Free Assessing Survival by Viola Grace

just letting it settle.”
    She turned and faced him; the water slowly rinsed her hair. With the flick of a lever, she started up the second showerhead, and he was pelted from behind.
    “Wow. You got the fancy shower.”
    “It matches mine on the old base. I wonder how it is doing?”
    He wiggled to get the heat on his back and groaned. “It is still in operation, but it has been attacked twice by the Splice.”
    “What do the Splice look for when they attack? How does the fighting go?”
    “They come at us in a rush of stunners and blades. They cut us to bleed us, and their numbers are such that they drag off our wounded before we can stop them.”
    She soaped her breasts and then between her thighs while he watched. “And is there a log or record of the attacks that I can see?”
    “We archive all of the footage. Our battle suits all have a link to the battleship we arrive on, and it uploads to the base when we arrive.”
    “What happens to the recording if they are captured?”
    “The units are usually destroyed as soon as they are removed. Our men are kept naked to avoid hidden weapons.”
    “Do they have a language?” She finished lathering between her thighs, and she turned to wash away the soap.
    “They do, but we can’t understand it.”
    He scrubbed her back and kissed her shoulder. “You shouldn’t think about it.”
    “I have to. There has to be a way to end this. We have been at it for twelve years, and Earth is dumb enough to think that they can survive behind that shield. One crack in it and they are toast.”
    He chuckled and paid attention to his own shower while she finished her scrubbing and headed out.
    The wrap absorbed a lot of water, and when her hair was towelled dry, Stitch returned to her room to get dressed.
    She had attack patterns to look into and an alien race to learn about. At least Niko hadn’t fought her for power.
    She needed all the support she could get.
     

Chapter Nine
     
     
    After a long, late night and early morning of looking at horrific battle vids, she understood a little more about the Splice. What she understood was that their ships’ systems were linked, and they could find out a lot about the Splice if they could just get into their computers.
    Stitch needed a workout. The adjustments that she had installed needed to be tested.
    She headed off to the gym and saw the aliens working out, in awe of their new body parts. George was wandering around and helping them with the equipment. It seemed that some of the military were all right with the newcomers.
    She found an empty machine, strapped weights to her legs and started doing pullups.
    When she finished with the pullups, she went to the bench press and dialled up what she figured she could move comfortably.
    The two hundred pounds was too easy, so she went to the controls and turned the weight up to two-fifty then three hundred, three-fifty, and no matter what she was lifting, she could always lift more.
    “Fuck.” She got out of the machine and went to the pressure station. She put her hands and feet in the slots, lowering the plate to her height to gradually take the weight.
    “George, can you give me a reading?”
    “Sure thing, Stitch.” He left the man he had been talking to and wandered over to watch as the pressure built on her hands and body.
    She pressed upward and triggered the machine. The wide plate above her began to bear down on her, so she simply had to push back.
    “Four hundred, four-fifty, five, five-fifty, six, six-fifty, seven, seven-fifty... close, so close. Come on, Stitch. You can do it.”
    Her mind was going a little blind with the effort to keep the plate up. She gave one final shove and dropped to the floor. The plate dropped down a few inches before it stopped itself.
    “Congratulations, Stitch. You pushed eight hundred kilos.”
    She looked at him in horror. “I thought it was set to pounds.”
    He looked at the machine and grinned. “Nope. Eight hundred kilos. You can lift