Supernova

Chapter 3- The Hacker (D'Autrechose)

Ugh. . .everything hurts. . .
   
I slowly force myself to open my eyes and look around at the sterile white room I’m currently in. Hospital. Of course. Explosions tend to attract attention. Someone must have called an ambulance. I make an attempt at sitting up, catching the attention of a passing nurse. I don’t think I’m seriously injured. My wrist is bandaged and I’m sore. . .everywhere, but I think I’m alright.

    “Excuse me?” I say. She looks over at me with a concerned expression.

    “Can you tell me what happened?” I request.

    “Well, it’s only the talk of the town. Of course.” She seems like a gossip. I will probably get the most information from her. “Apparently, there was one of those strange explosives. Y’know, the thing in your house? Well, it exploded, almost took out the building too. Nothing left of your floor, I’m afraid.”
   
    Here’s hoping my insurance covers alien artifact-induced explosions. That is a thing, right? Screw it, I’m making it a thing.
   
“And there was. . .one of those Karborans there. Was she the one that made it blow? She’s been a nasty pain in the ass. Not too fond of our doctors, keeps demanding to see you three. Wanting to finish the job, I’ll bet.”
   
    “That’s Aly, I think. She’s not hurt?” I say. Strange. She was the closest to the explosion.
   
    “No. We found her outside of the building. Did you know those things could teleport?” The nurse replies.
   
    “They’re people.” I say in an annoyed tone. “Not things.” Bitch. I don’t think adding that bit on the end will get me anywhere I want to be at the moment.

    I have to wonder if she will let me out of here or if I’ll have to call someone to bail me out. My question is answered when she says, “If that...she, is with you, then you can leave with her. Micah Price can be discharged as well so long as you are both with this...what did she say her name was? Alyana...Phoxx? Yeah, you can leave with her, but Kelvin Matthews will be here another day, so we can ensure that his bone finishes healing properly.” She explains.

    Ah, medical technology is great. A wound that would have taken weeks upon weeks to heal, can be fixed within a day or two. I’m sure I was more beat up before I woke up, but all that’s left is a sore wrist and a few bruises.

    I attempt to get up but she won’t let me do anything until I’ve eaten and gone to the restroom. A bitch she may be, but she does care about her job, at least. When I’m finally able to get up and leave, I immediately locate my stuff -thankfully my tablet wasn’t destroyed- and find Aly.

    “How the hell are you okay?” Are the first words out of my mouth. Oops. Smooth.

    “You don’t know much about my people, do you? I teleported out of the room.” Alyana says.
   
    “I know that you’re basically raised from birth to be soldiers. Do they not have some ‘never leave a man behind’ concept on your planet- oh wait. You haven’t got one, have you?” Ugh, okay, low blow. But, she’s not exactly my favorite person at the moment. She brought back the asshat who nicked my tech, plus, there’s the minor issue where she sort of blew up my house.
   
    Alyana’s obviously a bit miffed about it, judging by the glare still makes me feel just a little guilty about what I said. After a moment, a doctor gets our attention by impatiently clearing her throat. “Excuse me. Since you’re awake, the police want to file a report on what happened.” She tells me.

    After a brief interview that involves mostly me denying numerous variations of the phrase “Did the Karboran intentionally blow up your house?”, I ask where Dickhead -I mean Kell- and Micah are. We’re shown to a room that the boys share. Micah is awake and looks fine other than a couple scrapes and bruises that were probably more severe a while ago, while Kell has his left arm in a sling and looks a little dopey due to the pain meds he’s on. At least they’re both alive.