5. Nebula Flares
5
Nebula Flares
Ki’REMI
K i’Remi’s eyes narrowed above his mask as he moved fast to the surgical trolley.
He searched for and found a CR-7 cardiopulmonary appliance, a sleek, black device shaped like a crescent with a pulsating core of blue energy.
It was their best shot at reanimating the failing tissue.
Or was it?
The unbidden thought came from left field, and he hesitated, staring at the appliance, confused as to why it was now in his hand.
The fokk?
He never got disoriented, least of all in theater.
He blinked, then caught movement from the corner of his eye.
Issa .
She placed her palms over the patient’s failing organ.
A beam of golden light passed from them into the Allorian’s chest.
The collapsed cardiac muscle, failing just seconds ago, abruptly jumped, the flesh shuddering.
Issa lifted her hands away as the heart pulsed and pinked up. The beeps and display on the cardiovascular monitor calmed, and the screaming alerts switched to regular syncopation.
Ki’Remi froze, the CR-7 still clutched in his hand.
‘Pulse ox normal and heart rate within normal parameters,’ the autobot announced.
No shit.
On-screen, the torn myocardial walls were not just stabilizing; they were regenerating.
He stared, disbelieving, then growled, voice dipped. ‘What the hell did you just do?’
Issa gazed up at him, unfazed. ‘I saved her.’
His grip on the CR-7 tightened. ‘The fokk ?’
He turned back to the bio-scans, eyes narrowing as he witnessed the cellular structure of the Allorian’s core repair itself in real time.
No artificial stimulation. No medical intervention.
The circulatory wall also appeared reinforced, so if the scan was to be believed, a graft procedure was no longer necessary.
He checked and double-confirmed. Then again.
Impossible.
He reached for the holo screen and swiped to rewind the footage.
What he spotted had him jolting so hard he growled.
The vision showed no recording of her fleeting touch.
He stared at the display as it played back.
One second, she massaged the tissue. The next, lifting her hands away as the cardiac muscle jerked to life.
The light flash he’d witnessed in person was not captured at all.
Twas as if he’d been dreaming.
He realized that only his meta vision had caught it because it had happened that fast.
He sliced his eyes to her and found her gazing back at him with calm freakin’ serenity.
He clenched his jaw, fighting to keep his expression neutral.
The gallery was watching.
The students’ eyes were on him and her.
He couldn’t lose it here.
Inside, his mind was a thunderstorm.
She just used her juju-shit , not in secret but directly in front of his eyes.
His voice was a dangerous snarl. ‘You and I are having a conversation about this now.’
Issa raised a brow, unimpressed. ‘Can’t wait.’
His fingers flexed around the CR-7, his pulse hammering beneath his skin.
Pegasi’s medical guidelines were clear. Strict as hell.
One of the core tenets was that using metanoids or unauthorized medical procedures on a patient without their prior consent or that of the surgeon in charge was prohibited.
No exceptions.
Issa Elaris had just violated that code.
Right before him, under his damn fokkin ’ nose.
The only sound in the surgical theater was the rhythmic beeping of monitors and the soft whir of the robotic arms assisting the procedure.
Ki’Remi did not register any of it. His focus remained on her.
Issa stood across him, her gloves still stained with Allorian blood, her expression obnoxiously composed despite the crime she had just committed in his OR.
Which he had no recorded proof of.
Ki’Remi’s teeth clenched.
His gold and silver nebula eyes gaze locked onto her like a targeting system, every muscle in his body wound tight with barely leashed fury.
Unauthorized energy healing.
On his table.
In his surgery.
In his sight.
It was her eyes that set his instincts roaring.
Not the smug, overconfident defiance he expected, but the flicker of uncertainty.
Accompanied by a glance at her forearm. Too quick. Almost imperceptible.
However, Ki’Remi caught it.
His meta-vision activated, his internal neural node locking on the timepiece strapped to her wrist.
The slim, sleek device was deceptively simple, and its screen flickered with numbers counting down.
What the hell did they mean?
