Realms of Eden: B4 - First Battle

Drumming her long nails on the desktop she watched as the machine went through its boot up cycle finally flashed the Cellarium Administration Centre logo on the screen and asked her to log in. "About fucking time you started playing the game right!" she muttered as she punched her administrator code and password in and waited for the work station to display the expected program icons.

Suddenly a bright square appeared on the screen and slowly expanded to the edges of the display and she just about cried in frustration. "What the fuck is wrong with this machine?" she asked herself.

A man's face on the screen answered. "Nothing Penny we have just been trying to get it to talk to us for the last four hours and it seems that we have finally got it!" The woman fainted and the screen went blank.

"Damn it Alfred, what do I do now?" asked an obviously frustrated Sydney and the green man's face appeared on the monitor beside him.

"Sorry Syd, but the lines into the place are all hopeless. I don't know who did the network wiring in there but they certainly did not have a clue what they were doing!"

Thelma, standing behind him, rubbed his shoulders saying, "You know you can get to her more easily through your mind map."

Sydney leaned back into the hands working his shoulders feeling her rubbing the tension away a little and grimaced slightly. "She thinks I am a fucking dream! Every time I try to get her attention properly she just goes into daydream mode and most times it is recalling how you and I fucked her senseless!"

Thelma snickered recalling the fun time they had while waiting for her hover to be disposed of when they were on the run from the military commanders involved in Project BF. Thelma dug her nails into a particularly tight spot on his shoulder and heard him hiss a little as she worked the area with short rapid strokes.

The man's face grimaced more as she worked and finally he pushed her hands away. "Too sore Thelma."

She looked at the green man's face in query and Alfred shrugged. He knew that his nano-bots had repaired the area perfectly but for some reason the boy still felt pain where there should not be. He instructed the little machines to do another inspection and sent Thelma a little wave to let her know he was checking it again.

The woman gave a small nod and gently running her fingers through his long dark hair leant forward and kissed him on the forehead before telling him that the teams were going to be ready for debriefing in the command room in ten minutes. He nodded and with a sigh rose up from his chair and readied himself for the upcoming meeting.

His arrival in the exercise come command room on the lowest deck of the Majestic caused silence as the eighteen pairs of human eyes and almost a dozen pairs of seal eyes watched him walk over to the podium and lean with his large hands resting on its edges. He practised a small smile and then turned it up as he surveyed the group. "It appears that we may have seen the last of the sharks in this area," he stated and the smiles, soft cheers and barking from the group below warmed him somewhat.

"Thelma?" he queried.

The White team leader reported that her and her fellow scouts had surveyed an area almost 500 kilometres in radius surround the current seal clan's islands and beyond. Going right back up to the islands of the clan of the Children of Proteus.

Special sonar buoys had been deployed on the outer perimeter in the last few weeks and none of them had transmitted any movements of the killing machines in the last twenty four hours. Nor had the scouts encountered any of them in their fly over missions all morning.

Large schools of fish were spotted however, making their way back to the rich feeding grounds around several of the island groups. This news greatly increased the happy mood of the seals nodding and bouncing on the deck. Sydney smiled. "Thank you people we seemed to have come out of it pretty well, I guess it's time we headed back to civilisation."

"Yes!" cried Bonnie, "Shopping!"

Her happy shout was met with amused grins from the males and happy high fives from the women.

Bloody women! he thought to himself. Here he had been trying hard not to get them killed for the past six weeks and now all they thought about was buying clothes. He then dismissed the crew wishing them a happy day and reminded them that the celebration party did not start until 7:00 pm.

Later that night as the victory celebrations were winding down Sydney stood gazing out at the stars as the Majestic steadily steamed her way back towards the Solomon's some 1500 kilometres distant. They had traversed a wide area during the battles and the Majestic had moved almost 800 kilometres from their original starting point at the islands of the Children of Proteus. He felt happy though as the menace of the sharks certainly seemed to have been crushed and having reviewed the kill numbers with Ian was impressed by the thousands of the deadly killing machines that they had despatched.

He was now feeling unusually tired and stretched his arms above his head as he yawned. Involuntary he gave a yelp as the movement caused a sharp pain in his right shoulder and he slapped a hand up to it.

