by Cathryn Cade
“Just gave her a little tranq, along with the gesic. She'll feel better when she wakes up,” the Occulan said cheerfully.
* * *
The third time she woke up, Ilya was pissed. She opened her eyes and glared at the Occulan leaning over her. “You get away from me. No more of your damn tranqs, understand?”
He chuckled. “Told you she'd feel better.”
Ilya turned her head. VX sat on the bed beside her. He looked rested, his color back, his skin clean and flushed with health. And he smelled incredible—acres of clean, healthy male, clothed in a pair of soft gray pants and a black singlet.
“Hey,” she breathed.
His wide mouth curved up on one side, and his eyes crinkled warmly. “Hey.”
Ilya jerked as if she'd been prodded with a shocker. She sat up, drew her knees under her and moved into the angle of his hip and outstretched arm. Adrenaline thrilling through her, her heart racing, she lifted her hands to his face. Clasping the flare of his jaw, she turned him to face the light. The light glinted off his mask, his tanned, taut skin and into his eyes.
His deep brown eyes. That she could've sworn a moment ago were another hue entirely.
She shook her head, bewildered. “No ... I could've sworn—I saw it, know I did.”
He stared dumbly at her, and Ilya wanted to shake him, hard, until he was as rattled and confused as she. She flung her hands away from him and dropped back on her heels, rubbing her eyes with the pads of her fingers.
“Never mind. I'm rezzed,” she mumbled. “Just the meds, that's all.”
His hand settled on her back, heat and strength soaking through her thin top. His hand moved, the fabric sliding over her skin like cream. Ilya opened her eyes and grimaced at the medtech, who was watching her with all his eyestalks.
“What did you see?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing. Just ... he reminds me of someone I used to know, that's all.” Her hands fisted in her lap. “Someone who died here.”
Looking down, with VX's hand on her back, Ilya didn't notice Stitch's eyestalks blink several times, and then droop, most of them closing in a prolonged wince as he turned away.
VX leaned close, his heat comforting, a wordless rumble in his chest as he continued to massage her back. Ilya sagged into him, taking inexplicable comfort in his embrace. That was rezzed too, but so was everything else in her world right now.
So she'd take her comfort where she could get it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ilya rested for another several hours, because Bek, Playa and Stitch ganged up on her.
But after another meal, she was done with rest and recuperation. She had things to do—they all did. Important shit that would not wait.
She linked Bek to let him know she was ready to work, and Playa, who seemed an integral part of the planning, even if she was only an assistant. After watching her handle VX, Ilya was slammed upside the head with the realization there was a lot more to the sweet, serious woman in the hoverchair than she'd first assumed.
Come to think of it, Playa had been 'handling' her from the start. Unease niggled at Ilya, wondering if Playa had been using her Indigon powers to calm her. They were gonna have to have a talk about that.
Bek arrived shortly, Playa at his side. Playa took one look at Ilya’s face and seemed to brace herself.
“You have questions for me,” the woman stated baldly, her blue eyes dark, her soft mouth tight.
“Just one,” Ilya said. “And I’m guessing you know what it is.” Her voice was still hoarse, and Stitch had told her it would be for several days, maybe weeks, until her damaged vocal chords healed.
“Right. No, I haven’t used any mind-control or persuasion on you. Nor will I.”
Ilya studied her, then nodded. “Okay. Fair enough. And thank you for saving VX and me. Maybe sometime you’ll tell me what someone with powers like yours is doing hiding out on this flash bucket … but for now, we’ve other things to do.”
Playa nodded back, although she still looked wary, like she was waiting for Ilya to hit her with the bad news.
Ilya shook her head and looked to Bek. “Need you to show me the schematics—the complete ones this time, including the cyborg quarters and wherever it is they fight. And where this Dr. Blu hides out.”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. It’s time.”
When Ilya's comlink chimed a while later, she started.
Bek had shown her the holovids schematics for the space station, while she tried to wrap her head around the fact that there existed here a whole labyrinth of hidden passageways, quarters and labs, not to mention the big, quarking auditorium in the middle of the station. Well, not precisely the middle—the hidden areas took up a quadrant that was opposite the main casino, though much smaller. The other rooms were beneath the huge space.
