13. Chapter 13
Mika
Standing up, I moved on shaky legs to the sleeping quarters where all Nadia’s things were stored.
I cleaned her up then dressed her in a fresh everclean suit.
I laid her in the nest, making sure she couldn’t pull any pillows over herself and accidentally suffocate, then left.
It hurt to leave her while she was crying for attention, but I needed to care for Maz.
She was unhappy, but Maz might be dying!
I sprinted to the laboratory bay and grabbed the med scanner. It wasn’t as nice as the ones the healers had, but it would be enough to tell if Maz was actively dying.
Nadia’s cries were calming down by the time I got back to Maz. Hopefully she’d fall asleep soon. I fumbled with the box, my hands shaky. It felt like it took forever to get the scanner out and running.
It wasn’t like the ones I used in the past, and even after I turned it on by jabbing at it, I couldn’t read the screen. All the instructions were written in Talin glyphs!
I wanted to scream in frustration!
A chime sounded. It was a request for entrance. Fear made me freeze in place. Was it the attackers from earlier coming back to finish the job?
When the chime sounded again, the display next to the door flashed.
“Idiot!” I cursed, realizing I could see who was trying to get in and the ship wasn’t in danger of intrusion. Unless they had access to some very advanced infiltration tech or the kind of cutting tools found in shipyards, they weren’t getting in without me opening the door.
“I’m safe,” I murmured to myself, standing up and stepping over Maz to touch the display.
It was Ithorum! This was the only Talin on the entire station I trusted!
There was no one with her or near her. In fact, it looked like most of the ships in nearby slips had all left. Ordering the door open, I grabbed Ithorum by the belt and pulled her inside with enough force to make her stumble, then closed the door.
I didn’t know where this strength came from, but I was probably going to pay for it later.
“Mika, what—” she started to say, then sounded a loud, surprised rattle and dropped to her knees next to Maz. “What happened to him?”
“What do you think happened?” I said, sinking down next to her.
“We were attacked and Maz fought like hell. He…he…” My throat swelled and tears poured down my face.
I gulped air and focused on my anger. “He might be dying, and I can’t even read the med scanner!
Stupid Talins and their stupid glyphs. What’s wrong with Universal or even Common? ”
My yelling echoed in the ship and made Ithorum draw back a little. I needed to calm down. If I drove Ithorum away, I’d have no one to help Maz.
“You can read Universal and Common?” Ithorum asked in a voice that was far too calm for the situation. “I didn’t know humans could learn to read.”
“Now is not the time for that!” I pointed at Maz. “Help him!”
Ithorum sounded a rumble of agreement and picked up the scanner. She tapped it a few times, ran it over his head, grunted, then did the same thing to his torso. She kept doing this scan and grunt thing until she’d run the medical device over every part of him.
I couldn’t take it any longer. “Well?”
“He must’ve fought hard; the injuries are extensive,” Ithorum said as she continued to read the scanner's findings. “Nothing is terminal, but he’ll require a substantial amount of recovery time.”
I sagged back, relief making me feel boneless. “Can you help me treat him here? I don’t trust the station enough to leave the ship.”
“Although his healing process will be slower without professionals to assist him, I agree with your assessment. In fact, I’m here to make sure you leave before Station Director Gorum is done dealing with the biological containment issue.
It’ll be much harder to steal you from Mazorium once you’ve left the station. ”
Now that I knew Maz wasn’t going to die, my mind started working again. I thought of all the things I needed to do, but the first was to move Maz.
“Can you lift him? If he’s going to need to convalesce, then it’d be better if he was in a more comfortable spot.”
As an answer, Ithorum casually pushed her arms under him and lifted his limp body as if he weighed almost nothing. I was impressed!
“This way,” I said, leading her to the bedroom. Nadia was fast asleep, so I carefully picked her up so Ithorum could put Maz in the nest.
“That’s your nest,” Ithorum said and moved to put him in the bunk.
“Put him in the nest!” I ordered.
Ithorum hesitated. I needed to give her a reason other than that I wanted to be able to sleep next to him. “It will be easier for me to care for him if he’s in the nest.”
“I suppose,” Ithorum said, finally settling him down in it. Standing back up, she looked down at me. “I’m going to see what medical supplies he has.”
She didn’t wait for me to agree and strode away. While she was gone, I set up a bed for Nadia and laid her down. I moved so slowly it was like I was setting down a live bomb. The last thing I wanted was for her to wake up and force me to divide my attention between her and Maz. Not right now.
Ithorum came back with her arms full of boxes. A few had Universal on them along with Talin glyphs.
I watched everything Ithorum did closely, trying to remember what vials and tools she used on Maz. By the time she was done, Maz looked like he was almost entirely covered in plaster!
If I wasn’t so tense, I might’ve laughed.
Sitting back on her heels, Ithorum looked at me. “I don’t have much more time. I need you to pay close attention to the instructions I’m going to give you.”
I grabbed an information square that had tumbled out of one of the medical boxes. A few taps later, I found a tab where I could take notes in Universal.
“I’m ready,” I said, then wrote everything she said down because Maz’s life might depend on it.
Between him and Nadia, I was responsible for keeping two souls alive!