Xavier was beside him in a flash and despite his protests insisted that he come with her to the sick bay. She signalled Jo and Wendy to come with her. The three women escorted their patient, though Sydney thought prisoner, down the stairs and soon had his shirt off and him lying on his stomach on a bed.

"Fuck me dead!" yelled Alfred. The cyber doctor peered down from the multi-faced monitor arrangement that had been installed in the ceiling of the room so that he could have a 360 degree view. "How in hell did his shoulder get like that!"

Xavier traced the angry purple scars that ran in four widish, even spaced lines from Sydney's right shoulder to his left hip. She gently dug the man in his hip, she and Wendy stripped his pants down as he lifted his pelvis in response. The lines continued down his hip to the top of his thigh as she made him roll slightly.

The scarring looked fine and the lines were only just visible up until just below his shoulder blade where they widened and looked decidedly infected. Alfred's worried face peered back at Xavier and he shook his head. "There is a huge infection in the top of his shoulder. Whatever it is, is so virulent that the nano-bots are having no effect at stopping it."

"Wolverine blood," Serenity's voice came from behind them and Xavier spun in startled surprise.

"You mean that creature that attacked him?" asked the doctor.

Serenity nodded. "When someone was clawed by a wolverine the wound was left open, cleansed and drained until the healers were sure that any wolverine blood was gone before they sewed it shut. If they did not, the wound would never heal and eventually the victim would sicken and die a horrible painful death."

"What if I re-open the wound and drained it now, will that help?"

Serenity sadly shook her head. "They used to try but the infection would be in the bloodstream and no matter how many times the wound was cleaned and drained the infection always came back!"

Alfred absorbed the news bleakly and quietly faded from the screens to continue to examine his databases for case histories. He did not expect to find anything to match this but hoped that he might be able to find an alternative solution.

Sydney tossed his head on the bed and eyeing Serenity's worried face attempted to smile. With a slightly humorous voice he said, "I can heal myself you know."

Serenity turned from him to hide her tears. Jennifer and she had both tried to banish the infection from his blood but it resisted. Defying their powers and she knew that Sydney had tried to get rid of the vileness in his system several times and failed.

Xavier pressed the back of her hand against the man's brow and felt the fever starting. Checking Sydney's pulse she was alarmed that it was climbing. She looked into the man's face and suddenly his eyes rolled back in his head and a savage snarl crossed his handsome features as he tried to combat the pain. Her heart skipped a beat as he convulsed on the bed and black bile erupted from his mouth onto the crisp white sheets and then he blacked out.

Hurriedly she requested Jo to pass her a scalpel and with gloved hands she pressed the sharp instrument against the largest scar on Sydney's shoulder. She had barely cut when black blood oozed out around the knife and began trickling down the man's back.

Xavier paused and then without hesitation she opened the scar all the way down to where it thinned and quickly opened the other marks as well. Jo and Wendy swabbed the area until they had soaked all of the oozing, putrid smelling blood and infected pus from the re-opened wounds and dumped the cloths and swabs into a sterile container that they sealed.

Esmeralda, Marmess and Orial appeared in the room. Their glows bright with anxiety as they watched the women work. Xavier took no comfort in the clicks and odd sounds of the creatures that she had begun to understand as words of encouragement. She had heard them come from the creatures each time she had stitched or attended to scrapes from other members of the crew. With a savage snarl she threw the gloves off her hands into the containment bin as she decided that each of the three creatures charges were the ones that she attended to the most.

Ignoring the creatures as they lifted to the ceiling and became small glowing sentinels she turned to the cyber doctor on the screen above her. "Alfred we need to get him back to my hospital in San Cristobal and we need to do it now!" she screamed into the monitor above her head.

Jennifer. watching with her sister, said, "We are about 2 days from there at full steam can you hold him until then?"

Xavier looked at the beautiful woman and shook her head unable to stop the tears that had begun to flow down her cheeks. "This is after only one day. He heals so fast that I would have expected there to be no problems at all. But if that is what it is doing to someone as powerful as him in that time, in two more days we may have to start opening him up more and the blood loss will most likely kill him."

