CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
"If you can't find an adequate intellect, evolve one." - Makr
"Harry. Wake up, Harry." Carlos shook his shoulder. "Are you alive, hero?" The tone of his voice was a little bitter. He had managed to hide most of his feelings, but not all. He knew this wasn't the time for rage—except against the Cyber.
"If he's not dead, yet, he will be when you've finished shaking him." Marlene had recovered more quickly, her wounds not as numerous or as deep. Three of the female Shadow soldiers were rubbing gel on them.
Harry started up. "Where am...?" The walls, ceiling and floor swirled, then grew dim. He was blacking out again. His body felt heavy but someone was holding him up. He opened his eyes to see the silver-haired woman he had glimpsed at the Touchable sanctuary.
"Steady. You've lost a lot of blood." Mother was applying the gel with her fingers, but it seemed to be having little rejuvenating effect on Harry. "We need to get liquids in him, Carlos, but he doesn't have the strength to drink."
"He shouldn't drink. I think he's bleeding internally. He took quite a beating out there and it looks like some of his wounds are deep enough for the poison...
"No, he can't be. Not now! Not now, Carlos!" That the Mother-General was nearly hysterical didn’t go unnoticed.
"I'm afraid so," Carlos said, baffled by his mother’s outcry.
The desperate, anguished look he saw escaping beneath his mother's camouflaged face and teary eyes reflected more pain than he had ever thought possible. Tears made dirty streams down her face, as she clutched him, begged him, "You've got to do something, Carlos. You have to save him."
"There's nothing we can do. Not even a transfusion. Don't you understand, Mother? He's bleeding inside. The rats really ripped him open."
"You've got to... He's..."
"He's what, Mother?"
It's no use, she thought. "He's our salvation. Our Savior. Our Messiah."
"You don't believe that bunk we spread around do you? We're our own salvation. You told me that for years."
Mother tried looking away but she was drawn back to injured man.
Carlos seeing his mother suffer, "Maybe there is something we can do." He turned to two of sergeants. "Take him to the Healing Room. Immerse him in the gel. Maybe that will bring him around."
Mother-General smiled gratefully, very proud of her son, the leader. She knew he'd never hesitate in taking charge of a situation.
At that moment, she only wanted to be is a mother. It was a role she never had time to play, nor played very well when she did have time. Thirty years had passed and she didn't know two of her children at all. She felt she hadn’t changed much from thirty years ago, but she had. Lara of old was different. That Lara was selfless and determined to save her children from total Cyber manipulation. She had grown harder, tougher in trying to do so. Perhaps now the line between self-sacrifice and self-interest was blurred, but she hadn't the luxury of time to worry about that. She knew she wouldn't live much longer, and she wanted to spend the time she had left with her children.
She had grown tired of waiting for all this to come about. The gel couldn't help the hurt she felt inside. However, the gel was a blessing. No one knew what it had originally been intended for, but it healed the sick that weren't too sick, and gave strength to those who were. With other care, they might gain the strength to heal. That was the important thing.
She had always had compassion for all her people, but now it seemed she saved it for her children. She knew she had to ration some of that strength. She had put her children first. Nobody could ever say she didn't love her children. She had defend her people against a fiendish force at the same time. She hoped her children understood. So seldom had she shown compassion for anyone else lately that even Carlos saw her as unfeeling, uncaring, yet he couldn't argue that her vision, motivation, and direction was bad for any Shadow's Nest.
She worried she may not have been a good mother at times when she may have seemed cold, ruthless, or worse—unfeeling to them. It made them strong, she argued. She couldn't be seen as soft; there had to be discipline. Those who didn't have it, perished. Granted, sometimes at the hands of a fellow Shadow, but then the point was survival of the fittest, the strongest and the smartest.
But not always. Not this time. Not for her Harry.
It had always seemed to Carlos and most others that Ramón had been her favorite child. Not true. Among her children, she had no favorites. Carlos had seen her dress wounds of fallen comrades before, but she never seemed to give such tender care, or be this personally involved as she was with Harry.
