by Smith, T. L.
“Yeah…” Jayda sighed again. “I was pretty sure you’d be a sore loser.” Jayda squinted back at him. “I didn’t stop with four little bombs. Adams, detonate!”
Hendrix started to open his mouth, but the door to the cockpit blew. Snead ducked from his seat. Through the open comm other explosions sounded. On her external monitor Jayda saw their docking portal blow. Oxygen wasn’t the only thing venting from their ship. Jayda closed the comm link to the Tessling. She didn’t need to watch Hendrix die.
“All clear. Lewis, gather the remaining team and sweep the station.” Jayda swung her chair around to look at Nick. His skin was grey. “Taylor, get down here. Now!”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Breeze activated the medical scanner. “Pulse is weak. There’s blood in the pericardium.”
“On my way!” Taylor responded.
“Computer, open lab doors. Maintain bypass of all protocol.” Jayda slid out of her chair, crawling back to Nick. “I got rid of them. We’re safe again. You have to hang on.”
Breeze reached over to grip Jayda’s shoulder. “Taylor will be here in a minute.” She twisted around to the crew. “We need space. Get to the med lab. If you’re fit for duty, report to Lewis. Got that, Lewis?”
“Yes, ma’am!” He started issuing the same orders, including the men in the bot chambers. Jayda tuned him out. Images of her past were gone, but not the guilt. All she could see was Nick. Was she going to lose this man too, because someone was out to get her? Tears blurred her vision, dripping onto Nick’s cheek.
She didn’t look up as someone replaced Breeze, but recognized Taylor’s voice, telling her what was happening. The buildup of blood leaking into the heart sac was squeezing the heart to the point it couldn’t keep beating.
She felt a twinge in Nick’s body as Taylor inserted a needle between Nick’s ribs, into his chest. She lifted her face from his. “He felt that!”
“Can’t help it.” Taylor kept an eye on the scan image as she drew off blood. “Heart rate increasing, but I’m going to have to do something, soon. He’ll bleed out without surgery.”
“Then do it!”
Taylor shook her head, not taking her eyes off the display. “The med lab’s not set up for this.”
“We don’t have a choice.”
“No, we don’t. I have to get that shard out and the hole closed up.” Taylor turned to her medical kit. “I’ll give him an infusion while I set things up.”
“I’ll get someone here to move him.” Breeze stood.
“No, can’t move him. It’s a miracle his heart isn’t already cut to pieces.” Taylor looked up at Breeze. “We’ll have to do it right here.”
“We?” Breeze held her hand to her chest. “I’ve only got basic emergency training, nothing more.”
“I know. Dr. Maldonado will have to assist me.”
“What?”
“You’re the robotics expert. I’m sure that covers micro-components as well as warships.” Taylor pulled out a bag of artificial blood and handed it to Breeze. She pulled out an IV kit and focused her attention on getting a vein. “I’ll need extra hands on the instruments when we extract the shard.”
Taylor connected the IV and sat back. “Think you can control your emotions enough to do this?”
Jayda wiped tears from her face. “I’ve never done surgery.”
“I’ll do the surgery. You’ll be stabilizing the heart’s position.” She stood up, heading out of the lab “Keep him still. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Breeze held the IV bag, staring down at Jayda. “Can you do this? Set aside this love-hate thing going on between the two of you?”
Jayda glared back at the pretty young pilot. “Can you? I’ve seen how you two huddle up together.”
“What?” Breeze shook her head.
“I’ve seen you together!” Jayda hissed. “I’ve seen how he touches you.”
“Oh, my God! Ewww….noooo. No, no, no. Nick’s my uncle.” Breeze rolled her eyes. “Maybe the two of you should try talking to each other.”
Jayda looked down at Nick, then up at Breeze. There was no resemblance at all except they were both tall.
No resemblance at all, until Breeze smiled that same half-crooked grin. “His sister married my father.” She jerked her chin towards Nick. “Can you do it?”
