Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Anna

H e was gasping for breath, coughing and acting very strangely. I’d cupped his cheek to check his eyes, as his pupils had been oddly dilated and his face was a shocking indigo color. But kissing my hand was wildly out of character for him. Was he hallucinating and confusing me with someone else? Around his nose and mouth was a light crust of dust. His lifesuit had failed and allowed that stuff to get in his helmet. He was probably suffering from low oxygen, making it hard for him to breathe and affecting his judgement. “Come on,” I said. “You need rest and medical attention.”

I put an arm around his torso and helped him to his feet.

“What…are you doing?” he choked out.

“I’m getting you in a bed,” I said, leading him into my bedroom. “A real bed. Your excursion did a number on you.”

His eyes were wide with panic as he looked around my room. “Not here,” he said. “This is yours.”

“Not today, it isn’t. Today it’s yours,” I said.

He dug in his heels and stared at my bed as though it was covered in spikes. “I can’t.”

I was out of patience with his misplaced honor. “You’re lying on this bed and that’s the end of it. Who the hell designed this shuttle with no chamber for the operator to rest in? I’m having that changed the moment we land in a decent spaceport.”

“The operator doesn’t rest,” he gritted out. “That’s the job of an operator.”

“Bullshit,” I said. “And anyway, you’re resting now.” I eased him down on the bed. Fortunately, he wasn’t strong enough to offer enough resistance and he fell back on the mattress with almost a look of relief.

“That’s right,” I said, pointing at him in triumph. “And you’re going to stay there.”

“Fine.” He threw an arm over his eyes. “Pushy female.”

I ignored that and took a step towards the door. “I’m getting the medical kit. You breathed in too much of that dust. That can’t be good for you.”

He nodded and coughed. His face was dark blue now, with a reddish smear that disappeared to his neckline. “You…know where?”

“It’s in the compartments on the port side, near the top,” I said. “I know this ship better than you think.”

I left to get the kit. I’d never used it, and as I expected, it was more than a little box with a tissue restorer and a sedation pen. This thing was the size of one of my luggage containers, but not as heavy, thankfully. I hauled it into the bedroom and placed it on the bed beside him. I unclipped it, opened the top and looked at the array of devices that I had no idea how to use.

“Stelis,” I called out a little louder than I needed to. “Assistance with the medical kit, please.”

“Of course, Anna.” After telling Stelis what was wrong with Lashe in as much detail as I could, she directed me to the correct device, a respiratory regenerator that was designed for humanoids like me and was meant for anyone who inhaled a toxic substance. Lashe didn’t have chemicals in his lungs, but this would clear out all the dust and restore his lungs.

“Okay, hold still. I’m putting this mask over your nose and mouth.”

He gave me a wary look and tried to suppress a cough, which he failed at. “You don’t know how to use that.”

“Stelis will tell me how to use it. It’s going to remove the dust so you can breathe normally again.”

“You need a vitals’ monitor,” he said, wincing. Talking was clearly a struggle. He shot a glance out of the corner of his eye towards the device I held. “And some pain management. That will hurt.”

“I thought Destrans didn’t feel pain.”

His brows drew together in a frown. “Where’d you hear that? We feel pain.”

“Well, not like humans do,” I said, hoping to distract him long enough to begin the treatment. However, I did take out a vitals’ monitor and place it against his throat. “You guys are so tough and strong. When you battle, you hold nothing back.”

He closed his eyes. “This is not a battle,” he said in a rattling voice. “Very long time since I faced one.”

He was older than me, but I didn’t know by how much. Destrans didn’t show age like humans did, and they lived long lives, thanks to the lami they regularly drank. It took the place of food when they lived on their Solas. “I’ll give you a sedative,” I said. “You need to rest, anyway. Stelis will tell me what to do.”

He reached out, taking my wrist in a light grip. “ I will tell you what to do.”

The rough timbre of his voice sent a thrill through me. He had never been anything but deferential to me. But here, I caught the hint of the powerful warrior that lay beneath the surface. “Very well,” I said. “What should I do?”

