Solar Flare

by Autumn Dawn

  For a moment there was only the sound of their harsh breathing. Then Azor threw off his flight harness. Before she registered what he was up to, he jumped up and kicked the Gouk in the back of the head, knocking him out of his seat. He lay there, stunned.

  She stared in shock. “What did you do that for?”

  Azor grunted as he whipped a cable restraint out of his pocket and quickly bound the Gouk's arms behind him. “He's not a Gouk. Stay out of the way while I deal with him.”

  She gaped at him, but didn't immediately question his sanity as she limped after him. She couldn't help but protest as he threw the now-struggling creature into a cold sleep pod. “Azor, are you sure? I mean....” She trailed off. He was ignoring her as he programmed the pod.

  The Gouk was not. He shot a glance at Brandy that was both malicious and vengeful, a look that chilled her blood. It was not something she'd expect to see on that normally placid face. She couldn't help but curl her lip back in response.

  Gas filled the pod. With sullen reluctance, his eyes closed. In seconds he was asleep.

  Azor shot her a look, then took her arm to help her back to her seat up front. “I need you up here to keep an eye on things. I may have to go outside and look at the damage. Just a minute.” He saw her settled, then ran back and grabbed a handful of pain patches. “Slap one on and stick the rest in your pocket. We'll talk about it later, once I've determined if we're about to die.” He spared a glance for her feet, then flung himself into his seat and let his fingers fly over the controls. After a moment, he cursed. “Hull damage, but it looks fairly minor. I'll have to go outside and repair it.”

  She looked at the console in front of her and bit her lip in concern. “It's a hundred and thirty below out there, and the wind chill—”

  “I know. Gotta be done.” He glanced at her, then at her feet. “Did you hurt yourself, or is this something else?”

  “It's leftovers...from before.” She didn't go into specifics, but she saw his look of understanding.

  “Fine. Do what you have to and control the pain. I might need you to reel me in if I run into problems. I'll try to make certain the tether is clear.”

  She swallowed at the idea of pulling his limp body through the snow and into the ship, but hoped it wouldn't come to that. “Don't try to do it all at once. Warm up and go out a second time if you need to.”

  He nodded and got up to head to the spacesuit storage locket. “Yeah. Don't worry, I've done this before.”

  She watched him suit up, remembering the other reason she had to be concerned. “About Kirkin. Why is he in the freezer now?”

  Azor's mouth tightened. “This is twice he's deviated from profile. The incident with the sleep pods, this crash...Guoka never make mathematical miscalculations, Brandy. Never. I don't know what he is, but the fact that we just ran from a mob intent on avenging a murder concerns me. They were right, you know. We were new, and if nothing like that had happened before, I'd eye us, too.”

  “You think he was involved?”

  “I don't know, but I'm not taking chances with your safety. We'll thaw him out and take a closer look when we reach the Scorpio. If I'm wrong, I'll apologize then.” He paused once he had the body of the suit on to look at her. His face softened. “Come here.” He said it, but he knelt next to her so she wouldn't have to stand and touched her face with one gloved hand. “Are you okay?”

  She sighed deeply. “Shook up, but well enough. I'm sorry I slowed you down back there.”

  He shook his head. “We'll take a look at your feet when I get back. Until then....” he kissed her gently, soothing the fear that had ridden her ever since they'd been mobbed. He kept it up until she relaxed into him, her tension momentarily forgotten.

  After a moment he drew a slow breath and rested his temple against her cheek. She felt him smile. “Behave while I'm out there, okay?”

  She smiled back and stroked his soft hair, watched the emerald strands spring through her fingers. “You're the one who'll be in danger of becoming an ice pop.”

  He grinned. “I'll make sure to think warm thoughts.” His eyes swept suggestively over her body. “Maybe you'll help me warm up later.” He laughed at her blush and put on his helmet, checking the automatic seal. He grabbed a kit from the locker and nodded to her. “Stay put. I'll make sure to keep up the chatter, so you know I'm okay,” he said over the com. “Please keep an eye on my vitals. Hypothermia can be sneaky.” He glanced out the view screen at the blank snow. “At least our hunters won't think to look for us here.”

