16. Nerita

CHAPTER 16

NERITA

E verything melts away. The horrors of Horus IV, the gnawing hunger in my belly, the anxiety over the patients I left behind in the hidden clinic, it all vanishes under the power of Magog’s kiss.

New, yet somehow familiar, the feel of his lips on my own permeates every nerve in my body. I’ve read stories where women know they’ve found ‘the one’ from just one kiss. I always thought they were hogwash. Until now.

I come to my senses and pull away. Magog allows me to do so, though I can feel the reluctance in his body.

Our gazes meet, and I realize how damn handsome he is. Lavender eyes the color of perfect twilight hold a depth of character and compassion I have never seen in a Vakutan. Or any man, for that matter, from any world.

I grow self-conscious. This magnificent being, fresh out of a cryo pod, is perfectly clean and smells nice. I haven’t done more than pitiful rinses of my body with tannic water unsuitable for drinking. I can’t remember the last time I had an actual shower. I must reek to high heaven.

If I do, he doesn’t show any signs of noticing. Or maybe, he just doesn’t care. I know the Vakutan olfactory senses are superior to humanity’s. That doesn’t help relieve my anxiety in the least.

“So, um,” I stammer, forced to look away before I do something crazy and kiss him back. “You act like you know me.”

“That’s because I do know you, and you know me.”

“But this is the first time we’ve ever met.”

He nods.

“Indeed, in this lifetime that is an accurate statement.”

I should be inured to the craziness that is Horus IV at this point, but his statement makes me laugh.

“Are you talking about Reincarnation? That’s hard to swallow.”

His gentle touch on my face makes me return my gaze to his face. Magog gently cups my chin, his eyes burning into my soul.

“Nerita, have you not ever dreamed you were a different person, in a different place? Have you not looked at the stars and felt a longing for something you could not name?”

I open my mouth to deny his accusations, but the words die in my throat. The truth is, he’s right. I’ve had many dreams like that, and I can’t remember if I ever looked at the night sky without feeling the urge to go and find something I could not explain.

The sound of not-so-distant gunfire stirs me out of my reverie. Shaking my head in a vain attempt to clear out the strange thoughts and feelings, I hold up my hands in the classic time out symbol.

“Okay, let’s leave this discussion for another time. We need to get off the streets before another patrol comes by. Those Ataxians you killed are probably part of a larger unit. A unit that will be looking for them soon.”

“Affirmative. For your safety, we should reconvene into a different venue. Have you any ideas?”

“I have a makeshift safe house-slash-hospital. Hopefully we can make it back without any more encounters.”

“I will continuously scan for life signs, that we may avoid any patrols.”

I give him a look.

“I’m surprised you want to avoid fights. Aren’t Vakutans known for their battle lust?”

He shrugs his massive shoulders.

“I do feel an urge to engage the enemy. Killing those who would threaten the one I hold dear was…satisfying. But I’ve lived two lifetimes before this one. Perhaps wisdom tempers my desire for battle? Or perhaps, I simply wish to see you safe more than I wish to scratch that particular itch.”

Well, he’s the most eloquent Vakutan I’ve ever encountered, I’ll give him that. The most handsome, too…fuck. Maybe there is something to this jalshagar thing after all. I do feel like I know him. More than that, I trust Magog when I don’t have much reason to.

“All right then,” I say, turning my back so I don’t have to keep looking at him and letting my thoughts go into the gutter. “Let’s go.”

We pick our way through the ruins back to the clinic. The entrance lies in the shadow of the comm tower I climbed earlier. I pause right before reaching for the concealed hatch and look over my shoulder at Magog.

“Are you sure there’s no one watching us?”

“We are out of the visual range of any known species, even a Shorcu. However, there is a possibility someone is watching us with technology.”

A cloying fear turns my belly to lead. All this time, I hadn’t even thought about surveillance devices. We’ve been lucky so far. I hope that luck holds out.

“Not much we can do about that, I suppose.”

I grab the handle and pull up. One of my patients is a civil engineer, and he rigged up hydraulics to make the heavy hatch easier to lift. But he didn’t do his best work, which is understandable considering he suffered a lot of physical trauma, including the loss of his left leg.

The hydraulics must be jammed. I can’t lift the hatch more than an inch. Suddenly, a red-scaled hand darts in and grabs the handle next to my own. Without so much as a grunt of exertion, Magog opens the hatch.

I quickly scamper inside, then motion for him to follow.

“Come on, hurry up! Before someone sees you.”

The big man sidles in, easing the hatch closed behind him without a sound. His left eye flashes in the dark, hinting at cybernetic enhancement. I lead him through the short tunnel to the entrance to our clinic proper. He has to stay hunched the whole way.

As the door opens, a spindly bundle of dirty limbs rushes over and hugs my leg.

“Neri! I knew you weren’t dead.”

I pat her head and smile.

“Who said I was dead, Jessica?”

“Mr. Orboch.”

I lean down and whisper in her ear.

“We both know Mr. Orboch is grouchy ande says things he doesn’t mean. No one is going to kill me.”

“She’s right,” Magog says. “I will not allow it this time.”

Jessica gapes at the sight of the huge Magog as he steps fully into the light. The patients, roughly a dozen of them, look up from wherever they’re trying to rest with alarm.

“It’s okay, everyone. This is Magog, and he’s a friend.”

“Wow, you’re really tall,” Jessica says, craning her neck and almost toppling over as she stares up at him.

