She looked from the doctor to me slowly as if she didn’t believe what she had heard. “You’re really going to let me choose?”
I spared a quick glance towards Maze, and I could tell she was alright with the decision I had made. That was all I needed to feel better about it. “Yes, the choice is yours.”
Samantha smiled, and it was if the room lit up. “Doc, I’m trusting you to get this thing out of me.”
“I’ll do my best,” Richard said.
“His best is damned good,” I said moving to stand by the doctor. “Anything you need for the surgery?”
“We might need some fresh plasma, I have the bagged stuff, but I have a feeling fresh blood would help if things take a turn for the worst. That and I’ll need you two here to help hold her down.”
“You got it, Doc.”
“When can we get started?” Samantha asked.
Richard moved over to the surgical table. “Right now.”
“Doc, while you get her prepped, I need to speak with Ice about where we are headed.”
“You’ve got about five minutes, Captain.” Doc moved towards Maze with a small bag and a needle. I was guessing any blood would work. That or he knew they were compatible somehow. Whatever happened now, I knew we were in good hands.
There wasn’t time to waste if I wanted to give Ice my orders before we attempted this surgery. I could have given them out over the comm, but I didn’t want Samantha to hear them and her hearing was incredibly sharp. I headed towards the bridge. As I passed the rec room, Gabe met my eye. He still wasn’t happy about the situation, but he would get on board, especially once he found out where our next stop was going to be. The man loved Serenity Station.
When I opened the door to the bridge a scuffling noise sounded from the pilot’s seat, followed by a loud thump. Hurrying into the room to make sure everyone was ok I saw Kyra climbing up from the floor. Her shirt was off, but thankfully she still had most of her bra in place. I watched as she shrugged on her shirt after picking it up from where it had been discarded.
Ice spun the chair around and cleared her throat. “Eyes over here, Captain.”
The smirk on her face had reached epic proportions. It was almost as big as Kyra’s. “Hey, this is my bridge. My eyes can go wherever they want. You’ve both got bunks you can use for whatever was about to happen up here.”
“And an engine room,” Kyra said with a giggle.
“Maybe too much information for the Captain,” Ice said, looking over at her partner.
“Well, it’s true,” Kyra said placing her hands on her hips and staring back at Ice defiantly.
I decided to try and bail Ice out of deep water. “Hey, what an engineer does in the engine room is her business.” Now it was Ice’s turn to glare, but instead of it being fixed on Kyra, it was fixed on me. “What?”
“So it’s ok for her, but not for the pilot to get a little loving on the bridge?” Ice said with a huge grin on her face.
“Not when the pilot’s in my chair.”
Ice looked down and her expression took on a little bit of outrage before turning into a smirk. “Please, this hasn’t been your chair in years, and you know it.”
“Whatever.” Sometimes I missed flying, but Ice was twice the pilot that I was, and she’d turned the bridge into her command center. This is where she did all her hacking and got us from point A to B seamlessly. She was right. It really wasn’t my chair anymore.
“Well, now that you’re done checking out your engineer, and upsetting your pilot, you might as well tell me what you came up here for, Captain.”
“Set a course for Serenity. We’ll need to refill before we can make the push into Earth Republic space.”
“So we are still going through with the job?” Kyra said, her voice just on the edge of sounding pouty.
“Not exactly.” I had a plan forming in the back of my mind but I wasn’t ready to share it with everyone just yet.
“Captain, do I even want to know what that means?” Ice asked her smirk vanishing.
“Just get us there and see that the Talon is fueled and ready to go. We’ll have at least six hours on the station so if you need anything, now might be your last chance to grab it for the foreseeable future.”
I didn’t wait to see if they had any more questions, I just turned and left. Right before the door closed I shouted over my shoulder, “And fix the hot water.”
Kyra shouted something back but the door closed and whatever it was didn’t make it through. It would take us about ten hours to reach the station in FTL. I hoped that was enough time for Doc to finish up and for our patient to heal.
