Quote Originally Posted by Ramil
4

“Give me something to drink,” Tommy said. Kay handed him a glass without stopping sprinkling the anti-burn spray onto the boy’s body. Tommy’s legs were still numb but he was already feeling his arms.
“Blisters will start to appear within an hour,” Kay informed without much compassion, “but nothing serious.”
“Did we get away?”
“Yes, we’re already in hyperspace. Get dressed.”
Tommy sat on his bed and started putting on his shirt being careful to avoid the burns. Then he asked:
“And where’s Arthur?”
“He is in another cabin with Andrew. He’s an even better a doctor than I am a killer.”
Kay appeared to go through the ‘furnace’ unharmed. The keroplast that had been pumped under his skin protected him not only from the Meklon’s blows but from high temperatures as well. The inevitable carcinogenic effect seemed not to worry Kay very much.
“Did I fail you?” Tommy asked.
“Moderately so,” Kay sat in the chair and looked thoughtfully at the boy. Between them there stood a wall of solid ice that both of them could feel.
“Shall I play some music, master?” inquired the ship (I hope some previous context makes this clear) cautiously.
“Be silent! You may ask, Tommy.(I don't get that)”
The boy carefully put his legs down on the floor. He tried to stand, but without success and reclined against the pillow again.
“Kay, why did you change your mind? Why didn’t you leave me there?”
“How did you understand?” inquired Duch.
“I used my head. I was useless, even more than that. If you needed another fighter you would have asked for one from the Family. Wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, I would.”
“Then you wanted to use me for something else. We were rescuing my double so you wanted to leave me there instead of him. With my body still there nobody would have pursued you.”
“Sound thinking,” Kay agreed, “but I didn’t intend to kill you. I promised you, remember? I only wanted to put you to sleep.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh, I recognize the family politeness. You’re welcome,” Kay rose to his feet, “I’m going to Arthur. His condition is far worse than yours.”
“You didn’t answer,” Tommy said and suddenly Kay really heard [s:2iba73q6]the[/s:2iba73q6] Curtis’s intonation in his voice.
“Well, if I say that I felt pity for you would you believe me?”
“No, of course I wouldn’t.”
“Don’t believe me then.”

Luis phoned Kahl right from the ‘aThan’ office on Dogar. He informed him that he had renewed his contract and asked him to send a shuttle for him. Isabelle cut the line. She had enough problems of her own. A whole team of medics and technicians were busy with Marjan, and both T/san and its congener were now lying on the operating tables of Meklon surgeons. Nomachi could get to the station by himself, his ISS token allowed him enough.(enough what? You can't let the word enough dangle like that. One possibility: he had enough left on his ISS token to make it.)
She also was ("was also" sounds better) frustrated with Lemach’s mindlessness. The admiral was busy inspecting the repairs and conducting negotiations with the planetary administration and the General Staff who were alarmed by the incident. His reputation and recent events had allowed him to [s:2iba73q6]smother[/s:2iba73q6] cover up this scandal. Kahl had no doubt[s:2iba73q6]s[/s:2iba73q6] that all the blame would be imputed to some Darlok terrorists.
The admiral summoned her only at night – it was transparent enough. Kahl appeared in his office ablaze [s:2iba73q6]in[/s:2iba73q6] with fury and was met by a glass of vermouth.
“We have to relax a bit,” Lemach said, “The army and ISS don’t get their noses bloodied like this every day, do they?”
“Someone’s nose was sticking too high in the air,” Isabelle said and accepted the glass. She couldn’t afford to quarrel with Lemach in this situation but she was certainly not going to restrain her sarcasm.
“I’m not going to argue that,” the admiral was in a peaceful mood, “Still, what an impudent rascal he is[s:2iba73q6]?[/s:2iba73q6] I am in awe before this Althos of yours.”
“He isn’t mine.”
“Neither [s:2iba73q6]he’s[/s:2iba73q6] is he mine, unfortunately.” Lemach sipped his wine, “Kahl, you’re wasting your nerves. What did we have? The boy that dumbfounded the whole interrogation system. The boy that could endure any amount of pain and turn drugs into @@@@. I don’t think that our doctor has found a reason for his endurance. Besides, Arthur had the aThan and I doubt we had covered any possibility of suicide. He simply was too sure of himself.”
“And what do we have now?” Isabelle asked with irony in her voice.
“Now we have a clear track of the ship which is carrying the boy directly to his goal. We’ll fly in the morning and stick [s:2iba73q6]on[/s:2iba73q6] to their tail. Curtis junior won’t last long, you know it. But he is determined to fulfill his father’s mission. He’s got to hurry.”
“We’ll fly in the morning,” Isabelle said looking somewhere through Lemach, (through Lemach to somewhere distant) “In the morning…”
“Are you all right?”
Kahl roused herself and smiled at the admiral, and for a moment, in her face flickered that helpless naivety of the long forgotten schoolgirl who used to hang [s:2iba73q6]the[/s:2iba73q6] portraits of the Feud War heroes over her bed.
“I’m tired, Lemach,” she complained, “I should have killed Althos on Tauri. The boy was so strong because he believed in him. One shouldn’t leave people with the belief in their friends. They become strong.”
“What friend? Just a very good mercenary who was promised a mountain of gold and free aThan.”
“You didn’t see him fighting with T/san. A mercenary would have surrendered or died covering the retreat. And Kay fought to win and escape. He had an incentive… And he escaped.”

