Redx

by Jessie Rose Case

  They reached the refectory and RedX pushed through the doors. Brent held back for a moment checking it out and followed him through. RedX headed for the queue forming by the food counter. Brent stepped in behind him. Grabbing two trays he passed one to him as he looked eagerly down the line. “How does this work,” he whispered to RedX.

  “You go to the front as you pass the items you want you put them on your tray.”

  The boy frowned. “How do you pay for it?”

  “We don’t, the Empire does and you’re with me.”

  “I can have anything?” Brent asked.

  “As long as its balanced yeah. Not all the sweet stuff got it?”

  Brent was beaming and nodding hot footing it from side to side. “Got it.”

  “And while I’m here, you find me for meals or come in here yourself and mark it up to me.”

  Brent looked up at him warily. “What’s it going to cost me?”

  He wasn’t surprised to hear the question. “Information. You’re my inside man got it?”

  Brent grabbed his tray happily as the queue moved on. “Got it.”

  RedX suppressed the smile that threatened to break free across his face at the boys enthusiasm. When was the last time he’d felt like that? His optic gave him the precise moment from his data banks. A very long time ago while he was on his first mission. Then everything changed. It was a data driven response. Not emotional. Factual. That first mission with his emotions and pain receptors turned on had been difficult for a new Cyborg in combat. He was expected to over come it. His system started to shut down due to the shock of battle. Saving him required his emotions and pain receptors to be turned off. So they had. He was too new to lose and good at his job.

  He pushed the memories away as he moved up the line grabbing a few items and placing them on his tray and Brents. From the edge of his vision he saw Brent doing the same with all his enthusiasm. RedX decided then and there, he needed to see this world Brent spoke of. Maybe he would find more of the answers he needed. First the female now the youth. Both not unusual in places humans existed but, his sensors told him this was important to him.

  ***

  Jamie woke starving. Showering quickly, she’d changed into her work gear and raided her replicator. Her need for coda was high. Coffee was out of the question on her world, for her anyway. Some people raved about it in some circles and there was trade but not in hers. Kurt refused to sell it, said it was ‘addictive’. She didn’t know if it was or not but plenty of people paid good credits to buy it. But, she didn’t miss what she’d never had. Throwing her used items into the recycling she headed out the door to the bar. She didn’t live in the smartest part of town but that was ok. What she’d saved on rent, had helped her to buy into the bar and that was her lifeline now.

  Did she regret it? Hell no. You could do a lot with a scrubbing brush, XO and some water and cheap clean paint went a long way. Compared to before she got to work, it was 5 star. Seeing the back door open she stopped looking around. Kurt knew better than to leave it unlocked. He was either dealing with something which would be unusual at this time of day or they had trouble. She moved slowly, quietly towards it. Skimmed the building and stopped. She could hear voices. Unable to make it out she moved closer. What sounded like a case of booze smashed. That didn’t sound good. Kurt cried out, mouthing off. What he said told her everything she needed to know. They were being shafted!

  She thought she recognised a couple of the voices. She counted four as they moved further away into the bar area. That was good. Kurt kept a couple of weapons in the storeroom. If she could get her hands on them, she’d give them a nice surprise. Keeping low, she checked the doorway and edged closer. They were all in the bar, no one looking her way. Fuckers, the four from the other night. How the hell they’d got out of lock up she didn’t know but she’d be asking! She guessed they all thought Kurt was the troublemaker in this relationship and clearly not expecting anyone else at this time of day. How wrong they were!

  Edging around the doorway she checked it was all clear then keeping low, she moved in quietly to the storeroom heading around the piles of crates to the back wall. There were several boxes stacked in front of the lockdown. She needed past the boxes. Lifting one, she moved it to the side as quietly as possible. Then took another straining hard not to give herself away or make a noise. She heard someone use her name and looked up. They were harassing Kurt, asking about her. Jamie moved another box, as Kurt told them she was in the hospital. She just had enough clearance. Moving to the lockdown, she put in the code and placed her hand on the scanner. It took her hand print silently and she prayed it didn’t make a lot of noise when it opened. Two clicks and the door came ajar. Jamie looked towards the bar area, the noise of the clicks had sounded cannon worthy to her. But they didn’t come running in. Opening the door wide she grabbed the two lazer riffles and a couple of stun grenades suddenly glad that Kurt wasn’t the ‘wait and see’ kind. He believed in being prepared for everything. She loved that about him.

  Pressing her thumbs to the imprint pad on both riffles, they came online. Jamie quickly muffled the sound of the onboard riffle’s computer’s telling her they registered the new user and would charge the riffle. All the while checking the doorway expecting them through at any minute. She heard the sound of raised voices and punches being thrown. Kurt was told to ‘get in line or else.’ Jamie knew Kurt wasn’t the ‘get in line’ kind.

  She watched as both riffles powered up. Come on, she called out in her mind. It seemed to take forever as each new bar filled with bright yellow light. In her mind she was telling them to ‘hurry the fuck up!’

