Indentured (Book 2 of the Dana Halliday series)

LOW STURVLISH. YOUR OWN HERO. ODDBALL FRIEND.

 We made our way to Liti's room, which didn't take more than two minutes. This was the medical section of the Akula, maybe twice the size of my Sickbay. It seemed minuscule compared to the size of the ship. Liti was in a room near the surgery suite and the main nurses' station.

Gupirik was at the nurses' station, speaking in Sturv Standard to the Akula's surgeon, a tiny, wizened old man who didn't speak English. I waited expectantly, searching their faces, but I detected no worry or alarm hiding behind the medical veneer.

"Still sleeping," the Oploki said to me, as if we hadn't just been snarking at each other.

"But stable," added the surgeon. Gupirik gave him an indulgent look as the little man rambled on in Russian. I looked to Flynt, gesturing at my Earwigless ear.

Flynt listened, antennae waving with a purpose. "He says she's very lucky. The wound in her chest caused a lot of bleeding. That she has amazing...something." He spoke at the doctor, who grinned at his stilted Russian. "Our bodies are amazing? Da. I think he's saying we're hard to kill."

Gupirik's feelers rippled. "She could have reacted very badly to the blood substitute. She's lucky your blood was compatible."

I felt my eyebrows rise. "Aw, Flynt, you let them stick you with a needle? How brave!"

Flynt shuddered. "It wasn't that bad. I guess."

Gupirik continued. "As I'm sure you noted on your scans, Dr. Halliday, the Fenn pulmonary cavity is compartmentalized. Complete lobar separation."

I nodded as if I remembered perfectly, a light dawning in my mind. Flynt looked more confused than he had when translating Russian, so I explained, "He means I can poke a hole in your chest, and only one lung lobe will collapse. I'll go sit with her now, if that's okay?"

Liti looked no bigger than a child in the bed. They had raised the head and foot of the bed so that she was cradled in a mostly upright position. Either the Tirzen information had included that tidbit about not letting an unconscious Fenn lie flat, or Flynt had warned them. She was curled up on her side, oxygen tubing in her nose, various fluids running into her arms, and clothed in a lighter gown than they'd given me. The room was quite cool. She breathed easily, her antennae giving an occasional twitch.

I went to the bedside, automatically trying to read the output from the computer monitor. It was in Russian, of course, making it hard to decipher. She looked stable to my eyes, though. I hesitated, then touched her forehead, brushing dark sapphire strands from her face. Her color was better than when I'd been holding her on the ground, and her skin was much warmer.

I argued for a moment with my tear glands, ultimately reaching a compromise. I would keep my voice at a croaky whisper, and they would only blur my vision instead of opening the floodgates. I leaned down and pressed my lips to her warm cheek, then turned to Flynt.

"She said she had to go to sleep. Some kind of protective response?"

He rolled a shoulder. "Yes, I think so. It takes a lot of energy to be injured."

"Do you know her?"

He was leaning just inside the door, as if unwilling to come any closer. "Our population isn't that small."

"She's in the Order."

"I see that." His expression was enigmatic, but I was too frazzled to think much about it then. "I didn't know everyone in the Order on sight. Ibirran keep to themselves, most of them. Besides, she's younger than me. Likely she's a newer student."