FSE

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Chapter 11

It took a while to find a way to get Meriah free of the conduit, and in the end they decided that there was no way for her to make it through the woods with a piece of metal in her leg. Despite Stargazer's misgivings, they decided to remove the metal from her thigh.

It had taken all the strength that both of them could lend her to keep her conscious, and even then the pain was more than she'd ever felt in her life. She started to regret the meal they'd shared before they left, as it all came back up in the corner of the shuttle. After a bit of poking and prodding and a good deal of washing, Jason finally wrapped a tight bandage around the holes in her leg.

"Well, that's as good as it's going to get, I'm afraid. Only thing left to do is get you to a doc," Jason said, standing and dusting his hands off.

Meriah took another minute to catch her breath and let the dizziness clear from her head while Stargazer rooted around in the back of the shuttle. After a few minutes, he came back with three packs full of emergency supplies.

"Here, drink," he said, holding out a bottle of water to Meriah. "You will need it."

Meriah started to shake her head, but then relented and took the water, drinking it in timid sips. Her stomach didn't rebel, so she drank the rest a little more quickly.

"Very good," Stargazer said with a smile. "Can you walk?"

"I don't know," Meriah said. She flexed her toes and with relief found that her muscles still responded to her commands. She stood up slowly from the seat and settled her weight on her good left leg. With a deep breath, she set her right foot down and started to ease her weight onto it. It took only a small portion of her weight before it buckled.

Jason caught her immediately and she gritted her teeth as her breath hissed between her lips. It took her a moment to regain her composure, and when she did, she shook her head.

"Apparently not," she said, frustration flowing down the link to both James and Stargazer.

"Then we shall have to carry you," Stargazer said simply.

Meriah nodded and sat back down on her seat. Her eyes scanned the interior of the shuttle and she drew the knife from her belt.

"Cut the covers off those seats. We'll use it for a sling," she said, handing the knife to Jason. Then she turned to Stargazer.

"I need you to get all the wire you can find, we're going to need it later."

Stargazer nodded and headed to the cockpit to start stripping the exposed wire from the consoles. Having something to focus on and keep her mind occupied took her mind off her leg, and she watched Jason and Stargazer work, letting their concentration fill her own mind to block out anything else.

When Jason returned, she taught him to tie a sling that would hold her against his back, and by the time they finished that, Stargazer had gathered enough wire that Meriah was happy.

She managed to get herself into the sling and Jason hoisted her onto his back.

"It's a good thing you're small, love," he said with a chuckle.

Meriah laid her hand on his head and stroked the dark fur between his ears with an affectionate touch.

"If you are both prepared," Stargazer said tactfully, "we should depart. The sun will set in a few hours, and we have little time to waste."

Meriah could sense his concern for her and she nodded.

"Let's go, then," she said, wrapping her arms around Jason's shoulders.

Stargazer led the way through the forest with guidance from Meriah, whose wilderness experience was both broader and more recent than either Jason's or Stargazer's. Meriah spent the hike clinging to Jason and trying to keep herself at the perfect angle so as not to aggravate her wound. She knew that Jason could feel every jostle and jolt that caused the pain to flare, and each time it happened, she could feel his guilt at having allowed her to be injured.

The sun was far below the horizon when Jason finally stopped in a small clearing. All three of them were exhausted and though they all wanted to continue, they were all grateful for the break.

"We'll rest here for a few hours," Jason said. "We'll have some food and some sleep and then keep going."

Stargazer and Jason started rooting around for firewood and Meriah worked with the wire that Stargazer had salvaged. By the time they had the wood set up, she was finished with her own project and she called Stargazer over while Jason got the fire going.

"Here. Go set this down that rabbit trail there. We'll check it in an hour."

Stargazer smiled and then took the snare to set it. She'd touched his mind and she knew that he would understand how to set it properly, whereas Jason was so far removed from the forest that he would be like teaching a child. Regardless of how much she cared for him, she didn't have the time or the patience to teach him what she needed him to know, and she didn't dare open the link to the joining right now.

