When Robin saw Ang’Tue grabbing his face as if he wanted to rip off a mask, he slowly relaxed his grip on the remote. Happy had finally managed to reach him and pull his consciousness back to the surface.
“No… No… NO!” The Eltaran shouted as he struggled to gain the upper hand in whatever fight he got caught in. Slowly the black smoke was sucked back into his body while some remnants here and there dissipated in the wind. Even though he saw everything in grayscale, Robin noticed his pale and exhausted face as well as the big bloody bite wounds on his arm. The Stalker that had pounced at him obviously had managed to inflict some nasty injuries before it rotted away. However, compared to Sevastian, the Eltaran was in top shape.
“Ugh…” Ang’Tue groaned, still holding his face.
“Mate? How is it? Talk to us!”
“My head feels like it’s about to explode…”
“That’s good!” Niu cheered in relief, “Welcome back, old man!”
“Puh… can I have some water?”
When Timothy was about to hand him one of the bottles and a recovery stim, Robin held up a hand.
“You scared us quite a bit. Your G-Anomaly is totally fucked up. No offense, but would you please…”
With a beep, the shackles were turned back on.
“Thanks, good to have you back. Rest for now, we have to take care of Sevastian.” Robin said and gave Timothy a nod.
Switching his attention back to Sevastian, Robin could only sigh. The man was an absolute mess and he had no idea how they could help him.
“Can you do anything for him?” Robin mumbled under his breath and shortly afterwards the BWT drone hovered next to him. It stayed hidden most of the time as it was only that useful in the dense forest. Its time would come when night fell and heat-detection was a thing, but until then, it was nothing more than a silent follower of the group. Now he could only hope ROMAS had some medical advice.
* External injuries are insignificant
* Recovery Stim will fix it without side effects
* In both arms his bones are shattered to a dangerous degree
* Seek medical assistance
“It’s not like we ever had a doctor in the crew. The closest to that would have been Keran, who isn’t here now. Is there nothing we can do? We have to keep moving. Staying here is too dangerous. How long would a stim need to fix his bones?”
* Recovery Stim would be able to mend the bones
* 3 stims, one every 6 hours, would repair most damage
* Severe side effects are likely (97%)
“What side effects are we talking about? Broken bones shouldn’t be a problem today, right?”
* His bones are not just broken, they are shattered
* When the healing begins, the bones will grow back together as they are arranged at that time
* You have no means to keep his bones in a correct alignment for the time of healing
* Bones will mend in a disfigured way, crippling him in the process
“Fuck…” Robin cursed and looked back at Sevastian, who was lucky to have lost his consciousness a while ago.
Considering his options, he shared what he learned with the others to see if they had any ideas.
“We can’t stay here, that’s for sure. We are halfway there and the way back should be more difficult as it goes slightly uphill most of the time. I suggest we head for the monolith first and then take Sevastian back to the Hubble with the Melody. However, how to get him to the monolith… I have no idea.” Timothy said.
“We can’t just give him a stim, you are sure?” Happy asked.
“We will cripple his arms like that…” Robin sadly shook his head.
“You… Ahem…” Ang’Tue said but was shaken by a cough attack, “We could fix this afterwards, can’t we? We’re giving him a stim to stabilize his overall condition and ready him for travel. He will be out of order for the rest of this mission with his arms being crippled, but when we are back in the Mereus Cluster, they should be able to realign his bones and fix any damage that was done, right?”
“You want to cripple him in order to proceed with the mission based on the hope that it can be fixed afterwards?” Timothy asked with wide eyes but Robin had to agree. What else could they do? Even if they somehow would get the Hubble here, they still would lack the necessary equipment for a proper treatment. Also, Sevastian needed medical attention soon or else the broken bones would be the smaller problem.
“ROMAS? Could you help me align the bones as well as possible?”
* Positive
“Okay, this sucks but still our best option. We will wake Sevastian up and let him decide.”
“Decide? What is the alternative?” Happy asked.
“I don’t know, okay? But I’ll not cripple him, even if it is only temporarily, without his approval!” Robin angrily hissed and began to wake up Sevastian.
***
When they finally arrived near the monolith and met with Landom, Alena and Patience the whole group was completely wasted.
Of course Sevastian had agreed to the plan as he had no better idea himself and understood the danger of staying any longer. Also, he was quite optimistic that they would be able to repair any lasting damage later on. Robin had been in charge of arranging his bones while the redhead bit on a thick branch. He used the video-feed of the drone since ROMAS was able to highlight different parts of the arms in color so Robin knew what he had to adjust next.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
However, even though he worked for more than 45 minutes on that, mistakes were made. ROMAS had no means to see under the skin and could only work with a basic visual inspection, Robin’s movements weren’t perfect, many of the splinters from his bones were too small to adjust and they began to move after only 8 hours of rest, without the bones being fully mended. All that combined concluded in mixed results of the field-treatment.
When they arrived just before sunrise the next morning, Sevastian had only about 40% of his regular range of mobility. Much flexibility in his elbows was lost and his left wrist was completely stiff.
While Landom, and surprisingly even Alena, reacted to Sevastian’s condition with shock but level-headed, Patience nearly exploded on the spot. Only after the two found a reclusive spot and had a long talk which also involved a lot of semi-public cuddling and even some kisses from Sevastian, did she calm down.
“How is the situation?” Robin asked Landom and Alena, while Sevastian and Patience took some private time and Timothy, Happy and Ang’Tue were sleeping in the little make-shift camp.
“We landed a bit outside of the monolith, hid the Melody and sneaked towards the artifact. So far we didn’t notice any activity or had encounters with the jungle’s beasts.” Alena reported.