CHAPTER 7
SAMANTHA RIPLEY
As I climbed onto the table, I tried to turn my thoughts away from the captain and towards the surgery that was about to happen. It wasn’t easy to do. Ever since I had rubbed my blood into his wound, it was like I could feel his emotions even from across the ship. I almost lost it when he had made love to the woman called Maze. The feelings of pleasure that washed over me had almost been too much to hide from the good doctor.
Maybe if the Captain wasn’t so obviously entangled with the woman, I would have made a move. It had been a long time since I had been with a man, but the Captain brought out desires in me that I had been suppressing for longer than I liked to admit. Now that they had awakened, I’d need to find a way to quench them. If only he wasn’t with that woman, I could use my link to get him to do whatever I desired without having to feel guilty.
No! I quickly shoved the thought away. A grimace spread across my face. Doing something like that wouldn’t make me any better than the man that landed me in this mess in the first place. He had used his abilities to lure a working girl into the alley, and let’s just say that hadn’t worked out well for any of us. Forcing someone to do something by taking control of their mind was little better than rape. I had enough horrors on my conscience that I didn’t need to add that to the list.
The doctor must have noticed my slight grimace because when he started speaking it came out in a calm reassuring tone. “I’ll do my best to make this as fast as possible. It won’t be painless, but it shouldn’t take too long.”
“I know you’ll do what you can.”
The doctor was one odd little man. I could see that he carried the baggage of his past heavily around him like a shroud, but I must have awakened some desire in him. The more time we spent together, the more he came to life. Maybe I reminded him of someone, a daughter, possibly even a wife. None of the looks he had given me were sexual in nature so I was betting on it being the former. That filled me with at least a little bit of confidence. As much as I wanted to trust these people, they could just as easily be working for my employers.
All of this could just be some kind of elaborate plan to get me to do what they wanted. Maybe the surgery was really to place an enhanced model of the brain bomb inside of me. There was no way to be sure at least not without drinking from one of them. I wouldn’t be able to do that and still secure their help, so the surgery was a risk I was willing to take.
It made it slightly easier feeling the link to the man in charge of this particular crew. I felt a sense of resolve coming off of him, and yet I knew he wasn’t telling me everything. The fact that he could hide anything through this bond was impressive. It just showed the kind of man that he was. The more intrigued I became, the more my desire for him flared. I was going to have to be careful around him from now on, at least until the bond faded. It had to fade at some point.
“Maze, I’m going to need your help to hold the wound open during the surgery,” Richard said looking across the room at the woman.
She just gave him a curt nod. I wondered if she had been able to sense what I was feeling towards the captain. If so, having her so close to something that could kill me was problematic. She moved across the room with agility I hadn’t seen from a human before. This one would be the biggest threat if things went to hell. Maybe I was just over thinkin
g it, and she was still upset that I had attacked Drake in the first place. It seemed more likely than her being able to suss out the bond that had grown between us as I healed him.
“Samantha, if you could just climb up onto the surgical table for me,” Richard asked with a smile.
“Of course.” I moved to the table and climbed onto it. Richard started to strap one of my arms down, and I pulled my hand out of his grasp. “Is that really necessary?”
“Well, the table will be inverted during the surgery. I guess you could use that same ability you showed us earlier and cling to the surface.” His eyes lit up like he would like nothing better than to have that happen. “If not, the straps are the best way to keep you from moving during the operation.”
“The straps will be fine.” I felt a little shudder run through my body. I was wholly committed to this now. I’d been strapped to tables by doctors before, and never with pleasant results.
He reached out for my arm and started guiding it towards the strap again and then paused. “I almost forgot, you need to put this on first.”
