Chapter 12

The following morning we all assembled and summoned a lift to take us to a designated medical centre on the lower level equivalent on Carnum. Both Kirim and Leommir were in full armour and I had a feeling Vilgra was armed as well. It was fairly obvious that we were being observed as we left the lift, some of it official, some of it just the residents scenting fresh prey and wondering if we were worth their time or were simply too dangerous. The oddity for the ladies, other than Cass, was the snow on the ground and gently falling around us. Fortunately we were forewarned and had wrapped up warmly, though Kirim and Leommir were comfortable in their temperature stabilised armour.

We deliberately took our time crossing over to the medical centre, with me stopping at a booth to grab some hot drinks that tasted fruity, but with a hint of cream in the mix.

“Different, but much the same,” I commented.

“Yes, same basics, if arranged differently and exposed to the open air,” Cass agreed as we saw what had to be a local gang approach.

“Strangers pay a visitor tax here,” one of them announced.

“Good job we’re not strangers then, isn’t it?” Kirim commented, clenching her fist and activating the neural pain indexers on the fingers.

“Maybe...” another said as they parted to let what had to be the leader through, a small dark haired woman who looked as hard as nails.

“Tell me why you aren’t strangers,” she ordered.

“Heard of Cures?” I asked.

“Yeah, but they don’t come to Carnum ... or even Actilonia. They certainly wouldn’t come down here.”

“Well, one has now. Got anyone dying, needing to be sorted?”

“Shleck! Is this for real?”

“Yep. Check the newsies of last night.”

“He’s right, Mint. He’s a Cure,” one of the gang stated after a short pause.

“Well, seems like you aren’t strangers,” Mint nodded. “And it seems like there is some business you can help with.”

“We can talk,” I replied. “Best done where no one can listen; just in case someone objects,” I added, pointing upwards with a concealed hand.

“Yeah, follow me,” she nodded and led us away from the sensor web until we reached a large enclosed area which was entirely free from surveillance.

“Haven’t got anyone dying, but my sis was hurt real bad by her bastard boyfriend. Hit her head off a wall so many times it damaged her. She don’t speak, don’t see, don’t walk anymore, brain damage the medics say. Can’t help her none with the tools they have here, they say,” Mint explained bitterly with her accent coming to the fore as her emotions got involved.

“Where is she?”

“Through here,” Mint led the way on her own to a room with a young woman lying on a cot, looking starved despite the intubated food and mineral lines as well as being covered in sores and showing no signs of intelligence in her slack features.

“Cass?” I asked.

“It’s as she says,” Cass confirmed after checking her over with her medical wand.

“Kirim?” I asked next.

“Go ahead, Dave. Fix her.”

“Do you know how a Cure works, Mint?” I asked the gang leader.

“No,” she replied.

“It works by me having sex with the person I’m curing.”

“You’re shlecking kidding me?”

“No, I’m not. There’s something in my seminal fluid that resets her DNA and starts her body working properly. Now, do you want me to cure your sister?”

“Shleck, shleck, shleck, shleck, shleck! OK, but no one ever breathes a word of this to anyone, anyone!”

“Agreed, but if I do this for you, you help us with something, OK?”

“I guess I’d owe you big time, so OK.”

“Good. Now, you probably don’t want to watch this ... any of you, so guard the door and don’t let anyone in.”

“OK,” Mint replied and led the others out.

“Tell her what we need, Cass,” I added as they left.

“Yes, Dave.”

Twenty minutes later I led Mint’s sister out to the other room. She had already gained some weight, all the sores had healed and she looked thin if very healthy. Her eyes shone with intelligence and what I had discovered was a quick wit.

“Tinoq!” Mint gasped as she saw her.

“I ... I think I know you, but there’s so much I can’t remember,” Tinoq replied.

“A Cure can’t restore memories, Mint, sorry,” I apologised.

“No, no, that’s OK. We can put that right ourselves. But ... this is my big sis. My Tinoq!” Mint exulted.

“Tinoq,” the woman said, almost as if tasting the word. “Yes, yes. That is my name! And ... and you are Mint, my little sister!”

“By the gods, thank you, David,” Mint spoke to me, tears in her eyes as several of the gang came in to see what the fuss was and to look in amazement at Tinoq, whom they all plainly recognised.

“My privilege and honour,” I nodded.

“And now we get Cass here into the recruitment centre with no one knowing she was there, as we agreed.”

