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It took another two days for Kainan to wake again.
This time under his own steam and breathing for himself.
It was a gentler waking than the last, and he opened his eyes as Selene read from a book in her comm tab’s library.
‘Khamila,’ he whispered with a break in his deep, scratchy voice.
She looked up, joy spreading across her face, throwing down her reading device.
Their hands met in the space between them.
‘How are you feeling,khaji?’ she murmured, smoothing her other hand over his brow.
‘I can’t feel most of my body,’ he said hesitantly. ‘What have they done?’
‘They had to sedate you. And give you a shipload of meds. There was no other way you could have withstood the pain.’
‘How bad is it?’ Kainan said hoarsely, glancing at the med scanner hovering over his body.
‘I think it’s best to let the doctors or Ki’Remi tell you more. Shall I get them?’
‘Not yet,’ Kainan whispered. ‘I need a few moments with you.’
She smiled but knew he could see the agony and sadness in her eyes.
‘That bad, huh?’ he probed. ‘That’s the first time I’ve seen you lost for words, my love.’
She answered by gently squeezing his bandaged hand, which drew his eyes to their intertwined fingers. His gaze travelled up his arm to the badly scarred injuries.
His eyes locked on them. ‘Fokk,’ he breathed. ‘Really bad then. How long?’
She shook her head, unable to speak.
‘Weeks, then,’ he rasped, coughing as he did.
‘Don’t speculate,khaji,’ Selene softly said. She leaned over and kissed his dry, hot lips. ‘They’re doing everything they can.’
‘I need to know that for myself.’
He glanced at the ceiling for a moment, accessing his neural node. His eyes shut briefly before he turned his bloodshot eyes back to her. ‘Looks like the medics can’t help me. My node is registering catastrophic failures of my normal metanoids. They’re dying at a higher rate than ever before. I have days.’
‘Kainan,’ she breathed, the grief almost too much to bear. All she could was lean over and touch her lips to his.
He broke their union to lift his hand and stroke her face. ‘We’ll get through this,khamila.’
‘How?’ she probed fervently. ‘How?’
‘Just let it be love,’ he rasped. ‘At least I put an end to the crats and their torment across the System. For that, I feel relieved, almost healed from all the pain and anguish their existence wrought on me. For this alone,khamila, let us be grateful.’
He wrapped his arm around her and squeezed, pulling her close. She placed her head on his chest and cried silently for a long time before the heaving emotion lashing her body quietened.
‘Where are we?’ he asked throatily.
‘On Dunia. At a local hospital, one of the best,’ Selene said, sitting up, still wiping tears away from her ravaged face. She turned to scramble inside her bag for tissues.
‘Dunia?’ Kainan repeated slowly.
‘Yes. We brought you here after -.’
