Page 6 of DaR (Darverius, House of DaR #1)

Chapter Six

DAR

The moment my ship sets down on Falcor , I rush over to my private shuttle.

This is the first time I have ever wished my main residence was within the floating metropolis above me.

Her injuries are so severe, I feel like every step I take is wasting precious time she may not have.

There is no other way to safely transport her down to the surface in her condition.

I can feel her essence slipping away; her life slowly ending with every shudder and whimper that wracks her small body.

I land the shuttle behind the main entrance of my dwelling with a little less grace than usual. It was a tight fit inside the small cockpit with both of us in the pilot’s seat, but I was terrified to lay her in the back by herself even if it was for only a few minutes .

Before the atmospheric top rises all the way back, the healer jumps onto the side of the shuttle with a hover stretcher ready.

“ Master DaR , please just lower it onto the stretcher. I have a trauma transport en route now. It is coming to take it to the local clinic for evaluation and to be decommissioned if we are unable to get it back to working status.”

I grab the stretcher. “ You will not be taking her anywhere. And if you say the word ‘decommission’ in front of me again, I hope you have your final affairs in order, because it would not be her leaving here in that medical vehicle. Do I make myself clear?”

The male nods. “ Please forgive me for thinking this was a mere slave, Master DaR ; I just assumed because of its markings. I will request a healing unit to be delivered here immediately, and it should arrive within moments.”

Lifting her up gently, I step over the side of the cockpit, slowly lowering her down onto the hover bed. She whimpers from the sudden movement and unwittingly, I retract my claws and push her matted hair out of her face.

“ Please step back, so I can look at its injuries. Do you know what species it is, Sir ?”

“ IT is a she, and she is a Human ! Honestly , that is all I know about her.” I run my hand wearily down my face.

“ She is from the planet Earth , according to the auctioneer. And I may have purchased her from a slave market, but she will never be a slave in my home. She is to have the absolute best care available. I want each scar and every mark on her skin removed. She has been through enough without having to live with the constant reminders of her abduction all over her body. She is so traumatized she didn’t even fight me when I took her off that fracking stage. ”

“ Master , I believe her body was and is going into shock and her mind is trying to find a way to block out what has happened to her. We have written that weakness out of our own genetics, but lesser species still have these issues.”

When the two AI healers appear in the sky with the chamber strapped between them, I step back out of the way so they can land closer to the stretcher.

They rush to the healer’s side and gently put the woman inside the chamber.

Once she is settled comfortably, he starts the scans that will hopefully tell us what is wrong with her.

I stand beside it looking down at her small, battered body, and it takes all of my willpower not to order the entire planet destroyed that did this to her.

My heart feels heavy in my chest, and I rub my hand against it absentmindedly.

I am the Commander of Legions and right this moment, nothing short of death could make me walk away from her.

“ Master DaR , I hate to tell you this, but her healing is going to be extensive. Are you sure you do not want me to take her to a healing center and notify you when she is ready to be picked up? ”

“ No , she is to remain here. Bring whatever equipment and personnel are required for her healing and to provide all the services she needs. No expense is to be spared. Do you understand me?”

“ Yes , Master DaR . Where would you like us to locate her inside?”

I start walking to my dwelling. “ SAGE , make a healing room available immediately and I do not want to hear a single word about it. Do you hear me?”

“ Yes , Master . I am in the process of rearranging the walls now; it will be ready by the time the chamber is brought through the doorway.”

I hear movement as I enter my domicile and before I take a few steps inside, a new door opens to my right.

“ Senior healer, your room awaits you to your right,” SAGE says.

I make myself walk away and into the sustenance prep area. Opening the food replicator, I reach in and take out a container of Blood Beet juice, draining it dry in one gulp. My hands shake as I start to put the container into the waste receptacle.

“ Master DaR .”

“ I do not want to hear it, SAGE . I told you, not one word about what or who I brought home. ”

“ I was just going to tell you the healer is asking for you.”

I am suddenly terrified of what I might be about to hear. I rush back to the room, my heart beating out of my chest. My only thought is that I have only been gone a few moments; surely, they have not lost her already?

The healer walks around the chamber, making notes on his portable tablet. He does not notice me at first. Impatiently , I clear my throat.

“ Master DaR , I am sorry I did not notice you. I must say, this creature is fascinating and a rare find for sure. According to the chamber, her organs and genetics are not that dissimilar from our own. Now , her DNA is a whole different matter. It is very complex, and like nothing I have ever seen before. I am looking forward to studying her species. You could make quite a profit by selling her to the lab; they would pay dearly for this female.”

“ She isn’t a fracking lab specimen, and there are not enough credits on this planet to purchase her, so get that out of your head right now,” I growl at him. The claws on my hands lengthen and the spurs on my arms flutter in annoyance as the Rage pushes forward.

The healer turns pale and bows down in front of me.

“ Ohh , please do not take that as an insult, Sir . I meant no offense at all.” He sees me clenching my fists and I can feel my eyes turning red, along with the movement of my Runes .

