing to hand were two of the largest bonesetters, the ones we’d used on Devrak’s guard. I disabled the auto-adjust clamp, ran up behind SrrokVar, and shoved one around his thick neck.

After knocking the pistol from his claws, I jammed the other around the center of his skull.

Bonesetters normally contract until the clamp unit aligns the broken bone. Since I’d disengaged the sensor, the device kept contracting. SrrokVar tried to come after me, for a few seconds. I danced away as he stopped and started clawing at his neck.

“Now we’ll see how much you enjoy physical tolerance ranges,” I said, and stayed out of strike range to watch.

SrrokVar managed to wrench the bonesetter from his throat, but the time he spent doing that was a mistake. The one around his face was now cutting into the tissue, forcing his kinetic skull to bow out.

“Take it off!”

For once, I ignored my calling. “No.”

He bellowed with agony as he stumbled past us, then disappeared down the corridor.

Too bad. I would have liked to watch his brains pop out of his eye sockets. I went to examine FurreVa.

She was in bad shape. A huge pulse burn smoldered on her chest; there was a deep gash in the side of her neck. I tried to drag her out into the corridor, but she was too heavy to move. Zella and Vlaav had already evacuated everyone, so there was no help in sight.

“You didn’t have to defend me, you know,” I said as I pressed a sterile pad to the spurting wound. “I was doing just fine.”

FurreVa’s lungs rasped as she tried to breathe through the blood. “I was wrong about him.

Wrong about you, Terran.”

“No talking.” I managed to control the bleeding and ran a scan over her abdomen. Her vitals were dangerously weak. “You’re hemorrhaging, so no moving either. Somehow I’ve got to transport you up to the Sunlace.”

“No time.” She coughed up more crimson fluid, then reached and took my hand. “My young are safe. You are safe. It is enough.”

“Shut up.” I infused her with adrenalysine, hoping to trigger the hibernation process before she bled to death internally. “You’re going to live.”

“SsurreVa.” Two claws traced the invisible path of her former injury, then touched my cheek.

“Friend…” She surrendered to the drug, and went into the beginning stage of natural suspended animation.

She wasn’t dying on me. Not after all the trouble I’d gone to. I sat back on my heels and activated my wristcom. “Xonea. I need a medevac team to come to the infirmary, as soon as you breach the compound.”

I went over to the wall, and placed my hands against it. We need your help now, pel.

The wall undulated beneath my palms, then melted between my fingers. *pel*help*

I left FurreVa on life support (rigged around her on the floor, since she was far too heavy for me to move to a berth), and convinced one of the centurons to watch over her. Then I went to Central Command.

Reever and a large group of Hsktskt were gathered in the prisoner reception area. Dozens of rifles clicked on and pointed at my head as I walked into view. I displayed my empty hands and waved at Reever.

“I hate to interrupt, but I was wondering if I could evacuate the compound now.” Reever ordered the centurons to stand down. Several of them hesitated, and I wondered just how much control he had over his troops.

“You heard the transmission from the homeworld,” Reever said to them. “OverLord TssVar’s orders were clear.”

Reluctantly the last of the centurons lowered their weapons.

Reever walked over to me. “The liberation forces have not breached the outer security grid. We have time.”

“Actually, no.” I leaned against a wall, and pointed to another. “You don’t.” The wall opposite the group shattered, spilling shards all around us. The pel poured through the new opening and collected itself just in front of the aghast Hsktskts.

“Shoot it!” one of them shouted, and a few of them started firing their weapons into the transparent mass.

“It absorbs energy,” I said in a helpful tone, when it became apparent the displacer blasts were having no effect. “It can also reflect them at will, so I suggest you knock it off.” The pel flowed around the beasts toward me, where it formed a barrier protecting me from the rifles.

“What do you propose, Doctor?” Reever asked me.

“I propose you pack up what you can carry and you get out of Dodge,” I said, running my hand over the undulating pel. “Because in exactly one hour, the pel is taking over the compound.”

“She’s lying,” someone yelled.

I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck. Why hadn’t I put the man in traction when I’d had the chance? “Shropana. It would be you. Someone want to lend me their rifle for a minute?”

“She’s staged this hoax with that slave-runner lover of hers.” The League Commander limped out into the Central reception area, carrying a Hsktskt pistol, and aiming it at me. “I know where he is. Give me back my ships and I’ll take you to him.”

Shropana hadn’t a prayer of getting his fleet back, but he could railroad the evacuation and possibly get Noarr killed. I turned my head, and concentrated.

Hundreds of Lok-Teel crawled into the reception area, and encircled Shropana.

“Filthy creatures!” He fired at one of them, but it avoided the blast. The pel shot out a solid stream of its mass and enveloped the pistol and Shropana’s hand completely.

I walked over, pulled the syrinpress from my tunic and pressed it to his neck. “Say goodnight, Patril.”

He fell to his knees, then over onto the waiting Lok-Teel. Obeying my silent command, they quickly carried him back out of the area. I was tempted to tell them to eat him, but decided against it.

