Page 53 of Bonds of Starfall

Sabine watched as he lifted Vesperin in his arms, her head lolling back like a doll’s. The food was left on the plates, untouched, and the glass of water that Vesperin had drunk was still full. Sabine lifted it, drifting to the kitchen, and tipping the contents down the sink—it was that easy to get rid of the evidence.

She caught up to Talor, who was in the study. The floor-to-ceiling shelves holding science books and research manuals gave way to a dark corridor as Talor held his palm over a hidden keypad, tucked under a useless light switch.

They walked down the steps, her shoes clicking on the smooth stone. The underground lab was small, private. Clean white walls, smooth tile floors that dipped downward at the center, with a grate-covered drain in the middle, metal tables lined the walls, and rolling carts stacked with sterilized instruments. Talor placed Vesperin on the plain, black, padded hospital bed in the center of the room, flicking the overhead light on. It shone brightly, highlighting Vesperin’s sallow skin and the hollows of her cheeks.

Shrugging on one of the white coats hanging by the door, Sabine asked, "Will she be satisfactory to conduct our next round of tests on, considering the weight she’s lost?"

Talor already wore his coat and was now putting plastic gloves on his hands. "It should be. We’ll start slow and see how she responds to the new mixtures of the serum. It has been a while, anyway, since we have been able to test her."

Sabine nodded. "Check her vitals first, and I’ll prep the injections for stage one. We can monitor how she responds to the introduction of a mild poison, and gauge her body’s response to it."

They needed to test her healing and see how it compared… if it was evolving like they hoped. Sabine brought up the screen of Vesperin’s past experiments on the laptop, casting a large, dim projection of it on the white walls. It had been almost a year since their last experiment. With how often Sabine and Talor were away, and Kiton keeping her out of the house more often, chances had been hard to grasp.

Talor took Vesperin’s vitals, checking her heart and blood pressure, as Sabine wiped down a syringe, going to the medical freezer in the corner. She unlocked the latch, and it opened with a hiss of frigid air that drifted around her as she used a pair of tongs to extract a small vial of red liquid. A new poison, one they had received in a trade from their research partners on Tarz. It was made to slow the blood flow within the veins, until the subject eventually died from heart failure. It was a gamble, playing with Vesperin’s heart, but they needed to see this through.

If Dr. Quenlan was right, Vesperin wouldn’t make it another ten years. But she wondered about the doctor, wondered how much of what he told her was true—Sabine had seen him with Vesperin at the funeral. The way he had held her and spoken lowly to her piqued Sabine’s interest.

Talor unwrapped the black cuff from around Vesperin’s too-slim upper arm, giving a curt nod to Sabine. "Stable. Only a slight decrease since our last check."

"Does it match the information from the doctor?" Sabine inquired.

"Yes, it does. Perfectly." He paused, bracing his gloved hands on the black, flat bed that Vesperin lay on. "You do not suspect anything, do you?"

Sabine hummed, methodically rolling up Vesperin’s sleeves—one of Kiton’s, she noted. Too large, and the hem had a few holes. A few electrodes were stuck to Vesperin’s temples, and one on the inside of her wrist, connected to a sleek, advanced machine that read off her brain waves, heart rate, and blood pressure. The plastic of Sabine’s gloves crinkled as she held Vesperin’s arm, twisting it until her elbow was revealed. She had to work to find a vein, carefully sticking the long needle into her flesh and pressing the plunger. Her eyes flicked to the red liquid slowly creeping into Vesperin’s body and the monitor near the bed, tracking the dipping lines displayed. "Better to be cautious. Don’t you agree?"

Sabine set the empty syringe down on the metal rolling cart. And now, they waited.

It didn’t take long.

The lines on the monitor started to increase as Vesperin’s heart rate kicked up. Slowing down, speeding up, thumping erratically in her chest. Sabine gripped the edge of the bed, knuckles white under her gloves. Fuck, fuck. Please.

Vesperin jerked. The brain wave monitor started to beep, flashing with a soft white light in warning.

"Sabine," Talor urged, his voice sharp.

The jerking grew more furious. Vesperin’s limbs twitched. Her back bowed off the bed, tendons in her neck straining.

"Sabine," Talor barked, "we cannot kill her!"

"Wait a minute." Sabine held up a hand. "Just wait."

Tension lined her husband’s shoulders, but he held off.

Blood trickled from Vesperin’s nose, her face too pale against the white light shining down on her. Her heart was a maddeningbeat—the monitor displayed one long, raised line, with the smallest of dips.

"Come on, come on," Sabine chanted. It had to work. The poison was made toslowhearts, not speed them up—a sign they were almost there. If Vesperin could work past this, she could overcome anything—they had to have a breakthrough.

But it wasn’t working. The brain waves were sporadic, the warning light pulsing harshly.

"Her blood pressure is dipping. Cut it now. Get the antidote," Talor ordered.

She met her husband’s eyes. "Fine," she gritted out, quickly grabbing the small syringe filled with the antidote. She stabbed the needle into Vesperin’s arm, unconcerned with being gentle, and plunged it into her bloodstream. Almost immediately, the thrashing of her limbs stilled, the warning lights ceased, and the lines on the monitor slowly returned to normal.

Sabine discarded the syringe on the metal table with a sharp clatter. "Damn this. It’s been a year, and her healing is nowhere near where it needs to be."

Talor rounded the bed, placing a hand on her shoulder. She sagged into her husband’s side. They watched Vesperin’s head, lolled to the side on the bed, blood still trickling from her nose.

"Give it time. There has been a big improvement." He grabbed her chin and directed her face to the projected chart. "She can do this. We just need to push a little harder. When she goes back to the Academy, we’ll send her back to Nova Zone 21, and release a new wave of upperlevel Rogues. The last experiment went well."