The scanner had located five more by the time it reached her feet. Mel was already starting to feel fatigued and she hadn’t even gotten to patching yet. Dropping the last locator in with the others, she glanced up and saw Dax on the other side of the viewing window. “I think that’s got it. Tom, get the laser out and start on those fractures--not her face, though. I’ll take care of that when I get back.”
Scooping the locators into one hand, she headed out of the surgery. “Six all together. They knew we’d come after her,” Mel said grimly, opening her palm.
Dax barely glanced at her. “I thought it was too easy.”
A faint smile curled her lips. “You thought that was easy?” she murmured but then frowned. “She isn’t the clone.”
That comment caught his full attention. He glanced at her sharply. “You’re sure?”
Mel sighed. “Almost a hundred percent. All the others had a code in the eyelid. Unless they decided it was too risky. My money’s on her being the real deal, though. She’s got fractures from head to toe. They beat the hell out of her, repeatedly, and I just can’t imagine they’d risk that much ‘realism’ if they wanted to make a plant. I don’t know how she even managed to climb out of that fucking hell hole.”
A speculative frown drew Dax’s brows together. “You don’t think that points to the likelihood that she’s a clone? You think she bested the one they sent for her, managed to live through their interrogation tactics, and climbed that shaft and she’s human?”
Mel shrugged. “People can do amazing things given the right incentive.”
Dax’s lips tightened. “And yet all my father, or her brother, could talk about was how fragile she was,” he pointed out.
Mel turned to study the young woman through the viewing window. “Morris loved her. Her brother loves her. Men are inclined to think women are weak anyway. Maybe she’s got a lot more strength than they give her credit for.”
“And maybe she’s a fucking clone.”
Anger surged through Mel. “Suit yourself, but I don’t buy it.” Catching his hand, she slapped the locators into his palm. “You didn’t say what you wanted me to do with these.”
He closed his hand around the tiny bits of electronics.
“I need to check you out, too. Looks to me like your face stopped a few fists.”
“Later. Right now I’m going to get rid of the stench of prison.”
Irritation washed over Mel as she watched him go, but after a moment she dismissed it. Maybe he was right. She didn’t think he was, but she supposed she was inclined to hope for the best. It was hard to accept that they--whoever they were--could simply replace people at will and nothing could be done to stop the bastards.
“Is there a point to this?” Tom muttered without sparing more than a glance in Mel’s direction as she returned.
Anger washed over her. “Give me the damn laser!” she snapped. When he’d handed it to her, she glared at him. “Yes, there’s a point. Until and unless we find out otherwise, this is a human being and she needs care.”
Tom stepped back. “She was riddled with the things. You think they planted them on her without her knowledge? Even if she’s human, and not a clone, she’s on the wrong side if you ask me.”
“I didn’t ask you!” Mel snapped, uncertain of why she felt so protective of Lena but unwilling to examine it. “Look at the drug readouts and if you still haven’t figured out how they managed to get the implants into her without her knowledge, go take a fucking refresher course on medicine, ok?”
Tom glared back at her, but after a moment he merely moved out of her way, studying the read outs while Mel finished mending the multitude of tiny fractures she located.
The bastards had been using her for a punching bag, Mel thought angrily. Whatever Dax thought about it, and she knew the clones were stronger and healed better than ‘real’ humans, she still didn’t think they would’ve gone so far to convince them Lena was authentic. The clones cost money, big money, and regardless of how miraculous their research was, it would have to take a lot of time to generate that much tissue--right down to every little hair follicle.
When she’d finished, every muscle in her body was aching, but she felt euphoric. Lena’s face was going to look as good as new once the minor cuts healed. After running another scan to make certain she hadn’t missed anything, she moved away from the gurney, watching critically as Tom and her other assistant, Risa, cleaned the young woman up. When they’d finished, she moved up once more and examined each cut carefully, using the laser to seal the worst of them.
She wasn’t nearly as happy once she was done, though, and she remembered Dax had ordered that Lena be taken and secured in the brig. They were holding four guardsmen in the cell already. She wouldn’t have bet her next meal that they’d leave Lena in peace to heal.
Shrugging, she stalked to the com unit and summoned a couple of troopers. “Take her to the captain’s quarters.”
The two men exchanged a glance. “We were told we were supposed to take her to the brig,” one finally responded.
Mel waved that away. “I just talked to Captain Morris.”
Shrugging, the men moved to each end of the gurney and guided it out of the surgery.
Mel had mixed feelings as she watched them leave. She dismissed her qualms. If Dax wanted to send her down to the brig, he could tell them. She wasn’t about to, not when she’d just spent the last two hours patching her up.
Dax hadn’t returned. She wasn’t surprised. She’d known even when she suggested he let her check him out that nothing short of a gun to his back was going to get him into her infirmary.
