Assessing Survival Read Online Free PDF

of a few minutes, and your body will graft to it in a few hours. No more surgeries unless there are new, larger, injuries.”
    Keenan smiled. “Great. What is a jack point?”
    She walked over to him and took his arm in her hands, feeling upward until the connector cuff was under her fingers. “The surgeons are needed to connect your existing body to the graft point, here. It has to have a solid foundation, and it is usually wired to additional spines that have been added to reinforce your body. Just because you have new limbs doesn’t mean your original structure can handle what you can do with it.”
    “So, I can blast right out of my new skin?”
    “Not your skin, but dislocated hips used to be a problem with the original structures. That is why I have a job. I have to check and double check that you are going to come out in one large, sturdy piece.”
    He grinned. “You are shorter than I thought.”
    Stitch smiled at him. “I made you two inches taller.”
    Nikolai growled. “Are you authorized to do that?”
    She realized that she was still groping his brother’s shoulder. “Touch your brother or make him taller? Either way, the answer is yes, I am authorized.”
    She patted Keenan and stepped away.
    Nikolai put his hand on her shoulder. “Come on, soldier, you need a workout.”
    Stitch blinked and laughed. “Oh, please, let it involve getting naked.”
    He growled and shoved her out of his brother’s vicinity. “Save something for the rain check, Stitch.”
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    Her arms trembled, she grunted and Nikolai’s whisper encouraged her to push harder. Sweat made her grip slick, and she adjusted her grip on the column.
    She pulled, and she made it to the top of the bar. “Fifty.”
    She dropped slowly and glared at him as she dangled from the bar. “You know that only one of my arms was replaced, right?”
    He put his hands on her legs and nodded to her. “Drop.”
    Stitch slammed into his arms, and he caught her by the waist. Her breasts were even with his face. She saw his nostrils flare as he slowly lowered her down his body.
    “Isn’t this harassment or something?”
    “Well, neither of us is fully human anymore, so do the rules still apply?” He held her against him, and he pulled her in flush with his body.
    The workout gear she was wearing was no defense against the heat from his hands. His breath mixed with hers as she was slowly lowered to the floor. She smelled mint, and it made her smile before she wrapped her shaking arms around his neck. “I think that the rules can be bent a little.”
    She brushed her lips against his and whispered, “Just a little. I don’t like things bending. I prefer them a little more rigid.”
    He smiled and brushed his lips against hers. “Perhaps another day. I just got confirmation that we have a burst from Omega Base.”
    She pushed against him and excitement burned in her. “Where? Where can I get it?”
    “It has been sent to requisitions. I have to admit, I am really curious as to what all of that equipment is for.”
    “Don’t worry. It will be made clear soon enough. Your guys have been limping along for a while. Haven’t you noticed that the new cyborgs are less graceful than you are? It isn’t because this is an outlier base; it was because you didn’t have someone like me helping you out. I know all of the equipment, and now that I can communicate with Cracker, I can get all kinds of upgrades for the men installed in a matter of hours. The doctors do the work, but they don’t look much beyond saving the patient. I can see the big picture.”
    He let her go, and the path they were taking led to his office.
    “If you don’t see us as patients who need saving, what do you see us as?” He held his door open for her.
    “Isn’t it obvious? I see all of us as weapons. I try to make us as effective as possible.” Stitch smiled brightly and sat in the spare chair in his office.
    “Weapons?”
    “Yes. We are. Even me, the