Finding Jess (First Wave) (3 page)

“We need full body scans, and
replace the medibands now.” Amun ordered as he began running scans himself.

“Is she alive?” Cari asked quietly.

“Yes, she’s very much alive. She’s
lost a lot of blood, but we’ve given her a blood booster which is rapidly
replicating what she’s lost. I need to finish running tests before I know for
sure what other damage we’re looking at.” Amun answered absently.

“Can I sit with her and hold her
hand?”

“Of course.” Amun grabbed a chair
from the other side of the room and placed it next to Jess’s bedside for Cari.

Cari and Caretia were silently
watching Amun and his tech’s when Scaden and Randor came into the room. Scaden
went to his mate and held her hand in his own, while Randor stood back with
Councilor Lakatis.

Almost an hour later Amun excused
his two tech’s and stood in front of Caretia in a formal fashion.

“Ma’am, she is the daughter of
Dargan Ratroya. The file says that her great father Thorman Ratroya, and her
uncle Lagor Ratroya is still alive. Lagor is currently stationed on the
Draconia which is orbiting with us, and he should be notified.”  

“I’ll see that they are both
notified immediately, Amun. Will she live?” Caretia asked, sincerely hoping
that the poor girl would.

“Yes, she will. I won’t let her
die.” He replied to her surprise. She went to make notifications to her family
leaving Cari, Scaden and Amun alone in the room with Jess.

“She’s your mate isn’t she?” Cari
asked. She knew she had caught him off guard when he jerked his gaze away from
the scans and looked at her with surprise, before expelling a heavy sigh.

“Yes, I do believe she is my mate.”
Amun said simply.

“Make her happy Amun. I don’t think
she’s ever known happiness.” Cari couldn’t have picked a gentler or more caring
man to have picked to be Jess’s mate.

“I will do everything I can to
ensure her happiness and well-being.” He didn’t say more because High Councilor
Torenson came into the room followed by Reven, Caretia and Gibly.

“What are the preliminaries on her
condition? And how the hell did you save her? That was amazing Amun.” Ivint
said shaking Amun’s hand.

“Not as amazing as you may think
sir. The wound wasn’t deep enough to sever a major artery. The blood was coming
from a small nick in one of them. There is no way that cut was meant to kill
her. Even the nick in the artery looks accidental.”

“How can that be? Why would they
make a big deal about killing her, then not kill her? Did you guys scare them
in some way?” Ivint asked Amun.

“No, we didn’t. I have no
explanation sir. And due to the length of injuries, I thought it would be
better for her uncle Lagor to arrive before going through it all.”

“Can she be healed?” Randor asked
looking down at the small girl in the bed with sympathy. He had been good
friends with her father, Dargan and a part of him had always hoped that they
would meet again.

“Yes, she can be healed.
Physically. The scars she received emotionally and psychologically from getting
the physical scars, will take longer to heal. We can’t even begin to evaluate
her thoroughly for weeks.” Amun knew he could make her completely whole again
physically. He just prayed that he could help her heal emotionally as well.

They waited a few more minutes in
silence until Lagor came into the room. The man looked suitably stunned as he
stumbled slightly through the doorway. He stood just inside the doorway looking
around as if unsure what to do next. Taking pity on him, Caretia walked over to
him, grabbed one of his hands and gently pulled him into the room.

“Lagor, we would like you to meet
your brother Dargan’s daughter, Jess. She’s asleep right now while Amun tries
to heal her injuries, but you can talk to her when she wakes.” Caretia said
gently to him as she led him to the side of the bed.

At his first glimpse of Jess, the
man let out a slight choking sound.

“She looks so much like my mother.
What color are her eyes?” Lagor asked.

“They are a beautiful light blue, with
darker rings around the outside.” Amun answered without thinking, hoping no one
caught the adoration in his voice. The sharp look sent his way by Ivint let him
know it didn’t go unnoticed.

“She’s just a baby. I thought you
said she was grown?” Lagor asked slightly terrified at the thought of taking
care of a small child by himself with only his father to help.

“She’s a fully grown woman. I can
put her age between twenty-two and twenty-five years." Amun replied
quickly. He didn’t want anyone to think she wasn’t old enough to make her own
decisions.

“But she’s so small. Is she that
sick? Can you make her better?” Lagor didn’t know anything about the child, but
no matter how old she was; she was his family; his brother’s daughter. He
wanted to spend time with her and get to know her.

“This is a good time to talk about
her treatment and care. I will be as delicate as I can regarding her injuries,
if any of think you can’t handle listening to this, then you need to leave now
as even I can stomach saying this only once.” Amun looked as seriously as he
could at those in the room. He would not ever repeat all of this again. The
thought of it all so crippling to him emotionally that he had to force it to
the back of his mind.

“Just say it as honestly as you can
Amun. We have to know what she’s facing in order to help her. She’s obviously a
strong girl, or she wouldn’t still be here; we'll help her get through this.”
Cari said, squeezing Jess’s hand.

Amun nodded. “Her legs were
obviously broken; the left at least eight times and the right eleven. There is
no way that we can save the bones, or heal them. I’ve already started the
cloning process and have new bones growing. It will take at least five moon
cycles before they are ready. And it will take months of work to get her used
to walking on legs that aren’t damaged any longer.” 

“Her internal female organs are so
mutilated that they have to be removed and new ones grown. Other female parts
and the rectum have so much scar tissue that it will take weeks to remove it
all. Four ribs have been broken so many times they will also have to be
replaced, as well as two bones in her left hand, seven in her right, nine in
her right foot, one in the left.”

Uncle Randor caught Caretia as she
started to sink to the floor and led her over to a chair to sit down.

