Joyce stared at Resane, knowing that speaking with him was a necessary evil, but she hated it just the same.
Knowledge lived in the ship’s data centers, but she couldn’t access them. Or rather, she couldn’t read them. Unless Resane helped her. She really hoped he agreed. Otherwise the Vehly would be down a chief medico.
Well, not permanently down. She wasn’t quite to the point of murdering someone. Maiming though… maiming was definitely a possibility.
She stood before his desk, the stark white walls of medical reflecting the bright lights of the room. Sterile. Blank. Unsettling. She hated hospitals and even if she was flying in space, medical was still a hospital.
One that reminded her of the time she’d spent healing within its confines with Kede at her side.
Of course, he’d be there for his pet, his slave, wouldn’t he?
“Mistress Tria—”
“Joyce or Mistress Enner, Resane. Those are your options.” Joyce wasn’t given a choice when it came to being Kede’s harae when he’d stolen her, but now things were different. Now, she was her own person, a Doshan with all rights and privileges. She wasn’t sure what that meant just yet, but she would before she left the damn room.
The medico flattened his lips, pressing them together until they slashed across his face.
Let him be annoyed. She was just as pissed.
“Mistress Enner.” His eyes sparkled, the green hues flashing with his annoyance. “As I explained previously, Commander Tria-se has ordered that I cannot—”
Joyce held up a hand, halting the male’s progress. “First, unless he mated someone between yesterday and today, he is Commander Tria. Second, I…” her heart thundered, fighting the walls of her chest.
Her head pounded, thumping in time with her heart. She rubbed her temple wishing the constant headache would lessen already. But it hadn’t. Not after the knock-down drag-out fight she’d had with Kede in the middle of the corridor. Half the ship heard, or heard of, the trouble in alien paradise.
“Joyce?” The wheels on Resane’s chair rolled over the smooth floor, hardly making a sound. But his pounding steps did, they rattled in her brain and she pressed her palms to her forehead.
Dammit. Now was not the time for a migraine. How could she be a badass bitch if she was whining in the corner?
“Joyce?” Funny how he’d been all about the “Mistress” title before and now she was back to Joyce. She’d laugh if it wouldn’t make her head explode.
“I’m fine.” She gritted her teeth and stumbled backward, shuffling until her back collided with the wall. She propped herself against the biopad, using the cushioned surface for support.
Warm fingers wrapped around her wrist and then the telltale pulsing hum of one of Resane’s machines vibrated the air around her. She snatched her hand away from him and put space between their bodies.
“I’m fine.” She eased away. “It’s just a migraine. It’ll pass.”
“Joyce—”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m. Fine. I came here for a reason and I refuse to be distracted by—”
“Your own health?” It was Resane’s turn to snap. “I did not heal you so you may destroy my work with your stubborn—”
“You healed me? Stubborn?” Pain forgotten in the face of yet another alien telling her what they’d done for her. “You didn’t heal me, Resane. Or rather, you did, but at the request of my master. I was a slave, right?” Rage still burned her gut and, really, she’d come to medical looking for answers. Other than Kede, who she hated, and Yare, who was too afraid of Kede to speak, she was only left with Resane. Especially since Hassee was conspicuously absent. “Am I still a slave? Is that why no one will answer my questions or help me?”
“No, Joyce, you don’t understand… The guidelines require… The treaty…” Resane shook his head as if the explanation was beyond him.
Nice try.
She pushed herself upright, refusing to appear weak before the male. He wasn’t just a doctor or an officer, but a Doshan warrior as well. She’d show him a strong female, show him she wouldn’t take this lying down.
She swayed a little, fingertips brushing the biopad. “I want answers. From you or someone else on the Vehly. But I’m getting them.” She listed to the right, body seeming to reach for the wall. “Just as soon as I sleep off this headache.”
“Headache?”
Joyce listened to Resane poke and prod at his datapad, probably hunting up yet another hiccup of Terran physiology to explain her headache.
“Yeah,” she ran her fingertips over her forehead and along her temples. “Pain. Sometimes it throbs, other times it’s more of a pounding. The bad ones come with light sensitivity and nice little floating sparkles. Sounds great, but it sucks.”
“What causes them?”
“When—”
“How are they treated?”
“Usually—”
“I must do more research. What do—”
“Resane?” She grasped the hand coming at her, hypospray poised and ready to deliver yet another Doshan drug into her system. “Stop it.”
“Why did you not have this headache before? I—”
It was her turn to cut him off. “The migraine I currently have is because I suddenly discovered I don’t control my own life any longer and no one will tell me what that means. I can deal with being kidnapped, I can even handle being converted to Doshan without any warning or permission. What I can’t tolerate is finding out that I am claimed like some stray dog. That I haven’t made a single choice on my own since I picked out my shoes before work over a month ago.” The steady thump increased in tempo, shooting pain through her entire body. “And all I want to do now is figure out the pot of crap I’ve stepped in and how to make it smell a little more like roses.”
“We do not have roses on Dosha. Please explain.” He looked so earnest and worried and she just didn’t care.
Yes, she’d taken her bitch pills. Hell, it seemed like a great big bitch IV was constantly pumping the drug into her veins. She was not this person and yet…
It was another thing to throw at Kede’s feet.
“Resane.” Joyce let her eyes drift closed, cutting off the brightness of the room. “I need to understand what’s happening to me. I need to know what’s expected of me. I can’t do any of that without information.” Tears gathered behind her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She wasn’t a big crybaby. “If you won’t direct me to someone who can tutor me on being a Doshan female, at least check my implant so I can read your language. That’s all I want.”
