Page 24 of Command

Something clattered as she stepped forward. A firedagger. Aside from a blaster that had to be the only thing that could make that kind of wound. Alina grabbed it, tucked it into her cardigan pocket, and walked briskly toward the command center. She had no idea where K’riar was staying, but there were always uhyre there and all she could do was hope she’d run into him or someone who knew where he was.

Was it even going to do any good? What was another uhyre supposed to do with no medical equipment? Threxin needed to be in the medbay. That wound was beyond anything they could fix in her cabin. She should send for a doctor. But a human attacked him… How could she be sure another human wouldn’t just finish the job?

Fuck. Shouldshehave finished the job?

It was too late. Alina was already outside the command center, and the door was shut.

The uhyre outside rounded on her, glowing orange eyesflicking to her bloodstained trousers. That was when she noticed the alien was also smeared with it. And behind him or her lay some sort of lumpy pile covered with a tarp. Alina stared, but there was no time to decipher the shape underneath—she turned and started banging the door to the command center with a fist.

The guard moved to action, gurgling in Uhyreish as it slammed the butt of its gun into Alina’s shoulder to make her stumble from the door.

“Please… I have to get… k’riar. K’riar?” she blabbered, eyes watering from pain as she clutched her shoulder.

The uhyre—a female, Alina decided—narrowed her eyes, her head rocking to the side in that disturbing way they had. When Alina stepped toward the door again, the alien grabbed her arm and hauled her back.

Alina’s cardigan fell open, and the uhyre hissed as her eyes dropped to the soaked blood stains on Alina’s chest. Did she know that was her commander’s blood? She gurgled words again, talons tightening on her weapon.

“Shit. Look, it’s your commander,” Alina pulled out the firedagger, intending to explain just how hurt Threxin was and with what. Okay, that was stupid. The female was already recoiling, then snatching the dagger from her hand and pointing the gun at her face, snarling something in guttural grunts.

Alina backed away, pinned beneath the barrel of the gun. How was she meant to communicate with this creature? Anything she said could just set the alien off and end her right there. It was almost funny for a moment—the thought of getting killed trying to help her invader. Karmic payback, maybe.

The command center door opened and Alina saw red in her peripheral vision, but she didn’t dare avert her eyes from the gun in her face. The female holding it said something, and K’riar came into view.

“Oh, thank God,” Alina rushed, stumbling forward but freezing again when the red one’s skin slits tightened to barely visible threads and the spikes atop his skull cracked forward, then slapped flat.

“What is this?” He lowered his chin at her.

“Your commander… He told me to get you. He’s hurt. Threxin.”

The red uhyre was on her before she finished speaking. He grabbed her wrist in a crushing vise and wrenched her forward. Her already smarting shoulder screamed in protest as the yank threatened to dislocate her arm from its socket. He brought her bloody hand to his face and… sniffed, slitted nostrils flaring.

After a long few seconds, the smoldering crimson eyes rose to meet hers, making Alina want to shrink in on herself and never be seen by them again.

“Take me,” the uhyre said.

Alina was nodding mindlessly. “Okay. Okay.”

The female behind them turned to follow, but K’riar waved her off, hissing something in Uhyreish as Alina broke off at a run the way she came.

“Shoq,” K’riar said as they rounded the corner toward her cabin. Alina didn’t know the word, but she understood the sentiment.

If people knew she was helping their invader…

Whywasshe helping their invader?

“This way, K’riar,” she wheezed, opening her door.

“I am not your fucking brother,” he growled behind her.

Oh. That must be what k’riar means…

No time to feel mortified just then. She’d get to that later.

“Shoq,” the alien who was not her k’riar repeated as they stepped into her cabin.

A bloom of crimson had seeped through to the top of the bandage roll in Threxin’s chest wound. The glow underneath his skin had dulled further in her absence. Alina dropped to her knees, pressing her hand to the alien’s chest and her ear to his nose.

“He’s breathing… Barely. I think… I think they got his heart.”

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