Of Blood and Angels (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 3) Read online

  “Katie, what the hell is going on?” Jerry grabbed my arm. “He's not here.”

  “What?” I looked at Jerry and then back at Senya. “You don't see him?”

  “Katie?” Jerry studied my face as if I were totally insane. “You've been at the com too long.”

  “Please, Jerry.” I grabbed his arm. “Tell me, you see him!”

  “Katie, he's not here.”

  “Oh shit.” I sank to my knees. “He’s almost dead again.”

  Jerry pulled out his scanner and turned it on, running it over my head. “Who's almost dead again, honey?”

  I closed my eyes and hugged myself. “I need to call Thad. We're dark for two more days. I've got to get a message to Thad. Do you know any way to get an emergency medical message out, Jerry? There must be something you can do?”

  “Now come on, Katie, you know I can't break the dark.” He ran the scanner across my back. “Your vitals are fine but I suggest you go right to bed. Do you want a sleeping pill?”

  “No,” I sobbed.

  “Alright, but if you can't get to sleep right away, ring me. I'll cancel your next duty shift. We'll look at my budget later.” He pulled me up and helped me get into the bed, tucking the blanket around me. “Goodnight Goldie.”

  The light flicked off and the door closed behind him.

  “Senya, where are you?” I stroked his arm and his back. It felt like the mud and dust was coming off in my hand but it didn’t. He wasn’t really here. “Senya, speak to me.”

  “Bloody fucking fool,” he mumbled.

  “Who?” I cried.

  “Me,” he replied.

  “Where are you?”

  “Don't know.” His image faded for a moment. My hand was stroking nothing but air.

  “Senya!” He came back. “Are you still on Rozari?”

  “Not sure,” he sighed.

  “Karupatani?” I prodded.

  “Maybe.”

  “Where?”

  No response. He faded again and didn’t come back.

  I couldn’t sleep. I was like a zombie at the com four hours later and Jerry was called by Hevzi. I was escorted back to my cabin and tucked back into bed and then given a sleeping pill.

  “Senya's hurt,” I told Jerry.

  “You're hallucinating, Katie,” Jerry said. “This is deep space, weird things happen.”

  I slept until we emerged from the dark. The ringing vid woke me up. It was Thad.

  “He's missing?” I cried, bolting out of bed.

  “I couldn't ring you earlier because you were blacked out in deep space. I called as soon as your ship could be reached,” Thad said calmly.

  “How long has he been gone?”

  “Twenty-two days.”

  “You tried our house?”

  “Uh, yeah. Gosh, I think we forgot to look under your bed though. By the way, his car is still in the parking lot here in Kalika-hahr.”

  “When was the last time someone saw him?”

  “It was me and like I said about three weeks ago. He was acting really strange. Well, Ron is always strange, but this was like when he's about to have a seizure. We were walking to a meeting in Engineering and he just took off running out the front doors of the building and then he was gone. I looked everywhere. The security teams have scoured every inch of the campus. Your house has been turned upside and down and shaken. He is not here, Kate, and all of our projects are totally off schedule now."

  “He's in Karupatani,” I said. “We need to go search there.”

  “Katie,” Thad looked at me doubtfully, “he didn't take his car, he didn't take any of our limos, and he didn't take a spaceplane. He ditched our security team. How exactly could he get to Karupatani? Walk across the ocean?”

  "He's there," I repeated. "He told me he would be going there sometimes."

  “What the hell would he go there for?” Thad sounded annoyed. “There's nothing there. We're talking more than three weeks, Katie. I know he does weird stuff periodically but it doesn't usually last this long. I mean, come on. It's not like he could just drop by a mini mart and pick up a sandwich and a bottle of water when he got hungry. There's no food, no water, no plant life. If he's there, he's dead and then my schedules will be screwed up forever.”

  “He's not dead,” I snapped.

  “I know," Thad smirked. "Although when he gets back, I'm tempted to kill him. I spoke with Berk. Makes more sense to me that someone came and picked him up, you know? Maybe even Akan's got him. But, he's not there either. So Berk told his dad of course, and now Loman wants to come tear the campus apart, like I don't have enough chaos going on here.”

