Waymakers (Champions of the Crystal Book 9)

Chapter 24: Stasis

Scotty was napping when he was awakened by an unusual sound. It took him a moment to realize it was an alert coming from Khediva's infirmary. In his rush to get there, he nearly collided with Tirqwin coming from the opposite direction, his worried look adding to Scotty's alarm.

"Niavar's chrysalis is failing," Tirqwin said urgently. "Khediva is trying to get life support into it, bit it is disintegrating too slowly. He will die in there if we cannot free him."

"Mara?" Scotty looked at the doorway.

"No," was all Tirqwin took the time to say, tearing at the woven shell encasing his son.

Scotty gulped down his panic and joined him, but he quickly realized his hands were not strong enough to make a difference. "Laser? Vibroblade?"

"Microscalpel, left drawer," Khediva directed, sounding distracted.

Scotty yanked open the drawer under the biobed and stared at the unfamiliar instruments in dismay. Khediva snapped, "Third from right. Hurry!"

Scotty grabbed the microscalpel and held it up, wondering where the on switch was. Tirqwin grabbed it out of his hand and began making a long incision in the top of the chrysalis, which was now flaking and turning from its normal off-white to a dingy gray. Scotty grabbed at the edges, swearing as they burned his hands, and pulled as hard as he could.

"Torso first," Khediva directed. "I need him in contact with the biobed."

Scotty managed to dislodge a section of the chrysalis, pulling it away as best he could. It seemed to stick to Ford's body, and when it finally came free, bits of blood and skin came with it. "Uh," he said, staring at it in alarm.

"Keep going!" Tirqwin ordered, pulling at the other end of the incision.

It seemed to Scotty like it took forever to get enough of the chrysalis off Ford's body and roll him so his front was in contact with the biobed, but finally Khediva let out a "hah!" of triumph and the biobed came to life with a discordant chorus of alarms.

"Keep working!" Tirqwin said, moving to the bed's controls.

Scotty blew out a breath and kept at his gruesome task. When they had cleared most of the chrysalis fragments, he and Tirqwin carefully rolled Ford to his back, and Scotty let out a strangled sound at the sight of the shredded flesh along one side of Ford's neck and face. "Is he okay?"

"Not remotely," Khediva said. "Tirqwin, you must wake Maratobia. I cannot save him by myself."

"I have tried," Tirqwin snapped. "She will not wake. And I do not think she is in contact with the Great Crystal, so there is nothing she could do, even if she awakened."

Scotty felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. "Can I do something?"

Khediva's silence was its own answer.

"Stasis?" He glanced at Marvan's stasis bubble, which was functioning normally.

"I see no alternative," Khediva said.

Tirqwin laid a hand on the uninjured side of his son's face, then stepped back and activated the stasis field. "When Mara wakes, we will find some way to return to Praxatillus."

"What about Homeworld? Their medicine is so advanced. I mean, look what they did for me," Scotty said.

Tirqwin and Khediva were silent for what seemed a long time. Then Khediva said, "Chrysalis failure is always fatal. Research on its treatment was exhausted long ago."

Tirqwin scrubbed at his face with his hands, then pulled them away, realizing they were covered in fragments of Ford's chrysalis. The expression on his face made Scotty want to weep in sympathy. Instead, he grabbed a sterilizing cloth and went to work cleaning his own hands, then Tirqwin's. Tirqwin did not move while Scotty cleansed his hands, then gently wiped the areas of his face he had touched.

No one spoke for a while after, until Scotty couldn't bear it anymore. "Okay," he said, clearing his throat. "If getting back to Praxatillus is what we need to do to save Ford, then let's work on that. Khediva, what's the status of the Wayship fleet?"

"Immobilized," Khediva said. "No Way travel will be possible until new matrices can be installed. If they can be found."

"Are the Kyan still out of it?"

"One of their ships appears to be underway, moving slowly. The others appear adrift. Homeworld has ordered us not to attempt to maneuver. We are too close together. They plan to fire another wave of missiles, I believe."

Scotty devoutly hoped they could leave Homeworld's defense to its own forces. "There's still a Wayshipyard in the system, right?"

"Yes. If it was unaffected by the dissonance field, repair may be possible. I have already requested to be at the head of the line as a courtesy to the Guardian, but I have not received any estimate of the time we must wait."

It would likely take time to sort out the mess the battle had left behind, Scotty knew. He must contain his impatience. "And no word from Praxatillus?"

"None." Khediva paused, then said, "We must face the fact that something terrible happened there. Qadr would have come from the Praxera system."

"That means the dissonance did too," Scotty agreed. He took a deep breath to steady himself. Aurora and his kids would be okay, he told himself firmly. Sabrina would make sure of it.

If, in fact, she had survived whatever happened, the unhelpful part of his mind whispered.

Scotty bent toward Ford's head. His face was partially obscured by his injuries and blurred by the stasis field, but Scotty could clearly see it was his friend and brother-in-law. "You don't get to die," he whispered fiercely. "You don't get to make my sister a widow. I'm not goin' home to tell Aurora you're dead. You hear me? Not doing it. Sabrina might be Praxatillus' only hope right now. Your daughter's only hope. You fight, dammit. You hang in there so you can see them again. If you don't—" he broke off. "If you don't, when I get to the afterlife, I'm gonna kick your ass."

Tirqwin gave a hoarse chuckle, then sighed, looking exhausted. "He cannot hear you, Scotty. I know you know this."

"I just thought it needed to be said," Scotty replied, straightening. He didn't point out what Tirqwin already knew—that Sabrina might not survive Ford's death, given their mental link. In the worst case, they would need to keep Ford in stasis —the link inoperative but not severed—at least until the baby was born. He swallowed hard at the thought of his nieces left orphaned. But they had abundant family members and would be able to stay in their home, unlike when he and Sabrina had been orphaned and uprooted.

Focus on what you can do right now, he reminded himself, then wondered if it was Rayland or Treva who had first told him that. Whoever it was, he wished they were here now to take command.

But they weren't. It was his job to think of a way out. And all the plans he could think of involved Mara. "We need to get Mara back on her feet. How can we do that?"

Tirqwin swallowed, trying to come back from his morose thoughts. "She needs rest more than anything, I suspect. Though being out of contact with the Great Crystal means her recovery will be delayed. She will need nourishment, but otherwise I do not believe we can do anything to help. It will take time."

Hours at least, Scotty thought, if not days. "How are the other Wayships? Is Homeworld sending help, repair teams?"

"What few transports they have operating are employed in that," Khediva replied. "They are triaging the ones at risk of collisions. They say we will be in the first group not in immediate danger."

Days again, maybe, Scotty thought in frustration. "Does anybody have any interstellar coms up? Could Lthos go see what's going on at home?"

"No interstellar communication is operating at this time," Khediva said. "But Lthos will be apprised of our status immediately when that is possible. They are our best hope for aid." She paused. "I have asked Wayfarer Control to relay a request for the status of the Praxera system along with the request for aid."

"Thanks," Scotty said. He sighed, wishing there was something else he could do.

"We are worried too, Scotty," Khediva reminded him.

"I know. I just hate waiting."

Khediva gave a wry chuckle. "We know. And you are not alone in that."