BORN OF HEROES

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 21
 

  “As far as the seditarol goes, it’s not harmful if the contact is physical, er, external. Once it’s ingested, though, it becomes an entirely different matter,” Lemuel was saying as he and Randal sat outside the door to the room that Cerise was in sipping cups of something that was coffee only in name. “It attacks certain areas, essentially shutting various organs down. After a while the poison builds up turning them into pulp. With most of the vermin it’s used to control it simply makes them sterile and incapable of breeding. In others, it attacks more than the reproductive areas and causes more insidious damage. Another day and we’d have been having a funeral instead of talking here in a hospital.”

  The wolf nodded. “So it isn’t harmful to touch?”

  The tiger shook his head. “As long as you don’t have large quantities on your hands then handle food or ingest it, you should be fine.”

  “And how long does this stuff, this seditarol, how long does it linger? Can it leave detectable traces?”

  “Externally? It can be there for months, even up to a year.” Lem was looking at his cohort with a strange expression. “It depends on if the substance is exposed to skin or fur, but it tends to wind up all over a person that handles it. It’s like a super fine powder and eventually gets into the pores and hair follicles,” he said, his eyes suddenly starting to widen.

  “Which means it can be tested for,” the wolf said.

  “All you need is an ultraviolet lamp. The stuff would light up like a city at night,” the Doctor said.

  Instead of acknowledging that bit of information, Randal spun around and caught a ringtail orderly by the arm. “Where’s the nearest communications terminal?” he asked with his huge paw around the staffer’s upper arm.

  “The lemur cringed at the look in the large lupine’s eyes, and shrank in on himself. “D-d-d-d-down th-th hall. Th-th-third d-d-door on the l-left!” he squeaked.

  Randal looked at the staffer’s nametag. “Thank you, Brett.” Then he took off with a very determined gait in the direction of the communication terminal.

  “You’ll have to forgive my rather intense friend,” the tiger said with a smile. “He tends to be very direct and he’s had a stressful week.”

  “Then I’d hate to see him irritated!” the lemur responded and scampered off.

  “So would I, little friend,” the Doctor chuckled. “So would I.”

 *** 

  “I’ll let Cerise’s parents know and have the investigation team dispatched within an hour,” Sander Brees said from the terminal. The vidscreen image was grainy and distorted as a result of the small encryption unit that Randal had attached to the terminal. “How is she doing?” the lion asked, concern in his voice and in his eyes evident despite the poor picture.

  “She’s out of danger and recovering, Sir. All I know is it’s a good thing that we were near Pomen. They have some really top class doctors here. Just to be on the safe side, we’ve all been tested and swept the ship. Only Elias has shown traces of any of the poison, but it was a small amount and already being disposed of naturally. All he really had was residual stuff. Cerise got the majority of it, which makes me think that she was the specific target. Do you have any idea of who might have done this?” Randal took the safety of his crewmates very seriously, and wished he were in a position to handle this more directly.

  The lion looked thoughtful. “Not a one. Is Elias holding up all right?”

  “He’s finally resting. This has hit him pretty hard, Sir. I’m not sure how wise it was to let a married couple run this, but it’s still your call. I will give Elias credit, though. He’s a fine officer and a real professional.”

 Sander Brees nodded his huge head. “That he is. You continue doing what you are and keep me posted. While you’re on the line, is there anything you need from home?”

  Randal shook his head then smiled. “The last care package that you sent was rather nice and I’m having fun with it as are the others. If you can think of any more toys you might have lying around, don’t hesitate to send them our way.”

  “We’ll see what we have,” the Colonel replied with a short laugh. “Take care of my kids, Randy,” he added with a tone of serious concern.

  “Like they were my litter mates, Sir.”

The lion nodded once more and broke the connection. Randy disconnected the portable scrambler and left the terminal cubicle, heading back to the room where Cerise was recuperating and the company of Lemuel Anders. He admired all of the individuals that he was serving with. The wolf had had his doubts as to the some of the choices for this operation, but it was all working out fairly well.

   It had been a bit of a shock when a senior cadet at the Academy had presented him with a sealed envelope during one of his combat classes, and even more of a jolt when he opened the note to find his presence requested immediately by the head of the Special Operations offices. Handing the class over to a junior instructor, Sergeant First Class Randal Mercks had high-tailed it to the specific office he was told to report to, straightening his uniform even as he stepped up to the reception desk occupied by a grizzled looking hyena with enough service hash marks on his sleeve that very little of the uniform material underneath was visible.

  “Go on in, Sergeant. The Colonel’s waiting for you,” the canine had said without looking up in a rasping voice that was reminiscent of a file on metal.

  He entered the office that was adorned with pictures on every wall and a huge vidscreen on the back wall that flickered through a series of pictures that the wolf realized were from the halls of the Academy. Ignoring the live-streaming video, Colonel Sander Brees sat at his desk, working through a pile of papers and folders with a frown and occasional snarl of frustration.

  “Sit down Mercks,” the lion had said perfunctorily.

  The wolf complied and sat quietly until the Colonel deemed him worthy of attention. After several long minutes he looked up to the young noncommissioned officer who’d not moved for over twelve minutes. His eyes dropping back to his work, Brees spoke. “How do you like your position, Sergeant?” he asked gruffly.

  “Fine, Sir. This batch of recruits is shaping up rather well, but they aren’t quite ready for duty yet.”

