Earthrise (Her Instruments Book 1) (10 page)

“Are you sure I can’t be unconscious for this?” Sascha asked.

Hirianthial glanced at him, noted the gray skin inside the ears. “If you want a sedative I can give you one,
alet
.”

The tigraine licked his nose and stared up at the ceiling. “I guess as long as I don’t look at it.”

“Blood bothers a lot of people,” Hirianthial said. “There’s no shame in taking the sedative.”

“If it were only the blood,” Sascha said. “I can deal with injuries in just about anyone else, even Irine who might as well be another me. But my own body? I want my own body to stay in one piece.”

“This won’t take long,” Hirianthial said, opening the bone kit. Most treatment modalities taught in the Alliance core emphasized allowing the body to heal at its own pace despite the availability of technology that accelerated tissue replacement. There were exceptions and broken bones obtained. The Eldritch disinfected the break.

“Please tell me you’re not actually swabbing my bones with something,” Sascha said, his aura frizzing violently green.

“Tell me about your employer,” Hirianthial said.

“What, Reese? Reese’s all right. A little wound up, maybe.”

“So it’s not me in particular that she finds annoying.”

“Oh no, she finds you very very more annoying than the rest of us,” Sascha said, his laugh trailing to a hiss as Hirianthial began to move the bones.

“You shouldn’t be feeling any pain,” Hirianthial said, stopping.

“I’m not, but I can still feel pressure. Just do it and get it over with it.” The tigraine’s tail lashed. “Anyway, it’s because you weren’t part of the plan. She’ll get used to you though, presuming you stay around. You are staying around, right?”

“I hadn’t thought about it overmuch,” Hirianthial said. Talking smoothed out the tigraine’s aura, so as he placed the setting clamp around the calf he continued, “Why, do you think I should?”

“You don’t seem like you have someplace else to go,” Sascha said. “And Reese pays pretty well. If you’re not afraid of hard work she’s a fair boss.”

“And what would I do on a merchant ship?” Hirianthial asked. “Unless you have a habit of dropping large metal objects on your body?”

“No, but as I’m sure you’ve noticed the only reason Reese still has any of her digestive system’s because it hasn’t found an organ bank to defect to.”

A laugh surprised its way out of Hirianthial. He sealed the clamp. “Yes, I noticed. And we’re done here. How do you feel?”

“Like I don’t trust my body,” Sascha said, pushing himself up on his palms. “Is it safe to walk around?”

“Walk but not run. Be gentle with it. Have you had a bone set this way before?” When Sascha shook his head, Hirianthial said, “Don’t expect to sleep much. You’re going to be hungry often enough to wake in the middle of the night, probably several times. That’s normal: your body is burning through your stores generating new cells at several times the usual speed. Eat until you’re sated whenever you’re hungry and we should be able to take the clamp off in two days, maybe three.”

“Right,” Sascha said. “Look, doc, let me give you a tip. In the next few days Reese is going to try everything she can think of to get you to go away. Just ignore her and she’ll make you an offer.”

Hirianthial stared at him. “Why would I ever stay if she wants me to leave?”

“Because she doesn’t really want you to leave,” Sascha said. He chuckled. “Look, you’re exotic and you fascinate her, just like the rest of us. Who doesn’t want to know more about a real Eldritch? But you arrived in her life in a way that makes her feel like she’s lost control, which means she has to get it back even if she ends up forcing the decision in a direction she doesn’t want. Let her feel like she’s in charge and she’ll let you stay.”

“You keep presuming that there’s some reason for me to stay beyond ministering to your captain’s stress-taxed biology,” Hirianthial said. He no longer made the pretense of putting away the medical kit but looked at the tigraine directly.

“Well, like I said, it’s not like you have some other place to go,” Sascha replied.

“And how do you divine that?” Hirianthial asked, careful to project only curiosity and not his alarm.

The other chuckled. “Look,
arii
, I’ve been around a while. I’ve been through times where there’s been no place to go. Not because there wasn’t, but because I just couldn’t, wouldn’t go to the places that were left. I know your patience. It’s the kind you get when there’s nothing pressing pulling you on.”

