by Naomi Lucas
Netto shrugged, not caring if Zeph noticed his unspoken retort.
“I’m not going to be quarantined to the home system like Dommik was,” he continued. “There’s nothing for a man like me in all that over-trodden space. Especially now that Stryker’s local.”
Netto ran his tongue along his teeth and waited for the rest of his partner’s tirade.
“That snake can take care of all the EPED’s needs near the homeworld. Still, can’t believe he fucked up his last job. Still can’t believe we’re here, all the way out at bum-fuck farm-ville because he destroyed his ship. He messes up once, once, and he gives up monster hunting, and for what? A tight ass? Should’ve bought him one of the newer model sex-bots when I saw him last,” Zeph ranted.
Netto had heard it all before and truthfully didn’t care enough to come to Stryker’s defense, nor to correct the rumors with the truth.
He had seen the way Stryker was with Norah, the woman he crossed the galaxy for and saved from horrible odds. He had seen the inside of the Snake’s ship after the chaos. Netto could still smell the Wieraptor and the waterborne bacteria that had taken it over. All he had to do was pull it up within his memory banks to relive the experience.
Netto wouldn’t be here otherwise. Stryker would fight to the death and give up everything to be with Norah, and Netto wasn’t about to get in the way of that. He always had a soft spot for true love. One more mission from the EPED wasn’t much to ask of him.
“That scientist of his better be worth it.”
“She is,” Netto said.
The beach was below them now, and the ship slowed and turned to follow the coast. It would take them approximately fourteen minutes to get to their destination and land.
“Someone would have to come here, regardless of what happened to Stryker,” Netto continued. It was the most he had spoken at one time today. He threaded his tongue back through his teeth.
“Yeah, I know. I just don’t see why they needed to send two Cyborgs when a simple man could do this job.”
The wood and metal structures of the Montihan’s homestead were now in sight. A large, ranch-style house sat on a bluff over the ocean that led out to another dozen or so buildings. A translucent silver laser barricade surrounded the entire premise. The security measure was not only deadly, but beautiful. It didn’t take away from the aesthetic of the settlement but instead added an almost indiscernible sparkle.
It was expensive. The Montihans screamed money.
He hated what money did to men. It made them powerful when they should be weak; it made them paranoid when they should be trusting. It made peaceful situations volatile.
Puffs of smoke plumed out from a large building, a half-mile up from the house. It was built on the beach with its own separate pier and gate.
The factory. The reason why we’re here.
A woman’s voice came through the ship’s feed; Zeph opened up the call to their EPED contact.
“What’s the status?” she asked without pleasantries. Netto recognized Mia’s soft flutter and tone. She had a beautiful, vulnerable voice that emphasized her callous, hard-working nature. No one expected a bitch...until she turned into a bitch. Usually, that happened pretty quickly.
“We made it to Kepler. We’re about to land.”
“Good to know. Is Netto still with you?”
“Yes,” Netto answered for himself.
“Great. I’ll put that down. Remember to negotiate with the Montihans. This request couldn’t have come at a better time. He needs what we have, we need what he has. Do what it takes.”
“Roger that. No one can deny my bartering skills, babe, not even you,” Zeph’s voice dripped innuendo and sex-appeal.
Something I can’t do, and something I don’t have. Netto mused quietly.
“You know my price, Zeph. It won’t change no matter how suave you are. Don’t let Netto interfere,” her voice went hard and Netto knew she addressed him now. “You’re the muscle, Shark. Stand there and watch, record, and intimidate. Intimidate your blue ass off and keep your mouth shut.”
“Babe, his teeth are the most intimidating thing about my main man,” Zeph quipped and feigned a laugh. He shot him a look, dark and knowing, but Netto didn’t respond. “Anything else, Mia? We’re landing now.”
“No, but keep me updated. We’re getting pressure from above and they’re going to want answers before we have answers to give.”
