New Horizons: Chapter 3

Gray walked into Grishe’s clinic easily, but I could tell he was nervous. Back on Earth, I’d spent a lot of time at his place, and it had been a mess. Cleaning up one day I found a bunch of his medical records and as a child he’d been in and out of the hospital a concerning number of times. He’d told me he was clumsy as a kid, but what I’d found was far beyond that.

It was quite clear his parents had been abusing him and he didn’t remember. Between that and two abduction experiences by krexxians who didn’t exactly ask permission to touch you, Gray needed a stable, non-violent environment. I’d even convinced Lovath of such, but Gray had still insisted on leaving with him.

Needless to say, Gray didn’t like anything that looked like a hospital, and Grishe’s place qualified.

Gray bounced on the balls of his feet the entire time Grishe pulled out the jabber and heart implants. Just the thought of Gray putting that stuff in his body worried me. He was making a decision he might never be able to take back.

Not once did he waver though. Lovath had to reassure him multiple times before he calmed down enough to let Grishe jab him with a needle of bright orange anesthetic but he was honestly far calmer than I’d expected. When Grishe shooed us out of the room, I was left downstairs and alone with Lovath.

We sat across from each other in silence before I finally cracked and said, “Now’s the time to rescind your offer. I know Gray put you up to it.”

Lovath sighed and ran a hand over his green face. “We do need a mechanic, Derrick. Your boss says you’re ‘as good as a human can be’ at it.” To his credit, he put air quotes around that last part and used a fair bit of sarcasm. “And Gray needs human companionship. Two birds, one stone, as humans say?”

“And if I change my mind? I’m not thrilled about your line of business.” Despite the bite behind the words, they were all bark. I wanted to be off Pretia and on a ship, and being closer to Gray was icing on the cake. What Lovath’s crew did without us didn’t much matter.

With a scoff, the Horizon’s captain answered, “Then you’ll die on Pretia because you refuse lung implants. Your call.”

My blood chilled. He was right. Every day I spent on this fucking planet ticked down my biological clock. Unless I was in my apartment with fancy air filters, I was constantly breathing in the space version of silica dust. I wasn’t so stubborn that I didn’t realize I had to get out, and soon.

“Fine. Maybe I’ll figure out how you have Gray under your thumb.”

Lovath threw his head back and laughed at that. Standing, he placed his hands on the table and leaned over at me. “Gray begged me to drek him until he screamed last night. I’m confident that being with me is his decision.”

He stalked out of the room, shoving past a big, burly krexxian as he went, who looked after him with a puzzled expression. In my experience, krexxians were mostly lithe and willowy, but the medic on board Lovath’s ship was a rare, super muscled one. He’d put any marble statue to shame.

I’d met Kryn once before, when I’d come to Grishe’s clinic to convince Lovath to leave Gray behind on Pretia. Like every other alien race, krexxians were ugly. Even with all his bulging muscles, he still had smooth gray skin, a hairless head, and four, solid black eyes that slid over to focus on me.

The two primary eyes krexxians had were typical enough, similar in size and placement to a humans, except they had no sclerae so they were just completely black. A second set of eyes were shaped the same but a bit smaller, positioned directly below the primary set. Lovath’s medic had a flatter, almost bridgeless nose typical of his race.

Considering it was the krexxian ships that were allowed to get close enough to Earth to abduct us and do research, it made sense that they kind of matched human descriptions of aliens.

“Derrick, correct?” The krexxian medic spoke in an unnaturally deep voice, but he was rather quiet at the same time. “I’m Kryn. We met briefly—”

“I remember.” I spat, and the hairless brow muscle on Kryn’s face quirked. God, space had made me a miserable bastard. Kryn pulled out the chair across from me that Lovath had just vacated and sat without an invitation.

“How was Gray? We’ve been working on his aversion to medical environments and I’ve seen improvement. Undergoing a real procedure is a bit different than running scans on him on the ship, though.” Kryn was a soft spoken one, that was for sure.

“If you wanted to know, you could’ve been here.”

At my jab, the large alien just grinned. “You are right, of course. I’ll ask him when he wakes up.”

I fiddled with the hem of my shirt that was covered in motor grease—not so different than home—and let myself feel a little bad. Sure, I was angry and I wanted off Pretia, and I wanted to go home. Didn’t mean I had to be a total dick.

“He was nervous.” I provided. “But Grishe didn’t need to tie him down or anything.”

“Good.” Kryn hummed. “He’s gotten far less anxious over the last few months. Lovath was quite upset when Gray asked to take part in our last drop off even though there was no danger. It is good to see him grow bolder.”

My stomach turned at the mention of Lovath, and I couldn’t keep the sour expression off my face. “Sounds like Lovath isn’t a fan, though.” The words were stiff. Why did Gray think his only option out here was an alien that tried to control him?

Kryn snorted. “Lovath is overprotective because he loves Gray. He worries that if Gray gets involved in dangerous jobs, he won’t be able to keep him safe. Can you say you wouldn’t be the same?”

The krexxian sure had a way of making me feel stupid. Of course I’d rather Gray be safe. That was most of the reason I wanted him off the Event Horizon and back home on Earth. Because I…cared for him. And I wanted him to be safe.

“Fine. If you all care about Gray so much, why have you waited almost six months to track down Qwexil?”

Though his expression remained cool, I could tell I struck a nerve when he said, “Talisaar didn’t sleep for a week after we rescued Gray, trying to track Qwexil’s trajectory. Are you aware of how many places there are to hide in space?”

“You think I’m too stupid to understand the vastness of space?” I scoffed.

“Too stubborn maybe.”

I wanted to fucking strangle him. This wasn’t helping at all. “Maybe being the Horizon’s mechanic is a bad idea.” My chair scraped against the ground as I stood, snapping at Kryn. “I’ll just wait on Pretia until—”

My lungs seized up and I doubled over, coughing uncontrollably into my arm. Every breath in between watery coughs was labored and for one horrible moment, I didn’t think I could breathe in at all. Then it settled, and I tried not to think about the splash on blood on my arm as I wiped it on my shirt.

Kryn’s brows—or lack of—were drawn together. “Derrick, do you not have lung implants?”

“And never go to a doctor again on Earth? No, I didn’t get alien implants, Kryn.” But I knew my quip about waiting around on Pretia for another ship to take on a mechanic was all bluff. There was no doubt in my mind that I only had a few more months I could survive on Pretia, if that.

“On the ship, I can take a look at your lungs. You probably need—”

“Not necessary.” I shook my head. “I don’t need your help.” Since being abducted, and since the shukasi dropped me on Pretia, I’d done my best not to need an alien’s help with anything. Ever. All I needed to do was get off this planet with its toxic dust and everything would get better.