Nenn hoped Drafe would explain his alarm.He didn’t.
“Place the sensors, Caah.Let us have done with this rock.”Vaen peered at the surrounding hills too low for Nenn to bother climbing.“We have an Ivoyan in the open.”
Drafe grimaced.“We wait for Aehort Uz.Spread out.”
Nenn marched to the outskirts of their circle, peering at the moon’s surface.Massive craters showed much impact from passing asteroids or meteors.Drafe stayed by Aehort’s side without moving or commenting.A slight breeze tossed Nenn’s hair across his temple.What about the female had shocked the arrak?He studied his findings, noting the thin scars marring her body.With his gaze on the horizon, he let his mind wander.
Aehort gasped then headed to the shuttle.Nenn kept his back to the pod until he could enter the shuttle.
“Caah Arrak, hurry,” Aehort Uz commanded, snapping Caah to attention.He bolted for the pilot seat and powered up the shuttle.
“What is it, Aehort?”Drafe asked but didn’t receive a response.
No doubt sensing the urgency, Caah pushed the engines to get them to theAroagnifaster.
Into the tense silence came Gusin’s voice through the language implant in Drafe’s neck.Nenn caught every word.“Drafe Arrak, we have a problem.”
Drafe tapped his neck to ask, “What is it, Gusin?”
Aehort’s head dipped from exhaustion, his skin mottling from orange to amber.“It has begun.”
Nenn unbuckled to run the med-dev over the Ivoyan, encouraging his remarkable physiology to self-heal faster.Qaldreths served the Ivoyans even when it was just a headache.
“We have collected a stranded human.”Gusin paused.“Ulvus Sava intends to interrogate.”
Nenn focused on Drafe.A human?Weak, vulnerable, and in Ulvus’s clutches?
“Foq.Caah, get us back now.”Drafe shoved past Nenn to thrust the level, shooting the already straining shuttle forward.
Caah laughed, steering as he ran his fingers over the control, issuing commands to the full-pulse engines.“The bay is prepped for landing.Ulvus Sava has the human trapped near the airlock.”He landed with a solid thump.
“I will return to my quarters.”Aehort rose to his feet with a nod to Nenn then Drafe.“No escort is needed.”
Nenn waited, not sure whether he should follow Drafe, who’d bolted before the ramp had lowered.If a maed was needed, Nenn would be summoned, but for now, he’d deal with the exhaustion aching in his shoulders.First, though, would be to assuage the lesser pain cramping his stomach.
Aware Gusin hovered, Nenn ordered his meal from the replicate in the galley.He took his plate of charred audinna and sank onto the bench.His steaming jar of usturo tisane perfumed the air.
Gusin sat opposite him and pinched a kurrula between forefinger and thumb.“What did you think?”
Nenn popped a strip of mushroom into his mouth.“About?”he asked while he chewed.
“The female in the pod.”
“Caah recorded her.What more do you need to know?”With sticky fingers, Nenn pulled his jar closer for a sip.He smacked his lips when the hot liquid tingled his tongue.
Gusin bit into his meal, the bones crunching.“She seemed young.”
Nenn paused.“Indeed,” he said.
“Any idea how she died?”Gusin licked his fingers clean before gulping his water.
“Heart failure.No other signs of distress, no injuries, just the parts missing from her limbs.”
Gusin slumped, resting his elbows on the edge of the table.“Good.I pray to Osnir that her death was painless.”
Nenn kept silent.Aehort had said she’d suffered.
“Vic, this is Giniiri aac Nenn Maed and Zuphayr aac Gusin Taed.”Drafe smiled at Nenn and Gusin, a human female beside him.
