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  The medics settled her on the back of a wide vehicle. Surat remained next to her as they lifted off and the medics scanned her with portable units.

  She glanced back, and a team of techs was swarming the ship.

  “Uh, they are going to find some blood back there.”

  “It is fine. As long as most of it wasn’t yours, everything is fine.”

  She nodded and kept her hands folded in front of her.

  The medic flying the vehicle parked it, and Surat helped her to her feet.

  A large man with sharp features smiled at her as they entered the building. “Hello, Bride Bryn, I am Medic Alveck.”

  Surat spoke to her. “Medic Alveck is the current expert on female Lrrko physiology, since the Terran Brides are the only ones we have seen in centuries.”

  “I am pleased to meet you.” She smiled at the medic.

  “You have had an ordeal, Bride Bryn. Please come this way, and we will get you situated.”

  Bryn smiled. “As long as the lights don’t go out while I am in a scanner, we will be fine.”

  They walked her down a few floors until they entered a lab. Medic Alveck nodded, “There is a solar shower in that cubical. When you are clean, wrap yourself in one of the robes and come on out.”

  Bryn removed her bodysuit and kicked it to one side. Upon reflection, she should have waited until she was in the cubicle. Both of the men with her were staring.

  The solar shower felt like heaven, and having clean hair made her feel nearly human. Funny considering the circumstances.

  She turned again and again in the warm cleansing beams as her skin finally felt warm again. Her skills with the life support were minimal.

  When she was done, she wrapped herself in a light robe and came out to the main medical station.

  “Okay, where do you want me?”

  Alveck smiled at her. “In the first scanner, please. Surat will help you get into place.”

  She finally looked at her Familiar and blushed. It was one thing for her to see a faceless bot breaking into her bathroom or giving her a massage or checking her butt for bruises after tumbling practice; it was another to imagine that this elegantly featured man with the deep-blue hair had been the mind behind the bot.

  “This isn’t the appearance I am used to.”

  “It is understandable. If I may help you?”

  She nodded, and he put his hands on her waist, boosting her onto the med bed. He settled her legs straight and helped her recline into position with her hands at her sides.

  Medic Alveck came to her, and he smiled encouragingly. “We are doing basic scans, and then, I will work on resurfacing your fingers. You have been busy.”

  She didn’t comment. She was so tired that she relaxed and let them do whatever they wanted. If they weren’t going to prod her, she was going to enjoy a well-deserved rest.

  * * * *

  Surat watched as his charge fell asleep. “It is amazing that she could pass out in front of strangers.”

  Alveck ran the scanners. “You aren’t a stranger, Surat. She knows you, even if you are wearing your flesh instead of metal.”

  He looked her over and saw the bruising on her legs from stumbling around in the dark, the raw, bloody nails from whatever she had been doing to fix the ship and the residue of a black eye, which had probably been dealt to her by the Meratti.

  If he weren’t sure that they were dead, he would charge out and kill them himself. Their normally passive predation had taken a turn when they had targeted his shuttle. He was unhappy for Bryn but very glad for himself that she had been able to take action.

  Alveck was taking care with the scans, and when they were finished, he pulled a med cart close and started to work on her left hand.

  Instead of waiting, Surat pulled another cart in and worked on her right hand.

  He kept himself focused on the task, but he winced at the damage to her tissue and nails. She had split nearly every nail; the skin had been worn down or torn away. Two fingers bore scorch marks. “Oh, Bryn, what did you have to do?”

  Her knuckles were also badly bruised.

  “Does she fight with both hands?”

  Surat confirmed. “She does.”

  “She broke two knuckles. She is a very determined woman.” Alveck nodded.

  “How can you tell it wasn’t recent?”

  “The knuckles started to heal, and the blood around the joint indicates that she continued to use her hands after the break.”

  Surat shook his head. “She is an odd one. Fun. But odd.”

  Alveck kept working on her left hand; Surat finished using the regenerator on her fingertips and carefully laid reinforcing strips over her nails. The fibres couldn’t regenerate, but they could be protected until they grew out.

  It took an hour, but the slow breathing of his charge was reassuring. When they were finished, Alveck gave him the news.

  “She ovulated while in transit. It will be another twenty days before we can start tracking her cycle.”

  A feminine voice made them both jump. “That sucks. Where can I get feminine supplies?”

  Bryn was lying with her eyes closed and her breathing even. A small smile played around her lips.

  Alveck cleared his throat. “I can get some in from town. You won’t need it for a few days.”

  Bryn opened her eyes. “Good. By the way, you have a very nice touch.”

  To Surat’s astonishment, Alveck coloured under her scrutiny.

  He suddenly understood how dangerous a female Lrrko could be. One smile and compliment from her and the seasoned medic was all aflutter. When she turned that smile on him, he knew he was doomed. Where was his metal body when he needed it? His flesh was betraying him and part of him did not mind.

  Chapter Five

  Bryn slowly sat up, her hands a little tingly but not painful.

