Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [114]
“That’s good, right?”
“It means he still yet lives. But only just.” Ocastya shifted her gaze to Hella. “My mate shifted most of his energy to me through you. I did not know such a thing was possible. Normally, if we were together, that energy would reciprocate. One of us would never drain the other. Things are not what they were in our world.”
“No.” Hella saw the metallic woman standing before her, but she remembered the child Ocastya had been. That same innocence resonated in her.
Ocastya surveyed her body. “I have never been injured like that before.” She paused. “In fact, I have never been injured before. Not in this body.”
“I’m sorry.”
Ocastya glanced at Hella curiously. “My arrival here had nothing to do with you, did it?”
“No.”
“I did not think so. My mate—Scatter—told me many things while I convalesced, but most of what he told me did not make sense. I have no reference.” Ocastya looked at Hella’s damaged wrist. Most of the burn scarring was gone there, and she finally had full range of movement. “I damaged you.”
“You did.”
“I am sorry. I did not wish to.”
“I know.” Hella put out a hand. “I can help you with information about our world. I helped Scatter.”
Ocastya made no move to accept Hella’s offer. “You were inside my mind. I remember that.”
“Scatter asked me to help. He said if I didn’t, that you would die.”
Ocastya’s lips firmed. “My mate knows more about these bodies than I do. I trust his judgment.” She frowned. “However, the idea of you there—among my personal remembrances—is distasteful.”
“I know. I agree.” Hella took back her hand.
“But I need knowledge if I am to help my mate. If you are willing, I will accept your offer.” Ocastya held out her hand.
Hella put out her hand and pressed her palm to the fractoid’s. Almost immediately, dizziness swept through her, and her knees almost buckled as fire blazed through her skull.
“I beg your pardon. That was my mistake.”
Thankfully the pain subsided. Hella stood and controlled the sour nausea that sloshed inside her stomach. She managed to stay focused and caught occasional glimpses of the information Ocastya acquired from her.
“You sure you’re up to traveling?” Stampede stared at Hella with his liquid brown eyes.
Hella didn’t pause as she threw her saddle across Daisy. “I’m fine.”
“You didn’t look fine when Ocastya finally let you go.”
Self-consciously, Hella nodded at the fractoid, who stood in the cave mouth. “She can hear you.”
“I don’t care. I’ll hurt her feelings every time if it means protecting you.”
“I’m fine.” Hella reached for one of the saddle straps and missed.
Stampede snorted and twitched his ears.
“I’ll be fine.” Hella shot a glare at Stampede. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
“We don’t have any time to get this wrong. If we end up dead, there’s not going to be anybody riding to Scatter’s rescue. There’s no guarantee we can get him out of the situation he’s in now.”
Hella secured the strap, positioned the saddle, and cinched it tight. “Somebody once told me that sometimes you have to ride a trail through before you make any decisions about it. Better to go see for yourself than to blindly guess. Sound familiar?”
“Yeah, but I recall something about always making sure your risk didn’t outweigh the gain.”
“Pardot is menace enough. There’s no telling what he can do with any technology he can learn about from Scatter and possibly use. He’s already learned enough to track the fractoids when they came into our world. And someone like Pardot?” Hella shook her head. “We can’t allow that.”
“Who told you we were supposed to save the world?”
“Nobody. But somebody did tell me a scout travels through the land, respects it, and tries to leave it as unchanged and better for others as possible.”
Stampede sighed and nodded. He clapped Daisy on the side, startling the mountain boomer into a