by Stone, Layla
“How’s Yon doing?”
Ansel nodded slowly as if he had anticipated her question. His warm smile faded, and his tone lightened. “It will be a slow recovery.”
“How long will that take?” she asked, wondering if Yon was in one of the private rooms and if she could sneak in when Ansel wasn’t looking.
“Yon will recover. He’s a fighter, and he doesn’t know how to do anything else.”
Yelena knew that. The same part of him that made him a strong warrior would get him through this. Something in her needed to see him…well, because she couldn’t forgive herself until she did. Another part of her feared his wrath when he did recover.
“Do you have a guess on how long it will be?”
Ansel looked away for a moment and then peered back at her. “I’m working on something to speed up his recovery. But there is a possibility that he won’t be the same. There was extensive damage to his brain. He was dead for a long time. He’s lucky he has me—or maybe…unlucky, but that’s something he can decide for himself.”
“You brought him back to life. I’m sure he knows that he’s lucky to have you.”
Ansel shrugged.
“Thank you for helping him. And thank you again for healing me.” Leaving it at that, she turned to walk away.
From behind her, Ansel said, “It’s not your fault.”
Yelena stopped but didn’t turn around because she didn’t want Ansel to see the strain in her expression. “Yes, it is.” She had been a wreck for three nights. Knowing that Yon was suffering was like reliving Cami’s death all over again. She’d made a mistake, and someone else had paid for it. Again. It was the second time in her life that she’d thought she was doing something right, only to see the consequences fall to someone else.
Pushing herself forward, she couldn’t find the desire to return to her room and let her illumia swallow her up. She didn’t want to go down to the galley and eat either. In fact, food was the last thing on her mind since she returned.
Unconsciously, her feet guided her towards logistics. She found Vivra inside at her three-hundred-and-sixty-degree desk. In a chipper tone, Vivra said, “Hey, you. What are you doing on my side of the hall?”
Making up something quickly, Yelena answered, “I wanted to know if there was a change in status for my transfer request.”
“Oh.” Vivra perked up and started tapping the screens. A few seconds later, she pursed her lips and said, “It’s still pending.”
“When will it get approved?”
Vivra shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Yelena didn’t know what to do with that answer. Vivra was usually on top of everything and could get anything pushed through quickly. She had done it whenever Yelena needed an item that couldn’t be fabricated on the ship. Now, all of a sudden, nothing was moving forward.
“What’s wrong?” Vivra asked. “Is there something you’re going to miss if you don’t get your transfer right away?”
Yelena shook her head. Nothing was wrong, but nothing was exactly right either. Vivra must not have liked what she saw in Yelena’s expression because she quickly typed something and then locked her Minky screen, before she backed out of the circular station and swung her hand in the air. “Why don’t you hang out with me while I’m on break?”
“Okay,” Yelena said lamely.
Neither one spoke as they exited logistics and headed for the elevator. Once they were in the front of the line, Vivra asked, “What are you going to get?”
“Nothing. I’m not hungry.”
“Right.” Vivra moved forward, grabbed two Niffys, and led the way to a small table in the back where no one else was sitting. Vivra placed one Niffy in front of her and said, “I don’t drink alone.”
Yelena picked up the container and unsealed the top, then tipped it back and took a sip. It fizzled in her mouth, but it didn’t give her the same pleasant feeling it usually did. Vivra, on the other hand, took a longer drink. When she set the container back down, she told Yelena, “Last I heard, Rannn was still in meetings with the admiral council regarding what to do with the Outworlders. At the same time, he’s trying to get information from Veeda about Calum and her other experiments. But he’s not having any luck. So, if you want to know why he’s not looking over your request, it’s probably because he has a lot on his plate. And with Yon still in medical, and no other commander stepping up to do his work—”
“Why not?”
Vivra sat back in her chair. “Because there are only three commanders on this ship: Yon, Pax, and Ansel. Everyone else is an officer taking over the interim rolls. No one else is qualified. Both Pax and Ansel are too busy with Veeda’s lab to worry about the ship stuff.”
“What about you? You’re good at all the day-to-day stuff.”
Vivra smiled. “I am, but I can’t sign off for Yon, he out ranks me.”
Yelena exhaled, feeling worse about Yon’s current situation.
A ping chimed in the room, bringing Yelena out of her thoughts. Vivra pulled her Minky pad out of her pocket and checked her message. “Looks like Rannn did it. He was able to get the admirals to let him take the Outworlders home.” Vivra’s green eyes shone. “You know what that means, right?”
“No. What does that mean?”
Vivra’s head tilted. “It’s an opportunity to see the other, darker side of space.”
Space was black, and Yelena didn’t understand why Vivra said one place was any darker than the other, but instead of commenting on that, she asked, “Do you know if Ansel was able to find out if Veeda experimented on any of them? And if so, what did she do?”
“I can ask, but I have no idea.”
“Thank you.”
Another ping echoed. This time, it was on Yelena’s Minky pad. She lifted it from her pocket, activated the screen, and saw that it was an alert. There was a broken compressor on level seven, the officers’ cabins. That was an important level, and she couldn’t wait until her next shift to fix it.
