Ion 417: Raiju (19 page)

As big as he was, I felt the same thrill as when I'd wanted to tear that lizard apart on Rage's moon. Those impulses battled with rational thinking that he was just an animal; one that lived in this forest I was enjoying so much. I didn't want to hurt some poor animal that was probably as startled as I was, so I simply let a charge build up all over my body. That should scare him off without injury.

I gasped in surprise when my back-stepping brought me up against a tree. I had nowhere to run away from something that could probably outrun me anyhow. Part of my brain was telling me to go ahead and fight this thing. The thrill of that prospect tugged at my nerves.

It happened so fast I didn't have time to duck. It lunged at me tearing with both paws and biting at my arm. One of the claws dug deep into my side while the other caught my head. I could feel the bite tearing at my shoulder too. The charge I'd built up shocked it enough to let go of my arm, and run off through the trees. Its growl had taken on a pained tone, but it lived. Blackness with sparkle lights swirled before my eyes for a moment.

The pain was bad, I knew that, but I had long ago learned how to shove those sensations down out of my consciousness. My arm wasn't working very well. That animal had torn deep into my shoulder, causing my arm to hang by my side. Those claws had opened up my side with deep gashes, and the other one had probable ripped half my face off. I needed help.

It was hard to hold the comm device with the blood dripping everywhere. Next time I think I need the clippy kind for my ear. Considering how my head was throbbing, I wondered if I still had an ear to clip it to. I called the ship, and told them I would find a spot they could land for me. There was no way for the ship to fit between these trees, so I had to keep going until I was in the open. I was hurt bad. I knew that, even if I had shoved the pain away.

It was several kilometers back to the last opening I had passed. My best option was to press forward to the next opening. It had to be closer. Some hunter I am, leaving the trail of red behind me. I could barely even see the trail I was trying to follow through the haze of pain and my damaged eye. That animal had been pretty messy when it tore into me; at least Teyrn had usually cut instead of tear.

I knew that I was still losing blood, and it was making my thoughts feel like they were drowning in syrup. Sticky syrup like the Tlockeli cakes had on them. Maybe I'd have some when... When...

I chided myself for the wandering thoughts, "Get your head on straight! You're veering off the trail again."

Less than a kilometer later I happened upon a couple of humans in a small clearing. They had what appeared to be collapsible cloth shelters near a small fire. My thoughts drifted to the gear sitting in the hold of the ship. It was much better than what these two had. The soft sides probably wouldn't keep the big furry animals from eating the greenish-brown wafers, or sitting on the people.

That detached voice in my mind warned me that such random thoughts as that meant that I was really hurt bad. I needed to focus on the immediate situation. They were heating a meal over the flames. Why didn't they just put the meal in the infuser? I called out to them as I came out of the trees, startling them somewhat. Maybe it was like the cantina on Rage where they scorched the meat and blew the smell into the crowd, inciting hunger. I was already hungry without even smelling it.

They saw me coming, and stood to wait. The closer I got the more they backed up. I thought they looked a bit frightened, but they shouldn't be scared of a Human. I guess that I looked a bit scary covered in blood. I could call the ship to come get me. As luck would have it, I was too focused on them to see the rock. I tripped on it falling face first into the grass.

As I lay there trying to decide on the least painful way to get back up, I felt them grab me and turn me over. I tried telling them who I was, and asking for aid. One of them pulled out a comm device and began speaking to someone. He was using one of the unknown languages. I had found the wrong faction. I couldn't get killed this close to finding my mother's faction. If I got away from the fire, then Lafiel wouldn't burn her toes landing in the clearing.

I tried to sit up again, but the man pushed me back down. The other one had run off somewhere I couldn't see. Focusing was getting hard to do. I hoped the ship would land soon so that that stupid bio bed could patch me up. The other man returned with an ugly looking shirt. I don't need a shirt, and certainly not an ugly one! He bent down to wrap it around my shoulder that was so badly torn. Every time he moved it in trying to tie the shirt in place, a wave of pain shot through me. I know he wasn't trying to hurt me. It just took effort to shove the pain away again. It took even more effort to hold the charge down so that I didn't fry the guy trying to help me.

