Gracie chuckled and squeezed before letting go. “Yes, hon, it’s a hug. Welcome back. We were getting worried about you.”
“You were?” Keris pulled away to look up at the other woman, her voice rising in surprise. Her hand stole up to cover her throat as she looked around the small group. Their expressions all said the same thing. They’d been worried about her and they were… pleased to see her?
“Hell yeah, we were worried about you,” Jay said gruffly from behind her. As she turned, he covered his mouth with his hand for a second and she was caught, riveted by the strong fingers. He looked down at her, a slow smile spreading over his lips, eyes shining as though she were the only thing in the room. “You were in the tube for over a week, sweet stuff. We thought something had gone wrong.”
“A…a week?” She shook her head. “No, I can’t have been. It’s only been a little while. Surely?”
It had felt like no time at all between leaving her metal body, Jay’s face the last thing she saw, and the bio-growth tube spewing her out onto the floor. But… a week?
“A week,” he nodded and then lifted his head to address the air. “Miisan? I thought you were going to let me know when Keris’s program was complete?” he asked, a note of accusation in his deep voice.
Between one second and the next, the AI materialized. Tall and regal with long, dark hair she was exactly as Keris had imagined herself when she’d thought about having a body.
“I told you I would, and now I have access to that level, I will,” she said, voice an annoyed whip through the air. Then she spotted Keris and stiffened, her eyes widening slightly. Most people wouldn’t have noticed it, but Keris wasn’t most people. She might be in a biological body without access to even the most rudimentary of sensor arrays, but she was quickly working out that biologicals had their own version. Plus, she was an AI, created by the same female who had made Miisan.
In essence, she was looking at her own creator, which was… weird.
“Keris?” Miisan asked, her voice catching. Her eyes unfocused for a second and Keris knew she was checking on the lab. She also knew what she’d find—the empty bio tube in the printer and growth accelerant fluid on the floor.
She nodded, offering a small smile. They were sisters, of a fashion, after all.
“I apologize,” the AI said, color riding high on her holographic cheeks. “It appears my sensors in sector four are temperamental. I did not receive notification that the cycle had concluded.”
“Not a problem,” Jay managed begrudgingly. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, Keris needs some better clothes. Seren, you’re on bug pasta duty.”
He began to hustle her toward the door. She bit her lip at the feeling of his big hand on her hip, looking up at him.
“Could I have a shower as well? I have…” She lifted a lock of her hair. It had dried into crispy ratted tails. “Birth gunk.”
“Sweet stuff, you can have whatever you want,” he murmured, his voice rough. “It’s your birthday after all.”
Before they could reach the door, though, Nyek stepped in front of them, blocking their path.
“I don’t think it’s wise to allow it to wander the corridors.”
4
“It? Who are you calling it?” Jay demanded with a snarl, pushing Keris behind him. Then he remembered the others were back there and did a kind of sideways crab movement, pulling her against him to shield her from them. Which was crazy. She’d known them all as long as he had so him worrying was utterly ridiculous.
That had been in the safety of her metal body though, and she wasn’t in it anymore. The way Nyek eyed her, with a combination of disbelief and barely concealed disgust, brought the hackles up on the back of his neck.
He locked eyes with the Latharian paladin, letting his expression flatten and level out. His fist tightened, knuckles white. If that asshole even looked like he was about to make a move toward Keris... The slight quirk of Nyek’s eyebrow wasn’t quite a challenge, but the testosterone ramped up in the room at the silent threat.
“Oi! Stop it you two!” Indra got herself between them, a hand in the center of her mate’s chest.
“You promised to behave. Remember?” she murmured, crowding him. Her comment was obviously meant to be just between them, but the room was quiet enough to hear a pin drop, so they heard it all.
Nyek’s dark gaze shifted from Jay to his mate, and his expression softened. Only slightly, but it was enough. Jay looked away, uncomfortable at intruding on a private moment between the couple.
He transferred his attention to Seren. He’d take on both Latharian warriors to protect Keris if he had to, but he’d rather not. He wasn’t suicidal, nowhere near, and taking on two aliens who’d spent a lifetime training for war was the very definition of suicide.
Seren met his gaze levelly and then gave a small nod. Jay didn’t let his relief show on his face, instead moving to the next operational issue—Keris’s interaction with the other women on the team.
Neither were wallflowers. Indra was a former ganger, the scar on her cheek proclaiming her violent past, and Gracie… well, he wasn’t sure precisely what Gracie was. She’d claimed to be working undercover for the Colony Commission, rooting out scavenger teams that had been attacking colonies in the outer systems. Yeah, right, like he believed that for a hot second.
Fortunately, so far both seemed to like Keris. Indra turned to smile at her. “Besides, she’s such a cute, itty-bitty little thing. What harm could she possibly do?”
“I have no onboard weaponry or anything that could be used as a weapon anymore,” Keris took a step toward Nyek to explain, her voice wavering as she pulled the shirt Jay had covered her in down. “I…uhm…physically I’m the smallest being here. I couldn’t hurt anyone if I tried.”
The look on Nyek’s face didn’t alter, the expression in his eyes implacable, and Jay almost felt Keris wilt. Stepping forward, he slid his arm around her waist.
“If you’re scared of a tiny little female, Subcommander,” he commented, “perhaps you need to reassess your thought processes. I thought Latharian warriors protected females... that they’re better than human males at doing so. Or so I keep being told anyway. But from where I’m standing, not seeing much evidence of that.”
“That is not a female.” Nyek stiffened, his head jerking back.
In Jay’s arms, Keris flinched a little. He rubbed his thumb reassuringly against the inside of her wrist.
“You need your eyes tested then, brother. She looks and feels plenty female to me. Plus… Miisan, the variant used for Keris’s body… what type is it?”
The AI had been staring at Keris but snapped out of it with a slight jump. “The core build is expedition variant Jevenar four three seven. The facial features are—”
Jay smiled as he cut her off with a short movement of his hand. He didn’t want to know if anyone had used Keris’s face before her. It was hers now.
“The Jevenar expedition was the failed expedition to Earth. Right?”
Miisan shook her head, hair shimmering as it danced over her shoulders. Her holographic avatar was so detailed and lifelike; it was easy to forget she wasn’t real.