“What the hell—?”
A deep boom reverberated, blasting out heat, dust, and smoke that roared over them like a blistering tidal wave. Rian swerved, but managed to keep the ATV under control. They cleared the blast radius and shot out of the smoke and dust cloud.
“What the freck was that?” Tannin glanced over his shoulder. Another ATV burned through the cloud after them.
“Gas grenade,” Rian snapped in return. “Callan?”
“On it.” Callan lit up with the rifle, sending a spray of nucleon blasts toward the other vehicle. Tannin half turned in his seat, yanking out the single pulse pistol and flipping it to the most lethal setting. If these guys decided to make their presence known by lobbing a grenade at them, they weren’t playing around.
They were coming up on an intersection with no other vehicles in sight. A blast of ammo sparked off the roll bars above them. Callan cursed then returned fire.
“Incoming!” Callan yelled a second before another cylindrical object came down in front of them—closer this time. Tannin grabbed on as Rian yanked the wheel, going offroad altogether. But it was too late. The grenade went off, this time blasting them with tiny rocks and bits of debris, the heat singeing the hairs on his arms.
The smoke and dust was blinding. The ATV jerked to a halt when it rammed into something. Tannin wrenched forward, hitting the dashboard and knocking the wind out of his chest. He pushed away, forcing air into his aching lungs and coughing.
Rian was slumped forward over the wheel. Grabbing his shoulder, Tannin pulled him back against the seat. His already pounding heart slammed into his ribs at the sight of a piece of metal, easily as long and thick as his forearm, sticking out of Rian’s chest.
“Jezus.” He pushed his fingers against Rian’s neck, relieved to find a pulse. “Callan?”
Callan had jumped out of the vehicle and brought his rifle up. “Little busy,” he yelled as he fired at the ATV speeding toward them.
Tannin shoved out of his seat, ran over, and yanked Callan’s nucleon guns off his hips. Tannin lined up the weaving vehicle but instead of aiming for the occupants like Callan, he fired at the engine and wheels. Most of his shots missed as the ATV zigzagged. Then one tire went and a blast hit the engine, making it flash and spark. The vehicle jolted to the left and flipped, rolling over and over until it came to rest upside down.
Keeping his gun up, Callan jogged over. One of the men was pinned underneath the wreckage while the other had been thrown clear. Callan didn’t hesitate as he stepped up and shot both of them in the head.
He came back less than a second later, sweat dribbling down the side of his face.
“Reidar. Both of them.”
“Shite. Rian.” He’d actually forgotten about the captain and the horrific wound in his chest. Tannin ran around to the driver’s side of the ATV, where Rian still slumped, unconscious.
When he saw the captain, Callan swore and checked for a pulse. “Help me get him out.”
Between the two of them, they hauled Rian out of the front and laid up in the back. Callan ripped off his shirt, climbed into the back, and pressed the material into the wound around the metal.
Goddamn, there was so much blood.
“Everette, get your ass behind that wheel and get us back to the ship. Now.”
Shouting dragged Zahli up from her fitful sleep, though she hadn’t been out long enough, because her eyes ached and her head felt heavy. The ear-pounding drone of Jensen’s tools had stopped. Another yell forced her upright. Callan. Something in his tone struck a chord of urgency.
Shoeless, she ran into the passageway while pulling on her T-shirt, meeting Ella and Kira dashing from the level above.
“What’s going on?” she asked as the two of them followed her down to the cargo hold.
“I don’t know,” Kira answered. “Callan said Rian’s injured.”
Uneasiness shot through her, but that was probably an over-reaction. If Rian didn’t happen to be causing injuries, he was usually copping them himself. It shouldn’t surprise her that he’d come home with yet another wound.
She reached the landing on the cargo bay floor and stumbled to a stop, Kira bumping her shoulder as she passed.
There was blood everywhere.
Rian was laid out in the back of the four-wheeler, with Callan kneeling above him, his hands pressed against Rian’s chest where a large, twisted piece of metal jutted out, glistening with streaks of dark red. Blood splattered the front of Callan’s white tank top and covered his arms almost from the elbows down. A trickle of dark red dripped off the corner of the vehicle, down onto the metal grate flooring.
