joined the new ship permanently.
Pyix and Estelle, as well as another Earther named Heidi, talked to her at length about her time on the gen ship and how she ended up on the Sraibur. They wanted to know all about Faros and the rest of the crew, and when they started trading looks full of meaning, EJ got nervous.
She hadn’t succeeded in getting them to spill the beans on why they were so interested in the Sraibur when Bula called a meeting of her sisters, EJ, Pyix, and Estelle. EJ hadn’t figured out Estelle — she was friendly enough but there was definitely distance. She was younger than EJ but her eyes and demeanor said those years were hard-lived enough she might as well have been twice EJ’s age. She wanted to get to the bottom of Estelle’s past, if only for her own curiosity, but whenever EJ wheedled her way around to a personal question, Estelle suddenly had to be elsewhere in a hurry.
EJ sat next to Bula and listened to the click and scrape of the space chicken’s talons on the floor. She and her sisters had literally taken EJ under their wings, and she would be forever grateful. But part of her thoughts remained with Nokx. They hadn’t gotten a chance to talk after everything went sideways on the Hollbrd. They’d both said a lot of things in the middle of running for their lives and confronting the Slasu and Horgut guards. She needed to know that he meant it now, when they were safe and could make their own choices on where to go next.
She still carried his dagger, tucked away safely at her waist. EJ wondered if he would want it back when he woke up. The seed of hope in her heart said he wouldn’t, but the rest of her knew that relationships forged in chaos and stress rarely lasted. Between her stowing away and both of them being trapped on the gen ship, they hadn’t done a lot of talking or getting to know one another. It could have just been an infatuation, the result of intense pressure and a lack of other romantic partners.
Of course, he still took her breath away when she sat next to him in the sick bay. She needed him to wake up, even after everything. She needed him to explain what happened, how she ended up back on the Hollbrd while he did nothing to save her. EJ could forgive him. She would forgive him. She just needed to understand what she needed to forgive.
EJ sighed as she followed Pyix and another Xaravian crew member, carrying Nokx between them, back to the sickbay and tried to suppress the worry that churned in her guts. At least he’d eaten something, even if him storming around the ship took too much energy and might have set back his recovery.
Bula and Pyix remained in sick bay with her as the medical officer, a tall Revit with slender limbs and a rock-like carapace, moved around Nokx and started the reju pods all over again with a sigh. EJ didn’t look at the two officers but kept her gaze on Nokx. “I’ll stay here with him. You can get back to work; I don’t want to keep you.”
Pyix cleared his throat. “He’ll be fine. Xaravians are tougher even than we look.”
He conferred quietly with Bula, then disappeared into the corridor. The space chicken nudged EJ toward a long bench against the wall so she could sit and Bula could perch, drawing her long legs underneath her. One of the feathery arms brushed EJ’s. “How are you, my dear? It was far too long that we did not hear from you, far too long.”
EJ didn’t really know how to answer that. How was she? She’d escaped a prison ship, stowed away on a pirate ship, fallen in love with someone who betrayed her, been shoved back into prison, then ran for her life while trying to protect her heart. She took a deep breath. “I’m not terrible. Not great, but not terrible. Somewhere in the middle.”
Bula’s chuckle sounded like a chorus of chirps. “To be expected, of course. Such an adventure for you. Such an adventure. And you have found something worthwhile, I think. Oh yes I think you have found something very valuable.”
“What?” EJ glanced over, frowning. “I didn’t get to keep anything on the Hollbrd, and I don’t think...”
The space chicken chortled. “A piece of his heart, my dear. My lovely