Chapter 48 Leave us alone!
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The doctor and his team had only taken Malachi as far as they had to, to reach an undamaged intensive care room. By the time Tamar got there, they had him hooked up another intravenous feed of blood and were working to repair the damage he'd caused to their earlier work. When Tamar came in, their work came to a stop. She slid along the wall until she found a corner. Dropping to the floor, she sat pressing her back into the corner, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. Within minutes, all the alarms were silent. At last, the doctor stood up, his back cracking several times.
"There, as long as he stays in this bed, he'll heal." Turning, his eyes locked on Tamar. "The question now is, what are we supposed to do with you?"
"I'm only here because he brought me here. I don't want any trouble from anyone," she talked to the floor. "All I want is to be left alone with him." She nodded towards Malachi.
"We might not have very much say in what happens to him. "The doctor patted the bed. "He was weak before he got out of this bed. We did as much as we could, but at the rate he was deteriorating, he might never recover."
"He will now." Tamar could feel him now. His heart rate was strong, pulse normal, even his blood pressure had returned to normal. Claw was busy repairing the damage done to him, in another hour or so it would be as if he'd never been hurt.
"No, he won't. His body was getting weaker by the second. With that and the loose of blood, it's a miracle he's even alive." The tall man was getting irritable. Tamar couldn't blame him. He'd been working on the man she loved for hours, then had to repair much of the work he'd already done. So she was more than willing to cut him some slack.
"Check again doctor," she told him, keeping her tone as friendly as was possible for her.
Whirling from her to the many monitors, the doctor stopped, his head cocking to one side. All at once, he began to punch the keys on a nearby keyboard. Still typing, he swiveled his head to look in Tamar's direction.
"How is this possible? He's healing at a rate I've never seen? All his stats are in the green and climbing. He punched one last key, then turned to face Tamar.
"What did you do to him?"
Tamar climbed to her feet, with slow deliberate steps she picked her way towards her heart.
"To him, nothing, for him, nothing." She slipped up to Malachi's bedside, tears streaming down her cheeks. "What he did for me, everything." Pulling back the bed sheet, she looked down to make sure she wouldn't hit any of the many cords and wires that were attached to him and slid in next to him.
Joshua was just helping the Captain to his feet when the lights began to flicker. The first few strobes were slow pulses, but then began to pick up speed until the flashes became a continuous strobe, only to die out with the last one, taking the lights out permanently, leaving only the dull red emergency lights to provide any illumination.
"What the hell was that?" Tomas asked, his voice horse.
"I have no idea, but I bet it had something to do with Malachi and that thing he brought on board." Joshua replied.
"My thoughts exactly. We'd better get down there and find out what's going on."
"Captain, it may be better for you to get back to the bridge. We are, after all, in a hostile system. We need you there more than trying to figure out what's wrong with a single one of your officers, even him."
"And you don't think I can handle it, do you? Is that it?"
"Well sir, she did manage to put you through three walls. Do you know anyone who has that kind of power, because I don't? She doesn't like you ever much. Does that remind you of anyone? If you go down there, you're only going to make this situation worse. I'll take care of it. You are needed on the bridge." Captain Prey's shoulders slumped, then straightened.
"I'm only going down there to ask some questions, that's it. A few minutes and I'll be on my way to the bridge. If that thing escalates things, it won't catch me by surprise again."
"Sir, she's not a thing, she's a young woman. You should consider remembering that unless you want to end up through a wall, again."
Minutes later, both Captain Prey and Joshua entered the medical ward. The scent of smoke was still heavy in the air, even with the filtration system working at full capacity. The doctor that had worked on Malachi was just walking from his room, followed by his surgery team. Lifting his head to look towards the Captain he quickened his steps.
"Sir, do not go anywhere near them, not if you want the commander to survive. I know you were just following protocol, but that little girl has some kind of link with him..."
"What kind of link, doctor?" Tomas interrupted.
"Sir, that I do not have an answer for. All I know is that before she reached him, he was dying. We tried everything and nothing worked. His vitals were dropping by the second. Now, now he'll be healed in a few days, if that. The instant she got to him, he began to improve. If you disturb them, I have no idea what might happen."
"I'll be brief doctor Peters, but I need some answers from her," he bit off the word as if it had a bad taste. "Once I get them, I will be on my way to the bridge." Captain Prey stepped around the doctor and headed towards Malachi's room.
Doctor Peters stopped Joshua with an outstretched arm.
"Do not let him go into that room. I have no idea what she'll do, but she's going to protect him from anyone she perceives as a threat, and I mean anyone."
"I'll do my best, doc, but you know the Captain. If he wants something, he's like a dog with a bone."
"That's what I'm afraid of." Doctor Peters shook his head and headed towards what was left of the nurses' station.
Joshua rejoined his captain at the room's door. The closer he got, the more he heard it, a deep venomous growl that turned into a hiss. He'd heard that sound before, a long time ago. As a boy, his family had owned several cats that they left in the barn to deal with all the mice. On a very cold winter morning, he had ventured into the ice cold barn to do chores, only to find that one of their female cats had had kittens. Never having been around a mother cat with hours old young he had reached into the rag filled box they had set up for the molly to have her young. He had pulled his hand out a lot faster than he had pushed it in, with four red lines in his skin. The mother cat had taken umbrage at his attempt to touch her offspring. The noise coming from the darkened room could have come from that mother cat, only amplified a hundred times over.
"Why are all the lights off?"
"We heal better in the dark." The growl ended, and a whisper floated to them.
"Did you turn these lights off?" Tomas asked.
"No, the doctor did. At least he's good at doing what he's told."
"Are you expecting us to do as we're told, because that's not going to happen?"
The growl resumed.
"Are you the reason my commander is healing? And if you are, I would like to know why."
"A lot of people want a lot of things, that doesn't mean they get them."
"Are you deliberately trying to make this difficult? I'm trying to be calm and just ask you questions. You've got to know that your situation is abnormal at best. We need to know what happened to Malachi."
A tiny figure slipped from beneath the sheet covering Malachi and padded towards the door.
"Once we are finished with this conversation, I am going to close this door and it will not open until we are healed. As it is, we get weaker without direct body contact, so you'd better make this quick." Tomas looked at Joshua, who just shrugged. He had no more idea than the Captain did.
"Are you telling me that you can shut and seal this door if you want to?"
"No. Not if I want to, but I will if I have to. I will not let any of you endanger us again."
"We didn't endanger you to begin with. If you would have just done what you were told, none of this would have happened!" The Captain's voice rose and before Joshua could reach him, he took a full step into the darkness of the room.
"You said you just wanted to ask questions!" Tamar screamed and ran back to place the bed between her and Tomas. "But you all lie. None of you can tell the truth. Well fine," she raised her right hand. "Until we want any of you in here, no one get in, NO ONE!" she screamed at the Captain, spittle flying from her massive jaws. The force of that scream knocked him off his feet.
A fine black mist began to spill off the bed. It ran like an ebony waterfall from under the sheet. Onyx waves ran along the floor, hit the walls and races to the ceiling only to run long it was well. Slowly at first, then with greater speed, the room began to fill with darkness. It moved as a wave, moving from the far corner, making its way towards the door.
Captain Preys' eyes went wide as the dark front passed over the tiny girl before him. With a start, he could see nothing of her except two glowing red eyes. He'd seen those eyes before, but they'd been on someone else, they'd been on Malachi.
Captain Prey scrambled to his feet, backpedaling he exited the room just as the blackness sealed the door.
"Now you'll stay out." A disembodied voice came from within the blackness.
Both men looked at one another, then hurried to find the Doctor.
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