Page 49 of Meteor Storm

I nodded and he gave me the traditional salute again. “I will do what I can to aid you. And when your human wakes, I will hear her side.”

17: Penny

“I’ll protect you, Natascha,” I said, smiling down at my little sister. “Even better when I come back.”

“Who’s going to protect you when you’re in boot camp?”

“I’ll protect myself. That’s why I’m going. I’m going to be tougher than nails. But you have to promise that you won’t get into trouble while I’m gone.”

“Promise.”

I opened my eyes and saw lines of bluish lights above me on a metal ceiling. It didn’t take me long to remember the firefight on that alien station. The screaming and explosions and the fear of getting swept away in it all was very vivid.

And the knife in my side.

I wriggled my toes, thankful that I could move them at all. So, my implant was still functioning. That was good. I wasn’t in immediate pain, either. I realized I was under a thin thermal blanket when I tried to move my arm. The room I was in was cold, but not unbearably like Thilar’s cell. In the corner was a floating orb that hummed softly and from it came a glowing, orange light. I suspected that was the source of the heat.

Carefully, I rose from a gel-like mattress to try and get my bearings. Looking around, I could see I was in a small, square room the size of my studio apartment on Earth. There were a few stacks of metal canisters against one wall like the room was meant for storage, but at least I wasn’t on the floor. In fact, I was very naked under the thermal blanket.

There was a reassuring lack of uncomfortable weight on my neck that calmed me. I lifted a hand to find that the collar was gone and all that was left was a slightly rough ring of scarred skin where it had been.

At the very least, I was somewhere better than that space port if I was no longer wearing a collar. I wrapped the blanket around myself and swung my legs over the edge of the bed, moving my hand down toward my abdomen to find a raised line of skin where the knife had punctured.

How long had I been asleep if it was already healed?

There was a hydraulic hiss to my left and I turned toward it, straining my stiff neck. Sunhai appeared in the doorway dawning a pair of form fitting pants and an equally form fitting gray shirt.

“Ah,” she said. “You are awake. I knew you would be.”

I sighed with relief. I didn’t know her very well, but she was about the most familiar thing in my life at the moment aside from Thilar.

“Sunhai,” I said, my throat dry and raspy.

“The men are eating,” she said as she stepped into the room. “I said you needed sustenance, and they doubted you’d be awake. But I knew.” She held out her hand, giving me a little bar wrapped in silver. “Monrians… not much for taste. Only nutrition.”

“That’s ok. I’m not really sure I remember what it’s like to taste food anymore.”

I took what I assumed was some kind of concentrated food bar and peeled off the silver wrapping. It reminded me of astronaut food. When I bit into it, it was dense and moist, but it didn’t taste like much of anything.

“Water?” I asked.

Sunhai stepped over to a box that seemed to be acting as a bedside table and picked up a bottle, handing it to me. I popped the top open and immediately started gulping down the fresh water until I was almost choking.

“How long have I been out?” I asked.

Sunhai shrugged, leaning in the doorway with her arms crossed. “Not long. The medical tech very good here.”

“So, we’re on a monrian ship?”

She nodded again and then pointed to the end of the bed where a stack of clothing was folded near the foot.

“They have machine that makes clothes to fit. They gave me this suit,” she said excitedly, showing off the outfit she was wearing, which perfectly hugged her feminine muscles like some kind of Olympic track runner.

I reached for the set of clothes and found that it was a similar two-piece suit like Sunhai’s with a long magnetic zipper down the front of the shirt. It was all made of slightly thicker material as if it was fitted just for me to shield against the cold of the monrian vessel. And, since my sense of modesty died on Mekah Prime, I dropped the blanket to change. I wavered a bit and gripped the wall for balance while Sunhai obliviously wandered the room. Once I was in the new clothes and fully zipped up, I felt like I was about to pilot a ship into battle. It had straps everywhere as if I was supposed to be decked out in weaponry and there were pockets down the legs and on the breasts.

“Suits you,” Sunhai commented. “Thilar said this design would be best. He studied your little cuff thing.”

“It’s good,” I nodded. “Kind of like my old uniform.”