  She gave him a strained smile. “Yeah, we're just knee deep in luck.”

  For all his cautions, Azor managed to repair the hull in one trip. Still, she didn't relax until they'd managed to maneuver away from the rock they'd crashed into and successfully launched.

  Azor sighed when they'd managed to get back on course. He sat back in his chair, exhausted. “Just another wonderful day at the office.”

  He rested for a moment, then pulled Brandy out of her chair. “Come on. I want to look at your feet.”

  She nodded dully, tired herself, and let him help her to the med lab. Since the sleep pods were right next to it, she glanced uneasily at the one containing the Gouk. “Are you sure...?”

  He followed her gaze, eying the frozen alien with grim resolve. “It was the right move. The murder coincided with our arrival. That’s not a common thing—to abscond with someone’s guts. It’s the sort of thing an animal would do; or a predator.”

  “So you think he's some kind of...what? Shifter? How could he maintain his form so long?”

  Azor looked at her. “Not all shape changers have the same limitations. Some can hold their forms indefinitely. Also, we weren’t with Kikin the whole time.”

  She thought of her vision, and felt cold. What would Azor make of it? She grimaced. Probably nothing flattering.

  She wasn’t sure how likely his theory was, but she trusted Azor’s instincts. Hesitantly, she said, “Let’s say he is. Now what? I don’t even know why he’d be here, but there’s no proof. You can’t just lock him up.”

  He raised a brow, which was still black. “Couldn’t I? I’m not inclined to be hasty, though. I’ll find proof. If I'm right, there should be undigested evidence in his stomach when we thaw him out.”

  She grimaced. “Ugh.”

  He grunted in agreement, then took her waist and set her up on the examining table so she didn't have to struggle.

  “How bad is the pain? You ran like you were tripping over shards of pottery.”

  She sighed. “Sorry about that. It’s…pretty bad. Maybe the cold sleep weakened them somehow. Of course, not using them usually makes things worse, because they stiffen up.” She didn’t mention the threads of white she’d found in her hair when she’d woken up. Maybe she was just getting gray early.

  He frowned. “The cold sleep shouldn’t have done anything. I’m interested to hear what your doctor has to say about this.”

  She let him run the scanner over her and send off the email, and then cleaned the offensive makeup off in her room. The occasional throb from her feet was giving her a headache, and she just wanted to rest. She was so tired.

  The email remained unanswered the next day, so Azor sent off others. Brandy tried to eat something, but she wasn’t very interested in food. Everything tasted bland and a little off. She didn’t even have the distraction of romance from Azor—he was all business, refusing to be distracted from the possible menace on board. He was also talking about staying awake while she entered cold sleep at the end of the week.

  “I want to keep an eye on things,” he said calmly. “I can’t do that from the pod.”

  “Then I’ll stay up too,” she said. “I don’t really need to sleep.”

  He shook his head. “Until we know what’s wrong, I’d be happier with your body in stasis. There are no good hospitals this far out. In another month, that may change. We can always hail a military ship if we have to.” There were occasional cruis
ers to be found in the deeper space, but few inhabited planets for the remainder of their journey.

  She was too out of sorts to argue then, and as the week went on, she began to feel slightly better. “It might be better if I stay up,” she told him. “Maybe cold sleep doesn’t agree with me.” They hadn’t heard back from Dr. Vhanee, though he’d called Blue to see if he could track him down, since he was closer to home. She’d begun to think Azor was worried for no reason.

  He shook his head. “We won’t risk it. You’re going to sleep, and I’m going to watch over you. We’ll see how you’re doing when you wake next month. Besides, you’re already bored.”

  She might not have been, if she’d had the attraction between them to keep things lively. He hadn’t made any moves, though, and she was too fatigued to care. “True enough. Okay.” She sighed. Ah, well. Maybe he’d be more reasonable next time.