The pain in her leg as starting to burn even brighter, and as the other two worked in the camp, she took the chance to uncover the wound and look at it for the first time.

The fur was singed around the wound and the skin had closed around itself, though the edges were still blackened. She could see small dark streaks moving from the wound down her leg.

"It seems the question has been answered," Stargazer said from beside her.

She looked up sharply and canted her head to the side. "What question?"

"Whether the wound had been cauterized before the engine coolant could get into your blood. It appears that it was not."

"What does that mean?" Meriah asked. She felt Jason's concern as he walked back towards them and caught sight of the wound. Though the pain was still there, she found that she didn't need to draw on Jason's calm as much. She was back in the forest, and everything that happened here was in her domain. She was in control here, and she was in her element, even this was something she could handle.

"It means we have two days at most to get you to a doctor," Jason said as he knelt beside her. "It also means that you are not to move unless absolutely necessary."

He turned to Stargazer. "Go find some sticks to splint with. If we keep her leg still, it will buy a little more time."

While Stargazer started seeking, Jason rummaged around in his pack, pulling out a small medpack. "Looks like our rest stop is going to be cut short, but we'll still get something to eat."

There was a snap in the woods that brought both their heads up and soon Stargazer came around a tree holding one of the largest rodents Meriah had ever seen.

"And it looks like it's not going to be just e-rats," Jason said with a smile.

While the Mrr'tanoun splinted her leg, Meriah went to work on the kill, gutting and skinning it efficiently with her knife.

Dinner was a quiet affair with the three of them eating in silence and trying not to dwell on the time limit. Finally, though, Meriah broke the silence.

"How far away are we from Rawsss'a'Mrr'sarr?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"From what I saw on the way down, we're a good sixty kilometers away," Jason said.

Meriah nodded. "That means at least twelve hours if you're able to carry me that long."

"I was thinking about fifteen, myself," Jason said. Meriah felt a sharp drop in her stomach as he said it when his frustration washed over her. It was accompanied by a resignation and the feeling that he was accepting an unpleasant truth. "Either way, we're going to have to move sooner than I thought."

Meriah reached out and touched his shoulder. "We have time, Night Star. We'll get there in time."

"That's not what I'm worried about, love," he said, smiling when he heard his true name from her lips. "Even if we got you to a doctor right now, there's a decent chance you'd lose your leg. Engine reactor coolant is highly toxic if it gets into the blood. It reacts with something in the blood and it eats you from inside your veins."

He took a breath and she could feel himself reaching into that endless well of calm that never seemed to run out.

"Even if it takes twelve hours, like you think, there's very little chance you're going to be able to keep your leg."

Meriah was silent as she processed what he was saying. Her eyes stayed fixed on the dark streaks on her thigh. Just as much as Jason took his strength from deep within himself, so did she. His presence was a rock that she could cling to, and she did. It helped, too, to have Stargazer's presence there as well.

She'd never been one to rail at the universe for what it threw in her path, and she always considered herself to be adaptable to whatever happened. With Jason's calm and Stargazer's peace, she managed to find her own strength deep down and she used it to steel herself for her answer.

"Then we don't have much of a choice, do we?" she said. "We'll rest first. Neither of you is going to be good for anything if you're exhausted. We'll make what time we can after that."

Jason couldn't keep the small smile from his face and he nodded. "You're stronger than I gave you credit for, love. Come on."

He lifted her off the ground and carried her to a spot by the fire. He laid her on her side and tucked his body up against her back. Stargazer knelt down in front of her.

"May I, Frr'a'narr'ah?" he asked quietly.

Meriah nodded and lifted her arm, inviting him to lay in front of her. He took the invitation and soon she lay tucked between them, the warmth of their bodies keeping her warm as the glow of their minds helped to ease the burning pain in her leg, and soon she drifted to a light sleep.

She awakened to the bright glow of Stargazer's mind nudging her gently as Jason stirred behind her. With the practice of many nights spent in the forest of Airgidbaile, she quickly transitioned to full wakefulness.

"We should depart," he said as he rose and stretched.

