"Tell me about it." Stella made an embarrassed sound. "Oh, did Dr. Hill tell you?"
I paused for a second before realizing Stella had misunderstood who I meant. My brain crawled to a stop at the implication of what she was saying.
Oh shit. Oh shit. Stella knows about Dr. Hill's plan?
One question left. Her place or yours?
Shut up!
"Uh, yeah." I avoided meeting Stella's eyes. "So…it's crazy isn't it?"
Stella shrugged. "We all do what we have to. In the big picture, it's not much."
I gulped.
Zoe screeched in delight in my mind. Dustin, Dustin! Dustin, Dustin! Zoe kept chanting my name.
Jesus, Zoe. I can't think with you screaming in my head.
You can't think because all the blood's pooling in your other head.
That's not true—
Fuck it. I had to make my move.
"Right. Um." I scratched my chin and risked a glance at Stella. She looked slightly uncomfortable, but not in a bad way. "We could get a drink. At the mess hall. Like some water. Not that shit Drake made us drink. And not alcohol because they don't have any here. And we're too young to drink. Yeah. Want to get some water?"
Stella smiled. "That's sweet of you, Dustin. But it's not that big of a deal. Really."
I nodded. "Not a big deal." I swallowed. Nope, not a big deal at all. "Well, I'm heading to my room now, if you…" I made a vague gesture with my hands.
Stella raised an eyebrow. "If I…?"
"You know…"
You got this, Dustin!
Stella's face scrunched up in confusion. "I thought Dr. Hill told you we've been fighting."
I froze. Zoe. This is your fault!
Zoe meowed.
Stella was waiting for my reply. "Uh, no," I said. "I thought you were talking about something else."
"Which was?"
"Nevermind. It's not important." I massaged my temples. "Shit. I can't wait until this day's over." I looked into Stella's eyes. "You've been fighting with Dr. Hill?"
Stella looked away. "Nevermind. It's not important," she echoed.
"No, no. What Dr. Hill told me—it's literally classified. I can't talk about it. But if something's bothering you, it's important to me."
Stella fidgeted with Miney, who had jumped into her arms.
"You're a part of the team. We're all here for each other," I said.
"I see," Stella said in a cool tone. She was still looking down at Miney.
"Plus, you're important to me. Extra important," I blurted out.
Stella didn't say anything right away. Then, she flashed me a quick smile and glanced up at me. "Don't tell anyone else," she said.
"I swear. No one else will know. Well, except Zoe here." I nudged Zoe with my foot.
Stella bent down and patted Zoe on the head. "You can keep a secret, Zoe, can't you?"
Zoe purred in reply. She likes me.
Yeah, yeah. I started rolling my eyes but stopped myself so Stella wouldn't notice.
Stella was still crouched next to Zoe as she spoke. "Dr. Hill is my mother."
"Your mother?" I croaked.
I knew Stella was adopted, but…Dr. Hill? Hadn't Dr. Hill been throwing Stella at me before? And with the breeding program in mind…
That's kind of hot, isn't it?
No! It's weird. Like almost messed up. No, definitely messed up.
Stella patted Zoe's head one final time and stood up. She nodded. "My adopted mother. I don't remember my parents."
"I didn't have much luck there, either," I said. "But what about you and Dr. Hill? By the way, I would never have guessed. You're so professional about it."
"She's been trying to push me to do something. It's, hm, unprofessional."
"Oh?"
Stella blushed. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."
"Sure. If you need someone to listen, I'm here. My offer still stands."
"Offer?"
"Water at the mess hall." I grinned.
Stella tried to stifle a smile. "See ya, Dustin." She walked away.
Zoe yawned. There goes Hill's breeding program. And humanity's last hope.
***
The next day, all seven of us were back in the training room with Drake. We were waiting for Dr. Hill to show up.
"Do you think we're still in trouble?" Nikki whispered.
Claire glanced around nervously. "I hope not. I hate needles."
Drake stalked over to us.
"Shit," Kayla muttered.
"Of course you're all in goddamn trouble!" Drake roared. "Violating direct orders during a field mission? Putting the team at risk?"
"Innocent people were at risk," Julie said.
"Innocent? Those clowns?" Drake said frowning. "I expected you of all people to know better, Richards."
Julie's face grew red. "Well if you weren't taking your sweet time showboating, you would have been back to handle the new Mekanic threat. And the rest of us wouldn't have been put in that situation."
Oh shit. She didn't.
The others murmured.
"Julie," Mia said softly.
Drake marched right up to Julie, towering over her. He seemed to favor one leg over the other, something I hadn't noticed with everything going on the other day. Was he injured?
"You have your orders. I have mine." Drake stabbed a finger in Julie's face. "Don't you dare question my command!"
Julie didn't flinch. "And who the fuck decided that we should torture each other with needles? I bet you got off to that. Seeing us half-naked girls stab each other."
I fidgeted uncomfortably.
Drake spoke in a low, deadly tone. "Listen, soldier. Don't you dare question my command."
"Actually, that was my call."
We all turned to see Dr. Hill standing to the side of the training room. "I ordered the blood drawing exercise."
"Why?" It was Stella. A slight frown creased her face.
"One of your bio-experiments?" I asked, stepping forward.
"Perkins. Hunter." Dr. Hill nodded to acknowledge us. "No, not quite. We'll be drawing blood at regular intervals from now on. We use it to generate recovery charges."
"Recovery charges?" Nikki asked.
Dr. Hill smiled, looking over us and catching my eye. "Recovery charges allow you to instantly recover a finite amount of lost energy. We process your blood, then reintroduce it."
"Shit, more needles," Claire whined.
"Yes, Jones. More needles. Hence the need to become accustomed to them. We can only draw and process so much blood at a time. There's also a limit to how much we can reintroduce at once. From now on, it'll be an ongoing part of your maintenance protocol."
"How much energy does it recover?" I asked.
"That depends on how many recovery charges you've accumulated since you last used them. A single charge, that is, one cycle of drawing and processing, should let you recover about fifteen to twenty percent. You can, in principle, accumulate enough charges to recover all your energy. Maybe a bit more."
"How often can we draw blood?" Mia asked.
"Oh, that's not the limiting step. Your body can only reabsorb a certain amount of the modified blood at a time. Each drawing supplies enough blood for three or four recovery charges, and you can absorb about one recovery charge every other day. That leaves about a week between drawings."
"Why didn't we start this sooner, then?" Kayla asked.
"We could have used the recovery charges earlier," I said. "When Staccato—"
"Listen up," Dr. Hill said. "I know everyone's on edge with what happened. But we're all on the same side. I'm not the boogeyman. And neither is Drake."
Julie was still glaring at Drake. She looked away but didn't say anything. Drake grunted and stepped back.
What's with those two?
I overheard Drake talking to Dr. Hill the other day. Drake knew her sister. She was a Beastmaster.