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He was a young captain, barely out of training used for routine flights like ferrying goods and people back and forth, he had never been in a high-stress situation like this. I clapped him on his shoulder. "You did well."
He grinned up at me like a boy at a hero from one of his programmed movies and I shook my head. He had held up well under pressure, a promising sign for a good pilot.
"What took you so long?" Ryggs rose from his spot next to Silla where he had made sure she wouldn't roll off the bench, or so I told my rational side. My irrational side however had every nerve ending insideme rising in alarm at seeing him so close to her.
Get a grip, I admonished myself. I forced my signature arrogant grin. "I was feeling generous and gave Priough ten ticks to remove the shield."
"Ten? That was generous," Ryggs replied, giving me a funny stare, he knew me too well and must have realized how forced my grin was. But also because he knew me well enough, he abstained from commenting.
A few clicks—minutes—later we landed inside theVyper'sbelly. I had already given orders to have her take off as soon as we landed. I didn't trust Priough not to pulse us out of space the moment the ferry landed, figuring he might live for the same motto as me, about forgiveness and permission and all that. I wouldn't have put it past him; he was a sly bastard. Nobody would become Crough's advisor if they weren't.
Carefully I deposited Silla back into my arms and carried her straight to the med sector, confident in Ryggs and my flight crew to take us back to Pandrax to report to our emperor.
"Lord Protector," the medtechs were flustered when I entered their domain, unused to my presence.
Only two of the fifty medbooths were occupied. Normally I would have asked about thoseoccupants and why they were here. Today though, I didn't even give them a second glance.
I only said, "She needs help," before carefully placing Silla, who was still sleeping, into one of the open booths.
The five techs clustered immediately around us. "Who is she?"
"What species is that?"
"Where did she come from?"
"What is wrong with her?"
I was peppered with questions, to which I had no answers. It couldn't be helped, I needed to rouse the merrily, as much as I would have liked to allow her to slumber.
"Silla, wake up."
She stirred, and for a moment she flailed as her eyes opened wide, taking in her strange surroundings and the males clustered around her. But then her eyes found me, and she stilled while a wan smile played around her lips and her eyes settled with recognition.
"Hush, you're safe. You're aboard theVyperand these are my medtechs, they will check you out and make sure you're alright."
"Okay." Her voice sounded tentative, and her hand reached for me.
Ignoring the astounded looks of the medtechs, I took her hand.
"Theywant to know where you are from."
"Uhm, a planet called Earth," she said, uncertain and rightly so, since nobody had ever heard of it. "We call ourselves… humans," she added.
"I beg your pardon, Lord Protector, but we will need more information," the senior medtech, Meloch, asserted.
"Will it help if you had more specimens to compare?" I asked.
"You have more?"
I pulled my comm and ordered Ryggs to bring five more… humans to the medbay.
"The Cryons gave her some kind of aphrodisiac which might have caused a change in her skin color, or that might have been an entirely different experiment they ran on her," I explained.
"Let's run some scans while we wait," Meloch ordered. "If you would lie down, Lady…"
"Silla," I supplied.
"Lady Silla, the dome will close, but you will be perfectly safe, these are just some scans."
