Free Never Surrender (The Empire's Corps Book 10) by Christopher Nuttall Page A

took a second and ate it more carefully.  Beside her, Stewart and Watson ate their own stew, while keeping a wary eye on their new friends.  There was no doubt that the resistance was inclined to be friendly, but they knew to be careful.  The Wolves might threaten an entire city if the former POWs were not returned to the camp, which would force the resistance to surrender their guests at once.  And that would be the end of any hope of escape.
     
    She looked up as an older woman, carrying a medical kit in one hand, stepped into the building and smiled at them.  “I’m Doctor Cavendish,” she said, as she placed the kit on the ground and snapped it open.  “I need to give you all a brief check, I'm afraid.”
     
    “Treat Kailee first,” Jasmine said.  It wasn’t just kindness; it would let her get a sense of the doctor’s competence before she started to inspect the marines.  “She’s had a rough time.”
     
    “The entire planet has had a rough time,” the doctor said.  She knelt next to Kailee, then started to wave a scanner over her body.  “How are you feeling, my dear?”
     
    “Tired,” Kailee said.  “Do you have to poke and prod me?”
     
    “I need to check everything,” the doctor said.  She pushed a scanner against Kailee’s forearm, then frowned at the datapad in her hand.  “You’ve not been eating very well, have you?  I’m surprised you managed to walk this far without falling apart.”
     
    “I did fall apart,” Kailee protested.
     
    The doctor ignored her.  “You’ll need to take supplements every day for the next two months,” she said, firmly.  “I’ll write you a prescription, then send someone down to the city to get it filled.  Make sure you eat three full meals a day, even if you don’t feel particularly hungry.  You really need to rebuild your strength.”
     
    Jasmine concealed her amusement at Kailee’s expression with an effort.  Someone born on Earth would have been conditioned, from a very early age, to eat as little as possible, all in the name of saving the environment.  The schools would have fed the bare minimum, perhaps not even that, while the parents might not have been able to obtain enough food to compensate.  To eat three full meals a day would seem an impossible dream.
     
    “Do as she says,” she advised.  “You are really in a mess.”
     
    Kailee sighed, but nodded.
     
    Jasmine allowed the doctor to poke and prod at her, then the other two marines.  The doctor didn't have much to say, beyond a concern that Jasmine might be incapable of having children in the future.  Jasmine had honestly not thought about the prospect; like other female marines, she’d had eggs removed from her body and held in stasis when she’d made it through Boot Camp, but those eggs had been on the Slaughterhouse.  God alone knew what had happened to the training world. 
     
    “You should really take better care of yourself,” the doctor reproved her, afterwards.  “A woman’s duty is to produce children to populate the world.”
     
    “Depends on where you sit, I suppose,” Jasmine said, waspishly.  Her mother had had seven children; her older sister had had five.   A woman on Meridian would probably be expected to have as many children as possible, but a woman on Earth would be actively encouraged to sterilise herself.  “And my duty is to get back home.”
     
    “I suppose,” the doctor said.  She looked down at the scanner for a long moment, then smiled at them.  “You’re healthy, but make sure you eat plenty over the next couple of weeks too.  I hate to imagine what the crap they were feeding you was doing to your insides.”
     
    “Producing poison gas,” Watson said, with a wink.  “We had beans for breakfast, beans for lunch and beans for tea.  I’m sure that violates some convention on the use of torture on prisoners.”
     
    Jasmine shrugged.  Under the circumstances, Wolfbane had treated its POWs remarkably