Assessing Survival (12 page)

Stitch grabbed his arm next to the steel invader, and she pulled his arm away from the wall. She pulled his legs loose one by one, and then, she yanked his final arm free.

He leaned heavily on her, and Aluak offered, “Give him to me. We have to get out of here.”

She grunted and handed her unconscious man to Aluak.

She couldn’t shoot their way out, but she could fight.

With Aluak moving toward the borehole, she backed him up. When a Splice appeared, hissing and muttering in whatever language it was that they spoke, she drew back her fist and punched it through his skull.

A second attacker tried to lunge for her, but he grabbed one of the spikes. He drove it into her arm, and she hissed as the communication nanites ran into her system.

“Fuck.”

She punched his skull into crushed and smashed pieces with her wounded arm.

Her mind lit up with knowledge of the location of everything on the ship. She wrapped her thoughts in control and sent the ship on a trajectory that would take it into the sun.

“We have to move, boys.”

The crowd that was waiting for them on the
Argon
was full of unfamiliar faces, and many blissfully familiar ones.

Aluak took Nikolai to the med bay, and the rest were settled in the transport seats.

She asked Tao, “How bad are the wounds?”

“Not too bad. They were more interested in torture for information. We only lost one man.”

“Who?”

“Elmer Theric. He didn’t speak much and was rather shy.”

“Right, well we need to get away from this ship. It is on its way to its doom. Now, I need to get into the next one.”

“Why? It is crippled.”

“I can destroy it, and wouldn’t that be better?”

Aluak returned and nodded. “I will accompany you again.”

“Fine. Bring more guns. We won’t have to get in as far, but we still need six nodes.”

Aluak nodded. “The best collection would be the command deck. Multiple nodes in one room.”

“That sounds like a plan to me.”

She smiled and ran back to the command deck to direct them into position.

They bored into the hold, and everyone planted the spikes with only nine dead Splices to show for it. The data was removed and sent from the ship, and she used her control to aim it to the sun.

Aluak looked up. “They have my people on board.”

“Aw fuck. Let’s get them.”

She picked up Splice weaponry with the knowledge of how to use it coming through the data linkage.

“Now, Aluak.”

They ran through the halls, shooting their way to the labs and holding pens full of Alguth.

She guarded her collection of aliens as they were ushered through the hall, back to the breech point. Aluak kept them calm and kept them running. Several still had their original wings.

When they were back on board the
Argon,
she was covered in blood, hers and the Splices’. She confirmed the locked-in programming that would send the large ship to the sun and released the lock before setting a course for home.

Flying home with a ship full of folks needing help was a nightmare. She sent a data burst and hoped Captain Blue was reading his mail.

Her list was detailed as to what was needed for Earth military and the Alguth.

She really needed a nap, but the ship had gone from being extremely empty to full capacity.

“So, you sent both of those ships into the sun?”

“I did. They will hit sometime in the next hour; their engines are on full, so I hope that Windy is quick with the download.”

Stitch jerked when a voice whispered in her mind,
I am on it.

She looked to Tao. “Did you hear that?”

He scowled at her. “No. You should get that looked at.”

She flexed her hand and looked at the hole closing up. “It’s fine.”

“Are you sure; you look a little weird.”

“I feel fine. Is everyone stable?”

“They are.”

“Then, let’s punch it.”

She set course for home and accelerated.

The moment the ship had control, she got up and headed to the cargo hold where the wounded were being taken care of.

She knelt next to Niko and looked him over. His nanites were healing his wounds, but they would need more mass to continue the repairs.

She stroked his head and kissed his lips softly. She felt his hand touch the back of her head and hold her as the kiss grew intense.

She laughed and carefully straddled his torso. “So, you are feeling better.”

There was a small smile on his lips. “Where are we?”

“The cargo hold of the
Argon.
I got worried, so I grabbed the men I could, and here we are.”