She tore her gaze from the schematics to a smaller holovid that shimmered to one side, one of the uniformed minions eying her cautiously.
“Yeah? What is it?” she asked.
“Ma'am,” the minion said. This one looked familiar. Juan? Naj? Juno? Jimbo?
He rolled his large, expressive eyes to one side and back to Ilya. “You have visitors.”
The holovid split to include a view of one of the docking bays, and the Solar Wars surplus cruiser docked there. A group of beings stood beside it, gazing around them with varying degrees of fascination and impatience. A tall female with a shock of short auburn curls, a man at her side with messy brown hair and a sharp, clever face. A slim, pretty man with wide, excited gaze and at his shoulder a dark, bulky man with a suspicious scowl. A lean, tanned man with long, wavy blond hair, thumbs hooked in his belt.
“Oh, hells,” she muttered.
“What is it?” Bek asked, rising with a hand to his weapon and eyes on the holovid.
“Nothing much,” Ilya drawled. “Just a bunch of worthless pirates, looking for trouble.”
Since she'd cued her com to go through, the group heard and saw her. Orson scowled. At his side, Dano waved excitedly, jumping up a little onto his toes. Haro gave her an insouciant salute, and Qala cocked her head as if to say 'Really?'
Ryder smirked, arms crossed over his chest. “You gonna invite us in, or just sit there in that throne? Could use a cold ale.”
“Or three,” Haro added.
“You're here, you may as well come in,” Ilya shot back, but she was smiling, an unfamiliar feeling lightening in her middle. “Bring them up to the executive level, Naj. You all can get rooms, then meet me in my quarters.”
An hour later, she was rethinking her open invitation. Her friends lounged around the spacious office, drinks in hand, hovertrays of delicacies floating at their elbows.
They'd been filled in on the events of the past week—or most of them. Ilya was not sharing her intimate encounters with VX with anyone, although she was certain Playa and Bek had figured it out. Now her friends were sharing their reactions, colorfully and at length.
“So this 'borg attacked you,” Qala said, scowling. “Because this Indigon scientist—or whatever he is—wants to get rid of you? That's rezzed. We need to call the IGSF back here. And how come they didn't get rid of this slimer when they were out here?”
“We don't need the epaulets,” Haro said, not a little scorn in his voice. “They just march around, make up more rules and then leave without fixing anything.”
“He's right,” Ryder agreed, punctuating his words by waving the remains of his fourth sandwich. “Though I am surprised they couldn't find and rout a whole enclave of 'borgs while they were here.”
They all looked to Bek, whose face darkened under his close cropped hair. “The situation was—and still is—complicated.”
“He means that there were risks inherent in exposing the cyborg program,” Playa said. “If we had told the IGSF commander of their existence, they might have been harmed, even imprisoned.”
“Or Blu may have deployed the cyborgs to harm others,” Bek added. “We couldn't r
isk that.” He gave them all a searing look. “And I won't countenance any of you starting anything that will risk that, either. My guards are armed as heavily as you are, and they know this station.”
“The 'borgs are dangerous now,” Qala pointed out. “One of 'em damn near did for Ilya.”
“Right. He tried to kill her!” Dano cried. “If that isn't dangerous, I don't know what is.”
Bek shifted, and cleared his throat. “VX wasn't trying to kill you,” he told Ilya. “I mean, I'm certain those weren't his orders.”
“Sure as hells felt like it to me.” She put a hand to her throat, which was still sore.
He shook his head. “Ma'am, if he'd intended to kill you, you would've been dead with one move.” He held up his own hands, and mimed snapping someone's neck.
“Ugh!” Dano shivered, hanging onto Orson.
Ilya stared, sickness surging in her gut. VX' hands were twice the size of Bek's. Which meant the guard captain was right. VX could've snapped her neck like a crisp veg. The only surprise really, was that maddened as he'd been with pain and his handler's insistence that Ilya was to blame for his punishment, that he hadn't done so.
“You're lucky to be alive,” Qala said quietly.
