Chapter Three
“We ran into Anya on our way in to see Ayaan,” Daxar said. His voice was low and even but Kromin could tell by the man’s eyes that he was furious. Kromin had known the Chief since they were young boys, and could usually read his emotions pretty well. Right now, Daxar was pissed.
Kromin took his plate of food out of the food transformer and picked up a fork. He took a bite and chewed it slowly before answering Daxar. It wasn’t that he was trying to be disrespectful of his Chief. He was just trying to buy time to figure out what to say. After a long delay, the best he could come up with was, “And?”
Nova scowled at him. “And, Anya told us that despite the fact that she just helped you with an emergency surgery for Maisie and Jarmuk’s baby, you still kicked her out of the hospital like some sort of lowlife.”
Kromin took another bite of his food before answering. He had to be careful what he said to Nova. She was fiercely protective of the other three humans who had flown with her on her spaceship before their crash landing on Zocrone, and Kromin knew she would stick up for Anya over him any day of the week. Add to that the fact that she was the Chief’s mate, and Kromin was in a very sticky situation. If he pissed off Nova, he would piss off the Chief even more than he already had. Kromin did his best not to let his anger show in his voice as he spoke to Nova.
“Listen, we’ve been through this before. This is my hospital. I know from experience that things don’t work out well when more than one doctor tries to run things. That’s why I insist on being the only one here.”
Daxar rolled his eyes. “Kromin, I’m tired of your sludging excuses. I understand you had a bad experience with the old doctors that worked here, but those guys were exceptionally awful. Now, it’s time to move this hospital forward, just like I moved Zocrone forward by finally allowing outside species to move here. You need help, and you need to expand your knowledge beyond just treating Zocronians for medical issues. Anya can help you with that.”
“There are only four humans on Zocrone. Let Anya treat them, and I’ll handle the Zocronians.”
“There are four and a half humans now,” Nova pointed out. “Ayaan is the first human-Zocronian mix, but I doubt he’ll be the last. And as other species move to Zocrone, there might be other mixes. You need to stop thinking inside your little Zocronian-only box.”
Kromin scowled. He’d always liked Nova, but right now she was getting on his nerves. “It’s been months since we opened Zocrone up to outsiders, and so far no one new has moved here. I’d say we’re not in danger of being overrun by non-Zocronians at the moment, which means my knowledge of Zocronian medicine is perfectly sufficient.”
Nova started to say something else, but Daxar held up a hand to cut her off. “No. Wait. Here’s how it’s going to go.” Daxar turned to look at Kromin with an expression that said there better not be any arguments to what he was about to say. “You’re going to take Anya on as an intern in this hospital. You’re going to learn as much as you can about human medicine from her, and about whatever she might know about treating other species of aliens. She spent quite a bit of time traveling across the Seven Galaxies while working on Nova’s spaceship, so I’m sure she knows a few things. In turn, you’re going to teach her everything you can about Zocronian medicine.”
“Dax,” Kromin started to say. He knew he shouldn’t be arguing when Daxar was so serious about something, but what was he supposed to do? Stand here and watch his hospital be taken out of his control?
“I don’t want to hear any arguments,” Daxar said. “And don’t think that I won’t boot you from your position as head of hospital here just because you’re the only doctor in Zocrone. You know me better than that.”
Kromin bit his lip to keep himself from retorting. Daxar was right. Kromin knew the Chief well enough to know that he would indeed fire Kromin, despite the lack of doctors. Daxar was just that brazen.
“This hospital is funded by the Zocronian government’s money. So I can shut it down anytime, and I will if you don’t call Anya tomorrow and offer her a job here. Is that understood?”
Kromin scowled at Daxar, but he knew he had no choice. “Understood,” he spat out. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I was just on my way home to get some rest. I worked hard to deliver the first human-Zocronian baby today, but I guess no one appreciates my efforts.”
Kromin threw the rest of his food cube into the trash compactor, then stormed out of the break room without another word. Behind him, he heard Nova call out, “Anya worked hard too!” He didn’t turn around or acknowledge the statement. Anya was a hard worker, but he didn’t need her help. He could work hard enough himself.
Kromin left the hospital to find that it was storming outside. Since Zocrone was inside of a giant glass dome, the Zocronians were never directly exposed to any storms. But anytime there was a bad storm out on the planet’s open surface, which was often this time of year, the view out of the dome was quite spectacular.
Spectacular and dark. Dark clouds had blocked out any light from nearby moons and stars, but the flashes of lightning were so constant that Kromin could see the outlines of the monstrous storm clouds clearly. The wind must have been quite strong, because thick dust, rocks, and other debris were hurtling through the air all around the city dome.
Normally, Kromin hated these storms. He found the darkness depressing, and he couldn’t help but worry about how well the city dome’s glass was holding up. The rocks made him nervous, even though he knew they weren’t strong enough to break the dome. Zekkardite was the only thing strong enough to do that, and there was no Zekkardite just lying around on Zocrone’s surface. It was all deep inside of the mines. Last year, a giant storm had come on suddenly while a load of Zekkardite was being transported from the mines to the city. There had been a close call where the Zekkardite load had almost been stirred up by the storm to hit the city dome. Luckily, Maisie and Jarmuk had saved the day and gotten the Zekkardite to safety before it could be thrown against the dome, but that incident still haunted Kromin.
This year, the stormy season had come early, and was proving to be heavier than normal. Tonight, though, Kromin didn’t care. The storms matched his mood. Thunder roared in his own heart as he walked the short distance to his house. He should have known things would come to this. It was only a matter of time until Nova convinced Daxar to force Kromin to let Anya work at the hospital. The humans stuck together.
Kromin could admire their loyalty to a certain extent. He just wished that none of the humans had been a doctor. That would have kept this whole issue from ever coming up in the first place. If the human crew had not had a medic, there would be no one to invade the hospital. But not only was there a human medic, she just had to be the most freaking gorgeous out of the whole crew, didn’t she? Besides the fact that Kromin didn’t want to have to listen to her advice on things, he didn’t know how he was supposed to work in close proximity with her every day without being totally distracted. Even doing surgery with her had been tough. During the surgery, he’d been so worried about Maisie and baby Ayaan that he’d been able to stay focused. But when it was time to clean up, he’d been unable to keep his eyes off Anya’s ass. He hadn’t been able to distract himself from the way her tits pressed up against her white doctor’s coat. How could he ever hope to get through a day’s work when he had to work so closely to such a tantalizing view?
Kromin sighed. In some ways, he had brought this on himself. When the humans first arrived on Zocrone, he had been their champion. He had done his best to convince Daxar that Zocrone needed to open up to outsiders if it ever wanted to be taken seriously in the Seven Galaxies. Their planet had been too isolated for too long. And Kromin still felt that way, if he was honest. But just because he thought the planet itself needed to open up didn’t mean that he himself wanted to open up. He enjoyed his comfortable, isolated existence in the hospital. He enjoyed not having to deal with anyone else’s crap, the way he had for years before the old doctors had died.
But none of that mattered now. Daxar had spoken, and Kromin would have to obey. It was time to get uncomfortable.