"Meralynn." He corrected himself and nodded again. "Empty, this place isss.." Although he had said he believed her when she said it was sometimes busy, he looked almost as if he thought the size of the hospital was a waste of space when it was so empty.
"Yes..." Mera was thinking the worst with the hospital so quiet. "I don’t like it when it gets like this.....something is up." She turned her glance toward the air filters in the wall as if it would provide some answers and fell into thought. Azreth and Grey were still discussing souls and their value, but Mera was mentally preparing for what she would need to do if a sudden onslaught of wounded arrived.
=
"Well.. soul is.. needed sometimes," Grey was saying. "Okay.. A soul is vital.. along with mind and body.."
"What does the soul do?" Az wanted to know.
"I've had perhaps way too much time to contemplate some issues between tests and bouts of pain during my stay here.."
Not an answer. "Perhaps. But still, what does your soul do for you?"
"I'm still trying to figure that out.. but It can sustain in times of struggle.."
"Wouldn't it be better just to die?"
Grey sighed and lowered his gaze slightly. "I've seen too many friends die to simply give up. I'm not going to let the Church run amok while I live."
Azreth shrugged. "They are a necessary evil, you know."
"Least it gives me a focus. No war.. we weaken.. but war... we die off.. They need to be.. balanced I guess..." It seemed he didn’t think there was much balance going on.
"War is peace," Azreth intoned. But it wasn’t clear if even he believed what he said.
"Peace is War.. Life and death..." They both drifted off into silence.
=
"Gathering, they are," Sitharis said abruptly. He lifted his gaze to stare into the air. "Fighting they are, many dead, there will be.."
Mera blinked turning her head from the blank wall to stare at the Lizard. "How do you know?" She wondered where Ash was at that moment. Mera knew she’d gone out earlier on one of her missions.
"Alwaysss the way, it isss... isss it not?"
So there’s really no mystical aspect to that scaled snout of yours … "Yes." Mera said. "But I hope not tonight. It has been too busy lately....we all need a break."
"Circle continuesss, it will.." Sitharis said very matter-of-factly.
Grey listened to Mera and the lizard, his "souls" discussion over. "Not quite sure if we ever do stop"
"Someday...I hope the circle stops...." Rising from her chair, Mera made her way over to the water purifier where she poured a cup of water for herself.
"Afraid it can't Mera.. War.. peace.. Life.. death.. Tech.. magic. Parents taught me that..."
"Circle ssstopsss, life ssstopsss."
The Syrynykk was right, but Mera didn’t like thinking that it took death to stop the "circle." "Well....maybe we just need a new circle...." There was a slight pout upon her lips as she took a sip of the water.
"Or perhaps the circle must be balanced.."
"Sssure, you are -- that new Circle -- better, it would be?" Sitharis asked.
Nearly at the same time, Az said, "Who's to say it won't just be worse."
"True..." Mera looked all too willing to be defeated, her chestnut eyes downcast.
"Patience, you mussst have.. Circle.. an ending there isss.. and a new beginning, there alwaysss isss."
"Rebirth... My purpose..?" Grey sighed slightly.
"To be reborn, you have to die again..."
Grey glanced to Azreth, the talk of souls and death just about reaching it’s limit. "Think I've done plenty of that.. different kinds of death -- death of self is one.. a change.. think that's what is happening to me.. I sense it. Or the pain killers have kicked in.."
"It's easier to kill oneself than to kill ones world."
Mera’s eyes flickered towards Grey. "Don’t talk like that"
Sitharis’ head slowly turned toward the rest of the room.
The bruised man nodded to Mera. "May be truth.. may be not.. only real thing.. I'm changing.. and into what." He shrugged as if to say, "who knows?"
"Well...I suppose we will find out"
"I suppose we’re waiting breathlessly right now, eh."
"Yes... and the researches will poke and prod me till it happens.."
"Poor you....a huumunn pin cushion," the girl said, again with a sympathetic tone.
Grey let out a soft chuckle. "All in the name of science.. hope they got all the data they can.. so I can rest in peace.."
"Pin cushion?" Sitharis said more than asked. "Explain, you will."
"Pin cushion....something you stick pins in to keep them from getting lost," Mera told him, clasping her cup firmly in her hand.
"An object in which sharp needles are poked into.." Grey said.
"It's an idiom," Azreth added in his inimitable way.
Slowly ... Mera stretched ... setting her cup down.
"Huumunns.. pin cushionsss, they are?"
"Not exactly.." Clearly, the term idiom was not completely clear …
"Only when there is something wrong with them," Mera tried to explain.
"It's a.." Grey began, then decided he wouldn’t bother. "Or if other huumunns get very mad with that huumunn."
Mera chuckled. "True."
