Page 5

“Hey,” Roy said. “Can you—is that your sister?”

“Huh?” The boy turned his head, peeling his eyes off the shallow rise and fall of the pilot’s chest. He glanced into the cabin, his mouth tightening. “Yeah. That’s Adria.”

“And what’s your name?”

“Uros.”

“Okay. Uros,” Roy gently repeated. “Can you go talk to your sister? I think she needs you right now.”

Uros shook his head, strands of blue hair stuck to his face. “I can’t leave Cally⁠—”

The floater’s bridge rolled out. A medic in a bright orange uniform hopped on board. She unpacked a diagnostic kit next to the pilot—what did the boy call him again, Cally?—then unzipped the purple jumpsuit, revealing a bruise blooming below his collarbone.

“She’ll take care of him,” Roy whispered, patting Uros’ forearm. “Go.”

After a moment of hesitation, the teenager obeyed, to Roy’s surprise.

Roy stepped closer and flicked a forefinger across his forehead. The medic returned the greeting, then unpacked an OmniMed drone. The metal sphere glowed green, its thin wings whipping open in a blur. The beam swept across Cally’s figure.

The drone flew back, nestling on the medic’s palm like a contented cat. It announced, “Moderate brain swelling. Compromised spleen. Broken collarbone on the left side. Three cracked ribs, pneumothorax not confirmed. Administer 38 millilitres of nanobooster. Prognosis: uncertain.”

“May Aether have mercy,” the medic uttered, unrolling a pack of nanobooster ampules.

Roy’s stomach cramped, spreading pain through his diaphragm. A tide of memories swept his vision.

“Lieutenant Toggio, put the nanobooster down.”

“N-no, the drone said⁠—”

“The drone is not calibrated to Vraan poison! Let him go, Toggio, don’t do this⁠—”

Roy rubbed the back of his neck. After a few flicks to the syringe, the medic plunged the needle into the milky skin.

The pilot squirmed; his eyelids fluttered.

A grunt escaped the medic’s throat, as if the nanobots swarming in the bloodstream, repairing damaged tissues, were just another annoyance at the end of a long shift. “Can you hold him down? I don’t want to deal with a broken needle.”

Roy pressed his palm to the pilot’s sternum, pinning him to the wooden planks. The medic’s thumb pressed on the piston, slowly pushing it through the notches marking every five millilitres. Once emptied, she pulled out the needle and covered the puncture site with a bandage.

“Now, we wait,” she muttered, sitting on her heels. “Shouldn’t take too long.”

The pilot took a deep, hitching breath. His back arched off the deck, his lavender eyes snapping open.

“W-who are you?” He sat up and looked around, his gaze landing on his open jumpsuit. “What happened?”

Roy raised his hands. ”You had a spacefaring accident. Landed in water. I'm the one you contacted on the radio, remember?”

The guy's hands shot to his zipper, manicured nails gripping the golden pull. “Y—yeah, I remember.” Long, blue lashes fluttered as he blinked. “My siblings⁠—”

“They’re on board,” Roy assured him, craning his neck toward the cabin.

A smile tugged on Uros’ lips, the tension in his expression melting like sealing wax. His boots thumped on the deck as he ran to his brother. Adria followed him and jumped into the pilot’s arms with a loud squeal.

“Oh, for Void’s sake,” he groaned. A painful wince scrunched his face, but he held onto his sister, tightening his arms around her.

Uros shifted, observing the heap. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”