Chapter 2
Landfall
Night had begun to descend on Cerinia. It softened the shadows that wrapped around the palm trees, dark fingers receding and rotating as the sun was slowly engulfed by the watery horizon. It marked the end of a long and mundane day for the tropical planet and its inhabitants. For Krystal Tarkania it was a call to meditate in the mysterious splendor of twilight. Meditation was a common custom for Cerinians, however, the backdrop differed by the individual. For her father Joecel, he sought solace in his old creaking study, the towering shelves of books and tomes ringing the epicenter of his cross-legged position. For her mother Yahnnie, she sat on the stone bench in her garden, the floral and spiced scents aiding her inhalations. Krystal sat crossed-legged on the sandy shore garbed in a blue dress with black trim that contrasted with the white fur of her face and neck. Her outer fur was royal blue with the faintest hints of white. Her hair was cut neck length and slicked back, the custom of all female Cerinian warriors. Her turquoise eyes were hidden behind her closed eyelids. She breathed in and out imagining that with each exhalation she was pushing the sun deeper and deeper into the horizon, centimeter by centimeter. When she found the rhythm, she wandered the labyrinth of her mind. It was a collage of sounds, sights, and smells. Sometimes it coalesced into sudden epiphanies, or more often than not it was the simple blathering of her brain. Tonight was different, she could sense it. The night was coming, but it had become a beguiling thing. It promised mystery, but with a hint of something more….something…alien.
"It has arrived", Krystal thought, not knowing what prompted it in the first place.
Maybe it was a result of the natural drift of meditation. To give in to the unpredictability of the subconscious was to wander and have yourself laid bare. She stilled herself again, drawing herself inward and letting the stimulus of nature and life guide her thoughts. The roaring ocean waves, the slight scent of salty sea air, the grains of sand spilling along her shifting toes. Her mind floated and traversed to a state that made her feel truly malleable. No longer was she Krystal, the warrior, the explorer, the royal noble of Cerinia. No such titles. Now she was merely a benign floating spirit. It came to her again, resonating like a gentle hissing whisper from some serpentine mouth.
"A falling star"
Her eyes snapped open. The mental bolt hadn't come from her, not consciously at least. She rose to her knees now scanning her surroundings. Nothing but the gentle reaching and receding of the ocean waves. She turned, further down the shoreline she observed several birds gliding in the gentle breeze heads orientated to the shore, looking for a catch be it fish or crustacean. Behind her only swaying trees and buzzing insect life, she could even faintly make out glow bugs floating just below the tree canopy roused by the setting sun. She was as alone as one could be. Nevertheless, she waited. It floated again to her mind's ear.
"It's going to crash".
Something was amiss; she was sure of it. Now standing properly, she used her foot to flick her spear into the air, catching it in her dominant hand. With a casual flourish, she rested its tip in the golden sand with a hollow thunk. She briefly regarded the weapon, which had served her through trials and bouts of combat. Its blue jeweled blade gleamed in the fading sunlight like a defiant eye. To an outsider, such an otherworldly artifact would seem more suited to vanity than a weapon of war. However many deadly trinkets were hidden inside the jeweled staff. Standard to all Cerinian warriors was the combat staff, capable of both conventional close-quarters combat as well as ranged combat projectiles, be it plasma or flame emitted from either end. A subtle weapon with devastating applications. Still, she was content with hitting the switch that detracted the staff's length to just under two feet, she then attached it to her leather back sheath. Now fully alert, Krystal gradually widened the focus of her telepathic awareness. She could sense it more clearly, a cluster of distant minds suddenly becoming aware of some strange anomaly that she couldn't see or hear. It was coming from beyond the tree line, a rising chorus of furtive voices and premonitions. She turned and trekked into the forest, her movements instinctively becoming more stealthy as night descended. On she went, her feet avoiding brittle leaves and twigs, the only sound that marked her movement was dense tropical foliage gently brushing her weapons and clothing. The golden glare of the sunset had been replaced with a blue gloom. The voices were becoming more frequent and urgent.