He told me the exact dosage of sedative to administer to him. I programmed what he said into the dispensing pen, pressed it to his neck, and depressed the button.

Almost instantly his face relaxed. “Good,” he said with a slight slur in his voice. “Put on the mask. When you see blood, turn it off.”

What? “Is that actually going to happen?”

He shrugged. “Get on with it.”

I positioned the device over his nose and mouth and started it up. He groaned, but right away, it was pulling gunk out of his respiratory system. Nothing about it looked comfortable, but being the warrior that he was, his eyes closed and he endured having his lungs cleaned out.

“This is sort of what you did to the exhaust ducts,” I said in the most pathetic attempt at lightening the mood. His eyelids moved, but he couldn’t answer. “By the way,” I added, because apparently I couldn’t stop talking, “when you’re better, we’re going to talk about that thing that happened between us. The kissing thing.”

He snapped open his eyes and frowned again.

“Don’t you scowl at me.” I held up my hand and pointed at my palm. “You kissed me right here.”

He had the nerve to roll his eyes, but I suspected it had more to do with the fact that he couldn’t respond to anything I was saying. That had to be frustrating, but his face was growing softer as the sedative kicked in, and his eyes closed and stayed that way. His vital signs were strong as I watched the face mask. Thankfully, there was no blood. It completed its cycle and stopped operating on its own. I lifted the mask from his mouth and nose. He pulled in a deep breath and it didn’t rattle. He didn’t cough. For just a moment, I took in his relaxed features. They were softer, younger. He was so very easy to look at and I’d looked at him plenty over the years. Not once did he indicate that he saw me as anything other than a passenger on his transport ship.

I shook my head and held up the attached bag so I could see what had been in his lungs. Ugh. How had he talked at all? With the mask gone, he let out a quiet sigh and fell asleep, thanks to the sedative.

“Well, that talk is going to have to wait,” I muttered, knowing full well that the best thing for him was to sleep.

“What was this I heard about a kiss?” Stelis piped in. “That does not sound like professional behavior. Shall I put a complaint in his personnel file?”

“What? No.” I let out a confused chuckle as I put the medical equipment back in its padded case. “I think Lashe and I are a little beyond a professional situation out here.”

“Did you participate in the kiss?” she asked, with a little more intensity than I expected from her. “Did you invite the kiss?”

“He kissed my hand , Stelis,” I said. “Not my mouth. Since when did you become interested in gossip?”

“No need to get testy,” the assistant said tartly. “I can’t see anything. There are no cameras to patch into.”

“Thank goodness for that,” I muttered under my breath. “Forget anything about a kiss. Just…delete it from your memory.”

“I don’t have the ability to delete anything, Anna.”

I hauled the medical kit back to its place in the main cabin. “Then how about we don’t mention it again?”

“Done.” She was quiet for a moment. “Do you find the transport operator attractive, Anna?”

“Why are you asking me that?” I asked, feeling a rush of heat at the direct question. “And how is it any of your business?”

“You forget that you have a small implant that allows me to monitor your vital signs, in case you require medical attention,” Stelis said. “Your breathing and heart rate altered when we discussed him. As for ‘why,’ it’s my business to take care of you. It is my only function. If you are developing romantic feelings for one of your staff, I need to know so I can prepare a plan of action for—”

“We don’t need a plan of action.” I shut that down. “I don’t have romantic feelings. I can find someone attractive without wanting to sleep with them.”

Stelis went silent, which was more worrisome than her continued questions.

I peered out through the viewport. The wind had died down to nothing again. It was exactly as it had been before. “Stelis, run a deep environmental scan of the asteroid, please. Is that system up and running?”

“Yes, Anna,” Stelis replied. “Lashe repaired scanning systems before he left the ship to clean the ducts.”

“Good,” I said. “It only got windy outside when Lashe was out there. Not only is that not a coincidence, but I’ve never heard of wind on an asteroid. I want to know what is going on out there, because I don’t think this is a normal asteroid.”

“Yes, Anna.”