The ship slowed further until it hovered over the zone outside the homestead. Already several people were emerging from the barricade to greet them.
Netto didn’t care for it.
“Until next time, sweetie. We’ll send you an update tonight.”
“The two of you be careful out there,” Mia rushed to say.
The audio shut off. The ship lowered to the ground. “Always are,” Zeph muttered under his breath.
“Hmm.”
They landed with silken ease. For all of Zeph’s crassness, Netto always appreciated a good pilot.
They stood up in unison and judged their flight suits sufficient for the meeting. The EPED logo, Earthian Planetary Exploration Division, was branded over the right side of their chests. It wasn’t armor, it couldn’t stop a bullet or the sharp edge of a knife, but it was diplomatic and formal.
They passed the ship’s androids on their way through the empty menagerie and lab. Zeph had two that were of different models to maintain basic systems when he had no crew.
Their current mission wasn’t deemed crew-worthy for two reasons: it wasn’t a monster hunt, and because he, Netto, was onboard.
Netto lightened his steps, reconfiguring his internal mech to account for the shift in gravity and his size but it didn’t help...and never would. He was a noisy Cyborg, to the dismay of his brethren, but he still had his uses. He had advantages that many of the others did not.
“Get any atmospheric readings? I have to adjust my weight to balance and air intake,” Zeph asked over his shoulder. His partner strapped a single pistol to his hip before walking over to the gate panel. A holographic screen lit up before them. “Never been to Kepler.”
“I have. Once.”
Netto peered over the numbers on the screen. It relayed everything from the current temperature, weather patterns, percentage of oxygen and hydrogen in the air, and how many life forms were outside the ship. Eight humans, zero Trentians, and an array of creatures.
His eyes remained on the number of humans. Too many. Hundreds of stored images came to mind of all the human interactions he had, dating back through his monster hunting career, rebuilding after the war, and of the war itself.
There weren’t many pleasant memories and the long, awkward stares, quiet and judgmental, were the worst, right after the terrified children unlucky enough to encounter him, and the women who had flinched away.
Netto shut out the images. Zeph was typing in security codes when he looked up.
“I’ve been in Kepler’s oceans,” he added.
“When?”
“After the war.”
“Why?”
“To help set up the oceanic tech.”
The ship hummed and adjusted to the new protocols. “You should’ve told me before,” Zeph muttered with a twitch to his lip. “Happen to know the Montihans?”
“One. A man.”
“And? Netto, I swear to old-tech, stop making me ask a thousand questions. Fucking elaborate.”
Netto grunted. “He was young, Montihan, an ex-soldier who was done with war. He was one of several dozen men and women who chose to leave Earth and help colonize Kepler.”
“Got that all in the background check. Will he know who you are?”
“I don’t know,” Netto answered truthfully. It wasn’t his mission to know the settlers nor the settlers to know him.
Zeph pressed his hand to a screen next to the latch. “Let’s get this over with then.”
He concurred as the metal doors slid into the walls of the ship, revealing a world he though
t he would never visit again. Several humans stood a distance away and came forward as he and Zeph descended the steps.
Netto scanned their faces as they approached; some tensed, others flinched, there was a slight gasp, and a myriad of hard swallows and gulps down uneasy throats.
He knew what his kind looked like, each Cyborg intimidating on his own, but together they were frightening, large, and imposing. Always ready for war. Always ready to defend.
And always expecting to kill.
Metal encased in muscle, covered in black suits, heavy boots, and far too dangerous looking to be mere men.
They were Cyborgs after all, and that was difficult to hide from the general population. Some could, but not him nor Zeph whose eyes were a bright lime green.
Netto clenched his teeth together, already over this mission. It didn’t help that the smell of sweat permeated the air, mixed with ship exhaust and strange wildlife. There’s nothing like the smell of human sweat.
An older woman approached, her lips curved up in a delicate smile. It wasn’t forced. It threw him off-guard.