Even the cyborg looked tired. He went out of the small bedroom (there was no separate medical block onboard the ship) and having discovered Kay at the table, sat nearby.
“Speak,” Kay said as he was finishing his second cup of coffee.
“He will die.”
“I understand. When and of what?”
“Within a week. It’s not because of the torments. His bone marrow is damaged. It appears that their aim was to fully sterilize his blood.”
“Are there is no chance[s:2iba73q6]s[/s:2iba73q6] at all?”
Andrew shook his head.
“Are you upset with something?” Kay asked. There was [s:2iba73q6]a[/s:2iba73q6] surprise in the cyborg’s look.
“Of course. We failed in the mission. Then Meklon died.”
He didn’t even mention the twin grunts.
“The boy has the aThan.”
The cyborg was thinking for a second.
“Then why did we carry him to the ship?”
Kay drew close to the cyborg’s grotesque head and whispered confidently:
“So that he could die properly.”
Andrew slowly rose on his feet.
“I’ll take control. Where are we going [s:2iba73q6]to[/s:2iba73q6]?”
“To Ursa.”
“To the Bulrathi?”
“Yes. To the Imperial enclave, of course. As far as I know, the ISS there has enough problems of their own [s:2iba73q6]to[/s:2iba73q6] controlling the ships passing through. You will board some liner headed for Gorra there and we will continue our journey.”
“All right.”
“Andrew!” Kay said to his own surprise, “We have [s:2iba73q6]a[/s:2iba73q6] mission success, really. Everything is all right. Tell Lika I’ll contact her… whenever possible.”
The cyborg nodded and asked:
“Do you require any medical aid?”
Kay couldn’t understand what this was – either a sudden irony or some sign of sympathy in return.
“No, thank you.”
When Andrew had disappeared in the cockpit, Kay stood up and quietly entered [s:2iba73q6]the[/s:2iba73q6] Arthur’s cabin.
“Hi,” the boy said quietly. Somehow Duch was sure that Andrew had given him a sedative before he left and Arthur’s words caught him off balance.
“Hi,” he replied, “Are you feeling better?”
Nearly all Arthur’s body was covered with pink jellylike cream. He had an automatic injector on his left arm, and a cardio driver that rested on his chest with its spiderlike paws sunk in his skin.
“Oh yes, and soon it’s going to be even better.”
Kay sat on his bed and touched the boy’s hair.
“Who is that boy?” Arthur asked.
“You are.”
“I see. It was him after whom you were so eager to go to Cailis?”
“Yes.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“Tomorrow. You can do everything tomorrow. Do you want to sleep?”
“I’ve been doing this all the time… between the interrogations.”
“I’m sorry it took me this long.”
“We’ll [s:2iba73q6]deduce[/s:2iba73q6] subtract a hundred years from your immortality… as a punishment. Kay, how soon will I die?”
“In a week.” Duch said without hesitation.
“Will you go with me? I will explain everything to my father, you’ll see.”
“We’re going to be on Graal in a week.”
Arthur smiled and the cream on his face was trembling like jelly.”
“Kay, I’m nearly a corpse.”
“Have I ever lied to you?”
The boy didn’t answer.
“Everything will be all right.”
“Are you sure?”
“We have fifty chances out of a hundred. Exactly.”
“This is much,” (Not clear, perhaps: Those are pretty good odds) Arthur said seriously.
“Of course. Now sleep. You’ll need strength. If you don’t hang on for another week, we would have to start from the beginning.”
“I’ll try,” Arthur promised.
“Try. I’ll sit here until you’re asleep.”
He did sit near Arthur for another hour. Then he returned to his cabin and cast a bleak stare at Tommy who occupied the bed, and finally settled in the armchair.
In a couple of hours, however, when the action of the ‘battle cocktail’ anesthetics had ceased he had to wake up anyway.