Chapter Five #2
Her eyes widened, and everyone gave her a wide berth as Arcady met her at the door and took her to a shower.
Zera asked, “How long does the effect last?”
“If my skin is scraped, dried, and pulverized, an effective, stable poison can be made.” She shrugged. “Just add water.”
“Do you know what your activation was originally?”
“Sure. I was pain relief. If someone had a headache, pain, nerve damage. A light touch from me once a day could ease them for hours. Then, they turned me up.”
Zera asked, “How?”
“They threw me into the pits, and I only survived by making the effect stronger. So, they set me off against stronger and stronger actives. That’s how I lost my eye; that's where the scars came in. Poison got faster. It is still really just the original sedative, but hyper-concentrated.”
Zera nodded. “Strong enough to stop a heart.”
“And blow the liver or kidneys. Even causes complete hemorrhaging if the active is sensitive. I have seen the destruction up close. It isn’t pretty.”
Zera nodded. “Riithan, do they agree it’s their relative?”
He nodded. “They do. They will fund any and all treatments to get her to the point where they can hug her again.”
Ival held her hand up. “Not necessary. I make my own money. Plus, Zera wants to study me and pimp me out. She’s paying.”
Zera snorted. “She isn’t wrong. The chem team is signing up for overtime so they can keep working on the sample before it degrades.”
“I didn’t set it to degrade quickly. In general, if I am not paying attention, it lasts five hours. You guys wanted to play, so I extended things.” She laughed. “You would not believe the water treatment system I need at my house.”
Zera blinked. “Can we go and take samples of your water ponds?”
“Sure. It will speed up checking the degradation of your toxin.” She walked out to talk to Arcady, and Salmet walked back in with Riko. Amusingly, both looked damp.
Salmet smiled. “Thanks for the warning. I hadn’t considered that you would stick to my clothing.”
“It’s kind of like tree sap, but it washes off more easily. Water-based for the most part. The oil bit is the toxin.”
Zera asked, “Would you be willing to try working with Khytten?”
“Well, she’s a hugger, so... it would be difficult.”
Salmet smiled. “I will talk to her about it.”
“I am lactose intolerant.”
Zera blinked. “Is it a bad reaction?”
“No, but it is uncomfortable.”
Hemma was clutching her ribs and silently laughing again.
Ival snorted. “I can’t take it direct, moron. Not only do I not swing that way, but it would kill her.”
Hemma shrugged.
They chatted for a few more minutes. Arcady came in to take another sample from Ival’s cheek. “The chem lab is super excited. They have found nine different uses for the first samples. It’s only the concentration that makes it toxic.”
Riithan nodded. “That is what she was telling us.”
Ival nodded. “I have had it analyzed a few times at a private lab. It has been pleasant to meet all of you, but I am writing a few songs for the Uraddan event on Friday. They will need to practice them tomorrow.”
Zera grinned. “But you are willing to sign on to the BDC?”
“Sure. If I can’t kill them, they will kill me, so it will be a short date.”
They left the room, except for Zera, who walked over and spoke with Hemma for a few minutes.
Ival got back to the songs and sent them to Hemma, Chaos, and Zephyr.
Hemma was looking better. The marks on her were fading, her gills were more pronounced, and the melted skin was changing into healthy flesh. “You are looking good, Hemma.”
Hemma smiled and curtsied while floating. She was nothing if not graceful.
She paused and looked at Ival. She held up her hand and tapped the ring finger.
“Oh, Zukker. He was a wonderful man. His family was very attached to the idea of position and wealth, and I brought neither. No family, no money. I was leaning on the system at that point. His family hated me. They only softened when they saw how happy their son was with me. I was young, twenty, when we married. They thought that was too young. He would go off on missions, and I would make the finances stretch so I could eat and keep our home. He forgot to set me as his financial recipient. His parents got paid when he went on missions and just told him that I wasn’t a good cook and they were providing for me.
We would eat normally when he was there, and when he left again, it was back to rationing.
But when he was there, I was happy. Then, one day, he didn’t come home.
I was paraded out at the memorial, and when we got home, there was an offer from Uradda.
So, once again, I was sent away. This time, I wasn’t a new active running; I was a captured active that was going to be experimented on. It wasn’t an ideal situation.”
Hemma made a sign over her heart.
“Yes, I loved him. He brightened the air around him. We were friends before we were lovers, and it made everything more fun. When dealing with bodily fluids, a sense of humour is important.”
