I awoke with my abdomen burning, alone on a table in the middle of an empty room. The pain was intense, and the sensation was somehow amplified by the red lights shining down on me. As I moved slightly, and the fire in my gut turned to a more intense stabbing pain, I reached down instinctively to the point it seemed to emanate from. Remembering those final moments from our attempted escape, I expected to feel the seared opening left by the plasma rounds. Instead, there was the slightly hard fabric of a deeply packed gauze, and no sign of blood currently spilling out. I relaxed for a moment, taking a breath slowly to minimize the pain from drawing it in.
My calm lasted only as long as it took for my eyes to adjust to the harsh lighting and notice the details of my surroundings. There was almost nothing in the room, save for the table I was laid out on, but the metal walls were carved throughout with those same deep Okva claw-scratches that had been present on the slavers’ ship. A rush of adrenaline coursed through me and the sense of danger shook me from my exhausted state. I sat up all at once, and then screamed involuntarily as my insides radiated with pain, having foolishly added extra strain to my wound.
I collapsed back on the table, cursing at the pain and at the stupid scream that would no doubt alert whoever it was that had brought me here. I couldn’t think clearly, having so recently awoken from my injury, but I grasped vainly at the explanations that floated through my head, trying to figure out why the slavers would have kept me alive. Where could they have taken me, and how could I have even survived long enough to get there? And what would they be planning to do with me now?
The door slid open, and a figure stepped through. He was a Ploak, with thick leathery gray skin that rolled itself up in many places, giving an appearance of obesity to his already stocky build. His three eyes, arranged in a triangular fashion, were all a deep emerald color, which is how I knew he was male since the females’ eyes are red. Their faces are mostly lacking in features, with small mouths and only small slits for detecting sounds and smells, which meant there were few expressions they were capable of making. This made it difficult to tell what his intentions were as he looked over at me. Worrying, but at least he wasn’t one of the pirates.
“Come on now,” he said, rubbing his head with one of his three-fingered hands and exhaling in a way that resembled a sigh. “Even gut-shot animals don’t scream like that.”
“Who are you?” I managed to ask, discovering how uncomfortable talking was.
“I’m the one who stitched you back up. Neek, if you want a name.”
“Where are we? What happened?”
I lifted myself up slightly on my elbows, unwilling to strain my wound any more.
“We’re on one of those slaver ships,” he replied, then quickly corrected himself once he saw the tension in my face. “A stolen one, don’t worry. You’re safe.”
I relaxed again, letting myself down from my elbows, which were already starting to hurt. I didn’t especially like laying flat on a table in a situation like that, but I didn’t have any other good options.
“As for what happened,” he continued, pausing to decide what to say. “I’ll let the others tell you when they wake up. For now, just rest. You’re lucky to be alive, you know, and if you re-open that wound from jumping around, don’t expect me to close it again.”
It was somewhere between a joke and the practiced chiding of a doctor with irresponsible patients, but there was no point in fighting it. He shuffled back out of the room without adding anything else, and I closed my eyes to rest once the door slid shut behind him.
I could hear voices outside when I woke again, though I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I slid off the table, needing a few steps to orient myself, and then exited the room slowly.
The others were all gathered around a table in the next room, my three partners plus Kai and the doctor. Nesti was leaned back in his seat, far enough that he could have tipped backwards at any moment. Vos’go had managed to find a datapad somewhere and was already tinkering idly with it, and Rada had even left the cockpit to sit with the others. Kai and Neek were discussing something I couldn’t hear, but neither seemed tense or uneasy.
Seeing all of them there together and relaxed is what made it finally resonate that we had actually done it, that the job had been a success. I wasn’t willing to fully accept it just yet, of course, a trained response to never believe good news too early, but that sensation of relief washed over me anyway.
“Ah, look who’s finally up, and not screaming anymore even. Come, sit.” Neek said, motioning to the table.
I took a seat alongside them, positioning myself in the chair slowly to avoid bumping my torso against anything that might add to the pain.
“So, who wants to tell me what happened after those bastards got me in the gut?”
Nesti chuckled, and nodded towards Vos’go, who immediately looked down and began fiddling aggressively with his datapad. Nesti shrugged.
“Well, it took me a few seconds to even know you went down. Watching the rear was your job, remember?” He raised an eyebrow at me, less of an accusation than a joke at my expense. “But it was the little guy who saved you. Took two of them down with your rifle and held suppressing fire till I could get over there to carry you.”
I glanced in Vos’go’s direction, but the Sarvallan didn’t look up. I couldn’t process the idea that he had turned back to save me, especially because we had agreed before hand to not let any one of us compromise the others getting out. I never expected them to break from that plan, Vos’go least of all. This was a humbling moment for me, the realization that I had judged them wrong, thought too little of them. They had not been a liability that I was burdened with. I was the weak link, and I’d have been dead several times over without them. And I couldn’t even find the words to be thankful about it.
“What about the doctor?” I inquired after a pause, gesturing towards Neek.
“I was in that cage when you two showed up. Would still be if you hadn’t let us all out. So when I saw them carrying you, I figured I’d return the favor. Needed a ride off world anyway.”
The minimal facial features made it impossible to tell if there was a smile on the old Ploak’s face, but I felt it there anyway, a bit of joy at having repaid a kindness. There was a very disarming quality to the way he spoke that I couldn’t quite pinpoint, but I could tell immediately that his sympathy was genuine.
“So we grabbed the first ship we could get to start up, the doc got you stable, and we got the Hell out of there,” Nesti finished, adding a final bookend to the story. He started to lean back farther, like a seal of emphasis on his recounted tale, but quickly thought better of it when the chair started to wobble.
“I guess that only leaves one question,” I continued, turning my eyes towards Kai, who had remained quiet since I had entered the room. “Who are you really?”
The others looked suddenly tense, but I knew they had figured it out, too. The job always seemed a little too big just to rescue someone’s son-in-law, even for someone with the resources Vel clearly had. My suspicions had been confirmed the moment I saw him in that cage
“Well, you already know that.” Kai replied, smiling slightly. “I really am Vel’s son-in-law, and I really was flying a freighter to Nazvar when those pirates attacked.”
That could have been the end of it, I could have let it go. I knew there was more to it, but I also knew what would happen once he told us, how quickly we’d get pulled in. My ship would be fixed when I got back, and the payout from the job was enough to keep me comfortable for a long time. I could have accepted his answer on its face and everything would have been okay. But that hole in my stomach wanted an answer, wanted to know what this had all been for.
“So then tell me,” I asked at last. “What exactly were you planning to bring back?”