“Of course,” Adaos agreed. “Perhaps I could just take a sample of her blood while she sleeps?”
“You will do nothing without her permission.”
“Yes, Commander,” the medic agreed, resignation replacing the excitement that had colored his words.
“Is there anything else?”
Adaos sighed. “She asked about the body we found near her.”
“You told her about that?”
“I didn’t have to. It was in Med Bay when she awoke and thought herself back on Earth. After you left, she drew the obvious conclusion and asked to see it. I thought it inadvisable, but she persisted.”
“And?”
“It was the Lasaran engineer Ganix, the man she believes saved her life by putting her in the suit.”
Dagon swore. “Was she distraught?”
“Yes, but she made a valiant attempt to hide it and merely asked if she could sleep for a time.”
She would’ve learned the truth eventually. Dagon just wished he could’ve spared her that. “Notify me when she awakens.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Rising, he nodded at Barus. “You have the bridge.” Might as well get some rest while Eliana slept.
“Yes, Commander.”
Dagon headed for his quarters. When he entered, some of the tension drained from his shoulders. Always tidy, the room felt quite large. “Lower bed.”
One wall shifted, and his big bed folded down. Ducking into the adjoining lav, he used the facilities and the cleansing unit. He smiled. Or the shower as Eliana referred to it.
He couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was such a curious combination of strength and fragility, of fortitude and vulnerability.
Once soldiers completed their training and were assigned to ships, male and female Segonians in the military had little opportunity to interact with each other outside of war games. Consequently, he usually only encountered civilian Segonian women when home on leave. During the years in which he had worked so hard to climb the ranks, most of those women had avoided him. Soldiers often spent long periods in space and generally weren’t considered the best candidates for lifemates. So Dagon’s fellow soldiers were more apt to seek companionship on pleasure stations than they were to court a potential wife.
There had always been women on Segonia who found danger enticing and offered themselves to rough-around-the-edges soldiers. The fiercer the soldier’s reputation, the more he lured such women. And Dagon’s reputation was fierce. But none of those who had coaxed him to their bed had appealed to him enough to want to see them again afterward.
He wondered idly if women in the Segonian military experienced the same difficulties. In the rare instances he did interact with female soldiers, they tended to behave more like competitors than someone searching for a potential mate.
Eliana treated Dagon like no other woman had in the past. She treated him like a friend.
Would that change after she recovered from her injuries?
“Dim the lights. Night mode.”
The bright lights overhead weakened, leaving him just enough illumination to make out a path to his bed. Sprawling naked on it, he tried and failed to clear his racing thoughts long enough to seek sleep.
“Play ‘Eliana.’”
Eliana’s sultry voice arose, singing her favorite song, “At Last.”
Dagon sighed as peace and contentment suffused him. She might not know it, but Eliana had sung him to sleep every night since she had first crooned that tune.
He smiled as fatigue crept up on him.
Perhaps he could coax her into singing it to him in person.
“Commander Dagon.”
He jerked awake. Blinking gritty eyes, he stared up at the dark ceiling. Silence had replaced Eliana’s voice, indicating he had unknowingly drifted off. He grabbed the earpiece he’d left on the shelf above the bed. “What?”
“Commander Tiran is hailing us.”
How long had he slept?
Dagon peered groggily at the time display across the room and groaned. Not long enough. “Give me a few minutes.”
“Yes, sir.”
After using the lav and donning his uniform, he headed for his private office and sank into the chair behind his desk.
“Put him through,” he commanded Janek.
“Yes, Commander.”
Tiran’s face appeared. “Dagon.”
“Tiran. I’m glad you contacted me. I have good news.”
The Lasaran’s grim countenance didn’t change. “We could use some.”
That didn’t bode well. “We retrieved Eliana. She is alive and recovering from her injuries.”
Tiran’s eyes widened. “She survived until you reached her?”
“Yes.”
“Was she in an escape pod?”
“No. She was in a suit as she said. She suffered grievous wounds and was a little confused when she awoke. But my chief medical officer has assured me she is healing swiftly.”
“Amazing. I’m sure her commanding officer will be relieved to hear it.”
Dagon nodded. “What troubles you?”
“A Soturi ship found more wreckage of the Kandovar. They’ve recovered the bodies of multiple Yona warriors and some Lasaran engineers who must have remained on the ship until the end.”
No doubt the engineers had hoped to restore power to the shields and give the Lasaran and Yona soldiers more time to fight. Cobus and his engineering crew here on the Ranasura would’ve done the same.
Which reminded Dagon of Ganix. “I’m afraid we recovered the body of one of your engineers as well. Chief Engineer Ganix. He’s the one Eliana credits with getting her into a suit before the ship broke apart.”
Nodding, Tiran drew a hand down over his grim face. “Send me confirmation once your medic acquires it.”
“I will.”
Tiran shook his head. “There’s more. The Soturi also found the remains of several fighter craft.”
“No survivors?”
“None.”
“Were there no pods nearby?”
“One. But it was empty. The Soturi commander said it looked as though the hatch had been forced open from the outside.”
Dagon frowned. “Any signs that it was occupied?”
“Yes. The Soturis’ chief medical officer ran scans and identified the former occupant as one of the men found floating near the wreckage. It appears someone pried him out of the pod.”
“Drek. Do you think the Gathendiens did it?”
“That is our assumption.”
“Then they are searching for the Earth women.” And had apparently jettisoned the Lasaran male for not being who they wanted.
“Such was our conclusion as well.”
Dagon tapped the small screen embedded in the surface of his desk. “Janek.”
“Yes, Commander?”
“Apply the heaviest encryption we have to my communication with Commander Tiran, then check for any possible unauthorized data transfers.”
“I’ve already applied the encryption, Commander, and will monitor it for signs of outside attempts to access it.”
“Thank you.”
Tiran frowned. “What are you thinking?”
Dagon shook his head. “I’m thinking the Gathendiens might have breached your security.”