Ashes and Metal

by Naomi Lucas

  “If you get hurt...” He hated the silence. “They die. If you die, they all die. You’ll be safe.”

  Elodie made a humming sound. “I’m not that worried. Not anymore.”

  His jaw ticked. “We’ll be moving fast.” The door that led them to the rest of the ship came into view. Gunner stopped before it and turned around. “It’s time to uphold my end of the deal.”

  Sweat dripped from her hairline and caught in her eyebrows. He wanted to lean down and lick it clean off her.

  “So we’re finally heading to the escape pods?” Elodie lifted the sleeve of his jacket and wiped it off.

  His fingers twitched.

  “No. We’re not.”

  “We’re not?” She tilted her head. “What’re we doing then?”

  “We’re taking over the ship,” he answered and already his mind filled with the images of finally breaking into the bridge and confronting the captain. Worry clouded Elodie’s features and he raised his hand to cup the back of her neck. Her pulse thrummed and he ran his thumb over it, petting.

  “You still want the ship they stole from you back? Is this for your ship?” she asked.

  “No.” Gunner smiled softly. It was the truth, the realization wasn’t surprising. “I’m going to bring them in.”

  “Who? And in where?”

  “I work for the EPED, Ely. Like I said before, I’m a retriever. A Monster Hunter. And I found some fucking monsters the EPED would love to have.” He leaned slightly back and smirked. “See, I’m not such a selfish prick. Although, they’ll owe us a fortune for my lost vessel.” The corner of her lip twitched. It wasn’t quite a smile but he would take it.

  “I never thought you were. I guess unless you’re an adorable prick.” She laughed.

  He grumbled, “Not this Cyborg, and despite my fucking tattoos, I am a government employee. It doesn’t sound so badass when I say it but maybe after all this, I’ll tell them to change my title from acquisitions specialist to hero or I won’t take any more jobs.”

  Elodie laughed some more. The sound was addictive. If she continued, he was going to be coming back for seconds. He lightly squeezed her nape.

  “You’ll always be Gunner to me.” Her expression abruptly sobered. Her eyes drifted from his to the door. “The others may not agree, though, and it’ll be dangerous.”

  “Everything is dangerous. But you’ll follow me?” His other hand cupped her chin.

  Her eyes were back on him now but they looked distant and glazed, like all emotion had seeped out of them and vanished into the ether. Gunner knew that look, knew how far away and searching it could be, and wondered if Elodie might be, once again, receding back inside herself.

  Suddenly, her eyes cleared and she nodded. “Yes, I’ll follow you.”

  It was the answer he wanted and yet, somehow, it offered little reassurance.

  Chapter Nineteen

  GUNNER PRIED THE DOOR open.

  Several men, including Chesnik, waited for them on the other side. They rose to their feet and peered at him and Ely. Elodie squeezed past his side before he could stop her. For a moment her tall, willowy body brushed up against his, bringing back vivid memories of the last few days. A surge of jealousy zapped him as she rushed to her father’s side.

  He bristled, watching the reunion, but followed shortly after, ducking through the door himself. Gunner stopped himself from tugging Elodie back into his arms and away from her dad.

  She was his. She had promised everything to him. The jackal urged him to prowl and corner his prey but he stopped the bestial impulse before it could ascend to the forefront of his thoughts. He knew the terms were left unspoken between himself and Ely.

  He dropped his hand atop Elodie’s shoulder and settled with towering over their reunion.

  “Chesnik,” he said.

  “Cyborg.”

  If looks could kill, the man would be drowning deep in the red glow from his irises. Elodie detached herself from her dad and stepped back. As she did so, a couple others ex-prisoners approached and looked on with curiosity.

  She lifted the distress beacon out of the jacket’s inner pocket.

  “Did you get it to work?” Chesnik asked.

  “The parts are all in place and it turns on. It just needs something to boost it. We still need to wire it to the ship.”

  One of the other prisoners came over. “What is it?”

  Elodie answered, “It’s a beacon to the network, a signal outside of this place and since the security is down, if I can get it to work, we could maybe get some help.”

  Gunner reached out his hand. “It’s a backup plan.”

  Chesnik eyed him suspiciously despite Elodie handing over the contraption. Gunner found the power switch and turned it on. All eyes fell on the Cyborg, looking to see if the homebuilt piece of tech met his approval. Elodie had made it work and he was proud. He didn’t know when it had happened, but he did feel a weak, fluttering signal coming from the device. He shut his eyes and shared his energy with the beacon. The signal intensified as he poured himself into it, using his own tech to channel farther outward. Before long, the white-noise static of a radio signal sounded from the audio board.

