Ships Interface Ch 014

A small lumpy blob of silver appeared in the med bay. It grew larger until it occupied the open space between the exam beds and the hidden closet where the bathtub was tucked away as Inta stepped out of 4-D space carrying the rescue party and Diana.

Inta poured off the group and formed her usual five-and-a-half-foot self, then swiftly helped Will carry the unconscious brunette to the closest exam bed and immediately began tending to her.

Diana was battered and bruised; lacerations covered her body, some deep and some superficial, evidence of claw marks that had tried to rend her flesh. Dried, blood-covered patches of her scalp where clumps of hair had been pulled out. The overpowering smell of seared flesh still wafting off the hastily cauterized stump of her limbs, blood seeping from the cracked and burnt ends. Perhaps the cruelest injury suffered was her torn and bloody vagina, evidence of her prolonged sexual assault at the hands of the beast, prodded into action by the zealots, now dead and buried deep inside the mountain on the planet below.

Diana labored for breath, struggling for each shallow, wheezing lung full, so Inta began there. She produced an oxygen mask from under the exam bed and tenderly brushed the hair from her face before securing the mask over her nose and mouth.

Two more Inta's appeared and assisted the first as they attended to their patient. One Inta began carefully washing Diana's naked body while another fetched a container of saline from a storage cupboard and hung it on a hook over the bed. The third Inta gingerly applied a thick white salve on the burnt ends of Diana's limb stumps, then protected the ends with a thin silver covering that flowed from her palms.

June clung tight to Artona with one arm around her waist while holding her other hand over her mouth, tears in her eyes, watching Inta care for the critically injured girl. Artona put a big arm around June's shoulders, comforting her with a stoic look on her face. Ben stood on the other side of June rubbing her back, while Will stood apart, arms crossed in front of him, a quiet anger building, directed to those who would do such a thing to an innocent like Diana, as he watched Inta care for the sweet and innocent hostess.

One of the Inta's stepped over to them while her other two instances continued their work. Taking a soft hold of June's hands, Inta looked into her eyes. "June, honey, are you up to piloting? It's getting more dangerous in orbit; we should leave and get back to Penrose as soon as we can."

June tried shaking off her sorrowful look and replacing it with one of determination, but she was only partly successful. "Sure thing. I'll head up to the bridge and get us out of here."

Inta smiled softly at her and nodded. "I just let Captain Hall and the rest of the Bordan ships know our status. They are waiting for us just outside the asteroid field."

June nodded in acknowledgment, and then Inta looked at Ben, Artona, and Will. "Why don't you go with her. I'll take all the weapons back to the armory." They had been watching Inta work, a silent vigil, and forgot they were still armed from their excursion.

"Okay," Artona said. "Do you need help putting these away?" She nodded, seeing that this was the kind of after-action procedure that would calm Artona.

"That would be nice, thank you," Inta said with a small smile.

Ben and June handed their weapons to Artona and Inta. "We'll be on the bridge; if you need help with anything let us know," Will said, as he handed Inta his weapons.

"I will," Inta said, passing the weapons to Artona. Then, she pulled Will into a tight hug. "Diana will pull through; you all saved her," she told him, knowing he needed to hear it.

He smiled gratefully, gave Inta a final squeeze, and then went to join June and Ben on the bridge.

Artona followed Inta to the armory, insisting that she carry all the weapons. They spent a few quiet minutes wiping down and cleaning the rifles and side arms before racking them with the others lining the wall, and as they put away the last of them, Artona jerked her head to face Inta.

"Fuck!" She exclaimed. "We forgot the shuttle on the surface!"

Inta put a hand on her forearm reassuringly. "Nope, I displaced it back to the hangar just after we returned, but..." Inta wrinkled her nose.

Artona raised one eyebrow. "But, what?"

Inta looked up at Artona sheepishly. "I think June's going to upset; it took quite a beating."

Artona furrowed her brows. "I have a hard time believing that June could get angry with you over anything," she said, putting a large furry arm around Inta's silver shoulders. "Show me how bad it is." Inta nodded, then they took the lift down to the hangar.

