by Naomi Lucas
Where is everyone?
And just like that, with a few short steps away from the large concrete gate, a pervasive tendril of foreboding snaked into her head.
Yesne dropped the bag, it slipping out of her hand at the same time, and rested his body against the manmade wall. Reina strengthened her connection to her ship and brought it back to life slowly, subtly to standby.
“Atlas, chart us a route off the planet, I won’t be staying here longer than necessary,” Reina wheezed out.
“Arrhemm.” A garbled groan was her only answer. Her eyes narrowed at the disconnect.
She took a deep breath and stood before the intercom console. I’m probably just being paranoid. A yellow laser shot out and scanned her face.
“Processing. Please hold. Welcome to Port Antix, Captain Reynolds.” The yellow light shifted to green and the door slid into the ceiling. Yesne joined her and together they stepped into the station. A dank passageway with strung-up light orbs met them. It led to another door down the hall.
The entry sealed behind them. “Initiating decontamination. Hold. Initiating air filtration. Hold.” Vents opened up above them and released a cloud of milky gas that settled over them before immediately vaporizing. The rest of the murk was sucked back into the walls until everything was back to normal. “Hold. You may relieve yourself of your exosuits now.”
Fuck that.
Yesne apparently agreed with her sentiment as he made his way to the second door without disrobing. “Well, this is welcoming,” the doctor murmured beside her.
Reina lowered her voice in answer, “Where is everyone, you think? Atlas mentioned the facility was quiet but this,” she hesitated, “is not standard protocol.”
“Quite. I agree with you. It’s best we stay sharp.” Yesne stopped and looked back at the entryway. “Unless you want to break protocol as well and make a run back to the ship?”
Reina leaned her mouth into her shoulder, covering her voice. “Atlas, can you scout the station’s security again?” she asked, holding the doctor’s gaze. They waited but there was no answer from the Cyborg. “Atlas?”
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s not answering.” She reached down and palmed the sidearm on her utility belt–a standard issue laser piece. Reina nodded at Yesne and they turned back, ready to take their chances back out in the open. But their decision to retreat came a minute too late.
Two men in Earthian Space Fleet uniforms entered the passageway. “Captain Reina, Doctor Yesne, welcome. We’ve been expecting you.”
Reina turned toward them carefully, and in a split-second moment of judgment, she knew these men led rougher lives than just maintaining an outskirt facility.
Their expressions were just as guarded as hers but with the added grooves that indicated rough work. She found herself hoping that it was truly from the stress of being stationed out in the middle of nowhere and not from something more sinister.
A static crackle sounded through the earpiece. “Get out of there. The station has been compromised. The servers locked up when you walked into that hole.”
Great timing, Cyborg. She maintained her easy aura with a modicum of strain, but her heart raced from the inevitable immediate future. Her hand shot forward to shake theirs in greeting.
“Sergeant Kraig, I assume?”
“Kraig has been called away to deal with a comm issue. I am Officer Black and this is Jux.” The man had a hard voice to him. “If you would follow us.” Officer Black tried to usher them through but she held firm.
I’m not letting you get behind me, asshole.
“Are you the chief engineer?” She looked at the one called Jux. “We were told to expect not only Sergeant Kraig but the engineer as well for delivery.” Reina played for time. Black’s face went hard as she continued to stand her ground.
Atlas’s voice fizzled again quietly through the bauble. “I’m working on the servers. I can’t get back on their security until then.” His steady voice did little to reassure her.
My weapon has its safety on. Yesne is unarmed and very tired. Should I risk it? The gun felt heavier the longer she debated their options.
“The chief engineer is outside prepping for import.”
“That’s strange. I didn’t see him nor another ship out there.” Reina thought back to their trek, the side of her arm rubbed against her pistol.
Officer Black chided, “That is strange, Captain, seein’ as it would be hard to miss. Maybe you should get your eyes checked.” He rounded his arm around her back and her hand fell to her gun.
