12. PEACE
PEACE
“ L eave me,” Xyrox groaned.
“Nope, not gonna happen.” I gritted out, lugging his big body down the hall, refusing to acknowledge how my legs shook with fatigue.
“I’m too heavy,” he pointed out, his voice weak.
“Shut up.” I shrugged my shoulders, readjusting his weight, and plodded on.
Dragging our exhausted butts around another bend two hours later, I saw a series of doors and hallways that looked like we’d reached some sort of facility. I nearly sobbed in relief when I saw a door with large red letters that said MEDIC.
“Thank the goddess! Look, Xyrox. Med bay.” I gently set him on the ground to give us both a moment’s rest.
His head came up and he stared at the door for a beat before his chin dropped again. “It’s biometric,” he rasped.
Fekk! “It’s okay. I can blast it open.” I hated the way my voice got higher and panicky.
Xyrox’s head shook. “No, that’s blast-proof metal. If you shoot at it, your energy charge will ricochet back at you.”
“You’re being a fekking ray of sunshine right now, you know that!” I said, stomping away. I paced the hallway while I tried to find a solution. I always thought better when I paced.
The red MEDIC and the matching red of Xyrox’s blood mocked me as I moved back and forth, yanking at my braids snarling in frustration. “Fekking blazing suns!” I screamed smashing my hand against the biometric sensor next to the door that sought to torture me.
To my utter shock, the door slid open and the room inside lit up in front of me. “Oh my goddess! It opened!”
Throwing my pack in the doorway so it couldn’t lock us out, I grabbed Xyrox and pulled, deliberately ignoring the red trail he was leaving on the floor behind him.
As soon as we crossed the threshold, a pleasant female voice sounded from all around us, like a divine being. “Welcome back, Peace Thorsdóttir.”
What? I nearly dropped Xyrox in surprise.
The voice didn’t seem to notice. “You have a Rykanosian male with you, but he is not identified in my MEDIC database. Would you like me to add him?”
I blinked. Database? “Um, yes?” I hoped I could trust this disembodied computer voice. It sounded a little like the autopilot on my former ship.
“As you wish. What is his name?”
“Xyrox Quorath.”
“Xyrox Quorath is added to the database,” the artificial intelligence said. “Welcome, Xyrox Quorath. You’re losing blood from multiple wounds. Would you like MEDIC to heal you?”
“Yes, he would. Do that.” I answered before Xyrox could argue for me to leave him to his noble death.
“As you wish. Xyrox Quorath, please lie on the table after removing any clothing you don’t want MEDIC to cut off.”
“You’ve used this thing before?” Xyrox hissed as I helped him onto the gleaming metal table in the middle of the room.
“No.”
“Then how does it know your name?”
“That’s not my name,” I whisper-hissed back as I peeled his bloody coat from the wound on his side.
“How many Peaces could there be? You’re the only one I’ve ever heard of.”
“I don’t know,” I said, keeping my voice low in his ear. “But that’s not my last name.”
He grunted in pain as I tugged his pants down his legs. “If you want my pants off, all you have to do is ask.”
“Shut up.” I helped him lie down. “Anyway, who cares why it’s working for me, so long as it can patch you up. Okay?”
“Okay.” Xyrox’s lips tipped up in a weak smile. “See you on the other side, Agent.”
I brushed a kiss across his mouth, then returned the smile. “Yeah, see ya, fugitive.”
As soon as he disappeared into the tube, I collapsed into a very uncomfortable chair next to the machine. No matter how advanced they were, no one could build a comfortable chair for a doctor’s office. “So, um, voice in the air? Are you going to be able to fix him?”
“You may call me Julie, Peace Thorsdóttir. And, yes, Xyrox Quorath will be healed in approximately seventeen minutes.”
“Seventeen minutes? That’s good. Amazing, actually.” I took a deep breath and relaxed. “Um, so Julie, remind me, where did we first meet?”
“That information is classified. Do you have the encryption key?”
