Chapter 20

Shuttles poured out of the Softwing, heading towards the various wrecks where emergency beacons were sounding, whilst a steady stream of shuttles came from the surviving warships, carrying their more seriously wounded to the experts on the medical carrier.

Near the planet, landing craft were being launched to take the fight to the various planetary holdouts still professing loyalty to Cillort, whilst technicians and AIs probed for the last resort devices and a means to disable them before they were activated. Of some worry was the fact that Cillort was still at large, along with Admiral Spake, whose personal shuttle had been found missing from his flagship and had last been seen heading down to the planet, but not, as yet, found.

Vrion and I were busy, along with Norant, in the specialist surgery bay on the carrier. Here was where those with extensive damage were patched up and I was allowed to do my ‘magic’, either direct or via Vrion. It was exhausting, and for all my gift helps me recover swiftly, I’m only human and the numbers amongst the female casualties coming in were getting to be overwhelming.

“Word from Vreekoos,” Norant informed us during a recovery break. “Another six Cures are on their way, having volunteered to help ... I use the word ‘volunteered’ advisedly,” she finished with a grin.

“Ordered under pain of ... pain is possibly more accurate,” I chuckled, getting a broad, if tired, grin from them both.

“Probably,” Norant laughed. “But they should be here in four hours, after which you will stand down for two working periods and recover.”

“By your command,” I nodded as another patient was floated in with both legs having been re-joined from mid-thigh, yet clearly looking like dead flesh.

“Up and at her, Dave,” Vrion sighed.

I awoke almost twenty four hours later, by my reckoning, after the volunteers had arrived, swiftly dressed and had something to eat and drink before heading down to the medbay where I was stationed.

“How’s it going?” I asked a slightly less tired looking Norant.

“Initial surge is over, the worst have been cured. The Cures will just be needed for the next tier now, long term recovery.”

“How bad over all?” I asked with a feeling of dread.

“Bad. Grand Fleet had over 65% losses, almost seven thousand ships and a quarter of a million men and women. Third Fleet fought to the last ship. Spake might be a bastard, but he could command loyalty to the point of fanaticism,” she replied.

“The planet?”

“We got to most of the last resort devices, despite fanatical resistance from Cillort’s ground forces. But lost one continent that will need to be terraformed to repair it. We’re still looking for Cillort and Spake. We’re pretty sure they have a hidden base somewhere, along with a ground launched XD capable craft. Good news is, the rebellion has more or less collapsed as the surviving worlds under Cillort’s control have surrendered unconditionally, or in one case revolted against the powers holding it.”

“Damn,” I sighed.

“Would have been a hell of a lot worse if we’d fought and taken one world at a time, to end up here,” she noted.

“Still bad enough.”

“Oh yes, you got that right. Your orders now are to transfer with Vrion to the planet and begin to deal with the hopeless cases from the assault.”

“By your command, Senior Healer Norant.”

“Been a pleasure working with you, Cure David,” she replied and clasped my hand.

“You too.”

Kansdoorf was a mess. Several orbital strikes, plus falling debris, had ploughed into the place. In addition there was damage from what appeared to have been a voracious nanite plague on the smaller continent. This all had left a once prosperous planet in dire straits. Imperial troops in full armour stood on every corner of the streets of the capital, others patrolled overhead. It was also clear that the staff in the medical centre were hostile to the invasion and that they were only being sullenly compliant. Still, with the aid of the local command we were guided to the first of my patients, a middle aged lady with severe brain trauma from a crush injury.

“Right, let’s get to work,” I sighed miserably at the state of the poor woman. “Empty the room, Vrion, please.”

Despite protests from the medical staff and healers, Vrion and a ready squad of troopers rapidly cleared the room and set up privacy screens. I then lubed myself up and began the distasteful, if necessary, task of essentially raping an unconscious woman to heal her. Fortunately it didn’t take long and Vrion was then able to clean her up (hide the evidence) as she rapidly recovered with the bed supplying essential drugs and regrowth hormones to speed up the already rapid recovery.

“Right, she’s cured,” I said to the angry looking Healer outside the door. “Where’s the next one?”

“That’s impossible!” she sputtered.

“Not impossible. It’s what a Cure does.”

“True,” Vrion confirmed.

The Healer pushed past me to examine the still unconscious woman and came to a complete halt when she saw all the bones were fused and in place and the wounds had closed up. Nor were there any scars or scarring.

“How?” she almost squeaked.

“Imperial secret. You aren’t cleared by ImpSec to know,” I shrugged.

“Yet this ... trooper does?”

“She’s cleared, you aren’t. Live with it. Now tell me where the next patient is, I haven’t got all day.”