  Brandy woke from her second cold sleep feeling even worse than before. Her previous week of wakefulness had passed in nagging discomfort, despite the pain meds she’d used. She’d blamed her vague nausea and muscle cramps on a bug she might have caught at the last port. Azor had kept a watchful eye on her, but she had never really recovered. Though she hadn’t wanted to admit it, it had been a relief to enter cold sleep and escape the misery.

  She checked a lock of her hair and grimaced. It had lightened more, becoming almost white blond in places. Oddly, that scared her more than her crippled feet.

  A wave of pain washed through her legs and surged into her stomach as she sat up. She groggily cataloged the feeling, rating it on her mental pain scale, which was necessarily high. The red line was rapidly edging past a six. Ten was where she started screaming.

  Azor was standing over her pod, looking a little too alert to have just woken. He must have risen early, for she’d been scheduled to thaw out early. “How are you feeling?” he asked. From the frown on his face, he’d formed his own options.

  She gratefully accepted the hot tea he offered, taking a large swallow before she answered. “Not so hot.”

  His frown deepened as he took back the cup and helped her out of the pod. The minute her feet took her full weight, she cried out and sank to the floor. She bit her lip, fighting back a moan of pain. Ah, that hurt!

  Azor scooped her up and took her to a med table. “Where does it hurt?” he asked as he prepared the body scanner. “Is it still your legs?”

  She drew a shuddering breath. “Yes. Caught me by surprise, is all. Do you have a pain patch?”

  “Soon,” he promised. “Let me do this scan, and I want a quick manual examination. I want to be sure of where it hurts before we take away the pain.”

  She cringed at the idea. She wasn’t keen on being touched anywhere right then, and her legs were especially tender. Still, it was necessary, so she endured it when he gently examined them. She cursed though, short and dirty. It was that or scream.

  Azor looked at the scans as the medical program processed them. When he was done, he gave her two pain patches and helped her up. “Let’s get you settled in the galley, then I want to send these results off to your doctor. We’ll see what he has to say.”

  She nodded dully, relieved to feel the patches begin to work. She was less pleased that he carried her to the galley, but until the meds had saturated her blood, it was probably for the best. He left her with a bowl of soup and a promise to be back quickly.

  Twenty minutes later, he returned and silently flipped on the view screen. In moments her doctor’s face appeared. Middle aged, with a sharply pointed chin and neat goatee, Dr. Vhanee had always been straightforward with her. He was frowning now with concern. “I apologize for being out of touch. I’ve…been on vacation.” He glanced to the side and his face smoothed. “Fortunately, I happened to check my email and contacted your companion. I understand you’re not feeling well. Why don’t you tell me what the problem is?”

  She glanced at Azor, surprised. They must have stopped if they were using pin beam. He had been awake a while.

  She looked back at the doctor. “Same old thing. Feet hurt. Legs now, too. Feels like shards of bone stabbing me in there. Are you going to authorize giving me something stronger?”

  His lips thinned. “No, Brandy, I’m not. I had something else in mind.”

  She stilled. She remembered the suggestion he’d made the last time they’d talked. “You want to take my legs.”

  “Unless you’d like to die slowly of the infection, yes.” He’d never had much of a bedside manner, but it was his honesty she valued. He was very good at what he did, too. The best. If he thought the legs should come off, then that was the best option.

  If anything else could have been done, he would have done it.

  She hated it.

  Her jaw firmed. Tightly, she said, “That’ll be tough with you back home and me out here.” She couldn’t help feeling antagonistic, though she said it like a joke. They were her legs! He couldn’t just trim off bits like pruning a tree. It wouldn’t grow back.

  Instead of arguing with her, the screen split to show the results of Azor’s scan and the doctor’s prognosis. Despite herself, she gasped. The feet were even more warped than the last time she’d seen them, and the glowing mass of infection riddled her bones. The tibia was beginning to twist and some of her muscles had torn.

  “This is what is left of your legs,” Dr. Vhanee said. “They aren’t yours anymore—they belong to the infection. Unfortunately, the chill of semi-suspension sped its spread. Your immune system was disabled, unable to fight it.