"Xavier there are no other patients on board and we are not expecting to be doing any more fighting," began Jo and Xavier turned to her and beckoned her to continue. "The medic craft is capable of very high speeds we could have him to San Cristobal much quicker if we flew him there in that!"

Jennifer slapped her forehead in disgust. "Why the hell didn't I think of that! Good work Jo! How soon can you be ready to go?" she asked.

"As soon as I can get him on a stretcher and loaded up. Everything else we might need is already on board and I have clothes and other stuff at home. Jo I think you will find plenty of mine that will fit you. So let's go now!"

"Wait!" called Esmeralda as she dropped from the ceiling to come to a gentle stop just above her lord's body. The women in the room stopped and regarded the little alien as her glow pulsed in the brightly lit room.

"No Es, you cannot take him!" hissed Jennifer. She tilted her head upwards to the magenta and indigo glows. "None of you can! If the military or the scientists find you in a hospital there will be hell to pay! You will be hunted until either you are dead or too many people die. You must leave it to us!"

Esmeralda grew in size until a warning click sounded from above her. "She is right Es!" came Marmess' voice. "We would only make the problems of getting him well complicated. Let us go to the realms and wait. We can see what is happening from there."

Xavier felt the fury from the enraged aqua Zygotian but a bright indigo glow quickly encompassed the alien and when it vanished so had Esmeralda and the others. She heaved a sigh of relief and indicated to Wendy and Jo to continued their preparations.

The three medics worked swiftly and Serenity called Lucy and Lex to bring a stretcher up to put Sydney on which arrived in double quick time. Sydney began to stir and protest as they started to transfer him from the bed and Jennifer calmed him with her mind link telling him that he needed to co-operate and remain still.

Xavier began to lay a protective covering over the re-opened wounds and frowned as she saw that they were beginning to close. "Alfred park the nano-bots they are trying to close him up again!" she yelled. "And while you are at it get Sydney admitted to the hospital into isolation ward 6, my orders!"

The green man's face flickered on the screen and confirmed that he had carried out both commands and wished them safe travels.

Her patient safely loaded and secured Xavier started the motor of the medic craft then checked to see that Jo was strapped in on the command seat behind her so that she could monitor the patient. Getting a thumb's up she gunned the big craft forward off the deck and with a scream of the drives was gone into the night sky, the lights on the craft disappearing in a very short space of time.

Kelsey watched the machine take off with Jennifer and Serenity holding her hands very tightly. The worried woman knew that the two women were fighting back their tears as she herself was. They stood there for a long time after the lights disappeared, their silence comforting each other as no words could.

Serenity finally found her voice and cried softly. "This is all my fault I should have known that they would have been around! How could I have been so fucking stupid?"

She released Kelsey's hand and fled back into the boat ignoring the women as they called after her. Kelsey turned to Jennifer and said, "What does she mean her fault? How could she have known that creatures she hasn't fought for 3,000 years and no-one else has even seen for longer than recorded history would be here?"

Her daughter shrugged and replied, "I think Serenity had an inkling that something ancient may have been guiding the sharks. She just didn't think it would have been some of Mesmet's spawn!"

Kel was worried about what the girl might do. Jennifer assured her that Serenity was just sitting at the prow of the boat bawling her eyes out and she would be back soon enough.

Later, Kelsey slumped against the back of the chair that she had set up against the railing on her balcony outside of the room she had shared with Sydney only a few nights ago. She sat there recalling the battles that the teams had fought over the past gruelling weeks, culminating in the final battle on the little beach of a remote island against the wolverines.

How they had celebrated their victory. She snorted in disgust, as it now appeared that their leader may end up dying after everything was over. Tears started in her eyes as she realised that she had admitted to herself that the big man could actually die. "Sydney! Please come back to me!" she screamed to the night.

Thelma heard the anguish in the woman's cry and debated with herself whether to go and comfort her. But the feeling of dread in her bones made her feel that she was unlikely to be of any use to her. She felt cold and her heart ached. Nothing she did was driving away the blackness of despair that was beginning to creep up on her as she worried over the man winging his way towards a hospital that she hoped may have a solution to an ancient disease.