“I’m so glad you could come!” she beamed and stopped before them, looking up at their faces. “My name is Sheryl Montihan. We’ve been expecting you.”
Zeph bent forward and took the woman’s hand, placing an easy kiss to the back. “Thank you for having us, Mrs. Montihan. My name is Zeph and this is my partner, Netto.”
He waved his hand in Netto’s direction. The older woman nodded her head.
“We’re here on behalf of your husband’s request. Is he nearby? Once our business with him is settled we can be out of your hair.”
“Nonsense, you’re not in my hair at all! I haven’t seen one of your kind since I was a young’un. You saved so many of my kindred’s lives, my family and I will forever be in your debt. Our home is your home. Come this way,” she preened and, in a gait that suggested strength beneath her clothes, ushered them toward the large house on the bluff.
Netto hated every step he took away from the sanctuary of the spaceship; he hated every step he took toward human civilization. He ignored the eyes of the few people who had stopped their work to come out and gawk.
Zeph was on Sheryl’s heels, complimenting her in any way that he could. Netto split his tongue over a razor-sharp tooth.
“Quinten is on his way back from the lots,” she called out behind her. “I’m making a feast tonight. I got some Kepler-grown potatoes in the crock,” Sheryl continued regardless of his misgivings, saying the things he didn’t want to hear. “We’ll discuss over dinner.”
His face, his body, every calculated movement Netto made and every step he took appeared uncaring and emotionless. Until he wore the facade of a man who was cold, uninterested, and intimidating.
If they were afraid of you, they didn’t talk to you.
Netto followed her into the estate, meeting the eyes of a windblown child. She dropped the rocks she was throwing into the sea and stared.
Chapter Three
Rylie watched her da duck through the watership and out onto the deck.
She remained behind and programmed the cleaner bots to sanitize the ship. Her bare feet twitched and she rocked back and forth on her soles as she followed the bots’ movements with her eyes, delaying the inevitable and gathering the courage she needed to leave the quiet shell of the ship.
Who did he invite? It gnawed at her thoughts. Not Charlene...so not one of the local farmers. Maybe the manufacturers from the port? No, Rylie decided, a manufacturer wouldn’t suggest secrecy.
The law enforcement? She mulled it over.
What if he’s trying to find me a seed donor? Her eyes widened in horror. It wouldn’t be the first time he had tried to pair her with a local soldier or official, or one of her educational teachers. Da was fixated on growing a large family to rule Kepler like a Rockefeller. Rylie dug her nails into her palm.
She didn’t have an aversion to men. She just didn’t see their usefulness when her world revolved around the farm. What could a partner give her that a hired worker couldn’t?
She stepped from the watership and its glass gate closed behind her.
Janet can have them. And her sister had known all the men, and then some. Rylie found no appeal in a partner who had lain with her sister. She traversed the steps, stopping briefly to hose the sand off her feet.
She was at the top of the bluff before she knew it, and her nose filled with the escaped aroma of one of her ma’s elaborate dinners.
That’s when she saw the giant spaceship beyond her house.
Rylie took a step back before she caught herself. Oh no...
She gaped. It’s worse. So much worse. She would take a seed donor over what rose up before her. The government.
Rylie side-stepped her house until the ship that sat in the landing yard was unobstructed. All she could make out was power, overwhelming power, and it was almost too much for her. It screamed of affairs that she didn’t know. It was a stark contrast to her quiet life on a planet that she already thought had too many humans.
She licked her chapped lips and weighed the Earthian ship against what she expected inside her dining room: stodgy men and women, decked in uniforms, who had no right being in the wilds of Kepler. Rylie glanced at the large windows of her house and the glint of fractured light from within.
There was movement inside, shadows that crossed the depths of the house, but the people were obscured from the angle at which she stood.
“Rylie!” Janet’s voice screeched out of nowhere. “We’re waiting for you!”
Rylie sighed and made her way through the yard and into the shadow of her home until she stood before her sister.
