Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Siroc

I stood with Urix in examination room three, where the high healer had set up his most advanced technology for the most challenging patients, of which the female more than qualified. The whole infirmary was impressive. When it was confirmed, nearly two standard galactic years ago, that human females would be coming here, I'd ordered Urix to upgrade the whole facility to give them and their future offspring the best care possible. He'd done so brilliantly. The walls were covered in display panels and interfaces and new scanners and treatment devices made it easier and faster to deliver treatment for just about any illness or injury. The infirmary was a large energy draw, but thankfully we had an abundance of it in the form of vistran crystals. It was one of the things we had fought for in a war that ended seven years earlier.

I had not fought in that war, but I had worked in the refinery to supply our side with all the machinery we could produce. We earned the peace we currently enjoyed, but as I gazed down at the female lying on the exam bed, I shuddered at what could potentially lie ahead. "What have you learned?"

"I'm still trying to determine what species could have done this," said Urix. "She was covered in a type of membrane encapsulation."

"Was that what kept her alive in the cold?"

Urix nodded. "It regulated her body temperature but also put her in a coma-like state, lowering her breathing and heart rate. I have kept the substance and plan to study it. Something like that would be enormous for us, allowing our warriors more freedom on the outside without having to depend on the bulky survival gear they must wear now. It's phenomenal technology. I've never seen anything like it before. It would be new in this quadrant."

I waved my hand. "Tell me about her . What was done to her? I assume you have done a full diagnostic."

"Indeed, I have." Urix adjusted something on the screen mounted beside the female's bed. "That is why I called you here. When I removed the membrane, her body temperature adjusted on its own to the warmer conditions here. There was an uptick in her vitals." Urix lifted the female's arm and replaced it to correct a slight kink in the line that went into her arm.

She was as clean and smooth as the white sheet that was laid over her torso and tucked under her arms. She still looked like a corpse.

"As for who she is, this is our missing female, Jane Miller." Urix showed me a handheld screen with a picture and file. "DNA matched and so did a facial analysis."

I looked at the image, which didn't resemble the female lying before me. The Jane Miller in the picture was fuller and brighter, with long, tan hair and a wide smile. Too wide. I glanced at her background information. It was profoundly dull—she was twenty-seven, a digital librarian, no living family. No hobbies. "Who is her mate?"

"No mate," Urix replied, looking at her file over my shoulder. "She hadn't met a male she wanted to bond with, although there had been interest, according to interviews done with her friends at the time of her disappearance. She turned away a number of males, but also had not expressed a desire to leave."

"This was investigated because there was reason to think she'd run away?"

"I think the guards who investigated followed all angles because of the report that had to be sent to Earth. The suspicious death of a human female is no light matter."

"Indeed." My gaze stayed on Jane's features. They were relaxed now, but she must have suffered terribly. "I am the one who signed off and sent that report."

"Warlord, the most concerning thing I discovered was this—it appears her disappearance in that access cave tunnel was staged. This female was abducted, plain and simple."

"Obviously." My gaze snapped to his. "By whom?"

Urix raised one finger. "That is the question. But you can see here she has defensive wounds that have healed." He turned her hand, where two fingernails appeared to be red and shorter than the others. "She lost nails. Here, you can see scarring consistent with a fight." Sure enough, light scars from long-healed injuries were visible on her forearms and hands. "I have no information on who abducted her."

"What about all this?" I gestured to the shiny patches of metal that took the place of skin in some places.

"She has been outfitted with numerous cybernetic implants. I am not sure what they all do, but some of them may have been to heal injuries. Some may have been experimental, and others, well, we just don't know yet. I want your permission to remove some."

"Would that be safe?" I asked.

"The ones I've identified as candidates for removal won't harm her." Urix looked down at the unconscious female with an expression of wonder and fascination. He'd been given a challenging puzzle and I daresay he was enjoying it. "I wonder if some of the implants were just to see if her body would reject artificial additions. Honestly, some seem pointless."

"Perhaps the point was torture," I said through my gritted teeth. "Perhaps her abductors were trying to get information from her."

Urix shrugged. "I can't imagine what. The females living in Thrail Praxan don't have deep knowledge of our mining technology."

"Perhaps these enemies didn't know that."

"Perhaps." Urix pursed his lips. "We'll learn more when she wakes up and tells us what she experienced. In the meantime, removing some of the implants will help to restore her natural appearance. The ones deep in the brain are now integrated into her body. Removing them would cause harm."

"And we don't know what those implants do?"

Urix sighed. "Some are tapped into her senses and body functions. They indicate some of her systems were enhanced."

"Enhanced? Like strength and endurance?" I asked.

"Possibly. I will know more when she awakens and I can begin testing. But I didn't wish to revive her until after I got your permission to remove the implants I can access."

"Permission granted. And run tests on everything you can." I didn't like what I felt. The female looked so fragile. So defenseless. She had come to Mitra with hopes of a new life. Of love and children. Instead, she had found fear and pain. We had failed to protect her. I had failed. "Find the origin of these implants, Urix. Someone abducted one of our females and ran experiments on her…" My hands curled into tight fists. "That is an act of aggression and must be dealt with."