I awaken in the dedicated medical bay of the Red Harvest. A ship of this class will have about 150 crew members, so I know their medbay has enough room for all eight of us. I’m surrounded by magnetic curtains that are pulled towards the magnetic floor, and everything is a sterile white. The cold blackness of space peers through the thick window behind me, and there are straps to keep me from floating off my bed.

“Ugh…” I hate being in space without a magnet suit. That feeling of floating makes my stomach churn and my head ache. I easily undo the straps on my arm and they float off to the side, locked in place only thanks to the other end being connected to the bed. I peel off the attached covers and raise my gown. A tight, freshly replaced bandage tied around my thigh stares back at me, and I finally notice the blood going into my arm via an IV.

“Hm?” It’s Miramita’s voice. There’s slight rustling on the other side of a thick magnetic curtain. “Hey! Wanopplo, you awake?”

His voice makes my head pound, but I’m glad he’s alive. “Yeah,” my voice is groggy. “Is everyone okay?”

“Yep!” I hear footsteps approach and he slings open the curtain. He looks fine, more or less. He’s wearing the tight black magnet suit that lets him walk without floating around. He has a slight limp with his right leg, and he’s hunched over ever so slightly. I can tell he’s in a bit of pain, but he’s doing a great job of hiding it. “Question is, are you? You lost a lot of blood back there.”

“I’m fine,” I grab the bedrails and pull myself down against the mattress. “Everyone escaped safely. My injuries are minor when compared to our resounding success. The only issue left is… that man who ran out to bring you back. Why did he do it?”

“Oh, Douglas? Ha! Yeah, turns out they weren’t spies or anything. It was just a series of unfortunate coincidences and we jumped to them being involved in some conspiracy against us. Funny how life turns out, but yeah, he’s a good guy.”

“I see… could you open the curtain more?”

Miramita complies, revealing a large, empty medical bay with a dozen cubbies for beds. It’s a sort of post op room, for crew to recover after surgery.

I raise an eyebrow. “Where are the other firryans?”

“Around the corvette, exploring places. Their wrists and ankles were shattered so they won’t be heading to planets any time soon, but they have casts on. They can float around the hallways for now.” He folds his arms. “The real threat was how malnourished they were, and all the diseases on Quintara. If we were a day later, they’d probably be dead.”

I breathe out softly, “it’s good we weren’t late then.” I cock my head, my thick hair swinging wherever it wants. “What about the medics? Hardly seems proper for them to leave while a patient has yet to recover.”

“Bah, don’t worry about them. It took a bit of convincing, but they’re off with the firryans.” He flashes a bright smile and taps his thumb against his chest, “I can take care of you.”

“…Are you a trained medic?”

He shrugs, “you’re an agent of the FLF, how hard could it be to keep you alive? Besides, you just got a stick rammed in your leg and lost a lot of blood, I’m the one who actually got shot, and I’m up and at it already.”

I sigh, and look up to the bloodbag. It’s almost empty. “Do you know how to take an IV out?”

He puts his hands on his hips, “yeah, you pull it, it’s not that hard. I’ve pulled bullets out of people’s flesh before, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

I weigh my options for a moment. Getting trained in a jungle, he must know at least a little about medicine. “Alright, fine. I’ll trust you.”

“Thanks. Even if it goes wrong, I’m well trained in mouth to mouth.” He flashes a bright smile and winks.

That get’s a giggle out of me, I’ll admit. Not that either of us are in any shape to do anything. Miramita has several broken ribs, and stitches over his gunshot wounds, while my leg is in agony and has a similar number of stitches.

We talk talk until the bloodbag is finished, then he skillfully pulls it out and patches up the wound. After that, he helps me out on a magnet suit and we tour the ship. I have to heavily favor my leg, but it’s not that bad.

We spend the rest of the trip back to civilized space together. Visiting the firryans we rescued, talking with the aliens we befriended, and entertaining the crew of the ship that risked their lives to help. Once Captain Pictuan drops us off at a Protectorate space station, we escort the injured firryans and the aliens to an FLF-aligned travel agency, who quickly set about returning them home. But Miramita and I stay on the station out here on the frontier.

Once our injuries heal and we’re at 100% once more, we part ways amicably and return to our duties as proud agents of the Firryan Liberation Front.

There will always be more slavers to kill and comrades to rescue, after all.