Part 20 (1/2)

The Return

Unconscious, Ryan was unable to draw even a shallow breath for his already oxygen depleted body. Starved for air, his body and brain began shutting down.

Suddenly, gravity returned to normal.

Although still unconscious, Ryan's breathing resumed. His heart-no longer struggling under a crus.h.i.+ng weight-sped to pump oxygen to the trillions of cells in his body.

Two minutes later, Ryan returned to consciousness and forced his eyes open. An image slowly came into focus. Mich.e.l.le Cooper. Kneeling over him and wrapping his thigh with bandages and gauze.

”Ryan,” she said in surprise and profound relief. ”You're awake.”

Ryan nodded weakly.

”I'm so sorry for what I did to you,” she said, looking a little dazed.

Ryan smiled thinly. ”You used the Med-Pen on yourself after all,” he rasped, barely above a whisper. Given that he no longer felt any pain, he knew she had used it on him as well.

”Yes,” she replied. For some reason she was having trouble remembering further back than ten or fifteen minutes earlier. She wasn't even sure how she had gotten here. Or why she had been so intent on hurting Ryan Resnick.

”But you were sure I was bluffing,” said Ryan.

She thought about this. ”I don't know,” she said with a shrug. ”I remember you telling me we would both die from a deadly virus. And thinking you were bluffing. But I also remember thinking that since I had a Med-Pen, I might as well use it-just in case you weren't. That it would only take a second.”

Mich.e.l.le Cooper shook her head in confusion. ”But what's going on, Ryan? I hated you. I wanted to kill you so badly I could taste it. Then all of a sudden I would have given anything for you to be okay.”

”It's a long story,” rasped Ryan weakly. ”The short version is that you were infected on Isis. Your first trip there made you temporarily insane.”

Mich.e.l.le's eyes narrowed. Could this be true? She thought back to her first visit to Isis, and as she did so a dam burst open, freeing all of her memories of the past three months. They all came rus.h.i.+ng back to her, cras.h.i.+ng into her like a tidal wave. Ryan was right! She had behaved horribly. She had done vile, despicable things. She gasped, feeling sick to the very core of her soul.

”I feel like I just woke from some terrible nightmare,” she said in horror.

”You did,” whispered Ryan. ”You weren't yourself. The Med-Pen cured you.”

Mich.e.l.le Cooper knew in her heart that this is exactly what had happened. The alien device had restored her mind to its normal state.

As she thought about the past fifteen minutes, her eyes widened. ”So that's what your bluff was all about,” she said in wonder. ”You needed to trick me into curing myself.” She stared at him in admiration. ”Incredible.” There was a pause. ”I'll never be able to thank you enough.”

Ryan had never come so close to giving up. It had been hopeless. The pain made it almost impossible for him to think clearly. But the pain had been the key to finding an answer because he had realized that the only way it would go away is if he had a Med-Pen. And then he remembered that Mich.e.l.le had stolen one. That she had one with her. In a flash he realized what he had to do. If he could trick her into using it on herself, it might cure her. Ryan hadn't been sure it would still work since her mind had been in an altered state for such a long time, but he knew this was his only chance. And it had worked perfectly.

Maybe he was the luckiest person who ever lived.

Carl managed a grunt from his position on the floor. Mich.e.l.le jumped up as if she had been electrocuted. ”Sorry, Carl,” she said as she trained the Enigma Cube on him. ”Didn't mean to forget about you.”

Carl's gravity returned to normal and he rose slowly from the floor. He knelt beside Mich.e.l.le and inspected Ryan carefully. ”Are you okay?” he said protectively, although he was far from fully recovered himself.

”Yeah,” whispered Ryan. He managed a faint smile. ”Although I've probably been better.”

Mich.e.l.le laughed, and instead of the chilling quality her laugh had had before there was now a cheerful, contagious quality to it.

Carl remembered this laugh and realized how much he had missed it. He caught Mich.e.l.le's eye and nodded. ”Welcome back, Mich.e.l.le,” he said warmly.

She returned the nod. Tears slowly formed in the corners of her eyes as she once again thought about the waking nightmare that had been the last three months of her life. About the unspeakable things she had said and done.

The Isis infection had somehow altered her brain chemistry in despicable ways, but even so, how could she ever forgive herself for not fighting harder to retain her sanity? For not fighting harder to stop the madness from consuming her? How could she ever forgive herself for the way she had treated those closest to her? She was ashamed and horrified and disgusted at herself for allowing the infection to so easily turn her into a psychopath.

At the same time she was overjoyed that she was now herself again and would be able to make amends. A kaleidoscope of emotions spun inside her. Extreme joy and extreme sorrow. Profound regret and profound hope for the future.

”I'll help you round up the mercs who were working with me and rescue poor Nathaniel,” she said finally. ”But can it wait fifteen minutes or so?”

Carl nodded.

Mich.e.l.le Cooper smiled through tear filled eyes. ”Thanks,” she said, walking to the door.

Just before she left the room she turned back to face Ryan and Carl. ”My daughters are in the next room,” she explained. ”Girls that I love more than anything in the world.”

Tears now left her eyes and began streaming down her face. ”It's time they got their mother back.”

CHAPTER 33.

Friends

It was Monday night and the four members of the Resnick family were seated at their dinner table in front of a large window. The window provided an excellent view of the thick woods just beyond their backyard, but this was the last thing any of them wanted to see just then. Everyone had had more than their fill of woods-both earthly and alien-during the weekend that had just pa.s.sed.

Three of the four family members had spent the entire weekend off-planet. Once the portable generator died, the Isis team had set up the self-inflatable dwellings they had brought and enlarged their camp. They made sure to stay very calm and positive and they had no further encounters with any of the wildlife.

Most of the group had been certain they would be stranded on Isis for the rest of their lives. They believed they should begin exploring immediately in an effort to find an area for a permanent settlement. Regan was able to convince the group to wait at least two or three days before doing this. To give Miguel and Cam more time to recover from their injuries and to give Prometheus security a few days to take back the city and mount a rescue party. She argued well and her absolute conviction that this would happen was quite persuasive. Naturally, she didn't tell anyone that she knew the city was already back in the hands of Carl and that a rescue plan had already been devised.

Knowing they would be rescued, Regan was determined to keep her and Ryan's telepathy secret. Even so, she wasn't about to let her parents continue believing their son was almost certainly dead.

So she lied to them.

She told them Ryan had been feeling some pain so she had treated him with a Med-Pen ten minutes before he was separated from the group. That they had discussed the Isis wildlife and she was sure he was about to come to the same conclusions that she had. That he had told her after the Med-Pen had returned him to normal he was tired of being angry, and determined to be upbeat no matter what happened. She told them she and Ryan had developed a sixth sense of their own when it came to one another, and she was more certain he was alive than she had ever been of anything in her life.

She knew her parents couldn't share her absolute optimism, but she didn't stop trying to convince them until she had seen a reasonable measure of hope return to their eyes.

To stay emotionally positive, everyone decided to act as if Regan was right and they were very near rescue. The biologists stayed upbeat by studying the wildlife, designing experiments to test this new sense Regan had discovered, and discussing the probable evolution of the Isis biosphere.

Surprisingly, Ben Resnick and Donna Morgan were able to salvage their X-ray experiment. Although some of the structural parts of their X-ray detector equipment had been spattered with lava, making things more difficult, they still managed to set it up in time to get the readings they needed.

On Sat.u.r.day night the dazzling stars came out again. In uncountable numbers. But now the group took the time to truly appreciate their magnificence.