CHAPTER FIVE
Ash
The light came, as it always did. Ash knew she was not waking up from a normal night’s sleep.
This was a different type of awakening. From the soft, warm in-between place she had been, the darkness closed around her like a suffocating trash bag.
It felt like she was clawing free of it, fighting for air and light and breath.
Even as she fought to wake up, she feared the reality that came with consciousness.
Sounds blurred, then settled to a soft hum and voices speaking quietly in a foreign language.
She opened her eyes slowly, but the light was low and not painful to her eyes.
The surprisingly large and bare room was bathed in a soothing blue.
Her body was supported by a warm, gel-like substance and the air had no scent whatsoever.
She frowned. This was different from any hospital she knew of.
A pair of faces bent over her, one female, one male.
They wore snug head-to-foot bodysuits in light blue and both were so attractive, Ash thought they looked more like TV doctors than real ones.
Actually, they looked like sci-fi TV doctors, like from Star Trek, but that had to be the effects of whatever drugs she was getting.
“Can you hear me?” asked the female in an accented voice.
Ash nodded. Her throat was dry as dust.
The woman turned to the man and said something in that language again, while the male turned to a panel on the wall beside her.
The section lit up and became a screen. There, she saw a diagram of her body.
Text scrolled down beside it and different parts of the image lit up as the man touched different areas of it.
It was running a diagnostic, she assumed.
It had been four years since she had been in a hospital and she had no idea they had gotten so high tech.
Maybe she was in a different country with better tech.
That would explain the foreign language accent she couldn’t quite place.
Perhaps other countries were getting technology from those aliens who were around now.
Everyone was so fascinated by them—Baylans, they were called.
Most of her friends in New York talked about how sexy they were.
Ash agreed, objectively. She just didn’t see a point in swooning over guys so obviously unavailable.
It wasn’t like they were wandering around on Earth looking for girlfriends.
They seemed to dislike coming to the planet’s surface.
The woman returned, looking somewhat bemused. “I am Dr. Yoli and this is Dr. Pruk. Would you like to sit up?” she asked with a smile.
“N-no,” Ash croaked out. Well, she would, but she was too tired to move anything. Her voice was ragged. “Where am I?”
The two doctors exchanged a glance. Their names were unusual. She was definitely in a foreign country. “You are in a safe place. A…” She seemed to search for the right word. “A hospital. Your family is being informed that you have woken up.”
Relief swept through her. “Can I see them? Can you let them in?”
“Not yet,” the woman replied. Her gaze flicked worriedly to her partner. “We are waiting for the high physician to return. Zade is the one who makes these decisions.”
High physician? She’d never heard a doctor called that before. And the guy’s name was Zade. That was unusual, too. Ash’s fingers played with the soft fabric of her simple hospital gown.
Dr. Yoli tilted her head. “How is your memory?” she asked. “What do you remember before being here?”
Ash frowned. “I—I was on a retreat, I think. I don’t remember much else.” Her gaze flew to the woman. “Why? What happened to me?” She tried to sit up abruptly, but the doctors placed firm hands on her shoulders and kept her in place.
“Easy,” said Dr. Yoli with a frown. “You need to do it slowly. I can help you.”
“I will take it from here,” said a new voice. This one was deep and male and sounded like satin on gravel. He immediately had one hundred percent of Ash’s attention. Ah, she could listen to that gorgeous, deep, accented voice all day long.
Ash’s breath halted in her chest as a tall man bent over her.
“My name is Zade Baru-Nok and I am the high physician here. I will be in charge of your care while you are here. Do you understand?”
Ash nodded, but she barely heard his words.
This was Dr. Zade? Her awareness was swallowed up with the task of staring at him.
Thick blond hair fell over his forehead in gleaming waves.
Dark brows slashed low over bright, electric blue eyes.
They were the color of the Caribbean Sea, or maybe, the color of her computer screen when it was in a bad mood.
His mouth was set in a firm line, but his lips hinted at sensuality.
From high, angled cheekbones to a straight nose that looked carved from marble, his features were a study in rich aristocracy.
The rest of him was encased in a tight gray suit, which accentuated a tall, muscular body that moved with smooth control. Everything about him exuded confidence, certainty and command. Ash could not tear her gaze from him. She had never seen male perfection before that moment.
Around his neck, he wore a strange metal band, several inches wide and as thin as a piece of paper.
It sat right against the skin. A set of green lights illuminated along the bottom edge.
It didn’t look like jewelry. In fact, he appeared uncomfortable with it.
Despite being certain she had never seen anyone so hot in her life, something about him felt familiar, as if she already knew all those chiseled features, already knew that sexy voice.
A red light flashed in her eyes. She blinked.
Zade held a small light between his fingers. “Follow this light with your eyes only,” he said, moving it side to side, up and down.
Ash dutifully followed the red light.
“Can you move your limbs for me?” he asked her.
She stretched her fingers and moved her feet. He seemed very interested in her left leg and ran the red light, which she realized was more like a sensor device, up and down her leg. The device’s cool, glass end touched her skin.
“Can you feel that?” he asked.