She heard Jason groaning behind her and felt his sleepy grumpiness trying to come to the fore. She batted it down playfully with a wash of optimism from within her own mind and his hand gently scratched between her ears. His attention perked slightly when he felt the absence of pain along the link and he sat up.

"Are you feeling all right, Meriah?" he asked.

"As long as I don't move, yes," she answered.

He rummaged in his pack and pulled out a small but bright torch then turned it on and shone it on her wound.

"It's getting worse. We need to go," he said.

Together, they packed up what little they had used over the couple hours they were in the clearing and tied Meriah back into her sling on Jason's back. Every movement had pain flaring up and down her leg and by the time they got her settled and started on their way again, she was brushing the tears from her damp cheeks.

"I'm sorry, love," Jason said, "but I'm going to be going as fast as I can, and it's not going to be comfortable. If it gets too bad, we have some meds we can give you, but I'm afraid they'll interfere with the joining, and I won't be able to feel what's going on with you."

"I'd rather stay joined. I'll survive," she said. She didn't want to give up the feeling of having him close to her and having his calm to draw on.

With her leg splinted, there were only so many ways that she could arrange herself in the sling, and she had to find ways to move with Jason as he almost jogged along the forest floor. She managed well enough to start with, though eventually, she had to just let the pain become a part of her.

The journey seemed interminable, and though she could feel Jason's energy flagging, he kept going, hour after hour, making his way through the trees and across the loam of the forest floor. Meriah was silent through it all, lending her strength to Jason as the hours and the kilometers crept by.

Finally, a flagging in the link told her that he could go no further and she finally spoke.

"We'll rest here for an hour," she said. "Then we'll start again, and I'll ride with Stargazer for a leg."

James was too tired to argue, but he sent a small wave of thanks while he found a convenient log where he could set her down. Stargazer broke out the ration packs again and set them to heating. All of them were far too exhausted for idle talk, and they sat in the relative quiet of the forest, listening to the sounds of the forest around them.

Meriah sat up suddenly and her eyes darted to the trees. Something was not right around the camp, and with her link to the other two being as solid and open as it was, they felt it as well. There was another presence in the forest, and this one did not have the friendly feeling of other Mrr'tani that she'd met. It was pride and hate and petty vindictiveness, and from the overall sense of it, there was another Mrr'tani who was exuding it.

"Lucien," Jason hissed.

The familiarity of the emotions struck her and she sent a silent nod of agreement across to him. She heard Stargazer rise to his feet and Jason followed shortly after.

"Stay here," Jason whispered. "We'll flush him. I think I know what happened to the engines."

Be careful, she said in his mind.

The two of them moved silently off into the trees and Meriah drew her knife as she lost sight of them.

Her good ear lifted and scanned the forest for any sound, relying on her gamekeeper training to separate the important sounds from the background. She could hear the insects in the trees, the various small animals moving in the grass and the night hunters going about their business. All of it was part of the myriad of sounds that was night in the forest, even here on Avalon.

Cautiously, she opened her mind a little more, seeking out with her other sense, still wary of reveling too much of herself to someone that obviously meant her harm. She felt him almost immediately, and she knew without a doubt that he was looking for her. His mind latched onto hers and she tamped down the link to the bare minimum that she could still feel.

That seemed to break the connection between them, because his mind began searching again. A crack of a branch behind her had her spinning around on the log, holding her knife at the ready. As she watched, Lucian's lanky form materialized from the trees.

He held his own knife in his hand and his muzzle was split by a foul grin.

"Thought you could hide, did you?" he asked, his voice hissing. "I knew what you were the moment I saw you."

"That makes two of us, traitor," Meriah spat. "What are they giving you for murdering your own people?"

"A good salary and my freedom at the end of my contract," Lucian said, taking a step forward. "It's a pity you didn't die in the crash. It would have made things much easier. We had to track you for far too long."

"We?" Meriah asked.

Lucien opened his mouth to answer her but stopped when a scream of pain and terror sounded in the forest, cut short abruptly as a small flock of something rustled through the grass. A triumphant elation lit up across her link with Jason and she grinned.

