by Viola Grace
When the hour passed, she checked her sensors, and then, she waited for her incoming visitor. At least she didn’t have to worry about the sensors being spotted. The administration had agreed that she was allowed the monitors as she was one of the only females on the station, and the only human female, as far as she knew.
She lifted her good leg and put it up on the footstool when she heard a knock at her door. “What?”
“There is an emergency.”
She snorted. “I don’t care. I can’t lift my right arm.”
“It is the new arrival. The Hammer. He was jumped outside the arena.”
She groaned. “Will you carry me?”
“I will.”
She sighed. “Access granted.”
He opened the door and went straight to her tether. After she was unsnapped, he wrapped the loose tether around his arm, and then, he lifted her up to carry her down the hall to the clinic.
Hammer was lying on one of the med beds, bleeding out of a number of punctures. He stared at her. “What the hell happened to you?”
She quirked her lips. “I could say the same.” She spoke to her escort. “Set me down here and get me a visual com to the administration.”
“I need to tether you somewhere.”
She snorted. “I can’t even walk under my own power. Go!”
She waved him off with her left hand, and she hopped over to the med cabinet for a round of pain killers.
Hammer asked. “What is that for? I don’t need pain killers.”
She turned and pressed the hypo to her right arm. “I do.”
He nodded. “Right. What happened to you?”
She put the hypo back on the tray. “I fell. The guy who had my tether forgot I was attached to it, and he changed direction.”
She walked over to Hammer and examined his injuries. “Right. You need supplements for your new nanite generator.”
“I have been stabbed a bunch of times.”
She chuckled. “I know. This will protect your internal organs.”
She hopped over to the cabinet, and triple checked the supplement. She pressed the injector near his neck, and as it hissed, he shivered.
“Have you eaten yet?” She glared at him.
“Not yet. The others decided to pile on the new guy. It didn’t turn out well for them.”
She grinned and turned toward the escort who was carrying the com she had requested.
She opened the line, and when the Bredaltha receptionist saw her face, the woman got a pale lavender and murmured, “I will put you through.”
When the masculine face filled her screen, she smiled tightly. “General Thorn, I need my nanite load increased.”
He chuckled. “Nice try, Cracker.”
She pointed the screen toward Hammer. “This is your new fighter. He’s impressive. He is also bleeding out internally, and I can’t help him because I was injured this morning, and my body can’t heal itself.”
She stuck the purple, black, and crimson arm in front of the camera. She showed him the damage from fingertip to her shoulder. “Now, my entire right side is this colour, the joints are swollen, and I can’t use my surgical instruments. There are six fighters on ice right now waiting for me to heal. I can’t do shit like this.”
He frowned. “You aren’t just trying to make another run?”
“I have a twelve-foot tether lodged in my tibia. I am not going anywhere.”
“I will think about it.”
“You do that. Hammer will be dead in nine minutes. Your boys weren’t content with fists. They used blades.”
General Thorn hissed. “Fine. Authorization for your nanite production to return to full for the next twelve hours. Get your work done.”
She nodded and dropped the com on the floor for the escort to pick up.
Cracker walked to the wall, engaged in an ocular scan, and then backed herself into the programming portal.
She leaned back and felt the contact pad searching for her generator.
“Do I really only have nine minutes?”
She squinted at him. “Shh.”
The machine behind her chirped, and the programming pulse got to her generator. She could feel it firing up, and the pain relief was much more complete as the nanites began to flood through her. She glanced at her arm, and the healing process was taking place, the blood was being broken down and moved away from her skin.
She flexed her right hand. “Right, Hammer. Just a moment. You are going to be fine. I just can’t get healing for me unless one of their precious fighters is at stake. So, sorry, but I used you.”
He reached out and grabbed her hand. “Any time you need it, I can injure the hell out of myself.”
For some reason, she blushed. “I am sure that won’t be necessary, but thanks.”
She pulled the surgical controls toward her, and she examined and sealed each one of the punctures that the nanites hadn’t already fixed.
Cracker straightened and smiled. “You are good to go. All damage is healing fast.”
“Do you mind if I remain here while you work on the others?”
She blinked. “Sure. You can sit on a chair, out of the way. I will just say that you are here for observation.”
Cracker went to her desk and ordered up the first stasis tube. The wall opened, and the man in cold sleep was slid onto a med bed. It was one of the few electronic systems that continued to get solid maintenance.
She looked at the main scanner and blinked, looking at Hammer. “You did this?”
He nodded.
“Nice shot.” She looked at the crushed ribs on the right side and had to order replacements.
She ordered the second man while she waited for the ribs to arrive for the first. The second man had a leg injury. This one was more impressive as the metal replacement limb had been shattered with the blow.
“You have a nice backhand as well.”
He smiled. “Thank you.”
She sent in the request for replacement struts just as the first order arrived.