  He seeded into it like he seeded into the ship and temporarily lost himself as the signal grew. A hand fell upon his arm and brought him back to reality.

  Elodie squeezed his bicep. “Are you okay?”

  He handed the beacon back to her. “I couldn’t connect to the network but the signal is strong now and is using me as an adapter. If anyone comes close to us, they’ll be able to pick it up. Keep it safe, because if it breaks we lose the connection.”

  Elodie nodded and took a step back.

  Gunner turned to face the others.

  “I hear the chairs are more comfortable on the bridge. Let’s find out, shall we?”

  “I DON’T TRUST HIM,” Chesnik said.

  Elodie stood stiffly at the other end of the hallway. Gunner and some of the other men were preparing weapons by the elevator. The door kept trying to close but was stopped again and again, and the sound of it was giving her a cluster headache. Each bang was like a gong, a countdown, and it made her increasingly uneasy.

  “I do,” she murmured.

  “Going to the bridge is suicide. We’ve already lost men. Some of whom didn’t even make it off the elevator before they were gunned down. Their corpses came back ravaged with bullets and smoking from laser wounds. You should’ve seen them. If you had, you would know that I’m right.”

  She knew why her father felt the way he did, but she made her choice and she was sticking with it. I chose to trust him. She trusted herself; she trusted her choice. Elodie shuffled back and forth on her feet.

  Taking over the ship had never occurred to her until Gunner mentioned it, but the idea was sound, especially since she knew how capable he was. He knew the ship better than any one of them and not because he had lived on it or walked its hallways but because it was a machine, just like him. Machines never changed.

  “Ely, you’re not listening to me. I’ve been up there with the pirate crew. I know what they’re like and what they’re packing. They have dozens of androids on their side. The only reason we’re not all dead—”

  “—is because of Gunner,” she finished for him. The only reason she wasn’t standing naked in the flesh markets of Elyria right now was because of Gunner. If the pirates had never captured him she would be in far worse circumstances. Even though her dad had come for her and released her from the brig, that didn’t mean he would’ve still gotten the chance if it hadn’t been for Gunner creating a distraction.

  “It’s because they can’t easily get to us, Ely,” he tried to correct. Elodie turned toward her dad, tearing her eyes off the Cyborg and the men gathered around him.

  “Why do you hate him so much?”

  “He fucking bargained for my daughter’s body. There’s no honor in that. Do you think he would be helping us now if you were a man? No.”

  S
he threaded her fingers together to stop them from twitching. “You don’t know that.”

  Would Gunner have still helped them? Gunner hadn’t even known she was a woman at first. We became friends through the diversions. Elodie chewed on the inside of her cheek.

  “I do know. I know because I’m a man and so were you until recently! They’re looking at you.”

  She twisted away and scanned the others. Some were looking at her. Their gazes felt heavy on her skin but she didn’t feel afraid. In fact, it was freeing. They didn’t look at her with menace, or lust, or any other peevish expression she’d come to know from being among men her whole life. “I can take care of myself.”

  Her dad sighed. “You’re breaking my old heart, boy.”

  A sudden burst of anger flooded her vision and she jerked back around to face her dad. “You broke mine first!” His eyes widened and his lips thinned. “You left me first,” she accused. “Don’t tell me I’m breaking your heart. It’s unfair after all you’ve put me through.”

  She could see the guilt wheedling at him. “We couldn’t both stay,” he started.

  So much guilt. It made her angrier.

  “You. Left. Me. All alone in there.” She pointed in the direction of the brig. “You didn’t tell me your plan, even a half-baked one. You didn’t reassure me at all. I followed you my entire life and when I needed you most, you vanished. How am I supposed to forgive you? I don’t even know where to begin.”

  “I should’ve told you something but—”

  “—I don’t care.”

  “Boy...”

  “Stop calling me that! It happened and it’s over. I keep going through it in my head and the sad part is, I understand why you did it, I understand all of it.” Her voice lowered and she deflated warily. It wasn’t like her to be overtaken by emotion. “And I’m glad you left... Because then maybe... One of us would have had a chance to survive. I’ll never forget it, even though I understand.”

  “I’m sorry...”

  “I thought I was going to have to watch you die, Dad. Or get beaten. When it all happened and the other two men volunteered, it broke my heart, it broke something inside of me and I was convinced that when that gun went off it was going to be your body on the floor.” She closed her eyes and shuddered at the memory. “I don’t know how to describe it. Horror. Agony. Despair. So don’t tell me I’m breaking your heart.”

  “Ely,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. It may have been because she’d never raised her voice to him before. Elodie searched his face, hoping to find regret but there was none. At least none for his actions. He’s only acting guilty because he has to.