“Thank goodness for your instincts. We were ambushed. The second ship was playing dead.”

“Where did your ship end up?”

“Crashed on the planet. They shook it off, and gravity took over.”

“Fuck.” She pressed her hands to his shoulders and checked for damage with slow caresses.

“If this is what you are like with the wounded, I think I am going to have to start supervising.”

He stroked her ribs and back, so his arms were working again.

“One of your legs is broken. It will have to be replaced at the base.”

He nodded. “I can feel it.”

“So, they were out for information?”

“Yes, the Alguth are an easier tissue source than we are, so they wanted to know what we did with the ones that we took.”

“What did you tell them?”

“Nothing. They were only getting started. I applaud you on your timing.”

“Major, we need help!” Aluak was holding a young man down, and he was thrashing.

The damage to the Alguth’s body was intensive. Stitch got to her feet and grabbed the nearest med kit.

The outline of the explosive device was unmistakable. “Aw, fuck.”

George was nearby, and he was coming toward her with a bomb box. Another survivor was prepping a cold tube.

“Aluak, he has a bomb inside him. Things are going to happen quickly. I am going to sedate him, remove the bomb, inject the primer nanites and he will be put into the cold tube to keep him alive.”

“A bomb?”

“Explosive device. You know.” While she worked, she prepped the injectors and tried to keep calm. The Splice had created a large incision to create the space in the man’s torso. This was not a small bomb.

“George, are you ready to flush the box as soon as I get this out?”

“Standing by, Stitch.”

As the only perfectly healthy crewman, it was her duty to do this. If Tao hadn’t been in command, she would have had him do this, but the detonation sequence of the bomb wasn’t a known quantity.

Best to get it out and launch it.

“Are you ready?”

Aluak held the young man down. Another Alguth held his feet. She grabbed the first hypo, injected him several times around the wound, grabbed the second to sedate him, and the moment his eyes fluttered closed, she used her silver hand to pull open his wound and grab the bomb.

“Coming out.” The wet, sucking sound of the bomb leaving the young man was nauseating, but she pulled it free and dropped it in the box.

The box was closed, and George ran to the disposal, dumping the bomb box with a hiss and a clank.

The moment she was free of the bomb, she grabbed two nanite primers and struck the young man with them as his body shivered and started to buck. She didn’t want to know yet what they had removed to make room for the explosive.

“Right. Cold tube.”

Aluak and the other man lifted the young man and tucked him in the tube. With bloody hands, Stitch set the controls and the racing pulse slowed to barely perceptible but stable.

George was already scanning the others, and while a few trackers were found and launched, there were no other bombs.

She returned to Niko’s side and smiled. “Did they put anything in you?”

“Just the spikes. Our nanites would break them down quickly.”

She stroked his face again, and he smiled.

“I love it when you do that.”

“Why?” She continued to touch his familiar features before placing her hands over his heartbeat, feeling the reassuring thud.

“It shows that you forgive me for taking off on you.”

“Duty called. I can let that one slide.” She chuckled. “Well, I have to get back to the command deck. I am flying this thing.”

She kissed him quickly and left him with the others lying in various conditions. All stable but few were mobile.

Hours of flight were ahead of her, but she was bringing her guys back.

The med teams signalled standby as she landed, and there was a sigh of relief.

She glanced over at Tao as she set the ship down and snickered. “You can uncover your eyes now.”

He grinned and dropped his hand as the docking rails started pulling them back into the hangar.

The moment the hangar doors closed and the area was filled with scrubbed air, the med team started streaming toward them.

She looked at Tao. “We did it.”

He grinned. “We did; now, get your ass to medical for scans.”

“Yes, Medic.”

She grabbed her remaining collection of spikes and headed down to assist in getting the wounded into the base.

If the communications from Earth Control could have shot lasers, they would have. She typed the reports out, including the Splice’s alternate tissue source in the Alguth and filled in that this was a less advanced species than humans and asked permission to assist the Alguth in their defense of their own world.