"Is it a ship?"
"No, it's moving too quickly"
"An attack possibly"
"We must give warning"
Then she began to hear it, a continuous hissing, ripping sound. It was easily masked by the buzzing din of insects and other nightlife, and it seemed to be growing in volume. She quickened her pace, ahead of her the forest abruptly ended in a shallow basin. Reaching the end of the treeline she could faintly see figures ringing the edge of the shallow water pool. Normally this section of beach was teaming families substituting the uncertainty and danger of high tide ocean waves for still shallow water for their children to play and splash in. Instead, that area seemed to have been cordoned off by Cerinian warriors all similarly armed as she was staffs in hand. Separate from the half dozen bordering the pool was another group escorting families and their children. They all had one thing in common, they were looking at the sky. Krystal turned and finally saw it. About a dozen miles away she could make out a flickering light trailed by a thin wisp of smoke. Whatever it was, it
was hurtling straight for the basin, whether it would strike the water or land was anyone's guess.
Krystal ran frantically to the warriors who were just now noticing her. She skidded to a halt in front of their ranks noticing a familiar face, Meesha one of the many healers in the Cerinian military. She was beautiful by Cerinian standards, a purple-gray furred vixen with emerald eyes that starkly contrasted with the blue hue of night. She had an attitude and demeanor that drew you in with its serene calmness but could just as easily become feisty and vicious should one become too brazen around her. The normally calm and collected healer looked pensive and wary. She nodded briefly at Krystal before shifting her attention back to the strange anomaly.
"You sensed it too," Meesha said apprehensively. "Yes, what is it exactly?" Krystal asked. The craft had still kept its course. Even though it was a few minutes from landing or crashing, she could make out a few details. It didn't look like a missile or bomb, it was moving too sluggishly, seeming to struggle to keep a straight course. The craft itself was eyeball shaped, a simple white ball with a hexagonal glass view port making its iris. The whole spectacle reminded Krystal of insects drunkenly flying in the pollution of campfires. Sensing her trail of thought Meesha rested a reassuring hand on the vixen's shoulder. "We were given an alert from ships in orbit that a damaged life pod had entered Cerinian space, but was unresponsive to our hails". She was now pulling Krystal backward. "Move the perimeter back" Meesha ordered, addressing the warriors under her command. In unison the warriors moved, their planted staffs making a metallic whisper sound as they followed Meesha's lead. The group retreated another twenty yards from the pool when the pod entered its radius. Krystal winced, anticipating the inevitable crash along the rocky shore, but halfway through its graceless arc, the front end dipped suddenly. The eye-shaped pod struck the water, skipped then continued, its momentum carrying it to and beyond the shore. Krystal's pointed ears flattened as she heard and saw the craft skid along the rocky shore. The added friction caused the sphere to rotate a full three hundred and sixty degrees before finally coming to rest ten yards from both the shore and the Cerinian warriors. There was a long moment of silence and stillness in the quake of the crash.
Krystal could hear nothing aside from the persisting ocean waves, even the buzzing of insects and cawing of birds was completely muted as though traumatized into inactivity. She turned to Meesha whose previous tension had thawed somewhat. "I guess the dangerous bit is over," Krystal said, making her way tentatively toward the crashed pod. Meesha grunted in agreement then over her shoulder she barked, "One of you summon a ship to our location with a gurney. We may need to administer treatment on our return, the rest form a perimeter". The warriors moved to obey her command, one parting from the group and chattering into a communicator he had removed from his belt. The other four made a semi-circle in front of the pod. "With me Krystal, you're as good a healer as me". Krystal frowned "You think they're injured?" she prompted. "Our ships in orbit tried hailing the occupant inside but there was no response", Meesha replied.
