Assessing Survival Read Online Free PDF Page A

meal with her hand shaking, so fingers were put on food-acquisition duty.
    Every face in the dining hall was turned toward her.
    “What?”
    “Stitch, you were screaming.”
    She nodded. “Probably. It was not a nice memory to get stuck in.”
    She finished shovelling the cold food into her mouth and washed it down with a glass of water. At least the water was already cold.
    She wiped her hands on her napkin and dabbed at her lips. Nikolai was still standing next to her.
    “If you are waiting for me to blow you, I just ate.”
    He jerked slightly and tension left him. “Oh, good. You are still in there.”
    He sat across from her again. “That was disturbing. I have heard of others reliving their injuries, but I haven’t seen it before. It was two years ago.”
    She smiled weakly. “It was the day before yesterday.”
    He smiled at her. “I will take a rain check on the blowjob.”
    “Good. How often does it rain here?”
    Nikolai blinked rapidly. “Every few weeks.”
    “Good to know.” She winked and looked around the dining hall. “Is this everyone?”
    “It is. When the base was first up and running, we had fifteen hundred men here. Now, we are down to one hundred and thirty-six, including support staff. We have more attack vessels here than we have pilots to fly them.”
    She smiled slightly. Her wish list to Cracker had included a control unit and software to fill up the storage inside it. She doubted that Nikolai had known the product codes or the software titles. If she was stuck on the front lines, she was not going to be helpless if the Splice came calling.
    Stitch smiled. “Well, with lunch done, do you mind if I check on Keenan?”
    He frowned. “You never checked on me after my surgery.”
    She tried not to smirk at his disappointed voice. “Sure I did; I just never entered the room. I had to check on my charges via their reports.”
    “I will come with you. He is my brother, after all.”
    She shrugged and got to her feet. “Come on, then, Base Commander.”
    He sighed and followed her.
    The medics had Keenan on his feet. There was still a lot of tissue to grow in, and he was looking silvery but complete from hips to knees.
    “Stop staring at his butt, Stitch,” the dark murmur was whispered in her ear.
    She smirked. “It is such a nice butt. How did you know?”
    He stepped around her and headed for his brother. “I did some research on you after we met.”
    “You don’t say. Were you looking into my preferences?”
    Keenan looked at them and smiled. “If you two are here to visit me, you suck at it.”
    The medic grinned at them. “He is doing very well for his first.”
    Nikolai looked at his brother and scowled. “Why is he leaning?”
    The medic looked wary. “It is a side effect of the surgery.”
    “I didn’t have that.”
    Stitch stepped forward. “It is natural. He sees the difference in his limbs, and he moves to haul around a body with metal. His mind hasn’t caught on to the nanites yet.”
    Nikolai frowned. “Why wasn’t that an issue for me?”
    She gestured to his hands. “You lost both and your lungs at the same time. You had more time to recover. A day makes a difference.”
    Keenan flexed his fingers and looked at the tissue that was creeping up his new hand. “It is starting to feel like me again. Why is it silver?”
    Stitch looked at the medic, and the medic gave her a nod.
    “The nanites want to build the tissue and keep it functioning, but they can’t graft to the metal work. They are programmed to build a bridge between the two structures. Basically, they are building metal skin and muscles as well as tendons. The connection in the jack point carries the nerve impulses from your new skin. You can feel like you did before, but you will have increased grip strength, faster reflexes with your fingers and your legs will be able to carry you for amazing distances without aching or breaking. If they are injured, a replacement can be plugged in in a matter