Atlas’s voice stopped her– “Reina, don’t do anything stupid. I’m coming for you.”
She let the man escort her from the decontamination hallway. The other thug began to lead Yesne away.
“Wait!” Reina casually smoothed her hair back, taking the piece out of her ear, and approached the doctor. “Thank you for your service and your assistance, Dr. Yesne.” She took his hand in a mock shake and transferred the tech to him. “I will send the Council my recommendation.” Their eyes held as he slipped the unit into his exosuit.
Officer Black took her gun and used it to lead her down to the bowels of the spaceport.
ATLAS COULD HEAR EVERYTHING. He was uncertain before, but now, losing his signal to Antix when Reina walked in enraged him.
I should have made her stay. What kind of Cyborg am I? His failings flooded his mind. He roared from the floor of the lab, his body coated in sweat. His internal wiring prickled with electrical shocks. I let her walk into a trap. It was his fault his girl was in danger and now Reina was surrounded by unfamiliar armed men.
He crawled across the cold, slick floor, forcing his body to work. He demanded it go past its limits and heal. His cybercells and blood coursed through his veins at a dangerous speed.
She’s surrounded by men.
She’s afraid of losing control.
She’s a fucking Neoborg.
Atlas gripped the tubes still attached to his body and pulled them out, disconnecting the cords from his metal frame, and unchained himself for the first time since his death. Naked, he pulled himself up, straining to get his feet under his heavy body. So much heavier than I fucking remember. His muscles screamed in agony, and inhuman, unearthly agony that only the dead returning to the life could understand.
“Reina, don’t do anything stupid.” He gritted his teeth. “I’m coming for you.” Still no answer, no indication that she heard.
He half crawled, half stumbled his way to the stairs that led to the medical bay above him. His fingers sank into the metal steps as he hoisted himself up, landing on his back with a ragged breath when he reached the top. With a one-track mind, he tore open the sealed drug panel, ripping the metal from the wall. Atlas found the console and forced the replicator within to create the strongest painkiller he could think of. Then he created boosters, and with a moment of hesitation, he synthesized methamphetamine.
The Council is going to have a fucking field day when they review the replicator logs.
I need to get to Reina.
Atlas grabbed the drugs and dragged himself to the lavatory. Within minutes he was drinking the pills down and shooting the drugs up his arm. Several needles shattered in his grip before he had had enough. Glass sliced his tips but he could no longer feel them.
He willed his body to not fight off the foreign substances, focusing less on the battle in his chest and focused more on morphing the drugs to suit his current needs.
Atlas leaned back against the cold wall of the sterile bathroom while a sour feeling of overdrive took him over. The exquisite rush of life washed over him. He pulled himself over to the faucet and drowned himself with fluids, flooding his biological organs with water.
“Reina, I’m coming,” he moaned. “Don’t do anything stupid. I’m coming.”
He took a deep breath feeling the air fill his lungs, feeling his lungs press into his alien heart. He shot to his feet. His muscles bulged as he found the energy he n
eeded to run to the armory. Atlas continually forgot his strength as he tore doors out of the crisp walls. The first gun he picked up snapped in half.
“I’m coming, sweetheart,” he chanted to himself and to his weak connection to the earpiece.
“Atlas? Is that you?”
Atlas paused, accidently ripping the Kevlar body armor in his hands. “Yesne? Where is Reina?”
“We were separated. They have me locked in a room, behind walls I can’t hear through. We tried to leave but were stopped, I don’t think the men stationed here work for the Earthian military.”
“No shit. The communication from the network to Antix shut off when you guys entered. The servers housed here are now freshly armored with privately built firewalls.”
“Hack it, you’re a Cyborg, isn’t that what you do?”
