This is the second day that she has been on site on Huggar
at the wreckage of the intake center.
She has already visited the other sites that were hit. She says thanks to the Gods for the
psychiatric center and the town she has built for the refugees are secure. Their location is not documented anywhere.
Her heart breaks looking over the rubble that is left,
knowing there is more searching to do.
She takes a heavy breath and looks at Duncan. “I am going to tell
everyone to switch focus.”
Duncan looks at her with a look on his face as his heart is
breaking too. He speaks softly to her so
that she can only hear. “Search and rescue to search and recovery?”
With a heavy heart she nods her head. “We can pray to the
Gods that we find more, but realistically the chances are next to nothing that
there are still survivors.”
Duncan puts a hand on her shoulder for support as he knows
how much this is affecting his older sister, hell it is affecting everyone
here. She takes an unsteady breath and
activates her coms link to everyone, even the other centers affected. “Hi everyone,
I want to take the time to thank everyone that is here, that is helping us
through this senseless attack. We are
tired and exhausted. We have lost
friends, patients, clients and family.
Hell, we are all one big family.
I will get to the bottom of this to find who is responsible and I will
make them pay. But it is with a heavy heart that we must shift our focus. This is no longer a search and rescue
mission. This is now a search and
recovery. I know this is a hard thing
for everyone to hear and realize. Let’s
not leave a stone or brick unturned, so we can give them a proper burial and
remember THEY DIED FREE!!!”
She can feel the nods of their heads as she closes the coms.
She heads to the center of the debris where it is the deepest. She starts to
sing in melioidotic voice “Land of
bear and land of eagle Land that gave us birth and blessing Land that called us
ever homewards
We will go home across the mountains We will go home, we will go home We will
go home across the mountains We will go home, we will go home We will go home
across the mountains.”
She is removing rubble as she sings, first Duncan starts
singing, then slowly throughout the area, everyone starts to sing it as they
work bringing these victims home. She
looks around and sees everyone singing and her heart swells but breaks at the
same time. She looks down, getting ready
to move some more debris. She looks up
at Duncan, suddenly, a shot rings out, blood coming out of her ears and
forehead.
One of her soldiers that was beside her calls out. “SNIPER!!!”
Duncan looks at his older sister and screams “LIT!!!
NO!!! Men on me!! I gotta get her station side into a clone vat. Hurry we have
limited time to make this work.”
Men encircle them with weapons drawn, looking around to
perceive any threat. They move as a unit
to an armored SUV. The rest of her
military have sprung into action looking for the sniper and where they shot
from. They get her body into the SUV,
Duncan slides holding her on his lap.
The Gallente she has been spending time with the 6’3, black hair, brilliant
green eyes and pale skin slides into the other side.
Chris looks at Duncan with a worried look. “Where she
goes, I go.”
Duncan nods as the SUV takes off speedily to the launch pad
up to the station. What feels like an
eternity to two men, they arrive at the launch pad. The shuttle was already warmed up as one of
the generals called ahead, Chris carries Lit’s body onto the shuttle as Duncan
follows quickly behind. The shuttle closes the door, taking off, going as fast
as it can to get up to the station.
Duncan pulls out an old coms device and calls up to the
emergency clone bay on the station. He
quickly apprises them of the situation; they tell him that they will be waiting
at the shuttle bay to take her. What
feels like forever they finally dock in the station, the shuttle doors open and
within a millisecond a team bursts onto the shuttle. With skilled precision they move Lit onto a
stretcher, they take off running with her.
Duncan puts his hand out in front of Chris. “Give them a
few, they are the experts. They will save her.” He mumbles under his breath “I hope.”
Chris sits in the shuttle with Duncan, running a hand
through his dark hair. His green eyes
rest on Duncan, unspoken words of worry, wanting to hope but scared too. Duncan nods to him “Let’s go, I will show
you the way.”
Chris looks at Duncan as they walk and speaks with a accent “Will
she be alright, will she survive?”
Duncan nods his head a matter of fact, “She must be, this
can’t be the end of her story. She
deserves more. She can’t go like this.” Emotion
cracks through his voice of desperation.
They move down the corridor, in step with each other. Duncan is slightly in the lead with Chris
right behind. They come up to the doors
of the clone bay; they both look at each other and take a breath. Opening the door, they were quickly ushered
to a room. A woman smiles gently at them
“We are currently working on Miss Khammael, please give us some time, we
will update you as soon as we can.”
Duncan takes a deep breath, trying to maintain some
composure. He looks up at the ceiling,
saying prayer to whatever god is listening to him. Chris’ leg is bouncing up
and down with nerves, he starts chewing on his fingernails and speaks softly. “This
is bad, isn’t it?”
Duncan sighs heavily, slowly nodding his head with
realization of what is happening. He
leans forward putting his arms on thighs and hands clasped together. He nods
his head “Yeah, it seems it’s pretty bad.
It doesn’t normally take this long.”
