Tailspin, page 33
“As far as I am aware again, I’m not a hundred percent sure… would be like most of their tech. The deeper they go, the higher tier they’d need. I would imagine most will all be Elite Tier if not higher, Artisan.”
“Amazing. How many people live here?”
“A lot more than most people think because of the Techean. They’re not legally on our rosters.”
“I met one, the barman.”
“You met Anders?” I nodded at her. “Oh, he’s adorable,” she said, her eyes lighting up.
“He’s great,” I admitted. “You like him?”
“I don’t like many guys.”
That was the first time, I thought. So I asked. “Girls?”
“I don’t like many girls, either.”
“Okay.” I teased. “Well, whatever you like, I’m all for it.”
“Even if it were Anders?”
“Sure, if you like him.”
“No men, or women.” She giggled. “Or Techean. No time is no time.”
“Goals.”
“Goals,” she reiterated.
At the end of the corridor, there was a double set of doors. They were thick, and it showed how far down we were. “Extra special constructed material, but they still need some thickness to be this low.”
“How safe is it down here?”
“You’ll be fine. There’s never been an ocean breach, not even a trickle.”
“That just means there’s going to be one.” I sighed. “Especially with me around. I seem to bring the worst out in everything.”
“I hope not.”
Ahead of us then was a white room. Of course, hospital rooms were all the same. It helped people feel cleaner. “I will leave you in the doc’s hands. I’m only a comm away.”
“Thanks, Mal,” I said. “I’ll report in as soon as I can.”
“Good, I will wait for dinner and come back for you when you’re ready.”
“Where are you going?”
“Senior First Lieutenant Marx,” she said. “Debrief on your tests and sorting paperwork with her for you three.”
“Boring.” I laughed.
“Yes, very.”
She turned and left me, and I walked into the hospital unit with a little fear in my heart. This was something I was getting used to, and I didn’t want to get used to it. I just wanted to do my best, do my job. Fly.
“Airman Korolyov, please come in. I’m Doctor Pillar, and this is Nurse Eina. We will not take too much of your time. Just run some bloods, some scans, and make sure after your encounter the other night you’re actually still healing on target.”
“Thanks, Doc,” I said. “I still feel a little wobbly, to be honest. Especially in here. Down here.”
“I can get you anti-sickness meds that will help with the inside pressure here. You’ll get accustomed to that a lot faster with some meds.”
“Much appreciated.”
The nurse indicated I should sit up on the bed, and then she prepped me to take bloods while he scanned over me with his data pad.
39
I waited, not so patiently. I didn’t want to be down here; it felt wrong. But it wasn’t much longer before the nurse had an injection ready.
“This will make you feel better now,” Nurse Eina said. “The others you can take just one a day if you feel the need.”
“Thanks,” I said and watched her slide the needle into my arm, filling me with its liquid to feel better.
Feel better I did not, though. I leaned over and retched.
“What did you give him?” Doctor Pillar asked.
“Regular anti-sickness.”
I retched again. “I feel worse than before.” I groaned, and the room spun. My vision was blurring.
The doctor dropped his data pad on my bed, calling on his comms, “We need a healer, now.”
I couldn’t make out much else because of the amount of people who suddenly surged around me and the sheer amount of retching I was doing.
“What the hell did he eat?” someone said.
“Doesn’t look like a lot: protein ration bars, it seems.”
“No.” Nurse Eina shook her head. “There’s a slight trace of alcohol in his system.”
“Shit,” the doctor sympathized. “That’ll do it.”
There was a cold cloth on my head. “This will feel better,” a voice I swore I knew said.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “It was a rough night.”
“Even rougher morning,” the nurse said. “I am sorry, I should have checked your blood first.”
“Not your fault at all.”
I let the sickness wash over me again, retched once more. The room spun, and I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter, hoping it would go away.
“You really have to steer clear of hospitals,” the familiar voice said.
“Lacy?” I asked.
“The one and only,” she said. “Can you give us the room?”
“If you’re sure?” Doctor Pillar asked.
“Less stimuli,” Lacy said. “Won’t take me long to help him.”
“Shout if you need us at all,” Doctor Pillar said.
“I will,” Lacy replied. I heard them both leave.
I tried to look, but Lacy was strong. She held me down with one hand and kept the cloth over my forehead and eyes.
“How are you here?” I asked.
“I’m only down the hall. My lectures are with the Techean,” she answered.
“They can heal, too?”
“Yes, they have some amazing healers, and they’re great teachers.”
“Oh,” I said. “Will I get taught by any Techean?”
“Possibly,” she said.
“I’d like to meet more,” I added, her voice soothing me; everything about her soothed me.
“Why a bad night?” she asked a moment later. Her fingers stretched around my scalp, and the sickness eased off almost altogether.
“Stuck in a storm where the skellies caught Chief Kuri,” I answered with pure honesty.
“Skellies are nasty,” she said. “Did you get hurt last night?”
I shook my head. “No, but still a little shaken, to be honest.”
