“I’m fine doc. It was just a little drop.”

  “It was twennnty storrries.”

  “Like I said, just a little drop. No harm whatsoever.”

  “A brrroken femuuure and two snaaaped toes says othhherwiiise.”

  “After having my entire digestive system replaced that genuinely seems like nothing.”

  “We will be the thrrree who teeells you whhhen it isss or isss not nothhhing.”

  No idea what has Doc so worked up. Broken bones are fixed in an afternoon now. I wouldn’t even have any broken bones if I had landed right. Guess I shouldn’t have blown off all those Grav-Parachute classes Inanna kept insisting on. Raze was fine. Nobody’s screaming at him over his jump.

  “Look, there’s someone else I need to see today so how about you just inject me with the bone juice and I get out of your tentacles; sound good?”

  “It takkkes twelvvve hours to rejuuuvinate bones.”

  “Right, so maybe we-”

  “Howwweverrr. I havvve been wooorkinnng on an alttternatttive. One whhhich shouuuld be much fassster.”

  Oh here we go. Another experiment. Why am I always her guinea pig?

  “This mollleculllar mender shooould fix thooose breaks in seccconds.”

  “You aren’t going to let me leave unless I do one of these treatments, are you?”

  “Nnnope.”

  “Fine. Hook me up.”

  I lay down on the cold, blue padded table. Sagaci makes sure to work fast before I change my mind again. Strapping what feels like a thousand kilo metal pipe around my right leg. Thing looks like she made it in a shed in between building car bombs. Which I would not put past Sagaci.

  “So, is this going to hurt?”

  “Nooot in the slighhhtest.”

  “Oh, good.”

  “Uuuntill I do thhhis.”

  Needles drilling into my bones! Feels like a steel porcupine crawling under my skin!

  “Herrre comes the paiiinfuuul parrrt.”

  Something is injected directly into my bone marrow. Not a feeling I’ve ever experienced before. It’s acidic and cold.

  “Lllast step.”

  Electricity courses through me. Not enough to be outright painful. Enough to force my leg to shake and twitch while there are still dozens of needles in it. My leg probably looks like good pulled pork or bad meat pie right now.

  “Bonnnes all heaaaled. Jussst need to appllly the saaalveee.”

  A cooling feeling overtakes all the pain. As if my leg was dipped in cold gelatin. Can’t even feel the needles being ripped out of my femur. The pipe cracks open revealing my leg. Slippery with goop but feeling just fine.

  “Scannns indicccateee a full reeecoverrry.”

  “Wow. Feels like new; bet I could run a marathon.”

  “Excellennnt. A commmplete succeeess. Would youuu be williiing to-”

  “Absolutly not.”

  “But the procedure-”

  “Hurt like the fourth layer of Space Hell. Next time, I’ll take the twelve hours.”

  Sagaci is frustrated. They will never understand how much it hurts to have your bones broken. Seeing as they have no bones.

  “The bone thing, it’s not for you. Don’t do any more bone stuff. But that salve, that actually seems to work. What was that?”

  “A heallling enzzzyme developed frooom corpse fuuunguuus, fish feceees and my own-”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Stop, I don’t want to hear it. Patent it, sell it, put the ingredients in small text. I’m leaving.”

  I make sure Sagaci is on the other side of the door before it closes. Had enough excruciating pain for one day. Fuck, the fact I concider that enough for only a single day. I’m not paid enough for this. Wait, I am paid for this, right? I just got handed a credit card that I’ve been using on the rare occasions I need actual money. Everything else has just kinda been handed to me. Even these flowers I’m bringing. What is my salary? Do I have any benefits? Does the Union even have benefits? What do I get when I retire anyway? Wait, when do I retire? Am I stuck here for the rest of my life? Should have probably negotiated my contract at least once before signing on. I should ask Inanna all this when I get a chance.

  First I have a more important stop. Between all the crew suffering hangovers and minor scrapes is one person dealing with something much more serious. I take a quick peek through the window, making sure I’m not interrupting anything. Looks good, hope she likes Marigold. Deep breath, I’m going in.

  “Hey Fairy. How are you doing?”

  “Eeeep.”

  Dahhh, look at that. She’s hiding under the covers. Self preservation skills of a Dodo.

