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"The air on Yeet is toxic. Even if he held his breath, the victus acid will burn his flesh from his bones."
"No!" I beat on the glass wall for all I'm worth. "Come back. Don't leave, Navik. Please!"
The sivot's head swivels around as the ramp completes its descent, touching the ground in a silent landing. A sickly green fog fills the air in a wavy distortion as his long, white hair starts to sizzle and smoke, his liquid blue skin melting away like wax under an open flame.
Claws extended, fangs displayed in a feral snarl, he looks like a monster from an ancient myth, ready to destroy his enemy.
"I will never leave you, starfire." Navik's beast levels a resolute gaze on me. "You are mine to protect for always."
Arm up and out, the sivot deploys a shield from what used to be a metallic tribal tattoo adorning Navik's arm. Now transformed into a solid sheet encasing the sivot from shoulder to wrist, he expands it into a circular shield before pushing through the green fog.
"Reckless fool!" Qhix slams his fist against the glass wall, his face contorted with anger and worry.
We watch helpless from behind the wall of glass as the sivot charges the Yulineon's ship. I recognize the sleek craft as the same one that fired on us as we left Onis.
Sparks fly and metal groans as the sivot slams his shoulder into the hull of the Yulineon's ship. He pummels the enemy vessel with his shield, using it as a battering ram. The metal hull screeches and bends with each of his blows.
The sivot then tears into the hull with its claws, ripping and shredding the metal until it explodes in a shower of sparks and debris. The beast is blown backward, landing with a skidding thud into the hull of our ship. The beast shakes his mighty head and rises, limping up the ramp and slapping a hand over the red button to raise it.
The sivot collapses in a steaming heap as the ramp closes and seals with a whoosh. His flesh, once a liquid azure, now absent in large smoldering patches, revealing the raw meat of his muscles beneath.
The red lights no longer strobe in warning, so Qhix taps on the control panel again. The glass wall blocking us from the cargo hold dematerializes at his command. I can hardly believe it and reach out my hand to confirm that the wall is no longer there, just air.
Qhix rushes inside to where Navik’s sivot lays unmoving. I follow, dropping to my knees beside the beast. Overcome with grief, I let my tears fall as I take in the sight of him.
His once beautiful blue skin is now melted away. What's left is charred and blistered. The acid air of Yeet searing his body and burning the hair from his head. His breathing is shallow as he lays motionless.
"He still lives," Qhix says softly.
"Help him, Qhix!" Tears stream down my face unchecked. It breaks my heart to see him like this.
"The med bay is packed inside the hauler." Qhix slings his hand at the boxy vehicle parked inside. "We'll have to take him to my ship so I can treat him there, but we need to hurry. All Yulineon patrollers are equipped with galaxy positioning devices. As soon as the ship exploded, it vanished off their grid."
I help Qhix roll Navik's beast onto his back and drag his huge, smoldering body onto the hauler. "They'll have already dispatched patrollers to investigate,” Qhix says. “We don't want to be here when they arrive."
ChapterSeven
NAVIK
The scent of her tears is reminiscent of the sweet, tropical rains on Zeva, a distant planet where my Kaul half calls home. "Are those for me?" I crack open eyes that burn and wheeze with an exhausted breath.
"Why did you do that, sivot?" Cora cries out in anguish, her voice cracking with grief. "You knew the air was acid. You could have gotten yourself killed."
"I am hardly dead, starfire," I groan when the hauler bumps down the ramp of my cargo hold.
Cora swipes angrily at her tears. "Why? Why would you risk your life?"
"You are mine to protect," I reply simply.
"You could have rigged the thermic beam into a current strong enough to return fire on the Yulineon patroller,"my Kaul half grouches inside my mind."There was no need to leave the bliking ship!"
Trapped in sivot form, I cannot morph back into my Kaul body until I heal more. My injuries are too extensive. Not even the hole blasted in my chest had brought me this close to death.
Inside my shared mind, my Kaul half writhes in pain and anger that I had been so reckless, but the only way to be sure Cora remained safe from the Yulineon was to destroy him before he destroyed her.
Once we clear my cargo bay, Qhix shifts the hauler into high speed and races across the surface of Yeet. My body screams in protest from the slightest of movements. I am careful to keep my grunts and groans to myself. Every jolt sends a searing pain coursing through my veins, and I grit my teeth to muffle my cries, not wanting to further distress my mate.
There is a slight pause before the hauler tilts and drives up the ramp into Qhix's spacecraft. The hauler stops. The hard clunk of the floor grips locking us in place spears me with a jolt of fresh pain over every inch of my flesh. The ramp lifts, cutting off the toxic green fog of acid, sealing us safely inside Qhix's craft, followed by a sucking whoosh. Once the ship pressurizes and fills the hold with clean air, Qhix moves from the driver's seat.
