Page 114 of Dragon Me Through Space

“Zeke is the military head,” Preston said. “I can offer my suggestion, but you should listen to him.”

Zeke looked murderous, but I knew it wasn’t aimed at me. “Clearly, you think I should execute her,” I said softly.

He nodded. “The more public, the better. They need to know that harming you is akin to harming one of us. That we won’t accept such a blatant attempt on your life without severe consequences.”

“So, a public execution as a deterrent for others,” I said and sighed. “This is not how I wanted to start my life here … with death.” I did understand what he was saying, though. If we didn’t make an example out of her, we could look weak and others that were considering it would be emboldened. “Wouldn’t it be better to give her some other severe punishment, but allow her to live since she’s one of your rare females? There were two lost during the Games already, wouldn’t losing another be a hit to your race?”

“Four,” Gage whispered.

“What?” I asked as I turned to him.

“Four females died during the Games from the luscas,” he answered.

I dropped my head down and covered my face with my hands. Four innocent women killed by the luscas in what was supposed to be a non-lethal event. Terrible.

“Can’t I just say that due to the deaths of the women in the Games and the dwindling female population, that I won’t shed more blood by killing Vicky and instead banish her?”

“Banishing her might work,” Gage said. “Especially if we banish her to off-planet.”

Zeke growled. “She should die.”

Reaching over, I took one of his hands in mine and raised my head to look at him. “I’m not dead, Giant. I understand you want blood …” I would too if I was in his shoes and someone had tried to kill one of them. “… but I want to show them that I’m empathetic and understanding of the fertility concerns of the Dragonkin. Plus, she wasn’t the one who obtained the lusca.”

He growled and dropped his head, but didn’t reply.

Wayne entered and rushed over to hug me, smiling. “I’m so glad you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

“She hasn’t tried her new leg out yet, we’ve been waiting for you,” Gage answered for me. “She hasn’t even looked at it.”

Wayne’s smile fell away. “Oh, okay.” He fidgeted with his hands as he stepped back and looked at where my leg was hidden beneath the blanket. He took a deep breath and pulled the cover back to expose my leg.

I stared in shock as I had expected metal, but instead found an almost normal looking leg, the “skin” the same color as my upper leg. The only reason I could tell it wasn’t my leg was because just below the knee there was a quarter inch or small gap all the way around my leg.

“There’s tape in the same skin tone that you can put around the gap to hide it,” Wayne said quickly, noticing my stare.

“What is it made of?” I asked.

“I got the best quality cybernetics and worked with a top android scientist to ensure what I created would work. This leg will have no pain receptors, but if you stub your toe or cut it, an alert will pop up in your display.”

“Can you wiggle your toes?” Zeke asked.

Staring at my toes, my new toes, I thought of wiggling them and they immediately did. It even felt like when I wiggled them on my real foot.

I tossed the bedsheet all the way off so I could see both legs and wiggled the toes on both feet. It felt the same.

“Wow,” I whispered.

Wayne reached out and brushed a finger from my heel up on the underside of my foot. I chuckled and pulled my leg up. “It tickles!”

He smiled. “Great! I was worried it might not work properly. Even though you won’t feel pain, I wanted you to still feel most other sensations.”

Pulling my knee up, I ran a hand down the fake bottom half of my leg. It felt real, though a bit firmer than a normal leg. “This is incredible.”

“Let’s have you try to stand on it,” Wayne said and held out his hands.

“Isn’t it too soon for that,” Zeke said and jumped to his feet.

“She’s not in any pain,” Gage reminded him quickly. “And she’s been asleep for several days, so she shouldn’t feel any pain when she stands on it. Wayne and the doctors spent a lot of time ensuring the nerve connections were right.”