  More punching was coming from the bar. Kurt was getting hammered. She’d have to act and soon. Glancing down at the indicators, they flashed yellow into the last bar. Jamie held them both close as the computer told her they were ready to fire. Jamie took a deep breath and grimaced. She’d just got fixed and was about to blow them all up. Determination flooded her as she heard Kurt tell them to go fuck themselves. Jamie smiled, that was her man and pulled the pin on three grenades. He had her back and she had his. She knew how the grenades worked and counted to 3 then moved quickly to the bar doorway and threw them in. “Fire in the hole,” she roared and ducked for cover her hands over her ears, her eyes tightly closed.

  There was a moments silence then all the stun grenades exploded in a cascade of light and sound. Jamie moved before the dust settled holding up both riffles and standing in the doorway she faced them. As the smoke settled, she found the four men getting to their feet and Kurt grinning like an idiot with blood running down his face hunched over.

  “Now you’ve pissed me off.” She shot each one in the leg. “You ok Kurt?” Her eyes never left the men infront of her.

  “Been better,” he wheezed.

  Jamie didn’t much like the sound of him. One of the men moved for his weapon. She fired again, this time catching him in the arm. “I didn’t say you could move shit head. Kurt get over here.” He moved slowly towards her.

  As he reached her side, she passed him one of the riffles. In that moments distraction, the men on the floor went for their weapons again. Jamie and Kurt both fired, he moved slower than her, because of his injuries she guessed and she covered him. Something hot hit her thigh as she ducked for her own cover once he was out of the way returning fire. “Computer,” she shouted, “emergency response team requested, lock down on all exits but this one.”

  The computer acknowledged her request as she continued to fire into the bar. She watched Kurt concerned for his health. He didn’t appear to be doing so well. Jamie bit down on her own pain and returned fire. They weren’t getting away.

  Time moved slowly as she kept them where she needed them. Then she heard the people coming. Security and medical. The first security came through the back door and took over surrounding the place. Both Jamie and Kurt moved back out of the way. In short time, all four men were arrested and in cuffs being taken out. “I’m pressing
charges. I want to know how the fuck they are out of lock up and I want to press charges on who released them. This lot I’m charging with criminal damage, personal injury, attempted murder, arson, brutality, extorsion and property damages.” She shouted after them. Kurt chuckled. “Did I leave anything out?” she asked him.

  He shook his head. “Nope. You did good.”

  The medical team came forward and she ushered them to Kurt. “How you doing?” she asked him as they checked him over.

  “I’ll live.”

  Pain started to hit her as she moved out the back door and sat down on a crate. Kurt followed her with the aid of the medical response team, he was being transferred to a hover bed. She saw more medical personnel hovering in the background waiting to be called forward. Then one very tall large male came running towards her, pushing his way through he came straight at her. Jamie cringed he didn’t look happy. Kneeling down he shook his head seeing her leg. Suddenly it felt like her leg had been blow off. “Aww,” she moaned looking down to check. Nope it was still there, and he was plugging it with his finger. “Female you are a lot of trouble,” he told her.

  Jamie grimaced as he tore open her cargos to get to the injury. He looked up at her face. She shrugged. “I’m worth it?” she asked now feeling a bit stupid.

  RedX huffed as he treated her injury. She’d been lucky this time. It hadn’t nicked a major artery. The female continued to surprise him. He didn’t need his sensors to tell him he liked her. Or his body responding to her scent to knew it either. His anger was off the charts with her blood and scent in the air it was killing him.

  “That…. we will see.”

  Chapter Four

  After he’d stabilised her and got her on the hover stretcher, he hadn’t said a word all the way back to the medical centre. That’s not to say he didn’t seem to growl every now and then. He did. Which on the weird scale was …. Weird. On the not so weird side, while on the hover stretcher she had all the view she needed. Striding out beside her there was no mistaking him. Certainly, he was every inch a man. Even through the pain all her girly bits woke up and started begging. He moved silently beside her keeping one hand on the handrail and she realised that he made no sound when he moved. One large strong hand gripped the stretcher hard. Almost like he was afraid to let it go. She couldn’t help but gaze at it as she did him. She was trying really hard not to over think it, but he turned her on like no male ever had.

  The bloody woman was going to kill him. RedX hadn’t believed his eyes when he’d got to the emergency scene. He’d only just released her from the med bed! There she was bleeding and on the floor. Her body telling him how much pain she was in, again. The female was dangerous to herself. Unable to hold back he ran straight to her. He could smell her blood in the air. It was saturated with it. The urgency to get to her floored him. Touching her and scanning her body with his optic reassured him she was likely to live if she got immediate attention. Was she deliberately trying to get herself killed? Plugging the wound, packing it out, ripping away her trousers to get a better view. The wound was deep. Putting pressure on it he wrapped it to stabilise the wound calling the medical stretcher over for her. On the journey back he’d had to grip the stretcher hard not to carry her off and remind her just how was fragile she was while he fucked her into making sensible decisions! Was she this naive? Did she not understand that this kind of thing would get her killed? His logic played out scenarios that crossed his optic making him growl in his frustrations. She could have been killed in a variety of ways, or maybe worse, been at the hands of those men. Neither option was acceptable to him.

