46. Ree

46

Ree

Waiting for him is one of the hardest things I've ever done.

I continually have to push what if scenarios out of my head, and finally resort to pulling up the professional in me.

Compartmentalization is essential in my field.

No one can practice more than a few months without seeing terrible things happen to good people. Worrying does nothing, though it's hard not to when it's someone you love.

The thought catches me off guard and it only makes my worry double. I chide myself for another brief lapse of focus and then get to work on organizing supplies.

My fingers are aching from all the tight gripping I've been doing on our runs, but I just shake my hands out and dive in. I'm deep into it when Thivoll silently walks back into the cave, causing me to jump when his shadow moves into my periphery.

I drop the oddly designed tunic I'm holding and rush over to him, wrapping him in my arms and breathing in his wild scent.

"Was she still there?"

"Yes, thankfully. I'll need your help securing her chamber to the rope. It's all still a jumble to me."

I nod at him, then go over to the rope. I work through it all again in my mind and am glad I did when I think to add a thick knot to each end.

That way it won't ever completely slip out.

With Thivoll here it doesn't matter, but I'll need to keep working through all of it to improve my approach.

I had friends interested in climbing, but with my fear of heights I didn't pay close attention to what they said. A lot of it was acronyms and terminology that didn't help in this context, but I hope what I know is enough.

"Could you hold the rope near the top? No, both sides. Perfect." I toss the first pile down.

"Does it reach the bottom?"

Thivoll leans out to look. "Yes, with spare."

"Great." I toss over the other one and turn to Thivoll so he can pull me into his arms and take us down.

Silver is indeed at the base of the rock face, the chamber catching the moonlight. I start making a sling for it, not pleased with the shape and how much rope we have to provide a suitable lattice.

I measure it out and feel dumb all over again when I see a button on one end. As suspected, it engages a mechanism that flips out an eye hook. After rolling my eyes at myself it takes only a few minutes to tie the rope to it.

"You can start pulling. Actually, I guess you should prop her up against the rock so we don't make drag marks."

He does so, then pauses. "I think I will have to pull as I climb."

I blink. The strength that would require is crazy.

I start to say that, then get his point. "Right. Otherwise she scrapes all along the rock."

I feel useless, but he manages it like it's no giant feat.

I crane my neck up to watch him as he keeps his tail wrapped around her chamber with just enough pressure to pull her away from the rocks while he slowly moves himself higher.

He has to pull on the rope until his tail can't stretch anymore, then climb while holding it taut, then repeat the process.

I'm in awe of him by the time he reaches the top. I mean, he had already impressed me and made me feel like I was completely ripped off by evolution, but this is next level.

He doesn't even seem out of breath when he comes back to get me.

It's almost disgusting, actually.

A ridiculous joke of the cosmos that I got blunt teeth, puny strength, no venom, no . . . best to stop myself there.

When we get to the top, I waste no time in moving over to where he tucked Silver just inside the main area. I engage the light on her chamber so I can see her better, then gasp.

"Yes, I thought you might not like seeing that," Thivoll comments.

He's right.

Despite my best efforts, it looks like Silver has already started changing. She has silver scales on her skin in the same places I have black ones, except hers also expand up to her face.

It makes little sense.

"But I was the only one who touched her and only briefly compared to how much contact the two of us had before my changes started. Not to mention your scales are black."

"I don't know enough about what causes it to say."

I huff out a breath. "There must have been enough of your DNA on me already to transfer over to her. Or I already had mixed DNA, I dunno. But why did her metamorphosis happen so fast?"

He thinks for a moment. "I suspect it's because of the constant cycling of nanites to keep the chamber running."

I sigh. "I'm sorry, Silver. So many changes and you haven't even woken up yet."

She might have many more changes ahead of her if we can't find a way to isolate her before her chamber stops working.

I really have no sense of just how much my own body will change. I'm glad at least she'll have someone else to talk to about it. I'd like that too.

Not that I can't talk about it with Thivoll, but it would be nice to be able to commiserate with another human.

"Well, the damage is already done. I want to check her eyes to see if her concussion has improved."

He nods at me, then opens the chamber while I hold my hands at the ready. After it snicks open I quickly pull back on her eyelids.

Her eyes are less dilated, which is an enormous relief, but she also now has silver irises to compliment her light green sclera.

I pull my hands back, rubbing at them to relieve the ache. "Ok, go ahead and close it."

"You don't want to see if she will wake up?"

I consider it. "No. I would rather let the chamber keep working and her nanites have more time to heal her."

Thivoll nods and engages the controls, his face betraying his own conflicted feelings about that decision.

I let out a big sigh after it closes. None of this is ideal, which is of course fucking obvious, but I'd really like to feel like I'm using my experience and skills instead of hoping tiny robots keep doing all the important work on a planet that destroys technology.

Or power sources, I suppose, though the distinction doesn't make me feel any better.

All I've done since arriving here is convince other people to do the work I should be doing.

An image of Szhe'ka floats up, his mangled wings twitching behind him. His feet crisscrossed with so many wounds no amount of treatment I could give him would have helped as he bravely walked away from us and the relative safety of numbers.

And yet I let him just disappear into the forest by himself because I needed him.

A sharp pain makes me double over and rest my hands on the top of Silver's chamber.

Staring at her face doesn't give me the same sense of peace it did on the ship. Maybe because then I was the clear victim and now I've blurred the line with my own actions.

Who am I becoming on this god-forsaken planet?