Heaven's Queen (Paradox) by Bach Rachel

Author:Bach, Rachel [Bach, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction / Science Fiction - Military, Fiction / Romance - Science Fiction, Fiction / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Science Fiction - Space Opera, Fiction / Action & Adventure
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2014-04-21T22:00:00+00:00

I woke up strapped down to a medical bed with a woman cutting off my clothes.

She squeaked when I jerked, jumping back like she thought I was going to bite something off. Which, to be fair, I would have if I could. “Where am I?” I demanded, wincing when the words came out a slurred mess. My body felt like wet sand and my head was killing me. I lay back with a string of garbled curses. The next time I saw Caldswell, he was a dead man.

The woman, a timid-looking lady of indeterminate middle age, looked at something behind me like she was appealing for help, and then I heard a clicking sound, like a little dog running over a polished floor before a handset appeared above my head.

Don’t worry, it read. A decade of drug abuse has rendered Morris incapable of responding normally to sedatives, hence the restraints.

I pushed against the straps, rolling over just enough to see the xith’cal standing at my bedside. Considering Caldswell had been the one to put me down, waking up to Hyrek didn’t even surprise me, though I couldn’t say I was happy about it. “Hey,” I said, turning back to the nurse. “There’s a crazy lizard in here. Cut me loose and I’ll take him out before he can eat you.”

Hilarious as ever, I see, Hyrek wrote on his screen. He flashed me a wall of sharp teeth before turning his handset back to the woman. Please continue.

The woman looked more frightened of me than of the xith’cal, but she obeyed, reaching out to lift my shirt from my body to resume her cutting. Tied up, I couldn’t do a thing to stop her, so I turned back to Hyrek, keeping my words steady in the hopes he wouldn’t realize how groggy I still was. “What’s going on? Where’s Caldswell?”

You are being prepped for surgery, and the captain is with Charkov, Hyrek typed before putting down his handset to shine a light into my eyes.

The word “surgery” went through me like an icy splash, but it was hearing that Rupert was with Caldswell that really worried me. That was not going to be a happy reunion. “What kind of surgery?” I asked, working hard to keep the whimper out of my voice.

We haven’t decided yet, Hyrek typed once he was done shining his light into every part of my face. But Commander Martin ordered you be ready for anything the moment we left hyperspace, and I wanted to get that out of the way while you were still being a good patient, meaning asleep. Alas, it seems even four darts’ worth of military-grade tranquilizers can’t take down the raging Deviana Morris for more than two hours, so here we are.

I frowned, struggling to take all that in. The room we were in was a tiny closet with barely enough room for Hyrek and the nurse around my bed. Sleek medical equipment covered every inch of the walls except for the door, arranged with the sort of precise economy of space you’d expect from a Terran battleship.

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