PART III: Unsung SaviorCSS LEGEND, MED BAY (3 HOURS LATER)

  *bang bang*

  Valerie instinctively wakes up from the familiar sound of gunfire. However, by the time she forces herself out of bed, the shooting stopped. Suddenly hit with a wave of vertigo, she colpses and sees Sireli standing over her.

  “Do not be afraid. I am here to heal you,” the Veriyan reassures. Over Sireli’s shoulder, Valerie notices the Android doctor on the floor, a pistol still in his hand. “He is subdued, not dead.”

  Valerie musters up what’s left of her strength to lift her head and gre at Sireli. “What are you doing here!? How’d you even–” She couldn’t finish her question before starting to cough again.

  “Hush,” whispers Sireli gently. She gently puts her upper hands on Valerie’s cheeks while csping the bottom ones together. “Let me work.”

  With a low hum, green psiotas travel through Sireli’s body and into Valerie, turning purple when the tter absorbs them.

  “Wha– What the hell are you doing to me!? Lemme go!” Valerie panics, but Sireli continues. After a few seconds, she releases her and steps back, slightly out of breath.

  “That should be sufficient to realign your power. I am sorry for startling you,” she apologizes.

  Meanwhile, Valerie lifts her arm and realizes she can move again. Not fully trusting Sireli, she swiftly grabs the fallen doctor’s pistol and points it at her.

  “After all the times we spoke, still you do not trust me?” Sireli says sadly. Unfazed, Valerie chambers it.

  “That depends. Why’d you save me?” she demands.

  “Since you were weakened, your thoughts were easier to detect,” Sireli expins. “You were praying for a miracle, saddened by your male companion’s stubbornness–”

  “Skip that part.”

  “I recognized your ailment, my friend. A fatal energy imbance caused by undisciplined psionic usage,” Sireli confesses. “Too much power in too short a time.”

  “However, mending it required specific techniques. Healing may not be my specialty, but I am the only one on this ship with the necessary knowledge.”

  “You saved my life because no one else could? That expins nothing.”

  “While I like you Humans, you can be so close-minded. It frustrates me,” Sireli argues. “I gave you my reasons. I cannot make you understand them, too.”

  Slowly, Valerie feels her mental abilities returning as the fog in her head clears. She could sense Sireli was telling the truth and nothing but the truth. So, she unchambers the gun and puts it down.

  “You and your Veriyan riddles. They frustrate me, too.” Valerie sighs while Sireli chuckles slightly, having taken a liking to the Silencer’s quirky jokes some time ago.

  “I’m gd you risked your neck for me, Sireli, but you better get back to your cell,” she advises. “How’d you even get out in the first pce?”

  *poof*

  Valerie jumps as Sireli’s body vanishes in a cloud of smoke. After a second, the smoke coalesces, and she reappears in a different spot.

  “Dark psionic dematerialization,” she replies. “The device you forced onto me was not tailored for such abilities. It’s a simple trick. I can teach you if you want.”

  Valerie knew that dark psionics is an ominous practice, as its name suggests. The Deldraka forbade its practice, and while Humans have researched the topic, the Silencer Initiative also forbids it. However, that doesn’t stop her from being curious.

  “Huh, that would be handy to have,” Valerie muses. “I can prank people with it.”

  *thud*

  Valerie tenses up after hearing a noise outside. A soldier just attached a bomb to the door. “Oh, crap…”

  BOOM

  Having broken down the door, Bull and three other soldiers charge into the medical bay, all of them in full combat gear. Sireli disappears again before she can be spotted.

  “Damn, she isn’t here either!” Bull shouts in frustration. “That extie doesn’t have many left pces to hide. Split up, find her!”

  The three soldiers salute him and leave the room. Then, Bull notices Valerie. “Star, one of the Veriyan prisoners escaped and came through here. Did you see her? Did she hurt you?”

  “No, actually–” When she briefly looks to the right, Bull notices and opens fire in that direction.

  “You…!!” Sireli cries. “You could have killed me!”

  “I don’t know what you did to her and I don’t care,” Bull decres. “Surrender, and you’ll die quickly. Fight back, and I’ll make you suffer. Your choice.”

  Without hesitation, Sireli charges green psionic energy in all four hands.