“My vertical height is approximately average for a member of the Vakutan species, though my mass and density are much greater.”

Jessica scrunches up her face in confusion. He turns to me with wide eyes.

“What did he say?”

“He talks like a computer sometimes. Don’t worry, he might look scary but he’s actually nice.”

“He has pretty eyes.”

I laugh, and tousle her hair.

“That he does.”

My nursing assistant struggles up to his feet, left arm in a sling. His blue scales flex and gleam as he approaches us.

“Nice to see a proper ridged face,” he says, nodding at Magog. “I’m Velial.”

“It is an honor to meet you, Velial.”

Magog frowns as he stares at Vel’s arm.

“Your arm is broken?”

“Yeah, something like that. Neri healed the fracture, but it still doesn’t work right.”

“Take off your sling, please.”

Vel give me a querying glance. I shrug.

“I don’t know if he can help, but he’s been full of surprises so far. Humor him.”

I assist Vel in taking off his sling, and support his bad arm as it comes free. Magog firmly but carefully takes hold of Vel’s elbow, squinting his right eye closed.

“You have a pinched nerve near your ulna.”

“Oh, is that why I can’t--”

Vel screams amid a sharp, crackling pop as Magog twists his arm. I look on in horror as Vel falls to his knees, holding the injured limb.

“What did you do?” I cry, utterly gobsmacked at what I just witnessed.

“I adjusted the joint into its proper alignment. With his metabolism, he should have sensation back within the hour.”

I open my mouth to protest, but Vel stands up and waves me off.

“More like within the minute, not the hour. I already feel better.”

He flexes his fist open and closed a few times.

“Here, don’t overdo it, let’s put your sling back on.”

“No, I think I’m fine now,” Vel says. He looks over at Magog with gratitude in his yellow eyes. “Thanks, brother.”

“There is no need to thank me.” Magog turns his gaze on me. “There are many others with injuries here. May I treat them as well?”

“Um, sure?”

It’s not like I could stop him if I wanted to, but I get the feeling if I’d said no Magog would not have argued the point. He moves deeper into the clinic, approaching the bedside of a human who took shrapnel in the gut.

“I see this man has suffered a recent injury, and subsequent surgery.”

“If you can call it surgery. I’m not a trained surgeon, but I did the best I could to remove the metal fragments from his gut.”

“You missed several.”

He doesn’t say it like an indictment. Just a statement of fact.

“I’m not surprised. I was afraid to dig around too deep. He hasn’t woken up since I performed the surgery.”

“When did this occur?”

I sigh and shake my head.

“Three days ago, I think. It’s hard to tell how much time passes when there’s no chronometers and ash makes day almost as dark as night.”

Magog nods, and goes to what laughably passes as my surgery equipment. He begins selecting implements, then puts them on a metal tray and places it over a steam grating in the back of the clinic.

“The heat will sterilize the equipment. In the meantime, please prepare two pints of human lactated ringers.”

“Um, what you see is what you get, big guy.”

He takes it all in stride.

“Then we will need a blood donor. The operation will involve significant bleeding.”

“Wait, you’re seriously going to operate? Here?”

“The patient will not survive if otherwise. I calculate an 89% survival chance if I perform the operation. Otherwise, his chances are much lower.”

I swallow the lump in my throat.

“How low is low?”

“Single percentile.”

“All right, I guess that’s an easy choice.” I sigh and rub my tired eyes. I can’t remember the last time I got a decent amount of sleep. Even before the invasion I’d been pushing myself hard.

Magog operates with an efficiency so smooth it’s hard to believe I’m actually seeing it. He removes the shrapnel and despite his worries, there’s very little blood.

He doesn’t stop with one patient, either. All of the stopgap treatments I’ve done in the last several weeks kept the patients alive, but that was about it. Magog actually takes care of them, like a real medical doctor.

“I’m beginning to think that my years of training were wasted,” I gripe as he finishes the sutures on a Kilgari’s back. “I should have just stuck myself in a cryopod.”

His lavender eyes flash over to me and he grins.

“You always did have a sharp tongue, my love.”

I feel as if I’ve been slapped, followed by that pins and needles feeling you get when you’re well and truly shocked. It feels weird to hear him say he loves me when we’ve only just met. It feels even weirder for him to talk about my supposed past lives.

“Ugh, can you not say things like that? It weirds me out.”

His smile fades. I think I’ve hurt his feelings, but he nods regardless.

“Very well, Nerita. I will avoid mentioning our past lives together.”

He says it so matter of factly. Like it’s a given that his reincarnation theory is correct. Maybe it is. I’ve seen enough things in this galaxy to know better than to think I’ve got it all figured out. But most of the wonders I’ve seen can be explained by science. No scientific inquiry has ever produced discernible proof of past lives and reincarnation.

Magog is damn handsome, though. There’s an attraction here even if it’s not mystical. And given that he’s just saved a dozen patients I thought for certain would be dead in the next week, I feel like marrying the guy.

Or at least, having the wedding night portion of the marriage.

“Thank you, Magog. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. You saved them. You saved us all.”

I sigh when the sound of artillery fire penetrates the thick walls of the bunker.

“But it might all be for nothing. We’re still trapped on a planet that’s become the closest incarnation of Hell in the entire history of the galaxy.”

Magog’s brow ridges climb high on his ridged face.

“We are not trapped on this world.”

“What? Why do you say that?”

“Because,” he says, in a voice as confident as a god “I can get us off the planet.”