I woke groggy and with a tidal wave of pain threatening to sweep me away.

“Hold on,” Medina said. “Pain meds aren’t calibrated yet.”

“What’s happening?” I said through gritted teeth.

“Stitched you up and you’re as good as new again.”

“Then let me up.” I tried to rise off the bed, but there were too many wires sticking out of me.

“Whoa there,” Nico muttered. “You’re going to undo all my hard work.”

“I’m needed on the bridge,” I muttered.

“I’m sure your new first officer is handling it well.”

“Ana,” I said, feeling a rush of something consume me. It took a moment to realise it was relief. If Nico was talking about Ana, then she was all right. Still in one piece.

“Archibald?”

“From what I hear, a clean shot to the back of the head.” Nico stared down at me. “Rather hitman-like, don’t you think?”

“He deserved it.” My vision swam for a few seconds, and by the time I came back to my senses, Nico was across the room, typing something into a datapad. “The rest of his men,” I said, my throat and mouth dry.

Medina returned to my side and offered me a sip of something sugary from a paper cup.

“Can’t tell you. Hopefully, Chan’s working on that. Ana will want her aunt back, in any case, so it’ll be a top priority for her, I should think.”

“Comm the bridge,” I demanded.

“No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“You need rest. Leave it up to your very capable crew.”

“They need me!”

“Not like this. Have you looked at yourself lately?”

I scowled up at him. He smirked.

“Relax, Jameson. God knows what you were thinking putting a pay-for-passage in charge, but you did get one thing right. Ana Kereama is a determined young lady who knows just how to get things done even when it might kill her in the process.”

“That is not reassuring.”

“I always thought my bedside manner was most acceptable.”

Acc…acc…acceptable.

“Pavo,” I said, my voice sounding weak and embarrassingly thin.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Status report.”

“Belay that order, Pavo,” Nico said. “Doctor’s orders.”

“You cannot override me,” I growled.

“I’m your attending physician. In this, my orders outrank yours.”

“Damn it all to hell, Nico!” I shouted. “We’re not through the worst of this yet.”

Nico paused the finger tapping on his datapad.

“What do you mean?” he said. “Archibald’s dead.”

“He might be, but the rest of his men aren’t, and we don’t even know who they all are yet. Until we lock down every single one of them and get Marama Kereama back, we might not be able to fix this mess.”

“I have no doubt that is happening as we speak.”

“Maybe. But there’s more.”

“More?” Nico stepped up to the side of the bed and stared down at me. “What more, John?”

I grimaced and glanced up at the gel ceiling but said nothing. Pavo was a real concern. He was acting outside of his parameters. We’d lost control of our AI. Of the ship. If anything happened to Ana, then we could lose more than that. We could lose everything. Lose our lives even.

I met Nico’s eyes, and he nodded his head. He understood. He’d always been a quick study.

“You still need bed rest,” he said.

“At least give me a datapad so I can keep tabs on system repairs on the bridge.”

“That is not resting, Jameson, and you know it.”

“Were you always this difficult?” I muttered.

“Only with recalcitrant patients who lost a portion of their innards via plasma fire and had to be put back together again before they bled out.”

“Sounds like fun,” I tried.

“If Ana hadn’t done a field dressing on you when she did, you’d be dead.”

“So, I owe her my life.”

Nico snorted.

“I should really thank her. Pavo, comm the bridge.”

“Belay that order, Pavo. In fact,” Nico added. “Until I say otherwise, disregard any order from Captain Jameson. He’s on forced bed rest.”

“Understood, Doctor.”

“You’re gonna pay for that,” I groused.

“Relax. What else could possibly go wrong? Archibald’s dead. At least for a while, his men will need to regroup and reassess. You’ve got time to let those stitches mend.”

“If you say so.”

I tried to cross my arms over my chest in an act of defiance but only ended up causing that tsunami of pain to crest. Nico sighed and upped my pain meds. For a while there, I just floated, drifted, possibly slept, most definitely dreamed of kissing Ana, and then woke to a ship-wide hail.

“This is Lieutenant Commander George Maxwell. All Anderson Universal crew report to stations. Report to stations and standby.”

I scowled at the gel ceiling where the voice had sounded out.

“That’s strange,” Nico muttered from across the medbay. “Ana was on the bridge last I talked to her.”

“Nico,” I muttered, trying to make sense of what was happening through a veil of pain meds. “Flush me,” I demanded, but I’m not sure the words came out in the correct order. Or even if Nico heard me speaking. It was barely a rasp.

He crossed to a viewscreen and pressed a few buttons. Nothing happened.

“Pavo,” he said. “What’s happening on the bridge?” he asked.

Good question, I thought, then promptly drifted again.

“Damn it,” I heard Nico muttering sometime later, or maybe just a second later, who could tell. “Comm Commander Kereama,” he said.

“The commander is busy right now.”

“Busy with what?”

“Busy with a mutiny, Doctor.”

“On the bridge?”

“Yes.”

“That can’t be right,” Nico said.

But then I was drifting again, and I couldn’t figure out if it had all been a dream, or if there was something I was meant to be doing to make sure Ana was safe and protected.

The commander is busy right now.

Busy with a mutiny.

On the bridge.

Ah, shit.