Page 19 of Truthful Deceptions

“I wanted to let Tolreum sleep,” he said. “He drifted off only about ten micromarks ago. I don’t think he’s actually rested since you came onboard.”

Even though his words were spoken in a neutral tone, my immediate reaction was to be defensive.

“I didn’t ask for this,” I snapped, thinking about the hours I’d spent in the storage room and later on the bunk. I shouldn’t care that he spent all that time, which by now had to have been roughly thirteen hours, sitting in hallways and staring at doors.

Mieshorum sounded the same purring sound as Tolly. “I know. You're not to blame. Your actions are appropriate. I only hope you realize we are not taking your painful transition lightly. It’s understandable that you’re scared, angry, and unsure. None of us will be comfortable until you are, especially Tolreum.”

His frank agreement threw me off balance.

“Um, yeah, so that’s fair,” I agreed, the words sounding dumb to my own ears.

“What do you need from me?” Mieshorum asked. “If you need comfort only Tolreum can provide, I’ll wake him. He would want that.”

I refused to feel guilty.

“No, that’s not necessary. Is there a med kit on board?”

Mieshorum jolted and made a sound that reminded me of a hatch whooshing open and closed quickly. It wasn’t a sound Tolly had gone over with me.

“Are you ill?” he asked.

“No, just a headache,” I said. “What does the sound you just made mean?”

“It indicates worry or concern,” he said absently as he pulled off his Ident. He brought up a holo of a document in the glyph language I couldn’t read. He skimmed through for a few seconds then made the whooshing-worried sound again.

“Headache is a pain in a human’s brain,” he said, as he read. “This could be caused by many things, but it can be a sign of a brain aneurysm, meningitis, or a brain tumor!”

He sounded a thunderous rattle that echoed through the hall and made me wince. That didn’t help my head at all.

“It’s not a brain tumor,” I said when he stopped rattling. “I only need—”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence as two things happened at once. Mieshorum picked me up and the other crew came charging at us from different directions. I couldn’t even say anything because they all spoke at once.

“What’s happened?”

“Is she hurt?”

“Give her to me!”

That last demand was from Tolly, and thankfully he snatched me out of Mieshorum’s arms and away from his soapy smell. I didn’t think a non-toxic scent could cause my headache to get worse, but his had.

Surrounded by Tolly’s familiar sage scent, the headache eased a little, but it was still painful.

They were all continuing to talk over each other, and all I wanted was some water and a pain wafer.

“Put me down,” I demanded, not surprised when Tolly didn’t. “Put me down or I'll vomit all over you!”

That got a reaction, but not the one I expected. Tolly sounded a rattle that was like hundreds of feet pounding the ground, making the air around me vibrate and silencing the other men and making me wince. Damn, these guys could make some loud noises!

“Grab the medical equipment and meet me in my cabin,” Tolly said. “Opal is desperately ill!”

The discussion stopped. Tolly sprinted the short distance back to his/my cabin. Mieshorum stayed with us while Lexarit and Narmuna disappeared in another direction.

Tolly eased me onto the nest then went to the display next to the door.

“Get a vessel she can purge into if necessary,” he ordered Mieshorum as he tapped on the display.

The brightness of the lights reduced significantly, and the air pressure in the room increased. After a few deep breaths, I could tell he’d increased the oxygen percentage.