Ilox Saga 1: Eris Monroe: More Than Human (11 page)

“
My shoulder is killin’ me. Where you want me to go?” He stared at the severed head while it seemed to stare back at him with lifeless eyes. She could sense the thoughts churning in his mind.

“Drop to your knees,”
she ordered with a cold inflection. As he did so, she touched his neck with the bare edge of her sword, drawing a bead of blood. T’sell then drew back and lifted her
Darisu
high over the human in preparation for the killing stroke that would sever his head and end his miserable life. His mouth opened as he lost all composure and begged for his life.

“The things you want are in my safe! In my closet!
Don’t kill me!” he whined.

“Show me,” T’sell menaced him with her sword.
He stood with some effort and then walked to his bedroom closet.

“It’s in the back, behind the clothes and stuff.”
He waved with his undamaged arm, pointing at the back of the immaculate closet. Neat rows of suits, shirts and trousers lined both sides.

“Very well, open it. I am reading your mind
and if you attempt to deceive me I will know it the instant you think it.” T’sell said. She put her sword in the scabbard she wore on her back and covered him with her laser pistol. She was reading his mind as he entered the code to the safe and it swung open without a sound.

Damn it, I knew she was one of those psychic freaks! She’s prolly readin’ my mind right now!
He reached in and took a sealed rectangular box out of the safe. Standing up he looked from the box to T’sell and then tossed it over to her. She caught it

“Okay, you got your artifacts right there. You’ll let me live…right? That was the deal…right?”
he pleaded with a whine in his voice. It disgusted her.

She gestured at him with the pistol, “Move back to your living room. Awaken the bodyguard that’s sleeping on your couch. You’ll have to slap him a few times…
Do it now!”

T’sell followed the human back into his living room and watched as he attempted to wake his sleeping bodyguard.

“Wake up you fucking asshole! I paid you to
protect
me! Wake the fuck up!” With each word he slapped him with his left hand repeatedly. T’sell was waiting. The moment the supine mercenary stirred she entered his mind and took control.
Tackle Lakos and run out the window with him.
As her mental compulsion took over the human’s cerebellum, he rose, looked at her uncomprehendingly, then grabbed his erstwhile boss and half-dragged, half carried him careening into and through the shattered window. The screams from Lakos faded out almost immediately as he and his bodyguard plummeted to their deaths. T’sell opened the intricately carved wooden box and found three small alien data modules within. Her boss would be pleased she had completed her mission. She instructed the Nanite modules in her face to shift to pattern number six hundred thirty-seven. She then twisted the hilt of her
Darisu
and it shrank into a compact size and her clothes shifted as well.

No one notice
d the red-haired dark skinned girl with the ponytail that came out of the elevator on the ground floor. The security guard was busy with a report of jumpers that had fallen from his building. T’sell T’savri made it back to the starport in less than twenty minutes and was headed to a debriefing five hundred and sixty light-years away.

The city on the hill was far. It would take her many days to travel to it and her legs were already tired. The forest she had been traveling through was full of mist and shrouded thick trees. Monsters lurked in the forests ready to spring upon her at any moment, their green hellish eyes burned in the mist. Her bow in one hand and a steel tipped arrow nocked with the other, she was ready to strike them down if they were foolish enough to attack. Looking down, she saw that chains were attached at her ankles and then realized that monsters were holding the chains tight…

Eris awoke from her dream
with a start and sweating profusely. Kyle Arneson leaned over, touched her arm and smiled. He was holding a leash in his hand. She heard a small whimper coming from somewhere.

“I
’m glad you’re finally awake, boss – you had me worried for awhile.” He smiled again. “I brought you a gift…” He reached down while still holding the leash and picked up a dog – a white puppy. Scratching between her ears, the dog stuck her tongue out in happiness. She didn’t look to be older than a few weeks.

Eris l
ay in a hospital bed hooked up to tubes with devices attached to her chest, arms, legs and head. “A puppy?” she asked. “Why did you…” There was thin fabric covering her breasts and her groin, other than that, she was naked. She felt sore all over her body and immediately tried to swing her legs over the side rail of the bed. Doing so made her feel woozy.

“Whoa! Hold on there,
Commander! You’re body is still being repaired…you’ve got to give it some more time before you try standing.” Kyle put the dog back down on the floor. He was shaking his head and began pushing her legs back into the bed. He wasn’t going to let her get up.

“
Repair my body…what happened? I remember talking to Langdon in the command post about a discovery his team had just made…and…then
nothing
. That’s all I remember. Why can’t I recall anything else?” She frowned, furrowing her brows. It was then she noticed that her hair was falling into her eyes and that it rested on her shoulders.
That can’t be, I have short hair
.