“Oh my god.” Her heart lodged in her throat, blocking it until she couldn’t breathe around it.
Large warm hands settled on her shoulders. On some level, she sensed Tannin in front of her, talking to her, but her whole existence had shrunk to Rian and his very life seeping out onto the ship’s floor.
Kira climbed into the back of the transporter, taking over from Callan.
“He’s not breathing.” Callan’s voice came out raspy as he sat back, wiping at the sweat and dirt on the side of his face, but leaving a streak of red it its place.
A hand against Rian’s neck, Kira said, “His pulse is thready. We need to get him up to the medbay or we’re going to lose him.” She slipped off the edge of the ATV and ran to unclip the emergency hover stretcher from the bulkhead.
Zahli’s brain kicked into gear and she looked up at Tannin, oddly aware of how the steel mesh flooring bit into her bare feet. “What happened?”
His expression was grim. “We made the delivery and on the way back to the ship they attacked us.”
Tannin didn’t need to clarify who they were. He gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze then went to join the others as Kira positioned the stretcher. He and Callan lifted Rian over in one quick movement.
Kira directed the hover gurney toward the freight elevator.
The elevator doors closed.
Zahli didn’t want to hear anymore, had heard more than enough. She shoved past Tannin, ran for the stairs, and made it up there just as Kira guided the stretcher out of the lift. Once clear, the doctor pushed it at a run, all the way down the passage into the medbay. Kira kicked down the legs from underneath the gurney, turning it into a makeshift bed. She pulled down the ship’s life support and diagnostic system—the resus and regen unit—locking it in place on the sides of the cot.
The system whirred to life, beeping and clicking as it ran a diagnostic, but Kira started shaking her head. “This isn’t good. He’s lost so much blood and one of his heart valves is damaged. He might be too far gone.”
Zahli’s heart stuttered. Wishing she could hold Rian’s hand, she stepped forward, but the regen unit surrounded him like a cocoon.
Kira braced her hands against the edge of the diag apparatus. “I don’t know what to do. The machine is sustaining him, but his wounds…”
The doctor dropped her head for a moment, desolation in every line of her body.
No. Denial blazed through Zahli, a fresh burn of pain. Rian couldn’t die. He couldn’t.
“I can help him.” The quiet, calm sound of Ella’s voice came behind Zahli.
“I can heal him, if you’ll trust me.” Ella glided forward, her hands clasped in front her, passing where Sen, Lianna, Callan, and Tannin stood in the doorway.
Kira straightened. “Can you really? You’ll have to bring him back from the brink. His heart stopped beating on its own over a minute ago.”
“Please.” Zahli’s voice broke over the word, but she didn’t care. Her brother was technically already dead. Tannin wrapped an arm around her shoulders as her eyes started stinging, tears gathering on her lashes. “Please, Ella, we trust you. Please help him.”
Ella nodded as Kira tugged the regen unit up. The priestess stopped by the edge of the bed and wrapped both hands around the piece of twisted metal. She yanked upwards, with more strength than Zahli would have ev
er believed the woman possessed.
Ella dropped the debris to the floor, where it landed with a hollow clunk. Rian’s skin had turned an unhealthy gray color, his lips blue, yet the priestess’s movements were unhurried. After taking the ragged edges of Rian’s shirt, she ripped, exposing the extent of his injury. Seeming unfazed by the ooze of blood, she laid both palms over the gaping wound and a moment later, the cot started shaking. Loose instruments on the nearby diag cart clinked together and everything around them vibrated.
Rian’s skin mended just like an MRD would do, except faster. It only took a matter of seconds for the wound to entirely close over, but Ella kept her hands there for a few moments longer. She took a deep breath and then trailed her fingers to the center of his chest. She touched him right above his heart and Rian’s whole body jerked like he’d been zapped with a jolt of live electricity. After that, Ella’s hand traveled to his mouth, where she laid her fingers against his lips.
