Melanie sat on the bunk in her quarters, examining the thick black strapping that covered her shoulder. She had summoned a medical droid to change her dressing and it had been sitting patiently beside her for five minutes, waiting for her to settle down and sit still.
'Okay,' she said. 'Let's do this.'
The medical droid jumped into her lap, feeling much lighter than it looked. It extended two spider-like legs towards her shoulder and proceeded to cut the strapping away with a series of precise incisions, zapping it with short pulses of red laser light. A smell of burnt blood filled the air, taking a turn for the worse as the strapping fell away to reveal her infected wound. The fless had attacked her on the White Spear's lookout balcony and her shoulder was taking longer to heal than she had hoped.
Glancing down with a grimace, she saw that the ragged red flesh had softened to a fading pink, covered in a glistening clear puss. The stench was awful. Melanie sent a message through her neural implants, asking the medical droid what the problem was. It was a primitive chassis with little conversation skills, but it managed to return the concepts of infection, redressing the wound, and an infusor.
Melanie turned to stare at the wall while thin silver legs poked at her injured shoulder. She hissed between her teeth as it cleaned the wound with a series of delicate movements.
'Ow! Ow! Come on!' Shaking her head she felt heat rising to her face as the pain in her shoulder peaked before subsiding once more. The droid used several infusors on and around the injury before re-bandaging it and wrapping it in fresh black strapping to protect it from any knocks and bumps.
The whole process took around fifteen minutes. By the end of the procedure Melanie felt light headed and more than a little dehydrated. Pulling a tissue from her pocket, she dabbed away a smattering of sweat that had formed on her forehead and neck.
The medical droid jumped down onto the floor and scurried towards the door with a bag full of blood, puss and infected bandages.
'And a good day to you,' Melanie said with a mock salute.
Climbing to her feet, she walked towards a small tap that was mounted against the wall and availed herself of a glass of water.
The medical droid was already heading down the corridor outside. She could feel it through her neural implants even though she couldn't see it anymore. The door to her quarters closed automatically and she returned to her bunk to sit for a while.
* * * * *
It had been almost twenty-four hours since the first Wasp Drone had trundled off the production lines at the newly repaired tech factory. Melanie had sent it to Alma Station to collect Commander Beth Pain from the station's medical facility. She had been stranded there alone since being attacked by far more fless than Melanie ever wanted to see in one place. She knew what it was like to be attacked by the foul black creatures, but Beth's injuries were much worse than her own. She had lost an arm in the attack. She had been convalescing at Alma Station ever since.
Melanie tracked the Wasp Drone's progress with her neural implants. She wasn't surprised when she received a message to say that it was now waiting on the White Spear's landing bay. Climbing to her feet with a smile, she left her quarters and headed for the nearest Air Route.
* * * * *
'Hey!' Melanie said as she stepped onto the White Spear's landing bay a few minutes later.
Beth was waiting for her, silhouetted against the Wasp Drone with its transparent wings standing proud behind her. She looked whole, both arms present, but Melanie knew that one of them had been reconstructed by Idra, Cassendra's cousin at Alma Station.
'Which arm was it?' she blurted out before regretting the rashness of her words.
They were both implants. If they couldn't have a factual conversation, unladen by emotional turmoil then no one could, but still there was a heavy atmosphere on the landing bay. Something terrible had happened - whether they were willing to say as much or not.
'This one,' Beth said, raising her left arm.
It stretched above her head as normal and then extended to twice its original length, touching the hangar's ceiling.
'Oh,' Melanie said.
'Idra reconstructed my arm in her own image. I guess, being a medical droid, she saw the value of a good reach.'
Melanie laughed before she could stop herself. 'Sorry. That's awful.'
'My joke or the arm?'
'The joke I was referring to.' Melanie stepped closer and Beth retracted her arm until it hung loose by her side once more.
'Does it hurt?' Melanie said.
'It hurts a lot,' Beth said. 'But I can't feel it at all.'
Melanie nodded. She knew what Beth meant. She was using her implants to block the pain by releasing heightened levels of endogenous opioids from her pituitary gland.
'I'm sorry,' Melanie said.
'For what?'
'I'm sorry that we let you go out there alone and I'm sorry this had to happen to you. It must have been awful.'
Beth shrugged. 'I wanted to get out of the Operations Room, to see the real world. Now I'm happy to remain in the towers.'
She made light of the situation, talking in a cheerful tone but Melanie could sense the rawness behind her words. She'd been through a lot, even if she didn't want to talk about it.
'Parker is hailing me,' Melanie said. 'I think he wants to see you.'
Beth nodded. 'He's hailing me too. Let's go.'
* * * * *
They headed for the newly refurbished Operations Room and found Parker waiting for them in his general's uniform. He offered a half smile as his pink eyes came into focus.
'It's good to see you again,' he said.
'Thanks,' Beth said. 'It's good to see you too, General. You deserve that title.'
Parker paused, turning his head to one side. 'We brought you back as soon as we could. The tech factories were down. The Kamari destroyed our entire drone fleet. We had to start again from scratch, rebuilding our infrastructure just to build a single drone. The first one off the production line was sent to collect you. Melanie made sure of that.'
'It's okay,' Beth said. 'I wasn't expecting you to come any sooner. Besides, I needed time to recover from my injuries.'
Parker nodded, refusing to look at her arm. 'You should rest until you are ready to return to duty,' he said. 'Don't feel pressured to start anything on our account.'
'I'm not pressured,' Beth said, 'but I'm not looking forward to spending a week in my quarters either. Idra fixed me up while I was down there. She did a good job and I had plenty of time for sitting around. My arm works as well as it ever has, just in a rather more surreal way. I don't need any special treatment. I'd rather get back into something so I don't have too much time to think about it.'
Parker glanced down at the floor, his cheek twitching down one side. 'I thought you'd say that. There is one thing you could do to help me out.'
'Parker,' Melanie said with heat rising in her face. 'You can't ask her to work already.'
Parker frowned. 'I'm not forcing her.'
'It's fine, really,' Beth said. 'I want to do something. Let me help.'
Melanie frowned and folded her arms beneath her breasts. 'You're not going on any combat operations.'
Beth offered a rueful smile. 'That's fine with me.'
'I was thinking of something less physical,' Parker said. 'I need someone to liaise with Henry Willow on my behalf.'
'The diplomat?' Beth said. 'Is he wasting your time?'
'Not wasting, no. He's actually been very helpful. I just don't have time to answer all his questions right now. I need someone to work with him - guide him in the right direction.'
'I can do that.'
'Don't push yourself too hard,' Melanie said. 'Let me know if you need any help.'
'Beth nodded. I've learnt my lesson. I hope I won't let you all down this time.'
'You didn't let us down,' Parker said. 'We should never have sent you out there before we knew what we were dealing with.'
Beth brushed a hand through her hair, wiping a thin film of sweat from her forehead in the process. She might not be feeling any pain but that didn't mean her body wasn't suffering inside.