Pictoria (The Ammonite Galaxy Series, Book 4)

Chapter 19

DIVA WAS THE first to come to. She clutched at her head, which felt as though a hammer was pounding away at her skull, drilling into her mind with an intensity that ran right across her temples, and then down behind her eyes. She opened them with a grimace. The corridor which opened out from the tunnel entrance was dark again; the lights they had brought were no longer illuminating it. She wondered how long she had been unconscious.

She was lying on the cold stone floor, so she felt around her to see if there was anybody else there.

"I hope you're not a booby bird," said a peeved voice.

"Six? Are you all right?"

"My eyes feel as if they want to exit through the back of my head."

"Yes, that mindmerge was pretty drastic, wasn't it? But, Six, they did it! The canths sent the Dessites back to Dessia!"

Six tried to sit up, and then decided against it. "Ouch!" A wave of sickness passed through him and he hastily let his head lie back for a bit longer. "Is anybody else awake?" he asked.

A moan came from his right. "I am," said Ledin, "but I have the most awful headache. I feel like I was kicked in the head by a vaniven. Grace? Grace! Are you there?" He started to feel around the stone close by. "I can't find Grace."

They all fumbled around, until at last Ledin found her. She was still breathing, but unconscious. They checked her vital signs, and then started to look for the others.

Cimma was the one that worried them. Although all the others were senseless, their vital constants were strong; she was still breathing, but her pulse was very erratic.

Six sat back on his heels. "She needs to be put on a drip," he said. "I will go over to the shuttle to find the medical supplies. We all need water and some nutripacks, too."

"I'll come with you," Diva got to her feet. "Will you be all right here, Ledin?"

The Kwaidian nodded. "I felt the canth keeper in the mindmerge. Is he here?"

"Up on the Independence. The New Independence."

She seemed to feel both Six and Ledin staring at her through the dark, as if they had question marks over their heads.

"Long story. Tell you later. You are right, Ledin. One of us should go up in the shuttle to make sure that he and the canths are all right."

"Just don't get caught up in the winds."

"No. We won't. You had better keep them all where they are. Even though it is dark inside the corridor, you are protected. Wait until one of us comes back."

"We will be here. Try to make it as fast as you can. Cimma doesn't look too good, and I'm not very happy about Petra either. Her breathing seems very shallow."

Diva nodded in the dark, although she knew that the others couldn't see her. Then she and Six negotiated the prone bodies, and made their way to the tunnel entrance.

"You don't think the avifauna will come back?" she asked.

"Nah." Six spoke with certainty. "They won't come near any of us again unless they have to. They are bound to associate us with the Dessites. I don't think they will ever let us near them again."

"Now I come to think about it, where are the twins, and the visitor?" she said. "They seem to have vanished into thin air."

"Don't worry about them, they will be fine. They are endemic to Pictoria now – this is their home." Six grabbed her hand, and pulled her towards the hole in the rock. "Come on, ladles first!"