The Scythian Crisis, page 9
part #3 of Space Colony One Series
“Come on,” Cherry said as she also arrived at Aubriot’s side. “Come with me. I’ll take you to the clinic they’re setting up. I’m sure that looks worse than it is.” She helped him to his feet and the two set off. Aubriot’s arm was over Cherry’s shoulder while his other hand clutched his head.
Ethan cursed again. Cariad would be working at the new clinic. What would she think of him when Aubriot turned up and told her how he’d gotten his injury? The fool would give his own version of events, of course, painting Ethan as the bad guy. She would think he really had gone crazy. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it looked like he was about to become Leader.
Chapter Thirteen
If she’d seen the new planetside clinic in another setting, Cariad realized, she might have thought it was part of a refugee camp. Yet compared to the general state of the settlement it was one of the better-looking constructions. Although the aliens’ bombardment had set the settlement ablaze, the fire hadn’t consumed everything due to the fire-retardant nature of the building materials. It had been the tsunami that had caused the most damage. As time had gone on the colonists had removed more of the deposited mud, uncovering remains of buildings they were using to construct more robust dwellings, including the clinic.
If there was one thing the Gens knew how to do, it was to build. In just a few hours they’d made a room with a roof that reliably kept out the rain, and added a supply of fresh running water and reliable lighting. Storage cupboards, an examination area, and mattresses and bedding from the Mistral added the finishing touches just before the first patients had turned up: a teenage boy with a stomach infection and a woman who had suffered a bad sprain after slipping in the mud. Both of them would have had to wait for the next shuttle flight in order to receive treatment before, but now all the settlers living planetside had fast access to basic medical care.
It was a bright moment in an otherwise dark time, Cariad thought to herself as she pulled off her scrubs and gloves and began to rub sterilizing solution over her hands. It was late evening and well past time to close up for the day. Kurtz would remain on site in case of emergencies and Alasdair would be staying too in order to care for the sick boy, who had no family. The younger Gen children were aboard the Mistral but the older ones lived in groups with a few carers at the settlement.
More and more of the Gen children were being adopted into families as the social structure left over from the Nova Fortuna voyage was breaking down and blending into the nuclear family structure of the colony. But many adolescent kids remained as part of their original birth group, perhaps a little too old to want to be considered someone’s child.
Cariad stretched, tired but content with her day’s work. The threat of the aliens’ return was hanging over their heads, and she didn’t know if there was any point to her efforts, but working to the best of her ability was a comforting distraction. She looked forward to seeing Rene again and catching up on what had been happening while she’d been gone. Cariad had shared a small shelter with her old friend ever since the disasters that had struck the colony.
The bombardment and tsunami had been terrible, but what had followed had also been one of the worst few hours of her life. Numb with grief at the death of her techs, Cariad had joined the throngs that had climbed down from their perches of safety and into devastation. From then her memories were jumbled, until the moment she’d heard the spreading news that Ethan was alive and had turned up at the settlement gate.
Cariad sighed. She’d been so happy at the sight of him, injured but still living. So much had gone wrong since then and she wasn’t sure why. Maybe tomorrow, Cariad thought as she pushed open the clinic door to leave, saying goodbye to Kurtz, Alasdair, and the boy patient. Maybe tomorrow I’ll see him and we can talk.
However, the door met with resistance. Someone was on the other side of it.
“Sorry,” said Cariad. She peered around the edge to see who was trying to come in, and saw perhaps the last people she expected. Cherry was there with Aubriot, who had been injured. His arm was over Cherry’s shoulder and she was supporting him. Cariad stepped out and held the door open so the pair could enter the clinic.
“That’s some cut you have there, Aubriot,” Cariad said. He grimaced. A trail of blood ran from Aubriot’s forehead and down his shirt. He even had blood on his pants. Cariad followed them in. “Sit him down on the examination table,” she said to Cherry.
Dr. Kurtz, who had been relaxing on a spare bed, came over to see the new arrival. He and Cherry helped Aubriot onto the table.
“Are you hurt too?” Cariad asked Cherry, who was also wet with blood.