This fallen comrade was special to her. Carlos wondered why and was in a bit of a quandary. His own people resented that he had arbitrarily placed them in danger by returning Harry and Marlene to the Nest. He knew they were wrong, of course, but it was too late to be blaming anyone for anything. The damage was done. All of us are responsible, he thought. We became responsible when we let the Cyber take over. He mulled it over philosophically. Perhaps the guilt he felt was because those ancient humans who had needed Cyber to rule were his ancestors who, in their wisest search for answers, gave up their freedom for survival. Best we can do now is not let our lack of commitment embarrass them.
In spite of how his soldiers, his brothers and sisters may have been feeling, they came when called on to place Harry gently into the gel. They were showing unusual compassion for someone they probably felt had given their location away. Or, perhaps it was merely their way of saying to Carlos: We are angry at you, not him. Time was short. Less than fifteen minutes to go. Hurry up, Harry. Get your strength back, Carlos thought. The wounds will heal, but the blood... Could the gel replenish the lost blood? He doubted it, but it was the only option left. We need a miracle, Harry. Can you deliver it? There was no answer.
Harry would be lucky if they had a few minutes before the battle. If he couldn't fight, he'd need the strength to hide. He needed time—something no one could supply extras of. Yet, there was one more thing he could do.
"Singh, can you adjust the setting on one of the laser axes so we can weld the access doors shut?" Wouldn't hold the Cyber for long, but it may give us a few extra minutes until they figure out how to blast or cut their way in, Carlos decided.
"Yes, sir. I'm sure I can,"
"Then do it, will you? Then take a couple of Shadows to weld us in—all except our escape route. If there's still time, come back and weld the doors on the Healing Room as well."
"The Healing Room? I don't understand."
"There's not really time to explain. Let's just say I don't want to leave any Bio—even this one—to face Cyber without some protection."
Carlos went to Harry who was in the Healing Room by now.
"Harry. Harry. Harry."
He wasn't sure who he should be more angry and upset with: Harry, or with himself for trusting his new friend.
"He's your brother, you know. Ray's son."
Lara stood next to one son while looking in on the other.
"What! I knew there was more to him...something you weren't telling, something unknown even to him, but I thought it a bit more diabolical than that," said Carlos. "My brother? Is he the one you spoke of when you ordered me to leave your Nest? Was he to take my place? Was he?"
He was visibly upset. Damn her.
"No one can take your place, Carlos. I'm surprised at you. You're my son and always will be. Harry is too, but he comes from an earlier time. An awful time."
"And, Marlene, I suppose is my sister?"
"Why, yes. How'd you guess?"
"What? I didn't. I was being sarcastic." What a day this is turning out to be!
"It may not even matter now in the grand scheme of things."
"But, why? Why did you do it? Why did you hide them from me?"
"I hid them from me, too, because I needed to use them. I couldn't trust anyone—not even you. We needed to learn as much as we could about the Inside, as quickly as we could. Outside is no place to raise children
. Oh, we do fine now, but back then before Stealth it was a hardship to survive and the children suffered the most. I sent them back Inside. We were tracking them, generally at first. Just keeping an eye on them. Then, spying on them in a more refined way as they grew into adults as we learned more about Makr."
"I still don't believe it. How could you?"
"Excuse me, sir," Singh interrupted, "we're ready to weld the doors here."
"If you will excuse me, Mother-General...I have work to do."
"I want to stay with Harry."
Carlos was stunned. "All right, stay here. Probably safer here anyway." She came to him and kissed him on his cheek, tried to hold him, but Carlos pulled away.
"I did it for you...for all of us."
"I think you did it for yourself, Mother-General. You always liked the power, didn't you?" He turned his back on her and moved towards the door. Just as he reached it, he turned back to her. "Don't worry, Mother-General. When this is over, we'll be back for you and Harry. What do you want to do about Marlene...er...Jana?"
"Keep her safe, Carlos. Keep her safe. Maybe, when this is..." He was gone.
Lara stood watching the door he left by. There were more tears. He'll be back, she thought. I'm sooo sorry, Carlos. She couldn't sob openly; she'd always had the control. Then, as if by her command, the tears stopped flowing and she looked in at Harry who seemed to be sleeping peacefully in the gel.
"Harry. Harry. I hope you can hear me now. Please come out of this. We need you, son. I need you." If he lived, she figured, she broke even. Lost one, gained one. No, she didn't mean it! A mother couldn't mean that! This time she couldn't command the tears to stop.