One of them brought out a blanket to lay over me. He tucked it in close to my sides that were still bleeding. I was ruining his blanket; how would he cover himself? I tried talking to them, but it became obvious they didn't understand my language any better than I understood theirs. This was going to be more difficult to find my mother's family than I thought. I kept trying to talk to them as they stood around looking at me. They were making comments about my boots, and one of them was pointing to my shoulder. I couldn't believe how much it hurt when they poured water over the injuries. At least my thoughts were starting to clear up a bit.

Just as much as I kept trying to talk to them, they kept saying things to me as well. I tried getting up a few times, only to be gently coaxed back down. They were nervous and spent the time wandering around without doing anything. A few times they pointed to my pouch, and argued among themselves about it. There were only a couple rolls of coins left in it; they could have those if it got me to the right faction.

It was almost a half hour later that a buzzing sound preceded the arrival of another human on a small ground transport. This one wore what I would guess as a uniform. He came over and lifted the blanket to examine my wounds. Most of the bleeding had stopped by now. I had the same luck trying to talk with him as well. A uniform meant government of some kind, and that was a good thing, right? Except that he was the wrong faction from my mother. They strapped me into a litter on his transport, like I was a hunting prize.

He wound that transport through the trees for several kilometers before arriving at a wide spot that had been upgraded with a hard surface. A larger transport was there with two men wearing white uniforms, as opposed to his dark green one. Was he really turning me over to another faction? Perhaps I could be traded to my mother's faction soon. Strange, they all spoke the same language. Was this going to be like Reliance Guards wearing a different uniform than the repair crew? My mother had worn yellow, though I don't think it was any kind of uniform.

They lifted my litter off the small transport, keeping me strapped into the same basket as they loaded it into the back of the larger transport. This one traveled much faster and smoother on the hard surface. For some reason they had turned on an alarm siren and beacon lights. I don't know how far this one traveled because I passed out a couple of times along the way. I regained consciousness as they were lifting the basket from the transport, and placing it on a wheeled cart.

They pushed me into the building at a run, shoving me past other people that were standing around with minor injuries. There were more of the white dressed people that we passed, and one of them even looked a bit like my mother. I told her that as we passed, but it sounded more like 'yo lug leek mudd', coming from lips that didn't want to work right. She stood there staring after me as they pushed me around a corner, and out of sight. I had hope then -- members of my mother's faction were close by.

I ended my travel in a partitioned section of what can only be described as manually operated medical facility. The two men pushing me left, and were replaced by a woman who began to cut away clothing from the wounds. Things like my belt and pouch ended up being placed in a bag on the counter. She asked me a few questions, but I had no idea what she was saying. She was using that same language. The best I could do was to reply in the one Terra language that I knew. She said something and I talked back in my Terra tongue. A few times of this, and she became a bit frustrated and used a comm device mounted to the wall. A moment later the woman I had seen in the passageway entered, and greeted me.

"I'm Jun, Do you speak Japanese?"

"If that is what it's called, then I surmise I do. I am Ion. Where am I?"

She smiled a little nervously. "This is Yellowstone Hospital. The Rangers brought you in. He said you looked as though you had been attacked by a bear."

"That's what that big fuzzy thing is called? A bear?"

"Most likely it was a Grizzly Bear. You are quite lucky. Bears can kill you. Where are you from?"

"I think it ate half my arm. Can I get something to eat?"

"Those compresses will stop the bleeding, and then the doctor can stitch up the wound. I'll see about getting a pain killer for you. Your name is Ion?"

They were going to treat my injuries by sewing? So far I had seen nothing like a bio bed, or even the more elaborate version that Teyrn had in the lab complex. Perhaps that was reserved for members of their faction only.

