“Is there a first aid kit somewhere? Or some medical supplies?”
“Panel.” Lifting his good hand, he waved at the wall to the side of the console.
She found it after two wrong tries and a white case that slid out of a compartment. Grabbing it, she hauled it over to the console and opened it up. Inside was a whole heap of things she didn’t recognize. There were tubes and patches, alongside devices that looked like they belonged in a science fiction film, which…
Yeah, right. She was on an alien spaceship. Everything here looked like it belonged in a science fiction film.
“Okay.” She rested her hands on the edges of the case. “Talk me through this. What do I use?”
“Blue patch. Side of the head. It’ll seal the wound.”
She found the blue patch. It was about the size of her palm and flexible. Her hands shook as she tried to peel the backing off. Dammit, she couldn’t get her fingers to cooperate.
His hand closed over hers. Warm and steady.
“Hey.” His voice was rough. “Breathe. Just breathe. Everything’s okay.”
She nodded and breathed. In and out. In and out. After a moment, she tried again and managed to peel the backing off.
“I have no idea if this is gonna hurt.” She winced as she pressed it to the wound in his hair where the blood was the worst. It adhered right away, the edges melting and sealing over the wound as she watched.
“Good.” His eyes were open now, and he watched her steadily. “Now the gray one. Ribs.”
Rifling through the case contents, she found the gray patch and pressed it to his side when he lifted his arm. The deep bruising there made her feel sick. He hissed when it made contact, but didn’t pull away. The patch warmed under her palm, some kind of reaction happening beneath the surface.
“You should be lying down,” she said.
“I should be bringing the weapons back online.”
“The pirates are dead.”
“The pirate ships aren’t.”
She looked up at the viewscreen. It was cracked in one corner and flickering, but she could still see the debris field outside, rocks tumbling past in slow motion. And beyond them, dark shapes holding position at the edge of the field.
Her stomach dropped.
“They’re still out there.”
“They’re waiting to see what comes out of the wreckage.” He pushed himself more upright in the chair with a groan. “If it’s us, they’ll finish the job. If it’s their people, they’ll pick them up and leave.”
“Can we run?”
He shook his head. “Not with the drive in the state it’s in.”
“Can we fight?”
“No. We don’t have anything left. I’m sorry, kelarris.”
She bit her lip. Nothing left, in a crippled ship with pirates circling. It was like the plot of a bad holo-movie. But if it was, reinforcements would have already arrived.
The scanner pinged.
Thyaar froze, hand on his ribs. His expression shifted from exhaustion to something she couldn’t identify. Then he let out a breath that was almost a laugh.
“What?”
“Backup.” He tapped the screen and the view changed. Another ship emerged out of the darkness. And it was big. Really big. Bigger than the pirate ships, bigger than anything she’d ever seen. Which wasn’t saying much since the space-ships she’d actually seen were the one they were in and the three that had attacked them. But this thing was immense.