“
Commander, there’s no easy way to break this to you so I’ll just say it - you’ve been in a coma for three months. You suffered severe radiation burns all over your body. You came
this close
to death. It was touch and go the first month.” Arneson pressed forefinger and thumb together with the tips almost touching. Kyle began pacing back and forth as he continued discussing the past. “I found you in the mobile command center and got you off of Domovik as fast as I could.”

Eris felt as if a sledgehammer had hit her
in the stomach. “What about the team? Did any of them…”

Kyle couldn’t look at her as he replied, “No, none of them made it.
Commander…Eris…you’re damn lucky to be alive. It’s amazing you lived at all from the amount of radiation your body absorbed. Your doctor and the medical team here did quite a job patching you up…even if it did take three months. If you’d been inside the base, you would have died from the blast wave and heat like all the rest.” Kyle Arneson had seen death before – that was the grim reality of being a Special Forces soldier of the Republic. He continued, “Since the majority of the base was two kilometers underground, the dirt and rock mostly contained the blast but spillover reached the surface…the command post you were at on the surface.” There was another whine and a scratching noise. Kyle picked up the puppy once again. “She likes to be held.” He leaned down holding the puppy close to Eris’ face. “I named her Sif…but you can call her whatever you like. If you want to keep her that is.” Kyle said. The puppy licked Eris on the cheek. Kyle pulled her back and cradled the dog in his arms.

Eris broke down and cried.
She hadn’t cried since the time she was ten years old and had watched her parents being killed. Kyle said nothing as she sobbed but put his hand on her shoulder to try to comfort her as best he could.
She thought she was a strong woman but those were her teammates and they had been her companions…her friends
.
Moak, Promise, Pascha, I’m so sorry, I failed you
…Thoughts raced through her head. This was the second time she had lost men and women under her command. Her emotions turned from sorrow to anger. Her anger was turning to rage with each passing second. She wanted answers.

“What happened? You
mentioned radiation…” Eris wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. Her blue eyes had become red, puffy and glistened from her tears. Kyle had never seen Eris in such a state and he wanted to hold her and comfort her, but he restrained himself to offering a touch and only words.

“It was a trap. We found out just in the last few weeks that Vortex had been there before us.
It was their blast marks we found on the elevator doors of the Valdren facility.
They
took everything of value…all the working ancient tech…stripped the place bare. They planted a tactical nuclear device inside of a Valdren artifact casing. The scientists actually set the damn thing off in their haste to open it up; like kids at Christmas opening presents. They should have listened to you, Commander. The military…
we
…should have cleared that place first like you wanted.”

“
Vortex…mercenaries.” The anger in her blue eyes shone bright. Eris looked around her, noting DSD company logos on some of the medical equipment. “Where am I? This isn’t a fleet hospital, and it’s not part of the TEC.”

“I’ll tell you all about it in a moment,” whispered Kyle as a
petite woman approached. The woman had short pink hair tied in a ponytail with blue strands interwoven in a delicate geometric pattern; a white doctor’s smock emblazoned with the DSD infinity symbol decorated her sleeves. A floating holographic datapad was projected in front of her chest at arm’s length. Her pupils were also pink.

“I see my patient is finally awake,” said the
diminutive woman in a quiet voice. “Good morning, my name is Doctor Lia Xinhao,” she said while glancing at streams of holographic data projecting from the datapad, “I’ve been in charge of your primary care since you arrived at our facility.” She touched a few holographic keys and multiple three dimensional images began to appear showing Eris’ body. “Mr. Arneson, you should remove that animal…this is a sterile environment.”

“
Please doctor…I’d like Kyle to keep Sif here…for a little while,” Eris asked wistfully. “Kyle said I owe you my life,” she replied weakly; fragile and feeling sleepy, her anger was fueling a drive to stay awake. Her muscles had little strength. “What exactly did you do to me?” She motioned at Kyle to bring Sif closer to her again. As he did so, Eris stroked the dog’s fur - Sif’s tail wagged happily. The dogs blue eyes were clear and bright. Doctor Xinhao ignored the animal and spoke to her patient.

“When you were brought to us
three months ago, you were on life support… you barely had a pulse. The radiation burns were severe; the staff didn’t think you had any chance of survival. Our CEO put more faith in your recuperative abilities than I did, I’m happy to say… We had to quarantine you for a lengthy amount of time while the radiation scrubbers went to work throughout your system. Of course, that took a lot of time. You were put in an artificial coma to facilitate the healing. If not for modern medicine and our state-of-the-art facilities, you’d have died after the first twenty hours had passed.”

Dr. Xinhao paused for a moment and looked at Eris with
pride shining in her eyes. She clearly was impressed that her patient had recovered and was almost back to normal.

Eris was slightly bewildered. “Why am I not in a Republic Fleet hospital? DSD
…Dynamic Space Development, don’t they just manufacture starships? Why am I here?”

