String Theory_ Cohesion (Book 1) - Jeffrey Lang [56]
Sem looked at the Doctor and asked, “Where would you like him?”
The Doctor, temporarily without a stretcher, said, “Please come with me,” and began to examine the unconscious human as Morsa stomped down the corridor toward the lift. Catching the look in their harat’s eye, Diro and Jaro followed.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Sem said, “They are all insane.”
Ziv decided that it might not be an entirely bad thing that she thought this…for a while, at least. “Perhaps,” he said. “Though they are also very powerful. I recommend…restraint.”
Sliding her arms into the opposite sleeve of her garment, Sem brushed past Ziv and began looking around her. “What is happening here, Captain Ziv?”
“I do not understand precisely, though I believe we can find out quickly enough. They are very free with information.”
Sem strode three paces down the corridor and looked up and down the intersection. “No guards?”
“In some areas,” he said under his breath. “And I believe they have automated defenses, too, if you were planning to order us to take the ship.”
Turning to him, then wrapping the long sleeves of her robe around her body, Sem said, “I’m here to advise the captain of this vessel, Ziv, and to lend moral support to my hara. You have all suffered a devastating loss, haven’t you?”
“More than you could ever understand, Sem.”
Ignoring the jab, Sem continued, “The humans…they said they saw some kind of light. Morsa did, too, though now he says he doesn’t remember it. Do you know what they were talking about?”
Ziv shook his head. “No, though it concerns me that whatever was affecting them did not seem to affect either me or my hara.”
“Worries you? Why? That would seem a good thing to me. Though I have to confess I felt something. A strange tingling, like I feel when I am linked to a large hara. Then there was a sound and the sensation stopped. Do you know what it was?”
“No, my rih, but I have been thinking about this radiation, if that’s what it is. We may already be accustomed to it. We may be so full of it that there is no room for any more.”
Sem took a step closer, then reached out and touched Ziv’s cheek lightly. “You were always the cleverest shi-harat, Ziv. I have never felt completely safe since you left. Why did you do that?”
Ziv flinched away from his rih-hara-tan’s finger, not out of fear of Sem, but because of how desperately he desired her after one simple touch. “Sem,” he said. “For the sake of all those who died today, I beg you…”
“Ah, yes,” she said, lowering her hand. “How could I have forgotten? The excitement of my arrival has affected me. I should speak to your haran, reassure them.”
For a moment, at the thought of Sem touching her mind to that of his haran, he considered reaching out, catching her by the neck, and simply snapping it. He could, Ziv knew. The universe would be a better place for her passing. But what of Diro? What of Jara and Shet and Mol? They would be made to pay for his moment of weakness. With a wave of his hand, he indicated the exit from the shuttlebay. “After you,” he said, but thought, As if I would give you the opportunity to be at my back.
“Do you want to stop and rest?” Torres asked for the fourth time in an hour.
“No, Lieutenant. Do you?”
“No,” Torres replied, her voice faint with exhaustion. “Not if you don’t.”
“I have already indicated I do not wish to rest,” Seven said, though she allowed her pace to slacken as she spoke. She would never admit it to Torres, but her resources were becoming depleted. Though the planet’s terrain was not particularly demanding, the arid atmosphere and the haze of fine particulate matter made breathing difficult. Also, the pain in her side where the ribs were slowly knitting did not make the process any easier. Her last complete regeneration cycle had been more than twenty-four hours earlier, so Seven was certain the nanoprobes in her bloodstream that repaired and maintained both her biological and cybernetic systems were slipping into dormancy.
“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?” Torres rasped.
“We are,” Seven