“No, I’m fine,” Cherry replied. “This is his.”
Kurtz had donned gloves and was already examining Aubriot, completing a scan of the man’s brain with the portable scanner.
“You can wash up over there if you like,” Cariad told Cherry, indicating the sink.
“Thanks,” Cherry said.
“That’s nasty,” said Dr. Kurtz as he wiped blood from Aubriot’s forehead. “Been in a fight?” he joked.
“Yes, he has,” Cherry replied over her shoulder as she washed her hands.
“Yeah,” said Aubriot. “You should see the other guy.”
Cherry snorted. “The other guy’s fine.”
“Wait,” Kurtz said. “You really received this injury in a brawl?”
Cariad peered over the doctor’s shoulder and winced. Something had sliced open the skin on Aubriot’s forehead. The cut was so wide and deep that Kurtz could lift it up, exposing the bone beneath. Cariad went to find the Guardians’ medical gel. It would seal the wound without the need for any stitches and heal it without leaving a scar.
She wasn’t as surprised as Kurtz was that Aubriot had gotten into a fight. From what she’d heard, while she and the others who had come down in the shuttle had been helping to build the clinic, Aubriot had been going around the settlement trying to garner support for his attempt to win the leadership election he had instigated.
Alasdair had also come over to see the new patient. He began to clean Aubriot’s gash.
Cariad handed the tube of healing gel to Kurtz.
What Aubriot didn’t realize was that the Gens saw him as just another Woken. It didn’t matter to them that he wasn’t a scientist. What was more, according to Ethan, the Guardians’ arrival had defined the lines of division again. The Gens didn’t know or care that Aubriot wasn’t the one who had ordered the Guardians to control them in the past.
The notion that the Gens would elect a Woken to be Leader was ridiculous, but Aubriot had probably been too insensitive or too scared of what the Guardians might do to him to notice. Cariad guessed he must have started an argument with someone and escalated it to a physical altercation, the same as he had with her on the bridge of the Mistral. But levels of stress and tension among the settlers were sky high. Aubriot was lucky he’d come off so lightly. He could have suffered a lot worse at the hands of an angry mob.
“See you all later,” Cherry said as she left.
After the door swung closed, Aubriot began to explain what had happened. “I was just trying to talk to someone about the election, and he sprang on me like a lunatic. Punched me in the stomach and then kicked me in the head.”
“You were struck in the stomach too?” Kurtz asked. “Dang, I should have asked if you had other injuries. Alasdair, stop that for a moment. I want to scan his abdomen.”
Alasdair moved away, dropping bloody gauze into the bio hazard container.
“Would you please lie down?” Kurtz asked Aubriot.
“Totally out of the blue,” Aubriot continued as he swung his legs onto the table and lay back. Blood dripped steadily from his cut onto the disposable sheet.
Cariad was finding Aubriot’s story hard to believe. She knew what he was like. Her earlier guess was far more likely.
Kurtz picked up the portable scanner and ran it over Aubriot’s torso. He checked the readings. “Okay, you don’t seem to have sustained any internal damage. Sit up again so we can fix that cut.”
Aubriot’s forehead was beginning to turn deep purple. He’d received quite a blow. Cariad wondered what had hit him. The injury wasn’t the result of a punch. He’d been struck with an object of some kind.
Kurtz was clearly having the same thoughts. “What caused your head injury?” he asked as Alasdair resumed the task of cleaning the gash. “Did someone cut you with a knife?”
“I told you,” Aubriot said testily. “I was kicked in the head.”
“No kidding,” said Kurtz. “Someone’s boot did that?”
“Not his boot,” Aubriot said, “his foot. He’s got that metal foot, hasn’t he?”
Cariad’s mouth fell open. “Ethan did this to you?”
“Yeah, it was Ethan,” said Aubriot. “Crazy bastard. He ought to be locked up.”
A look passed between Alasdair and Kurtz. Like Cariad, they clearly had a different idea of what had happened, but their professionalism prevented them from challenging the truth of Aubriot’s statement to his face.
