Page 45 of Collision!
Did the shadowlight shimmer there, for an instant?Or was that the reflection of Lub’s lure?
Her heart wanted to sing, but she kept her voice low.“Hey you.Welcome back.”
Once again she waited until his gaze wandered to her.Even as she smiled at him, the inner facets of his eyes sharpened, like a quartz slowly shattering.
His lips moved, searching.For a moment, she thought he would smile back.
A breath eased from him.“Wh…who are you?”
A chill overwhelmed her elation, colder than the lethal void beyond the ship’s fragile mask.“I’m Mariah.Don’t you…” She choked back the plaintive question; she needed to go slow.“You were in an accident.You have a concussion and a broken shoulder, along with some lesser bumps and bruises.How are you feeling?”
“I…” He shifted under the blanket, trying to shrug it off, but grimaced when he pulled at his shoulder.He glanced at his other arm.“Lub?”
Relief took the edge off her apprehension.“Yes, we’ve been waiting for you to wake up.You’ve had some pain meds, but you are cleared for more if you need them.”
“No.”Leveraging himself on the goblhob, he tried to push himself back against the pillows, gasping when his shoulder sagged.“What happened?I can’t…” He clawed at the bandage.
“Slow down.Let me help.”
When he looked up at her, confused and combative, she thought he might lash out as he had when she’d first surprised him at his work.
After a moment, he eased down.
Holding the pillow from behind to protect her hands from his quill-scales, she wedged him more upright while Lub whined softly.
“Here, Lub,” he rasped once she had him situated, and the goblhob snuggled under his bare arm, impervious to the spines.
She wondered if anyone else in all the universes had ever wanted to become a goblhob as much as she did right then.
Instead, she retrieved the restorative tonic Ikaryo had left in Felicity’s care package.A little note said it had been cleared by Fahrol and the med bay.
She brought it to Suvan in a small glass tube.“You must be thirsty.”
When his hand shook, making Lub grumble under his elbow, she held the tube for him.His pale eyes stayed on her while he drank, watchful and wary.
“Mariah,” he said when the glass was empty.
“Yes?”She couldn’t steady her own trembling voice.
“Are you my caretaker?”
“For now.”She swallowed hard as she sat back.“But let me summon the physician—”
“No.”He grabbed her wrist.“Tell me what happened.”
“You were working outside the ship and—”
“Outside?”His voice cracked.“I am not…”
She ached at her own memory of his stuttering breaths in her comm as he clung to the ship.“You were the only one who could install a modification to the hull.A meteoroid struck you.”
“And the ship?”he demanded.
“Intact and underway.”
He looked down at his heavy grip on her, his expression tightening.“I don’t… This is not my place.”His fractured gaze swept around the room.“What ship is this?”
“The Love Boat I.This was supposed to be a cruise around three sunsets—”
