by Alyse Anders
Darrick snorted. Easier said than done.
“Are the two of you carrying on some sort of conversation? Because it’s more than a little rude to ignore another person in the room like that.”
They both looked back at Lena, who seemed far more annoyed at them than concerned about the weather or escaping Aidric’s soldiers. She had a core of mettle to her, a natural leader who would fit perfectly into their world.
Darrick snorted again. “Apologies.” You’re going to have your hands full with this one.
A problem I’ll happily live with for the rest of my life. “We have the ability communicate in short range through a cyborg neuronet. We’re not used to caring about the others around us and what they can hear.”
“Well if I’m going to be around for a little while, you damn well better get used to it.”
“I’ll be sure not to use this method while you’re present.” True to his word, he severed the link with Darrick.
“Thank you.” She narrowed her gaze on something behind him. “Is that where we’re heading?”
“Cimacha, is our capital.” Rykal turned and transmitted their security codes. “We’ll be there shortly.”
Rykal was able to see the docking field lights when the shuttle lurched sharply to the side. The alarms sounded as the shuttle was hit with another barrage of blaster fire, this time from the other side. Darrick turned off the alarm and quickly maneuvered the shuttle to avoid another attack. “We’ve got Grus ships on both flanks. They must have been waiting for us to arrive and popped up under my scanners.”
Rykal should have known better than to assume Aidric wouldn’t have a secondary plan to stop them. “Can we land?”
The shuttle shuddered under another hit, this time sending a cascade of sparks showering down over Lena. “I think that one penetrated your hull!”
The alarms sounded again, as Darrick scanned them. “She’s right. Hull breach on quadrant 327. We’re not going to be able to sustain many more of those.”
They were so close to the landing pad, Rykal knew the others in the city would be able to see the attack, which would only serve to ratchet up the tension between their peoples. He was about to tell Darrick to make a run for it, when the coms channel opened.
“Put the shuttle down, Rykal.”
Fracking Aidric.
Darrick opened coms. “By firing on us you’re declaring war on the cyborg population. That is not a war that the Grus want. You will not win.”
“Rykal declared war first when he attacked our people on the station, kidnapped an alien who we hadn’t cleared from quarantine and then stole an escape pod.”
Darrick looked at him, his eyebrow fully cocked. “Is that true?”
“It is.” Lena had left her seat to stand behind them. “And I’m not going to be the reason a war breaks out. Especially not when my people are still stuck in cryo sleep on my ship back on that station. We need to put the shuttle down and surrender.”
“No!” Rykal was on his feet and pressed against her. “I won’t put you in danger. I’ll kill them all first.”
Lena blinked several times as she stepped away from him. “You don’t get to control me. I didn’t fly halfway across this galaxy only to find myself in a worse position than the one I left. I’m the captain of the Kraken and have been trusted with the lives of every single person on it. I’m not going to let your arrogance put their lives or their futures in jeopardy because you’re thinking with your cock.”
Fear and anger radiated from Lena, though Rykal knew it wasn’t for her own safety. She was every bit as much willing to put her life on the line for others as he was, and he knew she’d willingly sacrifice herself to save her people. He would do the same.
“Rykal, put the shuttle down before you reach the landing pad and we’ll keep this matter between us. There’s no reason for things to escalate into a war. No reason for us to disturb the status quo.” Aidric’s voice was even, lacking passion despite his words.
He would kill them all, of that Rykal had no doubt.
“What do you want me to do?” Darrick kept his gaze outward, his hands hovering above the controls. “We can make it to the pad, just say the word and I’ll make a run for it.”
Lena shook her head but said nothing else. There was no way she’d be able to stop him from doing what he wanted and she no doubt knew that. Darrick had long ago proven that he’d die for Rykal given even the slightest indication. Everything came down to this, down to him.
Looking Lena in the eyes he realized that he would do anything for her, even if that meant risking losing everything. “Put the ship down. Stand down all weapons.”
“That was the smart move.” Aidric’s voice rang through the coms. “Prepare to be boarded and taken into custody.”
Rykal dropped to his knees and placed his hands behind his head the moment the shuttle touched down. Lena sat beside him, keeping her hands in her lap. “What do you think they’ll do with us?”
“They’ll place you back into quarantine and process you. They’ll want to know your history and why you came here. Our people aren’t exactly trusting of strangers.”
“And what about you?”
That was the real question. “I don’t know.”
Once Darrick finalized the landing protocol and released the ramp, he also dropped to his knees, flanking where Lena sat. “If we’re lucky, they’ll only deactivate us.”
“Not us.” The moment the soldiers boarded the ship, Rykal spoke. “Darrick was following orders and wasn’t aware of what had happened on the station. He is not to be blamed for this incident.”
The security leader barked orders at his subordinates. “We’re under orders from the commander himself to detain all beings on this shuttle and bring you back to Grus Prime. We have permission to shoot to kill if you even so much as flinch in the direction of escape. Is that clear?”
It took all Rykal’s control to keep from reaching out and snapping the man’s neck. “Crystal.” When they went to put Lena into restraints, Rykal growled. “Don’t put a hand on her.”
