Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29

ALINA

T he uhyre Lesthin was not gentle. He tore the leg of her trousers with one talon, nicking her knee further in the process and drawing a hissing cry from her raw throat.

Threxin stood against the wall at the other side of the room with his arms crossed over his chest, watching it all with infuriating indifference.

Her throat was raw because, since Threxin's interception until he plopped her down in an alien exam room with a questionable alien medic, it had been constricting with sobs that Alina forced down. At some point she wasn't even sure what she'd been crying about. Whether it was pain, or shame, or the fear of getting caught in her act of betrayal… or maybe even not getting caught when she realized Threxin was so worked up because she'd been hurt and not because he knew what happened.

She'd never seen him worked up before.

Her throat had been spasming, keeping it all down.

Alina did not know what giant needle the uhyre came at her with next, and when she tried to scramble away, leaning her weight on her swollen hand in the process, he curled his lip and restrained her. Carbon cuffs snapped to her forearms, then another set to her wrists. She wailed as the right one dug into the swollen flesh there. This could not be a doctor—it could not. Alina looked over the uhyre's shoulder at Threxin, who seemed entirely unaffected by the brutality of it all. He simply crossed his stupidly long legs at the ankles against the wall and watched.

He didn't care. He never goddamn cared.

"Why did you even bring me here if you don't give a shit?" Alina felt like an idiot at the way her voice came out all whiny, and she couldn't help it… When the green uhyre brought the needle to her knee, she started to sob like a damn baby.

"W-what is that? What are you doing? Please, are you sure—" She blubbered through the tears that refused to be stifled.

The alien told her to shut up in Apthian. Blood drained from Alina's head, and she suddenly felt like she was freezing as he positioned the thick tip of the needle to her swollen kneecap. He barely touched it, but even that light initial touch sent fire through her leg. She ground her teeth, threw her head back, and screamed.

"Phost-ee," the alien repeated his command for her to be quiet, and Alina threw her head forward and glared at him.

"You don't get to boss me around too. You're not the commander," she hissed.

Threxin did react then, with a fucking guttural chuckle. The green uhyre's apertures flicked with shared amusement as they exchanged looks.

"She is right," Threxin mused in Apthian. When the green one turned away, his expression grew more sober. "Take it easy, Lesthin."

Lesthin. So that was the name of her tormentor.

Lesthin seemed to listen, albeit begrudgingly. When he pressed the needle to the side of her knee it was with a modicum of gentleness he hadn't used before.

Alina bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to watch the giant thing pierce her skin. There was a sucking feeling followed by a sense of hollowness beneath the kneecap as the pressure within her knee was eased. Too bad the excruciating pain remained. Alina chanced a squinted glance with one eye and saw that the uhyre was drawing something out into the gigantic syringe—a reddish-yellow liquid.

Alina's stomach turned. "I'm gonna be sick."

But she managed to keep her guts down until the needle was finally removed. She barely even noticed the subsequent injection gun coming for her leg, shooting something into the muscle. Pain relief? Anti-inflammatory? Poison?

The relief lasted only long enough for her to remember that there was another thing: her hand. She seized up when she saw the green uhyre Lesthin studying it through narrowed eyes. With a displeased grunt, he released the cuff holding her aching right wrist.

Lesthin was muttering to himself, but the words weren't making sense anymore. The rush of blood in Alina's ears dulled them, and the pounding in her head made her skull feel like it was about to explode. She shoved her head back and stared at the ceiling, sucking air in through her mouth.

One… Two… Three…

Fuck, this was useless. She just needed to be out of there. Everything hurt, and her arm itched and she couldn't even scratch it. She heard a whine from her own throat as if it weren't her making it, and her body in the chair thrashed and arched as if of her own accord.

"Alina Argoud," the voice was muffled and far away.

He'd ambushed her, brought her here against her will, past all those people. People who had seen. She would've been fine. It wasn't that bad. A knocked knee and a pinched hand—who cares? But he brought her there and handed her over to this… this… monster.

A sob racked through her .

"Alina Argoud," he repeated, and her eyes unthinkingly went to the source.

She'd lost count. She had to start again.

One… Two… Three…

Threxin captured her as soon as their eyes locked. Still unmoving against that damn wall, he crawled into her head through her eye sockets. Alina vaguely felt the restraints hold her back in her seat, but even that soon dissipated. Her vision was burnt to ash at the edges, closing in until all she could see was black and glowing cyan blue.

Alina felt a vague sense of wetness that spread from her hand all over her skin as something prodded her, but it just seemed so irrelevant.

"Shoq." The voice was closer to her ear—too close. Unfamiliar and grating, it wasn't like how Threxin said it when he cursed. It was foreign and cruel, without a trace of care in it.

Something stabbed into the side of her neck and ripped through her like a bite. She grasped for the cyan fire filling her vision, but already it was dispersing. The universe tilted as Alina fought to get out of this viscous thing she was drowning in, but her eyes wouldn't open, her ears wouldn't work, and her body felt heavy as everything disappeared.

"Oh, good. You're awake."

Barely.

Alina's head lay heavy as consciousness returned. She moaned, bringing an arm instinctively to her eyes.

The wrong arm.

She opened her eyes.

