Page 2 of Rebels Rising (The Intergalactic Union #3)

Henrik

W orking as a medical professional in any capacity had always been my dream. I loved helping people. Seeing anyone in any sort of distress was like a physical ache in my chest, my heart working in overdrive as if to pump for us both.

Children, however, had never been my forte. Sure, I would help where needed, but this wasn’t medical. This was babysitting. I didn’t know the first thing about what children needed beyond keeping their bodies alive and well, yet here I was cleaning up pee, poo and vomit while they screamed us all down. Their shrill voices were louder than should be possible coming from such tiny bodies, and it also didn’t help that the station was made entirely out of metal that reverberated sound back on us a million times over. So not only did I have to deal with hundreds of screaming children, but it also sounded as if we were being attacked by an army of them.

Cad released a sound of disgust from where he worked beside me. It was nothing more than a grunt that gave off the impression he was choking down adding his own bodily fluids to the mix right alongside our last meal.

Not that there would have been much of that left. We hadn’t eaten in over a day.

One of the toddlers had peed all over his clothing, leaving him damp and smelling of urine. We shared a commiserating look, neither of us the best option for this, but there were limited choices. All the soldiers that had joined us from the battle were tackling the job as well, some obviously more well-versed than others.

Cad and I handed off the children we’d just finished cleaning up when two more were placed in front of us. We both took one whiff of the one in front of him and our heads snapped back at the stench, hands covering all orifices that could scent or taste, because that was what made this truly horrific… we could taste the scents, too.

My stomach gurgled in protest and Cadmus actually gagged.

‘Oh, fuck no. Nope. I can’t,’ he rambled, backing away as far as he could before bumping into the team behind us.

‘ We need a medic!’ someone shouted frantically, dragging my attention away from the gruesome task. Xander was rushing out of the mangled opening of the ship, Adara still clutched to his chest, both looking pale and panicked. ‘We need a medic now!’

I jumped to my feet and picked my way through the mass of soldiers, children and bodily fluids, trying not to slip on the mix of blood and urine puddling on the floor as I hurried to them. I was talking before I even reached them.

‘What happened?’

‘Bromm collapsed,’ Addy said, her tears wobbling her voice.

I frowned as I picked up my pace, overtaking them. ‘Why?’

‘Don’t know,’ said Xander. ‘One tick he was fine and the next he was…’

The way his words trailed off filled me with trepidation. People usually only trailed off like that when something truly terrible had happened, something so horrible they couldn’t even speak it out loud.

‘Any injuries?’ I pushed, needing all the information I could get before I reached him to avoid wasting time and getting straight to work.

‘No. There’s nothing. He should be fine, but he’s just… not.’ Adara’s words were punctuated with a sob, and my stomach dropped.

‘Where?’

I needn’t have asked as the sight unfolded before my eyes as we turned the last corner, almost tripping over Foryk. He was kneeling on the floor, head clamped tightly between his hands as he rocked back and forth, the sounds of pure grief and terror whimpering from his lips between a single repeated word.

‘ Please. Please. Please.’

I almost turned around and went back the way I came, the intensity of his emotion horrifying me to my core. But I didn’t. Bromm needed help, and he needed it now.

When I finally took in the scene beyond Foryk, I very nearly joined him on the floor. If that had been Cadmus, I had no doubt I would’ve been just as much of a wreck.

Bromm was being cradled by Artemis, expertly positioning him so he wouldn’t crush the small boy strapped to her chest. The boy’s eyes were wide open, a stunning green colour that seemed to be taking in all that was happening around him like it was just another day. Perhaps for him, it was. But there was an intelligence there that shouldn’t have been possible for a child his age. It was as if he were cataloguing everything he witnessed and storing it to study later. The way Bromm had turned white despite his blue colouring. His vacant stare as he gazed up at the ceiling, not blinking and dual pupils narrowed to tiny pinpoints. The way his limbs flopped as Artemis shook him, desperately attempting to wake him up, but even from here I could see that he was gone.

There was no rise and fall of his chest to indicate breathing. The lack of colour in his skin proved his heart was no longer pumping. His unresponsiveness was the last clue. His beard lay flat against the lower half of his face, falling like a blanket draped over his chin, neck and shoulders. They were always moving, even if it was just a twitch. Even when he was asleep.

There were no signs of life at all.

‘ Help him ,’ Artemis pleaded, dragging my attention away from his body to take her in for the first time since I arrived. Tears were streaking down her cheeks like a waterfall, dripping off her jaw and the tip of her nose to puddle on Bromm’s prone form. His shirt was damp with them, the fabric soaking it all up and spreading as a dark spot across his collar and down his chest. There was a wild look in her big brown eyes, reddened and puffy from crying. And the way she crouched over him protectively as if she could single-handedly bring him back to life if she just kept him from harm, there was a level of ferality to it that I had never witnessed before.