  “I will fight.”

  “Good.”

  Before Valerie can stop him, Bull throws his rifle at Sireli to distract her. With a shout, he lunges at her with a combination of spinning kicks. Even while wearing power armor, Bull can still perform the agile martial arts techniques he practices daily.

  Sireli desperately blocks Bull’s feet using barriers, but the General is unrelenting. Eventually, she finds the tempo of his strikes. She quickly kicks Bull in the left knee, damaging the joints in his armor. Yet, Bull responds with a powerful uppercut.

  Dazed by the blunt force trauma, Sireli pushes him away with a telekinetic shove. After creating a psionic bde over her left wrist, she ducks under Bull’s arms and stabs him in the gut between the ptes of his suit.

  Bull screams as the bde burns his insides. Turning his pain into rage, he breaks her wrist, lifts Sireli by her throat, and sms her into a nearby pilr.

  “Nnngh–! Your hands… they hurt!” Sireli screeches.

  “What did you do to Valerie!?” he demands while hitting her against the pilr.

  “You should be grateful!” she protests breathlessly. “I saved her!”

  “Liar!!” Bull yells. He hurls Sireli onto the floor and draws his sidearm, aiming it at her head.

  “Bull, please–” Valerie grabs Bull’s arm, but he shoves her aside.

  “Ah, fe’ashka,” Sireli swears. “You do not deserve a woman like her, Human. Kill me, and you will have proved that,” she spits, provoking Bull even more.

  “Isaac, please, stop!” Valerie begs. “Sireli meant no harm! She saved my life, I swear!”

  “I doubt that very much.”

  “At first I did too,” Valerie confesses. “But think about it. If she really wanted to kill me, why wait until you got here?”

  As he calms down, Bull’s expression softens as he sees the logic in her words. She may be putting on a brave face, but Valerie’s blue eyes revealed how frightened she was.

  “If you want to get rid of her, return her to her people like we originally pnned,” she adds. “You don’t even need to do it for me, do it because our inhibitors can’t stop her from using her powers. That’s how she got out.”

  Bull looks at Sireli, then Valerie, then Sireli again, and finally makes a decision–

  WHACK

  –and knocks Sireli out with his pistol.

  “You could’ve just tased her…” Ignoring her, Bull activates his comm.

  “I found the escapee, she’s been subdued. Take her back to the brig and put her in a bck box under 24-hour watch,” he says to the other soldiers. Valerie stares at him with pleading eyes, asking him to show a bit more mercy. “And, she isn’t to be harmed prior to being locked inside.”

  Soon, the trio of soldiers return, and one of them wordlessly takes away Sireli’s limp body over his shoulder.

  “Thank you,” said Valerie.

  “Sometimes, I can’t believe how much you’ve grown, Val. It won’t be long before you become a general yourself.”

  “Is that a backhanded compliment?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then, to be honest, I’d turn down that promotion,” she tells him. “After all, you bring out the best in me, Isaac.”

  “Also, I love… working with you~” Under his helmet, Bull cracks a smile upon seeing Valerie back to her regur bubbly self.

  Valerie removes Bull’s helmet to kiss him on the lips, something she rarely has a chance to do. Suddenly, he flinches, and she remembers the wound Sireli inflicted. When she pulled her hand back, her palm was stained with his blood.

  “I’ll be fine,” he reassures her.

  Over the course of his career, Bull has been through worse but he always made full recovery. Doctors have told him his mother has naturally accelerated healing abilities which he inherited. This small advantage is very convenient for him as an officer who also fights regurly.

  “Take it easy for the rest of the day,” he says gently while putting a hand on Valerie’s shoulder. “But I’m putting you back to work tomorrow, first thing in the morning.”

  “What about you?” Valerie asks worriedly. “Maybe you should take the rest of the day off.”

  “I’ll be fine…” Valerie shakes her head at him.

  “Not a chance. You’re clocking out early and coming right to my quarters. That way, I can rex and take care of you too. Got it?” Seeing how serious Valerie was, Bull nods with a shrug.

  “In that case, we can have dinner tomorrow. Your treat, right?” Valerie sighs, remembering the promise she made him.

  “I shouldn’t have said that.”