The Cyborg Tinkerer

by Meg LaTorre

  Tilting her chin up, she kissed him gently. “While I know I’m spectacular company, let me save you next time.”

  Bastian snorted.

  “Enjoying my cabin?”

  Turning, Gwen saw Emmeline stride up the stairs to the quarterdeck with several watchmen at her heels.

  If only you knew.

  “Thanks for your help escaping,” Gwen began carefully. “But I think it’s time we returned everyone’s memories and get the crew running the ship.”

  “All in good time.” Emmeline came to stand before Gwen and Bastian, the watchmen forming a circle behind her.

  The way the watchmen stood, tall and menacing—and the fact that they clearly didn’t possess any free will whatsoever—had Gwen’s fists clenching. Did the Mistress plan to try to regain control of the ship and circus? She was crazy if she thought Gwen would stand idle now, even if it meant a second broken leg.

  Which would really, really suck.

  “Buying a cyborg circus, that’s one elaborate scheme,” Gwen said. “All to take down the emperor. Why not start a new life elsewhere? Hell, you could have even made a new cyborg implant manufacturing site outside of the Union to spite him.”

  “The man killed my family,” Emmeline hissed.

  Beside Gwen, Bastian made the faintest nod to Marzanna and Akio on the main deck, who walked off and disappeared from sight.

  “So, you want to start a war you can’t win?” Gwen snapped. “Congratulations. The emperor is now going to hunt down the family you made for the rest of our lives. And every other cyborg in the Union will be arrested and either killed or used as science experiments.” Guilt turned her stomach for all the innocent cyborgs who had no idea what was coming for them. “Don’t you have any remorse?”

  Emmeline sniffed. “Don’t preach to me, girl. You’re the reason the emperor got away. If you hadn’t tackled me, the emperor would never have fled the room or been able to quarantine himself.”

  Gwen was losing her patience faster than a groom’s trousers on his wedding night. “If you hadn’t taken my boyfriend’s memories—along with everyone else’s in the circus—maybe I wouldn’t have had to.” In a swift motion, she removed the pistol from the holster at her hip. Pointing it at Emmeline, she said, “As I said before, I think it’s time we returned everyone’s memories. Right fucking now.”

  A cold smile split Emmeline’s face like a tomb cracking open. Or perhaps the memories of someone else’s tomb.

  Behind Emmeline, the watchmen, who’d assumed their usual formal attire and weapons, unstrapped the two pistols from their backs and aimed them at Bastian and Gwen.

  Ignoring the pistol aimed at her nose, Emmeline said, “Stand down, tinkerer. This is my ship. And we go where I say.”

  “No.”

  Bastian shifted.

  “Did you learn nothing from our encounter on Jinx?” Emmeline purred. “You must not care for your second leg all that much. Or your implant.” Eyes still on Gwen, she said, “Kill them both.”

  Before Gwen could pull the trigger on her own pistol, Bastian shouted, “Now!”

  Suddenly, her hair floated up from her shoulders, and her feet hit the tops of her magnetic boots, which stuck firmly to the ship’s deck. At the same time, an armed wrapped around her waist.

  The watchmen’s bullets floated uselessly in the air.

  Marzanna, Gwen realized. Bastian signaled to her to be ready to turn off the gravity field. He knew this was coming.

  Celeste and the watchmen floated up toward space and the charged oxygen field that hovered around the ship. Like the dome that hovered above Covenant, this field was made up of pure energy and would be incredibly painful to the touch. Perhaps fatal, if they were lucky.

  “You have less than ten seconds to change your mind.” Bastian clung to the helm with one arm, the other wrapped around Gwen’s waist. Unlike Gwen, he didn’t have magnetic boots, courtesy of her having worked in space for her entire adult life. But he’d been prepared for them both, that sweet, sly fucker.

  “Return the performers’ and watchmen’s memories to them, and we will let you live,” Bastian said. “Wait too much longer, and there might not be much left of you.”

  When Emmeline screamed, the sound was that of an enraged kraken, hungry for violence.

