Chapter Seventeen

Alpha Space Station

"Stacy—"

"Let me see her, Ken," Stacy ordered Bryant on the audio com. She sat stiff at the edge of the lounger in Clan Rihep's quarters. Rihep, Kuran, and Etnil sat next to or stood behind her, staying in contact, offering their silent support.

"All right but remember…she's held out longer than those who've been as sick as her. The doctors are hopeful she'll turn the corner at any moment now."

Stacy had heard from the doctor leading the fight for her sister's life. He had said the same, almost verbatim. His optimistic tone had been as false as Ken's.

"Okay. I'm in the room, right outside the isolation bubble. She's surrounded by a lot of machines. They're having to oxygenate—"

"Ken."

He sighed. "Sending visual."

He was right. There were a lot of machines. So many, it took Stacy several seconds to find Toni in their midst.

When she did, a small, hurt sound burst from her. Then relief. It wasn't Toni. It couldn't be. The woman who lay on the medi-bed was too tiny, too wasted to be her vibrant sister. The skull-like visage, the hollowed eyes closed deep in their sockets…no. Ken had gone to the wrong room. It was some other patient.

Kuran muttered a curse, his hands tightening on her shoulders. Rihep slid his arm around her waist. Etnil's head bowed, and his black hair swung to hide his face, but there was no mistaking the sob he uttered.

No, guys. It's okay. It isn't her.

But familiar features were asserting themselves despite the ravages of illness and Stacy's desperate need to disbelieve. The heart-shaped face, the pointed chin, the high cheekbones…Stacy knew them well, because Toni resembled a younger version of herself. Stacy saw those details in her mirror every day.

It was Toni.

Stacy swallowed the agony threatening to choke her. Forcing her voice to be steady, she asked, "Am I on speaker?"

"You are now," Ken said.

"Hey, Toni." She marveled at how even her tone sounded. "It looks like you downplayed how sick you were. You'll have to explain yourself when I get down there, Sis. You realize that, don't you?"

No response. Toni had been unconscious for nearly two days, the time it had taken Stacy to convince Ken to let her see her younger sibling after he'd admitted how ill she'd become. Only her vow to remain on the space station and Kuran's guarantee she wouldn't leave had at last swayed him.

She wanted to scream, to rage, to race straight to her sister's side. But what I want doesn't matter, does it? I have to concentrate on what she needs.

"Hey, you're going to beat this. You're strong, the strongest of the Nichols gang. This virus is nothing. I'm going to be watching you via the monitor from now on. I'll be talking to you so you'll know I'm here. They're setting up a system first thing tomorrow to allow me to do so. If you get tired of my voice, you'll have to sit up and tell me to shut up."

Etnil straightened, his handsome face as streaked by tears as Stacy's. He spoke in his typical bright tone, however, pouring on the personality for the stricken woman's benefit. "Don't worry, little Stacy," he called, using the nickname Toni hated. "I'll tell jokes. Share my wisdom. Give you the juicy details of Kuran's latest boneheaded move."

"I'll let you listen in on my beating Etnil's ass," Kuran snorted.

"We're here, Toni," Rihep said. "We're watching over Stacy, so you don't have to worry about her. You work on recovering. That's all you have to do."

The men kept talking as Stacy muffled her bawling, giving her the chance to pull herself together. Giving her the opportunity to adjust to the sight of her beloved sister, who looked on the verge of death.

* * * *

Kalquor

Tranis sat among the subdued group assembled in Rear Admiral Hobato's office in Fleet Command Headquarters. His clan, the admiral, and the Imperial Clan, accompanied by their battalion of assistants, stared at the vid footage sent from Piras aboard the hired Adraf freighter.

Among the gathered, only Tranis' Nobek Lidon had any ability to detect the Darks by sight. However, Specialist Hope Nath and Chief Engineer Lokmi had supplied a rendering of the monstrous tentacled Dark presence, which spread an unfathomable distance from its central position enveloping Jedver.

"We certainly can't put a containment around it," Hobato muttered. "Specialist Nath's theory it might be the All rings true. It's no wonder we lost contact with the operatives we sent weeks ago. They must have been found out."

Tranis swallowed. The only spies still communicating from the GC were Piras' clan. He worried they'd be found, despite the seemingly safe Adraf transport they hid aboard.

"Just the mockup of it is loathsome," Empress Jessica declared. "If only everyone could see it, the small tide of public opinion turning would be a tsunami."

"Not necessarily," Hobato said respectfully, his gaze shifting to the Nobek emperor.

Bevau scowled. "There are definite signs other world's leaders are under Dark influence. Despite proclaiming itself our ally less than a week ago, Alneusia changed its stance in the past hour. It's gone over to the Galactic Council's side."

"Damn it," Tranis muttered. Alneusia was scientifically and technologically advanced. Under Dark control, it would be a dangerous foe to the empire.

"That one of our strongest long-time allies has turned on us is indicative the sickness is spreading. What makes this so difficult is Alneusia and other species aren't our actual enemies. They're being made into puppets. We'll defend ourselves, of course, but it means killing and being killed by those we count as friends." Emperor Clajak seemed to have aged overnight.

"What's our next move?" Emperor Egilka's tone suggested he had little hope.

"Specialist Nath is planning to attempt to contact the ‘Other,' again, perhaps to enlist their aid against the All. She's also continuing her questioning of the smaller Darks captured during the siege on the orphanage." Hobato glanced at Tranis, then Cassidy.

Cassidy never took her gaze from the terrible simulation of the All, but she'd caught the acknowledgment. "I'm researching means from a disease standpoint to eradicate the Darks riding sentients. Their use of Bi'is' research against us was an inspiration. Emperor Egilka, you offered your assistance as a research scientist before—"

"I'm eager to help in any way I can. Do you have indications a pathogen would work, perhaps on an epidemic scale?" The Imdiko emperor's morose expression had fled before excitement.

"Not thus far, but it's my endgame. We need to run tests on cellular samples. Autopsy as many as we can to study their systems minutely."

Clajak stood near Tranis. He leaned close to whisper out of everyone else's hearing as a spark of interest spread at the two scientists' excitement and a wave of chatter broke out.

"What's your assessment of our chances?"

Tranis wanted to be optimistic, but he couldn't lie to his monarch when so much ultimately hinged on so few. "I wouldn't say no to a huge helping of luck, my emperor. We'll do everything we can for as long as we can. If I'm the last Kalquorian standing at the end, I'll be fighting the All."

Clajak surprised him by chuckling. "I'm glad to hear it. As for the last Kalquorian standing, I'm afraid you won't have the honor, as much as you might deserve it. Perhaps the empire itself will fall…maybe the entire known universe. But there'll be Kalquorians and Earthers and our hybrid children afterward."

"You have a plan if the worst should happen?"

"I do indeed."

Tranis felt a spark of hope at the emperor's devious grin. He grabbed the hint of promise, bright in what had seemed a steadily darkening and impossible future.

Your next Kalquor Universe book awaits you!