“I can’t,” Atlas grated, carefully picking up a new suit of armor mesh. With increasing control over his strength as he recalibrated his systems, he smoothly picked up several daggers to strap to his harness then placed a couple guns into his empty holsters. “I’m not designed to be a hacker. I don’t have the software and even if I could, I haven’t had a software update since I fell.”
“So how are you going to get us out of here? The entryway is sealed shut by metal and concrete.”
The ship was humming softly around him, Reina shifted it into standby mode not long ago. Atlas wanted to channel through her wireless connection but he was afraid of the consequence of leaving his struggling body without a mind.
“I have an idea.” Atlas punched a hole through the metal bulkhead that locked up the big stuff. An array of mini-rockets, cannons, and grenades greeted him along with a full stock of laser batteries, plasmic capsules, and even Pyrizian bullets. He settled on an explosive grenade and a double-chamber hydrochloric and sulfuric acid bomb.
I will raze it to the ground.
He quickly fed off the power flowing through the ship. Feel me, sweetheart.
Chapter Sixteen:
Reina sat across a table, stripped of all her remaining gear, her exosuit, and even her boots. She was still in her under clothes and was thankful for that. Officer Black sat before her, his jaw twitching sporadically.
He’s impatient. That was a double-edged sword for this situation. A man with a jaw tick was a man who didn’t know he needed to be on meds. She assessed everything but came up with little. There are two men behind me, silent. No sign of guns on Black’s person. Walls are thick. It’s cold.
It’s also quiet.
“Who else is on the ship?” Black asked.
Everything echoes.
“No one.”
“Our scans read a third life-form. Who is on the ship?”
There’s a grate in the floor.
Reina shivered. “No one is on the ship.” Atlas wasn’t a life-form. She wouldn’t give him up anyway, even if he was. He was their best chance of getting a message to the Council.
The man behind her slithered his long fingers into her hair. She jerked from the contact just as he slammed her head forward into the table. The impact smashed her nose. Reina briefly lost her head to the shock, vaguely aware of the hand still on her head, palming and petting her.
It pulled her back into her seat. Rivulets of blood trickled down from her nostrils.
“Again. Who is on the ship?”
“No one, you classless piece of space-scum,” she hissed. Her wrists strained against the shackles behind her. The copper tang of her blood flooded her mouth.
Black kept his eyes on her. “Jessup, go outside with your men and apprehend whoever she’s willing to die for.”
Reina licked her lips. Good luck with that, she thought dryly. Atlas will love the company. I’m glad I gave him weapons access. She wiped her messed up face against her shoulder to hide the smirk.
“You’re going to get your men killed.” Reina egged him on.
Black tapped his fingers on the table. “I have no problem hitting women, especially cunts like you. I’ll make a deal with you.” He nodded to the remaining guard behind her. “Give us what we want and we’ll forego the torture.” The chill of someone standing directly behind her back made her feel colder. Whoever it was, didn’t emanate heat. They were cold. An alien.
Black continued, “You see, we have collateral and cunts talk when their protective instincts come out. You’re protecting whoever is hiding on that ship and let’s not forget the doctor.” He reached forward and cupped the back of her neck. “We will do whatever is necessary to them to make you talk.”
Reina barely heard him, and could only focus on the Trentian male who stood directly behind her. Her heart began to race and all of the sudden she was back on the Credence, in the hallway, staring up at the two alien men who had Hell in their eyes and wanted her to join them in that dark place. The urge to run began to outweigh the urge to fight.
“She’s giving you the silent treatment.” The unmistakable soft dialect of his species sent chills down her spine. The feeling was akin to swallowing icicles whole. Reina focused her eyes away from Black and to the wall behind him, grey and rusted with age.
The flash of a knife brought her back. An inch away from her eyes, the edge serrated and sharp. Black moved to sit on the table directly in front of her. Her gaze was now leveled with his crotch.
Reina looked up at him. “What do you really want? Ask the questions you actually care to know.” She could barely form the words. “You wouldn’t go through all this trouble, commit an act of war, just for me and my ship.”