They stepped out of the lift and walked down the short corridor past the open door of the Grove's living quarters on their way to the hangar. Frase, newly emerged from her Seeding and wildly curious about the people now connected to the Grove, saw Artona and Inta walk past the open door to their Quarters, jumped up from her lounge chair, and ran out into the hallway to catch up to the pair.

Squeezing in between the two, wrapping two arms around each of their waists, she asked, "Whatcha doing?"

Pleasantly surprised, Artona looked down at the waifish Toparian Maiden. "We're inspecting the damage to the shuttle from the rescue."

Frase's eyes went wide, and her mouth opened into a big 'O'. "Is Diana okay? How is she?" concern etched on her expressive face.

"Diana went through a lot, but she's safe now, recovering in the med bay," Inta replied, "We're heading back to Penrose Station so she can be properly treated by their medical staff."

"Can't you just mend her like you did Will?" Frase asked, one hand tracing Artona's silver patterned fur as she gazed at her own unmarked skin. Larce and Frase had been as thick as thieves since Frase re-emerged, and Larce caught her up with everything that had happened while she had been Seeding with Fi'balmsa.

"I wish I could, but it's not that simple," Inta told Frase as they walked. "Will had been Bonded to me for some time so I already had his imprint." Inta paused with a pained look on her face, looking defeated. "Diana and I don't share that kind of connection, so I am unable to mend her body the same way."

Frase realized the unintentional pain she caused Inta and hugged her tighter, "I'm so sorry, Inta. I didn't mean anything by it."

"If it wasn't for Inta, Diana wouldn't have survived," Artona chimed in, trying to reassure the silver girl. Inta gave a small smile at Artona's efforts, but it was clear she felt immense guilt at putting Diana in this position in the first place.

Arriving in the hangar, Artona quickly changed the subject. "Holy Shit!" she said, seeing the shuttle for the first time since being back aboard. Inta was right; it had taken quite a beating. The landing legs were missing, the lower two rear fins were badly bent at extreme angles, and the third top fin was completely torn off and missing. The hull was crumpled almost flat in sections, and the entire surface was badly dented and charred by extreme heat. "Yup, better not let June see this. It'll break her heart that one of her toys got broken."

Inta smirked, appreciating the usually stoic Urarc's attempt at levity. "It's not so bad; I can fix it." Inta's face soured again, the sadness returning. "But I need to focus on mending another broken little bird first."

****

When June arrived on the bridge, sweat was beaded on Thea's brow as she actively piloted the Nestia to avoid the barrage of asteroids hurtling past the Nestia as they plunged into the planet's gravity well. Inta stood at her side with a soft, reassuring hand on Thea's back as she leaned forward at the controls in deep concentration. With her augmented eye, June could see the soft glow of energy flowing from Inta, lending Thea what strength she could.

June walked up to Thea's other side and asked, "We're ready to leave; do you want me to take over?"

Thea nodded gratefully at being relieved of piloting duty, "Yeah, if you don't mind. I've been at this for hours, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep it up. It's taking everything I've got to keep us from being pummeled."

With swift, coordinated movements, Thea slid off the seat and stood up in one direction while June slid in and dropped into the seat behind her, seamlessly taking control of the Nestia's evasive maneuvering.

"Alright kids, say goodbye, 'cause we ain't going back," June cracked, steering the Nestia out of orbit.

Inta stood watching the fiery apocalypse roll across the surface of the planet she once called home and prison. As the Nestia's nose turned away, the hellscape drifted from view.

A complex mixture of emotions streamed through her: the deep sorrow of loss, endless lonely and darkest despair, but also the heat of passions re-ignited and the glow of newfound love. It seemed to her at that moment that this was a fitting punctuation, signally the end of that part of her story, the purest of clean slates. There would be no returning to this place or the darkness that was her only companion during those long eons. She would move forward in love and light.

The short journey out of the system was as rough as the one into it, even with June's impressive piloting skills. She wove the Nestia nimbly about, avoiding most of the chaotic asteroids, heading in the general direction of the Bordan task group, who were waiting just outside the asteroids in the surrounding nebula. They emerged from the asteroid field intact, if slightly battered.

As soon as they were free of the danger of collision and were at the nebula's edges, Captain Hall hailed them from the lead ship, the Palisade.