Rian sucked in a breath with a hard gasp, and his eyes snapped open. He panted, his chest heaving with rapid, shuddering succession. His hand shot out and grabbed Ella’s wrist, pulling her off balance. She landed against the side of the cot, her free hand braced against his upper chest.
“What are you doing?” His voice came out raspy, but he sounded as pissed as ever.
Relief rushed through Zahli in an intense wave, making her feel lightheaded. Luckily Tannin had a hold on her, otherwise she might have done something embarrassing like faint. She leaned into his side and he looked down at her, concern in his tender gaze.
Kira moved closer to the bed, holding her hand-held diag scanner over where the wound in Rian’s chest used to be. Apart from all the blood, he looked fine. There wasn’t even a scar where the metal had stuck out. Ella’s talent was nothing short of amazing.
“He’s totally healed. There’s no trace of any damage. And all his vitals appear normal.” Kira sounded astounded.
Rian glanced over at Kira, pushing the scanner away.
“What the frecking hell is going on?” He seemed to realize he still held onto Ella and dropped her wrist, shoving her back a step as he sat up.
Looking down at himself, he picked at the edge of his ripped shirt, soaked and stuck to his skin from all the blood. “And who the hell bled all over me? Christ.”
“You died.”
Everyone looked at Zahli when she blurted the words out.
What, were they going to hide the truth from him, sugarcoat how close to frecking dead he’d been? No doubt they were all thinking the same thing anyway.
Rian looked at her as if she were the crazy one. “Don’t you think if I’d actually been dead I would have stayed that way?”
“Rian, you really were dead.” Kira’s quiet tone caught his attention and he looked over at her. “By the time Callan and Tannin got you back here, you’d stopped breathing. Your heart stopped beating before I could get you hooked up to the ship’s emergency diag machine. You were gone and I didn’t know what to do.”
Zahli picked up the piece of metal that’d been the cause of everything and held it up. “This was sticking out of your chest.”
Rian took it from her and glanced down at the smooth expanse of skin between his pecs. “All right, this is some sort of joke, right? Because if this was in my chest, where’s the wound?”
“I healed you.” Ella sounded annoyed and it was the first time Zahli could ever remember hearing anything but an even, calm tone from the priestess. Ella reached out and touched the end of the sharp fragment. The whole thing crumbled in Rian’s hand, falling to the bed and floor like sand. “And I can just as easily un-heal you.”
She turned her back on him and strode past them all, a curious wave of energy rolling off her.
“Except you won’t, because your frecking training says I’d have to threaten your life first. Directly!” Rian yelled as she disappeared out into the passage. He slid off the side of the bed and ripped his shirt the rest of the way through, throwing it in the direction of the waste chute.
Though Zahli had been scared to death only minutes before, it didn’t take long for her anger at his arrogant, overbearing manner to resurrect itself.
“Rian, you’re such a frecking asshole sometimes. She just saved your life. Literally brought you back from the dead.”
“Yeah, well no one asked her to.” He brushed by her and came to a stop in front of where Sen, Callan, and Lianna blocked the doorway. “What are you all looking at? Don’t you all have things you should be doing?”
Zahli stormed over to join the rest of the crew, Tannin at her side. “I asked her to heal you. Actually, I begged her. Maybe I shouldn’t have bothered.”
Rian forced out a harsh sigh and pushed his hair back with an agitated movement. Zahli caught a fine tremor in his hand. Maybe he wasn’t as okay as he made out to be.
“All right, I’ll go apologize. Will that make you all happy? End this little mutiny? Shite, since when did that woman take over my goddamned ship?”
“And maybe you could try to be a little nicer whenever she’s around,” she added as Lianna and Callan moved to let him pass.
“Yeah, yeah.” He muttered something else as he headed along the passage to the stairs, but she couldn’t make out the words.
“Well, so long as no one else needs me to hold their guts in for them, I’m going to take a shower.” Callan headed back toward crew level while Lianna and Jensen went to finish with the delta-shield. Kira started cleaning up, folding the hover stretcher back down.