  After a moment, the former Mistress of Cirque du Borge shouted, “Fine!”

  “Now!” Bastian shouted again, and the gravity field slammed back into place.

  Grabbing Gwen, he hauled her out of the way as Emmeline and the watchmen slammed back down onto the deck. Then he dashed over to the watchmen, grabbing their weapons before they could get to their feet. He tossed them over to Gwen. Picking up a second gun, she aimed it and her pistol at Emmeline.

  “Let’s get that portable mainframe of yours.”

  Rora appeared at Gwen’s side with an electroshocker in her hands.

  “Where did you get—?” Gwen began but stopped as Rora shot each of the watchmen in quick succession.

  “It was Abrecan’s. I grabbed it while you slept,” Rora said, her eyes on the fallen watchmen, who were scattered and unconscious around the quarterdeck. “Can’t have Emmeline changing her mind now, can we?”

  As Emmeline worked on the first cyborg, Gwen said, “The Forgetting—how did you do it?” Cocking her pistol, she added, “And give their memories back while you’re in there. Aye?”

  Cheeks turning a red dark enough to make her hair blush, Emmeline said, “It’s a coding. During annual checkups, I set up a coding so that a section of the data pool will be moved from the accessible memories to storage. The memories are still there, just inaccessible to the host.”

  “Person,” Gwen corrected.

  Something had been nagging at her since the memories of her own parents had faded.

  “My memories,” Gwen said. “Why did they fade so quickly?”

  “I used advance coding for yours,” Emmeline replied, eyes fixed on the portable mainframe before her, the green text rolling. “Our last tinkerer figured out the origin of the Forgetting. Before he could tell the circus or complete his thirteen-year contract, I killed him. I didn’t want your curiosity to get the better of you, too. I thought if I removed more of your memories, you’d be too preoccupied with other things to dig into it.”

  “That backfired,” Gwen bit out. “And Bastian? Why can he remember more than most cyborgs?”

  A humorless smile traced Emmeline’s lips. “That man was consumed by guilt when we found him. I knew the more he remembered, the more eager he would be to throw himself at a new master’s feet to escape his past. So, I gave him a different coding—one that let him keep most of his memories.”

  Another thought occurred to Gwen.

  “Why wasn’t I affected by your mind control at Covenant?”

  Mouth twisting, Emmeline’s eyes never moved from the screen. “In order to make cyborgs more malleable, more open to suggestion—”

  “Mind control. I get it. Move on.”

  Sharp eyes fell on Gwen, but Emmeline continued. “Through my position as the Keeper of Beasts, I learned that by using a rare metal in a cyborg’s chip, my coding was quite suddenly far more effective.”

  Gwen gaped. “That’s why you, the Mistress of Cirque du Borge, worked a regular show management position—so you could have access to the animals and experiment on them. And for what?”

  “To see how I could better control the minds of humans.”

  “The metal. What is it called?”

  “Magilunar.”

  Gwen frowned. In her treks across the Crescent Star System, she’d never heard of it.

  “Stupid girl,” Emmeline hissed, turning back to her work. “Why do you think we went to Jinx? For some asinine competition?” Shaking her head, she scoffed.

  Eyes widening, Gwen had to force herself to shut her mouth. “The metal is from Jinx?”

  “I should have killed you when I had a chance,” Emmeline said. “I’d gotten enough Magilunar for
you and the dragon, but there wasn’t enough time to implement it in both your chips. Not if I had any hope of using the dragon against the emperor. But that damned creature wouldn’t submit.” Fierce eyes snapped up to Gwen. “And you somehow managed to use the beast against me. The only two creatures in the whole circus not under my control.”

  Gwen rolled her eyes. “You’re welcome. I saved your life.”

  Emmeline worked in silence on several more performers’ chips before speaking again. “How were Marzanna and Rora immune to my ‘mind control,’ as you call it?”

  “Chance,” Gwen answered honestly. “Both of their systems were rebooted on accident. One was my fault. But I was able to restart their chips and bring them back from an endless sleep using a portable mainframe. It must have messed with your coding.”

