Bat sits on Zane’s pillow and watches him sleep. I can see him from my chair in the back of the ship. After some ear pets, he eventually uncurled from my chest and waddled off to check on the humans. Lalia hasn’t stirred from her makeshift bed on the floor and both princesses are in the other chair. It’s still early and we’re not close to any planets, so everything’s quiet.

My entire body hurts.

I consider getting up, but no one’s awake and I don’t feel ready for movement. I’m hungry, but not enough it motivates me. I shift in the padded chair and grimace.

“You okay?” Yvonne’s whisper startles me. 

She looks a little beat up as well, cheek puffy and forming the hints of a blue bruise as if she got punched. Maybe hit the ground too hard when I tackled that cyborg holding her up. Either way, she doesn’t look nearly as bad as I do. Though it’s dark, she’s facing the side of me that got the brunt of the damage to the implants in my temple.

“How does your face feel?”

Nice enough of her to ask. “Like I got shot in the face.”

She grimaces. “I guess that’s kinda my fault.”

“Not really.” I gesture at the damaged temple. “This was before you got dragged off.”

“Oh.” She runs her fingers over her sister’s sleeping head. Anya, at least, seems to have come out unscathed, though it’s nothing to say about how she’s gonna be mentally after all this. I’m glad I didn’t blow Kel’s face off right in front of her. “What happened yesterday? I didn’t catch most of it.”

Even trying to wrap my brain around the situation kinda makes the mild headache kept at bay by painkillers worse on its own. “A lot. I’ll tell you when I remember all of it in order.”

She nods, staring at the ceiling. Bat peeks over at us before going back to watching Zane sleep like a cat watching a mouse. I figured he liked Zane, but it’s cute to see him watch over the human.

I rub my face, trying to avoid my injuries, but most all the implants in my face—and various parts of my body—ache when touched. Human skin doesn’t take lightly to being smashed against metal, even when the metal is coming from my own body. My cheekbones feel swollen, as well as the temple bone over my left eye. I’m sure the other one—where the implants took damage—is worse. The skin around my eyes that’s always a little red and haunted feels frailer than usual. Looking in a mirror this morning will be less fun than usual.

Yvonne’s eyes are on me. Discomfort crawls over my skin, but it’s not as if she hasn’t seen me look like hell before. 

“It’s either ship crashes or cyborgs that are abominations against nature, apparently,” I say, just because she’s staring so much I feel the need to break the quiet.

Her lip quirks. “You think all cyborgs are abominations against nature.”

“Only when I’m feeling particularly pissed.” I’ll give Captain that he’s advanced medical technology more than any other one person, but I’m not in the mood to be so gracious out loud.

Yvonne is frowning. “Do you think Captain looks like that? Or can do those things. Like that woman who split her arm in half?”

I doubt it. But how would I know? He doesn’t seem the one to give himself the actual wild augmentations, just the ones that’ll make him nice and immortal and still stronger than most of the galaxy, other cyborgs included. Then again, I had no idea ForceZero existed in the first place, so what do I know. 

“No idea. At this point, I’m not entirely sure I’d be surprised.”

“Aaron?”

I finally stop messing with my sore face and glance at her. “You sound serious and when you do, usually I don’t end up liking the outcome.”

She rolls her eyes but her expression remains tight. “I don’t know what to do.”

Well, that’s a heavy topic. “About everything, or something in particular you’re sulking over?”

She slaps me so lightly on the arm it’s barely a pat and doesn’t remotely hurt. “I don’t think we can go back to Neyla Ve.”

Well, yes, that problem has occurred to me.

“Well, I can,” she says. “I was never supposed to leave, so if Captain got ahold of me he’ll just drop-kick me back there. But if he gets his hands on both of us, he’ll probably just take Anya back to Amerov out of pure spite.”

“He does seem quite a bit more spiteful than I ever took him to be.”

She shorts softly. “I know you want your money, and I know it’ll be harder on you, but we’ve got to figure a way to get us to my parents directly on Neyla Ve. No cyborgs or anyone else in the government between them and us. And I realize the tall order of that, but I really don’t know what Captain will do just because we’ve pissed him off and humiliated him to my parents. But…”

I wait for her to keep going, but she’s staring at the ground, jaw clenched. I would expect to be annoyed about how troublesome and dangerous it will be to attempt to both get my bounty and deliver them to their parents where Captain won’t be able to interfere.

It doesn’t bother me much.

It’s a headache for certain. And my stomach twists thinking about everything that can go wrong, and how dangerous it is to have them with me for as long as I have. But it’s difficult to be annoyed when Yvonne feels about Captain about the way I do, and Anya seems to look to me for support. I can fathom dropping her off with some Amerov officials about as much as I can fathom doing the same to Bat. Not at all.

I’m so screwed.

“We’ll figure it out. We need to land, make sure Zane recovers, and we’ll figure it out while we’re doing that.”

She’s momentarily quiet. “I thought you’d say tough break.”

“Yeah, I thought I’d say that too. Apparently, I like getting myself in trouble.”

She laughs again, softly enough it doesn’t wake anyone. “I’ve noticed.”

Her hand drifts toward my face like she wants to inspect one of the injuries. I flinch without meaning to. I don’t think she’s going to dig her nails into my wounds or anything, but old habits die hard, and I don’t exactly need her fingers on my injuries.

“Sorry,” she says, dropping her hand at my expression. “I wasn’t going to hurt you.”

