Seeking Vector (Cyborg Sizzle Book 10)

by Cynthia Sax

  Don’t attempt to dock until your council has given its orders. She knew all about the impending cyborg rebellion. The battle station is on pre-attack lockdown. Commander Smith was preparing for the assault on Betelgeuse Alpha. No ships are allowed on or off.

  That made leaving the battle station, fleeing from him, difficult.

  She could do it but she didn’t want to. Half a lifespan in isolation, taking no action, was enough. Like the J Model cyborgs, she had reached her breaking point.

  There is no pre-attack lockdown. Vector dismissed her information as many of the others had. Kasia gritted her teeth. She risked her lifespan to free data and no one believed that data. The Humanoid Alliance is invading Betelgeuse Alpha.

  They’re invading it without our battle station.

  Our battle station. He repeated it as though that meant something. You admit you’re aligned with the Humanoid Alliance?

  I’m not aligned with anyone. She had told him that in the past. He clearly didn’t believe her. I take no action. Her tone was bitter. She should be doing more. All I do is share information. Or block it, in the Humanoid Alliance’s case. I even the battlefield a little for the disadvantaged.

  Did you SHARE information about us?

  No. She’d never put her cyborgs at risk like that. That would cost more lifespans than it would save.

  The Humanoid Alliance doesn’t believe cyborgs have lifespans.

  I’m not aligned with the Humanoid Alliance. She was yelling into a black hole. If you try to board the battle station now, they will fire upon your ship. The thought of him being killed caused her pain. She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anyone, enjoyed their talks, considered him to be hers. Even if you have a human or humanoid in your crew and you block the lifeform scanner, it will look suspicious.

  Blocking the lifeform scanner isn’t possible. Vector sounded certain of that.

  He was dangerously wrong. Every system was hackable. But that incorrect assumption might allow her to escape him.

  If she needed to. She hoped that wouldn’t be necessary.

  Wait the extra planet rotation. Kasia pleaded. I can’t go anywhere. The battle station is on lockdown.

  He didn’t respond.

  If you don’t wait, you’ll put your brethren on board in peril. She tried a different tactic.

  Vector said nothing.

  Trust me on that, cyborg.

  Trust you? He snorted. When you haven’t trusted me with your name, your image, your voice? Do you view me as weak, a fool? Is that why you contacted me and not my brethren?

  You’re not weak nor are you a fool. He was one of the most unrelenting beings she’d ever met. That isn’t why I contacted you and not your brethren. She contacted him because his voice turned her on.

  But he was right to ridicule her statement. She had expected him to trust her without trusting him in return. That wasn’t logical.

  She had to give him something, a token of faith.

  Kasia surveyed the viewscreens, scanned the area around her. No Humanoid Alliance crew members were close to her storage chamber.

  She could do this. She could share her true voice with him.

  Kasia activated the mic, placed her lips close to it. “You wanted my true voice. This is it. I’m trusting you with it,” she whispered.

  Vector was a cyborg, had enhanced senses, should be able to hear her words, yet he didn’t acknowledge her gift.

  “Vector?”

  A rumble rolled over the transmission line, deep, primitive, arousing, the sound growing louder as it extended. Again. His voice was bottomless, like a void without end. Say my name again.

  Her normally controlled warrior had made that animalistic noise. Kasia’s toes curled in her black boots. “Vector.”

  Silence stretched, the transmission line crackling with energy. Anticipation sang through her veins. She’d exposed a part of herself to her cyborg and it had affected him. Kasia felt that in her soul.

  I’ll wait. Vector’s words were choked, as though with emotion. If you leave the battle station, I’ll follow you. I’ll chase you to the ends of the universe. You will never escape me.

  That warning should have scared Kasia, not excited her. “Is that a promise, warrior?”

  That’s a threat. He paused. As you are a threat, my female. I will do what I have to do to protect my brethren, make any personal sacrifice necessary.

  He was warning her. “I’m no threat to you or to your brethren.”

  This conversation alone makes you a threat.

  Shit. Her by-the-rules warrior would be uptight about that. “You left your lines unsecured. If it hadn’t been me listening, it could have been someone unsympathetic to your cause. You should be thanking me for bringing this weakness to your attention, not threatening me.”

  You have the ability to lie. How do we know you’re sympathetic to our cause?

  That answer was obvious. “Your brethren are still alive.”

  Two Humanoid Alliance crew members entered the hallway. The males chattered about exploding Betelgeuse Alphan skulls, how enjoyable that gruesome activity would be, calling the humanoids creatures, heathens.

  The comments made Kasia ill. The Betelgeuse Alphans were simple agri-lot beings. They loved, laughed, cared for their families as humans did.

  “I have to end our transmission.” She couldn’t risk the males hearing her. Unlike the cyborgs, the Humanoid Alliance did have a legitimate reason to want her dead. “I’ll see you soon, warrior.”

  She forced herself to close communications with Vector, clipped her handheld to her flight suit, detached the covering to the air conduit, crawled into the small space. The chances of the crew members entering the storage chamber were low, but she wanted to be mobile if that happened.