"Greeting Nestia; what do you have to report?" He asked, the tone of his voice saying he expected the worst.

"We successfully found and recovered Ms. Davis, though she was tortured and severely injured. She is stable for the moment, but needs immediate medical attention," June summarized for Captain Hall.

"Did you see anything or anyone while we made the rescue?" Will asked.

"Nothing. We've spread out patrolling at the edge of the nebula, watching. No one came, no one left. Not even a whisper on the sensors," Captain Hall responded.

"Odd," June said under her breath, then cleared her throat. "We need to get underway immediately, Captain. Can you instruct your ships to rendezvous with us outside the nebula where we entered? We'll leave for Penrose as soon as we've regrouped."

On-screen, Captain Hall turned to speak with a comms officer for a moment as the Nestia crew watched. Turning his attention back to the viewscreen, he said, "All ships have confirmed their orders; we're ready to go."

The Nestia took point with the Palisade a short distance behind as they rushed out of the nebula for the rendezvous point.

Will crossed his arms and shook his head in disbelief as he thought about recent events. "I can't believe a bunch of zealots went through the effort of digging out the guts of a mountain, just to torture someone they kidnapped, then die at the bottom of their hole as a fiery apocalypse buried them alive. Those tunnels were no small feat; they must have started digging as soon as we left Bordan for Centrailia. We're talking to hundreds of people, maybe even a thousand to pull something like this off." Will huffed, perplexed. "None of it makes sense."

Artona scratched her chin thoughtfully. "When you are at war with an enemy whose strength and numbers are unknown, it is not an uncommon tactic to engage in a minor skirmish, to assess your opponent's strengths and weaknesses before committing further resources."

"What could they have learned and reported?" Will continued. "They all died in the end. And I didn't see any Q-net terminals they could have used to communicate."

"We can communicate over distances undetected, but could an outsider spot it?" Inta said.

"The mad woman spoke to the granite seat like she expected it to respond," Ben added. "And I saw that there was something inlaid into it, a gem or something. It was unusual."

"I wish I had gotten a better look," Inta said. "I would have been able to tell if there was something more to it."

"You were focused on what was important; helping Diana," June said, taking Inta's hand and comforting the silver girl. "You did more than enough." Inta smiled in gratitude to June's kind words.

Inta took a deep breath and then sighed, once again grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful and caring people. They were always ready to jump into the fray and help those who needed it, and someone in the med bay truly needed them.

With the comms still open between the two ships, Captain Hall spoke and broke Inta's reverie. "All but one ship has formed up behind us; the last one should join us before we make the rendezvous point."

"Good," June said. "As soon as we clear the nebula, we'll head for Penrose as quickly as possible."

"Understood," Captain Hall replied. "I'll inform the other captains to make for Penrose at top speed. Hopefully we won't fall too far behind the Nestia on our way back."

Will cocked a single raised eyebrow at him. "What do you mean by that, Captain?"

Captain Hall chuckled. "You will need to be far more circumspect if you intend to keep the Nestia's capabilities to yourself. Every naval officer at Penrose, down to the lowliest ensign, has been talking non stop about your sprint from Centrailia. They all want to know how you managed a run like that. You could win top prize in any regatta you entered if you wanted. Let's just say you've earned a following."

June was simultaneously pleased and concerned by the notoriety. "We wouldn't normally run as hard as we did," then glancing up at Inta standing behind her.

"I'm fairly certain we've overextended ourselves and the ship won't be capable of 'feats of daring do' for quite some time." Inta said, grinning at the Captain. "Who knows, maybe we can turn our new found notoriety to our favor."

"Being known as a fast freighter would make it easier to get choice runs that align with places we need to investigate," Will said, considering the commercial possibilities. Even though most of their day-to-day necessities were taken care of by Inta and the Nestia, docking, port fees, and other expenses would undoubtedly pop up, and they needed to make sure they had a steady stream of income to cover their costs. The search for Inta's people would undoubtedly be expensive.

****

The last Bordan naval ship rejoined the little task group just as they exited the nebula. They turned the bows of their ships toward Bordan space, and then Captain Hall called over one last time. "All right folks, looks like we're ready to go. Noticed you needed a running start last time, so we'll go and jump to FTL ahead of you. See you back at Penrose. Hall, out."

