Page 18 of The Price of Peace
What?I nearly dropped Xyrox in surprise.
The voice didn’t seem to notice. “You have a Rykanosian male with you, but he is not identified in my MEDIC database. Would you like me to add him?”
I blinked. Database? “Um, yes?” I hoped I could trust this disembodied computer voice. It sounded a little like the autopilot on my former ship.
“As you wish. What is his name?”
“Xyrox Quorath.”
“Xyrox Quorath is added to the database,” the artificial intelligence said. “Welcome, Xyrox Quorath. You’re losing blood from multiple wounds. Would you like MEDIC to heal you?”
“Yes, he would. Do that.” I answered before Xyrox could argue for me to leave him to his noble death.
“As you wish. Xyrox Quorath, please lie on the table after removing any clothing you don’t want MEDIC to cut off.”
“You’ve used this thing before?” Xyrox hissed as I helped him onto the gleaming metal table in the middle of the room.
“No.”
“Then how does it know your name?”
“That’s not my name,” I whisper-hissed back as I peeled his bloody coat from the wound on his side.
“How many Peaces could there be? You’re the only one I’ve ever heard of.”
“I don’t know,” I said, keeping my voice low in his ear. “But that’s not my last name.”
He grunted in pain as I tugged his pants down his legs. “If you want my pants off, all you have to do is ask.”
“Shut up.” I helped him lie down. “Anyway, who cares why it’s working for me, so long as it can patch you up. Okay?”
“Okay.” Xyrox’s lips tipped up in a weak smile. “See you on the other side, Agent.”
I brushed a kiss across his mouth, then returned the smile. “Yeah, see ya, fugitive.”
As soon as he disappeared into the tube, I collapsed into a very uncomfortable chair next to the machine. No matter how advanced they were, no one could build a comfortable chair for a doctor’s office. “So, um, voice in the air? Are you going to be able to fix him?”
“You may call me Julie, Peace Thorsdóttir. And, yes, Xyrox Quorath will be healed in approximately seventeen minutes.”
“Seventeen minutes? That’s good. Amazing, actually.” I took a deep breath and relaxed. “Um, so Julie, remind me, where did we first meet?”
“That information is classified. Do you have the encryption key?”
“No.” I huffed in my seat. “What good are you? I mean, besides healing Xyrox, which is pretty useful, I’ll admit. Can you tell me anything about why my biometric signature worked?”
“All Pleiadians are authorized to use any MEDIC.”
I jerked as though Julie had slapped me. “I’m not Pleiadian! You’re mistaken.”
“I’m never mistaken. You, Peace Thorsdóttir, are half-Pleiadian and half-human. Access to a MEDIC is a right for all Pleiadians.”
Human? What nonsense! I’d definitely never been to Earth, and I certainly wasn’t a member of a primitive race that didn’t even know about civilizations on other planets. Zame found me as a baby.
Until I started bounty hunting, I’d spent my whole life in our little village on the edge of a desert on Rykantos. We’d rarely even traveled past the desert because Zame said she’d done enough traveling to last ten lifetimes when she was with the military.
Since Julie wouldn’t tell me, I wracked my brain for explanations why Julie knew my first name. Could I have been a prisoner here and had a mind wipe since then? I searched my memory for blank periods of time, but everything seemed intact.
I yawned, a headache squeezing my temples. None of this made sense. Fekk it. I would just be thankful we found Julie so she could fix Xyrox. I didn’t want to lose him now that we’d come to an agreement.
