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TWENTY-FOUR

AEON

I was checking on Helix’s vitals early that evening when the alarms suddenly screamed to life. My head snapped toward her bed where her body went rigid, her back arching off the mattress.

“Olivia!” I shouted, my voice projecting through the open doorway.

Olivia rushed in, her wavy brown hair flying behind her. Her eyes widened as she took in Helix’s convulsing form.

“She’s seizing again,” Olivia said, already moving to Helix’s side. “It’s postpartum eclampsia. Her blood pressure’s through the roof.” Her fingers flew across the monitor controls. “We need to stabilize her now or she could have a stroke.”

My heart thundered. “What do you need?” I asked, already reaching for the emergency medications.

“Magnesium sulfate,” Olivia said, placing an oxygen mask over Helix’s face. “And something to bring her pressure down immediately.”

I handed her the magnesium, watching as she administered it through Helix’s IV. “Our standard antihypertensives aren’t working fast enough,” I said, scanning through Helix’s chart. “Her cybernetic system is metabolizing them too quickly.”

Olivia’s brow furrowed as she worked. “We need something her body won’t immediately process.”

A memory surfaced—something I’d cataloged during a jungle expedition but hadn’t fully processed. “The crimson fern,” I said suddenly. “It grows near the eastern waterfall. The compounds in its roots have vasodilatory properties that...”

“That might bypass her enhanced metabolism,” Olivia finished, her eyes lighting up. “If we extract the alkaloids and combine them with the magnesium treatment?—”

“I’ll go get it.” I was already moving toward the door.

“Hurry,” she called after me. “We don’t have much time.”

I sprinted through the colony’s central plaza, my feet barely touching the ground. The jungle’s edge loomed ahead, a wall of emerald and shadow in the early evening light. I plunged into the underbrush, navigating the familiar path to the eastern falls.

When I finally returned to the medical bay, breathless with fern roots clutched in my hand, Olivia had Helix stabilized but still critical.

“Her pressure’s still climbing,” Olivia said, taking the roots from me. “Let’s hope this works.”

Together we processed the roots, extracting the compounds and preparing an infusion. Olivia’s skilled hands worked alongside mine, our movements synchronized as if we’d been partners for years rather than mere weeks.

“Now we wait,” Olivia said after administering the solution.

I stood beside her, our shoulders touching as we watched the monitors. The warmth of her proximity spread through me, a feeling both increasingly familiar and essential.

Slowly, miraculously, Helix’s numbers began to stabilize.

“It’s working,” Olivia whispered, relief flooding her voice.

Pride swelled in my chest—not just for saving Helix, but for what we’d accomplished together. Human ingenuity and cyborg knowledge, perfectly intertwined.

“We did it,” I said, my hand finding Olivia’s. “Together.”

Her hand tightened around mine, and the connection felt more significant than any medical breakthrough.

The medical bay’s sterile lights suddenly felt too harsh and too clinical for the moment we were sharing. Her green eyes met mine, reflecting something that transcended our doctor-student relationship, and our captor-captive history.

“Let’s get some air,” I suggested, my voice rough with emotion I was still learning to process. “Helix is stable. Laine can monitor her vitals.”

Olivia nodded, her cheeks flushed with the lingering adrenaline of our success. I guided her through the medical bay’s corridors to the front doors. My hand rested lightly against her back—a gesture that felt instinctive rather than calculated these days.

The night air hit us with a refreshing coolness as we stepped outside. Planet Alpha’s twin moons hung low in the sky, bathing the jungle’s edge in silvery-blue light. The colony’s buildings formed a scattered constellation of their own against the dark backdrop.

“It’s beautiful out here tonight,” Olivia whispered, her face upturned to the expanse above. “I’ve been here for weeks, but I haven’t really seen this place until now.”

I stepped closer, drawn to her like a gravitational pull I couldn’t fight. “You saved Helix again tonight.” I paused for a moment. “You’re saving all of us.”

“We’re saving each other,” she corrected, turning toward me. “That’s what I never understood before. Your knowledge of the native plants?—”

“Your understanding of physiology?—”

“Together,” she finished, echoing my earlier words.

Something broke inside me—a dam of restraint I’d built over years of war and survival. I curved my hand along her jawline, tilting her face toward mine.

“Olivia,” her name tumbled from my lips like a prayer, “I need to tell you something.”

