“Dinner will be ready at the church by now,” Darana says, packing up the supplies. “Nothing fancy, but I hope you’ll come.”
“Are you kidding?” Xirol grins at her. “My belly thinks my throat’s been cut. I haven’t worked this hard since I left my master in Jineba.”
Farah makes a scoffing sound, as he’s propped up the wall for the last half hour. Since Xirol came down from the roof, he’s been watching Bannie, who pretends she hasn’t noticed. This could be entertaining.
Darana puts a hand on Xirol’s arm, staying him. “What’s it like?”
“What?” he asks, clearly thinking about food.
“Being free.”
“Indescribable.” This is the first time I’ve ever seen Xirol dead serious. “It’s like having your heart unchained because nobody can make you do anything ever again.”
“How did you get up the courage to take those shots, knowing you could die? You started a whole new life…” Her voice trails off as she shakes her head in wonder. “I don’t know if I could ever be that brave.”
“You don’t have to make up your mind right now,” Farah says.
Darana nods. “Let’s get something to eat before it’s all gone.”
When I leave the clinic, Loras is waiting outside. He’s not wearing his helmet, and his cheeks are red with the cold, his eyes sharp and sad. I can tell there’s something on his mind, so I wait until the others are out of earshot.
“These people need care, Jax. Some of them are really sick. There’s a little girl, not more than nine, with such a terrible cough…”
Bluerot. For the first time in my life, I wish I weren’t a jumper. Right now, I’d prefer to be a doctor. Or better yet, Doc should be here instead. If I could go back, if I could swap places, I would. Because he’d do so much good here.
“Don’t.” His azure eyes read my regret, and though he doesn’t know the whole truth, I’m sure he senses my remorse.
I choke it down. “We’ll do our best for them.”
He nods, and I follow him to the church, where the La’hengrin have set up a small feast. The fact that it’s their best, offered freely, when they have so little, chokes me up. I feel bad eating a bowl of the thin but delicious soup, mostly reconstituted vegetables with grain to add heartiness. The room is loud and crowded; so many bodies make for warmth, driving away the chill of the cold mountain night.
I wonder what March is doing right now, if he’s thinking about me. He might be eating, too, joking with Sasha and talking about the day. Company will be scarce at base since the majority of the personnel shipped out in various cells.
After the meal ends, Xirol gets the entertainment center working. That means the church has power as well as the clinic. On the first day, we’ve made some improvements. Xirol finds a program on the memory core and turns it on. I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s all about the Imperials; they control everything else, so why wouldn’t the vids be about them, too? This is some kind of drama that makes the life of a centurion look exciting and romantic. Before the show is half-over, the La’hengrin are booing, and Xirol switches it off.
“Is there anything about us on there?” a young girl asks.
The question is heartbreaking. This is their world, and yet they have been erased from it. Their culture has been undone, buried beneath wave after wave of invaders and occupations. For countless turns, the La’hengrin have served their various overlords.
Xirol says, “I’ll check.”
But he’s seen more of the world than she has, and his mouth compresses, for once unable to find the humor. I share his consternation. Later, as everyone files out, I notice the girl who asked about La’hengrin vids can’t take a step without coughing. Her lips are blue-tinged, and the cloth she holds to her mouth comes away tinged in red. She won’t live to receive her first kiss or plan for her future. There’s no limit to the number of things wrong with this scenario.
Since the cottage is too full of medical equipment to have room for ten of us, Loras asks permission for us to camp in the church. If we’re sticking around a while, I see the need for a more permanent solution, but until we find one, this will do. The La’hengrin agree it’s all right, so we bed down after everyone clears out. It’s colder in the church than the cottage with the others gone, because our bodies aren’t sufficient to warm the space.
I shiver as I remove my armor and crawl into the bedroll. So far, the rebellion has been different than I expected. Based on what I knew in the Morgut Wars, I thought we’d see more fighting early on. But I suppose if we did, then the effort would end before it began. They have far more centurions than we have free La’hengrin…but that will change, in time.
In the morning, I have more paste, bathe with cold water Vel supplies, then head to the clinic, where Farah is already set up.
“Would you like to help me?” she asks.
“I’ve never taken blood before.”
“It’s like using a hypo, only in reverse. Just press here and the device does the rest. And this is how you change the vial inside.” She shows me how to pop the polymer tube out of the chamber.
It takes me a couple of tries, but I get the hang of it. “Yeah, I can do this.”
She taps her comm. We use a short-range frequency that doesn’t extend far enough for Nicuan forces to hear our chatter. “Loras, can you round up our volunteers, please?”
He replies, “Consider it done.”
CHAPTER 20
The townsfolk come in for testing a few at a time, so Farah and I are never overwhelmed. I’m nervous the first time, but I watch Farah smooth an antiseptic pad over the phlebotomy site, so I do the same. Then the gizmo does the work, and it’s quick. Afterward, I fumble only a little in getting the new vial in place.
All told, it takes an hour to take the genetic material we need. Farah feeds the samples into the machine one by one, as this isn’t a sophisticated piece of equipment. In hospitals, they have the capacity to analyze in batches. There was no call for that at the mining station. At least it’s fast, however. Five minutes later, the first result appears on screen.
She skims it, then turns to me. “Everything looks good. Some readings are in the low range, but nothing that makes me think she’s a poor candidate.”