18. The Veloc’s crest snapped up. “Do I get to keep the tree cat?”

EIGHTEEN

The Veloc’s crest snapped up. “Do I get to keep the tree cat?”

Both death horses survived the night, and whatever injections Delta and Viva had administered to the animals had caused a rather violent—and disgusting—reaction. Unlike Earth horses, the death equines could vomit in copious quantities, and I identified a mossy fungus in the vile mess.

“Do you think the fungus is growing in the stomach and barring the absorption of nutrients?” I asked, studying the blackened, bloodied edges of the fungus, which I assumed had been affixed to their stomach lining. Upon my realization of what might be happening, Viva had collected a sample before Delta had taken the rest away to be disposed of. “Do we have a way of scanning the stomach of a non-treated death horse?”

“Yes,” Viva replied, and she hurried back into the ship.

As Yulgali appreciated the challenge of wrangling death horses, I turned to him. “Please catch an old one and a young one.”

The Veloc hooted his enthusiasm and bounded off.

“I want to catch death horses,” Fogali complained.

I bet he did. “You’re also hungry, and these ones aren’t for eating. I want you to catch one of the tree cats.”

The Veloc’s crest snapped up. “Do I get to keep the tree cat?”

“If you find a particularly sick one and can get Viva to handle the paperwork, I see no reason why not. Remember, the tree cat is a science experiment. We are documenting how the fungus kills species. We are trying to purge the fungus without killing the host. If your tree cat dies, you will have to cope with it quietly.”

A mourning Veloc could, according to Viva, give homo sapiens quite the headache along with ringing ears.

Fortunately for both death horses, Viva had brought a myriad of treatments and medications, including ones meant to stop hemorrhaging. It had taken some trial and error, but we’d gotten the death horse’s bleeding under control. Feeding them had proven to be a challenge, but we’d discovered they would consume bone broth and soup.

Unfortunately, the bone broth had been made from a death horse we hadn’t been able to save. We’d learned a few important things from the stallion’s corpse, however.

The fungus did not infect the muscle.

We’d put all the organs, still intact, into stasis to be taken to a lab for further research.

In a few days, we would try to feed the pair solid foods, but for the moment, we kept them alive with fluids along with meat and plants Viva had pureed and mixed into their broth. Feeding them required a funnel, but the animals had demonstrated a high capacity for learning, adapting within a few minutes of us making a mess and trying to get the concoction down their throats.

In what I viewed as a good sign, the mare’s breathing had eased. Between feedings, she slept soundly, a far improvement to her earlier laboring.

Even if she did die, she would do so in comfort.

I wanted her to live and thrive.

Viva beat the Veloc back, and she introduced me to her fancy machine, which could do ultrasounds and other scans depending on her needs. As the mare was more inclined to cooperate with us, Viva showed me how the machine worked, doing a bone scan of the animal’s head first. Then she pressed a few buttons and did another scan.

Somehow, the machine could detect hemorrhaging, which showed as faint red on the black and white results. “How can it detect that the blood isn’t where it belongs?”

“Blood vessels have a specific structure the machine can identify. When blood—or other fluids—are intermingled with other tissue, it shows as red. It has trouble identifying active hemorrhaging versus old bruising, but it’s a good starting point for treatments.” Viva pointed at the mare’s brain, which showed the red markings. “And this explains why homo sapiens likely die. This sort of damage in a homo sapiens is often a death sentence. I wonder why she’s handling it better.”

“Evolution?” I suggested. “Perhaps they have adapted to the fungus infection, having more space in the brain to allow for fungal growth? Or perhaps the fungus doesn’t invade the brain to quite the same degree?”

“That’s a possibility. In good news, we have that stallion’s brain, so some scientists can get a good look at what the fungus is doing to them.” Viva sighed, moved the device, and began doing a scan of the mare’s neck. “I’m betting the fungus has been adhering to the circulatory system walls, also lowering blood oxygen levels. Maybe the trick to saving homo sapiens is being prepared to handle the mass hemorrhaging issues resulting from the fungus?”