He starts to stutter, “ Here … let me… give you an… update on her condition.”

“ Let me see, we will start from the top and work our way down. If you would please step closer, I will point out the issues. The algorithms displayed on the healing chamber’s screens will show you how long each particular injury will take to heal.”

Taking a deep breath to calm down, I walk over and glance down at her. I am struck speechless by the instant change in her appearance. She almost looks peaceful lying there.

The healer points to the readouts on the screens.

“ I have given her a slight sedative to ensure her body has some extra time to heal.

This poor soul must have an extremely high tolerance for pain, because she has suffered greatly.

To be honest, I am not sure how she survived as long as she did with these injuries.

She was within minutes of losing her life, so you got her here just in time.

As you can see by the extreme bruising on her face, her cheekbone is broken, and her eye socket has a small fracture.

She has multiple lacerations on her back, neck, wrists, and legs.

Her areola was almost completely torn off her left breast, along with three broken ribs to the same side.

I have no idea how this female even managed to stand on her own because one of those ribs had punctured her lung, filling it up with blood, which in turn was slowly drowning her.

Also , her left ankle has been torn out of its socket.

I determined this must have been caused by her being dragged and the scrapes we see on her knees and calves would also be caused by that.

Other than multiple bruises lining her shins and legs, the only other injury she has to her lower region is six singular puncture wounds down the inside of her thigh.

This injury is the one that almost took her life.

They nicked her main artery, and even though it looks like they put a temporary patch on it, she was still bleeding out.

Our medicines seem to be helping her, but it does not help that she is extremely dehydrated and I must say, the word ‘malnutrition’ is not severe enough to describe her condition. She was deliberately starved. To be honest, she is quite a remarkable creature to have survived such circumstances.

The most unbelievable part of all this trauma is that she wasn’t sexually abused.

I did not find any penetration or cuts within her vaginal canal at all.

I did find something rather odd though. She is missing her reproductive organs, but the scarring is old inside her body cavity.

Because of that, I believe this shows that they were removed before her abduction. ”

I must put my hands behind my back to keep from reaching for her. She is a complete mess lying there and for some reason, I am the one needing comfort.

“ Will she survive?”

“ Yes , but I believe it will take a few lunar rotations before she makes a full recovery. However , even though her body will be healed, her mind may not. I can give her a memory dampener to help lessen the intensity of the trauma she has experienced at the hands of the monsters that did this to her.”

I shake my head at once, hating the idea of toying with her mind. “ How much, or should I say, how many days would be erased from her memory?”

“ That is the problem, Master DaR . I am not exactly sure. Her species is new to me, and even though we have the technology to duplicate a synthetic blood type for her and help repair her organs, I know not how our medicines will affect her mind.”

I have never been so conflicted, or even this confused about anything in my life. The decisions I make daily affect nations, but when it comes to her, I cannot seem to “ Can you give this to her at a later time?”

“ Absolutely ! If she awakens and you feel like her psyche is not able to cope, please notify me for an emergency consultation.

I will leave one of the AI healers here with her in case a problem arises.

Let the machine do its job. When she wakes up, she will be completely healed.

I will also set the machine to cleanse her in case she has been infected with any nasty, off-world parasites.

I hope I am not overstepping my station here Sir , but I thought that maybe I should remind you that at some point, you will need to discuss where she came from.

Because you asked me to, I have set the machine to remove all the marks from her body, including the brand she received on Sybrus One .

But she will need to be marked again at some point before she can become a citizen here on Darverius .

This mark is for her safety and your peace of mind.

There is no rush at this time and you know that better than anyone.

But please do not forget you only have thirty lunar rotations to complete her initiation and I know with your busy schedule something might get overlooked.

When you feel like she is ready, please notify me and I will send one of the AIs over to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible.

“ Also Sir , the cape you were wearing earlier should be sterilized. Better to be safe than sorry; off-world planets have some nasty parasites, and I know you would not want anything here that could re-infect her.”

I nod in acknowledgement. “ I will have SAGE take care of that. Thank you for your quick response to my summons. I will make sure the health board knows your actions saved her life.”

“ Thank you, Master DaR , that is quite kind of you. I am going to leave you to your duties, as I know you are a busy man.”

I reach out to stop him. “ One more thing, I noticed she did not seem to understand what anyone was saying. I want you to make sure she has the latest translator inserted while she is under. ”

“ I can program that in while I am here. If you think of anything else, it would please me if you contacted me directly. I can program most things for this chamber remotely.”

Watching him walk out the front door, the sudden silence in the house is almost unnerving.

I have an entire world to monitor and protect, but I can’t seem to walk away from her.

I feel like I have a heavy weight on my chest. If she would just open her eyes and look up at me, I think I could breathe easier.

I pull up a chair and sit down and watch in fascination as the machine moves back and forth over her body, slowly mending her skin.

“ SAGE , contact Tordan and let him know I am not available for the rest of the day. Unless the planet is on fire, or we are under attack, he needs to handle it.”

“ Yes , Master DaR .”