"Well, 'we' is one less now," she taunted.

"It doesn't matter," he said with a snarl, "I still have you. The humans are nothing if it means I can add another Mother to my list."

"You have nothing, Lucien," she said.

"Bet that leg hurts, girl," he said, advancing again. "I was hoping the humans would finish off your friends. Then we could simply wait for the coolant poisoning to finish you off. Nice and natural. Avalon wouldn't even be able to lodge a protest."

Meriah frowned. Maybe there was something at work here on this world that would help to free the Mrr'tani eventually. If those in power here were willing to protest the treatment of Frr'a'narr'ahn, then there was hope.

"A pity," she said, sending a cry of distress down the link to both Jason and Stargazer.

"I'll get over it," Lucien said with a grin and another step forwards.

Another scream was cut short and she felt Stargazer's satisfaction.

"Down to us, Lucien," she said, drawing all the strength and courage she could from both her Mrr'tanoun and herself. Something winked alive inside her and she fixed her gaze on Lucien.

He felt it at the same time and he frowned. "Then I'll have to make this quick," he said. "They'll settle for your head."

Meriah watched him take another step, his eyes warily locked with hers. He was so concentrated on her that he stumbled when his foot hit a small hill.

It was the moment she was waiting for. She drew everything she could from both James and Stargazer and thrust it down into herself. The pain in her leg disappeared and she launched herself from the log directly at Lucien. His mind was so fixed on her injury that he never expected the move, and she reached out with her mind at the same time she lunged, thrusting her energy down the link.

He staggered a step with the force of her mental blow and before he could recover, Meriah thrust her knife deep, sliding it between his ribs until her hand felt fur over the hilt. Her momentum carried her still, crashing her body against hers and they both tumbled to the ground.

Hot blood washed over her hand but she paid it no mind. The force of their collision with the ground forced her knife out of his chest and when she landed on top of him, she thrust it in again, this time on the other side of his chest. Her aim was true again, and she felt the flare of pain in his mind as she slid the blade out again.

He started to lift his hands, but she was too quick, charged with the energy of three Mrr'tani, and instead of the knife, her final swipe brought her claws down against his throat and then across, tearing four gaping gashes across his neck. His blood splashed on the trees and pumped uselessly from severed arteries, pooling beneath his head.

With a rattling, gurgling breath, she felt his body relax beneath her and his link faded and winked out in her head. She held her knife at the ready until the link finally went black and then let loose of her tight control on the others' energy, letting it flow out from her.

The searing pain returned to her leg, more intense than she'd felt before, but only a quiet whimper escaped her lips for fear that there were still other humans in the forest. Her strength left her and the knife fell from her hands to the grass as she collapsed on top of Lucien's still body.

Her breath came in sobbing, ragged gasps and she finally managed to get herself sitting up again with her leg stretched out in front of her. Her fur was soaked in blood and there were bits of fur and flesh in her claws. A hand on her shoulder brought her wheeling around with a cry of pain and challenge, but another hand stopped her wrist as she thrust it forward.

"Please, be calm, Frr'a'narr'ah," Stargazer said, holding her hand gently. "It is only me."

Meriah gaped at him as she felt him in her mind again. "Stargazer," she breathed. She wrapped her arms around him and he picked her up off Lucien's body. Together, they sat back down on the log and waited for Jason to return.

There was a sharp shout of triumph from the trees and soon after he came barreling back into the small clearing.

"We're set!" he cried. "One of the humans had a personal transmitter."

He sat on the log next to Meriah and activated the small communicator.

"Avalon control, medical emergency, please respond," he said into the speaker.

"This is Avalon control," a voice called back. "Medical emergency copy. State the nature and equipment required."

"Shuttle crash from Avalon station. Three survivors of four souls. Two green, minor injuries, one red. Need immediate evac to nearest medical for penetrating injury with associated coolant toxicity."

"Control copies three for medical evacuation, two green one red. Nearest medical is Rawsss'a'Mrr'sarr, is this acceptable?"