  “Listen to me, Thad. I know he's not dead. I know he's in Karupatani. Trust me in this. Can you send me a spaceplane? I should be at Spacebase 37 by late tonight. I can be there tomorrow.”

  “Sure, Commander, Mrs. Boss,” he smirked before ringing off. "One spaceplane coming right up. You want a regular or the Royal deluxe Mishnese version with a side order of fries?"

  "Regular is fine," I replied and sent a note to Captain Richard, telling him that I needed emergency family leave. I was packing my overnight bag just as Jerry knocked on the door.

  “Feeling better?” he asked. “Hey, where are you going?”

  “Back to Rozari.” I found a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and tossed them in the bag. I needed a gun. I had a Glock 429 back at the house but I didn’t want to take the time to go there. I made a mental note to tell Thad to make sure we had lasers, just in case.

  “How come? Something wrong?”

  “Yes, Jerry, something is wrong,” I snapped and then immediately apologized. It wasn’t Jerry's fault. Nothing was Jerry's fault. “Ron's gone missing.”

  Jerry furrowed his brow. He probably thought this was a good thing but didn’t want me to know that. “Gone missing where?”

  “Well if we knew where, he wouldn't be missing!” I apologized again.

  Jerry sat down on my sofa and made himself comfortable.

  “Missing from you or missing from everybody?”

  “Jerry! Missing from everybody. He hasn't been at work or home for more than three weeks. He flew off and nobody has seen him since. I think he's hurt somewhere and I need to go find him.”

  Jerry studied his fingernails. “You think he crashed his speeder?”

  “No! His speeder is still in the parking lot at SdK. He flew...oh.”

  “Oh?”

  “Jerry, will you come with me?” I don't know why I just asked him that. Lord knows we had a million doctors at SdK who were very well equipped to take care of Senya if was hurt. But what if he was in some weird half-man, half-eagle state or something else strange was going on. Thad wouldn’t want the SdK employees to see him like that and Donak was too old to go traipsing around the Karupatani continent.

  “Jerry, I need you to come with me. We're going on a search and rescue mission and it has to be top secret. I can't ask any of our employees to come. You are experienced at search and rescue in hostile environments. Please come, Jerry.”

  “And when we find him, will you want to bring him back here? You've got a massive medical center back on Rozari. Couldn't they treat him better?”

  “If we bring him back here, it'll give us cover. Everyone will think he's been with me all this time.”

  “Cover for what?”

  “Jerry,” I zipped my bag, “I can't even begin to explain. I don't know how else to say this but, he's not normal. Frankly, he's really strange and I'm guessing that something really strange, bad strange has happened and I don't trust anyone else to see to him and keep quiet about it. Does that make sense?”

  “Well, thanks for the trust, honey and I have noticed he's more than a little bit strange. If that's what you want me to do, I'll do it.” He got up and started to leave.

  “I'll send a note to Richard and let him know I'm going with you.” He paused at the door. “Katie?”

  Uh oh.

  “Are you really happy with him?�
��

  I closed my eyes. I couldn’t look in Jerry's face.

  “Ok, you don't have to answer that.”

  “Thank you, Jerry.” I walked up to him and took his hands. “You are my best friend and my brother. Please let that be enough.”

  “I understand.” He kissed my forehead. “I can't compete with Superman, even if Superman is totally strange. I'm just poor old Jerry the newsboy.”

  “He is Superman,” I agreed and was filled with a longing so intense I wanted to cry.

  “Alright then, let's go dispose of the kryptonite so he can fly home to you.” He winked and shut the door.

  Some twelve hours later, Jerry and I landed at the SdK campus and headed to Senya’s office. Jerry was overwhelmed. He had never been in a spaceplane like ours and was shocked at the enormity of the campus.

  “This is all yours?” he asked as I told him to take a seat and wait for Thad. “All these buildings?”

  “It takes a lot to make all those nifty gadgets you like,” I replied, shifting through the papers on Senya's desk.

  “Katie, do you think you can sign off on some of these requisitions?” Susie asked. “I know Ron was planning to do it before he left.

