The Lereni Trade by Melanie Nilles

Author:Melanie Nilles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: drama, novella, alien abduction, starfire angels

Chapter 8

Two pairs of legs stopped next to Krissa. When fuzzy hands reached down for Torik, she stepped back to give them room to help him.

His words haunted her, along with the fear that Karik would snatch her to finish what he had started. Torik could no longer defend her.

No one had defended her like that, but against his own captain meant more to her. Part of her wondered why Karik had let him live. Was it mercy buried in that mass of anger or practical reasons?

Whatever it was, she breathed easier that Torik was still alive; beaten but alive.

She stayed close to the two helping Torik past the dining area to a room with an assortment of alien medical equipment, where they set him on a cot and locked into place a piece that covered him from chest to knees.

His groan when he breathed plucked at her sympathy so that she almost couldn't bear to stay in the presence of his suffering, but she forced herself to endure. From a few feet away, she watched the other two slide several pieces of equipment around him. Not sure what they did but trusting that they were helping Torik, she stayed out of their way. If their medicine worked as well on their own kind as it had on her, he should feel better soon, her only solace from the guilt of him being hurt while defending her.

Above the glowing lid hovered several images that could have come from her biology class, one of the only science requirements for her degree. It must have been some sort of scanner that showed his insides without invasive procedures.

But she hated blood and guts and everything that was a part of it. The outsides of creatures she could deal with, but the insides nauseated her. She tried not to watch the changing images, but a red flash of one briefly made her look to see it change to highlight the white of bones.

"Fractures." Korr's fingers tapped on a panel on the opposite side of Torik.

"Will he…be well?" She clasped her hands to keep from fidgeting. Torik was her only ally on that ship, and, despite her frustrations of him not answering all her questions, she didn't want to see him suffer.

"He will recover." Korr spoke without looking up from his work.

His words were hardly reassuring.

"He must," she said.

Although his face was contorted in pain, Torik's mouth briefly formed a smile that broke that agony. Too soon, he was wincing again.

Theen twisted from his work on Torik with a frown to her.

"What can I do? This was my fault."

"Stay back," he said while entering something into the controls on the covering over Torik.

That she could do, but she wanted to be there for him, to have the reassurance that he would be all right.

They know their own kind. He'll be fine. Just breathe. She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly to calm the anxiety inside her. Torik would be all right.

What about Karik?

She shouldn't have thought of him.

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