|14|
They went inside the southern cliff face through a tunnel that opened into several passages, all lined with lights and piping leading down each of the three ways….Casnar checked the signage and went towards the passage indicated for "Imaging".
Holding onto her wrist, Braith gazed distractedly about, her own thoughts tugged by the touch of Tor Vitale's fingers against her pulse, and she pushed away the sadness that came with those thoughts.
Ahead from the ceiling of the reinforced passage was a sign repeating the word "Imaging" and guiding Casnar further.
"There's someone, hey!" Taking her hand, he picked up the pace and they hurried towards the person walking up the passage, "…Who can we talk to that can help her?"
"Casnar," Braith grabbed his shirt and hauled backward to stop him, "….Can't you see that's a husk?"
It was a husk, or something not human at least….anymore.
"Hello," and yet it spoke like a human, "…Are you looking for someone to see in particular?"
Cybernetic eyes glowed dimly up at them from the decline of the passage, "…My friend here needs to see someone about a condition that gives her…visions…and shakes."
The head swiveled to Braith from Casnar's indication, "…What kinds of visions…What do they describe to her? Are you experiencing these visions while you are conscious or during your night cycle?"
"It is usually when I sleep, but could be day or night," Braith said cautiously.
"Describe the shakes you mention."
"She goes into seizures."
The grisly eyes in the robotic skull turned around in contemplation, "…We should find you a room, please, follow me."
The passage leveled out as they followed it down deeper, and the lights became bright—more people in casual wear were among the lower section reinforced with girders and bars, technically structured with generators, cables, lamps and privacy curtains…Braith and Casnar were led to a small man with red hair, had shoulders shaped for a swimmer, and he acknowledged them with a light accent out of London. Braith was brought to one of the curtained tables while Casnar talked with the man, the husk moving back up the passage.
"Your mate," the man started—Braith looked at Casnar, "…States you've got an issue with dreams…Bobbie Hughe by the way," he shook her hand, "…And I know who you are so we'll keep it hush. I'll have Sarah get you dressed into some johns and you can go with her to do the eval."
"May I go with her," Casnar suggested inquiringly, "…I've been there for two of the episodes….I'll keep her honest, is what I'm trying to say," Braith gave him a small squint and sighed at Bobbie's expression.
"If she doesn't mind….You two are obviously partners so it's fine if she says yes."
"I didn't think it was so obvious," she gave the okay and Casnar stayed.
"Why is there a husk in here?"
The nurse technician glanced at the direction of Braith's gaze—the husk was waiting with an orderly, watching with glowing eyes while he showed him/it/her what to do with a tray of tools.
"Who, George over there? Don't mind him—he's not a husk husk…He's special—fully mentally functioning husk…He remembers who he is, what happened to him, never experienced the indoctrination…"
"He knows what he is though…"
"Sure he does," the nurse replied, "…But he's not letting it stop him from trying to move on," she gave Braith a meaningful glance, "…He's accepted the fact of his injuries."
"Injuries…"
"Like a burn victim, or an amputee, or hell, a prisoner of war," the nurse went on, undressing Braith's john as she prepared her for a set of scans through what appeared to be a nuclear reactor the size of the cave they were in, "…He suffers only from people who don't let him live on….But George is strong…His full name is George Hill and he was picked out of his home in Kentucky when the Reapers indoctrinated the local government, enforcing a law in which everyone had to meet the new masters—some ugly nonsense that blows the partisanship full to the heavens, ma'am—and he was picked up and forced out, sent into those Reaper makers and well, there you are."
They both looked at George as he and the orderly were pushing the tray out, and the nurse technician waved—George nodded and continued up the steps dug into the slope of the cave's mouth.
"Did he have a family before the Reapers?"
"Ma'am, for a bright war hero, you ask some dumb questions—we all had family…Now we are what's left of that family. We'll have you sit for this, ma'am, pardon my abruptness, but I need to wheel you into the imager and we'll find out what's making you tick."
"She's built like a human, walks and talks like a human, but if you look here," Bobbie pointed to the prints online, "…She's got something inside of her that's not human—it's not even organic from what the results are out of lab."
"What is it," Casnar stared at the emptiness of the scans, "…It looks black and muddled….Are you sure these aren't some error in your equipment?"
