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LENA THOUGHT ABOUT locking herself in her cabin. All she wanted to do was sit on her bunk and cry. But if she was sat there, was the ship going anywhere? And if it wasn’t, then she could add that straight to the list of things that she and Rowie would be getting blamed for.
With the door to her cabin unlocked, the world came in very quickly. To start with in the form of a petty officer, a young woman. Lena hadn’t learned her name yet. Then after the shocked expression and a quick check to see she wasn’t still bleeding, the woman turned tail and returned with a nurse and Doctor Fuller in tow. Despite the rushing about and muttering, the large presence of the doctor was reassuring. Perhaps the fact that he took up so much space, made turbulence that slowed everyone else down. Was he even as huge as she imagined him to be, or was it just presence? Regardless, she felt a lot less like crying with him there.
“Now what kind of scrapes have you been getting yourself into, young Lena?” He smiled at her, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He gestured to the nurse, who leapt to put a monitor-cuff on Lena’s arm. “No, don’t sit up just yet, lovely...” The doctor moved to her shoulder to examine the handkerchief. Would he notice what Fazar had done to her. Would that be a good thing?
“’S-it okay?” Lena said, trying to be as vague as she could. Fuller took a hand scanner out of his pocket, surely he’d find whatever it was Fazar had planted in her. He ran it over where she had been bleeding from, but other than a few ‘hums’ and ‘hahs’ he said nothing to her directly.
He smiled at her, more of it reaching his eyes this time, “You’ll be fine, sweetheart.” Then over his shoulder to the petty officer guarding the door, he said: “Miss Lee, would you run along to the mess and get some water for Lena here. I think her mouth is a little dry and telling us her story might be a little difficult otherwise.”
“Aye, sir,” she said.
Lena thought she noticed a hint of a regional accent. The funny way she said sir to rhyme with air. She didn’t have long to contemplate it and Lee was back. She leaned in close under the doctor’s instruction to give her some sips of water through a metal straw. Lena noticed that she was wearing a side-arm in a holster by her waist. Was that just petty officers or was everybody on the ship armed now? The water tasted flat. They’d shipped all the water with them, not knowing how the ship functioned in that regard, so it would have been recycled before anyone drank it. It still felt good. Though she wasn’t dehydrated, Rowie had seen to that, her mouth and throat were really dry from not being used for— how long? She didn’t know.
“Feel a bit better?” Lee grinned.
Lena nodded.
“Good,” said Fuller. “Now it’s time to tell us what happened to you.”
Lena gulped. Fuller smiled. Lena lied, “I don’t really remember.”
“Hmm,” said Fuller, “Okay, let’s start at the beginning. How did you get your war wound there?”
“I don’t know. I was asleep.” She stared down at the bed. There was a blanket that was obviously Navy issue bunched down by her feet. That was new.
“And what woke you?”
“I got a stab in my neck”
“A stab you say?” His eyes twinkled like a bird’s.
“Y’know ...er, like a stabbing pain?”
“Uh-hmm?”
“Yeah.”
“And that...?”
“Woke me up?”
“Okay,” said Fuller, kindly. “And then what?”
“Well then we saw that I was bleeding—”
“‘We’?”
“Oh. I meant me. Me and Rowie.”
“Who’s Rowie?” asked Fuller.
“Arohirohi,” said Lee helpfully. “It’s the name of the ship. Lena calls it Rowie for short.”
“Ah,” said Fuller. He ran his hand down the side of his face and along his chin.
The nurse bustled about at Lena’s shoulder, spraying from a bottle before applying a pad. Lena winced. The nurse dangled something at the doctor with gloved hands. The doctor reached into a pocket and produced a glove of his own, put it on and examined the gift—Fazar’s handkerchief. Lena hoped there were no distinguishing marks on it. Apart from the blood. “Hmm.” He looked at Lena, with brows raised. She shrugged. “Let’s bag this shall we, Mr Khan?” Fuller wafted the hanky back at his nurse, who had just finished with something sticky at Lena’s shoulder. “Test it for everything.”
“Aye, sir.”
If Lena felt less stressed, she was sure she’d have been more charmed by how everyone said aye. Like they were on a sailing ship from a story, not a crazy alien vessel speeding through the beyond. She looked up.
Fuller was still staring at her. “We should let you rest.”
“I feel fine,” she said.
“Either way, humour me.”
The doctor took in the rest of the room, carefully, as if searching for symptoms. He gave instructions to Khan, the nurse, who left, then to Petty Officer Lee, who nodded said “Aye” and left. Fuller was the last to leave. He ran his hand along the faintly glowing wall all the way to the door aperture, which opened as he touched it. He stopped in the open doorway and turned his head, “Is this the first time the ship has acted this way, Lena?”
“It wasn’t Rowie’s fault she’d never do anything to hurt me. Well or to hurt anyone. Probably. She knows what she’s doing and—”
Fuller’s eyes had gone wide. “I see.”
“I— sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said, still not leaving. So much for letting her rest. “One last thing.” His eyes felt heavy on her. Fuller didn’t need any kind of scanners to investigate. “Rowie?”
“Yes?”
“Do you trust—?”
“Her. Rowie’s a her. I think.”
“Do you trust her?”
“Yes,” said Lena. As Fuller finally left she uncrossed her fingers.
