March 2, 2363 AIA

Ionu

The lights were on in the hospital room, but they were dimmed to almost nothing. It barely showed the outline of the machines. Tennama wondered, if they were any brighter, would he have been able to see his breath?

The majority of the rooms in the hospital were toward the outside of the building; they had to take the brunt of the sun. The air conditioning was set accordingly. Here, in the interior of the hospital, it was achingly cold. Before she left, Wyss had shut off the vent, but that was all she could do about the temperature.

Tate was lying in the only bed. He was conscious, but quiet.

Unfortunately, Vas was also conscious, and he wasn’t quiet.

Tennama realized with meek surprise that he probably knew Adan Vas better than most people ever would. He’d seen him walk away from a treasured position to fulfill another duty. He’d seen him smile at Alix, worry about her, and morn for her pain. Tennama had crossed the desert four times in his company. Your worst days, your heart-felt affection, and how you met a wasteland—Anthony was pretty certain that was all you needed to plumb the depths of a human soul.

And Tennama knew that when the captain was experiencing too much emotion, he would fall back on one of two predictable reactions: first, he would try to act—to do something, anything at all!—and if that failed, he would try to gather information, which was the lazy or injured man’s method of doing something.

Tennama was no psychologist, but he felt that such obsessive tendencies couldn’t be healthy.

It was bordering on supremely unhealthy at the moment, but Anthony resisted the urge to leap out of his chair and wring the captain’s neck.

No matter how understanding Miss Reyer was, she’d probably get mad if he did that. Besides, Vas was injured; it wouldn’t be a fair fight.

“I think they were under orders,” Tennama said wearily.

“What generation do you think they were?” Vas asked.

“I told you, given their reaction time and their inability to communicate, they were probably only occupying their first or second body.”

“Second body,” Tate mumbled from the bed.

“Or an advanced first,” Tennama said.

“Either way, they shouldn’t have been able to understand orders!” Vas said.

“All our knowledge is based on untransformed xenos born from a queen that had never encountered a human,” Anthony said. “This queen took over the mind of Jack Harlan and currently has the brain and body of a human! How can we assume there won’t be a difference?”

“That’s nothing but speculation.”

“You asked me, Captain.”

Then again, there was a chance that Vas would welcome the chance to fight. It would be cathartic.

As Tennama weighed the question of exactly how understanding Alix Reyer was, Vas asked another question. His voice had been quiet, so Anthony missed it the first time.

“I’m sorry?”

Adan sat up straight in his chair and pulled his hand away from his face. “What makes you think they can understand orders?”

“They attacked you. You weren’t threatening them, but they still attacked you. The only reason I can think of for them to do that is if they were told to.”

“They might have been trying to take us over.”

“None of their piercing strikes were aimed for your head. Believe me, you would’ve known if they were trying to take you over. This time they were only trying to kill you.”

“How comforting.”

“Why did they wait to attack?” Tate asked.

His voice was no more than a murmur, so both men strained to listen when he spoke. It was obvious how much each word cost him; neither of them wanted to have to ask him to repeat himself.

“They had to realize you were humans,” Tennama said. “Memory-keepers might have been faster to realize it, but not them. And they went after Tate first.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Vas asked.

“It means that you smell funny, Captain.”

Tate started laughing, but the gentle shaking of his chest was too much. He groaned as the pain set in. When his agony drifted back to the level he was braced for, he raised his voice. “Stop it you two. You have to play nice. Do you want me to call in Sarge?”

Both men blushed and looked away.

“Tennama?” Vas said in a much more sedate tone.

“You’ve been on board the ship with Dr. Bonumomnes,” the xeno explained. “It’s her lab. Whenever she’s working with the proteins, it throws things off. Right now, I can sense that you’re human, and most xenos would know you’re not one of us, but if you’ve never confronted it before, it can throw you.”

“You always leave when Jane starts working.”

“It makes me feel queasy.”

“And I…smell funny?”

“It’s not as bad as Dr. Jane herself, but it would still take a xeno a moment to place you.”

“So you think they were under orders to attack any humans that showed up, but it took them a while to figure out we were humans?”

