Page 54 of Breaking Ties

The low voice spoke from behind her. “Thank you. I take it as a compliment.” He chuckled.

Harwin grinned. “Ra doesn’t sneak. He just does things and makes me deal with them.”

She turned and became a hostess, introducing the humans to the alien archaeologists who brought her there as a bodyguard, and she hadn’t left since.

“I used to want to research the walls of the pyramid, and now I am all over them.”

The humans jolted. Alyssa asked, “You are human?”

“Yup, or I was. Ra did some tinkering when I was mostly dead.”

“What?” one of the others whispered, and Harwin took them to a sitting area where a bot projected her last moments as mostly human.

A bot flew by and brought snacks, and the ladies and Vress had a movie night. First, they watched Harwin and Kris in the cargo hold being crushed, then the machines with the wrong programming, one blowing open with Kris’s fire, and Harwin psychically pushed her way out.

Then, she showed flickers of her life as a bodyguard with Kris for a trader named Yorness. They continued until Yasku paid off her bond, then she travelled with the expedition to Aten, and her blood opened the pyramid.

From there, the incoming raider attack, and her near death, crawling out to see the sun. Ra appeared and followed the blood trail, lifting her and bringing her to one of the healing units. When she woke up, she was dressed like an Egyptian handmaid, and Ra stood in front of her, telling her as much.

Harwin smiled. “And here’s the man of the hour. The one, the only, first Hmrain... Ra!”

Aubrey laughed as she listened to the wrestling announcer tone.

The baby lunged for Harwin, and Ra said, “Nerigot is watching over her. She has much more damage than is normally apparent. She was coming apart on the cellular level. Only Nerigot’s intervention was keeping ahead of the degradation, but only just.”

Priya asked, “Degradation?”

Ra nodded and reached for some of the snacks. “She was nearly dead when she got to the launch centre. The food of the station didn’t nourish her; she had minor organ damage that wasn’t getting better.”

Aubrey felt horrible. “Because we left before they could do follow-ups.”

Ra shrugged. “She would not have survived regardless. With her issues, they would have simply said she faded and passed. If they had known she qualified for the academy, they would have gotten some of the good food from the high-end restaurants and hand-fed her.”

Candy murmured, “Pardon me, but what?”

Ra said, “She has to eat living material. She can’t eat molecularly assembled rations. As she put it to me, if she is going to eat, something has to die. Part of her nutrient absorption comes from the once-living energy of her meal. Plant or animal. It doesn’t matter. It has to have been alive to give her benefit. This is common with Nerigot’s acolytes.”

Aubrey sighed. “So she’s going to be okay?”

“She will be fine if Nerigot can stop trying to peek into the unit.” Ra munched snacks. “He’s devoted, and she’s not even his consort yet.”

Harwin played with the baby. “Yeah, no idea how that happens.”

He grinned. “Strange fascination.”

“Yeah, I don’t care what you are calling it these days. We aren’t having another kid yet.”

Ra said, “But you make such lovely children.”

“Yeah, I know. He’s great.” She grinned as her son grabbed her nose. “Solid grip.”

There was another happy shriek.

Ra grinned and reached for his son. The little one pulled himself over and slapped his dad’s face. “I can play rougher than she can.”

Aubrey looked over to Vress. “Don’t you go getting broody.”

Vress grinned. “He is a very cute child.”