Future Prospect (16 page)

Lia’s eyes fluttered open and started to water as her face tensed. He didn’t know if it was a side effect of the injuries or treatments, but the sight of her suffering hurt him worse than any abrasion or bruise he’d acquired while searching the rubble. He leaned over her and spoke, hoping to reassure her.

* * * *

“Lia. Liliane. Listen. You’re in medical. You were hurt.” The vibration in her ears almost drowned out the words, and she tried to concentrate, turning her head as best she was able, squinting her eyes to locate who was speaking. It was Colan, looking filthy and tired and watching her intently.

“Am I dying?”

He shook his head, and she lost focus on him for a moment. “No. The doctor’s on her way, or someone is. What’s her name again?”

“Deval Polin.” Her hoarse voice surprised her. He grinned and nodded his head.

“You called, Lia?” the doctor’s voice cut in, and she turned her head painfully to see Deval hover into view. The doctor smiled briefly, looked over a display on the wall, and then returned her attention to Lia. “Ready to move?”

Without answering, Lia felt the pressure on her body ease. The pain intensified when her limbs shifted and she used her own muscles to control them. But she could control them, and she could move her hands and legs again. Not dead.

“Lia, you were caught in the blast wave of an explosion. Just the edge of it, so you aren’t hurt that badly.” Deval helped her adjust her arms and legs in better position, and Lia winced as all sorts of new parts started to throb.

“This isn’t badly?” she croaked back, unable to process the idea that there had been another explosion and she’d managed to be caught up in it. The doctor shook her head and glanced over at Colan who shrugged his shoulders.

“No impairment of your sense of humor. How are you feeling otherwise?”

“Like someone picked me up and threw me down very, very hard.”

“That’s what happened.” Deval glanced between Lia and a display pad scrolling information rapidly. “All your readings are good. We managed to halt most of the swelling and reduced the hematoma. Your concussion has been reversed, but you’ll be slightly dizzy for a few days. You’re sore but essentially undamaged. I couldn’t believe you didn’t have any broken bones or major abrasions when we found you.”

The doctor gave her a genuine smile then. Lia tried to smile back but she was too confused to make much of a success. Her mouth moved, but she didn’t know what shape it took. There was pressure on her foot again, and she managed to twist her head enough to look down and found that Colan was squeezing her toes. She didn’t have boots on, and she could quite easily feel his fingers. She remembered when he’d held her feet before and tears began to bubble up again, dripping down the sides of her face as she lost her breath.

“Lia, are you hurting? Doctor, what’s wrong?” Colan squeezed her ankle and came closer, peering down at her with concern.

“It’s a normal reaction,” Deval assured him and she turned back to Lia with a serious expression. “I’m going to give you something for the pain, and then I want you to sit up.”

“She just woke up, is that a good idea?”

“You help her up, and I’ll handle the medical diagnosis, Cit. Tor.” The doctor narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to be upfront with you, Lia. I need this bed for someone else. You can be discharged now. You’ll just need someone to check on you. All your orders are waiting at your home module.”

“My home module? What about my datpad?” Automatically tapping her wrist for the device, Lia discovered her personal data manager was nowhere to be found.

“There was a lot of debris. We couldn’t find it anywhere.” Colan gave her a commiserating squeeze.

“Well, you did say I was too attached to it.”

His sober gaze warmed at her feeble joke, and he smiled, a dimple creasing the stubbled and grimy skin of his cheek. Lia wanted to touch him.

After the doctor tapped a few more panels, Lia’s pain lessened, and she breathed easier. Placing her hands on the soft surface of the bed, she shifted and began to push herself up, tightening her stomach, pushing with her arms. She felt a warm hand on her back helping her, and she leaned against it, grateful for the assistance.

“We’ve done this before,” she croaked, and Deval chuckled. Colan was silent, and she wondered how he was. Had he been hurt as well? He watched her intently as he helped adjust her gown as her legs moved. A medical gown?

“Where are my clothes?”

“Destroyed by the blast.”

Inappropriate embarrassment filled her. This was hardly the time or circumstance for modesty, but the idea that Colan had seen her naked while she was unconscious and battered bothered her terribly. Trying to think of something else, she realized she didn’t really know what had happened.