  “Oh, Katie.” Thad bolted through the door. “I need you to authorize a transfer of funds. Berkan is requesting this amount.” He showed me a number that was what I would call astronomical. “Am I okay to send him this?”

  “Do we have this?”

  “Uh…yeah. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to send it to Berkan, would I?” Thad smirked.

  “Do you think we should do it?”

  Thad glanced at Jerry. “Berk is working on a project for Ron and he needs additional funding for it. It's just an intercompany loan. I’m totally sure Ron would do it.”

  “Well, do it if it's necessary.” I shrugged and signed off all the forms he handed me. “Let's get going.”

  “Where are we going?” Thad asked. “And who's he?”

  I introduced Jerry.

  “Donak was going to come,” Thad objected. “You can trust Donak.”

  “I can trust Jerry too,” I said. “Donak can come if he wants but Jerry's specialty is Emergency Medical and Search and Rescue.”

  “Loman wants to send a team,” Thad mumbled, holding his hand up as if to shield his mouth from Jerry’s view. “He told me we have until tomorrow night to find him and if we don't, then he'll take over.”

  “We'll find him before then,” I snapped.

  “Who's Loman?” Jerry asked.

  “And Loman says if he's hurt, he's to come back there,” Thad continued, still hiding his mouth although obviously Jerry could hear.

  “I want to take him back to the Discovery,” I said.

  “Come back where?” Jerry inquired, studying Thad through his glasses.

  “You won't have a choice,” Thad replied. “If Loman gets a…” He cleared his throat loudly. “Ahem…edict signed, we'll have to bring him there. Berkan's got staff on call at the…cough, Palace…just in case.” He looked at me seriously but his eyes were laughing.

  “What are you talking about?” Jerry demanded. “Who's Berkan? Who's Loman and where are we taking him? What palace?”

  “Palace Hotel,” I glared at Thad. “Well, let's get going and find him and get him out of here before Loman catches up with us.”

  Jerry brought his emergency medical kit. Thad and two security men had lasers and a Glock for me.

  “We're going to the Karupatani continent,” I announced, securing a laser and holstering the Glock. “And I'm driving.”

  The sun was setting over the continent as we approached and I was certain now that this was where we would find Senya, as it was raining and all along the coastline there was new growth, green grass, tree saplings, and other foliage.

  “You're right, Katie” Thad admitted. “He definitely has been here.”

  “How can you tell?” Jerry asked.

  “Because this is what he does in his spare time,” I replied, pointing at the greenery beneath us. “He turns nuked dead red dust into that.”

  “Kind of like a modern day Johnny Appleseed?” Jerry suggested.

  “Yeah, except he's not dropping apple seeds.”

  “What is he dropping?” Jerry frowned.

  “Blood,” I said and looked for a good place to land. I pulled the spaceplane to a halt on a plateau of dry red dirt, high above the green meadows and seedling forests that we had spotted along the coastline.

  “I think we should just camp here for the night,” Thad suggested. “We can start searching on foot as soon as the sun comes up.”

  “No,” I said. “We need to start looking for him. “If he’s hurt and…”

  “Katie,” Thad interrupted. “He’s been out here for three weeks. One more night isn’t going to kill him. We’ll be wandering around in the dark.”

  “We’ve got torches!” I insisted.

  “No, Kate. I agree with Thad,” Jerry said. “I don’t have even a hint of a life form on my scan. We could spend all night walking in the wrong direction. Let’s wait until dawn and then at least we can see what we are up against.”

  “No,” I protested. “I’ll go myself if I have to.”

  “No!” Jerry grabbed my arm. “What if you get hurt?”

  “Katie,” Thad took my other arm and both of them led me over to the campfire the security men had started, “this is Ron we are talking about. Minor issues like starvation, dehydration, sun stroke, they don’t affect him. You need a pure silver bullet, a cross of garlic and a half ton of kryptonite to knock him down.”

  “A full ton,” Jerry corrected.

