Hirianthial glanced at Reese. She was breathing too quickly for slowsleep. “When you connect with the docking authority, put me through. I’ll get us a space.”
“You’re the boss, doc. Stand by.”
Irine uncurled and rubbed her eye. “Are we there?” Then, “What’s wrong?”
“We’re running out of time,” Hirianthial said.
Irine’s tail lashed. “The insystems just fired. We must be on final approach.”
Hirianthial said nothing, leaning against the wall in an effort to seem less concerned than he was. He left his hand over Reese’s chest, trying to gauge the extent of the trauma. He’d always taken for granted the vague knowledge he’d gained through his abilities and had used them in tandem with his clinical experience and observation of physical symptoms to make his diagnoses... but he’d always confirmed and refined those findings with diagnostic equipment. Having no scanner to track the extent of Reese’s danger frustrated him.
“Docking authority is pinging me, doc.”
“Can I talk to them from here?”
“Yeah, hang on. Okay, you’re live!”
“Starbase Kappa, this is Doctor Sarel Jisiensire of the TMS Earthrise. We have a medical emergency requiring immediate surgery. Do you have an emergency deck berth?”
“Earthrise, this is Kappa Docking. We are transmitting a vector and docking assignment now. Please advise as to the nature of the emergency so we can prepare for your arrival.”
“I have one human female suffering from rupture of the esophagus with possible pleural effusion, currently coming out of slowsleep. Vital statistics are fluctuating.”
“Thank you. We’ll have a team waiting for you. Kappa away.”
Sascha’s voice returned, now hard with tension. “I’ve got the assignment. We’ll be there in under ten minutes.”
“Now what?” Irine asked.
“Now we go wait at the exit,” Hirianthial said. He gathered Reese into his arms though he felt as if he was embracing an armful of naked swords and said, “Show me the way out, Irine.”
“Yes, sir,” Irine said and darted out the door. Hirianthial followed. With Reese pressed against his chest he could feel the hard and irregular thump of her heart.
“You are not allowed to go this way,” he told her. “I simply won’t have it. I know you can hear me, Theresa Eddings. You are ten minutes away from the medical care that will save your life so you simply cannot, will not, are not allowed to falter now.”
A flicker of gold against the knife-sharp black. With Irine so far ahead of him, he leaned down and whispered into one ear, “You cannot die yet, Theresa. What other human woman has been held in the arms of an Eldritch? Surely that’s too good a story not to live to tell.”
The ship shivered before he reached the exit. And again when he caught up with Irine at the edge of the vast docking bay with its ominous spindles and their long shadows on the cold ground. It seemed to take too long before the thunderous groan of the dock doors sliding into their pockets sounded. Hirianthial didn’t wait but squeezed through them sideways and delivered Reese into the arms of the medical team waiting there. As they put her on the stretcher he said, “I’m certified. I’m coming with you. Don’t try to stop me.”
The orderly glanced at him and shrugged before heading back toward the corridor.
On one side, the smell of antiseptic... on the other, a field of waving flowers. Reese tried to choose the flowers, but the harder she reached for the field the further it receded. Exasperated, she put her hands on her hips and tried commanding the field to stay put, but it was no use. Come to think of it, she’d never been in a field of flowers. The image had come off a calendar some repair shop had given her, and the smell of the flowers... that was one of Irine’s perfumes. She couldn’t even have original dreams. Reese gave up and decided to see if waking was any better.
Waking was worse. She was under a halo-arch in an unfamiliar Medplex. Not just a clinic, a small place that supported only routine medical visits, but a real Medplex, a space hospital. She’d seen the inside of a Medplex only three times and hated every memory involving one. That she was trapped not just in a Medplex but also apparently as a patient horrified her.
How had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered was throwing up on the bridge.
“She’s awake!”
The twins’ faces appeared above her. They made no move to hug her, and their unwonted caution scared Reese even more than the halo-arch. She swallowed and discovered she could talk, though her assumption that talking would hurt puzzled her. “Where am I?”
