Chapter 15 Evo
I wake on the floor, looking up at a loose light swinging from the roof of the emissary’s cruiser. My vision fills with diagnostic scans. Systems come online one at a time, and I can finally sit up.
Aera...
My body shudders like dry gears as I get it moving again. Things are still shifting back into place after being in a liquid state. But I am grateful for having contact with Capsule. I’m just not sure if it was enough.
Evo>>Aera: Aera...
Her head hangs limply to the side, her helmet still intact. She doesn’t respond when I call to her.
Evo>>Aera: Aera, please wake up.
I drag my body to her position. Liquefying is about as horrible and mind-numbing a sensation as fracturing into a million pieces. “Aera...”
She’s slumped in her seat, hanging from the straps. There’s no visible blood, but when my human assessment programs run, they come back with an alarming amount of heat in the same location as her recent head injury.
Concussion detected.
My self-decommissioning program starts up when it wouldn’t during all the time I served Solcrue. I do not understand why I can pull my own plug after my Bond is hurt, but not when I cause harm to hundreds of humans while controlled by the enemy.
I am devastated by Aera’s condition. I have let her become severely injured. Many will be furious with me because of it.
I check the screens behind me, but see no sign of anyone following us. Navigation is sketchy at best as it flickers in and out. But no other ships are detected in orbit, which means either we’re alone because no one followed us through the portal, or no one considers us important enough to chase.
This was too soon for her. She should not have gone on this mission.
I have a decision to make. I could give up, accept my decommissioning because I have failed my Bond. Or I could try to save her even if the probability of success is only thirteen percent.
If she does not survive, I will let the program run.
Until then...
All I can think about is mending our Bond, saving her, and holding her against me again.
I get myself put back together and unbuckle her. Carefully, and with my gloves on, I collect her from the chair and carry her into the emissary’s private resting quarters in the back.
There are basic medical supplies for Solcrue on ships like this. Captain Korosyn liked to parade me around like a trophy. I have seen more than my fair share of Solcrue emissary ships. And, for the first time, I feel like all that torture has a purpose, just like Navi said.
Lying Aera back on the bed, I gently take her helmet off and dig through the cabinet for the cold compresses.
When I find what I’m looking for, I strap them to her injury to cool her brain.
Then I pop open the panel beside the bed, which eases out and swivels open, exposing a robotic repair arm meant for privately stitching up the elite of their kind.
Power is offline, but I prep the device over Aera, anyway. I trace the cables to the breakers in the floor. None are tripped, which tells me that the device is fine. It’s the power supply that’s the problem.
I tear floor panels up as I follow the lines back to the generator and discover where the unit was severed. Reaching around the generation system, I disconnect it from main power, mend the wire by heating a hand, like Magma does, and then reconnect the generator.
I hear a hum in the bedroom and poke my head up to see the device has lit up.
Closing up the panels, I return to Aera’s side, steady her head in a gloved hand, remove the ice packs, and reposition the device over her injury.
Then, keeping her head in position, I select the settings I need for deep tissue repair.
“You’re going to have a green mark on your beautiful face, but I can’t have you dying on me. No one can.”
Initiating the repair, I watch the lasers scan her head with green bars of light and burn the stitches from her flesh. The gash oozes, and my guilt makes it difficult to watch.
I let this happen to her again.
Beautiful, tender, feisty Aera, the contradiction that's been slowly healing me, even if she doesn’t know it, is lying here under a laser because I didn’t prevent what I should have. Because I listened to what she wanted instead of what Brodin, the older, experienced member of her crew wanted.
I sweep a gloved finger over her skin, wishing I could feel its plush texture.
He is going to kick my ass.
The lasers pass over her head again. Finally, the system begins laying down a grid of cells that reduce inflammation and replicate healthy cells, slowly closing the injury.
My assessment program shows improvement, and the status dips from severe back toward healthy.
But she doesn’t make it that far. Aera lingers in the middle.
She’s underweight, exhausted, and dehydrated.
When the system finishes healing her, it begins a round of modifications that improve circulation with red lights and nutrient-packed needles.
Aera lets out a quiet noise with her next breath, telling me she’s waking up.
“Stay still. It’s almost done repairing you.”
Once the repair program completes, I ease Aera’s head back to the bed, move the arm into the wall, and then sort through the emissary’s private stash of consumables in another cabinet. I grab a wristband IV and a booster dose, then return to Aera’s side.
“I’ve got to take your armor off so I can give you some meds, okay?”
Aera rolls her head on the bed but doesn’t respond. So I do what I must and remove the top half of her StarJumper’s suit. Wrapping the band over her wrist, I slip the booster vial into the additional slot. It thrusts pale green medicine into the IV fluid, but it will help revitalize her.
