Page 20 of Salvation for the Alien Mercenary
"Ready," she said, holding it out.
Covak nodded, taking the compress and applying it to the outer edges of the wound. Davis's breathing hitched, then steadied as whatever was in the solution provided some small relief.
"The wound's surface response seems normal," Covak said, mostly to himself. "But under the surface..." He shook his head, running another scan.
She didn't miss the way Covak's expression changed. Confidence evaporated into something that looked suspiciously like worry. The big medic ran the scanner over the wound again, blue light making the damaged tissue look even more alien.
"I've never seen anything like this," he murmured, his usual swagger nowhere to be found.
"That's comforting.” She peered at the readout. She couldn't decipher all the Latharian symbols, but the pulsing waveform was impossible to miss. "What's that thing doing?"
"Still resonating," he said, tapping the display. “This frexxing thing is fighting every treatment. The cellular regeneration is completely inhibited."
Davis's skin felt hotter each time she moved near him, the fever climbing visibly on the monitors. Sweat had begun to bead across his forehead and chest, making the wound glisten unnaturally in the medbay's harsh lighting.
"Going to try a cryo-stabilizer," Covak said, pulling another device from a cabinet. "If we can't stop the reaction, maybe we can slow it down."
The device hummed when he activated it, a blue-white glow emanating from its emitter. When he passed it over the wound, what looked like crystals of frost formed briefly along the edges… beautiful and terrifying at once.
Davis's knuckles went white on the bed's edge, but he didn't make a sound. She held her breath, watching the monitors. For a moment, the energy signature wavered, its rhythm faltering.
"There," Covak said, satisfaction briefly coloring his tone. "That's disrupting the?—"
The signature surged back, stronger than before. The monitor beeped a warning, and the Vorrtan cursed in what had to be his native tongue, a guttural string of sounds that her translator implant struggled to process.
Spot chose that moment to skitter into the medbay, legs clicking against the deck plates. The little drakeen beelined straight for her, bumping against her leg with an anxious chirp. Its optical sensors darted between her and Davis, blinking in what could only be described as concern.
She leaned down, patting its casing reassuringly. "It's okay, little guy."
Spot chirped again, multiple sensors focusing on Davis with alarming intensity. The drakeen made a series of rapid clicking sounds, almost like it was attempting to analyze the wound on its own.
Heavy, metallic footsteps announced Jex's arrival before he appeared. The Scorperio suit filled the doorway completely, gleaming battle plate catching the medbay lights. The cyborg moved with improbable grace for something so massive, heading straight for the bed without preamble.
"Covak to Jex," Covak said dryly. "Oh wait, you're already here."
"Biometric anomaly detected on the bridge monitors," Jex replied, voice synthesized but somehow still conveying urgency. "Davis's life signs are... unusual."
Jex interfaced directly with Covak's scanner, the data transfer taking less than a heartbeat. A needle emerged from one mechanical fingertip, hovering over Davis's arm.
"Blood sample required," he stated. "Minor discomfort."
"Minor discomfort," Davis echoed with a snort. "That's what you said about the targeting array calibration last week."
The needle plunged into his arm with mechanical precision. Davis didn't even flinch, which worried her more than if he'd screamed. The man was practically carved from stone, muscles bunched tight against pain that should have him writhing.
Spot chirped and scurried onto the bed, perching near Davis's feet like a protective gargoyle. The drakeen's sensors fixed on the wound with laser focus.
She wondered briefly if the little robot could sense something they couldn't. Davis had been skeptical when she'd found Spot in the scrapyard, insisting it was just a machine responding to programmed stimuli. But she'd seen enough to know better… the drakeen was more aware than anyone gave Spot credit for.
"Anomaly detected," Jex reported after analyzing the sample. "Elevated protein markers inconsistent with current trauma. Non-biological energy harmonic present within blood cells. Origin unknown."
Covak and Jex exchanged a look that transcended species differences. Even with one being furry and the other mechanical, she could read the universal "we're screwed" in that glance.
"Searching database for comparable energy signatures," Jex continued, the Scorperio suit maintaining perfect stillness as his consciousness worked through terabytes of data.
"The resonance pattern resembles some Latharian weapon signatures," Covak added, adjusting his scanner. "But nothing that explains these specific cellular responses."
"Scan complete," Jex announced. "No direct matches found. However, the harmonic structure bears similarity to Latharian defensive shield modulators. Theoretical applications of such technology to biological systems were banned during the Third Expansion era for ethical violations."