He handed me a simple top that tied together in the back. I set it on my lap and shrugged out of my shirt. The doctor spun around clearly not ready for me to strip right away. I appreciated that he wanted to protect my modesty, but I’d been examined from head to toe for years by the scientists, so those concerns had faded long ago. Not to mention being a vampire kept my body in righteous shape so I had nothing to be ashamed of. I shrugged out of my bra and slipped into the new top. Maze took my clothes and hung them from a small rack by the door.
The doctor turned around as Maze came into his view with my clothes. “Just leave the back open. The table might be a little cold when you lay down, but it will warm up momentarily.”
I didn’t feel cold, at least not like a human would. I wondered if it was because my blood was thicker or if it was the aging process of my skin. My skin continued to get more resistant to damage as I aged. After twenty years, who knew how strong it was now. That didn’t stop me from thinking about how soft the captain’s touch had been or how much I enjoyed feeling his warmth pressed against me as I had healed him.
I shook myself free of those thoughts. They wouldn’t lead anywhere that was helpful right now, especially with Maze standing in the room with me. I knew that she and the captain were together but that didn’t mean I couldn’t look. Maze watched me with indifferent eyes, but I knew she had already sized me up. I also knew that she was the biggest threat on this ship. It was something in the way she carried herself, that and she moved faster than a normal human. If I ever did get Captain Drake back in my arms, I’d have to watch out for her.
The doctor finished strapping me in as the captain returned to the room. “We all set here, Doc?”
“I’m ready to begin the procedure.”
The Captain turned his gaze towards me. “You ready for this, Samantha?”
“Yes.” I barely managed to say the words. This is all I had wanted since being taken against my will. Removing the chip at the base of my skull would finally set me free.
“Well then let’s get this going. We’ve got ten hours until we dock for a refuel. I’d like to be done before then.”
Richard looked at him. “Captain, if everything goes according to plan, we will be done relatively quickly, so you’re going to have to find something else to occupy your time.”
The captain just twirled his hand in a gesture that said time is ticking and to stop wasting it. Richard moved towards my head and secured the final strap around my forehead. He slipped a plastic mouthpiece into my mouth and then started to back away.
“Just bite down when it hurts. Maze, I need you with me.”
The table started to flip over, and I watched the woman’s combat boots move towards the doctor’s sneakers. What kind of doctor wore sneakers anyways? The captain's worn in boots moved towards the other side of my table, and I felt his hand slide into mine. The warmth of that gesture finally put me at ease. I started to relax forcing my body to be still. The last thing I wanted to do was break his hand.
“Samantha, I’m about to get started. If it’s too much for you to handle, let me know and I’ll stop.”
“Don’t stop, no matter what,” I struggled to say around the mouthpiece.
Drake let go of my hand and popped his head under the table. The top I had on had fluttered towards the ground when the table turned over. I saw his eyes widen momentarily as he took in the view. At least he liked what he saw. Then he snapped himself out of it and reached for the mouthpiece.
“One more time for the Doc,” he said it with a lopsided grin.
I couldn’t tell if he was just excited about what he had seen or if my mumbling around the mouthpiece while strapped to an upside down table made him want to laugh. His eyes were now fixed on my mine. I had to give him a little bit of credit. Not every man would be able to avert his gaze like that. It probably helped that his girlfriend, or whatever she was, happened to be standing two feet away from us.
“Just get it done, Richard. Don’t stop no matter how much pain it sounds like I am in.”
“You have my word,” said the doctor. His voice had taken on a steely edge of determination.
Drake slipped the mouthpiece back in and stood up. He might have taken a quick peak on his way out, but I couldn’t be sure. Was it wrong of me to wish that he had, knowing he was bound to the other woman in some way? There would be time to worry about that later. Hopefully, after the bond faded, he wouldn’t spend as much time in my thoughts as he did now.
A hand slide back into mine and I held it, thinking about the moment we had shared in the rec room. The thought of his concern seemed to harden my resolve. Slowing my breathing, I focused on making my body relax. I heard the sound of a laser powering up, and then pain exploded across my neck. Every instinct I had told me to fight, that I would be dead seconds if I didn’t rip free of the restraints. It was a battle that I was barely winning.
