CH3
They had to be careful with the language problem and choose one they knew the language for. Plus it had to be cold there that night.
There was a smaller hospital to the north that spoke their language and there was actually a little left over snow on the ground, so it was perfect.
The hospital wasn't overly big. It was only 5 floors tall with a single one story satellite wing off to one side. They waited till late in the day.
The fall through their atmosphere in their little two man shuttle was very bumpy and it had them doing the best they could to stay in their seats, even with the safety straps to hold them in place.
Kate powered up the engines about 5,000 feet above sea level and applied power just as they reached tree top level and slowed down considerably. Kate didn't want to leave a trail of blown snow or downed trees or power lines behind her as she leveled off.
Kate landed on the roof right next to the roof access doorway. They gathered up their bags to carry what they were after in and headed for the roof access door, only a couple of steps away.
Finding the door locked was no surprise, however a quick twist of the door knob and it turned freely but was still locked. A quick push with her shoulder and Kate had the door open, listening to the pad lock tumble around the stairwell.
Kate pulled out her little toy and started walking towards the edge of the building. "What's that?" Lanie asks her.
"This?" Kate holds it up and shakes it a little. "This is an old igniter for an old charging coil. The gas inside this thing doesn't react well to the cold." Kate explains.
Then Kate pulls out a small eye dropper looking like thing and lets a drop fall on it and then throws it far out into the parking lot. "Give that a few minutes to weaken the casing allowing the gas to escape and, …. boom." Kate spreads her fingers wide and pulls her hands apart.
It was going to mean a lot of damaged or destroyed cars, but since it would help them live, Lanie didn't have a problem with that. Then they walked over to the open door and stepped inside.
"Space is cold, doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose of that thing?" Lanie questions.
"That's why they don't make them anymore." Kate started smiling.
"Where to?" Kate asked softly. Kate knew ships, hospitals were more Lanie's thing.
"Basement probably has the MRI, first floor will have emergency rooms, second floor is likely the operating rooms, labs, a few offices and the floors above that will be hospital beds. Since they need it for operations, what we want will likely be close by. In a conditioned space, likely with a glass front." Lanie explains.
They didn't encounter anyone in the stairwell on the way down to the second floor. Stopping at the door they each looked out through the small window opening that was likely security glass of some kind. Since it had criss crossing lines of wire embedded in it.
They were at a 'T' junction with a corridor off to the left and one to the right with another one straight ahead of them.
Down that corridor looked to be a nurses station about halfway down with elevators.
"I don't suppose we can just step out and wonder around looking for what we want?" Kate asks knowing Lanie was going to shoot her down.
"Sorry honey, without uniforms and ID badges hanging off of us, someone is going to call security and then we'll really have a mess." Lanie was forced to tell her.
That only left two options, so Kate opened the door and stepped out into the corridor when she didn't see anyone, with Lanie right behind her.
Just as the stairwell door closed behind them a nurse stepped out of a room into the corridor to their right. Lanie ran right up to her and lifted her sleeve up her arm and felt her fangs appear just before she bit into her arm and started sucking.
GOD BUT SHE TASTED GREAT! Better than that refrigerated stuff they had been drinking for months now. Nice fresh warm blood. It soothed the burn in her throat like nothing else could.
Lanie's throat stopped burning, at least for now, and the rest of her felt rejuvenated, stronger and better than ever. Lanie just kept drinking until Kate wacked her in the head.
Lanie lifted up and retracted her fangs. "Sorry, kinda got carried away. It has been such a long time since I've had it fresh like this." Lanie licked her lips to remove any traces of the blood, plus she didn't want to lose a drop of it.
Kate wasn't mad at her, and could only hope Lanie did the same for her when the time came.
"Take her upstairs, take her clothes, ID and get back down here." Kate tells her and lets the stairwell door close behind her as Lanie takes the unconscious nurse up to the door leading to the roof.
Kate already knew that when her kind bites someone they also inject something into their victim. It renders them unconscious and provides a short term memory loss so that they won't remember any of this. Kind of like what a mosquito does, just different.
If they keep drinking the victim will die from blood loss. Getting Lanie to stop before that will simply leave the victim feeling weak and a little nauseous. And the wounds will turn into simple scars in a couple of days.
Just as Kate heard Lanie starting down the stairs a nurse passed by the door and Kate opened it and grabbed her and pulled her into the stairwell and with on hand covering her mouth, Kate lifted up her sleeve quickly and bit her. Feeling her fangs extend just before she bit her.
And Kate started drinking.
GOD BUT SHE TASTED GREAT! Better than that refrigerated stuff they had been drinking for months now. Nice fresh warm blood. It soothed the burn in her throat like nothing else could.
