Cyber Witch

Chapter 8.3 - Partners

[Zach]

Light.

There was light here. Gentle rhythmic beeping. An antiseptic smell.

I willed my eyelids to blink open, then clamped them shut against an uncomfortable dazzling white light.

"He's coming around, Maya," a female voice said.

I laid on something much softer than last night's rocks, and a thin blanket covered me. Opening my eyes again, but this time squinting, the silhouettes of two female faces gazed back at me.

"For goodness' sake, turn off that search light before you blind him."

Thankfully, she switched off the ceiling-mounted examination light and moved it aside. I laid in some sort of hospital room with plain white walls, a plas-steel cabinet on one side, and a curtain-like partition on the other. A woman with tied-back brown hair and a rounded tan face wore blue scrubs, obviously a medical professional. The other, a taller woman with a lighter thin face and long, gray-streaked sandy-brown hair, wore simple black leggings and a green tunic top.

With mind still fuzzy, I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing but a coarse wheeze crossed my parched tongue.

"Here, drink this," a voice urged while pressing a clear plastic straw against my dried lips.

Plain water never tasted so wonderful. The cool, life-granting liquid soothed my mouth and throat. I sucked in the entire cup contents until the gargley sound came. The woman refilled the cup from a pitcher and placed it into a bed cupholder.

As my memories filtered back, a panic crawled down my spine and my heart raced. "Avia!" I propped myself up on elbows, but this brought on dizziness and my vision blurred.

One woman helped me settle back down to the narrow hospital bed. "Easy now, cowboy. You've been through a lot."

"Where is she? Is she okay?" I demanded.

"Avia. Is that your friend's name? She's here, but still unconscious."

The other woman pulled back the partition, revealing Avia, who laid with eyes closed on a bed similar to mine, covered with a white blanket. The data panel above her head drew colored lines and beeped softly with each precious heartbeat. An IV setup similar to mine dripped clear liquid into an arm vein.

"Her blood sugar was dangerously low," the medical woman continued. "And we are still having problems bringing it up. Does she have any conditions that affect sugar metabolism?"

I paused, but only for a second. Normally, I shouldn't reveal Avia's secret, but her life was on the line. "Avia has cybernetic implants in her brain that run on sugar. She normally eats huge amounts of carbs."

"Hmm, was she one of those enhanced kids in the Border Wars?"

"Yes." 

"Good to know," the woman said. "We will up her glucose rate. Probably give her a sugar rush, too." She turned to the other woman. "Sirone, would you entertain our guest until I come back?"

"Could I get you anything?" Sirone asked, coming to my side.

I tilted my head toward Avia. "Would you move me closer?"

"Of course."

After a click to release the brake, the woman wheeled my bed beside Avia. Tentatively, I reached over and took Avia's hand in mine. The warmth of it flowed into me.

The legs of a standard gray plas-steel chair grated against the white floor as the woman dragged it beside me and sat, leaning forward. Her brown eyes narrowed slightly. "You two caused quite the stir when you blazed across the sky. We haven't had off-world visitors here for decades. Did anyone else come with you?"