The Specter Rising by James Aspen

Author:James Aspen [Aspen, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-14T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

EDOLIT COULDN’T WAIT any longer. The dull vibration of the ship’s drive powering up was shaking her cell. The warship would soon be on the move.

Status report?

Nian displayed her vitals into Edolit’s heads up display. [Health: 75%. Stamina: 25%.]

Cauterized blaster burns remain unhealed as ordered. Rib fractures set, but still unstable. Thumb reattachment complete and functioning at 85% baseline, Nian said.

That will have to do.

I recommend allowing your ribs to heal completely before acting. They limit your range of motion and leave you vulnerable to critical damage if impacted.

Noted, but we don’t have a choice. The rest of the crew is out of time. They'll start killing them to get me to talk.

Then I suggest protecting your left side in battle.

I will. Reset stamina rejuvenation to default.

Now that her basic injuries were patched up, she needed as much energy as she could muster for the coming battle. The more she relied on Nian to augment her motion, the more exhaustion she faced. She was an excellent fighter on her own, but she knew she would need an extra boost to free her people, especially in her injured state.

Her plan was fairly simple, to overwhelm the guards dragging her to interrogation and free her compatriots before the general alert sounded. She glanced at the gory mess on the floor in the corner of her cell. Nian had found the blind spot in the security cameras almost immediately. The hard part for Edolit had been finding an angle to chew off her own thumb and slip her wrist out of the binders without arousing suspicion.

She looked down and moved the reattached digit. It still ached, radiating the rhythm of pain up her forearm. The thumb no longer moved at the correct angle, but it wasn’t useless as she’d feared it might be. She had positioned it as best she could for reattachment, but was off. Nian had healed it, so she wouldn’t bleed out. If she made it back to base, the surgeons would have to grow her a replacement for it to restore full function.

At that moment, she only cared about saving the remaining members of her team. She glanced down at the binders still attached to her other hand and adjusted them to make her appear bound. Anyone inspecting the security feed closely would see she was free, but she’d have to risk it. The element of surprise was her only chance.

She turned towards the door. Carefully, she hid the gore from the camera with her body and kneeled, her weight balanced on the balls of her feet and legs spread wide. Numoh knew enough about her people to recognize the meditation stance and, hopefully, would not suspect an attack. She closed her eyes and waited. Part of her hoped the Captain would be waiting behind the door when it opened. Edolit forced that part of herself aside with a cleansing breath. Revenge wasn’t as important to her as her crew.

She breathed deep and time passed, the cell not quite silent.

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