Free Touchstone (Meridian Series) by John Schettler, Mark Prost Page B

“I can tell you exactly when it happened. Come
outside. Robert, you stay here with Kelly.”
    Paul nodded and the two of them
stepped out into the hall. Nordhausen gave them a glance, a worried expression
on his face, but he soon turned his attention to Kelly.
           “Robert?” Kelly had opened his eyes again, and he was
trying to force a smile.
           “I’m here, Kelly. The
others stepped out to talk. So… how do you feel?
           “Pretty damn mortal.”
           The professor was distracted by the beeping of the hospital
monitors, which seemed to speed up, then taper off again.
           “It’ll be okay, my
friend,” Robert consoled.  “Paul will know what to do. Just be here now.”
           “Where?” said Kelly. 
“What time is it?”
           “What does that matter.”
Nordhausen put his hand on Kelly’s brow, feeling an odd coolness there. He
certainly wasn’t running a temperature, which ruled out any sudden illness.
           “You don’t understand…”
Kelly labored to speak again. “This isn’t life for me, Robert. I should be dead
now… I’ve thought about that every second I’ve lived since the mission. Every
second of every moment. Hell… Maybe I am turning into a wraith…”
           “No good with that sort
of talk, Kelly. You just hold on now. We’ve got an alert on the Golem line.
Your program is running numbers and working up the report right now. We’ll get
to the bottom of this. You’ll see. You are going to be fine. Maeve will stay
here with you, and Paul and I will go take care of this business. You’ll will
be out of here in no time! I promise!”
           “Okay…  I just feel so
strange…wish the damn drugs would help. What are they shooting me up with?” His
head lolled up to look at the glucose drip.
           “Just fluids and sugars
to help stabilize your system.”
           “Sugar buzz…” Kelly began
to drift. “Got to rest…”
           “Sure, sure, just rest. I’ll wait
here till Maeve and Paul come in, and we will take good care of you. Just
relax, don’t worry about anything. You’ll be fine.”
           “Yeah, fine…” He closed
his eyes and lapsed into silence.
    Nordhausen turned the lights down, and sat in a
chair by the bed. He watched his friend’s breathing, his chest hardly moving,
his breath the barest whisper on the oxygen feed line near his nose. Tears
welled in the corners of his eyes and his face betrayed the deep emotion he was
feeling now.
    “My fault,” he whispered. “I did this…” The
hospital monitors were pulsing calmly as Kelly seemed to be falling into a
deeper sleep.
    The door opened again and Maeve
stepped in first. Paul remained outside, gesturing at Robert to come. Robert
gave Kelly one last look and stood up, offering the bedside chair to Maeve.
    A moment later the two men were standing in
the busy hospital corridor, speaking to one another in low whispers.
    “So, what’s the plan?” Robert was eager to
do something to change the situation.
           “Well this is all very
theoretical, and I haven’t done any real time mapping yet, but Maeve and I
think we have to go check the DVD in the grave—you know, the memorial site
where we buried our mementos for Kelly.”
           The professor glanced at
the open door to Kelly’s room, as though afraid that Maeve would overhear them.
“Does she know?” His voice was a whisper in Paul’s ear.
           “Not everything. She
thinks the alert is the cause of the incident. I didn’t mention your … well,
you know.”
           “Right,” the professor
agreed, glancing over his shoulder. “Not the time for it. But what do we do
now?”
           “We’ve got to get back to
the Arch. I’m pretty sure the Nexus from your mission has dissipated by now,
but we still have the shelter of the Arch Nexus as long as we can keep it
running? We’ll check the