Jayda dared to stroke his cheek. “I have to.”
Boots echoed through the open doors, Taylor returning. Both women watched as the doctor returned with two other crew and gear. “All right, let’s do this.”
The techs brought in the robotic unit and Taylor finished cutting off Nick’s shirt. She wedged surgical towels around Nick’s upper body, then poured disinfectant over his back and chest, washing away some of the blood.
Taylor went to the robot and called Jayda over. “I know this is scary. Really, you won’t have to do much.” She uploaded a scan of Nick’s chest, pointing at the display. “I’m going to insert the arms here. We’ll come up on the shard and the gripper arm will secure it. The paddle arm will brace against the heart. I’ll come in over here with the surgical arms.”
She pointed out the micro devices on the robot’s central shaft, all protruding from a small tube. “When I tell you, you will start to withdraw the shard. I’ll be doing the repairs.” She picked up a pair of goggles, urging Jayda to put them on.
Jayda slipped them over her head. Taylor held two hand controls out for her. “Left grip is the clamp, right grip is the paddle, get familiar with how they twist and turn. You can see from their perspective what you’re doing. Split view, left, right, tip your head. Forward, back, to each side. See the movement ratio lower center of your view? You shift the control a centimeter it moves a millimeter.”
Taylor let go of Jayda’s hands. “Play with those a minute.”
The devices were in clear plastic sheaths, protruding from a flexible rod. The two other tools remained motionless, controlled by the other handsets. She stopped when Taylor returned. “It’s time. We need to position the robot.”
Jayda got out of the way as the techs moved the robot to straddle Nick’s body. Taylor worked the computer. “All the scans are fed in. Robotic scans will correlate information and verify mapping.”
The robot did its own final adjustments, rolling back and forth, then locking itself to the decking. “Unit has identified foreign object.” A robotic voice announce.
“It’s time.”
The techs slid chairs over as they took their places at the controls. Taylor pulled off the final sterile covers and the instruments retracted into the metal arm. She buried her face into the console’s main viewer. The arm with all the instruments spun around and down.
A larger clear tube dropped itself down over the arm, settling against Nick’s side, pressing into the flesh. A mist sprayed the skin and turned orange after a moment, another disinfectant. Then one of the arms slipped down, computer guided. A bright blue-white laser opened the first layer of flesh, then cut deeper and deeper.
There was no immediate blood, but Jayda didn’t hold out hope to avoid it. Once Taylor had the multiple arms in place, she’d have to put on her goggles and see Nick from the inside. It was a terrifying thought. One she pushed into that dark place in her head where she hid all her bad dreams.
Jayda closed her eyes, taking deep breaths, listening as Taylor talked herself through the intrusion into Nick’s body. “Arm four clamp in place. Shard stabilized. Arm three, clamping paddle stable. Arm one clamping paddle stable. Arm two laser entering Aorta… Just a bit further.”
Though she still had her eyes closed, Jayda visualized the process.
“Dr. Maldonado, if you’d join me?” Jayda peeked at Nick, looking not much different, except for the tube stuck in his side. She glanced up at Taylor, who tipped her head out of the viewer. “I won’t release control to you until we’re both ready. Remember your ratios. The computer will smooth out your reactions if you’re a bit jittery.”
“Yeah, that helps
.” She pulled down her goggles and took the controls as Taylor handed them to her. Another breath, a silent gasp to see Nick’s heart, the shard tip buried deep. Blood seeped from the wound with every beat. Hearing it, seeing the scans, imagining the real thing didn’t prepare her.
She pushed every emotion she had into that dark place, shutting down all but the sound of Taylor’s voice as the surgery began.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Foster had his eyes closed, listening to the damage reports. “The crew cannibalized the Dolan 4 to repair the communications array. They lost one more crewman and more injured, including Ni…Dolan. Primary docking bay is compromised. Using secondary system in the cargo bay. We have three more days before the Evac ship arrives.”
“Well, pack up your gear, pull all the memory files, the rest we’ll break down and transfer to one of the other stations.”
