Chapter 12
XAN
Something is wrong with Jay.
I know it in my nearly-as-strong-as-titanium bones. My aura is black with the truth and my heart rages within the confines of my tightening chest, each throb ever louder, ever faster, beating like a timpani.
Members of the percussion family are my favorite human instruments, but I can’t have my heart pounding like it’s part of an orchestra.
No panicking, I tell myself. Panic helps no one.
But my aura stays black. A soot cloud swirling around amethyst crystals.
That is what Jay once told me my skin looks like. Amethyst.
“It’s so cool,” he said. “Way cooler than mine.”
But I love his delicate human skin, just as much as I love my little one, and if anyone hurts him I will tear their hide off their meat, and their meat off their bones.
“Everyone out. I need to speak with Commander Braxton,” I order, marching into the ship’s control room.
Several Derecko crew officers, who are all in various states of “sitting around, doing nothing” at their individual stations, wave their hands in the air to get rid of the floating screens they were watching human media on, and fix their posture.
“Braxton isn’t here, Doctor,” one of them says as he floats over to me in his hover chair. “He checked out a scoutship.”
“I see. Can you tell me where it is?”
“No, sorry, Doctor. He informed us he didn’t want to be tracked, and disabled the ship’s transponder nineteen kilometers out.”
“For what purpose?”
“Well…he’s in charge when Captain Henrix is away, so we didn’t ask.”
“And if he wanted us to know he would have said,” someone else chimes in.
“A fair assumption,” I say, despite the irritation that gnaws at me. I didn’t want to give them shit for being obedient subordinates. Jay could honestly learn a thing or two from them. “As you were.”
I exit the control station without saying anything about Jay, since none of the officers mentioned him.
I haven’t been able to find Jay or the commander, so he must be on the scoutship—but Braxton must not want anyone to know they’re together.
I can probably figure out what’s going on without ratting them out—unless they are both in serious trouble.
I use my thought transmitter and give the ship’s AI assistant, Numbers, an order to contact the scoutship. I repeat the order ten times, and ten times I’m told there was no answer. Fuck.
The next call is to Hex.
He answers, but his thoughts are a static-drenched, gurgled mess. Doc…wha…emergency?
I’m not certain there is one, but I need your help. How quickly can you make it back to the Derecko?
Silence answers me, and I struggle to stay patient as his response reaches out, traveling through the vast space between us.
Qui…if…necessary.
I’m worried about Jay, I explain, channeling my emotions into the mental waves as they carry that message to him, so—even if he has trouble understanding my words—he will still understand why I need him back. Now.
Captain Henrix has disconnected, Numbers reports. He says he is heading back to his ship and will be in touch shortly.
Good. Then we can communicate through the clearer connection our ships maintain, even when there is a vast distance between transmitters that are sending and receiving messages.
I return to the sickbay to work, but get nothing done. I end up pacing back and forth, until Numbers lets me know Hex is calling.
I accept the call in a private room and Hex’s face appears on the wall. His grimace is an unwelcome image. I know that these missions he goes on are closer to a vacation for him, and I hate that I had to so rudely interrupt his peaceful respite.
“I’m sorry for disturbing you, Captain, but Jay—”
“And Braxton can’t be reached,” he breaks in, sounding as impatient as I feel. “Numbers told me. But you haven’t received any distress signals from the other scoutship?”
“No, Captain.”
“Then, have you considered that Commander Braxton’s thought transmitter is malfunctioning, and he won’t use the ship to communicate because he and Jaxus have stepped away? They might have taken a trip to Earth.”
“But Jay always shoots down our offers to visit Earth with him,” I argue. “He’s afraid we’ll leave him there.”
“Maybe Braxton changed his mind.”
“You could only change that human’s mind by ripping out his brain and sticking another one in his skull.”
Hex huffs out a snort and scratches at his chin. “Well, it’s possible the commander enticed Jay with somewhere exciting that we are not permitted to visit. And that’s why he turned off the transponder.”
“If it’s all the same to you, Captain, I would still like to track them down.
” Even with the transponder off, the scoutship would have left signs of where it went.
Signs another scoutship could detect. I didn’t want to go searching for them in a shuttle, because a shuttle wouldn’t pick up every trace they left behind.
“Why are you so…insistent, Doctor?” Hex asks, looking me up and down on the wall-screen in his ship. “Is there something else I should know?”
“It’s nanotech, Captain,” I confess, because I need him to take my concerns seriously. “I put a little in Jay, just to keep track of his vitals. Nothing too invasive. Just bio-monitoring nanoparticles that only activate when he could be in danger.”
“Does Jay know about this?”
I shake my head, lowering my gaze. “I didn’t ask for his permission. I thought he would be so angry we were permanently grounding him, he would refuse to let us have any peace of mind while he was on Earth. But I couldn’t just let him live among the humans without some way to keep tabs on him.”
Hex’s aura is visible now, and it’s a dark gray swirl. “So, what did your invasive ‘not too invasive’ tech tell you about Jay?”
“It told me his temperature and heart rate were dangerously high.”
“Next time, Xan,” Hex growls, “make that the first thing you tell me.”