And Kate kept drinking and drinking. It made the burn in her throat go away in a manner the refrigerated blood couldn't. Kate could feel her body rejuvenating itself; she was feeling better than she had in a long time.
Then Lanie hit her in the head, getting Kate to stop drinking and remove her mouth from her arm. Looking over at Lanie, Kate started shaking her head. Fresh blood was just so addictive.
"Thanks." Kate offered weakly. If not for Lanie she might have killed her and that was not what her parents had taught her.
Kate carried her upstairs and left her next to the other woman and took her coat and ID tag. Just as she reached Lanie there was a big bang outside, followed by three more smaller ones.
"That should keep them busy for a while." Kate offered Lanie to go first.
Kate followed Lanie as she walked for the nurses' station. There was only one person at the nurses' station and Lanie ignored her and went around the corner and started walking down the corridor past the elevators.
Lanie then stopped at a door and found it locked. Lanie gave it a little twist and they both heard parts breaking in the lock allowing Lanie to open the door easily. "Try through there." Lanie points while she starts looking around.
Kate twists the door knob breaking the lock on the door and opens it. "In here." Kate whispers out.
Lanie was right behind her and then stepped in past her and saw the reach-in refrigerator that had bag after bag of blood inside it.
They both found it locked with a cheap looking little built-in lock that Lanie quickly all but removed and then opened the door. Lanie took in a big breath through her nose. "Yeah, this is the stuff."
Lanie started handing over multiple bags to Kate so she could put them in her bag. Once the refrigerator was half empty Lanie started filling her bag.
"Are we taking all of it? What if they have an operation scheduled soon?" Kate wanted all of them, but at what cost.
"If they do they'll be in here hours before and find it empty. They will then either delay the procedure or have some driven or likely flown in. They'll be fine and so will we." Lanie keeps loading her bag.
Lanie is down to the last few. "Check the doors, see if the way is clear." Lanie asks of Kate.
Kate went to the first door into the space and took in a deep breath. The nurse at the nurses' station was still there, but that was all.
As they walked out the nurse was sitting at a desk with her back turned towards them so they walked right past her.
Upstairs the two nurses were still right where they left them. Kate and Lanie stopped long enough to drop the coats and ID's they took off of them. Just a couple of steps out the door and into their shuttle.
Kate fired it up and took off leaving away from the fire and all of the fire engine trucks that were in the parking lot. Figuring she was far enough north she headed for space.
"Feet are wet and screens are clear, mostly. The only thing out here is a couple of small cargo ships and what looks like a pair of long distance shuttles. We're going to need to leave as soon as we land." Kate warns Lanie.
"I can load our refrigerator. Both of us need to get into the scanner as soon as possible however." Lanie advises. It got Kate to moan, that meant going back to having their throats burn from not drinking for as long as their bodies would allow.
Lanie was done loading the refrigerator and was sitting on the bridge all strapped in. "Ok activating Star Drive in 3, … 2, …. 1, …. and they both soon feel the transition to FTL. Two months to the edge of the Tormented Zone." Kate offers up.
"I still think you're nuts. I just don't know of anyplace else to go. You better be right girlfriend." Or this would be their last trip, ever.
It was now 2 months later:
Lanie was pulling the straps on her chair a little tighter. They had been sitting just outside of the known edge of Tormented Zone of space for the last three days while Kate did more maintenance on the engines and environmental systems while letting Lanie handle everything medical.
"Ok, here we go. Activating Star Drive in 3, ...2, ….1, …. " And they both felt the familiar pull of transitioning to FTL.
Kate started studying her screens again, changing them to different readings of what was happening to the ship. A Talyn didn't actually have any windows, so there was no way to look outside with the naked eye. All they had were the two main big screens along with the three much smaller screens on each side.
While they may not have windows, they did have cameras spread out around the ship that Kate could activate to view the space around them. Looking outside while in FTL may sound simple, but what you were actually looking at wasn't really there. By the time you saw it, it had already occurred.
Three weeks later they were both sitting in the lounge area trying to watch something they had already seen countless time. They were both actually talking to themselves saying the words before they were actually spoken.
They were both ready to kill for a new movie or something, anything! When suddenly the ship jumped and it felt like they had just entered or just exited FTL.
It got Kate to run for the bridge to look at her screens with Lanie right behind her. "What is it?" Lanie asks.
"I'm not, … not sure." Kate was shaking her head. "None of this makes sense. … We're still in FTL, the engines are running normally, but I'm getting some really weird readings around us. It's like we are in the middle of a storm.
Not the eye of a hurricane obviously, but what I don't understand is that it looks like the storm itself is in FTL." Kate tells her. Changing screens to try and get answers.
