For the hundredth time, Amanda Cain wished that she hadn't opened her clinic. She could have stayed in the Dragon Palace, worked out some other way to get the money for a flight back to Earth. Hell, the odds were some corporation would have flown her home just to get her talking about what she'd seen of the alien technology. But nooo, you had to insist on paying your own way home, she told herself as she finished bandaging a dockworker's arm. Stupid pride.

"So, what have we learned about low gravity?" she asked as she tied the last knot with a little more force than was strictly needed. The man had the grace to look sheepish as he winced.

"That just because something feels lighter here than on Earth doesn't mean it's safe to play catch with it," he said ruefully. It was a common mistake for newcomers to make — adjusting to Mars's lower gravity was dangerous for anyone whose job involved heavy lifting. It seemed like every day someone tried to throw a crate that ought to be handled with care.

"At least you caught it with your arm, not your head," Amanda told him. "Though maybe your thick skull would have saved you. There! All done. It should be right as rain in a few days — if you don't put any stress on it in the meantime."

"Thanks, Doc," the man said, getting up and gently testing his arm. The bandage clung tight, and Amanda managed a smile. One more man out of my hair for the day, she thought. At least this one wasn't here because of a fight.

There were too many of those on the docks. Marsport was growing a lot faster than anyone had expected and the law was lagging behind. Eventually, she was sure, someone would set up a proper police force, but for now the peace was kept by whatever dragons happened to be nearby. And they never seemed to think that a brawl was something worth bothering to stop.

"Right, go on, shoo," she said to the dockworker. "Don't go cluttering up my office now you're fixed."

"You know, Doc, your bedside manner—"

"Is not what you're paying for, so don't criticize," she snapped. "Out."

Out he went, and Amanda sighed and sat back. It wasn't long past dawn and already she was tired of dealing with stupid accidents. What possessed me to set this place up? The corporations could hire some doctors, set up a clinic, look after things.

But she'd been here when the dragons of Mars woke up, and she'd been amongst the first humans to meet them. That meant that she had her own position here, her connections in the Palace. Hell, she was the Empress's best friend. By the time Marsport turned into a real settlement, her clinic was established and no one wanted to try to compete. Space travel might be comparatively cheap now, but shipping medical supplies from Earth was still expensive.

So now I get saddled with helping everyone too damned stupid to remember how to lift a crate. Amanda went through to the reception area to pour her third coffee of the morning, waving to Kevin the receptionist as she passed him. To her relief there was no one out there waiting for her. But that feeling didn't last, and she tensed as she heard the door open behind her.

"What is it now? Can't I have five minutes’ peace without someone breaking their arm?" she snapped without looking back.

"There's the comforting attitude that got you into doctoring," a familiar voice answered and Amanda spun around, almost dropping her mug.

Standing in the doorway was a young woman, tired and bedraggled from a long journey but with mischievous eyes alight. Amanda was caught between glaring and grinning, and for a long second, they both looked at each other.

"What the hell are you doing on Mars, sis?" Amanda asked eventually, carefully putting down her mug. Hannah was supposed to be safe on Earth.

"Like I'd let you have all the fun," her sister replied, putting her hands on her hips. "You just want to hog all the sexy aliens, I bet. Got a harem of winged hotties yet?"

"That's not funny, Hannah," Amanda said, but she couldn't help smiling a little as she held out her arms to her little sister. Not so little now, she had to admit, not if Hannah was crossing the gulf between Earth and Mars on her own. But to Amanda, Hannah would always be the exasperating little sister she had to look after.

Hannah jumped forward to embrace Amanda, abandoning her duffle bag by the door. The impact of her sister spun Amanda around as they hugged each other tight.

"Seriously, what are you doing here and why didn't you let me know you were coming?"

"Mars is the place to be, sis," Hannah said, giving Amanda a final squeeze before stepping back. "There are aliens out here! It's just taken me this long to get a job with a salvage crew looking for alien artifacts. I mean come on, you didn't expect me to let you have all the fun with that?"

"It's not been fun," Amanda said severely. "It was a disaster. The aliens nearly invaded Earth! They're dangerous, and maybe it sounded exciting and romantic when you heard about it but it really wasn't. Okay, so I came out of it alright, but I don't want my kid sister going digging for more trouble than I've already found."

"I'm not a kid anymore," Hannah said with a grin, refusing to be baited. "And come on, it's not like a salvager's life on Earth is exactly safe, is it? I've been digging through the ruins of London for the past year, and Mars has to be better than that."

Amanda wanted to argue with that, but what could she say? The corporate wars on Earth had left plenty of danger there, and she'd been keen to get away. Why shouldn't her sister? But now all Amanda wanted was to get back home to Earth, and away from the aliens who'd taken over Mars. Finding out that Hannah wanted the exact opposite came as a bit of a shock.

"Just... promise me you'll take care, yeah?" she said, leading her sister back into her office to talk. "This isn't a safe place, not anymore."

