Chapter 15
"Vic," Daggon whispered, moving towards him.
"Back off!" Mel ordered, glaring at him. "Don't you touch him, you son of a bitch."
"Hey, just remember who mentally drop-kicked the guy across the room here," Aeko suggested bitterly, glaring at Mel. "Daggon's his friend. He wants to help. So you back off!"
Mel shrank away from the obviously angry girl, regarding her with wide eyes. As Aeko continued bristling at Mel, Daggon moved to Vic's side, moving his hands over the Detective's body, searching for damage.
"Three broken ribs, punctured lung… concussion," he announced quietly, shaking his head. He looked up at the Vardians who had gone from guarding the platform to guarding them. "He needs to be in a human hospital."
"You're Cirronian," Lana pointed out from the bar, not looking in their direction. "You fix him."
"This damage is extensive and he is bleeding internally, Lana," Daggon protested.
"Sad. Tell it to someone who cares."
Daggon scowled at her and began unbuttoning Vic's shirt.
"You bitch!" Mel snapped. "How can you be so cavalier?"
"It's easy, actually." Lana shook her head. "If any of them try to escape, shoot them all," she told the guards. "That means no Hyperspeed. And none of your tricks either, Aeko…"
"When the hell did I go from being Julius' girlfriend to being your prisoner anyway?" Mel demanded.
"About the same time you outlived your usefulness to him. You're a liability now, and Doctor Zin does not need any of those this close to the realization of his plans."
"So he's been using me all along?" Mel whispered, biting back tears and looking down at Vic. "God, Vic, I'm so sorry," she whispered, brushing his hair out of his face. "Oh, God, no.. this is not happening."
"You know how to heal?" a gentle voice asked.
She looked up and into Daggon's eyes, even more amazing than in her dreams. Swallowing hard, she nodded faintly.
"Give me your hands," he ordered, extending his. "He was your friend?" he asked.
Mel nodded weakly and gave him her hands. "I swear, I never meant for this to happen."
"Zin is a charming man. You are not the first to have been deceived by him," he told her gently, pressing her hands against a large bruise on Vic's side and covering them with her own. "Where did you learn to heal?"
"Reta showed me. Um, a man who works for Zin."
"Embezzler," Aeko provided quietly to Daggon. "Fifty year term."
Daggon nodded and looked at Mel. "What did he tell you about healing?"
"Um… it's a manipulation of matter and time in a given area that--"
"What else?" he interrupted quietly.
She frowned faintly. "Uh, that was it."
Daggon frowned and glanced at Aeko. "And this Reta calls himself Cirronian?"
"Yeah. One of the racial superiority crowd no less. Go figure." Aeko shrugged.
"What's a Cirronian?" Mel whispered.
Daggon frowned at her for a moment, then his eyes widened as realization set in about how little this woman knew of herself. Any distrust or antagonism he might have felt for her was instantly replaced by pity.
"Cirronians are… like us," he told her gently. There was no time to waste on trying to convince this woman of the truth while Vic was dying at their knees. "Reta neglected to teach you something about healing."
"What?"
"That it is an act of love. You care about this man? Use that." He nodded gently, his expression encouraging.
"I can't… I tried but I can't concentrate…" She shook her head helplessly, tears sliding down her cheeks.
"Do it," Aeko urged, her voice a whisper. "Undo some of the damage you have wrought. Detective Bruno is a good man. He deserves life."
Mel nodded and concentrated on healing Vic as she had been taught. Nothing happened. "I can't," she whimpered finally, shaking her head.
"Close your eyes," Daggon directed gently, keeping one hand over hers and lifting the other to her forehead, releasing soothing energy. "Disregard everything you think you know about how a healing is supposed to work. Now reach inward…" He watched her face closely, nodding to himself when he saw that she had found what she was looking for. "This is an act of love," he murmured to her. "Given and received in trust. For the good of all." He smiled and gave a relieved sigh as he saw the light spilling out from under her hands. "Wonderful. You feel that? Hold on to it. Good, perfect."
"Vic," she whispered, smiling faintly. "He's stronger. I can feel it…"
"Of course he is stronger." Daggon gave her throat a gentle caress. "You have given of yourself to make your friend well. This is what it means to be Cirronian."
Mel gave him a shaky smile, feeling drained but satisfied. "Will he be okay?"
Daggon nodded. "You've healed most of the damage. I will take care of the rest."
"I want to," she protested.
"Not this time." He shook his head. "Bones are broken. More training is required to deal with the problem."
Mel nodded and slid away from them, pulling her knees against her chest and resting her chin on them, sighing deeply and feeling like she had taken a particularly powerful bolt of energy to the stomach. This made every other crappy personal decision pale in comparison.
"You've made a serious mistake," Aeko whispered to her, patting her shoulder from behind. "But… the situation is not irretrievable. Your crime, mine… the same. You can still atone as I have begun to."
"Your crime?" Mel repeated, turning to face Aeko, her expression questioning.
"We're criminals. All of us but Daggon. Escaped prisoners mostly, and people like Zin and Lana who would spend their lives in prison if even half of their crimes ever came to light."
"Oh, my God," Mel whispered, shaking her head. "Julius is a criminal?"
Aeko nodded. "His name is not Julius. Just Zin. And what he plans could destroy this planet."
"No…" she whispered, biting her lip.
Aeko sighed and took one of Mel's hands. "Hey, the world is not over. Not yet." When Mel looked up, Aeko smiled faintly.
