Zero's Heart (Lathar Mercenaries: Warborne Book 1)

by Mina Carter

  “Can you even fit in the shower in there?” she asked when he looked over at her, eyebrow raised.

  He removed the toothbrush to answer but the voice issuing over the ship-wide comm drowned him out.

  “Miss. Archer, this is the bridge. We have an incoming message for you, from a… Mrs. Archer-Russell?”

  She blinked in surprise, sitting up. “What? How the hell did she manage to get the message to me here?”

  “It’s not live, I’m afraid. We recovered your personal data stream from the last relay tower we passed by and picked up a couple of messages. I…” There was a pause and a cough. “Well, I figured you’d be a guest with us for a while, so I added your credentials to our comms array. I hope that was okay?”

  “That’s Skinny,” Zero stage-whispered. “He’s our comms guy. Ain’t nothing he can’t do with a radio.”

  There was a laugh from the speakers. “Yeah, it’s a little more complicated than a ‘radio’ as you well know, Toaster. I’ll send both messages through to your quarter’s console.”

  “Thanks,” Zero growled, disappearing for a moment to spit foam into the sink and rinse his mouth out. When he reappeared, Eris had wrapped herself in the lightest blanket and was sitting on the edge of the bed.

  Movement this morning was far more comfortable than it had been last night, but she was still convinced she was in a dream. There was no way Talent could have fixed the totally fucking fubar that was her damaged nervous system all in one go. Could he?

  “Toaster?” she asked as the big cyborg reappeared.

  He grimaced. “Assholes, the lot of them. We were clearing out a possible Krin invasion on one of the Velexian system worlds when we passed an abandoned village. Skinny found a toaster… ‘Hey, Zero, I found your mom!’”

  Her eyes widened, and she slapped a hand over her mouth before she could laugh. “He didn’t!”

  “Asshole.” Zero groused again, but she caught the quirk at the corner of his lips. “It was hilarious, but don’t you dare tell him I said that. I’ve been fighting off them trying to change my nickname to Toaster ever since.”

  Her ears pricked up at that nugget of information. “So Zero actually isn’t a nickname?”

  He shook his head, sitting down at the chair in front of the desk bolted to the wall. He turned it around so he faced her, arms on his heavily muscled thighs. As she watched, the skin on his cheek under his left eye changed. Part of it became darker and then resolved into an alphanumeric code.

  00-S1057

  “What is that?”

  His shoulder lifted in a nonchalant shrug. “No idea. Could be anything from a serial number to a comm number for customer services.”

  Zero zero… Shit. It was his name. Or the closest thing he had anyway.

  Instantly she crossed the distance and was in his lap. His kiss tasted of toothpaste and clean man. She murmured under her breath in pleasure.

  “Morning breath,” she muttered, breaking away to hug him instead.

  His arms wrapped around her, and she nestled closer to him. The fierce hug told her all she needed to know. About how much he needed the contact… and how much she did. Resting her head against his shoulder, she closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the closeness.

  Then he shuddered and swept his hand down her back. “Okay, how about we look at these messages of yours, and then I can show you just how much room there is in my shower…”

  “Men! You’re bloody sex mad!” She laughed, mock slapping his shoulder even as he turned the chair so they both faced the screen.

  “Nah… not a man, remember? I’m a machine… a luuuurve machine.”

  “Oh. My. God… Guys, did you hear thi—”

  Zero groaned as the ship-wide comm cut off, his expression pained as he looked at her. “You do realize I will never, never live that down now?”

  She chuckled, leaning over to kiss his cheek. “Yeah, well, it’s accurate. Isn’t it? I say own it. Now… how do I get my messages?”

  With mingled foreboding and anticipation, she watched as Zero logged onto the system for her. The language on the screen was like nothing she’d ever seen before, although it seemed hauntingly familiar. Almost like she could squint, look at it out of the corner of her eye and it would resolve into something that would make sense to her.

  “Latharian?” she guessed.

  Zero nodded. “It’s a common language for all of us. Most of the crew are either Lathar or half-Lathar. T’Raal and Talent are inner systems pretty boys, Skinny’s a heavy-worlder, Beauty’s backwater of some description and Fin’s a Navarr. Red’s half-Krynassis.”

