"Shut the door," J'avet said to a security officer who must have followed us from engineering.

"What the—" I started.

He rounded on me. "Think," he hissed.

I actually took a step back and swallowed. "If the nanobots are active in him, they might be… active in others." And those others might come here.

He waved a hand in my face. "Exactly."

"We don't know if there's anyone else on board with any inside them," I pointed out.

"We don't know therearen't," he said. "We're safer here than anywhere, but we need the infirmary intact."

I nodded and my training kicked in. "Doctor, can we scan Danec again when he's out cold?" I resisted looking at the screen. "That's a lot of control for three which seemed all but dormant."

"There's minimal metal in the isolation room," Mazic said, not looking up from the buttons she was pressing.

"Minimal, but not none?" J'avet growled.

"This is a spaceship, there is always metal," Mazic said. "The door handle for one."

"Fuck," I muttered. "He probably had metal on his boots, around the lace holes." Whatever those things were called. Did they even have a name?

"Right," J'avet nodded. "What else? Earrings, rings, pierced dick?"

"No, no and sadly no," I replied. "Zipper. Watch."

"He isn't wearing a watch," J'avet said.

I glanced at the screen. "Not now, no. Why did we not—"

"Berate yourself later," he snapped. "What else?"

"I think that's it. Um, he's wearing pants."

J'avet frowned at me.

"His zip must be intact. The button too. There's more metal in with him they haven't eaten."

"Good. As soon as he's asleep, we'll remove it and scan him."

"What could go wrong?" I muttered.

"Everything," he agreed.

My heart stopped. "How far are you prepared to go if this goes badly?"

The expression on his face made my blood run cold.

10

"He's asleep,"Mazic declared.

"Are you certain?" J'avet asked.

Mazic hesitated.

"Be sure," J'avet warned.