Finding Jess (First Wave)

by Mikayla Lane

  It was more likely that she’d finally cracked and gone insane. It took long enough; she thought. She could have used this kind of delusion years ago, not when this is finally going to be over, for her anyway.

  Jess looked behind her worriedly when she heard footsteps and had to fight not to flinch at the sight of Julou V’Dua coming towards her. It was time.

  She didn’t resist him when he untied her and pulled her to her feet, or when he pulled her head back roughly by her hair and placed the blade against her neck. There was no point in fighting the inevitable. She would live or die in this moment. She just hoped that if they were here, that they didn’t get hurt trying to save her.

  Julou leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Remember what I said little one. And no matter what, don’t move. Please.”

  “I won’t Julou. Thank you… for everything.” Jess whispered back to him.

  He gently kissed her temple and with his voice breaking, he whispered, “May your God save us both.” He drew the blade quickly across her neck before he changed his mind. Willing himself to feel numb, he fought against the urge to help her and allowed her body to fall to the ground.

  The pain wasn’t as bad as she had expected it to be; more like a dull burning. She could feel the blood running down her chest and the impact of the ground when she hit, but after that, things seemed to happen more in a hazy kind of unreality.

  A beautiful Black Panther had come up to her and licked her hand; its large black eyes twinkling with intelligence. Then the man she’d known was there was by her side and applying band aids to her neck. She petted the soft looking fur of the panther, realizing only distantly that her gift had risen instantly. The energy it took made her feel even lighter headed, making it seem like it took forever to turn her head to the man kneeling above her.

  She looked up into the kindest and most beautiful pair of brown eyes she’d ever seen. His black hair fell in adorable waves across his forehead as he looked intently at her neck. She couldn’t help but smile at how seriously he looked.

  She felt herself being lifted up into her hero’s arms… a flash, and she felt more disoriented, then another flash, and she felt a soft, warm mattress beneath her.

  If her head hadn’t already been spinning, the activity around her would have made it start. Her hero yelled orders, and she felt multiple hands on her arms and legs. She really wanted to open her eyes and look around, but they just didn’t want to cooperate with her.

  She could hear a gasp and soft sobbing coming from somewhere behind her hero and wondered why someone was upset. Was someone here hurt with her?

  “Amalaya, I need to put you to sleep for a little while, so we can make you better. Please don’t be afraid, I swear I would never harm you. Cari is here and will be with you when you wake up.” He whispered into her ear, before she lost consciousness.

  “Anyone who doesn’t need to be in here right now needs to get out, besides Cari and Councilor Lakatis.” Amun ordered and waited until everyone, but his two assistants were left in the room.

  “We need full body scans, and replace the medibands now.” Amun ordered as he began running scans himself.

  “Is she alive?” Cari asked quietly.

  “Yes, she’s very much alive. She’s lost a lot of blood, but we’ve given her a blood booster which is rapidly replicating what she’s lost. I need to finish running tests before I know for sure what other damage we’re looking at.” Amun answered absently.

  “Can I sit with her and hold her hand?”

  “Of course.” Amun grabbed a chair from the other side of the room and placed it next to Jess’s bedside for Cari.

  Cari and Caretia were silently watching Amun and his tech’s when Scaden and Randor came into the room. Scaden went to his mate and held her hand in his own, while Randor stood back with Councilor Lakatis.

  Almost an hour later Amun excused his two tech’s and stood in front of Caretia in a formal fashion.

  “Ma’am, she is the daughter of Dargan Ratroya. The file says that her great father Thorman Ratroya, and her uncle Lagor Ratroya is still alive. Lagor is currently stationed on the Draconia which is orbiting with us, and he should be notified.”

  “I’ll see that they are both notified immediately, Amun. Will she live?” Caretia asked, sincerely hoping that the poor girl would.

  “Yes, she will. I won’t let her die.” He replied to her surprise. She went to make notifications to her family leaving Cari, Scaden and Amun alone in the room with Jess.

  “She’s your mate isn’t she?” Cari asked. She knew she had caught him off guard when he jerked his gaze away from the scans and looked at her with surprise, before expelling a heavy sigh.

  “Yes, I do believe she is my mate.” Amun said simply.

  “Make her happy Amun. I don’t think she’s ever known happiness.” Cari couldn’t have picked a gentler or more caring man to have picked to be Jess’s mate.

  “I will do everything I can to ensure her happiness and well-being.” He didn’t say more because High Councilor Torenson came into the room followed by Reven, Caretia and Gibly.

  “What are the preliminaries on her condition? And how the hell did you save her? That was amazing Amun.” Ivint said shaking Amun’s hand.

  “Not as amazing as you may think sir. The wound wasn’t deep enough to sever a major artery. The blood was coming from a small nick in one of them. There is no way that cut was meant to kill her. Even the nick in the artery looks accidental.”

  “How can that be? Why would they make a big deal about killing her, then not kill her? Did you guys scare them in some way?” Ivint asked Amun.

  “No, we didn’t. I have no explanation sir. And due to the length of injuries, I thought it would be better for her uncle Lagor to arrive before going through it all.”