Hemma blinked slowly.
Ival chuckled. “Think about it.”
Hemma paused, made a puppet hand, and then she made a bite action on her shoulder.
“Ah, he was gold, a shifter, and he wrapped around me and started to crush me, and then his eyes lit up, and he bit. The crushing kept me from fighting, and I felt his teeth as I died.”
Hemma made a gesture.
“Oh, yeah. I died. A revival talent was with me in the morgue when I woke up. She was immune to me but still used only her fingertips to get me back. I was too useful for them to leave me dead. Each time I came back, I was more toxic.”
Hemma made a face.
“Yeah, and I don’t heal well, so the scars just pile up.”
Hemma made a sad face.
They sat in silence for the evening as the nanites did their work with Hemma.
There was a scanner that was updating every thirty minutes on the wall behind Hemma, and the lit-up portions were slowly winking out as the nanites went dormant.
The reproductive organs were the last bit to be reconstructed, but things were moving up and looking like the diagrams in every medical book Ival had ever seen.
By dawn Wednesday, Hemma should be back in showroom condition. Based on the design, there was a strange length to the channel being built, but if she had to accommodate someone with unknown physiology, better err on the side of caution.
Ival sat and worked through the night. She licked her finger now and then to stay alert. That was one of the compounds she could do for herself.
It was two in the morning when someone walked in who didn’t identify themselves and walked straight to the tank with a glass cutter in their hand.
Ival turned her head and spit. The man dropped to the floor, twitching.
She made a call. “This is Ival in the lab suite. I need a med team and security to room eight-nine-zero.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“The sneaky bastard is having a seizure on the floor right now. Next person who comes in without announcing and the password dies. And I am notifying the lab staff and Zera. Now.”
She smiled as her frequency was blocked. She hummed, switched the line, and sent notices to Zera, Kritz, and Arcady, as well as Keska and Zephyr.
She started getting replies, and the medics arrived, going straight for Hemma and not the man on the ground. Two more spitballs and they were down. The pile of the unconscious and shorted-out people was growing.
By the time someone came in with the codeword, there were five people piled up, each wearing her saliva.
Torun came in and said, “Hamburger.”
Ival smiled. “Hey, Torun. How are you keeping?”
“Ival? Oh wow. I heard what happened to Zukker. I am so sorry. Uh, the eye looks good.”
“Keska made it. It does tricks.”
“Of course it does. I would hug you, but I hear you are not just a stunner, you are toxic.”
“That is true. Uraddan training system. Takes something benign and makes it kill.”
Torun sighed. “I am sorry. I didn’t know. I would have brought you to the capitol or Aksalla if I had suspected his family would have thrown you out.”
“Meh. I am used to it.” She waved her hand. “Thanks for using the password. My toxin has gotten stronger, but I am happy I didn’t have to test it on you.”
He smiled. “Me, too. You had a helluva handshake.”
She chuckled and turned toward the medical team as they came in. The woman said, “Hamburger?”
Ival remained aside as they worked on the invaders.
The medic said, “Do you know what got them?”
“Neurotoxin. It will wear off in five hours. Maybe.” She shrugged. “An active will wake up in two to four, a human five to seven. Probably.”
The medics started to drag the unconscious folks, one at a time. Torun didn’t help. They only had one gurney. Ival said softly to them, “Use the password every time you come in or you join the pile.”
The woman nodded. “Yes, miss.”
They hauled the first one away and came back through the locks ten minutes later.
Ival was chatting with Torun and catching up on the last twenty-something years that she missed.
She listened to stories of the founding of the BDC, how there was a line around the world for the escorts. Ival laughed. “Zera wants me to enrol.”
Torun paused. “What?”
“Yup.”
“But you are a widow of a stellar class hero.”
“So? There are virgins, the adventurous, the abused, the recovering, why not the toxic?”
He opened and closed his mouth. “Have you had any others since Zukker?”
“Nope. Straight to Uradda and into the pit. I told myself stories to keep myself calm.”
“You got out when the wall fell?”
“A little earlier. Recovered in Renovik and then moved to Aksalla during the wave of refugees. No one knew I hadn’t been there the whole time.”
“Why didn’t you get your scars fixed?”
“Healers have to touch you.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yup.”
She looked at the display, and Hemma was nearly done. Two more hours, and the nanites would have done their jobs.
She looked to Hemma. “Two more hours, and you should be clear.”
Hemma smiled, and her thumb went up.