Page 64 of Alien Barbarian's Little Human

“I’ll try not to be offended by that. I guess.”

Magog arches his brows.

“You were speaking of objectivity earlier before we got distracted. What did you decide about the plan beyond its admittedly blatant desperation qualities?”

“Quite frankly, I decided that even if I didn’t believe you were my jalshagar I should still take you up on it. Things really are that desperate. Sooner or lter one side or the other is going to find my little hospital, and when they do it’s not going to end well for my patients.”

I shake my head and fix him with a worried frown.

“I don’t really have any choice, and neither do my patients. We have to go with your gonzo plan. I assume you have a way of getting enough cryopods for everyone?”

“Indeed. There are dozens of backups in the facility you recovered me from.”

“Wait, for real? Is there a whole supervillain base hidden beneath the floor or something?”

“I don’t understand what a supervillain base is or should look like, but there is additional space that was not revealed when you activated my resurgence protocols.”

Moving all of my patients at once was out of the question. Some of them couldn’t be moved at al, without being in the security blanket of a cryo pod.

For the next few days, Magog and I ferry patients from the clinic to the ruined pharmacy. Magog believes he can enact the repairs and modifications without having to move the crashed hover tank.

This is good news, because we’ll be able to load the cryo pods on board without giving ourselves away. My anxiety spikes whenwe leave the first group of patients behind, but I remind myself they’re as safe or safer than they were at the clinic.

Thanks to Magog’s cybernetics, we’re able to easily avoid patrols from both sides in the conflict. I understand why I can’t bring myself to trust the Alliance forces. Their uniforms are filthy and patched. Their eyes carry a crazed look of desperation. Like they will do anything to escape Horus IV.

And most of them are injured, sometimes gravely. Their medics, for thde squads lucky enough to have them, do the bare minimum to keep them on their feet and moving. Because if you stop moving on Horus IV, it could very well mean your death

After three grueling days of back and forth, Magog finishes his modifications and declares the ship ready. We painstakingly load the cryo pods, then climb into the cockpit. There is, howelver, a lst minute modification to the plans.

“Why is she not in a cryo pod?” He demands.

“I told you, she’s scared.”

“Please, mister Magog,” the girl says, clinging to my hand like a lifeline. “I’ll be real quiet and I’ll stay out of the way, I promise.”

Magog arches his brows, and a smile plays at the corner of his lips.

“Make sure you attach your crash webbing extra tight, Jessica.”

I can’t help but kiss him.

“Thank you.”

He smiles and starts up the makeshift ship’s generators. I stare at the heads up display, confused.

“Why are you directing the thrusters downward? Don’t we need to move laterally to get out from under this rubble?”

“Negative. The moment we take to the skies over this city, we will be detected. Instead, we will go down into the sewer systems, and teh collapsing building will cover our escape.”

The entire ship shakes. I cling to the armrests with white knuckle ferocity. When I check on Jessica, she seems perfectly placid. I guess that kid’s been through a lot.

The inertial dampeners kick in, but I still feel the drop into the sewers for a split second. The tunnel fills with smoke thanks to the thrusters, so he switches to sensors. It seems like a tight fit to me, but he has little trouble navigating the difficult confines.

“The defense grid for both sides in this conflict is spread thin,” Magog says as his hands continually adjust the ship controls. “They are only watching where they expect to find ships. The sewers will take us out into an uninhabited bay, where direction is less likely.”

My ears pop as the hovertank enters a flooded section of the tunnel. We cut through into the bay. I can see out the portholes and cockpit glass now. I wish I couldn’t. The dead bodies and debris litter the sea just as they do the land.

The hovertank cuts into a sharp arc, streaming across the sky. Our luck holds out. I stare at the detection panel on our console, but it never activates. His plan is working.

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