“Are you not eating?”
“I ate earlier,” Laken
said, settling deeper in his chair.
Torin was willing to
bet that whatever Laken had for final meal had not been soup. Once he ate the broth, he opened the next container.
It too was some sort liquidy offering, so he grudgingly tasted it. At least it
was hot and had more spices.
He finished that and drank
the glass of water. There was one more receptacle he didn’t open. It galled him
to admit he was already full.
So instead he decided
to ask the question that had been buzzing around in his head since he first
woke up. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Neo the king consort?”
Laken curled his legs
under him. “Pretty sure you know he is.”
“And he’s the one who performed
my operation?”
“Neo is a doctor.”
Torin knew who and what
Neo was. That was his point. “But Neo isn’t the physician who’s attached to the
Unity. He can’t possibly be. So why did he operate on me?”
Eyes down, Laken
fiddled with the fringe of his sarong. “There aren’t that many doctors on a
starship. Surely you know this. They were needed to help with both the
Tah’Narian and Ne Reynian wounded.”
Which sounded perfectly
reasonable but didn’t answer his question. “No one else would operate, would
they?”
Heaving a sigh, Laken
grimaced and met Torin’s gaze.
