Acorna smiled. “We won’t need those.”
Johnny shot Acorna a wondering look.
“She is Ki-lin,” murmured Dr. Hoa, who had awakened during Markel’s excited report. “Her horn purifies water and air and heals. Does it not, most gracious lady Ki-lin?”
“I am not Ki-lin, Dr. Hoa, but the rest of it is accurate,” she said.
“See? She has healed my hands and arms from what they did to me.” The scientist shoved one sleeve up to show a slightly wrinkled but healthy forearm with a few patches of paler skin replacing the deep bums. “And the rest of me, too,” he said with some surprise as he realized he could sit up and move without pain.
“And my knuckles,” Markel said, eyes wide as he finally noticed. “My knees don’t hurt either, nor my back.” He looked at Calum accusingly. “Hey-you did get scraped bad, getting through that vent hole, didn’t you? And tried to persuade me I’d been imagining it, when the truth is Acorna healed you?”
“We thought it might be hard for you to accept,” Calum said. “Some people don’t believe. …”
Markel looked reverently at Acorna. “Even with a demonstration? What an asset for our side! They’re never going to get their hands on you, lady. Not while I can still breathe.”
“I’ll see that’s a long, long time,” Acorna said.
Then Market pressed the earpiece and held up a hand to stop any further talk. “Yes, that’s what they’re going to do. Ximena is small enough to make a search once the air has cleared up.” His face clouded over. “She doesn’t want to … I thought maybe she wasn’t as bad as the rest of them … but she doesn’t care about what happens to us, she’s just afraid I’ll survive the gas somehow and go after her in the tunnels. I couldn’t hurt her,” he said sadly, “not Ximena, no matter what she’s done. I thought she would know that much, at least.”
“Well, let’s not wait to meet her,” Johnny said, changing the subject briskly before Markel’s emotions could overpower him. “Markel, can you get us from here to the hangar deck?” He alanced at Calum. “I’m thinking that your ship would make a better command center than this tunnel … we could send our messages for sure, and maybe even get clean away if Markel can disable the Haven’s grapples.”
“No problem! Can’t you see, we’re already at Red 32 x Blue 16, all we have to do is take a side route through Blue 16-24 and cut across at the intersection of Green 48 … well, never mind,” Market slowed down as he sensed the bafflement of his companions.
“I’m just a simple techno-nerd,” Johnny said. “I don’t happen to keep a 3-D color map of the ship’s maintenance tunnels in my memory.”
“It’s real easy,” Markel said. “I’ll tell you all about it when we have time.”
“That,” Johnny said hollowly, “is exactly what I’m afraid of.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind!” Johnny gave Markel a friendly push. “Get going, 0 friendly native guide. Lets hit the road … or rather,” as Johnny caught Markel’s startled look of warning, “let us make noiseless progress away. Do we need anything you have stashed here, Markel?”
“Water?” Markel took down the fabric that had held the water bottles to the wall and it folded out into a sleeveless tunic, the water supplies on the back of it. “Ration bars. My headset. These … no, too heavy… but I gotta have these,” he mused over a collection of tools, rapidly making his selection. He stuffed the necessary items into another backpack, draping thermal covers over everyone’s shoulders, even Dr. Hoa’s, and then, lifting up a corner of the tube wall, shoved whatever remained into the opening. It took a few hard pushes to get the opening to resume its normal shape. The area was back to normal. Markel had left no signs of his presence.
“This way, now,” he said, pointing before he took Dr. Hoas hand.
Later Acorna would wonder how they had managed that exodus. The healing properties of her horn were prodigious, as well as its air-purifying abilities; but the constant effort of making the air around them breathable eventually exhausted even her. And there were other problems. They did not have the luxury of sticking to the “safe” routes Markel had mapped out for himself;