Lacy leaned over, closer to my ears. “Breathe in—and out—”
I did as she asked. Everything around me stopped spinning, too. “You have a wonderful way with healing.”
“My job, but it helps that you’re so easy to manipulate.”
I didn’t like that and tried to sit up even more.
“I’m sorry. What did I say?”
“Manipulate—I—everything—everything around me feels so false, so pushed toward me like I have no choice or say in anything.”
Lacy moved back in, and her hands pushed down. She continued to massage my temples. “Like?”
“Like you and Niko, Malaki even. Why do I feel so at ease with all of you?”
“You feel like that about a lot of those higher up than you in levels, though, right?”
“You mean I’m drawn to a certain person because of the system?”
“Kinda,” she said. “Think of it this way. You are polar opposites. You’re skilled in certain things; Malaki and Niko are too. The system and those higher up only let those who might match anywhere near this base. If you had wildly clashing stats, you wouldn’t be here.”
“So, it is manipulation?”
“To some degree. You’re drawn to those around you that complement you. North attracts South. It’s really not a bad thing. Look at Niko and me. I never thought we should be together. But we’re a perfect match, not just in being polar opposites, but stats. In how much we can push each other, how much we want the same things, and love the same things.”
“Like healing?”
“Yes, very much like healing. We’re vastly different people in how we heal and what we personally want from life that way, but we know one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“We’re meant to do it with each other.”
I let out a sigh. “I hope I find someone I’m meant for.”
“Not Malaki?”
“No,” I laughed. “Not Malaki. Not at all.”
“Oh. That’s sad.” Lacy sounded disappointed. “Shit, I gotta get back to class. I was first out the door to come see you.” She moved away from me. “I’ll let the doctor back in. I’ll see you again soon, but hopefully not medically.”
Doctor Pillar and the nurse returned, both looking a little perplexed at being chased out of the room.
“I’m guessing a friend?” Doctor Pillar cocked his head to one side. “Not many people know our healers around here.”
“Unusual circumstances,” I said. “But yes, she’s a friend.”
“Well, you have some good friends, it seems. I have to give you an hour or more of rest, then I’ll run you through only some of the other tests.”
I was shaking my head, though. “Something else wrong?” Nurse Eina asked.
“I want you to run all the tests,” I said. “I’m not skimping on them just because I’ve had one small sickness episode.”
“If you’re sure?” Doctor Pillar asked.
“Yes. I’ll rest, then continue.”
***
I still didn’t feel that great when it came time to do the tests, but I completed them. I ran 2.5 kilometers in less than eleven minutes. I threw up at the end.
The nurse was about to call for Lacy again, but I stopped her. “It’s going, I promise,” I said.
“Some good food and take two pills tonight. You’ll feel much better by morning.”
“I was hoping you might say that.” I smiled.
The rest of the tests were still simple: a little bit of weight testing, and then Doctor Pillar asked me to get changed and drop into a tank. This surprised me and was something I did not want to do, not really.
“Just checking how long you can hold your breath,” he said. “We’ll keep in contact with you through your HUD and let you know how you’re doing. Watch the timer.”
“Is there a baseline?” I asked. I had no clue how long I could hold my breath for, let alone had I ever sat underwater to try it.
I didn’t know how I’d cope at all with this one. Should I be so stubborn and do it? They’d pass me either way it seemed.
No, even though I didn’t want to do this, I wanted to learn more about me, my body.
I stripped and noticed Nurse Eina looking me over. “Do you need any help for the bruising?” she asked. “Any pain at pressure?”
“I’m not sure. There was nothing in the helo. As for underwater, I have no idea how my injuries might react.”
“Not very well,” Doctor Pillar said. “It would have made some things worse. I’m glad you had medical healing for a little while, even if Lacy is fresh to training. She’s good.”
“She is.” I smiled. Then I stripped off and climbed into the tank.
Nurse Eina handed me a belt. “Just hold on to it, then let it go when you want to surface at all.”
I took in a breath and dropped. The water didn’t sting my eyes, but I felt my X1 click. Was it doing something?
I sat on the bottom, cross-legged, and focused on my breathing, watching the timer in my HUD tick.
I tried my best not to panic, to keep thinking of nothing but calm thoughts. My mom singing to me as a kid when I was sick. My mom spoon feeding my chicken soup to get better. Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds. My lungs burned. Forty seconds…forty-five seconds. Nope, now I was freaking out. I had to get out. I dropped the weight and rose.
“That was good,” Doctor Pillar said. “With a little more practice, you’ll easy reach one or two minutes or even longer.”
“Is there a pass rate?” I asked.
“Usually, with no training, we like them to reach over thirty seconds. Over a minute would be exceptional, but considering you’ve not had much experience in water at all, that was a very good attempt. Some people can’t hold their breath at all.”
“I can see why it would be an asset here. As well as swimming.”
“Very much so. It’s important. We’ll make our way to the swim area, if you are feeling well enough?” It was a question, one which he waited for me to nod for. “Okay, we’ll just observe.”
