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How would he even know if I joined another crew? There are captains that don’t know me. I could easily slip into their ranks. I would be forced to follow orders like any given soldier, but it would still be better than intel work. I would have a taste of battle, a chance to deal death blows to whatever resistance the Azza can muster—
“Before you get any ideas, I’m not above telling every captain sworn to me that you aren’t welcome. Don’t make me consider embarrassing you in such a public manner. Then, your secret would be out, and all would know that the great Ashbringer is breaking my command.”
He stares me down, hunched over his desk as if he’d lunge at me if given a sign of my further insubordination.
I bow slowly. “It’ll be as you wish, my liege.”
I know the formal speech will piss him off. Better to leave it at that before I lose my temper on the only males I can trust. I bolt for the door.
“Kalla, wait!” Niko calls after me. I hear Mak tell him to leave me be.
The most irritating part of it all is that I can’t even cure this fury with a destructive detour behind enemy lines. It would only prove their point— that I can’t seem to live without death anymore.
CHAPTERFOUR
KAYE
“We don’t knowwhen the patient will recover.” The Kar’Kali healer presents a tablet to me displaying Frankie’s vitals and notes on her condition. It’s been translated to English but reading it doesn’t help me understand what’s going on.
Frankie’s been dipped into a bath of medical goo that the Kar’Kali call ‘regen.’ She’s stripped down to the bare minimum, as full skin contact with the strange fluid is best. All she wears is a little white swimsuit they provided. Her black hair floats around her, eyes peacefully shut as if she’s only napping. Having been up close and personal with her wounds, I can see that slight changes have already begun on the burns. I’ve been told that her skin will return to normal if she’s able to make it through. The hair will grow back. She’ll be capable of sensation. It will be like nothing ever happened.
If she wakes up, that is.
“Her vitals have stabilized due to the regen, but she doesn’t show signs of coming out of this coma anytime soon,” they explain. “She’s lucky to be alive, and you should be proud of how your care and attention facilitated her survival. Left to a med-bot alone, the shock might’ve killed her.”
“In addition to the obvious— the severe burns— the patient was experiencing an episode of increased heart rate and blood pressure. We detect the uptick in this issue started well before the incident, and the assumption is that the trauma she suffered while in captivity might have serious physical implications.”
“Like post-traumatic stress?” I ask.
“If that is the human name for bodily reactions to mental stressors, certainly.” The healer points to the scan of Frankie’s body on the tablet and zooms in on her heart. It’s amazing how I can see inside her with these sophisticated scans. It’s not really a live feed of her body, it’s a reconstruction. But when he zooms in, I’m looking at her beating heart. “Her heart was quite healthy only months prior. Now, she shows an abnormal heart rhythm.”
“Can the regen fix that?” I ask.
“The heart and the brain are delicately intertwined systems,” he explains. “Regen has amazing benefits, but it cannot fully fix problems in the brain. Some posit that this is because the regen doesn’t penetrate the skull well enough; others believe the brain is simply too sophisticated for the regen to have perfect effects. The regen will improve her heart’s health, but the brain might not allow a complete cure to occur. One cannot regenerate the brain fully, after all, or your friend’s mind would not be hers anymore, would it?”
That’s a long-winded ‘no.’ I sigh.
“I understand. Thank you so much for treating her. Without your team, I guess I would be mourning her right now.” It still feels like I’m mourning her, especially when she’s lying in that goo like she might lie in a coffin— pale and lifeless.
“We’ll continue to monitor her. Will you be staying onThe Rightful Heir?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t. Is there any way she can be moved in this state?”
He shakes his head. “Regen doesn’t respond well to time-space warps, which is why you don’t find it on most spaceships. Here on theHeir, we cannot enact hyperdrive or fork, so the regen remains stable. You could remove her for the trip, but I wouldn’t recommend it. To have a patient in such a serious condition on a ship with only a med-bot—”
“Say no more,” I say. “I’m not taking any risks with her life. I’ll figure something out.”
Having come straight to this healing facility fromThe Primordial Avengerafter we landed, it’s disorienting to step outside and try to find my way. We might be on another ship, but it doesn’t feel like one. Just like on a space station, there’s a false atmosphere bubble and suspended lights that imitate a sun even though there’s none in the sky. I’m alone with nothing but a crudely drawn map to tell the way. Captain Rossa made her apologies when she left me with the doctors and rushed off to an important meeting. She told me that she’d gained approval for mine and Frankie’s presence aboardThe Rightful Heir,owing it to our relationship with Raina.
For ease of access to those landing ships with immediate need for medical attention, the healing facility is at the edge of the airfield whereThe Primordial Avengeris docked. The area is packed with ships, though, because this is where the Kar’Kali are assembling their fleet. It’s like walking around the outside of an airport, so I lift my eyes to the sky, wondering whether someone would give warning about an incoming ship. With the help of my map, I manage to find theAvenger. Like many of the others parked here, the gangplank is down, and the door is open.
Relieved to see a familiar sight, I start up the walkway. But as I do, someone is sprinting off, their footsteps clanging angrily.
It’s Raffa, an angry blur breezing by me as he shouts over his shoulder, “You can’t treat me like a baby forever!”
“Don’t rutting walk out on me, you little—!” Rossa appears at the top of the gangplank to watch her brother tear across the airfield. She looks ready to shoot lasers from her eyes, and then those eyes land on me. Her face falls.
“Kaye… Sorry you had to see that.”