Bobbie ran his fingers through his hair, puzzling over the images, "…These machines are tuned and treated regularly for normals, Mister Soterios, but I'm afraid your mate isn't being picked up by the technology…It's like she's just not even our same matter—the tech can't get in there if there is something behind it….Otherwise…." They both looked over at Braith, standing with the nurse in the makeshift doorway.
"I guess I was right," she said quietly, the nurse and Bobbie not understanding, "….I didn't survive.
"What about the seizures?"
"What about my dreams that bring those on?"
"We'll have to observe you under wire, but that'll mean you need to stay the night or as long until we see an episode."
"Are you okay with her staying here," Bobbie asked Casnar who shot him a hard look, "…I ask because there has to be a charge and it either goes to you or her…We have to pay the hospital as well as—"
"She'll stay and I'll pay for it. I made you come all the way out here to help you learn what's the matter," he went to stand with her in the hollowed out corridor of the rock, "…I don't think that's the answer to the questions we came here seeking answers for, Braith, so whatever that is aside," his gaze traveled to the scans on the screen built into the frame of the office fitted to the mine shaft, "…We'll stay and keep focused on what we're looking for….Not whatever we've found…We'll deal with it later." He bent to kiss her cheek, and grazing it instead with his nose, he looked away and went down the corridor.
She lay under the cameras and screens waiting to fall asleep….It was serenely quiet, uncomfortable, and cold without Casnar in the bed next to her—but there she was in the underground rock-mined hospital of Nederlinds…She felt the padding under her fingers and knew she'd not had anything to drink…They were only giving her measured servings of water every hour until she fell asleep…And she couldn't.
He had been acting oddly since the scans had been brought out. He was upset—she could tell that much….Was it because of the can of worms they'd opened, the likely prodigious cost that was yet to be divulged, or was it everything—she was something else, too….Not who he had followed from the bar all those years, someone he thought she was….And what now was she? A tear fell out of her eye corner onto the pillow….She didn't bother to dry it off her temple.
So where are you now?
"Casnar," Tor invited him into the coffee house, late and lively with people from the town and local mines, "…Where's your lady friend?"
Casnar followed him to the booth he had set up a few complimentary pots of coffee at, "…They're watching her for some things that we came to figure out….I need a drink, you have anything hard?"
"You know, I do have some Scotch…Some of the locals swear by it, I'll get you a cup, hold on."
Thinking the moonshine in their bags at the inn they'd found would also probably suit his mood right then, Casnar sat on a stool to the side of the booth and smothered his patak with his hand….He needed a breather, he needed to fuck, and he was worried about what he'd done. Removing his hand, he looked over his indexes at the guests in the coffee house—mostly men, a few women, drells and drellahnas….He paused his gaze on one who was looking at him with surprise, "…Iulia…Great…." Standing from his stool, he went over and gave her an embrace, followed by some words in the old language of Rakhana, "…Tor didn't mention I was in town?"
Iulia—who was the effeminate and likable form of her deceased brother, took his hand and stared at him, "…He hasn't said a word to me, but we've been busy….Tiran and Vykka are around….What are you doing here?"
"I'm here with someone…." Someone…You won't even call her what she is, "….She's at the hospital overnight for something, so I thought I'd catch up with Tor since they want her to sleep."
She looked at him with the emeralds shaded behind her tints from the hanar, having lived on Kahje for years as Tor had, and likely, too, Tiran had his eyes done, but Vykka…She would not have been born there, he realized, but on Rakhana if they had stayed before here…
"You should stay with us for the night," she accepted Tor's offering a tray of cups for her to set out by the free coffee, "…Tor, shame on you for not telling me about him."
"Sorry, Iuls," he handed Casnar a bottle hidden in the tray, "…I was going to—I didn't expect him to leave his new mate."
Raising both eyeridges, "…You have a mate here on Earth?"
"I claimed someone, yes," he pulled the cork from the dark bottle and tipped the nozzle to his nose for a whiff, "…Aromatic," turning his face to them, he caught sight of Tor's disconcerted gaze, "….It was just a….Sorry….We're working through something right now."
"You want to talk, Casnar?"
Casnar glanced at the bottle and Tor.
"She's doing fine," Bobbie brought him into the room they were keeping Braith sedated in, "…It was something to see, and I've seen a lot in these years underground, Mister—"
"You can call me Kaidan."
"I've never thought it possible, but opposite the Reapers," Bobbie handed the report to him, "…She communicates with the GRS. It's a beacon—a homing beacon inside her," he smiled in amazement, "…For fuck's sake, she's literally E.T. phoning home."