“Was it the little boys again?”

“No.” Colan’s answer was quick, and Deval quirked her eyebrow.

“We don’t know who set the explosion, but it was much larger than the ones before.”

“How much larger?” Lia watched them share a glance, and dread tightened in her. “You said there was a lot of debris. What happened? I was just going into the new barracks module, I think.”

“We don’t know exactly. Zashi is investigating now. One of the new settlers has some experience in munitions and is assisting.” Deval shrugged her shoulders as if the details were uninteresting.

“Was anyone else hurt? I didn’t see anyone around when it happened.” At least she didn’t think she had. All her memories just before the wall shattered in front of her were indistinct.

“You weren’t at the center of the blast,” Colan told her as she stretched her legs to hang over the side of the bed. The pain had lessened, and she didn’t feel as if her head spun any more. His words sunk in, and she squinted at him.

“Where was at the center of it?”

“We think the explosives were somewhere close to the main doors. Maybe under the reception desk. Near the building systems.” Colan took a breath and straightened his shoulders as he finally met her gaze. His eyes were dark and distant, and the shadows underneath made him look tired. Lia reached out and gripped his forearm to keep his attention.

“Who was hurt?”

“Moca, three new settlers, and some of their elected representatives are here in medical with various injuries.” Colan paused, and Lia squeezed his arm again. “Two died. The leader of the settlers and Tully.”

His words hit her like another blow, and she sucked in a breath, shaking her head in denial. Not Tully. He was so sweet natured, so kind. How could he be dead?

* * * *

Lia started to cry again, and Colan didn’t care that the doctor had decided it was a normal reaction. She’d just found out her friend was dead in a horrible way. Without thought, he gathered her up and carefully wrapped his arms around her, glancing at the doctor as she took a step back.

“I’ll be back in a moment,” Deval Polin informed him, and then she left him, no doubt already thinking ahead to the next person she needed to help. Which meant he would be helping Lia. The thought sat well with him.

“Lia. I’m sorry.” She moved her head against his chest, and he gingerly stroked her hair. There was grit from the explosion in it, and he decided she needed a chance to clean up and a quiet place to rest and adjust to what had happened. She made a wordless little moan and shivered. Just a few hours ago she was bright and shining and kissing him. Now here they were, everything around them altered in a terrible way. “I’m going to help you. Tonight.”

She sniffed and mumbled something into his shirt. He was as covered with dust and smears as she had been until they’d cut off her clothes and tossed them away. “Why did this happen, Colan?”

“I don’t know. Zashi is trying to figure that out. But I’m going to help you get home and get cleaned up.”

She shifted away and looked up at him, her brown eyes reddened and careworn. “Then you’ll help him? He’s short-staffed, and he needs help.”

Colan nodded, not sure he could but wanting to agree to whatever she asked.

* * * *

Lia woke up to aches, pain, and sadness. Her bedroom was dim since the windows were shaded, so she had no idea of the time of day. Not that she’d quite adjusted to the sunlight here on Gamaliel. Not that Tully ever would. Remembering her lost friend speared grief into her soul, and she sucked in a shaky breath just before the tears started to fall again. And Moca was badly injured. And the poor folks she’d never even met yet. It was horrible and incomprehensible. After a few minutes of crying, Lia sniffed to a stop and decided she had to get up and out of bed, no matter how much it hurt.

She slid the covers back and felt her pajamas shift against her bruises. Pajamas. Colan had helped her last night, and she’d told him to retrieve these. Because the idea of wearing her usual sleep attire, which was nothing, in front of him made her uncomfortable, no matter how unusual the circumstances were. He’d helped her shower, comb her hair, dress, and he’d given her food and drink all before she asked him to leave the previous evening. He’d seemed as if he was going to argue when she said she’d be all right on her own, but then he’d simply nodded after giving her an assessing look. He’d helped her to the bed, pulled the covers up, got a glass of water, and then he’d left without a word.

