Legacy Contract (Stand Alone Tales Book 6) Read online

  He didn’t want her. He didn’t request her. But now that she is carrying his legacy he is not letting her go.

  Dekora travelled the stars to get medical treatment for a friend. Once she arrived on Gryphal, she had to get to work in order to pay for everything her friend needed. New organs aren’t cheap.

  Dekora takes a contract that puts her in harms way, and after a burning tree collapses on her she needs to find another means to make money. The research doctor arrives and makes her an offer. Gryphal needs a new hero born from the genetics of their current champion. She is the first viable match that they have found. If she agrees to donate an egg, she will get the funds for her friend’s care. She agrees and wakes up in a different wing of the med center with a cheerful nurse announcing her pregnancy.

  Khed Amur is notified that his legacy is assured, and he keeps an eye on the news feeds and hospital monitors. When the second attempt on his carrier’s life makes the news, he sweeps in to take her somewhere safe... with him.

  Life with a team of superheroes takes getting used to, but as Dekora’s pregnancy advances at an alarming pace she finds out that the life inside her isn’t the only change she’s going through. Things are about to get complicated.

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Legacy Contract

  Copyright © 2020 by Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-989892-15-2

  ©Cover art by Angela Waters

  All rights reserved. With the exception of review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the express permission of the publisher.

  Legacy Contract

  Published by Viola Grace

  Smashwords Edition

  Look for me online at violagrace.com and your favourite ebooksellers.

  Legacy Contract

  Stand-Alone Tales Book 6

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Dekora made sure that Sephal was on her way to the assessment and intake area while Dekora headed to the financial side.

  She waited in the financial aid side of Gryphal Research Hospital. She fidgeted and waited. She got up and went flipping through the contract work, identifying a number of high-risk items that she could manage. She had a long list of mediocre skills. Sephal used to say that she had just enough knowledge of everything to be dangerous.

  Dekora was called in to meet the administrator who was assigned to Sephal’s case. The man was short, hunched over and scowling. He waved at her to sit.

  “So, Sephal Hiyar is your charge.” He mumbled.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Dr. Byal Ock. You may address me as Dr. Ock. I will be looking into your friend’s case. First, I require payment to run the initial scans.”

  Dekora handed over her credit chit. She had enough to start the process.

  He took the chit, scanned it, and handed it back. “This will only cover her entry into the hospital. What about the rest for the scan?”

  She blinked as he stared at her with beady black eyes. “I have been looking into contract assignments that I am qualified for, I can make the money for her scan in a month.”

  He hissed through his teeth. “There will be a charge for storing her and maintaining her systems, on top of the price of the scans. Once we have come up with a treatment plan, what do you intend to do?”

  She shrugged. “I intend to pay it off, no matter the value. I am capable of doing some of the riskier jobs and so should be able to work to pay the treatment, no matter the cost.”

  He hmphed. “We will offer no treatment to her until you have paid. You will incur storage costs, and your travel documents will be suspended until she clears our facility. Once you commit to this course of action, it will begin.”

  Dekora nodded. “I understand.”

  “Well, then, Ms. Mills, put your thumb on the page once you have read the contract.”

  She nodded, and then, she worked her way through the legalese and all the fine print. By bringing her friend here, she was locking herself in to the terms of the contract. Until Sephal was cured or dead, and the price of her care paid off, Dekora was locked on Gryphal. As an itinerant worker, she had non of the rights of a citizen and would be housed with a portion of her fees being taken for her room and board. She needed to register with the state if she hadn’t already, and the funds for the treatment would be automatically withdrawn from her accounts.

  Dekora nodded and ignored the part where the med center could force her into any work that wasn’t sexual in nature. It was said to be a very rare event. As long as you were paying, you could have up to ten years to pay off an extreme debt. Dekora hoped to have it done in six.

  “I have her files and the previous assessments. Rest assured, we can do far better for her here than any world in the nearest seven systems.” The doctor stood and smiled brightly.

  He was hunched over and had a strange leering grin. She pressed her middle finger onto the pad as she always did and handed him the document. “There. Can I see her before I leave?”

  He looked at the signature and shook his head with a smile. “No. She is in deep storage until your fee for the assessment comes through.”

  Dekora nodded. “Of course. I had better get to work then.”

  He gave her a strange look. “Yes, that would be wise.”

  She opened her com on her way out of the office and got the assignment for her domicile squared away. She had completed all the necessary bureaucracy and was ready to get to work.

  She arrived at the apartment, dropped her pack, and went to the assignment center. She was given the location and coveralls, and from there, she was sent out to the fire-fighting crew on the far side of the world. Four weeks there would get her through the assessment, and then, she only needed to work on the actual cost of the replacement organs that had to be generated by tissue printers that only Gryphal considered legal. The work to repair her DNA would be minor in comparison.