“Starbase Kappa,” Sascha said. “In the Medplex.”
“I figured that part out,” Reese said. “Why am I here?”
The two exchanged glances. “You don’t remember?” Irine asked.
“Remember what? Throwing up on the bridge? I got that part,” Reese said. “I hope Hirianthial wasn’t too upset about his clothes.”
“His clothes!” Irine shook her head. “Reese, you almost died!”
Reese laughed. “I did not.”
They didn’t laugh. The halo-arch beeped into the silence, doing whatever it was halo-arches did to monitor the condition of their occupants.
“I didn’t,” Reese said again. “It was just stress.”
They continued to not say anything. Reese started to worry. “Guys?”
“You’ve been unconscious for a day since they operated,” Sascha said.
“Operated!”
“I’ll go get Hirianthial,” Irine said and vanished.
“Sascha, what is going on here? This is crazy talk.”
“Boss, just relax, okay? Hirianthial will explain it.”
“Right,” Reese said, rolling her eyes. “The Eldritch doctor.”
She expected a chuckle, but instead Sascha’s gaze hardened with disapproval and his ears flattened. “’The Eldritch doctor’ saved your life, Reese. The surgeon said so. You would have died on the way to Starbase Kappa without him.”
Reese stared at him. “You’re not kidding me.”
“No.”
Reese flushed. “Well how was I supposed to know that? I was unconscious!”
His expression didn’t change. “Well, now you do.”
“I still don’t understand how I can have been that sick,” Reese said. “I feel fine now!”
Sascha managed half a grin. “You’ll understand well enough when you get the Medplex services bill.”
“The bill!” Reese exclaimed, trying to sit up. The field from the halo-arch repulsed her and she squirmed, trying to find a way around it. “What bill?”
“There is no bill.” Hirianthial’s hair preceded him into view, swishing over the edge of the field. The lines beneath his eyes were far more pronounced, and his baritone had deeper tones, rough edges. “Welcome back, lady.”
“What is going on here? Let me out of this so I can see you all at once.”
“If you promise not to leave the bed,” Hirianthial said.
“Yes, yes, I promise, let me up!”
He tapped a few notes on the edge of the arch. “All right.”
Reese struggled to sit up and surprised herself by feeling too weak. The twins caught her before she could wobble and propped her up. “Just a touch of vertigo.”
“Right,” Sascha said dryly.
“Now,” Reese said, staring at Hirianthial. “Explain.”
He remained composed. She had expected him to look ridiculous against the backdrop of a modern medical establishment with his anachronistic clothes and princely demeanor, but for some reason this was the one place he seemed to suit. He wasn’t wearing the doublet she’d thrown up on, though. Her cheeks warmed at that memory. She hoped he’d been able to clean it up... the camellias had been pretty.
“We sealed your esophagus and used a resurfacing agent to encourage the regeneration of the mucosal layers,” he said after a moment. “You’re on antibiotics until we’ve cleared your system of the infection tha
t started this problem, and to ward off any infection that might have thought about colonizing your chest cavity.”
“You make it sound like it I was some sort of road that needed repaving,” Reese said, rubbing her throat. She didn’t feel like she’d had one of her body parts sewn up.
“It was only like a road that needed repaving if part of the road had collapsed and the rest of it was nearing the same state.”
Reese swallowed, waiting for the customary jolt of heat and nervousness that accompanied unpleasant news. Instead her stomach tightened. That was it. Nothing more. No burning, no sour tastes, no convulsive need for chalk tablets. That finally convinced her. “Blood and Freedom, you replaced my esophagus!”
“More or less,” Hirianthial said.
Reese leaned forward and covered her eyes. “What did I owe?”
“You didn’t hear him before?” Irine asked, poking Reese gently in the ribs. “There is no bill.”
“No bill?” Reese said. “How is that possible? You didn’t pay it, did you?”