"I'll look after myself," Hannah said, crossing her heart with an exaggerated seriousness that inspired absolutely no confidence in Amanda. "I promise."

"That'll have to do, I suppose," Amanda said with a sigh. "And I suppose now that you're here there's no stopping you. How long before you head out on this stupid expedition of yours?"

"I've got a day, maybe two. It depends on the rest of the crew getting together, and I'm meeting the boss tomorrow morning. Then we set out for the site they're surveying. On one of these new skyships you have here, I'm real excited to see them in action."

Despite her misgivings, Amanda couldn't help smiling at her sister's enthusiasm. The skyships, built with poorly-understood alien technology, were a normal part of life for her now — but to Hannah, they had to be something exciting and new. "I'm sure you'll have your fill of them soon enough. Do you have a place to stay until you leave?"

Hannah grinned again. "Sure I do. I know that you'll want to show me your place and I wouldn't dream of turning you down."

God dammit. "I never should have told you I was staying here, should I?"

"Not if you wanted me to get a room in a shitty dockside hotel, nope." Hannah laughed at the expression on Amanda's face and then continued. "Seriously, if it's a problem then I can find a place. I've got the money, and the company is supposed to pay for reasonable accommodation costs. They picked up the cost of shipping me out here, they're not going to balk at the cost of a night or two."

"Don't bet on that until you've seen the prices," Amanda said. The portside rooming houses were notoriously expensive and awful. "But you don't have to put yourself through that, I've got plenty of space for a night or two."

"I mean, I don't want to intrude," Hannah said, a note of worry creeping into her voice. "If you've got someone—"

"God, no," Amanda interrupted. "First, nope, I'm on my own here. Second, even if I weren't, you're my sister. I'm not going to turn you away."

"I figured you might be shacked up with one of those hunky dragons, that's all." Hannah's grin was back instantly. "And I don't want to be a third wheel. Or fourth or fifth, if you did pick up a harem."

Amanda snorted and shook her head emphatically. "No. Way. Not in a thousand years."

The aliens might be hot, but that didn't matter. Especially not when she was going to go home to Earth soon and put all of this nonsense behind her. The dangerous aliens and their strange shapeshifting technology would be in her past and she'd be able to walk in proper gravity again.

Looking at her sister, she frowned a little and cocked her head. "Don't you get any ideas about finding yourself a dragon, Hannah. Remember they were planning on conquering Earth, they aren't safe."

"You're no fun," Hannah said, and then relented. "Look, I'm just here to work, I'm not hunting for a man. Honest. Don't worry about me."

It wasn't easy, but Amanda tried. For all that Hannah was a grown woman now, she would always be her kid sister and Amanda couldn't help worrying.

Before she could say any more, the communicator on her desk chimed and she turned to it with an annoyed frown. Normally she'd have expected any interruptions to be announced by Kevin, and it was tempting to ignore the call. But she couldn't do that, not today when she was the only doctor in the clinic.

And now Hannah was staring at the little lump of crystal chiming on her desk. The aliens' communication technology was widespread around Marsport, but Amanda realized that this would be the first time Hannah had seen anything like it. Guess I've gotten used to a few things here, Amanda thought, not happy with the idea.

"Give me a second, Hannah," she said, scooting back around her desk and tapping the crystal to answer it. The worried face of her friend Josie appeared above it, the hologram far more realistic than anything human technology could produce. For a moment, Amanda hoped it might be a social call — despite the other woman marrying into the alien imperial household, Amanda was still the closest friend she had on Mars. But the worry in her eyes told her that this was something more serious and that her medical skills were going to be needed.

"Thank god you're there," she said, and Amanda's heart sank. Yeah, this is going to be work, she thought. So much for catching up with her sister.

"What's wrong?" she asked, grabbing her bag. It was a good question — Josie had access to the automatic medical systems in the palace, so she wouldn't be calling about anything minor. All the other possibilities were more worrying. "Is Akade alright?"

"She's fine, it's nothing to do with her," Josie said, and Amanda let out a small sigh of relief. The little princess was only two months old, and being the first child of a human and an alien she had Amanda on edge. No one knew exactly how to deal with her, and her getting ill was Amanda's nightmare. None of the aliens knew much about childcare, they'd all been soldiers and noblemen before the fall of their empire.

Anything else has to be better. "Who's the patient, then?"

Josie paused for a moment before answering. "It's Verikan. Come quickly, he's hurt bad."

Shit.

* * *

The Dragon Palace rose above Marsport like a crystal dagger stabbing up into the heavens, and it didn't get any less imposing as Amanda hurried up to its base. The great gates were open, guarded by a couple of alien warriors who looked at her curiously as she hurried past. No one tried to stop her; as a friend of the empress, she came this way too often to be worth commenting on.

Apparently that got Hannah through, too. Amanda glanced back to see her wide-eyed sister staring at the guards, and one of them looking back curiously at her.