He leered down at her. “You nearly killed me. I’m the best scout in his convoy, with state of the art cloaking auras. I’ve never been fucking detected before. How did you do it?”
“You won’t like the truth.” Reina leered back. “I did it while I was sleeping.” She pulled her wrists apart, feeling a slight give in the cord, helped by the added strength of her bionic arm.
Black gripped her hair and pressed her face between his legs. She could feel the outline of his wormy prick grow hard against her cheek. Musty leather and the sour stench of unwashed clothes made her long for her blood to fill her nostrils again.
“Stupid military ‘itch has never had a dirty cock like mine before.” He laughed as he rubbed her swollen face over his hard-on. She could deal with assault, she could handle men, but she just didn’t know how to handle the alien male behind her. Her fear wasn’t from Black but from the enemy who stood quietly outside of her view.
She blanketed her mind from the assault and reached out to her ship, feeling it. Knowing it was there was almost like having it and Atlas with her, which helped her regain perspective of the situation.
Black released her head when he wasn’t getting the reaction he wanted out of her. Reina began to feel her arm charge with energy, siphoning it from her weak connection to the ship. A zap hit her.
Atlas is here with me.
Time to end this. “I know what you want,” she spat.
“Is that so, little mouse? You haven’t graced us with a single answer yet. Maybe you’ll give us what we need after you’ve had an unclean dick in your mouth.” He laughed.
“I’ve had dirty cock before,” she taunted. “Why don’t we cut the crap because you could kill Yesne, you can torture me, and still walk away with nothing. You’re just fucking afraid to ask.”
“I’m curious. What do you think I want?”
“You want Larik.” At least she hoped he did. “Release the doctor and I’ll take you to him.”
Reina watched as Black’s only reaction was to slip the edge of the knife over his palm, drawing a beady red mark with slow droplets of blood appearing from the punctures. He grabbed her head and rubbed his cut over her mouth. “Cut her fingers off. Maybe she’ll realize she’s at our mercy and not the other way around... start with her fingertips and work your way down to the joints.” Black handed the knife to the being behind her then leaned back to watch.
Her arms were yanked back and stretched painfully
out. Her connection grew with desperation as the alien man touched her skin. Electrical, digital, desperate power coursed through her as the Trentian held her hand in place. The edge of the tainted knife sliced through her pinky finger.
And then it hit metal. Reina squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to cry out as the man began to saw it off.
“What the hell!?” She saw Black look at the man with wary interest. “There’s fucking metal. This isn’t bone.” The alien released her hand.
That got his attention, she lost sight of him as he rounded behind her. “What do you mean metal?”
“There’s no way that grey-glint is bone. She’s a Cyborg, human, you fucked up.”
Her arm was wrenched impossibly, painfully further back. Reina could feel the sting of her skin being flayed from her hand as they revealed her manmade appendage.
Her head slammed back into the table. “Where is Larik!?” One of them screamed in her ear. “Where is Larik?” they repeated.
Where is he? She gave Black a bloody smile.
“Why was a lone military ship flying outside Taggert’s exosphere?”
“You’ll never find him.” It’s not like she knew his exact location. If they knew that, she and Yesne were dead.
“We’ll see how long you’ll remain silent while we flay you down to your robot–” His voice was cut off by a loud explosion overhead, and the riotous crash of machinery as everything tumbled to the floor, including Reina and her arm.
ATLAS LEFT THE SHIP flanked by several dozen battle drones. His electric heart raced with adrenaline and the anxiety of battle.
His boots cracked the black slate rock of the planet as he ran toward the port. He powered through the gusts as the wind whipped around him, filling his eyes and nose with powdered dust and the stink of dried-up nature.
There were twelve men approaching from the entrance of the facility, heading his way. Atlas sent the drones on ahead of him as he cocked his guns. Soon the sound of their yells joined the wind in his ears.