The gallente goes white, he swallows hard. He runs his hands over his face. “This cannot
be it; this cannot be the end of her story.
We just found each other; I need more time with her. She is strong she
will come out of this.”
Duncan’s façade cracks as fear and worry etch his face. “I
hope you are right; I pray to the Gods that you are right. I cannot lose her now;
the twins need her still. Hell, I still need her.” Tears fell down his
face.
Just then an attendant opens the door and comes into the
room, sitting down in a chair. The man has a serious look on his face; he
clasps his hand in front of him. Duncan
and Chris sat on the edge of their seat as they wait for the man to start
talking. The man clears his throat “Miss
Khammael sustained a gunshot to her brain; we were able to soft clone her.”
Chris looks at the attendant “I sense a but though.”
The attendant nods “You are correct Sir; it seems even
with the transfer to a new soft clone there appears to be some brain damage
still that is affecting her memory of certain things. We don’t know the full
extent of the damage, but it seems her brain is in protection mode. People who have hurt, betrayed who she loved
are forgotten. She doesn’t remember, she
also doesn’t remember any traumatic events that have happened to her in her
past. We are unsure if this is permanent or temporary. If temporary it could take hours, weeks,
months. We don’t know. There could be a
trigger in her psyche. If permanent, well……she will have to if she wants to learn
about it.”
Duncan and Chris look at each other and at the same time
they both say “Fuck. This isn’t good.”
The attendant looks at them both “Be gentle with her, she
is in a fragile state. She should stay
away from any activities planet side for now.
Her safety should be paramount, because if this happens again, I don’t
know if anyone could save her. She may
get headaches; her equilibrium could be off sometimes. She might stare off but bring her to the
closest clone bay if she loses consciousness. “
Both guys nod at the attendant “Understood, we will keep
her safe and away from being planet side for now. Increase security around her.”
The attendant nods and stands up, he looks at the two guys
and motions for them to come with as he speaks “Be gentle, don’t expect too
much out of her tonight. Let her remember naturally. She is pretty confused at
the moment and a bit disoriented.”
Chris whistles, he follows the attendant “Who wouldn’t be
in that situation.”
Duncan agrees with Chris, he says questioning to Chris “Will
you stay with her, or do you have to go back?”
Chris shakes his head and smiles at Duncan “I am not leaving
her unless she tells me to.”
Duncan nods approvingly as they head into the main room.
Lit is in a large room on a bed lying down on what appears
to be a hospital bed. Duncan and Chris
walk up one on either side. Chris
reaches down and gently strokes her cheek.
She weakly smiles at him “Hey you” She turns to Duncan raises an
eyebrow “I am okay, I am here.”
Duncan leans down and gives her a tight hug, lets out a
breath that he didn’t realize he was holding.
“You scared us. I thought I lost you.”
Chris nods his head as he leans down, giving her a kiss on
her forehead. “Do not scare me like that. Our story is not done yet; I need
more time with you.”
She blushes at what Chris says and places a hand over
Duncans. “I am okay, I think. Just a bit of a headache, somethings are blank,
but they said not to worry about it.”
Duncan smiles at his big sister and places his other hand
over hers. “There are a few things we need to talk about. One you aren’t going
to planet side until we get to bottom of this. Two, Chris is going to stay and
protect you.”
Lit furrows her brow, trying to sit up and gets really dizzy,
lying back down. “But they need me down there.”
Duncan shakes his head “You can video conference for updates.”
Not arguing, she knows when Duncan gets like this it’s
easier just to go along with or he will get her. Duncan smiles and sees that she submits to
the stipulations. She crosses her arms across
her chest and says curtly. “Fine.”
Chris smirks a bit and leans down, giving her a light kiss
on the pouting lips. “You are you complaining about spending more time with
me?” He says teasingly.
She looks at him with a ‘really’ look and sighs “No smart
ass.”
One of the technicians comes up and speaks to Duncan and
Chris. “She is ready to go, no flying tonight, she needs all the rest she
can get.”
Chris scoops her up into his arms bridal style, she lets out
a little yelp. She speaks softly “I
can walk.”
Chris shakes his head “Sorry, I don’t think so. Duncan gave me the location of your old apartment,
so I called ahead while we were here to ensure it was dusted, stocked and
cleaned.”
Duncan smiles and nods approvingly. His shoulders come down from his ears,
relaxing as he takes a deep breath. He knows that his big sister is okay and is
going to be taken care of and that takes a load from his mind. “Since Chris
has up here handled, I am going to head back down to Huggar.”
Chris nods and Lit leans her head against his chest nuzzling
in. “Thank you, bro, I love you. I will call you tomorrow?”
Duncan nods and heads out, Chris walks side by side with
him. Duncan heads back to the shuttle bay and Chris heads towards the
apartments.
"Memory loss is just one way of coping with damage." - Jeanette Winterson
Why Is It So Important to Remember?
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