“And then what?” Luca asks.
“A medicated coma would buy us some time.” Hadfield offers.
Pesquet's cheeks flush, as she gulps. “Oiu, and it would at least be painless.”
“Nein. Auf keinen Fall!” I stretch out, thrusting some sealed packets of noodles backwards and further into the pantry racking as I slam my palms against the handhold bar I’m using to steady myself.
“What would that mean exactly?”Gigoloignores me, chirping up.
“She wants tokillthem. KillAlex. Absolutely not.” I start to pace, kicking off to float towards the drinks dispenser before pushing off the stainless-steel counter and gliding back to the rows of dried food packets again.
“No. I am as invested in our colleague’s survival as everyone else. This is about being prepared for every eventuality. A plan ‘Z’.” Hadfield’s clinical side emerges.
Luca looks horrified, and for the first time, I’m glad he’s here. At least one other person is as invested in Alex’s survival as I. ‘Glad’ might be too strong a word.
“Let's bench that thought for now,” Clayton says diplomatically. The mind boggles at how he can act so non-partisan. It makes me want to wretch.
“Are we done here, or is there more?” I turn to give a pointed look at Anderson.
He shakes his head. “That’s all we know at present.”
I nod, push off the wall, and turn to leave.
“Müller?” Reiter calls after me.
I pause at the entryway. “You can mull over how we’re getting home, I’m going to get Alex out of that room, one way or another.”
“Matty.” Clayton makes me pause. “Without any better ideas, we are taking a spacewalk. Yuri gets suited. At worst we at least need eyes on the damage, at best we get that breach sealed.”
The clock continues its countdown. We lost forty-five minutes to this meeting.
The others are slow to jump into action. I kick off the wall with a little more force than needed, venting my frustration on the metal racking, pushing myself down the corridor heading towards Columbus.
The first thing my eyes seek out is… “Alex.”
Her beautiful brown eyes look up at me, fluttering open as if battling off sleep.
ALEX
CHAPTER TEN
“Call me Callie.” Doctor Hadfield coos through the door at us. Chelenko is awake, barely, but still, it’s something, and at this point I’ll take any good news.
“You still with us, comrade?” I ask.
He makes a disgruntled noise followed by a sharp nod. His left pupil is still blown as big as a saucer, but his head wound has stabilised, the plasma-y blood has begun to congeal over. He keeps complaining that it feels itchy and tight, but Dr Hadfield assures me that’s quite normal. A sign of healing.
You’d think the big guy has never been injured before, something I know to be false considering all the silvery scars I saw traversing and interlacing across his skin - and those were just the parts I could see.
“Alex.” I turn to the doctor, spotting Matthias behind her. “You need to keep the wire cutters where they are.” She reiterates for the fifth time, like I’m not trying. “Don’t let him move about too much.”
“Keeping him still is like herding cats.”
Chelenko groans. “Can’t we justpull out? Like bad tooth.”
Callie laughs, it's gentle and tender, like her, and I completely understand why she went into medicine.
“We can’t. Right now, you’re stable. If we dislodge it, you could bleed out.”
