With a low, hoarse cry, I turned her over and gathered her into my arms. Her long eyelashes were coated in frost and they barely flickered as I lifted her.
“It’s all right, little one—it’s going to be all right, my darling,” I murmured, praying that what I was saying was true.
She was stiff as a board in my arms as I carried her into the ship and commanded it to shut the door and turn up the heating system. My ship complied at once and I took little one to my sleeping chamber. She was still breathing but her breaths were light and shallow and she made no move except for the occasional flicker of her eyelids.
I laid her on the sleeping platform and began trying to strip the layers off her—I needed to get her into a warm bath to counteract the effects of the freezing cold she’d just been in.
But her limbs were too stiff and not just from cold—her whole body was rigid as though all her muscles had locked up at once. What could be causing this?
Then I remembered Baron Vik’tor warning me that a sting from one of the Sweepers could cause complete paralysis in a full-grown male in a matter ofmerns. Before she could go in the bath, little one needed an anti-paralytic.
Keeping her stiff little body cradled in one arm—I was afraid to leave her, for fear she would stop breathing—I went swiftly to the food prep area. I jammed the control band of the Matter Synthesizer over my horns and ordered it to make a broad-based anti-venom/anti-paralytic based on a rapid analysis of all the venomous life forms located on O’nagga Nine.
After a few moments of indecision, the Matter Synthesizer at last spit out a vial of pale, pearly blue liquid with an injection spike at one end.
Praying that it would work, I pressed the spike to little one’s thigh.
It seemed to take forever, but at last she took a deep, whooping gasp and went limp in my arms as all her muscles relaxed at once.
“Little one!” I exclaimed, cuddling her close to my chest. “Oh gods! Are you all right?”
“I…think so,” she whispered weakly, and shivered. “But cold…socold,Sir.”
“I know, sweetheart,” I told her. “We’re going to take care of that right now.”
Still carrying her in my arms, I went to start a tub for her and then laid her down on the sleeping platform a second time to get her undressed.
She shivered and moaned as I peeled the layers off her now-limp body. I scooped her up and carried her back to the tub, which was almost full. Slipping her carefully into the warming liquid, I held one hand under her neck, making sure she kept her head above the surface. She was so weak it was clear to me she wouldn’t be able to manage by herself and besides, I didn’t want to leave her alone for even amern.
At last she looked up and her big brown eyes focused on me.
“S-s-sir?” she whispered, her teeth chattering. “I kn-know you’re mad at me. I’m s-s-sorry for g-going off alone.”
“We’ll talk about that later,” I said grimly. “You frightened me badly, little one. I’m inclined to say I’m never letting you off the leash again!”
“Ok-k-kay,” she managed to get out.
“Don’t talk now,” I said sternly. “Let’s get you warmed up and then we can discuss it.”
I instructed the tub to warm the cleansing liquid she was submerged in several more degrees and at last her teeth stopped chattering. As I saw her returning to life and health, some of the terrible dread that had gripped me slowly began to ease.
But I couldn’t forget the terror that had filled me when I had seen her lying there, unmoving on the ground. The thought of losing her made my eyes sting and my heart clench like a fist in my chest. I didn’t think I could have born it if she had died!
It occurred to me that the little human in my arms was more important to me than either of the females I had signed contracts with in the past. In fact, she was more important to me thananyonein my life—perhapstooimportant for just a pet. Was it right to assign such value to a creature who I had bought just for casual companionship? Right or not, it seemed I had done it—was doing it even now. I couldn’t stop touching her—couldn’t stop wanting to hold her close and make certain she would be all right.
You care for her too much,whispered a little voice in my head—the voice of reason, no doubt.She’s more than a pet to you and that’s not right. She is of a lesser species.
I pushed the voice aside and promised myself to think this problem over later. But for now, I was completely focused on little one. I had to get her back in shape.
And then we would talk about what kind of punishment she was going to get for scaring me to death like this.
THIRTY-EIGHT
ELLI
It took a few days for me to completely recover from my little adventure in the sub-zero temperatures of O’nagga Nine. It seemed like I just couldn’t get warm again—or I would get warm and then my body couldn’t hold the heat and I would start shivering and my lips would turn blue. Also, all my muscles ached, probably from being so tense while I was paralyzed.
Sir thought it might have to do with the after-effects of the Sweeper’s poison. He kept giving me warm baths and feeding me warm drinks—which was basically just the nutritional gel cubes melted down to liquid form. If I had thought they tasted bad at room temperature, well, they were completelyvilewhen heated up to a liquid. But I was too sick to protest so I just took my medicine like a good pet and did my best to get better.