  Kasia sat, stretching her long legs in front of her. The air flowed over her, cooling her heated skin. When the cyborgs rebelled, she should use the cover of that chaos to leave the battle station, escape Vector.

  But she was tired of running, tired of hiding, and Vector was a cyborg. He didn’t lie. He would track her, would make hunting her his personal mission.

  She knew the battle station better than he did. That would give her the advantage.

  She might survive the confrontation.

  If she didn’t, she would see him before she died. Perhaps she would touch him. Or he would touch her.

  Her lips lifted into a small smile. She’d like that.

  Chapter Three

  She was his female.

  Vector continued to contemplate that miraculous revelation several planet rotations later. She hadn’t contacted him because she deemed him weak or defective. He wiggled boot-covered toes. She’d contacted him because she’d somehow sensed she belonged to him.

  His female had been labeled an enemy of the cyborgs and that status hadn’t changed. Although he had yet to uncover proof she was actively working against them, he couldn’t deny she knew too much and had to be apprehended.

  Power had ordered him to kill her. That Vector couldn’t do. He had talked about personal sacrifice to his female but ending her lifespan was too great a cost, even for him.

  There had to be another way to protect the Homeland and his brethren.

  Vector’s jaw tightened. The Humanoid Alliance would deem his resistance to be yet another defect, would have decommissioned him if they had discovered any of them.

  The cyborg council was unlikely to be more forgiving. They might kill him, one warrior, to protect the many.

  That was a risk he’d take. The death of his female would mean the death of his future. There would be no breeding, no female, no offspring.

  No love. No hope.

  Vector gazed at the image of the battle station displayed on the main viewscreen. Being a warrior of his word, he was waiting until the cyborgs rebelled before approaching it, before apprehending her.

  She’d known about that rebellion also. The order for the mass revolt had come from the council two p
lanet rotations ago. It had been delivered through secured transmission lines.

  Lines she clearly had access to.

  “Doc, what was the Homeland’s response to the breach in security regarding the transmission lines?” He had to assume she was listening to every word they transmitted.

  They’d switched to communicating with speech on the bridge. That might give them some privacy.

  “They’re having difficulties detecting the breach.” Doc’s lips twisted. “But they’ve increased security measures yet again.”

  Vector doubted they’d increased them enough. “Chuckles, has anyone found a glitch in our lifeform scanners?”

  “They can’t detect any glitches, Captain.”

  That didn’t mean there weren’t any. His warship could be crawling with lifespan-ending insects and he wouldn’t know it. Vector smothered his discomfort. “North, has there been a vocal match?”

  “There are no vocal matches in the current databases.” His first officer replied. “I had to go back twelve solar cycles in our off-system archives to find her communications. They had all been deleted.”

  His skilled female was, no doubt, responsible for those deletions. “Play the most recent communication.”

  “Hi J.” His female’s voice filled the bridge and Vector’s body hardened, his response immediate. “I thought about leaving this message with Momma but you know she never checks them. I’m also hoping that, being the cautious sister, you’ll help me convince her to follow my instructions, do the right thing.”

  The message sounded like goodbye, the words thick with emotion.

  “Because I am the reckless sister and you likely already suspect what this message is concerning. Momma always warned me leaping before I looked would get me into trouble. And it did. I accessed something I shouldn’t have. I’m safe,” Vector’s female hastily added. “But to stay that way and to ensure no one I love is harmed, I have to disappear.” There was a pause. “Forever. I doubt I will ever see you again.”

  Her sigh pulled at Vector’s heart.

  “I’ve examined all of the alternatives and this is the best choice, the only true choice.” There was no doubt in her voice. “Don’t look for me. If anyone asks about me, be vague. Act as though you can’t keep our big family straight. Everyone believes Momma can’t anyway.” His female’s laughter held an endless container of sadness. “I’m counting on you to do this, to keep me safe as you always do.”

  Her plea activated Vector’s protective instincts. She was his. He would keep her safe.

  “I love you, J. You have been and will always be my conscience, telling me what I shouldn’t do right before I do it.

  “I love you, Momma. You’re my heart, will always be a part of me. I will carry you with me wherever I go as I know you will carry me with you.

  “I love you, Poppa. You are my strength. You’ve always advised me to stand up for what is right and that is what I’m doing. I hope you will be proud of me.

  “I love you, A…”

  The list of names went on and on. Vector’s female loved many beings, considered them all to be a part of her.

  And she had hacked off those parts. He gazed down at his boots. She had severed ties with her loved ones, parting with them as permanently as he had parted with his brethren on Furud One.

  Vector experienced her pain as though it were his own.

  “I don’t trust her,” Chuckles muttered. That wasn’t shocking. The D Model didn’t trust any humans. But it was a reminder.

  Vector shouldn’t trust her either.

  North sent him the other messages. There were thousands of them. His female had communicated with her family several times a planet rotation. To break that habit required strength, a willpower Vector had no choice but to admire.

  If her self-imposed isolation was the truth, and he suspected it was, it must have been torture for her. She hadn’t lied when she shared that she felt alone. It would be as though he had cut off all transmissions with his brethren – an unbearable silence.

