Ashland 297: The Alien Agenda

by Donna McDonald

“Me too.” Dia spoke the truth with some genuine snark. “Now get the fuck out before I forget you’re both global celebrities. Your husband being a cyborg won’t stop me from kicking both your asses. Lots of people think I’m a crazy bitch anyway. After what you told me, I’ve got nothing left in my life to lose.”

  What Dia truly wished was that the news Kyra and Peyton had brought her wasn’t that the government she’d served all her life was lying to her. But look what they’d done to all the cyborgs? Ash’s situation was just one more fucked-up thing to be angry about.

  And Sergei…

  Damn the motherfuckers for making her a target and putting a man tag on her. No wonder he’d seemed perfect. He was being paid to be. He’d probably been studying her the whole time they’d known each other.

  But why? Why had they done this to her and Ash?

  Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to use her every weakness against her and for what? To keep her in the dark about the existence of some top-secret agreement they’d made with aliens? Liars and manipulators—the UCN was fucking full of them.

  Dia heard the door securing itself behind Kyra and Peyton as they left. She swallowed the bile rising in her throat. If Kyra and Peyton hadn’t revealed the real truth to her, where would she be at the moment? Maybe a little better off emotionally, but then she’d still be sleeping with a man who was being paid to monitor what she did.

  “Fuck all of those sick-ass motherfuckers,” Dia said aloud.

  She would not let this shit break her. She would not let them get by with what they’d done to Ash.

  She looked around her kitchen and wondered how she’d feel if she never returned to it.

  “Ash,” she whispered. “I’m sorry it took me so damn long to find out about you.”

  Dia hit the doorjamb with her fist as she exited the room and cursed a streak again as she stomped to her bedroom to pack.

  Even if the alien hybrid version of Ash didn’t remember jack-shit about her… or them… she would never forget what they had been to each other.

  That was reason enough to go see what they’d done to the only man she’d ever loved with her whole heart.

  She hoped taking her to see Ash was what Kyra intended all along because she for damn sure wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  6

  Peyton nodded as he listened to Aja’s explanation.

  “The droids apprehended Astronaut Daniels at the front desk because she lit up with multiple trackers. Someone definitely doesn’t want her breaking her leash.”

  Dia nodded in recognition when the Norton head of security, Aja Kapur, smiled at her. “I understand you’re doing your job.”

  “Thanks… and thank you for the autograph, Colonel Daniels. My oldest daughter wants to build spaceships when she grows up. It will thrill her that I met you.”

  Dia lifted an eyebrow in surprise when the head of Norton security turned from her thank you to point a warning finger at the handsome blond male who pointed back to mock her.

  “Get those trackers out of that woman, Eric. Call me when you finish and I’ll bring back the portable scanner Seetha amped up for me. It will find what your puny version leaves behind.”

  Ignoring the two people arguing the merits of their body scanners, Dia shook her head as Peyton turned and smiled at her. She stood there feeling surreal all over again. It didn’t help her comfort level that everyone in the room was cyborg except her.

  Peyton smiled. “I’m glad you came, but before we visit, Eric here needs to look for trackers on you. It stings a little when we find one, but other than that you’ll be fine.”

  The scanner hadn’t covered two inches of skin before Dia was yelling “What the hell?” when it zapped her.

  “Got the first one, Colonel. That one was obvious… and a much older model,” the grinning blond informed her.

  “How old?” Peyton asked.

  Eric lifted a shoulder. “Maybe thirty years. It was still functional though.”

  “Thirty years?” Dia exclaimed as she stared at the burn spot left behind on her arm. “That was well before the war. Hell, I was still in flight school back then…”

  “How many trackers does she have, Eric?” Peyton turned and asked.

  “Looks like at least eight,” Eric said, consulting his scanner.

  “Eight?” Dia yelled. “Are you saying someone tagged me with a total of eight freaking trackers including the one that is three decades old?”

  Eric nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Some of them are much newer. At least three are biological—which means they’ll try to regenerate later. You may have to go through this zapping process a couple of times to kill those for good.”