“Her liver and a lung are also on
the verge of shutting down and need to be replaced. She is severely
malnourished and dehydrated and will need to get used to eating and drinking
water regularly in order to increase the size of her stomach slowly. Surgery
needs to start immediately in order to start her healing process.”

“The surgeries will have to be done
daily in order of the severity of the injuries and as the cloning process is
completed on each organ and bone. The sooner we can remove all physical
reminders of what she went through the sooner we can start on the emotional
scars she will have as well.”

“We have set this room up for her
here in MedLab to make her as comfortable as possible while still being able to
monitor her condition constantly. Until all the transplants are complete her
condition is unstable, and she needs to be under constant care.”

Amun hoped like hell no one wanted
details of her internal and female injuries. There’s no way he could explain
how those injuries could occur without losing his composure completely. The
things they did to her made him physically ill and made him want to hold her
and protect her from the memories.

“I don’t understand. I was just
told that she was found on Earth, and my brother was dead. What the hell
happened to her?” Lagor asked in horror at the extent of the girl’s injuries.
It sounded like she’d been someone’s sparring dummy. No… it couldn’t be… not
his brother’s daughter.

“Is she the captive we’ve been
looking for? The crafter that saved Cari?” He asked in fear. He had assumed she
was the woman Balduen had been looking for.

“I’m so sorry they didn’t tell you
that Lagor. Yes, it’s the one who was a captive.” Ivint said softly.

“They did this to her?” He gritted
out between his teeth; his fists clenched tightly at his sides. No one needed
to ask who the 'they' was that he was referring to.

“Lagor, maybe we should go talk
about this in the conference room. I can explain to you everything we know
right now without worrying about waking her up.” Reven grabbed hold of Lagor’s
arm and gently but quickly led him from the room.

“She won’t be able to speak until
tomorrow, and I had planned to keep her sedated until then while we work on
her. I will notify Councilor Torenson and Cari when I allow her to awaken.”
Amun wanted to get started immediately and wasn’t about to remove her dress
until everyone was out of the room.

“I want to be notified at every
stage of her treatment, and I want a full report of her injuries sent to my
comm immediately. When I go before the Alliance, I want them to know why it’s
imperative that we stay and retrieve as many of our people and compatible women
and children as we can. This cannot be allowed ever to happen to another one of
our women or children.” Ivint almost shook with rage over the female’s
injuries, and without another word walked out of the room.

“I will come by later with Cari.
Thank you for taking such good care of her, Amun.” Caretia said as she stood
and left the room.

“I’m going to see about getting
with the tact team looking for Balduen. You get hold of me if you need me
honey.” Randor told Cari as he left.

“Cari, I know you want to stay, but
I have work to do before I wake her. I want as much of this… gone from her
before she wakens. I’ll get you in the morning. I promise.” Amun didn’t want to
get into everything he was going to do, with anyone. Not even Jess when she
awoke.

“Alright, Amun; I understand.
Please call me as soon as you wake her up.” Cari squeezed his hands with her own
as she walked by him and headed out of the door.

“If you have any questions… about
anything, get me on the comm at any hour.” Scaden offered before following Cari
out of the room.

“I stay. She have bad dreams. I
help her.” Gibly said before cuddling up next to her side and closing his eyes.

Amun decided to let him stay since
he wasn’t really going to be in the way of anything right now. Entering in his
private security code, he sealed the MedLab doors to prevent any disruptions
and set to work.

Chapter
Three

Jess awakened slowly to a man’s
voice softly asking her to wake up for him. It was so different from her normal
life that she wanted to stay in the dream and listen to the comforting voice.
She rolled over on the soft mattress and pulled the warm blanket up to her
neck.

It took several minutes for her to
realize that she didn’t hurt as badly as she normally did in the mornings.
Rubbing her face into the soft blanket, she smiled to herself at the feel of
being warm. She couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t been cold, or clean.
She felt so clean. Like her skin was glowing with health.

“Jess, I need you to wake up
Amalaya. Cari is coming to see you, and I’m sure you want to be awake when she
gets here.”

Hearing Cari’s name mentioned Jess
popped her eyes open and stared straight into the warm brown eyes of the hero
from her dreams.

His full lips were turned up into a
smile that not only reached his eyes but seemed to light up his face and soften
his strong jaw.

“There you are. How do you feel?” He
asked softly.

Memories hit her rapidly, and it
took her another moment to organize her thoughts. She swallowed hard testing
her throat where Julou had cut her and finding no pain or reason why she
couldn’t speak she tried her voice.

“Who… are you.” She was able to get
out perfectly.

“I am Amun Nassur, the MedLab
Commander of the ship Adaria. We are currently on the Adaria, which is a ship
of the Valendran fleet. You were taken from the Relian’s yesterday and brought
to the ship for treatment.”

Amun said quietly so as not to
disrupt her thoughts. He knew this time was important to help her get her
bearings before people came in and bombarded her with questions and
well-meaning kindness. He remained sitting in the chair beside her quietly
while he watched her process what he had told her. 

“Did everyone get away alright?
They had a trap set up for the people that had been following us. Are they all
ok?” She asked, keeping her voice low like Amun.

Out of everything, he thought she’d
ask him next, that had not even been on his list. He was a little stunned that
her first thoughts were of the people who’d come to help her and not her
injuries or food and water.

“Yes, you were able to warn
everyone in time. That was a very brave thing to do.” Amun was charmed even
more when she blushed deeply at the compliment and turned her head to the side.

Jess turned her head and stared
directly into the large black eyes of the panther she thought she dreamed
about. Unafraid, she reached out her hand when she saw the jeweled collar
around its neck and touched its fur. She smiled when she felt that it was as
soft as it looked.