Parker knew the exact moment Nova's heart stopped beating. Long ago she'd wired the entire team's scanners to send her their vital signs. She'd chosen to make a bracelet, each bead a person, each bead pulsing along with their heartbeats. It made her feel connected to them, even when they were out in the field and she was hidden safely away in some forgotten building. She knew when they were calm. She knew when they were afraid.
And she knew when they were dying.
Incoming call from Tarantula.
Parker lunged forward, hands shaking, eyes blurry, as she accepted the call.
"I found her." Mace's voice was strained through the crackling air.
"I know," was all Parker said.
"I doing all I can," Mace said softly. "I'm on a rooftop, I put her on oxygen and got her back into the Terra-dome but I can't risk transporting her again unless I can stabilize her heart again."
Parker rested her head against the table, tears slipping down her nose. It should have been her lying cold and dying. She should never have let Nova go in alone....
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Mace's hands were steady as he pulled Nova out of her radiation suit. The inside was slick with blood, Nova's own armor stained red. She'd already lost too much.
Swearing, he packed her wound and clamped it shut. Whatever they'd shot her with, her blood wasn't clotting on its own. He empty his pack on the ground, scrambling to find another adrenaline shot. If he got her heart started again he'd need it to bring up her blood pressure. Leaning over Nova, Mace positioned his hands and began counting out compressions on her chest. He could feel her ribs threatening to break beneath his hands but he grit his teeth and kept going.
"Come on, please Nova." His voice came out strangled and broken. He didn't want to lose he, he didn't want to be alone. It had been years since he left his work at the hospital to join some young renegade to fight against the very people he worked for, but he would never forget his promises. That day he'd sworn his allegiance, sworn to keep her safe, sworn to save her. Well, today he would keep those promises.
He rested back on his heels, his arms aching, as the oxygen mask on Nova forced air into her lungs. In and out, her chest rose and fell. The minutes dragged, each second draining Mace's strength and hope away.
And then...
A heartbeat. Weak and fragile as a butterfly's wing, but a heartbeat all the same. Nova's eyes fluttered, her hands opened and closed. She had been without a heartbeat for almost ten minutes.
Mace breathed out, all the tension leaving his shoulders. "Parker, you still there?"
"You got her back," Parker said, her voice raw. "Thank you Mace."
"Don't thank me yet, I still need to get her back to base. There's no sign of the Baine though, I think I can make it."
Parker's voice was suddenly lighter than Mace had heard it in a while. "It's going to be okay. GreenLynx wants your location though."
"Damn, tell her to get off my ass for once, I can't go anywhere without her requesting my location these days."
"She's just doing her job," Parker countered. "I'll find and send your location to her myself if that's what you want."
"Thanks." Mace forced uncapped a half dozen shots and cut away Nova's sleeve. Adrenaline, Flecainide, Defetilide, Hydralazine, with every shot Nova seemed to stabilize, her breathing and heart rate evening out.
YOU ARE READING
The Assassin and the Crown of Stars
Fantasy"There had been a time, long ago, long before even Nova was alive, when not everything was made from rusted metal and broken scraps. When there were creatures besides humans and the sky had been blue and visible through the clouds of smoke. When the...
