As expected, I was done within a couple of minutes.
“You are operating at optimal levels, Starfighter. You are free to go. This exam will be entered into your records.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled, more out of habit than because I was really paying attention. Instead my focus was on Jamie, who had been placed into a light trance by Medic Suzen. Jamie’s eyes were closed and her body slack. “What is wrong with her?”
The medic had called over another to help her with whatever they were doing.
I stood by Jamie’s head and watched the two medics moving with a speed I didn’t normally see unless they were treating wounded or doing triage.
“What. Is. Wrong. With. Her?”
Medic Suzen finally looked up because of my tone. “The cipher injection has not fully fused to her neurons. The process is nowhere near complete. How was she able to fly her ship?”
“She operated on manual control.”
“That’s impossible.” She crossed her arms and looked at Jamie with narrowed eyes. “No one has natural reflexes fast enough to fly manual control. You both should have been blown into space dust.”
“No one from Velerion,” I agreed.
“She’s that good?” she asked, her eyes as wide as the outer moon.
“Yes.” My chest filled with pride as I reached out and touched Jamie’s long, dark hair where it hung over the end of the scanning unit. “She’s that good.”
All Velerion military personnel used the cipher injection nanoparticles to not only understand language, but counted on them to increase reflex and processing speeds. As fast as natural, physical reflexes were, the cipher implant made fighters faster. I’d received my injection the day I started my military service. Yet Jamie had managed to win a major battle without the full benefit of the nanoparticles integrating with her system. She was… an anomaly at the very least. The best pilot I’d ever seen.
Even better than my brother and his bonded mate had been.
Apparently the medic was of a similar opinion. “How many more humans are nearing completion of the training simulation?”
“Last time I looked, a handful. But many more were not far behind.”
Medic Suzen smiled and slapped me on the shoulder. “We might have a real chance to survive this war, Alexius. If there are more like her, we’ll have a fighting chance.”
I didn’t respond because the comment was said with hope. We stood for long minutes watching the other medics finish up with Jamie. When they were done, they brought her back to consciousness slowly. Her soft groan of discomfort had me stepping to her side at once.
“Jamie, I’m right here.” I took her hand in my own.
She blinked. “The room is spinning.”
“It will pass in a few minutes. You are going to be better than fine, Starfighter. I believe I have done my best work on you.” Medic Suzen seemed quite pleased with herself. “Every one of your systems has been improved to optimum efficiency.”
“Great.” Jamie looked up at me. “How long was I out?”
“You have been in here well over an hour.” General Aryk stepped into the room and walked so that he was directly in Jamie’s line of sight.
Medic Suzen shrugged without apology. “First time in the chair takes a bit longer. New species and all that.”
The general waved his hand at the medic to quiet her as if he had expected just such an outcome, but he spoke to Jamie and me. “You two missed the meeting. Go back to your personal quarters and rest. I will see both of you in my office first thing in the morning with the other Starfighter teams. We’ll go over the mission plans with you then.”
“Counterstrike?” I asked, my fingers curling with eagerness.
“Yes. We can no longer count on any break in the attacks due to orbital location. They have broken their offensive pattern twice now. We can’t afford a third strike. If you two hadn’t been so close, we would have lost Gamma 4.”
General Aryk offered a small salute to both of us and nodded to Medic Suzen. “Good work, Suzen. As for you two, I’ll see you in my office at Vega one.”
“Vega one is one hour after sunrise. Got it.” Jamie looked up at me after the general left. “Can we go now?”
“Yes, bonded one.”
Tomorrow, once I learned of the general’s attack plan, I would check in with my friends who were still working undercover as smugglers on Queen Raya’s base on Asteroid Syrax and find out how close they were to discovering the identity of the Velerion traitor.