“
Commander Monroe, this facility is one of the most advanced in the galaxy. Our CEO has spared no expense to see to your recovery, and in all seriousness, if you had been flown to the nearest Republic hospital or Fleet medical station, you would have died in route. You never would have made it there alive. Our lab was much closer to Domovik than any other facility that could have adequately treated your injuries. All details of the operation on Domovik were highly classified - as a security measure; no one was told you were being treated here except of course Dominic Gray, our CEO.”

“What about my commanding officer, Admiral Hargrove? Was he told I was taken here?” Eris was suspicious. She felt out of place.

“Admiral Hargrove has been relieved of his command. As far as I know he doesn’t know that you’re alive. All of your questions will be answered soon. But for now you should rest.”

Eris tilted her head quizzically
as if to ask a question, but the doctor continued speaking.

Dr. Xinhao talked to Eris as a teacher would
lecture a student, “Perhaps you don’t fully grasp the severity of your injuries - we had to re-grow eighty-seven percent of your skin from your own stem cells, and several internal organs were reconstituted and transplanted – all of which took time of course. Your liver, for example, was mostly destroyed and had to be replaced. Frankly, your DNA is remarkable. I’ve never met an individual quite like you before Ms. Monroe.” As she talked, Dr. Xinhao became quite animated as she gestured with her hands pointing out each positive result. “Ah, the first visitor has come to visit,” said Lia.

One of the doors to the room opened and a
man encased in black armor tinted with gray approached and saluted her. He appeared to be in his thirties with closely cut black hair. As he came close he acknowledged Kyle Arneson and Doctor Xinhao. He was extremely good looking.

“
Lieutenant Arneson…Doctor…good to see you both again.” He then turned to look directly at Eris lying in her bed. He noted the puppy nearby and smiled at her.

“
Commander…I’m Lieutenant Commander Arnav Malik, your executive officer. I command the squad of nine marines on board the Sparta. I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance. It’s an honor to serve in your command.” He was a handsome man and stood just a little taller than Eris.
I should get to know him better, she thought.
He seemed fit and well muscled.

“We’ll be ready whenever you need us, Captain.
Every member of my strike team has combat experience in battle - we’re looking forward to the upcoming missions.”

“
Sorry…I don’t really understand what’s happening right now…” Eris seemed to be in a dream where nothing made sense. Sif whined and she scratched behind her ears.

“Is she still doped up?”
Arnav asked Lia quizzically.

“She’s just a little fuzzy
Lt. Commander,” said Lia as she adjusted the bed bringing Eris to a higher sitting position. “I’ve given her a mild sedative.”

“
Commander Monroe, we’ve awakened you from the artificial coma I placed you in. Your major injuries have been fully healed. Now all you need is several weeks of rehabilitation therapy… That should get you up and about and back to your old self.”

Doctor Xinhao put her right forefinger to her temple.
“Oh, I almost forgot…someone else wanted to say hello.” She touched a series of keys on the datapad and after a minute passed a holographic image of a well dressed man in an expensive tailored suit appeared. His hair was silver though his face was unlined by wrinkles or any hint of a beard.

“
Commander Monroe, it’s good to see you finally up and awake. Allow me to introduce myself - my name is Dominic Gray. My orders brought you here…I hope you don’t mind.” The holographic image smiled contritely. “I must apologize for not being there in person…a necessary security precaution for a man in my position - as I’m sure you understand.”

Eris was at a loss and didn’t know how to respond. She had heard rumors that Dominic
Gray was a trillionaire recluse. He had founded Dynamic Space Development over one hundred and twenty years before, but no one had heard anything about him for at least a decade or more. There were few humans alive from the era he had been born in.

“I admire you
Eris; you are a tough woman to kill. Your will to live is second to none - without that instinct to survive I doubt you’d be here talking to me. However, I must commend the doctors and nurses at the Gaea Project. They told me they could keep you alive and now they’ve proven it.” He did not smile and allowed his words to have their intended effect. Eris broke the silence.

“Grateful as I am to be alive, Mr.
Gray, I want very much to find the bastards that killed my team!”

“Yes, of course. But first, you must fully regain your strength. Clearly there was a serious breach of security in the joint Fleet-
TEC operation to salvage Valdren artifacts. Several of my assets are currently attempting to discover the identity of the traitor…or traitors.”

“What do you mean?” Eris found it hard to believe
the Republic could be betrayed, but she was struggling to stay awake and the words came slowly.

“There is a traitor in either the
TEC or the Fleet - someone passed on operational details of our highest level plans to find and excavate the Valdren base on Domovik. The traitor would be someone with high level access to the most sensitive knowledge - someone who stood to profit tremendously by acting through intermediaries before we could find and extract any technology of value. I have agents sifting and following the available evidence. I am sure the time will come…very soon…when we will know more. We must be prepared to act swiftly.” Dominic Gray never took his gaze from Eris while he continued his conversation.