Assessing Survival Read Online Free Page B

the marks on the necessary portions. “Is there anything else?”
    “No. I mean, I wish I could run this past Cracker, but she isn’t listed as being on active duty.”
    He chuckled. “Did you check your own status? You are still on medical leave. Cracker is awake, aware and designing new implants every week.”
    “Holy shit.” Stitch leaned forward eagerly. “Can I contact her?”
    He shook his head. “No, but you can send the request to her and see what she thinks. We will bounce it through a dozen satellites, and she will reply. A burst is the only way we can communicate with Omega Base.”
    Stitch nodded and pulled the file back onto her screen, working quickly to send as much information as she could. She hummed quickly and sent the file back to Nikolai. “There. We will see what she can do with that.”
    He nodded and sent the file using a series of codes that she tried not to notice. Her analytical mind was already recording them before she thought to look away.
    Nikolai smiled. “How long do you think she will need?”
    “If she came through the explosion without brain damage? She will call back in three hours.”
    He nodded. “Would you like some lunch? It is time for a break.”
    “Sure.” She got to her feet, and he got up and rounded his desk.
    They walked in silence to the dining hall and didn’t speak again until they were seated.
    “So, Captain Lukai, how did you end up here?”
    He smiled and forked up his meal. “Same way as everyone else. I went to the front line, and now, I am here. When the call comes, we go out, and if we are lucky, we come back.”
    “How did your brother get here?”
    “He was a new assignment. They send them to us now and then. I had no idea he was coming. I tried to protect him, but he is a fighter and there was no stopping him.” He shuddered. “Just as there was no stopping me.”
    “You survived.”
    “I wanted more from life than endless war. I wanted to return home a hero.” He looked at her with his piercing gaze, and she was left speechless.
    “You still can.”
    Surprise filled his gaze. “Didn’t they tell you? They locked Earth against us. There is no going home.”
    Her fork clattered to the table. “I thought they just put up shields.”
    “They did. They are safe as long as we keep the Splice from gaining momentum. That is our duty. We are the first line of defense, the barking dog on the outside of the perimeter.”
    “My family...”
    He looked surprised. “You have children?”
    “No. Parents, siblings. Can we send messages?”
    Nikolai nodded. “We can. It is the same batch sending that we used to send the message to Omega Base.”
    She ran her hands through her hair. “Do they even know I am alive? Holy hells. This is...”
    “Eat your lunch.”
    She couldn’t eat. Couldn’t think. She clutched at her head as her heart pounded. Her home. Gone. She had been kicked out, locked out, and no one had even bothered telling her.
    Her mind sent her back to the moment where everything changed.
     
    She saw the tag and read it; her mind went back to news vids of the last terrorist actions on Earth. The last three had all had a tag that read, From Your Secret Admirer.
    Stitch heard herself yelling, and it was too late. Her mind recorded every moment of the bow being pulled, the flare of light, the glow of the explosion and then the wave of destruction as it spilled toward her.
    She screamed as her friends were torn apart, and she was helpless to save them. The wave continued until it hit her and spun her backward. Her arm tore and shattered before she slammed into the wall. Her lower body went numb.
    She heard Cracker calling for help, and she tried to crawl forward, but her arm wouldn’t hold her.
    “Stitch!” A hand was shaking her hard.
     
    “Ow. What?”
    She looked up at Nikolai, and he was standing next to her with concern on his face.
    She was shaking violently, so she turned to her stone-cold food. The fork wouldn’t hold her