On Silver Wings by Evan Currie Read Free Book Online Page B

as she walked, “What’s up doc?”

    Jerry closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. “You’re kidding.”

    “Naw,” she replied easily as they walked on, “but the official name is about eighty letters long and can only be pronounced after twelve years of university study.”

    He snorted despite himself, though her joke was at least partially aimed in his general direction, whether she knew it or not.

    “Just some gene altered bugs that radiate infrared light and do some other little tricks when they’re told to,” she told him, “You know the drill after that?”

    He nodded without speaking. Near infrared radiation, along the right frequency pulses, could be absorbed by the cells of the human body and used as energy for mitosis. Application to many types of injuries speeded healing by several times, and in the right situations could even be used to power the body despite a lack of normal fuel, such as food. Of course the application of the technology was fundamentally limited, the body needed more than raw energy to properly heal and operate. Reed wondered what the other ‘little tricks’ she referred to were, though off the top of his head he could imagine a lot of fun things one could potentially pack into something like that.

    It was the first time he’d heard of the idea being delivered by a biological source, especially from within the body, but it made sense. He was surprised it hadn’t been done a long time earlier, actually.

    Then again, what did he know? Maybe it had been in use for decades, he wasn’t exactly up to date on modern medical treatments.

    “Must be nice.” He offered after a moment.

    “When it’s not trying to kill me with a hundred and six fever, sure,” she replied dryly.

    *****

    They stumbled back into camp well into the night, Sorilla having refused the suggestion to break for the night. Jerry was wiped out, but more worried for his companion than anything else. When she parted from him to head toward the hut they’d let her use, he made a straight line for Tara Steven’s shelter.

    The redheaded nurse was blinking away sleep when he got her up, looking confused as she tried to wake up with little success. “Jerry? You’re back?”

    He smiled a little at the dumb question, but cut her some slack due to the time. “Yeah. Look, I think that Sergeant Aida needs to be checked out.”

    Tara wiped her eyes, planting her feet on the dirt floor. “Alright... she’s in her shelter?”

    “Yeah, I saw her to her door a few minutes ago.”

    The nurse smiled, “Chauvinist.”

    “Cut me some slack, Tara,” Reed said, rolling his eyes, “I’d be after you to check up on anyone I thought was hurt.”

    “Yeah, but you wouldn’t walk them to their door,” She smiled, pulling a light jacket on over her night shirt. “Go get some sleep, Jerry. You look like hell.”

    “Wait ‘til you see her,” he sighed, nodding.

    Tara chuckled softly, “I’ll tell her you said that. Go.”

    He shot her a look of mock horror, but let himself be pushed out ahead of the nurse as she grabbed her medical bag and turned off the battery powered lamp. She was right, he knew, he was running less than fumes. He didn’t know where Sergeant Aida got the energy to keep moving, especially since she’d been injured, unless it was from that ‘bugs’ bacteria of hers, but whatever well she drew her energy from, his was dry.

    “Alright, alright, I’m going...” Jerry told Tara with a weak smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

    She nodded, patting him on the shoulder as they separated and she went back toward the Sergeant’s hut. He watched the nurse go for a moment, his face darkening a little as he thought about what Sorilla had told him, then shook it off and headed for his own bed, such as it was these days.

    For her part, Tara knocked softly on the door when she arrived at the Sergeant’s hut, seeing from the light pouring out through the cracks in the door and wall that