“What? You’re… I’m not… Foster, you know I can’t do that!” Jayda braced herself for an argument. “You go find this Lou Barron, or whoever’s contesting my patents. That’s who did this. Go after them and let me get back to work.”
He pulled on his firm ‘not going to get your way this time’ look. “You can’t stay out there with all that damage.”
“I have the damage contained. Just send repair teams.” She could be as stubborn as Fos. “I can’t leave.”
“No, you won’t leave. There’s a difference.” He softened up a bit, leaning forward. “It’s time to stop punishing yourself.”
“I’m not!”
“Like hell you’re not. You’ve used your past to hide and your disability as an excuse to stay hidden. I’ve seen the medical reports. Most of your wounds are healed. Any weaknesses now are self-inflicted from living in zero-g so long.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Jayda growled into the link. “I’m not leaving. Go find who did this and leave me alone.”
Foster slammed his hand down on the desk, so hard Jayda jumped. “You listen to me, Doctor. You’re going to evacuate that station if I have to come out there and drag you out of there myself.”
He pointed his finger at her. “You were the target. You and your private experiments, not us. A week ago you were one of our prize assets, but now you’re an expensive liability. Until this matter is resolved we’re putting you under protection. Then, and only then, will we give you another base to work from. With conditions.”
“What conditions?”
“Haven’t fully decided.” Foster’s glare softened. “You’re an asset, a liability, but also somehow a friend. I’m doing this for your own good. Prepare to be evacuated.” He terminated the link before she could respond.
“YOU CAN’T!” She shouted at dead air, then proceeded to argue all the reasons she couldn’t leave, to herself, ranting until she was out of breath.
Her comm chimed again as she tried to breath. It wasn’t Foster. “What, Dr. Taylor?”
“Capt. Dolan is requesting to see you, again.”
“Tell him I have work to do!” Jayda terminated the link. He’d asked several times since he woke up from surgery, but she couldn’t open that door again. When the Evac ship arrived they’d all be taken to the nearest base. Better to break those ties now.
As for her evacuating, Foster would reconsider. It would take a while before he got anyone to come after her. By then they’d know who tried to grab her. By then she’d give Foster an alternative to transferring her.
She tapped open her comm. “Denny, report!”
There was a slight delay. “Yes, ma’am! What can I do for you?” He sounded completely different from the scared boy they released from the storage bay.
He was sure they would jettison him to join his pirate buddies, but further interviews confirmed he was a Vanished, one of thousands of kids abducted from colony raids. They grabbed kids so young they’d forget their real lives.
Denny was something of an exception. He remembered being a real kid, from a real family, from people who didn’t do such horrendous things to others. He was old enough to keep his mouth shut and his head down. Until now.
He attached himself to Jayda. He helped her avoid the crew, bringing her supplies and information. “Denny, can you bring me dinner?”
“Immediately!” He chirped.
He wouldn’t be long so she switched to the station plans. Other than the airlock door and the decon room into her lab, most of the damage was surface, nothing structural. A repair team could repair everything in a few weeks, except station security. She marked the bulkhead doors.
The door behind her opened. “Thank you, Denny. I have a lot to do before my next comm-link with corporate. Got to have a plan.”
“For what?”
Jayda swung around to see Nick sliding a tray onto her small dining table.
“What are you doing here?” She looked to the door to see Denny with one of Nick’s security men draping an arm over his shoulders.
He pouted. “Sorry, ma’am, they made me!”
“It’s okay, Denny. Some people don’t know what the word ‘no’ means. Go on with your jobs.” Security let Denny go and the door closed. Jayda refocused her anger. “Why are you here? Why are you walking around?”
Nick pulled out a chair and sat down. “I’m under orders to exercise. Your Senaprox has been speeding up my recover, and the nerve regeneration.” He held out his left hand, flexing his fingers slowly. “Taylor thinks I’ll see a full recover, eventually. Should be a good case study for your testing.”
