Through the Ghost
Chapter 6

When they arrived at the ship, the repair team was already loading their gear onto another vehicle. Jaya waved at them as they approached.

Tal’s sense of relief was quickly removed, when Jaya revealed they still had a good number of repairs to make. Anna stood off to the side of them lost in thought, while Shyara began conversing with her kin.

“Are you sure?” Anna asked nervously.

“I think it’s better safe than sorry,” Jaya replied.

“Right, because this place has been welcoming so far,” Tal stated sarcastically. “Things can’t get any worse.”

“I hate it when you say that,” the two women responded in unison.

They began to ascend the ramp when the sound of rifles being readied caused them to stop. They turned around, expecting to find another of the native wildlife intent on making a meal of them. Instead they found five rifles pointed in their direction. The only one not sporting a weapon was Shyara, who looked as confused as the Orothros team members.

Give it back, Allie translated for a Souri with silk black hair and bright red eyes shouting angrily at him.

“What?” Tal whispered while he racked his brain for anything that might have been taken by accident. Try as he might he couldn’t remember taking a single thing.

The Antidote, Allie translated as the alien continues to argue with Shyara.

“Antidote? To what?” Tal wondered aloud.

“He didn’t take it, he was with me, and…” Shyara’s voice trailed off as the male Souri continued to speak. She turned around to look at Tal, eyes wide with surprise. It took him a moment to realize that she was actually looking past him. Tal turned around to see Anna carefully backing up along the loading ramp, gun in hand.

“Tal,” she warned him. “I can’t wait any longer.”

“What are you doing?” he called out, keeping the Souri in his peripheral.

“I need this medicine, it’s why I’m here. I’d thought those mercs had it.”

“Anna, tell me what’s going on. We can help.”

“No,” she whispered with a shake of her head. Her face was a mixture of sadness and fear. “I’m sorry, she doesn’t have that kind of time,” she added.

“Who?” he pressed, carefully taking a step forward.

“I’m sorry, I would have taken you with me,” she stated apologetically from the top of the ramp.

“Anna, wait!” he called out.

She turned back to look at him. A shot rang out that sent her spiraling onto the floor of the ship. He looked around and saw a Souri, their rifle steaming in the cold air. Without hesitating he raced to Anna’s side, additional footsteps followed him up the ramp. Jaya crouched beside him to pull Anna to safety. The wounded operative’s breaths hissed through clenched teeth.

Gunfire erupted, pinging off the metal of the ship. Tal retrieved his rifle from his back and blindly fired at the Souri in hopes of keeping them suppressed. When he looked back over his shoulder he saw Jaya’d already begun tending to the wounded operative.

“Anna, talk to me!” he called out, before firing another burst towards the Souri. The wounded operative writhed in pain. He allowed his rifle to hang across his back as he returned to her side.

“Why would she try to leave us stranded here? And why haven’t her nanites begun to heal her!” the younger operative inquired.

“They can’t,” he clarified, stooping low to pick Anna up. Jaya’s eyes widened in understanding.

Another rattle of gunfire, signaled the Souri had re-emerged from their cover. Footsteps raced up the ramp, a younger Souri with short hair and blue eyes aimed a rifle directly at them. He continued to shout in his native tongue.

“We’re not trying to escape!” Jaya pleaded with the enraged alien.

Before the alien could react, Tal drew his rifle with lighting quick speed and fired. The projectile caused the Souri to tumble down the ramp. Jaya looked at him in shock.

Tal raced to the side of the entry way and hit the controls to close the loading bay door. As the doors gradually ascended, he returned to Anna’s side. Her breathing had slowed, but it was shallow.

“Allie, ready the med bay,” he commanded sternly.

Tal lifted Anna into his arms with one hand under her back and the other under her knees. His heart beat faster than it ever had before.

Adrenaline pushed him forwards as they rushed up the stairs and past the living quarters. Jaya continued to ask questions as they moved through the mess hall, and into the med bay. Anna seemed to be trying to say something, but all he heard was the sound of his own heartbeat

“Jaya, get us in the air,” he commanded his sister while carefully setting Anna on the medical table.

Lanie is already on it. We should be airborne…now. The deep thrum of the engines coming online vibrated through their feet.

“Why can’t they heal her?” Jaya asked, for maybe the tenth time.

“Because she doesn’t have an AI anymore,” Tal answered with subdued anger. Anger at himself, Anna, and the Souri pulsed through him.

A robotic arm dropped down to inject Anna with a sedative, while another began to staunch the bleeding and a third worked on repairing the gaping hole in her side. Tal knew the machinery was working, but he’d never been more afraid in his life. Living as an Orothros you got used to injuries that would normally be life threatening to humans being nothing but a scrape, or flesh wound. Without a Companion, that invincibility was extremely diminished.

“I figured that out. Why doesn’t she have it?” Jaya pressed.

“Not now Jay.” Companions weren’t removed from officially retired operatives, it was only for special cases as the procedure was life threatening.

“Why doesn’t she have it Tal?”

“Because they took it away!” he snapped at her.

Jaya stepped back, her eyes large with fear and surprise. She hastily exited the room without another word.

He took a deep breath knowing a thousand more questions were running through her brain, but he couldn’t deal with them right now. Instead he closed his eyes, focused on the deep rumble as the engines flared to life, catapulting the vessel into space. Soon, that faded into the background to be replaced by the mechanical beeps and whirrs of the med station as Allie operated on Anna. He quickly tuned that out as he tried to think about what Anna was saying as they carried her in here.

The word rested just at the tip of his memory. It was a name. Sara? Kara? Chara! She was repeating Chara over and over. He had little doubt that it was the person she intended to give the medication to, but why did she care so much about them that she’d risk being arrested or even killed.

He reopened his eyes, the beeps and whirrs came back, followed by the faint hum of the ship drifting through orbit. The robotic limbs continued to stitch his former partner up while his thoughts drifted to just who Anna’s mystery person really was. There were a million possibilities. He knew that no matter how much he wracked his brain over their identity, it was a question only Anna would be able to answer.

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