HMS Valediction

Chapter 36.3

When I blink into consciousness again, the world in hazy piles of white, I resist moving.

"Quit pretending you're asleep."

"I'm not pretending. I was literally asleep until eight seconds ago." I adjust and wince as pain shoots through my hips and spine.

We sit quietly as we lean against the broken furniture. He isn't breathing anymore—his chest remains immobile as he stares ahead. After what we've communicated through our warpath against the room, words seem unnecessary.

But I can't help but ask anyway, "Are you ready to tell me what happened out there?"

"There's nothing to tell."

"You reached the pod, the debris struck. Everything was gone. I want to know how you escaped."

Moon holds himself completely still as if he is one of the stone features in Juno's palace. "I pulled your son out before the wreckage took him with Juno. You couldn't figure that out on your own?"

He's right. What more did I need?

"I'm sick of being here," he says.

"Me too."

He rises in the terrifying mechanical way he does, like strings lifting him from the top of his head. I struggle and lean to the side, rolling onto my hips and struggling to rise on stiff bones. He never reaches out to help me.

I shout when the wound from earlier protests the movement.

"You know that could be an easy fix." Moon peels my bloody shirt from off the wound, exposing Knuckles' messy patch-job. "It's stupid to suffer needlessly. You could be invincible."

"If you're trying to sell me on this, "invincible" is not the best hot-topic anymore."

He covers the bandage back up. "Fine. I'll amend my position. This could be an easy fix. It could make shit hurt less."

I roll my neck and wince as it cracks. " I am really tired of pain."

He grunts as if in agreement. "You could get a patch to match your son's. Wouldn't that be quaint?"

I pick at a glass chip on the floor and flick it away. "What did he get?"

"A graph over his left shoulder from the skin of a species in a neighbor galaxy. He'll need a new arm eventually."

I nod. "But he'll live."

Moon picks up a piece of glass and flicks it in the same direction as mine. "He's strong. There's no reason he should have survived this ordeal, but he did. However, now that he's to be in your custody, there are no guarantees."

"Let's go before they think we've murdered each other."

"Your doctor came to spy on us. I doubt they're concerned about homicide."

"Why do you say that?"

"They think you'll leave them."

I spin around and face him. "What?"

"I heard them speaking outside the door. They think I'm going to steal you away like some burglar and a bag of jewels. Morons."

"You heard that?"

"You know what else I heard? You and your radio and your clever little messages to your pretty-boy. It might have been more effective to shout the information from your hiding spot behind the pillar. It would have saved everyone from having to endure your ignominious entrance with your rust-ridden slug."

"Wait, you heard that?"

"You're not as stealthy as you think you are. "

I stare at my boots. "I can't leave them."