“I know,” I say, which isn’t a lie, but my chest is tighter than I appreciate.

Uncomfortable, I finally push myself onto my elbows, wincing. My temples throb. My vision hasn’t fully returned in my right eye, but at least it isn’t the eye itself that took damage. Those were gonna be tough to replace with all their glitching, but actually being down an eye would’ve been hell. Bat can probably fix this one. Maybe.

I’m gonna need a new comm.

“Did Anya say why she didn’t put her arm back on?” I ask, staring vaguely at the floor in favor of actually standing.

“She said she wants you to show her again, she’s never actually done it all herself.”

I nod. Makes sense.

“You don’t look like you wanna get up.”

“I very much don’t.”

She giggles softly again, and Anya shifts and stretches. “You can go back to sleep?”

It’s tempting. But I’m morbidly curious about how bad my injuries look now I’ve slept a while. And I’m hungry.

And I don’t like Zane just laying there half-lifeless. I want to check on him, even if Bat’s already keeping watch.

The older injury on my knee flares to life, but it isn’t too bad. Mostly it’s my head that hurts. Various other injuries don’t complain much in comparison.

“Hi, Aaron,” Anya mumbles, sleepy.

“Hi.”

I head for the washroom without limping too much. My face is just about as nasty as I expected. All the little injuries are swollen and red, not infected after the time I spent cleaning them and smearing on ointment and bandages, and a day or two will make them better in appearance, but I can’t help but wince. I push a bit at the places where metal juts from my skin, but it only aches. At least it isn’t peeling away from the implants. Lalia groans and rolls over on the floor, touching Zane’s hand along the bed before seeing me and blinking.

“Did you hit your head?” I ask.

She rubs the back of her hair, grimacing. “Apparently. I don’t think I have a concussion.”

“Is your vision blurry?”

“No—”

“What about—”

“Relax Aaron, I’m fine. I know what the symptoms of a concussion are.” She doesn’t sound annoyed.

I squint. Rolling her eyes, she maneuvers off the floor with the same labored movements. Not exactly a comfortable place to sleep.

“I found a nearby planet to land last night. We’ll stop there and get some supplies, maybe some extra bedding or something.”

“Is landing a good idea?”

I run water over my hands, splashing my face until I feel a fraction more awake. Some of the cuts and scrapes still sting even though they’re scabbing over. “No idea. But we can’t stay out here forever. I don’t have the supplies to be taking care of Zane, and I don’t like the crack in the viewport, it’s giving me anxiety.”

“What planet?”

“I forget the name, it’s on the computer. It seems pretty abandoned, a few out-postings, sort of like Falla but more spread out.”

Lalia inspects my injured temple as Yvonne had but doesn’t try to touch. “I don’t think stopping at a hospital is a good idea.”

“Neither do I. Stopping at a private residence might not be too bad, maybe someone can let us know if there are any small medical centers nearby. The planet files are pretty worthless.”

She grimaces, rubbing her shoulders and trying to stretch. “That sounds dangerous.”

“I know.”

She gazes past me at Zane. Bat is watching us, listening. I wish he had a better idea, but he looks just as lost. I stare at the edge of the sink, thinking of resting my head against the little mirror above it but don’t want Lalia to get all fussy about it.

“Hopefully, as long as we don’t stay more than an hour at any one place we can pick up some supplies and move on. Viewport might be tricky, but I’m more concerned with dumbass over there than the glass. It’ll hold as long as we don’t do anything stupid.”

“Dumbass saved your ass…” comes Zane’s slurred voice.

Lalia scurries back to him while Bat pokes his cheek with his nose. Zane grimaces. “Your nose…is wet.”

I press my lips together and limp to the edge of the bed, feeling oddly sheepish. Even when Zane was pissed yesterday, he was more angry at the rest of the circumstances than at me. There’s no reason to feel sheepish. I’m not even sure he was conscious enough to notice I blew up on Kel, that nasty little piece of—

“You look like hell…” he mutters, swinging his hand in my direction until it smacks my leg.

“Yeah, I got toasted and beat up and kinda shot. But all things considered, I think you win this one. At least I can stand.”

He looks like he’s attempting to give me a scowl but doesn’t quite manage it. His face, though mostly covered in bandages, got some harsh burns from the explosion, not to mention other various cuts and bruises. He’s been bleeding from other places though I’m not entirely sure what happened in the chaos of trying to get him out. I know Bat stitched him up, so I’m not concerned he’s going to bleed out. Still, he looks about as lucid as someone drunk off their ass.

“So, I take it our ship is gone.” It isn’t a question. I can tell in his voice he already knows, but he’s looking at his sister where she sits and holds his hand. Her face has enough grief when she nods I look at the floor instead.

“Hmm.” Zane closes his eyes. “We all got out, that’s the important bit. Who dragged me out of that ship? I don’t remember much.”

“That would be your idiot twin,” Lalia says.

I give her a look.

“Scared the crap out of me,” Bat grumbles.

Zane nearly smiles. “I bet your entire life has been Aaron scaring the crap out of you.”

“Hey,” I protest while Bat snickers. There’s a matching laugh from Yvonne in the other room. It’s hard to be snippy when they’re all smiling tiredly and I’m more relieved than I’d like to admit that Zane is awake and in-tact enough to tease.

A beep sounds softly on the console. I glance at it, then out at the dark of space out the window alongside the bed. A planet shimmers dully in the distance, lit against a bright pale yellow star and a few moons. 

We’ve arrived.