“And the more violently you defended yourself, the more violent they became.”

“Xenos don’t like to die,” Vas grumbled.

Tennama stared at the captain. The xeno seemed puzzled, but there was an unusual intensity to it. He appeared almost disturbed.

“What?” Adan asked.

Tennama shook his head and lowered his eyes.

Tate said, “Vas’s talking about the survival instinct. When they feel threatened—”

“I know what you’re referring to,” Tennama said. “Better than you do, I think. You’re right, they did feel threatened when you fought back. It took me a long time to calm them down.” He stood up without meaning to. There was nowhere to go, but sitting still with those memories was too painful. He walked to the foot of the bed.

“How did you do it?” Vas asked.

“A xeno won’t attack another xeno,” Joseph said.

Tennama closed his eyes. “That’s not entirely accurate, but a first or second generation xeno, living almost entirely off instinct and training, certainly won’t attack a high-level memory-keeper. They were frantic, but I was more worried about them tearing each other apart than I was worried for myself.”

Adan gazed at the xeno. Tennama had a few scratches, but his worst injury turned out to be the gouges on his face that he’d gotten while trying to protect Vas and Tate. As the captain watched, Tennama turned to look at him.

“That’s the other reason I think they were under orders,” he said. “They obeyed mine. They had to have some understanding of language to do that.”

For a moment, the room was quiet. The only sound came from one of the machines giving a soft beep to warn the world that it was turning on to check Tate’s blood pressure. It must have been satisfied; it went dormant without giving an alarm.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Wyss never would’ve left if she hadn’t been able to stabilize him, so the result was no surprise to Joseph, but he was vicariously proud of the fact she’d managed to get him back into the normal range so quickly.

He had lost a lot of blood.

His thoughts were distracted when the captain asked another question.

“Why so many of them?” Vas said. “And why are they all only second generation?”

The room went quiet again.

Tate had to moisten his mouth with his tongue before he could speak. “Vas, can we do this later?”

The captain looked at the figure on the bed. Half of Tate’s face was hidden by bandages. The blankets around him were spotted with drying blood.

Joseph added, “I’ve had a rough night.”

“Of course. I’m sorry, Tate. You get some rest.”

Vas pushed through the pain so he could stand. He had his own share of scratches, gashes, and stab wounds, but compared to the deputy, he was the lucky one.

The captain walked over and put a hand on Tennama’s arm. “Come on.”

The xeno followed him to the exit.

Once the door was closed behind them, Tennama said, “Captain, I know you probably want to keep talking, but don’t you think it’d be better if we waited until we were back with everyone else?”

Vas bit back whatever he’d intended to say and, instead, ran a hand through his hair. “It has been a rough night, hasn’t it?” He took a deep breath. “I could use some fresh air. How about you?”

“That sounds good.”

As they walked down the hall together, Tennama said, “Do hospitals smell weird to you, or is that a xeno thing?”

Adan let out a short bark of laughter. “No, that’s a very human thing.”

When they reached the end of the hall, they both heard a beep. It was followed by a stretched noise that pulled itself together to form a voice.

“—amn you, Adan Javier Vas! Answer me!”

Vas had to process the fact the sound was coming from his com. Once he did, his reactions were stalled by the fear shifting through him. The com wasn’t even supposed to be the last resort; it was what you took so Lynx would stop nagging you. You were never supposed to use it. Both Ciro and Fenn had gone out of their way to warn them. Ashtell was monitoring everything, and it wouldn’t be hard to pick out a stranger’s signal.

Once he could move his hands, he yanked the com out of his pocket.

“Alix!”

“Oh, god”—she sounded weak and out of breath—“thank you.” In a clearer voice, she said, “Adan, you have to get the others and get out of there.”

“What’s going on?”

“People are coming for you, and I don’t think they’re going to be friendly! I’ve been trying to reach you for ten minutes. They could be there any second.”

Vas and Tennama looked at each other.

“The walls were blocking the signal,” the xeno whispered.

From the com they heard, “Fenn and Wyss are on their way, but we don’t know how much of a head start our enemies have.”

