Grunn still hovered next to me with an expectant expression on his rhinoceros-shaped face. I glared at him too, but I dropped the growl and waited. Ysa was walking Da’vi through her domain and giving basic explanations of the systems. I kept the pair carefully in sight, but I did not enter.I just hovered there on the threshold, ready to burst across the room if I needed to.
Thankfully, Grunn shuffled off to get back to work, and Da’vi did not stay very long. After his tour, he fielded some questions about his own ship’s engine, but he was awfully tight-lipped. I shot Ysa a look, silently offering to beat it out of the male, but either she ignored me or she did not understand.
As he departed, the Kertinal engineer paused at my side and tilted his head back to glance at the many pipes and ducts that ran across the engine room’s ceiling. “If your system malfunctions are caused by a living entity, not damage, have you tried calibrating the biosensors to detect it?”
I froze as I considered what he said rather than leaping to the first instinctive answer: Yeah, of course she’d used the biosensors; she wasn’t an idiot. It hadn’t worked. I’d heard her swear over the false positives and overwhelming results. I’d assumed that if our biosensors couldn’t pick it up right now, they never would.
A sweep of the ship was also pointless, even with all crew members combing ducts, hallways, and rooms. This creature had managed to hide for months, and it was all liquid and soft. It could go places no male could fit, and not even a small human female or someone of Ysa’s size could follow it wherever it went. It had hitchhiked a ride aboard theVarakartoomon theoutsideof a shuttle too, so it was capable of enduring extreme environments.
From the expression on Ysa’s face, she was now wondering if it would work and was upset with herself for not thinking of it sooner. I stepped betweenher and Da’vi, pulling all his attention to me. “I will inform our communications officer of both your suggestion and your departure. This way,” I said, and pointed firmly down the hallway in the direction of the nearest airlock. Da’vi smirked at me, but he did not protest, and he did not say goodbye to Ysa.
Once I’d sent him on his way, I fully intended to turn back around and take up my post once again at Ysa’s side. Unfortunately, the captain seemed to have other plans. He called me back to the bridge, and with lead in my boots, I went. I was certain that all he wanted to do was discuss the escaped Shadow Unit gladiator again. Asmoded might have agreed to share the bounty with the gladiators of theVagabond, with Ziame, but hewasextremely competitive. I was certain he hoped to beat them to the capture and renegotiate the deal to our advantage.
When I stepped into the now almost entirely empty ready room, I was surprised to discover this had nothing to do with my ex-colleague. Asmoded was sprawled lazily in his seat, his human mate Mandy at his side. She was not cradling their young son in her arms, which meant she was here to talk business. The only business Mandy got involved in on the ship was if it related to a historic site our mission took us to, or the humans aboard the ship. I was pretty sure that, though human, I was not one of those she considered under her protection, however.
“Thatcher,” Asmoded said, pointing with the tip of his tail to one of the seats at the table. “Sit.” I knew that tone, because Asmoded had addressed me with it on more than one occasion. The tone of a superior officer getting ready to reprimand an insubordinate soldier. It was ingrained in me tosnap to attention at that tone, my hands clasped behind my back, feet gently spread. I did not take the seat, but remained standing just like that, eyes fixed on the distance while my spine crawled with unease. I racked my brain for what I could have done wrong this time, but I was pretty sure I hadn’t caused any brawls or serious harm. Pretty sure.
Asmoded let me stand, not repeating his order to take the chair; I did not take that as a good sign. Mandy began to open her mouth to speak then, but her mate hushed her and spoke for her instead. I knew why: he wanted the words to come from him and draw my anger, if it came. He was protecting his mate because he worried that I’d lose it and attack her. Worried, but not worried enough to send her from the room entirely.
“It’s come to my ears that you hauled Ysathea bodily from the engine room yesterday, against her wishes. Do you have an explanation for that?” He rose from his seat, no longer relaxed, his golden eyes piercing me with a glare. He seemed bigger, his scales rising along his shoulders, his body towering on his long, powerful tail. My eyes flicked from him to Mandy, who regarded me fearlessly with a stern expression. Cold dread washed down my spine; if they were going to warn me away from Ysa, I would disobey, but I didn’t want it to come to that.
“You’ve followed our engineer all over the ship for weeks. Do you deny this was for more than just her protection?” Asmoded continued when I did not answer. I didn’t know how to answer. I was obsessed, but humans had no fated mates, so I couldn’t claim it was that. I was utterly and completely obsessed with Ysa, and that wouldn’t stop even if they ordered me to. It also hadn’t been weeks, but months, and I wasn’t going to correct him on that.
Asmoded’s stare demanded answers, though, and I owed him something. After all, this man had taken a chance on a torn-up, broken man and taken me in. The days after I’d physically recovered enough to leave the med bay had been rough, extremely rough. He had not given up on me when I’d been violent, full of outbursts, full of anger and rage. Until, two years down the line, I was better and somewhat functional, if not normal.
“Ysa was harming herself,” I said through dry lips, my voice rough. “She had not slept in forty-seven hours and eighteen minutes. She had last eaten twelve hours and thirty-six minutes prior to the incident. I took her from the engine room to protect her from herself.” I took her because I’d heard her cry and I wanted that sound to stop; nothing should ever make Ysa cry. There was no way I’d reveal that particular sign of weakness to these two, though. That was a private moment Ysa had not meant even me to overhear.
Mandy stepped forward, fury on her face. “That’s bullshit, Thatcher. You’ve just admitted how deep this stalking of yours goes!” So, Mandy was here because she thought she had to protect Ysa. I could not fault her for that, and perhaps she was right. A very small, rational part of me agreed that knowing down to the minute when she last slept or ate was beyond creepy. If some man came sniffing around my sister that way, I would have killed him for it.