"Come on, we don't have time for you to gawk at the aliens," Amanda said, taking Hannah by the wrist and pulling her inside. The aliens laughed amongst themselves at that, and she glared back.

"Oh come on," Hannah said as she hurried after Amanda up the spiraling ramp that led up to the imperial gardens. "You can't complain about me looking a little, can you? Did you see those guys?"

Amanda ground her teeth and didn't slow down. "We're here on a medical emergency. Well, I am — I don't know what you're doing here."

"Good point! I'll just go back and hang out with those guards until you get back."

"No you don't," Amanda said, tightening her grip on her sister's wrist. "Remember, those are the aliens who were going to conquer Earth a few months ago. So don't you go running around with them, you hear me?"

Her sister's laugh made Amanda take a deep breath and focus on the path ahead. The ramp was wide enough for a full-grown dragon to climb at speed, which was a good thing since there was no guardrail on the inside. Keeping them to the wall, as far as possible from that long drop, Amanda led her sister up to the garden level. At least Hannah was keeping quiet for now, that was a small mercy. Amanda knew it wouldn't last, but the spectacular architecture seemed to have stunned her.

Stepping off the spiral and through the doorway into the garden, suspended high above Mars, Amanda stopped. For a moment, she was stunned into silence too.

There was Verikan, the dragon emperor, the only one of the aliens who'd fought to not invade Earth, lying against the wall. Around him, the earth had been churned up by a violent struggle. Of the few plants actually growing in the garden half seemed to have been torn up and ruined.

Josie knelt beside him, looking up at the sound of Amanda's approach. And a few steps back stood another alien, battered and bloodied. A good eight feet tall, he was big even for one of the dragons, and Amanda couldn't help looking at the perfectly defined muscles that he seemed to have been carved from. His deep red skin and scales gleamed in the light, and his wings were half spread, as though he was about to leap into action.

The man's hard face held strong features and sharp eyes that looked back at her with an intelligence she hadn't expected. They were alien eyes, violet with slits instead of round pupils, like a cat. His full lips looked inviting somehow, and Amanda pulled her eyes away from them. Looking at his chest didn't make things any easier, though.

Amanda couldn't help herself. Her gaze swept down over the perfection of his abs, down to the tight pants that hid nothing of his muscular legs, and the bulge that—

An amused cough from Hannah brought her attention back to the rest of the room. What the hell are you doing, Amanda? Feeling her cheeks heat, she tore her gaze away, trying to look at something, anything else.

Oh yes. My patient. That's where I should be looking. Doing her best to ignore the standing alien, she hurried to Verikan's side and examined him. He was conscious at least, which was a good sign, and he even smiled up at her as she came to him. But he'd clearly taken a hell of a beating. One of his wings was broken, the bones twisted back on themselves, and his skin was torn in several places.

For a moment, Amanda worried that this was some kind of coup attempt, but that didn't make much sense. He'd be under more guard, either as a prisoner or to keep him safe. And she didn't think he'd be smiling.

"Okay, what happened to you?" she asked as she opened her medical bag. He opened his breath to speak but before he could answer, Josie stepped in.

"He was sparring with his bodyguard there," she said, nodding towards the huge alien standing over them. "And somehow things got out of hand."

"We weren't sparring, Markath and I were settling a disagreement," Verikan said, as though that was the most reasonable thing in the world. Josie glared at her husband, and he winced. "It's true that things might have gotten slightly out of hand."

"If so, I apologize," the big alien said. That must be Markath. The emperor waved the apology away with a wince.

"You are not at fault. I should not have pushed as I did, and it was my idea. I'm the emperor, and it's my responsibility."

Josie shook her head. "Men. I don't care who started it, Amanda, I just need to know if you can put him back together."

That was the question. The aliens had healing technology that was almost magical when it worked, but there were firm limits on what the nanotechnology could achieve. Limits that no one on Mars fully understood, which made things that much more difficult. Broken bones were not amongst the things that it could treat on its own, though.

Amanda quickly checked her patient over, finding that in addition to the snapped wing bone, Verikan had several broken ribs. On a human, she'd think he was badly injured, but with an alien, who knew? They were tough, by any standard. With a sigh, she sat back.

"Okay, you're going to need some work. Your nanotech will fix the cuts and bruises, but I'll need to fix the bones back in place before they can fix them up." I hope. How good a repair they could do on broken bones was one of the mysteries she'd never solved properly. And with the delicate bones in Verikan's wing damaged, it was going to be an important question. Funny how medical school never taught me to set an injured wing. Maybe I'd have been better off training as a vet.

"Sit still, this is going to hurt," she said as she gathered herself. There was no point in offering Verikan anything for the pain, she knew. It wasn't just the aliens' warrior pride that would stop him taking it: the drugs she had were for humans, and wouldn't work nearly as well on a dragon. "Josie, can you help brace him?"

The other woman nodded, holding her husband tight, and Amanda took hold of his wing. Time to see if this works.