  Surat came around to help her get comfortable with a supporting hand at her back. The touch was familiar even if the temperature was warmer than she was used to.

  She smiled at him. “I am sorry for what I had to do to your bot. I needed some parts, and I knew that you had them.”

  He snorted, and it was fun to see his nostrils flare when he did it.

  “You could have crawled inside it for all I care. It will be repaired and readied for duty.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and squeezed.

  “It was a little weird cracking you open.”

  “It wasn’t me. I was here, cut off from you.”

  She patted his hand with sympathy. “Did it hurt?”

  “It was not comfortable, but it was not painful. I was more worried about you out there in a dead ship.”

  Alveck was using something on her cheekbone and temple. “You cracked your orbital ridge.”

  She tried not to grimace. “It has been an eventful few days.”

  She held onto Surat as the healing unit did its job. Alveck worked on her legs next.

  “What happened to your legs?”

  “I had to crawl through some of the duct work to run wiring. It was a little snug.”

  Her abrasions and bruises faded under the regenerator’s healing rays.

  “So, Surat, what comes next? I am here, in relatively one piece and with no egg harvest in my immediate future. Where do I live? What do I do?”

  He smiled. “Right. We never got around to that conversation. Well, we will live at the Bride facility, and from there, you can continue your education. A workshop will be arranged, and you can experiment all you like. When you have a basic mastery, you can be enrolled in a ship’s engineering course.”

  “So, I have an apartment?”

  “We have an apartment. As your Familiar, I share your living space.”

  “Um, okay. That’s fine as long as I have lights that work and a comfortable environment.”

  She felt fatigue settling over her again. “How much longer, Medic Alveck?”

  “On
ly a few minutes, Bride Bryn. You will be on your way shortly. Your skin is healing nicely.”

  She swayed, and Surat moved in close to her.

  “If you won’t lie back, lean on me.”

  Bryn nodded and leaned against his chest. She inhaled, and his scent was just as fascinating as the rest of him. The bot didn’t have a scent, but now, she wanted to see if there was a difference between his chest and anywhere else.

  She relaxed against him, and he held her securely but carefully. Alveck worked on her, and when he released her into Surat’s custody, she was too sleepy to do more than grunt as her Familiar picked her up.

  Wind caressed her cheek as they flew across the city. Her legs were cold and exposed, but Surat held her to him and she felt secure.

  When they landed, he carried her through a checkpoint and down into a large building. She didn’t see more than that because she was having a problem keeping her eyes open.

  She woke slightly when Surat settled her on a bed and tucked her in. The cool smell of the sheets helped ease her into a deeper sleep, and she was finally able to relax.

  * * * *

  Surat updated Bryn’s file. Since he wasn’t taking her right to the Elders, they wanted to know what they could about her.

  He read the report of the ship’s systems. Bryn had rewired technology she didn’t truly understand into a working navigation system. The jump activator had been burned out, so she scavenged the communications array from the bot to make herself a halo.

  Surat read that and went cold. He got up and crossed to Bryn’s side. As gently as he could, he pushed her hair aside, and the small puncture that he could see confirmed the blood that they had found in the ship.

  He crossed the room and found the med kit. The surface regenerator would work on her skin, but he was surprised that Alveck hadn’t mentioned it when they were in medical.

  Surat worked on the punctures, moving her head slowly to reach all of the injured areas.

  He wanted to know what had happened when he had been thrown back to Lrrko, but that would have to wait until she was rested, fed and stable. His curiosity could wait.

  * * * *

  Bryn was sitting at breakfast and enjoying the spectrum of courses in her tablet that were offered.

  “So, do you just follow me around the entire time?” She smiled at Surat.

  “I am your Familiar. I maintain your health and facilitate your life here.”

  “What do you get out of it?”

  He chuckled. “I get my genes added into the cycle, and I become the first contributor to your descendants.”

  Bryn finished her meal. “Even my heir?”

  “That is for you to decide. You could choose from any of the donors in the bank already.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I think I would rather have my child be with someone I know.”

  “Do you wish your children grown in a tank or do you wish to bring them to term yourself?” He smiled. “It is a choice that you have.”

  “Huh. Right. I was just learning about the cloning when the attack came. So, your entire population is male?”

  “As we did not have any new genes available, natural mutation wasn’t possible. They had to use an established pattern. Even then, there is degradation occurring in each generation.” He shrugged.

  “Which is why the Terrans didn’t really have a choice. With Lrrko genes out there somewhere, your people had to add them to your pool.”

  “Our people. You no longer scan as Terran.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Right. I forgot about that.”

  He cleared her dishes away and set a pot of tea and a new mug in front of her. “Are you ready to talk about it now?”

  Bryn sighed. “Not really, but I will. Where do you want me to start?”

  “Begin when the lights went out.”

  She nodded and went over the details. The lights went out, the bot fell and she tried to catch it, which is when her cheek was struck.

  Bryn described the sounds of the magnetic seal on the hull and her hiding in the storage bin in the cargo hold. From there, she proceeded to killing the folks who had come to pirate her.