She was in her cabin. In her bed. Her right hand had been wrapped in an exocast that went past her wrist. She dislodged the thin sheet covering her with her good hand and stared. Someone had undressed her .

Her left knee had been bandaged up tightly, and a carbon splint had been attached to her upper thigh, keeping her left leg in a forcibly straight position.

Well, damn .

Finally she remembered someone had spoken.

"Kaia," Alina said dumbly.

"How are you feeling?"

Kaia Halena sat in her chair next to the bed, holding a shot of water. She handed it to Alina's good hand, waiting until she had a firm grip before releasing it.

"I'm fine," Alina said. "What happened?"

"You got hurt traversing the jump," Kaia explained. That much Alina knew. She wondered how much Kaia knew. "You were found. By Threxin. The usurper. He brought you to the medbay. One of them fixed you up." Kaia looked Alina up and down, as though evaluating the job. "Not sure why he didn't leave you to wait for a human medic. Did he say anything?"

Alina's breath hitched. "N-no, sorry. Maybe he knows I work for you and did it as a gesture of goodwill?"

Kaia scoffed. "I doubt it. But maybe. They got word to me afterward. The uhyre claimed he had to sedate you… Who knows what the fucking brute did? But you look fine, I think."

"I am fine," Alina offered. "I think."

"How much do you remember?"

She had to be careful here, and the fact that she was even lying there thinking of the best story to tell was seriously messed up. When did she go from being the loyal assistant of the commander's wife to a traitor hiding her involvement with the leader of the invading force?

"I got to the dock, as you said. Isabelle and the dockmaster…"

"Barton."

"Barton. They had me help them send out a message. "

Kaia leaned forward. She hadn't heard yet.

"To…?"

"Hydra Company. They said they won't know if it worked until someone comes… If they come."

Kaia nodded. "We expected that. Okay, then what?"

"I got hurt. I was on my way back to tell you when…" Alina looked around, reaching, "I think there was a tremor? I… fell and blacked out, I think. I woke up in the exam room with that… that…"

Kaia covered Alina's uninjured hand with her own—a gesture so uncustomary that it made Alina tense in her bed.

"I'm sorry for making you go out there right after the jump," Kaia said quietly. "And for not warning you beforehand. But there wasn't much time. We only had a short window in the commotion."

Maybe if this had happened a week ago, Kaia's uncustomary apology would mean something. Any sign of sentimentality from her charge would've been a victory. Now all Alina heard was an excuse.

"It's okay." Alina performed the motions. "Honestly, I'm fine. And this is important. I get it."

Kaia stood and shook the mane of flaming curls from her face. "We're going to get out of this, Alina. We're gonna get our New Earth and send these motherfuckers where they belong."

Alina blinked up at her. "Where do you think that'll be?"

Kaia's mouth quirked upward. "Well. It won't be Heaven, that's for sure."

Alina forced herself to smile.

"I almost forgot," Kaia said. She grabbed something from the cupboard above the hydrastation and presented it to Alina. The wrapping was immediately recognizable. Cozy Corner Café was a command deck favorite, serving the owner Doreen's favorite Old-Earth-inspired staples.

"Isn't Doreen rationing? "

"Don't worry about that. It's an everything bagel."

Alina's favorite comfort food. Alina's mouth was already watering as she accepted it, folding her good hand over the foil wrap in her lap. She'd been craving one of these for weeks.

"I'll have someone check on you tomorrow." Kaia turned to go.

"Huh? Oh, no, I'll be fine to bring you breakfast tomorrow."

"The doctor—the real doctor, not that monster—said you should be in bed for forty-eight hours. You can use the crutch to get to the bathroom, but that's it. Got it?"

Alina was too tired and too groggy to argue with her boss of all people. "All right."

Alina stared after her long after the door closed, trying to get the events of the past days straight in her head. Alina's loyalty would always be with her people—with people in general. It had to be. Which was why she hoped Kaia's plan to send a cry for help to the outside world worked. After all, Kaia and Orion were supposed to be in charge here—they knew best how to deal with this invasion.

But she just couldn't seem to look at Kaia the same way anymore. And Threxin… Well, she didn't want to even think about Threxin. He hunted her down in those halls, dragged her to the medbay, and abandoned her to the hands of that evil uhyre.

But he cared.

He couldn't look like he cared while that other uhyre was doing horrible things to her. But the fact that he brought her there with no regard to being seen, as horrifying as it was, spoke to his caring enough to help, didn't it? Was he just repaying the favor?

It took Alina ten minutes to hobble to the bathroom on the grapheneplast crutch left near her bed, but she was relieved to find the carbon splint had been applied well. She wondered if that was done by the uhyre "medic," or if she'd been handed off to a human doctor to finish the less torturous part of the job. Alina had a feeling there was some serious pain relief in her system, as it was almost as though the limbs weren't there at all. She saw them, but they were weightless as she squatted clumsily over the toilet with her leg stretched out at an awkward angle.

Back in bed, she propped herself against the wall and set up her tablet to project onto the wall. She had grabbed a tray from the hydrastation and set about unwrapping the bagel in her lap as the Guy Meets Girl theme song let her forget all the things she didn't really want to think about just then.