Ilya managed a nod, but reliving the terror of the attack, she wasn't so sure. She wasn't sure of much anymore.
“But why attack me, if not to get rid of me?”
Bek gave her an odd look, and then looked to Playa. She gave him back wide eyes and said nothing.
Ryder snorted. “Bet I know why.” He drained his ale and smirked at Ilya. “'Cause he knew it would send you into a berserker rage, ready to annihilate any being in your path. Kinda the way you were after Var was killed.”
He let that blow land, and then went on. “And if there was anyone out here you hadn't already pissed off to the point they wouldn't cooperate with any play you made, with a new, even bigger rage on, you'd finish the job of alienating them all. Then this Blu comes forward as the voice of reason, the one trying to help them all keep their jobs, keep this huge credit vac running. They all side with him.”
The pirate lifted his arms wide and looked at Playa for affirmation. “How'm I doing so far? Eh? Am I right, or am I right?”
Ilya's face burned. She crossed her arms and waited for her team to refute the pirate's words. But Bek merely set his jaw and eyed her like a flashbomb ready to spark. Playa gazed at her hands twisted in her lap.
Ilya blew out a hard breath. Okay then. Seemed like it was unanimous—everyone thought she was a rezzed fool, easily manipulated as a child.
“Hold on, this isn't all bad,” Haro said. He tipped his head to catch Ilya's gaze. “Use what he's given you—an opportunity. He expects you to blow, let him think you're playing it his way, then—” He snapped his fingers. “We surprise him. Total ambush.”
“We?” she repeated, raising a brow.
He grinned at her. “Well, yeah. We're still a team, aren't we?”
She looked from one face to another, and found the same look on all of them—eager, and hungry as a pack of catamounts scenting fresh meat. Ready to rumble. Even Dano was nodding at her. Warmth spread inside her, dispelling her shame. “Yeah,” she said gruffly. “We're a team.”
“Great,” Ryder approved. “What say we start by—”
Then air whooshed quietly behind her, signaling the opening of the passage, and the atmosphere in the big room went electric.
Ilya knew without looking that VX had arrived. She tensed, waiting for fear to grip her in its chill, sweaty grasp ... but strangely, it did not come.
Instead, when she turned to look at him, she saw a man, a being who was every bit as much a victim as she'd been in his mighty grasp. He was garbed simply in dark fitted pants and shirt, although he wore his half-mask, so he looked every inch the warrior he was.
But the rezzed ferocity that had burned from him during his attack on her, was gone. Instead he was inspecting her intently, as if cataloging every nuance of her expression, making sure she was all right.
Relief swept through her, leaving her almost dizzy in its wake, and her heart swelled. She couldn't have borne it to have to cringe from him in fear any longer. She gave him a small smile, letting him know she was fine, and he relaxed just enough she noticed it.
“Everyone, meet VX,” she said.
Her friends were all gaping.
“What ... the ... quark, Ilya?” Haro said at last. “You miss Var, so you had them whip you up a new one? Var-point-2?”
“Hey,” Ilya called sharply. “He has ears, y'know.”
“So what, he's just a bot with skin,” Haro sneered. His slur made Ilya glad she hadn't told them VX's full title. Adding the 900 made him sound even more like a manufactured being—or even a clone. Everyone had heard of the disastrous attempts by the Quark O'gren to clone soldiers during the Solar Wars.
A low rumble issued from VX's chest. She held up a hand to stay him.
“He's not a bot, he's human,” she snapped at Haro. “If you lost an arm or a leg, and got a new one, or even a cybernetic eye like Logan Stark, would you let folks call you a bot, a crusher or a metalhead? I doubt it. VX's new parts just happen to be in his skull.”
“Cyborg,” Qala murmured.
“Well, it's just ... he looks an awful lot like Var, honey,” Dano said hesitantly.
“Yeah, so? Haro resembles a catamount's hind end, doesn't mean he is one,” Ilya snapped.
Qala snickered. “She's gotcha there, hot stuff.”
Haro slid his arm around the redhead and nuzzled her ear. “Harsh talk for a woman who was sucking my cock like a candy stick just this morning.”
Her cheeks flushing, Qala drove her elbow into his ribs. “Shut it, if you ever want me to do it again.”
