by Anna Hackett
Without thinking, Mal raced over to the now unmoving canine robot. She ripped open the control panel.
“Come on. Come on.” She pulled out her tool, found the wires she was looking for and went to work. She cut one, joined another. The canine also had some biological wiring. Thick, sinewy fibers that acted as nerves.
And she saw something else. A small receiver. She looked around. The robot was receiving orders from somewhere. It appeared none of them were as free-thinking as she’d thought. Well, she could put a stop to it receiving any further kill orders from Forge.
She flicked her tool and went to work. “There.”
The lights came back on in the canine’s eyes. This time, they glowed green.
It got to its feet and stood waiting. For her command.
Cool. Mal turned and saw Xander and the other robot straining against each other. They spun in an unsteady turn.
The robot reached out, both hands gripping Xander’s left arm.
Then with a hard yank, it pulled Xander’s entire mechanical arm off.
“Xander!”
Arm gone, Xander staggered backward.
Over the edge of the platform.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Shock made Mal slow.
The massive robot was striding toward her but she couldn’t tear her gaze off the spot where Xander had disappeared.
The canine bumped into her side. She blinked and forced her mind to focus. She looked at the robot dog. “Attack.”
The canine sprung outward, moving fast. It hit the other robot, going for the control panel at the robot’s neck.
Mal circled them, running to the edge of the platform. “Xander.” A broken whisper.
Kneeling, she leaned over the edge to peer into the darkness.
And saw him clinging to the side of the platform with one hand.
“Thank the stars.” She reached down and grabbed his arm.
“Help me up.”
With him doing most of the work, Mal helped drag him back over the edge.
With a swift glance, he noted the battling robots. “You are a genius.”
She tried to smile but staring at the horrible wound where his arm had been ripped away made it impossible. “Oh, Xander.” Shock made her shiver.
He used his good arm to pull her close. “I’m fine. It can be replaced.”
She pulled back. Wiring was exposed and the wound was bleeding. Not much, thankfully. She tore more fabric off the hem of her dress, wadded it up and pressed it to the injury.
“Malin, I need you to seal off the wiring.”
She nodded and pulled out her multi-tool. She pressed her left hand to his firm shoulder and used her right to do the work. It took her a few seconds, and she knew it had to hurt him, but he stayed silent, keeping a wary eye on the robots. She tucked the wiring in.
“All done.”
“Thanks.”
“Any pain?”
“I’ve dampened it.”
There was loud crunch. Mal spun and watched her new friend crush the other robot’s head. The humanoid robot lay still and the canine came over to her and sat. Its green eyes were latched onto Mal.
“Looks like you have a pet,” Xander said dryly.
“It was pretty easy once I got in there. I found the controls, made the changes and he was all mine. There’s some sort of receiver in there.” She glanced around. “I’m guessing all the robots have them, and from some control point, Forge is transmitting orders to them.”
Xander stilled. “Control point?”
“Yes, a central control point with a transmitter…” Oh. My. Stars. Find the point and become the master. “You think this is what the riddle talks about? Find the central control point and become master of all the robots in the maze?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, okay.” She ran a hand through her hopelessly tangled hair. She scanned around. “How the hell do we find it?”
“It’d be emitting a frequency, right?”
She nodded, then she saw something over Xander’s shoulder. Stars help them. “Uh, Xander…”
“What?”
She pointed and he turned his head.
All the robots were traversing across the platforms and bridges. Headed straight for them.
“We’d better find it quickly.” Xander got to his feet, still graceful despite his missing arm. “I can set my scanners to find the right frequency.”
“Great.” She saw the robots getting closer. “Do it. Fast.”
Neon green flared to life in his eyes. “I’ve got it.”
“Can you find the source?”
“Working on it.”
Her canine moved forward, his gaze glued to the approaching robots.
“There.” Xander pointed. Up.
Mal stared up and two platforms over. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Sorry, no.”
There was a long slim pole that rose into the air. A red light blinked at the top.
Looked like she was going climbing.
But first, they had to get there.
***
The dog went first, then Xander. Malin followed behind.
“Stars, I want this over with,” Malin muttered.
Xander agreed with her.
They hurried over a bridge, ignoring it as it swayed. On the first platform, the canine bounded forward and engaged the robot coming at them. They clashed with a clang of metal.
“Come on.” Xander dragged her around the fighting robots.
To get to the transmitter platform there was only a long, slim piece of metal crossing the void.
“I’m going to be sick.”
“No you’re not.” Xander gave her his back. “Jump up. I have good balance. You just hang on.”
With a gulp, she climbed on his back, her arms and legs holding on tight.
Xander moved across the strip of metal, keeping his steps slow and easy, using his enhancements to maintain perfect balance—even while missing an arm and with Malin’s slight weight, but added, weight.
He stepped onto the platform and let Malin down.
“Thank the stars,” she mumbled.
But Xander was looking beyond their platform. At the robots moving quickly toward them.
“Go. Get up there and work your magic.” Xander tugged her close for a quick, hard kiss.
