by Elin Wyn
“You chased him?”
Sk’lar nodded.
“I didn’t know you’d been hit at the time,” he admitted. “If I had, I would’ve gone right to you. If I’d gotten to you right away, maybe the surgery time wouldn’t have been so long.”
“Don’t worry about the surgery time.” I reached out and touched his arm. “It’s not like I was awake for it.”
“Your heart stopped beating,” Sk’lar blurted.
“What?”
“Twice, actually. Your heart stopped beating twice. I wasn’t allowed in the room but I watched the whole thing through the security feed.”
“You didn’t have to do that.” My throat grew tight.
“Yes, I did. If anything happened to you, I wanted to be there for you in whatever way I could.” He took my hand in both of his and squeezed gently. I tried to squeeze back, but my grip was weak and my muscles weren’t responding properly yet.
“Thank you.” I didn’t realize how much it meant to me that he was there until he said it. If I’d died on that operating table, I would’ve wanted someone close to me to be there.
We sat in silence together. I enjoyed silence, but it wasn’t often I sat in silence so heavy with unsaid things.
Not sure what else to do, I cleared my throat.
“Do you need more water?”
“Please.”
Sk’lar held the cup for me once more while I drank.
“What day is it?” I asked. “I was in surgery for nearly a day. How long ago was that?”
“A few days,” he answered. “Evie kept you unconscious for the first forty-eight hours to speed recovery. We didn’t expect you to wake up so quickly.”
“But you were already in my room,” I recalled. “If you weren’t expecting me to wake up, why were you here?”
“Just to keep you company. I’ve been reading the news to you.”
“I’m sorry to say that I didn’t catch any of it,” I teased. “What’s the latest news?”
“Nothing exciting since the debate. Reporters are trying to get information about Canter Xent to print,” he said. “General Rouhr won’t give them anything.”
“Good. I don’t want an anti-alien radical gaining fame off this,” I scoffed. “No other news?”
“It’s election day, so there will be news in a little while.”
“It’s election day?” Once again, I tried to shoot up in bed, but Sk’lar stopped me and eased me back down.
“I wasn’t going to tell you. I didn’t want you to exert yourself,” he sighed.
“You weren’t going to tell me?” I snapped.
“Let me cycle back to not wanting you to exert yourself.”
“If I stay calm, can I watch the election?” I bartered.
“Only if you promise not to move. Or yell. Or throw things.”
“Do you think we’re going to get bad news?”
“It’s difficult to say,” he said after struggling to find the right words.
“Why?”
“Since the shooting, nearly one-third of Ankau’s citizens have come out as openly anti-aliens. Who knows how many are still keeping under wraps?”
I closed my eyes and tried to keep my breathing steady.
“There’s no use getting agitated until the election happens.” Sk’lar gave my hand another squeeze.
Until it was time to reveal the winner of the election, Sk’lar did his best to keep me distracted. He read reports from every corner of the planet, asked for advice on settlement security measures, and brought me more food than I could eat from the cafeteria.
When the election results were due to be announced, I couldn’t breathe. If Vidia lost, everything we’d worked for would be for nothing. Dashiell Fox in charge would be a giant foothold for the anti-alien radicals.
A milky faced young woman sat in an official looking office with a datapad that automatically counted all the votes.
With a smile that was too large for her face, she looked at the broadcasting camera.
“The new Mayor of Nyheim is Vidia Birch!” she declared with enthusiasm I suspected was genuine.
I finally felt like I could breathe again.
“At least that’s one thing we don’t have to worry about,” I said.
My energy seeped from my body in a wave. Sk’lar still held my hand. I ran my thumb across his palm and let my eyelids fall closed.
“Don’t let me fall asleep, all right?” I mumbled. There was so much to plan. Vidia would be a bigger target now.
“Whatever you say,” Sk’lar whispered, fingers laced through mine.
Within moments I was asleep.
Sk’lar
Twelve days had passed before Phryne, thanks to some Urai tech and her own resilience, was released from the hospital. She wasn’t allowed to go back to work, at least not to do anything terribly stressful. She was cleared for light duty, essentially clerical-type stuff, and we all knew she wouldn’t hold to that.
Even if I tried locking her in my apartment, which I’d seriously considered.
Vidia had come to me the day before. “What are you planning on doing for her when she’s released tomorrow?”
“Well, since she’s not allowed to return to full duty, and she won’t be happy sitting at a desk for long, I figured I’d try to take her out to do something fun. But simple,” I added quickly as Vidia started to glare.
Her mood lightened quickly. “Good. I don’t want to see her here, at least not today. I want you to make sure that she relaxes. She’s been trying to work from her hospital bed and, while I love her, I really do, I love her to death, she’s getting to be a bit annoying and bossy. I know she’s not going to be happy with not being around right now, especially since I’ve won the election and she’ll want to figure out the security issues and whatnot, but she needs a day of nothing. Got that?”
With a smile and a repressed chuckle, I nodded. “I understand.”