The pair were now within arms reach of the pod, the warriors behind them flanking it in pairs. Meesha dropped to her knees and removed the beige medical backpack strapped to her back, opening it and laying it aside. She regarded the pod warily. "Even though there was no response the communications channel was open on their end …... .strange". Krystal chewed this over while running her blue-hued hand over the viewport. If there was a passenger why didn't they respond to attempts at communication, the controls would be well within arms reach in the confines of the pod. Her shoulders sagged as she realized what Meesha had eluded to. It was not out of the realm of possibility that the occupant was severely injured, incapacitated, or even…dead. She pushed the dark thought into the recesses of her mind, continuing to wipe the dirt and grime off the viewport, dead or alive, She prayed for the ladder.
Her optimism held until she had wiped most of the obscuring film from the glass finally revealing the occupant inside. She could see now that someone was inside the pod, but she couldn't make sense of the occupants' appearance. She frowned, rubbing the viewport more vigorously before squinting into the glass again. Her mouth fell open in confusion. The being sitting in the pod's chair was unlike anything she had ever seen. She noticed obvious familiarities, symmetrical limbs and face denoting a typical bipedal sapient species, but that was where the similarities ended. The being had no fur aside from a short-haired patch that darkened the top portion of its skull. As for the skin, it was a butter smooth-looking cream color, but unpatterned like the traditional skinned reptile races she was familiar with. The only garb of clothing the mysterious being wore was a gray flight suit. It sat in the pod's sole chair, unmoving its eyes closed.
She scrutinized the being's face, it looked so peaceful, almost angelic, the orange light of the pod's control panel casting a soft halo glow around their features. She reached out curiously with her telepathic mind and felt…..nothing, not even the quiet stirring of unconsciousness, at the same time she noticed the frost covering the interior of the pod and random sections of exposed skin on the being. It left no doubt in her mind, the occupant was frozen in cryo sleep. She glanced back at Meesha who was now circling the pod holding a matte black cylindrical scanner pausing at random intervals to raise the device, each time it emitted fans of red light that raced up and down the pod's scuffed exterior. Krystal wandered past the viewport and blew air appraising the long track of displaced rock and dirt the pod had carved in the aftermath of its landing. At the far end of the track, she could see the ocean water had begun to pour into the hollowed earth gradually pooling at the edge, then coalescing into a slow bleeding stream.
She flicked her eyes to Meesha who seemed finished with her inspection of the life pod, and was now running one hand along the rear side of the pod fingering various scorch marks and pockets of burned-away metal and circuitry. The smoke and fire present before its crash had dissipated entirely leaving behind a faint acrid scent in the air. Meesha stepped away from the craft arms crossed looking pensive. "Something wrong?", Krystal prompted. "I don't know, it's damaged for sure, the cause wasn't something benign like a collision or a faulty engine?", She shook her head slowly. She then gestured at the fist size holes that speckled the pod's outer shell. "These holes are too neat and the metal surrounding the impacts isn't crumpled; it's scorched and flaky", she regarded Krystal who had come to the same unspoken conclusion as well. "Laser fire…someone shot at this pod", Krystal said. Meesha nodded in agreement then walked to the pod's viewport, "We'll mull over that later, we should check on the passenger,
and focus on extracting them" Meesha said.
