Chapter Two

 

Kromin Zebbo breathed in a deep, victorious breath as the sound of the baby’s wailing filled the operating room. Finally.

“Congratulations, Jarmuk,” Kromin said, glancing up at Jarmuk for just a moment. “You have a son.”

Kromin handed the baby off to Anya to clean and check, and then began the process of closing Maisie’s abdomen back up with skinsealer. He hoped this was going to work well on a human. He had used skinsealer on human wounds before, when the four humans from the crashed Starburst ship had first landed on Zocrone. They had all had some pretty bad gashes, and he’d been the one to help them out, of course. But major abdominal surgery was quite a bit more involved than anything he’d treated humans for before. Human physiology was similar to Zocronian physiology, but not exactly the same. Kromin had to admit that he was glad that Anya had been there during the surgery. He would never admit that out loud to her, of course. But still, her presence had been helpful and calming.

And now that this whole ordeal was just about over, he couldn’t wait to get away from her. As soon as Maisie was closed up and cleaned up, and the new family of three was resting in a recovery room, Anya could get the sludge out of his hospital.

Kromin knew that Jarmuk and Daxar, and even Toryx, didn’t like the way Kromin treated Anya. All three of his best friends had asked him over and over why he was so nice to everyone else, but so rude to Anya. Kromin had tried to explain to them that Anya was the only one trying to take over his territory, but they didn’t understand. They thought Kromin should be thrilled to have help, but Kromin knew that asking another doctor to join him here was only asking for trouble.

He’d spent the first part of his medical career dealing with two older doctors who could never agree with each other on how things should be run at the hospital. And they definitely didn’t care about Kromin’s opinions on anything. Kromin would never say it out loud, of course, but he had been immensely relieved when both of the older doctors had died off within a few months of each other, and the hospital had fallen entirely to him. Now that he was in control, he didn’t want anyone else around, telling him what to do or arguing with him about procedures. Especially not a human doctor.

Oh, sure, Anya was the most beautiful creature Kromin had ever laid eyes on. All four of the humans who now lived on Zocrone were good-looking, but Anya outshone them all. She was stunning, and if it hadn’t been for how obnoxious she was, constantly trying to wiggle her way into his hospital, Kromin might have even been interested in dating her. But no. It didn’t matter how gorgeous she was. He didn’t want a relationship with someone who didn’t know her place.

Kromin breathed a sigh of relief as he finished closing up Maisie’s abdomen. It looked like the skinsealer would hold, and the surgery had gone as well as he could have expected. Anya had checked the baby’s vitals and cleaned him up, and was just now handing him over to Jarmuk. To Kromin’s surprise, Jarmuk’s eyes were tearing up. Zocronians never cried, especially not Zocronian men. But Kromin figured it made sense. If ever there was a day to become emotional, it was the day you became a parent.

Kromin made eye contact with Jarmuk then, and smiled. The grin on Jarmuk’s face stretched from ear to ear, and Kromin couldn’t help but feeling a little magic in the air himself. As the only doctor on Zocrone, Kromin had attended hundreds of births over the years. He was always happy for the new parents, of course, but at the end of the day delivering babies was just part of his job. This was different though. Today, the new father was a man Kromin had grown up with. They’d shared so many heartaches and triumphs over the years. As boys, they’d also run together through the rainforests of Zocrone’s city dome, climbing from trees and swinging like monkeys. They’d spent hours causing mischief, or swimming in Zocrone’s watering holes. And now, that crazy, goofy boy was a grown man with a son of his own. A son whom Kromin had no doubt would be causing mischief of his own soon enough. Kromin wasn’t the type to get all sentimental about the circle of life, but right now he couldn’t help it.

“Congratulations, Jar,” he said, giving his friend a small salute. “I hope he gives you as much trouble as you gave your parents.”

Jarmuk laughed, and Maisie rolled her eyes. Even Anya cracked a smile.

“Do you have a name?” Kromin asked, even as he went back to cleaning up the mess from the surgery. To Anya’s credit, she came to help him. The girl might be obnoxious, but she wasn’t lazy.

