Nightshade

“Morning Chilas”

“Good morning, Geeish.” Chilas waved as they approached each other.

The elevator was only a few steps from the front door of the hospital. As they entered, Geeish asked, “Are you excited to be going to fledgling care?”

“I’m beside myself!” Chilas let out in excitement.

“You’ve been wanting this for so long. And if anyone deserves it you do.”

“Oh, thank you, Geeish.”

“I mean your healing magic is better than anyone’s on the unit, and your hiber-prep is the best in the hospital. You’ll be a Senior Master Level by next cycle, I bet.”

“You think? Oh I hope so. It was so hard just getting Master Level but I had to if I ever wanted to work in fledgling care.”

“Don’t worry, it’s in the bag.”

The elevator doors opened and the two walked in to the Hiber Care ward. A bustle of activity with people walking along the hallways. It was shift change and there was always double the people in the ward during that time.

“Ok, day shift let’s get our briefing done” Blandish, the day shift’s charge nurse, said in her typical loud voice.

“If you didn’t know any better you’d swear she was a Rhee” joked Geeish.

Chilas covered her mouth with her hand laughing quietly.

Blandish stood in the middle of the semicircular nursing station at the center of the ward. Kayler, the Chief Orderly, always stands next to her during the shift briefings. His lean athletic Rhee frame dwarfs her slender shape as he stands head and shoulders above her.

“We’ve got a full ward today so let’s get through this as quickly as possible.”

The Breen nurses begin to gather around with the Rhee orderlies standing behind.

“I love the look and smell of the lavender Breen hair” said one of the Rhee orderlies.

“Watch it big boy, that could be considered follicle harassment” quipped Geeish. The nurses and orderlies laughed at the remark.

“Alright alright, let’s knock it off” barked Blandish.

Chilas leaned over to Geeish and whispered, “I thought it was funny”.

“Stridessah?”

“Here”

“You’ve got Beezle in 308, Tarigon in 310, and Vylar in 312. Beezle has an injury from a transportation accident. The rest are in for hiber-preps. Vylar asked for you by name. Looks like you’ve got an admirer”

A collective, “Ooo” emerged from the group.

“Geeish?”

“Right here”

“You’ve got Zanather in 309, Paffer in 311, Tolleson in 313, and Bakkar in 315. All hiber-preps.”

“Chilas?”

The commotion coming from the hallway outside the doors to the ward interrupted the briefing.

“They got him”

An orderly burst through the double doors.

“They got him!”

“Got who?” Blandish responded.

“The Nightshade, they caught the Nightshade.”

“What?”

“They’re bringing him up now” the orderly couldn’t contain his excitement as he continued his trek through the halls repeating his message.

“Do you think they really got him this time?” Geeish asked as she turned to Chilas.

“I don’t know” Chilas said nervously.

“They’ve said that before you know” pointed out one of the nurses. “Ten cycles ago they said they’d trapped him in the great forrest. They burnt half the forrest trying to kill him only to find nothing in the ashes.”

The noise was getting louder from the hallway as a group of people made their way towards the ward. You can see the Rhee Sentinels as they surround a Rhee they were dragging through the hall.

“Make way!” shouted one of the Sentinels. “Make way Damn you!”

“Who’s in charge here” said the first Sentinel through the doors.

“I am” Blandish said raising her hand to identify herself.

“I’m Tors.”

Tors was big, even for a Rhee. Standing almost half a head higher than the other Rhee. Blandish walked towards him her head coming just below his chest. She had to strain to look up at him.

“The prisoner’s name is Vadith. He sustained some injuries during capture and needs to be healed and prepped for hibernation.”

“I don’t have any empty rooms.”

“You’ll need to clear the floor of all patients and personnel. He’ll go in the farthest room from the doors.”

“What! Do you know how long it’ll take to move everybody to different rooms?”

“Not long at all. My men will help you get them moved and set up security on this floor.”

Blandish turned to see Sentinels had already started moving the patients from their rooms and into the hallway.

“Just wait a minute Tors! Everybody stop what you’re doing!” Blandish snapped..

“This is the Nightshade! I’m not taking any chances here Breen. You just do what I say and we’ll get along just fine. No one else will need to get injured.” Tors said motioning to his men to continue moving the patients.

“He’s bleeding” Chilas said.

“What!” Tors snapped.

“The prisoner, he’s bleeding” she repeated.

“Vadith, my name is Vadith” he whispered head hanging forward.

“Quiet!” ordered one of the Sentinels hitting him on the back of his head.

“Stop it! Can’t you see he’s injured!” Chilas said.

