ENOUGH HAS BEEN GIVEN

1563 4D

The gray-clad soldiers, visors down, swung the muzzles of their weapons from Marra to Deen‘s staring face and then on past them, herding the hospital workers away from the rooms where rebel burn victims waited, unconscious. Joining a throng of andros and walking wounded, Marra drew Ezzar close to her and pulled her along. Deen dragged herself to her feet and followed.

An officer called out to the crowd, “Just clear this area. Get back down the corridor and wait there. We’ll get you all out of the Complex.”

Ezzar looked unresponsive, dull. Marra caught Deen‘s eye, and Deen came up beside her. “So what are we going to do now? What’ll they do when they find out about Aoriver and Oortonel?”

Aoriver said to Marra, Haven’t we been through this before? I hope you think of something better than passing as andros this time.

Deen said, “I hope you think of something better than passing as andros.”

“You and Aoriver are starting to sound alike. Why don’t you come up with something? Why do I always have to be the one to get things started? All you do is complain and worry. And all Aoriver does is complain about not getting enough food.”

And with plenty of reason, too.

Deen said, “All right. Let’s find a utility closet and hide in it.”

“And then what?” Marra steered Ezzar around a table sitting in the middle of the corridor.

“And then, well, maybe we can change the way we look.”

Oh, no, not again.

“Oh, no, not again.” Now Marra echoed Aoriver.

“Yeah, I know, Oortonel doesn’t like the idea either. But we could get out of the street and think about it. At least we wouldn’t get rounded up and sent off somewhere.”

“Okay, let’s look for a niche. This isn’t any good. Ezzar, you okay with this?”

Ezzar, looking down at a spot on the floor three strides ahead, nodded slightly. She said, “Whatever you want to do.”

They hid in a long narrow utility access room that ran at a right angle to the street. Vertical pipes of all sizes from wrist to torso thickness concealed the left wall from floor to ceiling; the right wall held only diagrams and instructions. Each of the women tucked herself between a pair of the larger pipes and waited in darkness.

Aoriver spoke. Before the soldiers came, Allashani called to me. She was very weak. She and her host collapsed. She needs to feed as soon as she can, or she’ll dissolve. Her light was so weak I almost missed her.

“Is that what happens to you if—“

“Marra! Sshh!” Deen, nearer the door, had heard something outside.

That’s right. It can take a long time, more than your lifetime, if we suspend. But she gave more than she had, and she couldn’t do what she needed to for suspension. We aren’t strong enough to help her ourselves. Both of us are depleted. And she is gone back there, somewhere.

From outside, a light spilled along the foot of the utility room door. The door opened, and a flood of brightness hit Marra‘s eyes. She pulled back behind the big pipe. A high voice said, “All right. Whoever you are, come out of there. You’re going with the rest. Don’t make me drop a can of Neurinol in there, okay? Come on.”

Marra poked her head out, then came out past Ezzar and Deen to the street, trying not to glance aside as she passed them. A thin, square-faced woman in regional gray, pointing a ballistic at her, stared at Marra‘s head and said, “Good drooling morons, girl, you look like a butcher. Thought you were a guy at first.” She laughed in a way Marra didn’t like. “Get going. Maybe you and I can discuss a few things later. I could make it easier for you, you know?”

They walked to the end of the corridor, where it turned and joined a wider understreet. A group of Marra‘s fellow workers stood at the turn, guarded by a pair of corpos. One of the corpos beckoned the square-faced woman over to him, and said something to her in an animated whisper. She recoiled, saying, “No! That can’t be!”

He nodded, looked at Marra, blew out a breath, and said to the woman in a normal voice, “I’m afraid so. We’ve got to be out of here in an hour. Everything. Verify it if you want to.”

“I’ll do that,” the woman said. She turned to Marra and grabbed her arm, dragging her toward the others. “You, wait with them.” She stalked back up the corridor. Marra‘s knees shook.

A few breaths later the woman had returned, her face grim. She said to the corpos, “You’re right. We’re out of here. Come on.” She turned and walked back the way she had come.

“Where are we going?” Marra asked, afraid to hear the answer.

The woman ignored her. The corpo who had spoken earlier shouldered his weapon. His hands shook. “You’re going nowhere. We’re leaving. Somebody changed their mind. So many of us died, and then somebody changed their fucking mind.”

He and his partner walked after the woman, shaking their heads. A few steps away, he whirled and leveled his gun at Marra and the others. “And don’t you follow us, or you’re gonna be hot and you’re gonna be dead. Got it?”

Marra nodded, her jaw slack. She walked slowly back to the utility door, still slightly open. Why wasn’t she relieved and happy? No feelings came. The numbed expression on Ezzar‘s face came to her mind.

“Come out,” she said to Deen and Ezzar, surprised at the flat tone in her own voice. “We won.”

Allashani‘s gone now. She just— died, as far as I can explain it to you. Aoriver‘s voice inside Marra sounded slow, deep, a tone Marra had never heard.

“What do you mean by ‘we won’?” Deen asked. “Allashani‘s gone, Oortonel says. She died.”

“They’re pulling out. Something big must have happened. We’ll have to finish working down here, though. There’s a lot of people waiting. Why don’t you go out and see what’s happening?”

Ezzar, looking exhausted, pointed to a space on the floor at the side of the corridor. “Let me sit down and rest a little. I’ll be all right after that.”

Marra said, “Deen, stay with her. I’ll be back shortly. Right now we’ve got to get some folks fixed up.” She turned to go, heard Aoriver‘s voice, and stopped.

There will be no more work now, for a time. Aoriver‘s voice carried the same slow depth as before. Enough has been given. Your people must do their own healing work now. Stay with Ezzar.

“But, there’s dying people here.” The stricken look in Deen‘s eyes echoed Marra‘s own feelings.

And that will always be. Some will live. Oortonel and I must go inward for now. We have lost much. Stay with this woman.

“But,” Deen spoke, looking at Marra, “but we need you.”

Marra heard nothing from within her, from the base of her brain. “Aoriver?” Silence inside. The voices and footfalls and wheel sounds filled her awareness. “Deen, she’s gone. Aoriver‘s gone.”

“So is Oortonel. Maybe they’re just resting like they used to. I suppose we could try to get them back the way we did before.”

A harassed medic in a pale-tan coverall confronted them. “Are you two going to get back to it? We’ve still got lots of wounded.” He nodded toward a nearby door, where two andros carried in another beam victim.

Marra shook her head. “We won’t be able to help, not right now. You’re going to have to make do without us.”

“How in this hell are we supposed to do that?” The medic waved a hand in the air. “I’ve got no supplies. There’s only two others besides me — the Lady‘s off in a cloud somewhere, I don’t know, I hope she isn’t stuck in a corpse someplace — and we’ve got thirty or forty dying people here. This war’s not over, not for us. And you’re telling me you can’t help any more, all of a sudden? Shit.” He stalked off along the corridor, yelling to a trio of andros ahead of him. They scurried away down a side passage.

Deen watched him go, her young face in a frown that made her look to Marra like the older Deen she knew. “I don’t think we should try anything to get Oortonel and Aoriver back here right now,” Deen said slowly. “They’ve lost someone who isn’t coming back.”

Marra wiped her palms against the sticky thighs of her coverall. The air weighed on her, and her shoulders sagged. “Let’s keep Ezzar company,” she said. “She’s asleep.”