“Anything that could be used as a weaponhas been evacuated from the room.” Her mother’s face suddenly appeared on thevid-com screen beside the main door into the gym.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Shanee said.
“It will be a fair fight,” her motherreplied. “May the Wind be at your back.”
* * * * *
They were waiting for him as Quinn appearedon the transporter pad. A gurney had been rolled close and he hurried to layAilyn down. “I’ve got to go back. Something isn’t right,” the Phantom saidbefore stepping back and disappearing again.
“Get him down to sickbay,” Bakari said. Hewas stunned at the strange gray pallor that covered Ailyn Harmattan’s face.
Leveche and Bakari were right behind thegurney as it was rolled into the elevator. On the way up the two decks tosickbay, they didn’t speak but there was no need. They recognized impendingdeath when they saw it.
The healer and his assistants took overcharge of the gurney as soon as the elevator doors opened, grabbing the rollingbed and rushing into the diagnostic room with it.
“What I wouldn’t give for one of those TAOSunits off the Sláinte,” the healer said, speaking of the Tissue ArteryOrgan Skeletal diagnostic and restoration unit he’d heard about.
“Wouldn’t do any good with a Reaper,”Leveche reminded him. “Only the hellion can heal him.”
Quinn suddenly appeared next to thehealer—effectively scaring the poor man. “Sorry,” the Scaan apologizedthen thrust a beaker of the black blood and a vac-syringe at the healer. “Youmight want to analyze these. Something tells me they are tainted.”
“Tainted how, Rory?” Bakari asked.
“With that gods-be-damned nephrotoxin,”Leveche snarled. “I’d stake my kingdom on it!”
“You mean what’s in here could be shuttingdown his kidneys?” the healer asked, handing the beaker to an assistant with acommand to run it through analysis.
“Aye and if that’s true, there’s only onething we can do about it,” Leveche said. His hand went to his tie and hestarted jerking it from its knot.
“Ship’s leaving, Burgon!” Polemusa saidfrom the vid-com.
Bakari hesitated. He wanted to be there forAilyn but he desperately wanted to make sure the Ceannus LRC was destroyed.
“Go,” Leveche said. “There’s nothing youcan do to help right now.” He was stripping off his shirt.
“You’re going to give him one of yourfledglings?” the healer asked.
“No,” Leveche said with a grimace. “I’mgoing to give him my queen.”
* * * * *
Shanee put her hand on the panel to slidethe gym door open and strolled inside as though she had not a care in theworld. Across the room, the woman she intended to kill was trying to find a wayout. As soon as the Amazeen entered, Elspeth spun around, her face turning hardas flint.
“Well, if it isn’t my son’s whore,” shehissed.
“Well, if it isn’t my husband’ssoon-to-be-dead mother,” Shanee flung back at her.
Elspeth sniffed and a slight hint of feardarted across her face as she recognized the Reaper scent. “Is he dead yet?”she asked, wanting to hurt the Amazeen.
Though those four words drove an ice-colddagger of pain through her heart, Shanee forced herself not to react. “He’svery much alive,” she said.
The older woman laughed. “Oh I doubt that,”she said, and began moving to the side, away from the advance of the unarmedAmazeen. “Cean took all his fledglings though she left the useless queen.”
“The queen isn’t as useless as you thoughtshe was,” Shanee said. She could feel the blood pounding in her temples.
“Cean didn’t take the queen from himbecause it was dying,” Elspeth declared. “Between the ghoret venom and thenephrotoxin, the hellion didn’t stand a chance of surviving.”
Shanee had to believe Leveche and Bakariwould take care of her ailing husband. She could not afford to allow heropponent to put doubt—and fear—into her mind. Ailyn would be all right. Hisfriends would save him. The important thing was to rid the megaverse of thelikes of Elspeth Harmattan-Jost.
“Believe what you will, old woman,” Shaneesaid. “Either way, you are toast.”
Ailyn’s mother’s forehead furrowed for amoment then with teeth bared, she rushed Shanee—no doubt believing the elementof surprise would be on her side.
* * * * *
“Your queen?” Bakari questioned, his mouthdropping open.
“Burgon?” Polemusa prodded. “Do you want tobe on the bridge when we take Cean down or not?”
“I told you to go, Ry,” Leveche said. Hehad removed his shirt and was motioning for a gurney to be rolled up so hecould lie down. “I have to transfer my queen to him. That is the only way tosave his life. Now get your ass up there and spray Cean into space particles.”
“Removing your queen won’t harm you?” thehealer asked.
Leveche shook his head. “I’ll be weak butthe nest will choose another fledgling to be queen.” He scowled at Bakari. “Getthe hell out of here, Burgon!”
Bakari hesitated only a fraction of asecond longer then sprinted into the open cage of the elevator. He salutedLeveche as the Reaper hopped up on the gurney.
“What do I need to do, your grace?” thehealer asked.
“You’ll need to make a twelve-inch-long cutfrom kidney to kidney on both of us. Take my queen first then open him andremove his. Scoop out as much of Her as you can because I imagine She’ll bedisintegrating by now. Place my queen in him and then stand back. She’ll closeup the wound.”
“The Sustenance is laced with nephrotoxin,”the healer’s assistant reported. “So is the tenerse.”
“I’ll go back down and destroy all of it,”Quinn said. “Do you have extra for him, Gabe?”
“Aye, there’s plenty on board,” the Reaperreplied as the healer began swabbing his back with an astringent.
“Do you want me to put you out?” the healerasked.
“Not necessary,” Leveche said. “Just get onwith it!”
* * * * *
Bakari sat down in his command chair justas the Ceannus LRC began its ascent. He asked if the Scaans had returnedto the Raptor and was assured they had. “Open a channel to that bitch’sship,” he ordered.
“They are blocking us,” the com officerreplied.
“We’re locked on them, Burgon,” the weaponsofficer told him.
“Then blast their reptilian tails out