In a quick series of bright flashes, the Bordan task group leaped away, and then June punched the gravity drive and accelerated the Nestia to FTL shortly behind them.

To everyone aboard the Nestia, the three-day trip back to Penrose seemed immeasurably longer than that. They all took turns keeping vigil over Diana when they weren't on the bridge, making meals, or taking a break to get some exercise in Artona's make-shift gym in the hangar. While the others rotated in and out of the med bay, Inta was a constant presence, monitoring every heartbeat, every breath Diana took, caring for her, and keeping a solemn vigil over the unconscious girl.

After Will relieved her on the bridge, June came down to the med bay on the second day of their trip. She stopped as she was about to enter and just stood there in the doorway, watching Inta with Diana for a few moments.

Diana was covered in a light, white blanket pulled up to her neck to keep her warm. The outline of her body was clearly visible through the blanket, and there was a noticeable lack of form where her limbs should have been.

Inta held a wet cloth and gently washed Diana's sleeping face, which, for the moment, reflected the peace of unbothered dreams, a rarity since her rescue.

With her augmented eye, June could see Diana's aura. It was faint and weak, shattered and torn into a thousand pieces, evidence of the extreme trauma of her experience. As Inta washed Diana's skin, June also saw that Inta bathed her in a tiny, continuous stream of energy and, ever so carefully, piece by small piece, found and joined parts of her aura belonging together with tiny threads from the energy she poured into the broken girl. Inta finished melding two small pieces of Diana's aura together and saw June watching her. She gave her a small smile before returning to her work.

Not for the first time, June wished that Diana and Inta had had more time during their first meeting; they surely would have developed a closer connection, and Inta would now be able to pour more energy into her than the meager trickle she could only give.

June came and sat on the bed next to Diana as Inta patiently did her work. Watching Inta, she thought about her own brush with death and how Inta had poured all but her last spark of energy into Will and her.

"Why don't you Bond with her, then heal her properly?" June asked, her concern for Diana loud in her quiet question. "There's only so much that Doctors at Penrose will be able to do for her."

Inta gave June a sad smile, shaking her head. "I desperately wish I could, but that's not how the Bond works. It is the joining of two into one, a state accepted willingly by both individuals; each reaching out for the other. Diana can't consent, and can't open herself fully to me. If I were to force it, it would be a weak shadow of a connection, and her will would forever be subordinate to mine, even though it may not be what I intended."

June watched Inta's face as some dark memory surfaced, reflected in her expression. Inta's eyes softened, then she continued, "We are Givers, and both must willingly give themselves to the other." A sad but loving expression crossed Inta's face once more as she continued to sponge-bathe her sleeping charge, resting on the exam bed.

Seeing there was little she could do to help Inta, June hopped off the bed she was sitting on, walked around Diana's bed, and kissed Inta softly on the cheek. "Let me know if I can help in anyway," she said, hugging the silver girl from behind.

Inta smiled and nodded, then returned her focus to the unconscious girl. June left her to work on mending a broken spirit, looking back only once from the doorway before leaving.

The rest of the trip went by too slowly for the urgency they felt. An instance of Inta never left Diana's side, working over her tirelessly and seeing to it that she was as comfortable as possible. Still, even so, no one could relax, knowing Inta's careful attention was the only thing sustaining Diana in her fragile state.

Not soon enough for the Nestia's crew, they were decelerating from FTL at the edge of Bordan space.

They were once again greeted by Bordan traffic control. "Ship Nestia, this is Bordan Traffic Control. We've been expecting you."

"Thanks, Traffic Control," June responded urgently. "We are returning with a badly injured passenger and request emergency medical responders waiting for us as soon as we dock."

"They're already on stand-by, Nestia. We're clearing a lane for you now. Proceed on flight path provided and dock at slip B1. The medics will take the injured from there."

"Roger, Control. Flight path received. Proceeding." June flew the Nestia to Penrose station, ignoring all port speeds along the cleared path Traffic Control provided. She brought the Nestia up to dock smoothly, and when the cargo bay doors opened, Will and Ben found several med techs waiting, carrying med kits and towing a gurney.