  Now, her true problem surfaced. She was in a ship that had no life support on, and it was getting cold. She stripped one of the Meratti and used his EVA suit, finding his helmet near the hatch.

  Covered and protected, even though she was covered in his scent, she hauled the two men to the hatch, opened it and pushed them through. Locking it and leaving them there.

  The first thing on her agenda was to get life support up and running. She opened the bulkheads and found the wiring clusters she needed. The joints to power had been snapped out, so she needed to strip them and rewire them. It wasn’t a huge problem, but it was awkward in the spacesuit.

  It took her a day to get life support up and running, and from there, splicing the food unit into the navigation panel had been enough of a Frankenstein to get her moving.

  The lav wasn’t functioning, the food she ate was frozen, and when she had the ship able to move, she moved it.

  Bryn described using the jump halo and the smell of blood running down her skin while she focused on bridging the gap from machine to machine.

  The rest was her trip to Lrrko and the relief she felt at the incoming ships that helped her down.

  When Bryn snapped out of her memories, she found that she had finished all of the tea and several little cookies that he had set out for her. “When did the cookies go?”

  He chuckled. “When the food was frozen, you hit the cookies with mindless focus.”

  She sighed. “That is going to take some getting over.”

  “Yes, as is what you did to keep yourself calm. There is something you are not telling me.”

  Bryn looked at his concerned features, and she made a face. “Fine. I talked to you while I was working through things.”

  He looked ridiculously pleased. “You did?”

  She grumbled. “I did. So, what do we do today?”

  “Nice change of topic.” He chuckled. “Well, I will get you into your new clothing, and we will go introduce you to the Elders.”

  “Elders?”

  “Yes. Retired masters of their disciplines. Oh, and one of your folk.” He smiled.

  “What do they want with me?”

  “They wish to meet you and take your measure. They have the reports, and now, they want to match it to your face and body language.”

  Bryn could deal with that. “What happens after that?”

  “We take a tour of this facility, and you get to go for a run, practice combat or acrobatics.”

  “Well, with an offer like that on the table, of course. Let’s go.”

  She looked around and shrugged. “I suppose I should go looking for clothing.”

  He propped his head on his chin and smiled. “Not on my account.” He sighed and got to his feet. “Well, I don’t want you to be out and about like that. You would get chilly.”

  Bryn snorted. “Yeah, from what I remember, it was a brisk trip over here in that med gown.”

  The sudden realisation that she had gotten used to talking to Surat while she was stark naked showed her that the Familiar program was having its effect. She didn’t feel weird around him, and that was definitely odd for her. The time spent with his bot had been comforting, and that was what she thought when he crossed her mind. He represented comfort.

  Surat opened the wardrobe and pulled out a pile of items that made her eyes widen. He set the items on the edge of the bed and beckoned to her. “Come on. The Elders are waiting.”

  Bryn got to her feet and reached for the leggings. Lrrko clothing looked complicated.

  “Does every Bride get to carry weapons?”

  He chuckled and got behind her on the small vehicle. “They do when they have proved themselves on a mission. So far, that is you. Others have to go through a lot of combat training.”

&nb
sp; “And I have already done my practicum, so to speak.”

  He chuckled next to her ear. “Precisely.”

  She shivered at the sensation that the warm breath and low tones ran through her.

  Her feeling of comfort was shifting, and she wasn’t too upset about it.

  She flexed her hands in the bands that wrapped her fists. Between her punch and the shock sticks, she was well protected. Bryn felt confident that she could take on anything or anyone that came her way, and with Lrrko law, she was allowed to do it.

  The freedom of being able to defend herself to the full extent of her abilities was intoxicating. She was giddy with relief at the thought that she was free to do what she could to defend herself without worrying about frigging lawsuits.

  It was a strange situation. She didn’t like the idea of hurting someone, but she enjoyed knowing that she could if she needed to. The Lrrko men were huge, and she was at a basic disadvantage. Using the skills and training that she had mastered was her compensation for the world she found herself in. She finally fit in her own body, and that feeling was a little strange. Her soul was trying to fill in all the gaps that societal restrictions had created.

  Surat directed the flying motorcycle over to the top of a building and set it down.

  Bryn figured that with the flying vehicles and their obvious weight, the buildings had to be reinforced to take the load.

  Surat got off the vehicle and extended his hand to hers. “Come along; they are eager to meet you.”

  “Can’t wait.”

  “If you want to have a treat afterward, we can check out the gestation levels. None of the Bride descendants have been started yet. They wish to run all six samples at the same time.”

  “Six? I thought there were only five Brides?”

  He smirked. “You haven’t met Elder Lynni yet.”

  She wasn’t left wondering long.

  Chapter Six

  The Elders were arranged in a half-circle, and the only woman in the group was exceptionally obvious. Elder Lynni was a woman of two sides and two distinct colours. Her colouration was split down the middle. A warrior with the clothing of a Familiar stood behind her with an amused expression on his features.