She gave him a nod, then gripped the pole. He helped her jump up and wrap her legs around it. She shot him a narrow glance. “Don’t lose any more limbs, okay?”
“Would you care if I was all mechanical limbs?”
She poked her tongue out. “Dumb question, tough guy.” Then she grinned. “Although there is one appendage of yours I like just the way it is.”
Xander laughed. Jesus, here they were, robots bearing down on them to kill and he was laughing. Malin Phoenix brought out the best in him.
With another saucy smile, she shimmied up the pole, hampered a little by her sore foot. But she didn’t let it stop her. Xander turned to face the oncoming attackers.
He’d already adjusted his balance due to his missing arm. He focused on the first of the robots coming at him, analyzed them for weak points.
He hit, ripped and kicked. He kept his moves smooth and powerful. Malin’s canine moved in beside him, working in sync.
But the robots kept coming.
He risked a glance upward. Malin was hunched over the top of the pole, working with her multi-tool. He heard her not-so-quiet curses over the din of the fight.
Something slammed into his side. He gripped the robot, ducked low and punched his hand through its abdomen. It stuttered, the light behind its eye slit flickering, then it slumped over.
Malin cried out.
Xander risked a quick glance over. She was shaking her hand before she stuck a finger in her mouth. “Okay?”
“Fine.” She waved. “Electrical burn. Nothing to worry about.”
He blocked a swing by another robot. He thrust the robot back and spun to kic
k the midsection of another coming from the side. A third was rushing him like a VelocityBall player but a big metallic body flew in front of him and took the robot down.
Damn, the dog was good to have around.
He looked up again and his heart stopped. “Malin!”
A small monkey-like robot was scurrying up the pole. Its metal tail waved around as it used it to balance its ascent.
Malin looked down and her eyes widened. The robot opened its mouth…baring a mouthful of needle-like teeth.
Malin lifted one leg away from the pole and kicked the robot in the face.
It clung on and tried to bite her.
And she was barefoot.
Xander was so focused on her he missed the next attacker coming at him.
He was slammed so hard to the ground, his head smacked into the metal floor. Stars flickered in his eyes. A huge piston-like fist appeared in his vision and Xander jammed his arm up to stop it landing in his face.
Then it became a battle of strength. He put all his enhanced power behind his shove. The robot moved an inch, but it had the luxury of gravity working with it.
Malin cried out again. Xander risked a glance her way. Damn it! The monkey was clamped onto her leg and she was kicking like crazy trying to dislodge it. Xander saw blood dripping down her slim calf.
Fury roared through him.
Another wild shove and he sent his robot flying backward. Xander leaped to his feet, just in time to see Malin whack the monkey robot over the head with her multi-tool.
It lost its grip and fell backward, twisting like an angry cat in the air, before it sailed over the platform and into the abyss below.
After a shaky breath, Malin went back to work.
Xander looked away and his jaw went rigid.
More robots were pouring in. More than he and the canine could fight off.
He let his mind cool. Focus on the fight. On protecting his woman. It was all he could do.
He fought. With everything he had. But for each robot he damaged or destroyed, three more replaced it.
Xander went down under the onslaught. He felt something sharp pierce his side and pain burned through him.
Malin. She was his first and last thought.
Something slammed into his chest, forcing the air out of his lungs. More robots filled his vision, their red glowing eyes on him.
Then suddenly they all froze.
He blinked away the sweat and blood stinging his eyes. In the next moment, all the glowing red eyes went blank, then green bled into them. The robots moved off him and stood quietly at attention.
Malin dropped off the pole beside him. “Just call me goddess of all things mechanical.”
He picked her up and slammed his mouth down on hers. When she kissed him back, her tongue sliding along his, he felt something loosen inside him. “Does that include me?”
She slapped his shoulder. “I like your mechanical bits just fine, but I also like your human parts.” Her face turned serious. “You are nothing like these.” She nodded at the robots. “You are more than just a weapon, a machine or your enhancements, Xander, regardless of what those idiots in Centax Security made you think.”
Her fierce defense made him smile again. “You burned your hand.”
Her eyebrows rose. “This?” She held up a reddened finger. “Meanwhile you’re bleeding.”
Xander glanced at his side without much interest. His diagnostic scan told him it wasn’t anything to worry about. He leaned forward and sucked Malin’s finger into his mouth.
Her amethyst eyes darkened. “Xander.”
“Let’s finish this and get out of here.”
“Best thing I’ve heard all day.” She unwrapped her legs and let them hit the ground.
Together, with the canine by their side, they passed all the now-silent and unmoving robots.
“They’re a bit freaky,” Malin said. “But not you, Krypto.” She patted the canine on the head.
“Krypto?”
“Yeah. I heard it mentioned once in an old Earth story. Thought it suited him.”
They crossed the first bridge and made their way to the center platform.
They stopped a meter from the altar.
From the Antikythera.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“It’s beautiful.” Mal stared at the twisted, corroded artifact. “Not in a flowers or rainbows kind of way. It’s interesting, unique, special.”
