Dark Demise

  “Waverly, I…” He sat down on the medical bed behind him. “I think…”

  “Plague.” The Dark Planets sometimes suffered through this. It was deadly, to most people. And there were all kinds of odd, ever mutating strains that we didn’t know about. It wiped out planets, sometimes leaving a dozen survivors who had no idea why they were still alive in the universe.

  He nodded. “Could be plague. Could be something else. I can’t keep them out much longer. So, I’m going to tell you what the other option might be before anyone tells me I can’t.” He cleared his throat. “Evander.”

  I didn’t follow him. “What about them?”

  “You have seen the same stuff we all have. Evander kills planets. They do it until they can take control of a region. They want the Dark Planets and who knows what killer things they’ve put on there.” He leaned forward. “For your sake, I hope it’s plague.”

  Because there was a chance I could survive plague. There was a chance I hadn’t caught it. Plague was passed on by poor living conditions. I hadn’t slept in a bed with these people. I didn’t share water. But if this was… a designed illness meant to kill off planets worth of people, my time was up.

  “Your guys are going to knock down this door. They’re not going to be happy I told you what I did. That’s why I did it in private.”

  I shook my head. “Your niece is married to a Super Soldier. You don’t think they didn’t hear what you just told me?”

  He groaned. “Good point. I guess I should let them in.”

  I held up a finger. I hoped he understood that meant I needed a second. Canyon and Rohan could hear everything, including my heartbeat. They’d know I was stressed. They probably already knew it.

  If this was plague, I would walk out of here.

  If this wasn’t plague, I would not.

  Either way, I wouldn’t be a coward about it. I’d known when I’d agreed to go into medicine there was a possibility I would someday get sick. I rubbed my eyes. I should have known. I got happy. For half a second. I was kissed, hugged, appreciated, wanted. So of course I walked onto a ship and I was going to die.

  No. I breathed. I’d asked for a second to get myself under control and that was what I was going to do. They couldn’t fix this for me. My guys didn’t need to watch me lose it or hear it, in the case of Rohan and Canyon. I could make an effort to try to make their memories of me relatively pleasant.

  I took another breath. “Okay.”

  Dane opened the door. I fully expected my four guys to push through it and they were there, but it was more than them. It seemed every person I knew stood in the room. Everyone talked at once, and I stood quietly, waiting for them to come to some semblance of order.

  Jackson finally slammed his hand on the table and everyone stopped. “Lady, what is the situation in there exactly? I’ve read the specs. There has to be more.”

  “I’m afraid this is exactly the situation you set this protocol up for, Jacks. One way or another, you have a very serious illness in here that has to be contained. Possibly airborne. Without a med machine, we’ll just have to wait and see if I get sick. If I do, then the course of action is…”

  He held up his hand. “I know what it is. Don’t say it. No one here needs that image in their heads, especially me.”

  Ari looked down at his feet. Maybe he didn’t want to think about it either.

  They’d blow up the ship before the virus could spread.

  “Enough of this.” I held up my hands. “I’ve got patients to treat. This isn’t all about me and what might or might not happen. We won’t know. I don’t have a med machine, so it’s old fashioned symptom care.”

  Finally, Rohan spoke. I could practically feel his tension inside of me. “I could get her out right now. Two minutes. That quarantine isn’t going to keep me out.”

  I expected Jackson to object, and when he didn’t, I knew I had to say something. The crowd in the room with him would find a way to subdue Rohan before he got anywhere near here. I didn’t want him to try to prove himself.

  “We don’t know if this is airborne. I opened the gate of the ship to come in. That means that for the half a minute that it took me to open it and shut it, the outside cargo bay here was exposed. It’s been locked down and the people on the ships here shut inside them. The cargo bay was closed. So it should be enough to see if those people or I get sick. If we go opening doors and breaking in, then we risk exposure on everyone.” I stepped back. “I have to see to patients.”

  Terror made me clumsy, and I almost fell into the chair behind me. I had to keep my heart rate steady. Canyon hadn’t mentioned my light, so it was probably okay. In the state Rohan was in, I didn’t know if anyone was going to keep him out if he thought I was scared.

  Canyon pointed at me. “Rohan, Sterling, and I can’t catch whatever it is. Our immune systems were amped up. We don’t get sick. I could come in there and wait with you.”

  I shook my head. “Even half a second opening the door…”

  He slammed his fist down on the table in front of him. That was usually more of a Jackson or Rohan move. Canyon tended to silently stew. “This isn’t over.”

  The screen went black. Where had they gone? Everything seemed to be in working order.

  Okay, that only left me to take care of these people. I didn’t even know their names; they weren’t in the manifest, just a list of how many people, gender and age. They had to have things to treat symptoms on board even if they didn’t have a med machine. How did they handle a cold? They’d been unconscious and barely able to answer questions.

  There were six of them and one of me. That meant I had to get busy. This ship had secrets. I’d find them out and somehow this would all work out.

  Somehow…

  Hours later, I’d found what I thought was an herb to lower fever. The Dark Planets used language slightly different than we did. They still spoke the universal tongue, but there were local dialects that not everyone understood. I thought—really hoped—I’d found what I needed.

