Free Mercer's Siren by Mina Carter, J.William Mitchell

Chapter One
     
    Sedj stepped off the InterSystems transport with no particular expectations of the hellhole her friend Jensen had set up shop in. Even so, her expectation and the reality were worlds apart. She looked about in dismay. It was like he’d actually tried, and succeeded, in finding the grimiest, most stereotypical backwater outpost he could. Which didn’t surprise her. She’d known Jensen Haye for years. They were long-time friends, even though the big mercenary had never needed her medical skills personally. She’d heard the pain in his voice when he’d told her that Dozer, Bull, and Tucker had bought it on their last mission.
    A grimace of sadness and grief twisted her features as she paid the cab driver with a swipe of her thumb. She’d liked all three guys, spent more than a couple of nights on the town with them when her unit and the Revenants happened to be in the same place at the same time. That she was Hanorian, a species known for their allure and somewhat loose inhibitions, hadn’t bothered them in the slightest.
    To them, she’d just been Red, a combat doc as good with a pulse rifle as she was with a scalpel, and an ability to drink most of them under the table. That and the fact she carried at least three nano-scalpels hidden about her person, ensured they didn’t hit on her like they would another of her species. Many men fantasized about bedding a Siren, and often didn’t hear the word no when spoken. Their hearing got a lot better with a lethal blade under their chin.
    Putting her grief aside, she looked at the building and assessed its disreputable appearance before striding toward the door. The security plate flickered green when she pressed her thumb against it and she smiled. Jensen was smart enough to know that if he messed her about, she would be on the first transport out of here. The Revenants weren’t the only show in town. Not for a newly un-retired combat surgeon with her experience.
    “Hello?” she called out as she stepped through the door into the relative cool of the hangar. A bulky surface-to-air troop transport loomed over her, half buried in the docking pit. Ugly as sin, but boasted the shielding and the weapons arrays were top of the line. She smiled, feeling right at home.
    Her shoes thudded against the walkway as she headed for the doors at the back of the hangar. They led to a couple offices, and what looked like the living space for the team when on the planet. For some of them anyway. She knew others, like Gunnar, had their own places in town. Nothing so far away that they couldn’t get here within minutes, even on foot.
    “Heeeelllo? Anyone home?” she tried again, but a whole lot of silence answered her. Shrugging her heavy pack more comfortably against her back, she turned left at the end of the walkway. Her destination was the small medbay, the door tucked between the barracks and showers.
    She sighed as she stepped through the doorway and paused. Jensen had been good to his word. Like the troop transport, the medbay was top-notch, and the soft hum and beep of new equipment surrounded her like a comforting blanket. After briefly closing her eyes and allowing the rest of her senses to take in the space that would become her domain, she opened them and looked around in pleasure.
    Three diagnostic beds sat to one side of the door--AR17s, if she didn’t miss her guess...a model in production only a couple of months. Who the hell had he bribed to get those? Her gaze moved on, over plexiglass covered cabinets, ID secured, containing a full range of medications and surgical equipment and came to rest on the crowning glory in the middle of the room.
    A small, but fully functional holo-enhanced surgical bed. She took a step forward, then another, and reached out to brush her fingertips over the surface. It was deactivated at the moment, but that made no difference, she knew what it did. How to use it. Countless hours she’d stood at one of these; technology and