Chapter Fifteen

Riston

Terra-Sol date 3814.256

Riston winced as the security chief’s hands tightened on zir arms, pressing deeper into the bruises that had already been squeezed onto zir skin. The grip was so strong zir feet barely touched the floor. It was a surprise her hands hadn’t yet gone for zir throat, especially since ze couldn’t keep zir gaze from straying toward the room they’d taken Shadow into. Adrienn and a team of nurses had rushed in. No one had yet come out.

“What’s happening to the other ships?” Farran growled the question at zem. Again. “Where are they?”

“I don’t know.” Riston answered, but ze didn’t expect to be believed.

“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” the captain muttered.

Farran dropped Riston so suddenly zir knees buckled at the impact. Only the sudden pressure of her forearm under zir chin kept zem from collapsing. Zir eyes went wide. For the first time in several minutes, ze looked straight at zir captors. Air, suddenly scarce, only trickled into zir lungs and zir hands automatically came up to grip Farran’s arm. Ze didn’t bother struggling. If time was up and the final blow was coming, all ze could do was watch as it landed.

“Give me time, Captain,” Farran said, her face so close to Riston’s that her breath was a hot blast against zir face. “I’ll get answers.”

“Erryla,” Meida murmured.

The captain’s attention, though, was on Riston. Until a door somewhere else in medical opened.

Immediately, Erryla and Meida turned toward the sound. Only Farran remained still, her broad body blocking Riston’s view of whatever was happening beyond. But ze wanted—needed—to see. It sounded like the movement was coming from the same room they’d taken Shadow into. Then a nurse walked into Riston’s field of vision.

Their uniform was sprayed with blood.

“News?” Errlya asked, an order implicit in the question.

Farran’s arm pressed tighter against zir throat, but Riston didn’t take zir eyes off the nurse, desperate for the answer to that question.

Their mouth opened…and then closed. They shook their head and said, “Not yet,” before they hurried to collect supplies from a cabinet and then rushed back into the operating room.

But to Riston, with the look on their face and the blood on their uniform, “not yet” sounded far too much like “it’s already over.”

“Shut off external access to the video in medical,” Erryla ordered Meida. “I want to figure out what happened here before wild stories start spreading through the ship.”

Meida strode quickly toward Adrienn’s office. She was barely out of sight before the captain gestured an order to Farran and Riston found zirself moving. Each woman grabbed one of zir arms and dragged zem across medical. Ze didn’t fight it, not even when they shoved zem into the quarantine bay so hard ze slammed into the opposite wall. Ze didn’t fight it because it didn’t matter. If Shadow didn’t make it, Riston had already failed.