“Be cool,” she said, jumping up on a gurney that was obviously made for someone taller. She tugged her sweater over her head, leaving her in a black bra, and twisted her head so she could see her arm.
The wound looked clean—it was just an angry dark red burn slashing across her upper arm. “I guess I didn’t duck fast enough,” she said.
“Me neither.” Rose had an almost identical scar down her right arm.
“It stings, but not too bad,” Kaitlin said.
A second blue guy approached. He smiled. “I am Torvil,” he said. “I run the medical facility here.” He gently touched Kaitlin’s arm, lifting it to examine the wound. “I think it is clean. The heat cauterized the wound. I’ll clean it and put on a bandage. I’d rather not use our medicines on your species until we have had a chance to check whether there are any unexpected side effects. If it was a matter of life or death, then we would take the risk, but I think you will live without any extra assistance.”
He gently cleaned the wound with a cloth and what looked like water, then wrapped a white bandage around the arm. A second medic was doing the same to Rose.
“That feels good,” Kaitlin said. “Thank you.”
“It is the least we can do. I believe we have you to thank for our continued existence,” Torvil said.
“We were actually saving our planet,” Kaitlin replied. “You were just an added bonus. But I’m glad we saved you as well.”
“You have the thanks of our people.”
Kaitlin jumped down from the gurney and pulled her sweater over her head. Suddenly, she looked at him and grinned. “God, Sam would have loved this. He always wanted to go into space.” She looked sad for a moment, but then the smile was back. “Hewould have been proud of me today. Proud of us all. I wish he could have seen it.”
They left the medical center and rejoined the group. They were seated and someone had brought drinks. They were alone—no blue aliens in sight. He supposed they should think about their next move, but suddenly he was exhausted. He found a couple of empty chairs and dragged Kaitlin over—she was busy examining the door mechanism—and sank down. She sat beside him, but he could feel her restless energy.
The seats were big and comfortable, and he leaned back and closed his eyes, just for a moment.
“I suppose this is what I get for falling in love with an old man,” she murmured.
He growled but didn’t open his eyes. He’d show her what she got for falling in love with him, but later, when they were alone.
“I’ll look forward to it,” she said.
Finally, he opened his eyes and peered around. They all looked exhausted, even Kaitlin, despite her comment.
“What do we do next?” he asked the room in general. “Does anyone know what’s going on out there?”
“No clue,” Jake said. “Our cell phones aren’t functioning in here, so for now, we’re cut off.”
Maybe they could just stay here. It was peaceful, at least.
“And maybe, they’ll take us with them when they leave, and we can go and explore the universe,” Kaitlin said clearly picking up his thoughts.
He opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment, the doors opened and Krevil reappeared, a second Krellian at his back, a woman this time. “This is Kendall, our leader. She wishes to thank you.”
She lowered her head. “On behalf of our people I would like to extend our thanks and an offer to help you in any way we can. We plan to leave this planet as soon as the ship has been cleared,but in the meantime, if there is anything we can do for your people, you must let us know.”
“Why do you have to leave?” Kaitlin asked. “Can’t you stick around for a while?”
Kendall thought for a minute. “What do you know of our ship and our people?”
“Not a lot,” Kaitlin replied. “Melody—” she waved a hand to where Melody sat beside Quinn, “—comes from the future. Well from the old future, which I guess has changed now, and she’s met you lot before. She told us a little.”
“We lost our planet many, many years ago,” Kendall said. “It was destroyed by our enemies, the Bhaxians, who have sworn to destroy our race. The reasons are lost in time, but there has always been enmity between us. We managed to flee our dying planet on this ship, carrying with us a database of not only our lost people, but also our fauna and flora—everything we need to build a new home in the image of our old planet.
“Since then, we have been searching for that new home. We saw your planet from afar and thought that maybe there would be a place for us here, that we could help you, share our technology, and in return, you would give us a corner of your planet. But the Bhaxians have harried us all the way. So far, we have kept far enough ahead, but one of their warships caught up with us a week ago and attacked. We lost them but our ship was damaged. We were unable to change our trajectory, so we are here.”
“What do you think?”Kane asked through his mind. “Are they telling the truth?”
“I think so,”Kaitlin replied.
