Dark Matters_ Shadow of Heaven (Book 3) - Christie Golden [47]
"There's nothing funny about why I asked you here." The Implementer jerked his head in Ezbai's direction. Belatedly Chakotay realized that Ezbai looked awful. He was pale and seemed to be fighting to control terror and tears. "I asked Interceptor Ezbai to join us because I believe this affects him as well."
The doors opened and the doctor who had examined Chakotay entered and took a seat He looked anxious and out of breath and clutched a small padd in a tight grip.
"I'll come straight to the point," the Implementer con-tinued. "There's something wrong with you, Chakotay."
"Let me guess," said Chakotay. "There's a peculiar substance in my body that you can't identify, and it's growing at an exponential rate. It's targeting some spe-cific system-the adrenal system, or the brain, or the pulmonary system." He sat back, crossed his arms, and waited for them to verify what he had said.
"No," said the doctor, whose name Chakotay never had learned. "It's something much stranger. Commander Chakotay, your DNA sequencing is all backward. Strand by strand, it is precisely the opposite of ours."
Chakotay felt a chill run down his spine. A memory stirred. Hadn't the Doctor spoken about something like this with Khala? He hadn't gone into detail, but he had said something about how the tricorder must have been damaged by the dark matter to give such backward readings. But apparently the tricorder had been operating perfectly.
"When we found Khala," Chakotay said slowly, "our doctor noticed something amiss with her as well.
Something similar. I don't remember the details, and then the passage opened."
"The same passage which you said my sister claimed she stepped through," said Ezbai. "I remember. I saw it. White light appearing, engulfing her, then disappearing-taking her with it."
"Logic would indicate that something took you from your world and Khala from ours," said the Implementer.
"I thought we had already determined that," said Chakotay.
"But there's more," said the doctor. "Something is happening to you. It's slow, but it's certain. Various cells in your body are simply disappearing."
Chakotay remembered the Romulan scouts, lying in sickbay in terrible pain as parts of their bodies disappeared and reappeared. The Doctor had no idea where those parts went to when they vanished. Now, the same thing was happening to him, cell by cell.
"It's the dark matter. It's got to be. We saw something similar to this on the ship."
The doctor was clearly getting irritated with Chakotay's insistence on the dark matter being the culprit. "No, Commander, there is no trace of anything like that in your system at all. There is no foreign agent. This is a natural occurrence. And I would imagine that the same thing is happening to Khala."
"Natural?" cried Chakotay. "How can you say that my cells disappearing one by one is natural?"
"Because," said the Implementer, "your body is returning home. Piece by piece, to where it truly belongs. According to Dr. Reksis, you are not from this universe."
In his mind, even as he stared at the Implementer, Chakotay heard Coyote, the Trickster, laughing. * * *
The rain fell in sheets. loni and her companions were drenched, and had been for some time. Nonetheless, they slogged on determinedly. There was something important waiting for them at the end of their quest
It was in the large, hollowed center of an ancient, fallen tree. This village had a sacred tree instead of a sacred mountain. As always, the anger rose inside Ioni as she beheld the helpless infant. Kaminor reached and picked it up. She couldn't even see what was wrong with this one until her Recovery team leader held it up, to get a full view. A twining birthmark. To superstitious eyes, it could resemble a snake. Therefore, the poor infant must be cursed. Alilann doctors wouldn't even bother treating this one. There was