Krystal nodded in agreement as Meesha began inspecting the edges of the pod's viewport, searching for a means of opening it. She could see now that the glass aperture had a hinge attached to it confirming its purpose as both window and door. Halting her search for the hatch release switch, Meesha gazed into the glass, and Krystal saw her green eyes widen in astonishment. Through their telepathic bond, she could sense it as a startled flash that quickly turned to an intense focus as Meesha floundered to make sense of what she was seeing. "Wha, what am I looking at? ", Meesha murmured to herself. "Is that some kind of man in there?". Her green eyes glazed over and narrowed into half slits. Krystal sensed Meesha extend the invisible hand of her telepathy probing the mind of the sleeping figure, delicate tendrils searching starved for input. She could see Meesha's brow furrowed in concentration as she tried to grasp hold of the mind before her, but it was like trying to grip a cloud of mist. Hurriedly she retrieved the scanner attached to her belt and aimed it at the glass. Red fans of light streamed through the glass dancing over the sleeping form. She then raised the device to examine its screen. "Whatever it is, it's alive and breathing", Meesha remarked, but this observation seemed hardly satisfactory to both of them. It left Krystal's mind racing with both questions and possibilities. What was this strange being? What kind of ship did it come from? More importantly, what attacked the pod, and why? Meesha turned to Krystal and she understood the unspoken question in her troubled expression. "No Meesha, I couldn't sense his thoughts either", Krystal said. Meesha gave a distracted nod, she was unsettled.
It was another clue that only added to the mystery. "So how do we go about opening the hatch", Krystal said. Meesha gestured vaguely at the pod. "I managed to get a look at the pod's control panel, there's a cryo sequence failure but it's going to shut off soon", she said. She then pointed to indicate the frozen occupant. "Once our sleeping friend here is thawed the hatch will open automatically". "I feel a but coming", Krystal quipped. Meesha then pointed at the damage dealt to the rear of the craft, "But the cryo sequence was caused by laser damage, it's slowing the thawing process. He'll wake up but there's a high chance of hypothermia, maybe even C.T. We have about five minutes before he thaws completely. I'll need you to grab the cryo serum from my medical bag".
Krystal moved to the deposited medical bag. Being a healer herself she was able to quickly skim through the various medical contents, her finger gliding over labeled auto-injectors until it rested on the one she wanted. Extracting it she read the label double checking its contents. [Cryo Serum Auto-injector] it read. Along with it was a smaller font detailing dosage amount, injection instructions, and other redundancies. She grimaced to herself. C.T. or more commonly known as cryo terror was a horrific side effect of prolonged cryo thawing during sleep. Normally cryo thawing was implemented rapidly to avoid such complications. In more prolonged cases the hypothermia paired with delta sleep creates a parasomnia that afflicts the subject with a myriad of nightmares, panic attacks, and in more severe cases hallucinations and seizures. Krystal in her limited time in the medical field had seen a few mild cases, most not warranting a dose of serum, and even then most didn't demand a full dosage. On a return trip home aboard one of her clan ships she witnessed a passenger awake from cryo sleep only to begin shaking nervously. In that instance she quickly administered the serum pressing the injector against their trembling arm, thumbing the spring-loaded switch, and watched as a wave of relief washed over her patient's face as the drug coursed through them, quickly restoring both wakefulness and a more safe body temperature. At that moment she turned to see the supervising medical officer beaming approvingly. She was satisfied with her performance, but it had felt all too easy. It was trivial compared to the scenario before her.
She briefly looked behind her at the warriors positioned at the flanks of the pod, composed with their staffs planted in the earth. She could see they had switched their weapons to their stun settings denoted by the staff's jeweled end's shift to a pale white. Their silent confident demeanor banished her anxiety. Even if the survivor was uncooperative or had to be restrained, she along with Meesha and her warriors should be more than capable of handling it. She took her place next to Meesha who now looked fully relaxed. "Krystal in about three minutes that hatch is going to open, let me greet it, I'll keep its attention while you inject the serum", Meesha said. Her voice had become soft and kindly, she had already slipped into the role of the gentle nurse. "Alright Meesha I'll follow your lead", Krystal said. Meesha turned and for the first time during this strange ordeal, she smiled appreciatively.