Pulling up the directory, she called Sands.
“Yelena,” he greeted.
“A compressor is broken on level seven, I’m going to fix it.”
“I was getting ready to call you about that. You beat me to it. Let me know when you clock out and make sure to fill out a work order.”
“Will do.”
The call terminated, and she left Vivra and her Niffy on the table. Back in her ecosystems division, she took her hover toolbox and pulled out an extra refurbished compressor. She packed it on and then headed out.
The maintenance room on level seven was hotter than usual because there was no air being pushed through the vents currently. To cool down a bit, she pulled up her hair and rolled her sleeves on her shirt.
When she was about to unclasp the broken compressor, she realized that she had forgotten a new hose for it. It was standard protocol to replace the hose with the compressor. But maybe this time she could just check to see if it even needed to be changed. Running her hands over the long, yellowish pressure tube, she didn’t see any cracks or bulges.
Sitting back on her haunches, she debated the possible consequences of not changing it out immediately. She could always replace the tube later. But she didn’t like the idea of leaving the compressor vulnerable. It was better to go back down to her division and grab the part.
Pushing up from her knees, she stood and left the maintenance room. She was about twenty feet from the elevator when it opened to Yon being held up by Rannn. Yon’s skin looked dark and sickly. His head was hanging, but his eyes stared straight ahead. She felt it when his gaze turned to her. She stilled. He looked like death, worse than when he was in the bed the first day. She heard him growl something she couldn’t understand.
That snapped her out of her frozen state. Backing up to give them room, Yelena lowered her head. “I’m sorry.”
Yon growled again, but it sounded more like a garbled mess of sounds. She was about to ask him what he’d said when Rannn snapped at her. “Did
you need something, Yelena?”
Lifting her eyes, her gaze found Yon first. His eyes were full of pain, and so many emotions she couldn’t name them all.
“Yelena,” Rannn called to her.
Forcing herself to answer the captain, she said, “The compressor’s out. I was headed back to my division to get a pressure tube.”
Rannn’s voice was hard when he said, “Then you have a job to do. Get to it.”
Yelena flattened herself against the wall as she passed them. Slipping into the elevator, she watched as Rannn moved forward, but Yon’s legs didn’t move. The tip of his toes dragged on the metal grates.
From her view, it didn’t look like Yon was moving at all. Instead, Rannn was half-dragging and half-carrying the Yunkin down the hall.
That’s when Yelena remembered Ansel’s words when he had said that Yon may not like having been rescued. This is what he had been talking about. Yon was in worse condition than she feared. He couldn’t even walk. And what if that growl was because he couldn’t talk either?
25
Beautiful Disaster
Yon screamed in his mind. He wanted to call Yelena back, yet he also wanted to roar over the fact that she had seen him in the state he was in. Yon had never felt so low in all his life. Not even when he had been begging for food as a child. Not when people passed him as he picked from the trash piles for old clothes to keep himself warm or to stuff under his blankets so he didn’t have to sleep on the hard floor at night.
That was nothing compared to not being able to move or talk. Seeing Yelena and not being able to speak to her burned inside. For three days, he had been plotting what he would say to her, what he would do to make up for the pain he’d caused her. And, most importantly, make sure she didn’t leave before he got better.
He knew she’d put in a transfer request because he had asked Sci to verify it. Yon had gone into a small spiral of self-pity when Sci had shown him Yelena filling out the form on her Minky pad. He’d watched the whole thing from Yelena’s point of view.
Since then, he had been determined to get better. But three days in, and all he could do was grunt. It was humiliating. To add on to the humiliation, he was starting to stink. Ansel had explained that it was normal and that he could wash him, but Yon didn’t want that.
He needed to get out of the medical room. Get away from the plain walls and constant silence. He needed to be in his quarters. Sci and Ansel had explained that it wasn’t a good idea, but Yon didn’t relent until Ansel agreed to let him return to his room to take a shower.
Thankfully, his captain and friend had shown up minutes later. He didn’t say a word as he walked to Yon’s bed, shoved an arm behind his back, and pulled him up to make it look like Yon was walking next to him as if his body weren’t broken. Just that simple mercy was enough to get Yon in the gut. Rannn was the best male he knew.
Inside Yon’s room, Rannn didn’t speak as he undressed Yon before carrying him to the shower. Yon had to close his eyes to keep from feeling too much emotionally because he couldn’t even feel the water on his skin. He was numb everywhere but in his mind.
Back on his bed, Rannn propped him against the wall, dried him off, and attired him in workout shorts and a sleeveless shirt. Yon didn’t usually dress this way, sometimes he did for bed, but he didn’t show off his Red Demon marks. Ever. But at that moment, he didn’t care if the whole ship saw them.
Honestly, he didn’t care if everyone knew or not. The marks didn’t define him, and if someone were stupid enough to think that they did, Yon still wouldn’t care.
Expecting the captain to pull him back up to return to medical, Yon was surprised when Rannn got in his face and said tightly, “You’re going to walk again. You’re going to be all right because I’ve never seen you give up on anything.” That was one thousand percent true, and Yon planned to use every ounce of his mental capacity to regain his body. “I know you can hear me, and you better be agreeing with me.”
