Page 4 of Rebels Rising

Focus, Cadmus.You’re needed right now. Daydream later.

‘I need you to hold his head back and keeping his chin down so I can insert the tube,’ he informed me, and I tried to push aside my hesitations over helping with a medical procedure. I wasn’t typically a squeamish guy (made evident by my reaction to all the death and gore at Artemis’s hand) but the fact that this wasBrommwas what made me so tentative. Sure, there was no cutting into his skin and wriggling about his insides, but there was still a device being shoved down his throat. My task didn’t allow for much room for error, so I told myself I was confident enough to assist.

When I had him in the right position, Henrik began inserting the tube which he’d lubed up with some sort of gel to help it slide in with less trauma to his oesophagus or lungs. Once inside, he taped it to his face to keep it inplace and attached the end to a machine by the cot. A beep sounded, followed by two more and then a whirring sound before Reece’s chest rose and fell with an exaggerated, artificial movement.

We both breathed a sigh of relief at having the additional assistance of the intubation. Seeing him on the brink of death without any identifiable cause had shaken me more than I cared to admit, so I kept avoiding the emotions all together. No point in mourning him when he wasn’t dead yet, and no point in worrying when he already had so many people fussing over him already.

The trio of combat instructors finally arrived, arms laden with boxes filled to the brim with medical supplies, some so much that they were struggling the keep them contained.

‘Where do you want them?’ Stanson asked in his gruff, no-nonsense voice.

Henrik waved noncommittally behind him. ‘Just find an empty spot over there. I’ll go through them once we’re off the station.’

They did as instructed, stacking them neatly out of the way before all three joined us at as we stood watching Bromm.

‘Is he going to be okay?’ Hum’Rit asked beneath the anxiously writhing mass of his beard, which didn’t surprise me. Bromm may have only been a cadet here, but he was still a Griknot prince, after all.

‘I don’t see why he won’t be, but I also have no idea why his body stopped functioning in the first place,’ admitted Henrik, worry lines creasing between his eyebrows. ‘I’ll run some tests with the equipment I have available here, but I think it’s more a matter of wait and see.’

The thundering of dozens of booted footsteps and the occasional squeak of a rusty wheel sounded just outside the room, quickly followed by body after body rushing past the open door, the carts full of small children dispersed throughout. Many of the children were still wailing but were ignored in the rush. A few soldiers looked inside the infirmary curiously as they passed but moved on when they saw Bromm lying prone on the cot with the breathing device sticking out of his mouth.

Only a few clicks later, Xander joined us with Adara still dangling from his neck, arms and legs clinging to him tight while he kept her aloft with an arm beneath her rear and the other hand splayed across her back. It was large enough to span almost the entire expanse, though there wasn’t much to begin with since she was so small, and their size difference was suddenly starkerthan ever before. It hadn’t escaped my notice that she was a dinky little thing, but her personality was so loud large that it made up for it. Now, like this, she looked so frail and fragile.

She glanced over at Bromm, her face pale and pinched with worry and stress. Xander followed her line of sight, his expression mirroring hers as he took in our downed friend.

‘He’s okay?’ he asked.

‘For now, yes,’ Henrik repeated.

‘Artemis?’ I asked, noting her absence.

‘Here,’ she said, stepping past the crowd of soldiers outside. Notably, the boy was no longer strapped to her chest but riding on the back of the beast as it walked a step behind her as she entered with her hands held carefully in front of her.

Herfleshlesshands.

‘Stars above!’ I shouted in alarm, rushing over to her despite not knowing what to do. I stopped before I could reach her, not wanting to harm her further. Henrik was right beside me, his face pulled wide with horror. Adara gagged and Xander looked away, his skin taking on a rather ugly shade of green while the instructors staggered away.

But as we stood there uselessly, her silvery bones began to disappear beneath tendons, muscles, and then skin that knit together over the top. Within a click, she was flexing her completely healed hands and shaking them out like she’d experienced nothing more than pins and needles. I imagined they’d be pretty tender afterthat, but this was another level.

‘Sorry,’ she said sheepishly, but there was a distance to her apology. She wasn’t even looking at us, her gaze fixed firmly on Bromm. It was as if she didn’t even notice that her hands were nothing but skeletal extensions on her arms mere moments before.

Henrik leaned heavily against me, his breath leaving his chest in a whoosh. He looked exhausted, his eyes practically closed and his body slumping as if the weight of the world had suddenly crashed onto his shoulders. I wrapped an arm around them to keep him steady.

‘Where are the others?’ I asked now that I was satisfied she was here and safe. I refused to think about why I was more concerned about her than the others.

‘T took… his mother to a room to give them someplace quiet to mourn,’ Foryk said, his large form managing to outdo Xander’s, now the biggest man in the room as he stepped through to join us. Like Artemis, his gaze was firmly set on Bromm.

‘Reece is still in the cart with the kids,’ Dorian said, a step behind Foryk with Urman at his side.

The room was becoming far too cramped with so many bodies, but no one complained. The instructors left to give us more space, their presence no longer needed, and Foryk took the opportunity to settle in on the floor beside the cot. The action seemed to jog Artemis into gear and she positioned herself in the chair I’d vacated at Henrik’s entrance, gripping Bromm’s hand between hers with a tenderness that made my chest ache.

A moment later a ping sounded through the room’s speaker system, and a hologram formed on the far side of the room. A woman’s face appeared, and I startled as I recognised her as our flight instructor, Group Captain Eloria Stanson. From the background, I surmised she was inside a cockpit.

‘Captain,’ she addressed Xander.

He stood up straight ready to respond but the silver-haired Yu’Rom female shook her head. ‘Sorry, Cap, but I was referring to theothercaptain.’

He frowned and looked at the rest of us in the room, but he was the only captain here.

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