  Dia snorted. “The UCN is lucky I’m not a violent person or I’d bomb their asses next time I fly my shuttle over their damn building.”

  Peyton chuckled at a promise he knew Dia would never keep. “We can avoid all this if you sign a paper acknowledging that you willingly brought the tags here to Norton on your person and that you’re aware of the breach in your personal security. Someone is no doubt keeping track of the trackers. That’s how this works. A simple com call to the National Astronaut Board should verify the origins of them.”

  “Yeah? How about you verify this?” Dia replied, raising her middle finger.

  Eric grinned as he looked at Peyton. “Do you think that means stop zapping or go on?”

  Dia reached out and turned Eric by his chin to face her. “Kill these fucking things, Junior. I haven’t got all day.”

  Eric laughed then. “Yes, ma’am. Wow, I didn’t know there were two of you.”

  “Two of me?” Dia glared at Peyton. “Are all cyborgs dense?”

  “Eric’s referring to his wife. You remind me of Lucy too.”

  “Great. I remind you of your wife.” Zap! Dia danced in place. “Ow… that hurts worse than being punched.”

  “Really? Get punched often, do you?” Peyton asked with a grin.

  “More often than you’d imagine,” Dia said. “Young recruits think it’s your fault when they get sick and you don’t.”

  Laughing, Eric stopped. “Now I feel bad. Want a pain killer, Colonel?”

  “Kiss my ass, blondie. Get on with it,” Dia ordered.

  Several more zaps happened until there was one that had tears springing to Dia’s eyes. “What the hell was that one?”

  “Biological,” Eric said with a frown. “That one was highly advanced, and I barely got it. Hang on, Colonel Daniels, there’s only a couple more. Only one of those should be bad.”

  Dia gritted her teeth but couldn’t stop from flinching when another zap sent her dodging away from the man with the scanner.

  “That was the last one, but I need to check,” Eric said. “You have to stand still though.”

  Dia walked back to him and glared. “I feel sorry for your wife.”

  Eric grinned. “Sometimes I do too, but she’s too damn cute to stop teasing.”

  As soon as Eric pronounced her clean, Peyton called down to the front to get Aja Kapur to come back and scan her.

  The day had barely started and Dia already looked like she’d lost a target game. Her body was covered in round red circles. What had been so damn important that the government she served had tagged her again and again? How many of the men she’d taken to bed in the last two years had added more to the ones she’d gotten thirty years ago?

  Hearing about Sergei had spooked her and now she questioned everyone she’d let into her life.

  Dia inspected her arms and swore again. “I don’t know what their problem was with me. I went to work and returned home. I gave speeches when they told me to and flew the missions they asked me to fly. What the hell did I ever do to deserve this shitty treatment?”

  “Nothing,” Peyton said firmly. “You did nothing but be a good person. Those bastards follow their own agendas.”

  Aja burst through the door with a scanner the size of a hand-held cannon.

  Dia turned to glare at Peyton
. “No, no—fuck that. Where do I sign? I’ll keep the ones blondie didn’t kill,” she said, while all of them laughed.

  “Scan her, Aja,” Peyton said with a laugh. “I don’t want anyone tracking the good Colonel to my house. Kyra’s making lunch. It’s been a long time since my wife took such a strong liking to a stranger.”

  Aja shot a beam of light at Dia. The width of it scanned the entire front of her at once. Dia complied with a sigh when the woman made her turn around so she could scan her back.

  “Clear,” Aja pronounced with a grin. “Norton thanks the good Colonel Daniels for her cooperation. I’ll send a receipt for your security check to Peyton. He can forward it to you. Enjoy your visit.”

  Dia rubbed her arms and glared at Peyton. “Got any other torture in mind?”

  “Only if you don’t like Kyra’s tea.”

  Laughing at the innocent statement, Dia rubbed her nose. “I like tea almost as well as I do coffee. I own a teakettle to heat the brewing water in.”