Those steady fingers stroked her again, testing her skin while the low whir of his machine floated around her. “Will you let me treat you? This head-ache could be from the implant or—”
She turned her head toward the sound of his voice, but kept her lids closed. The pain was working its way up to one killer bout and she really didn’t want to pass out in the middle of medical. She was one faint away from getting confined to a damned bed in medical and it was the last thing she wanted.
“I don’t give a damn if you treat me. The important question is will you help me?” A tear escaped. Fuck. “At this point, I don’t care what you call me. I need to know what kind of rights I have.” She fought to raise her lids and see past the pain and tears. “I need to know what was taken from me and how the hell do I get it back. And I want this information now. Today. Not when Kede or Hassee or Yare decide to show up and deign me with their presence. Whether I’m a slave”—she ignored his shocked gasp— “or a Doshan female, I want the knowledge now. If I have rights, I want them.”
Resane grimaced and nodded. “Yes, Joyce. Let me treat your pain and then I will help you.”
“Thank you,” she whispered the word and fell back against the wall. She didn’t have to be strong any longer. She got her way.
Now she just needed to figure out what the hell she was going to do with the information she won.
A slight sting jarred her, the pulse of the hypospray delivering a gentle flow of pain meds and the migraine slowly faded away to nothingness. “I wish they had these on Terra.” She sighed, the agony fleeing and leaving her with her heartache. She focused on Resane, on his concerned features as he crouched beside her. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” he nodded.
“Now, when are you going to help me?”
“Now,” he frowned. “Let’s get you on a biobed and I will run a scan.”
“No,” she shook her head. She’d already spent way too much time on one of those.
“It will tell me of your health and also inform me if there is an issue with your implant. It should have coded our written word into you mind by now.”
Should have.
Joyce barked out a laugh. “There are a lot of things that should have been done, huh?”
She climbed to her feet, ignoring Resane’s hand when he attempted to assist her. Too many things had gone wrong when she depended on a man. She didn’t need something else blowing up on her.
She padded toward the large biobed and climbed atop the smooth surface. The moment she reclined fully, the machinery molded to her body, cradling her while keeping her in place.
With the push of a single button, the Doshan machinery went into action, the rhythmic whir and gentle beep a lulling song to her rampaging mind. It would pause over a portion of her body and then move into action once again, quickly scanning her from head to toe.
The medical doors slid open, the whoosh rising above the bed’s sounds, but she didn’t move. She’d been through this more than once and Resane was like a nagging wife when it came to his tools. If she moved, the whole scan would have to begin again.
“How was she injured?” Kede. A voice she hadn’t wanted to hear again. At least not until she found out whether she belonged to the man like a damned dog. Or cow. Yes, she was more like cattle, wasn’t she? She wondered if she should moo at him.
Moo…ooo…ooo…
Joyce snorted, but kept herself in place. Now that Kede was with her, she didn’t want to do anything that’d lengthen her time in his presence.
So, yes to snorting and no to moving.
“Is she unable to breathe? Why is she in the biobed? Is she leaking again?” Kede fired the questions off so fast she didn’t think anyone could answer them just as quickly.
“Commander Tria,” Resane snapped out Kede’s title.
“Tria-se.” Of course the man corrected the chief medico. Well, corrected incorrectly.
“That is in question. In addition, Mistress Enner has requested my assistance and as a female, she is entitled to a medico’s treatment. You yourself declared all females shall be treated as a Doshan and while her race is still in question by those above us, it does not change your ship-wide decree. Do you agree?”
Wow, it was the most she’d ever heard him speak.
“Of course,” Kede snapped. “Now, what is—”
“I must ask you to leave, Commander Tria.”
“Excuse me?” The tone was deadly and Joyce was sure it sent quite a few people running when he trotted out that voice.
“You know Doshans cherish and protect our females, even from ourselves if necessary. That includes denying a male access to his female.”
Joyce growled and Resane quickly corrected himself. “Perceived female. I have an oath, not to this ship and not command, but to the planet itself, Kede.”
The last words implored and appealed to the commander and she held her breath as she waited for Kede’s response.
“You will tell me—”
“I will tell you what she allows me to reveal. Nothing more. She has been sorely used by our people, by you, and now I shall serve her.”
Silence descended and she prayed to God, the bright light and even tossed a few requests to hell and the darkness as well. She wanted Resane’s words to be true, ached for him to have the power to push behind his message.
“Joyce…” There was longing in his voice, even more lurked behind the words. She wouldn’t call them lies directly. More like lies by omission.
The rustle of fabric preceded Resane’s appearance, his white-clothed back filling her vision. “Joyce will speak with you when she is ready and not before. No further medical reports will be shared and decisions about her life are hers alone.”
“You’ll protect her then. Stand for her?” Kede’s words shot through the room. “Who do you think has kept them from chasing after her? Bombarding her with their suits? Who?”
“Do you think so little of your warriors that they’ll pounce on a female? That they’ll disregard your orders?” Resane moved away from her, but his rising anger was palpable. “You did not have to claim her to keep her safe, and yet you did. It would have been a simple process to mark her. You’ve stolen her rights as a Doshan female, Kede, and now they shall be returned. Issue your orders and protect the female in your care. Think of her, instead of yourself.”
Resane spun toward her and lines of stress and strain marred her features as he pressed buttons and focused on the screens before him. It wasn’t until the doors whooshed open and closed again that he spoke. “All will be well.”
“Will it?” She tried to smile, but she was sure it formed a pained grimace. With Kede’s appearance, the pain resurged, pumping through her blood.
“I hope so. By the bright light, I truly hope so.”
So did she.