“No.” I huffed in my seat. “What good are you? I mean, besides healing Xyrox, which is pretty useful, I’ll admit. Can you tell me anything about why my biometric signature worked?”
“All Pleiadians are authorized to use any MEDIC.”
I jerked as though Julie had slapped me. “I’m not Pleiadian! You’re mistaken.”
“I’m never mistaken. You, Peace Thorsdóttir, are half-Pleiadian and half-human. Access to a MEDIC is a right for all Pleiadians.”
Human? What nonsense! I’d definitely never been to Earth, and I certainly wasn’t a member of a primitive race that didn’t even know about civilizations on other planets. Zame found me as a baby.
Until I started bounty hunting, I’d spent my whole life in our little village on the edge of a desert on Rykantos. We’d rarely even traveled past the desert because Zame said she’d done enough traveling to last ten lifetimes when she was with the military.
Since Julie wouldn’t tell me, I wracked my brain for explanations why Julie knew my first name. Could I have been a prisoner here and had a mind wipe since then? I searched my memory for blank periods of time, but everything seemed intact.
I yawned, a headache squeezing my temples. None of this made sense. Fekk it. I would just be thankful we found Julie so she could fix Xyrox. I didn’t want to lose him now that we’d come to an agreement.
I snorted at myself. Yeah, that was some agreement last night. But then there was the telepathy and the matching tattoos. I didn’t know what it all meant, but I intended to find out. And to do that, Xyrox had to be whole and exonerated.
The fatigue from the battle with the iceworms, hauling Xyrox’s big body, and all the emotional drama were catching up with me.
Leaning back in the chair, I decided I would close my eyes for just a moment.
A quick, ten-minute nap, and then I would explore this area for more clues about what was going on and how we might get off this frozen rock.
A kiss on the back of my neck startled me awake, and I flew out of the chair into a fighting stance. “Blasted suns!”
Xyrox laughed. “Easy there, Peace.”
Shaking off the last vestiges of sleep, I threw my body around his like a Tyrovian howler monkey. “You’re alive! And you’re all better!”
He staggered under my weight, still laughing. “Yes. I feel quite refreshed. Now it’s your turn.”
“What do you mean? My turn?” I kissed his neck, his jaw, his cheek, his mouth.
“For you go in the magic machine there and get checked out.” Xyrox carried me to the MEDIC table.
“But I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong with me.” I wiggled, trying to get down. “I don’t need healing.”
“It doesn’t hurt to get checked.” He gripped me tighter and nuzzled my neck. “Humor me, Peace.”
My name on his lips did me in. I huffed. “Fine. Put me on the cold metal thing.”
With another kiss to the top of my head, he laid me down and I stretched out. “Okay, Julie. Scan away.”
“As you wish, Peace Thorsdóttir.”
I wish she wouldn’t keep calling me that . I spoke directly to Xyrox’s mind as I disappeared into the tube and a machine began whirring around me.
A smile I could only call sweet played on Xyrox’s lips. “Just go with it for now. I’m sure there’s a reason. We’ll figure it out.
He kissed me on the forehead, and I slid into the tube. “Beginning scan.” Julie’s calm voice jolted me from our telepathic conversation.
“Whatever. Let’s get this over with.”
A few minutes later, I rolled off the table and stretched. I hated to admit it, but my fugitive turned ally was right. I did feel refreshed. “Thanks, Julie.”
“You are welcome, Peace Thorsdóttir. Please be advised that MEDIC healed several scars and cleared a Rykanosian parasite from your system. This was a new condition since your last scan, and so no long-term negative effects are expected. Your universal translation cochlear implant was also missing and was replaced.”
Xyrox cocked an eyebrow in my direction. “C’mon, Peace. You’ve obviously been scanned in one of these before. AI can’t lie. When was it?”
My brows slammed together. “I swear, I don’t know what it’s talking about. I’ve never seen this thing before.” Shooting him a disgusted look, I turned my back to search the room.