Keystones: Tau Prime by Alexander McKinney Read Free Book Online

bitten in half.”
    “Bitten in half?” Brice asked incredulously.
    Deklan found a plant-free seat and sat down. “Yes,” he replied.
    Brice walked over to his son and put a hand on his shoulder. “How is he now?”
    “We saved the wing, and as I said he’s in a rejuvenation tank, but his physiology isn’t exactly normal, so I’m hoping for the best.”
    Tricia swept Brice aside and hugged Deklan. “We simply must go see him.”
    Deklan’s voice was muffled by his mother’s sweater. “Sure, not a problem, but there isn’t much to see. He’s unconscious and will be until his wing knits. You know the drill: they keep people asleep in those tanks so they won’t have a panic attack. It would be especially bad for Michael, what with his claustrophobia.” He realized that he was rambling.
    Tricia’s voice was firm. “Even so, we’ll go see him. We owe Michael a lot, don’t we, Brice?”

    Deklan stood with his parents in front of Michael’s tank. Both Brice and Tricia had changed into something tidier out of respect for Michael.
    As before Michael hung suspended in the liquid, a mask strapped to his face. Since Deklan had left, intravenous lines had been added to Michael’s wingtip. The readout on the tank gave no estimate of how long he could be expected to stay submerged.
    Brice broke the silence, his voice quieter than usual. “Did you speak to a doctor?”
    “Yes, but they couldn’t tell me much.”
    “What did they tell you?”
    Deklan tapped at the readout on the tank, selecting a simplified display that would give information suitable for the layman. It flashed up statistics for injuries, mortality rates, and recovery times. “Every normal injury,” explained Deklan, “has a recovery time with a variance depending on the individual and his or her age.”
    Tricia interrupted him gently. “Deklan, your father and I know that. We’ve spent a lot of time outside your rejuvenation tanks.”
    “Michael’s injury isn’t normal,” added Deklan. The display indicated that the lines leading to the wingtip were nutrient feeds to keep it alive and give Michael’s body a chance to graft it back onto him. His wing had yet to show any signs of the severed bone’s healing.

Day 6

CHAPTER FIVE

Survivor's Guilt

After a night of uneasy tossing and turning interspersed with shallow sleep, Deklan had given up and gone to the hospital to visit Michael. He went even though he knew that there was nothing for him to do and that Michael wouldn’t know that he was there. He’d chosen not to renew contract work on Earth.
    He read the diagnostic information off the display. The jagged wound, torn muscle, and cracked bones appeared to be knitting, albeit slowly. Deklan felt that this was a small victory. He noticed that most of the tanks in the ward were full, but there was little foot traffic. He wasn’t going to speed Michael’s recovery, and yet here he was again.
    Deklan knew that he needed a focus, something useful to do, something to distract him from wallowing in self-pity and guilt. From the moment he’d realized how dangerous animals were after The Sweep, he’d had the overriding goal of getting his family to safety. Along the way he’d made friends with Michael and Susan. Now Michael was in a tank, and Susan wasn’t accepting his calls. His parents were now as safe as they could be, and there wasn’t much call for a movie stuntman during a worldwide crisis.
    Deklan scrolled through job postings again. He didn’t feel qualified for anything. He could try to go back to law, though finding a position would be hard, but even if he succeeded it would be like admitting defeat. Defeat was not something to which he was accustomed, yet the last few days had been dogged by failures small and large.
    Deklan felt adrift. He needed a purpose, something bigger than a paycheck. He’d never done anything just for the money. He’d wanted to help people, but instead he’d nearly gotten Michael killed. So this