Earth Song Cycle - 05 - Anthem by Mark Wandrey

Author:Mark Wandrey [Wandrey, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1948485575
Publisher: Theogony Books
Published: 2017-12-31T14:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 26

June 16th, 534 AE

Unknown Star System, Galactic Frontier

“Welcome back, dear.” Minu smiled and patted Aaron’s hand.

He blinked bleary-eyed and tried to focus on his wife’s face. “Wa da fuk?” he mumbled.

“We had quite a battle,” Minu explained. “The ship is safe, but you got a little banged up.

He raised a hand that wasn’t responding properly to his brain’s commands and almost poked a finger in his eye. Minu caught it and gently put it back down.

“The Medical Intelligence says you have a second-degree concussion. It’s given you some drugs to speed up your brain’s recovery.”

He nodded feebly and closed his eyes. Minu touched his hand, then moved down the line of beds.

The Medical Intelligence had created six beds to treat the injuries which ranged from her husband’s concussion to Kal’at’s broken leg to one Ranger’s broken neck. They would all recover, according to the ship, even the man with the broken neck.

Minu spent a minute with each of them, reassuring them and making sure they were doing okay, before reaching Hodo Bapal’s habitat at the end of the bay. He stood on his rear legs and studied Minu with golden eyes, his fleshy, flayed nose twitching as he instinctively tried to smell his adversary.

“You are going to have a great deal of difficulty ransoming me if I am blown to atoms during a space battle,” she heard through her translator.

“You can lodge a complaint with your T’Chillen allies.”

The being’s eyes gleamed, and a squeaking snort came though untranslated. She assumed it was a laugh. “They are nothing if not persistent. It is in your best interest to see me though this alive, human.”

“No disrespect, war leader, but I value my skin, and that of my fellow humans, considerably above yours.”

“What about those scurrying, little reptiles?” he asked and pointed with a claw.

Minu didn’t have to look to know the Mok-Tok had indicated Kal’at, who was having his leg mended.

“Funny that a few-centimeters tall creature would disparage the size of another being more than a thousand times its size.”

“There is more to size than physical bulk, Minu Groves.”

Minu turned and left her captive to his solitude and returned to her husband’s side. He was awake, watching one of the miniature medical bots wave an instrument over his head.

“These all the injured?” he asked as she approached.

“Yes,” she confirmed. “Luckily, none of the injuries are serious. Lilith is doing fine. She’s hurt a bit but too concerned about the ship to come down here.”

“How bad is the ship?” he asked. The drugs the Medical Intelligence had given him were quickly wearing off.

“Not sure; she wasn’t very forthcoming. The Rangers said there is an aft section that’s now sealed off, so we’ve got some hull breaches.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, never thought I’d see that. And we don’t know where we are.” He looked at her in confusion. “I know, stranger and stranger.”

Lilith’s voice materialized out of the air above them: “Mother, are you finished in the medical bay?”

“All the injured have been seen to, except you.

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