"Yes! I will find her! Tell Luol to have a repair unit waiting!"
"Yes, General!"
"Nikhil..." Mackenzie's eyes remained locked with his and she could see the hurt in them.
"You lied to me, Mackenzie.”
Mac's eyes widened at how hard and cold Nikhil's voice had become. "I didn't!"
"You just did not tell me truth," he fired back. "Is that not something you said was unacceptable to you?!!"
"Yes! But this is different." When Nikhil would have moved away from her, she grabbed his arm. "You didn't tell me about something that was personal that affected us. You and me!"
"And this doesn't affect us?!!" he looked at her in total disbelief.
"No! Not like that! This was about someone else! The guys protected Jen, just like they did me. When you rescued us, all they did was continue to protect her because they didn't know how you would treat her, and they couldn't risk it!"
"You knew we would never harm her!" Nikhil shouted at her.
"I did!" Mac told him, wincing slightly that he was shouting at her; not because she thought he would hurt her, but because she knew he was hurting. "I tried to convince Jen to let me reveal her presence. That's why I wanted you to take me there while you were gone. So I could try again, but she wasn't ready, Nikhil, and I couldn't force her."
"How badly is she injured?" Luol demanded from the control panel of the other repair unit.
"From today, I don't know." Mac felt her eyes start to fill as she remembered what had happened. "I barely saw her jump on that Zaludian's back before she started stabbing him with one of Nikhil's blades. I was clawing at the hand that was wrapped around my throat," Mac's hand went to her throat as she remembered. "Jen made him drop me, but then he ripped her off his back and threw her against the wall. She hit it so hard... and when she hit the floor she didn't move. I don't know how she managed to stop him. She'd been so severely injured in the mine. Broken bones.... scars... "
"What?!!" Both males looked at her in shock.
"I don't know how she survived," Mac whispered, her tears flowing down her face. "I did what I could, but when she started to run a fever I thought we were going to lose her."
Before they could question her further, Treyvon shouted as he came rushing into the room carrying something wrapped in a gray cape.
"Luol!" he roared.
"Oh God! Jen!" Mac was up and moving to her friend.
"Get back!" The rage in Treyvon's snarled words had Mac stumbling back in shock and Nikhil pulled her protectively behind him.
"Do not attack my Ashe!" Nikhil snarled back. Stepping forward he bumped his chest against the General.
"She put a female at risk!" Treyvon roared at him.
"Stop it! Both of you!" Mac shoved her way past the two males to get to Jen. "None of that matters right now. What matters is Jen. Luol?" She looked up at the Healer with pleading eyes.
"I need to see how badly she's injured before I activate the unit, Mackenzie." Luol moved to Jen and couldn't contain the gasp of horror at what was revealed when he pulled back the hood that had fallen over the female's face. While there was no sign of recent injury, her face was ravaged with healed scars that could only have been caused by the spikes of a Zaludian glove. "She was able to recover from this? In the mine?"
Luol's question had the arguing males looking at Jen and they immediately ceased fighting.
"This and more," Mac told him, her tears starting again. "They threw her into the crevasse with all the other dead bodies. She shattered her ankle on the way down, and there are more scars on her body from where the rocks sliced into her." Mac opened the cape further, revealing them to Luol.
"Goddess..." Mac wasn't sure who said that.
"Can you help her, Luol?" she asked looking to the Healer.
"I will do all I can for her, Mackenzie." He immediately moved back to the control panel. "Step back I need to start treating her immediately if I'm going to save her. She is fading fast."
"Oh God!" Mac's trembling fingers covered her mouth as she leaned back into Nikhil's arms when she felt them envelop her in comfort. "She's been in such pain, Nikhil. Every day I saw it, but she never gave up. None of us would have survived without her.
They all watched as the unit closed and a dense blue vapor filled it.
"What's that?!!" Mac questioned.
"It's to ease her pain and help her stay relaxed while the unit works. I don't want her waking while the unit is still running. She might harm herself."
"Do you know how long?" Mac asked.