Space Relics (Galactic Archaeology Book 1) by Nathan Duke

amongst the intense ear-piercing sounds. He couldn’t make her words out. “One of the ship’s engines has entered resonance. I think it’s going to burst.”
    “What?” Rick shouted. “Just turn it off. Stop it!” He could barely hear his own voice.
    “I can’t hear you with all that noise.” Amy sang something cheerfully, but Rick didn’t understand.
    The sounds were too strong for him. He dropped onto his knees, and the floor rose to meet him.

Chapter 11
    Is there anything worse than waking up to the pain of broken tissues, a buzzing in your ear, and a constant headache that feels as though an entire building had collapsed onto your head?
    Rick had to stop doing whatever he’d done to end up aboard a transport shuttle and at Amy’s mercy. She was a good doctor, but she reprimanded him too much. He opened his eyes, and his eyelids almost fell back onto place. His eyes were heavy. Every single muscle in his body hurt.
    He tried to sit up, but his body didn’t react and his head fell back down. Had he lost mobility?
    Amy’s hologram stood to his right, staring down at him with both hands on her hips. She was annoyed, but she didn’t look too concerned by his paralysis. With some luck, it would be temporary. “Did you seriously expect me to leave your spine connected to the rest of your body?”
    Curse her. The images appeared in his brain: the virus, Lord Baylor’s men, and Amy’s sonic attack. She hadn’t had enough by drilling his eardrums; she wanted to turn him into some sort of vegetable.
    “Whatever you’ve done, revert it,” Rick said. “I need to stand up.”
    “Revert it, revert it… Won’t you even say thank you for a change? You could’ve died!” She stared at him, and he stared back. Neither said a word. She finally exhaled and shook her head, ordering a robotic arm to do something behind Rick’s neck.
    Something pierced through Rick’s neck and every nerve in his body shook violently. He groaned in pain, but his arms and legs moved again. He sat up, feeling the dried blood that had trickled down his neck and shirt. He tried to stand up, but his ribs sent a shock of pain through his body. He’d been wounded in the past, but this time was worse. “I feel as if the workshop had collapsed on me.”
    “Well, it did collapse…” Amy said, turning her back to him to avoid making eye contact. “I may have overdone the rescuing part, but I did rescue you on time.”
    Rick tried to complain again, but his chest hurt with every word he said. “I don’t know if it’s worth it.”
    “Isn’t it?” she said cheerfully. “Why don’t you look around?” She gestured around her, but the transport shuttle was exactly like they’d left it before. “Well, not here. We’re aboard the Argonaut, thousands of miles away from the port. I managed to stop the virus on time and get her out of the workshop. I’ve even made a couple of those absurd and useless aesthetic upgrades that you humans love.”
    A comfortable pilot’s seat?
    Wait a minute. Rick didn’t care about those upgrades. He’d been close to death, and he had no idea of what had happened. The only one who knew was a mentally unstable AI who may have opted for something extremely stupid. She made that kind of choices; it was in her DNA. Or her source code.
    He wanted to know what had happened, and he couldn’t let her dodge the topic.
    “What about Lord Baylor and his men?” Rick asked.
    “Well, I did rescue them too… I may have been too slow, and they’ll be in hospital for a couple of months, but they’ll be like new. Just like Lucas, only that they’ll take longer to heal.”
    “Just about enough time to give us a head start, huh?” It was amazing that she was starting to understand the concepts of real versus expected priorities. Were computers supposed to learn those things?
    “A head start for what, Richard?” she said.
    “To run back to Earth and sell the stone.” He didn’t dare to ask. She couldn’t