Sweetening the Tea

Part 5

In the communal bathroom on his deck he turns on the tap and lets the water run cold before throwing a handful down his T-shirt. His face in the spotted mirror is half wild. The place where Yachi had held his wrist burns, and he rubs at it absently.

No. He is not doing this. He is going to listen to an audiobook while finishing last week's paperwork so his brain is too overloaded to think about Yachi. He changes into old, non-threatening clothes – a navy and tan affair every grey uncle with a Cartier watch and distinguished liquor cabinet might call classic – plugs in his earphones, and knuckles down at his desk.

Not six pages later his tablet lights up with a message, then another. He glances at it. Yachi. The idea of communicating with them at all makes Ayaan scrub his hands over his face. He gets up and walks in circles to work off his nervous energy. He thinks he sees Yachi calling on his tablet. He sits down. He resumes his paperwork. When he stops, he has calmed down. You are an adult working for the IPL, he tells himself, picking up his tablet. Act like it and respond to them.

Yachi

13:42 I do not know what I did to upset you, but I am sorry.

13:45 Can I make it up to you in some way?

15:34 If you want, I will not bother you again. We do not have to talk.

17:01 [missed call]

17:02 I know I just said I will not bother you again, but I am in a predicament. There is no one else around here whom I know, and the town's clinic is closed today – I tried contacting them with no results. My leg buckled while I was on the ladder and I fell down and I think my ankle is broken. I cannot get up and walk to the office, where I have a chair. I am very sorry for asking.

17:03 [missed call]

17:04 [missed call]

17:13 I am sorry, Ayaan, it hurts. Please respond.

Ayaan spits a vicious curse and fumbles to call Yachi. His hands shake. Four, five, six rings go by. He puts his tablet on speaker, rips a jacket from his closet, and gets his first-aid kit from his drawer. The ringing stops and the tablet drones, The computer you are trying to reach is not answering, and Ayaan dials Yachi again before booking it out of his cabin.

He stumbles through the ship. His ears ring and ring and Yachi does not pick up. Ayaan's chest is a bag of cement and his mouth is lined with cotton. The ship falls away piece by piece. In the hangar, the security officer sitting on a stool and reading a magazine looks up sharply and opens his mouth, but Ayaan flashes his ID card and snaps that there is an emergency.

The officer pulls the lever to open the exit door with a face like he'd bitten into a bitter gourd. "You know IPL vehicles aren't meant for personal uses, right? They're for research trips and rescue missions," he says as Ayaan folds himself into a rover and revs the engine. "If every Tom, Dick and Harry used one whenever they pleased, all of the things would be crashed."

"Your concern is noted," says Ayaan, and drives off.

He is afraid that the greenhouse door will be locked, but when he twists the handle it swings open. He finds Yachi on the ground by the ladder, near the berries. Their tablet is lying next to their head and their sandals are placed in a neat pair nearby. All the sounds of the world compress together and rise up in a faraway, shrill note.

"Ayaan?" Yachi says weakly. They struggle up to their elbows. "It hurt so much, I lay down and closed my eyes. I must have fallen asleep; I was so exhausted."

Ayaan's knees are jelly. "The devil take you, Yachi! Once this is over, I am going to drag you up one of these damned hills just so I can throw you off." He half stumbles over and kneels down to inspect Yachi's ankle. His first-aid kit will be useless.

"I am sorry to have bothered you."

Ayaan grimaces at the vicious swelling. "Don't be stupid."

"I can usually get up on my own."

"I know, Yachi."

"But this time I think it's broken so I didn't know if I could – "

"Shut up." Ayaan is no physician, but that looks worse than a sprain. "I'm going to try and get you into a chair. I'll get it from your office. Give me your keys."

"It is open. Get my water bottle too; it is on my desk."

Ayaan retrieves them both and places the chair against one of the rafts so it does not shift around. "Put your arm around my shoulder – my other shoulder. All right, one, two, up." He grunts as he helps Yachi to stand.

There is a rough, serrated sound, and Ayaan looks up to find Yachi laughing. "This gesture," says Yachi, in a wheeze. "Is it big enough?" The circles beneath their eyes are deep and grey. Their skin is ashen.

Ayaan does not reply. He eases Yachi into the chair. Yachi sucks their teeth and takes deep, shuddering breaths, stretching out their injured leg. After they have drained their water bottle and wiped the sweat from their face with their sleeve, Ayaan says, "I'll take you to the ship. Our medbay is open."

"Are your staff familiar with the Farishi body?"

Ayaan's cheeks heat up. "I don't know. But we can get you a bed and some compresses. And a cast."

Yachi smiles wryly. "That seems sound."

He manages to bundle Yachi into the backseat of the rover and buckle a seatbelt over their waist. In the hangar, the guard stares at Yachi with an open mouth. "You can't – "

"Medical emergency," grunts Ayaan, brushing past him while supporting Yachi. "The auto-sanitisation at the ramp hasn't stopped working, so calm down." He uses the comms to contact the medbay for a wheelchair. Once they are both in there he watches, chewing the edge of his thumb, as a rumpled Doctor Darwish helps Yachi onto a bed. She calls for a nurse and tells Ayaan to get out, patting down the frizz of her hair and adjusting her little owl spectacles. Yachi throws Ayaan a helpless, frightened look, and Ayaan takes their outstretched hand. "Can you not stay?" they ask.

"I want to, but I would only distract the staff."

"You can come back in the morning, Mallik," cuts in Doctor Darwish. She turns to Yachi and says more gently, "You have nothing to worry about. We will treat you, and you can stay the night here."

Yachi does not look convinced, but they let go of Ayaan's hand.

Ayaan does not remember leaving the medbay, but in the hallway is called for a meeting with Captain Seng in one of the conference rooms. She covers him with words like "impulsive" and "irresponsible" and says something about expectations, and lets him off with a stern warning and an extra deadline due after shore leave ends. He walks away chastised but not schooled. When he gets to his cabin he opens The Way of the Mountains and turns the pages without reading them. He does not eat dinner.