Chapter 8

For the next few days the schedule proceeded as planned.  Samples of blood and tissue were taken.  Batteries of tests were run on these samples.  Some of the staff was doctors simply trying to alleviate the immediate aches, pains and suffering of those in who the viral infection was in advanced stages.

No real progress toward a cure had been made but many possibilities had been ruled out.  Teric was constantly in motion from one area to the next listening, suggesting and directing the entire staff.  Gorsh ate occasionally in the galley.  Otherwise he spent all of his waking hours in the main lab pouring over test results and conducting experiments on samples.  They both worked harder than they had ever worked in their lives.

Kittamm was, as Gorsh suggested be might be, useful in setting his people at ease when necessary; getting them organized, in place and on time when necessary.  He was very helpful.  Teric maintained a professional, courteous manner around him.  Outwardly she even tried to warm to him as an individual.  Inwardly, however, she still didn’t trust him and mentally kept her distance trying to keep her judgment objective.  Something about him put her in an uneasy frame of mind.  It wasn’t anything she could specifically put her finger on.  His conversational tone reminded her of Jehrac’s when she last spoke to her brother.

Several weeks into the project, after a long day of being probed and scanned, Kittamm’s assistant Feyhoth Jikko cracked.

Yelling hysterically in his high, thin voice that he, “Couldn’t take anymore of it!” he seized a piece of medical equipment that was potentially explosive, ran to a corner of the room in which he was being tested and threatened to blow up the place.  The room was one in which patients were free to walk around and the doctors were required to wear contamination suits.  They were safe in these suits and could simply walk out the door to the airlock that joined the unquarrantined section.
 
Feyhoth wouldn’t be able to get through the airlock without the code to operate it.  And even if he had the code he would have died in the airlock during its vacuum decontamination process.

He could, however, do a great deal of damage to the room and set back the project for an extended, unknown length of time.

Teric was immediately called.  She suited herself and in a few minutes was standing in the room trying unsuccessfully to reason with the man.

She spoke into the suit’s com device, “Get Kittamm in here.  Now.”

When his leader arrived Feyhoth started crying and said, “Master!  I’m so glad you are here!  I just can’t take this anymore.  Being endlessly poked, prodded and stuck with the Outsider’s strange devices.  None of it does any good.  Look at me… look at me!  I’m not getting better, I’m only getting worse!  Make them cure me or make them stop, please, Master Nehra…”

The virus was advancing in him at an alarming rate.  He looked terrible.

Kittamm calmly starting talking to him, “They are trying their very best, my friend.  You must try your very best to be patient.  If you aren’t they can’t help you or any of our people.  You must allow them to help you.”

Feyhoth looked quickly back and forth between the suited Outsiders and his leader.  He started, “But …”

Kittamm cut him off by holding up his hand and spoke to him in a low, soft voice that Teric and her staff members couldn’t hear.  He spoke to his frightened assistant for several moments.  Finally, Feyhoth became more relaxed.  His rigid, tense posture was replaced with a drained stoop, arms hanging loosely at his sides as he handed the dangerous device to Kittamm.

Kittamm continued to quietly comfort him while holding out behind himself the piece of equipment for Teric.  From across the room Kittamm looked calm and serene throughout the ordeal.  As Teric approached to get the device she saw that he was trembling slightly and sweating.

From closer to them she could overhear his soft, melodious voice and Feyhoth occasionally, tonelessly interjecting, “I’m sorry Master Nehra, I’m sorry …”
 
• • •
 
Teric’s Maintenance Foreman Mita Wilens was waiting for her outside the airlock.  As she climbed out of her suit Wilens inquired, “Disaster averted?”  Teric nodded affirmative and asked, “What have you got?” seeing that he held a computer work pad in his hand.  The screen was activated and filled with information.

“About those missing supplies,” Wilens replied and handed her the pad.
As she looked at the pad she asked, “Figure out the discrepancy yet?”
“Beyond a doubt, ma’am.  I think you should see for yourself.”

Wilens wouldn’t say anything further and seemed to be more than a little aggravated.  They walked to his office.  When they got to his door he opened it and Teric got quick a shock:  her brother was sitting in a chair facing Wilens’ desk.

“Jehrac?!” she exclaimed, temporarily dumbfounded.
“Hello, sis,” he replied quietly.

Wilens entered the office and sat behind his desk addressing Teric, “Apparently, he stowed away on the same ship that brought you here.  Been here hiding out all the time, stealing food, clean clothes a few odds and ends.  Actually, quite a clever and resourceful young man.  Unfortunately, engaged in totally unacceptable activities.  So what do you want to do with your little brother, Admin Jonsen?”

Teric quickly came to her senses when she realized that Wilens had asked her a question.

“Mita, could you let me have a few moments alone with him in here?”
“No problem, boss.  I’ve got a few things to check over anyway,” he replied as he got up and left.

She composed herself, sat down calmly, faced her brother and quietly asked, “What the hell are doing here?”

He answered at once, “I came to meet Nehra Kittamm.”

Thereafter followed a discussion, during which Teric realized that Jehrac did have a valid point; even if he did attempt to accomplish it in a dangerous and irresponsible manner.  He would, of course, have to leave as soon as possible.  But the next supply ship wasn’t due for several days and she thought it wouldn’t do much harm to have him stay until then.  There was probably no sense in calling up a ship just to transport him before the next planned arrival.

Jehrac’s motivation was one that many people across the solar system shared.  Regardless of which side of the Home World Bound issue they stood, everyone was interested in the Natura story.  Especially Nehra Kittamm and how he had been able to change his own mind and his people’s about leaving their world and establish contact with Outsiders.  Not to mention that he had convinced some very important and powerful Outsiders to go to a great deal of trouble, effort and expenditure.

She decided that Jehrac could stay in her largely unused room for the next couple of days.  She slept in Gorsh’s room anyway and they could keep an eye on him while keeping out of the way of complex operations.  She might not have considered her brother’s proposition at all.  But as she listened to him plead his case to be able to talk to the man, she was surprised to find herself thinking that perhaps she could trust Kittamm a little after all.  Having just witnessed him single-handedly disarming a dangerous situation was part of her reconsideration.  Perhaps the fact that she had seen him trembling with fear, but still finishing the job was what clinched her decision.  Maybe, she thought, Kittamm could help Jehrac come to a rational conclusion about the issues that were troubling him.  After all, had not Kittamm himself, the Leader of Natura, foregone his beliefs in order to help his people by leaving their world and seeking advanced technology?

She agreed to let her brother meet and talk to Kittamm.  Once that was decided, Jehrac gladly agreed to whatever other arrangements and conditions she placed on his brief stay.