16. Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen
We found Indy in the corridor, lying unconscious, his bath supplies scattered around him on the floor. Tobago responded immediately, dropping to his knees beside his husband. “Indy! No. Come on. Come on! Wake up.”
Frozen in the doorway, I watched, not knowing what to do or how to help. “What’s happening?”
Tobago didn’t answer me at first, but when it became clear his efforts to wake Indy up were futile, he looked up at me with wild eyes. “He has Tay-Sachs.”
I flinched, recognizing the name from the brief period of time I’d pursued genetics instead of mycology in an ill-fated attempt to follow in my mother’s footsteps.
Tay-Sachs was a genetic disorder of the brain.
For many years, it had been quite a fatal diagnosis in young children, often significantly decreasing life expectancy.
Due to advancements in pre-birth genetic modification, pioneered by my mother, Tay-Sachs was often sequenced out of babies before they were even born. But if Indy hadn’t been modified . . .
“Does he have his medication?” I asked.
Tobago stared down blankly at Indy; he ran a shaky hand through his hair. “We have some. He’s been diluting it, though, to make it last longer. We were going to buy more after this job . . .”
I’d never seen my capable, collected friend so unsure of himself before. It was clear I was going to need to take charge. “Tell me where the rest is,” I instructed him briskly. I couldn’t let any of my own fear or panic worm its way into my voice; I had to sound completely sure of what I was doing.
Under no other circumstances would Tobago have ever let me boss him around; even when we were children, he was always the captain in the games we played, and Trini and I always deferred to him.
But now he responded to the authority in my tone eagerly.
He needed me to be the one in control, to fix everything.
“In the drawers beside the bed. Port side.”
I hurried back into Tobago’s chambers, through the study and into the bedroom.
On the left side of the bed, I saw the drawers he’d been referencing and rifled through them until I found the small canisters filled with medicine.
Though each little vial was supposed to be an individual dose, most of them were empty or almost empty now.
One had about a fifth of liquid left inside.
Tobago hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said Indy was diluting the doses, trying to make them last as long as possible.
Any residual irritation I felt for my old friend forcing me into the heist vanished.
The crew had clearly been desperate, desperate to get the cargo.
We could all only hope now that whatever medicine was left here would be enough to see Indy through until they could purchase his next dose.
I hurried back to the two men, handing the vial over to Tobago. His face fell at how empty it was. Clearly, he had not realized just how dire the situation had become; Indy must have been keeping that from him, no doubt trying not to worry him. “That’s all that’s left?” he asked in a choked voice.
I’d already poured what few drops remained in the other canisters into one vial. Even so, it wasn’t quite one-quarter full.
“Give him this. It should help.” A sudden thought struck me of some real and actionable hope I could offer him. “Wait here. I’ll be right back . . .”
I hurried through the corridor, down the stairs to the lower level, and across the distance to the room I shared with Ursa.
He was still fast asleep. On Earth he’d been such a light sleeper, but his body was still recovering, and without direct sunlight he seemed to need to exert more effort to retain his strength.
As silently as possible, I slipped over to the cupboard where I kept all my samples from Earth. My mushrooms, some moss . . . and the bear algae.
I’d still been carefully parsing out doses to Ursa, so he could recover his strength,1 and combined with the effects of the sunlamp, everything seemed to be working well.
I estimated that, with what we had left, if I kept Ursa’s doses at the same level, we’d be able to make it to one of the Havens and have maybe a month’s worth left.
After that, I didn’t know what we’d do. I could only hope the exposure to sunlight would buoy Ursa’s strength for some time, and help him wean off the bear algae while he became accustomed to living with the strength of a normal human male.
A possessive, protective part of me wanted to hoard what was here, to keep all of it for Ursa.
But I’d seen Indy lying comatose on the floor, the desperation in Tobago’s eyes as he held the man he loved and couldn’t do anything to help him.
That had been me only a week or so before.
How could I let Tobago suffer through the same thing now?
I’d only need to give Indy enough of the bear algae to last him until we could reach a settlement and buy more medicine.
If Indy could receive his full dose, he would no longer be in danger.
And if the issue was money, well . . . I would do whatever I could to help the Achaeans on their next mission.
Ursa would, too, I knew, if I explained it to him.
That settled, I poured a small portion of poolwater2 from one of the vials into an empty canister, then crept out of the room as quietly as I could before hurrying down the hall again.
Indy was still unconscious, though at least Tobago was no longer alone.
Burt was helping Tobago lift the other man.
I could hear someone moving around in Tobago’s rooms. Val.
She poked her head out of the doorway a moment later, blinking at the sight of me before she turned her attention to the men.
“Walkway’s clear. You can bring him through. ”
I followed behind as Burt and Tobago carefully positioned Indy on the bed. He was looking slightly better now that he’d had some of his medicine, some color coming back into his pallid cheeks, his breathing a little steadier, though he was still unresponsive.
“Prop him up a little,” I instructed Burt. “I have something else he can try.”
I hoped to not have to elaborate on that. I hadn’t been planning on sharing the bear algae with anyone, and I certainly hadn’t anticipated having to do so now in front of an audience.
But Tobago caught my wrist before I could advance, his eyes narrowing at the sight of the small canister in my hands. “What is this?”
My eyes darted nervously to Burt and Val, who were not bothering to hide their curiosity. Looking back to Tobago, I swallowed. “It’s . . . hard to explain. It’s something I found on Earth, something that helped Ursa when he was unwell.”
More than once, I could have explained, although I’m sure I would have sounded mad talking about how the bear algae could rapidly heal scrapes and cuts and even beestings. “Please, just trust me. I think it will help.”
I couldn’t take Tobago’s hesitation personally. Not now, when I understood what it was to love somebody so helplessly, to be absolutely petrified at the thought of them coming to any harm.
At last, he nodded. “Fine. Just a little.”
I quickly moved to the bed, nudging up Indy’s chin and placing the open canister between his lips to pour the small sample of poolwater down his throat. It wasn’t much, but hopefully it would be enough to help his body sustain itself until we could reach the next settlement and buy his medicine.
“Put a sunlamp on him,” I instructed Tobago. “While he’s sleeping, until he wakes up.”
Without meaning to, I glanced over at Val.
She knew how desperate I’d been for a sunlamp not so long ago.
If she was even half as intelligent as she appeared, she’d already be piecing together that the sunlamp had had something to do with Ursa’s seemingly miraculous recovery, and would be connecting that with the mystery liquid I carried around.
As her dark eyes met mine, I saw a canniness there that made me instinctively nervous.
But what could be done about it? Hopefully once Indy had recovered, everyone would be so relieved they wouldn’t ask too many questions about the poolwater and what it could do. How much I had of it.
Wishful thinking, I know now. I probably knew it then, too.
1. For those who are curious about such things–e.g. Not the Brethren—I was maintaining Ursa at a dose of about 5ml per week. I hoped this small amount would be enough to stave off SWS and prevent the need for a larger dosage that would deplete my small stash.
2. I gave him a slightly higher dosage, roughly 10ml, since he was in crisis.