I led her farther from the medical bay to a small clearing where night-blooming flowers released their scent into the air. The jungle sounds created an intimate backdrop—distant calls of night creatures and the soft rustle of leaves.

“What you’ve done for Helix, for this colony...” I struggled to find words adequate enough. “For me. You’ve changed everything.”

Her bright green eyes searched mine, no longer guarded.

“I love you,” I confessed, the words no longer feeling foreign on my tongue. “I’ve said it once before, but I need you to know how deeply I mean it this time.”

My heart pounded as I closed the distance between us, capturing her lips with mine.

The kiss was different from our previous encounters—not born from momentary passion but something more deliberate and more certain.

My arms encircled her, lifting her slightly as I poured everything I couldn’t articulate into that connection.

When we parted, breathless, her hands framed my face. “I love you, too, Aeon.”

Joy surged through me like a current, powerful and undeniable. I’d never expected those words, and never dared hope she would return feelings that I was still navigating myself.

“Say it again,” I whispered against her lips.

“I love you,” she repeated, her smile radiating in the moonlight.

The following afternoon, I called an emergency colony council meeting again.

The council chamber buzzed with tension as everyone filed in.

My heart swelled with pride when Olivia entered beside me.

She wore her usual practical clothes, but something was different about her today.

A quiet confidence had replaced her earlier wariness.

Her hand brushed against mine as we walked to the front, and that simple contact sent electricity through me.

“Attention,” I called, and the room fell silent.

Sunlight slanted through high windows, illuminating the gathered faces of our colony council members and people.

Helix sat at the front, still pale but recovering rapidly—her presence alone making a statement.

“Last night, we nearly lost Commander Helix.”

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. I placed my hands on the wooden podium on the elevated platform, leaning forward.

“But we didn’t lose her. And there’s a reason for that.” My eyes found Olivia’s. “Dr. Parker identified the crisis immediately. Between her medical expertise and my knowledge of Planet Alpha’s native flora, we created a treatment that saved Helix’s life.”

I straightened, squaring my shoulders as I faced the skeptics in the crowd. “This is what I’ve been trying to tell you. We are stronger together—humans and cyborgs.”

Tegan, one of the most vocal critics of bringing humans to our colony, shifted uncomfortably in his seat. His eyes narrowed as they moved between Olivia and me.

“If we hadn’t worked together,” I continued, “if Olivia hadn’t applied her understanding of human and cyborg physiology alongside my knowledge of our environment, Helix would probably be dead.

” I let that sink in. “Our colony would have lost one of its founders, and our unborn children would have lost their fiercest advocate.”

Helix rose shakily to her feet. “Aeon speaks the truth. I owe my life to Dr. Parker and to our ability to combine our different strengths.”

I watched as attitudes shifted around the room—faces softening and postures relaxing.

After the meeting adjourned, Tegan approached, his expression unreadable. “A word,” he said, gesturing toward a side alcove.

“I’ll find you later,” I told Olivia, squeezing her hand before following Tegan.

As soon as we were alone, he turned to me. “You’ve convinced me about working together with humans,” he admitted, surprising me. “But there’s something you need to know.” Tegan’s face tightened. “I reached out to Dr. Naomi West on Earth.”

My blood turned to ice, my fists balling up at my sides. “I knew it.”

“It was a peace offering,” he explained, raising his hands defensively. “I thought if we returned Olivia in exchange for West’s promise to keep our location secret, we’d be safer.”

Rage surged through me, hot and overwhelming. I grabbed the front of his shirt, slamming him against the wall. “You risked our entire colony’s safety without authorization.”

“I was trying to protect us!” Tegan’s voice cracked. “But that’s not all. I received intelligence this morning. Someone from Earth is coming. Soon. I don’t know if West betrayed us or if someone else intercepted our communication.”

I released him, my mind racing through implications and contingencies. “How much time do we have?”

“Days. Maybe less.”

I cursed, pacing the small area. Our colony sprawled across the jungle clearing—vulnerable and exposed. We’d implemented precautionary defensive measures after learning about Earth’s possible threat several days ago, but they weren’t complete.

“We need to accelerate our fortifications,” I said, already formulating a plan. “And Tegan? If anything happens to Olivia because of this...” I let the threat hang unfinished.

His eyes widened slightly. “You really do love her. Don’t you?”

The question coming from him surprised me, but I didn’t hesitate. “More than I thought possible.”