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“I disagree.” Loka gently took hold of one of her damaged hands. “You almost died.”

“It was a small spark.” Her gaze went slowly around the room. “Where am I?”

“In my quarters,” Loka said. “It was the safest place I could think of, where I could make sure you stayed safe while your injuries healed.”

“Oh! Right.” Heather struggled up on her elbows but then collapsed backwards.

“Be careful.” Loka placed his hands on her shoulders, encouraging her to remain still. “You have burns on your skin.”

Heather winced. “I still want to help.”

“No. You can’t help. You’ll get in the way.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “No, I won’t. I know how the station bots operate. I have one of my own.”

“You own a station bot?” Hoan asked.

“Sort of. He was meant for the scrap heap. He’d been damaged, and I found him. I decided to keep him and repair him. I did a half-decent job. He’s my space pet, but without the fur.”

Loka looked at Hoan. He had no idea what she meant. “You should not tamper with the technology.”

“I didn’t tamper. I reprogrammed him and fixed his damaged appendages.”

“He could also be dangerous if he’s malfunctioning. Your bot could be involved in this.”

“There’s no way Ernie has anything to do with this.” Heather struggled to sit up again. “I should go check on him. He will have rebooted by now. He must be worried.”

“It is a machine. They do not worry.”

Heather sighed. “Ernie is different. He likes me. He’s my friend.” She succeeded in pulling herself into a sitting position, assisted by Loka’s arm around her waist.

“We can go see if your bot is unharmed,” Loka said. “But you remain here until the appropriate repairs have been made to the station and the bots neutralized.”

“There’s no need for me to stay here. I can feel the burns healing.” Heather inspected the burnt ends of her fingertips.

“You had a huge amount of energy pumped through your system. You will feel the aftereffects for some time. I am concerned your heart has been damaged.” Loka resisted the urge to press his hand against Heather’s chest and feel the rhythm of her heart.

“If that’s the case, you would have taken me to the medical bay, and I’d be linked to a heart monitor, not snuggled in your bed, which, by the way, is really comfy.”

“You still need time to recover.” Loka needed Heather to realize what a dangerous situation she’d placed herself in.

“It supercharged me.” Heather grinned at Loka. “You know I can help. I helped out in engineering by seeing that code.”

“Then you went and got yourself electrocuted. That wasn’t helpful.”

“That was an accident. You’d have done the same.”

“I can assure you I would not have done that.”

Hoan chuckled. “Heather did assist us. She was the one who noticed the code. We might not have noticed it until it was too late. Thanks to her, we know there’s an external presence affecting the space station. If it hadn’t been identified and blocked to some degree, we could already be floating around in space. Technically, Heather saved us all.”

She grinned at Hoan. “Thanks. I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“Nor should you,” Loka grumbled, shooting a glare at Hoan. He did not want Heather encouraged to do anything else to put her in danger.

“She knows her stuff,” Hoan said. “Heather’s an asset.”

Loka gritted his teeth. She might be an asset, but he didn’t want to put her at risk.