After covering her with a blanket, I climb through the tilted ship to the smashed nose. Navigation still shows no one in the area. But there’s an outpost not far from our position. There is no additional information except a flickering image and a message: No personnel detected.
Abandoned?
I shake my head. Another time.
Walking through the ship, I gather the necessary supplies to survive for a few days and stash them in the room with Aera.
I check on her, then I pack up the weapons I can and lower the ramp as far as it will go.
I need to do a patrol of the surrounding area to make sure we’re safe to stay where we are for now.
The sun sets beyond a distant forest as I close up the ramp. I circle the ship at a distance, marching through the grasses, looking for wildlife, sinkholes, cliffs, Solcrue drones, and anything else out of the ordinary. But this world is quiet.
A soft breeze ripples over the grasses in a susurrus that soothes me like the sensation of Aera’s fingertips gliding over my face. It is a different stimulation, but it brings similar peace.
The night sky fills with stars. I see no ship thrusters, no glints of metal hulls racing around the world, hunting us. As far as I can tell, we are alone on an abandoned planet.
Maybe no one will ever come. Maybe this is it. Just us, an outpost, and a busted ship. A chance at a simple life.
I look down at a soft buzz as a fat little bug with iridescent wings leaves a flower and hovers off toward the forest for the night.
I want so badly to believe it. And, for a long breath, I close my eyes and pretend this is my life. But programming invades everything I enjoy.
Aera needs to get better. I have to find a way to get her off of this empty world so she can find Xiphos and save our kinds from the Solcrue.
I hope Toriszi survived.
A weighted sigh escapes me as I force myself to trudge the rest of the patrol circle back to the ship. Hiking inside, I close the ramp, check on Aera to find her still sleeping, and then make my way to the cockpit.
I begin running ship diagnostics and making a list of things I need to repair. As quietly as I can, I get to work on the most critical systems first. When I can’t keep my eyes open any longer, I walk into the room where Aera sleeps and consider climbing into bed with her.
I can’t. She has not given me permission. I will not treat her like a Solcruean.
I take a familiar seat across the walkway from the foot of the bed so I can keep an eye on her. Then I lean my head against the wall and close my eyes.
Through the watery shadows of rest, Aera appears, leaning over me. Her lips find mine. Heat rises in my body. And she smiles like she knows what’s happening to me.
You wear your heart on your body, don’t you? Whatever you’re thinking is visible to everyone.
I don’t know if it’s what I think she would say or if it’s what my deepest fear is. Vandal would agree with her. But when she straddles me in my mind, I stop caring just to lose myself in her blue eyes.
A sharp noise cuts through my dream.
I wake up to find my head resting in my palm and my elbow on the armrest of the chair. I look up to see Aera has curled onto her side and shivers under the blanket.
I’m out of my seat and walking to her before I can consider if I can even be of any comfort to her.
“Aera?”
“Evo.” Her voice shakes. She reaches for me. “Take it off.”
I look at the Solcrue medicine. “Solcrue are descendants of humans. It should be compatible. It always has been.”
She rasps a pained grunt. “My blood...is on fire.”
I immediately unstrap the band and remove it. I look it over and at the healed injury on her head. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. You didn’t know.” She calms a little. “I didn’t know.”
“What can I do?”
“Nothing. I think... I have to heal on my own.”
I don’t like that idea. “There must be something I can do.”
“Just...stay with me.” Aera weakly tries to scoot over on the bed. “I’m so cold. I know you’re warm.”
“I do not want to turn you to stardust.”
“Then touch my skin, and be human with me for a while. You won’t hurt me that way, right?”
I hesitate to crawl into bed with her, but then she begs me and looks up at me with such fear, like she doesn’t want to die alone, that I cave.
Removing my gloves, I ease my body down beside her shivering one, draw her against my chest, and fold myself around her.
Nuzzling into the nook of her neck and shoulder, I press my mouth to her skin.
The softness of her body spreads through me.
“We are safe here. There is no one looking for us. Just rest, Aera. But please fight through this.”
“Why?” she asks with a pained rasp. “Everyone wants so much from me. I’m so tired.”
“I know what that’s like. So much.”
Reaching up to sweep her loose hair from her face, I notice the human hue of my hand and admire it for a moment. It’s been so long since I last saw what it looked like in that form that it’s an out-of-body experience.
Running the back of a finger down the side of her face, I search deep within for a memory of this feeling. And I find one. It is filled with fear of the days ahead, of what it will be like if I die and am made into a metal man.
It’s strange being on the other side now, looking back and wondering where the years went.
Aera laces her fingers with mine and draws my hand to her chest. I can feel her heartbeat, the heaviness of it, and I realize just how much she needs me. Or at least someone.
“I’m here. Anything you need, you tell me.”
“Just...stay.”