The sullen Healer escorted me to another room where a clearly pregnant woman was on life support. “She breathed plasma fumes and is dying from toxic shock. We have her on life support to save the child,” she stated.

“No problem, now please wait outside,” I nodded.

“Really, I must insist on knowing!”

“Really, you are better off not knowing,” Vrion replied for me. “If you truly want to know, get a transfer to Vreekoos and a job at the Medical Resource branch of ImpSec.”

“I will never work for those ... people, not after they wrecked my planet!”

“Perhaps you shouldn’t have risen in revolt to the Empire,” Vrion shrugged. “Traitors usually come off worse.”

“We were being strangled by unfair taxation, when the wonderful Cillort came and took over, removing the Imperial trade tariffs!”

“There are no trade tariffs, never were, never will be. You were being stiffed by the planetary bureaucrats to aid and abet this revolt. All that happened was that your taxes went back to the Imperial norm,” I replied, leaving her looking aghast.

“Liar!”

“Why would I lie?” I asked. “Now, please wait outside.”

Vrion ushered the woman, still verbally protesting, out of the room and set up the privacy screen for me. I then did my bit ... so to speak and watched the monitors as the woman’s and the child’s vitals returned to normal.

“Done,” I stated when we left the room.

“The child will recover?” the Healer asked.

“And the woman too,” Vrion replied.

“What!”

“Cure isn’t just a title, it’s a promise,” I replied. “Next patient please.”

The next patient was a male, suffering from radiation based burns that due to the particulates in his body could not be removed quickly enough to save his life. However Vrion was able, via me, to cure him by using a sexual stimulator as supplied by Norant to get him erect.

“Gods, you’re fun to fuck,” she commented as she swiftly dressed afterwards.

“Just chemistry,” I chuckled.

“Yeah, but it’s still lovely for us girls.”

The Healer was the only one left in the corridor now, the rest of the staff having dispersed when they realised my security detail were ignoring their protests, plus I was actually doing what the legends about a Cure said I could do.

“When do we get full AI service?” I asked, referring to the fact that all the AIs on Kansdoorf were getting a new personality and loyalty matrix to replace the ones loyal to Cillort’s regime and hence were only looking after the basics and not talking to anyone.

“In here, later today; planet wide, a couple of binary cycles yet,” the Healer replied.

“That’s good; I miss them and their help.”

“They aren’t alive, Dave,” Vrion grinned.

“I know, but they’re nicer people than some humans I know.”

“I wouldn’t call them people exactly...” the Healer began.

“Why not, personality counts for a lot,” I chuckled.

“True, I never thought of them that way though.”

“Probably just me being weird,” I grinned.

“Yep,” Vrion giggled. “Though they are always polite to you, I’ve noticed that.”

“Polite?” the Healer asked as she led us to the next patient on a long list.

“He says ‘thank you’, they say, ‘you’re welcome’,” Vrion replied.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I must try that some time. Ah, here we are.”

This time there was no fuss about Vrion and I going it alone as we’d proved just who and what I was, though naturally enough their curiosity remained high. In this room though, a young lady clearly suffering from some form of wasting disease lay upon a grav-bed, awake and clearly somewhat despondent.

“Salutations youngling,” I greeted her as Vrion set up the privacy screen.

“Salutations,” she acknowledged listlessly.

“My name is David and I’m a Cure,” I replied. “May I have your name?”

“Sondir and are you really a Cure?” she asked, looking suddenly hopeful.

“Yes, I am, though you can call me Dave as all new friends get to do,” I nodded.

“They told me I was going to die from this ... this disease and only a Cure could help. My parents petitioned Serenissimo Cillort to get one of his Cures to help, but he didn’t reply and then the Empire came back.”

“Cillort is no Serenissimo,” Vrion stated flatly. “But the Empire has provided a Cure for you, where he didn’t.”

“But why?”

“Because the Empress cares, as do I,” I replied with a smile. “If your parents could have got you to Vreekoos, I’d have fixed you up. As it is, I’m here now and once you agree to what needs to be done, we’ll get you back to normal.”

“I agree,” she said eagerly.

“You don’t know what it is I have to do to make it work, so don’t be hasty,” I cautioned. “Vrion, we’ll need a meditech with clearance to assist, are there any on the planet?” I asked in an aside.

“Meditech Ginlo is with a patrol. She can be here in ten rotations,” Vrion replied after using her implants to check over the current dispositions.

“Good enough,” I nodded. “Now Sondir, a cure from me only works via sexual contact, that means for me to cure you I have to have intercourse with you.”

“Oh...”

“That’s why we’ll need the meditech. She’ll be able to fix up your virginity afterwards, so you remain inviolate in your parents’ eyes. She can also do a mind-wipe if you feel you cannot cope.”