“If blood makes you queasy, look away now.”
She put on her coat and used her surgical unit to carve away the shattered bone and fit the new metal works into it. It took her an hour, but when she finished, his skin was silvering over as the damaged area was flooded with healing nanites.
She continued with the next patient, and when his parts were on order, she replaced the entire leg assembly of the second man.
“So, you do this all day?” Hammer asked from his corner.
She chuckled. “There aren’t many melees. They usually come one at a time, not all in one day.”
He nodded.
“What do you do for fun?”
She blinked and looked at him with a laugh. “They haven’t scheduled fun for me. I am on call every minute of every day.”
She was on her last patient when she thought of something. “Where are the guys who jumped you?”
Hammer smiled slightly. “Oh, they are dead. I kept at them until they stopped moving. They would only have jumped me again.”
She sighed. “Yeah. How I had the bad tasted to do something horrible in a previous life to end up here is a mystery to me. I seem to be surrounded by bad-tempered teens in men’s bodies.”
“I hope to prove to be the exception.”
She felt a twinge in her back. The hours of having her body working fully were over. She was now back under the control of the facility.
“Aw, fuck.”
He was at her side. “What is it? You went pale.”
“My nanites are down to minimal maintenance dose again. I am glad I got healing while I could, but now, I have to walk on eggshells until I am back where I am safe again.”
“Where is that?”
She gave him a wry look, noting that he had surprisingly green eyes with golden flecks.
“At this point, I think I would be safest in a Splice ship. Franky, I would be less of a target.”
She set her la
st patient to wake, and her escort took her trailing tether, leading her carefully back to her quarters while Hammer stared at her back. Those golden-green eyes carried heat.
Chapter Three
She checked and double-checked that she was going to be undisturbed, and she linked her message to the outgoing signal again, and she waited for the connection.
Lucky clicked the link, and she muttered, “Where the hell have you been?”
“Got caught up in the day job.”
“Fine. I am sending you the program, I have created that subroutine you needed and the activation protocols. Also, there is one more little thing I think you might find useful. I have included an overclocking protocol, in case you need it.”
“Thank you. It might be useful.”
“Anything else?”
“I don’t want to ask for too much more.”
“Come on. This is fun for me. Ask me for anything else?”
“Scalpels or blades that I can protrude from my fingertips without any additional implants. I need them retractable or dismissible and thin. They have to be thin but strong enough to cut through an implant.”
“Right. Okay. I think I can do that. Same time tomorrow?”
“I will try.”
The file was incoming, and she loaded it into a pressure drive as quickly as she could. She got to her feet, lined it up on her back and backed into the wall, pressing hard.
Her nanite drive came back online with a rush. Cracker could feel it. The blood pumped hard in her veins, and she smiled. One moment and she was feeling almost human again.
The protocol for the leg went into Cracker’s internal drive. The activation was a little weird, but she wouldn’t do it accidentally. When she tried to run again, it would be ready.
She dismantled her com kit and scattered the pieces around the room. She then took the download unit apart and wired it into her entertainment headset.
She was playing an online game when there was a knock at her door. “What is it?”
“There is an illegal download at this location.”
“Come in.”
She ignored them and kept working to solve the maze and blast her way to the next level.
Nothing that they could find would tip off what she had been up to.
They took their time looking through her clothing, under her bed, and under all of her electronics.
Finally, one of them said, “We have to check your game system.”
She nodded. “Fine. I am just going to save my game, and you can have at it.”
She saved her level, set her controller down, and hobbled to her office chair, moving it away from all of her equipment.
One of the guys tripped over her tether, and she held tight to her chair. She grunted, and he looked over at her.
“Did that hurt?”
She looked at her leg where the silver metal spiked through her silver tissue. “What do you think?”
He flushed red. “Sorry.”
“Just look until you find something or check the records to find that this is the third time I have been searched in the last year, so I think someone is spoofing my address.”
They finished their search and nodded. “Sorry to disturb you, Cracker.”
They left her quarters, and she just waved them off, and then, she returned to her video game. They returned five minutes later. She just kept playing as they did a second run-through.
They found nothing, again, and left her alone. She knew she could expect one more visit. They were nothing if not persistent.
Cracker finished her game, saved her level, and fixed her bed. Her body was back under her control, and as she was currently the only one capable of doing the surgery that could cripple her nanite generator. The medic who had done the initial restriction was dead. One of his patients killed him.
She smiled and tucked herself into the sheets and breathed deeply. The management had learned really early that her bedside manner calmed the patients far better than any of the male medics in the facility.
Aside from the unwanted body piercing, she was in a safe place.
She was working on some minor breaks from the morning broadcast fights when one of the arena guards burst into the room. “We need a medic, now.”
She sealed up the guy she was working on and grabbed her kit. “If you are in a hurry, loop up my tether, and carry me.”