“Yes. Why?” She swallowed, dragging her gaze from him down to herself. In a reclined position, she could just see her toes peeking over her body. “What happened to me?”
Zade smiled. She’d seen this type before to know it was a practiced expression: warm enough to reassure that things were okay, with just enough sympathy to convey that things were not okay. “You were in an accident.”
The words were a body slam into a wall. They were exactly the same as the ones she’d been told the last time she woke up in a hospital.
She closed her eyes. Pain, which had faded and been processed long ago, cut sharply.
“Shaun,” she murmured, even though she knew, logically, that this was a different time, a different place.
Zade’s gaze went sharp and narrow on her. His nostrils flared. “Who is ‘Shaun?’”
Ash waved a hand, then placed it over her face to hide her wince. “Someone who died,” she whispered, letting out a gurgle of pained laughter. “I’m not losing my mind. I know the past from the present. It’s just…forget it.”
He returned to her foot, scowl firmly in place. The device touched the bottom of her foot. “Can you feel this?”
“Yes.” Annoyance turned the word into a hiss. “Will you please tell me where I am?”
His gaze flicked to hers. “You are a patient on the medical deck of the Baylan base ship Raplan-B.” He tapped a finger to her big toe. “Can you feel this?”
What? Had she heard that correctly? Ash reared up, pushing to a seated position and causing her head to swim and her vision to blur.
“Yes, I can fucking feel it. It’s my foot.
” She wriggled her toes in an exaggerated fashion.
Actually, her foot did feel a little strange, like there was a slight delay in her choice to move her toes and the action of it happening.
Still, it all worked. “See? Now explain to me why I’m here and not on Earth. ”
“You were transported here because you were bitten by a creature of unknown alien origin.” He gestured to her left leg, which seemed so interesting to everyone.
“Its venom did extensive damage to your lower leg and I was given clearance by your government and family to reconstruct it for you.” His face relaxed into a much more natural-looking smile, revealing pleasing grooves beside his mouth.
“It was a very successful procedure, if I do say so.”
The blood drained from Ash’s head. “Reconstruct?”
His lashes lowered, shading his eyes which had changed from vivid cobalt to indigo.
“Yes. I am sorry that your leg could not be saved. We fashioned a new one for you. The tissues are Baylan, as we did not have the time or ability to synthesize human tissues. But we will discuss the tissue rejection factor later, when you are recovered. You will need some physical therapy, as you call it, before you will be able to walk normally.” As if deciding that he was giving too much information, he closed his mouth and crossed his arms. “What questions do you have?”
Questions pummeled the inside of her skull like hailstones.
What was the “tissue rejection factor?” How was her entire fucking leg replaced to look normal?
She pulled her gaze from him and stared at it in disbelief.
It did look like her leg at first, but then she saw the differences.
The scar from falling off a bike in the third grade was gone, as was the freckle cluster on her ankle, and the wonky, sideways nail of her pinkie toe.
The left was a perfect match to the right, with the exception of the slight difference in skin tone and a thin line that ran the circumference of her calf, just below the knee.
It didn’t even look like a scar, but more like a seam.
She rubbed her temples. “There were other people with me.” Her memory was so hazy.
She couldn’t remember faces or names. “How are they doing?”
He paused. His expression settled into one of practiced sympathy. “I am sorry to say that you were the only survivor of the attack.”
The floor dropped out from beneath her. “The only… Are you sure?”
He nodded. That reassuring-but-consoling smile was back. “Yes. If it is any consolation, the four women who accompanied you did not suffer long. The attack appears to have lasted seconds. My deepest sympathies on the loss of your friends.”
She put a hand to her mouth as her stomach twisted. “I’m going to be sick.”
“No, you are not.” The physician gestured to one of those other doctors, who touched the screen on the wall. Bright purple medicine slid through one of the tubes going into her body and instantly, Ash’s stomach soothed.
Part of her resented the control these doctors had over the functions of her body.
Part of her wanted to vomit, to suffer a little bit, to purge some of the grief.
Once again, she’d escaped when others hadn’t.
One of the things this retreat was to address was survivor’s guilt.
Ironic that now she had that times four.
“I’d just met them,” she said. “We hadn’t had the chance to become friends.
It was…a retreat. I don’t remember much about them, or what happened.
What’s wrong with my memory?” She rubbed her temples. “My head feels like mush.”
“That is okay,” he said, smiling again, but with tension this time.
“You will be here for a while. There will be time for all your questions. Your government has asked that you remain here until the creature you came in contact with is identified and captured. They have concerns about alien pathogens.”
She put a hand to her chest as her stomach turned to ice. “Wait. I’m being quarantined up here? Can I talk to my family, at least? My parents must be freaking out.”
His shoulders visibly relaxed. “There is no reason why you should not speak to your family. I will arrange that for you.”
“Thank you.” She glanced at her leg, then up at him. “How long will I be here?”
He paused. The quiet stretched as a mix of complex emotions flitted over his perfect features. “I do not know, Ashley.” His voice was low, gentle, and tinged with a strain that Ash did not understand. “I suppose it will depend on you.”