The male looked at her, this time. “Nerve block. You were in too much pain.”

  “Gerra, come—” The woman lunged for a boy with tousled yellow hair, but the kid dived under her hand, his body sliding into a more familiar form as he approached Tika.

  “You…” she murmured, wanting to reach for the fluffy wild cat Jellybean had taken her to see. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  He gave her an anxious purr in reply, and dabbed her cheek with his tongue.

  Sorry, lady, whispered through her mind, as he batted the blanket back and sank his tiny fangs into her shoulder.

  “Gerra!” The woman covered the distance in two quick strides, but not before the kit had bitten Tika twice more. He growled in protest as she lifted him and carried his wriggling form away. “You are a very bad boy.”

  “Am not! Had to be done.” The kid sounded entirely unrepentant, and someone else chuckled. The…doctor?

  Tika’s vision swam, but not from the pain. She’d felt the pressure of the bite, but nothing more.

  “What did I do?” she whispered, wondering how she’d managed to irritate the kit so much.

  A larger form knelt beside her, the male, coffee-and-chocolate pelt…in cat form. In human form, the hair was the same…and the eyebrows. Tika frowned. Why was her brain like this?

  At least his eyes were the same, almost yellow with a touch of green.

  “What now?” she asked, and he gave her a wry smile.

  “Now, I’m going to have to bite you again to make sure enough transgenics got through to work.”

  Tika rolled her eyes. “Great. Everyone’s a smart…a…Alec.”

  He gave her a puzzled look. “No. I’m serious. I’m sorry, but the cub’s saliva might not have carried suf…”

  His voice petered out as she closed her eyes. “Are you okay?”

  “Just do whatever,” Tika told him. “I need to sleep.”

  There was a moment’s stillness, and then more pressure, followed by a flare of pain. Tika opened her eyes and tried to jerk away.

  “I thought you said there was a nerve block!”

  Again, the other cat laughed. “It’s a chemical, not a miracle worker.”

  He came into view, looking down at her with dark eyes. “Try and get some sleep.”

  Sure, like that was going to happen. Savages!

  “I…” but heat started to spread from Tika’s shoulder and her eyes grew heavy.

  Far above her, someone muttered, “Talk about kill or cure…” and a kid wailed, “But I didn’t mean to…”

  Sure, kid, she thought snarkily, as she drifted under. You didn’t mean to accidentally bite me on purpose because you thought it had to be done… Yeah, I believe you.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  There was another argument raging when she woke, but this time, she wasn’t in the cave…and she wasn’t covered in blankets…and…

  “Where are my clothes?” Tika looked around, blinking in the soft white confines of a— “Am I in a medi-pod?”

  She hammered on the pod’s side, slightly surprised when her arm moved and her fist made contact.

  Well…good! She could move, again.

  “Hey!” she shouted, not at all sure she’d be heard outside the pod’s confines, although, since she could hear them arguing…

  “Now, look what you’ve done!” A woman’s voice, touched with acid and irritation. “You’ve woken her up.”

  “I think I’ve slept enough,” Tika managed, her voice a sing-song, then she added, “and I want to see my cat, now…”

  That got her a bark of laughter. “Yeah, sure. Good luck with that.”

  The pod opened just as Tika asked. “Why? What did you mean by that?”

  “I mean there’s a small shifter who says the cat is his and that a ‘nice lady’ said he could have it.”

  Tika rolled her eyes. “That’s not exactly…”

  “Yeah.” A face appeared above her, heart-shaped, with piercing green eyes, topped by blonde hair and a look of distaste. “And you can tell him that.”

  Tika felt like she’d been slapped. “I…” she began, and sat up.

  Her jaw dropped as she looked around. “Where am I?”

  “Sugarsides,” the woman snapped, moving back to give her room. “You’re welcome.”

  “Sugarsides?”

  “Worst-named ship in the Odyssey fleet.” That reply came from a tall, dark-skinned man lounging against a door. “How do you feel?”

  Tika stilled, doing a mental inventory of her body. It was a good question. How did she feel?

  The answer came as a surprise. “Fine. Even the headache’s gone away.”

  “And your shoulder?”

  Tika glanced down at the offending part. Bare skin greeted her…bare, unblemished skin. “Fine. Why?”

  The woman’s lip curled. “You sure ask a lot of questions, don’t you?”

  Tika shrugged. “Enquiring mind and all that. Why am I here?”

  “Emergency medical evac,” the woman told her shortly. “You spent a month in a tank on high-speed regen so you could tell us what happened.”

  A month? But she’d had family arriving. They’d been five weeks out. Her face paled.

  “The Dream,” she began. “We had people…”

  She stopped. The woman was shaking her head.

  “Not gonna happen, sweet cheeks. That colony’s cactus.”

  Tika’s jaw dropped, and someone groaned. Another man stepped into view from behind the pod.

  “Catriona! How many times…” He sighed, laying an arm around Tika’s shoulders and settling beside her, his attention on the woman opposite. “That’s not the way to break that kind of news. I thought…”

  “Why? She’s got to know sometime.”

  Tika clutched the side of the pod, glanced down at herself and back at Delight.

  “The colony is fine. I’m still here.”

  The woman smirked. “Exactly. You’re here. You’re not there. The law is quite clear on the matter. A colony is only viable as long as one member remains.”

  “But…” Tika felt as if her world was collapsing. She froze as another thought hit. “Did you catch them?”

  “Who? The Karovi?”

  “Karovi? No! The pirates! The…the human scum who destroyed my colony, killed my…” Her face blanched as memory returned: fire, bodies scattered… “Tell me you got them.”

  “Not the karovi?”

  “I don’t know what a karovi is, but, no. It was a human ship who did this, people like you and me who burned…” She gulped, tried again. “I was away from the steading, Jellybean…”

  “Who?” the blonde woman interrupted.

  Tika waved a hand. “The cat, the ship’s cat… She wanted to show me something so I followed her. I was a mile off when the attack came.”

  “You were saved by a cat?” the woman looked like she couldn’t believe it. “A cat?”

  “Yes?”

  “And humans attacked the settlement…” It wasn’t exactly a question, but Tika answered it anyway.

  “Yes! We thought they were traders, showed them what we’d built.” Tears rose in her voice. “There was supposed to be a trade agreement…”

  The man beside her squeezed her shoulders, but he was talking to the woman when he spoke. “Told you there was more to this. You’re blaming the wrong people.”

  “Blaming?” Tika struggled to work out what he meant. “Not the people who saved me?” she asked. “There were four, two men and a woman and a…a child!”

  The man by the door was staring at her, his face unreadable.

  “I thought you said you were rescued by a cat,” the woman prodded, before he could say anything.

  Tika shook her head. The world still felt slightly unreal, but she was getting a handle on it, now.

  “No, I said I was away from the settlement because of the cat…and, yes, I suppose she saved me when she showed me the cave, but I’d have died without the kit’s family.”