"That would explain how she knows about the place," Kaidan put the report into his case and leaned over her on the bed table, "…And the paintings she's got in her attic space, the symbols, damn….I'm sorry, kiddo. Tell HQ we'll send someone to pick her up…I can't believe it, but why should I be surprised….Where's the drell who brought her in?"
"He left for the night…Bought what we showed him, but it wasn't too far from the truth—she's not the same woman who went to the Citadel…Something definitely came down with her."
"I like the guy," Kaidan moved away from the sleeping patient and back down the widened shaft, "…Just tell him she suffered some emergency and needs to be flown to Denver…At any rate, she's not staying here in this hole."
"Do you think the moonshine was helping her any?"
"No," Casnar picked at the label on the bottle and shuddered as the peat assailed his nostrils, "..She only…She only got worse…" He slumped against the wall, his back sliding down as the stool started to tilt under his weight, "…She only got worse with the drinking…"
"Casnar," Tor helped him sit up and pried the bottle from his hand, "…I think you should sleep it off."
"Sleep it off," he groggily nodded and looked up at Tor's family members watching from by the counter, "…I'm sleeping with her…Can't sleep because she feels too….Good to sleep next to," he moved to the bottle in Tor's hand—with a trill, Tor called his son over to give him some help, "…Tiran…You look like Thane, that bastard…"
"Hi Uncle Casnar," Vykka came over to help while her brother and father lifted Casnar by the arms and walked him into the back of the coffee house, "…I'll take the bottle, Papua," she said to her father.
"Vykka…you grew bigger….Have you two been talking to my nephew?"
"Kolyat's working the colony now with your parents, Uncle Casnar," Tiran said from his right armpit, "…He's doing well."
"He's supposed to be something—his mother was my sister….She was s'posed to be something," Casnar retched, "…Mithras….What did I drink…"
"I wish you hadn't given him the human peat whiskey, Tor," Iulia came over fast with towels and lay these down at Casnar's feet—they all stepped over the mess, "…Everyone, time to go home," she swept away to the front of the coffee house and was intent on shutting the night down.
"You have a very beautiful drellahna—your wife…She has a very beautiful daughter, Vykka," they moved him through a door and Tor took over laying him down on a couch, "…Tor…You have that scar still."
"Tir, Vyk, go ahead and help Mamua, I'll take care of this smooth-crest," and Tor shut the door after they said goodnight to Casnar, then turned down the light, "…Sleep it off, Casnar…You'll feel better in the morning, and I'll go with you if you need someone to remind you that things could always be worse."
"She's not even human!"
"I should record you and play what you just said back, but you've a sharper memory than most drells, Casnar," he quietly closed the door behind him, "…You'll remember the absurdity of that statement."
"I'm a drell….I guess it doesn't matter what she is," Casnar was speaking to himself, Tor having gone to rejoin his family, "….I still followed her all that time….She made me claim…Claim it….Her…..She's….Mine…." He closed his eyelids and fell asleep with a rocking snore from the alcohol minutes after.
His dreams were happy and content, lost in dark stupor, seeing the day's snapshots file through his slumbering mind's organization….He saw Braith among others disappearing into blackness, and moved rapidly from dream to nightmare come the early hours of the morning. He heard people whispering and somewhere among them was Braith, but she was walking away, her whispers softer and farther until all was left was silence.
"Braith is not waking…." Casnar's eyes snapped open. He pushed his face out of a wet pillow and realized he'd been sleeping with his mouth open. "She's not waking….I can be there right now—I should have been there—Tor!"
"Arashu, sweet Ara—Casnar, what are you yelling and waking everyone for?" Turning on the light, Tor came out of his and Iulia's bedroom to find Casnar getting up for the door, "…You're leaving?"
"I left her alone….I shouldn't have left her alone—I've always had my eyes on her—"
"Hold on, calm down," Tor opened the door to the main part of the coffee house and walked Casnar despite his haste to leave, "…Take a few breaths and relax, she's at the hospital right? Let me get my coat and I'll walk you over there—Mu'kalien would skin me if he knew I was the last drell to see you out into a cold night here in the mountains….Iulia—I'm going with him to South Cliff, you mind?"
"What do you—Tor, it's late."
"Sorry, Iulia," Casnar saw her at the door to the bedroom and she waved her fingers tiredly.
"I hope we get to meet her."