“Good,” she said as she grabbed my arm and held it as she walked me around the office, her office, and out into the hallway. “I’ve arranged a shuttle for the two of you. There’s a secluded beach, almost due north of here, you can’t get to it without a shuttle, or climbing a few hundred feet down a sheer cliff-face. Take her there. Get her to relax and enjoy herself.”
“Are you sure?”
She looked up at me as though I was a fool, and based on the look she gave me, I felt like a fool. “Really?” she asked.
I held up my hand. “Sorry. You know she’s going to ask about who’s watching over you. What should I tell her?”
“Tell her that Rouhr and Vrehx have it covered for now, and that while I know she’ll always do a better job than they will, she needs to be at full-health before she comes back. Do that for me?”
I nodded. That had been yesterday. This morning, I waited for Phryne to exit the hospital.
“You are terrible at your job, you know that?”
I turned to my left, a smile plastered on my face as I watched Phryne walk gingerly towards me. “And how did you get out before you were supposed to?”
“Oh, please,” she said as she hugged me. I returned her hug gingerly, remembering the bullet wound in her lower back. “The only reason I didn’t leave a few days ago was because of Vidia. She basically told me that she’d replace me if I left before the doctors released me. I know she was lying, but still.”
“You didn’t want to risk her following through, especially now that she’s mayor and has a political reputation to uphold?” I finished for her.
She nodded. “Yeah, something like that. So, not to change the subject, but what are you doing here?”
“Oh, you know, I came to visit some of the nurses, see if they could give me a sponge bath. Always wondered what that would feel like,” I said with a smile.
“Ah, I see,” she said with a wave of her hand. Then she looked up at me. “Better not be that little nineteen-year-old though, she’s way too eager to please and she strikes me as the s
talker, possessive type.”
“Noted,” I said with a nod. “Maybe I’ll switch my attention to one of the patients instead. You wouldn’t happen to know of one? Maybe recently released? Recovering from a gunshot wound or something of the sort?”
“Oh,” she smiled at me. “You have a type? You like the injured ones, huh?”
I laughed. “Well, I figured if I was broken, I might go for someone slightly broken, as well.”
She slapped me playfully. “You’re not broken, jackass. Don’t be an idiot.”
I smiled as I picked up the bag I’d packed for her. “Come on, I have a surprise for you.”
“Wait, what? I need to get to work,” she protested as she followed me.
I shook my head. “No, you don’t. Vidia has ordered you to take the day off and relax. She wants you to know that Rouhr and Vrehx are taking care of her security, for now, and that you should take a day to enjoy yourself before you get back to sitting your ass in a chair.”
“She did not say that,” Phryne said.
“Well,” I shrugged. “I’m sort of paraphrasing. But she did still say that you need the day off, so I’m here to give you the day off.”
“I don’t need one,” she protested as I kept walking with her stuff to where I had parked the car I’d borrowed. I got to the car, put her bag in the back, and opened the passenger door for her. She tried to protest, but I shook my head at her as she opened her mouth to talk. “You’re not going to let me get out of this, are you?”
“Not a chance,” I smiled. She got in, carefully, and I closed the door, then rounded the front of the car and got in.
“Where are you taking me then?”
“You’ll see,” I smiled again.
“You know, I hate that smile,” she said. “It always means you’re trying to be tricky.”
I shrugged. “At least when I try to be tricky, it’s done in an innocent way.”
“Bullshit.”
I laughed as I drove. I took her to the outskirts of town where we had set up a firing range. She looked at me, a mixture of pleasure and confusion in her eyes. “What’s this?” she asked coyly.
“Just a place to have some fun,” I answered. “And maybe to blow off some steam.” She smiled that wonderful smile.
As I signed her into the firing range, she looked at the different weapons we had to choose from.
“Stay away from the big ones, don’t want you back in the hospital because you popped your stitches or something,” I chuckled at her.
She stuck her tongue out at me, then picked out five different handguns and a rifle. “Think I can handle these?” she asked me teasingly.
I shrugged. “I guess we’ll see.”
Over the next three hours, we fired off a great many rounds and tried nearly every gun she was able to fire without hurting herself. I even showed her a few of the slightly bigger weapons we had that weren’t personal weapons to any of the team members. I didn’t think that, during any of the time that I’d known her, I had ever seen her smile so much. As she finished off her clips from the Heretic revolver she had chosen, I called in the shuttle that Vidia had set up for us. It landed as Phryne finished off her last rounds.
We cleaned up our stuff, handed off the weapons to the range master, then I took her to the shuttle.
“What’s this?” she asked as we approached.
“The rest of your day off,” I smiled. We boarded and I handed the keys to the car over to the shuttle pilot, Dax. He smiled and winked at me as we passed.
I lifted the shuttle up into the air, punched in the coordinates of the beach, then pushed the shuttle forward.
“Are you gonna tell me where we’re going or not?” Phryne asked as we flew. I looked over at her as she leaned back in the seat, carefully resting her feet up onto the console, making sure not to touch anything.
“Well, since I get to look at you stretched out like that, maybe I’ll hold off for a minute or two longer,” I smiled.