  “Can she be healed?” Randor asked looking down at the small girl in the bed with sympathy. He had been good friends with her father, Dargan and a part of him had always hoped that they would meet again.

  “Yes, she can be healed. Physically. The scars she received emotionally and psychologically from getting the physical scars, will take longer to heal. We can’t even begin to evaluate her thoroughly for weeks.” Amun knew he could make her completely whole again physically. He just prayed that he could help her heal emotionally as well.

  They waited a few more minutes in silence until Lagor came into the room. The man looked suitably stunned as he stumbled slightly through the doorway. He stood just inside the doorway looking around as if unsure what to do next. Taking pity on him, Caretia walked over to him, grabbed one of his hands and gently pulled him into the room.

  “Lagor, we would like you to meet your brother Dargan’s daughter, Jess. She’s asleep right now while Amun tries to heal her injuries, but you can talk to her when she wakes.” Caretia said gently to him as she led him to the side of the bed.

  At his first glimpse of Jess, the man let out a slight choking sound.

  “She looks so much like my mother. What color are her eyes?” Lagor asked.

  “They are a beautiful light blue, with darker rings around the outside.” Amun answered without thinking, hoping no one caught the adoration in his voice. The sharp look sent his way by Ivint let him know it didn’t go unnoticed.

  “She’s just a baby. I thought you said she was grown?” Lagor asked slightly terrified at the thought of taking care of a small child by himself with only his father to help.

  “She’s a fully grown woman. I can put her age between twenty-two and twenty-five years." Amun replied quickly. He didn’t want anyone to think she wasn’t old enough to make her own decisions.

  “But she’s so small. Is she that sick? Can you make her better?” Lagor didn’t know anything about the child, but no matter how old she was; she was his family; his brother’s daughter. He wanted to spend time with her and get to know her.

  “This is a good time to talk about her treatment and care. I will be as delicate as I can regarding her inj
uries, if any of think you can’t handle listening to this, then you need to leave now as even I can stomach saying this only once.” Amun looked as seriously as he could at those in the room. He would not ever repeat all of this again. The thought of it all so crippling to him emotionally that he had to force it to the back of his mind.

  “Just say it as honestly as you can Amun. We have to know what she’s facing in order to help her. She’s obviously a strong girl, or she wouldn’t still be here; we'll help her get through this.” Cari said, squeezing Jess’s hand.

  Amun nodded. “Her legs were obviously broken; the left at least eight times and the right eleven. There is no way that we can save the bones, or heal them. I’ve already started the cloning process and have new bones growing. It will take at least five moon cycles before they are ready. And it will take months of work to get her used to walking on legs that aren’t damaged any longer.”

  “Her internal female organs are so mutilated that they have to be removed and new ones grown. Other female parts and the rectum have so much scar tissue that it will take weeks to remove it all. Four ribs have been broken so many times they will also have to be replaced, as well as two bones in her left hand, seven in her right, nine in her right foot, one in the left.”

  Uncle Randor caught Caretia as she started to sink to the floor and led her over to a chair to sit down.

  “Her liver and a lung are also on the verge of shutting down and need to be replaced. She is severely malnourished and dehydrated and will need to get used to eating and drinking water regularly in order to increase the size of her stomach slowly. Surgery needs to start immediately in order to start her healing process.”

  “The surgeries will have to be done daily in order of the severity of the injuries and as the cloning process is completed on each organ and bone. The sooner we can remove all physical reminders of what she went through the sooner we can start on the emotional scars she will have as well.”

  “We have set this room up for her here in MedLab to make her as comfortable as possible while still being able to monitor her condition constantly. Until all the transplants are complete her condition is unstable, and she needs to be under constant care.”

  Amun hoped like hell no one wanted details of her internal and female injuries. There’s no way he could explain how those injuries could occur without losing his composure completely. The things they did to her made him physically ill and made him want to hold her and protect her from the memories.

  “I don’t understand. I was just told that she was found on Earth, and my brother was dead. What the hell happened to her?” Lagor asked in horror at the extent of the girl’s injuries. It sounded like she’d been someone’s sparring dummy. No… it couldn’t be… not his brother’s daughter.

  “Is she the captive we’ve been looking for? The crafter that saved Cari?” He asked in fear. He had assumed she was the woman Balduen had been looking for.

  “I’m so sorry they didn’t tell you that Lagor. Yes, it’s the one who was a captive.” Ivint said softly.

  “They did this to her?” He gritted out between his teeth; his fists clenched tightly at his sides. No one needed to ask who the 'they' was that he was referring to.

  “Lagor, maybe we should go talk about this in the conference room. I can explain to you everything we know right now without worrying about waking her up.” Reven grabbed hold of Lagor’s arm and gently but quickly led him from the room.

  “She won’t be able to speak until tomorrow, and I had planned to keep her sedated until then while we work on her. I will notify Councilor Torenson and Cari when I allow her to awaken.” Amun wanted to get started immediately and wasn’t about to remove her dress until everyone was out of the room.