Though appalled, Hirianthial showed only polite interest. Still, something in his face must have changed enough for the tigraine to see.

“Hey, it’s not like it’s some terrible crime!” Sascha said. “We’ve all been there, most of us. Certainly all of us on this berth. And like I said, this isn’t all that terrible a place to work. We see a lot of interesting places, hauling cargo. Some of them are good and some of them are bad and all of them are new. It’s something to do.”

“I really need to get back to work,” Hirianthial said, finding his voice at last and tapping the kit. “This is what I do.”

“For now, anyway,” Sascha said. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you don’t look too old and your people live longer than tortoises, right? What’s a couple of years... a couple of decades, even! To someone who lives that long?”

“Time is always precious,” Hirianthial said softly.

“Only if you fill it with something,” Sascha said. “Otherwise it’s marking the hours.” He gingerly rolled onto his knees. “Speaking of marking hour, I need to get back to repairs.”

“Don’t let something else fall on you, ah?”

“No,” Sascha said. “Definitely not in my plan. Thanks,
arii
.”

Reese surprised herself by falling asleep, rocking in her hammock with Allacazam burbling the white noise of a brook. She wasn’t sure if that was his way of lulling her or his version of snoring, but she liked it either way. She woke feeling better, if not completely hale, and decided that was healthy enough to go keep an eye on things. On her way off the hammock, she saw a crow form in her mind’s eye, sitting on the top of a dark building and staring at her.

“I’m just going to the bridge. It’s not like I’m going to take over,” Reese said.

The crow kept watching her.

She sighed. “Look, I’m not going back to sleep. I want to know what’s going on and I’m tired of acting like an invalid. I promise not to strain myself, okay?”

The Flitzbe’s sending transformed into a muted wash of silver and the sound and smell of rain. She took that for resigned agreement and petted his wiggling neural fur. “Thanks. If that busybody Eldritch comes around tell him where I am, okay?”

More wiggling. A picture of Hirianthial rose in her mind, surprisingly clear: as far as Reese knew the Flitzbe didn’t see the same way she did, so this was either Reese’s image of the Eldritch or Hirianthial’s. Since she couldn’t possibly imagine that she thought of him in such bright and pleasant colors and with squiggles of gold and deep scarlet around him like a brocade halo, it must be his.

“Right, him,” Reese said. The image of the Eldritch began to glower comically. “Yeah, I know he won’t be happy. But he’s got to learn he doesn’t run things around here. So just tell him where I am, okay? I have things to do.”

Before the Flitzbe could reply, Reese swung herself out of the hammock and headed for the bridge. Halfway there she detoured to the galley and picked up food for the girls. They probably hadn’t stopped to eat. There was nothing appetizing in the larder, but she grabbed a couple of yogurt-coated protein bars and a jug of water and brought them with her.

Kis’eh’t and Irine were still sitting where she’d left them, though both of them had unstrapped their safety harnesses and were relaxed in their chairs. Reese squeezed past the crates of spare parts and said, “Lunch is here. Dinner. Whatever.”

Irine’s ears perked. “Did someone say food?”

“Not great food, but yeah,” Reese said, handing over a bar. She gave the second to Kis’eh’t and found a place between them to sit. “How’s it going?”

“We’re in good shape coasting with the rocks,” Irine said. “Getting in here was a bit of an adventure, but we made it.” She pointed through the small windows at the asteroids in the distance. “We should be fine here until the repairs are done. Bryer tells me our in-systems are ready... that was the easy part. They’re working on the Well Drive now.”

Reese looked at Kis’eh’t. “Sensors say anything?”

“Can’t see anything past the rock noise,” Kis’eh’t said. “We’re hoping if we can’t see anything, they can’t either. It’s not like pirates have Fleet-grade sensor arrays.”

“Hopefully,” Reese said. “Thanks, guys. You did great.”

“Thank us when we get to Starbase Kappa in one piece,” Irine said, but she purred between bites of the bar.

“Did you have a nice nap?” Kis’eh’t asked.