A minute passed… then another ….. and another. Krystal felt her hand tighten ever so slightly around the injector. Her breath caught in her throat as the pod hissed rapidly spraying random streams of hydraulic mist. For a brief instant, a feeling of ice-cold dread swept through Krystal. She suddenly didn't want to be here. She wanted to rewind time, she wanted to be back on the beach and meditate. She desperately wanted to be somewhere anywhere but here. She ignored it. The hatch slowly, almost lazily opened, the cold atmosphere of the pod mixing with the tropical climate, creating a fog that obscured the being inside. The hatch ended its arc with a metallic click. A single arm snaked its way out of the fog blindly seeking purchase. It gripped the outer frame of the pod pulling the rest of the occupant into view. The fog sprouted a gray pant leg, then another.
Then the figure materialized into view no longer obscured by fog or glass. Krystal walked tentatively toward the man, but halted when he turned to face her. A pair of pale blue eyes partially covered by a web of wet black hair blinked open to regard her. She expected the man to be drowsy and off-kilter from the prolonged cryo thawing, but he was standing upright, ramrod straight posture. She felt naked under that gaze. There was an unnerving sense of intelligence in its stare. It made her slow her approach. It was seeing her, but there was no discernable expression, friendly or hostile. A lump suddenly formed in her throat. Its gaze abruptly shifted to Meesha who had begun to address it in a calm soothing voice, hands up and open in a placating gesture. She was slowly stepping towards the figure. Krystal could see more clearly that whatever species it belonged to, the broad shoulders, flat chest, and abdomen confirmed Meesha's speculation as it being male. It was about the same height as Krystal with a lean athletic build. It was looking right into Meesha's eyes. It had a sharply defined jawline, and curious shell-shaped red-tipped ears. A very delicate and sharp face with downturned eyes that looked calm, almost gloomy. Krystal felt a sudden telepathic nudge from Meesha who had not shifted her eyes from the man.
"He's distracted inject him now".
She tiptoed right up to him. At the same time, she could hear Meesha's soothing voice, "It's alright, you're going to be okay, you've just woken up from cryo sleep, we're not going to hurt you, can you understand me?", Meesha soothed all the while keeping eye contact. She now had a grip on his right forearm, the other hand gently but firmly grasping his shoulder. It was a clever move, it prevented the man from turning to see Krystal while simultaneously immobilizing the arm on her side for easier injection. Meesha was calmly asking for the man's name at the same time Krystal pressed the auto-injector's rubber tip to the man's bicep. That's when everything went wrong.
Her thumb was hovering over the injection button when she felt a hand clamp tight around her fingers, another gripping her wrist. Alarmed she looked up to see the man's face now inches from hers. His face might've been alien but there was no mistaking the bared teeth, the unblinking stare, the brows lowered in suspicion. Definitely hostile, her brain blathered. She tried to angle the injector's tip into the man's forearm, but his grip was unyielding like a pair of iron manacles. Her fingers were mashed into the plastic of the injector, her thumb bent painfully away from the delivery button. A wave of panic threatened to overtake her, but she stamped it out. The muscles in her arms and thighs bunched as she fought for control of the injector. The man merely stared into her eyes as she felt her wrist slowly bend, with mounting pressure, then with mounting pain.
Her eyes flicked to Meesha, who was already in motion. Gone was the gentle nurse. With a sharp-fanged snarl, she pivoted, reaching for the telescopic staff in her back sheath. In what felt like slow motion, Krystal watched as Meesha unsheathed her shortened staff wielding it like a baton. Her thumb activated the stun setting sparks spat out of its tip as she stabbed it toward the man's abdomen. She was too slow. Even before she had her weapon ready, the man suddenly wrenched his grip backward at the same time ramming his heel into Krystal's solar plexus. The impact drove all the wind from her lungs and launched her backward, the injector ripped from her hand. Before she landed, she saw the man spin past Meesha's lunge, the stun baton missing his waist by inches. Her vision became obscured as she fell to the earth, the momentum causing her to roll once, then twice. She ended up on her side in a sand and dirt-covered heap.
