Page 43 of Mazorium Buys a Human

“You’re making sounds. Are you in pain?” Suddenly she disappeared from my sight. “Of course you’re in pain! Let me get you some medication.”

I heard her moving around but couldn't risk shifting again. Then she was back with a vial. She popped it open, but I refused to open my mouth to accept it.

“What…it?” It was hard to speak, but she understood.

“I can’t pronounce the name of the drug, but this is the one Ithorum told me to give you for the pain,” she said, holding the label so I could see it. Unfortunately I was having a difficult time focusing.

“Ith-orum?” Why was it so hard to talk? Why did my chest hurt so much? So many questions and everything Mika said only made me more confused.

“Yeah, Ithorum showed up at the ship after you got us back here and collapsed,” she said, then held the vial to my mouth again. I opened my lips and let her pour it in. It wasn’t long before the worst of my pain eased enough for me to be able to pull in a full breath of air.

Bits and pieces of memories floated through my head.

The station director’s office.

Endless empty corridors.

We were attacked!

Images of my opponents jumped into my mind, making me hiss. That’s why I'm hurt!

I didn’t remember how many attackers there’d been. The gaps in my memory were troubling but also the least of my concerns at the moment.

“Need…leave…leave here.”

Mika smiled down at me. “Don’t worry about that, we already left.”

No, this wasn’t possible. Mika couldn’t have piloted my ship.

She was human.

Humans were helpless and needy, not strong and competent. Mika should be panicking because I wasn’t able to care for her.

“How?”

Mika chuckled. “Don’t worry, I didn’t touch things until something happened. Ithorum showed me how to launch and follow the exit corridor. You already had the ship programmed, so once we were out of the station's traffic, I activated it. Your ship is really fancy!”

Nadia started crying. I automatically tried to get up, but I didn’t even make it to a sitting position before agony made me collapse back down. I had to stifle a moan of pain.

“Woah, it’s way too soon for that!” Mika said. “Stay still, let me get Nadia.”

I sounded a rumble of agreement; it was easier than trying to talk. Mika moved away from my field of vision.

When she came back, Nadia was in her arms. Seeing the healthy baby made it easier to remain still, even though she was still crying.

Mika settled the baby in her lap facing me. Her little head was tipped back, resting on Mika’s chest.

“Look, there’s Maz,” Mika said in the sing-song voice she used so often with Nadia. “Soon he’ll be on his feet again, bossing us around and insisting we eat all the time.”

Mika sounded happy, even if she wasn’t using flattering terms.

I wanted to tell the fussy baby how glad I was to see her, but all I could get out was a soothing rumble. Despite my lack of words, she calmed a little.

I kept up the rumble, and Nadia stopped crying entirely and pressed part of her hand into her mouth.

“Nadia missed you,” Mika said. She settled the baby against my side then moved her gaze to meet mine.

“As best as I can tell, we have another couple of weeks until we get to the destination you programmed in. By then you should be able to get up and deal with landing. Which is good because nothing here is programmed with Universal. I understand not bothering with Common, but everyone has Universal set up as a secondary default except you guys.”