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“And the plan is...” Nisha’s voice trailed off.
Phate pressed his ear closer to the wall separating his apartment from Tasha’s. Forced to resort to eavesdropping, he should’ve been embarrassed, but he wasn’t. He had to know when Tasha left her apartment.
He wanted, no needed, to explain to her but so far, every time she’d left, she ignored any attempt he made to apologize and ask for forgiveness. He followed her to her car each morning she went to work and waited at the door each night she returned.
Nothing he did made her listen to him. She’d never glanced his way. He talked, trying to give the best explanation he could but her expression remained without a hint of emotion to reveal how she felt.
He wasn’t sure how much more he could take. She hadn’t acknowledged his presence in three days and his soul felt as if it was slowly withering.
“Unball your fist,” Kien mumbled. “We both know putting your hand through the wall isn’t the answer.”
Phate frowned and noticed he’d clenched his hand in reaction to the thought of losing Tasha. “How did you know what I was thinking?”
“Because it’s the same thing I want to do,” Kien replied with a huff. He heaved himself from his chair and made his way to press his ear against the same wall as Phate. “I can’t believe the things they’re saying about us.”
“I can’t believe I fell for a fuck boy,” Tasha was saying.
Phate frowned. “What’s a fuck boy? Have you heard that saying before?”
Kien nodded. “I’ve been called that several times by the human females. I think it’s a good thing.”
Phate frowned. “It doesn’t sound like it’s a good thing.”
“Fuck boy and booty calls are good things to be,” Kien said.
“What’s a booty call?”
“It means you’re available for sex.”
“I want to be a booty call for Tasha.”
“Nisha probably wishes I would be a booty call for her.”
“That’s okay.” Nisha said in muffled tones. “You got some much-needed pipe cleaning and now that’s over. You can move on and leave him to the streets. Right where I left Kien.”
“She did not leave me to the streets,” Kien ground out. “She left me in the hallway.”
“For Ancient’s sake!” Solgre yelled. “You two are acting like children who realized the opposite sex for the very first time! Can you stop whining and complaining just for this evening so I can have some peace and quiet to work?!”
The tone of Solgre’s voice had both Phate and Kien pushing from the wall and standing at attention.
Solgre finally glanced up from the multitude of parts spread on the table in front of him. His red rimmed eyes bored into Phate and Kien. He looked worse than he had before. His irises were darker than normal, and the whites of his eyes had turned light pink.
Phate homed in on Solgre’s shoulders, and for the first time, noticed his shoulder bones poking out from his shirt.
“Solgre?” Phate called, taking a step forward.
Solgre shook his head and his lip curled in disgust. He continued talking in a rapid distracted fashion, “This experiment has been a bad idea. Both of you have gone crazy. Human women are obviously flawed with too many emotions, and they’ve somehow transferred those emotions onto you both.”
“Fine. We’ll stop talking about the females if you start talking about what’s going on with you,” Phate said.
Solgre pushed his fingers through his disheveled hair. Phate was horrified to witness strands caught between his fingers. Solgre glanced down and promptly wiped his hand on his leg. Hair fell to the floor. The realization of what was happening to his Captain finally hit Phate like an asteroid to the head. “Solgre, I know what’s wrong with you.”
Solgre waved his hand in the air, dismissing Phate’s concern. “Never mind. Go back to obsessing over the females. At least then you’ll ignore me.”
Phate couldn’t ignore what was happening in front of him any longer. “You’ve got the ventenax disease.”
Kien pushed away from the wall. “He’s got what?!”
Phate held his breath, waiting for Solgre to correct him. Solgre’s lips pursed and Phate’s heart sank. Maybe the reason he’d ignored all the signs was because he didn’t want it to be true.
“That’s not possible!” Kien asked in disbelief. His gaze jumped from Solgre to Phate then back to Solgre again. “Tell him he’s wrong, Solgre.”
“It’s in the beginning stages,” Phate added. “The coloring in the eyes, the loss of weight, irritability and inability to sleep. Those are all initial signs of the disease.”
Kien’s gaze still bounced between the two men. “Ventenax is curable. There’re hardly any cases of progression. It’s treatable before it gets to this state or the point of death.”
“The cases where death has occurred happened when the victims had been in deep space exploration without a working replicator,” Phate replied, eyes still on Solgre. “That hasn’t happened in a very long time.”
Kien’s mouth dropped open. “You’ve been getting the treatments and didn’t tell us.”
Solgre laughed and pushed his chair back. “There wasn’t a reason to tell either of you or cause alarm. Like you said, it was treatable. It runs in my family. As long as I took the medicine and received regular check-ups from the onboard AI, there wasn’t a need to worry.”
“But then we crash landed on Earth and had to leave the replicator behind,” Phate stated. He was partially mad at himself for this situation.
Solgre nodded tightly. “I thought I could program the portable replicator to meet the same specifications to make the medicine, but I can’t. If I had the formula downloaded from the ship’s main replicator, then maybe...”
“Phate and I will take the portable replicator, return to the ship and download the medicine specification. Problem solved,” Kien said.
Solgre shook his head. It seemed too big for his neck. “No. It’s too dangerous to return.”
“We don’t have a choice. We can’t allow the disease to continue its course. You’ll die,” Phate said.
“As you’ve observed, the symptoms have just started. I still have some time.”
“And you’ll let us know?” Kien asked.
Solgre didn’t answer Kien. He put his head down and went to work on the portable replicator again.