Blaedergil's Host by C.M. Simpson (reading well .TXT) 📕

and found Doc and Mack waiting for me.

Mack was sporting a slowly purpling bruise on one cheek, but I didn’t feel a bit sorry.

“Doc,” I said, trying to ignore Mack’s presence.

Doc just glared at me, and then pointed to my bed.

“Sit,” he said, and I crossed the room to do as he said.

I might sass Mack, but Doc I wasn’t game to mess with.

“I thought I told you to take it easy,” he said.

I opened my mouth, then reviewed what I’d been about to say—after all, it wasn’t Mack I was talking to, and Doc had access to sharp and pointy objects, and would get to see me at my most vulnerable. On second thought, maybe I didn’t have anything I wanted to say.

Mack stirred uneasily, but I avoided looking at him. That was a lot easier than expected; Doc was right in front of me, and he didn’t look happy.

“I didn’t get thrown around,” I tried, as Doc gripped my chin with his thumb and forefinger and took a close look at my eyes.

“Uh huh.”

“And it would have been a lot more strenuous if I’d been caught.”

Doc gave a non-committal grunt.

“You need a scan,” he said, and I realized Mack’s presence was absent from inside the implant.

“Why? I didn’t get a knock on the head.”

“You’re about to,” Mack grumbled, and Doc glared at him.

“I think you’ve done enough damage,” he snapped. “Besides which, I need to quarantine you both for testing, because if any of that shit was airborne, you’ve just infected the entire ship. Professional, my ass.”

Ah, well that explained what Doc was really angry about.

“She wasn’t infected the first time we brought her back on board.”

And Doc sneered.

“You never heard of mutation?”

Mack rolled his eyes, careful to stay out of Doc’s view.

“I saw that.”

Damn, the man must have eyes in the back of his head, which earned me another glare.

“You have no idea.”

Whatever any of us might have said next was lost, as Tens interrupted.

“You can check them later, Doc. You have thirty seconds to get to a pod.”

Thirty seconds? I looked around my cabin.

“Warp?” Mack asked.

“Yup. Case says to move your arse; she can’t keep dodging forever, and this moon is only so round.”

I had a feeling Case had been nowhere near as polite, but I didn’t want to know. Mack was already heading to the door, and signaling me to follow. Doc came with us, reaching out to take my arm as he caught up.

“See me as soon as we hit safe space.”

Safe space. I hadn’t heard it called that before, but, then, I hadn’t spent a lot of time in space. I nodded, and Mack led us to where another half dozen crew had gathered. They were in twos, each pair taking it in turns to each pull a pod out from the wall in front of them, and climb inside.

As soon as the lid on one slid shut, it was pulled back into the wall, and the next crewman stepped up. They all looked up as Mack joined the back of the two lines.

“Carry on,” he said, and the next crewmen stepped into their pods.

I wondered why they didn’t insist on making Mack go first.

“Because the last time I had to fight someone into a pod, I left them at the next port,” Mack whispered in my head. “We go by order of arrival. Those are the rules, and I am no exception.”

“He’s an idiot,” Doc added, as the line moved forward. “Can’t see how his own survival might be just a little bit more important than that of the rest of us—given he’s the captain of this boat.”

The crew nearest us blushed, but kept moving forward, and I figured Doc might have earned the right to yank Mack’s chain. I didn’t know how to respond to that, but it was our turn, so I stepped forward just as Mack stepped back.

Doc was frowning as the pods swung down in front of us, but I noticed he wasn’t arguing. I got into the one in front of me, and lay down, watching the lights in the corridor start to strobe as the lid slid shut. I figured Doc hadn’t argued because he knew how stubborn Mack could be, and we were almost out of time. I figured there’d be some words exchanged once we got back out, again.

I might have wondered if Mack had made it, but stasis pods had just one function, and I was out not long after the lid had closed. When I woke up, Doc was looking down at me.

“You okay?” he asked, and I wondered why I might not be—and then I registered the amber lighting in the corridor.

“Hel...” I swallowed against the dryness in my throat, and tried again. “Help me out?”

He did, and I looked around. The corridor looked perfectly okay, but the lights stayed amber.

“What happened?”

“They winged us. Mack’s directing the repair crews, now. Told me to come get you out.”

“What’s he want done?”

To be honest, ship’s repair wasn’t something I thought I could help with. Odyssey’s training just hadn’t covered it for me.

“He wants you checked out and certified healthy before you relieve Tens on the comms.”

“Tens is still on comms?”

“And he needs to be on piloting, because Case needs a break.”

“Don’t you have a second pilot?”

“Not yet. We’ve added that to the ‘to-do’ list.”

It sounded like a fair call to me. I wondered why they hadn’t done it before.

“Never had a need. Tens could always pick up the slack.”

“And he can’t now?”

“Let’s just say his job’s gotten a little more complex.”

He didn’t say it but I picked up on it anyway.

“What. Since I came on board?”

Doc didn’t answer that; he just smiled and offered me his arm.

“The infirmary is this way,” he said.

I hesitated only briefly, before slipping my metal hand through the crook of his elbow.

“Lead on,” I said.

The fact I could have walked myself to the infirmary by accessing the ship’s schematics was beside the point. Right now, knowing we’d been