Escaping Relativity
Chapter 32

Suspended in a place she could never share, Charlie sat. On the right hand she held a world and time where Xander fought for his and Brick’s life, and on the left hand she held a world where Rolara and Lennie watched her with great care .

Then in an instant she merged the left onto the right, and pulled the two men into the confines of her world. Opening her eyes, she saw them, Xander and a younger stockier version of Xander were laying on the floor in front of her, blood covering them both. She started to run to them, but a pain shot through her head swift and sharp almost blinding her in its intensity.

Falling back, she grabbed her head, balling up into the fetal position. There was nothing but white light and pain. Surely she wasn’t dead, Heaven wasn’t supposed to be painful. Maybe she didn’t make it in. Oh hell no! She was not playing that game!

Breathing deeply, she slowly opened her eyes and the whiteness went away as the men materialized completely. She turned her head very slowly to look at Lennie, whose face was covered in worry, worry for all of them she imagined.

“Can I get up now, Lennie?” Charlie whispered.

“Yeah, Charlie, the machine is off now. You tried to leave your chair before they were completely back, it scared me real bad,” Lennie answered.

Making his way to her, Lennie hugged her around the waist when she stood up. Ruffling his hair, Charlie hugged him back.

“I saw them though, there was so much blood,” Charlie said, fear choking her as she looked for the men. There was blood on the floor, but the men were gone.

“Where are they? Where is Xander? Is he okay?” She asked, pushing Lennie to the side as she went to look.

“I’ll show you. Rolara set one of the rooms up as a Medic Room. She had three beds set up just in case. We don’t know what happened, Charlie, but they came back and it was bad.”

“They got shot, someone shot them as they were coming back,” she told him.

Her legs burned to run, but Lennie knew where they were and would never be able to lead her in a run, so she let them burn and she walked behind Lennie. She knew it would only be a minute, but each second was an eternity, and every step was a mile. She couldn’t get to him fast enough.

Finally, she saw the room and broke into the run she craved, leaving Lennie down the hall. She pulled herself up short at the door. They were so still. Xander was still. He was lying on a bed with a hard plastic cover over him. It looked like they were in those NICU tent beds for the infants. They were pale, so pale. What could have done such a thing? She didn’t know any kind of weapon that could do that. None.

“Rolara?” Charlie asked. She couldn’t stop the tremor in her voice.

Rolara immediately ran to her throwing her arms around Charlie, exactly as they had in slaver’s ship. They’d been through too much to be worried about boundaries now. She and Rolara would probably never have any boundaries between them, just like she and Xander. Their connection had been instantaneous and solid.

“They’re alright. Brick has the worst injuries. He has several broken ribs, some internal bleeding, and the phaser burn to his right side. Xander is less so, mostly just the phaser burn, but he told us they were both in close proximity to a Rynthian, and needed to be decontaminated. That’s why I have them set up this way. The scans inside the tents will kill any foreign microbes,” Rolara explained.

“The yellow looking guy was infected wasn’t he? I couldn’t exactly hear what was happening, but I got flashes of emotions and he wasn’t right somehow,” Charlie said.

“Yea, that’s a Rynthian alright. They’re infected with a virus which makes them extremely violent, not good,” Rolara said.

“Do either of them look infected?” Charlie asked, not really wanting the answer.

“Xander doesn’t, but the scanner has found a few spots in Brick that look disconcerting. So, we’ll do these treatments every day until they’re all gone,” Rolara answered.

“You’re really good at this kind of thing aren’t you?” Charlie asked. She could do emergency field work, but nothing like this.

“I’ve learned some things over the years,” Rolara said.

“How long til they wake up?” Charlie asked.

“It depends. It will take some time for the scan to finish, then we have to see how quickly their bodies recuperate from the phaser burns. I’ll dress them, but they’re still pretty bad even though no major organs were hit. Both of them went into shock fairly quickly from blood loss.”

Lennie had come up behind her by now, and Charlie was certain he’d heard most of the information. Charlie couldn’t help but grab the kid by the shoulders. He could have been her son, and right now he needed comfort as much as she did. Rolara grabbed the two of them and for a solid minute, they just breathed. They’d done it. Everyone was going to live. They’d done it.

Eventually, she let go and became the team leader she’d always been.

“Lennie, do you have us a course set? Are we going anywhere in particular?”

“I just left the scheduled next stop in the navigation and corrected our course. I don’t know why Xander is heading back to The Allegiant. He’s not giving you up. But since it’s possible The Dilligara may come after us, the more coverage we get the better we are. At least that’s my thoughts,” Lennie said, looking at her desperately for approval.

“I agree,” Charlie said shortly, nodding her head once. “Well, let me know if anything changes, Rolara, I’m going to take a shower and try to sleep off this headache.”

“If you can’t get rid of it, I’ll make you a drink that will help,” Rolara said.

A knot formed in her throat with one more look at Xander’s pale form, she turned to leave, no one needed to see her break down, not now.

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