The Lok-Teel shouldn’t have to consume waste all the time.

“Gentlemen.” I swiveled and addressed the beasts. “Shall we get this evacuation underway?” Wonlee found me during the next hectic hour, and informed me that SrrokVar had escaped from Catopsa on a small scout ship he’d apparently hidden outside the compound.

“He is badly injured, according to witnesses. Some kind of severe head injury.” He’d finally gotten that last bonesetter off. I wondered how pretty his face was now. “Pity. I planned on turning him over to his victims and let them finish the job.” A few of SrrokVar’s loyalists continued to fire upon the prisoners, but Wonlee and the Kevarzangian engineers took care of them in short order.

Reever and the remaining Hsktskt surrendered in the prisoner commons on tier nine, just as the Jorenians and Aksellans breached the last of the security barriers and entered the compound.

“I don’t want these guards, or the unconscious ones, killed.” Reever said to me as he watched the advancing arachnids swing in through the door panels on their silvery tethers. “Talk to them, Cherijo.” I did. It took a few minutes, but I managed to convince the Aksellans and former slaves not to execute the Hsktskt.

“They harmed our femalez,” Clyvos said, acidic poison dripping from his leg fangs.

“They can help us transport these prisoners to the launches.” The floor rumbled beneath our feet, and I sensed that the pel had begun gathering for its final assault. “We’re almost out of time, pal.”

“Very well. Let uz make hazte.”

There was a lot to do. Since the surface bombardment had destroyed all the conveyance units, enviro-suits had to be distributed and fitted. Litters were brought for the severely injured prisoners and unconscious Hsktskt.

“Did you bring the grav-lift I ordered?” I asked the former League crew when they came to the infirmary to help me with FurreVa.

“No, Doctor, the only one available is being used.”

That meant I needed someone very strong and dexterous enough to avoid hurting the Hsktskt female. “Get Geef Skrople over here, then.”

The small, wiry engineer appeared a few minutes later. “Doc, you’ve got something for me to lift…” He eyed FurreVa. “Oh. Her.”

“Yes, her.” I finished sealing the envirosuit over the Hsktskt’s unconscious form. “Don’t worry, she’s in a state of hibernation. Be careful and try not to jog her too much.”

“Will do.” Demonstrating his tremendous strength, Geef hoisted the big female carefully into his upper appendages, then turned to me. “Where should I put her?” She needed to be stabilized before I sent her up to the Sunlace. “Out to the surface, for now.” We were going to need shelters to house the prisoners until they could be transported up to the liberation fleet, I thought, and made a mental note to request it.

Geef managed to move FurreVa without difficulty, but there were simply too many other Hsktskts for him to handle. The sheer weight of the reptilian beings proved a problem, until Major Devrak appeared with a huge cargo storage container strapped to his broad back.

“I can carry ten of them at a time,” he said.

I checked his injuries to see if he was in any shape to try. “No more than ten at once. If you get hurt, I know we won’t be able to move you out of here.”

The spiders silently watched the Hsktskt as they all moved through corridors toward the surface access hatches. I watched the spiders, and hoped they would hold on to their tempers.

We guided the continuous stream of happy ex-slaves through the tiers, releasing the locking mechanisms as we went to free the last of those in lockdown. Once we reached the access hatches, Paul and Geef organized the evacuees into manageable groups and started sending them out to the launches.

I followed the last group out to the pel crystal plain, and gasped when I saw the massive collection of Lok-Teel eating away at the tul growths they could finally reach.

“Soft auld day, isn’t it, dote?”

Gael’s green eyes glowed through the plas faceplate of his helmet, and I nearly dropped the patient I was helping to the launch in astonishment. “Gael! I thought you were-”

“Gone? Takes more than a thick to get rid of a jackeen like me, dote. Let me help you now.” He got on the other side of the prisoner and supported some of the weight. I started to demand to know what had happened to him, when a terrifying crash made us both stop and look back.

Streams of the molten pel punched through Catopsa’s surface, all around the borders of the compound. Like huge sprays of water, the streams shot hundreds of feet into the air, then curled over the highest of the prison towers. The ends met with such precision that in the blink of an eye the pel had formed an enormous cage over the tiers.

“Wait.” After all we’d suffered here, it seemed appropriate to stick around and witness what would happen next. “Watch.”

The pel cage slowly began to collapse in on the compound. The guard towers were the first to shatter. The weight of them in turn collapsed the lower structures. And still the pel kept shrinking, tightening, until the individual streams began to meld together at the top of the cage.

A yawning sinkhole formed all around the compound, and the streams solidified into a solid bubble of pel, still descending and contracting with the same inexorable force. We could see through it, and watched as the entire compound was rapidly reduced to shards. The pel pulled the engulfed, shattered structures down into the crater, and filled in the hole with itself.

The end result was a featureless, smooth stretch of crystal. As if the compound had never existed. The Hsktskt wouldn’t be using Catopsa as a slave-depot ever again.