  My tablet dinged, but I ignored it. I swallowed back my tears. The oldest man in the group was dead. His body looked like soot covered his skin. His eyes were open, unseeing. I covered him up, and with shaking hands, I dragged him out of the room. If the others woke, and I was starting to believe that was a big if, they didn’t need to see him gone first thing. These people might or might not be close to one another. Even if they weren’t devastated at the loss, they might be terrified.

  I was going to have to change my gloves and my mask soon. The problem was these were the only ones I had.

  I threw them away. They were covered in so much bodily stuff I didn’t even want to think about it. I was numb. There was nothing to feel, nothing to think. I’d just lost a patient, and for the first time ever, it felt like I was doing it alone. I’d always been part of a team, and happy to be so. I liked knowing the doctors were there.

  Now, it was just me. And I was failing. I grabbed the small log the ship kept and sat down to go through it. Their tech was so out of date it took me five minutes to turn it on. I scanned through it. There was information in here that the others would want to know, which meant I was going to have to answer the pings on my tablet.

  I got up. Before I could do that, I had to somehow get myself under control again. Or not. Canyon and Rohan must have calmed down by now. They’d see they couldn’t sacrifice the whole Farm to pull me out of here.

  Even though in the deepest place of my heart I liked so much that they wanted to.

  I went to the control room and turned on the screen. I pinged the main control room where Dane had been last time, and the feed from there showed me that the same crew from earlier was back. It was nice to see all of their faces.

  For a few moments, they didn’t notice that I was on the screen, and then everyone started talking all at once. I waited, again, and sure enough it tapered off.

  If I was exhausted, so were they. The guys hadn’t shaved, and not just
my own, Melissa, Paloma, and Diana’s husbands all looked like they had a day’s worth of growth on their faces. They had to be trying to figure this out. There were millions of diseases, and not everything was in one database thanks to political issues and constant war. I could solve this for them.

  “Report,” Dane spoke to me, and I appreciated that he got right to the point.

  I cleared my throat. I needed water. “I’ve lost a patient. The oldest male passed away half an hour ago. His body now looks like he’s covered in soot. The others remain as they were. As best I can tell, their vitals are not good. The deceased was the same way, and then he was gone. I don’t know that I’ll have any particular warning.” I held up the log. “I’ve gone through this. This shuttle spent a week on Primus Two, the space station, before coming here. I think that negates the idea of plague. They’ve been too long in the air to still have it. That means this is… something else.”

  Canyon crossed his arms over his chest. “They told someone they were coming here. Evander made them sick to bring it here. My guess would be that no symptoms would have shown up before they did. The sudden onslaught is purposeful. If you hadn’t been so delayed getting to them, and Jackson hadn’t insisted on the medical clearance, they’d have infected the whole Farm.”

  “Then I guess we were spared a worse scenario,” I answered him, and he hissed in a loud breath.

  A muscle ticked in his jaw. “This is the worst scenario.”

  I appreciated that he felt that way. I’d feel the same way if he was the one trapped in here.

  “If you lose it and short out the screen again so I can’t see her, I am going to lose my shit.” Jackson leaned back in his chair.

  Canyon had shorted out the computer? How had that worked? I sighed. Okay, I had to keep going. Even if what I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and just pretend none of this was really happening.

  14

  Evander

  “They seem to have been well up until the point they were landing, and then one by one they took sick. Maybe… thirty-five hours after they left the space station. Presuming they picked it up there from Evander, to come here as walking disease bombs, that’s how much time we have left to know. If I get sick. If the others out there get sick. How long does it take for the illness to manifest in others?”

  Cash sighed. “Good work, Waverly. I’m afraid this reads as Evander one hundred percent. Lewis and I never participated in this kind of weaponizing disease work. Most of the doctors refused. We were terrified of Evander—they basically owned us—but there is a line. There was one particular man. We called him Doctor Disease.”

  Lewis nodded. “Cash didn’t know him personally, but I did. His real name is A.J. Nash. He’s a sociopath. There’s really no better way to describe him. No one will work with him. But if this is Evander weapons making people sick… then he’s come through the black hole.”

  “Waverly.” Ari’s voice was low, even through the screen I could see his eyes were red. “Report on you, please. How are you? What are your symptoms?”

  I shook my head. “None that I can tell. I’m exhausted, but I think that’s the adrenaline going away. I’m going to have to eat something. I hope they have food left.”

  “You’re going to need to sleep, my love.”

  He knew better than that. “Would you sleep if there were five people who needed you to care for them, help cure them, or at least manage their pain? Would you sleep?”

  His silence answered it for me. Ari Bennett knew quite well I would not be getting any rest any time soon.

  “Then that settles it,” he finally remarked. “It’s Evander. So we go to Evander.”

  Were they planning on kidnapping Doctor Disease? I didn’t know if we had that kind of time.

  “Go?” I asked him.

  “Back in time to the main Evander ship. Tell her what you told me, Ro.” Ari rocked back on his feet.

  Rohan’s gaze never wavered from me. I wanted to be lost in it. I wanted to know what it was to sleep in his arms again. I… No, I couldn’t keep going down the what Waverly wants road in my mind. It would do no good right now.

