“ChoVa?” When she didn’t respond, he dropped his head back and roared in agony.

She opened one eye. “Stop making that noise. I am not dead. I am wounded. Move out of the way so that the healer may convey me to Medical.”

The Hsktskt male’s enormous yellow eyes glared at me. “Who shot her?”

“Who are you?” I countered.

He displayed several rows of jagged teeth. “If she lives, her betrothed. If she dies, the one who will gut you alive.”

“Oh, it’s you, PyrsVar.” I turned to Maggie. “Are you responsible for this?”

She nodded. “I accelerated the growth of his scales before we left on the launch. He did not look well without them. Now he and ChoVa can mate.”

ChoVa opened both eyes, inspected PyrsVar, and then dropped her head back. “I am not mating with a male who would let me bleed to death on a gurney.”

“The romance will have to wait a little while,” I agreed, and grabbed the handles of the gurney. To PyrsVar, I said, “You look very handsome. She’s going to be fine. Now move or I’ll have Maggie turn you into a Barterman.”

PyrsVar flattened himself against a wall panel to allow us to pass, only to trot behind me and breathe down my neck as we continued on to Medical. “She is bleeding too much.”

“I know.”

He bumped into my back as he tried to look over my shoulder. “Her breathing sounds wrong. It is too rapid.”

“She’s panting because she’s in pain,” I told him as I wheeled her into the lift.

As soon as we were inside, he got in my face. “You must give her drugs at once.”

I lifted my brows. “And which drugs would you like me to administer, Dr. Romeo?”

“I do not know,” he said, scowling. “You are the healer.”

“Exactly. And you”—I prodded his chest with my finger—“are not. Since I wouldn’t presume to tell you how to attack a settlement, please return the favor.”

“What does that mean?”

Maggie tapped his arm to get his attention. “It means shut up and let her do her job.”

We made it to Medical, where with the help of several nurses we transferred ChoVa to a berth, where I personally prepped her for surgery. Since PyrsVar made it clear he wasn’t going to leave her side, I sent him to cleanse and dress in scrubs.

Once we were alone, I started an IV and then prepared the anesthetic.

“How bad is it?” ChoVa asked as she watched me.

“It’s not going to be easy,” I admitted. “I’ll need to repair the vessels and see what I can do about the severed tendons.” I scanned the wound and showed her the displayed results. “As you can see, you’re missing a good chunk of muscle. I’m also concerned about the length of the extensors.”

“Harvest what grafts you need from my legs,” she suggested. “I would rather limp than lose the use of an upper appendage.”

That was what I needed to know. “I’ll do my best.”

“That is more than I could hope for,” she assured me, her voice slurring as the anesthetic took effect and her eyelids drooped.

I signaled Command, and informed Xonea that I was going into surgery. That was when he gave me the news that a small Odnallak shuttle had managed to intercept the ship and, despite being badly damaged, had entered and landed in our launch bay. Smoke from the battered shuttle had filled the level, and by the time the emergency crews had put out the fires, the Odnallak pilot had escaped.

“We are searching for him now, and I am ordering guards stationed at Medical and every other vital area of the ship,” Xonea said, “but you should advise your people to stay alert.”

“Do we know who he is?” I asked.

“He was not seen by the crew,” Xonea admitted. “If he is the shape-shifter, he will try to disguise himself as one of the crew.”

“The only way to identify him is with a DNA sample,” I told my ClanBrother. “Send one of your search team to me, and I’ll give them handheld sample readers.”

After I briefed the staff and told the nurses to round up as many DNA readers as they could for the search teams, I joined PyrsVar at the cleansing unit. I didn’t want to think about Joseph, so as I scrubbed, I explained ChoVa’s condition and how I planned to operate in words he could understand.

“Her shoulder is mangled,” he said. “I have seen such wounds before on Vtaga, during the raids. Her limb will no longer function. You must have the oKiaf heal her.”

“It’s not that simple,” I told him. “Shon can heal some wounds, but he can’t regenerate missing tissue and tendons. I have to replace what was destroyed by the blast she took.”

“I do not care if her limb functions,” he said suddenly. “I would take her as my mate if she had no limbs.” He chuffed some air through his nostrils. “But with the affection she has for her work, such a thing would cause her to suffer.” He gave me a direct look. “Can you repair this damage and make her as she was?”

“I’ll do whatever is possible, PyrsVar.” I nodded toward the surgical suite. “We’ll be working on her in there. I’ll allow you to come in and observe, but you can’t disrupt the procedure or distract me during surgery, or it could cost ChoVa the use of her limb. Is that clear?”

He nodded.