She was still waiting for answers to her queries. I certainly didn't want to start out with announcing I was from an orbital lab halfway across the galaxy. I gave the information that had been on my mother's things. I had wanted so much to have a connection to her that I had memorized everything, including the pattern on the folding fan. It was a white bird among plant stalks.

"565 Kamasaki Fukuoka Kuramoto, Shiraishi-shi, Miyagi-ken"

"That sounds like Sendai address. You're a long way from home. You came all this way to play with the bears?"

I could tell that she was attempting to interject some humor into the situation. The other woman was still there and using something that felt like a deeply serrated torture tool to clean out the cuts on my side. I did my best to endure the pain. It was actually mild compared to some of the testing that Teyrn had performed on me. Every time I flinched she would stop. She would then try to work a little more gently, but I knew there was no way to gently get the dirt and grass out of the drying blood.

"I came... to find something about Yoko Ryokan. She was in this area before. You... look a lot like her."

While I was busy talking to Jun, another woman came in to take the place of the first, and proceeded to inject liquid into the spots around the torn flesh. I could tell from her face that it looked bad. It felt bad too. Any minute now they were going to realize that it was bad enough to put me onto a bio bed. Maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought; she started to stitch it together by hand, and ended by wrapping bandages around my side and shoulder. She paused for a bit when she got to the side of my head. That only needed a bandage taped in place there. She took a sample of blood to test for diseases. Jun translated something the lady was asking me about getting a tetanus shot.

"I wasn't shot; that bear bit me. I think I scared him."

Jun smiled again, "Not shot like weapon. Injection for tetanus medicine. Are you allergic to anything?"

"I'm so sorry. I don't understand those words. Tentus? Allegeneric?"

Jun and the other lady talked for a moment before she turned back to me, nodding agreement to something the woman had said, "Doctor Herrin suggests that we hold off on the injection until the blood test returns."

The other woman finished at last, helping Jun to poke a needle into my arm with water dripping into it from a small bag. I could tell that something was really bothering Jun, so I tried a bit of humor about the dripping water.

"Hmm... tastes like it needs more salt."

She smiled and told me I needed some sleep. I would feel better in the morning. I asked her a few more questions trying to find out what I could from the one person I could talk with. I had to find my mother's family soon.

"You are from Sendai?"

Again, she smiled nervously, "I was born in Kyoto. I came here to study medicine and ended up staying here. You will rest now, and I will be here in morning."

I found myself getting sleepier. My eyes were feeling heavy as I watched her walk out of the room. I awoke to the sound of a woman bringing in a tray with food on it. She greeted me, but didn't bother to wait for a reply to whatever it was she had asked. It sounded cheerful whatever it was. She was even whistling softly as she pulled back the bandage covering my shoulder. For a moment I thought of Lafiel and her humming.

Whatever she saw there startled her enough to run out of the room. A few minutes later she returned with a man, pointing at my shoulder. Something wasn't right from the sound of their voices. Even across the language difference, I could hear concern. He peeled the bandages from my sides as well, touching the spots gently. The pain was nearly gone. He looked scared too.

I had to try; maybe he knew my language, "What is wrong?"

He either didn't know it, or didn't think I was worth replying to. For a moment my mind put me back in that lab aboard the orbital station, with Teyrn's lab workers acting as though I didn't exist. I wanted to scream at him. Lash out with a bolt of lightning, but he was Human.

Just as I'm discovering that my arms and legs are bound to the bed, he flipped a lever to drop it back to the horizontal. I did yell this time, just as they were shoving me through the door. His response was to flip the sheet over my head, or nearly so. I could still see out to the side.

Around a few corners as the rolling bed nearly hit a few other people walking through the passageways. I ended my short journey in a room staring up at what could only be a scanner. Now I was starting to get concerned.

"Jun!"

I had been put under scanners and tested far too many times. I wasn't going to return to a life that revolved around finding out how much I could endure. So far I had been treated well, and I would hold off on destroying this machine if I could get an answer. I fairly screamed at him.