“You’re going to be difficult, aren’t you?” Ridgeman said.
Ethan leaped at him, silent and furious, and then fell.
Velda turned her head, saw Brink had a laz out. One Velda hadn’t seen before.
She rushed her, fury fueling her own attack, but Brink was ready for her.
She saw the flash of laz fire, and then nothing.
10
Ethan woke with a sudden,adrenalin-fueled start.
He’d been shot. Again.
He didn’t feel the worse for it, though. Not this time.
There were no sounds of movement around him, no hint of anyone else being nearby, so he opened his eyes slowly, found himself in a med bay.
No wonder he was fine. He was hooked up to a standard Verdant String medbed, and as he sat up, various needles and tubes retracted.
Velda lay on a medbed beside him, still and pale.
He slid off his bed and leaned over her, fingers brushing her forehead. “Velda. Wake up, beautiful.”
He kept his voice low, but she must have been close to waking anyway, because she blinked her eyes open and stared up at him, the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, her lips curving into a smile at the sight of him.
Then he saw her face change as she remembered what had happened, because her gaze suddenly snapped into focus and he stepped back to let her sit up.
“We’re on the ship?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Must be. That’s where it sounded like we were going to be taken. I don’t know that the mine had anything as sophisticated as this medbay.”
She slid off the bed on the same side he was standing, and slid her arms around his waist. They stood for a moment as he looped his own arm around her shoulder, just quietly being together before they faced whatever it was beyond the door.
“Do you think Brink was just messing with Ridgeman about what she was planning to do to us, or do you think we have reason to be worried?” she said at last.
“You mean more worried?” Although he knew what she was getting at. “If we’re on a ship, I’m assuming we’re at least in nearspace, which means there’s no easy way to escape. That alone worries me—whether or not Brink has nefarious plans for us.”
The door opened, something he had been expecting since they’d gotten off the beds, so he simply turned his head to see who was coming through.
“You look like you’re doing well.” A med tech stood in the doorway, eyeing the two of them together. He looked like every med tech Ethan had ever seen, except in this case, there were two armed guards standing behind him, weapons trained on Velda and himself.
“What’s going on?” Ethan asked.
“I gather you’re hikers who had the misfortune of stumbling across the mine, is that right?” The med tech waited for them to acknowledge his words, and when neither of them did, he sent them a bright smile. “Well, unfortunately for you, we’ve run out of volunteers, and it was either end the experiments, or force one of the crew to cooperate. As forcing people tends to lead to great unhappiness onboard, your appearance is serendipitous to say the least.”
“Cooperate in what?” Velda asked.
“Nothing bad,” the med tech said with a smile. “But I didn’t know we had you available until a few hours ago, so I need to set things up. These two guards will take you for a meal while I get busy.”
Ethan had been studying the guards while the tech had been talking, and he had to admit there was no way around cooperating with them for the moment. He didn’t want to take a third laz hit in less than a day. That was not going to help.
And if he was out, he couldn’t protect Velda.
He said nothing when the guards came forward, weapons raised, and the med tech secured their wrists.
The march to the mess was interesting.