Once I had drafted two nurses and a resident to scrub in, I had PyrsVar move ChoVa by gurney into the suite. The gentle way he handled her touched me almost as much as what he had said. He did love her, more than I’d realized, which made me all the more determined to make the procedure as successful as possible.

After PyrsVar had placed ChoVa on the table, I initiated a sterile field and draped her body so that only her wound and her lower right leg lay exposed. I then examined the wound, cleaning out some charred tissue before I inspected the damage under the scope and confirmed my readings.

“I’m going to take some tendon and muscle from her leg now,” I said to PyrsVar as I prepared to make the incision down the center of the femoral muscle sheath. To my nurse I said, “Prepare a catch basin.”

I mentally reviewed what I knew about Hsktskt limbs and techniques used to repair them, and abruptly recalled the last time I had used them.

“I need the full text on Hsktskt limb replantation,” I said as I scrubbed. “If they’re not in our database, signal Command and tell them to relay them now.”

I pushed the laser rig up out of the way. “PyrsVar, help me turn ChoVa onto her uninjured side.”*

He carefully repositioned her. “Like this?”

I nodded. “That’s fine. Now hold her in that position for me.”

“Will it distract you if I ask why?”

“Not at all. I’m going to amputate her tail.” I was already scanning it. “She doesn’t need it, and it contains all the different tissues for the grafts I need.”

“But if you cut it off, it will . . . grow back in a matter of weeks.” His mask stretched. “And she will not limp or lose her limb.”

“That’s the plan.” I cleansed the derma around the base of ChoVa’s tail and pulled down the rig. “Nurse, we’re going to need a bigger catch basin.”

As I removed ChoVa’s tail and dressed the stump, I told PyrsVar about that other surgery I had performed on my patient’s father.

“Of course, immediately after I reattached his limb, SrrokVar had me dragged out of the infirmary and tossed back in the solitary-confinement pit,” I said as I transferred a section of tendon from the dissected tail over to ChoVa’s shoulder. “But if he hadn’t, I would never have met the Pel, and I’d probably still be patching up slaves on Catopsa.”

“That is why the Hanar looks upon you as a comrade and friend,” PyrsVar said. “You saved his limb even when you knew you would likely not profit from it.”

“Oh, I definitely paid for that surgery.” I didn’t want to think about what SrrokVar had done to me after I’d operated on TssVar, or how close I’d come to losing my mind in the crying chambers. “Nurse, a little suction, please.”

Reconstructing ChoVa’s shoulder took several hours, approximately a third of the tissue harvested from her tail, and many, many grafts and resections. The most delicate part of the procedure was repairing and reattaching the extensors, which were a complicated mass of muscle and tendon that gave the Hsktskt motor control over her arm and claws. I did most of that while looking through a scope.

Finally I grafted a new outer layer of octagonal keratin scales from the tail by color to match her scale pattern—something the Hsktskt used to identify one another—and closed the last gap in the underlying layer of flesh. I wouldn’t know until she healed and began physical therapy if the grafts had worked, but I felt a lot better about her chances than I had before.

“Let’s take her out to recovery. Hey.” I squeaked the last word as PyrsVar snatched me off my feet. “She’s going to be all right. I promise.” I groaned as he squeezed me. “Don’t snap my spine.”

He set me down on the deck and cupped my face between his claws. “I owe you a life-debt, Healer,” he said formally. “For me, and for my ChoVa. Anything you may require, you have only to ask, and I will make it yours.”

“You’re welcome, big guy.” I endured another reptilian hug before I stripped off my gloves and rolled my head to stretch the tight muscles in my neck. “She’ll be out for a couple of hours, so maybe you should—”

I never got to complete my suggestion, as something hit the ship and the deck rocked under my feet.

“Not again.” I rushed out of the suite and ordered the nurses to put the patients in restraints as a second blast hit the Sunlace. I’d just made it to Marel’s room when the air turned icy and the first dazzling lights appeared.

My daughter opened her eyes. “Mama?”

I made it to her berth and climbed onto it, pulling her into my arms. “I’m here, baby. Hold on to me.”

“Don’t be scared, Mama,” she murmured as light filled the room. “We’re going home now.”

The impact had also snapped my restraints, what good that did me. I tried to move and my breath rushed out as shattered bones ground together. My wrist was broken, and I couldn’t feel the left side of my face. Numbing cold seeped in through the metal, spreading over me.

If I didn’t get out of here, I was going to freeze.

I managed to push one shoulder against the access panel, but it wouldn’t budge. The frigid temperature stole first my feet, then my legs. I wasn’t walking away from this. I’d be lucky if I could crawl.

