Free Beyond Varallan by S. L. Viehl Page A

once-immaculate tunic ruined. “I am replacing you, Healer. Stop and rest for an interval.”
    The Hsktskt hadn’t rested while they were here . “I’m fine.”
    “You’ve been performing surgery for seventeen hours without ceasing.”
    “Is that right?” My nurse nodded. I started the post-op scans. “I’m up for another seventeen more. Go on, Tonetka, take a rest yourself.”
    “It is not a matter of discussion, Cherijo. Until I retire, you remain my subordinate,” she said, and plucked the scanner from my hand. “Go. You may not have another opportunity for some time.”
    With a helpful push from the nurse, I stepped away from the table. “Okay. Thanks.”
    My legs were numb from standing in one place for so long. I hobbled out from surgery into the general hospital area. Several of the nurses stopped me to consult on post-op cases. So far my patients were stable or improving. Once I was satisfied, I slipped out of the building into the ruins of what had been the NessNevats’ largest settlement.
    Until the Hsktskt showed up.
    The nurses had brought me bits and pieces of information while I operated. The death toll stood at approximately two hundred thousand. Search teams were still sweeping through the formerly populated areas, but evidently Reever’s theory was right, they hadn't found anyone still alive. A special construction crew had been sent down from the Sunlace to excavate the mass graves that would be needed.
    An estimated ten thousand more natives had been taken from the planet. Slaver goods, if they survived the Hsktskt preference for raw flesh, and the jaunt to Faction-occupied space.
    The survivors numbered only eight hundred fifty-two. Most of those were children who had evidently hidden in nooks and crannies during the assault. It was theorized that their weaker life signs hadn’t registered on the Faction's proximity scanners.
    Or perhaps, I thought, the bastards couldn’t be bothered and had just left them here to die.
    I sat down on a battered section of wall.
    It wasn’t a wall anymore. Not since the Hsktskt had stopped by .
    A year ago I’d delivered five Hsktskt infants during a hostile visit by two of the Faction to the FreeClinic on K-2. At the time, I'd gone so far as to help the reptilian warriors leave the planet without violence. In gratitude, the female had promised to name one of the young after me—the equivalent of being made a Hsktskt godmother.
    Godmother to the Hsktskt. Godmother to the butchers who had done this.
    Somehow I didn’t think the NessNevat would appreciate my dubious honor. Had the pair I'd helped taken part in this?
    “Cherijo.”
    Reever walked up behind me. I glanced at him without enthusiasm. “Hello, Duncan. Pull up a chunk of rubble. I’m taking a break.”
    “You have been busy.”
    “Yeah, I have.” I stared at the dust and rings of sweat on his black garments. “You, too.”
    He brushed at his trousers with a half-hearted swipe. “We began to dig out the lower level of a collapsed learning facility. As scans revealed all the children within were deceased, we discontinued the effort.” He said all of it without inflection. I was too numb myself to react to his usual prosaic manner. “You called me Duncan.”
    I raised my gaze to his. “That’s still your name, right?”
    “You never call me Duncan.”
    This seemed like a really stupid conversation to be having. “Sure I do. Just not very often. I’ll go back to Reever, if you want.”
    “I have no preference.”
    “Maybe I should. The last time I called you Duncan, you kicked me out of bed.” I toed a bit of scorched rock around. “So, what else would you like to talk about? The weather? Seems nice down here for summer, if you ignore the smell of the decomposing bodies and the smoke from those fires they haven’t put out yet. What do you think of the natives? Not that there are a whole lot left. Their kids are pretty good at fooling executioners. How about the view? Once the