Azreth smirked. "Well, then it's usually not pins."
Sitharis shook his head. "Violent, you are." Yet he was the one with the spear.
"Usually it's worse.." Grey sighed at Az’ commentary and then nodded to Sith. "I was joking.. But you are somewhat right.. they're huumunns who are very violent.."
"If only ‘violent’ was the worst of our traits." Azreth grinned.
"Ssstab, you do.. othersss of your kind..." A clawed hand waved, making it a universal trait among huumunns.
Grey turned his head to look at Azreth. "I could think of worse, Azreth. Afraid I must sometimes," he continued then looking at Sith. "To protect myself from huumunns who want to stab me. Or do worse."
Az quipped. "Huumunns have a lot to learn....all over again."
"Learn from the mistakes I would hope.."
"Violent, you are.. other waysss, there alwaysss isss..."
"Humans will never learn. There isn't any hope for humanity, but it's not going to die out, they breed too much." Azreth made his declaration as if he, himself, weren’t human.
"I wish there were some other way," Grey said. "I'm not sure about hope. if there is hope or not.."
"No one ever is," Az told him.
The blunt end of the fetish spear thrummed hard against the floor and Sitharis said, "Know, I do.. prejudice Huumunnsss are..."
"Huumunns fear what they don't understand," Grey agreed, how could he not?
"Dessstroy what they do not underssstand, they do..." Sith countered.
"Prejudiced," Azreth murmured to Sitharis, unconsciously correcting his grammar.
"Exceptionsss, there are..." the Syrynykk went on. "The children.. firssst to accept, they are..."
"Now and then."
Belatedly, Azreth said to Grey, after the second time his name had been used before he’d even given it, "You know, it's impolite to steal peoples names off the top of their minds."
Silent a while, Mera turned finally from the conversation. She left the others to argue and made her way over to the ER. It had been on her mind what the Syrynykk had said about the fighting. Thinking about it wouldn’t get the work done, however; and, she wanted to make sure all was in order in case of any incoming casualties.
"Oh. Sorry about that, Azreth."
"Call me Az. Everyone else does."
"My mind's been acting up.. it just… slipped out."
"Don't worry about it, but I would be careful."
The other man nodded and held out a hand. "My name is Shad Grey."
"Nice to meet you."
"And being careful is the reason why I’m here, Az. Till I get control again." He stood from his chair, his meal done.
"Good luck," Az said sincerely.
"My thanks. It’s always interesting to meet visitors from other places... no matter the distance." He nodded politely to Az and looked around him. A soft sigh accompanied the words, "Well, I must be off now. More tests."
"Have fun," Az waved after him, with a touch of sarcasm this time. Mera, watched Grey walk away after saying his good-nights. She hoped things would go better for him in the future but she rather doubted that they would. Still rustling within the drawers and cabinets, Mera was busily checking off a list. She was making sure everything was where it needed to be.
Azreth yawned slightly and moved away from the doorway where he’d been leaning the entire time. "Mera," he said, approaching the open ER doors as he walked across the lobby from the cafeteria. "You've lived in this hell your entire life, haven't you?"
She glanced up and answered Az from the old Nurses station. "Yes. But most of it was spent here at the hospital. Father was very protective. He wouldn’t let me out much."
"Well, it's better than the rest of the world." Az moved over to a lobby bench. He often spent the night in the hospital lobby since he’d arrived. It was definitely safer than the rest of this strange world.
She chuckled – a sound which might have said she wasn’t sure she agreed. Then she moves past the doorway ... to the other side of the ER, out of earshot of Azreth, to begin checking the row of curtained off exam areas, their beds and the cabinets in each one.
Azreth yawned and slumped over in the bench, drifting off into sleep.
==
In the doorway, the female Syrynykk stood for a long moment. Her slitted jade orbs slide over the place in silence and she made a note of every being within by sight and smell.
Sith’s tongue snaked out, tasting the air as a familiar scent lit upon his senses. Moving from the cafeteria, his head turned toward the door.
Jade eyes fell upon the only other Syrynykk. Her tongue flicked out once and quickly. A touch of recognition was in her manner as the female moved toward Sitharis.
"Greet you, I do..." He said to Dael.
She offered him a simple nod. "Greeting returned..." Then a smile, or her *version* of one, spread on ebon-scaled lips.
"Little here, there isss..." he told her, swinging his gaze back to the room. They both heard the slow steps of the huumunn which brought Mera back towards the receptionists desk, and to her book. The Syrynykk heard her sigh. Her tasks about the ER were done and she once again settled down to focus on the large book of prose that seemed to never end. Sith hefted the fetish spear in his clawed hand and moved toward the corner once more, settling down in a crouch.