Moving more than twenty thousand beings from an asteroid couldn’t be done in a day. I instructed the liberation force pilots transporting the prisoners to bring down emergency shelter units on every return trip. After being allocated their own, the Hsktskt sullenly provided their silent assistance in setting up the other temporary habitats.

I used one strictly as a primary-care unit and continued to treat prisoners and Hsktskt alike.

Since she was too critical to move, I kept FurreVa there, too.

Vlaav stuck by me like glue.

“Doctor, you should take a rest interval.”

“I will.” No, I wouldn’t. I gestured to Zella. “Next patient, please.”

“What are your plans, when you leave this place? Will you resume your position on the Jorenian vessel?”

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do.” That was the truth, and it surprised me anyway. I looked over at the Saksonan. “Why?”

The red nubs on his face glowed brightly. “I have learned much from working with you. I would appreciate the opportunity to finish my residency under your tutelage.” I knew he had a bit of a crush on me, but I wasn’t going to encourage it. “Don’t you want to go home, Vlaav?”

“No. Not if I can learn to be half the surgeon you are. Will you teach me?”

“Flattery won’t get you any slack.” I’d helped train other interns and residents in the past, but I’d never been asked to be a primary instructor before. If I’d possessed hemangiomas, they would have been popping like champagne corks. “Are you sure you really want to be my student?”

“Yes.”

The other problems I had to deal with made my grin fade. “Let’s get off this rock, then we’ll talk about it.”

Vlaav happily performed rounds for me after that, and came back to report on the half dozen prisoners we’d kept in the shelter for observation.

I listened, and imagined once more teaching this kid to be a cutter. I could do that, I thought. If everything else worked out. “How’s the OverSeer doing?”

“She cannot remain in artificial hibernation much longer,” he said as I finished medicating yet another former prisoner suffering from mild hypothermia. He gave me a rundown of scan results from her chart.

He was right. If we didn’t get her up to the Sunlace and on an operating table soon, she’d never come out of it. “Keep close monitor on her vitals for me.” The massive transport operation slowly came to a close. Salo and a warrior party arrived as we were loading the last of the prisoners into the Akesellan launches, and I had saw their collective reaction toward the remaining Hsktskt.

It wasn’t a desire to hand out Jorenian kisses of peace.

“Salo, the compound has been completely destroyed.”

“A pity.” The big warrior removed a large, bladed weapon from his sojourn pack. “I would have decorated it with my ClanSign.”

ClanSign was what Jorenians did with the bodies of their enemies after they disemboweled them.

I saw Wonlee join the Jorenians. Beneath his envirosuit, his spines flexed. He was carrying a Hasktskt pulse rifle in each hand.

“Stop right there, Lieutenant.”

My prickly friend’s voice transmitted his rage and fury over my comunit. “They enslaved us. They killed or sold thousands here.”

“Which was my fault, remember?”

No one seemed to care. The lizards collected in a tight mass, ready to defend themselves.

HouseClan Torin started swinging their blades in what looked like massacre warm-up exercises.

Time for me to play referee again.

“Hold it,” I placed myself between the two groups, and held up my gloved hands. I’d already gotten the Aksellans to back off, and knew how to stop the Jorenians. “Salo, I shield these Hsktskt.”

“You would protect these monsters, Healer?” Salo asked me.

“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m doing.” I walked over to the largest of the Hsktskt. “I want you to tell your people to stand down. Now.”

“Hsktskt do not surrender to slaves,” the centuron said with chilling conviction.

“The Hsktskt are going to end up as fodder if you don’t back down and let me negotiate a compromise here.”

It took a few more minutes, but I convinced the lizards to stop putting on the aggressive act.

Finally, I had to deal with Wonlee, who didn’t care what I shielded.

“Lieutenant.” I intercepted him as he started toward the group of Hsktskt. “Don’t do this. This slave-depot is useless now, and the pel won’t let them build another one. We can let them go.”

“They killed my wife.”

“A lethal mineral called the tul killed your wife.” I put my hand on the barrel of one pulse rifle, and hoped he wouldn’t shoot me just to get at the lizards. “Wonlee, we’ve been through so much together. If I can let them go, so can you.”

“You are a physician. You do not understand the need for justice.” Oh, but I did. “You were a medic. You know how fragile and brief life is. Let the violence and hatred end, here and now.” I glanced over at the Hsktskt, and thought of the coming League invasion.

“Believe me, they’ll get what they deserve, soon enough.” Another round of negotiation convinced the Jorenians to allow the Hsktskt survivors to take a ship and return to Faction space.

“This was not the end I envisioned,” the Jorenian said as we watched the Hsktskt launch lift off.

“Releasing the beasts was never a consideration.”

“They’re not all beasts.” I thought of FurreVa. They were-what they were. “Come on, big guy.

We’d better get off this rock and back where we belong.”

Zella met me halfway down the entrance ramp. “Continues to weaken, the Hsktskt female. In critical condition now, she is.”

It was time to go home.