Page 42 of Uprooted
“We haven’t been able to reach him since his initial check-in at shortly after they left,” he says.
I hurry over to the other side of the room that has the exterior sentinel bot feeds. I scan through each feed quickly, not seeing them there either. I go back to the view right outside the porter bay and reverse the feed until I get to when Lugo's porter left last night.
His porter leaves the cargo hold and turns south. His porter slowly moves through the densely packed trees. Little furry forest dwellers with bulging eyes freeze in the beam of light from the porter then skitter out of the way when it passes. It all seems completely ordinary.
“They go out of view here.” Tai stops the feed when the porter passes by the last sentinel bot.
“Lugo probably got lost. I’ll go get them.”
* * *
I get into a porter and leave the cargo hold, heading the direction Lugo went last night. Poor guy is never going to live this down. He’ll be back at square one with the rest of the unit.
Between the trees, the light of the two suns glares off something in the distance. The shine draws my attention to the left. The missing porter comes into view. I can tell right away something isn’t right. Rather than hovering over the ground, it’s half buried in the dirt. I use my yuriOS to activate my body shield. The fuzzy feeling of the energy field spreading amplifies the dread weighing me down. I tap my coordinates into the yuriOS and send them to Tai. I get out of the porter and quietly move through the narrow space between trees.
I can now see that the plexi has been smashed. I peer over the edge into the porter. Everything is covered in black mire. Past the porter, thick black sludge covers Lugo from the neck down, holding him in place against a tree. His eyes are glazed over and unfocused. “Lugo! Can you hear me?”
He shakes his head, rousing himself. “I’m okay. Get to Dr. Kahn. She’s over there.” He nods his head pointing me in her direction.
She’s on the ground leaning up against the next tree over. Her body is limp. Eyes closed. She’s splattered with black mire. Blood seeps from a wound on her side. I drop down on my knees next to her and check her pulse. It’s faint.
“Dr. Kahn—Andi—can you hear me?!” I don’t get a response.
I peel back Dr. Kahn’s soaked coveralls. Bright red blood is still coming out of a wide gash along the dark skin on her ribcage. I pick her up and carefully take her to my porter. Help is on its way, but she needs medical attention now. I’m not waiting until backup gets here. Tai was right—I should have been the one out here last night. I should have never sent Lugo out on his own.
I set the porter’s course to the dome and work on getting the bleeding to stop. My field med kit has the basics, just enough to get someone to the bay in case of an emergency. I rip open the packaging, spillinga fine white powder over her wound. This will temporarily stop the bleeding. I roughly swipe away the sweat pouring down my face.
I clean away some of the blood on Andi’s side. The adhesive will stick better on clean skin. She whimpers and shifts a little when I get too close to the opening.
“It’s okay. You’re going to be okay,” I tell her. I have no idea if she can hear me or not. I squeeze the adhesive out of the tube in a thick line tracking along the wound. It thickens immediately and draws her skin together.
I sit back against the wall of the porter for the rest of the trip back. There isn’t anything else useful in the med kit. I have a chance to think about all the ways I fucked up. I shouldn’t have sent Lugo last night. I should have gone. He’s too new and inexperienced, and I was overconfident in his ability. The weight of this responsibility is heavy on my chest as it all sinks in.
Med staff is waiting for us when I pull into the dock. Andi is laid down on a gurney and rushed into the medbay. I wipe the drying blood off my hands and onto my pants as I head towards Elowen’s lab. She deserves to hear what happened from me.
Elowen is sitting cross-legged on a bench facing Bri in the locker room. I hear a muffled comment from Bri. Then, Elowen’s laughter. She looks so happy in this moment. I’m about to destroy all of that. She looks over and sees me. Her bright smile feels like a stab in my chest.
“Hey!” she says as I sit down on the bench next to her.
“Something happened.” My voice cracks. “Andi and Lugo were attacked by an Atorum last night. She’s in the medbay—getting help.” Shock falls over her face like a mask.
“She’s okay?” She says the words so quietly I can hardly hear them.
“I don’t know.”
Bri gasps, tears already streaking down her face. Elowen hardly moves, completely numb from the news. She falls towards me. I catch her and wrap my arms around her shoulders. She clings to my shirt while silent tears collect on my chest.
29
Elowen
Another Tilak in a med-coat hurries by without a glance in our direction. We have no idea how long it will be until we can see Andi, but I’m going to sit here as long as it takes. I’m not leaving until I know she is okay. She needs to know she isn’t alone.
“Here I am having one of the greatest nights of my life while Andi and Lugo were...” I can’t bring myself to say the words.
“You’re a smart woman. Don’t turn off that brilliant mind whenever emotions run high. Logically, the two things have nothing to do with each other,” Bri tells me, her gentle tone softening the blow of her brutal honesty.
“Thank you? I think I heard a compliment in there somewhere.”