But one glance was all I needed to see that there was nothing I could do.

Bromm was dead.

‘Dammit, Henrik! Help him!’ she shouted at me one more time, and the complete helplessness in her tone was what finally propelled me into action. I doubted my skills were enough to save him, but I could at least try. None of us wanted to lose Bromm. He was our friend, but there was more to consider due to his royal status. The consequences of the death of a royal would be extreme, even a prince as far down the line of succession as him.

‘Lay him flat,’ I ordered, and though she was reluctant to let him go she did as she was told.

I pressed my hands over his heart and pushed, timing the chest compressions in the same practiced way I’d done many times before. I shoved the fact that I was working on someone I cared about to the side, my own emotions clouding my ability to focus. He didn’t need a friend right now, he needed a medical professional.

‘When I say, tilt his head back, pinch his nose closed and blow into his mouth,’ I told her.

She nodded, the movement jerky with her frantic energy. ‘Okay.’

Three. Two. One. ‘Now.’

She breathed deeply into his mouth and his chest rose as the air filled his lungs. My fingers were already at the pulse point on his wrist, but there was no response so I started the process again.

Three. Two. One. ‘Again.’

His chest rose even higher this time, Artemis blowing even more air into him as if that would make his lungs constrict and release on their own.

Still no pulse.

We tried again and again with no luck. Until…

There. An almost imperceptible flutter in his wrist. A flicker of a pulse.

‘I’ve got something!’ I yelled, utterly astonished. I had worked on him just for the sake of saying I’d done everything I could, but I’d not actually expected it to work. ‘I’ve got a pulse!’

‘Oh, thank the stars,’ Artemis whispered, her relief so strong she crumpled on the floor beside her lover, one hand still connected to his face as if she were afraid she’d lose him again if she let go.

But as we were talking I felt his pulse begin to falter again. He wasn’t out of the woods yet.

‘Where’s the infirmary?’ I asked, my tone stronger and more assertive than it had ever been before.

‘I saw it on the way in,’ Colonel Hum’Rit said, and I realised for the first time since seeing Artemis, Bromm and Foryk in difference stages of collapse that there was a small crowd surrounding us. Including Cadmus, whom I hadn’t realised had followed me in.

I also noted the state of the second ship’s hangar door and knew Artemis was needed elsewhere. We still needed to get off Nova Station as quickly as possible.

I started barking out orders, the bigger picture forming in my mind. Everyone would have a part to play in this, and not everyone was going to like their assignment. ‘Cadmus, you carry Bromm. Colonels, raid this ship for medical supplies. Anything you can find, I don’t care what it is, bring it to me. Colonel Hum’Rit, lead the way to the infirmary.’

Cadmus scooped the Griknot prince into his arms, firmly securing him to his body despite the way Bromm flopped about limply at the slightest shift in movement. He took a step onto the other ship with Artemis close behind, but I braced myself to stop her.’

‘Arty, I’m sorry, but you can’t come.’

She rounded on me, a snarl pulling back her lips to reveal straight white teeth I knew would do a lot of damage if I didn’t tread carefully. ‘The fuck I can’t.’

I gentled my tone to keep her from lashing out further. ‘We still need to get off the station.’

I could see the war raging inside her, but she didn’t move after Bromm when Cadmus took him further inside the ship. That was a good sign.

I nodded at her once, attempting to show her my appreciation through my expression. I was fairly sure it didn’t land, but at least I could say I made the effort.

Xander spoke up then, cutting through the tension though he didn’t disperse it. Keeping Artemis in my sights – because let’s face it, she was still the most dangerous predator in the room despite the Kikshrut at her heels – I turned to face the captain as he addressed us. ‘I need to round everyone up and get them on the ship.’

Though his face was still pale and there was a tremor in his muscles, his voice was strong and steady. He strode off to do just that, leaving me alone with the Kikshrut and a very agitated Arty. I opened my mouth to say something, though I hadn’t quite figured out what, but she interrupted me before I could even make a sound.

‘Go. He needs you.’

My jaw slammed shut, my teeth clacking together with the force, but I nodded and moved to follow the others.

Before I could get too far, she grabbed my arm, her grip gentle despite her white knuckles. ‘If anything happens to him…’

‘I’m not going to let him go that easy, Arty,’ I vowed. ‘I’ll do everything I can to keep him here.’ It wasn’t the exact promise she wanted because I couldn’t give that. I didn’t control life or death, but I could help to prevent it. That was what I could promise.

She studied me for a beat, her deep brown eyes a vast ocean of emotion that tunnelled into me so powerfully it almost eviscerated me on the spot. But then she let go, nodding her head in the direction of her lover.

I didn’t wait to be told again.