Page 46 of Starfighter’s Salvation

“I know his medic.”

“You are his medic.”

“Exactly.” The two human woman locked eyes for a few seconds and some kind of understanding passed between them because Cassia relented and let the others take her to a med bay out of sight. Gina walked away from the ship to help the others.

I was three steps away from the ramp, with Brennix, and we were both fighting to get to the ship. A round struck above the bunker entrance. Part of the outer wall collapsed.

“Let's go!” I roared. We were moving, but not fast enough.

The apprentices refused to stay on board without Tavar. They had deposited their wounded and raced back down the ship's ramp. "Where's Tavar?" The taller one shouted at me over the noise of falling rock and incoming fire.

“He’s coming,” Gina told them. “Get in the ship and prepare the forward rack. Flat. No pillow. Warming field on low.”

"We can help…"

"That's how you can help me. I need that med berth ready. I don't have time to argue." Gina sent them back inside. No sweetie or honey or other softness in her tone this time.

They ran. Brennix stood guard with my rifle as Gina and I raced back to Tavar.

"Ready?" I lifted Tavar's shoulders. Gina took hold of his boots. We tried to slide him over onto the waiting stretcher.

“He is too heavy in his armor.” I watched Gina strain to lift him and shook my head. "We need to use one of the lifts. Or a drone."

"No time." She grunted and tried again, barely managed to get his legs off the ground. "I'm not leaving him to go back to the ship. Why is this armor so heavy? God dammit. I've gotta start lifting weights."

I smiled despite the dire circumstances. My soft little female could lift weights for the rest of her life and never be able to move a fully armored Velerion warrior. "Fuck. Move, female." I ordered her out of my way and bent to swing the large male over my back.

"You're going to open his wounds." Gina fluttered around me and the wounded male like a frantic butterfly.

"Then you'll have to patch him up." I lurched toward the ship. The male was heavy, but I carried him through the falling dust. Brennix stood in the open on his broken ankle, holding an armor plate, protecting the ramp from debris with one arm as another round struck the rim.

“Get aboard!” I shouted.

“Last man,” he shouted back.

Titan logic. I understood it too well. I settled Tavar's heavy frame into the final rack as gently as I could. The moment she could reach him, Gina went to work. She checked every restraint and every life-support connection as quickly as possible. Made sure the medication was still flowing. She was truly determined to keep him alive, so he would live. No male could deny her anything, I was convinced. Somehow, her heart would reach into his and force him to fight.

“Everyone's on board. Let's go,” she said, without looking up.

“You need to strap in, as well. We're not out of this yet.”

“I need to make sure--”

“Gina. Strap in. That's an order.”

She looked at me. I pointed to the seat closest to Tavar.

Her mouth twitched toward a smile I felt it in my chest like she'd taken a blowtorch to my heart. "Bossy.”

"I warned you." No negotiation.

She jumped up and planted a kiss on my cheek, then strapped herself in next to Tavar's med berth. I hauled Brennix the rest of the way inside and activated the ramp. He hobbled toward a seat next to Cassia as I sealed the hatch and ran for the cockpit. I had no idea what waited for us once we flew out of this bunker. No doubt, their jamming systems remained at full power, and it was a fair distance to our exit point, and any hope of reinforcements.

Gina’s voice came over our private channel. “Corvan. Wroxxon was right. Something's not right. Why would they want a kill a bunch of researchers and a couple of kids?”

“I don't know.”

“They're going to be waiting for us to leave.”