Ancient Hunter

I lay on the floor staring at a light above my head my vision blurred my body wracked with pain. I could feel it every time I breathed. A vague shape of a head blocked out the light for a moment.

“How did it go so wrong?” a familiar voice remarked.

My vision cleared a bit and the face resolved into the familiar features of Gudbjorga. She was staring down at me disapproval strong on her face.

“How is it possible?” she uttered.

“I think I might have busted a rib?” Pain leached through my chest. I gingerly touched a bruise on my neck. There were corresponding bruises over the rest of my body. I wasn’t sure where I wasn’t unbruised.

Gudbjorga continued. “I can’t understand how you spectacularly failed to master such a simple weapon?”

“I just suck at it.” I felt the pain in my chest lessen. It must mean the nanobots in my blood were fixing the damage. An unwanted present from the Keepers the nanobots were effective in dealing with any damage to my body. They worked faster and more effectively than a Cell Stitcher did. A Cell Stitcher or more properly a Cellular Regenerator repaired the body cell by cell. The Confeds swore by them, those great silver boxes were aboard most starships.

Cell Stitchers weren’t found within the Empire we were afraid of them. A hangover from the AI war on the mid-twenty-first century. When rogue AI almost destroyed Earth. Ever since then Humans from Earth and its colonies were reluctant to embrace anything that was controlled by an intelligent computer. Then there was me an Imperial running around with a whole bunch of them swilling around in my blood. That should have sent me crazy with fear but living and working with the Valkyrie I’d seen the inside of a Cell Stitcher more often than I would have liked. A Cell Stitcher had repaired the damage to my hand, which had been blown off by a limpet mine attached to my ex-boyfriend’s chest.

“You could have at least ducked?” Gudbjorga chided me shaking her head. “Not stand there like you were paralysed.” She reached down and pulled me into a sitting position.

We were in the training room a dark red mat lay under me. Along three walls were racks of practice weapons. A wooden staff lay on the floor a couple of meters from me. The other Gudbjorga had in her hand as she towered over me. She gazed at me intensely then with one swift motion she threw her staff to clatter against a wall and picked up a nightstick. It was as long as my arm, black with a handle sticking out the side. It was an ancient weapon and a staple in any Security arsenal. That I did know how to use long before I’d met the Valkyrie. She twirled it about with practice.

“You were good with this,” she commented high praise from her. But she went and spoiled it by adding. “Yet totally useless with a staff.” She sighed. “We’ll have to work on that.”

Gudbjorga pulled me to my feet. “Get dressed I’ll accompany you to the medbay.”

I hobbled over to my pile of clothes. We had been fighting Valkyrie style, in other words butt naked. The only places they did that was on Alfheimir or on their ships if there were no males aboard. On Alfheimir they trained and fought this way no matter the weather. I knew they’d made me train that way. My tan was all round or it was since I had been off planet too long. Valkyrie considered sunbathing a waste of time tans was got through hard work.

I dressed feeling my pain easing. I noted that Gudbjorga had bruises as well it looked as if I’d made a good account of myself. Dressed in a pair of shorts, a pink vest top and green shoes I felt surer of myself. Unfortunately I was sweating profusely and it stained my clothes. Gudbjorga threw me a towel and I used it to wipe myself down.

“Remember to bring a towel with you for your next session.”

I winced at that.

Gudbjorga glanced at me a frown on her face. “You ok Gwen?” she sounded genuinely concerned.

“I need something for the pain,” I lied. I didn’t want to upset her she was one of the few people I could trust.

We headed out of the training room.

We walked down several corridors passing a number of Valkyrie on the way. They gave us an approving look at our sorry and bruised state. In Valkyrie eyes a good fight was one with both opponents were beaten and bruised. It felt like the longest journey I had ever taken. Finally we reached a door with a red blood drop symbol above it. The Confed symbol for medical services the Empire had retained the Red Cross but it meant the same thing. The door opened to reveal a rectangular room with a set of medical beds along one wall. At the end of the room were three large silver coffins, Cell Stitchers. Between the beds and the Cell Stitchers was a desk. Seated behind the desk was a T’Arni with long dark hair. The tips of her pointed ears peeped through her hair and she was wearing a white coat a medtech if I was correct. She saw us and frowned.

“I wasn’t expecting to treat injuries this early into a voyage?”

I saw her glance at my bracelet.

“Oh that’s how it is?” She sounded like she was accusing me here. I was the victim.

“What is?” I snapped at her perhaps I was as guilty as Gudbjorga was.

“You Silvers challenging anyone that questions your words.” She put her hands on her hips and stared at me directly.

“It wasn’t like that!” Gudbjorga said hastily coming to my defence.

“We were training,” I added.

“Training?” she said aghast. She sighed, then gestured to the med bay beds. “Ok we’ll take a look. Lie on the beds and I’ll examine you.”

I took one while Gudbjorga lay on another. She stood up from behind her desk and pulled on a medical gauntlet. It was a device used by medical staff to analyse a person’s health. It had a multiple functions. It was the length of her forearm and a holo screen hovered over it. She waved it across Gudbjorga and nodded. “You’ll be fine. I’ve a hypo for the bruising.” She turned back to her desk and removed a kit from it. With a hypospray in her hand she pressed it into Gudbjorga’s neck. Gudbjorga looked better instantly.

“Now you.” She crossed to me and waved her gauntlet over me. She halted what she was doing and stared at her gauntlet. “These readings are off the scale?” She sounded confused. “There must be a malfunction.” She pulled off her gauntlet and returned to her desk. She rummaged in the drawers for a while them pulled out a hand scanner a less sophisticated version of the gauntlet normally used to assess battlefield injuries. She ran her scanner over my body her expression becoming concerned. She looked at Gudbjorga. “Could you please wait outside for a moment. I’d like to speak to my patient on her own.”

“You’ll be ok?” Gudbjorga sounded concerned.

The Medtech waited until Gudbjorga was gone before speaking.

“What are you?” she asked me directly.

“Pardon?” I replied slightly shook. It was the question I’d been constantly asking myself lately.

“I said what are you?” She looked at my bracelet and pursed her lips. “I’m getting a lot of anomalous readings.”

“I don’t know what you mean?” I had a bad feeling I did I just didn’t want to admit the obvious.

“The scan.”

“I’m vaihdokas,” I said quickly.

“That’s a given,” she replied and frowned. “How about we start again, being confrontational is not conductive to your health. I probably haven’t given you a good impression. I’m Doctor Caranedies. Just call me Cat. I’m sorry for my earlier outburst I’m used to playing gruff dealing with the Valkyrie.” She grimaced. “Nor do I approve of the way Valkyrie confirming whether you are fit or not.”

I knew what she was on about. Valkyrie medtechs normally lashed out with their fists, if you didn’t duck then you weren’t fit. You learned to duck quickly. “Yes I’ve been on the receiving end of their treatment on a number of occasions.” I rubbed my jaw at the thought. I glanced at Cat wondering why she chose that name it sounded too Human. “Are you vaihdokas?”

“No, I’m pure T’Arni. I just wanted to learn medical practices from other races to broaden my understanding.” She frowned. “We seen to be going off topic here. I’ve never seen readings like yours before?” she looked at her scanner. “I understand the Valkyrie/Human mix but there is another that has me confused. I’ve got nothing to compare it with?”

“Best ask the Elders then they messed with my DNA.”

Cat’s jaw dropped. “They did what?”

“My great grandfather was pure Valkyrie. Somehow they hid is DNA and made it look as if he was Human.”

“How?”

I sighed and had an inner debate as to whether I should tell her and how much. I thought it was going to be a long day and looked as it I was right.