“Samples?” Quil sputtered nervously, and his pace faltered for a second. “Oh – as in the ones that we’re going to install on the Halberd.” He smiled nervously. “I brought them with me.” He winced a bit, and muttered, “We should get to the Flight Deck and get them installed.”
Doctor Rasmussen looked at Quil as they walked, his gaze resolute. “You’ve grown.”
Quil smiled a weak smile and patted his stomach. “It’s probably the excellent food I’ve gotten here. Much better than what I’ve had to eat with the Queliqot for all these years. I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed mother’s meatballs and noodles. Have you ever had kötbullar? Birgit could make them for you.”
Doctor Rasmussen. “I’ve had them. I enjoy them, but you’re deflecting. You’re not fatter, Quil. You’re taller.”
Quil’s eyes went wide and he shook his head. “No – it must be the microgravity we just went through, you know, fluid distribution, that sort of thing.”
Rasmussen frowned. “No, Quil. You know it’s not true as well as I do. You’re fully six inches taller than you were when you joined us.”
Quil tugged on his robes. “Can we not talk about this here?”
Rasmussen looked at the empty corridor around them. “Where exactly would you like to talk about it?”
“No where.” Quil turned and started walking away, and Rasmussen grabbed his arm to stop him. Quil winced again.
“We’re going to talk about this.” Rasmussen sensed something odd with Quil’s arm. He moved his hand carefully over the surface and before Quil could move to stop him, he pulled the sleeve back, revealing Quil’s skin. Just under the surface, looking like bruises were cords that snaked around his arms. The surface of these cords was beginning to rupture and it was clear that there were vines underneath his skin. “Vad?” Rasmussen’s face showed his discomfort and concern. He looked left and right, and pushed Quil down a hallway. “Into this lift car. Klättra in!” When the two were aboard, Rasmussen pulled a series of knobs and shifted the car out of the active transit system. He was grateful that repairs weren’t complete in the bridge, or he’d be getting a call from Captain Spitzer about this biohazard stop he’d just engaged. He didn’t know how much time he had. “Vad är detta, Quil – what’s going on? As the Chief Surgeon aboard, I must know what those are. Is this a contagion you’ve brought aboard? We could be exposing a station of 45,000 people!” Quil looked aside, and Hans concern for the stationers surged forward. He grabbed Quil’s cheeks, and forced the man to look at him. “Vi har inget tiden, Mons! Talar mig, nu!”
“Lugna dig.” Quil’s gaze fell. “It’s just me.” He frowned a moment and shuffled his feet before finally continuing. “I’m a King in the Queliqot system now. That’s why I’m growing. I don’t know how long I’ll keep growing, but I know that I’m going to be at least a foot taller.”
Rasmussen gestured at Quil’s arms. “What’s this, then?”
Quil shrugged. “I thought it was going to be armor plate, but apparently, it’s not. It’s the QuiSissriqa that I was talking about. It seems that the Locus knew that I was going to need it before I did. It activated something in my Queliqot DNA that’s started this happening. It started a few hours ago, and I wasn’t sure what to think. I was hoping it was some of the protective armor that the Locus and Empresses grow. Now, well, you can see,” he fingered a leaf that had appeared, “it’s not.”
Rasmussen stepped closer. “It must be some sort of parthenogenesis.” Rasmussen looked at Quil. “This siqtissa they gave to you, those years ago, it contained the entire base genome of the Queliqot?”
Quil nodded miserably.
“I must imagine that you’ve got every living entity that has joined the Queliqot now mixed in with your genetic code. It’s a miracle that you’ve not developed some sort of cancer or rejection response to this foreign DNA.”
Quil shrugged. “I think I’m a chimera – a mix between the two, like all of the other castes in the Queliqot system. The only entities that are purely Queliqot live on the homeworld and serve the Locus directly. The rest of the Queliqot are at least 50% of their caste’s original DNA, with a Queliqot overlay – even the Empresses.” Quil could see that Doctror Rasmussen was eager to ask more questions, but he held up a hand. “I couldn’t begin to tell you how it worked, Doctor. I just know that I’ve got vines growing under the skin of my limbs, they hurt like hell, and I’d like to be rid of them.”
Rasmussen fingered the lumps on Quil’s arms, examining the skin. “Cursory palpation would suggest that these vines are going to erupt from your skin – have you been scratching the ones that are already breaking the surface?”
Quil nodded. “A little, but I stopped when I saw the skin break and the vine show through.”
Rasmussen touched the vines again and the raised welts where the others were coming forward. “Are you eating more?”
Quil nodded. “I’ve been ravenous.”
Rasmussen smiled. “Very typical. Let’s get you something to eat. I suppose a topical analgesic would be in order. Do you think some pain killers would harm the kis–the vines?” He looked at Quil, who fixed eyes for a moment, then looked away. “Would they do you any good, blunt the pain of the vines?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, Doctor. I would imagine they might, but at the same time, I don’t know if human analgesics would help.”
Rasmussen moved the lift car into action again and set destination for the infirmary. “Well, let’s get you treated and fed. I’m surprised the speed of this genesis isn’t sending you into some kind of shock. I’ll call your sister down as well.”
Quil shook his head. “Don’t call her while you’re treating me. I don’t think she’d like to see me in such pain. Call her later, when we’re working on the Halberd.”
Rasmussen balked. “I’m sure she’s got more than enough to do with the security arrangements and training the Starfighters and gunner crews.”
Quil shrugged. “I know for a fact that she’d like to spend more time with you –and me. She hasn’t spent much time with either of us and she always seems to enjoy your company.”
Rasmussen arched an eyebrow at Quil, but let the comment pass as he turned to put the lift back into motion to the infirmary.