  “Then you’re good. That’s exactly how Kyra makes it,” Peyton said as they headed out together.

  Dia took a bite of her rice bowl and looked around for the fiftieth time in surprise before finding she had to comment. They were eating at a makeshift table in a cyber lab complete with a medical chair and a restraint cage.

  “After eating in the cockpit of a space shuttle while looking at the Earth spinning in space, I thought I’d never get surprised by dining accommodations again. Congratulations, Dr. Winters. You’ve completely shocked me.”

  Kyra raised her head from eating and sighed. “Sorry. I know this place can seem gruesome to some, but we’re in here because my lab is as secure as it’s possible to be. The rest of house is questionable. We can talk freely in here without worrying about anyone listening to us.”

  Dia nodded. “Did you restore cyborgs in here?”

  “Me,” Peyton interjected, grinning at Dia’s shock. “I spent several days in that cell over there before Kyra let me out.”

  Dia lifted an eyebrow as she studied the quiet woman devouring her food with no self-consciousness over the conversation… or the creepy ambiance. She’d been like that once. She hadn’t cared about niceties. All those public appearances had made her socially careful—or soft. Guess it was all in how you looked at things.

  “I’m surprised she ever let you out of the cage,” Dia said to Peyton before she took another bite.

  Kyra lowered her fork to glare at her husband. “What did you do to her, Peyton? Did you laugh while Eric zapped her trackers?”

  Dia chuckled around a mouthful of rice. Peyton smirked instead of looking the least bit guilty. She remembered having a relationship like that too—once. Thinking of Ash robbed her of her appetite. She laid down her fork and sighed. “I’m sorry. The food is great. I’m just…”

  Kyra held up a hand to stop the apology. “You don’t have to explain anything to us. I’ve spent over a decade in the same emotional condition you’re in, only for a much less honorable reason.”

  “Kyra…” Peyton growled in warning.

  Kyra glared at Peyton. “I’m not lapsing into self-pity. I’m showing empathy. I know you know the difference.” She turned back to Dia. “Your husband’s alive. From what I’ve read, he’s a healthy alien-human hybrid. That’s all I know for now. I read what was done to him biologically, but nothing said how the changes affected his human mind. I don’t know how much of the Ashland Daniels you married remains in the hybrid being he’s become.”

  The most burning question Dia had tore out of her throat. “Do you think Ash even remembers me?”

  Kyra reached and put her hand on Dia’s arm. “I don’t know. If you want the answer to that question, you need to come with us. However, there is the risk that they may have wiped away all traces of who he once was. That’s how our government thinks. I have first-hand experience. I wrote the constant code Jackson and the military used to create Cyber Husbands and New World Companions. Despite the cyborgs in my life who’ve forgiven me, I will never forget that others used my creation for evil of biblical proportions.”

  Dia studied the brilliant scientist. “Human history is full of people making weapons from inventions created for good. If you’d fought too hard against their agenda, they likely would have killed you. In fact, I’m surprised they didn’t kill you. Why do you think they left you alive?”

  Kyra sighed. “Because I refused to give over my creator code. Instead, I went along with them until I couldn’t anymore.”

  “Right. So you were fighting a one-woman war against a bureaucratic machine that had decided to abuse their military heroes. Look what the hell they did to me, and they like me, Kyra. I made them look like good guys and they stole my damn husband.”

  Kyra nodded. “You’re right. What they did to you was way worse and now all I can do is sneak you in to see him.”

  “Sneak?”

  “We can’t exactly waltz into a secret program with a high-profile astronaut. We know a brilliant engineer who made you a chest plate that looks like breasts and skin. You will register on all identification scanners as cyborg Diana 177, which Eric added to the database this afternoon. A little hair dye, a pair of contacts, and some semi-permanent makeup should complete the ruse. When we’re done, no one will know you are you. That way we can get you in and out discreetly—or at least that’s the plan.”

  Dia swallowed hard. “I guess that means I could go back to my life after I see Ash.”

