Gaia's Brood

Chapter 42

"She's coming around."

Pain floods my brain. "Ooh." I hold my head with my hands as a thumping headache takes hold. For a moment I keep the world at bay, then open my eyes. My crew stands in a circle looking down at me, concern on their faces. I am in my cabin on the Shonti Bloom. "What happened?"

Trent appears. "You got stuck by a neuro coated crossbow bolt."

Memory floods my mind: the constable's crossfire pinning Trent down, the mad dash across open ground in a constable uniform, the struggle behind the rock, the pain in my shoulder.

I raise myself onto my good elbow. "You shot me."

Trent grins back. "If only. Actually, the constable you were trying to disable snatched up a lose bolt and stabbed you in the shoulder."

My left shoulder is strapped up in bandages.

Trent grins. "Don't worry, it's just a flesh wound."

The mention of constables brings anxiety thudding to the fore. "Where are the constables?" It also brings an awareness of the ship. "And why aren't we moving."

Izzy smiles down at me. "Thanks to your keen intuition and our night-time raid, two of the constable's ships were so full of Whisper holes they failed to rise. The other two started to leak gas like sieves as soon as they gained any sort of altitude."

Fernando shoves Izzy out of the way, he's grinning too. "Once you took the last constable out—"

"I thought Trent shot her?"

"—whatever. Anyway, I came back for you, we bundled you into the Shonti and easily out ran them. You've been out of it for a whole day."

"So where are we now?"

"Somewhere called platform sixty-nine—we need supplies and fuel."

I realize someone is missing. "Where's Scud?" They all look at each other guilt written across their features. Oh no, not Scud. Despite the pain shooting through my head, I struggle to a sitting position on the bed. "What's happened to him? He's not..."

Izzy sits on the bed beside me and takes my hand. "He's okay. He's just gone a bit..."

"A bit what?"

"Odd," Fernando adds.

"Odd? What sort of odd?"

Izzy bites her lip and nods. "Just odd. You'd better come and see for yourself. He's in the map room."

I struggle to my feet, pushing away the offers of help, and stagger to the door.

In the map room Scud is seated at the table. At first he looks fine, no bandages, no blood, no obvious injuries. Then I notice the slackness of his face and the distant, unfocused look in his eyes. Around him plates of food remain untouched and piles of paper, covered with figures and strange scribblings lie abandoned.

"He's barely breathing," Izzy says.

Fernando waves a hand in front of Scud's face. Scud blinks, once, but makes no other response. "He just sits like this and does nothing."

Remarkably, I believe that might be concern for Scud I hear in Fernando's voice—inwardly I grin, but it's too painful to crack a smile at the moment.

Trent bends down to examine Scud. "You don't look overly concerned, Nina, have you ever seen him like this before?"

I think I might be able to guess what's happening here. "What was he doing right before this happened?"