“You did expect activities, right? What exactly did you learn at the plateau?”
“Someone tried to sabotage the plateau. We are being targeted.” Landom solemnly said.
“Tried? I’m pretty sure they did so quite successfully.” Robin questioned.
“They wanted to blow up the ceiling of the natural cave below the plateau, probably after we had landed. I found an armed explosive pod in the rubble and as such concluded that a natural cave-in happened before they pulled the trigger themselves.”
“Together with what we learned after you left, a picture is slowly forming. However, I don’t understand the motives…” Robin muttered.
“What do we know so far?” Landom asked in an investigator’s tone, being fully in his element, and Alena happily complied.
“We got a secret mission from the human faction within the UAS to research a device from the Keeper in a dying system where no one else normally stays. Just before we’re leaving the Mereus Cluster the UAS wants to cancel the mission because of ‘major security concerns’. Due to bad luck we only get the message after arriving here. The safe landing spot mentioned by the UAS infopackage that we got from Keran and his people was a trap to kill us. While Keran’s team didn’t follow us to Terulos because they were called home after the mission was canceled, someone else is here and was expecting us.”
“Some of those are just assumptions. While I agree that it’s likely that Keran didn’t come here, I’m not sure if it was the intention to kill us.” Robin loudly pondered, “If they had blown up the earth under the Hubble, the ship would be damaged - heavily so, if it had fallen all the way to the bottom. However, the people in the ship would easily have survived such a crash. That’s not a safe way to kill us, it’s more likely they wanted to trap us on the planet.”
“Also, who would have an interest in killing us? As far as I understand the political landscape of the UAS, there are factions that want to handle you differently, less free-spirited, however all of them want you to check out the monolith. So, why would they antagonize you here?” Landom agreed.
“Maybe Keran has sold us out?” Alena shrugged.
“Keran? He literally lives for the rise of mankind. He would never do that-” Robin laughed and Landom was inclined to agree, but Alena interrupted.
“Maybe it wasn’t just bad luck… Who’s idea was it to shut down all communications before leaving the system?”
“Uhm…” Robin was perplexed for a moment and looked at Landom.
“It was a heated discussion, but I think it was Keran’s idea…” The man said slowly.
All three of them stood there, each lost in its thoughts for some time.
“Who else might know about the Keeper’s artifact on Terulos and has beef with us?” Robin finally asked.
“The UAS, Happy’s family, the Eltaran?” Landom began a short list.
“None of those sounds plausible…” Robin pondered.
“What about the Keeper themselves?” Alena hesitantly asked.
“Hm… while they would know about the monolith and maybe have the means to learn about our mission, why would they try to trap us here? I could see them trying to kill us to keep their secrets safe, but obviously, whoever this is wants us to work with the artifact first. The Keeper wouldn’t need us for that…”
They all nodded in contemplation, not knowing how to proceed, until Robin stood up.
“None of this makes sense… We are missing too many pieces of this puzzle.” He said, “I’ll get some sleep. Wake me up in four hours, then we’ll check out the monolith. Prepare as well as possible for any enemy activity. You can give ROMAS one of the energy guns just in case. It’s not of much use against the Stalkers, but I think if we get interrupted there, it won’t be by beasts.”
***
Even with all the unrest that rose in the universe and despite its sole star dying, Terulos never stopped rotating. Minute after minute and hour after hour passed until the darkness of the night was slowly chased away by the fiery red light of the rising Goya.
When he woke up, Robin didn’t feel as refreshed as he had hoped since the short rest just wasn’t enough after the exhausting travel from the day before.
Alena and Timothy prepared a simple breakfast while Landom worked on the drone and the rest was still asleep.
“The weapon is mounted. Should work like the stun gun back on Seavis, just more deadly… hopefully. You only have ten shots though, as I couldn’t connect the weapon’s energy supply to the drone’s generator.” Landom explained when Robin came closer.
“Thanks, let’s hope we don’t need it. Who will go?”
“Alena and I will be responsible for security at the monolith’s site, Patience and Happy will stay back here to protect Sevastian and the camp. Timothy should follow us to the artifact, too.”
“Reasonable. What is with Ang’Tue?” Robin asked.
“I heard about his mutation…”
“Yup, that’s the real deal but nothing we should count on. The risks involved are way too high.”
“I think so, too. I would like to have him as an element of surprise. He should stay hidden in the forest and only engage if the situation spirals out of control.” Landom said even so he clearly wasn’t happy with this arrangement himself.
“Sounds like a plan. Come on, let’s grab something to eat and head off. No need to waste time on procrastination!”
Half an hour later, Robin and the others finally arrived at the destination of their long journey. Landom carefully pushed the last branches of the undergrowth away to clear their view on an open space in the midst of the jungle.
No trees could be found there, no bushes, not even grass was growing. There was just a big, round stone-like formation on the ground with an enormous, 30 meters tall black pillar in the middle. Despite the obvious craftsmanship that was needed to build this place, everything still looked a bit as if it also could have been created by a happy coincidence of nature.
When Landom, Alena and ROMAS had secured the surroundings, Robin stepped to the monolith and took a closer look. It was made of the same stone-like material as the circle on the ground and it seemed to have grown naturally with uneven pieces and sharp edges everywhere. High up at its top he could even see many different pointy spikes that together formed the peak.
Taking one last deep breath and suppressing the flashbacks to his last encounter with Keeper technology, when he got zapped by the pyramid in the museum, he reached out with his hand and touched the cold, rough surface of the monolith.