“Surprisingly,” Reese said. “Though now that I’m awake again I wish I was still in bed. I have no idea what we’re going to do now. I spent almost everything I had on the rooderberries.”

“I guess we’ll just hang out and hope for another assignment, then,” Irine said. “That’s worked before, once or twice.”

“And in the meantime, protein bars,” Kis’eh’t said, eyeing hers with distaste.

“Hey, pass it over if you don’t want it,” Irine said. “I’m hungry.”

The Glaseahn grumbled and unpeeled the wrapper.

“What about you?” Irine asked. “Hungry?”

“Nah. I’m not allowed to eat until Lord High-and-Mighty says I can.”

“—or?” Irine asked.

“Or he’ll cut open my stomach with sandpaper and a boot knife.”

“What boot knife?” the tigraine asked. “He doesn’t have any weapons on him thanks to his keepers.”

“I’m sure he’ll improvise with something,” Reese said. “A nail clipper. A butter knife.”

“We haven’t had any butter in ages,” Kis’eh’t said.

“We’ll have butter again,” Reese said and sighed. “I really meant to take better care of you all.”

“It’s not your fault we can’t seem to keep out of disaster’s way long enough to turn a fin,” Irine said. “We’ll get out of this one, boss, and then you’ll write a book: “Rooderberry Torpedoes and Other Strategies for Outrunning Slavers.” And then you’ll get rich and we’ll all retire.”

Reese laughed. “A nice story—” and the ship shivered. She sat up. “What was that?”

Kis’eh’t frowned. “Not sure. A stray asteroidlet from the outer bands? We shouldn’t be getting those right now.” Her fingers drummed the board as Reese watched, and then they stopped and that unsavory gray color returned to the skin around her eyes. “Aksivaht’h! They’ve followed us in!”

“The pirates?” Reese said, rising to her knees and propping herself on the board to look for herself. Two hazy red blips were showing up in the muted gray and black dapple that represented the asteroid belt. “
Two
of them?”

Irine strapped herself back in. “Were they shooting at us, Kis’eh’t, or just trying their luck? If they’re guessing I don’t want to light up their arrays by firing the thrusters.”

“I can’t tell,” Kis’eh’t said. “They’re not gunning for us, though. They seem to be drifting through the outer bands.”

“Don’t these people give up?” Reese asked. “What could they want so badly to send two ships into an asteroid belt? That’s crazy!”

“It’s not that crazy,” Irine said. “We’re in here, after all. And we’ve got their pet Eldritch. Angels know how much an Eldritch is worth on the slave market.”

“If they even want to keep him,” Kis’eh’t said. “If he was spying, they might just want to kill him.”

The thought of Hirianthial’s body robbed of its grace, sprawled on the floor at odd angles with all that white hair tangled and bloody, bothered Reese more than she wanted to admit. “The guy’s annoying, but not annoying enough to let someone else kill him,” she said. “Let’s see if these two get any closer or if they’re just hoping for a lucky shot. And finish eating, Kis’eh’t. It might be a while before you have the chance again.”

The Glaseahn went back to chewing on the bar. When Reese passed her the water jug, the other woman said, “You’re taking this well.”

“No, I’m not,” Reese said. “I’m just hiding it better.” She grinned, but privately wondered. Kis’eh’t was right... she was calmer about this than she expected. Maybe she was just tired of worrying about everything herself? Or maybe the Eldritch had drugged her on the way out after all—

—no, that was unfair. He hadn’t done anything to her except make her admit she needed the rest.

The lift opened then for Sascha. “Did someone call for me?”

“I’m always calling for you,” Irine said, purring.

“Is the Well Drive ready?” Reese asked, hoping.

Sascha shook his head. “No, but only one of us can get at it at this point and Bryer’s the better mechanic. He sent me away before I dropped another crate on my other leg.”

“Your leg!” Irine exclaimed. “What happened?”

“I’m fine. The doctor patched me up and I should be good as new in a couple of days. Though I’m famished. Anyone got any food?”

“Here, take mine,” Kis’eh’t said, offering her half-eaten bar.