Supernova by Jessica Marting Read Free Book Online Page B

nodded.
    Lieutenant
Steg sputtered, “What? I have a right to know details about prisoners on this
ship!”
    “What
details?” Lily asked, worried.
    Addressing
everyone, Ashford tapped the mediscan unit on the desk. “I took a quick reading
last night when she was brought in,” he began. “It showed the presence of tonismi
and other details that corroborate her story of being from the twenty-first
century.
    “It
detected antigens for diphtheria and pertussis. Diphtheria hasn’t infected
humans in hundreds of years and while some of the Fringes worlds have their own
unique strains of disease, they’re nowhere near as close to something like
pertussis,” he finished.
    “Whooping
cough,” said Lily, more to herself. “I had those shots when I was five and
fifteen.” The doctor had given her lollipops both times because she cried.
    “You
also had your appendix removed. The unit picked that up.” He caught her glare
and held up his hands in mock surrender. “I can’t control what shows up in a
general scan, Miss Stewart.”
    “What
else?” she asked.
    “You’re
a female humanoid, late twenties to early thirties, no chronic diseases, but it
detected early-life respiratory issues. No one touched you, I promise.”
    Ordinarily,
Lily would be pissed that someone had conducted a medical exam without her
consent, while she was barely coherent, but these weren’t ordinary circumstances.
Besides, the scanner was pretty cool and she couldn’t help but ask about it. “I
had asthma when I was little and an emergency appendectomy when I was
twenty-two,” she said. “My appendix ruptured.” She caught the collective wince
of the men around her and added with a touch of pride, “Hurt like hell. How do
you deal with them?”
    “Laser
surgery,” Ashford said. “No sutures or pain, the wound healed with a tissue
regenerator patch.” More cringing from Marska and Steg. “The entire procedure
would take about twenty minutes.” Then he added, “And there are the dental
extractions I told you I picked up.”
    “Yeah,
my wisdom teeth. You probably don’t even evolve with them anymore.”
    “Only
humanoids with Milky Way ancestry do, but when they show up, they’re removed as
soon as they start forming,” Ashford replied smoothly. “The gum tissue is
regenerated in a matter of hours.”
    “I had
holes in my gums for a few weeks. I spit out a lot of blood the first couple of
days, too.” Lily said this to gauge their reactions, and was pleased to see
Steg blanch. “Oh, come on. It wasn’t a big deal.”
    “You
still have scar tissue. You’ve also had a couple of broken ribs,” the doctor
continued. “They healed naturally, but the breaks are still detectable.”
    Just how
much could that thing tell them about her? She thought about the flower tattoo
on her hip, a remnant from her university days.
    “I fell
out of a tree both times,” she admitted. “I’m a bit of a slow learner.”
    Steg was
still unconvinced. “That happens in the Fringes, too,” he pointed out. “Not
everyone utilizes bone regenerators.”
    Even
Ashford’s patience with the security chief was at its limit. “I’m a doctor,” he
said evenly. “And it’s my medical opinion that she is who she says she is. You’re the soldiers. It’s your job to figure out how the Nym made their way
to the twenty-first century and kidnapped her.”
    “Gods,”
said Marska. He pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers. “I’ve heard
rumors like everyone else, but no one really thought this could happen.” He
shook his head and turned to Lily. “It would have been much easier if you had
turned out to be a spy.”
    “Why?
What did these Nym people do?”
    Captain
Marska looked away. Lily straightened in her chair and tried to sound
authoritative. “Whatever they’re doing, I think I have a right to know.”
    Marska
exhaled. “Time travel.”
    The last
day had been lifted straight from a sci-fi flick, so the idea of time