Page 8 of Fated to the Dragon Alien

“Oh,” she said, then drew a blank. “Is it because of my quota? Because I’m not—”

“It’s not your quota,” Stavian said. “You’re not being punished.”

She raised both eyebrows. “So what is this?”

“I’m trying to make sense of something,” he said with a frown. “I think you can help me.”

Oh, no. If he wanted her to be an informant or monitor the other miners, she wouldn’t. There was no way. “I don’t know anything,” she said quickly.

“I think you do,” he said.

The lights on the consoles blinked in slow sync. One of the overhead panels flickered again. Cerani looked up, then back to him.

“I don’t. I’m just a miner, like everyone else,” she said.

That got a reaction—just a flick of his eyes. He didn’t move from the console. Just stood there, like he was thinking throughwhat came next. “You are not like anyone else here,” he said. “And you know it.”

Cerani pressed her lips together. She didn’t answer.

He walked to the other side of the room and gestured toward a second console where a swivel seat sat empty. “Come here.”

She didn’t move. “I’ll stand”

“I didn’t ask you to sit,” he said with the slightest twitch of his lips.

She followed him only because curiosity had started outweighing her fear. Thiscouldbe about her lack of sickness, and that was something she wanted to understand, too. He tapped the screen. A log opened. She saw a lot of red symbols, which looked like something urgent, but couldn’t make out any of it, of course.

“These are reports from tunnel set E, your mining section,” he said. “Everyone on your level has higher sickness levels from radiation exposure.”

This was news? Cerani stared at him, not sure what she was supposed to say.

“Unfortunately, level E also has the highest concentration of crystals. You’ve been down there longer than any other prisoner and have extracted more crystals than anyone. Yet, you’ve never logged a single health flag,” he said.

“Lucky, I guess.”

“Luck has nothing to do with your body’s resistance to radiation.”

She pressed her lips together. “How do you know I’m resistant to the radiation? Maybe I was issued a suit with a good seal.”

“Your suit is the same as everyone else’s,” he said, arching one brow. “You know that.”

Yes, she did know that. Cerani shrugged one shoulder.

“But scans aside, your vitality and good health are clear by looking at you.”

“If you’re so curious, why didn’t you bring me to Med Command?” she asked.

Stavian paused like he didn’t want to say the next thing. “Because I don’t trust them not to gut you in the name of science.”

That landed harder than she expected. She blinked, once, then again, trying to decide if she misheard him. But there wasn’t any sarcasm in his voice. No threat. Just truth, plain and sharp.

Cerani stepped back, far enough to feel the wall behind her with her heel. “You think they’d cut me open?”

He didn’t flinch. “Possibly.”

That…wasn’t the answer she needed right now.

Her mind darted. She hadn’t thought her resistance to the psiak radiation was something that would interest the Axis, other than squeezing more shifts from her. Maybe she needed to rethink that. Her throat tightened and her left fist clenched. “I’m not someone the Axis would find interesting,” she said, hoping to diffuse some of his curiosity. Her voice came out lower than she meant, steadier too. “I’m just a designation. Like the others. Like everyone back home.”

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