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“He’s not one of my crewmates,” Martin said. “Well, not exactly,” he added, casting a nervous glance towards his two other men. He looked apologetically at Rickon whose face was completely unreadable. “Jasper is the only one that has been part of my crew since I’ve been assigned the command of The Albatross. Two of my former crewmates got reassigned to Coalition outposts. The third still has a couple of weeks to go on a training program he’s taking before he heads back to Earth. Rickon and Terrence were assigned to my ship as replacement by Division Leader Giles Dalton.”

We all turned to look at Rickon, who lifted his chin defiantly.

“I’ve no complaints whatsoever about Rickon,” Martin added quickly. “He’s always followed orders and done his job right. Terrence did show a bit too much eagerness looking at the previous base and this one, but since he otherwise didn’t cause trouble, I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

“How long have you known Terrence?” I asked Rickon.

“Since joining this crew,” he replied without hesitation. “We didn’t serve together before.”

“Very well. We will need to examine the rest of your cabins and your cargo hold,” Doom said in a stern voice.

“Right,” Martin said, running his fingers through his hair with an aggravated expression.

“You ain’t gonna find nuthin,” Rickon said, his previously subtle accent now strongly coming to the fore.

“We hope so,” Doom deadpanned.

Rickon looked irritated, borderline angry. However, judging by his aura, I suspected he might be right. Jasper just seemed in a state of shock. While Doom closed his container, I pulled the other one out of the second closet. Like the first one, it contained organs and tissue.

“No one is to enter this room again until we have confiscated everything, including his computer,” Doom said. “Two of our crewmates are on their way to recover them. We can proceed to your respective quarters.”

“Jasper, you go greet the Vanguard guys and bring them to the room,” Martin said before turning back to us. “This way, if you please. You, too, Rickon. I want this contraband bullshit off my ship. I’ve had a clean record throughout my service. I’m not getting in trouble over some fucking bug organs.”

A thorough inspection of the three men’s respective quarters, of the other two vacant quarters, and of the cargo hold revealed nothing. Madeline, running a deep scan from both outside and inside the ship found nothing, while Martha and Reklig brought all relevant contents from Terrence’s room to our vessel.

“You are not to go back inside the base unless specifically asked by one of us until we’ve sorted out this whole mess,” Doom said.

“Understood,” Martin said with a stiff nod.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Doom added, then headed out.

I nodded at the three humans before exiting the ship as well.

“I believe Martin genuinely had no clue about any of this,” I said pensively. “But I’m not comfortable entrusting the Creckels to his crew. Not unless they voluntarily submit to Reklig reading their minds.”

“I’m not comfortable with that either,” Doom concurred. “I want to find out more from their Division Leader about the reason for assigning Terrence and Rickon to The Albatross. Contact Legion. Let him know what happened and ask for a Vanguard ship to escort the Creckels as had been the original plan.”

“On it,” I replied, beyond relieved.

Chapter 15

Janelle

By the time we closed the sterile chamber we’d lain Terrence in, every muscle in my body was screaming with pain. I had lost track of time, so extensive was the damage he’d sustained. While tending him, my respect and admiration for Jessica had grown a thousand-fold. Her determination, meticulous work, and infinite patience inspired me and pushed me to keep going despite my exhaustion.

“Go rest, Janelle,” Jessica said with that maternal tone that so reminded me of my mother. “I shouldn’t have let you work so hard when you yourself are still recovering. It was selfish of me, but I couldn’t have done this without you.”

My throat tightened, and I felt moved to the core by such a compliment and the deep sincerity in her voice. “Thankyoufor letting me help and for your patience while I fumbled my way around,” I said with an embarrassed chuckle. “I knew you were an amazing Medical Officer the way you so quickly brought me back from the brink of death, but what you did today for this man… I’m speechless. You’re truly an inspiration.”

“Oh sweetheart, you don’t realize what a force of nature you are,” Jessica replied, taking my hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “Yousaved this man. We didn’t know how to free him from that membrane. If it had remained a couple more minutes on his face, Terrence would have been beyond help.”

“But was saving him a good thing?” I asked, drawing a shocked expression from Jessica. “His face is destroyed,” I explained. “His left eye is gone, half of his nose is missing, the muscles of his jaw have been partially chewed up, his hair and most of his scalp have been eaten away, and I’m not even mentioning the damage to his arms, back, and chest. He’s going back to Earth. From what you and they’ve been saying about our homeworld, it doesn’t have the type of medical technology that could give him back a decent quality of life.”

“You’re right. Earth’s technology will not be able to go very far in restoring him,” Jessica conceded. “But he got injured in the service of the Coalition, and therefore of the Vanguard. Technically, that should entitle him to the Vanguard’s top medical care. We could replace his eye and do pretty phenomenal reconstruction work that will make him almost as good as new.”

“But was he really doing Coalition work when he got attacked?” I couldn’t help asking.

Jessica flinched and looked at me with a troubled expression. “That is a very good question. One that I’m sure Doom has been examining from every possible angle,” Jessica said before looking speculatively at the sterile chamber that protected Terrence from the risk of infection. “For his sake, I hope he didn’t get himself in trouble. Otherwise, his physical pain and appearance will be the least of his concerns.”

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