The Rider sent a silent metanoid pulse toward the gadget, a micro-cloud of code designed to infiltrate and extract data.
A straightforward inspection that would not take more than a second.
He jolted when the chrono repelled him.
A force field snapped outward, blocking the scan with tech he had never encountered.
He issued a neural order to his metanoids to examine it.
The response came back fast. Confirming the timepiece was not standard fleet issue.
Neither was it black-market.
Not even stolen from one of the rogue colonies.
His rage simmered, controlled but lethal, as he locked down the surgical suite with a silent cerebral command.
Soundproof. Vision-blocked. No external feeds. No witnesses.
Just him and her.
Issa sensed the shift.
She lifted her chin, her expression still maddeningly neutral, but her stance adjusted. Her shoulders squared, her weight shifting onto the balls of her feet, ready for a fight.
Ki’Remi slowly returned the device to its hold, crossed his hands over his chest, and glowered at her.
He laced his timbre with a menace that spelled impending destruction. ‘What the everlovin’ hell did you just attempt in my theater?’
She clenched her jaw, defiant. ‘I did what I had to.’
He jerked his head, rage coursing through him. ‘You’re ignoring my question and protocol. You used an undocumented, unapproved healing method on my patient. In my OR. Under my command.’
‘She lived,’ Issa countered.
‘That’s because of an ability that you won’t explain. Which means you are an unmitigated risk.
‘A risk?’ She arched a brow, challenging him. ‘I saved a life. But sure, Sable, let’s focus on protocols. Right now, however, Commander is not the time to discuss this. We need her chest sewn up. Dress-downs and ritual humiliation can come later, however, not in front of all these observing doctors from at least five different planets.’
Fokk, she was making too much sense.
He acquiesced for the sake of Zera, whose chest needed attention now.
‘You. Me. After this surgery. In my fokkin ’ office. No delays, no freakin’ excuses.’
Issa blinked.
Then, the slightest press of her lips, not smugness but defiance, shot with worry.
For whom? Herself?
Or others?
He raked his eyes over her defiant face. She wasn’t afraid of him.
He’d make her rethink her stance soon enough.
Ki’Remi leaned in, his rage adding an electric charge to his metanoids so the energy field around them crackled.
He forced himself to ignore it.
‘You don’t get to deflect, Elaris.’
His voice was pure ice. ‘Tis not the first time an unexplained healing has happened in your presence.’
‘Where’s the gratitude, the heartfelt sante ?’ she murmured. ‘I saved your proverbial ass, yet again, and a life of a patient as well.’
‘ Nada , you made a dangerous call and reckless choice without approval. You don’t get to play lord and freakin’ savior without my say-so, not now, not ever in my OR.’
She held his gaze, unflinching. Stubborn. Bold. Her honey-gold skin glowed under the lights, her spine erect with steel.
Her eyes narrowed and flickered, and he sensed she was hiding something.
He would tear the truth from her, one way or another.
ISSA
She braced.
Even as the colossal man across from her face tightened, his eyes flared like flames.
Men often stared at her with hunger, intrigue, and even anger, but never like this.
His silver-fire eyes burned through her, cutting like plasma, his lips curling, not in amusement, but in sentiment far more dangerous.
That said, she admired his control because despite him being pissed, he kept his rage in check, churning beneath that granite-carved exterior.
For all his faults, he avoided theatrics and was never prone to emotional outbursts.
Evidenced by the fact that although he had the height and size advantage, he didn’t threaten her.
He wasn’t in her face, nor was he screaming at her.
His hands crossed his chest, posture relaxed, but Issa wasn’t fooled.
He discerned through her bullshit and would hunt her down until he got what he wanted.
A flicker of unease danced through her.
She now understood why Pegasi, in entirety, found the Riders freakin’ scary.
Ki’Remi’s raking gaze made it seem that he wanted to dissect her, freakin’ figure her out like an anomaly he needed to solve.
Her fingers curled into her palms, nails pressing into flesh.