Janet let her through with a smirk.
“Why are there officials here?” Rylie asked as she passed her by and entered the washroom. Her eyes landed on Da’s discarded clothes in the corner. “Please tell me it has nothing to do with me.”
“I don’t know. Ma won’t say a thing but she’s acting way too sweet to be deceitful.” Janet’s small smile faded and her voice lowered. “The men who are here... They’re, well, they’re from the EPED.”
Rylie stopped undressing. Her throat closed up and she parted her lips to say something, but no words came out. The EPED had structured Kepler into the habitable planet it was today. Her parents had worked extensively with them before she was born, and still did by selling them a portion of their stones each year.
The EPED never returned to a planet that was already settled. Never.
Not unless it has to be re-settled.
Janet met her eyes in the mirror. “I think they’re here about the crops,” she said.
Or because of a disaster. A plague. The loss of countless lives from something native. She kept her thoughts to herself.
Rylie looked away and quickly stripped out of her t-shirt and water-suit, not bothering to wash the ocean off her skin, and pulled on fresh clothes that Janet tossed at her.
“It can’t be good,” Rylie mustered as she shook her head and her hair fell out of its band and around her shoulders.
“That bad? I was hoping...”
“We only visited three jetties down south, all the stones were cloudy. Yours were too, then?”
Janet held the same job as she did, but had taken a liking to managing the homestead with their mother. She never went out as far as Rylie and the other workers. Her sister was as much of a people person as Rylie was a loner.
“No better. Da didn’t react.”
“He’s still in denial.”
“I can tell. I’m sorry, Rylie...”
“Why’re you sorry?” Rylie knew she wasn’t going to like whatever Janet had to say next...what she was apologizing for.
“There’s only two of them,” Janet said.
“Two officials? That’s a good thing isn’t it?” It can’t be that bad. Some of her anxiety lifted. Some. Maybe it is just about the crops. “I don’t understand why you’re sorry. I expected a dozen or more based
on the ship I saw outside.” She stepped out of the washroom no cleaner, but presentable.
“Cyborgs.”
Rylie stopped.
“What?”
“The two here are Cyborgs.” Janet let out a short laugh. “They’re intimidating, that’s why I’m sorry. But can you believe it? We never had a Cyborg in the house, let alone two of them. Remember how Da used to tell us stories about them? Heroes, we have war heroes in the house!” She shook with excitement. “I could fuck a hero!”
Why would Cyborgs be here?
Her sister’s humor didn’t make Rylie feel better. And her disbelief was thrown out the window when Janet gripped her arm and pulled her into the house. Everything she had previously guessed turned to dust.
“One of them is very attractive,” Janet continued as Rylie dragged her feet.
“Stop!” she yanked her arm out of her sister’s grip. She needed to temper the excitement that radiated from Janet. “You can’t treat them like the men here. You’ll get yourself hurt,” she pleaded, snapping her fingers in front of Janet’s face. “The stories also mentioned how dangerous they are. They’re killers, mechanical killers. Don’t tempt one, please. Promise me.”
Rylie noticed how dressed up Janet was then, hair piled atop her head and gloss on her lips. She whiffed and her nose wasn’t filled with salt water and sunscreen but lavender, cloying lavender from Earth.
“Who do you think I am? I’m not a fucking slut,” Janet hissed.
“Then what’s with the perfume?”
“None of your god damned business.”
Janet turned toward the closed door that led to the kitchen, her hand stopping at the handle.
“Don’t make us look like fools.” She was through the door in the next second. Rylie sucked in her stomach, her back going straight.
The smell of lavender vanished under the wafts of food that came through. The sound of Janet’s receding steps and several unknown voices inundated her.
What’s Da hiding? She knew the only way she would get answers was to join the dinner party. And in that moment she hated Quinten Montihan with every anxious fiber of her being. Rylie gritted her teeth and went through the door.