Read Online Beyond Varallan by S. L. Viehl - Free Book Online

mine.
    “Caution,” the Medical Bay display announced. “Medevac launch will depart Sunlace in ten minutes.”
    We took the gyrlift down eleven levels, where one of the launches was waiting for us. Other teams were still loading their shuttles with relief supplies and equipment.
    “Have you received reports from the surface?” Tonetka asked once she was inside the launch. I stowed my pack before shrugging into a harness rig. The pilot turned around, and the interior light revealed a thatch of orange hair with two small, red hornlike protrusions. It was my Oenrallian friend, Dhreen.
    “No signal from the colonists,” Dhreen replied, and punched in the initiation codes. The launch engines hummed into life.
    Squilyp leaned forward. “What about the raiders?”
    The Oenrallian, who had long ago transported me from Terra to K-2, shrugged. “A trader reported that ships were attacking the colony,” Dhreen said. “Probably a passing route jaunter who saw them firing on the planet from orbit.”
    The Omorr looked pained. “A trader? Surely more reputable sources could have provided information.”
    “Nothing wrong with traders,” Dhreen said.
    “They’re the worst sort of opportunists.” Squilyp's gildrells bristled. “Always looking to profit from the suffering of others. Why, once I knew this—”
    “Uh, Squil?” I interrupted him. “Want to guess what Dhreen was before he joined the crew?” The Omorr’s eyes widened as he glanced from the unsmiling Oenrallian to me. “Exactly. So… you were saying?”
    “Nothing,” he mumbled.
    Dhreen winked at me. I felt much better.
    The launch shot out of the flight bay and into open space. Below us the looming sphere of the planet swelled into view. It was a placid-looking world. Land masses solidly paved the outer surface in a myriad pattern of green and brown topography. Small blue circles indicated water sources, probably former sites of ancient meteor collisions.
    I noticed that Dhreen was scanning the immediate sector continuously. Slipping from my harness, I went to the helm and quietly asked him about it.
    “Standard procedure after raider attacks,” he said, his oddly pitched voice equally low. “Loot haulers sometimes hide close by, wait for rescue to come in, jump them as well.”
    “According to the reports, this species is principally involved in agricultural trade,” Tonetka said behind us. “Who would attack such a world?”
    Dhreen’s cheerful voice iced over with contempt. “Scum looking for easy takings.”
    It took only minutes to descend through the upper atmosphere, and clear the last distance to dock. En route we used the time to check our equipment and review medevac protocols.
    “Triage must give priority to salvageable cases,” Tonetka made the grim reminder. “Remember to enlist the aid of any native healers whenever possible. We come to assist, not to offend.”
    I thought I was tough, that I’d seen the worst. I'd been a surgeon on Terra for nearly nine years, and after that had survived a planetary epidemic on K-2. I discovered I hadn't. After we landed, one glance through the viewport made my stomach turn.
    NessNevat’s Central Transport had been completely razed. The smoldering ruins of a dozen vessels surrounded our launch. Craters pitted the docking pads, like the footprints of a rampaging titan. No one responded to Dhreen's request for landing clearance. The Oenrallian pilot still performed standard decon procedures before he permitted us to disembark.
    “I’m jaunting back up to the ship to ferry another team,” he said when I passed by the helm. His spatulate fingers pressed mine briefly. “You owe me another round of whump-ball, you know. Have a care, Doc.”
    I squeezed back. “You too, pal.”
    When the outer hull doors parted, the stench of death and destruction welcomed us. Among other things.
    “Mother of All Houses,” one of the staffers muttered.
    “Monstrous.” The Omorr choked out the word.