  “Okay,” I agreed reluctantly and sat down by the fire to eat a sandwich from the plane’s galley. I slept that night in the VIP stateroom aboard the plane while the men camped in tents outside. I don't know if I slept at all or just drifted occasionally into dream like hallucinations where Senya, covered in red dirt, kept popping in and out of my room.

  In the morning, Jerry made us all coffee and boiled eggs and then on foot, we set off hiking into the barren foothills of the bombed out continent. Jerry had a scanner and for the first few miles there was not a single life form registered on it. As we spread further into hills where shoots of grass and seedlings started to flourish again, the scanner registered small animals; squirrels, birds, a rabbit, and a gopher.

  “Why is there vegetation up here and down by the ocean but in between it is still dust?” one of the security men asked no one in particular. He spoke Rozarian with an accent.

  “I think it's because it's actually raining on the higher elevation and at sea level but not here,” Thad guessed. “We'll have to ask Ron when we find him.”

  I turned and looked back at the security men. They were talking softly to each other and from the snatches of it, I realized it was in Mishnese.

  “Where does the security personnel come from, Thad?” I asked.

  Thad glanced at Jerry who was marching along ahead of us and then winked at me.

  “Has this always been the case?” I wondered.

  “Yep,” Thad nodded. “Only now we're allowed to use Andorians too. You can't fight it, Kate. He is who he is.”

  “Who is who?” Jerry called back.

  “Who’s on Second,” Thad replied. “He’s on First.”

  “Shut up,” I grunted and glared at Thad.

  We were hiking upward well past noon and lunch was water bottles and protein bars. The seedlings were taller here, almost a forest. The vegetation was denser, the rain was incessant and soon we were soaked and tired. We crossed a rivulet, a tiny stream really and then passed from the mini forest into another plateau. Here, we returned to the dry red dust of the dead planet. Our clothes dried out as we walked.

  “So all that we passed, the plants, the animals, they came from…?” Jerry trudged along beside me.

  “Blood,” I replied. “I know it sounds really weird and it is, but I've seen it. I've got a 6 foot Improved Meyer
Lemon tree on the side of my house now that is fruiting lemons all year long. Two years ago, Senya took me outside and showed me how he does it.”

  “That is so incredibly creepy, Katie,” Thad said with mock surprise.

  “I know,” I sighed. “But it does grow good lemons and I never have to fertilize it.”

  “What about Blood Oranges?” Thad asked.

  “Oh, Thad,” I sighed again when Jerry bolted off towards the west.

  “I've got a reading,” he yelled over his shoulder and even though we were exhausted, we ran after Jerry towards the afternoon sun.

  Senya was lifeless and curled up in the mud. I stood back and let Jerry work while calculating if it would be better to run back to the spaceplane and bring it here, or if we should attempt to carry Senya back. He was obviously dehydrated and gaunt as if he hadn’t eaten in three weeks. His hair was coated with mud and his clothes were torn. Jerry lifted his eyelids.

  “Whoa!” Jerry gasped. Senya's eyes were normal, a light blue grey color with no silver stars obscuring them.

  “Whoa!” Thad agreed.

  “Can he see?” I dropped down beside him and stroked his face, begging him to look at me.

  “He's not awake, honey,” Jerry replied, running his scanner along Senya's body. “I need a vein to start an IV. There isn't a single good one. Practically every vein is collapsed. Look at all these cuts. Jesus H. Christ, this is the blood you were talking about Katie?”

  I couldn’t watch. I turned away and took deep breaths, so I didn’t start heaving.

  “He's seriously low on blood,” Jerry called. “Come on, Katie. Help me out here. Hand me the packet of synthy in my case.”

  “He can't take a transfusion,” Thad said. “You can’t give it to him.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jerry snapped. “Hurry up, Katie. Bring it to me.”

  “Listen to me, Jerry, he can't have a transfusion,” Thad repeated. “I will get you his medical records later, just trust me in this. You cannot give that to him.”

  “That's ridiculous,” Jerry cried. “Everyone can have generic synthy. What do you want me to do, Katie? Damn, I keep losing this IV. He doesn't have a decent vein left anywhere. Make a decision please, Kate.”