“Chilas, not now” Blandish said softly.

“Who’s your best healer?” Tors asked.

“She is” Blandish said pointing to Chilas.

“Fine. She stays and takes care of the prisoner.”

“Please don’t hit him again!” Chilas said, “Take him to room 330 at the end of the hall”.

As the sentinels put Vadith on the bed Chilas raised her right hand over him, her fingers moving like tentacles as she moved up and down his body.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m determining the extent of your injuries.”

“They tried their best to,”

“Be quiet”

Vadith looking somewhat surprised rested his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes.

Chilas turned to the sentinels standing at the door. “He’s got extensive injuries. You’ll need to leave so I can heal him before prepping him for hibernation.”

“Our instructions are to not let him out of our sight.”

“Where’s he going to go? This room doesn’t have any windows and only one door. Don’t let him out of your sight outside.”

The two sentinels turn to look at each other, then went out the door.

“You Rhee are all alike. Big lumbering ruffians that hit first then ask questions later.”

“You know I can hear you, right?”

“What? Sorry, I didn’t mean, I mean…”

“Why is it that Breen always apologies for what they actually meant to say?”

“I’m just saying that I didn’t mean..”

“Forget it. I know how you see me. That’s never going to change.”

“Be still and be quiet. This will only take a couple minutes.”

Chilas extended both hands above Vadith’s chest. A murmuring sound began filling the room like a crowd of people quietly whispering. Her hands glowed with a golden shine as she moved them back and forth across Vadith’s chest.

“Ugh!” Vadith moaned.

“Quiet”

She began moving her hands across his abdomen. When finished she walked to the head of the bed placing her hands above ether side of his head then back to the top. Vadith was sweating profusely and his body was trembling uncontrollably like he was shivering from the cold. Lacerations in his skin were closing and healing, bruises were disappearing.

“We’ll do this again in a couple hours. Your superficial injuries are healing nicely but injuries to bones and deep tissue take longer.” Chilas was moving back to the center of the bed.

“I don’t know what hurts worse. Getting the injuries or you healing them.”

“The healing can be uncomfortable. I didn’t mean to cause you further pain.”

She walked to the other side of the bed, hand outstretched, scanning for any additional injuries.

“You have injury scars on your arm and the side of your head. They look like burns.”

“They are.”

Chilas stretched out her hands and began running them up and down Vadith’s arm.

“What are you doing!” Vadith growled jerking his arm away.

“Healing your scars.”

“No, I want to keep them.”

“What happened?”

“I was in the great forrest and there was a fire.”

“When was this?”

“About ten cycles ago.”

Chilas moved slowly back from the side of the bed.”Do you want me to turn the video screen on?”

Vadith shrugged his shoulders, “Whatever”.

Chilas motioned her hand below the bottom of the screen bringing it to life.

“We’re just about eight hours from Lozen’s elliptical orbit phase where the entire planet goes dark where everyone, Breen and Rhee alike, settle in to hibernate. And as everyone is getting their last minute hiber-prep completed, unlike past long cycles, we all have reason to breath a sigh of relief as Sentinel’s report that they’ve got the Nightshade in custody. The Nightshade has terrorized us for dozens of cycles now ending the lives of hibernating Breen during the long cycle. Add to that they’ve caught him before he’s gotten his nine short cycle kills that has been speculated allow him to not hibernate. With the count only at seven, we’re bound to have broken the curse that has plagued us.”

“Turn that crap off!” Vadith snapped.

“You seem to be a very angry person, even for a Rhee. Why are you so angry?”

“What!”

“I mean to look at you, you seem to be a pleasant person. What happened, I mean, did something happen that made you so, you know, angry?”

Vadith took a deep breath and sighed as he sat up on the edge of the bed.

“You shouldn’t sit, oh, ok.”

“I was once chosen for selection.”

“Surrogate?”

Vadith nodded his head.

“You had a fledgling?”

“His name was Rylon.” Vadith stood and walked around the bed to the wall.

“Where is Rylon now?”

“He didn’t make it” Vadith said quietly looking over his should back toward Chilas. “You lose a fledgling and your whole world comes crashing down on you. No one wants to talk to you. And the ones that do only want to remind you that only one out of a million surrogates have a fledgling that survives birth.”

Vadith turned stepping towards Chilas as she backed up against the door, his eyes began turning red around the edges.

“Are you going to injure me?”

“A Rhee’s eyes just don’t turn red during aggression. Heartbreak also makes our eyes turn.”

“I, I didn’t know that.” Chilas knew that she couldn’t withstand a physical confrontation with an adult Rhee, especially a red eyed one.

