Chapter Fourteen

 

Roughly an hour later, Anya watched from the background while Kromin stepped out onto the hospital’s front steps to face the crowd of protestors and rioters. The military guards had managed to hold them back from the hospital up until now, but Anya could tell they were getting wilder and more impatient with every passing hour. They wanted answers, and no one was giving them any. Hopefully, Kromin’s presence and words would calm them. If nothing else, Anya thought that Kromin looked quite prestigious and official. She hadn’t seen him in anything other than casual clothes or doctor’s scrubs before, but he had decided to wear the Zocronian version of a suit to face the crowd, and did he ever look impressive.

The suit was all black, and the pants looked close enough to the sort of pants that human men wore with suits, although they were a little bit tighter. But the suit jacket was quite different. It was a pullover style that fit snugly against Kromin’s broad chest. The neck was high, and the black fabric had golden thread interwoven into it, making Kromin look like royalty.

And he was royalty, as far as Anya was concerned. He was king of her heart for sure. She knew he hadn’t been perfect, but he was perfect for her. He challenged her in ways that no one else ever had. And the fact that he had been man enough to change and to grow into a better person made her confident that they could face whatever the future threw at them. She hadn’t been perfect either, but she could tell that he respected her willingness to change as well. Together, they would figure out this crazy ride called life.

Besides all that, Anya was pretty sure there was not a more attractive man in all the Seven Galaxies. When she’d been younger and lived back on Earth, she’d always thought it was a bit strange when girls dreamed of meeting a far off, exotic alien. Why would anyone want to look for a partner in the furthest reaches of the Galaxies when there were so many handsome men at home already? Now, Anya understood.

No human man could ever have hoped to compare to the powerful, sexy Zocronian man standing before her. As Kromin walked toward the crowd, Anya admired his tall posture and purposeful gait. He walked like a man on a mission. A man who knew what he wanted out of life and was going to get it.

The storms still raged above the city dome, so there was no sunlight to speak of right now. But the lightning flashes still caught the glint of gold in Kromin’s suit jacket, and made him look like he was shimmering as he walked. His biceps strained against his jacket’s sleeves, leaving no doubt as to how powerful he was beneath all that fabric. His tail swished powerfully behind him, its spikes extended in a show of confidence and power. Kromin wanted everyone to know how sure he was of himself.

His deep blue skin seemed an even deeper shade of blue against the black of his suit, and even from here Anya could see the perfect color of his fog gray eyes. He was a vision to behold—the perfect man, and he was all hers.

He stepped up to the podium that the military guards had set up for him, and he raised his hands for silence. It took a few minutes for the roar of the crowd to settle down, and at first Anya thought they might never shut up. Finally, though, they settled enough for Kromin’s booming voice to be heard over the microphone-like contraption embedded into the podium.

“My fellow Zocronians,” he began, looking across the crowd as though he were trying to make eye contact with every person there. “Most of you know me, I think. I’m Kromin Zebbo, the head doctor here in Zocrone. Over the years, I have treated most of your family members when they were sick, I have delivered babies for you, and I have done my best to serve you and this community.”

Kromin paused when he said this, and Anya knew he was feeling a flash of guilt. He was wondering if he had really tried his best, when the hospital needed so much help. But he didn’t let that flash of guilt stop him. Instead, he pushed forward with a smile and kept speaking.

“I am also good friends with our Chief. Daxar and I have been close since we were young boys.”

Anya held her breath, half worried that the crowd was going to boo at the mention of Daxar. But no one made a noise. They all seemed to be holding their breath as Kromin continued.

“I’ve spoken with Daxar personally about the rations and the delayed supply runs, because like many of you, I’m concerned about how this situation is affecting my friends and family. After speaking with the Chief, I can assure you that the rations are necessary, and that the Chief is closely monitoring the storms. If there is even the smallest break in the storms, he’ll attempt to get a supply ship in. But these storms have been relentless. No ship can wait above our planet’s surface indefinitely for a chance to land, and there have been no breaks in the storms forecasted. This means that rations have become necessary.”

“But the rationing is too strict!” a voice from the crowd yelled. “We have tons of food and water right now. Enough to last a long, long time. Why do we need to be so restrictive on how much we can eat and drink?” Murmurs of agreement rose from the crowd as anger swelled once again.

Kromin raised his hands for silence, then gripped the edge of the podium as he answered. “Of course, the Chief hopes that in the end we will realize that the rations were too restrictive. But we need to be careful. This is the first time that Zocrone has dealt with storms this severe. We don’t know how long they will last, and it’s better to be careful and be safe than to recklessly use up food that we might need later on.”

“Is Chief Daxar following his own rationing rules?” cried a voice from somewhere in the middle of the crowd. “Or is he living the high life while we all suffer?”

The crowd began to roar again, and Kromin once again had to raise his hands to fight for silence.

“The Chief is following the same rules as you,” Kromin finally yelled, trying to regain control of the crowd. Then he repeated, “Chief Daxar is living under the same rationing system as all of you!”

