“Oh. So, Garlx was saying that some houses turn over all their data to the scientists, but House Cindifin does not?”
“That’s right.” She’s in a new environment, and instead of drawing inside her shell, Naomi’s paying attention. Another sign that she’s getting better, thank Caeron.
I shouldn’t allow myself to hope. That emotion is almost always a mistake. And yet, for the first time in forever, I feel hopeful.
Naomi’s footsteps slow down outside the medical screening area. I lace my fingers in hers. “You’re not doing this alone. I’m right here.”
She smiles shakily. “This is ridiculous,” she murmurs. “It’s been two months. I should get over this.”
Even a year after Koval’s death, I couldn’t hear the hiss of an ion gun without being thrown back to the scene of his execution. “You’re doing great.”
“Am I?
“Yes, you are. You’re here, aren’t you?” I smile down at her. “Stop being so hard on yourself.”
She draws in a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
I step up to the door. It slides open to reveal a makeshift healer’s hall. A man looks up. His tattoos mark him as a scientist, but he’s not clad in the traditional indigo robes. Instead, he’s dressed in a bright green jumpsuit. Cindifin house colors.
“Come on in,” he says. “I’m Bash. I’ll be doing your screening. Have they filled you in on what I’ll be doing today? We’ve found a few different strains of extremely contagious heliviruses in the Wekat Exchange, and so I’ll be testing for the viruses, zapping them if necessary, and vaccinating you.”
“Heliviruses aren’t contagious.”
His gaze sharpens with interest. “How do you know that?”
Bast. I forgot my cover identity. Danek ab Usora, safety inspector, wouldn’t know anything about viruses. “I was infected six years ago,” I reply. “I was on Erilia, conducting a dome check.” These are part of my fake credentials. Erilia is on my resume, in case the scientist thinks to double-check. “There was a minor outbreak.”
“Oh, okay.” Bash looks bored again. “Well, they shouldn’t be contagious, but these new strains are. We’re still studying them.” He looks disgusted. “It’s probably the work of the Rebellion, to try and destabilize the High Empire.”
Ah, it looks like the High Empire’s propaganda arm is in full swing. I’ve never heard of a more ridiculous idea in my life. Even if the Rebellion did intend to sow chaos through the introduction of biological weapons—unlikely—they’re hardly going to target the exchanges they rely on for trade.
The scientist holds up the syringe. “This formulation will react with the heliviruses, if you are a carrier.” His gaze moves past me and rest on Naomi. He frowns. “Wait, you’re not Zorahn.”
A rather belated realization. I revise my estimate of Bash’s intelligence downward.
Naomi grips my hand, her face pale. “No, I’m from Tor Karah.” Bash looks blank, and she elaborates. “It’s on the rim of the Uncharted Reaches.”
She’s terrified, and despite her fear, she’s here. She’s playing her role. I feel a burst of admiration for her. She might look fragile. She might be fragile. But she’s a fighter. She doesn't give up. There’s no surrender in Naomi.
He pulls out his tablet. “I need to verify dosages. What species are you?”
We can’t answer that truthfully. The scientist cannot know that Naomi is human. It would lead to too many questions. Too many alarms. I interject before Naomi is put on the spot. “My bondmate is Vilri.” I lower my voice. “She’s terrified of needles. Is there some other way?”
Bash glances at Naomi’s face, and his brow furrows with concern. He sets the syringe back down on the table. His tone gentles. “We don’t have to use the formulation,” he says reassuringly. “You’re not Zorahn; you are unlikely to be infected. A scanner will be sufficient.”
Naomi still has a death-grip on my hand. “Yes,” I reply in her stead. “She’d prefer that. Thank you for your understanding.”
Alarms don’t go off when Bash injects me with the formulation, which means Garlx was right; they weren’t testing for the Draekon gene. Naomi’s scan goes without incident as well. When we’re done, we settle in a corner of the departure area.
“He was nice,” Naomi says. “The scientist, I mean. I didn’t expect that.”
“You have every reason to be suspicious of them.” I lean back in the chair and stretch out my legs. We’re almost on our way to Noturn. The sooner we get there, the sooner I can complete this mission and get back to the search for First. Nobody has heard from him, and that fills me with unease. “It's unfortunate that you have met the worst among them, but not all scientists are evil. Most of them are good people.”
“Taman said the same thing.” She sounds skeptical. “Good people don’t turn a blind eye to the torture of Draekons and humans.”
“They don’t know,” I reply. “Brunox’s labs are secret, staffed by his most loyal and fanatical followers. There are millions of scientists in the High Empire. Most of them have no idea what’s going on.”
“I hope you’re right.” She chews her lip. “I don’t know why I react so viscerally to them.”
“You don’t know why?” I give her an astonished glance. “You were tortured by scientists. How else are you supposed to react?”
“Cassie was tortured too, but it hasn’t stopped her from being friends with Taman.”
“You bore the brunt of it. She sustained less damage than you. She credits you with protecting her from the worst of it.”
Naomi looks discomfited. “I don’t know if she’s right,” she murmurs. “I can’t remember. That place distorted my memories. My sense of time.”
I’m about to respond when a pair of miners walk up and sit down across from us. “Hello,” the grey-haired woman says. “I’m Resi, and this is Afain.”
“Danek,” I reply. “And this is my bondmate, Naomi.”
Resi and Afain are chatty. I find out in the first few minutes that they aren’t a couple, that they’ve been working together for more than thirty years, and
