"What happened? Lairilon?" I said, desperate.

"Calm down! It's all right! He is fine!"

"What happened? Where am I?" I asked, confused.

"You passed out and were unconscious for almost a day."

"What? Nakkinne? Why are you here?"

"Have you forgotten where I work?" she asked, laughing.

I remembered that she was a nurse, military officer (Second Lieutenant) Nakkinne.

"Lairilon? Where is he?"

"As I said, he's fine. You managed to save him."

I tried to remember what had happened on the asteroid.

"I'm glad he's all right," I said, feeling relieved.

She was taking care of my injuries and that's when I realized that…

"My right leg? WHERE'S MY LEG?" I shouted, desperate.

"Calm down, Drih! I'm sorry to say, but we had to amputate your leg!"

"NOOO!" I shouted, desperate.

"Calm down. An advanced prosthesis will be implanted," said Nakkinne, trying to comfort me.

"Even so! My racing career will be compromised because of that."

She didn't know what to tell me, but she tried...

"I am sorry! But that will not stop you from continuing to be a pilot."

"BUT I WILL NEVER BE AN INTERSTELLAR PILOT!" I shouted, furious.

Nakkinne continued to take care of my injuries in silence. I took her hand.

"Excuse me," I said, regretting the rudeness.

She looked like she was going to cry but soon stopped herself.

"Although I never told you, I always knew that this was your dream. I've known you for a long time and I know how bad this moment is for you. Losing a leg was not in your plans, but even if you don't achieve your ultimate goal, you can't stop now. If it depends on me, I will always support you and help you not give up. And even though I'm not always around, I'll always be watching you. You always knew that I wanted to be more than a friend, but I take comfort because I know your heart belongs to another," said Nakkinne, trying to contain her emotions.

Really! She was always in love with me, since I was a child, and I always avoided her in that sense, because since I was a child I always liked Micahilla more. At that moment, my heart made me realize how painful it was for Nakkinne to love someone and not be reciprocated. I realized how cruel I was to her. Perhaps…

"Thank you, Nakkinne," I said, shaking her hand.

On the other hand, she stroked my head and touched my face gently. She lowered herself to my face and cautiously approached me to kiss me. She closed her eyes and moved closer. For a moment, she stopped and looked me in the eye, afraid that I would tell her to stop. I looked her in the eye, fixedly. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes again and kissed me. I returned the kiss and, for a moment, the only thing that came to my mind was how passionate her kiss was.

She stopped kissing me and I saw that she was crying. From her eyes, it was a happy cry. The only kiss that had given me in life, until then, had been on the face when we were children.

"Drih! Excuse me! I shouldn't have done that! You and Micahilla..."

"No problem. She and I are no longer together," I said, interrupting Nakkinne.

She looked relieved and at the same time very happy. Nakkinne received a notification to look at another patient.

"I need to go! What you need is just call me through the communicator!" she said, smiling.

I smiled and nodded. She left with a huge smile. Maybe I should give Nakkinne the chance she always dreamed of. It would be great for her, but for me, it would be a little difficult because deep down I still liked Micah very much. If I wanted it to work, between Nakkinne and me, I would have to forget Micahilla completely!

It would be the most difficult mission I would be facing in life, but I would have to take the courage to do so.

I was looking at what was left of my leg. It was disappointing because I saw my dream of being an interstellar pilot ending. I was not satisfied with that, but I had to learn to accept it.

"#@+%%+#," I swore, disgusted with myself.

I thought of my father. If he were here, he would criticize me for my failure. He was always demanding, but since my mother's death, he has been more radical with me. My mother had died on a mission and, since then, he has been even more demanding with himself, but he had come to a point in his career that even he has not managed to be more qualified. Perhaps all of this should be because my mother was an official military (Against Brigadier General) and he, today, only an official military (Captain Lieutenant). Maybe he didn't accept being inferior to her, but it was weird because from what I remember when I was a child, they were very happy and mom seemed to love him very much, just as he loved her so much.

I kept thinking about where my career was going and at the same time in Nakkinne and what I should do to not hurt her. It would be difficult, but I was willing to try since, probably, my career would not be the same anymore, and in important missions, I would not participate for a long time.