“Or it could be heart attack risk from the fungus ejecting into the bloodstream once it’s killed and releases off the vessel walls.” According to the neck scans, the entire mare had evidence of mass bleeding. “Why isn’t she dead?”

Viva pressed a button, rescanned the mare’s neck, and waited. Then she showed me a complex network of large red tubes going through the mare’s body. “It appears their blood vessels are significantly larger than ours. Perhaps the extra space is allowing the body to break down the fungus without them having a stroke or heart attack?”

“And humans would just immediately suffer from blood loss and a stroke,” I guessed.

Viva nodded. “And it probably takes a year for the fungus to establish itself in the vessels and organs sufficiently to trigger the bleeding once the fungicide is administered. Smaller animals will probably just die immediately.”

I grimaced. “I sent Fogali to get one of the tree cats.”

“It’s possible the cats have larger vessels to handle the fungal infections, too. Humans just didn’t survive long enough to evolve. Cats and horses have short enough lifespans and fast enough breeding to evolve ahead of the fungus. It might just be species with slower reproduction cycles are the ones incapable of surviving here. Waldren and his sister were exceptionally fortunate.”

“But the fungus did damage them, right?”

“Yes, they were infected, but for them it isn’t a lethal infection,” she confirmed. After a moment of silent thought, she headed into the ship, returning a few moments later with a digital tablet. “Until I get a chance to see how adept you are at your link, especially with complicated files, I’ll show this to you on a tablet.” She handed it over. “This is Waldren’s medical file, specifically regarding the damage he suffered during his treatments. This is publicly accessible information as part of the biohazard listing for this planet. He offered it. His sister’s data is also available, but we’ll start with his.”

“Should I use my link with this?”

While I’d gotten the hang of modifying certain things at school with my link, I struggled with more modern technology, especially if there were numerous menus. Even with the chips designed to teach linkers how to adapt, I sometimes became overwhelmed at the plethora of options. Practicing with the school’s systems had helped, but I feared the tablet would win.

“Not this time. I need to review which link chips you have and configure it so you’re not slammed with information.”

“I have a full range of chips, but I’ve been mostly sticking to my beginner chips. They’re good enough to navigate the school’s systems.”

“Your manipulation of the school registration systems is a thing of beauty, and I’ll help you get upgraded to intermediary chips. If you can handle their system, you can handle the intermediary chips. It just takes time to get used to it. This tablet is rough even for an experienced linker. Honestly, I did most of the work manually with it.”

“That sounds good.” While I wasn’t a doctor, nurse, or anything of that nature, reading medical reports fell under the domain of an exploration lead; understanding how someone had died, been injured, or had become sick meant the life or death of an entire colony. Had Waldren’s failed colony taken all the necessary steps to protect life? Had the fungus somehow gone undetected?

Waldren’s medical records told a sad story of a boy skirting on being a young man suffering from intense headaches, the inability to learn social cues prior to treatments, and of someone who behaved more like an animal than anything else. His ‘immunity’ to the fungus seemed to be an immune system response that stopped the progression of the fungus to just below the lethality point.

He’d shown evidence of hemorrhaging following treatments as well, with a note indicating the medical staff had been uncertain of its source.

The behavioral problems indicated a lack of general empathy, a standoffish attitude, and anxiety regarding food availability. That I could understand.

The island didn’t seem to have much in the way of healthy natural resources, especially for children. According to the record, Waldren had avoided his sister most of the time, and he’d been rather skeletal by the time they’d been rescued. I opened his sister’s record, discovering her name was Amalieta, and that she’d emerged from the failed colony in far better physical and emotional condition.

Her husband had played a role in that, as the record mentioned he hadn’t left her side from the moment he’d met her, taking on the burden of caretaker before settling into the role of partner and lover.

She had health issues from her time on the island as well, but her specific combination of issues caused her little problems in Veloc society.

Waldren’s made his life challenging outside of Veloc communities, especially as he was noted as craving the company of other homo sapiens .

“Why did Waldren’s sister have an easier time than him?”