Alfred was in a dither! It was 4:00 am and he had just received word from his monitor programs that Xavier and her precious cargo had arrived at San Cristobal hospital. He was amazed at how quickly they had gotten there estimating that the medical craft had travelled at over 350 kilometres an hour all the way. He put the information into Ian Creighton's tactical database for later access.

But that was not the problem. He was steadily monitoring Sydney's condition via his nano-bots but was finding that he was getting less and less responses. He had checked and rechecked but his worst fear was being realised. Whatever the infection in Sydney's system was it was killing his nano-bots! The cyber entity needed to talk to someone about this latest headache but couldn't decide whom he should try to wake. In the end Alfred decided that he could wait a few hours and see if he could contact the original producer of the tiny machines at home or in his hospital in Brisbane, Dr Patrick Evans.

Bonnie was awake early. Crying herself to sleep last night after she had seen them taking Sydney off in the medic craft she could not stop the tears that flowed when she got into her bed. For the first time since the cruise had started she had gone to bed alone and from what she had gathered from the rest of the people and their general feelings she wasn't the only one.

Strangely, though she had had many of the people on the boat in her bed during the past six weeks she had not felt any need to do anything more than cuddle into their warm forms. It seemed it was not uncommon on the entire boat as everyone seemed to forget about sex instead seeking someone to hold onto during the night.

Slipping out from under the sheets and putting on one of Sydney's Whirlwind T-shirts she quietly made her way up one floor in search of coffee. She had just started the water to heat when a soft voice behind her, Lissa's, said, "Got enough for two?"

"Better make that three," said Lucy slipping in behind her and giving her sister a quick hug.

"Might as well put the big kettle on darling," came Big Suzy's voice. "The whole boat is awake and they are all heading up this way. Come on Ronnie we might as well start breakfast."

The room filled quickly with the last to arrive being Kelsey and Thelma. They were quite surprised to see the whole team sitting quietly in the dining room sipping coffee or tea. Big Suzy and Ronnie were standing in the middle of the room with hands on hips and Big Suzy was not looking happy! Kelsey wondering what was up walked over to the big woman and asked.

"They say they don't want breakfast! But an army has to eat even if the leader isn't here, isn't that right?" she begged of the woman whom she considered the mother of all of them, even herself.

Kelsey could tell by the woman's look and her voice that she needed something to do, needed to feel helpful and her brain whirred quickly pondering the situation. She snapped her fingers and said, "Suzy, Ronnie get breakfast started."

Turning to the rest of the group she sought out Ian Creighton and her daughter beckoning them to her. The pair hurried to her thinking something else had gone wrong. When she hurriedly whispered her plan to them Ian's face lit up in a big smile and Jennifer hugged her mother tightly as they then set off to gather some equipment. Kelsey stood with Thelma as she sipped tea and explained her plan. The blonde woman patted her back saying, "Kel that's why you're the mother and I am just the teacher!"

Just then Alfred appeared on the large monitor on the wall of the room and he coughed to get everyone's attention. "I have a call that I think you will all want to hear..." and his face was replaced by Xavier's and Jo's very tired but otherwise brightly smiling faces.

"Hello everyone," the pair said and everyone either waved or called out good morning back. "We just wanted to let you all know that we got here about two hours ago and Sydney is now hooked up to a dozen different machines," said Xavier.

Jo put in. "Cheeky bugger even had the hide to tell some of the nurses where to put the needles and tags! Guess he is sort of used to it!"

This brought a few smiles and grins around the tables and Kelsey was pleased that Jo had reported that as it let everyone know that Sydney was not at death's door. Xavier reported that the big man was sleeping comfortably and they were all hoping for the best at this stage. She added that she and Jo were going to head to her place to get some clothes and she opened her doctor's coat to reveal her familiar mini skirt and top. There were plenty of cat calls and guffaws around the room as her familiar pussy was visible to them all. "Guess I have to get used to wearing pants again," she smiled. She promised to keep everyone updated and would let them know if there was anything else that was needed before the Majestic steamed into port.