  Nodding, Emmeline said, “How interesting.”

  Eventually, all of the performers and watchmen had their memories and cognitive functions returned to them, including Gwen, Bastian, and Rora.

  As images of her family and former life on Orthodocks blossomed in her mind, relief washed over her. She might never see her family again, but at least she knew who they were and where she came from. Though the emperor may very well arrest her family now that he knew her name. She hoped he’d be too preoccupied with other things to think of the Grimm family.

  With an army of very angry cyborgs behind her, Gwen said to Emmeline, “Bastian promised you’d live. But you won’t be in a position of leadership anymore.” She nodded to the cyborgs. “Take her below deck and lock her in the brig. Only Bastian or I will speak directly to her. No one else is to approach her, understand?”

  There were murmurs of consent before the former Mistress was dragged below deck by her gorgeous red locks.

  Good fucking riddance.

  Sighing, Gwen listened to the screams of the woman who’d fucked with her memories, her boyfriend, and tried to kill her girlfriend in some pointless competition, all to make super soldiers in a plan for revenge.

  Well, those super soldiers now had their memories back. And they wouldn’t be controlled by the Mistress ever again.

  Chapter 42

  “Where to, Captain?”

  Gwen stood beside Bastian at the helm, wrapping an arm around his waist. For the first time in a long while, it felt like all was right in the world.

  “A fucking good question,” Marzanna said as she strode up the stairs to join them on the quarterdeck with Akio at her heels.

  Rora appeared from what had become Gwen, Bastian, and Rora’s cabin. Coming up to join them, she placed a soft kiss on Gwen’s cheek before linking their fingers together.

  Bastian’s eyes swept over the others before landing on Gwen’s. “The stars are the limit?”

  “Don’t you mean the sky is the limit?” Akio added helpfully.

  “How much fuel do we have?” Gwen asked.

  “Not a lot,” Bastian said. “But enough to get us to a nearby planet before we need to refuel.”

  “We’ll need to find a way to support ourselves,” Rora said. “We can’t exactly go back to being performers.”

  Tapping her chin, Gwen said, “Not necessarily. If we go someplace outside of the Union, why not? We could launch Cirque du Borge 2.0 and call it The Circus of Cyborgs.”

  While everyone gaped, Rora laughed. “That could work.”

  “Why don’t we head for the Smoke Ring?” Gwen suggested, feeling guilty for her words even as she spoke them. “Harvest is the closest planet to us—”

  Bastian took a step backward as though she’d struck him. “No.”

  “I know you don’t want to see your family, but it’s our only option,” Gwen said. “Besides Jinx, Harvest is the closest planet to the Union this time of year. And it’s outside of the Union, which means the emperor may not have the power to arrest us—if he finds us.”

  The Smoke Ring was the nearest solar system to the Crescent Star System. Solar systems beyond that would take months or years to get to, which required ample fuel, a larger ship, and money they didn’t have.

  “Do you think your dad will be sympathetic to our situation?” Rora asked.

  “No,” Bastian said flatly. “The man is a merciless cunt.”

  Gwen blinked.

  Did he just say cunt?

  “Do you have a better idea?” Gwen tried. “I’m willing to go wherever we have enough fuel to get to that’s outside of the Union.”

  Bastian shook his head. “There isn’t anything else.”

  Frowning, Marzanna said, “Who’s your dad, anyway?”

  His eyes grew distant, rimmed with fear. “Kazim Kabir. Sultan of Rift.”

  For a moment, Gwen stared dumbly at Bastian.

  First, Rora was a fucking lady. Now, Bastian was the son of a sultan?

  Stars help her.

  Gwen was the first to break the silence. “Didn’t expect that.”

  When no one offered a better solution, they eventually set a course for Harvest.

  Marzanna and Akio disappeared below deck with the other former performers. When they were gone, Gwen reached out and took Bastian’s hand.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to upset you. But I hope you know I’ll be with you the whole time. Whatever your dad throws at you, he’ll be throwing at us both.”