"Perfectly. All three waiting at these coordinates."

"Confirmed. Flight dispatched, do not move from coordinates and advise if situation changes. Central clear."

Jason closed the cover on the emergency transmitter and slipped it into his pocket. He looked over at Lucien lying on the ground and went to check. Finding no pulse, he called Stargazer over and the two of them dragged him further into the woods, where the lights from the coming rescue vehicle wouldn't see him. He would be another casualty of the Avalon Wilderness.

When it was done, they sat next to Meriah and held her between them, Jason letting his love wash across the link while Stargazer's was more devotion and loyalty.

A bright light flared in the trees only a quarter of a cycle later and shortly after, the trees swayed as they were caught in the hovercraft's counter-grav field. The searchlight focused on the trio sitting in the clear and a shape fell from the sky. A well-muscled Mrr'tanou in a powered frame landed and straightened in front of them, then walked quickly to Meriah.

"We saw the shuttle crash and we were scouting for survivors. You made good time," he said.

Jason chuckled, the weariness more than apparent in his voice. "We had some good incentive. Didn't have a transmitter and she's got coolant poisoning."

"Don't blame you," he said, turning to Meriah. "I'm Elijah. I'll be treating you on the way to Rawss'a'mrr'sarr. Are you in pain?"

He ran a small scanner over her body as he was speaking, and though the rest of him was difficult to make out beneath the suit, she could see that he had kind eyes and she tasted his sincere desire to help.

"Yes. My leg hurts terribly," she finally admitted.

He stopped the scanner over her wound and held it there for a long moment.

"It's no wonder. You're pretty advanced. I'm going to put a tourniquet on so that we're sure to save the hip."

He reached into a pouch on his leg and pulled out a long strap that he started wrapping high up around Meriah's thigh.

"What about her leg?" Jason asked, a tinge of worry in his voice.

"First glance, I'm going to have to say it's a lost cause, but I'm not a surgeon. The Rawss folks have some amazing docs, though, so I wouldn't count it out yet."

He tied the strip around her leg and hit a button on his scanner. It inflated and Meriah gasped as hundreds of needles pierced her skin at the same time all around. It was a brief, sharp pain that drew a shout of surprise, and then all sensation below it faded away.

"Sorry, should have warned you. Does it feel better?"

"I can't feel anything," she said, poking her leg with a finger in wonder.

"Then it's doing its job. What's your name, Mountain girl?" he asked.

"Meriah," she answered. Then she looked curiously at him. "Mountain girl?"

Elijah laughed. "You're mountain clan, right? You've got the markings."

Meriah nodded. "That's right."

"Then Mountain girl seemed appropriate, but Meriah is much prettier. You ready to go?"

"I'm ready," she answered.

Elijah signaled the hovercraft and a winch was lowered with a basket on the end of a hook. While it was coming down, he helped Meriah into a harness. When it was on the ground, he bundled Meriah into it and connected her harness to the hook as well.

"Hold on here, and here," he said, putting her hands in the proper places. "And don't move. Just stay still and let them do all the heavy lifting at the top."

Meriah nodded and with a gesture, she was lifted off the ground, drawn rapidly to the hovercraft above. Waiting at the top were two more Mrr'tani, one male and one female, both wearing the same suit as Elijah. They lifted her easily into the craft and then sent down three plain hooks without baskets. The Mrr'tanou lifted her off the deck and set her gently down on a gurney and strapped her in while the Mrr'tanah manned the winch.

Soon all of them were aboard and secured. Elijah strapped himself into the chair next to Meriah's bed and turned on the scanner above her. She still couldn't feel her leg, but it didn't worry her nearly as much any longer because she could sense Jason's relief in their rescue and their destination. She laid her head back against the pillow and let her eyes drift shut, letting the exhaustion finally win out.

"It's all right, Mountain girl," Elijah said. "You can sleep. You're gonna be all right."

The sound of the hovercraft's engines grew louder and then faded away as she let herself go, falling into a deep, exhausted sleep.