Ilya barely heard their byplay, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. She wasn't the only one who thought the huge borg resembled Var.
“If you like, I will place that one back on their cruiser and seal the locks,” VX offered, so close behind Ilya she felt his breath on the shell of her ear, his heat at her back.
She quelled a shiver of reaction and smirked at Haro, who was eyeing VX warily. “No, that won't be necessary. Although, I'll keep it in mind if he gets more annoying than usual.”
“Haro specializes in annoying,” Qala said, but her gaze was on VX, and she looked as wary and troubled as the others.
“I heard they had 'borgs out here,” Ryder murmured, eying VX with the admiration he'd give a new weapon or revved-up cruiser. “Fighters. Shit, I'd pay to see him in the pit.”
Qala wrinkled her nose. “In the pit? You mean, like ...”
“Gladiators,” Orson said, his somber gaze on VX. “They fight in hand-to-hand combat with each other, and with creatures from outlying planets. The spectators gamble on the outcome.”
“Righteous,” Haro said, then winced as Qala gave him a look. “I mean—only if they wanna fight, of course.”
“VX doesn't have a choice,” Ilya snapped. “Or he didn't up to now. Playa managed to free him from Blu's clutches.”
Everyone looked to Playa, who cringed as if Ilya had exposed an embarrassing secret. Bek scowled at Ilya too.
“What?” Ilya demanded. “You did a good thing here, Playa. And I hope to hells you can do it again, because there are several more cyborg warriors in that slimer's control, and we need them out, like at light speed.”
“Whoa, you're Indigon,” Haro said to Playa. “Right, should've seen it. Are you as strong as Commander Navos?”
“'Course she's not,” Qala told him. “No other being's as strong as him.”
Ryder snapped his fingers again. “Wait, wait. Knew you looked familiar, little chair-rider. You're the one who was in all the news holovids a few years ago.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Ilya watched in surprise and then dismay as Playa positively cringed, her head down.
“Playa,” Ilya called. “Just remembered. Would you go check on those, uh, financial
s for me?”
“Yes, ma-am.” Without another look at any of them, Playa turned her chair and zipped from the room. Ilya would talk with her later, find out what the big secret was. Long as she hadn't murdered anyone, Ilya didn't much care.
“Yeah, guess that isn't the kinda thing you want your boss to know,” Ryder said. As Bek gave him a scowl, he shrugged. “Doesn't bother me. So, back to the big guy here. Guess he must look like your man, huh, Ilya? Judging by everyone's reactions here.”
Ilya glared at him. The pirate had the all the subtlety of a skrog. “A bit. But his eyes are the wrong color, and ... other stuff.”
“Right,” Qala agreed instantly. “I knew Var—this guy looks nothing like him. Well, not much.”
“Where is he—” Dano began, then bit his lip as VX turned his gaze on him. “Where are you from, ah ... VX?”
“Here,” VX stated.
“How long you been here?” Ryder queried.
Ilya tensed. Shit, why hadn't she thought to ask this question? Maybe because she was afraid to hear the answer.
VX merely shrugged massively. “I don’t know.”
Dano opened his mouth again.
“Enough,” Ilya called. She waved her hand at her friends, ordering—or maybe pleading—them to back off. It was her turn for questions. She turned to VX. “Where've you been?” she asked quietly.
He looked to her. “I rested in Stitch's private quarters. He wanted to ... monitor me.”
“Why aren't you still resting? Your back ...”
His gaze was already moving back to the beings arrayed behind her. “It is nearly healed. He says I am well enough to be active. You are planning something.”
“Yeah.” Ilya snorted. “you could say that. Planning to annihilate the quarker who did that to you.”
“Blu.” VX uttered the name like a foul curse. He drew himself up, his massive muscles tightening, his gaze sharpening even more, jaw like cerametal. “We will fight?”
He strode into the room, scanning the other males. “Give me a weapon,” he demanded.
Ryder straightened, laser appearing in his hand, but aimed at VX. Haro shoved Qala behind him, hand on his own weapon. Orson did the same with Dano, who's eyes were the size of saucers.