Her Commanders - M.K. Eidem Page 0,62

Tay's words weren't making any sense to her.

"There was an explosion, Cali."

"An explosion?" Pushing herself up, she winced, her hand going to the back of her head, and found it wet. "Was anyone else hurt?"

"Just you," he reassured her. "Now stay down until the Meddygs gets here."

"The Meddygs? I don't need the Meddygs."

"Cali, you're covered in blood. You hit the wall so hard you left a dent."

"What?" She looked behind her, and there was a body-shaped dent where there should have been a smooth, metal wall. Ruk, how was she going to explain that? If she'd broken anything internally when she'd hit, her Zagreus traits would have immediately begun healing her while she'd been unconscious. Now, even the aches and pains she'd felt when coming to were starting to fade, leaving behind only the bloody evidence of an injury. Thank the Gods, Zagreus blood was the same red as an Earthan. "It's just a head wound. They always bleed a lot for Earthans. Otherwise, I'm fine. I don't need the Meddygs." Her gaze sharpened on him. "But you do."

"Me?" Tay couldn't believe Cali was concerned about him. Besides Mae, no one had ever cared if he was injured.

"Yes, you're bleeding too."

"Shrapnel." He told her as he helped her to her feet.

"What?" Not all her brain cells were functioning yet because Cali didn't understand why Tay talked about shrapnel.

"The bomb was filled with shrapnel for maximum effect. Directed toward The Brink by the looks of it." Tay knew he was right because of his past life on Gala. A life he'd hoped to put behind him, now that he and Mae were off that Gods’ forsaken planet. But it seemed some things you never got away from.

"The bomb?" She'd assumed some mechanical malfunction had caused the explosion. They were rare on a Star Base as new as this one, but not impossible. But when she looked around, she realized no pipes were sticking out of the structure. Instead, scorch marks and shards of metal were sticking into the wall and doors on The Brink's side of the corridor. "You're telling me someone intentionally set off a bomb on a Star Base?!" All her brain cells were firing now. "Outside The Brink!"

"So, it would seem."

"Tay?" Mae's trembling voice reached them as The Brink's door began to open.

"I'm fine, Mae," Tay reassured her. "Stay where you are. Don't come out here."

"What happened?" Ignoring her mate's order, Mae finished pushing the door open and gasped at all the destruction she found. "Oh, my Gods!"

"I said to stay inside." Tae was immediately at her side blocking her view of the worst of the destruction. "It's not safe out here yet."

"You're hurt." Mae reached out a trembling hand and gently touched his face.

"I've been worse." Tay gave her a quick, reassuring kiss. "Now, please go back inside, so I don't have to worry about you getting hurt too."

"I…"

"Go inside, Mae," Cali added her voice to Tay's. "Give everyone a drink on the house and keep them calm. They're going to need to stay inside until we get this sorted out. We'll be in as soon as it is."

"Al… alright."

The door to The Brink closed just as one of the lifts opened, and Sub Commander Ynn walked out.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Taarig stepped out of the lift and into what looked like a war zone. Acrid, black smoke hung in the air, and a confusing array of debris littered the floor. He'd been on Star Base One when one of its internal mechanicals had malfunctioned. A severed column had speared through multiple levels causing a massive loss of atmosphere and gravity. It had taken hours to stabilize that Star Base with multiple extreme injuries and many deaths. But with the severity of that accident, the evidence of destruction had been obvious, twisted metal and broken reinforcements, but there was none of that here.

What looked like long, plastic hair sticks, small glass spheres, and sharp, three-sided pieces of metal littered the floor here. None of these things were part of a Star Base. The wall across from him and The Brink’s doors had many of the sharp metal pieces lodged in it as if it had been the target.

He looked down the concourse and felt his heart miss a beat. Cali was standing there covered in blood, a lot of blood. He moved toward Cali when a large Elevsìs male rushed out of The Brink's damaged door. He went directly to Cali, touching her with a familiarity that