“If by pay you mean handing over coins, then no, I didn’t,” Hirianthial said. “If by pay you mean work here for a few shifts until the value of your operation had been recouped by the Medplex, then I suppose I did.”
Reese pointed a finger at him. “I didn’t ask for your help!”
“I owed you a debt,” Hirianthial said. “You saved my life.”
“I didn’t want you to pay me back,” Reese said. “I wanted you to get the hell off my ship and take your slaving pursuers with you!”
“Regardless, I’m a doctor,” the Eldritch said. “If someone starts dying in my presence, it’s my duty to stop it.”
“I didn’t ask for your help—”
“Actually, you did,” Irine said.
Reese glared at her. This time she noticed just how poorly her glare worked. Irine didn’t even wilt.
“You did,” the tigraine said. “You made him your proxy and told him to make all the relevant medical decisions to save your life. I was there, I heard you.”
“I don’t remember saying that,” Reese said.
“I’m not sure what you’re so upset about,” Sascha said. “You’re here, you’re healthy, and you don’t have to pay for the medical procedure that saved you. What have you got to complain about?”
“I don’t want to owe anyone anything,” Reese said.
“Too late,” Sascha said. “You owed that woman something for her help in bailing you out. Now you’re going to owe our creditors for our repairs. And you certainly owe the doctor there for taking care of you despite being so rude about the whole thing.”
“He and I are even,” Reese said, clenching her fists.
“She’s correct,” Hirianthial said. “And since I came with nothing to your ship, there’s nothing I need to retrieve.” He bowed, a formality she thought would look silly and instead looked far too serious, too final. “I thank you for your help in effecting my escape, and I wish you well. Good day, madam.”
And then he was gone.
“What did you do that for!” Irine said. “You sent him away!”
“Of course I sent him away!” Reese exclaimed. “Haven’t you noticed he’s got slavers and pirates after him? We can’t afford another episode like the one we just got out of. You haven’t even told me what the damage was from the whole thing!”
“He’s nice to have around,” Sascha said. “And he’s a good doctor.”
“He’s an Eldritch,” Reese said. “What good is a doctor who can’t handle you?”
“For a doctor who can’t handle you, he did a lot of carrying you around,” Irine said. “Or did you forget those parts too?”
They were angry at her. The twins had never been angry at her. Reese looked from one furry face to the other and felt the world drop from beneath her. Then she got a tight rein on her sense of desolation and said, “Look guys, I appreciate your opinions, but if you hadn’t noticed we barely keep enough money in our pockets to feed the people we have. We don’t have room for another deck-swabber. I’m glad the man made a good impression and I’m glad he was around to re-pave my esophagus but we’ve got to move on, okay? Can we start with someone telling me when I’m going to get released, and how bad the repair bill on the ship’s going to be?”
They exchanged glances. Irine sat on the bench next to the bed and Sascha left.
“What was that about?” Reese asked.
“Nothing important to you,” Irine said. “So let’s get down to the stuff that is.”
Reese grabbed her wrist. “Irine, stop it. I don’t need your disapproval.” She sucked in a breath and forced the word out. “Please.”
The tigraine looked at her hand, then hesitantly petted it. The underside of her fingers were smooth. “Can I say something you might take badly, Reese?”
Last time Irine had said something similar, Reese had learned things about the twins’ intimate life she hadn’t really wanted to know. Still it didn’t seem like the time to refuse. “Sure.”
“I don’t know how you’re ever going to catch a mate and have kidlings at the rate you’re going.”
Yes, definitely a place she didn’t want to go. Still, she wanted Irine to stop with the evil eye routine, so she gave the question the serious response she would otherwise have avoided. “You’re assuming I want a mate and a family. That’s not even the way it works on Harat-Sharii, so I’m not sure where you got the idea that I’d want it for myself.”
“Even on Harat-Sharii we choose someone to have children with and have them,” Irine said. “Sascha and I will get to that when we’re older.”
Reese chuckled. “I don’t have a father, Irine. Why would I want a husband?”
