Free Vareen & Mica (The Alliance Book 2) by Stormy McKnight

Her hair was cut short in layers around her head. The
longest points reached her shoulders and there were a few spiked points as
well. Her face was sunken from whatever had put her into the hospital. Her
cheeks were more prominent, but at least they had some color. Her eyes seemed
huge in her face, but that could be due to the style of her haircut. Overall, she
looked the same. Perhaps a bit of darkness under her eyes, and she’d lost
weight, but nothing extreme.
    With a shrug, she moved away from
the bathroom.
    At this point, a male came into the
room. He was very tall, with lovely wavy auburn hair. His eyes were a strange
mix between brown and amber colored. Similar to her friend Cali’s, but darker.
His face wasn’t chiseled but slightly
rounded with a square chin and high cheekbones.
    She knew there was something she should remember about the red shirt he
wore. She’d been told it signified something, but she couldn’t recall what
exactly. The harder she tried to grab the memory the further away it got. Moving on in her perusal of the doctor she saw
he had on nice black pants, military style boots, and a white doctor’s lab coat.
    He stopped before her and held out his hand, “Hello Vareen. You’ve given
us quite a scare and I’m happy to finally be talking with you. I am Dr. Jaden
Takari, please, call me Jaden.”
    Vareen smiled in relief and shook hands with the doctor. Here was someone
she could relate to. “Doctor Jaden. Can you please tell me what’s going on?”
      “Not doctor,” his smile was wide
and showed perfect white, even teeth. “Just Jaden. Have a seat on the bed and
we’ll go over everything that’s happened.”
    Vareen quickly turned and sat on the bed. She was ready to hear what had
occurred to make everything feel so fractured.

 
    Chapter Ten
    “What is the last thing you remember?” Jaden asked her. He had positioned
himself at the end of her bed. The tablet in his hand that Daizie had mentioned
earlier held her medical records.
    “I remember being assigned to The
Reliant. I was to serve as the science
officer and second in command.”
    “Anything else?” The doctor encouraged, his fingers tapping away.
    “No. I just remember arriving at Thalesti and getting my gear ready.
Making sure my plants were being watered while I was away. That sort of thing.
Is there something I should be remembering?”
    “You don’t recall arriving on The Reliant ?”
    Vareen tried but she had no memories of being on The Reliant . It was like watching everything underwater with her eyes half closed. The
memories were just out of reach. “I’m sorry. The harder I try to remember, the
cloudier it becomes.”
    “Okay. I can fill in some pieces, but I think the best course of action
is to let your memories return or not as your body can manage.” The doctor took
a deep breath, “First let me assure you that you are safe and have friends
here. No harm will come to you.”
    Vareen found that odd and not very reassuring but nodded anyway. “Okay. I
believe you.”
    The doctor took her hand. “Vareen, you spent some time on The Reliant . While in space you found
escape pods and rescued the humanoids inside
those pods. Do you recall any of that?”
    “No.” Vareen found what the doctor was telling
her to be fascinating. “How long were we in space? How long were the humanoids
in the escape pods?”
    “As I said. I think some of your memories
need to return at their own pace.”
    He looked uncomfortable and Vareen frowned
back. “There has to be more. Why can’t I remember being on The Reliant ? How long of a period of time have I lost?”
      “I
know you don’t recall the details, but you were given command of The Reliant and returned to Cestori,” he
shifted in the chair and tapped his tablet again.
    Vareen sat feeling…nothing. The information the doctor gave her resulted
in no response. It was just a piece of a puzzle being put into place.
    “I had command of The Reliant ?”
Vareen