Chapter 4
Thalia:
Present Day…
Thalia didn’t want to go.
She woke, gasping for air, one thought pounding in her head like a drum.
No, that was a headache.
Bright overhead lights hurt her eyes, and she tried to raise a hand to shield them but found her arms strapped down. In fact, all of her was strapped to a padded table, which was worrisome.
Thalia turned her head, the motion causing a queasy disquiet in her stomach. As her eyes adjusted, a sterile white room emerged. A cart with silver medical equipment waited to one side of the bed. The IV line attached to her right arm pumped her full of who-knows-what.
A man with two horns curling back from his brow like a ram and a deep purple complexion loomed over her.
Oh God, the aliens had her. They were going to slice her up for experimentation or stuff her full of alien eggs. She kicked her legs, dislodging a blanket, and rocked her body side to side. Her head hurt. Her entire body hurt. The inside of her head felt like she was swimming underwater, but she had to get out of there.
“Stop that, female,” he ordered.
Thalia kicked harder. She screamed, a raw, ragged wail tearing from her throat.
“For crying out loud, back up. You’re frightening her,” a woman said.
The alien stepped aside, and a human woman leaned over the bed to raise it into an upright position.
“Hello, hi,” she said. “I’m Meridan. I’m a nurse, and you’re safe. I think these belong to you.” The nurses handed over her pair of glasses.
Grateful, Thalia fumbled them on. Her hands didn’t want to cooperate.
“Better? Good. Water?”
“Yes,” Thalia croaked, her throat dry and scratchy.
The nurse pressed an ice chip to her mouth. “Just let it melt. How’s your head?”
“Hurts.”
“Stomach?”
As if by magic, Thalia’s stomach rolled, and she needed to vomit. There was no maybe and no waiting. Everything had to come out now.
“I’m going to be sick,” she said, the taste of bile already in the back of her throat. The nurse shoved a pan under her chin and gently rubbed her back while her stomach emptied.
“I’m sorry,” she said, leaning back into the pillows on the bed. Her abdomen muscles ached.
“Here. Rinse your mouth and spit.” The nurse handed her a paper cup of water. Thalia did as she was told, suddenly tired. “I’m undoing the straps. Don’t move suddenly or try to stand. You’re too weak.”
Thalia nodded, her head throbbing.
“Do you know where you are?”
“Hospital. More water,” she said, accepting another cup. She gulped it down in one go.
“Careful. Your stomach has been empty for a long time. Give it a chance to adjust,” the nurse said. “Well, let’s cover the basics. You’re in the medical bay on the Mahdfel ship Judgment. We recovered you from the wreckage of a cargo ship and it looks like you were in a stasis chamber for three years.”
Three years…
“Wait. That doesn’t make sense. I—” Her mind went blank.
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
Nothing. The memories were there but she couldn’t access them, like walking through a river and fighting against a current for every step. “I don’t know. I was scared. I didn’t want to go.”
“That is not unusual,” the purple-skinned alien said, approaching the bed again. He must be Mahdfel, Thalia realized. He wore a white lab coat, so she assumed he was a doctor. “Short-term memory impairment is a common side effect of stasis chambers. Your exposure exceeded the recommended amount, but normal memory function will return in time,” the doctor said.
Aware that she stared, Thalia looked away. She had never been this close to an alien before and now she was on a Mahdfel ship. She was safe. That sank in, penetrating the fog in her brain. Safe. Whatever had happened in that blank spot in her head, she knew she had been in danger.
Holy fuck.
The beeping of a machine increased.
“I remember,” Thalia said. “I was at an auction and they put me in this coffin—” And the memory slipped away. She chased it down, and it felt very much like trying to hold water in cupped hands. All that work only gave her a few sips but never enough to quench her thirst.
The nurse, Meridan, sat on a stool next to the bed, which placed her head just a little below Thalia’s. Oddly, Thalia felt more in control.
“What Medic Kalen tried to tell you was that stasis chambers are designed to be used for one or two days, a week at the most. You got an extra big dose of the drugs used to keep your body in suspension, and it’ll take time for them to work their way out of your body. We call that ‘anesthesia brain’ back on Earth. The fog will clear in time.”
“It sucks.”
Meridan nodded. “Undoubtedly. Can you tell me your name?”
“Thalia Fullerton.” She smiled, pleased she knew something without a struggle.
“What happened to your identification chip?”
Thalia held up her hand, frowning. For a moment, she didn’t know, then remembered that she never had one. “I had one from school, the kind in a rubber bracelet.”
“School? How old are you?”
“Twenty-three.” Shit. She had been in the stasis chamber for three years. “I guess twenty-six now. I’m confused.” She frowned and every muscle in her face ached.
“It’s not a trick question. I’m guessing whoever put you in that stasis chamber took your ID chip. We’ll set you up with a new one.”
“The Mahdfel.”
“Yes. This is a Mahdfel ship,” the nurse said again, her tone gentle and reassuring.
Thalia must have fallen asleep because she woke again, this time a different alien with horns and a purple complexion loomed over her bed. He questioned her about how she got in the stasis chamber. She told him all she could remember about Nicky and the auction, but the details were slippery.
After an eternity, he left with a frown and a vague promise that the one responsible would face consequences. Clearly, she didn’t have the information he wanted, and she didn’t like the odds that he’d be bothered to report Nicky to the authorities on Earth.
The friendly nurse came back, checked her vitals, and reassured Thalia that she was doing great. The ship was headed to Sangrin and they would help get her back to Earth, back home.
Only she didn’t want to go.