Empty Toward The Moon

Chapter Twelve

I was shaking on the inside, I could feel the adrenaline surging, desperate for a way to express the fear and panic I was feeling, but my new body armour had control of my whole frame, keeping me still, looking like I was near dying. I had just been attacked on an ASF cruiser, and I hadn't even made it to port yet. Am I playing dead for much longer, Nova? How do we explain everything with the blood and the wound?

[I've made it look like the knife dragged up across your chest and into your shoulder. No one will question the validity of this. Your vital signs are all mixed up to human investigations, but the medibed will only show surface wounds and the correct heart rate etcetera. I've notified Commander Railex of your attack and asked her to place you in protective custody using your identity. She is on her way to medbay now.]

I kept my eyes closed as I was laid out on a bed in triage. Medical technicians hovered all around me and began working on me until a commanding voice yelled through the bay.

"Please have our guest moved to the officer's ward. Only medics who are on duty and marine guards will have access. Everyone one else – step away from the young lady now!"

Nova gave me back control of my body. I opened my eyes to find the XO waving the few marines who followed her in. She had them move my new bed into the closed off Officer's ward nearby.

"Miss Cia. I apologise for this happening to you while on my ship. I assumed you would be safe here, but obviously I underestimated the reach of your enemies." She had a frown on her face and was looking at me like I was a particularly difficult maths problem.

"Ma'am, I'm OK, its just a surface scratch, but I played dead to get out of harms way. Could you ensure that I am kept that way until we reach port tomorrow, please?" I asked her seriously. She nodded gravely and left the ward to speak to medical personnel and the marines who brought me in.

"Hey, nice to see you again, but I was hoping not to, if you get what I mean." I turned to the medic assistant Ensign Hannerman as he pulled a hover tray over to the medibed I was assigned.

"Yeah I get what you mean." I chewed on a lip as he began to cut the clothing off my chest and shoulder to dress my wound.

Nova, did you find out who it was? I asked, as I was fairly certain that he had the whole incident recorded.

[Yes, Cia. Someone your cousin had ordered to kill you. Forty thousand credits were paid into his fleet account shortly after he accepted the job. I had been following his whereabouts on the ship since then. I apologise for not warning you earlier, but I had complete control of the situation.] I was beginning to find holes in our modus operandi, realising we had very different ways of managing our resources, principles and personnel. This needed to change if we were ever going to make this a long term business partnership.

Nova, this can't happen again. You have to give me warning, have to let me in on your R&D, not shut me out of your espionage. A brief run-down of your spy activities would have sufficed, and a warning of what you were planning. You can't jump me with surprises like this in the future. I'm only seventeen years old, I do not have a life time of dealing with this kind of havoc.

[Eighteen.] He corrected, but his voice sounded full of regret. [Cia, I believe this will be the first and last time something like this will take place without your input. I will keep you informed in the future.]

I appreciate it Nova, and I forgive you... Even if you haven't actually apologised. He paused for a moment and I watched the medical assistant working with a senior medical technician glue my shoulder wound back together and spray grow-skin onto it. They covered it with gauze and cleaned me up. I smiled my thank you and watched them leave the ward.

Are we a team, buddy? Are we in this together forever? Or at least until I'm a hundred years old? I asked the digitized human mind founded artificial entity that lived with me so closely.

[I think I understand, Cia. By withholding this information, my research and my plans to counter the danger it posed to us, I had left you unguarded emotionally and devalued your person. My apologies, Cia.]

My gawd, you apologised, Nova? Holy crap-a-roonie. We have to mark this one down in our BFF calendar for an anniversary celebration next year. I snorted and lay down after I took note of two marine guards newly stationed at the door to the ward I was in.

[BFF?] Nova asked, unaware of the abbreviation's meaning.

Best Friends Forever. I was being sarcastic, Nova. But I appreciate your apology. Please don't let it happen again.

[Would now be a good time to let you know that there were two other communique received by the ASF Clements regarding your person? Don't worry, there is no danger with regards to these two comms.]

Nova! I yelled in my mind in frustration and practically threw my hands up, jarring my new wound in the process.

I was permanently moved to the Officer's ward in the medbay for health and safety reasons. They emptied my bunk room of all of my gear and delivered to me in my new room. Once it had arrived, I took an inventory of everything. One refurbished space suit, in a newly acquired travel case. Two sets of combat boots. A mini tool kit, four changes of high quality clothes. Two cowl hoodies – I had the red one replaced. A bunch of can't-do-without toiletries and an couple of extra androgen patches that would control my monthlies.

Six credit chips with a total of sixty three million credits between them, a weeks worth of miniature nutrients drinks and a canteen of water. I didn't inventory the Star of Bombay necklace as I don't count it as mine. I plan on delivering it to an Earth museum or at least Valour Corporation in the New Hope Treaty. It is a priceless piece of history that should never have been stolen by smugglers or pirates in the first place.

[Don't forget the four hidden tubes of back-up nanites.] Nova reminded me of the new tubes of nanites he had printed off while I had the space suit travel case fabbed.

I'm still not sure why you think we will need it. You just injected me with the stuff not long ago. Why would I need more so soon? I stuffed everything back into the black backpack and zipped it up. We were about a hour out of docking at the station and I wanted to get off this tin can as fast as possible.

[When you bled out from the stab wound, you lost approximately two grams of fully functioning nanites. Although I can now replicate you new nanobots using minerals from your bone and muscle, it is a highly inefficient way to replace lost resources.] Nova sniffed again.

So, I am an inefficient meat puppet. So sue me! I practically growled at him in my mind.

[Oh, you're never going to let me live that one down, are you?] He asked sarcastically.

Nope. Never. Not until you get me stepping through my front gate and into the arms of my family. I then sighed. I missed home. I missed my family. I missed my cherry scented body lotions and hair products.

Nova had set up a dropbox for communique with my brother and via his ASF fleet comms, They couldn't track me, but we could keep in touch. I'd heard from both my parents and my Grandfather. They were all doing well and relieved to hear that I was found and no longer in a dangerous situation. In the recorded vidcom from my mother, she said that they believed me to be alive and had refused to hold a funeral or replace me as heir apparent to Briller Corporation. My Grandfather was proud of me, that I'd managed to escape and was on my way home, but the old guy was a lot more grey in his hair than I remembered.

They all said that there was no evidence that my uncle had arranged my kidnapping, nor did I actually see him in person, so I wasn't able to submit verifiable evidence to his betrayal of the family. My brother had promised to look into it now that they knew where to look.

[One step at a time, Cia. We'll get you home soon.] Nova seemed to read into my solemn mood. I smiled.

Get us both home, Nova. Get us both home.