When the response came, she was sitting in recovery, chatting with the new cyborgs. Their stabilizing surgeries had been done, and more of the forty men rescued were still in line to get their work done. She had already spent time in pre-op.

The message ripped into her mind, and she gasped. “What the fuck?”

Major Carter, you are relieved of duty. The new species is on their own. We will not squander our resources on men and women not our own if there is no obvious gain.

There was more data and even more insults to the Alguth, but she got the gist of it.

She patted the knee of the man who was looking at her with concern.

“I have to go see Captain Nikolai. Excuse me.”

The men made sounds that indicated disappointment, but as charming as it was, she needed to talk to Nikolai.

He was in the secondary pre-op, waiting with his men to help them into the machine.

“Niko, do you have a moment?”

He set one of his guys into the machine, and he nodded.

“Can we go somewhere private?”

“I prefer to remain here. Styo hasn’t been in the machine before.”

She could see his point. “Well, I have been relieved of duty, and Earth Control has ordered us to expel all Alguth from our premises. They are refusing to assist them.”

“Fuck them.”

“That is my thought as well. Did you know we are sitting on a small army?”

“What?”

“More cyborgs in storage under our feet. The sublevels under our feet have about fifteen hundred wounded men who have been rebuilt.”

Niko’s shock was on his face and in every line of his body.

“That would be enough to outfit every ship we have. We could strike at the Splice and take out several of their mother ships.”

“What do you recommend?” She bit her lip. She had an idea.

He narrowed his eyes. “What are you thinking, Stitch?”

“Well, since Earth is safe and we are cut off from them, why not see if the Alguth will let us set up a base on their world and we can deploy from there.”

His smile was slow; he pulled her into him by virtue of a hand around her waist. “I love the way your mind works. Are you serious about the hidden army?”

“I am. I think it was the final reserve.”

“Do you know where they are?”

She grinned. “As soon as Styo is out and you are willing to go exploring, I will show you. The schematics are hidden in the system.”

He kissed her, pressing her against the wall and holding her in place with his body. She wrapped her legs around him and returned the embrace. Their kiss became heated, and he ran his hands over her battle suit. A light tapping on the interior of the machine behind them eventually brought them out of it. Styo wanted out.

George took over shepherding the cyborgs in for repair.

Stitch and Niko walked the halls with heads high and chatting neutrally. They went past the gym, past the dining hall and into the hangar. Stitch mentally chanted the authorization code, and when they made their way beneath the scaffolding and walkways, she found the access panel.

The numbers and letters took her thirty seconds to key in.

Niko didn’t rush her.

When the door opened, she dropped into the hatch, skidding down the steps by hanging onto the railing and letting gravity take her down.

Niko dropped in behind her.

She stepped away from the ladder, looking for the switch to turn on the lights, and Niko echoed her inhalation.

He wrapped his arms around her and he murmured, “There has been an army asleep under our feet the whole time.”

“I am getting a funny feeling about this.”

“What?” He pressed a kiss to her neck, and it was an effective distraction.

She turned and kissed him while stroking a hand down his chest. There was no one around to interrupt, and they were hidden in this high-security vault.

“Why, Major Carter, are you making an advance on me?”

She cupped his obvious erection. “Should I make a joke about inappropriate weaponry?”

He laughed harshly and pulled at her clothing until her pants were at mid-calf and his hand could find its way into her wet folds.

“It seems you are ready for me.” He pressed his lips to her neck.

“Just put me up against the wall and fuck me. I am really tired of giving orders.”

She had polished, cold metal at her back and he was between her thighs with only a few rough fumbles.

Stitch gasped and dug her hands into his shoulders.

Niko ran his tongue over her neck, and he thrust his hips upward, jerking her onto him. He moved a hand under her shirt and squeezed her breast as he began to hammer upward with steady beats.