He blinked, nodded, and unhooked her tether, wrapping it around his arm, and then, he lifted her up. There was an escort waiting for them to clear the way to the main ring at the arena.
The man carrying her brought her to the center of the ring and lowered her next to the champion. Achilles was lying on the ground and gasping for air.
Cracker looked around and saw Hammer watching with blood covering his right hand.
The vid monitors were whirling above her, and she turned and focused on the man who was fighting for his life in front of her. Achilles was huge, fast, and he had blades running down his forearms. She needed to get his nanites working on his punctured lung as quickly as possible.
She knelt down and grunted as she pushed him over. The guards near her were in shock and weren’t going to help. She hauled her kit toward her with her leg, lifting it over Achilles’ body before finding her gloves and getting the hypo.
She punched him several times in the back with the anaesthetic, reached into her kit, and grabbed her saw. First, she used the portable laser to slice through skin and muscle, and then, she got to the bone. The saw fired to life, and she ground through the bone until she was near the generating unit. Now was the part where she earned her name. She made a secondary cut on the three ribs, straddled her patient, and broke the ribs, cracking them out of the way.
She heard a few folk vomiting in the stands and ignored them. She grabbed the new nanite generator from her kit, pried out the old one, and set the new one in place after activating it. She pushed the ribs back into place and sealed the skin. Now, she had to wait.
Achilles was struggling to breathe, but as soon as she heard the rattling stop and his chest moved evenly in a deep gasp, she sighed in relief.
She stood awkwardly and hopped over to her pack, putting the bloody tools into their bag for sterilization. She peeled off her gloves and picked up her bag. “Right. Bring him to the clinic, and I will finish the fix.”
The guards were looking at Achilles and then at her and back to the champion on the ground.
A slow clap from behind her got her attention. She hopped around and noted the alien who was walking toward her.
“So, you are the medic who brings men back from the dead.”
She inclined her head. “Only twice.”
The man was large, had mottled grey skin, and wheezed when he spoke.
His gaze flicked to her leg. “Is that painful?” He licked his lips, which gave her an unsettled feeling.
“Only when they use it to lead me around.” She inclined her head again. The medics were loading Achilles up. “Please, excuse me. I have to attend to my patient.”
She hopped away, and the guard who had brought her in looped the tether and picked her up. She was grateful for the lift. That creature was looking at her in a particularly unwholesome manner.
When they were out of the arena, she asked the man carrying her, “What was that? Who was the creature talking to me?”
“New VIP. He wanted to watch two heavy hitters fighting to the death. Hammer is a fast riser into the game. In one week since we found his ship and brought him in, he has risen through the ranks to the champion spot.”
“That was a champion fight?”
“It was. I think that new VIP wants to purchase or hire his own stable of fighters.”
That made sense. There were occasionally aliens who came in and wanted to take part in the game, but they tended to live wealthy but short lives. Humans worked for their own profit, and being indentured to a being who thought they owned them, it rarely ended well, and the arena took care of its own. No
charges were ever filed.
Cracker sighed in relief when she was deposited back in the clinic. She went to work on Achilles, and when he was comfortable, he asked her, “Did you just open my spine on the video stream?”
“I did. You are breathing again; do you have a complaint?”
“Fucking no! Thank you. I thought I was going to die there.”
She smiled and patted him on the arm. “I haven’t lost anyone alive when they entered my care. That includes you.”
“I am still waiting for your agreement to join me for dinner.”
She chuckled and used her scanner to look through his skin. “I can’t go out without an armed guard. Not anymore. I definitely can’t go to any of the social areas of the arena, and you can’t come anywhere near me.”
He breathed slowly. “Right. I forget you are not just a normal girl.”
She chuckled to hide the fact that she was desperate to be a normal girl again, but that ship had sailed.
She spent the next few hours supplementing his new nanite generator. She took care of the blood clots that were forming and made sure that the bones in his back were knitting properly.
“By the way, Cracker, what did you do to Hammer? He is a monster.”
She chuckled. “Nothing. I fixed some broken bones and repaired the damage left by the knives. He is a monster all on his own.”
She finished taking care of the ex-champion until he was able to get up and walk back to the fighter quarters under guard.
Cracker let out a deep sigh and put her tools in the sterilizer. Her coat was dropped into the hamper, and she set the cleaning cycle for the clinic. To her surprise, she was on her own. Her tether wasn’t hooked to anything, and there were no guards.
Shrugging, she sealed the clinic and wrapped the tether around her before she hiked back to her quarters. She was tired, and she stumbled a few times, but she made it back to her quarters and checked herself in.
She was in the shower when the guard burst in. She looked at him over the narrow privacy screen, and she said, “Really?”
“Cracker. We were afraid something had happened. You just disappeared.”
