Varin, Medical Station, The Colony
Thomar sat next to me on the medical bed as Dr. Surnen ran his scanners over each of us in turn.
“Well?” I asked.
Dr. Surnen’s face gave nothing away. The warrior was pure fucking stone. “There have been subtle frequency disruptions.”
“What does that mean?” Thomar asked.
“I do not know. I will need to run more tests.”
“Fuck your tests. We all know what is happening here. How long do I have?” Thomar slid off the exam bed to stand and clenched his fists, his tone causing more than one of the doctor’s assistants to scurry to the opposite side of the large room.
Confused by the question, I looked at the doctor, who held Thomar’s gaze without flinching. “At the current rate of decays, seven to ten days before you…”
“What?” I stood as well, feeling as if my heart had just exploded inside my chest. “What do you mean, seven days? What the fuck are you talking about?”
Thomar’s guilt and regret hit me through the collars until I nearly fell to my knees with it. “Place me on the IC’s strike list. Give me seven days.”
No. Just fucking no. The Intelligence Core’s strike list was for warriors willing to accept missions where there was little to no hope of coming back alive. Warriors or beasts or fighters from the other worlds who already knew they were going to die. Suicide missions.
“What are you not telling me?” I asked Thomar.
Thomar looked at the doctor and gave a small nod of his head, then leaned back to rest his hips against the exam table and crossed his arms over his chest. The doctor looked from him to me and cleared his throat.
“Thomar’s body is reacting to the modified collar and the surrounding Hive implants.”
“Reacting? How, exactly?”
“His body is rejecting the integrations and the surrounding tissues are dying, causing decay and sepsis, infection that has spread into his bloodstream.” He looked at Thomar. “I will need you to spend no less than one hour each day in the ReGen pod if you want to be functional for the IC mission.”
“There has to be something you can do.” I was not losing Thomar now, not after everything we had survived. Now that we had Danika. We’d been closer than brothers since we were old enough to walk. I would not allow him to give up now.
“I am still running tests.”
A growl filled the room, and I realized it had come from me. I clenched my hands at my sides. “What did I just say about tests?”
Thomar interrupted before the doctor could speak. “I can feel myself dying, Varin. The doctor has tried everything he knows to do. Nothing helps.”
The golden Prillon doctor cleared his throat. “I am sorry. I will continue looking for an answer. Thomar’s genetics are slightly different than the standard Prillon.”
“He’s fucking royal.”
“I am not.”
“Your family is one of the original royal lines. I don’t give a fuck what some asshole ancestor of yours did. You are the most honorable warrior I know.”
Thomar remained silent but our bond was strong. I felt his friendship and loyalty through the collars. His despair came at me as well, like a black cloud threatening to drown me, which made me eager to punch the doctor.
Unproductive but satisfying.
“I am running some experiments with Lady Rone.” He raised a hand to hold us both back from whatever reaction we were about to have. “As I told you, Thomar, the frequency of your collar implant changed once I removed your other integrations. I believe your body must have been having a reaction to the collars while you were still a captive and the Hive fitted you with additional devices to counteract the problem.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
The doctor looked at me. “When you both arrived, I removed all the integrations I could without endangering your health, as I always do. I believe that with those gone, there is nothing mitigating Thomar’s natural response. His body is rejecting the modified collar and spinal integrations, destroying the circuits and eating away at the collar itself. Perhaps the reaction is releasing toxins. If my theory is correct, that would explain your constant pain. The integrations in your brain tissue are most likely degrading as well.”
“Have you seen something like this before?”