Carefully holding my stick, knowing that if I drop it, it will float away and I’ll have to crawl back to the shore to get another one, I poke at the upper part of the probe. It wobbles precariously, but… Was that a beep? I try again. Nothing. “Beep, you stupid piece of space trash!” I smash the probe with the stick, fully aware that I must look like a crazed Neanderthal. It wobbles, beeps, and splashes into the river, the current rolling it away. “Fuck!” But it did beep, didn’t it? Was it a “leave me the fuckalone” beep? Or a “survivors detected, sending message” beep? I have no damned clue.
“Stupid planet. Moon. Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I growl as I crawl back to the shore. Exhausted, I curl up next to Adam’s body and fall asleep praying for a miracle.
A peck on my arm wakes me. My shriek startles the bird that has just tried to chomp a bite from my arm. It’s not a clatterbeak but something larger, like a vulture. It shrieks back, flapping its large wings as it flies away, but it doesn’t go far.
“We’re not dead yet!” I scream and toss a stone at it. My fingers are a little more cooperative today, except for the one with the scorpion bite. That one’s badly swollen, with foul liquid seeping from the bite mark. Agony lances through me when I squeeze more of that liquid out. “Fuck.” I grit my teeth, seriously considering cutting the finger off, but it’s probably too late anyway. Besides, what would be the point? “Looks like we’re both going to die here, Adam.”
He’s running a fever, his body even hotter than usual. Several times during the night, he moved or mumbled something, always getting my hopes up that he was finally turning around, but his words were feverish nonsense and his movements just a reaction to his dreams. He’s not getting better. I won’t get better, either. It’s night, so the temperature is a little lower than during the day, but my forehead is hot to the touch. Perhaps it’s from the bite. Perhaps an infection finally caught up with me now that I’m at the end of my rope. The vulture squawks nearby and…yeah. That’s it.
I’ve always known I’d die young. I went to all the doctors and tried all the treatments they suggested, no matter how ridiculous they sounded, but I never really allowed myself to hope. Deep down, I always knew I’d die. I often imagined how it would happen—had the will and all the paperwork ready at home—but, funnily enough, dying on an alien moon after being bittenby an alien scorpion never came up as an option. Clearly, my imagination isn’t as strong as I thought.
Blinking away the tears, I lift myself up on my elbows to look at Adam. Even unconscious, he still looks tortured, his features drawn, his teeth bared in a pained grimace. “Adam,” I whisper, my fingers smoothing up his neck. “I need to tell you something.”
I don’t know if he hears me or if he’s dreaming about me, but my name flows from him on labored breaths. “Jai…me…”
“Yes,” I smile, a tear splattering on Adam’s snout. “It’s me. I’m here. I told you, I will always be here. I guess if we die together, then I’m not breaking my word, am I? I just need to tell you that—” An odd buzz sounds in my ears and I shake my head. I need to focus. “I lo—”
The buzz comes back, and with it, lights. Powerful floodlights, bathing the glowing river in artificial white light. And up there, above those lights, is a freaking spaceship. “Fuck.” I should probably shout and wave or do something else to catch their attention, but I’m too tired to even keep my head up. It plops down on Adam’s shoulder, his hot skin searing into my cheek.
I wince as the floodlights find me. “Look at that, Adam. We might not die, after all. That’s some fucking timing, isn’t it?”
Chapter 28
Jaime
Iwakeupina bed. An actual bed, with a mattress, blanket, a pillow—damn, I missed pillows—and a harried-looking Steven sleeping in a chair by my side. I’m sleepy, but not in pain, and a few test twitches confirm that I still have all of my fingers. So far, so good. “Steven?” I try, my throat achingly dry.
His eyes shoot open. “Jaime! Oh my god, Jaime! Fuck! I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t wake up. Jesus fucking Christ, Jaime, never do that to me again!”
He holds a glass of water with a straw to my lips. It tastes clean, not muddy. How refreshing. With the most pressing mattertended to, I manage to focus again. Seeing Steven is great, but it’s not him I need right now. “Adam? What happened to Adam?”
Steven frowns. “The pilot? We didn’t find him, and we had to leave because another solar storm was coming, but if he’s still there, we will—”
“No,” I interrupt him. “The pilot’s name was Pon. He died in the crash. Adam was with me when you found me. Is he…” I can’t even finish the sentence, the possibility of Adam not being alive too terrifying to say out loud.
“Ah.” Steven shifts in his chair. “The Wehdi.”
“That’s what his people are called?” At another time, I’d find it interesting. “Actually, never mind. Is he okay? Please, tell me he’s not—”
“He’s alive.”
The three simple words have me slumping into my pillow as a wave of relief washes over me. Alive. He’s alive. Everything else is inconsequential. “Thank fuck. You arrived just in time. That venomfang bite…”
“Yeah, apparently he was already recovering when they brought him on board. Whatever it was that was smudged over his wound neutralized the venom. He was just weak.” He grimaces. “Well, not that weak. They had to sedate him to move him to the holding cell. Jaime, what the fuck?”
“The holding cell? What are you talking about? What did he do?” It never occurred to me that Adam might have been some sort of criminal. He’s always been so sweet and caring, but I assume even good people can get in trouble with the law. It’s not like the crew of the Supernova are completely on the right side of the law, either. “Why would you do that to him? Adam is a good person.”
Steven watches me incredulously, but someone else responds. A male of the same species as Adam, with a prominent scarcutting through one of his eyes, enters the room with a sad smile. “His name is Rizven, and… He might have been a good person once, I can attest to that, but he’s not himself anymore. He’s dangerous now. I can attest to that, too,” he adds, rubbing his scar.
Staring at him, I realize he’s familiar, and not just because he looks similar to Adam. “You’re the guy from the hologram! Adam—Rizven had a picture of you two together in his cave.” Rizven. That’s going to take some getting used to. “Look, whatever he did, I’m sure he didn’t mean— Oh.” A memory emerges, Adam sliding his fingers down my face over the same spot where this male’s scar is located. It was after he saw the hologram. Before he started crying. “He did that to you. Fuck.” Okay, so this guy has a valid reason to hate Adam, but still. “Hasn’t he been punished enough, though? He spent god knows how long on that terrible moon, all alone. Surely, you could forgive him. I know for sure he regrets it deeply.”
“I never blamed him for it. I never stopped searching for him, either. I cannot express how happy I am that I finally found him, even if it’s not him anymore.”
“I don’t understand.” I feel like I’m missing a vital piece of this puzzle.
“Rokesh is Rizven’s brother,” Steven says, as if that explains everything.
“Yes, and as such, I would like to formally apologize for whatever my brother did to you,” Rokesh says, bowing his head slightly. “He’s not himself, but that is still no excuse. I’m just happy you’re alive. If he had killed you…”
