String Theory_ Cohesion (Book 1) - Jeffrey Lang [114]
Unsure what manner of situation he had just walked into, Kaytok took a single step forward and stopped at the foot of the bed. Surprisingly, the three around the table took a half-step back, opening up a space that felt like a stage. “I’m Kaytok.”
The patient struggled to rise, but the table on which he lay was too narrow. Seeing his trouble, two of the patient’s hara lifted him so he could look at Kaytok levelly. “I’ve heard of you,” he said. “Sem mentioned your name.”
Kaytok watched the hara exchange anxious glances. A newly honed sense of self-preservation began to jangle in his ears. “Sem?” He looked around. “She’s here?”
“On this ship, yes,” the harat replied. “In the brig, I’m told.”
“That’s like a jail, right?” The harat nodded. Kaytok said, “Good!”
The harat smiled weakly, then said, “We should talk later, but I have to rest now.” He looked around at the faces of his hara. “I’m still not convinced any of this is real.”
“You and I both,” Kaytok muttered.
At a third table, an erect individual with a bare pate was helping a smaller individual lift a third figure off a floating stretcher. Noting the blinking lights and readouts, Kaytok decided the tables were some kind of diagnostic device.
When the smaller individual was finished helping put the unconscious one onto the diagnostic table, he turned to look at Kaytok’s companions and called out, “Seven, B’Elanna—great work down there!”
B’Elanna replied, “Your work was also exemplary, Ensign.”
Seven punched him on the arm in what Kay interpreted to be a playful gesture and said, “Way to go, Harry.”
The one called Harry rubbed his arm where Seven had hit him and stared at them. Leaning forward, he studied the appliance around B’Elanna’s eye. “We didn’t get back to the right universe,” he said.
“You did, Harry,” B’Elanna said. “Fear not. Some things happened on Monorha.” Nodding toward the supine form, she asked, “What happened to Tuvok?”
Harry shook his head. “I don’t know. Shock, the Doc says. He collapsed when we emerged from the fold. Some kind of psionic feedback maybe.”
Two more individuals rushed into Sickbay, which was rapidly feeling very crowded. They, too, congratulated the returned Voyagers and complimented Harry on his work, though Kaytok also sensed some discontent with how his predictions worked out. Seeing how the others treated the newcomers, Kaytok guessed that the small female was the Voyagers’ rih.
Wishing to remain out of the way (everyone was clustering around the stricken fellow, though the bald one was trying to push them all away), Kaytok found a cushioned seat in a small office and sat down, then leaned his head against the wall and fell asleep.
He was asleep, he thought, for no more than a second or two when someone touched his shoulder. “Sorry,” Kaytok said, his tongues moving thickly. “Guess I can’t sleep here.”
“You can sleep later,” the other said. “But I need you awake now, Kay.”
Kay? No one outside his family ever called him that. Well, his family and…Sem?! Kaytok’s eyes snapped open. A Monorhan stood beside him, though it was not Sem. “Why is it so dark?” Kaytok asked. “What happened to everyone?” Then, squinting, he studied the old, lined face of the figure limned in shadow and found to his great surprise that he recognized it. “Gora?” he asked.
“Yes,” Gora said. “Hello. We don’t have much time, and there are some things I need to tell you…”
Chapter 19
“We’re not finished here,” the captain said, looking down at the arc of Monorha from her ready-room window. From where she stood, B’Elanna could only see the white crescent of the planet’s northern ice pack and a smudge of ocean. Twelve hours ago, a whole three hours after the last nanoprobe was flushed from her system, Captain Janeway had asked B’Elanna to start thinking about ways they might be able to revitalize Monorha’s ecosystem. Melting the