  She shook her head in amazement. “And we thought we were alone out here.”

  “Yeah… right. In terms of space travel, you guys are barely out the cradle.” Zero snorted and then sat back. “Okay, all yours.”

  Somehow, amazingly, the screen cleared of alien writing, and she was looking at her inbox on the familiar Inter-sector communications system. There were two messages. One from her brother, and the other from her mother.

  Oh shit. She’d forgotten about Eric’s message. Having the most lethal special operations unit in the human systems shooting at you tended to do that. Reaching out to open it, she suddenly stopped her hand in mid-air.

  “Crap. Will opening this let them track where we are?”

  “Please… give us a little more credit than that,” Zero chuckled. “Skinny will have bounced that off so many arrays they’ll think you’re in the Earth president’s office.”

  Heat hit her cheeks.

  “Dumb question,” she muttered, but he kissed the side of her neck.

  “Nah. Understandable. You’re dealing with technology you’re unfamiliar with. How would you know its limits and capabilities? It was a sound question.”

  She mumbled under her breath, but the heat on her cheeks turned to a blush at the tone of approval in his voice. She’d never needed validation from any man, but… from Zero it made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

  “Shit…” he said when she didn’t reach for the screen right away. “Do you want to be alone to view them?”

  “No… no, it’s fine.” She grabbed his hand when he made to move her out of his lap. “There’s not going to be anything I don’t want you to hear.”

  Tapping the screen, she opened Eric’s message first. Rather than her brother’s face as she expected, it was a notification from a message holding service that they had an encrypted data pack for her.

  “Huh. Odd,” she murmured. “We’re heading to Praxis-Four. Aren’t we? To pick up your other crew member?”

  “Uh-huh.” Zero had wrapped his arms around her, holding her close in a cuddle she was really rather enjoying. Settled in his lap like this, warm and comfortable, she could easily forget there was a bounty on her head. Or that, miraculously, alien medicine had repaired the damage to her legs. A long, slow shudder escaped her as something, the smallest feeling, expanded in the center of her chest. She hadn’t wanted to believe it, in case it was a dream she’d wake up from, but… here and now, it sank in.

  “You okay?” Zero asked softly as her head dropped back to his shoulder. Closing her eyes, she nodded, her throat too thick at present to speak. Without saying a word, he held her for a few minutes, letting her absorb her new reality.

  Sitting up, she shook herself and reached for the screen again.

  This time, she wasn’t as lucky with the message. Her mother’s angry face appeared on screen, and they both winced as Catherine Archer-Russell screeched.

  “Eris! What the bloody hell do you think you’re playing at? Getting a price on your head? Dealing with terrorists? Do you know how much trouble you’re going to cause your father—”

  “He’s my fucking stepfather!” Eris hissed under her breath, even though the recording couldn’t help her.

  “You’ve disgraced the family, and if you think you’re getting away with it, you’ve got another think coming!” Her mother wagged her finger at the screen
like Eris was five years old. “In fact, young lady, if you don’t get your backside back to Earth to explain yourself to your father and me, there will be hell to pay, you mark my wor—”

  “Yeah, so done with that already.” Eris reached out and cut her mother off mid-screech. Looking over her shoulder, she caught Zero’s eye. “I do believe someone mentioned something about breakfast?”

  11

  Eris hadn’t seen much of the ship last night, just the medbay and his quarters, so her eyes were wide on the short walk to the galley.

  “Whoa, I didn’t realize how big this thing was,” she said as he led her down the corridor, keeping a close eye on her until he was sure she was stable walking. The last thing he wanted to do was compromise her recovery. Not only because he didn’t want Talent yelling at him, but also because he couldn’t bear the thought of her in pain. Ever.

  “It’s actually a small warship,” he explained, waving his hand over the door plate to the galley. It opened with a soft whoosh and she stepped past him. The delicate scent rising from her skin, the shower gel from his cabin and a smell that was uniquely hers, wrapped around him, holding him prisoner for a moment. Heat rolled lazily through his body, stirring a reaction south of the border he only just managed to stifle. Cyborg control for the win.

