“My lady.” Seton’s soft voice didn’t fool me. He was going to order me to go lie down somewhere and rest.
“No. I won’t leave him.”
Seton sighed, and I lifted my arms to the side of Roark’s pod, rested my head on my arms and promptly fell asleep in my chair.
Chapter Fourteen
Natalie
Interplanetary transport gave a whole new meaning to “jet lag”. My head felt heavy and cloudy as I fought my way out of slumber. The chair I sat in was pressed to the side of Roark’s healing pod, and I lifted my head quickly to make sure he was still all right, still healing. But the transparent screen must have had another layer because I couldn’t see him anymore. The window into the pod was covered in a thick black screen. I couldn’t even tell if he was still in there. The machine still hummed beneath my arms though.
I leaned back and tried to look at the controls I’d seen the doctor using earlier. They looked all right, but I had no idea what any of it meant. It wasn’t like on Earth, with a heartbeat monitor and a blood pressure reading up in one corner, beeping to indicate some change. This was so far past advanced, I was lost. Their symbols were strange and I didn’t understand any of it. And, I realized, I had no idea about Trion physiology anyway. What was normal for a human might not be normal for them.
Fortunately, Noah was a healthy baby, no reasons to visit a doctor other than a simple well check. No one had questioned the possibility of him being half Trion. Of course, he had been the only half-alien baby on Earth. It wasn’t like the doctors asked, and I never volunteered the information.
With nothing better to do, I shifted and leaned back, bracing my bent elbow on the arm of the chair. I settled my chin in my hand and took a deep breath. I wondered if Noah was all right, if he was awake and cranky. Hungry.
A heavy stillness seemed to have settled in the air and I recognized the quiet. Many times I’d been up in the middle of the night, when the rest of the world slept, to care for my son. There was a certain peaceful solitude that almost soaked the very air with quiet attention. Seton told me we were in a city, but I felt like a solitary figure alone in the night.
Soft snoring came from my left and I turned to find Seton lying on the floor not far from me, asleep. He’d rolled out a basic blanket of some sort, and now slept. I turned to the closed door, a sliver of dread making its way down my back like a drop of icy water sliding over my skin. No one else was in the room. No doctors, no technicians. The door was closed, but no guards stood at attention.
Where were the guards?
I uncurled from the chair, placing my feet on the floor just as the door slid open on silent hinges. I recognized Commander Loris from earlier and I sighed in relief.
“Commander. Thank you. I was worried when I didn’t see the guards,” I murmured, trying to keep my voice low.
He closed the door quietly behind him and turned to study Seton’s sleeping form. “My lady, I’m sorry if I startled you. It appears Seton is a victim of the long day.”
“Yes.” I smiled. “He’s very loyal to Roark.”
He nodded. “Yes, he is.” Taking a step forward, he approached the healing pod. “How is the councilor doing in there?”
I turned away from him with a shrug. “I have no idea. I don’t know how to read the control panel and the doctor isn’t here.”
The commander tucked his arms behind his back and strolled around to the edge of the room, leaning to the side to look behind a partition where the doctor and other medical staff had frequently disappeared and reappeared earlier. “Ah, yes. Doctor Brax. He is there, on his cot, sound asleep as well.”
“Well, it is the middle of the night.” It did seem odd though. Even on Earth, there was at least one nurse awake, even in the middle of the night.
“Yes.” He walked back toward me. “And why are you awake, my lady? Did you not eat the stew?”
“Yes, I had two bowls—” My voice trailed off as his words sank in. Why would it matter whether or not I ate the stew? How did he even know I had stew?
“Ah, strange Earth physiology. Hadn’t counted on that.” The commander walked to the control panel of Roark’s pod and started pushing buttons.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing for you to worry about.”
I didn’t believe him and unease prickled my skin. “Stop it.”
He ignored me and the pod powered down, the lights faded, the low humming ceased. I expected the top to slide open, but nothing happened. It was like the pod was dead, as if he’d pulled the plug. “What are you doing?”
Commander Loris pulled a gun of some kind from his pocket and pointed it at me. “Give me the medallion.”
I felt my eyes widen and I took an instinctive step back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Turn the pod back on.”
He rushed me, pulling my shirt free of my jeans, his grubby hand reaching up beneath my shirt to look for the chain that would have been dangling low over my stomach had I not tucked the gold links up into my bra.