Mazorium
I’d never woken up in this much pain in my life. My head throbbed, it hurt to draw breath, and my legs burned from the inside, as if exposed to high levels of gamma radiation.
Fear for Mika made me force my eyes open. I couldn’t see much. The room was dim and my eyes didn’t want to focus.
“Maz, you’re awake!” Mika's excited voice was a soothing balm.
I tried to sit up, but Mika made a negative sound. “Don’t try to move yet, Maz. It’s too soon.”
I wanted to ask why it was too soon, but my brain wouldn’t let me form any words. It took a lot of effort, but I managed to get a single word out.
“Mika.”
“Yes, it’s me. I’m here.” Her soft hands stroked over my head. “Rest, Maz. I’m here, and I’ll take care of you.”
I wanted to demand an explanation, but darkness swallowed me again.
The next time I woke up, I was in the same amount of pain, but my brain felt less foggy. The room was still dim, but I was able to focus better. There was a soft warmth pressed against my side. It was agony to turn my head, but I needed to see.
Mika was curled up on her side with her back against me. Looking beyond her I saw that I was in the nest. Had she become scared and needed me to comfort her? But that didn’t explain why I was in so much pain.
I tried to lift my arm to touch my throbbing head, but the pull on my shoulder muscles caused agony to shoot down my chest. It set off a cacophony of pain so bad I couldn’t breathe for a moment.
“Maz?”
I’d closed my eyes to deal with the intense sensations. Opening them, I found Mika hovering over me.
“You’re making sounds. Are you in pain?” Suddenly she disappeared from my sight. “Of course you’re in pain! Let me get you some medication.”
I heard her moving around but couldn't risk shifting again. Then she was back with a vial. She popped it open, but I refused to open my mouth to accept it.
“What…it?” It was hard to speak, but she understood.
“I can’t pronounce the name of the drug, but this is the one Ithorum told me to give you for the pain,” she said, holding the label so I could see it. Unfortunately I was having a difficult time focusing.
“Ith-orum?” Why was it so hard to talk? Why did my chest hurt so much? So many questions and everything Mika said only made me more confused.
“Yeah, Ithorum showed up at the ship after you got us back here and collapsed,” she said, then held the vial to my mouth again. I opened my lips and let her pour it in. It wasn’t long before the worst of my pain eased enough for me to be able to pull in a full breath of air.
Bits and pieces of memories floated through my head.
The station director’s office.
Endless empty corridors.
We were attacked!
Images of my opponents jumped into my mind, making me hiss. That’s why I'm hurt!
I didn’t remember how many attackers there’d been. The gaps in my memory were troubling but also the least of my concerns at the moment.
“Need…leave…leave here.”
Mika smiled down at me. “Don’t worry about that, we already left.”
No, this wasn’t possible. Mika couldn’t have piloted my ship.
She was human.
Humans were helpless and needy, not strong and competent. Mika should be panicking because I wasn’t able to care for her.
“How?”
Mika chuckled. “Don’t worry, I didn’t touch things until something happened. Ithorum showed me how to launch and follow the exit corridor. You already had the ship programmed, so once we were out of the station's traffic, I activated it. Your ship is really fancy!”
Nadia started crying. I automatically tried to get up, but I didn’t even make it to a sitting position before agony made me collapse back down. I had to stifle a moan of pain.
“Woah, it’s way too soon for that!” Mika said. “Stay still, let me get Nadia.”
I sounded a rumble of agreement; it was easier than trying to talk. Mika moved away from my field of vision.
When she came back, Nadia was in her arms. Seeing the healthy baby made it easier to remain still, even though she was still crying.
Mika settled the baby in her lap facing me. Her little head was tipped back, resting on Mika’s chest.
“Look, there’s Maz,” Mika said in the sing-song voice she used so often with Nadia. “Soon he’ll be on his feet again, bossing us around and insisting we eat all the time.”
Mika sounded happy, even if she wasn’t using flattering terms.
I wanted to tell the fussy baby how glad I was to see her, but all I could get out was a soothing rumble. Despite my lack of words, she calmed a little.
I kept up the rumble, and Nadia stopped crying entirely and pressed part of her hand into her mouth.
“Nadia missed you,” Mika said. She settled the baby against my side then moved her gaze to meet mine.
“As best as I can tell, we have another couple of weeks until we get to the destination you programmed in. By then you should be able to get up and deal with landing. Which is good because nothing here is programmed with Universal. I understand not bothering with Common, but everyone has Universal set up as a secondary default except you guys.”
My INT couldn’t translate week, but I knew after leaving Helsin Station it would take about fifteen rotations of traveling to get to my assignment. Week must be a human measurement for a number of rotations in a row.
I was proud my brain could function well enough to come to that conclusion, although while I was thinking about it, I’d missed some of what Mika was telling me.
“...so I said I couldn’t read Talin glyphs. You should’ve heard what she said when I asked if she could change everything out for Universal tick marks. She was like, ‘you know how to read?’” Mika laughed again. “Not flattering!”
Of course Mika knew how to read, she was an incredibly smart human! I wanted to say as much, but sleep was starting to tug at me.
Somewhere a chime sounded. Mika said something about food and more medication, but I was already asleep.