Cariad wondered what Aubriot had really done or said to prompt Ethan to react so violently. She guessed that it had to have been something pretty awful. She hoped Ethan was okay, but she guessed that the fact that he hadn’t turned up at the clinic meant he probably was. And Cherry had said the other guy was fine.
The Guardians had been right about Aubriot all along. In the delicate, fragile fledgling colony, the man was trouble personified.
Alasdair continued to clean Aubriot’s wound. When he was finished, Kurtz applied the gel. The two men worked in silence. Soon, Aubriot’s forehead was clean and the cut Ethan’s foot had inflicted had stopped bleeding. A long, angry, red line divided Aubriot’s brow, which had turned vivid purple. Medical gel glistened on his skin. In a few days it would heal the injury so well that no sign of it would remain.
Kurtz gave him an analgesic to dull the pain enough to allow him to sleep and sent him on his way. As soon as the clinic door closed, Alasdair let loose. “Asshole,” he exclaimed. “I wonder what he really said to Ethan to make him react like that?”
“He was probably trying to make him pull out of the election,” said Kurtz. “He knows he doesn’t stand a chance if Ethan’s running.”
“Ethan’s standing for Leader?” Cariad asked. “Aubriot said he was going to try to start up the election process, but—”
“Yeah,” Alasdair replied. “Didn’t you hear? Honestly, I don’t think anyone was taking Aubriot or his proposal to run a leadership election seriously. But then Ethan was nominated and seconded. I guess when Aubriot was going around asking people to vote for him they told him to his face they were going to vote for Ethan instead.”
Kurtz laughed. “He wouldn’t have taken that too well.”
“I can’t believe it,” said Cariad. “Ethan’s finally going to be Leader?”
“He is,” said Alasdair. “Great, isn’t it? We’re finally going to have someone to pull everyone together.”
“It is great,” Cariad said. She was happy that Ethan had seen sense. Or had he? Had she pushed him into taking on a role he didn’t want? She hoped with time he would understand he’d made the right decision.
Suddenly, chirrups filled the air in the clinic in an electronic chorus. The noise came from Cariad’s comm button and also from Kurtz’s and Alasdair’s. It was a general, colony-wide comm. Cariad stiffened. Was it an emergency warning? Had the aliens returned far earlier than expected?
Kurtz pressed his button to open the comm for all of them.
“Can anyone hear me?” said a voice.
Cariad’s heart leapt as she immediately recognized the owner.
“This is Giesen. I’m aboard the Nova Fortuna with two others and we need help.”
Chapter Fourteen
Ethan was lying on his back in the narrow cleft they’d excavated in the Nova Fortuna’s hull. After the news had arrived that people were alive aboard the ship, he and the others had arrived at first light and worked harder than ever to finish their task.
According to the Guardians’ schematics of the ship, only a few centimeters now lay between Ethan’s feet and the interior. When he broke through, Giesen and the two reproduction techs would be waiting there, ready to be picked up. Ethan could hardly wait. It would be one good, joyful event in a series of terrible disasters.
He gripped the rough surface of the floor of the cleft, drew up his knees, braced himself, and kicked as hard as he could, driving his heels against the remaining material that separated him from the ship’s interior. His prosthetic jarred against his stump, sending out jabs of pain. Ethan gritted his teeth and kicked again. This time, the hull material gave a little. Ethan lifted his head to squint between his knees, but he couldn’t see much. The dawn light that penetrated the hole was dim.
For a third time, he kicked. Yes! His prosthetic leg had pushed through into nothingness. “I’ve broken through,” he shouted to the others, who were waiting outside in flitters.
Whoops and cheers came from Cherry and Garwin. “Well done,” Brent called. “Yes,” added Sykes. “Very well done.”
Ethan kicked with his other foot. It slipped into air too. Ethan turned onto his front and swiveled around, preparing to poke his head through the gap. Pulling aside torn fragments, he found himself looking into darkness. It was odd. He’d known the ship’s power would be out but he’d expected the trapped colonists to have found or made some sort of portable lighting.
