Mestral’s Legacy: Chapter 12

April 11th, 2154
5:12 pm

“Enough!” Vorak grabbed the knife from her and threw it across the counter top. “It is difficult enough to meditate without this incessant noise.” Tipping the cutting board, he dumped the half-cut vegetables into a nearby bowl and tossed them in the fridge, slamming the door with such force that the appliance rocked alarmingly. In the ensuing silence, he looked around the kitchen at a loss as to what to do. His anger faded and was replaced by a sick feeling that settled in his stomach as he caught her staring at him. Still agitated, he announced his intention to return to meditation and left.

* * *

Despite the silence pervading the house since his outburst, he continued to have difficulty meditating. The agitation that he had been trying to suppress for days refused to surrender to his control. Frustration percolated inside of him until it overwhelmed him. Reaching for the nearest object, he flung it across the room. The glass of water smashed against the thin plastic display screen hanging there, cracking the ‘indestructible’ plastic. Water seeped into the screen prompting a wisp of smoke and several sparks before the image of T�Nia�s painting faded away.

“Feel better?” His bondmate was standing in the doorway, watching him intently.

“No, I do not.” In fact, he felt worse. There were plastic shards all over the carpet, and he was repulsed that his own actions had caused the destruction. A faint ghost of the painting remained on the screen.

The den was dreary without the artwork. Like the artist, the painting had always brightened up any room that it was in. Now the brilliant panels of blue, red, and yellow had faded. He could no longer see the moons of each of the two end panels that flanked the red middle panel with its single white heart. ‘Family’ was what T’Nia had called it. A school project. He looked away as a familiar ache settled in his chest.

An electronic beep drew his attention to his mate who was pointing a mediscanner in his direction and scowling at the display as the small screen overflowed with information. He waved her off and sat down at his desk. There was no need for a scan to tell him what was going on. It had only been a surprise the first time. Now it was simply denial that kept him from accepting what was happening to him.

She leaned against the desk, facing him, studying the mediscanner read out in spite of him. Her brow knit as she did the calculations that he had done a week and a half ago.

“It is early,” he said, saving her the trouble. She looked up, hurt in her eyes. The ache in his chest intensified.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” It was not an unreasonable question. He was not sure whether he had a reasonable answer. She had been different when she came back from the Expanse, unwilling to share the details with him, and he was reluctant to push her. He was not certain that he really wanted to know the details.

Finally he said, “I wanted to give you more time.” I was waiting to get my wife back. Keeping her eyes on him, she set the mediscanner on the desk behind her, knocking something off of the desk in the process. Too late he remembered the hypospray. She picked it up before he could.

“What’s this?” She knew, of course. Any physician would recognize a disposable hypospray.

“It is of no importance.” He reached for it but she held it out of his reach. The only identifiable mark was a drug identification chip. She waited expectantly for him to offer an explanation but he declined. Holding the hypospray to the mediscanner she simply waited for it to find a match in its database. If he were Terran he would have flinched at the expression that crossed her face when the scanner chimed.

“What the Hell are you doing with this?” She asked, waving the hypospray at him.

“There was always the possibility that you would not return–”

“What does that have to do wi – hold on, you were going to take Banitrox for Pon Farr?” She stared at him incredulously. “Are you crazy? You can’t take a drug for sexual offenders to control a hormonal cycle. This drug is for humans, you don’t know what it would do to your brain chemistry.”

“It was a risk that I was willing to take.”

“How did you get this stuff anyway? They track this stuff closer than they do narcotics.” She frowned as a further thought occurred to her, “Wait a minute, if I’m back then why do you have this out?”

“As I said, I wanted to give you more time.”

“Did you take it?” He shook his head. “Good, because I�d have all the time in the world if you managed to kill yourself with this stuff.” She glared at him, but he could feel her fear just below the surface.

He sighed, “It was not my intent to commit suicide.”

“Anything could have happened. What gives you the right to take that chance? You selfish, foolish–” she sputtered, fuming as she ran out of adjectives.

“Green-blooded? Pointy-eared?” He provided helpfully.

“Don’t help me,” she hissed at him. Sensing that he was close to sharing Kaunshaya’s accommodations for the night, he decided to keep any more suggestions to himself. She had never needed any help in that respect before.

“I would point out that flawed logic and poor judgement are some of the first symptoms of plaktow.” She was still glaring at him, but she did not call him any more names. Progress.

“Obviously.” She scrolled though the mediscanner results while they sat in silence, “How long, do you think?”

“Several days. A week, perhaps longer.”

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