  “At all three of us,” Rora said with a gentle squeeze to Gwen’s hand.

  A sad smile traced Bastian’s lips, and he nodded before leaning over and pressing a kiss to Gwen’s cheek.

  “Not to belittle the family trauma you’re processing,” Rora said. “But I think the cyborgs of the Union are going to have a worse time of things than we will.”

  They sighed in unison.

  In the coming months, the human citizens of the Crescent Star System would be informed of what happened on Allegiant and be out for blood.

  But the emperor wouldn’t forget about the circus, not when Gwen and the Mistress were a part of it. Two of the only people in the Crescent Star System who could make a weapon to destroy cyborgs. Even if they managed to arrive on Harvest with their limited fuel, they’d have pursuers on their tail, perhaps squadrons of feds.

  The emperor would never stop looking for them.

  They’d have to lie low and make new lives and names for themselves. Could they really relaunch the circus? It certainly wasn’t the most subtle idea.

  Somehow, they would find a way. If they could survive the competition, they could survive whatever the emperor—or Bastian’s dad—threw at them.

  As they sailed between shooting stars, Gwen, Bastian, and Rora tossed new potential names back and forth. They’d have to leave their former identities behind.

  “What do you think of Belle?” Bastian asked.

  “As my name? I like it.”

  “But it’s nowhere near as beautiful as you are.”

  Rolling her eyes, she swatted him on the arm.

  He tapped his chin. “I think I shall call myself Bieste for my good temperament.”

  “That’s a terrible idea.”

  “What would you recommend?”

  She thought for a while before she eventually said, “What about Adam?”

  He kissed the tip of her nose before pressing his lips to hers. “That’s a fine name.”

  Turning to Rora, Gwen said, “What about Aurora for you? It’s different enough from your name, but close enough to remember. And I think it means dawn.”

  Sliding an arm around Gwen’s waist, Rora said, “I love it.”

  Once, Gwen had thought she would spend her remaining days on Anchorage—gambling her time and money away. Then an opportunity strutted into her life dressed in a pinstripe suit. She’d feared what becoming a cyborg could do to her. More than that, she feared she couldn’t be the cyborg tinkerer they needed. She thought she could only hurt the people she cared about. Somehow, she’d found a home with these cyborgs. In a universe of people who hated them for what they were, they’d become each other’s family. As i
t turned out, she wasn’t the worst cyborg tinkerer, after all.

  As their ship soared atop atmospheric waves, sails blossoming in the solar winds, she realized she didn’t fear what was to come. Instead, she embraced the adventures of the unknown. For, at last, she knew she had everything she needed—people who loved her and belief in herself.

  Who knew? Perhaps one day, the galaxy would once again see the marvels of the cyborg circus.

  Stay in Touch

  Thank you for reading The Cyborg Tinkerer!

  * * *

  If you enjoyed this story, please consider leaving a review on your retailer of choice.

  * * *

  If you want to stay up to date with everything Meg LaTorre is working on, sign up for her newsletter and subscribe to her YouTube channel, iWriterly.

  Glossary

  Allegiant: The home city of emperor of the Union and capital of the planet Covenant.

  * * *

  Anchorage: A manufacturing moon in the Crescent Star System.

  * * *

  Apparatus: A city on the planet Grandstand and home to Cirque du Borge.

  * * *

  Covenant: One of thirteen planets within the Crescent Star System. It is also the emperor’s home planet and where the Union’s rulers reside.

  * * *

  Cirque du Borge: The circus of cyborgs.

  * * *

  Crescent Star System: The solar system that comprises the thirteen planets of the Union.

  * * *

  Cyborg Implants: The technology implanted into humans that makes them cyborgs. Implants can be visible, such as limbs, or literal implants under the skin. Due to their rarity and the advanced nature of the technology, they are worth millions of marks in the Union after the Cyborg Prohibition Law was put into place and the manufacturing of more implants illegalized.

  * * *