  Dekora was going to be creating firebreaks near a national preserve. It would be hard and mindless work, just what she was up for.

  “Deek! Get over here. The embers are flying, and we have to get moving,” her captain called out.

  She grabbed her pick and shovel and ran toward the transport. Animals sprinted for safety on either side of her, and she kept them clear of her while she tried to catch up with the vehicle that had started moving.

  She tossed her tools in the back, grabbed the bar, and swung herself into the back of the transport. Dekora huffed and shook her head. “That would have been easier if we weren’t moving.”

  Her captain snorted. “You made it, Deek. Now we have to outrun the fire.”

  A thin line of the blaze streaked toward them, going from grass to roots and then to the trees. They had been cutting and digging for twenty-one days, twenty hours per day. They slept in shifts and worked in the darkness.

  The purpose of a firebreak was to hold the fire back and control its path to some extent. Give it earth that it couldn’t burn. Remove the trees that would nod and spread the fire between them. There was a brand of conifer that exploded with enough exposure and a large one could blow splinters for half a kilometer. They had already lost one member of the team to a tree explosion.

  She could see the fire coming closer. She hung onto the posts in the vehicle and rocked with her exhausted companions.

  “Deek, come up here and take the controls.”

  She nodded and climbed over the seat
, waiting for the captain to slide aside. When he moved, she saw the blood staining the steering controls.

  “Shit. Get one of the guys to give you first aid. You are a citizen. You won’t be penalized.”

  He chuckled. “I will trust you to do it when we get to the base. I just didn’t want to risk it on the road.”

  “Do you think we did enough?”

  “I think we did what the contract stipulated. As you know that is everything here.”

  She snorted. “Yup. Got it.”

  She geared up, and they jolted through the woods as the fire crept closer. It was a helluva job, but on Gryphal, it paid well. Anything to keep the heroes on more important duties.

  When they got to camp, she cleaned and stitched his wound with old fashioned sutures. They were the lowest cost option, but she made the captain pay. Her own money was spoken for. The assessment was nearly paid for.

  They slept in shifts, but the captain needed his full night’s rest. He had lost a lot of blood with the puncture through his arm.

  It was into the third hour of her shift when she saw the embers and felt the change in the wind.

  She shouted. “Up! It’s coming!”

  She grabbed the captain and got him into the vehicle. The others were grabbing their kits and hopping onto the transport. She grabbed her bag and the captain’s and put the vehicle in gear. They were just at the edge of the clearing when a wave of fire swept over the site and turned their tents into lanterns.

  Deek focused on the path and kept driving. She might not be able to outrun the fire, but she could try.

  * * * *

  Khed looked around and asked, “Why did you drive the fire up the mountain pass?”

  Levell snorted. “No one lives up there, and we can trap it. Why?”

  Khed winced at the shouting that dispatch was giving him. “Because there was a fire break team, and you have trapped them.”

  Levell cursed, and they both flew up toward the site giving the distress call. When they got to the site, four of the men were waving their arms for assistance and another was lying in the entrance to the cave. A tree had fallen on the transport and nearly crushed the driver’s seat. The transport was on fire.

  Khed and Levell took the four mobile men and got them to safety then returned for the man near the cave. He was scorched and soaked at the same time, and when they rolled him over, he pointed deeper into the cave. “Deek. You have to get, Deek.”

  Khed stepped into the dark space, and he smelled the water and saw a figure, half in, half out.

  He lifted the worker out carefully and set it on his cycle. There was no way that it could hold on. Burns covered the entire right side, and the smell of scorched skin was unmistakable.

  This was going to be a trip to the hospital. The worker wouldn’t survive otherwise.

  He put on the speed and made the call to have a trauma team standing by. He would register it as Levell’s error and that should cover the repair that the body in front of him required.

  Chapter Two

  “Dekora Mills. It seems that unlike your friend, you are Knothean.” Dr. Ock was next to the bed.

  Dekora opened her eyes and closed them immediately. “Fuck.”

  “Indeed. You are in the hospital with extensive burns. Fortunately, the hero who created the issue has admitted his error and has been penalized for the damage done to the firebreak vehicles. You are still responsible for your own repairs.”

  She grunted. “How much.”

  “Twenty thousand credits. The good news is that you have earned considerable bonuses on the firebreak team. Your friend has been assessed, and her treatment plan has been mapped out. It will cost three million credits after storage fees.”

  Dekora swallowed, but it didn’t shock her. “So, how do I make the money for my treatment?”

  She tried not to turn her head. Her right side was blissfully numb.

  “Given your enthusiasm for the process, we have extended you credit. If you check your tablet, you will see that there are a number of contracts listed that are exclusive to this hospital. You might be free of the burn payment debt before you leave. You have already received credit for your blood sample. We have not had any other Knotheans here in the last thirty years.”