Zahli sighed, thinking of the larger mess in the cargo hold. “I suppose someone should clean up the cargo bay.”
Tannin ran a comforting hand over her shoulder and across her back. “I’ll do it. I think you’ve had enough excitement for one day. Maybe you should get a glass of water and sit down. You’re really pale.”
Finding somewhere to sit while her blood pressure returned to normal sounded like a great idea, but she felt guilty leaving Tannin to do everything.
“I don’t mind helping.”
He smiled and tugged her against him, his lips brushing hers with a tender, sweet, sentiment. That simple gesture made everything right again, washed away the last of the horrible feelings within her. “Rest. I think I can hose out the cargo hold and return the ATV.”
He let her go and disappeared along the corridor as she sighed and sat back against a nearby cot, which reminded her of what they’d done last time they’d been in here. God. She needed him on every level. More than she’d ever imagined it was possible to need somebody.
“What was that?” Kira asked from behind her.
She straightened, heat brushing over her cheeks. Damn it. They were supposed to be keeping their relationship a secret. Well, that seemed to be working out just great.
“What was what?” she asked in return, playing dumb.
“The kissing? Of course, I’m not surprised. You looked like you were a second off jumping him from practically the first hour he was on the ship.”
The burning sensation along her cheeks intensified and she busied herself straightening things that were already straight so she wouldn’t have to look at Kira.
“You noticed that, huh?”
“Yeah. Plus anytime you two are in a room together, the temperature goes up by about a hundred degrees. I swear, you could cut all the sexual tension with a knife.”
She groaned, turning to look at the doc, blushing or not. “That bad?”
Kira nodded, a teasing grin spreading across her face. “I don’t know how you two managed to resist each other for so long. If it had of been me, I would have tied him down to my bed for a week, Rian’s rules or not.”
“I’m Rian’s sister. I have to set the example. Plus, if it wasn’t for Rian, Tannin would have either spent the rest of his life on the run from the IPC or stayed on Erebus until he died.”
Kira came over to stand by the cot, the cleaning all finished. “If you love him, then everything else becomes inconsequentia
l. A spark like the one you have with Tannin doesn’t come along very often, so you should grab hold of it while you can.”
It sounded great, so simple, but she couldn’t think about Kira’s advice, not with everything that’d happened.
“I’m going to go take Tannin up on his offer of resting before I start dinner. Though I don’t know why I’m going to bother cooking. Everyone will just complain it’s not as good as Jensen or Ella’s.”
“They’ll still eat it, though.”
“Of course. Because who wants to hear Rian’s lecture about how wasting food is like blowing currency out the hatch?”
Kira’s expression sobered. “At least he’s still here to give us lectures. I don’t think anyone will be complaining about that tonight.”
“Yeah, but he came back as pissy as ever. You’d think being dead might have adjusted his attitude.”
“I think I’d be scared if Rian ever acted any other way.”
She sighed. “You’re probably right.”
With a wave, Zahli left Kira and headed up to the galley. She couldn’t believe how close they’d come to losing Rian. As annoying as it was, Rian really was the center of their galaxy, holding them together and giving them a purpose. Without him, they’d be cut adrift in the dark with no real direction.
Of course, she didn’t want to let her brother know that; his head was big enough already.
But this incident highlighted the danger he faced, that they all faced, by openly going after the Reidar. Rian had stepped up his offensive and the shape-shifters had responded in kind. It made her wonder where everything was heading, where it would all end, and just how much she’d be willing to sacrifice to stand by her brother and his seemingly impossible mission.
Inside her cabin, instead of going straight to bed she headed into the privy, feeling like she needed another hot shower to wash away the last of the icy chill in her blood for thinking, even for a few brief moments, that her brother was dead.
After she dried her hair, she padded back into the main room, stopping with a jolt of surprise to find a very naked Tannin reclining in the middle of her bed. He had both hands crossed beneath his head, displaying his biceps and pecs, one knee bent and the other leg stretched out, half rolled towards her. Her breath caught, making her throat go dry. Holy frecking stars. Her bed had never looked so inviting.
Atrophy Page 25