  “At this rate, you’ll be able to spend the next week recovering with minimal spread, and then we’ll have to put you into deep suspension, which will slow the infection even further. Although it thrived in semi-suspension, like you, it doesn’t like extreme cold.

  “I’m forwarding your medical records and my recommendation to the Scorpio ship your sister is traveling in,” he said briskly. “Your other option is remote surgery on your current ship, but I’d rather not risk it. It would be better to be with a surgeon who’ll be better able to care for you. We want to make certain the infection has not spread.”

  She felt a little faint and realized she wasn’t breathing. She drew a deep breath to keep the panic attack at bay.

  The doctor noted her response. “Do you still have a good supply of your anxiety medication? I can authorize more from the ship’s stores—“

  “Don’t bother,” Brandy snarled, abruptly angry. “I’ve got a bottle of scotch that can do it better.” She made to rise, remembered her problem, and hesitated. Denied an outlet, the panic threatened to return.

  The doctor met Azor’s grim eyes. He nodded. “Her chances are excellent, so long as you follow my recommendations. I’ll send the information immediately.” He glanced aside at his own computer screen. “I believe her family would like to talk to her now.”

  Brandy wasn’t expecting to see Gems’ face appear so soon. Blue stood beside her, looking grave. “Gem,” she said, a little desperately. It was futile; she knew her sister couldn’t help her now.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Gem said calmly, her strength a rock, though her eyes were shadowed with sorrow. “We love you.”

  Brandy shook her head, slowly at first, then faster. “They want to take my legs!” It was a nightmare she’d hoped to prevent. They were telling her it was no longer possible to prolong treatment. Could they possibly understand what that meant? She would no longer be whole.

  “Brandy,” Blue said quietly, in a tone that had her full attention. “We do what we have to sometimes.” His gaze was steady as he looked at her, the vividness of his blue stare a reminder that he, too, was no longer all he had been. He raised his cybernetic arm and very deliberately put it around Gem’s shoulders.

  His words steadied her. He did understand.

  She nodded jerkily and waved her hand. “I want to…think, okay? Thanks for calling.”

  Gem smiled slightly at the dismissal. “Xera’s turn, then. W
e love you.”

  Xera’s face appeared next, and the sight made Brandy stiffen. It was a reminder of where she was going and what was coming.

  “Sis,” Xera said pleasantly. “I think you’ve missed the point of your visit. Family reunions are supposed to pleasant; I remember how grumpy you are when you aren’t feeling well.”

  Brandy snorted. “I think you can fend for yourself.” She knew what Xera was doing, though it was hard to be appreciative when she felt so volatile. “Did you think we could do without drama in this family?”

  Xera laughed. “You’re right. No point in giving Ryven’s family the wrong impression. By now they expect a little excitement. I think I’ve given them the impression that all alien women are women of action.” She looked thoughtful. “If you’re going to sleep before we talk next, then here’s my wish for a safe journey and pleasant dreams.”

  Brandy scowled. “Ice cubes don’t dream.”

  Xera smirked. “They don’t growl, either. We’ll talk when you’ve thawed out. Love ya, bye!” she deliberately used the slang they’d grown up with.

  Brandy stared at the blank screen, instantly sorry she’d chased them off. Now she had to deal with the disaster alone.

  Azor moved, reminding her that he was still there. He regarded her silently. “We’ll be moving again soon, once I’ve made certain the doctor has no more instructions. Do you want to go to the bridge and strap in, or would you prefer your room?”

  She blew out a breath. It was hard to freak out in the face of so much calm support, though she could feel the anxiety still simmering. It might not be good to be alone. “The bridge.” She frowned as he picked her up. “Don’t get used to this. I prefer walking.”

  “Good. I prefer letting you,” he teased. He kissed her hair, lingering in silent comfort. Now was not a good time to talk about the monster in the room.

  They lay on the bed, fully dressed. Azor held her, trying to warm her. She was so cold, though she was wrapped in a blanket. He was worried about putting her in deep sleep, but didn’t mention it. There were other things she needed to hear. “I’ll get you there safely.”