“No, you’re not.” Jayda turned back to her station plans. “Using the medication on you, on anyone, is basically illegal. It’s not approved yet.”
“Yeah, Taylor said the same thing, so we removed any mention of it from our official reports.” Nick rapped on the tray. “Come eat.”
Jayda tried to ignore him, but she was tired. She left the plans up and ground her teeth to walk over to the table, taking the other chair.
Nick never took his eyes off her. “You’re walking better. It’s good you learned to do without those braces.” Nick lifted the cover off the main dish. “Getting back to a full-g will be tough, but once we’re on a larger station I’m sure they can adjust your temporary quarters gradually.”
“They won’t need to.” She ignored the food, reaching for the drink pack. It wasn’t what she’d told Denny to prepare for her, but a nutrient enhanced juice, Taylor’s demand after a lecture that she had to eat better for the transition. “I’m not leaving.”
Nick shook his head at her proclamation. “The Alliance has orders to remove us, all of us.”
“This is private property, not an Alliance station.” Jayda was ready to practice her argument with Nick. “We only agreed to be an emergency depot since we’re inside this route’s boundary.” She downed the juice.
“Imminent danger.”
“Is over. They blew it, literally and figuratively.”
“There’s that sense of humor I’ve been missing.” Nick grinned his crooked smirk. “You might have blown them up, but the people behind it are still out there. It wouldn’t be the first time criminals came after the victim out of spite. Whether you like it or not, I’m not leaving you out here by yourself.”
“I’m not leaving, even if I have to lock myself in the core.”
She expected Nick to argue with her. She wanted him to, but he simply sat there staring at her. Finally he reached out and pushed her food closer. “Eat.” He stood up, slowly walking towards the door. “You have a few days to change your mind.”
“I won’t!” Jayda shouted as he disappeared.
CHAPTER TWENTY
She wanted him to go. She wanted them all to go, even Denny, who begged to stay. She bit down on the urge to allow it. He had to go too. He needed to find his real family.
At fifteen he needed to find out who he was supposed to be, before he’d been stolen away. The Alliance would compare his DNA to missing person reports. In the meantime they could recondition him back into normal
life. Something he wouldn’t get staying with her.
Either Breeze or Dolan took her refusal to leave seriously, ordering the engineers to repair the airlock and move radar equipment from their wrecked ship to the Sienna, incorporating it into the EWS. The rest of the crew worked to make what other repairs they could, if only to clean up the station from all the shrapnel.
All of this was reported to her through Denny as she kept track of the approaching Alliance ship. Well before they entered the perimeter, and before Nick could stop her, she slipped into her lab, locking herself down.
The Alliance captain tried to bully her into coming out, reiterating Foster’s orders, but she refused to budge. Eventually he gave up on his orders and continued evacuating the station.
Jayda waited until the computer confirmed the ship’s departure, remotely resealing her airlock before venturing out of her lab. Though she kept telling herself this was what she wanted, feeling the sudden emptiness was painful.
They were all gone. She went to the galley and watched the large ship slip further and further from the station. The Dolan 4 and the shell of the GR ship securely in tow.
Jayda watched the ships pass the perimeter. No arguing, no good-byes, exactly what she’d demanded. She got what she wanted, so why did it feel like someone had cut out her heart a second time. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she saw the flash of them going to FTL.
“I thought you’d be happy to see everyone gone?”
Hearing a voice behind her made her fall out of the portal, she stumbled to gain her balance, backing away from where Nick had snuck up on her. “Why are you still here?” She looked over her shoulder, out into empty space.
“I told you I wasn’t going to let you stay out here alone.” Nick stalked after her. “If you refuse to go back in-system, then so do I.”
“No…” Jayda’s vision blurred. “Your family… the business...”
“It’s a big family.” He caught her arms, preventing her from slipping away. “And the business has been running just fine without me. Besides, I don’t exactly fit in, which seems to be a theme for the three of us. We’re a misfit family of our own.”
