Chapter 114: Home At Last
“To return home after so long adrift is nearly unthinkable.”
—Tanahal Izan Frostet, famed explorer, after being rescued from the disastrous Kaytahan Expedition
Zaina woke with a start, sitting up on the cozy couch against the cabin wall—Xyrthe’s ship had lurched.
Are we there?
She hobbled to one of the hyper-glass panels lining the wall, still nursing a broken leg from her fight with Sivanya, the leader of a marked enclave. There it was, in plain sight—Kaado, a planet snapped in half.
Zaina limped into the cockpit, where her mentor, Xyrthe, was in the process of manually flying the ship.
“Finally awake?” Xyrthe asked, not even looking toward Zaina.
“Yeah. How long were we in the void?”
“Only about an hour. Took a bad skip.”
Zaina nodded. “Can I ask a question?”
“If you want to annoy me, sure.”
“Why is Kaado like that?”
Xyrthe shrugged. “Ancient history’s not my strong suit, kid. Ask a scholar.”
“I don’t think any of them would want to talk to me,” Zaina replied. Then again, Geli Fawndar, one of the Scholar Supremas, had been kind to her—but she was probably too busy to answer non-urgent questions.
“Well,” Xyrthe said, her voice a little more aggressive, “let’s leave it at being one of life’s great mysteries then, hmm?”
Zaina plopped down in the co-pilot’s chair and watched as Xyrthe brought them in.
“So, what are you going to do with a whole week off?”
Xyrthe was adjusting dials and pushing buttons. “That’s for me and my boyfriend to know.”
“I’m guessing I won’t see much of you, then.”
“That’s the hope.”
“I don’t even know what I’m going to do.”
“Whatever it is, make sure it involves resting your leg.”
Zaina smiled. “Aww, is that your way of saying you care about me?”
Xyrthe shook her head. “You know, believe it or not, but after spending a few months cramped in with you wherever I go, I’m looking forward to not having to deal with your dumb fucking questions.”
Zaina rolled her eyes.
“What, you got any more? Get ‘em out of the way now, because once we touch ground you’re not gonna see me for a while.”
“No, hint taken.” Zaina had nothing she wanted to say at that point—truth be told, the thought of a week or two away from Xyrthe didn’t sound too bad.
At least no one will be bringing me down with constant negativity.
Xyrthe maneuvered the ship inside Kaado’s hollow crust and touched down on Navport Three, a wide and flat island suspended in the air by grav-engines—the main landing spot for lancers, as Zaina had learned. Kaado also had two cargo Navports floating somewhere around the crust’s exterior, but most lancers never saw those.
A twinge of excitement sparked to life within Zaina. Maybe this was her chance to explore Kaado, her home for the next ten years. It also gave her ample time to work on her magick, which was still budding.
I just have to keep trying.
Xyrthe brought the ship down with expert efficiency. The landing gear had barely touched the ground when she stormed out of the cockpit, returning moments later with the hover-bed they’d commandeered from Vyzria.
“Get on. Hurry up.”
Zaina really wanted to stick it to her mentor by hobbling off the ship of her own volition; considering pieces of her bone were still exposed, it was probably better to swallow her pride and listen. With a pained grunt she slid onto the hover-bed.
Xyrthe wasted no time in pushing Zaina off her ship and waving an attendant over. Then she turned to Zaina and said, “Bye.”
“Bye,” Zaina replied. Her mentor walked away without so much as an acknowledgment.
Zaina sighed, her excitement stifled by the unnecessary rudeness of her mentor. She didn’t understand Xyrthe’s need to lash out at everything.
The attendant walked over and said, “Hello—oh, looks like you need some medical attention. Um—are you, a, uh—”
Zaina stared him in the eye. “Am I a what?”
“You know—a lancer?”
Her eyes narrowed into a glare. Without a word she summoned her cipher long enough to prove herself.
“Okay, fair enough,” he said, putting his hands up. “I needed to make sure. I’ll find someone to take you to a med-bay.”
“Yeah, thanks,” she said.
Asshole.
He walked off in a rush, calling someone on his vis-screen. Zaina had no choice but to wait.
After about two minutes boredom blended the contents of her skull into mush. By the time a medical attendant approached to help her, she’d lost track of how long had passed.