She lay there trying to inhale air that would not come. Dazedly she looked up to see the man had already subdued Meesha. He was now holding the stun baton threateningly near her throat, her face was a mix of fear and pain. The man maneuvered his hostage, shielding himself from the pair of warriors to Krystal's right. She could see that he had his non-weapon hand around Meesh's right wrist, it was bent painfully behind her, Meesha winced and grunted in pain as her captor slowly marched them both towards the two warriors. Krystal's eyes flicked to her left to see the other pair of warriors advancing slowly on the man's exposed flank, the leading warrior bringing his staff to bear. Krystal realized in dawning comprehension that the man was deliberately exposing his flank letting the warrior get closer.
Before Krystal could give warning, the man threw Meesha by the collar of her uniform towards the warriors advancing to his rear. She made an "oof" sound as she collided with the closest warrior, the back of her head and neck smacking painfully into his chest plate. The pair of warriors halted their advance, having to contend with catching Meesha and moving her aside before resuming their attack. Krystal cursed to herself. Now it was two-on-one instead of four. The unknown assailant wasted no time taking advantage of this. He charged the secondary pair of warriors aiming Meesha's confiscated baton at the leading one's stomach. The warrior countered by stopping short moving his hips back as the baton swung harmlessly past, he followed this with a quick jab aiming the middle section of his staff to strike the man's chin. Anticipating the move the man rocked his head back evading the blow that would've busted his jaw if it had landed. He then hooked the baton inside the warrior's two-handed grip, following up with a push kick to the midsection that sent him flying, leaving the staff behind and in the man's hand. It was nearly identical to the same disarm he had used on Krystal. The warrior landed hard, his armor clattering as he slid across the rocky ground. The second warrior to the man's left was immediately upon him, his staff end crackling, casting his vulpine facial features in an eerie blue flickering hue, his eyes lit with fury. He launched a series of rapid jabs with the stun end of his staff.
The man simply bobbed and weaved his body past the barrage before closing the distance. The warrior managed to connect his staff and disarm his opponent with a dexterous twirl, then he swung upward in a low-to-high strike. The man merely sidestepped but the passing electricity burned his cheek and singed his hair. He then chambered his left arm and executed a savage backfist across the warrior's jaw. The warrior fell, unconscious before his armored body impacted the ground. The man turned now facing the remaining two warriors. Krystal grimaced. In the few seconds it took for the two warriors to catch Meesha and lay her aside the man had incapacitated two fully trained and armed Cerinian warriors. It shouldn't have been possible. And yet the man continued his attack lunging forward unarmed fists raised, knuckles white. They didn't stand a chance. Krystal reached behind her back for her staff. It took her a full six seconds to draw and aim her staff, but by that time the two remaining warriors were on the ground face up out cold. The man was now the only one left standing. With a thumb and forefinger, she turned a knob that activated the stun bolt setting on her staff. She took aim, but the man had retreated fleeing into the night. Krystal cursed and fired anyway but the shot went wide of the mark flying past the shoreline and continuing its flight into the sea. Painfully she rose to one knee using the staff as a cane. She surveyed the carnage. All four of the Cerinian warriors were unconscious aside from Meesha who was getting to her feet. They both staggered to each other. "Are you alright Krystal?", Meesha asked, concern on her face. "I'm fine", Krystal breathed, at the same time she reached out with her telepathy to the fallen warriors. Meesha followed suit. Her probe came back with negative fatalities just still minds indicative of unconsciousness. Despite its sudden and violent attack the man hadn't tried to kill anyone. "We should've sedated it more quickly….it's in a full-blown panic now", Meesha said, scooping up the discarded auto-injector. Krystal walked tracing the man's footprints in the sand. She followed the trail for a few meters before noticing something along it, blood. Crimson droplets were perfectly parallel with the fresh tracks. "It's wounded", she breathed to herself. Meesha had stepped beside her noticing the blood trail as well. "We should try to get to it before it hurts itself", Meesha said. Krystal took the auto-injector from Meesha. "No I'll do it you get the warriors back on their feet and follow me in case I need you", Krystal said. "Fine but be careful Krystal, try and take it alive but…... .don't take any unnecessary risks", Meesha warned. Krystal nodded grimly then turned and ran following the crimson pattern.