“Understood.”

“Adan—” Her voice disappeared for a moment. When they heard it again, it sounded choked. “Tate. Can you move him?”

“We’ll manage, Alix.”

“I’m going silent. If by some miracle they haven’t found us yet, I don’t want to try what’s left of our luck.”

“I’ll leave my com on.”

“Thank you.”

Vas shoved the com in his pocket. He and Tennama ran back down the hall.

They were almost to Tate’s room when five men turned the corner in front of them. They were all tall and looked strong.

Vas and Tennama came to a halt at the same time as the five men. The two groups eyed each other.

“Captain,” Anthony said.

“Yes?”

“Give me your gun.”

Vas pulled it from his concealed holster and passed it over. “I don’t think these men will care how violent I am.”

“I want it for myself this time. These men won’t hesitate to attack me, and I don’t like five to one odds.”

“Are they xenos?”

“They’re the memory-keepers.”

“And I’m not fighting?”

“Someone needs to rescue Tate, and I’m in better fighting condition.”

Vas saw the wisdom in the xeno’s analysis. He ran the last few steps to Tate’s room.

Once the captain had dodged through the door, Anthony raised the weapon.

“Come on, boys,” he whispered.

He was wrong; they did hesitate. He watched their faces as they considered their position. From their thoughtful expressions, Tennama could tell they were on at least their fifth human incarnation. These wouldn’t be the mindless animals he’d faced before.

But he couldn’t shoot. Not yet. The ache in his chest made it feel as if he was holding his breath to the point of fainting, but he could hear the air rushing in and out of his nose.

“Are you on their side?” one of them yelled across the distance.

“I’m not on yours,” Tennama said.

“We’ve been ordered to kill you if you’re helping them.”

“Ah, but xenos don’t like to die!”

“We can’t disobey our queen.”

“I know, but I intend to fight you.”

The man grimaced, then nodded once. The answer was unwanted, but not unexpected.

Tennama saw their legs tense. He felt a sense of lightness dawn in his body as the adrenaline hit. The hand holding the gun turned white.

At last.

He pulled the trigger.

Two were dead, shot through the chest, before the other three reached him. He dropped the e-weapon and swiped out with his claws. He’d hit one of the others with a blast. It had left an inviting wound on his side. As Anthony’s claws scooped through the man’s body, he let out a shout and dropped to one knee. Tennama kicked his face.

Another xeno rammed his claws into Anthony’s stomach. Tennama slashed at the man’s throat with the tips of his claws, tearing through the soft tissue. When his assailant collapsed, the weight of his arm wrenched his claws free. Tennama shouted and curled over the injury.

He managed to stand up just as a hard punch to his back stopped time.

Anthony’s hands drifted to his chest, where he felt three points sticking out from his body. He looked down. In that surreal moment, he noticed how the red blood smeared on the white claws appeared orange.

Then the all-consuming pain struck, filling every inch of his body.

Tennama didn’t hear the loud grunt behind him, but there was a prolonged sensation of being pulled backward as the claws slid out.

An arm went around his chest.

“Anthony.”

He felt like he should know that voice.

“Can you breathe?”

How would he know something like that?

He was lying on the floor now. It must have been cold. The chill of it blew through him like a wind, adding a sense of ice to all the fire.

“He’s breathing,” someone else said. A woman.

Alix?

Tennama opened his eyes, but the woman kneeling over him wasn’t Miss Reyer. He didn’t recognize her, but he recognized Captain Vas. He was sheathing his knife. Fenn stood over all of them, scanning the halls with his e-pistol drawn.

“We have to get him to an operating room,” the woman said.

No. Tennama tried to push her away. His hand barely moved.

She saw it out of the corner of her eye. “Please hold still,” she said as she gently pressed his arm back down.

No! He struggled to pull his voice out of the abyss. It took several attempts before he could form the words he needed. “Vas!” He tried to shout, but it came out scarcely louder than his normal voice. “Vas, get away from us!”

Adan looked down and saw the xeno’s white hands were shaking. There was a rain of quiet clicking where his claws danced on the tiles.