“From what I understand of the report, I think it’s a matter of physical activity level. Waldren spent his days running around the island, wild and free. His sister spent most of her time on the ship and cultivating crops. They were both infected with the fungus, but her development of the fungus was closer to the six month mark in regular homo sapiens , where his was just below the threshold for death.”

“So, they aren’t actually immune to the fungus, they’re just resistant to it?”

“Maybe? I don’t know. They’re alive, and that’s saying something.”

I nodded, skimmed through the report, and sighed at the lengthy commentary regarding Waldren’s poor mental health and his struggles after their rescue from the failed colony. “Do you know why he has so much trouble socializing?”

“The Veloc are why,” Viva informed me in a solemn tone. “If you want to socialize a homo sapiens with other homo sapiens , you need to have wide access to homo sapiens . Once they were rescued, they were treated by the Veloc, they kept company with Veloc, and they just never learned how to properly socialize with homo sapiens . The fact Waldren gets on with you is, frankly, miraculous. I just get excessive urges to start chittering at him. And that’s not his fault. He literally doesn’t understand human social cues. Delta really likes Waldren, but Waldren doesn’t understand how to be Delta’s friend—and we don’t have the time needed to teach him. Delta’s trying to concoct a way we can all get together for several weeks. The problem is, I want to fly and Waldren wants to fly. Once we decide which one of us is flying, it’ll be okay. But ideally, you’ll help him socialize so the journey is easier on everyone.”

Right. “I wonder if I could use taming and socializing him as credits for school.”

Viva snickered. “I’ll inquire once we’re quarantining in space. I’ll also inquire about the death horses and see if we can figure out a space for them at the school. The mare and stallion are both warming to you, and if we can keep them on Cremora Delta until it’s time for you to go to one of the Veloc planets, that would be ideal. Maybe you can see if you can train them for space travel.”

“Won’t teaching them how to use a waste receptacle be difficult?”

“Yep. Good luck. I know how long it took to train Pandora, and it was not a good time. But if you can train them for space travel, that would be exceptional. It would definitely simplify things. But it’s not that bad to create a stall for horses in a cargo bay. I didn’t bring the kit with me, so I’m going to end up with destroyed quarters, but it’ll be worth the loss getting them off world. During general transit, we’ll keep them in the cargo bay, and we’ll set up quarters for them for landings.” Viva sighed and regarded the ill mare through narrowed eyes. “The only real obstacle will be teaching the death horses that Palta and Squeakers are not food, and I’ll pay for the work myself if needed.”

“I can probably afford it, and if I take them on, I should be fiscally responsible for them.”

“You can afford it. When we’re back on Cremora Delta, I’ll go over your finances with you. I know that your school has pushed that off to last. If you discovered how wealthy you are, you would buy a ship, hire someone to teach you how to pilot it, and leave.”

“I can’t just afford a ship, Viva.”

“You actually can. You could afford, at last check, three or four ships without missing any of the money.”

I stared at her. “You’re serious.”

“The shiftgem gates bagged you a rather large sum, as did the protectorates of all worlds in detection range of the gate. While some of the exploration was done after you went to Cremora Delta, it was determined you would get your fair share of the earnings. So, yes. You can afford a ship, and I’d love to help you buy one. The custom ones take at least a few months or years to get, and I can help you pick a model that can tether to Waldren’s ship. I’ll make sure to get his model and tethering capacity, that way you can travel with him but have your own ship as well. And he’s even more paranoid than I am about safety, so having access to a second ship will please him.”

“Two ships means that short of sabotage, you can get to help if the main ship fails,” I murmured.

“Exactly. Now, we’ll do our best to save the death horses. I can’t promise we’ll succeed, but we’ll do our best.”

“That’s all we can do. But if those Veloc keen because we lost the death horses, I’m stealing their baubles and helping them molt.”

Viva snickered. “I’m torn. Do I warn them they can’t keen? Or do I sit back, relax, and enjoy the show?”

“If you warn them and they keen anyway, you still get to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show,” I reminded her. “And I’ve learned that the feathered murder machines are softies, and they absolutely will keen over the loss of other predators they happen to respect.”

