Zero's Heart - Mina Carter Page 0,25

his own and the measured digitized tones of the ship’s computer. “Did any of them follow us?”

Sparky kept his eyes on the tactical screens, slowly shaking his head. “I don’t think so.” He motioned with his hands, bringing up a close view of the station, now rapidly dwindling behind them. He focused in on a large, bulky ship on docking arm four.

“SO13 standard transport. I may have revoked their clearance to leave,” he winked up at Zero. “And thrown in a shelter-in-place admiralty order just for kicks and giggles. It should take them a couple of hours to figure that out. By then, we’ll be in the belt, and they can’t track us.”

“Sparky, you are one scary son of a bitch!” Zero whooped, levering himself out of his chair. With the ship on autopilot, he could indulge in his need to find Eris and make sure she was okay.

“Hey! My mom resembles that remark!” the human threw back as Zero left the bridge.

He was still uplinked to the ship’s computer, enough to monitor most of what was going on, so it didn’t matter exactly where he was onboard. He couldn’t control everything, though… the reason he needed to track Eris down himself… and again that feeling of something wrong with his onboard assaulted him.

No, not wrong…

He frowned as a new fragment of information emerged from the shattered mess of his long-term memories… the place that the nightmare came from. His onboard was functioning correctly, but it just wasn’t the right type for controlling a whole ship all by himself. He wasn’t built for that, his specialty was…

And the knowledge slipped away again. He hissed in frustration. He’d almost had it then—so close he could practically taste it.

The frustration disappeared in a heartbeat as he turned the corner and spotted Eris. His immediate reaction was to smile, pleasure to see her rolling through him. But then his expression fell flat as he saw the way she was clinging to the wall. She had a look of pain on her face, and something seemed to be wrong with her leg.

“Shit. Sweetheart, what happened?”

He was across the space that separated them in a heartbeat to sweep her up in his arms. If she’d been injured because of him—because she hadn’t been strapped in when they took off—he’d never forgive himself.

She didn’t complain, though tears pooled in her eyes as she curled up trustingly against his chest. His heart, both organic and cybernetic, stopped at those tears. Eris Archer was a strong woman… to see her so broken was a shock to the system.

“Please,” she whispered against his neck. “Get me to medbay.”

7

“What happened? Did you fall… shit, was it during acceleration? Oh fuck, sweetheart, I am so sorry. I should have waited until I knew you were secure.”

The self-recrimination in Zero’s voice almost broke her heart as the big cyborg gathered her into his arms and practically ran toward the medbay. She clung to him, hiding her face against the strong column of his throat, and prayed for the strength to get it together before they reached their destination.

“We’re here. Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be okay,” he promised her, laying her down on the examination bed in the middle and then looking around at the equipment. For the first time since she’d known him, he looked lost… bewildered.

“Fuck! I need Talent.”

She shook her head, pointing to the medication cabinet. “Nope. You don’t need special skills or to be a doctor. Just get me some painkillers and a neuro-stim; they should be in there.”

Her voice tightened as a wave of agony washed up over her, her abused nervous system letting her know there was a problem. Like a baby, it didn’t have words, so screaming was its only option. If she could just get the pain to dull down a little, she could think and then try and figure out what to do.

“No. I mean… Talent’s the Warborne’s doc,” he explained, shoving a hand through his close-cropped hair.

“Meds!” she hissed to remind him.

“Oh shit, yeah. On it.” His voice was clipped as he practically tore the door off the medication cabinet and located what she needed.

“Terran is a fucking awful language,” he told her as he returned. “But thankfully simple. Interfacing with the medical systems now.”

“You do that, handsome,” she nodded, grabbing the medication from his outstretched hand. Ripping the lids off, she jammed the injectors against her neck and sighed in relief as the high-strength drugs hit her system. The stim worked