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He looked at her with surprise that she hadn’t recognized that fact herself. “Of course. You have neither fangs nor claws. Your hide is soft and easily torn and not brightly colored to warn of poison. You are slow and weak compared to many other species. For all your admirable traits and resilience, Nurse Louella, you humans are a prey species.”
When he put it like that, Louella couldn’t argue against the logic.
“Nonetheless,” he continued, “I have been remiss in seeing to your safety. Bide a moment.”
Louella had never heard someone order her to stay put in quite such language, but she understood what he meant and obeyed. She glanced at one of the blue-scaled beings and shuddered. Drool dripped from its lipless mouth as its gaze remained fixed upon her. The healer summoned one of the large mechanical spiders. It positioned itself beside Charlotte.
He addressed the robot and ordered, “Do not permit any of the following species to approach Nurse Louella within physical contact distance or assign any of them to her care.” He rattled off a half-dozen species.
Healer Esillon looked at her and said, “While in my custody, this droid will remain beside you at all times to ensure your safety.”
Louella did not like the wordcustody, but decided it was better to ignore it and be protected against a hungry patient acting on the notion to eat her. She squelched her indignation but graciously replied, “Thank you for seeing to my safety.”
He nodded, his short crest rising. “Of course, Nurse Louella. I care for your well-being not only as a colleague and patient, but also as General Yas’kihn’s mate.”
“We arenotmates,” she objected.
The healer inhaled through his mouth, tasting the air on the back of his tongue. “No, you have not mated him, but he has claimed you as his mate and that is sufficient. One does not go against the general superior lightly.”
Her eyes widened. “Do you think he would hurt me?”
The healer looked horrified and his tail twitched. “The general wouldneverharm his mate, no matter what she says or does. A mate is to be protected and cherished. The general does me a great honor by entrusting your safety and well-being to me here.”
She pursed her lips and frowned, then said, “Those words make me feel like some delicate, fragile little girl. I’m pretty tough, you know.”
Healer Esillon patted her shoulder. “You are strong and resourceful, as evidenced by your survival on the Sivuul ship. I am also sure you are considered ‘tough’ among humans, but you are not among humankind anymore and your physical fragility puts you at a disadvantage among many species.”
Louella nodded and sighed. Again, she really couldn’t argue against his logic and the empirical evidence of her own experience, even though she loathed being seen as weak and vulnerable. That was how the thugs in her old neighborhood had looked at girls and women: weak and easily exploited.
That feeling of being considered prey and disposable within her own neighborhood factored in the reasons why she and Marisol went to nursing school. It hadn’t been easy to spend their evenings studying when their other friends were out having fun, or to spend summer breaks and weekends working part-time jobs to earn tuition money when their friends were acquiring funds in easier and less honest ways.
Louella and Marisol had been proud to graduate from nursing school, proud to have been employed by the city’s best hospital, and proud to have moved together into a cozy apartment in a part of town where drug dealers and hookers didn’t lurk on every corner and the streets weren’t rutted with potholes. She’d felt relief living in a neighborhood that wasn’t ruled by street gangs.
But, still, Louella had wanted more. So had Marisol. They’d wanted what they saw on television and what they believed other, more privileged people enjoyed: a nice house, a kind and faithful husband, a late model car, a loving family. Answering that advertisement for employment with the Federal Agency for Foreign Relations, she and Marisol had calculated their odds of reaching those goals. Both young women had looked forward to improving their circumstances.
It hadn’t quite worked out that way.Just goes to show ain’t nothin’ easy.Some might have condemned her for having such materialistic dreams, but those people hadn’t grown up in urban poverty and didn’t understand the desperation imposed by the absence of financial and physical security. She hadn’t dreamed of obscene riches, only a life of comfort and security.
That damned Mr. Argosie had certainly hooked her with his promises of attaining that dream with someone who wanted the same: marriage, a few kids, a comfortable lifestyle … and she’d swallowed that hook with the line and sinker. Shame weighed heavily on her conscience.Grandma always said her grandmother told her you had to work hard to get anything and harder to keep it. I should have listened to her.
Stuck in outer space or some distant planet with no way back to Earth, she’d simply have to make herself proud again.I just don’t know how I’m going to do that.
Shoving her doubts and worries aside, Louella got back to work. Time passed quickly. She remained busy, moving from patient to needy patient, until Healer Esillon called an end to her shift.
Giving her a close-lipped smile, he said, “A guard is here to escort you back to your quarters, Nurse Louella.”
“But you’re still busy,” she protested, ignoring her own exhaustion.
“Indeed. Many of the refugees need extensive care, and I’d rather not have you as one of those patients,” he said. “General Yas’kihn would be displeased if you should suffer any harm, including physical exhaustion.”
He cocked his head to one side, keen gaze examining her. Aware of her drooping posture, Louella stiffened her spine and squared her shoulders.
“Nurse Louella, you do not deceive me. You are weary, and it is past time for you to cease working. Eat, rest, and recover your strength. I will send a droid to collect you when you are next welcome to serve in the medical bay.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And how long will that be?”
“At least a full Ahn’hudin day.”
Trying again to recall what she’d read in the information manual provided to her upon arriving on Ahn’hudin, she estimated the time in Earth hours. “That long?”