"We're in FTL AND the storm is in FTL. We didn't pass through it and come out the other side?" Lanie didn't understand. "So instead we're trapped in it instead of going through it?" Lanie wasn't big on ship travel or how it worked, so Lanie was trying to apply what she knew about storms on land to storms in space.
"I think that's exactly what we've done. While we were and still are in FTL, we intercepted a storm that was itself already in FTL. Our two fields are intermingling somehow. Instead of ripping us to pieces like it should, the two fields are dancing with each other.
I don't, … I don't know what it has done to us." Kate went back to shaking her head.
Kate was still sitting in her seat hours later trying to figure out what is going on. Lanie had told her she was going to go get a bag of blood and pop it into the microwave to warm it up since it was her time.
Kate's time was 6 hours from now. Both of their throats were on fire since they were still trying to make what they had last as long as possible.
"You look worried." Lanie points out the strained look on Kate's face.
"A little, I don't know how we got into this and I don't know how we're going to get out either." From what Kate could tell, they were trapped. "I don't have any readings outside of the storm, so I don't know where we are or where we are headed. I'm flying blind here." Though technically Kate wasn't flying at all. No amount of course corrections seemed to have any effect, they were well and truly trapped in the storm.
It was now 2 months later:
Kate and Lanie were still trapped in the storm; however Kate had noticed on her screens that the storm seemed to be losing some of its punch over the last week. Kate still had no idea where they were however.
Kate was sitting in her chair two days later, strapped in as a precaution, and was watching her screens when suddenly the storm lost a lot of its power and dumped them out before moving on. Kate watched it slowly move away while it continued to lose more and more power.
This did however have an effect on them. Kate felt the familiar pull of changing from FTL to normal space however her screens told her they were still in FTL. Only this time under their own power.
It also got Lanie to come running in after picking herself up off of the floor. "What happened?"
"The storm let go us, we're free." Kate was actually a little giddy she was so happy at this change of events.
"It's about damn time. … Where are we?" Lanie now had another concern, one that was shared by Kate.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out now." Lanie could see Kate changed the views on her screens. "WOW, this area is a mess. If I read this right, our storm we were trapped in just got swallowed by an even bigger storm. … Jeez, and there are three electromagnetic storms over here." Getting Kate to point at her screen.
"And then there is this area here. It looks like there are storms dancing all around it. I'm trying to get my scans to tell me something, but the storms make it difficult." Kate gives out a heavy sigh. "This may take some time. When's my next blood bag?" Kate turned to look at Lanie.
"About an hour." Lanie tells her.
"THANK GOD!" Kate's throat was on fire and was pretty sure she couldn't take much more.
"You should be thankful that we raided that hospital along the way, or we would have run out a month ago." Lanie points out.
Kate knew she was right, that storm they were in had extended their time in the Tormented Zone for longer than she liked. And she still had no idea where exactly they were.
Granted this area of space had never been mapped, but still you should be able to see certain stars to gauge where you are in relationship to them. See galaxies in the distance and be able to place yourself. Except Kate had nothing.
Then suddenly it hit her. "MY PARENTS!"
That got Lanie's attention. It was like a light bulb went on over her head. "If we don't know where we are, how are they suppose to find us?" Lanie had it now.
The look on Kate's face was one of loss, panic, vulnerability, longing. They were lost in more ways than one now.
Kate was sitting in her chair staring at her screens sucking on her blood bag. "How much do we have left?" Kate asks.
"A little over 2 months if we keep to the same routine." Lanie answers. Burning pain followed by weakness, then drink and repeat over and over again. They might be alive, but this wasn't living.
Kate was just about trying to suck her blood bag inside out when what she was seeing started to make sense, maybe.
"Lanie." Kate motions her over. Kate adjusts her screen so that the two she was most interested in where on the big screens. "See these storms, here and here." Kate points, and actually stands up and leans over to touch the screen.
They looked like any other storm to Lanie, they were both out there dancing around. "Yeah, so?"
"Good, now keep your eyes on them as I move them to the side screens." Kate then brings up something else on the big screens. "This is from several days ago; I've been recording the scans. Now watch as I speed the tape up until it is present time."
Lanie watched the storms dance around until they were in the position they were in now. "Ok, what's your point?" And why was Kate even bothering to try? Lanie didn't get any of this.
"Now watch." Kate brings up a wire mesh view of what looked like a somewhat oddly shaped sphere on the far left screen and moved it across to the right screen, then Kate gave the sphere a different color.
"Now let me play the last few days again." Kate started over.
"They're dancing around something." Lanie sees it now. "It looks big, solar system maybe?"
"My scans read it as being 7,375,930,000 kilometers from the center. I think there is a solar system in there, which means planets. And they have a way of keeping the storms that are part of Tormented Space out of their system." Kate was smiling since they may have just found a place that might be their new home.