Page 46 of Collision!
“Wait.I remember.”His fingers tightened.“We were hijacked.Adrift in the Zarnax Zone.The shadowlight…”
She realized she was holding her breath, but when he didn’t continue, she deflated.“Yes.We were being tracked by a threatening ship, and you were connecting a ghostform—”
“A what?”
“That part gets complicated.”She longed to explain his sly joke about the GASM, but a bruised brain didn’t need her desperate attempt to reconnect.
“It doesn’t matter right now.The ship is fine.”Gently she rotated her wrist until his grasp eased.“The captain and the physician are both going to want to see you.”
Still, he didn’t let her go.“Who are you?”
“Mariah,” she reminded him.She was in there, somewhere, lost in his bruised brain.
“It was dark,” he murmured.“So dark even I couldn’t see.Was it you?”His quill-scales flexed in agitation, and a few spines poked through his bandage.
Hissing in pain, he reached for his shoulder.When he released her, Lub whimpered and shoved farther under his arm, jostling him.
Her presence was agitating him, so she backed off.“You need to rest and recover, Chief,” she said soothingly.“One step at a time.”
She turned away to wipe surreptitiously at her eyes.Relief and worry twisted through her like incompatible fibers, spun too tightly to the verge of breaking.She’d wished him awake, but if his memories of them were lost…
She hustled to the counter where she’d left the datpad and messaged the captain and Fahrol, who replied instantly.
“The doctor will be right here,” she told Suvan as she angled toward the door.
And she’d be waiting.
But now she understood how the resonark felt, reaching out endlessly.If they came to the end of their voyage before he remembered, would he return to his engines—or choose her again?
Chapter 14
Nehivar paced the far end of the room, giving them some privacy, while the Graveri physician examined the readout embedded in the med-mesh wrapped around Suvan’s shoulder.
“The skeletal and dermal menders are progressing well,” Farhol said.“How’s your head?You took a hard blow.”
“He has a harder head,” Nehivar growled.
Suvan looked at his captain while Lub grumbled back from under his firmly clamped arm.“That’s why you keep me in your engines.”
Nehivar’s whiskers swept forward.“I’m glad you finally found your way out.Even if you were half crushed in the process.”
“Not even a quarter crushed,” Farhol said cheerfully as he rose to step away.“And you seem alert and oriented.”
Suvan tightened his hand, the one that had heldherwrist.
Mariah.
“I can’t remember the accident,” he admitted.“And I think some time prior is…jumbled.”
“To be expected.”The Graveri rummaged through the bag he’d brought.“This might help.”He pulled out a small med flask.
Suvan narrowed his eyes.Why had he thought the bag would hold a ball of string?
“Take this until empty, a sip at a time.”Fahrol set the flask on the bedside table.“It’ll unwind your thoughts.”
Suvan glared at the flask.“I need to get back to my engines.”
Nehivar stalked to the foot of the bed, where he stopped when Lub huffed.“We’re on course at full power plus, thanks to your adjustments.You have some time to recuperate before we reach the null cloud.”