"But it will be. Because of me!"
"Nonsense. You loved rashly and chose poorly. In that we are no different. You may still make amends, save any lives before they have been lost. Me, I can only make up for the ones already lost."
Mel stared at her with wide eyes, amazed by the quiet pain in the girl's voice. "What did you do?"
"The specifics aren't important at present. Can you open a Hyperspeed window?" she murmured.
"Yeah." Mel nodded.
"Good. Let's see how Detective Bruno is doing, shall we?"
"You know Vic?"
She nodded faintly. "Through Daggon."
"And you and Daggon are…"
"Friends." Aeko smiled faintly at her.
"Has he really been dreaming about me?"
Aeko nodded. "And you of him?"
"Yeah." Mel nodded.
"I thought so. You have the touched look in your eyes."
"Touched?"
"Illuminated, then. You've seen the Light, a Cirronian would say."
Mel frowned uncertainly. "But what is a Cirronian? A person who can heal?"
"Not a person at all," Daggon told her gently, offering Vic his hand and helping him to sit up. "Melah en'i, Vic is the only human in this room right now."
Mel stared at him in stunned silence for a moment before shaking her head.
Daggon nodded firmly, his expression reassuring. "You must be at least partly Cirronian in order to have been able to heal him."
"She can open a Hyperspeed window as well," Aeko told them. "What's that, sir? Half?"
"Quarter. She might be able to at a quarter, depending."
"One quarter not human?" Mel asked, swallowing and shifting uncomfortably.
"Look, we can discuss this later," Daggon told her in a voice that was both gentle and incredibly firm. "We have to get you and Vic out of here," he whispered.
"They'll kill us all if we try anything," Mel protested in a whisper of her own. The guards, fortunately, seemed more interested in the platform than in them.
"You will all be gone before they may react," Daggon told her firmly, slipping one of his hands into Aeko's.
Aeko frowned faintly. "You have the artificial Hyperspeed device?"
Vic nodded imperceptibly.
Aeko nodded. "Then we're all set. Timing's going to be everything."
"You go first," Daggon ordered. "The rest of us will follow immediately. You will convey Miss Porter and Vic to the car and get them to safety."
"What about you, sir?"
"You are not to wait for me."
"Sir," she began to protest.
"You are not to wait for me," he repeated more firmly. "You will protect these civilians. This is an order, Aeko. Right now Vic and Mel need you watching their backs more than I do."
She closed her eyes, nodding. "Just don't get yourself killed, sir," she whispered.
"I hadn't planned on it," he assured her with a half-smile. He looked up at Mel and Vic. "Hyperspeed on three. Aeko?"
She nodded and blended into the wood-work. "Three."
Mel gasped and almost forgot to open the Hyperspeed window until the guards started to wheel around, guns at the ready. She panicked then and Hyperspeed opened itself. She looked around, scared until she saw both Vic and Daggon there, also moving in Hyperspeed. Vic was groping around blindly until his hand connected with something and she heard a muffled curse from Aeko.
"Jeez, Detective! Way to stop a woman's heart…"
"Yeah. Can we move?" Vic demanded, keeping one hand securely around her arm. "This thing never lasts long, even when it's only maintaining one person in Hyperspeed."
"Yeah. This way. Miss Porter?"
"Yeah. Where are we going?"
"Somewhere safe," Daggon told her gently. "You can trust Aeko, Melah en'i, as much as you trust Vic."
"Sir," Aeko began, catching his hand as he turned away.
"Yes, Aeko?"
"Pretend you're a Dessarian for once in your life," she suggested, standing on her toes and planting a gentle kiss on his mouth. "Stay safe."
"You, too." He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and then moved to the platform. "Go!" he ordered them.
"Come on, ladies," Vic said, nodding towards the door. "I do not want to still be here when this thing loses its charge."
Daggon watched them go before readying his Collector and approaching the first of the guards. Hyperspeed faded halfway through his second Collection.
Lana's head snapped up at the sound of the second guard slumping to the floor. "What the… You son of a mongrel whore!" she shouted at Daggon, her pretty face twisted into a mask of rage and bloodlust. She found herself nose-to-nose with the Cirronian before she could react. "It doesn't matter. You're too late… He'll have it by now."
"That doesn't help you," Daggon informed her quietly, Collecting her life-force and letting her slump to the ground. Shaking his head, he walked to the platform.
***
Daggon was very surprised to find Zin still in the Vault, sitting on the ground with the Strada Brac nearby. He wordlessly extracted his Collector.
Not looking up, the Vardian asked quietly, "Is it done, Lana? Is she dead?"
"You would have let Lana kill her?"
He nodded, not looking up. "I had to. She was becoming a problem…" He sighed deeply. "Damn it, Daggon, I never expected to actually start caring!"
"You genuinely did care for her, then?"
"Of course I did!" Zin glared up at him.
"Put the Strada Brac back, Zin. Turn yourself in."
"You know I can't do that…"
"Then I'll have to take you by force."
"I can't let you do that, either…" The Vardian climbed to his feet. "You took Lana?" he asked, sighing.
"Yes, Zin." Daggon nodded.
"For that alone, your death will be painful."
"Last chance, Zin… Don't make this harder."
"Harder for which one of us, Daggon?" Zin asked, shaking his head. "Face it, boy. It's over for both of us. We'll be keeping each other company in hell before much longer."
"Very well, Zin." Daggon sighed and nodded, dropping into a defensive pose. "Let's get this over with…"