Free Bonds of Steel (Law and Crucible Saga Book 3) by Ioana Visan

1
     
    With one hand pressed against his right side,
Law paused at the entrance next to the medbay and let Thea and her wheelchair
pass first. Del followed them, moving slowly, faced with a big dilemma. Inside,
Merrick was finishing checking the last stasis capsule. Two of them were
occupied by Mia and Eradiez from the beginning of their journey, but the rest
were empty.
    “It ’ s the best solution,”
Vee repeated.
    “It’s your insistence that puts me off,” Law said.
    “Oh! If I didn’t know you, Captain, I’d feel
offended.” Vee’s voice boomed between the bare walls then lowered to a
reasonable level. ”We’re heading straight to the asteroid field, and my
sensors detected high levels of radiation in the area. Given the state of our
ship, the stasis capsules provide extra protection that shouldn’t be ignored.”
    “I’m not reassured,” Law said but advanced
towards the tables where the capsules waited.
    “It reassures me ,” Vee said. “My
programming doesn’t allow me to put my crew in danger. The course through of
the asteroid field was calculated, and you have approved it. I’ll get you out
of stasis as soon as we leave the field. The stasis will delay your recovery,
but otherwise it won’t affect you. Tell him, Del!”
    Because her reasoning was not incorrect, Del
settled for a nod. The details the others obviously didn’t know challenged his
programming, but he didn’t want to clash with the artificial intelligence running
the ship. People were not in danger despite Vee’s unusual request, and he had
to take care of his own chances of survival. Not everyone accepted the services
of a runaway robot.
    “Everything’s fine,” Merrick told Law. “The
engines work at 70% capacity, we have no failures requiring immediate
attention, and the capsules passed all the tests.”
    “Well, it seems there’s no escape.” Law sighed
and gestured at Del to see to his work.
    Del activated his heating system to bring the
covers on his chest and arms to a temperature close to that of the human body
and lifted Thea from her chair. Flying in zero g would have been much easier
for her, but not as beneficial to Law’s health, who hadn’t fully recovered
after the ore retrieval, three solar systems away. Or had that been a theft?
    Determined not to question the captain’s
orders and even more determined to keep his place on the ship, Del carefully
placed Thea in the capsule. The stasis wasn’t going to help with her problem,
as it put on hold her muscle regeneration, but it also temporarily stopped her
nervous system degeneration. His personal assistant qualification guaranteed no
harm would come to his patient.
    Thea glanced through the transparent wall,
uncertain, while Del closed the capsule and started the process. The gas
clouded her frightened expression. Of course, Thea had experience with
radiations and an unpleasant one. There was nothing to do about that. Instead,
he made sure everything was in order and moved the chair out of the way then he
turned to see if someone else could use his services.
    Merrick had already climbed into the capsule
and was reaching to the control panel. “I’m almost done with the chair, but I
didn’t have time to test the anti-gravity field. Will you do it while Thea
doesn’t need it? The risk of accidents is lower for you.”
    “If Vee does not mind not switching to zero g,
I can do it,” Del said.
    “No problem for me,” Vee said in a joyful,
suspect tone.
    “Okay, test it in the hold ... and try not to
destroy anything. Vee doesn’t like clutter.”
    The absence of a comment from Vee’s part was
even more suspicious. She’d turned out to be extremely chatty when not ordered
to shut up—rather unusual for an AI. Everyone took it as a result of lack of
socialization, but Del wondered if there were other causes. It was hard to know
with AIs, especially unregistered ones who had different rules.
    With practiced movements, Merrick quickly
pressed a