“He’ll be Ayaan. Ayaan Kader.”

Kromin nodded in approval. “That’s a good, strong name.”

Little Ayaan had begun wailing again. He’d stopped for a few minutes, apparently so shocked by the new outside world that he hadn’t known what to do with himself. But now he was protesting loudly once more. Maisie laughed as she looked up at Jarmuk, her skin glowing with the happiness of new motherhood.

“He sounds just like you,” she teased Jarmuk. Jarmuk tried to act shocked and offended, but he couldn’t pull off any angry looks right now. There was too much happiness in the room.

Jarmuk had turned slightly, which gave Kromin a better look at Ayaan. The baby looked mostly Zocronian, but he had touches of human in him too. His little forehead was ridged, and his skin was blue. But it was a lighter shade of blue than most Zocronians, probably due to his mother’s pale-skinned genes. And his eyes were not the typical Zocronian fog gray. Instead, they were a deep, velvety brown, just like his mother’s.

“He’s a handsome little guy,” Kromin said, and Jarmuk beamed with pride. Kromin often told new parents that their just-born babies were handsome or beautiful, but he hardly ever actually meant the words. Newborns tended to be wrinkly little beings, with their bodily proportions way out of whack. But today, Kromin was sincere. Ayaan truly was the most beautiful little baby he’d ever seen.

The cleanup in the operating room was almost finished, and Kromin told Anya to go ahead and get Maisie and Ayaan to a recovery room while he finished up in the operating room. It had been a long day, but it had been worth it. Seeing Jarmuk so happy, and seeing Jarmuk’s son healthy and strong, was all that mattered. Kromin looked up at the computer console on the wall where the baby’s stats were still on display. Ayaan had been twenty-three inches long and had weighed eleven pounds, two ounces. This was on the small side for a Zocronian baby, but Kromin had a feeling that for a human baby this would have been huge. No wonder Maisie had had such a tough time delivering.

But everything had worked out in the end. Even Anya had proven to be helpful during the surgery, although Kromin hoped that didn’t give her any ideas about being allowed to work at his hospital more in the future. This was his domain, and he didn’t want her in it.

Once he’d finished setting the operating room back in order, he made his way to the hospital break room. He would get a snack and something to drink, and then check on Maisie one more time. As long as she seemed to be recovering well, he would head home. His house was close enough to the hospital that he could be back here within a few minutes’ notice if anything went wrong.

But when he got to the break room, his good mood plummeted. Anya was there, stuffing a food cube into the food transformer and then going to look for a drink mix to put in the drink transformer. Kromin stepped into the room and glared at her.

“Shouldn’t you be heading home?”

She turned to look at him, and he was startled by how tired her eyes looked. For a moment, he felt badly for being so harsh with her. She had just helped out with major surgery, after all. But then he told himself to stop being soft. If he gave her an inch, she was going to try to take a mile. She was going to try to weasel her way into working here.

“I’ll be heading home soon enough, but I’m starving after not eating all day. I didn’t think it was a big deal for me to grab one food cube. Especially since I’m not actually getting paid for my work today.”

Kromin felt chastised. He was being too harsh with her. She had indeed worked all day for free. He hadn’t discussed paying her, because he hadn’t been thinking about money in the middle of trying to make sure the baby was alright. But Anya had worked hard all day anyway, despite not expecting to receive a single credit from him. Still, he wasn’t going to back down from his stance: he wanted her out of his hospital.

“Look, you can get your food and drink, and I’ll figure out a way to get you fair pay for what you did today. I’m sorry I didn’t mention that earlier. My mind’s been preoccupied with other things. But I think it’s time for you to leave the hospital now. There’s no more work to do here tonight, and, to be frank, you know I don’t like having other doctors here.”

She let out a long sigh as she put a drink mix packet into the drink transformer. The air was already filling with the smell of chicken and rice from her food cube being transformed into an actual plate of food. The smell reminded Kromin of his own empty stomach, but he would wait until Anya left to get a food cube of his own. That way he could eat in peace.