Asmoded’s expression told me he was not nearly as worried about my behavior as his mate was. In fact, my words seemed to have convinced him that I was acting in Ysa’s best interest. “I do believe Ysa has gotten a littleobsessed with tracking down the source of the malfunctions.” There was that word again—obsessed—like it was contagious. Too bad, or maybe lucky, that Ysa was not obsessed with me, but with her responsibility to the ship.
“Yes sir,” I agreed, sensing he was the only one I needed to convince to let me go. It had been a long time since I’d drawn on political skills rather than reaching for anger and violence. I was falling back on habits from my days serving the UAR, both as a soldier and a member of the secret but oh-so-prestigious Shadow Unit—navigating the political waters of the many powerful factions that jockeyed for control of the massive territory the UAR commanded. At last count, that had been nearly seventy percent of the entire Alpha Quadrant.
“I believe Ysathea is getting close to finding the source, and the creature knows it too. She needs round-the-clock protection; it will try to take her out if given the chance.” Of this, I was absolutely certain. That thing the Sineater had accidentally brought aboard was cunning and clever. It had tested the systems for months and figured out who its biggest threat aboard the ship was. Now it was moving to take her out, and that attack in the hallway earlier was only the beginning. If given the chance, it would kill her.
When Asmoded agreed with my observation, the weight on my shoulders shifted, though it did not lift. I did not even care that he was assigning other males to protect her alongside me, in shifts. I could work around that. All that mattered was her safety, and I’d make sure I’d be there no matter what. Who was going to tell on me anyway? Definitely notRaukesh or A’varon.
“Ysa should have a say in this,” Mandy said firmly, but when Asmoded’s stare mirrored my own, I knew I’d won. No brig time. He wasn’t threatening to kick me off the ship if I didn’t fall in line; he was backing me up—to his own mate. I didn’t need to have grown up with a sister to know that was going to backfire on him in private, but that was not my problem.
When I was dismissed moments later, I began walking away with victory singing in my veins. That feeling was crushed when Asmoded’s words chased after me: “You’re reporting to the med bay, Thatcher. I don’t believe you’ve slept, either, and you’re no good to me—or to Ysa—if you’re not functioning at peak performance.”
“Fuck,” I swore, my body shaking as a wave of rage crashed through me. I wanted to turn around and yank his vocal cords from his throat, through the scaly plates that covered his neck. How dare he… how dare he be right. I did need to make sure I was in peak form to keep Ysa safe.
The thought of staying away from her even longer physically ached, though; I was certain that such a moment was exactly what our unwelcome stowaway was waiting for. By now, it had to have recovered enough to try again; I had only harmed it a little. So far she’d been safe in the engine room, but I did not believe that would last much longer.
“No delays. You’re walking directly to the med bay and reporting to Dravion. I will be waiting for his call to confirm you showed up. If it takes too long, Iwillsend the Sineater after you and lock you up in the brig, understood?” I understood that order just fine, and as much as I wanted to show up at Ysa’s engine room right now, I wouldn’t. The threat of the brig was enough to make me behave, for now. Aforce field like the one in the brig wasn’t going to keep me in, though, but they didn’t need to know that. That was my ace.
“Yes sir,” I responded, and I knew the angry tone would have gotten me punished if this were still the UAR. It wasn’t, though, and Asmoded had thick skin. He didn’t care about my attitude as long as I obeyed. The pull to head for the engine room was strong, though, and when I had to choose between going left to the med bay or right to Ysa, my feet almost carried me to her instead of where they should have gone.
Dravion was waiting for me by the entrance to the med bay, his tentacles undulating gently beneath him. Pink and blue, with faint silvery marks, they were far too pretty and delicate-looking to be the part of him everyone feared. The Grolarnx that, by all accounts, killed and devoured, hypnotizing its prey with the third eye at the center of its forehead. Dravion looked shockingly normal—his top half at least—but hedidhave an eye at the center of his forehead that he always kept shut.
“He’s here,” I heard him say, and then the light on the comm device strapped to his wrist winked out. It was tempting to turn around right then and there and leave. I’d done as ordered and reported to the med bay. Ysa was in danger, and I simply could not shake the feeling that before long, even the engine room wouldn’t be safe. At some point, that creature wasn’t going to be satisfied playing around with some fringe systems; it was going to try to take control. Ysa feared that. I was trying to be prepared, but an enemy you could not see or track, and that did not kill or threaten… it was a difficult enemy toprepare for.
“This won’t take long, I promise,” Dravion said. His tone was gentle, kind, but the way his body moved to block the hallway made it all too clear he’d picked up on my desire. Damned empath, the parts of him he’d inherited from his Aderian side. I knew they weren’t supposed to be telepathic, but one couldn’t help but wonder just how deep this empathic gift went. Dravion never let on, never said a thing. In fact, he seemed to like pretending he wasn’t gifted, like one side of the family tree clearly was. I didn’t buy it.
“Have you been sleeping?” he asked as I sat down on the edge of a medical cot and crossed my arms over my chest. I glared because the answer was obvious; we both knew I hadn’t slept in days. I was fine, though. My body could handle it—the nanobots were compensating. He didn’t press for an answer as he circled around me with his handheld scanner, and he didn’t tell me to lie down, either.
He hummed as he moved, one tentacle coiling and uncoiling, a pencil in its grip and ink staining the very tip. Then he sighed deeply and eyed me with some frustration. “It’s a good thing your nanobots make you so durable, my friend. You need at least a few hours each day, though, to rest your brain. Please try tonight. Asmoded listened, didn’t he? There are guards being assigned to Ysa as we speak. You can take a break.”