  “Yeah… I meant that literally everything is bigger.”

  She waved at the tables and benches bolted to the walls and floor and he realized what she meant. The Lathar were built on a larger scale than humanity so she was tiny in comparison.

  “Look, my feet don’t even touch the floor.” She chuckled when she sat down, swinging her legs. “I feel like a kid again.”

  He smiled and headed for the food prep counter, asking over his shoulder. “In that case, what do human kids like to eat for breakfast?”

  “Usually anything that’s as unhealthy as possible. Like… ice cream and pancakes?”

  He paused for a moment and then a wicked little grin spread over his lips. “Pancakes I can do. Hang tight.”

  The door to the galley opened again, Tal and his little mate Lizzie, appearing in the doorway. Lizzie’s face lit up when she spotted Eris, and she was through the door before Talent could take a step.

  “Hey! You must be Eris,” she said, plunking herself down opposite and extending her hand. “I’m Lizzie. Tal is my mate.”

  “Hey, Eris,” Tal slid into the seat next to Lizzie. “How are you feeling this morning?”

  “I’m good.” She smiled. “No aches or pains. Whatever you did, it was definitely magic.”

  “Okay, good.” The medic wrapped his arm around his mate, pulling her close. It was an entirely subconscious act, and Lizzie smiled up at him. “Take it easy for the next couple of days, and then all being well, I can sign you off as fit and healthy.”

  Zero listened in on the conversation as he prepared the mixture and set the plate to heat up. Hearing Eris chat away comfortably with his crewmates, the two human women talking ten to the dozen, eased some of the tension he’d been carrying. He wanted the rest of the crew to like Eris. If they did, and she liked them, hopefully he could persuade her to stay longer.

  The thought made him pause for a moment, coffee pot in hand. When they’d first met, he hadn’t had any plans other than wanting to get to know her, but things had gone way beyond that. He didn’t want her to leave when this was all over.

  Placing the coffeepot in the middle of the table, he caught her eye. He smiled, reassured by the way her heart rate increased fractionally when she looked at him. Oh yeah, she was into him. She’d want to stay anyway. With him.

  “Gods, what is that gorgeous smell?” Like they’d crawled out of the woodwork, more of the crew appeared in the doorway, Red looking at him in amazement with Skinny and T’Raal on her heels. Her gaze cut to Eris. “Girl, if you can get Zero to cook, you can stay!”

  “Fuck off, Red! I cook!” Zero threw over his shoulder, pouring and flipping pancakes on the hotplate. At this rate, he’d need more than one batch of batter. “One of you lazy fuckers can lay the table if you’re gonna gatecrash what was supposed to be a romantic breakfast.”

  “That would be me then,” Fin quipped, following the others through the door and then easily moving around Zero in the tiny food prep area. Behind them, Red and Skinny had squashed onto one of the benches, watching him like a pair of liraas snakes for food. T’Raal took a seat next to Talent.

  “Food’s up. You gannets can wait,” he ordered, slapping Red and Skinny’s hands as they reached for pancakes. “Eris and Lizzie eat first. So behave.”

  They grumbled good-naturedly and sat back, waiting their turn. Zero waited by the table as Eris selected a pancake. Then he realized…

  “Fuck! The ice cream.”

  The room went silent as he hit up the freezer unit, digging out a tub of his stash.

  “Fuuuuck me,” Red whistled as he put it down in front of Eris. “It must be love. Zero never lets any of us anywhere near his triple-choc-caramel fudge.”

  Zero flipped her the bird, watching as Eris dug in. She popped a spoonful of pancake and ice cream into her mouth and then moaned.

  “Oh my god, that is so good.” She opened her eyes to smile up at him. “Where did you learn to cook like that? This is amazing.”

  “I’m glad you like it,” he mumbled, a flush on his cheeks as he returned to the hotplate to work on the biggest stack of pancakes the Sprite had ever seen. He’d need to since everyone had decided to join them for breakfast. Soon the room was filled with the scrape of cutlery on plates and small sounds of pleasure.