  Peyton nodded. “Yes. This is minor subterfuge. Now… if you want us to fake your death, that’s a little harder to do and takes a bit of time. It involves finding a cadaver, scraping your skin for enough DNA to mask the borrowed body, and many other things. I have a guy who’s great at it though. His wife is the resident genius running Norton.”

  “You’re talking about Dr. Logan,” Dia said, grinning when they stopped eating and stared. “Do you think a full Air Force Colonel wouldn’t do some homework on this situation? I stayed away from the touchy subjects like you suggested, but I looked up you two. I also looked up the other major players at Norton. I earned my birds and stars the old-fashioned way, thank you.”

  Peyton yelled, “Ha. Air Force. I told you, Kyra.”

  “Shut up,” Kyra hissed through her teeth.

  Her trust now cemented by their bickering, Dia went back to eating her food. It was obvious they’d made a bet on her military service and equally obvious that Kyra had lost. She grinned around her fork. The rice really was good.

  “Okay. When do we leave?” Dia finally asked.

  “This afternoon?” Kyra suggested with a lift of one shoulder. “It won’t take us long to outfit you. I’ll help you with your hair and the contacts, but you’re on your own with the makeup. We’ll be here all day if I have to do it.”

  “How long of a trip is it to get there?”

  Kyra sighed. “Four and a half hours. They don’t want us there during the normal workday, so we’ll arrive in the evening. A military escort will meet us at the transport station and take us to the location where a mysterious Dr. Sarek will meet us in the lobby to escort us around. I have his number if we end up running behind. He seemed a pleasant man when we exchanged com messages.”

  “Is the man an alien?”

  Kyra shrugged. “No idea, but does it matter? To see what’s going on, we will have to deal with them at some point. They run the program.”

  “Okay, I give up,” Dia said, setting her fork down for good. “I can’t eat while I’m riding this emotional rollercoaster you’ve got me on.”

  “Sorry to rush your processing, Dia, but we’re working against a deadline. I read you could handle Mach 8—you should be able to handle this,” Kyra said.

  “Mach 8 makes me dizzy. Everyone has a limit,” Dia said as she laughed. “I hope you bought red hair color. I’ve always wanted to be a red-head.”

  “Afraid not. My disguise person advised me to get you medium mousy brown,” Kyra said. “They said it
was more forgettable.”

  Dia snickered. “There go my expensive blond highlights. Ash better recognize me as a mousy woman, that’s all I’ve got to say.”

  Kyra smiled as she scooped up the last of her food.

  7

  Dia avoided looking at the stranger in the mirrored walls of the receiving station where Peyton had landed their rented air jet. She’d intended to record details about where this place was located. As soon as Peyton had set down in the designated hangar they’d been directed to use, she’d noticed her com had gone to solid static. They were being jammed and nothing could be done about it.

  A nondescript World Security officer politely greeted them as he picked them up in an old fossil fuel vehicle—the kind that had been outlawed half a millennium ago. He informed them the place they were going was protected by an EMP field and that modern vehicles didn’t function there. He also announced the use of location technology was forbidden, as well as all communications for the duration of their visit. He apologized for the inconvenience, but made sure they knew they required their compliance.

  Peyton looked angry about they were told, but he nodded and went along. Dia imagined it was all the “sir” and “ma’am” stuff from the young World Security officer that kept him from protesting.

  Kyra told the young officer that the precautions didn’t surprise her. This wasn’t her first time to visit a high-level military base, and the protocol was essentially the same.

  But none of them had been happy about the blind-folds they’d been instructed to wear for the entire forty-minute ride to where they were going. They hadn’t been allowed to remove their eye coverings until a set of metal gates had groaned open and shut behind their vehicle.

  Now here they were in front of a modern one-story building that curved around a giant eco-dome which rose three times as high. Surrounding the building and the dome was a sprawling, fully functional military base complete with soldiers dressed in desert uniforms, though no two uniforms seemed exactly alike. Dia heard at least four different languages being spoken as they carried out tasks that seemed to wrap up their day. That proved the project was global.