As she worked on that, I went back in my room to check on Lashe. He was spread out on his back, sleeping peacefully. His skin tone—soft, pastel blues—shifted slowly, like lazy clouds over the sky. His chest rose and fell evenly as he breathed. I took the moment to just look at him. He was attractive, and I wondered if Stelis could tell that I was lying to her when I said I didn’t have romantic feelings for Lashe. I wondered what he looked like naked. He was probably jaw-dropping perfection in his birthday suit. I wondered if he liked me, or if he was having a delusional moment when he kissed my hand. I pulled a blanket up over him and he smiled in his sleep, curled onto his side and let out a soft, short snore.

“Anna, I have the results of the scan,” said Stelis. “The readings are atypical for an asteroid, or any solid rock mass such as this one. Bioelectrical currents run beneath the surface that are inconsistent with typical space-body formations. The wind was generated from underneath the surface and directed in a circulatory manner. I have detected many metal objects embedded in the surface in a variety of alloys.”

“More crashed ships?” I asked.

“It appears so.”

I was expecting something unusual, but this exceeded that. “What are the bioelectrical currents consistent with?”

“Possibly a ship with life forms,” Stelis replied. “Or an organism itself.”

An organism . It wouldn’t be the first time that space junk was a disguise for an alien predator. “That debris field we flew through, with the irradiated dust that disabled the shuttle,” I said. “Could it have something to do with the life form in this asteroid?” I pondered, rubbing my chin. “It could have been a trap. Disable a ship so it looks for the first place to land. And oh, what a happy coincidence that there happens to be a large asteroid right there. The only thing present for light years.”

“Your theory would conclude with the organisms consuming any organic beings inside, and possibly absorbing power sources, too,” Stelis added. “It would be a sound predatory strategy.”

I glanced in the direction of my room. “When Lashe wakes up, we’re telling him about this. I wish he’d scanned this asteroid before he stepped foot out there on the surface.”

“The scanning system was inoperable until recently,” Stelis replied. “Lashe was eager to get repairs done on the outside of the vessel.”

“I know that, Stelis.” I began to pace. “I think there will be no more outside time while we’re here. We’re going to have to fix things from inside the ship.”

“Impossible,” came a gravelly voice from the main cabin.

I turned and watched as a sleepy-looking Lashe joined me at the front of the ship. He looked rumpled and cute, with skin a warm wash of green and blue hues.

“It’s not safe out there,” I said.

“There are two more ducts that need to be cleaned and that can only happen from the outside.” He leaned wide shoulders against the arched opening that separated the operator’s station from the main cabin. “It’s not as if I want to go out there again. I have to.”

“It’s way too dangerous, especially with what Stelis and I learned about this ‘asteroid.’” I crossed my arms and stood right in front of him. “We’ll look at the schematics of the ship and find a way to clean the ducts from another angle.”

“I know this DS Starcutter-III from top to bottom. I’ve practically lived in it for five years. There’s no other way.”

“There must be. I won’t let you put yourself in that kind of danger again. If anything happened to you, I’d—”

“You’d be stranded here, or so you think. Stelis could fly you home.”

“No. I don’t want you getting hurt. Or worse.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you.” He made to turn around, but I grabbed his arm and turned him back to me.

“What is wrong with you?” I demanded. “Do you think I wouldn’t care if you died? ”

“I think you’re confused. You’re stuck in a traumatic situation and you don’t know what you’re saying.”

I saw red for a moment. “I’ve been in traumatic situations. I was trapped by the person who wanted to destroy your people and extract lami from your Solas, remember? Don’t patronize me, Lashe.”

“That was not my intention.” He sighed.

“What was your intention?”

His eyes flared. The colors on his face shifted to sharp red and fuchsia. “Let it go, Anna.”

But my hand was still on his arm and I held him still. “No. Your behavior is confusing. First you kiss my hand and then you talk to me like I’m a child or some overwrought female.”

“You are neither of those things, Anna,” he said.

“Then what am I?” I spread an arm. “Because you’re sure not making any sense.”

“You’re my mate,” he said clearly and plainly, then he pulled me into his arms and kissed me.