Whoever has found me is large and far taller than I am. They tap something in my helmet.
“Hey. Can you hear me?” a voice booms over the coms.
My heart charges in my chest. I gasp for air and strain to lift my heavy eyelids, but I still feel drunk. I manage only a breathy groan.
Someone binds me to them.
The Titan.
I found one.
I manage to crack my eyes open to see stars and my little, dark SunFlux attached to the belly of a larger Solcrue Skysprinter.
Fear rouses my mind as I look up at my captor. I expect a slender male, scales, olive skin, and vehemence in green eyes. I find broad shoulders with blue eyes that glow as they inspect me. And skin like polished metal. His brow creases with concern, like his metal exterior is as flexible as living tissue.
He asks me something, but I’m still coming down from my rush of adrenaline, thinking I’d been captured by the enemy.
“What is your name?” he asks again as he lands us inside a small airlock and closes the exterior door. The moment the chamber pressurizes, gravity kicks on, and my body sinks in my suit. But he doesn’t let go.
“Ae-r-a,” I wheeze.
“Aera, daughter of a CyberGuard Mother and a Titan Engineer?”
I try to nod, but I barely manage any movement at all.
He lays me down on the floor. “I am Evo. You are on a stolen ship. I have limited medical supplies here, but you will survive if you work with me.”
“M- col—ny…”
He kneels beside me and pulls a tablet out of his armored thigh and shows me the flickering map. “Did they send you here?”
“Y-yes.”
“Why?”
“Dying.” I choke as convulsions take over my body.
Evo swears somewhere close, but my eyes slam shut as I try to endure the misery.
“I can’t transport her like this, Rebel. The storm is spreading. I won’t risk it.”
“She’s in shock. Her body is too cold,” another voice replies inside the ship. “Show me.”
The Titan crouches over my violently shivering body. He steadies my helmet and opens it. Then he hangs his head and grimaces. “Yeah, I know. Hypovolemic. I see it.”
He unsnaps and frees my helmet, then rips open a bag and hooks up an IV. “I’m not going to hurt you, but I have to take you out of your suit, Aera.”
It wouldn’t matter if I disagreed. I can’t respond through my shaking. And I don’t care what he has to do. I just want my misery to end.
Evo finds the seals and unlatches my armor. He only takes off the top half, enough that he can reach my arm. I don’t even feel the pinch. All I sense is the burning hot liquid that pumps into my veins.
Then he grabs a bandage and presses it to the side of my head. The pressure of his contact sends out a throb of pain that makes me blink and forget to open my eyes. A tight feeling over my sternum wakes me up.
The Titan, Evo, pinches my skin.
“Stay with me, Aera.”
Evo looks me over and, with one hand, rips a heater out of the wall of the ship and sets it on the floor beside me. “Were you sent here?”