“Should you steal their baubles and molt them, you’re going to be adopted into a Veloc clan, and there will be fighting over you.”

“You probably shouldn’t be encouraging me, Viva.”

“I wasn’t trying to encourage you.”

I stared at her. “But isn’t them fighting basically a huge party with a lot of presents for the person they’re fighting over?”

She raised a hand and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I can understand how you would view my comment as encouragement, and in your shoes, I would be encouraged to make them fight. I do encourage them to fight. Delta is still running wild and free because he likes the attention. When he receives presents, he’s the happiest of men. You know what? I’m just going to throw fuel in the fire and add you to Delta’s party. Then there can be two winners, and Waldren will have a chance to get in on the action for you. I’m just going to warn you now: this will become ridiculous. The Veloc have already lost their minds over Delta. Adding you is only going to intensify everything.”

“Good. The Veloc need some excitement in their lives. Do you think they’ll let me keep two death horses on Cremora Delta?”

“If I can convince the Veloc to lose some of their hunting grounds to them and invest in a fence, I think so. But they have lawns that might work for caring for them. You know what? I’ll worry about it if they survive. And if they do, I might end up being the one keening over all the extra work I keep giving myself.”

“You’ll be fine,” I promised. “But if it helps, you can teach me how to do the paperwork so I can share the burden.”

“You’re going to regret that. I’m accepting your offer.”

Working together, Yulgali and Fogali managed to capture an entire colony of tree cats, all of them sick and dying. Viva handled the treatments, evicting the keening Veloc, who wanted the fluffy beasts to survive without fail. It took thirty minutes following administration of the medication to understand why the fox hybrid had removed the feathered murder machines from her ship.

Unlike the death horses, the tree cats didn’t handle the procedure well. The first two died within twenty minutes. Within an hour, all but three had perished. Their bloodied bodies went into stasis for study.

The three survivors, younger animals as far as I could tell, would have a long road ahead of them, but they qualified for removal from the planet. As promised, I handled the paperwork for all the living animals we were taking with us, including all photography of the beasts, registration, and claims of ownership.

The little rodents the Veloc had first found suffered a similar fate to the tree cats, although four survived, adding to my mountain of paperwork.

Once Viva thought she could handle the Veloc, she went out to give them the bad news, which triggered another wave of keening.

Delta glared out the opened cargo bay door at the ruckus. “We’re going to end up back on this wretched planet yearly plucking off dying animals, treating them, and carting them to one of the Veloc worlds. This is all your fault, Camellia.”

As I couldn’t dispute that, I sighed. “Would it help if I volunteered to come back to this wretched planet with you?”

“Do you actually think Waldren is at all going to be okay with sending you to this hellhole?”

I stared at my fellow homo sapiens , and I raised a brow. “Does he think he can actually stop me?”

“He’s certainly going to try.”

“He can hover in orbit on his own ship and complain bitterly over my cruel mistreatment of his person. I can’t get an entire herd of death horses if he even thinks of trying to bar me from coming back to rescue more of them.” While I disliked the planet’s hazards, I wanted to see the animals thrive. They wouldn’t be thriving on the world, not with the fungus eating away at them. “And you’re sure we can purge the ship of the fungus?”

“We will be able to purge the ship, ourselves, and the animals of the fungus,” Delta confirmed. “We’ll be in quarantine for a few days longer than expected, but we can handle the quarantine in orbit over the school. You should be back in plenty of time for your classes.”

“Is there anything else we should be doing here?”

“Outside of going through the colony ship to check for anything important, no. We’ve gotten what we came for. We just acquired it in a slightly unexpected fashion.”

“That’s quite the understatement. We went in planning to take carcasses. Instead, we’re hauling live bodies.”

“Just think about it this way. Waldren will understand once he finds out we rescued a bunch of animals. He’s just going to have to deal with his trauma. And that’s been a long time coming, so don’t let it bother you. You conquered your demons, and now it’s time he conquered his.”