  “I want to be notified at every stage of her treatment, and I want a full report of her injuries sent to my comm immediately. When I go before the Alliance, I want them to know why it’s imperative that we stay and retrieve as many of our people and compatible women and children as we can. This cannot be allowed ever to happen to another one of our women or children.” Ivint almost shook with rage over the female’s injuries, and without another word walked out of the room.

  “I will come by later with Cari. Thank you for taking such good care of her, Amun.” Caretia said as she stood and left the room.

  “I’m going to see about getting with the tact team looking for Balduen. You get hold of me if you need me honey.” Randor told Cari as he left.

  “Cari, I know you want to stay, but I have work to do before I wake her. I want as much of this… gone from her before she wakens. I’ll get you in the morning. I promise.” Amun didn’t want to get into everything he was going to do, with anyone. Not even Jess when she awoke.

  “Alright, Amun; I understand. Please call me as soon as you wake her up.” Cari squeezed his hands with her own as she walked by him and headed out of the door.

  “If you have any questions… about anything, get me on the comm at any hour.” Scaden offered before following Cari out of the room.

  “I stay. She have bad dreams. I help her.” Gibly said before cuddling up next to her side and closing his eyes.

  Amun decided to let him stay since he wasn’t really going to be in the way of anything right now. Entering in his private security code, he sealed the MedLab doors to prevent any disruptions and set to work.

  Chapter Three

  Jess awakened slowly to a man’s voice softly asking her to wake up for him. It was so different from her normal life that she wanted to stay in the dream and listen to the comforting voice. She rolled over on the soft mattress and pulled the warm blanket up to her neck.

  It took several minutes for her to realize that she didn’t hurt as badly as she normally did in the mornings. Rubbing her face into the soft blanket, she smiled to herself at the feel of being warm. She couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t been cold, or clean. She felt so clean. Like her skin was glowing with health.

  “Jess, I need you to wake up Amalaya. Cari is coming to see you, and I’m sure you want to be awake when she gets here.”

  Hearing Cari’s name mentioned Jess popped her eyes open and stared straight into the warm brown eyes of the hero from her dreams.

  His full lips were turned up into a smile that not only reached his eyes but seemed to light up his face and soften his strong jaw.

  “There you are. How do you feel?” He asked softly.

  Memories hit her rapidly, and it took her another moment to organize her thoughts. She swallowed hard testing her throat where Julou had cut her and finding no pain or reason why she couldn’t speak she tried her voice.

  “Who… are you.” She was able to get out perfectly.

  “I am Amun Nassur, the MedLab Commander of the ship Adaria. We are currently on the Adaria, which is a ship of the Valendran fleet. You were taken from the Relian’s yesterday and brought to the ship for treatment.”

  Amun said quietly so as not to disrupt her thoughts. He knew this time was important to help her get her bearings before people came in and bombarded her with questions and well-meaning kindness. He remained sitting in the chair beside her quietly while he watched her process what he had told her.

  “Did everyone get away alright? They had a trap set up for the people that had been following us. Are they all ok?” She asked, keeping her voice low like Amun.

  Out of everything, he thought she’d ask him next, that had not even been on his list. He was a little stunned that her first thoughts were of the people who’d come to help her and not her injuries or food and water.

  “Yes, you were able to warn everyone in time. That was a very brave thing to do.” Amun was charmed even more when she blushed deeply at the compliment and turned her head to the side.

  Jess turned her head and stared directly into the large black eyes of the panther she thought she dreamed about. Unafraid, she reached out her hand when she saw the jeweled collar around its neck and touched its fur. She smiled when she felt that i
t was as soft as it looked.

  “That is Gibly. He is a Sibiox from Valendra. The Sibiox are highly intelligent creatures and because of your gift to him; he can now speak.” Amun told her, reminding her of using her gift last night.

  “He’s beautiful. His fur is so soft, and he has such pretty eyes.” Jess said absently as she stroked the cat’s fur and listened to him purr.

  “Gibly like Jess too.” Gibly rubbed his nose against her arm and tickled her.

  The sound of her soft laughter seemed to startle even her when it came out, causing her to blush again. Amun looked on sadly, wondering how long it had been since she’d laughed; or had a reason to laugh.

  “How did my gift help him to speak?”

  “Honestly, we don’t know anything about your gift or how it works. I would like to learn though, if you’d let me. I’ve learned from Cari that when she uses her gift, she activates a previously dormant part of her brain. It remains dormant until something activates it causing the gift to work. I still haven’t figured out what causes it to activate. We’ve never seen anything like it before, and I’m assuming yours probably works in the same way.”

  Amun noticed that she had been steering the conversation away from her condition. He knew that she had to have noticed the lack of pain and discomfort in certain areas of her body and figured she was too embarrassed to ask about it.

  “Where do you relieve yourself here?” Jess asked blushing furiously.

  “I’m so sorry; please forgive my thoughtlessness.” Amun jumped up quickly and held his hand out to her. After a few minutes when she didn’t take it, he gave her a questioning look.

  Jess looked strangely at his hand. He didn’t expect her to use his hand or something did he? Why was he holding it out? She flushed with embarrassment at her own ignorance of what was expected of her around real people. She hadn’t been around real people since her father was killed. She’d been far too young to remember anything about what the real world was like.