Commander was not far from the officer’s mess hall when the commotion started and was already on her way to it when the emergency coms came in that Mtak had attacked a human and was dragging him to an airlock. Tamare was highly rank respectful society and no Tamare would challenge Mtak due to being below his rank. Humans were not. Unfortunately, none were likely to be near officers mess at this hour. If something happened to any human Commander knew there would be trouble of the worst kind. Third of the crew were human. Including most of the maintenance crews. All the jobs Tamare thought were beneath them to do were staffed with humans. It would take a gigantic diplomatic effort to even make it back to port.

But when she arrived on scene and realized that the broken human coughing blood while getting dragged to his death was Ames, her heart sank and rage rose clouding her vision. Mtak was getting demoted. Hard.

Ames was barely conscious, but he did recognize the commander when she rushed past him and punched Mtak hard to a sensitive spot for the species that made him fold straight down to the floor. He could not make out the words Commander snared at Mtak, but now that his head was level with Ames’s he could see the foot on his throat and fear in his eyes. He really could not feel sorry for him. Moment later, on Commanders orders, the officers he had been complaining to dragged him away and Ames blacked out.

Stolen novel; please report.

Next thing he knew was being carried like a child. He looked up. Commander was running with him in her arms. She was looking where she was going, not at Ames but he was finally looking at her. She was crying. Ames passed out again, wondering why she would be crying. She had never looked the type to weep over the crew.

When Ames woke up, he was lying on a hospital bed in the ship’s hospital. His broken hand was restrained in a suspension harness and wrapped in a cast and something warm was holding on to the other hand. He looked at it and then followed the hand that was holding his to the person uncomfortably folded over in a chair next to his bed. Commander was sleeping looking rather crumpled and unlike her usual intimidating self. It was her hand that was holding his uncast hand. A new idea as to why there had been so many inspections of his work introduced itself. What if the scary commander ... Liked him? He was careful to not move his hand and wake her while he mulled this over and slowly dozed off. When he awoke again, she was gone and for a moment he wondered if he had dreamt of her being there. But the chair was still there and on its back was an oversized commander’s coat. Ames reached out his hand and touched it. No dream… She had been here and she would be back at least to get the coat. Ames tried to stay awake, to see her, but it was too soon. He dozed off again.