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11
I wokeup squashed against the wall, J'avet fast asleep beside me.
I checked my watch. It was almost five am. The whole ship would awaken soon. Part of me wished time would hurry. The other part wished it would stop completely. I wasn't particularly comfortable, but I could sleep for a month. Better yet, sleep surrounded by all the guys.
The bed shifted and I found myself with room to roll over. I couldn't manage to fully open my eyes yet. Like every other ship, I'd worked in the infirmary during our time on board. Like every infirmary, there were never enough hours or staff. Even for a relatively small ship, something always needed to be done. In particular, the former hosts needed a lot of care. I'd spent hours talking to them, letting them share the trauma they'd been through.
At least, what they were ready to deal with.
One of the women, an engineer named Kariz, had worked on the repairs to Infinity. She told me how everything was going well enough, until power shut down, seemingly at random. She hadn't seen the nanobots before they flooded into her system, but she and other now Iri engineers turned the systems back on and took the ship out of dry dock.
The next thing she knew, Infinity attacked Gamma and the bots in her head made her step onto the pod and attack us.
Then she was back to herself again, and grateful for it.
"I knew what was going on the whole time," she told me. "But I couldn't stop it. I couldn't stop myself. I wanted to send out a distress beacon, or destroy Infinity, but I couldn't."
She cried on my shoulder while I patted her back and said words I hoped would soothe her. Honestly, I wasn't sure I helped much. Only time and therapy would do that.
How hard would it be for Danec to come back after weeks, months as a host? The thought of him struggling to come to terms with everything threatened to break my heart. He would have all the support he could manage, and then some, but the sooner we got him back, the better.
"Edie. Time to get up." J'avet's voice broke through my sleepy musing.
I groaned and rolled over to face the wall.
"Or I can leave you out of this meeting," he said. "You shouldn't be there anyway."
I sat up so fast I hit my head on the bunk above.
"Ouch." I rubbed my head. "I'm going."
"Then you need to get up," he said again. "We won't wait for you."
I cracked open my eyes. He was already dressed except for a couple of buttons he was doing up now.
Brinley and E'rel were nowhere to be seen.
"They've gone to breakfast," J'avet said.
"Are you reading my mind now?" I pushed off the blanket and stood, aware of J'avet's eyes on my naked body. Once, I would have hidden from anyone's gaze. Now, I felt pretty, knowing he looked admiringly and not in a judgemental way.
"I wouldn't," he replied. "I'm sure it's as messy in there as your hair is."
Okay, he was a bit judgy.
I stuck out my tongue at him and started to put on my clothes. Jeans and a cute blue t-shirt that would have looked better on Brinley than me. Whatever, it was comfortable, and more or less said 'I'm not on nurse duty today.' It wouldn't stop me from working if I was needed, of course, but it felt nice to be casual.
"For your information, my mind is an organised place," I said as I sat on the floor to pull on some socks. "Everything is neatly filed away, like a database." Or like a wiki, where people added and deleted stuff at random, so you never quite knew what was real and what wasn't. I didn't know how half the stuff in my brain got in there.
Also, I had a special file for 'weird alien dicks,' but doesn't every girl? If not, then she should. The ones I'd met were worthy of their own file each.
"Are you nearly ready?" J'avet tossed me my hairbrush while I stood.
I managed to catch it and drag it through my crazy curls. I could use a trim. Sometimes I envied the guys their short, military haircuts. I could do that too, but I doubted I would rock the look. I wasn't sure I rocked this look either, but it was the only look I had.
Half way through brushing, I caught J'avet staring at me, a slight frown on his face.
"What?" I asked. "Do I have cum on my face?"