  “Fairy, I know you are under there.”

  “No I'm not. She’s not. Nobody’s here.”

  “Right. Guess nobody wants these flowers then.”

  Slowly the sheets go down. A delicate pass of and she’s admiring the bouquet.

  “Thank you.”

  Fairy bites the flowers and chews thoroughly.

  “These are so ripe. Did you salt them?”

  “I at least know your take-out order.”

  “I’m, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I already don’t do enough. If you knew that I was so weak I thought that-”

  “Hey now, only one of us gets to self deprecated at a time and I always get first dibs. It wouldn’t have changed anything. Nothing would. Besides, you aren’t the only one with health issues.”

  Why are her ears perking up? Why is she staring at me?

  “Do you also have a dying disease?”

  “What? No. I mean, maybe. My family has a history of high cholesterol I guess.”

  “And that’s all?”

  “Look, I already spilled my guts enough for one week. I’ll tell you a sad story or two when you’re out of here. That a deal?”

  “Head pats. Then it’s a deal.”

  “You drive a hard bargain.”

  Getting head pats while eating flowers in bed. And after this she gets to bang a hot chef. Fairy lives a good life.

  “Rest well. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

  I leave Fairy to her flowers. Run into Sugar on her way in with a couple of Space Coffees.

  “Got Fairy’s how she likes it? Lots of extra sugar.”

  “She takes it with salt and creamer."

  “That was, never mind. She’s all yours. Actually, real quick. There is something I’ve been meaning to ask. Fairy’s head pats. Are those, ehhh…”

  “No Tom, it’s not a sex thing. Unless you’ve been patting her tail. Then it’s a sex thing.”

  She starts to giggle. I laugh back, pretending to get the joke.

  “Seriously, if you pat her tail I will come for you.”

  “Noted. All yours.”

  “You’re damn right.”

  Sugar struts away like she owns the place; basically does at this moment. I should get out of here. Let everyone rest up and- What was that? Did the entire ship just shake? Red emergency lights are shining. Getting an urgent transmission on the Com watch.

  “Captain, there has been an explosion less than a kilometer away.”

  “Any reports on the cause?”

  “None yet. The target was a hospital. Scanners are picking up a high concentration of airborne toxins.”

  “Anything we have to worry about?”

  “No. We should be far away enough and our filtration systems more than sufficient. However, thousands will be poisoned and the biggest hospital in this part of the station is unusable.”

  “Send a message to the local authorities. Our facilities are open for their use.”

  “Sir, is that wise?”

  “Probably not. But I refuse to let people die on our doorstep while we do nothing.”

  “Roger that. I’ll begin coordinating with the Protectorate forces.”

  “Perfect. I’ll call the hanger for quick evacs. Make sure we have the airspace cleared.”

  Inanna salutes and the watch goes black. She is right, though. This is risky. There have been enough threats to my life so far. They’ve become more brazen lately. And right after I become a hero and get a one on one with their Majority Leader, there's a terror attack. Too close to let anyone else handle it and involving people too vulnerable for me to ignore. I don’t like a lot of this. Don’t exactly have a choice, though. Just going to have to hope for the best.

  “Good Old Friend Captain Tom!”

  Conqtor? What now?

  “There has been a terrible incident. I am preparing my facilities to-”

  “I know Conqtor. I’m already working on it on my end. Clear the channel until you have something important. Kay? Thanks.”

  “No wait! There is something very personal I must tell you. I have received a letter.”

  “Wait, really?”

  “I know! Who still uses paper anymore? And this calligraphy is so poor as well. One would think that after going through the effort of acquiring such admittedly high quality paper they would-”

  “What does it say, Captain?”

  “Oh, right. My apologies. Ehem. The poison is merely a distraction. The true strike is to your very heart. Signed your Best Friend, R.”

  Just as I thought. I’d hoped they wouldn’t go this far to try and get me. To think they would sacrifice so many innocents. When I find them I’m gonna… I don’t even know yet. Something terrible and probably illegal on my side of the galaxy.

  “Say, Tom, I thought I was your best friend.”

  “Goodbye Conqtor.”

  Blocking that number for a little while.

  “Sagaci! We are going to have company. Lay out the good plates.”