AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I got hurt. I was on my way back to tell you when…” Alina looked around, reaching, “I think there was a tremor? I… fell and blacked out, I think. I woke up in the exam room with that… that…”
Kaia covered Alina’s uninjured hand with her own—a gesture so uncustomary that it made Alina tense in her bed.
“I’m sorry for making you go out there right after the jump,” Kaia said quietly. “And for not warning you beforehand. But there wasn’t much time. We only had a short window in the commotion.”
Maybe if this had happened a week ago, Kaia’s uncustomary apology would mean something. Any sign of sentimentality from her charge would’ve been a victory. Now all Alina heard was an excuse.
“It’s okay.” Alina performed the motions. “Honestly, I’m fine. And this is important. I get it.”
Kaia stood and shook the mane of flaming curls from her face. “We’re going to get out of this, Alina. We’re gonna get our New Earth and send these motherfuckers where they belong.”
Alina blinked up at her. “Where do you think that’ll be?”
Kaia’s mouth quirked upward. “Well. It won’t be Heaven, that’s for sure.”
Alina forced herself to smile.
“I almost forgot,” Kaia said. She grabbed something from the cupboard above the hydrastation and presented it to Alina. The wrapping was immediately recognizable. Cozy Corner Café was a command deck favorite, serving the owner Doreen’s favorite Old-Earth-inspired staples.
“Isn’t Doreen rationing?”
“Don’t worry about that. It’s an everything bagel.”
Alina’s favorite comfort food. Alina’s mouth was already watering as she accepted it, folding her good hand over the foil wrap in her lap. She’d been craving one of these for weeks.
“I’ll have someone check on you tomorrow.” Kaia turned to go.
“Huh? Oh, no, I’ll be fine to bring you breakfast tomorrow.”
“The doctor—the real doctor, not that monster—said you should be in bed for forty-eight hours. You can use the crutch to get to the bathroom, but that’s it. Got it?”
Alina was too tired and too groggy to argue with her boss of all people. “All right.”
Alina stared after her long after the door closed, trying to get the events of the past days straight in her head. Alina’s loyalty would always be with her people—with people in general. It had to be. Which was why she hoped Kaia’s plan to send a cry for help to the outside world worked. After all, Kaia and Orion were supposed to be in charge here—they knew best how to deal with this invasion.
But she just couldn’t seem to look at Kaia the same way anymore. And Threxin… Well, she didn’t want to even think about Threxin. He hunted her down in those halls, dragged her to the medbay, and abandoned her to the hands of that evil uhyre.
But he cared.
He couldn’t look like he cared while that other uhyre was doing horrible things to her. But the fact that he brought her there with no regard to being seen, as horrifying as it was, spoke to his caring enough to help, didn’t it? Was he just repaying the favor?
It took Alina ten minutes to hobble to the bathroom on the grapheneplast crutch left near her bed, but she was relieved to find the carbon splint had been applied well. Shewondered if that was done by the uhyre “medic,” or if she’d been handed off to a human doctor to finish the less torturous part of the job. Alina had a feeling there was some serious pain relief in her system, as it was almost as though the limbs weren’t there at all. She saw them, but they were weightless as she squatted clumsily over the toilet with her leg stretched out at an awkward angle.
Back in bed, she propped herself against the wall and set up her tablet to project onto the wall. She had grabbed a tray from the hydrastation and set about unwrapping the bagel in her lap as theGuy Meets Girltheme song let her forget all the things she didn’t really want to think about just then.
CHAPTER 30
ALINA
Two days later, Alina was just about ready to crawl out of her skin.
She'd been alone save for a nurse assigned to her, Manda, dropping by with meals and bandage checks. The first day Manda was accompanied by a looming uhyre. But later she came alone. The night before, Alina had even dared invite her to stay for an episode ofGuy Meets Girl. Manda stayed for fifteen minutes before hastening back to her shift.
On the morning of the third day, Manda showed up with a hoverseat.
“That’s a little fancy.” Alina raised an eyebrow.
“Mrs. Halena sent for it,” the nurse smiled thinly from the hall at her door, expression tense as she glanced left and right.
