Star of Sound

Chapter 16

EVERYTHING IS A blur. There's pain. Whining from Flinx. Metal clacking. Voices. Human voices. None are Heelith. Flinx warbles and sobs. Fade to dark. Am I dead? I don't think so, if I were dead there'd be no pain, right? And no laments from Flinx either.

v

I try to open my eyes. Difficult. No power. Flinx coos and chirps. I'm hot. There's still pain. I want to move. I can't. I try to breathe deeply, I can't. It hurts like hell. Flinx whines louder.

"Jaiah?"

Whose voice is that? It sounds like Nari.

"Jaiah, are you awake?" She sounds worried. I'm not sure if I'm waking up. My eyelids are as heavy as lead.

"Jaiah, please wake up."

I open my eyes.

"Yes, yes, that's good. Can you hear me, Jaiah?" She bends into my range of vision. Her contours are out of focus. I open my lips but I have no power to speak. My throat is dry. I'm hot. I don't have enough air.

"It's all right, don't try. Relax, sleep. You'll be okay," she says. She sounds relieved.

She caresses my cheek and that feels good. I concentrate on the rasp of her caress. Flinx coos in the background. He hasn't abandoned or given up on me. I've done him wrong. I thought he had abandoned me. Instead he killed a damn lot of Heelith during our disconnection. I listen to Flinx and Nari's hand and to darkness.

v

All kinds of sounds reach my ears. Machinery whirrs, air-conditioning, a door opens and closes with a "pfft". Flinx. His singing is exhausted, but also comforting. He's there for me.

Someone shuffles next to me. I'm not alone. I try to open my eyes. My lids still feel like lead. There's pain, but subdued and dull, they must have pumped a lot of drugs into me.

I manage to open my eyes. Where the hell am I? This looks like... like the infirmary of a space ship, a big infirmary, a big space ship.

"Jaiah?"

That's Priar's voice. I crack open my lips. "Hi".

"Thank all the gods in the universe. You're back!"

Priar leans into my line of sight and smiles broadly, exaggerating his cheek scar. His familiar sight is very reassuring.

"Where are we?" I whisper. I barely heard myself. Did Priar hear? Maybe he read my lips.

"We're on board Admiral Delaro's ship." I must show some kind of astonished reaction, since Priar puts a calming hand onto my shoulder. "You'll be fine. Just relax and rest."

"Flinx," I whisper. I want to tell Priar that I'd like to hold Flinx in my hand but cannot manage the words.

"He's right here. Do you want to hold him?"

Good man, he knows how much of a slave I am to the thing.

"Yes."

The moment, Priar touches Flinx, Flinx sounds displeased. "Leave me alone," he's saying. Flinx floats into my vision. There he is, my ugly ball. Mottled, his funnels blackened with my dried blood. Priar places him gently next to my left hand. Flinx touches my thumb. The moment of body contact, Flinx sings reassuringly, happy to be with me. "I've got your back, don't you worry," he says.

Grateful, I close my eyes and let him sing me to sleep.

v

My eyelids are aluminium sheets, much lighter than lead. And yet, before I open them, I listen. I'm still in the infirmary of Delaro's ship. There's the same sound of the air-conditioning, the slight whirring of machines. A human is in the room too. I listen to the person's breathing. It's Nari, not Priar. I listen to Flinx. He sounds content, perhaps a bit bored. My chest and belly are saturated with the pain of a thousand little needles. What exactly have they shot me with? Projectiles? Laser? I'm not sure.