A week passed since Rennin first awoke without maddening agony, and this was the first time he’d seen Veidan, albeit in a wheelchair, outside the critical wing. Rennin found himself in a constant state of numbness since his initial recovery but seeing such a powerful figure, an icon of the army, in that state made something inside him feel sick. He wasn’t sure if he pitied this android but this was no way for a war hero to spend his last days if they couldn’t cure him.
Veidan was willing to sacrifice himself to keep others safe. Rennin was quite the opposite and proved that during planet-fall. That act was the first time since the war began that Rennin Farrow didn’t want to die. Another thing he found quite remarkable about Veidan was that he ordered them not to shoot him when the bioweapon began taking hold, no matter what. No matter what.
Rennin walked at a slow hobble with his cane over to where Veidan sat, staring at the floor, heavily bandaged and looking utterly defeated. Rennin’s left shin, left forearm and right hand were all broken from over tightened muscles, his tear ducts had pushed out blood, and his capillaries had burst. At one point he must have curled up in a ball so tightly he broke his own ribs, puncturing his left lung. All over his body he felt an ache just like the growing pains a child has, but the concept pain held little to no weight with him anymore. Nothing could be worse than what he just endured.
Decora entered the area in full bio-wear with CryoZaiyon Captain Angelien Zillah. They walked over to Veidan, asking Rennin to step aside. Decora injected Veidan with something clear then took ten or so steps away.
“Alright, Saifer. Stand up.”
Veidan looked up briefly and shook his head. “I can’t. I feel the same as yesterday.”
“Yesterday you wallowed as well, you need to keep trying,” said Decora gently but with a hint of command.
Zillah’s expression usually looked like detached aggression but now it was cold rage. Rennin had seen her in the field once or twice; she was never one to mince words. “Get up.”
Veidan shook his head very slowly as if worried it would fall off. “I can’t.”
“Forty-eight CryoZaiyons were in cold storage when you were brought here, now there are over a hundred. You’re the best hope any of them have of ever being reactivated but we have to get a working antivirus code from an android. The current stalemate at the Geneva Convention means the GA hasn’t stopped using Indigo Reign on frontier garrisons since it’s still not illegal. They need you to fight, Saifer,” said Decora.
“You know what they do to us when we’re no longer viable,” said Zillah.
Veidan pushed out a lot of the air from what Rennin guessed must be lungs. “I feel so weak. Every time I move I might drop and wriggle like a caught fish.”
Zillah stepped up to him, though this time her expression had softened. Rennin still thought she could stare down an enemy tank. “I’ll help you stand, and you walk, alright?”
Veidan took her hands and she eased him to his feet before taking a step back. “Okay…”
“Don’t worry about making it all the way to Nexarien, just focus on the first step,” she said.
Veidan stepped forwards once and was slightly off balance for a moment. Zillah took a step back but kept her arms out ready to catch him. Veidan stepped forwards again and again and made it to Decora without falling, though a little unsteadily.
He smiled, “Now what?”
Decora grinned for a moment but his face returned to passive. “You’re going to collapse again but only because we have to see how many things you can do before we find something that triggers a fall. Place your arms straight out at either side.”
Veidan did so. His left hand twitched slightly but only for a moment. He grunted and frowned, willing it to stay still. “Ready.”
Decora’s face suggested he didn’t want to push Veidan into another fall, but a failure was going to come sooner or later. Decora placed a sidearm, missing its ammo clip, in Veidan’s hand. “Aim and support with your offhand and skim over four random people anywhere in the room.”
Veidan placed his hand around the gun and managed a loose grip. He brought his other hand up to a standard shooting stance, trembling ever so slightly. He picked a person, and moved the gun until they were in his sights and his shoulder twitched. He gritted his teeth and moved to the next one and the shaking became a little worse. “I can’t hold it.”
“Pull the trigger,” said Decora.
Veidan tried to but his hand erupted into a fit. He dropped the gun. The spasm travelled up his arm and down his body until his whole form was shaking enough for him to fall into a seizure. “I-I-I t-tried.”
“Sedative,” said Zillah in a tone that would have made Rennin have a surprise bowel movement if it were directed at him.
Decora injected him twice with a sedative and his body soon calmed down. They carried him back to his wheelchair.
“He did well that time,” said Decora looking optimistic.
“Is all this really helping?” asked Zillah.
“Five days ago he couldn’t sit up, let alone stand up, it has to be done this way.”
“Why?” she asked.
“We have to find what the Indigo Reign affected and recode it so it won’t ever afflict him again.”
“This could take months.”
“Maybe, but only for him. We’ll have a full coding system designed to combat the weapon once we’re through, and it won’t do a single thing to any android that is exposed in the future. The modified algorithm will be introduced into every android and mech-orga. The vaccine will be given to every full-orga then the android firewall will be upgraded with a copy of the Indigo Reign signature. Every conceivable variant I can fathom will be accounted for to make sure this is where it ends.”
It was then that Zillah noticed Rennin’s presence. “What is that staring at?” she asked Decora.
The Medtech’s glare would dissolve iron. “He is part of the crew of the ship that saved ours.”
Zillah then regarded him with what appeared to be less scorn by a mere sliver. “You were with Lieutenant Veidan when he was contaminated?”
“I serve him,” said Rennin.
Something in Zillah’s eyes changed. “Keep him company, will you?”
Rennin nodded. Decora and Zillah exited the quarantine zone leaving Rennin with Veidan so he hobbled over to a seat nearby and sat down next to the seemingly unconscious android.
“Lieutenant?”
Veidan didn’t respond.
“Saifer?”
Nothing.
“Fuckface?”
A slight moan.
Rennin huffed out his best attempt at a chuckle and wondered briefly what kind of toxin could sedate an android. He believed it was probably just full of binary code ectoplasm telling his CPU to go into standby.
“When you wake up, let me know,” said Rennin closing his eyes wearily. Even walking around the room really took it out of him and he began drifting off.
“He’s dead, you know,” said a cold voice off to the side.
Rennin opened his bloodshot eyes and glanced over to see a bright pair of neon-green lights staring at him. “Sorry?”
“That one,” nodding at Veidan, “He’s dead. They’re all dead. Walking, talking, dead.”
This was a CryoZaiyon but he sure wasn’t very well. Rennin’s eyes glanced down and saw that this android was heavily restrained to his seat. He wasn’t sure how to respond and so just smiled.
The android’s face was unreadable. “You’re not listening. No one’s listening. You’re not supposed to hear the dead.”