  She looked at the pressure bandages on her arm.

  “We have healed the first stage of the burn, but you need to wear the bandage for three days, and that means remaining here. The stay was included in the quote that I gave you.”

  She stared. “I thought you needed my consent to proceed.”

  “Not in cases if imminent death that would result in a canceled contract.” Dr. Ock chuckled. “I am sure that you read that stipulation.”

  She grimaced. “I did. I just never thought it would kick in.”

  “And yet you chose a contract with a high fatality rate. You do have some impulse control issues, don’t you?” He chuckled and handed her a tablet. “There are a few options highlighted. As you need to be sedated for the final course of treatment, we could simply enact those during the procedure.”

  She took the tablet and began to scroll through it. “Tissue samples? Ten thousand credits for tissue samples?”

  He shrugged. “Your people rarely leave their world. You are exotic here, and we wish to keep data on you in our facility.”

  She began to thumb the contracts she would consent to, and Dr. Ock’s eyes glowed with delight. “Excellent. There will be more options to choose from, but thank you for letting me prepare things in advance.”

  Dekora sighed and flicked through the options. Donating her eggs would get her twenty thousand, but it would extend her stay for another week. She wrinkled her nose.

  “Something distasteful?”

  “Egg donation. It would take too long.”

  He looked almost evilly hopeful. “You are considering this?”

  She shrugged. “I may as well sell myself off cell by cell.”

  Dr. Ock frowned. “You would be providing a service to the Gryphal medical community.”

  She snorted. “They got along just fine without me. I don’t know of many of my kind in the stars. We tend to stay in one place and anchor.”

  “Interesting. Is it a species trait or ingrained?”

  “Societal trait. We are a calm people, good in a crisis.”

  Dr. Ock chuckled. “Very interesting. Well, as you are being so good-natured about this, I will throw in unlimited vid viewing. You can catch up on news and documentaries.”

  She nodded. “Thank you. So, two more days with this bandage?”

  “At least.” He smiled brightly. “Don’t worry. With your selections for contracts, you are already covered. I will have your contracts ready when I check on you tomorrow.”

  She nodded delicately again. “Thank you.”

  “Oh, don’t thank me. Never thank me.” He chortled and left her looking through the ways that her body could pay.

  What the hell did legacy mean? She tapped on it. “Oh.”

  Being a surrogate for a wealthy family or someone of high value to the community who could not generate a child on their own. It was either physical or schedule, but something was stopping them.

  There was a rigorous acceptance policy, but if she did try for this, the embryo would be implanted, and she would just bring the child to term. When she checked on the pricing, she choked. Four million credits, for ten months’ work.

  She closed her eyes and opened them again. Yup, there it was. The legacy contract was four million credits.

  She tapped her interest on the tablet, and then, she settled back to rest. She had to get the crazy out of her system, and a nap was the best thing.

  Dekora woke up and watched the news. The fires were under control, there had been no fatalities on her team, and her captain had made it. The heroes were interviewed in front of the scorched backdrop. Khed Amur was the lead, and he spoke as to a few errors in calculation causing some casualties but no fatalities.

  She gl
anced at her right arm and noted the pins in it. Well, she wasn’t dead, so that was accurate.

  The nurses came in and gave her injections. Two to her right shoulder, one to her forearm, one to her neck, and one to her abdomen.

  The woman smiled. “You are healing well. After tomorrow’s procedure you can begin your recovery.”

  “When did the pins get into my arm?”

  “When you arrived. You had been struck by a flaming tree.”

  “Ah. I haven’t felt anything.”

  “We have kept you heavily sedated. You have been here for four days already.”

  She exhaled and leaned back. She flexed her hand and did a dexterity test on her fingers. Her arm moved well, but she felt a twinge in her bicep. “Can I see my medical file?”

  “Of course. All scans and treatments should be available on your data pad.”

  Dekora used her left hand to navigate the information and the images of her blistered, crimson, and ash-covered skin was graphic and precise. A quarter of the righthand side of her head was scorched, but the majority of burning was on her arm. Her hair had been coated with flame retardant gel for the break work.

  She slowly swung her legs to the side and headed to the lav. This time, she stared at her reflection and tried to imagine that half of her face wasn’t covered by the bandage. She would be fine. Her next major contract was going to be pearl diving. She had it lined up for when she was clear of the hospital.

  The nurse helped her back into bed when she finished the necessities and stroked her head. “Rest now. You need to keep yourself calm so that the repair units can do their work. That bone was snapped clear in half. You need to take it easy.”

  Dekora nodded. “Yeah. I understand. So, the procedure is still on for tomorrow?”