"And what good does that do for you, Imperial Princess?"
"Your Majesty."
"My apologies. Your Majesty."
"Formality is probably a foolish gesture at this point, but if I don't practice it, then why have it?"
He didn't answer her, instead, continued to undo the clasps on her back.
"Why is your hand curled up?" he asked.
She glanced at her left hand. "It was severely damaged when my mother died."
"Why didn't you repair it?"
"We did what we could." She looked at her curled-up hand. "It is fine."
"If it is not functional, you should have it repaired."
"Sometimes, injuries are worth keeping."
They stood there in awkward silence as he pulled at the hooks, the sound of the material releasing the only sound.
"Here. This is unfastened."
"Thank you," she said and pulled down that particular layer.
He started to walk away.
"Please don't go. There's more." Her head started hurting pretty badly all of a sudden, and she rubbed her temples.
He paused and stared at her again. "May I scan you? You seem to be in pain."
"Fine," she said. "I get headaches. I have since my mother died."
He held up his gauntlet and let it run its little light over her. Eleanor half-expected she would need to move or do something, but no, she had to merely stand there, and he ran it over her. A beam covered her, and then it was done. It took the system only a few moments to analyze its data.
"What is the verdict?"
"You are minorly injured. Injection of ten percent nanites required to heal all your systems."
"Wait, what?"
He had his arm raised, and a tube was coming out, a needle on the end, just kind of floating in the air, like the Charro tails. "Nanites are microscopic robotic repair cells. They merge with your system and fix any internal injuries to maintain your system."
"I know what a nanite is. You're not the only ones who use nanite medical droids. Why do you have Terran bio-chemical information? We are at war. You shouldn't have access to our internal systems."
"We do."
"Why?"
"I could not tell you."
"You don't know, or you can't tell me?"
"I do not know."
She sighed. "Look, I don't know if I want your little robots running around inside me." Her headache picked that moment to have an intense hit, making the pain throb worse.