The captain grabbed Wyss by the collar and pulled her back with a graceless heave. She let out a brief shout.

“Stay away from him!” Vas said.

“He’s alive! Shouldn’t I be trying to help him?”

“Not him! Get Tate.”

“Who?”

“He means Creed,” Fenn said. “Captain—”

The sheriff fell silent when Vas dropped to his knees and leaned over Tennama.

“Are the others dead?” Anthony muttered.

Adan saw the outline of his gun in the gore. He picked it up, rose to his feet, and went around to the five bodies, putting a point-blank blast in each head.

He returned to Anthony. “If they weren’t, they are now.”

Tennama’s laugh gurgled through the blood in his throat.

Adan put his gun in his holster and knelt by the xeno’s side.

“Be careful,” Tennama muttered. “I’m dangerous.”

“Ha! You? Right now you’re weaker than a kitten.” Vas put Tennama’s arm over his shoulder.

“We both have claws.”

“Sure.” The captain grunted as he pulled Anthony up to a sitting position. “And you’ll both grow up to be fearsome killers, but you didn’t hurt Alix, and you won’t hurt me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Shut up, Tennama.” Vas’s face screwed up in pain as he hefted the xeno to his feet. “Isn’t it enough you’re bleeding all over me? Don’t go spitting it everywhere.”

Tennama didn’t seem to be able to hold more than a fraction of his weight. A sheen of sweat formed on the captain’s forehead. If he hadn’t been injured, he might have been able to manage it. But when were they ever that lucky?

“You have to walk,” Vas said. “ I’ll hold you up, but you have to walk.”

Wyss came out of the room with Tate’s arm across her shoulders. She heard Adan’s statement.

“Captain Vas,” she said, “if you make him walk in that condition, he’ll die!”

“And if he lays there, he’ll die. Hell! If we’re being honest, he’s probably going to die no matter what we do! But this is his best chance.”

“His best chance is in one of our operating rooms!”

“Is it really, Miss Wyss?”

“Eve,” Fenn’s calm voice felt like a balm washing over their nerves, “you’re a good nurse, but do you think it’s possible you might not understand everything that’s going on here?”

Wyss re-shouldered Tate so his weight wasn’t pulling on her so much. Then her gaze drifted to the long claws dangling from Tennama’s palm. She flinched when she felt something touch her stomach. It was the deputy. He’d managed to lift his hand enough to touch her.

“Come on, Evie,” he mumbled. “Are you going to make me stand here all night?”

Eve Wyss frowned, then started walking. Her pace was hampered by her efforts to support Tate. “This way,” she said.

The sheriff stayed where he was. “I’ll take care of the bodies.”

“No.” Vas tried to turn. “You have to come with us.”

“These bodies are essential evidence.”

“Evidence the queen won’t want you to have! She’ll send people to clean this all up. You can’t be here when they arrive.”

Fenn turned toward the other wing of the building. “Davis.”

Vas wanted to scream. He wanted to collapse. He might collapse if Tennama lost consciousness. Through grit teeth, he growled, “What now?”

“I have to get him out of here.”

“Do it,” Vas said, not knowing or caring who Fenn was talking about. “But don’t linger.”

The sheriff nodded. As he walked down the hall, he kept his gun at the ready.

Vas turned back. Wyss had waited for him.

It was a slow and arduous procession.

“You give a lot of orders,” Tennama said. The words tumbled out of his mouth, barely formed.

“I’m a captain,” Vas said. “It comes with the territory.”

“You’re not a captain. Not really.”

“Until they strip the rank from my cold dead hands, I’m a goddamn captain. Sucks to them for giving it to me.”

There was a sputter of blood and air as Tennama laughed. When Vas heard it, he felt a douse of concern cascade through him—more concern than he would ever admit to feeling.

He tried to play it off: “Besides, you’re one to talk. Look at all the orders you give. That makes you a monster and a hypocrite.”

“I’m a major, Captain. I outrank you.”

“I think you left that rank behind with your other body.”

“If you’re a captain, then I’m a major.”

“Sir?”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Shut up and walk.”