Free Chasing Constellations (The UGS Constellation Series) by HA Fortman

the healer’s hands over her body. While it didn’t vanish completely, it did recede to where she never noticed unless she moved too far in any direction or jerked suddenly.
    “Do you remember what he looked like?”
    “He… He looked…” Lowering her gaze to Yannick’s hands, Elisa tried to bring the man’s face to the front of her memory.
    She closed her eyes and shuddered as she remembered each blow against her body, each sickening crack and thud as his fists met her flesh, before she turned her glare back to Cha se. “He looked like you! But... but something was different…”
    Cha se nodded and gave a soft sigh, it was as he had suspected. He wasn’t exactly sure why she had been targeted, but he had his suspicions. However, he was sure if he hadn’t arrived when he had then she would have been worse off and possibly could have expired.
    “See to her care Yannick, I need to speak with Tracker.” With a nod at them both, Elisa watched as Chase spun on his heel and left the room with the soft slide of the automatic doors.
    “ Well, my dear, you will be fine in a bit but for now I want you to rest. You’ve had quite the shock to your system and I don’t want to harm what I’ve healed.” Patting her tenderly on her right shoulder, Yannick gathered his hypo and turned to leave her to rest.
    “Lights, dim to forty percent.” He softly murmured as he made his way back to a doorway Elisa hadn’t noticed before.
    “Where am I? You never answered me. Please, just tell me where I am.” With a groan Elisa lifted herself up onto her elbow and tried to turn to her side, she didn’t want to be left alone.
    A slight smile crossed the healer's face when he turned back to the bed. One of her questions was answered when he pushed a rolling stool toward the bed and perched on top of it, each of his long legs spread across it much like the legs underneath that held it upright.
    “I am not sure what the Commander has told you, but you are aboard the UGS Constellation, it’s a galactic battle cruiser class warship for the United Galactic Securities. Basically the safety of the known galaxies relies on us and the rest of our ships, of which there are too many to count. We are currently in orbit over your plant of Earth, just far enough away that your satellites aren’t able to detect us, but close enough to transport to and from when needed. The Commander brought you here because you were severely beaten, what happened to you? Do you remember anything?”
    Gently as though he were afraid to scare her more tha n she already appeared to be, Yannick placed a hand on the side of her shoulder and let his long thin fingers cup around it.
    “I… don’t remember much, no. I think… I think I got a threatening call? But then my friend from back home called and we talked on the phone for hours. I forgot all about the first call by the time we were done talking.”
    When the healer came and sat with her, she gradually relaxed back against the bed and pillows, turning her head to watch him while her fingers played with the light blanket after tucking it under her arms to hide the rest of her body.
    Nodding as he leaned to the side and pressed a button on a small panel near the head of the bed, Yannick adjusted it so she was in a more comfortable position with her head elevated slightly. “Back home? I take it this... Callleefornieaa isn’t your home?”
    Shaking her head , Elisa said with a slight chuckle as Yannick brutalized the pronunciation, “Close, it’s California.” Slowly she taught him the proper way to say it, although there was a heavy accent to his words, he did remarkably well. “No. I only came because I knew I had to help and I found something that the police might have missed, the other killings that hadn’t been tied in.”
    She gave Yannick a slight smile as her body lifted with the bed, breathing a sigh as the shift made it easier for her to breath e.
    While most of the injuries had been healed,