Turning Point Read Online Free PDF Page B

think of. It’s not so clear-cut when you’ve got a family.”
    â€œOh, Jack,” she said, tears running down her face, “why did it have to be Elise? Why did they have to catch her?”
    â€œThat’s it, love.” he said, patting her back awkwardly as she began to cry. “You let it out. Have a good cry, it’ll help.”
    Â 
    With Jack away tackling her father, and Richard out back trying to rig up something for Kusac to sleep in, Carrie was alone for the moment.
    Exhaustion was beginning to creep up on her. Her ribs had begun to ache as had her hands, but the latter could be due to Jack’s rebandaging them. From the glimpse she’d gotten of them before Jack had firmly blocked her view, it was clear that she’d lost most, if not all, of her fingernails and had a couple of broken fingers as well.
    He’d also insisted on giving her another injection for the pain, despite the fact that she’d assured him she was able to block most of it out. He had never trusted her strange abilities. They weren’t something he could study under his microscope, so he preferred to take no chances and had always treated both her and her sister with conventional medical remedies.
    She flexed her hands, aware of a small amount of pain. Well, she’d certainly never play the violin, not that she had ever wanted to! Feeling cold, she pulled her coat more closely around herself and carefully put her hands in her pockets. She winced as something poked into her injured left hand.
    With difficulty, she caught the object between her fingers and pulled it out. It was the piece of metal that Jack had taken out of the cat’s leg.
    A couple of centimeters long and irregular in shape, it was smooth on one side, dimpled on the other. Where had she seen its like before? Stranger still was how it had come to be in the cat’s leg. They had hardly any refined metals yet on Keiss.
    Their colony ship, the first wave, was mainly agricultural, with only minimal mining and blacksmithing personnel on board. The second wave would have a greater percentage of manufacturing skills among its personnel, the miners, smelters, and so on as well as a reasonable level of technology. The hope had been that their skills would be supported by their predecessors.
    The only metals on the planet this sophisticated either came from the remains of the Terran Mothership which had landed at the site they called Seaport, or from something belonging to the Valtegans.
    A moan from her patient drew her attention back to Kusac. Returning the sliver to her pocket, she leaned forward to stroke his head. He was making the most peculiar noises, almost as if he was trying to talk.
    He became quiet and still, his eyelids flickering open. Carrie found herself staring again into the golden yellow eyes. Almost hypnotically, they held her gaze until voices in the hall broke the spell.
    â€œIt’s exactly what she needs, Peter,” Jack was saying. “Something to occupy her and take her mind off what’s happened. Take my advice and go along with whatever scheme she suggests. If looking after a creature as ill as he is will keep her in her bed, I’d go for it.”
    Carrie grinned slightly. Trust him to find an angle that would appeal to her father. Jack was almost as bad as him, though, the way he always fussed over her—and Elise. Another wave of desperate loss swept through her and tears stung her eyes.
    The door opened and her father came in, followed by Jack and Richard.
    In appearance her father and Richard were alike, but on him the dark beard and mustache—longer and bushier—were beginning to turn brindle. Though the years may have lightened his hair, they had not thickened the lean frame that all his offspring seemed to have inherited.
    â€œWell, my girl,” he said, walking over to the table. “Let’s have a look at this latest lame duck of yours.
    â€œA forest cat? He’s