Page 67 of Command

His monitoring drones had been compromised, perhaps damaged in the jump. The permanent vid feeds in commonareas of the ship had also grown flaky. His technicians were working on it, but kept encountering new component failures for which they had no replacements. HowColossalcould be missing components for such simple mechanisms, Threxin did not comprehend. Perhaps the ship had not been run as stringently as its reputation would have one believe.

Threxin had not known what compulsion brought him to Alina’s cabin door for the third time since the jump. It had taken all his willpower to leave her in Lesthin’s hands so callously. Lesthin was not a gentle medic, and his revulsion to humans was well known. But he was efficient, obedient, and competent. The pleading betrayal on Alina’s face when he watched Lesthin have his way with her stabbed him through the chest each time it came to mind.

She had been with him for days. Fixed him. Hydrated him. Slept on her floor for him. Then she redressed his wound even after witnessing him punish two of her kind.

Threxin could not afford to do the same. Carrying her so publicly to get special treatment was bad enough. The humans had been watching, as had the uhyre. Pausing to reassure or check on her would have been worse. He had already made enough mistakes, and was making another now. He had been seen by her human nurse, whom he vetted thoroughly after begrudgingly agreeing to let her come to Alina Argoud’s cabins while she recovered. She appeared competent enough, for a human.

He loitered, fighting the urge to enter Alina’s cabin. He knew she had been in the medbay earlier that day to remove her casts and bandages. For the first time, the results of Lesthin’s work would be revealed. It would be visible whether his medic followed his command, or if the work were sloppy.

Threxin would kill him if it were the latter.

That was why he was outside Alina’s door again thatnight. Threxin simply had to know whether his medic would require swift punishment for disobedience.

He entered.

Alina yelped at the sight of him and Threxin stepped forward quickly, ensuring the door shut behind him so as not to release the sound. She sat rigid in her bed with a carton of yellow strips before her and her face bathed in flickering light. A peal of laughter brought his attention to the tablet, then to the light emitted from it, forming a projection of her Earth show on her wall.

“What are you doing here?” she squeaked.

Threxin stepped forward, and she flinched back. She pulled the ridiculous colorful blanket covering her body defensively to her chest with one hand, resisting as he peeled it away.

“What are you doing?” Her voice shook as he lowered himself to the bed, pushing the tablet and food away.

A warm shudder ran down his spine each time she said his name and he almost snapped at her to stop it.

There was panic in her eyes. Was he that frightening to her?

“Remove your pants.”

“W-what? Why?” She smoothed her good hand over the loose black fabric on her thigh.

“I need to check your injuries.”

“I’m fine. You shouldn’t be here. I just need physio to get the motion back.”

“Physio?” Threxin did not recognize the term.

“Exercises. I can do most of this stuff here in the cabin.” She motioned to a piece of paper on the bedspread.

Threxin snatched it, narrowing his eyes as he struggled to decipher Universal glyphs. “This says ‘walking.’ Twenty minutes. Out there?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Alina extracted the paper from his hand. “I don’t need to do that.”

Threxin’s spikes flattened as he leveled her with a glare. “You will walk, human.”

“I think your guards will have something to say about me aimlessly limping back and forth down the halls, Threxin,” she snapped.

“My guards will say nothing.You will walk.Now remove your pants or I will do it for you.”

Her breath stuttered, and while she moved numbly to follow his command he observed her hand.

It was blotched a faint blue, only slightly darker than the normal deep beige of her skin. He looked to her other hand, then back. No swelling. He observed small entry marks at the top of the wrist where Lesthin had done his work. They appeared relatively unmangled.

But her movement had been restricted. He saw it as she tucked her thumbs into the waistband of her pants. Her right hand gripped the fabric nimbly, but her left did not fully bend or rotate. Threxin narrowed his eyes, observing her tugging the waistband clumsily to reveal the white strip of fabric beneath.

Threxin hissed through his teeth, gripped her waistband, and slid the pants in one drag over her legs, revealing prickled flesh. Alina Argoud attempted immediately to tuck her legs to her chest with a wince. Threxin placed a firm hand on the upper thigh of her injured leg, forcing it straight.

“Do not move, human,” he said.

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