Time passed as I did, in and out of consciousness. Voices roused me, and then metal screeched and I fell out into dazzling white and blue light.

The fall stunned me as much as the icy ground, but as soon as I saw the furry, humanoid forms of my rescuers, I reached up. My hand flopped on the end of my shattered wrist, and cool blood streamed down my face.

A smaller form appeared. “Skjæra, it lives! ”

The taller one jerked back. “Not for long.”

They spoke Terran, although it sounded wrong. The head injury I’d sustained must have affected my hearing. The small one dropped down beside me and shouted for someone named “Skrie.” Then it looked up at the taller one. “Skjæra, can you heal it?”

Another one came, and they began arguing in their muddled Terran while I tried to stay conscious. The little one touched me with its funny hand coverings, and pulled its face covering down, and I saw it was a little girl. It babbled something and then ran off. The other two followed it.

I blinked the blood out of my eyes and rolled onto my side. I could see the others now, some standing together by sleds on the ground, and others in some type of airborne vehicles. I couldn’t hear what they said, but one of the taller forms dragged the child away from the hovering craft.

The one who had found me, the healer, followed, arguing again, but nothing stopped the one dragging the child. It threw the little one down on the ice, and drove two stakes through her mitts. It handed a blade to the healer and barked out an order.

I understood what they were doing then. They wanted the healer to kill her. To kill a kid.

“No.” My voice hardly made a puff in the cold air. I tried again. “Stop.”

The healer straddled the child, and held the blade over her chest, but didn’t move. Shots were fired from the hovering craft, and one of the people by the sleds fell.

The one who had dragged the kid away took hold of the blade and the healer’s hand, and forced both down. I heard the snap of a wrist, a gurgled word.

The child was dead, and the healer was coming toward me.

The blood had frozen on my face, and I couldn’t feel my body anymore. I don’t know how I reached up again, but I saw my limp hand rise between us.

The healer pulled off one mitt with her teeth, revealing a human hand, and curled long, skillful fingers around mine.

The touch made tears spill from my eyes.

“Her name was Enafa. She was born twelve seasons past, and her mother often favored her above her sisters.” The healer gently placed my hand against my chest. “I could not favor her above mine.” One long finger touched my cheek.

The healer wept, blind tears of sorrow and regret and rage. I didn’t understand what had happened, but I knew it had destroyed her. Just as it had destroyed me.

I couldn’t do this anymore. No matter where I went or what I did, life would never change. Every species in the galaxy would go on breeding and butchering. That was all they wanted. Sex and death.

I could put an end to it. Something inside me told me I could. I could stop the killing, and the breeding. I could be merciful and put life itself out of its misery.

The healer rose, and lifted a pistol.

Yes. I kept my eyes open, waiting for the shot that wouldn’t kill me. Let her decide how it will be.

Instead of shooting me, she pressed the weapon to her own head, and pulled the trigger.

I came to with a jerk, bolting upright as I reflexively clutched Marel to my chest. Everything rushed over me as I shed the remnants of the horrible dream and climbed off the berth.

“Are you hurt?” I sat her down and checked her over quickly.

“Mama, I’m fine,” she insisted, and pushed my hands away. “We’re home now.”

We’d gone through another rift, judging from what little I remembered. “Look at me.” I checked her pupils. “How do you know we’re home?”

“I can feel it.” She looked past me and smiled. “Daddy.”

Reever came over and wrapped us both in his arms. “I was in the corridor on my way here when the wave hit,”he murmured. “I’m sorry I didn’t reach you in time.”

“We’re okay,” I assured him.

Once I was satisfied that Marel and Reever hadn’t suffered any ill effects from the transition through time, I left them to check on the other patients and my staff. Everyone was shaken, and the abrupt jump had frightened some of the patients, but there were no new injuries. I quickly checked in with Command, and Xonea confirmed that we were indeed back in our own time.

“All levels report no new casualties,” he added. “We were quite fortunate. The blast from Odnalla was so powerful it could have easily vaporized the ship.”

I didn’t remember a blast. “Did they attack us again?”

“No, something happened on the planet, a chain reaction of some sort,” he said. “According to our last readings, it detonated the gases in their atmosphere. The entire world would have been engulfed in a firestorm.”

No matter how clever the Odnallak had been, nothing could have survived that. “I should say how sorry I am that an entire civilization was wiped out, but good riddance.”

“Agreed.” He sounded very satisfied. “I am taking the ship back to Joren for repairs now. Our stardrive is still inoperable, but the blast threw us just outside Varallan. We should reach the homeworld in a few hours.”

I saw Maggie wander out of one of the treatment rooms. “Thank you, Captain.” I left the console and went over to her. “Are you all right?”