The crowd finally began to quiet again, although they all looked angry. When Anya looked out over the sea of blue faces, she saw anger in almost every face. The people thought their leader was making them bear the brunt of a bad situation, but Anya knew that just wasn’t true. Daxar had been the first to step up and subject himself to the rations. Kromin was assuring the crowd of the same thing now.

“Chief Daxar would never ask all of you to live under a rationing system that he was exempt from. He is the first in line to make sacrifices when sacrifices need to be made. I know these times are hard, but getting angry at each other or at our leader isn’t going to help anything. We need to come together and work together in unity. We’re strong enough to make it past this, and I promise that if you do your part, we’ll all make it through okay.”

“What about the supply ships, though? Is there really no ship that can fly through this storm?” This time, the question at least sounded genuinely curious instead of openly antagonistic. The crowd was calming. Kromin was actually doing it! He was actually managing to settle everyone down.

“The storms are too fierce and unpredictable for a ship to fly in and out of here,” Kromin answered. “But I promise you that Chief Daxar is monitoring the weather closely, and the second the skies are safe and flyable once again, he’ll have ships heading out.”

No one challenged that statement, and Anya looked out at the crowd, amazed to see that most of the anger in the Zocronians’ blue faces had faded away. Everyone looked resigned, and perhaps a bit sad, but the fury was gone. Kromin had done it. He had actually managed to calm down the rioters. Could he get them to go home, though?

“Listen up, everyone,” Kromin said in his booming voice. “Chief Daxar has agreed to give a speech on the situation at noon today in front of the City Headquarters building. I would ask you all to show up there—acting calmly, please—and let the Chief know your concerns. He wants to help, and he wants you to know that your voices are heard. In the meantime, please go about your day peaceably. Fighting amongst ourselves is only going to make things harder on all of us.”

There was some murmuring from the crowd, but after a few moments Anya could see that everyone was starting to disperse. Kromin stood at the podium and watched for several minutes, until the crowd had all but disappeared. Then he turned and walked back up the steps to the hospital’s entrance, where Anya was waiting.

“You did it,” Anya said, pulling him into a big hug. “You were amazing.”

She felt his chest rise and fall with a large sigh. “I’m just glad they listened to me. And hopefully they listen to Daxar later. For now, I need to get back to Toryx and check on him, then keep working on a supply list for the hospital. There’s still a lot of work to be done here, and I’d rather focus on working than on worrying about how the rest of the Zocronians are behaving.”

“You should go home and rest,” Anya said. But Kromin waved her away.

“I’ll take a nap in one of the hospital beds in a bit. For now, I want to check on Toryx.”

“I’ll come with you. He might be awake by now. Daxar was going to stay with him so that someone would be there if he woke up.”

“Good. I’m not sure how much he remembers of the monkey attack, but I’m sure he’s going to have a lot of questions.”

Anya followed Kromin to Toryx’s room, where they found the man fully awake and in a relatively good mood. He was talking and laughing with Daxar, and Nova had showed up as well at this point.

“Oh, look!” Daxar said as they entered the room. “Here are the two heroes of the day. Kromin saved my ass by talking some sense into the Zocronian rioters, and Anya saved Toryx’s ass by stitching him up. I guess we both owe you a debt of gratitude.”

“It was nothing,” Anya said, feeling her cheeks heat up as she began to blush at Daxar’s praise. “It was just an old medical technique I thought might help.”

“Well, it did help,” Daxar said. “Look at Toryx: alive and healthy, and acting just as obnoxiously as always.”

“Hey man! Just because I’m better at telling jokes than you doesn’t mean that I’m obnoxious.” Toryx burst out laughing, and Anya suspected he was slightly giddier than usual thanks to the pain meds. Still, it was good to see him recovering well and in good spirits.

Kromin must have thought the same thing. “Looks like everything is going well,” he said. “Toryx is healing up, and the riots have stopped, at least for the moment.”

“Now if only the storms would stop, too,” Anya said. She didn’t want to admit it, but part of her was scared. How long could these storms possibly last? The rationing system would allow Zocrone to survive for months without supply deliveries, but what if the storms kept going past that time? What would happen? Would everyone just starve to death? Would Daxar have some of the military attempt to leave in the middle of the storm to get supplies, even though it was a suicide mission?

“Don’t worry,” Daxar said. “The stormy season can’t last forever. It never does.”

Anya looked over at Nova, who merely shrugged. Nova had no more experience with the stormy season that Anya did, but Nova trusted Daxar. Anya figured she should do the same. Kromin and Toryx didn’t seem too worried, either, so Anya decided to relax for the time being. There were months before the situation became truly urgent.

“Well, if everything is under control here, I’m going to go ahead and get some stuff done in the supply room,” Anya said. “We still have a lot of work to do there.”

Kromin nodded at her. “I’ll join you in a little bit. I just want to do a quick exam on Toryx and make sure he’s truly healing up okay.”

Anya nodded and then left the room. She didn’t want to hang around and be teased about being a hero anymore. She mostly wanted time alone with Kromin, and the sooner she got her work done at the hospital, the sooner she could have that.

Their little celebration of being engaged had been interrupted back at the bar, but Anya had a feeling that they would pick back up right where they’d left off—and she could hardly wait.