“I was once a Sentinel. Decorated for bravery and admired by my fellow sentinels.” Vadith walks around the room looking at everything, memorizing every square inch. “When Rylon died everyone that I had known for hundreds of cycles simply turned their back on me. I was removed from being a sentinel and tossed out like yesterday’s garbage.”

“What did you do then?”

“I wandered the great forrest for more cycles than I can remember. At first trying to just live off the land, then I started taking food a belongings from people camping.” He lifts up the corner of the bed and looks underneath, all the while Chilas trying to keep a couple steps ahead of his movements.

“What do you do now?”

“Haven’t you heard? I’m the Nightshade!” Vadith leans forward, eye to eye with Chilas. She instinctively puts her hands up turning her head slightly to the left.

Vadith moves almost unseen across the room grabs the chair smashing it against the wall with a loud crash startling Chilas causing her to scream.

The door burst open as the sentinels came through. Vadith grabbed the first one twirled him around where his back was facing him and his right hand was on his throat.

The second sentinel raised his hands and a red glow preceded a shock wave that rendered the sentinel Vadith was holding unconscious. Dropping to the floor Vadith moves as a blur and grabs the second sentinel. In a quick movement twists his head around breaking his neck with a loud crack.

The hallway fills with sentinels as Vadith peeks out the open door then slams it shut.

Chilas kneels beside the sentinel and immediately scans him before placing both hands above his neck. The murmuring starts as her hands glow gold.

“Come on, come on. Stay with me…”

The glow from Chilas’s hands turn violet, then black as the sentinel’s body begins to shrivel and turns a charcoal grey.

Vadith pushes Chilas aside and grabs the sentinel’s body by the scrub of the neck, opens the door and with one smooth motion tosses the dead sentinel into the hallway stopping the approaching sentinels.

“If you don’t want more to die you’ll let me go!” Vadith yelled from the doorway. “I’m serious! Let me go! I still got another sentinel in here. You have one hour. If I’m not free in one hour he dies too, then the Breen nurse.” He slams the door closed as he crumpled to the floor leaning against the wall.

Chilas sits looking at Vadith, a blank expression on her face.

“What are you looking at Breen!”

Chilas stands up and swipes her hand underneath the video screen.

“We’ve just got word that the Nightshade, after taking hostages at the hospital, has killed one of them, a sentinel named Orsock. Bringing his light cycle count to eight. And with two hostages left, one a breen nurse, and hibernation starting in just over an hour, it looks like our torment might continue.”

Vadith chuckles softly.

“What’s so funny?”

“You, them,” pointing to the video screen, “everybody outside. They all think the count has gone to eight. It hasn’t!”

“Why do you say that?” Chilas moves closer to Vadith.

“Because I’m not the Nightshade!” he says laughing.

“I know.” Chilas says as she kneels in front of Vadith.

“You know? What do you mean you know?”

Chilas’s eyes turn from bright blue to pure black. Raising her hand the black glow around it engulfs Vadith.

“Because I am.”

Vadith tries to stand or strike out but can’t move.

“You didn’t kill that sentinel, I did. When my hands glow gold its to heal, when they glow black its to feed on the lifeforce of an individual. That’s how I’m able to stay awake during the hibernation and feed without having to worry about being caught.”

Vadith’s body starts to shrivel and his skin turns grey as his lifeforce fades.

“And you’re number nine.”

Vadith slumps over to the floor. Chilas turns to see the other sentinel regaining consciousness.

“What happened here?” his voice shaking, “Is that…?”

“Yes” Chilas says quietly. “He didn’t survive his injuries, there was nothing I could do. The stress of killing your friend was more than he could take.”

The sentinel opened the door and yells, “We’re coming out”.

Walking through the door he reached his hand back for Chilas. “He’s dead, the Nightshade is dead.”

Cheers break out from the hallway from the sentinels and the nurses.

“You’re a hero you know.”

“But I didn’t save him.”

“No, you saved us all.”

As they walked to the crowd of sentinels and nurses that are now gathering from the outer hallways Tors comes up to Chilas.

“Nicely done Breen!”

“Chilas, my name is Chilas.”

“Nicely done, Chilas.” Tors put his arm around Chilas’s shoulder, “Now lets get you home.”

The video screens that lined the hospital sprang to life.

“This will be our last broadcast before the hibernation, and we wanted to bring you this important message. It’s confirmed, Nightshade is dead. We can all hibernate safely for the first time in almost a hundred cycles. And we owe it all to a Breen nurse named Chilas.”