Page 10 of All or Nothing
Uraka grunted. “I will hold Wren while you scan Ghena. Be quick about it, slaver.”
I swallowed my protest and nodded. From behind Uraka, I spotted a flash of gold hair and wide brown eyes. Joss elbowed the yvrenii in the side and hissed at her to be nicer before she turned to me with a smile. It was so warm, so sweet, that little smile, and it made me feel like maybe I hadn’t completely ruined my life today.
Maybe I’d somehow find a friend despite all this.
I turned to Ghena and turned on the scanner, tapping my foot as the device slowly went through its boot processes.
After a short eternity, the scanner beeped and announced its findings: “Mild dehydration and malnutrition present. No detected communicable diseases. Female human aged twenty-one SIY. Unconscious.”
I loaded the injector gun with subcutaneous fluids and a nutrient blend the scanner indicated and fired into her slim arm. She flinched when the needle entered her tawny skin but remained unconscious.
I lifted her off of the bed and nodded at it with my chin, letting Uraka know she could place Wren there now. She laid her gently on the padded surface, snatching up the bioscanner from the little built-in table I’d left it on, and performed a scan.
“Mild dehydration present. No detected communicable diseases. Female myauanni aged eighty-two SIY. Unconscious,” the scanner chirped, and Uraka injected fluids per the instructions.
Djelani stepped closer, her movements graceful and fluid, even more so than usual for a felican. She placed one softly-furred hand on Uraka’s thick olive-green forearm. “See?” she said soothingly, rubbing the yvrenii female’s arm. “They’re alright. We should all get checked out though, just in case.”
“I’m shocked Wren’s that old,” Joss piped up from the other side of Uraka. “Eighty-two? She looksgood.”
“Myauanni are very long-lived,” Djelani offered, smiling at Joss. “She is still young by her people’s standards.”
“That’s fucking nuts,” Joss breathed. “Eighty-two is pretty old for humans. Living into your nineties is considered long-lived, and if you make it to one hundred I’m pretty sure they give you a prize or something.”
The three conscious females took turns scanning each other and administering the correct doses of hydration and nutritional supplements. Now that all of my guests had been cleared of communicable disease I ripped off my battered mask, breathing in the stale recycled air instead of the papery chemical smell of the mask for the first time in what felt like hours. I wiped the moisture from wearing the mask for so long from my lower face and saw Joss looking at me intently, her soft lips slightly parted. I felt my face flame; likely she was alarmed by my facial defect and couldn’t help staring. At least she wasn’t saying anything about it, or looking at me with pity.
Once everyone was taken care of, I led them to the small rec room where we could lay the two unconscious members of the group onto the soft couch, then led them to the mess hall and told them to help themselves to whatever they wanted.
“Here, small one: let me show you how these synthesizers work,” Uraka rumbled gently, giving Joss a quick tour of the machine and helping her select some food. The yvrenii seemed content to ignore me now and I was perfectly fine with letting her. She wasfrightening.
“Why don’t you sit with us, Xollen?” sweet little Joss asked, offering me a shy smile. “It’ll be nice to talk things through and get everyone on the same page, right?”
Uraka sneered and growled, but settled into a tense glower under Djelani’s disapproval.
I gulped, considering fleeing to my chambers and locking myself inside, but it did seem like a good idea to talk things out. “A-alright,” I managed, my throat painfully tight. I pulled some water from the beverage dispenser, then took a seat across from the three females, who’d clustered together all on one side of the single table, sharing the bench there. “W-what would you like to know?”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Introductions
JOSS
I WAShaving a hard time ignoring the way my body was reacting to Xollen and focusing on what he was saying. He’d been hot with the mask on, but once it was off he was next-level: he’d been hiding some sinfully plump lips under there, a thin silver ring bisecting the bottom one and a strong, slightly pointed chin. He wasgorgeous, and I couldn’t stop staring at him.
“What would you like to know?” he asked as he sat down, the muscles of his long mint-colored throat working.
“Where are you taking us?” Uraka demanded as she shoved most of an animal limb into her mouth and stripped it to the bone. Man, I loved that crazy bitch.
“Billieu,” Xollen answered her, transfixed by how she was tearing into the meat on her plate and getting paler as he watched her. “I-I can take you to an embassy once you’re there. Or—or a shelter for victims of trafficking. I’ll let you pick. But I’m wiped out, I can’t help beyond that.”
“You could give us this shuttle,” Uraka mused, using a claw-like nail to pick gristle from her teeth, flashing her sharp fangs and tusks. “Give us all of your valuables and then go take a swim with a pocketful of rocks.” I gasped but was too stunned to make a sound.
Luckily Djelani had no such compunctions. “Uraka!” she cried, looking furious. “He has said he is helping us, and you need to calm down and get that through your thick skull,” the slim felican shouted, her hackles rising visibly. “Or do you need to step out into the hall while the rest of us adults have a conversation?”
The change was instant in Uraka: gone was the bristling, furious female, to be replaced with someone who looked every inch the well-chastised child. Uraka said nothing, just picked at her food, and I almost felt bad for her. Almost: I was also pretty pissed at her for picking on Xollen so much. Sure, he hadn’t been perfect, but he’d saved us, and she was being a big ‘ole poo about it.
“I think that sounds lovely, Xollen,” Djelani continued, her fur smoothing as she calmed down. “How long do you think we have before we land on Billieu?”
“Uh—the computer was estimating three days. Standard.”