Pushing herself to her feet, she tottered and placed a sore hand against the wall to steady herself. She needed to get ready to face the day. There was an unimaginable amount of work to do and so few people now to do it. Thoughts of Tully and his happy face intruded, and Lia stood still until they receded. Guilt filled her, and she sniffled back more tears. Tully wouldn’t have even been on this planet if it wasn’t for her. She’d encouraged him to apply for the posting, claiming they would finally have a mutual assignment and wouldn’t that be fun? What were they going to do about his body? And where were the new settlers staying now that the barracks had been damaged?

Her door chime interrupted her rampaging thoughts, and she shuffled toward it. The distance between her bedroom and the door incredibly far today when every step sent aches up and down her legs. Checking her monitor, she saw a determined Zashi, and she opened the door for him.

“Doc says you’re on the mend.” The security officer walked past her and scanned the room as was his habit. He was lean, tense, and well-groomed. One would never guess he had probably been up all night working. He then gave her quick once over, and Lia was glad she had on pajamas. Not that Zashi would ever behave inappropriately, but she wouldn’t want to make him uncomfortable. “Take a seat while I give you an update. Oh, I brought you a new datpad too. We might find yours today, but until then…”

Lia accepted the new device and powered it up, automatically loading her information while wondering who had formatted it since Tully was gone. Tears pricked her eyes yet again, but she shook her head, needing to work, needing to help.

Sinking to a seat next to her on the sofa, Zashi started his report. “Chemical composition was nearly identical to the previous blasts, some proportions of compounds were different, but that would easily be attributable to human error. It was placed inside a shipping container and left somewhere in the lobby, near the doors. There was a simple timer attached, something easily constructed from supplies accessible to anyone here. No trace DNA on anything, which isn’t surprising considering how new everything in the vicinity was.

“Moca is still unconscious, but Doc says she’s stronger. We have the settlers doubled up in undamaged rooms, and some of the more hardy folk camped out in the half-finished rooms. Welti is starting demolition now, and he has a few volunteers helping him. I contacted the station, and they are relaying information and requests for personnel and supplies. Our first ship should arrive by lunch today.”

Lia nodded. All the information flying at her was overwhelming, but she needed to know what happened so she could work. And work was going to keep her from coming apart. “Right. When does Welti think he’ll be able to put the building to rights?”

Zashi sighed and cocked his head. “I forgot you haven’t seen it. It’ll take weeks, Lia. Half of the front is simply gone.”

Unbelievable. She couldn’t imagine the damage. Zashi gave her a considering glance. “Do you want to see images or not?”

Swallowing with a suddenly tight throat, Lia nodded. He shifted his datpad over and activated the display screen. And there it was; a big cream rectangle with a gaping hole in the middle. That was the barracks? That was all that was left? She took a shaky breath and leaned even closer toward the view, uncomfortably fascinated by the twisted and torn remains. There were crumpled bits of unidentifiable things everywhere in the common area.

“Where was I?”

Zashi flicked a pad on the display, and a pinkish blob appeared at the edge of the debris.

“I don’t want to see any more.” Lia’s stomach rolled over, and every residual ache throbbed for a few seconds as she realized the extent of the destruction. Zashi pulled his device back and powered down the display after he quickly reviewed his updates. She wasn’t sure what to do next, considering she was only alive by luck or chance. What did you do when you were given a new future?

The door chimed, and Zashi rose to answer it. She heard him speak in low tones to someone, and when he returned, Colan followed in his wake, carrying a bulky box. He seemed ill at ease but less tired and disheveled than when he’d left the previous evening. She hoped she appeared equally improved.

“I don’t want to interrupt. Thought you could use some breakfast.”

Lia rose stiffly and smoothed her robe, again reminded he’d seen her naked under very unattractive circumstances. “That’s very kind. Thank you.”

Colan watched her for a second and then moved forward and sat the box on her table, backing away and rubbing his hands together. “You look well. I’ll be getting back to work cleaning up.”

“No, stay, please. Zashi, could we go over things with Colan?”

Zashi nodded and took his seat as Colan lowered himself to a chair far from the sofa, removed a pair of gloves from his pocket, and then tapped them along his thigh as he waited. Lia watched him and wondered if he was going to say anything, but with a shake of her head, she remembered this was silent monolith Colan Nestor. So instead, she opened the box and withdrew containers and eating accessories, her arms stretching and aching with every movement. She had to get active today and work out some of the soreness, or she’d be bedridden.