Assessing Survival (3 page)

George opened the door to the med bay for her, and she straightened her shoulders and walked inside.

Six men were on the med beds, and the first attending physician looked at her with a scowl. “Who are you?”

“Major Carter, Assessment Officer. May I be of assistance?”

The doctor frowned, but one of the men leaned up on one elbow, the other arm was missing. “It’s Stitch!”

Suddenly, she had the attention of every conscious man in the room. She waved. “Hi.”

Those that could waved back.

“We have a virgin in the back corner. Tell me what you would recommend.” The doctor seemed to accept the recognition as her credentials.

Stitch headed to the corner where a man was lying and shaking with panic. “Hey, soldier. My name is Stitch, and I am going to be checking your options.”

She stroked his forehead, and his eyes fluttered closed before they opened and pierced her with a panicked gaze. “Is it bad?”

“It isn’t the worst I have seen.” She stroked his cheek softly.

She flicked open her scanner and ran the vid system down until she had seen all of the deep tissue scans that had been run on him.

She kept one hand on his face and ordered a nanite booster for him as well as several rounds of weaponry and high-stress legs that would enable him to move easily and leap twenty feet.

“I am going to check on the structure supplies and make sure that everything will work together.”

He looked at her with wide eyes. “Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t. I will do it all from here. I just have to stop touching you for a moment. You will still be able to see me.”

He nodded. “Well, I guess I won’t be a virgin much longer.”

Stitch chuckled. “Nope. We all have to lose it sometime.”

Everything she needed was in stock.

The doctor came over when she nodded, and she held out the order.

“Does he need that power pack?”

“To keep the legs functioning and using the boost option, yes.”

He blinked. “You actually are
that
Stitch.”

“Yes. Now, since he needs the nanite booster, you might want to get on that.”

The physician grinned and left her alone. A med assistant came over with the booster and gave it to the young man who had lost both legs and one arm. The other was shattered. She stroked his cheek over and over until the sedatives took over. He didn’t need to be alone right then.

Keenan Lukai was her focus until the team came to take him away.

She walked to the side of one of the cyborgs who had suffered a crushing injury. He patted the side of his bed, and she hopped up. “So, lazy. What are you in for?”

He laughed, and so did the man in the next bed.

Stitch spent the next few hours chatting with, flirting with and generally cheerfully tormenting all the men waiting to go into surgery or for replacement installation. When the damage warranted it, she upgraded their implants.

Finally, they were all out of the triage area and she could breathe.

George came in, and he smirked. “The ones out of surgery are requesting your attention, Stitch.”

She nodded. “Right. Of course.” She brushed at the front of her trousers, straightened her shirt.

This was what she did. She was the advocate for the wounded, trying to do what was best for them.

Keenan was still in surgery, but the others were out and getting their software upgrades.

There was a man in a bloodstained uniform speaking with one of the patients. Something was familiar about him.

She shrugged and went to check on the sergeant who was learning how to move his new hand.

“How is that going for you?”

He looked at it. “It feels different.”

“It should. It has a blade extension that runs up the back of your wrist. It will come on line when you have mastered feeding yourself.”

One of the other guys called out, “He will settle for being able to jerk off without ripping his dick off.”

Stitch kept her expression bland. “It will be a good control test.”

It was a little odd to see the men after their implants were attached. The nanites were building seamless silver skin over the structures, and the men were rapidly becoming battle ready.

As she made the rounds to check on them, they all started to show signs of increased mobility. Feet flexed, hands flexed and their chests shuddered as their new organs kicked into play. The medical staff uncoupled them as the implants took their place in their bodies.

Stitch wondered what had taken place in her own system. Waking up with the implants functioning meant that they had had time to grow into her system. The hand felt like hers. It was even warm to the touch.

One of the men reached up with his silver right hand. She clasped it with her own.

His grin was one of pure joy. “It’s a great fit.”

“It is. I will send a letter of admiration to the manufacturer. Maybe I can get a long-distance thing going.” She winked.

The other men laughed and jeered at the man still holding her hand. He flexed and pulled her toward him, so she responded with careful pressure.

His expression was shocked as she pulled him up and out of the bed. He was hanging from her grip, and the hoots from the other patients drew the angry eye of the medics.

“Major Carter, please put him down.”

Stitch relaxed her arm, pulled away, and he settled back into the med bed.

“Why are you pestering the medic, Danforth?”

The voice was a new one. Stitch turned and looked at the brunette man wearing a skintight, sleeveless top and bloodstained black pants tucked into combat boots. The amazing thing was the colour that was riding the cybernetic arm. She had never seen designs on the silverwork before.

To her astonishment, the men in recovery snapped to a sort-of attention while lying down.

Danforth cleared his throat. “This isn’t a medic, Captain. This is Stitch.”

His features were sharp and reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t quite place it.

The man walked right up to her and glared down at her with deep-brown eyes. She stared up at him, and he growled, “What will you give me if I go through with this?”

Recognition flared in her. “I will let you watch me eat a hot dog. Slowly.”

He barked a laugh and hugged her. Stitch squeaked as he lifted her off her feet.

She patted the metal of his shoulders. “Nice to see you again, Nikolai.”

He looked at her and confusion came to his features. “Why are you here?”

“The explosion. All cyborgs must be shipped to the front lines as soon as they are mobile.” She tapped him with her silver hand.

He set her carefully on her feet. “The base that blew? That was two years ago.”

She smiled up at him. “Did all the beauty sleep work?”

Six men burst into applause. More hooting ensued.

He realized he was holding her, and he stepped back. “You look fine. Good. Lovely.”

Danforth chuckled. “Maybe you should get your tongue replaced, Captain. You seem to have hit a stumbling block.”

The others chuckled.

