A New Beginning

Chapter 67

Tessa's POV:

By the time we opened up the door to an empty room, Soranto had his wrist comm on his arm and was punching in some information.

"Hello?" Adeline's voice came through the wrist comm.

"Adeline," Soranto began, "Tessa and I are alri-"

"Soranto! You had me so worried! Next time you plan on infiltrating an enemy base, at least take my fusion blaster!"

"She has a what?" Soranto's father asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

Soranto ignored him and replied to Adeline, "How about I don't infiltrate any more bases, and we get that thing decommissioned?"

"I agree with the first part, but not the second one. Besides, this is the first time it has seen the light of day since we moved here. Are either you or Tessa injured?"

The rapid change of topic made me blink, although Soranto wasn't bothered by it.

He sat down on the bed before replying, "Both of us are fine. I have a cracked rib and a sprained ankle, but that's it."

Tilting my head, I sent him a mental image of his face with the various bruises from when the crate exploded. Perhaps he didn't know what he looked like, or, perhaps, it was a good thing that he had a day or so to heal before Adeline saw him.

Soranto shook his head slightly and started removing pieces of his armor as he continued reassuring Adeline that he wasn't seriously injured. The battle halfway between them wasn't a surprise to her, and she insisted that he remain on the warship.

"You won't get any safer than you are on that ship. Now that I know you aren't badly injured, I can relax and wait patiently instead of terrorizing people. Take care of Tessa. Keeping her out of mischief on a warship could be interesting."

"I know, and I'll stay here until they say it's safe."

"Thank you."

"How is Maria?"

"Worried, but she went to bed a while ago. I'll tell her the good news when she wakes up. I'm also noting your wrist comm code. You'll probably be asleep when she wakes, so call whenever you wake up."

"You get some sleep too, my love. We'll see each other soon."

"Good night, Soranto."

The love in her voice was enough to make Soranto's father examine the far wall, although Drae ignored their conversation as he helped Soranto remove his armor. Soranto reached down and removed his boot with a wince. The ankle was a bit puffy, and I didn't think he would be able to get the boot back on until the swelling went down. He removed his other boot with no such problems.

All that was left was Soranto's chest armor, which wasn't possible to remove with the shoulder pads in place. He reached up, and I hopped onto his wrist. The moment I was off, Drae and Soranto's father immediately unclipped them and continued dismantling his armor.

From this angle, I could see several small dents in the metal. When he lowered his hand to his lap, I jumped down and continued to watch. Soranto pulled off his shirt with another wince and a sharply inhaled breath. His green skin was much darker in several spots, and Soranto examined the areas ruefully.

Drae picked up the jar of salve. "I can tend your back, if you want, but the cracked rib is yours to rub in."

"Thanks."

The two of them began gently rubbing the nearly-odorless salve onto the bruises. The large jar probably only held enough for this time. Soranto's arms and legs were peppered with bruises where his minimal armor didn't protect him. I wasn't sure what his chest armor had stopped, but Soranto clenched his teeth as he liberally applied salve above where the cracked rib must be.