Not that it mattered—the medical attendant, a young Fedastran woman with scaled blue skin and a humanoid body, was chirping and fussing over Zaina’s condition. Her face was reptilian, with slits for nostrils, deep-green eyes, and a dark red sail running along the top of her head to the back of her neck; her hands had long claws at the end of four fingers, including one opposable thumb-like digit with what appeared to be a talon attached. Zaina had seen pictures of Fedastrans before, but had never met one.
“Hi,” she blurted out, “my name’s Zaina Quin.”
“That’s good to know, but have you been listening to anything I’ve been—you know what, never mind. Let’s get you to the ward, Zaina.”
The young woman pushed Zaina’s hover-bed toward another ship—it was blocky and white with long engines strapped to either side. The whole time the Fedastran woman was muttering to herself.
“Say,” Zaina said as she was pushed onto the ship, “I told you my name, you never told me yours.”
The young woman glanced down at her, then looked back up and said, “Uh, I’m Relenivia, I guess. Call me Rele.”
“Well met,” Zaina said.
“Can you tell me anything about what happened to you?”
“Yeah,” Zaina replied. “I was on a mission. I was fighting one of the marked. She threw a pole at me. Went right through my armor.”
“That does explain the wound’s shape. What have you done to heal it?”
Zaina frowned. “Nothing? I’ve stayed off it for the most part.”
Rele shook her head. “Why do I have a feeling you’re going to be a problem patient?”
“No idea.”
Rele chuckled. “Well, Zaina, we’re here. Doctor Parthow will get you fixed up enough to walk in a day or two.”
“A day or two? What, I’m on bed-rest?”
“Lancer healing isn’t a miracle worker,” Rele replied. “We’re gonna have to set the leg, make sure everything is in its right place—you don’t want to see what happens to a limb that heals wrong.”
Rele pushed Zaina off the ship, which had landed in the Intake Bay of Kaado’s premiere medical facility. They were on Kaado’s interior crust, and based on the angle Zaina saw the Navport they’d come from, they were near the topmost edge. She looked down on the ships buzzing about within Kaado’s hollow guts like so many little flies.
The hospital, if it could be called one, was unlike any Zaina had ever seen or been to. It was more akin to images of prisons she’d been shown—a massive complex of glass cages stacked hundreds of feet high to the ceiling. Multiple series of metal walkways and stairs allowed one side of each cage in each row and column to be accessed. The interior of each cage was identical—a medical bed, a small standing shower, a sink, a desk, and a wall-mounted vis-screen.
Rele addressed the guard at the front. “Hey, Lotho. How’s your son?”
“He’s doing better now. I don’t think he’s beating himself up as much,” the guard replied. “Who’s—why are we treating it?”
“This is Zaina Quin, and she’s a lancer,” Rele shot back.
“Oh, okay,” he said. “There’s an opening in Block E—”
“I’m not taking her to Block E, for Byzon’s sake.”
Clearly a little bothered, he said, “Okay, okay. Fine. Have it your way. Tons of openings in Block A. Just take her wherever you want.”
“Yeah,” Rele said. “I’ll do that.”
They continued on, with Rele pushing Zaina through what seemed to be a maze of cages. Most of the patients were sedated. Zaina gulped.
This hospital seems pretty suspicious.
Rele broke the silence. “Block A is for major physical injuries sustained on missions. Why the hell he’d want to send you to the Infectious Disease Block is beyond me.”
Zaina sighed. I know why.
Within a minute or two Rele pushed Zaina into one of the glass rooms and helped Zaina onto the medical bed inside.
“There, now,” she said. “You’re going to be all right. Doctor Parthow will be in shortly.”
Zaina nodded. “Thank you, by the way.”
“For what?”
“Well, you pushed me a long way. I appreciate it.”
“Yeah, no worries. That’s my job, after all.”
A man in a long white coat entered Zaina’s room. He was an Altomaran with greenish-brown fur and a missing tusk, and clearly middle aged from the wrinkles along every edge on his face; he took one look at Zaina and turned to Rele.
“Call someone else. I’m not treating this thing.”
He left in a hurry, as if he didn’t want to hear any potential response. Zaina’s shoulders deflated.
Welcome home, I guess.