“Ha. Tell me. Now.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Hmm. Well, I guess. Since you asked so nicely,” I smirked. “Vidia wanted me to get you to relax.”
“You already said that.”
“I did,” I conceded. “Part of that relaxation is in that bag behind your seat.”
She jumped and looked behind her. “Shit. I didn’t even see the thing. What’s in here?” she asked as she reached for it, wincing a bit as she turned her body too much.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Mm-hmm,” she hummed. “Turned too much, that’s all. So,” she started, then pulled a bikini out of the bag. “I’m going to guess it has something to do with sun, water, and maybe a beach of some sort?”
“Aww, how did you guess?” I said in mock sadness.
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m psychic or something?”
I laughed. She could do that, and I found myself enjoying that. After nearly an hour of flight, we landed at the beach. I left the shuttle to give her a chance to change, and when she came out, my jaw hit the ground.
She stood on the platform of the shuttle in a magnificent red and yellow bikini. She struck a pose that emphasized the muscles in her legs, the lean cut of the muscles in her torso, and the seamless tan of her skin.
“Like what you see?” she asked coyly.
I had no words, merely a dumbfounded nod. She walked up to me, placed a finger on my jaw, and closed my mouth for me.
“Well, are you going to join me?” she asked as she reached up and kissed me. “We’re here, so we might as well enjoy the time and the privacy.” She smiled as she smacked me on the butt and pushed me towards the shuttle.
I rushed over, changed into my shorts that were in the bag, and jogged back to the beach, where she was sitting just on the edge of the water. It was a gorgeous sight to behold.
Phryne
“One more set,” Evie urged.
“I hate this,” I growled.
“I know. That’s why I’m making you do it.”
I’d been in physical therapy with Evie for twelve days now. We started slowly with simple hand and foot movements from the confines of my hospital bed. I regained my strength more quickly than Evie had expected. At first, she was hesitant to move me to standing exercises so soon. Now she was more than happy to push me to my breaking point.
I took one step forward, planted my feet shoulder-width apart, stretched my right arm to my left foot, then did the opposite. The muscles around where the shot had pierced my back stretched and tightened in protest. I repeated the motion twenty times.
“I feel weak.”
“Like your body can’t take this?” Evie prompted.
“No, like I’m useless.”
“You’re far from useless,” Evie assured me. “You sustained massive internal and muscle injuries. The only way you’ll become useless is if you don’t take the proper steps to heal. It’s a balancing act. Push yourself too hard and you’ll reinjure yourself. Push yourself too little and you won’t regain your former strength.”
“No amount of physical fitness will prevent me from trusting the wrong people.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have to interview potential candidates for my alpha team when we’re done here.”
“That sounds exciting.” I could tell from the smile on Evie’s face that she didn’t understand my meaning.
“Yeah,” I said weakly. “Exciting.”
I carefully selected the members of my team. Those chosen had my utmost trust and confidence. Two of them had betrayed me. Malkin had tried to murder Vidia and I felt certain he was involved in planning the siege on our building. I found out from Tona that Eirellya, Mekinna’s cousin and another crucial member of my team, left the same day I was injured. Apparently, Dashiell Fox made sense to her.
Mekinna was devastated. Eirellya jumping ship put a strain on her close-knit family.
Cyrus was still with me, loyal as ever.
But for how long?
I p
ushed the thought away. If I started being suspicious of my team without evidence of their disloyalty, we’d unravel.
I had Ryx, as well. Ex-mercenary. Mean looking man, but as gentle as a lamb with his five-year-old twin girls. He already gave the alpha team more than I could ever ask of him. It wasn’t fair of me to keep asking. I needed to find at least two more people to place on the alpha team.
“Maybe Sk’lar could help,” Evie suggested.
I straightened up and gave her a quizzical look.
“How?”
“Well, you and he spend a lot of time together. He probably knows what sort of person you need and can give objective advice.”
“We haven’t spent that much time together.” I shrugged off her words. I wasn’t ready for other people to weigh in on the maybe-relationship between me and Sk’lar.
“He spent every day in the hospital,” Evie smirked.
“True, but I was unconscious,” I pointed out. “That’s not what I’d call spending time together.”
“Don’t involve Sk’lar in the interviews, then,” Evie laughed. “I’m not trying to force you into anything. I just want whatever will put the least amount of strain on you.”
“Interviews aren’t physically demanding.”
“I meant emotional strain,” Evie sighed.
“Right. Am I done?”
“Walk around the room a few times to cool your muscles out. After that, you’re free to go.”
After one lap around the room in awkward silence, I turned to Evie.
“Thanks for the advice. I know your intentions are good.”
“You’ll find that most people’s intentions are good.” Evie smiled knowingly.
“One can’t be so sure anymore. The election changed a lot of things.”
“I know. But we’ll be okay. We survived the Xathi invasion, we survived the Puppet Master. We’ll survive the ignorance of the masses.”
“In many cases, ignorance kills more people than the blasters we carry.”
“I haven’t given you doctor’s permission to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders,” Evie smirked. “Focus on one thing at a time right now. Get through your interviews.”