Page 67 of Call of the Fathoms

Snorting, she remembered the last time she’d thought there was nothing in the sea.

Speaking of... Alexia looked down at the bandages on her thighs and arms. The squid had bitten into her in quite a few different places, it seemed. She was lucky they hadn’t gone for her throat. That likely would have been much more difficult to survive.

She peeled off the bandages while hissing through her teeth. The one on her left arm was the worst, although the muscle was already regrowing. Clearly, they’d given her a good boost of pain medicine for her to not be feeling that nasty piece of work. Her other arm wasn’t quite so bad, but it was slightly oozing, which she could only guess meant it had gotten infected somehow. Maybe the mouths of those squid weren’t so clean.

But her leg… her leg wasn’t good at all. She needed a good dose of nanites to get that to heal. The tiny robots were usually what Tau injected her people, straight into the bloodstream where they could heal. Those squid had nearly chewed right through to the bone with those sharp beaks. Sighing, she shook her head at the mess of it all. If she had just let Fortis carry her back to the ship, nothing would have happened. Her own stupid pride had gotten in the way. She really needed to learn how to manage that emotion better.

The door opened and closed again, this time with a sharper crack that suggested the person entering had a lot more strength than the last one.

Glancing up, she stared at the fire haired woman in front of her. This Mira was strong. She’d been right about that. Musclesbunched up and down her bare arms that she had crossed over her chest. The white tank top she wore was smeared with grease, and her bottoms were a wetsuit that had been folded in half around her waist. There were still drops of water on it.

“You were out in this?” Alexia asked, pointing up to the storm. “Seems dangerous.”

“Shit has to get done. So I get it done.” Mira leaned against one of the other tables, her eyes seeing more than Alexia wanted her to see. “You took your bandages off, I see. You don’t trust our healing?”

“Not a lot of people know how to heal someone like me.”

“Yeah, I had the idea of that as soon as I saw you. You aren’t human.”

The words stung. Alexia had heard them her entire life, but they still weren’t great to hear. “I am human, just like you.”

“Upgraded?”

“More than upgraded. Created in a lab, perfection personified.” She shrugged. “Or at least, perfect for the job they made me for.”

Mira’s mouth twisted to the side, like she was chewing on the inside of her lip. “What did they make you do?”

“Protect.”

“You good at it?”

“Better than anyone here.” Alexia glanced around them, trying to decide if she needed to find herself a weapon. Although she supposed she could just kill this woman with her bare hands. None of them would guess she could do that. “I wouldn’t suggest testing me.”

Mira held her hands up. “I wasn’t planning on it. I’ve seen you lying down. I don’t even want to know what size you’d be standing up.”

“I need nanites.”

“We don’t have any of those here.”

Alexia frowned. Furrows appeared between her eyes as she took a deep breath and sighed. The sound was a long, deep wheeze, similar to a growl, as she realized she was stranded in the worst of circumstances. “Then I’ll need steroids. A lot of them.”

“We don’t have that many of those, and generally speaking, we keep them safe for those who need them after an infection. You’ll just have to heal like the rest of us.”

Yeah, she wasn’t going to do that. Taking another deep, steadying breath, Alexia threw her legs over the side of the table. The metal dug into the back of her thighs, making the wound on one ache worse than before. Not a big deal, really. She could make it through. That pain wasn’t as bad as she’d experienced during her training. Or the last time she’d died.

She’d been electrocuted to death when Harlow had fallen into a pool of water with a live wire in it. Alexia had thrown her Original out of the water and been stuck in it herself.

Wincing, she placed her feet on the floor and shook her head. “This is going to suck.”

“What are you doing?”

Alexia shoved herself upright. Her left leg took all of her weight easily enough, although it wasn’t a pleasant sensation. She stood still as Mira lunged for her.

“Let’s not do that,” Mira said, her hands held out as she stared up Alexia’s massive height. “Damn, you’re a big woman.”

“You can try to stop me.” She took another step forward, trying out her weight on the right leg, which wasn’t as bad as she’d assumed. “But I wouldn’t suggest it.”

“Where are you going?”

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