She watched the pattern and shape of the droplets closely, their angled shape suggesting that the man was moving fast. She continued along the shore trying to keep her attention between the tracks and ahead of her for movement. She was getting close and the tracks, were becoming more deep and elongated; he was no longer running, he was limping. Then she saw him. He had fallen next to an outcropping of rock. He was sitting, his back against the boulders. Krystal cautiously stepped forward with the baton in one hand, the auto-injector in the other. She could hear him breathing raggedly, air scraping in and out. She stopped about 6 feet from him. He looked up at her, two gloomy blue orbs looking at her beseechingly. He didn't move when she knelt beside him. She could see the source of the blood. The right side of his abdomen was oozing red, his left hand pressed tight over the wound ineffectually stemming the bleeding. She inched closer, and it spoke to her in a soft shaky voice. "Please…no more…..no more….", he whispered. It wiped the fear and apprehension from Krystal's mind. It wasn't a monster, it was just a person. It felt fear and pain like she did. It was looking at her with dread in its eyes. "He's not seeing me," she thought. The effects of the cryo terror were causing vivid hallucinations, morphing his perception of her into something nightmarish. She leaned forward and injected the cryo serum into the man's neck at the same time she laid him gently on his back. He flinched from her touch but eventually, he breathed a sigh of relief as the drug entered his bloodstream. She laid a hand on his chest, the other cradling the back of his head. She felt his body temperature rise to a noticeable warmth as the serum worked its magic.
For a long moment, he simply lay in her arms, his eyes closed, his breathing becoming more steady and calm, almost matching the rhythm of the crashing waves around them. His head lulled facing the ocean waves, eyes opening to half slits. "They're gone….those things….it was so cold", he muttered. She gently turned him to face her. He looked at her, but it was different this time. The expression was softer, more thoughtful, and curious. She rested a hand on his neck checking his pulse. It was weak but there. "Can you understand me?", Krystal asked gently. "Yes….yes I understand you…you're not one of the things I saw….in the cold", He said. He was exhausted, fighting for every word. Faintly she could hear an engine rumbling in the distance. She turned to see a ship heading straight for them. She smiled to herself. At least she wouldn't have to carry him back, timely as always Meesha. The ship eventually landed a few meters in front of them, the underside propulsion kicking up sand, and causing her hair to sway in the breeze. She turned back to the man who was now unconscious in her arms.
Curious she looked over his clothing and noticed the woven patch over his right breast pouch. She wiped the blood and sand revealing the lettered stitching there. Alex, it read in blue blocky letters. That was all. "Is he dead?", the voice made her twitch in surprise.
She looked up to see Meesha standing behind her, two guards flanking her. Both had their staffs aimed at the sleeping man in her arms. Meesha herself had her hand on a blaster pistol holstered at her hip. They were all spring-loaded to shoot. "Is he dead?" Meesha asked, more warily this time. "No but he's fading fast, we need to get him on board before he bleeds out", Krystal said, indicating the wound with a blood-drenched hand. Meesha regarded the wounded man for a moment and Krystal sensed her hesitation. Krystal didn't blame her, she had just watched four of her men get pummeled by an alien in the throes of cryo terror. The possibility of another episode aboard the cramped interior of the ship didn't seem like a fun idea to her either. It didn't matter, Krystal was a healer; she was bound to her duty. The man was bleeding out. "He's going on the ship", Krystal said in a tone that broke no argument. Meesha's face hardened but the protest quickly died. She simply nodded and reluctantly helped Krystal carry the man named Alex to the awaiting gurney aboard the medical ship. The two warriors followed close behind their weapons trained on the sleeping man like their lives depended on it.