“Tell Avrell…said. Tell…not to come. Zoe...please.”
My voice is a fierce growl when I answer, “We’re not going to leave you alone. No matter what. We’re coming, Breccan. You can’t stop us. We’re going to beat them no matter what.”
“Zoe…”
The connection goes silent.
My heart trips, but I try to stay calm. I bang some buttons on the control panel to reconnect. “Breccan, are you there? It’s Zoe.”
Static fills the line.
“Breccan, are you there? It’s Zoe,” I repeat.
Desperate seconds pass.
“Breccan, are you there?”
Nothing.
“Breccan?”
Please no.
“Breccan? Please. Answer me.”
A sob catches in my chest.
“Commander!”
There’s no answer.
None at all.
The sob I’d been holding since his first warning bursts from my lips. I try not to think about what could have caused the break in our connection. I try not to think about the waves and waves of Kevins descending on the Facility while we’re here, helpless.
No.
Not helpless.
We can help them. No matter what Breccan says.
He may be as brilliant as Avrell, but he’s wrong about this.
We can beat them. We will.
I find Avrell and Kevin bent over the microscopes, deep in conversation about the cure and vaccination. I don’t want to worry him because he needs to focus on finishing his work. While he’s distracted, I gather my supplies and an extra zonnoblaster.
It’s been several hours, so I hope Julie’s gotten some sleep. I find her in her room and shake her shoulder. “Julie. Hey, Julie, wake up.”
She rolls away from me and groans. I shake her again. “C’mon. Wake up, sleeping beauty.”
“Stop, go away.”
“Can’t. I need your help.”
“Unless it’s in a sleep study for your hunky alien, I don’t want to hear it.”
“I heard from Breccan.”
This perks her up. She rolls back to me and cracks her eyes open. “You did?” She sits up. “How are they? What happened?”
I fill her in as she slowly wakes up and gets dressed.
“I told you it wasn’t going to be good news.”
“I know. But we have to do what we can to help.”
“And how do you plan to do that?” she asks with a yawn.
I lead her out of the cells and toward the tunnels below.
“I’ll tell you on the way. We’ve got work to do.”
12
Avrell
“Why does that one move?” Kevin asks, his voice curious.
“Which one, mortling?”
He pulls away from the magnascope, a shy smile on his face. “What’s a mortling?”
Who knew Earth children had so many questions? It’s like talking to Molly or Hadrian.
“A mortling means child.”
He frowns. “I’m thirteen.”
And small. And fragile. And sad.
“What would you rather I call you?” I ask, once again peeking into the magnascope. “Kevin?”
“What are you? A monster?”
“I’m a mort.”
“I want to be a mort too.” He takes hold of my hand. “Will I grow claws too?”
I chuckle. “It’s unlikely, but I have a friend named Oz who can make some for you.”
“Really?”
“I don’t see why not. Oz can make anything.” I gesture to the magnascope. “Which one was moving?”
He peeks in and shrieks. “They all are now!”
I gently nudge him away and stare at my sample. No rekking way. I’d isolated certain cells from the blood of the rabbawolf and merged it with a sample of my own tainted blood. At first, it didn’t do much, but now the rabbawolf blood is attacking the broken cells in my blood, coating it with a layer of green as though to protect it.
It’s incredible.
I have several more samples of the rabbawolf to test with but would love to take live samples from something like…Eileen. A rogcow that’s our pet could give me endless samples to create not only a cure, but an inoculation for the future.
“You’ve done it, mort,” I say to Kevin. “You found the cure.”
His eyes widen in shock. “I did?”
My heart swells to see the pride gleaming over his features. I may be an arrogant genius, but I know this mortling needs the confidence boost.
“You most certainly did. That means you get to name it.”
He laughs. High and happy and excited. I’ve never heard anything so incredibly cute. It makes me laugh too.
“We should call it the rabbacure since the rabbathings with the green blood are what fixed the sick blood.”
“Rabbacure, huh? I like it.” I pat his furry nog. “Want to see what the rabbacure does to your blood next?”
He nods rapidly. Zoe would probably smack me around for this, but now that we found a cure for the sick, we need to make sure we can protect the un-sick.
Where is Zoe anyway?
Hours have passed since she brought me my mortling and we’ve been hard at work ever since. I make a mental note on one of my many lists to check on her soon.
I’m teaching Kevin how to draw a sample of his own blood, impressed with his bravery, when I realize I thought of him as my mortling.
Mine.
“Wow,” he says as his bright red blood fills the tube. “It stings, but it’s super cool to watch it fill up!”