“Maze, take hold of these clamps and keep the wound from closing.”
I felt pressure in my neck, but it wasn’t bad. Somehow I had managed to dull the pain coming from that area of my body. If I could learn how I did it and could harness it at will, it would be a useful ability to have in a fight. Pain was a distraction, one that would get you killed if you let it control you.
The laser sounded again, and this time I couldn’t keep the scream from cracking through my gritted teeth. I spit out the mouth guard and let the scream issue out from me at full force. To the doctor’s credit, he didn’t stop working despite his obvious concern for my well-being. I felt a tug, and something moved beneath my skin, then it happened again and again. This time the laser sounded along with the tug and something moved a bit further. My body started to shudder as electricity arced through me, at least I had fought. It was worth it.
CHAPTER 8
CAPTAIN DRAKE
The initial cut of the doctor’s laser scalpel seemed to have gone well. The woman whose hand I was holding didn’t break mine which I was sure she could have. Maze had noticed me take her hand. She shot me a disapproving look, but I almost couldn’t help myself. This woman was showing courage right now, and it was a trait that I admired. I had also admired a few of her other traits, but I wouldn’t be talking about those anytime soon.
I almost had to look away as Doc inserted the clamps. Maze moved in and grasped the handles. She held the wound in her neck open while Doc guided in his tool to remove the chip. I watched him tug, and nothing happened. He tried it again to almost the exact same result. Now he was cutting away flesh with the laser so he could pull the chip free. Samantha’s scream ripped through our tiny medbay. The force of it was almost unimaginable.
The doctor kept cutting and pulling until he almost had the chip free. Samantha was straining against the restraints her body shaking with pain. Richard never flinched, he kept his head down and continued to work fast and methodically. I had to give it to the doc, he might not look l
ike much, but when it came to surgery, he was as dangerous as any of the wolves on Marachari Five. The doc moved with a single minded purpose to get the job done, so he could ease Samantha’s pain.
He tugged one last time, and all hell broke loose. I could feel the electrical current snap through her body as it rushed up my hand. Samantha went limp and my hand went numb. It took everything I had to force the damn thing open so I could let go of her. Thankfully my boots had kept me a little grounded, but I was still feeling stunned. The electricity had thrown Maze across the room, and Doc was frozen in place. None of this was going as I had planned and now two of the people I cared about most in this world might be dying. I acted without thinking. Diving across the table, I hit Richard with my shoulder, sending him flying away from Samantha.
He hit the far wall and slumped to the floor. Maze wasn’t moving, and neither was the doc. The chip had clattered to the ground by him and seemed to be deactivated. I pulled out the forceps that had been holding Samantha’s wound together and saw it start to close even as I flipped the table over. If she was healing that meant she couldn’t be dead, and that she could help me get these two back on their feet.
Ripping the straps off of her didn’t seem to get her moving. I slapped her face, and she sat upright so quickly our heads hit. Falling to the floor as I grabbed my head, I looked up to see her eyes inches from my own. Damn, she moved fast. “Forget about me help the others.”
She ripped away the medical top as it tangled around her. I watched the smooth skin of her back as she bent down to look at Richard. As much as I loved the man, I wished she had gone to Maze first. Samantha turned to look at me for a moment and then moved towards Maze. Had she just read my thoughts? Fuck, I didn’t care if she could as long as we saved them both.
Samantha held out her arm and used one of her nails to cut through the skin. Once her fingers were covered in blood, she wiped them around the inside of Maze’s mouth. Maze still wasn’t moving as Samantha moved towards the doctor and did the same thing. My head had finally stopped spinning, and I started scanning the room for the shock panels. I found the kit and charged the panels. It took one blast for Maze’s chest to hitch as breath entered her lungs for the first time in thirty seconds. She coughed and I wanted to hold her, but I still needed to get the doctor.
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