  If she was telling the truth, Vector reminded himself. Her sharing, her past communications could be an elaborate Humanoid Alliance ruse. It was unlikely, but it could be.

  “Do you have an image for her?” Vector wanted to see his female.

  “It is as old as the communications.” North cautioned.

  The image of a young human female’s face was displayed on the main viewscreen. She had short black hair, large brown eyes, skin as dark as deep space, full kissable lips.

  That was his female? Vector’s mouth dropped open. She was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. “What are her specs?”

  Her details were summarized on the main viewscreen. Her name was Kasia Verdun. Kasia. Vector repeated his female’s name silently. She was human, would now have twenty-nine solar cycles, had been studying technology at the academy at the time the information had been collected. His female had originated from a Humanoid Alliance-controlled planet. Her father, mother, eleven siblings remained there.

  Eleven siblings exceeded the human average of one. Vector, however, had millions of brethren. He processed his female’s family unit as being small, intimate.

  “Was there any information about her added after that date?” What had his female been doing for the past twelve solar cycles?

  “Not only was no information added but all existing information about the female had been deleted from Humanoid Alliance databases, our databases, everywhere.” North shook his head. “Everything is gone. Her birthing records. Her siblings’ histories of their communications. Every image of her. It has been erased and that deletion was clean, untraceable.”

  “Who is this female?” There was admiration in Truth’s voice.

  She was his. That was who she was. “I’ll deal with her when we apprehend her.” Vector hid his inappropriate possessiveness under the cover of command. “Communicate that to all of the warriors on the battle station. They are not to harm her.”

  “Yes, Captain.” Truth tapped on the control panel imbedded in the console.

  “Chuckles, search the databases existing twelve solar cycles ago for information on blocking lifeform scanners.” Vector’s clever female might have deleted that information also.

  “That search is already being performed,” Chuckles replied. “The treacherous human can’t hide it from us, Captain.”

  Considering she’d told him about the glitch, Vector suspected they weren’t the beings she was hiding it from. But if she was running from the Humanoid Alliance, what was she doing on their battle station?

  Had she been caught? The Humanoid Alliance disposed of prisoners.

  Unless they were useful. She could be working for them now.

  The transmission lines erupted with noise. Vector lifted his chin. It was time. Their brethren were rebelling. Soon all cyborgs would be free. And he would have his female under his control.

  “Hail the battle station.” He began their approach.

  They’d already scanned the battle station. There were no living beings other than humans, humanoids, and cyborgs on board.

  According to the lifeform scanners. Which could have a glitch.

  “Hailing the battle station.” Chuckles informed him.

  “You waited.” His female’s voice reached deep inside him, grabbed hold of his unruly cock. Vector’s shaft pressed against his body armor. “You kept your word, warrior.”

  “I always do.” The image appearing on the main viewscreen was corrupted, blurred, concealed by static. Chuckles, clean up the feed, he transmitted.

  “The state of the feed is intentional.” Her tone was flat. His fraggin’ female was listening to their transmissions. “I’m assuming you want the docking bay opened.”

  “I want to speak with one of my brethren.” But yes, he did want the docking bay opened.

  “Your brethren are otherwise occupied.” Her laughter was as arousing as her voice.

  Vector’s body ached with wanting, while his
processors whirred with indignation. She mocked him, didn’t show him the respect he deserved. “My brethren can accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously. They aren’t humans.”

  “This human is opening the docking bay for you.”

  The docking bay is opening, North confirmed.

  “It could be a trap.” Vector didn’t bother trying to hide the communication.

  “A trap?” His female continued to ridicule him. In front of his crew. “I could have revealed your position to the Humanoid Alliance at any time during the past three planet rotations, had them blast your uptight metal ass into a million pieces. Why would I wait until your brethren gained control of the battle station to end you?”

  She was a human. They weren’t always logical. Vector kept that thought to himself. “You plan to escape.”

  “You don’t know my plans.” She paused. “But you will soon.” She ended the communication.

  “I like this female.” Truth chuckled.

  Vector turned his head and narrowed his eyes at the warrior. “She’s a threat to our brethren, to the Homeland.” And she was his. He might not have a future with his female. He had been ordered to kill her. But no other male would like her. “As she stated, we don’t know her plans.”

  The smile faded from Truth’s face. “Yes, Captain.”

  “She could be lying,” Chuckles muttered. “About everything.”

  Truth frowned at him. “She could be telling the truth, you grim human-hating bag of bolts. You don’t—”

  “Warriors,” Vector barked.

  The males straightened in their seats. Silence fell over the bridge.

  He shook his head. The female continued to caused problems. He had to capture her before she created more chaos.

  Vector, with the assistance of his crew, guided the warship into the battle station’s docking bay, parking it nearest the exit. All of the other ships were stationary, their engines quiet.

  Kasia hadn’t yet made a run for them.

  Vector palmed his guns. “Be on your guard.”

  He was the first to exit the ship, not waiting for their reply.

  The docking bay was a killing field. J models circled Humanoid Alliance males, nicking their flesh with daggers, shaving their forms away a layer of flesh at a time. The human males screamed and begged for mercy. Pools of blood formed around their booted feet.