  “Evander would never use a weapon like that if they didn’t have the cure. They’re a corporation. Their interest is money. They do everything for the sake of their gold resources. They kill for it. This was a weapon aimed at us because even though we’ve been focusing on Sandler Cartel, we’ve been interfering in their plans and costing them time and money. They will use this for a while on people getting in their way and they will offer the cure, for a price. Enough people will have died in this horrible way that they will have the universe’s attention.” He paused. “They would never start it without the cure. Too risky. Might involve a loss in profit. They don’t want things getting out of control. To a person, they know how many will die. Or they think they do. You screwed it up for them, Waverly, by not clearing the ship fast enough. Or Jackson did by changing the protocol. There are always… factors. They’d also never risk their executives. They have the cure. We need it.”

  My heart rate kicked up. Well this was good news. “Can Canyon hack into their computer?”

  “No, I’ve been trying. Not without giving them access to ours. I’d be willing to do that, for the record. But I’m not even sure the computer I’d break into will have what I want. I need to get into the whole system.” Something sparked behind him, and Jackson put his hand on Canyon’s shoulder.

  “Easy now.”

  Rohan spoke faster. “We have to go on an Evander mainframe and take it.”

  “The fastest and most efficient way to do that is to pop onto the ship through time travel. We know where one was two days ago. We’ll go to it then.”

  Tommy sighed loudly. “There was a reason we haven’t been bothering with Evander, right? It’s the tech problem.”

  Ari rounded on his cousin. “If you think for one fucking second you are going to tell us to not go, then you are mistaken. I will do it anyway, and then we’ll be done.”

  Tommy held his hands in the air. “Fuck, Ari. That’s my fucking sister.” He pointed at the screen as though no one knew who I was. “And of course I want you to go get this done. I just want you to make sure you’re careful so no one gets hurt. Like I’d ever stop you from doing whatever it took to save her.”

  Ari shook his head. “I think it’s better if I don’t talk right now. I’m not okay. I want to tear the universe to shreds.”

  Canyon raised his hand. “You and me both.”

  I still didn’t understand. “What is going on?”

  Jackson was the one who answered me. “There’s a reason we mostly stick to Sandler targets. It’s because much as your father is a dangerous psycho, he’s not likely to suddenly think time travel while he looks for us. He doesn’t have anywhere near this tech. We shouldn’t have anywhere near this tech.” He sighed. “Evander might figure it out.”

  “And you don’t want them to have time travel.”

  At least six different heads shook no at the same time. That would be amusing if it wasn’t so telling of just how bad it would be for a company that made illnesses to use them as weapons to have time travel.

  I held up my hands. “Then you can’t go, period. Look.” I bit my lip. “Can I talk to Canyon, Rohan, Jackson, and Ari please? Alone? For just a minute?”

  Dane nodded. “Everybody out. You’re doing a good job in there, Waverly. Keep your head up. Cash and I spent the last hours doing nothing but trying to figure out what this was and how to fix it. We aren’t giving up on you. We’re contacting informants; we’re going to get you out of there. You’ll live through this.”

  I appreciated his optimism, yet I saw it for what it was. We said that to patients. Nothing will happen to you, all will be well. That was Dane’s bedside manner. I decided not to call him on it. What was the point?

  I watched as my brothers, my friends, and the people I was quickly getting to know left. In the end, across the view screen it was just me staring
at Canyon, Rohan, Ari, and Jackson.

  “You’re angry at me.” I had to speak the words. Pretending it was anything else was ridiculous.

  Ari shook his head. “We’re angry at life, not at you. Why did it have to be you going in there? I know, that sounds awful. I don’t want anyone to die. But really, you?”

  He looked away and tears filled my eyes. I wasn’t going to pretend right now.

  “I’m angry at me.” Jackson finally spoke. “I’m the one who inserted this protocol.”

  Now that was ridiculous. “You had to. Look, you were right. This happened. Everyone would be at risk for dying if not you. You’re a hero, Jackson.”

  “I don’t feel like a hero.” His voice choked, and I almost lost it.

  “Here’s what I think. Everything feels very fast, doesn’t it? Like we all just decided to do this and now there is all of this intense feeling. But it wasn’t. Because we had ten months of sort of staring at each other. Of me wanting the four of you and thinking that wasn’t the slightest possibility.” I didn’t care about what I looked like anymore. In the end, it was such a small thing. “I wish it could have been ten months ago.”

  Rohan shook his head. “You were coming out of trauma, and I don’t know about the rest of them, but I was still trying to make sense of how to do anything in a normal, non-murdering way.”

  I snorted, and he grinned. Rohan did like to make me laugh. “Okay, let’s get down to it. You guys can’t risk giving Evander that tech. I think we’ll just have to wait and see if I get sick.”

  “No,” Canyon spoke as though he was the last word on the matter.

  I waited for him to continue, and when he didn’t, I had to say something else. “I am one person.”

  He rose. “You are the light of the entire universe. If your light goes out, there is nothing.”

  “Canyon.” I could barely utter his name. “I wouldn’t want to lose you either. I…”