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"You deserve good things," she tells me again. "I don't know why you don't think that."
"That…that's not it," I tell her. Does she really think I hate myself that much? Then again, I've never given her any indication otherwise. Maybe she does. "When you get a limb replaced, they put you under. You have to have an upload of some kind in your mind, because it all has to be wired together in some way. Have to get your brain to recognize the arm and all that. And I've never had anyone I could trust enough to watch me."
She props her chin up on my chest, looking at me. "You promise?"
"I promise. It's not because I don't want new limbs." I huff out a tired laugh. "I'd love that more than anything. But most of the guys in that market would just as easily rob you or murder you before giving you the limbs you asked for."
"Alyvos knows a guy," Sophie says, her eyes bright with enthusiasm. "He knows a guy that got Iris her visor. We could talk to him after all this…provided we don't need the money for the brothers. If we do, there's always…" Then she shakes her head. "Or we can offer something else. I just…" She licks her lips. "I don't want you to be in pain when you don't have to, Jerrok."
My keffing sweet girl. She's talked to Alyvos about this? There are no words for how I feel right now. She cares so much.
I'm so keffing lucky.
With a groan, I squeeze her in a tight hug. "Love you," I choke out. "Whatever you want, we'll make it happen."
"I want to grow old with you," she tells me, smiling. "And to wake up without you in pain. Can you make that happen?"
I'm sure going to try, because I don't think I could refuse this female anything.72JERROKThe planet of V'tarr is a gold and green swirled ball spotted with a thick cloud cover. It looks beautiful, which is surprising given that it has an artificial ring around the entire planet, and that artificial ring is cluttered with so many stations, ships, private residences, and keffing whatever else they could launch into the skies that it looks like the planet itself is swirling with garbage.
Kinda reminds me of my spot in my asteroid belt, actually, with all the dead ships floating around. The thought brings a faint smile to my face.
"It's…wow," Sophie breathes at my side as we gaze out at the view from our spot in the rec room. There's probably a better view on the bridge, but we don't belong there. We're not crew. Sophie makes another noise in her throat as she stares out at the massive planet in view. "I can't decide if it's pretty or not. What's the point in keeping the planet pristine if you're going to junk up all the space around it?"
"Because no one on the ground cares?" I give her a wry smile and put a hand on her shoulder, liking that I can give her a possessive touch. I love that she's mine and she leans in when I reach for her. "They don't have to have it in front of them, so they don't care."
"I guess. From this view it just seems…hideous." She wrinkles her nose, leaning in to watch a city-sized piece of machinery churn past. "I bet it's pretty on the ground, though. All that green. Will we get to see it?"
"Probably not." I hate to disappoint her, but I also don't want to lie. "Our clearance probably won't take us past this ring. The spaceport we're heading to is somewhere in this mess, so we'll likely just head there and continue on our way once we retrieve the Sister."
Her hand steals down to her side, where Sleipnir is rubbing against her thigh. "And that's where carinoux are from? Down there?"
"Protector-kin are native to the moons, I think. They're supposed to be very green and lush."
She looks over at me, her eyes lighting up. "Can we take Sleipnir home, then?"
"Sophie…"
"I know he's worth a lot of money." She turns and sits down at the window seat, tugging on my hand so I'll join her. The carinoux bounces up onto the seat on the other side of her, rubbing his big head against her hair in a cry for attention. Absently, she raises a hand to pet him, her attention still on me. "But he was taken from his home, just like me. If we can free him, we have to take that chance—"
"Love," I interrupt gently, rubbing her hand. "I don't think that's possible. Sleipnir has been raised around people, likely since he was born. That's why he's so comfortable on stations. He can't go back into the wild. He won't be able to survive."