  “Pancakes? Did I miss pancakes?” Sparky appeared in the doorway, his dirty blond hair mused into bedhead spikes.

  “Nope, you’re just in time,” Zero replied, sliding yet another plate loaded with a stack onto the table.

  “Cool… smells good. Budge over, beautiful.” He dropped into the seat next to Eris and grabbed a plate. Reaching for the top pancake, his fork clashed with Fin’s both men looking up.

  “Well hello, handsome. What’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?” he quipped with a rakish grin.

  Fin blinked, obviously not used to being hit on over breakfast, and pulled his fork back. “How do you know I’m a nice guy?”

  Sparky claimed the pancake triumphantly. “Well, here’s hoping.”

  “I got better shit to do than listen to this,” Red growled.

  She shoved her half-finished plate away and pushed herself to her feet. Before anyone could say anything, she was gone, the door sliding shut behind her. Without a pause, Skinny scooped her leftovers onto his plate. All was fair in love and food on the Sprite.

  Taking advantage of the break in the conversation, Zero slid into the seat on the other side of Eris to eat his own breakfast.

  “Woah, was it something I said?” Sparky looked all innocent, until Eris clipped him around the ear.

  “Shut the fuck up and eat your food before these good folks decide you’re an asshole and throw us off their ship,” she ordered.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s entirely Fin’s fault. It usually is where Red is concerned.” T’Raal chuckled, pushing his plate away with a sigh of contentment. “That was good. Thank you, Zero. Now…”

  He focused on Eris. “Zero brought us up to speed. Any idea why your own people turned on you?”

  Her plate finished, Eris cradled a mug of coffee in her delicate little hands and looked the large Warborne leader directly in the eye. “None whatsoever. I’m just an outer systems security chief, nothing special. They must have me mixed up with someone else.”

  “Do your people do that often?” T’Raal’s question was valid, and one Zero very much wanted answered as well. But before Eris could answer, Sparky waved his fork.

  “Nope. SO13 doesn’t make mistakes like that. If they tried to kill you,” he motioned toward Eris. “Then they really meant to kill you.”

  T’Raal looked between the two humans. “Who are SO13?”
<
br />   “Special Operations Thirteen.” Sparky scraped the last bits of syrup off his plate and licked the fork. “Highly secretive black ops unit. Professional killers basically. Ones that actually like killing. There’s a rumor that they surgically remove all morals and your soul when you join the unit.”

  “Oh? How’d you know so much about them?” Fin demanded, leaning across the table. He hadn’t taken his eyes off the tall human since he’d walked in the room.

  “Yeah, Allen, how do you know so much about a special operations unit so secretive most people think they’re a myth?” Eris asked pointedly.

  “Was one. Then the assholes tried to kill me. It didn’t take,” he grinned. “So they threw me in Mirax. But, one thing I do know for sure. If they’ve got a target on your back, they absolutely will not stop until you’re dead.”

  Full and happy after Zero’s excellent breakfast, Eris turned her attention to the next item on her internal to-do list. Her suit.

  Citing the need for a little “alone time,” she quickly worked out where the cargo bay was. Since the Sprite only had three decks, it was a process of elimination that didn’t take long at all. Like the rest of the ship, it was functional and utilitarian with bare metal walls and checker-pattern deck plates. Hard-wearing and easy to clean. Honest. Not pretending to be anything else.

  But… it was also someone else’s domain. Eris registered the other presence as soon as she stepped through the door and paused. She was just a guest on the ship, so the last thing she wanted to do was step on anyone’s toes.

  “Might as well come in if you’re going to,” a gruff voice announced from the upper level.

  Jumping slightly, Eris twisted and looked up. Red, the second female member of the Warborne crew, was sitting on a catwalk against the back wall, a wiring panel open as she worked on its insides. A spaghetti mass of colored wires vomited from the gap, and the alien woman’s long fingers worked quickly in the chaos.

  “Hi. It’s Red. Isn’t it? I’m Eris Archer,” she introduced herself as she located the nearest ladder to the upper catwalk. With its own lift and tilt mechanism, it could be maneuvered into place anywhere in the cargo bay.