Nurse Eina passed me a towel and a set of slippers that gripped the floor. “I’m guessing a set of these will be important around here?”
“Yes, most of the regulation boots are special. They have good grips, a little different from the regular ground ones.”
“Expensive?”
“Not really, but everything has a cost.”
I could see my bills around here for all the things I needed racking up already. I followed them in silence, contemplating my possible future.
The swim room was vast. It surprised me that at this depth there was water that didn’t mix in with the water outside. Then I saw something flick past the window on the outside, and I flinched.
“The pool is sea water,” Nurse Eina said. “There are several Techean that come and go through the day, for various reasons: tests, training.”
“I don’t mean to be jumpy.”
“First time down here always is,” she said. “Just take your time. We’ll watch. Your instructions will come through your HUD.”
Okay. I put the towel to one side and got in the water. My bruises were still there. Still obvious I was hurting. I saw Nurse Eina whisper something to the doctor, but I pushed it away. The water was not warm at all, and I shivered. Would they be testing my body for lower water temps? I had to presume everything was being watched, but I couldn’t help how my body reacted to being down here in this.
The instructions came through.
Swim ten lengths.
Swim one of these holding your breath.
It didn’t stipulate which length I held my breath on, so I tested it at first in how many breaths I did use. I slowed my rate down and got it to four per length. When I was ready, and only then, did I breathe in deeply and go for it.
The whole length of my arms worked, and my lungs held. They burned; they burned a lot.
I still did it, though. Completing the length, then carrying on while my arms recovered.
There was a splash at the other side of the pool, and I looked. Doctor Pillar and Nurse Eina both squatted down at the side of the pool talking to a young man and woman. No, they were Techean. The man was deep in concentration, his skin covered in what looked like a shirt. It wasn’t skin, not like I’d seen of Anders’s, nor did he have scales.
The young woman’s dark blond hair was pulled back in a sleek high ponytail, but the strands seemed to flow and ripple like ribbons as they moved through the water. She was breathtakingly beautiful, with a flawless, porcelain complexion that appeared slightly pale against the deep blue of the water. It was her eyes that really captivated me, however. Were they pure tech, tier five? Had to be, they looked so real. They were a dazzling, sparkling green with black irises, and when she blinked, the color seemed to shift to a pale, almost ethereal green and white. As she smiled at me, her lips curved into a mesmerizing, almost otherworldly expression that left me completely entranced. That was a real smile, not like Anders.
I hit the side of the pool before I even realized I was there. When I turned around to continue swimming, she was gone. Just like that.
Doctor Pillar walked towards me. “You can get out now. We’re done. Thank you. Even if it was hard, we have a really good baseline of where you’ve started from.”
“Did I pass?” I asked.
“You passed all the tests,” he said. “However, the alcohol is on your record.”
On the inside, I cursed. I pushed the thought away and vowed not to worry over it.
I went with them and met Malaki on the way. “You okay?” she asked.
“All good. Am I free to leave?” I asked the doctor.
“You’ll get a full report to your HUD later tonight,” Doctor Pillar said. “We’ll see you again in the next month, to retest.”
“Retest?” Malaki asked him.
“Yes, because of the nature of his previous injuries and those from this week, we’ve been tasked with keeping an extra eye on him and to note his improvement.”
“In other words, lift more, run faster, hold my breath longer?”
“Indeed,” the doctor said.
“I’ll be back,” I assured him. “And I’ll blow your instruments out of the water.”
He laughed. “I have no doubt you will, airman. Go, get some good food and rest. The next few weeks will not be easy.”
I had been hearing that a lot lately. I looked at Malaki. “I’m starving,” I moaned.
“I heard you had a bad reaction. I should have told you to tell them about last night. I never thought.”
“We all found out the hard way,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. But please take me back to Anders for some burgers.” I almost cried as I said the word burgers.
“Damn, you already know about those?” she asked.
I nodded, recalling the taste.
“They’re not cheap,” she said. “But I’ll get them this time. You have to learn how much things cost around here.”
“Okay,” I said, and I wanted to tuck my arm into hers mostly for comfort, partly for support. But also because I really wanted to hide behind her and not have every set of eyes on the base looking my way.
40
There were several people who looked our way as we headed to the central plaza. “There are a lot of bars,” Malaki said. “They’re not for drinking. But for downtime. They were sectioned off like this, because it was easier.”
“Where is Anders, then? It looked like it was just one bar?”
“It kinda is,” she said. “Sadly, his bar is too far for us to go.”
“Okay, tell me how far we can go, where, what’s my range here?”
She stopped walking and put her hand in mine. “Your HUD and 3D map will have us on it, where we are now.”
I focused and brought it up into my mind.
“One circular island.”
“Yes, like a clock face, there are eight smaller sectional helo pads. Our four, and five, our east and south sides are closest to land, and to Artem. We landed on helo Station Five, at pad—”