“Thank you, Mint.”

“No need for thanks. I reckon I personally still owe you big time.”

Mint was as good as her word. Within an hour, whilst the rest of us were visiting the medical centre with what had to be a professionally made hologram of Cass that even had the healer fooled, the gang got the real Cass past the sensor posts and into the recruitment centre, where her Imperial pass got her to their comm room and past the bureaucracy blocks to contact the interstellar array in high orbit. She was then able to contact Herrick and send the copy we’d made of the reception and our inferences to him; clearly shocking him with the way Imperial conditioning appeared to have been broken. Cass was, with the aid of the recruiters, smuggled back to merge with the dissipating hologram as she left the medical centre and passed through a grey zone between the AI sensors, letting us know the military were going to investigate too.

“What now, Healer Cassire?” I asked once we were under the sensor.

“Now we go heal those young infected women as per your remit,” she replied. “No more favours today though, Cure David!”

“Yes, Healer Cassire,” I muttered in an act as we set off for a lift.

We were met at the Medical Resource centre by the protocol flunkey. He was aghast that we’d been down to the lower levels without a full Guardian presence ... though they called their Guardians Protectors.

“Cure David insisted. Part of his contract permits him to indulge his ... hobbies amongst the unwanted,” Cass replied in steely tones. “No ... fun ... down there, no Cures up here. Plus, I wanted to talk to a Healer about the unusual strains of mutagens that only Actilonia seems to have from someone who actually has to deal with them.”

“We saw him go off with a gang...” the flunkey eventually replied.

“They were able to provide what I wanted,” I replied airily. “Now, flunkey, where’s the first ... or worst patient?”

“He ... he’s intolerable!” the flunkey snarled and minced out of the room.

“You’re enjoying this far too much, Dave,” Kirim opined with a distinct snigger.

“Bet they’re all plotting their revenge and not noticing what’s really happening though,” I replied after getting a thumbs up from Vilgra that the room was under medical seal.

“Hope so,” Hiqua giggled. “Good job we know you aren’t really like you’re acting.”

“Can’t see the attraction,” I shrugged. “Now, where do they want me?”

“Through here,” Cass pointed and a doorway in the wall opened.

I walked through and observed the woman lying on the bed, noting the almost scarlet flush of her abdomen where the mutagen was breaking down the lining of her blood vessels.

“They have her stabilised,” Cass noted. “Up to you now, Dave.”

“Salutations, young lady,” I greeted her.

“Salutations ... er?”

“Cure David,” I informed her. “Sent by her Serenissima Amantil to put you right.”

“A ... a Cure?”

“Yes. It was felt you had suffered enough and using upper level medical treatment to silence you was a step too far.”

“Oh ... but I gave my word, even if you do cure me,” she replied sadly.

“No matter, no one expects you to break your word,” I nodded. “Could I have your name please?”

“Jennt.”

“Pleased to meet you, Jennt. My name is David and I need your permission to cure you.”

“Er, cure me how?”

“His seminal fluid will restore your genetic structure and repair any damage by using your own body’s defences and healing methods,” Cass explained.

“Seminal fluid ... he ... he has to fuck me?”

“Crudely put, but yes,” Cass confirmed.

“Oh ... OK.”

“Kirim, Leommir, no one to disturb this room whilst Dave is in here and for an hour afterwards,” Vilgra ordered.

“Yes, Monitor,” the two replied slamming their arms to their chest.

“Leave you to it, Dave,” Cass stated as she and the others left, leaving me and Jennt alone.

“So, how did he trap you?” I asked after the doorway sealed itself closed.

“He didn’t, not with me. I was paid to escort him to a business party and be his entertainment for the night. Problem is, he was infected, though it doesn’t affect males until it progresses beyond a certain point and he never bothered to tell anyone, even after he found out he had it. Apparently when it got that far, he said he was just going to take a trip to Vreekoos and pay a Cure to fix it,” she replied.

“Not a nice man,” I nodded.

“No, he isn’t. He’s petty and vindictive as well as a slow payer. Word soon got out about his ‘condition’ and he started forcing women who worked for the sections he oversaw; the agencies refused to supply him with companions. Last straw though, was him drugging some High Bureaucrat and raping her. The Governor was able to pay off everyone else and arrange some treatment, except for her. She apparently woke up and went straight home; hence your arrival and the chaos in the Governor’s court.”