It was also a symbol of so much more. For a planet, it was a symbol of everything they valued. For Forge, it was something to acquire and inflict harm with.
“Yes, it is.” Xander’s voice was subdued and maybe a little awed. “I’ve learned a lot about true beauty on this journey.”
She turned and saw he was looking at her. Sweet scrap, he made her knees go weak. “Go get it, tough guy.”
She watched him lift the mechanism with exquisite care.
There was a flicker of light on the other side of the altar. Mal tensed and watched as a hologram of Forge appeared.
“You beat my maze.” His voice was colored with shock.
“You’re damn right we did you crazy fuck,” Mal spat.
“You beat it. All of it.”
He looked like someone had whacked him over the head with a sonic hammer.
“You will honor your agreement,” Xander said darkly. “We beat the maze. The Antikythera is ours.”
Another flash of light and they were caught in a teletransportation beam.
As they reappeared in the teletransportation room. Mal took a second to find her balance. Xander was beside her and surprisingly, so was Krypto.
Forge was the only one in the room, no obedient servants at the console. He stared at them before his gaze moved to the mechanism. “It’s so perfect. I can’t let it go.” He drew a small energy pistol from his pocket.
Time slowed for Mal. She saw Forge aim the pistol at Xander. He was the Technomancer, he’d know all the points where a Centaxian cyborg was vulnerable.
Then, many things happened all at once.
Mal shoved forward. The pistol fired. Xander shouted. The teletrans beam flashed. A big body knocked Mal sideways.
She slammed into the floor, her temple hitting the ground. Dark splotches crowded her vision. She had to be hallucinating because she was certain she could hear Dathan swearing.
“Malin!” Xander used his good arm to help her sit up. His fingers probed her head. “How many fingers?”
She looked at his long lean fingers. “Eleven.”
“Very funny.” He shoved his face in close to hers. “What were you thinking leaping in front of me like that?”
She gingerly touched the tender spot on her scalp. “That I really didn’t want you to die.”
The fight drained out of him, his face softened. “Same for me, Malin. That’s why I—” his voice broke and he cleared his throat “—I do not like watching you leap in front weapons.”
She patted her chest and stomach. “I don’t seem to have an energy burn.”
“Because your new dog is even more crazy than you are.”
She looked over her shoulder and saw Krypto sitting beside her, a laser burn etched on his armored paneling. “Good robot dog.”
“You two okay?”
Mal blinked and stared up at Niklas. Behind him, Dathan stood, one hand propped against the wall and a pistol trained on Forge, who was kneeling on the ground. “I thought I imagined hearing Dathan’s creative cursing.”
A small smile crossed Nik’s mouth. “Apparently teletransportation doesn’t agree with him.”
“I still feel like I’m going to toss up my dinner,” Dathan grumbled.
Forge moved, his gaze skittering around the room.
Dathan narrowed his eyes at the Technomancer. “Don’t move. And remember, you crazy asshole, you’re in the line of fire if my dinner does reappear.”
Niklas crouched in front of Mal and Xander. “You guys look terrible.” His gaze skimmed Mal’s torn dre
ss and bleeding calf and feet, then Xander’s missing arm.
Mal leaned her head against Xander’s chest. Now that they were safe, exhaustion slammed into her. “You try and beat a crazy man’s technomaze filled with robots out to kill you and see how you come out of it.”
“Point taken.”
Mal tipped her head back to her cyborg. “Hey, where’s the Antikythera?”
A strange look passed over Xander’s face.
“What?” she said.
“I…dropped it.”
Dropped it? Mal looked around and spotted the priceless artifact on its side under the computer console.
Xander blinked slowly. “When Forge fired and you leaped, I didn’t even think about it.”
Mal’s chest was caught in a vice. In such a short time, he’d melted everything inside her. How could she ever have thought what she’d felt before him had been anything close to love?
How would she survive when he walked away from her?
“I’ve got it.” Nik scooped it up. “Thank the stars for its protective casing.” He lifted it to eye level. “Extraordinary.”
Mal felt another wave of exhaustion flow over her. “Can we please go now?”
“Yes.” Xander helped her to her feet.
“What do you want to do about him?” Dathan motioned with the gun at Forge.
The man’s head stayed down, staring at the floor.
“Nothing.” Mal said. “I very much doubt after this fiasco anyone will accept any more invitations from the Technomancer.” And she’d pass the word around to make sure. “I say we leave him here. All alone.” She stepped closer, until he looked up at her. “You destroyed the one person I think truly cared about you. You want to be alone with only your metal creations as company, so be it.” She turned away, and grabbed Xander’s hand. “Let’s go. I’ve had enough of this rogue planet.” Then she motioned for Krypto to follow her and looked back over her shoulder. “Oh, and I’m taking the dog.”
***
Xander sat in the medical alcove on the Infinitas, enjoying watching Malin fuss over him as she worked on reattaching a temporary mechanical arm she’d found aboard. She muttered to herself, grunted occasionally, apologized when she thought she’d hurt him. When she caught her tongue between her teeth as she concentrated, Xander’s cock had turned hard as space rock.