He won't recover from the poison without my antidote. I nodded to the unGor. We didn't have more time to discuss this. My ship didn't have the resources necessary to help a species that wasn't in our database. If I had to wait for her recovery and then escape a slave ship, that's what I would do to save her. She wasn't some outlaw's daughter; she was my mate.
I stilled with this realization. My mate… was that even possible?
Why my body responded to a different species, I may never know, but I was certain this treasure was meant to be mine, just as I was meant to be hers. When a trill bites someone, it's because we are cleaning our food or marking our mates... She'll never be in danger of my poison again if she takes my antidote and accepts my mark.
I had no choice but to claim her without consent, even before she gifted me with her name, to save her from the poison in the air. Would she forgive me for such a sin? Even if she never did, at least she would be alive. I would have to accept whatever punishment she gave, even if it was to reject being my mate.
The unGor tried to take my treasure from my arms, and I hissed in warning. He lifted his hands and grinned at me, recognizing my territorial response for what it was.
"I'm just trying to help. You may still be able to kill me with whatever last strength you have, but I'm not sure if you'll make it back to the bindle grappler after such a display."
I arched a brow ridge at him. Bindle was translating to a different language than what he was speaking... krelin? A destroyer.
"It's a small attack ship with arms to destroy another ship in close combat or dismantle key resources from a larger ship without detection until it's too late. It will get into the hangar of our ship without detection as it wasn't reported as on assignment, so we'll just return it to its spot in the hangar and no one will care. Traded it with a krelin and Vareo took a liking to it."
"Vareo is the pilot, your brother, you are bringing us to?" I questioned, and he smiled with a wave of his arm to continue towards the destroyer ship.
"He will pilot the ship."
The unGor quickly acted to right my footing as I stumbled, and we finally made it to the shuttle yard. Behind a large pile of broken ships and trash was a ship smaller than a traditional shuttle, but larger than I was expecting of a stealth ship called destroyer.
What stepped out of the open door was even more surprising. This was not another unGor, and he was half my height. I hissed at my escort and expressed my disagreement with this arrangement, "You think I will let a spawnling control the fate of my mate's life?" The unGor wasn't much more than a spawn himself, but this male standing not even chest high was beyond unacceptable. He couldn't have been old enough to know how to fly a ship.
"I'm more than capable, reptile," the boy snarked while cracking his knuckles with a smirk before turning his attention to the unGor, "You sure about this, Gen? Lord Zorn won't be happy that we kept this information from him."
"According to the trill, Lord Zorn is dead. Even if he isn't, we'd be in more danger if we let her die."
"I guess," Vareo said with a shrug. "Load up then. We have to be quick to get this thing back to the loading bay before communications are active again."
"Lord Zorn won't kill us for disobeying him, you know that," the unGor reassured the spawn with strange marks on his forehead and neck. The bird burn behind his ear was recognizable as the same one I saw on my treasure's ankle. A mark of a slave, I thought with growing anger.
"We might wish we were dead when he's through with us. He better be deader than the last time."
They both looked at me for affirmation. "He won't recover from my poison without my help," I assured.
They both sighed in unison like they were of one breath. As young as they were, they seemed to have lived more life than most, and I nodded with understanding. I would trust our lives with these spawns that hold a depth of age their years did not account for. I had no choice in the matter. I would hibernate soon to recover. Whether or not I woke again would be up to them.
The destroyer had two sleeping bays, one on each side of the ship behind the piloting deck, and a small cargo hold that would barely contain enough supplies for any long distances. Certainly not a large enough vessel for being able to make it to the nearest planet without the assistance of a larger ship.
As the ship thrusters lifted jerkily, I also noted the destroyer was not meant for landings or takeoffs planet-side. Its design did not lend to smooth navigation under the atmosphere of the magnetic pull from the planet's core. Using my own body, I shielded my treasure from jostling too much as she had to be strapped to the small cot barely large enough to hold us within one of the rooms.
We made it into orbit, and the unGor entered the small space as I adjusted upright again. He held out a medpack from my own shuttle supplies. I could tell by the mark of the Trillume Galactic Authority emblazoned on the film protecting the adhesive applicator.
"Use this until we get there," he offered.
Taking the medpack, I immediately applied it to Hazel's thigh with delicate precision. Medpacks worked best when applied where there was a large artery to transport the nanobots and support replicating for a faster healing process. There was no telling if it would work well with her species. It was untested by Trillume's scientists, but it was all we had at the moment to help her last until we got to Lord Zorn's personal medbay.
"It'll work to help stop the bleeding. Lord Zorn has used them before," he assured, sensing my uncertainty. A wise youngling. He held out another medpack, but flooding her system with nanobots wasn't going to help. If anything, too many nanobots could be dangerous. It was best to wait until these had a chance to work and be flushed out of the system.
He added when he saw I wasn't reaching for it, "For you."
The younger one with markings came up behind him from the direction of the pilot deck and shook his head with a grin. "You look like shit. Listen to the big guy and take your medicine or we might be eating lizard for dinner."
I nearly laughed, but measured my features at the youngling before staring at him with a serious expression to see if I could make him flinch. "Eat me, little bandit, and you'll join me in the beyond unless you have a tolerance for trill poisoning."
"Not yet, I don't," he challenged, and I grinned at him. He reminded me of myself as a spawn. A bit reckless, but eager and determined to grow strong. I took the medpack and applied it to myself. They were right. I suffered severe internal damage from my oil glands rupturing beneath my scales. The medpack would help, but I would still need to hibernate to shut down unnecessary functions and regenerate broken tissue. The medpacks technology was invented by a scientist that was able to replicate the regeneration properties of a trill after losing a tail or hand. We were very difficult to kill, which was why I was even more frustrated with myself for not handling Lord Zorn more efficiently, so Hazel wouldn't be in the state she was in now.
Hazel, I repeated her name in my mind and hoped that she would grant me the honor of saying it out loud by offering it to me when she woke.
