Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

THREXIN

A ll the vid feeds were down. Threxin had spent too many ticks trying to find any trace of Alina Argoud on the compromised transmissions and finally gave up. Her cabin had been empty when he barged inside. It looked like an explosion, all her silly trinkets and blankets strewn about. But no human.

He checked the medbay next, and though it was brimming his search amounted to nothing. The canteen she had frequented bore no results. Threxin clamped a palm to the spikes at his neck and headed for the rear dock through the empty halls. Everyone was still either at work after the jump or isolating in their locations, and for good reason—occasional tremors still rocked his Colossal .

One thing he knew: she had disappeared soon after the jump. How long she'd been gone by the time he noticed her seat empty at the observation pit, he wasn't sure. But he knew it was before the ship stabilized, and that was bad enough.

He saw her before she saw him, considering she was staring at the floor as she dragged her leg behind her along the wall. She held her other hand to her chest, hovering it there as though she wanted to cradle it but dared not.

She didn't notice him until he was atop her, dragging her inside a blood passage. He shoved her into the wall, slamming a hand on either side of her to bracket her in beneath him.

"Threxin," she yelped. "What are you?—"

"Why are you so stupid?" He rounded on her when the passage door snapped shut, fighting to ignore the immediate thrum of his limiter.

Alina recoiled in the darkness. White rimmed her eyes, pupils darting all over his face as though searching for something.

"What… what's wrong?" she asked.

"What is wrong?" Threxin snarled, then shoved his palm against his forehead as the limiter choked him back in line. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook out his spikes, staying like that for several long ticks as he regained himself.

"Threxin, look, it's not what you think?—"

"What the shoq inclined you to unharness yourself mere ticks after your atoms were reconstituted from nothing and go running through a damaged ship?" He growled, capturing her gaze so she could not turn them away. He locked in on her, and yet still she attempted to slide sideways down the wall to get around him. Threxin slammed a hand against the wall at her side, blocking her way. "You injured yourself. Stupid, stupid human."

The stench of fear rolled off her in waves, fraying his nerves with bitter adrenaline mixing with sweat and pheromones. Alina Argoud smelled like she was afraid for her life. Something in his chest dislodged and shattered to pieces inside his stomach.

"I wanted to check on one of the Ariels in the dock. I thought… I thought I forgot to lock down the anchors after my last scrub shift. If it had dislodged in the jump, it could've cost us millions of chips in damage." Alina stared at his chest as she rushed her explanation. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."

A ship. She had made her way to the rear dock with Colossal in dangerous disarray to check on a shoqing ship. If she weren't already so terrified, Threxin may have been compelled to strike sense into her.

Threxin shoved his tongue against his cheek and flicked his spikes, uncoiling the aching tension tightening his spine. He stepped back, fingertips trailing with hesitation off the wall, and looked her over. He took in her gigantic hand, already blotched red and purple, and her leg held awkwardly at her side. Threxin sighed and ran a hand down his face. And when he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, it took a modicum of effort not to disturb her injuries further, though she still cried out as the air was forced from her lungs.

Alina jolted, making a strained sound in her throat. "Wait, Threxin. What are you doing? I need to get back to the command center. I need to check on Kaia!" She writhed in his grip, but he only held tighter, immobilizing her injured leg by splaying a hand along the seemingly untender hamstring to hold it steady against his chest.

"Orion Halen's female is fine," he said.

"No, but she might need?—"

"She does not need you, human," Threxin snarled, the leash in his brain issuing a dull throb with each step he took. "She never needs you. Ever. Yet still you crawl back. You crawl across the ship to check on equipment and then limp back to check on a mistress that has all but discarded you. It is pathetic. Humans are pathetic, and you most of all."

She had fallen quiet, her breathing short and ragged against his back as she swung upside down from his shoulder. He hoped she would take his words sincerely. Entirely process them. Drag them in like a long puff of hak. Because he needed to say them, and she needed to know.

Oh, how he wished for some hak.

The medbay was still bustling with activity when he entered with Alina. The light was blinding and uncalibrated. Humans sat in hallways next to the three human-assigned cabins he'd provided. They were hurt, and there were many.

Threxin walked past the line of them, carrying Alina to the door in the back. Lesthin loitered in the hall there, observing the scene with bored indifference. When he saw the human dangling over Threxin's shoulders, his brows rose, apertures widening.

"What is this?" he said in Apthian.

"Are any of ours injured?"

"Just two. Minor. Humans are…" He looked over wryly at the line of humans in the hall behind Threxin's shoulder. "Very breakable."

Threxin lifted his chin and grunted in agreement. "Found this one roaming the halls."

Lesthin jerked his chin at the hall. "She can wait there."

"She is… unfortunately critical," Threxin said. "No redundancy. Take care of her."

Lesthin leaned sideways to get a better look. "Bring her in."

Threxin set Alina in the same chair where he himself had been strapped the day before. Her face was red and her expression petulant.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, already shoving her hips off the chair to rise. "You can't just… Everyone out there will think…"

His talons pricked against her shoulder as he shoved her back down.

"Hey! You can't just?—"

"I cannot?" Threxin narrowed his eyes, tilting his head to the side. He attempted to speak in rapid Universal, keeping his voice low while Lesthin pretended to be busy with some of his equipment. If Threxin spoke fast enough, Lesthin would not be able to keep up. "I can do anything I want, Alina Argoud. I say your job is no longer to be Orion Halen's female's useless errand runner. "

"I'm not a useless errand?—"

"Your job," he hissed, "is to shut the shoq up."

Her mouth closed with a quiet snapping of teeth. Threxin huffed a small nod and, when satisfied that she would not attempt to rise again, faced Lesthin.

"Fix her," Threxin commanded in Apthian.