The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Struck Down

"We woke up one of the liliths in a coma with a kickstarter," she began, roughly brushing the tears away with the back of a hand. "She immediately went into season. We thought we had it biochemically handled but she decided to Compel Lash into a proper resolution. Only, she had three months of hibernation to build the potency of her Compulsion."

"No!" Naryan gasped in shocked disbelief before looking at Lash, eyes wide. "No!"

"Without proper medical diagnostics of the state of his mind, we can't know for sure. But it looks as if her overpowered Compulsion has chemically lobotomized him!" Fiadh finished miserably. "Nothing I do is bringing him back. My cloud did nothing, A kickstarter and two tubes of stims, and a tube of painkillers did nothing."

Naryan climbed convulsively to her feet to look wildly about for a moment, her mind racing as it formed idea after idea, only to discard every one. Then, compulsively, she was throwing her arms around his head and neck to breathlessly kiss his cheek.

"It doesn't end here, my sweet Lash," she whispered hoarsely. "I didn't search all these years for you only to have some half-crazed lilith kill you with overpowered Compulsion!"

Straightening up, she looked at the ceiling.

"Two, medically scan the Lord Commander with as much precision as you can," she directed tautly after clearing the emotion out of her throat.

"Scan completed," the AI quickly indicated. "Medical alert! The Lord Commander has been rendered unable to complete his duties due to a massive chemical imbalance in his brain."

"Can your medical bay counteract?" Naryan asked. And felt a ripple of tension tighten her jaw when the AI answered:

"Negative." There was a slight pause, then: "Initiating medical protocol with the Lord Commander's previous input authorizing you, Captain Kingsguard, to take command of this unit."

"Acknowledged. Is there a Qos Viran facility with a full medical bay nearby where the Lord Commander can receive the proper treatment?" she immediately asked.

"The nearest full Qos Viran facility with a complete medical bay is the automated base at Hunters' Fjord, Norway," the AI reported. "Do you wish to set a course?"

"Affirmative. Maximum speed, if you please."

"Acknowledged. Course set and initiated and Nighthawk One advised of our course change. Time of arrival: fifty seven minutes, forty two seconds," the AI announced as they could feel the gunship bank to the left.

"Nighthawk Two, Nighthawk One. What's going on over there?" Fordricht asked over comms. "We've suddenly changed course!"

"Medical emergency, Fordricht," Naryan replied, her teeth grit from her effort to stay calm when all she wanted to do was march into the passenger bay and find the lilith that lobotomized Lash with her uncontrolled Compulsion and shoot her in the face.

"We're redirecting to the nearest Qos Viran base with full medical facilities."

"But Copenhagen is only ten minutes from here."

"Lash thinks Copenhagen is compromised," she quickly fired back. "They didn't lift a finger to stop the purge army from destroying Blutholt. Nor did they act to protect the liliths drawn there after only to be taken captive."

"Day Witch burn them," Fordricht hissed. "I see that now. What's the closest base? And can we get there before we lose anybody?"

"Hunters' Fjord in Norway. It's within an hour's flight."

"Naryan, it's Dru," the Nosferatu lilith said, coming into the conversation. "We were monitoring a procedure Fiadh, Lash, and Ellie were going to perform on one of the liliths when the signal went dead just under an hour ago. Assuming they were busy dealing with whatever happened after they administered a kickstarter to their patient, we were waiting for word about the procedure's success. Is everybody okay?"