Well. This is a brilliant way to start my career.
Chapter Three
Wendy woke up with a sharp gasp, looking at her hands. They were clean and in one piece. She couldn’t say the same thing for her body in the horribly vivid dream she’d just endured.
“Wen? You’re okay. We’re with Layla and Rupex. You’re going to be an auntie in a month or so.” Dax tapped on the glass of his “cell” and smiled reassuringly.
“I want out. I need to get out.”
“One more day, sweetie. This is a lot nicer than the dormitories we used to be in at Metro, huh?” Elio piped up, pulling open his curtain to reveal a mound of snack wrappers on his bed. “All the food we want and a private bathroom and shower. Plus, the media viewers are ridiculous. I think I get over a thousand channels. No Sapien-System stations, but lots of Felid shows.”
“And books, Wen! Just take your personal computer and tell it to connect to CSL.Comet StalkerLibrary.”
Wendy nodded, overwhelmed by the kind attention from her friends. She knew it was meant with love, but it didn’t help. Every other sentence was lost in her brain, slipping through too fast and falling into a void, as if that damned drug had put a black hole in her head.
“You can use the intercom to send for the service droids. Or the old Leonid, Dr. Marcus. He’s nice.”
“I don’t need anything.” She didn’t need anything from the outside world, not food, not water, nothing. She needed something from the inside, or something from Sapien-Three.Yes! An antidote. Maybe a steroid. Something to stop the hallucinations and the dreams. “How do I get Dr. Marcus?”
“Push the button with the heart and paw icon. That’s medical.” Elio tapped the keypad in his own quarters.
Wendy staggered to the wall and looked at the keypad next to the cubby’s intercom system. There were a half dozen buttons, but none of them looked like a heart and paw to her. “Everything is blurry. Which one?”
“Top left,” Dax instructed.
Wendy pushed it and jumped back when it turned red and let out a long, steady beep. “Ow!” She smacked it again out of self-preservation. The beeping stopped.
“Dax! You’re facing her!” Elio slapped the wall that separated his compartment from Dax’s. “He meant top right.Yourright.”
“What did I push?” Wendy asked fearfully.
“I don’t know, but nothing bad. I don’t think anything bad exists on this ship.”
“Who sent for security?” a deep, threatening voice suddenly invaded the medical bay.
Wendy cowered into the corner instinctively. She’d seen the graying Leonid called Dr. Marcus, and she’d briefly met Rupex, a golden tower of strength and adoration who couldn’t stop holding Layla or purring against her.
This Felid was not a Leonid. He was also not in the least bit welcoming.
“I... I didn’t mean to. Sorry.”
“Wrong button. We’re looking for Marcus,” Dax spoke up, drawing the attention of the tall, striped figure standing in front of them.
When the Felid turned, Wendy’s brain was able to have a little processing room. The male was a Tigerite. She could tell by the thick orange, black, and white fur. He was even bigger thanRupex, nearly eight feet tall with long legs, a narrow waist, and then a lightyear of shoulders.
“You set a quarantine security breach distress signal to theComet Stalker’s main log. I’ll be able to fix it, but it’s not a good thing to have on our craft’s records. Especiallythese days.” The Tigerite turned back to face her, eyes almost white as they glowered at her, his voice dark.
“Hey. She didn’t mean to. It was a simple mistake. Her vision is blurry, and she needs Marcus.” Elio slapped his intercom, presumably to summon the doctor himself.
With a huff, the Tigerite left, muttering about mistakes and simple humans.
TALOS WENT BACK TOhis station on the support deck, busily clearing evidence of the breach and explaining the mistake in precise, detailed language.
A human female with blurred vision...
His paws stopped over the screen.
He’d seen humans before, of course, in media viewers and on database computers. The first he’d met was Layla, Rupex’s Queen.