The guards looked at him, then her before turned back to their boss. The security leader was suddenly lacking in the bravado he’d shown only moments before. “She’s an alien to our two peoples, with unknown abilities. She needs to be restrained.”
“Rykal, it’s fine. They’re not going to hurt me, and I’ll be with you the whole way back to the station. Won’t I?” She said the last part to the security leader. “It would be beneficial to everyone if we tried our best to keep everyone happy and not let things get so bad that the two cyborgs on the ship get pissed off and kill everyone. Right?”
A collective sigh of relief seemed to roll through the security personnel when the leader nodded. “You’ll be placed in protective custody together in our ship. Get them secured and move!”
Rykal tried to keep his focus on the matter at hand, but whenever someone touched Lena, moved her, accidentally bumped into her, his anger grew, swelling to a level he’d never experienced before. But as quickly as it threatened to overwhelm him, she’d reach out and caress his hand, rub her thumb across the top of his thigh, or press her shoulder against his. Those simple points of contact were enough to help him maintain his composure.
Darrick said nothing else, but Rykal felt his friend watching their interactions and taking note. If there was another human on that ship who was destined to be with Darrick, Rykal had no doubt that he’d also want to find her as quickly as possible.
Their ship landed back on Grus Prime, the hiss of decompression sending a sliver of dread through him. Lena let out a soft sigh. “Back to where we started.”
“Physically yes. But a lot has changed since then.” If he was cautious, then perhaps he could maneuver events to play out in their favor. “I’ll deal with Aidric.”
He’d been expecting his brother to be waiting for them in the docking bay when they arrived, but he wasn’t there. In fact, there were hardly any security forces pr
esent when the detail from the ship led them down the ramp. “I don’t like this.”
“Stop there.” The security leader continued past them, leaving the trio out in the open. “The commander will be speaking with you all shortly.”
The last thing Rykal saw was Lena looking confused as a bolt of electricity surged through him, sending his cybernetic circuits into overload before shutting down.
Chapter Nine
Lena couldn’t sit still, instead choosing to pace in the small medical room she’d been placed in over an hour ago. She’d been quickly swept up by the security forces waiting to the side when they’d disabled both Rykal and Darrick. She’d fought as best she could with her arms fastened, but she was no match for the fully armed security forces. She didn’t know what had happened to Rykal, but she wasn’t able to sense his presence the way she’d been able to up to now.
It was strange, missing something that she’d only vaguely been aware of up to this point.
Doctors – well, people she’d assumed to be doctors – had been waiting for her as soon as she’d been brought into the room. They’d taken samples and scans, no doubt wanting to confirm that humans weren’t carrying some unknown illness that made cyborgs horny and go insane. At this point, she really wouldn’t be surprised if they’d actually found something.
But after they’d left, no one else came to speak with her, and that freaked her the fuck out. So, until someone showed up and conducted the alien equivalent of an interrogation, she’d pace the length and width of the room and hope like hell that things would turn out for the best.
Because as crazy as the past day had turned out to be, she didn’t think she’d be okay if something happened to Rykal. That constant awareness of him, the soft buzzing of his consciousness in her mind that gave her peace and comfort was a feeling she’d never once experienced back on Earth. No man or woman offered her that connection or sense of belonging before, and she’d quickly grown used to it.
It was more than a little addictive.
More time passed and the muscles in Lena’s legs began to protest the constant motion. She really wasn’t strong enough after the long cryo sleep for the level of activity she’d been subjected to since waking up, but she hadn’t had much of a choice either. She eventually had to give up and sat in the chair that had been thoughtfully placed to help her ease her burden. That act of kindness felt uncharacteristic for the people she’d met since her arrival, but one she was thankful for. The moment she sat down, the door slid open and a tall athletically built man stepped inside. It took her a moment to realize this was the man who’d been there with Rykal when she’d first emerged from the Kraken.
“Aidric. Right?” She tried to keep herself as relaxed as possible but couldn’t quite manage it. “Have you done anything to hurt my people?” Where’s Rykal? Is he okay? Did you kill him?
“No one has boarded your ship since your kidnapping, nor has there been any indication of movement inside. I assume your people are still in cryogenic sleep?”
He was painfully calm and cool; his blue eyes so similar to Rykal’s yet lacked the electric glow that relayed a feeling of energy. It didn’t take a genius to realize that Aidric was highly intelligent and far more dangerous than she’d initially given him credit. Lena was going to have to watch what she said around him. “Yes, the entirety of the crew and passengers went into cryo sleep once we got out of Earth’s solar system and began our journey. I was automatically woken when we reached this sector, though I should have been brought out sooner.” She snapped her mouth shut when she saw a spark of interest in his gaze.
“So you and your people chose this sector as your destination. Why?”
God, how the hell could she even begin to explain to an alien whose people had been attacked and nearly wiped out by another alien race that everyone on board the Kraken had undertaken this journey based on a hunch.
“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.” She leaned back against the chair, the exhaustion of the past day catching up to her.
Aidric cocked his head to the side and narrowed his gaze. “You might be surprised what I’d believe. Especially after what has transpired today.”
