Chapter Seventeen

                                    

                                          
Chapter 17
                          
“WHAT?” GRACE HAD been in a heavy sleep; it was hard to wake up all at once.
                          
“You have to come! Now!”
                          
She lay with her eyes closed as the words gradually sank in. Then … Cian! – that must mean that Diva was at this moment gasping for breath. She leapt off the divan and struggled to get her bodywrap on.
                          
“I’m coming, Six. Tell Arcan I will be there as fast as I can. And tell Diva to breathe slowly, not to use up all the air at once. I’m coming!” Her feet fell over each other in her haste, and she hissed at them through her teeth. “come on, come ON!” Then she was ready. Stopping only to grab the six mask packs she had put to one side, together with a spare bodywrap, she raced out to the back lift.
                          
She had no hands free to try to reach Arcan in the lift, so she didn’t bother. He would presumably be pretty busy trying to help Diva. Grace spared a thought for her brother Xenon. This had to have been his order. How could he have ordered the death of another being? How could she ever, ever talk to him again? What was going to be the end of all this? She could see no long-term solution to any of it.
                          
She nearly fell off the stairs trying to get bare planet. Again she hissed at herself. Then her boots touched the sand, and she was on her way to the lake. The stars were urging her on, it seemed. Her mask pack was working at the limit of its efficiency, but she couldn’t spare the time to stop and regulate her breathing. She just hoped that the valves wouldn’t go into autoblock.
                          
As she came stumbling over the crest of the hill and saw the lake she was amazed. Arcan had moved the whole bubble to the shore, and was supporting it securely on the sand by a wall of lake. It was an impressive sight.
                          
Not so impressive was the sign of an inanimate body slumped inside the bubble. She was going to be too late!
                          
Grace threw herself down the slope to the lake, scattering sand and particulates to all sides. Please don’t let me be too late. Please don’t let me be too late, she intoned.
                          
She reached the bubble; to her great relief she could see the thin body inside was still moving, the eyes were open, watching her. She waved a hand at the prone and gasping Diva, and then came up to a complete stop. How was she to get into the bubble? The walls must be too thick to let her through.
                          
Not so. As she put one tentative hand to the surface of the bubble it thinned out and gave way, allowing her to push inside to where Diva was striving to breathe. First she put a mask pack on the girl.
                          
“Here! Breathe normally. I have got you now. It’s all right!”
                          
Diva nodded weakly, unable to talk.
                          
“That’s all right. Don’t try to speak now. Just try to get a steady breathing rhythm back.”
                          
Diva gradually began to regain some colour in her skin as the new source of oxygen kicked in. Then Grace carefully helped her into the bodywrap – she wouldn’t last even a minute without it in the unprotected slight atmosphere of Valhai. When they were ready Grace helped Diva to her feet, and the two girls touched the side of the bubble again. This time it burst, leaving them standing on the shore. The wall of lake retreated and sank slowly back into the inky surface. A shiver of iridescence propagated slowly along the surface.
                          
They both collapsed onto the sand. They had done it! Grace concentrated on steadying her own breathing. They still had to get back to the skyrise; she was worried about the physical state of the girl who was sitting beside her. Diva had been operated upon and then left in a small bubble with no way to exercise for nearly two months. To top off the combination she had narrowly escaped asphyxiation. Grace just hoped that she would be able to make it that far. She didn’t think she would be able to carry Diva herself.