Zero's Heart - Mina Carter Page 0,33

I had to pull in a trall load of favors to get this unit. I don’t want it blowing up again. Read me?”

Zero’s lips curled. “Loud and clear, Doc. No blowing up your new toys.”

Eris hid her grin at the bickering. That was one thing she’d noticed almost immediately about Zero and the Warborne. They had the same kind of camaraderie as in human military units. It made her feel right at home. She watched the rings as they intersected over her head. A combination of white and blue that wasn’t quite neon, they were really kind of pretty and emitted a soft, relaxing whoosh as they went past each other.

“Okay… I see the power core in the suit and the way it all connects.” Tal’s voice had lost its amused note and was now clipped and professional. “What the draanth were your doctors thinking? Your implants are screwed, and they’ve completely draanthed your nervous system. There is no way any human system could have taken that kind of load for long.”

She shook her head as the rings slowed down. “Nope. It couldn’t. Turned out we were never meant to last. Despite all their bullshit and lies, we were a short-term solution to a pressing problem—namely the war in the Kraxinas systems. Sol Sector were losing too many troops too fast out there. What with the heavier gravity and brutal terrain, they needed super-soldiers. Tankers were it. Of course, they sold us on it with patriotism and glory… didn’t tell us we’d be crippled if we survived. Racked us up… and when one burned out, replaced the operator. We were told it was PTSD when someone got shipped out. They lied.”

Zero growled from his position by the wall but she shook her head at him. “Don’t worry. I know. We were all plenty pissed and my old captain… last I heard she was getting a class-action suit against them for the shit they didn’t tell us.”

“We could just find them and nuke the fucking lot of them,” Zero offered and she chuckled.

Until she realized he wasn’t joking. In fact, neither of the men in the room were smiling as both watched her with unblinking eyes.

“Thanks for the offer, guys, but we’ve been blocked at every turn. Everything about the Scorperio project is classified. Every time Captain Payne gets close…” she shrugged, “suddenly, there’s another level of red tape. We can’t even get confirmation of names associated with the project, even though I’d really like to find out which fuckwit decided it was acceptable to use people like disposable cogs in a machine.”

“You might not have been able to find out.” Tal smiled up from where he stood at the console. “But we specialize in doing shit people don’t want us to do. We’ll figure it out. But first… we need to get you sorted.”

She looked at him in surprise as he moved around the small space, hands swift as he loaded what looked like medication injectors. “Thanks, Tal, but I know it’s hopeless,” she said, her voice cracking a little. “I was warned long ago I’d end up in a wheelchair. My implants won’t even support an exo-support anymore.”

Tal’s lips quirked as he walked toward her. “Yeah… hopeless for human medicine, maybe. But, in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re not human. I’m going to give you a couple of shots of cellular enhancer, and then I’ll set up the unit for neural reconstruction. We’ll see what we can do about these crude implants. Unfortunately, you’re going to be stuck in here with me for a few hours.”

“Oh woe is me! I don’t know how I’ll cope.” She grinned to take the edge off her words, even though her heart rate had spiked. As friendly as Tal was, this was still a hospital and she’d long since had enough of those.

She tilted her head to allow him to press the injector against her neck. There was a slight pinch, and a hiss as the medication was released into her bloodstream. “Have you ever treated a human before?”

“Hmmmm? Personally, no—”

“What the hell!” Now the machine was off, Zero strode forward from his position against the wall. “You didn’t tell me that. I thought there were human women at the Imperial court?”

“You were at the emperor’s court?” Eris asked, fascinated. “Isn’t that where they took the Sentinel-Five women?”

“There are, and yes, it was,” he replied to them both. “But I was not in charge of treating the human females. I’m not a full