Anya didn’t look like she was in the mood to leave, though. She crossed her arms and glared at him as the drink transformer began to hum, working on her drink mix.

“Are you really still going to play this game, Kromin? I would have thought after today that you would finally see how beneficial it would be for us to work together. You have a lot of skills that I don’t have, but I have a few skills that you don’t have. We could learn from each other, and it would make us both better doctors.”

Kromin could feel anger starting to rise in his chest. “We’ve been through this. You know how I feel. This is my hospital, and I make the decisions here. Now take your food and get out.”

Kromin expected Anya to roll her eyes and walk out with a huff. But to his surprise, she raised her chin defiantly in his direction and didn’t move.

“No.”

For a moment, Kromin was so stunned that he didn’t know what to say. “What do you mean, ‘no?’”

“I mean no. I mean you need to stop being such a ridiculous, prideful male, and stop trying to do everything on your own. This hospital is too big for you to run alone. And this planet has too big of a population for you to be the only doctor here. Sure, it’s been fine so far. But there haven’t been any situations where a bunch of people need medical attention at the same time. If that happens, you’re screwed. You’re not being fair to the citizens of Zocrone, or taking care of them like your medical oath demands. They’re vulnerable in any kind of crisis.”

Kromin glared at her. “Get out,” he said, struggling to keep his voice even. “Don’t come in here, to my hospital, and try to tell me that I’m failing Zocrone. I can handle things just fine on my own.”

“Like you did today?”

The challenge in her tone was unmistakable. And the worst part was that she was kind of right. Today would have been nearly impossible to handle on his own. He’d been happy to have Anya’s assistance. But he wouldn’t admit that to her. He wouldn’t let someone else boss him around, especially not some human doctor.

“Get out,” he said again, but this time he was yelling. He hated himself for losing his temper, but she managed to somehow be the one person in the Seven Galaxies who could get under his skin. “Get out and stay out. I don’t need to know how to treat humans. There are only four of you on the whole damn planet. And you can’t teach me anything I don’t already know about treating Zocronians. Heck, you wouldn’t be much help if there was a medical crisis, because you don’t know anything yourself about treating Zocronians.”

“You could teach me,” she said, her voice remaining maddeningly calm despite the fact that he had yelled. “And there might be a day when you’re grateful to have help.”

“No. Get out. End of discussion.” Kromin couldn’t believe how obstinate she was being. How many times did he have to tell her to leave before she would actually find the door and get the sludge out of here? She couldn’t listen to directions, which meant he definitely did not want to work with her.

To his relief, she finally seemed to be giving up on staying. She shook her head at him in disgust, then grabbed her food and drink and stormed out of the break room doorway. Kromin turned toward the food transformer, intending to whip up a plate of food for himself, but he was so angry at the moment that even his hunger had dulled.

Who did Anya think she was, getting in his face like that? And more importantly, why did he care so much about the way she was acting? Kromin never raised his voice to anyone. He treated everyone kindly. In fact, Kromin had often been the one to calm down Chief Daxar when the man’s temper got the best of him. But here he was, acting just as ridiculous as the Chief.

Not ridiculous. Just realistic. I have to think about what’s best for the hospital. Even as he thought this, a little voice in his head told him that pushing away another qualified doctor was not what was best for the hospital. Kromin clenched his fists and did his best to ignore that voice, but it wasn’t easy. He threw a food cube into the food transformer and told himself that after this meal he could go home and sleep, and everything would be better in the morning.

But then, a familiar voice behind him called out his name. He turned to see Chief Daxar, and Daxar’s human mate, Nova, standing in the doorway. Both of them wore scowls on their faces and had their arms crossed in front of them.

This does not look good. Kromin wasn’t going to be able to sneak out of here anytime soon.

“What’s up, Chief?” he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral. He wondered how long Daxar had been nearby. Had he heard Kromin yelling? Sludge, Kromin hoped not. He didn’t want the Chief thinking he was some sort of emotional wreck.

Daxar stepped into the break room along with Nova, and closed the door behind him. “We need to talk.”

Kromin sighed. Yup, he definitely was not going home anytime soon.