“Of course I am.” She turned around in a full circle, her brow furrowed. “We have traveled a great distance. This is your time.”

“So it seems.” And we had accidentally removed Maggie from hers, which made me wonder why I still existed. “Can you go back to Jxin? To your own time?”

“No,” she admitted. “But your timeline appears to be intact, so I will return eventually.” She rubbed at her ear slits. “What is that unpleasant resonation?”

“We’re flying back to Joren, but the engines are damaged. It could be from them.” I couldn’t hear anything, but I felt a vague discomfort settling over me. “Maggie, what sent us back through the rift?”

“The undesirables. They destroyed themselves with their machines and their equations, just as I told you they would.” She studied my face. “Since I made you, Cherijo, you should call me Mother.”

There was no way I was doing that. “You haven’t made me yet. How did the Odnallak setting their world on fire create a new rift?”

“It did not create it. They did not collect all of the infinity crystal from your vessel.” She turned away from me. “Some of it stayed hidden from them. It must have created the rift and brought the ship through it to protect you.”

“Is it still on the Sunlace?”

She shook her head. “It is inside you now.”

“It’s in me?” I glanced down at myself. “Where?”

“In your fluids and parts and things.” She glanced back at me with an odd expression. “You should be happy. Nothing can harm you now.”

I felt a cold trickle of fear inch along my spine. “Maggie, does the crystal being inside me make me like the Jxin?”

“No. Are you hungry?” She seemed eager to change the subject. “I can make a meal for you.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine.” I thought of how the oKiaf protocrystal had nearly devoured Shon. “What will the crystal do to me?”

“It will care for you,” she said, sounding impatient now. “The crystal will not allow anything to harm you. It is a good thing. You should be happy.”

I wasn’t. “Will I infect others?”

“It will stay in you.” Another vague gesture. “None of the others could . . . it does not want others.”

Trying to get her to explain something was like slamming my head into a plasbrick wall. “Why, Maggie? Why did it come into my body?”

“You are necessary.” Bored again, she let her gaze wander. “I will make food in the wall machine for the nurses. They like the things I make with the sweet-tasting flowers.”

I let her go and play with the prep unit. As soon as we reached Joren, I decided, I’d have Squilyp run a microcellular series on me. After that, we’d figure out some way to remove the crystal from my body.

I performed rounds, and changed ChoVa’s dressing while I updated PyrsVar on our situation. “Xonea will signal the Hanar and let him know we’ve returned. I imagine he’ll send a ship for you and ChoVa and the delegates.” But before we let anyone off the ship, we would have to find the Odnallak; we couldn’t risk letting him escape again.

“That is good. I wish to present myself to him.” He lifted a scaly hand. “Now that the Jorenian has been separated from me, he will have no objections to our betrothal.”

“Let me give some friendly advice,” I said. “Where TssVar’s concerned, don’t assume anything. He can still veto this love match.”

“My father will not oppose it,” ChoVa said, her voice rasping out the words. “I told him that if he did, I would leave the homeworld and live with PyrsVar elsewhere.”

“You never said this to me,” the rogue complained.

“Your skull is large enough already.” She looked up at me. “I cannot feel my tail.”

I grimaced a little. “That’s because I amputated it and used it for the grafts you needed.”

Instead of becoming angry, she nodded. “A clever alternative. I should have thought of that myself. The shoulder?”

“I was able to completely rebuild it.” I went over what I had accomplished with the surgery, and then ordered her to rest.

“You should do the same, Namesake,” she said before she closed her eyes. “You have not slept in days.”

As I left recovery, I tried to remember the last time I had slept, and couldn’t. I should have been dead on my feet, but I didn’t feel tired in the slightest. I hadn’t lied to Maggie; I didn’t feel hungry, either. Then it struck me, what else I didn’t feel. I put one trembling hand up to my throat, and felt for my carotid. Then I checked my other pulse points.

My heart beat only once every two minutes.

I didn’t panic right away. I calmly went into my office and carefully scanned myself several times. Only after every reading displayed the same results did I come to a grim diagnosis.

The function of all my organs had slowed dramatically; my heart was barely pumping any blood at all. My core temperature had also dropped twenty-one degrees. My platelet counts had been reduced to an eighth of what they should have been, thanks to my bone marrow, which was disappearing. My skeleton still scanned somewhat normal, but sections of my largest bones had begun to turn transparent, as if they were made of crystal.

I ran a dozen simulations, and all of them indicated that reversing the process was impossible. I then calculated the rate at which my body was being transformed, and discovered that the process was a little less than half-complete.

Maggie was wrong. In roughly forty-eight hours, I would be exactly like the Jxin.