Page 94 of My Tiny Giant

“How is he?” I wouldn’t give up, getting into the clothes provided by my unit—a black tank top and a pair of army-green pants.

“Lieutenant Drankai is in good hands. He is being looked after,” the AI gave me the same canned answer I’d gotten from everyone I’d asked ever since coming out of the ocean.

I believed that meant he was alive. Though nothing could be for sure, until I saw him with my own eyes.

“I need to see him.” I shoved my feet into a pair of combat boots then headed for the door out of the evaluation room.

Out in the brightly lit corridor, several white frosted glass doors lined the walls on each side.

“Where is he?” I asked the AI screen mounted on the wall next to the door of my examination room. “I have to see him right now.”

“I will need to obtain a visitation permit for you.”

“Do it.”

“There is a strong probability the request will be denied. Just like it has been denied the last eight times you’ve asked me to send it.”

“Do it again,” I insisted.

As the screen pinged with the sound of a message being sent, I quickly pressed the text-to-speech button next to the screen. The AI devices in most public places had these buttons in addition to voice commands. They were for the use of the visually impaired or for the benefit of the aliens like me who couldn’t read Voranian and needed the text to be read out loud for the translator implants to pick up the meaning.

The mechanical voice of the AI seemed to hold a note of annoyance as it read the confirmation out loud to me, including the number of the room where the message had been sent to.

“Thanks!” I dashed down the corridor, pressing the text-to-speech buttons next to each door along the way in search of Agan’s room number.

“Lieutenant Nowak,” the AI pleaded with me from each screen I passed by. “Unless you are a relative, you cannot visit any patient in this hospital without formal permission.”

I was not Agan’s family. We weren’t from the same Army or even from the same planet. As far as the heartless AI was concerned, Agan and I were complete strangers, with no rights and no claims to each other.

Over time, however, Agan had become closer to me than anyone else in the Galaxy. That fact would be hard to explain to a robot, even one as sophisticated as the Voranian AI system. I could barely understand or explain my connection with Agan myself, I simply felt it with all my heart.

“Here!” I slammed my hand on the frosted glass of the door leading to the room with the right number on the screen. “Open it,” I ordered to the AI.

“Without a permission—”

“I said open it!” I screamed on the top of my lungs.

Adrenalin shot high inside me. Agan and I could’ve died a million times during the past twenty-four hours. I had no patience to deal with a stubborn AI keeping me away from him, now.

“Lieutenant Nowak—” the AI started.

“Let her in!” the beloved voice sounded from inside the room. Hearing it flooded me with the overwhelming sense of relief and tenderness. “Or else, she’ll break something again.”

“Agan!” I rushed in the moment the door swished open.

“She’s small but fierce, my giant woman.” He was sitting on a hovering gurney, covered by a piece of sheet up to his waist. Tubes and wires protruded from various spots on his body, connecting to the surrounding screens and devices.

Several Voranians in medical suits crowded him, but they stepped aside when I kneeled by the gurney, leaning over the edge to him.

“There you are.” Agan met my eyes with his. “I was about to go searching for you since they wouldn’t take me to you.” He shot a glare at Professor Kidreks and some of his team standing nearby.

“How are you feeling?” I slid my hand closer, afraid to touch him but longing for physical contact with him.

“Lieutenant Drankai sustained a number of injuries,” Professor Kidreks spoke for Agan. “Three broken ribs resulted in internal bleeding—”

“I’ll live.” Agan wrapped his hand around my fingers. “Thanks to you, Eleven. My lucky number.” His green eyes shimmered with tenderness as he gazed at me. I didn’t just see it, I felt it. The emotion that shined in his eyes lived in my chest, too.

“I love you, Agan.”