****
Alexis dropped to her knees beside the man on the floor, ignoring the twinge of pain as bits of glass and metal bit through her pants and into her skin. The man was contorted on the floor, twisted so that his chest and face were pointed away from her. She grabbed him by the shoulder and gently shook him, speaking loudly to him. Around her she could hear a series of smaller explosions as other components of the ship submitted to the flames. She knew she didn't have much time to get out.
Calling into use all of her military training, she tucked her shoulder under the man's arm and climbed to her feet. She dragged him along behind her as she moved as fast as she could down the main hallway and back out of the broken door to the ship. James caught her as she stumbled out into the sunlight. He took over half of the weight of the man and together they pulled him to safety away from the ship.
"Put him down here, Dad," she commanded when they reached the foot of the hill.
"We need to get him further away from the ship. It could explode."
"We need to make sure that he doesn't have any severe injuries that need to be stabilized before moving him any further. Put him down and let me examine him."
James complied, lowering the man to the dirt and stepping back so that Alexis could quickly look over him. She knew that if the man had any neck or back injuries they could have made them significantly worse the way they carried him out, but in the few moments they had there had been no way to take better precautions.
At first glance there were no obvious severe injuries, but when she carefully pushed a lock of pale brown hair away from his face she realized it was damp underneath. Moving the hair further, Alexis discovered a large cut along his head, stretching from his forehead to behind his ear. She touched it gingerly and her hand came back wet with a hot green liquid. Alexis pressed her hand to the cut again and more of the liquid seeped through her fingers.
"Dad," she said, not looking away from the man's face.
"What is it? Is he hurt?" James asked, rushing back toward them from the top of the hill where he had gone to look and see if more of the colonists had heard the crash and were coming to help.
"I think so."
James crouched down beside her and Alexis held her hand out to him. It shook slightly and her father grabbed onto it to look at it more closely.
"What is that?" he asked, examining the green liquid that stained her fingers and dripped onto her palm.
"I think it's his blood."
On the ground the man suddenly groaned, writhing in the dirt as if waking up.
"We need to get him somewhere safer," James said, leaning down to lift the man again.
"But what is he?" Alexis asked.
She had encountered other species before, but not like this. The man now draped across her father's strong back looked completely human, and breathtakingly beautiful.
"I don't know, Alexis, but that doesn't matter now. What matters is that you are the only doctor on this planet, literally, and therefore the only one who can help him."
Alexis nodded, knowing that what her father said was true. She had had little opportunity to use any of her medical training since arriving on the planet, but this was exactly why she had come.
"Bring him to my house," she said, "We never finished the clinic and I wouldn't be able to take care of him properly there."
James nodded and carried the man over the hill and down toward Alexis's house. She followed behind them, one hand on the man's back to keep him steady. When they got to the house, James carefully lowered the man onto Alexis's bed. The stranger groaned again and stretched against the covers.
"I'm going to go back to the ship and see if I can find anyone else. If you need me, use your messenger."
James rushed out of the house, leaving Alexis alone with the stranger. He thrashed again and she worried that he had injuries she could not see. Trying to keep her focus on his medical needs rather than his unworldly beautiful face, she brought her hands to the buttons on the front of his thick green canvas jacket and released them. She moved quickly, removing the jacket and tearing away the shirt he wore under it so she could examine his torso.
His body was equally as beautiful as his face and she let her eyes drift across it, searching for wounds even as she drank in the planes and curves of the muscles beneath his golden-tinted skin. She didn't see any signs of other injuries, and turned her attention back to the cut on his head. The bright green blood was matting in his hair and she went into the bathroom to fill a basin with water.
Setting the basin on the table beside the bed, she dipped a cloth in the water and gently dabbed the cut. The blood loosened and washed away, revealing the extent of the cut. Alex dried the area carefully, then opened her medic kit to retrieve a needle and thread.