Lena got to her feet and began to pace once more. “Life on Earth has gotten nearly impossible for those of us that haven’t been born into wealth. The colonies on Mars and Titian have highly restricted immigration policies, making a transfer to them difficult at best. I just had a…a feeling that if I got into a ship and headed out this way then I’d find someplace…safe.” She stopped and looked directly at him. “I know how that sounds and that it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But once I was able to buy my ship and put out a call for others who might want to come with me, it didn’t take long for me to fill up.”
Aidric nodded once, then again. “There’s something else you’re not telling me.”
“It’s going to sound insane. Or like I’m trying to scam you, but truthfully, I’m not.”
Aidric got to his feet and stood beside her. There was a small change in his expression, an old pain that seemed to slip out from beneath the mask he clearly wore. “When the Sholle first threatened us, I wasn’t the commander of this station. I wasn’t even on the ruling council of our people. I was a scientist whose sole purpose was to try and make the lives of the Grus people better. But when our planet was attacked, it became clear that our people were going to lose. I focused my research on lengthening the quality of Grus life, and turned it into a means to create soldiers. My own brother fought and died in the war, and I had to make a decision to utilize my cybernetic research on him.”
“He told me.” She could barely speak, her voice coming out of her at barely a whisper.
“What he doesn’t know, that no one knows, is that there was a flaw in my programming.” There was no masking his emotions now. Pain and regret were clear on his face as Aidric looked directly into her eyes. “I was never quite able to pinpoint where the bug came from, which meant I couldn’t effect repairs. But whenever we scan any of the people who’ve been changed into cyborgs, there is a gap in their matrix code. I once speculated it was where their emotions once existed.”
Lena couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. “Why are you telling me this?”
He hesitated, before reaching out and giving her arm a gentle squeeze. “I ran a complete diagnostic on Rykal once we got him into a secure holding. Darrick as well. The gap in Rykal’s programming has begun to fill. Somehow self-repairing in a way that I’ve never seen happen before in the years since his creation.”
Lena bit down on her bottom lip. “Darrick?”
“No. But there’s some unusual activity in his neuro cortex.”
She didn’t need him to say the words out loud for her to understand what he was implying. “You think that I’m the reason Rykal’s code has changed.”
“And that there’s another person on board your ship who might be affecting Darrick.”
Everything that had happened both here and back on Earth had been for a reason. Lena leaned against the wall and for the first time in what felt like her entire life, she relaxed. “Thank God.”
Aidric frowned. “What does that mean?”
There were so many things that she hadn’t understood back on Earth; it was as though there was a part of her mind that was being driven by some unseen force that wanted her to take a ship and go out into the dark reaches of space. Only the people on the Kraken understood her, because they’d all experienced similar feelings.
Explaining that to an alien though, well, that wasn’t going to be the easiest thing.
Lena turned so her back was fully pressed against the wall, suddenly needing the extra support. “The people of my planet have not had the best time in the past hundred years or so. Our ancestors had a technology that they didn’t understand, and the detrimental effects that it had on the environment until it was almost too late. When they realized that they had to fundamentally change their entire economic backbone to save the plan
et, it was difficult for them to make that switch.”
“Your people had other planets to live on?”
Lena snorted. “Not at the time, though they eventually moved out and colonized another planet and a moon in our sector. The Mars and Titan I mentioned. Regardless, the people left behind on Earth had a much harder time and we had to do anything we could to survive.”
She looked down at her hands, still able to see the ghosts of the blood and dirt that used to be caked beneath her fingernails. In many ways, she was as flawed as Rykal appeared to be.
“Did you steal your ship and take these people with you?” Aidric hadn’t moved, his calm demeanor a blessing.
“No, I earned that hunk of metal. I used the money that my father and mother had earned, and the funds that my grandparents and great-grandparents had passed down. I was the first member of my family to have the means to leave. But it was more than that. Ever since I was a child, I’ve had this fascination with this sector of space. I would sneak into the observatory and use a few minutes of time to look at this star. Over the years I met others, other women, who also were fascinated with this one shining star in the sky. When I bought my ship, I put the call out that I was heading a one-way trip here and anyone who wanted to come with me could come. There were twenty-eight of us in total, who all had that same focus. I didn’t want to leave any of them behind.”
Aidric stared at her, and she could almost see the gears of his mind grinding, trying to make sense of her story. None of it was logical, and yet, she couldn’t deny its truth. He finally turned his back to her and walked toward the door, before stopping midway. “Twenty-eight? Adults?”
“Yes. All women. When people came to me to book passage, I was surprised by that, but didn’t exactly have time to argue. We filled the stasis tubes and off we went.”
The lines around his eyes deepened. “Our people who fought and died, only to be brought back to fight again, gave more for our people than should ever have been asked of them. The cybernetic matrix program was initially flawed beyond what I’d first mentioned to you. The first group to be transformed are different from the rest. More aggressive with natural leadership abilities. The high council didn’t approve. I wasn’t sure why the cyborgs became programmed that way and had to find a workaround.”