Shockball Read Online Free PDF Page A

male broke out of the circle just as the small Meridae stopped flying. I started to yell just as he caught the child in his forelimbs. The female cradled the fledgling from the other side, and they revolved together. The others moved in, and the entire group huddled together around the trio.
    Then it became clear, even to my offworld eyes. The throng comforted the male and female. The fledgling didn’t move.
    It was a dance of death.
    I touched my stomach. Oh, lump, how am I going to tell him ?
    “Cherijo.” Reever was there beside me, and slipped his arm around my waist. “You are upset.”
    “I’m okay.” I let him lead me a short distance from the others. “Did you tell them what they needed to know about the war? Are they going to get involved?”
    “That is not important. What is wrong?”
    “I’m just tired. Tell me about your meeting.” Do anything, I thought. Keep me from crying my eyes out in front of these people. Another stitch bit into my side and I gasped, alarmed at how severe it felt.
    “What is it? Cherijo!” He caught me before I doubled over, then turned his head to the side. “Dr. Irde!”
    Vlaav hurried over, agitation making his nubbly hide pockets swell. “Dr. Torin? What happened? Are you ill?”
    Wrenching pressure began to build in my lower abdomen. I knew what it was, but I didn’t want to say it. “Pain. Here.” I grabbed onto Reever. “Duncan, get me—”
    That was when one of the Meridae fosterers swooped down, and plucked me up in her talons. I screamed. Felt the desperate hands clutch at me as Reever and Vlaav tried to grab me back. A moment later I was soaring straight up, far from the ground and any hope of help.
    “Please,” I said, trying not to scream. “Please, take me back down… I need…”
    “I know what you need,” the female said. “This will help.”
    Gravity clawed at me, making the cramps worse. I felt a hot trickle between my thighs that quickly soaked the crotch of my trousers. Lack of oxygen made my eardrums press in and black spots appear before my eyes. My hands and feet went numb.
    The baby —
----

CHAPTER Two
    « ^ »
    Separations
    I came to on the floor of the launch, with Vlaav hovering over me. I already knew from the rhythmic pains and the blood seeping from between my legs that I was having a miscarriage.
    “Duncan?”
    “He is taking us back to the Sunlace .” Vlaav eased a folded tunic under my head and adjusted the thermal wrap over me.
    I took a couple of deep breaths as the cramping got worse. “What happened?”
    “You’re hemorrhaging. We’ll get you to Medical as soon as we arrive.”
    I closed my eyes. My baby . “Why did that bat thing grab me?”
    “I’m not sure. Apparently it was an attempt at some kind of native medical treatment.” Vlaav ran a scan over my lower abdomen. “Your uterus is contracting and there is placental matter and amniotic fluid in the blood sample I took.” He met my gaze. “I—I’m so sorry, Doctor.”
    “Save it.” No tears. Odd, I should have been crying my eyes out. “Give me that scanner.”
    I fumbled with the instrument until I could run another series on myself, and confirmed everything Vlaav had said. The pain became a deep, tearing agony that seemed to gouge at my spine from the inside.
    “You’re right,” I gasped the words out, and dropped the scanner.
    Vlaav gave me a reproachful look. “Of course I was right.”
    I controlled my breathing and panted through the next contraction. Coming down off it made me snap at him. “Resident, if you mope every time someone follows up on your work, you’re never going to be happy in this job. Right now I’m having a miscarriage—concentrate on that. You can sulk another time.”
    Duncan left the helm as soon as we landed inside the Sunlace’s launch bay, and lifted me up in his arms.
    “Put me down. You’re getting blood all over your tunic,” I said as he carried me out. His arms tightened and he walked faster. “I’m all