Chapter 6

2081 a.d. – The Ninth Month

Recovery

Béla woke up. She still hadn't had anything to eat. The pitcher of pink liquid was setting on the cooler where it had been left, '(minutes ... hours?), however long ago... '

She sat up and gazed down at her sister. Beth (Is that old husk really you?) was still in a deep sleep, not having moved since she was 'ported to the bed. Her body was still warm, so she wasn't dead ... Her mind was tightly closed, even in her sleep.

Béla slid off the bed table, being careful not to jar her sleeping sister. She felt so incredibly weak! The lemonade was tepid, but she didn't care. She poured some into a container and sipped it, realizing her body might react in some manner unexpected if it really hadn't been fed in several months. She was right; the liquid and sugars in the drink were absorbed directly through her mouth – she didn't even have to swallow.

'Wow! It's really hungry, my body is!' Béla realized.

She sipped some more, eventually finishing off the entire liter of liquid contained in the pitcher. Instead of feeling tired after her strenuous effort of getting across the room to the cooler and standing there sipping liquids, she felt stronger.

Béla opened the cooler. Right on top was a meat pack. She reached for it, suddenly noticing that her nails were clipped. Someone had been attending her while she slept. Her body no longer stank (neither did Beth's, now that she thought about it), and her hair was been brushed.

'Thank you, whoever... ' Béla thought into the great ship.

Another thing she noticed. The thought dampeners were turned off. She and Beth were probably being monitored. Evidently, everyone wanted to know the instant she got back, if she ever came back...

She picked up the meat pack. It was cold. She twisted it, causing it to chemically heat up its contents and absently walked back toward the bed where her sister lay. The chemically heated meat packs were a nice improvement over the cold packs of raw, processed meat that had been available during the long outward journey. She wondered whom she should thank for that.

As she casually sucked on the delicacy, squeezing the warm, still raw, but pleasantly spiced, shredded meat through the tear she'd made in the top of the bag, she thought about her (last four months?) most recent adventure, if she could actually call it that ... She had completely, recklessly (as usual), jumped in to 'save the day', not even considering her own safety or even if she would survive the search for her sister inside the teleportation zone. As a result, she had terrified the entire crew of the great ship with her extended absence. No one but the Praetor knew what had happened, and even with the Praetor's added data, no one knew how to find her, or even if she still, somehow, had survived.

Yesterday, when she'd looked into her father's mind, she discovered that he had been devestated and worried into ill health because of her unexpected absence. Her short conversation with the Praetor before she vanished only worried him that much more. Even though he was wondrously relieved to see her return, now he was worried about her physical condition and whether she had harmed herself beyond her ability to regenerate. That was his greatest gift to her and all of her sisters; that special regenerative ability peculiar to his species.

Béla finished the entire meat pack, surprised that she was still hungry as she squeezed the slippery bag flat. Despite that, she turned her attention to her sister, who would be even more starved.

'Wake up, Darling, ' Béla thought into her sister's mind.

That tiny link, that connection Beth had created between them in the 'nothing' place, was Béla's only link with her. Other than that, Beth's mind simply wasn't functioning. She wasn't even dreaming.

'Did the 'nothing' suck out your soul?' Béla wondered, momentarily, then decided it hadn't. Her sister's joyous, though brief, reunion when she had first touched her mind after having been lost for so long wasn't something a soulless being would be able to project.

'Come on, now, ' Béla sent. 'It's feeding time. I have more to give you, this time... ' Embracing her bony, wrinkled sister, she pulled the limp form up against her, supporting the back of her head with one hand and guiding her sister's slack, wrinkled face to her neck.

She considered getting a hypo needle from the medic, but realized that Beth also needed to digest her blood as food, as well as for its regenerative qualities. It would all work out (she hoped). Her sister was going to get better. The medic had promised! (He actually hadn't, she forced herself to remember. He had only suggested the possibility that she might recover her youth. But if Béla had anything to do about it, her sister was going to recover completely!)

Even in this deep a sleep, Beth's vampiric nature manifested itself when Béla's jugular was pressed against her mouth. Piercing an artery, this time, she swallowed Béla's life-giving blood as fast as it pulsed into her mouth, after wasting the first few spurts due to her poor muscle control in her semiconscious state.

As she swallowed, Beth began to make a tiny whimpering sound with each swallow, as though it hurt her to drink. Béla didn't know what was actually causing it, but suspected her sister was expressing her pleasure at being able to feed. Her mind still wasn't turned on. She didn't radiate any kind of emotion. That emptiness hurt Béla inside, somehow.

'Don't worry, Darling. You're going to get better. You're going to be all right!' She hoped she could make good on that promise.

Starting to feel light-headed again, Béla laid her sister back down on the bed. Although Beth weakly protested the sudden absence of her source of nutrient, she was too weak to hold herself up and feed. She immediately went back to sleep, if, indeed, she had even been awake.