“I might be wrong about this, but don’t humans still need both sexes to reproduce?” Irine asked, canting her head.
“Yeah, well, my family found a way around that a few generations ago,” Reese said.
“That doesn’t sound right,” Irine said, mouth twisting.
“And your harems and sibling intimacy does?” Reese asked. “You of all people should know these things are relative.”
“So you haven’t had a father in your life ever? Or a grandfather?”
Reese shook her head and managed a faint smile. “My grandma thought it was best that way. Men meddled, she said.”
“No, women meddle,” Irine said. “Men just go after what they want. It’s part of their charm.”
“Not all women are like that,” Reese said. “Some just go after what they want, too.”
“And some men meddle,” Irine agreed. “At least now I know why you sent the doctor away.”
Reese frowned. “That being... what, some orbit trash about me not knowing how to handle men because I didn’t grow up with one?”
“Well, you’ve got two girls on your crew, me and Kis’eh’t. Allacazam is neuter and Bryer might as well be... I don’t think I could sex a Phoenix unless I tied one down and hunted for parts. The only guy on your crew is Sascha and you’ve got me to keep him in check. So what’s a girl supposed to think?”
“I do not have issues,” Reese said.
“If you say so, boss.”
Reese sighed, but didn’t argue. At least Irine wasn’t glowering at her anymore.
She wasn’t sure that this was an improvement.
“When can I get out of here, Irine?”
“They say you should be fine within a day. They want to keep you under observation until then. You’re paid up for the full time anyway, so you might as well enjoy it.”
“Enjoy my stay in a Medplex,” Reese said. “Right. Tell me about the repair bill.”
Irine caught her tail and started picking at the fur at the tip. “Well... we lost the main cargo gantry. The hull’s dented all over the place, but we’ve identified the six places that the dents are more than cosmetic and have to be fixed. The last pirate laser destroyed the starboard sensor array... and the Well Drive’s gone cranky since Sascha redlined it to get you h
ere. The bill is pretty sizable.”
Reese’s eyes had already glazed over. “How minor are the bumps in the hull we have to fix?” she asked, trying to concentrate on the least serious sounding item in the litany.
“Four of them are preventing the port cargo doors from opening,” Irine said. “The other two have twisted up waste vents.”
Reese lowered herself back onto the bed, which did not yield beneath her shoulder-blades. Her entire back refused to relax onto the cushions.
“It’s a lot of money,” Irine said, ears drooping.
“I know,” Reese said. She’d collected estimates for repairs too often not to know. The Well Drive alone... she could be grounded for months trying to convince creditors to give her that much money.
“Miss Eddings?”
Reese sat up on her elbows and found a Tam-illee dressed in Fleet blue-and-black standing at the door nearest her bed. She couldn’t read the collection of pins and stars and braids Fleet used for rank but suspected from the air of authority that the man was in charge of something.
“I’m Reese Eddings,” she said.
The Tam-illee joined Irine at her bedside. He had a stern and craggy face, almost completely human in seeming save for the shadow of a nose-pad traced around his nostrils... and of course, the large pointed ears on his head. “My name is Jonah NotAgain. I’m captain of the UAV StarCounter. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions.”
“Oh great,” Reese said. “Don’t tell me the pirates followed us here.”
“Good news, ma’am. They didn’t. We wouldn’t mind any details you could give us about them, though.”
“Right,” Reese said, and launched into an account with Irine’s help. The Fleet captain nodded through the story, taking notes on a tiny data tablet she hadn’t even noticed holstered at his hip.
“Would you mind terribly passing us the sensor data?” NotAgain said when she finished.
“No,” Reese said. “You’re welcome to it if it means you’ll have a chance to get rid of them.”
“We’ve been trying for most of a year to chase down all the hide-outs nearby,” the Tam-illee said. “This should give us enough data to shut down Inu-Case. The bad news is that they got a good look at you, ma’am, and they tend not to like the last few people who got away before Fleet comes down on them.”
Earthrise (Her Instruments Book 1) Page 10