  RedX was flooded with an emotional rollercoaster. His anger threatened to swallow him whole. It shouldn’t be possible, but it was there. Red across his sensors. As the medics transferred her to the med bed and left the room he exploded.

  “What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed!” he roared in what he knew to be his own fears.

  The female sat there looking at him, blinking. Her cute mouth making an 0 shape that had him wanting to kiss her senseless. “Why are you angry?” she asked, her voice full of innocence and confusion.

  That tipped him over the edge. She had no idea! “Why?” RedX roared again, he couldn’t seem to get his emotions under control. He tried cooling his systems, but it wasn’t working. “Why?” he repeated. “You could have been killed. You walked into that storeroom with no weapons on the hope, that Kurt still had those one’s in lock up. You didn’t know for sure and you still went in.” He paced. “It is not logical. You had no information to support such a move. No data to tell you there was protection there for you. What if they’d been taken? What then? And this med bed, it could have been in use and you’d have been I pain for days!”

  He turned to her. He was so angry she was sure she could smell it in the air. Jamie shrugged. “I’d have found something else, I wasn’t leaving Kurt to get hurt.”

  He took a step back in disbelief. “Don’t you understand? From the moment he opened that door, Kurt was always going to get hurt,” he hissed. “It was why they were there. It’s the only logical explanation.”

  Jamie closed her eyes. He was right. She knew that but wasn’t ready to let him know it. His anger made her loose her focus. She didn’t like the idea of having upset him.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you,” she whispered.

  All the heat and stream he’d built up within him evaporated instantly with her admission. He took a few calming breaths. “Fuck female. Are you trying to kill me? Lay down, let the bed do it’s job. We’ll talk after.”

  Jamie laid down and the lid closed over her. Within moments she was drifting. She looked up and the face of medic was above hers. She smiled dreamily. “Sorry I’m so much trouble. Always have been, always will… be………”

  RedX watched her go under his optics relaying the information from the med bed straight to his systems. At the point her systems regulated he knew she was now sleeping while the med bed would heal her. He placed his hand on the glass as the bed started her repair. Shocked at his own response to her. He never lost control lost control like that.

  What was it about this one?

  ***

  Jamie woke as she had before, wearing a medical wrap, her clothes disintegrated and used as molecules to recreate something else. It was one of the benefits of having an organic replicating system. Everything could be reused in another form. Opening her eyes, she’d expected to see the medic waiting for her, but he wasn’t there. The lid was open. She leaned up and looked around. A nurse was in the room with her and seeing her move, came forward to help her sit up.

  “Feeling better?”

  Jamie nodded. “Yes much.”

  “There are some new clothes for you to change into over there, you can go when you are ready.”

  Jamie put her feet down and felt no pain. That was good. “Where’s the doc?”

  “Busy with other patients. He said he would check in with you later.” Disappointment hit her. She’d expected him to be there. The nurse did something to the med bed the lid closed, and a mist formed inside. She guessed it was being cleaned for the next patient. Checking the time, she’d only been in a couple of hours until the bar opened.

  Walking to the clothes, she picked them up and headed to the changing area.

  “Thanks.” She had the sinking feeling she’d fucked up somehow.

  ***

  He couldn’t be near her. His optic told him the med bed had finished and she was out and on her way. His rage over seeing her have so little care for her own wellbeing was still riding him. His data instantly gave him a reminder of his read outs. He didn’t need to see it, but it was an automatic response to this thought process.

  He checked for the 13,489th time that his emotions and pain receptors were turned off. They were. There was no logic to what was happening to him. They were both bleeding through the blocks. In all other aspects he was functioning at 100%. It was not logical, and
he had no answers to what was happening to him bar one. She was his mate.

  The patient drew his attention. One of the injured attackers at the bar. The ward held all four of them. This was the only one awake. He felt no emotion for any of them. He male had been treated in the normal way for this world, there would be no med bed for him or any of them. The med beds were only for those in genuine health conditions not of their own making. The male looked scared. As he should be, thought RedX. His control was slipping. His natural protective instincts were riding high and nothing he tried to regulate his system seem to work.

  He needed to find out who shot Jamie. The need seemed to bore into him. Burning through his chest like he’d been shot too. His sensors told him there would be a reckoning. Justice needed to be served and his optic displayed just how much he wanted to be the one to deliver it.

  “What was your role in the attack? And before you lie, I’m Cyborg. I can read every movement you make scent every lie you say.”

  The male looked uncomfortable. That pleased RedX on some level. “It was a job. I got paid that’s it.”

  “You were told to harm the humans?”

  The male made a shrugging motion. RedX gribbed his fist. The insolence and lack of caring burn hotter. “If needed, yeah. We were told to make a point.”

  “Did you fire on the female?” he gritted out.

  The male looked confused. “I don’t know, everyone was firing. I don’t know where they all landed.”

  “Who do you work for?” RedX stared at him.

  “I… don’t know. I was pulled in by Gerry, he was contacted, and the job was set up. We were to make them accept a takeover.”