“Is that a path open tome? Could I become part of your Defense Corps?”
“If that’s what you want,then absolutely. And there’s still a lot of pathswithin the UDC. Youcould be a scientist, an engineer—”
“Could I do what you do?Protect people?”
“Well, let’s notget too carried away….” When Moira glared at her, lips in an exaggerated pout,Naiche smiled, saying, “That wasn’t sarcasm – that’s calledteasing. It’s somethingyou do with friends.”
Finnegan stopped short andstared at Naiche. “You consider me as a friend? Is it proper tocall you by your informal name now?”
“Sure – you can call me‘Deck’ if you want. Now, come on, I’ve gotta get back and check onmy other friend.”
Chapter 9
Love,Courage and Wisdom
“But the one who has love, courage and wisdommoves the world.” Ammon Hennacy, The Book of Ammon
Early the next morningKapoor and Quan arrived at the Featay village and assisted Deckerin transferring Kennedy to the Aurora. Naiche and Kay paced aroundoutside his treatment room until Dr. Uddin exited and allowed themadmittance. The Aurora medic, Eric Baseman, was nowhere to be seen. As far as Deckercould tell, he appeared to have gladly ceded complete control ofhis Med-bay to Uddin.
She found Con sitting up,with Aqila in the chair next to him, holding his hand. Aqila jumpedup and hugged Decker. “I finally get to thank you inperson!”
While Naiche assured her nothanks were necessary, she watched Kayatennae rush over to the bedand give Con a gentle but through evaluation by nose. Afterexplaining, “He’s been very worried about you,” she asked Kennedyhow he was feeling.
Con moved his right legunder the blanket, saying, “I can do this without pain – does thatanswer your question?”
Naiche pointed at the linerunning from the med-infusion module to underneath the blanket.“You sure it’s not because of that?”
Laughingly, Con protested,“Way to spoil the moment,” and eased the leg back down slowly.“Yesterday is kind of a blur – but from what I remember, theAurora crew werecompletely mistaken about the Featay.”
“We can add that to thegrowing list of things they were wrong about, but yeah, it seemslike the Featay are decent people who got handed a pretty rawdeal.” Decker acquainted Kennedy and Lateef with the history ofTolu she had learned from the Featay, then asked Aqila, “Have youfigured anything out about the peerazu? I’d love to help the Featayfind a better way to ward off attacks.”
“The only thing I’vedetermined so far is that those animals are, genetically speaking,armored, belligerent killing machines.” Lateef shook her head.“That gamma ray burst did a really weird number on their evolution.They devote an incredible proportion of their metabolism toaggression and fighting but I’ve yet to figure out that they get inreturn.”
“Territory?” Conguessed.
“You’d think,” Deck said,“but the Featay say they live and breed only in the mountains. Theyshow up down here just to wreak havoc.” She asked Lateef, “Is therea genetic mutation for being an asshole?”
Before Aqila could respond,Con jumped in. “There has to be – how else would you explainCroker?”
Deck’s answering laugh diedout quickly. “I gotta run,” she said, “I’ve got some unfinishedbusiness to take care of.” To avoid questions about the exactnature of that business, she suggested, “You two deserve moreprivate time together, anyway.”
While she gave Con a quickfarewell hug, he said, “I know you’d rather I ignore it, Deck, butthe fact remains – you saved my life. Thanks.”
She answered, “Anytime,Boss,” and slipped out of the room, followed by Kayatennae. In thecorridor she met up with Uddin and asked for his medical opinion onKennedy’s condition.
The doctor reported, “He’sdoing quite well. Your quick work and that medicine the Feataysupplied saved his leg. Without that, I’m pretty sure I would haveneeded to amputate. Now, it looks like he won’t even lose anyfunctionality. I’m hoping to release him for duty in a couple ofdays.”
While rolling up hersleeves, Naiche said, “Good. Then you won’t mind me sending anotherpatient your way….”
“If you’re talking aboutFirst Mate Croker, I’m going to strongly advice you not to doanything rash.” Uddin put a gentle hand on her arm. “You shouldknow that he’s very sorry.”
She smiled down at thestout, affable doctor, but nonetheless insisted, “Not half as sorryas he’s gonna be.”
“Do you really think thisis what Commander Kennedy wants?”
“Considering how pissedoff he is about that stunt Croker pulled – I don’t think he’llmind.”
“What about your…whatabout Captain Ricci? Don’t you think such an act of petty vengeancefrom you would disappoint him greatly?”
“Maybe – but it sure ashell won’t surprise him.”
His usually genialexpression replaced by a scowl, Omar stated, “All right then – howabout this? Moira Finnegan was here a few minutes ago gushing abouthow forgiving you are, letting her off the hook for her, quoteunquote, extreme stupidity—”
“Moira is little more thana child!”
“They all are, Decker. Haven’t you figuredthat out? For all of his bluster and arrogance, Croker has hadpractically no real-life experience beyond this mission. I don’tknow why the Lignatians did it, but they sent this crew outwoefully unprepared for…well, anything.”
Reluctantly, Decker feltthe truth of Uddin’s assertion flow over her – washing away herfury with it. She sighed and nodded, admitting, “Okay – you got me.That was the one.”
“Good. Now how would youlike an assignment more worthwhile than beating upCroker?”
“Hard to believe there’sanything more worthwhile than that, Doc, but I’m game. What isit?”
“I’d like to know moreabout that medicinal paste the Featay gave you for Con’s leg. Basedon his rapid recovery, it seems to have remarkable therapeuticproperties – properties worth studying.”
Relieved to have somethingto occupy her time, Deck agreed to petition the Featay for a sampleof the paste. She went to locate Lindstrom and inform him of herintentions. When she and Kay found him in his temporary office,conferring with Maddox, she apologized for theintrusion.
In a slightly amused tone,Lindstrom asked, “You’re not here to self-report an infraction,Lieutenant, are you?”
When she assured him thatshe wasn’t, Naiche thought for an instant that he seemeddisappointed but wrote it off to projection on her part. Sheexplained that she was going back to the Featay village to seeabout obtaining a fresh portion of the therapeutic paste for