She met his cold study with a cool look she didn’t quite feel, her pulse hammering against her ribs.
Before the tension wire between them snapped, bridge comms chimed in with a dulcet tone, and a voice broke through the silence.
‘Sable, Elaris. Report.’
The pair’s eyes snapped and locked at the Admiral’s familiar tone.
The hail from the highest authority on the Perseus Prime, the man responsible for every medical mission this ship undertook across the galaxy, sounded taut, tense.
Ki’Remi exhaled, his lip curling further, not at the Admiral but at the interruption.
‘Admiral Rhye, the patient, Zera Okaban, is stabilized. The surgery was successful.’
His utterance was clipped, impassive.
After a brief pause came their boss’ terse order. ‘My ready room. Now.’
The hail fell away with a soft ping.
The Rider turned his head, his cold eyes landing back on Issa. Assessing. Calculating.
‘Are we done here?’ she asked, voice light.
‘For now,’ he murmured. ‘Scrub out. Now. Explanations will come later.’
She turned, stripped off her gloves, and exited the surgical bay, her slow roll sending an unequivocal message.
She was unperturbed and unrepentant.
The souls of those most precious to her were on the line, and she would do anything, freakin’ everything in her power, to keep them safe and alive.
The halls of the Perseus Prime pulsed with controlled energy. They were lined with titanium-alloy bulkheads and holo-displays that shared data across multiple decks.
An army of autobot and cleaning drones meant sterile air, synthetic oxygen, and antiseptic clung to the surfaces.
She moved beside Ki’Remi.
He prowled rather than walked, and her legs churned faster, trying to match his precise, power-driven strides.
For a man his size, he stalked fast, in silence.
Like an uncaged predator.
She forced herself to match his pace and keep her chin high, even as every cell in her body tensed, knowing he was not done with her.
She caught glances from the passing med officers, nurses, and cybernetic specialists, staring at him with adoration and reverence.
He acknowledged them with short nods and growled greetings.
To her amazement, he called them all by name.
In return, the staff adored him despite his brooding intensity.
He was the rockstar of this ship, the lead surgeon with a massive reputation for saving more lives than anyone else onboard in the six months since joining the crew.
Yet he had no patience for distraction, small talk, or her wild card approach.
He had no idea that she had no choice.
She shuddered to think what he would do, how he’d react if he found out.
Would he kick her out of his team?
It was the last thing she desired.
For her, the Perseus Prime was more than a medical ship.
It was a sanctuary, an ultimate hope for the forgotten, the war-ravaged, and the sick who had nowhere to turn. A haven for her, too.
Issa was proud to be here despite her past, her sins, and the shadow that followed her wherever she went.
The problem was that Ki’Remi was studying her too closely.
Somehow, and she suspected his meta capabilities, he’d caught her Ssignakht elemental healing.
No one else had ever witnessed and recollected the pulse; all they did was guess a procedure, to which she added a misremembering nudge.
She groaned that he was the first to have observed and recalled it.
This meant he was smart enough to figure her out and uncover her secrets.
Fokk .
She swallowed hard as they reached the Admiral’s ready room.
Ki’Remi paused, palming the control panel, the doors sliding open with a hiss of pressurized air.
The Rider gave her a curt nod, and she stepped in before him.
Coming to face to face with the man rounding a large working desk.
Admiral Lucian Rhye was not a man who indulged in pleasantries.
He was tall, broad, and severe, with silver fox energy.
His uniform, black with metallic detailing, was above par, and his cybernetic eyes scanned data even as he turned to regard them.
The expansive viewport behind him displayed the stunning, swirling blues and purples of Alloria Prime’s atmosphere, the planet’s endless jungles, and misty peaks stretching below.
A beautiful world. A dangerous one.
Rhye didn’t waste time.
He clasped his hands at his back and leveled them with a look that could melt dura-steel.
‘Sable, Elaris.’
His voice was throaty, grave, and clipped. ‘We have a problem.’
In that instant, Issa wondered if her secrets were about to catch up with her.