Nikolai glanced away from her, and he was seeking someone. “Danforth, where is he?”

Stitch tapped his chest. “If you are talking about Keenan Lukai, he is in surgery, but let me check on it.”

Nikolai was suddenly tense. “Is there a problem?”

“Let me find out.”

She eased away from him and headed for the operating theatre. The door was sealed, but she was able to check the vid of the surgery. It was way outside of her paygrade, but she saw the surgeries and implants of the skeletal frameworks that would soon be his silver limbs.

The surgical team moved smoothly, and when Stitch had cut off the vid display, they came out with Keenan on the gurney, moving him to the recovery unit. The skeletal bases of his legs and his arm were visible, but the extra nanites were already moving through his system and grafting skin over the metalwork.

Three days and he would be up and running again.

She walked behind the gurney, and when she looked into Nikolai’s eyes, she darted a quick look toward Keenan. Damn. Brothers. It was bad enough for one member of a family to be out on the front lines, let alone two.

“Nikolai, he needs to rest. His readings are stable, and the grafts have taken. He will be up and running soon.”

She walked over and put her hand on Nikolai’s arm, feeling the metal and tissue flex under her touch.

“I promised him I would look out for him.”

“You did. He is alive.”

Nikolai looked at his brother, lying still and silent under the sheet with the metal limbs extending. “Is alive enough?”

She patted him with her silver hand. “It is for me.”

With nothing left to say, she turned and left him to stare at his brother. She had to order some mods to her own body so that she could move comfortably. With the men waiting for active implants, she would have to get in line, but it was better that she did it now. Who knew what tomorrow was going to bring?

After she finished the paperwork for the parts she had ordered for the repairs on the men, her own requisitions needed the commanding officer’s authorization.

She gathered the documents in her reader; she smiled at the use of the word
paperwork.
Paper hadn’t been used for one hundred seventy-three years, and yet, it was still a reference for the tools of bureaucracy.

Stitch headed to the commanding officer’s office and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

She stepped inside and was struck by the familiarity of the face that greeted her. “Nikolai?”

“Come in, Stitch.”

She scowled. “How are you the base commander if you are a captain?”

“Scarcity. Alpha Base is on the front lines. When the satellites warn us, it is all hands to the ships. This place is a ghost town with the exception of the medical staff. They don’t need an officer if there is no one to work on.”

He waved for her to come in and sit. “Technically, you outrank me, so you can have command if you want it.”

She scowled. “Give me a week.”

He laughed.

She moved to the chair opposite the desk, and she sat. “I have the reports for the recent repairs and the new implants on your brother.”

She opened her reader and flicked the report onto his desk.

He sighed. “I hate paperwork.”

She laughed. “Right. Well, here is the requisition for some alterations to me.”

When she flicked the information over, he stared at it. “What?”

“I need some ballast in my left arm; I have put in a requisition for reinforcement coils around my lower skeletal structure.”

He frowned. “You want to go in again?”

“In?”

“To surgery.”

“No, not particularly, but I wasn’t assessing me when the parts were put in. The few ounces of unbalanced weight in my arms throw me off when I walk. The new organs have changed the structural integrity of my body, and my legs require reinforcement to compensate for the less efficient mineralization offered by the new organs.”

He blinked. “So, what do you need?”

“You are the commander. You have to authorize my non-emergent alterations.”

He looked down at the forms, including the outline of the female body with the marks on the necessary portions. “Is there anything else?”

“No. I mean, I wish I could run this past Cracker, but she isn’t listed as being on active duty.”

He chuckled. “Did you check your own status? You are still on medical leave. Cracker is awake, aware and designing new implants every week.”

“Holy shit.” Stitch leaned forward eagerly. “Can I contact her?”

He shook his head. “No, but you can send the request to her and see what she thinks. We will bounce it through a dozen satellites, and she will reply. A burst is the only way we can communicate with Omega Base.”

Stitch nodded and pulled the file back onto her screen, working quickly to send as much information as she could. She hummed quickly and sent the file back to Nikolai. “There. We will see what she can do with that.”

He nodded and sent the file using a series of codes that she tried not to notice. Her analytical mind was already recording them before she thought to look away.

Nikolai smiled. “How long do you think she will need?”

“If she came through the explosion without brain damage? She will call back in three hours.”

He nodded. “Would you like some lunch? It is time for a break.”

“Sure.” She got to her feet, and he got up and rounded his desk.

They walked in silence to the dining hall and didn’t speak again until they were seated.

“So, Captain Lukai, how did you end up here?”

He smiled and forked up his meal. “Same way as everyone else. I went to the front line, and now, I am here. When the call comes, we go out, and if we are lucky, we come back.”

“How did your brother get here?”

“He was a new assignment. They send them to us now and then. I had no idea he was coming. I tried to protect him, but he is a fighter and there was no stopping him.” He shuddered. “Just as there was no stopping me.”

“You survived.”

“I wanted more from life than endless war. I wanted to return home a hero.” He looked at her with his piercing gaze, and she was left speechless.

“You still can.”

Surprise filled his gaze. “Didn’t they tell you? They locked Earth against us. There is no going home.”

Her fork clattered to the table. “I thought they just put up shields.”

“They did. They are safe as long as we keep the Splice from gaining momentum. That is our duty. We are the first line of defense, the barking dog on the outside of the perimeter.”

“My family...”

He looked surprised. “You have children?”

“No. Parents, siblings. Can we send messages?”

Nikolai nodded. “We can. It is the same batch sending that we used to send the message to Omega Base.”

She ran her hands through her hair. “Do they even know I am alive? Holy hells. This is...”

“Eat your lunch.”

She couldn’t eat. Couldn’t think. She clutched at her head as her heart pounded. Her home. Gone. She had been kicked out, locked out, and no one had even bothered telling her.