“What do we do now?” Associate Nors asked, as Vosh cleaned up the first aid supplies and my master stowed the still-glowing stick in the depths of his pack, to hide the light.
“We stay here for the rest of the night,” Bryce said. “Get some sleep if you can. We’ll keep watch. Just like before.”
“Won’t all the noise have attracted more attention?” Nors asked.
“Nope,” my master replied. “Geshtoch don’t tend to run towards the sound of gunfire. Maybe they don’t want to mess with trouble. Maybe they assume that whichever Geshtoch were involved in the fight have already dealt with the problem. I don’t know. But apparently, it doesn’t draw anywhere near as much attention as we might expect.”
“These are very strange creatures,” she mused. “I’m going to have to do a lot of reading about all these little details we’ve learned about them.”
“And then figure out a way to get them to stop killing us?” Bryce asked, with exaggerated hopefulness. “That would be awesome.”
◊◊◊
The six of us limping towards the terraforming outpost the following morning must have been quite a sight. After a brief explanation of our presence, the watchtower guard buzzed us through the gate, and then the outpost’s administrator and their nurse met us in the main courtyard. Not even half an hour later, we were on a transporter heading back to the main base, since Henderson had sent one out at the crack of dawn to find us.
The colonel was waiting for us in the docking bay as the transporter came in, along with a medical team and a handful of aides to see to Associate Nors.
“I am so sorry about all the trouble,” Henderson apologised to her – not because any of this was our fault, but because protocol dictated that he do so. “Our staff will take you to get cleaned up, and we’ve arranged some emergency clothing for you. We can, of course, take you to a few fashion outlets to let you get more suitably attired for your meetings – at your convenience, of course. Do you need any medical attention?”
I was curious as to how Associate Nors was going to respond. “I’m perfectly healthy,” she said, sounding just a touch defiant about it. “And I would like to commend your outstanding team for their heroic actions in keeping me safe.” She turned to us with a beaming smile. “This is the first time I’ve been able to see a military unit in action. And Corporal Kade Hill, in particular, was thoroughly impressive. I believed he saved all of our lives, not just my own. And on that note…” She turned back to Henderson. “If we have time later in the week, I’d be very grateful if I could take him out to dinner. To say thank you.”
I blinked as I realised what she’d said. Not ‘takethemto dinner’, but rather, ‘takehim.’ I wasn’t entirely sure I knew what was happening.
My master must have noticed my baffled look, because he cleared his throat. “Uh… I’m sorry, Ma’am, but if you’re flirting with him… he’s not available.”
Associate Nors turned a rather imperious look on my master. “And do you always speak for him, Lieutenant Hill?” The words were mischievous, rather than stern. Had she actually missed the relationship between us?
But then again, aside from the same surname, we hadn’t done anything even remotely suggestive during the mission. And my status as my master’s dimari might have been lost in translation, given the military customs of calling one’s superiors ‘sir’ and following orders. “I’m sorry, Ma’am,” I said, politely following my master’s lead. “But I’m not available.”
Associate Nors looked me up and down, a hint of longing in her aristocratic pout. “Pity,” she said amiably. “I’d best go take a shower,” she said to Henderson. “If your staff would be so kind as to show me the way?” She strode out of the docking bay, head held high, attendants flitting about her like doves.
“Well,” Henderson said, eyeing the rest of us in our bedraggled state. “Seems you made quite an impression. Corporal Hill, Sergeant Bidge, you both need to get to the medical bay.” The terraforming outpost had given him a brief rundown on our condition when they’d contacted the base. “The rest of you, I’m going to need a full report on everything that went down. But,” he added, before anyone could start groaning, “I’m going to order you all to get something to eat, and if you want to, you can grab a couple of hours sleep before I start cracking the whip. I’ll need something on my desk by the end of the day – purely because of Associate Nors’ position – but you’ve been through a big ol’ pile of shit in the last twenty-four hours. And from the brief account of it I’ve heard, you’ve done a bloody good job. Well done. Now get out of here.”
We filed out of the docking bay, and I paused at the entrance to the base, aware that my master was hovering over my shoulder. “Sir?” I asked him, wondering if he needed anything.
“I’m just coming with you to the medical bay,” he said. “Then we can go take a nap.”
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “I can get that report written first, if that would help with-”
“You what?” he asked, sounding almost affronted. “You had a fucking knife sticking out of your arm.”
“And I walked across ten kilometres of desert without keeling over,” I reminded him. “It’s not fatal.”
“You need stitches and antibiotics,” he growled, giving me a light shove to get me moving again. I went – an order was an order, after all – but I was grinning as I did so, thinking his concern to be endearing, but unnecessary.
“Just for the record, I’ve had worse injuries than this,” I told him, as I turned the corner towards the medical bay. Bidge had already disappeared ahead of us, Vosh flitting along behind him to make sure he got there safely. “I had to trek sixty kilometres with a broken collar bone, and then-”
“I don’t care what injuries you’ve tolerated in the past.” My master stopped, tugging me around to face him. “This is an order, Kade. Where time and resources allow, you will get your injuries treated appropriately.”
It was beautiful, how he phrased it. Ordering me to get treated no matter what would have been counter-productive. Ordering me to do it regardless of available resources could potentially have derailed a mission. But making the order subject to ‘available resources’ and ‘appropriateness’ left enough wiggle room that I could follow his intention to care for my health, without conflicting with any other orders I was supposed to be following. I loved the way he was learning to understand me.
We waited for twenty minutes to be seen by the base’s doctor, then I had to sit still while he carefully numbed the wound site. I attempted – just the once – to say that I didn’t need the local anaesthetic, but my master quickly shut that down. “You want to beat your chest and swing from the chandeliers, you can do that later. Right now, you’re going to sit still and be a good little boy.”
I didn’t entirely understand the reference, but it seemed to be something to do with an unnecessary display of toughness, so I shut my mouth and let the doctor get on with his job.
After I was all patched up and the doctor had put a waterproof dressing on my arm, I followed my master back to our rooms, looking forward to a shower and a change of clothes.
But once we got there, he tugged me into his room, turning to face me with a serious frown. “Tell me your thoughts on that mission,” he said.
