Page 18 of Bonded

Priya shifted her gaze toward Ruzan, extending her hand to him in greeting. He introduced himself as of the warrior caste and that he was the ship’s heart. When he finished, he still had a hold of her hand. I had to look at it meaningfully in order for him to slip her hand from his grip.

“I’m glad that’s settled,” Priya said. “The ship said that the injection might be a little overwhelming?” She bit her lip, and I wanted to put her at ease, but I realized I was speaking too much and Ruzan could barely keep his emotions in check as it was.

“Ruzan would love to tell you his experience.”

“If you would like, we can make sure that you are in a safe place so that you can rest comfortably in case it doesn’t agree with you.” And then, conspiratorially, he told her he had felt sick initially, and might’ve felt a little nauseated himself.

She was concerned that someone like him was so affected by it.

“We will make sure that you are fine. Besides, the ship has linked with many life forms and can accommodate humans. And if you weren’t compatible, the ship would not have chosen you to be the Soul or any part of the pilot.”

“Okay,” she said finally. “You have convinced me. The ship says that the site of the injection can happen anywhere. Do you mind if it happens here? I know it makes better sense to go to the medical bay, but I’m not really in the mood for medical bay at the moment.”

“We can do it anywhere you want,” Ruzan said. Quickly, he sat across from her, mirroring her pose. “If you’d like, we can make you comfortable and hold your hand while you get the injection.”

Her cheeks seemed to glow a burnished copper.

“OK. I don’t handle needles well.”

The ship’s holographic imaging turned on. “Priya, brace yourself against one of the other pilots. The aftereffects of the injection could cause you to swoon.”

“Oh dear,” she said. Without even thinking about it and before she could deny it, Ruzan scooped her up and placed her on his lap. He balanced her, so that she was leaning against the left side of his chest. “There. Now you will be more comfortable and if you are overwhelmed, you will have a soft place to land.”

“I don’t know about soft,” she muttered under her breath. “Thank you, that was very thoughtful,” she said.

I was grateful that she wasn’t afraid. In fact, after she settled on Ruzan’s lap, she snuggled even deeper against him.

It’s working, I thought to myself. With a touch, she would be ours, especially after linking. Skin to skin contact and the more we are around each other, the more in sync we will become.

Ruzan was humming the lullaby he had sung to her when he had had to calm her in the medical bay. The result was perfect. It was as if Priya instinctively knew to relax with that cadence and rhythm.

I watched as the robots came in and closed the barrier, keeping us in a quiet, almost sacred space. It was more pure to me than any of the other temples that I was supposed to have been raised in.

Priya’s eyelids grew heavy, sliding nearly closed. She was being pulled into sleep sooner than we expected.

Perfect. One robot rolled closer to Priya’s unconscious form. We positioned her at the perfect height for it to extend its arm and inject the base of her neck.

As expected, she fell asleep. Ruzan continued his humming.

“Ship, how long will it take for her to process?”

“Improbable to compute. There have been no humans linked or bonded with a Cephela before.”

I could feel Ruzan’s panic rise.

“But it will be successful, right, Ship? We won’t lose her?”

“Her vitals are steady. She is not in any harm. She is incorporating the injections as any other race would.”

I let out a sigh of relief, and a sense of calm also flooded from Ruzan.

“Okay, so she’s doing fine, but you just don’t know how long she will be under?”

“That is correct,” the ship said. “She is an unknown. But I am incorporating all the data sets to make sure I can predict what she may need in the future. So far, I have simply labeled her an unquantifiable variable.”

An unquantifiable variable. That was certainly an understatement.

PRIYA

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