"Yes," the female said. Her gaze followed his briefly. "Few others...mostly soft-skins.".. and having thus spoken, she followed him to the corner. She remained standing, her tail swaying slowly at her feet "Why be you here?"
"Ssseeker of tribe, I am... elder, I am.. where elssse, I would be?"
She crouched. "I do not have your job...I would be no expert in that field..."
"Chosssen, you have?" His slitted yellow eyes lifted to her in expectation.
"Chosen?" The other reptilian head tilted slightly to the side. "No..."
"Choossse, you will? Your time... sssoon, it isss."
"I will choose, yes...But I must think things over. This is no small decision, elder..."
Into the pause was introduced the crackling sound of a page turned. A dog-eared corner, too often bent back and forth, separated from the page. It alighted silently as a butterfly upon the surface of the desk as she read. The sound of hard boot heels on the stairs drifted to her and she looked up to see Terra enter the main floor of the hospital. Mera smiled and called softly to her, "Good evening."
Terra moved over to the front desk and checked over the log. "Good evening to you, Mera. How are things tonight?"
"Quiet. Too quiet. I don’t like it." The look on Mera’s face told the other woman that something must be up, but that she didn’t know what it might be.
"Mera has Garth come in for the test yet?"
Mera shook her head. "I have not seen him at all. He was supposed to be in tonight?"
"Hmm.. he has an appointment." Terra tapped her nails on the counter. "Yes." She sighed softly. "Well the night is young..."
"Elliot?" Mera asked the ceiling. "Have you completed your diagnostic?"
A tone sounded over the speakers in the ceiling tiles. "Diagnostic 87% complete, Meralynn."
"Mera.. did you look at Garth’s blood results?"
The girl shook her head in answer. "No ... did you find something?"
"Well. .yes.. it .is unusual to say the least" She turned to face Mera. "Its the healing factor. It’s way out of range... Elliot," she said abruptly. "Access file ‘Garth Lowinn’."
"Terra, unable to complete that operation at this time."
"OK .. OK"
"Diagnostic is still running. It is 92% complete."
Sitharis lifted his head at the sound of the computer's voice filtering through the speakers. He cast a quick glance about, stirring somewhat. The female beside him remained still, but her jade eyes moved. She was listening.
"Also," Terra said, "it seems his blood has this odd degree of immunity to radiation."
Mera ticked her tongue. "Odd things are happening....we have one with an odd healing rate....and that Shad Grey.....his mind is changing."
"’Mind is changing’? In what way?" Terra listened attentively, curious about this oddity she’d not heard about as yet.
"He said he can hear other peoples thoughts.... see things from other times....developing some sort of psychic abilities."
Seeing the new arrival of Terra, Sitharis stood once more to his full height of eight feet. The fetish spear was held tightly in his long clawed grip. "Healers, they are," he said to the female, and nodded once toward Terra and Mera.
Terra glanced up at Sitharis. "Hello there."
That tongue of his slithered out in serpentine fashion once more, tasting the scent of the room. "Greet you, I do."
Terra smiled. "It is a pleasure. I am Terra. I can help if you need some medical attention." She turned and whispered to Mera, "Tall fellow." Mera smiled and then Terra returned to the subject at hand. "Garth has been having incidents of illness, possibly stress related, that culminates with a episodes of unpredictable violence and hallucinations."
The familiar tone echoed off the tiles once again and Elliot spoke. "Diagnostic complete, Meralynn. It appears that terminal relays 7 and 12 have sustained some decrease in capacity. ETR 18 minutes."
"Thank you Elliot," Mera said to him and saw the wondering look on Terra’s face. "Seems Elliot was running a bit slow today."
"Now ... that’s a bit unusual..."
"I agree," Mera said, then yawned, placing her hand over her mouth. She tried to hold it back but it was no use.
"Terra," Elliot’s singsong voice announced, "the Garth Lowinn files are now printing at the console behind you." The printer hummed with activity as page after page of data was printed.
Sitharis leveled a cold glance up at the speaker next to him. The female, standing a mere seven feet, flickered her tongue in and out quickly.
"Ah, thank you Elliot. Now to see if Garth makes his appointment."
Slowly, Mera rose from her chair, its wheels gliding upon the tiled floor. "I think I am off. Gotta get my beauty sleep ya know." She winked to Terra and the latter nodded.
"You have a good evening, Mera."
"Building ssspeaksss, it doesss.." Sitharis said to Dael, the female. His spear flipped blunt end up and with it he smacked the speaker as he had done before.
She glared at just about every technological item in the room with something reminiscent of annoyance, then she swung her head to face Sith. "I have noticed..." she said, disapprovingly.
Mera smiled and exchanged knowing looks with Terra. She gathered up her things, then, and made her way up the stairwell toward her room.
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