I’ll be walking before you can find another idiot to be your high commander.
Rannn squinted. “I don’t know what Sci’s trying to tell me, but I think you just agreed with me.”
I agreed with you.
Then he saw Rannn smile smugly. “That’s the arrogant tarq I know.”
Internally, Yon chuffed.
The trip back to medical was quick, and Yon was surprised to hear the people he passed telling him to, “Get better.” One male said, “This ship is going to hell without you. Miss you in the ring.”
Rannn, of course, told them to get back to work and said that if the ship was going to hell, it was their fault. But Yon understood the sentiment. Sci was in Yon’s private room when he and the captain returned. Standing next to his bed, Sci told Rannn, “I am fairly confident that I know what part of the planet the Outworlders were taken from. I don’t mind going with the crew, but Sasha will have to come with me. I won’t leave without her.”
“That’s fine,” Rannn agreed.
I disagree. It could be dangerous. There are no mapped flight routes out there. The entire trip would take a long time because the ship would have to fly slower to keep from running into space debris, a rogue planet, or the many other things that can kill you out there, Yon told him.
Sci looked down at him. “There might not be Federation-mapped flight routes, but I know that there are trade routes in the Outworlds.”
You have the trade routes?
“No, but I know they’re there.”
Then we find them before you go.
“Sasha suggested we bring in her navigation specialist. She’s been working on updating the Federation maps. She was the one who mapped that part of the Banton system to get the ship safely between the three planets.”
It’s worth a try. See what she knows and if she can help.
“Do you want me to bring her in here? You can talk to her—I mean, I can talk for you, but you can help her understand what she needs to plot out.”
Yon recognized the effort Sci was making to make Yon feel like less of a bed lump. It was a kindness he didn’t deserve. In return, Yon needed to show the same kindness. Sure, bring her in, but Sasha should be brought in, too.
“I’ll tell her. Thank you.”
No, thank you. Really.
Rannn cleared his throat. “Want to let me in on the conversation? I am the captain, in case you two happened to forget.”
Yon laughed internally. Sci didn’t, but Yon caught the small twitch on the corners of his mouth as he relayed the conversation they’d had. At the end, Rannn said, “I’m surprised Yon didn’t disagree. Maybe dying three times helped cure him of his irritating stubbornness.”
Maybe it did, or perhaps it was the front-row seat to the disaster I created, Yon thought.
Sci’s silence was no surprise.
Rannn stayed to ask a few more questions but there was nothing Yon needed to answer, so he just lay there listening for a bit. Eventually, his mind found its way back to the lab. He didn’t remember anything after blacking out in Veeda’s lab. All he remembered was waking up on a medbed on the Garna.
He should have thought about it earlier when he was told that all the people in the lab were Outworlders and that they had been released. But he was worried about his body and all the things going wrong with it.
Now that he was of the mind to think about his work, he wanted to know what had happened on the scouting mission. It wasn’t hard to assume that Ansel had been watching his biometrics. Once Yon had collapsed, Ansel would have responded as any medical doctor would. He’d rushed down to the melee to help. And, of course, Pax was there, so he knew the Red Demon must have protected him, but he wanted to know precisely how.
Unfortunately, Yon couldn’t look up the report because he couldn’t even move to the nearest Minky screen. So, he turned to the only person who might know and could help him.
Sci, can you show me exactly what happened during the scouting mission?
Yon had no idea that h
is simple question would result in him seeing everyone’s point of view. He saw Sasha triple-checking the flight path because she was worried for the crew and didn’t want to kill anyone by running into space debris. Yon was in her mind as she battled her pregnancy sickness, telling herself she had to be stronger than her body. And then Yon saw how much she hated knowing that he was going to think even less of her because she couldn’t finish the mission.
He watched Yelena take part in trying to help, the happiness she felt when they were together, and then he had to relive his words as if they had been said to him.
Pax’s emotions were easier to navigate, but it still hurt to see how worried the Demon was for Yon and how he kept fighting to make sure that both of them returned to the ship.
Then Yon witnessed Ansel’s meltdown and saw how Yelena was the reason Yon was alive today. She not only took control of the situation, she enforced it. And how in Seth’s Stars did she know to treat the Outworlders like animals rather than people? Worse was when Sci showed him that the Boore’s leader had wanted Yelena. As in he’d wanted to take her with him back to his planet.
When it was all over, Yon hated how he had spoken to the crew, how he’d pushed his anger around, expecting everyone to just accept it. And if that weren’t enough to make him hate himself, he loathed how unworthy he was. How could he even think to want Yelena as a mate?
Even after he’d ripped her to shreds before going down to the planet, she had been the one to force the rest of them to save him. That was loyalty he only saw in his closest friends: Rannn, Pax, and Ansel.
Yelena deserved so much better than him.
Too bad Seth of Stars had not cured him of selfishness, because even though he didn’t deserve her, he wasn’t going to accept anything less than getting her to agree to be his mate.
26
Ansel’s Experiment