He stuck his head through the hole. “Hey,” he called. Echoes from his shout bounced around in the dark space. A dank, earthy smell penetrated his nostrils.
“Hey,” a woman’s voice shouted back. Ethan recognized Giesen. “Who’s that? We’re so glad you found us. Where are you?”
Ethan followed the direction the voice had come from and spotted small twin lights.
“It’s Ethan,” he called. The trapped colonists wouldn’t be able to see him at the distance, he realized. “I’m way above you.”
“Damn,” said Giesen. “When they told us you were cutting through the hull in the agri district I was worried this might happen.”
Ethan found it hard to estimate the distance, but he guessed that Giesen and the two techs were hundreds of meters below their escape route from the ship.
“Don’t worry,” Ethan called. “We’ll get you out. We’ve brought some equipment. Are you all okay?”
“We’re fine,” said a third, female, voice. “Florian and I can’t actually leave. We have to stay on the ship to look after the babies. But we would like to come out, even if only for a little while. Just to know that we can.”
“They need to look after the babies,” Giesen said. “I don’t. I’m not planning on setting foot in this place again if I can help it. So please send down a rope or something, Ethan, okay?”
Ethan laughed. “The babies survived too? That’s great news. You’ll have to be patient just a little while longer. We need to widen this hole and get set up.”
“Right,” Giesen replied. “We’ll make our way over to the edge to be ready for you. It’s a bit difficult. We have to walk over huge mounds of soil.”
Ethan swiveled around again until his head was at the entrance to the cleft where he could look out and see the flitter occupants. “I spoke to them and they’re all okay,” he told them. “We’ve broken through about a third to halfway up the district from what I can tell.”
“Damn,” said Cherry. “All the work we’ve done and we’re in the wrong place.”
“I don’t think we could have cut a hole much closer to them if we’d wanted to,” Ethan replied. “From what I can tell, the spot they’re at is below the water line.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” said Sykes. “If that were the case, they should be underwater. Unless air pressure is holding the water back.” He looked at Brent and the two of them continued a discussion in silence.
“Anyway,” said Ethan, “if we’re careful, I’m sure we can haul them up. But I’ve only opened a small section so far. I’ll make the hole bigger and then we can bring them out of there safely. We can’t risk them falling.”
“No, we can’t,” Cherry said. “Especially not the female tech. She’s pregnant.”
“She is? I didn’t know that,” said Ethan.
“Cariad told me. She’s elated they’re alive.”
Sykes said, “Ethan, I’ll take over from you to widen the hole. Then we’ll lower the harness.”
Ethan climbed out of the hole and into a flitter, allowing Sykes to take his place.
“This is fantastic,” Ethan said. “I don’t know how they survived the crash but I’m sure glad they did.”
“Me too,” Cherry said. “Somehow it makes me feel like we stand more of a chance. I saw the ship coming down on the feed from the Mistral, you know. The Nova was moving slow, not like a meteor, flying in and burning up. It was almost gliding. So I thought there was a chance they might make it, but then I heard there was hardly anything left intact at the crash site and I gave up hope.”
“It must have been a hell of an impact,” said Garwin. “It’s amazing any part of the ship is still in one piece.”
“I wonder how much of it’s below the water line,” said Cherry. “When we get Giesen and those techs out we’ll know more. But, come to think of it, if the ship had hit the surface hard enough to disintegrate, don’t you think we would have felt a shock from the impact, like the earthquakes they had on Earth? I don’t recall feeling anything. Do you, Ethan?”
“No,” he replied, thinking back to his time in the threads’ cell prior to his release. “I don’t remember feeling anything either.”
All he could remember of the time prior to that blissful moment when the threads finally set him free was the dreadful chant they’d broadcast for hours: Out. Be careful. He and Rudra had finally found out what the creatures had meant. The “be careful” had referred to the approaching tsunami, which they’d only managed to survive by clinging to the fence. In retrospect, it might have made more sense for the threads to wait until the tsunami had passed before giving them their freedom, but perhaps the threads knew their cell would become unstable and had judged it safer for the humans to be outside.
