Both males nodded, boarding the disk when it appeared on our level with a now unburdened Aga.
“There are more medical pods down there. It’s quite the facility, Jack,” Aga informed me as he walked past to exit the room and head upstairs. I checked on Patty and Callie before following Aga to the surface to help gather our sick.
Do you require assistance?
I frowned at the air in the hallway. “Assistance for what?”
Assistance moving your sick to the medical area.
“Oh. Yeah, if you can.”
I took a step away from the shiny metal floor when it seemed to liquify. Bubbles of it rising to hip level in front of me. They shivered and then flattened out into oval shapes, about the size of a twin mattress. They stayed perfectly still in the air until I took a hesitant step backwards and they followed me, moving in a steady line one after another. The way they moved looked unnatural, and it freaked me the hell out. I pivoted to continue up the stairs, coming out into the domed tent where Aga and about twenty of our crew waited. I looked around in confusion. “Are there more outside?”
Aga’s mouth hardened in a tight line and he shook his head. “This is all that is left.”
The air turned to ash in my lungs, burning my throat when I sucked in a breath. “What?” My voice croaked the question.
Aga looked down at his feet and then back at me. “They are dead. Those that are left are fading fast. We have to get them into the pods quickly.”
I gestured to the floating ovals. “Put them on these. Anu, can you take them to the room you set up for us?”
Yes.
Aga picked up one of the sick and placed her on the oval. Two liquid silver streams flowed over the crewmember, solidifying into bands that tightened, securing her to the platform. The red rash flushed up her neck from her chest as I watched. The soft green of her skin was wet with sweat. The female grimaced, her solid black owl like eyes seeking mine through her pain. “Nin At’ens?” She whispered and tried to lift her arm that was held down under the metal strap. Her rigged brow scrunched in confusion and she started trying to fight against the restraints, her panic growing when they didn’t budge.
I placed my hand on her shoulder and shushed her. “It’s okay. You’re okay. This is just going to take you to the medical center.”
She stilled at my touch and relaxed, her eyes focusing on my face. “I’m scared,” she whispered to me. My heart squeezed at her soft voice, so filled with fear.
“I know you are. What’s your name?”
“Lerra. My name is Lerra,” she said, her voice shaky with tears.
I slipped my hand into hers and squeezed. “Hi, Lerra. I’m going to be right here with you the whole way, okay? You just relax and we’ll be there in no time.” Her hand tightened, and she shook her head. I looked at Aga and Ohem was standing in his place. My mate looked tired, his skin sallow again, but he had another crew member in his arms, ready to place onto the ovals.
“Go ahead, Jack. I’m right behind you,” he said. I watched Aga and Rema load the last of our people onto the floating stretchers. The oval drifted next to me when I started for the stairs. I kept whispering encouraging words to Lerra on the walk to the Archive. I stepped onto the lift with Ohem following his own stretcher disk, and the lift started its descent.
The space was cavernous. The closer we got to the bottom, the larger it was. It stretched all around us for miles and miles, disappearing into a dark void where the lights ended. Did it keep going into the dark? It was almost like my ancestors had hollowed the entire planet out for the Archive storage.
The lift came to a smooth stop, and I stepped out onto the glowing pathway, my hand still in Lerra’s. We stepped into the medical area, it had the same medical pods I had placed Callie and Patty into in strategic rows on either side of the room. The plain metal floors and walls added to the sterile feel. I stepped towards the first empty medical pod, waited a moment for the bands that retracted automatically, and lifted Lerra. I placed her in the pod, watching as the mist sprayed her in the face, causing her body to relax into sleep.
Blowing out a relieved breath, I stepped back and watched Ohem and the others help the rest of our crew into their own pods.
“Callie and Patty are down here, too,” Rema said from my left. I turned towards him and followed his pointing finger to the corner of the room. Both of my girls were sleeping peacefully in their pods. The large medical apparatus all but swallowed them, sized for a full grown Rijitera. Their color wasn’t any better, but it wasn’t worse either, so I took that as a good sign.
“Thank you, Anu,” I whispered.
A grunt behind me had me turning, my heart in my throat. Ohem had gone down to one knee on his way to me. I was by his side in an instant, terror making my hands shake as I reached for him. His eyes met mine before they closed and he collapsed into my arms.
“Ohem! Jesus. Aga! Help me get him into the pods!” I screamed across the room, panic making my voice a shrill bark. I pulled Ohem’s body against mine when hands grabbed him from both sides and helped me lift him. Rema and Aga maneuvered Ohem into a pod that was across from Patty’s. As soon as we placed him inside, a glass cover descended over it, closing around him.
A shiver fled down my spine at the realization that I couldn’t touch him now. I was trembling, cold sweat breaking out over my skin, and I banged my fist against the glass of Ohem’s pod. “Open this, Anu! Fucking open this right now!”
It is for his own health, Rijitera. I am putting him into a frozen stasis. It will slow down the destruction of his cells to give the vaccine time enough to counteract the virus.
A shuddering gasp emerged from my lips and I pressed myself to the glass of my mate’s pod, trying to get close to him. There was a rushing in my ears, drowning out the sound of Rema trying to comfort me. My heart was going to break apart at any second. When Rema touched me, as if to pull me away. I shifted and turned on him, snarling and snapping my teeth in his face.
“Do not!” I roared at him. Rema held up all four of his hands, stumbling backwards in fear.
