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Verena’s eyes opened, and she realized she was in a hospital bed.
It had been seven years since she had lain in one, but she remembered this view of the ceiling, and how it had grown so tiresome. If she’d been capable of it anymore, she surmised she might have even hated it.
It was disconcerting to be laying like this again, and for several terrible moments she wondered if the last several years had been a dream, if she had never left that bed. If she was still just a patient at Medical Station 29, one with no hope of anything close to normality ever again.
The memories came flooding back to her then; of Michal Denso, of Apollonia Nor, and of . . . how it had ended.
She sat up quickly.
She had felt terror. Not going in and seeing Denso, risking her life. Not in confronting that, no. She had felt it at the end, when Ambassador Kell had . . .
Emotions. She had actually felt them again. The bizarre feelings she’d had during that whole encounter, she realized now, had been feelings returning to her.
But only for a time.
Already, the feel of emotions was fading. That terror she had felt, perhaps the strongest of all, was just a hollow shell of its former self. She could poke and prod at the memory, try to elicit the same response, any response from herself.
But she could not bring it back.
It was not her, she could only guess. It had been whatever form of contact she had made with Apollonia. Perhaps . . . they were not even her feelings. Through whatever strange power that woman had, perhaps her emotions had bled over, into her.
It was a simple explanation. In some ways, perhaps easier than thinking she had herself, for at least a moment, been a whole person again.
Dr. Genson came in. The man’s face was a profusion of emotions, and at the moment she was so tired that she could not even make herself begin to decipher them.
“What has happened?” she asked.
The man was pale, sweating, and stumbled over his words as he spoke.
“You collapsed and Apollonia Nor brought you out – with the help of Commander Jaya. Um . . . Michal Denso . . . is dead. He’s no longer exhibiting any unusual behaviour – no krahteons, even his mass seems to have turned into . . . well, what we would expect for a man his size.”
Idly, she thought that she’d have to start searching for Genson’s replacement soon. Even besides his betrayal, he was getting too worn down by this job. It happened to everyone, eventually. Any species, of any make-up, no one could work on The Chain forever.
Almost no one, perhaps.
“I see,” she said. “How long have I been unconscious?”
“Three hours, ma’am,” Genson replied. “Director Freeman arrived an hour ago, and he is . . . livid is an understatement. He said that he is going to push for your dismissal, though I don’t see how as you didn’t actually do anything to Denso in there . . .”
“Where is Apollonia Nor?” she asked.
“Ma’am, um, don’t you care about the Director . . . ?”
She did not answer him, merely staring at him in silence until his own discomfort prompted him to speak again.
“She’s returned to the Craton. She was . . . bleeding from her eyes, nose, and ears, but she refused our medical attention and said she only trusted the ship’s doctor . . .”
Verena nodded, taking it all in.
Denso was dead. It was finished. And Nor had gone.
“What about Ambassador Kell?”
“Ma’am?”
“Was the Ambassador ever on the station?”
“Not . . . as far as I’m aware, ma’am. But Director Free-“
“I need to rest more,” she said.
She felt something odd for a moment. It was a sensation she could not quite place, but it seemed familiar.
She realized it was amusement. It was fleeting, and fading already, but she’d felt it. She knew she had.
An emotion that was hers alone. A smile came to her face.
“Doctor’s orders,” she said, and lay back down to rest.
Dr. Genson clearly could not think of anything to say to that. He stared, mouth agape for a moment, before slowly shuffling from the room.
Perhaps, when things were calmer, she would have the ceilings in these hospital rooms changed, she thought.
Other Terrestrial 