  “I asked how you liked your position as head Instructor, Mercks. Not the status of your kay-dets,” the lion said with a slight growl.

  Randal took a deep breath. “It’s nothing that another instructor can’t handle, Sir. I’d rather be out in the field where I can make a difference and not stuck in the training cadre, Sir.”

  “That’s better. I ask a question, I want a straight answer. I get enough people blowing pixie dust and starshine up my nethers around here.” He closed the folder he was working on and looked at the wolf with a level and penetrating gaze. “How would you like an assignment on a rather...sensitive operation that I’m running? Now, before you answer, I want you to know that it’s going to be dangerous. There won’t be any official recognition for a long while, if ever. The hours will be lousy, you’ll be out for extended periods. It’s going to be dirty, but vital. What says you?”

  Randal swallowed and smiled slowly. “In the field? Out of cadre?” He saw the Colonel nod and his smile grew bigger. “Where do I sign, Sir?”

  Once his signature was on the form of transfer, Randy was told that he would be the combat team leader for the first of a series of pirate hunter ships. The wolf was overjoyed and showed it with a large, toothy grin.

  After meeting the others that would be serving on the hunter, Brees pulled Randal aside and told him what his priority, regardless of everything else that happened was. To keep the crew safe, especially it’s Captain and his mate.

  Randal had agreed and found that the mission, one he believed in upon learning the details, was a pleasant challenge and a viable use of his skills and talents. He planned on staying with the program until he was either killed, the project was terminated, or they ran out of pirates.

  He was, until Cerise’s illness, having the time of his life knowing that he was in the place where he could do the most good. She was fighting for her very survival against something that he was incapable of combating and it left him feeling more than a little helpless.

  Cerise had been friendly, warm and welcoming to everyone on the ship, making each one feel special and unique. That was her gift, and Randal looked upon the petite vixen as he would a little sister. Which, of course, extended certain amiable feelings to Elias. The fox had spent as much time in the SPF as he, and the Alexandrian Fleet before that, but Elias was the center to Cerise’s world, and the wolf felt a certain kindred relation to both and held their well-being as paramount.

  He returned to door of the vixen’s room, looked in on her and gave the space a quick scan to ensure there wasn’t anything, or anyone, out of place and all was as it should be. Resuming his seat in the chair on the other side of the corridor from the door, Randy began another long vigil until Sonja came to relieve him for the next watch.

***

  Elias woke up curled around a warm back and realized immediately that it wasn’t Cerise. He opened his eyes, and through the early morning sunlight streaming past the drapes to the hotel’s large windows, saw that it was Melise. He knew that nothing had happened, and as he lay there, bits of memory came flooding back of her helping him clean up, then holding him and lending the fox her strength.

  With a sigh, and throbbing in his head that told him he’d spent too much time awake, then too much time asleep, with nothing to sustain him save a couple of bags of vending machine snacks and vile dispenser machine coffee, he rolled out from under the covers and rested his feet on the floor. Melise stirred as soon as he moved, and was instantly on her feet. He waved away her offers to get him something and took a deep breath. With a grunt, he stood and stretched, several vertebrae popping loudly in the stillness of the room.

  “I feel like hell,” he growled, staggering around the bed towards the bathroom.

  Melise smiled. “At least you don’t look, or smell like it anymore.”

  “True,” he agreed and shut the door before relieving himself. He flushed the toilet, then moved to the sink and washed his face with cold water and towel dried before staggering back out to find clean clothes. Someone had brought some of his things from the ship and put them in this room, and he selected a pair of loose khaki trousers, a billowy cotton shirt in deep blue, and a pair of dark brown soft boots.

  The panda was almost dressed when he exited the bathroom, and had finished dressing and secreting her weaponry in various places before he was even halfway ready. He felt no self-consciousness at being nude around his friend. They had been intimate for almost two years, and had seen each other at their best and worst. As far as Melise was concerned, he knew that she really didn’t have any hang ups about nudity from her youth on Brandt.

  Elias finished pulling his boots on and grabbed his gun belt, fastened it, then checked his pistol. He slid it home once he was satisfied there was nothing amiss with it and it would work properly. He found Melise looking at him with an indecipherable look in her eyes that passed.

  “Let’s go get you some breakfast before we go to the hospital,” she told him.

  The mention of breakfast made his stomach growl achingly, and he nodded, still not quite together and followed the panda. It didn’t take long to get their food, and Elias consumed half a dozen eggs and a breakfast steak, washing it down with two cups of coffee.

  They walked to the hospital, more to get Elias more awake and his blood flowing than anything else, so by the time they reached the room that Cerise was in he was in full control of his faculties. Randal and Sonja nodded and smiled at the fox as he stepped past them and into his wife’s room, letting the door shut behind him.

  “Was he much trouble?” Randal asked in concern.

  Melise shook her head. “No. Just exhausted. Now that she’s starting to wake up I think he’ll be fine.” She leaned against the wall and looked at the others. “Has she woken up again yet?”

  “No. She stirred a little during the night, but nothing that I’d call awake. Her breathing and heart rate are more steady and getting stronger every hour. The Doctors, Lemuel and that Halstead fellow, think that she’ll be able to check out in the next couple of days,” the wolf informed her.

  “That’s a relief,” Sonja said with a tired sigh.

  “Agreed,” Melise said, with Randy nodding once in agreement.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.