  He patted her shoulder awkwardly and she wished he would hug her, that she had read him wrong, but it didn’t happen. There were strangers surrounding them and they had appearances to keep up.

  “It worked out,” she whispered numbly. Her eyes latched back onto Gunner. He was looking at her from across the room.

  “It did,” her dad agreed after a heavy moment.

  “Gunner was thrown into your cell within hours after you left.” Her dad’s eyes went from imploring to angry in a flash. “Because you left, he got put in the cell next to mine. Because you joined the crew, he was thrown, quite literally, into my life.” Her voice came out shaky but careless. She no longer cared if she hurt his feelings. “He saved my life.” Elodie pulled away, needing a moment to collect her thoughts.

  “I should’ve never left you.”

  “No. You shouldn’t have, but you did.”

  “So you’re putting all the blame on me then, are you?”

  Shrug.

  “I’ll take it, boy, because I know I’m at fault but don’t be stupid just because I was.” He gestured toward Gunner. “Because at the end of the day, you close your own eyes. No one closes them for you.”

  She listened to her dad walk away, and it was suddenly easier to breathe when he was gone. Elodie looked back up to find Gunner still watching her. He had never stopped watching her and had probably overheard the entire exchange.

  She licked her lips and held the connection an infinitesimal moment longer before her heart dropped and she glanced away. Stay smart, Ely.

  A short time later weapons were distributed and checked. Gunner had gone through each firearm as if it was his devil-given duty to make sure every single gun worked properly. When he’d handed her an automatic rifle and she had handed it back with the tips of her fingers, Elodie had never seen a more perfect look of mortification on any living man in her life. It would’ve made her laugh if the tension between them wasn’t heavy enough to be cut with a knife.

  Elodie wiped her hands on the overlarge sleeves of Gunner’s jacket. The beacon was tucked in a pocket within and she could feel the heat of it pressed against her chest. As the men collected, she moved to the back of the group and further away from them. It was out of habit. No one noticed those hidden in the back.

  “I’m going up first to clear the way.” Gunner’s voice boomed low through the hallway. He raised his arm and pulled back his sleeve to reveal part of his skin shifting away from his wrist. A projection of the ship’s schematics appeared in the air. “There are three main levels on this legionnaire and we’re at the bottom.” His finger moved through the map. “Our goal is the top.”

  The ship looked like nothing she had imagined.

  The top deck was barely attached to the rest the ship and it came off like a bird that had its neck broken. A bird with its wings closed tightly against its sides. And where the eyes and the beak were supposed to be was where the bridge apparently resided.

  “Where are the emergency escape pods?” Someone called out, asking.

  Gunner gestured vaguely toward the second level. “We’re not headed for them, it’s too dangerous. We don’t know where we are in space so we’ll be taking our chances here with the crew and take over the ship from within.”

  “But the odds—”

  “The odds...” Gunner chuckled hauntingly. “The odds against a Cyborg? Do you want to bet on the odds against me? Just so you can float around in a small capsule, hoping that you’re close enough to a habitable planet, or port? Risking the pods is an option but if you’re out there and you find there’s no place nearby to land, you’re fucked. Fucked in a small space, alone. You may have enough rations to get you through a week, maybe two, and that’s only if the current crew kept the pods stocked. I promise you, a clean death is preferable to dehydration. We head for the bridge.”

  Some of the men grumbled but Ely couldn’t see who.

  Someone else spoke up. “We have to be within days of habitable planets. The slave rings are on Elyria.”

  Gunner’s eyes flickered red. “They are.”

  “We warped recently...”

  “It’s too dangerous to stay onboard,” someone else said.

  “We’re outnumbered. We’ll never make it.” Elodie recognized the last voice as her dad’s.

  She watched the men around her but could see the light of Gunner’s eyes flaring brighter in her periphery. “Some of the crew will join us when we arrive. There’s unrest above and I’m sure those who were in the brig prior to being recruited will join us. Like Chesnik here.” Gunner nodded his head at him, eyes ablaze, singling her dad out. “There’s no loyalty owed to a captain who shuts himself away behind walls to let his crew fend for themselves, especially when they’re dying. We’re not outnumbered.”

  “The androids? What about them?”

  “Will be ours once I get near them.”

  “And we’re supposed to trust that you can do that?”

  “What choice do you have?” Gunner shoved the sleeve down and the map disappeared. “I commanded during the war against far worse odds than this. Feel free to join the cowards that refused to leave the brig. I won’t stop you, but I have a stake in keeping you alive. So you can choose to join me, or you can choose to leave. I don’t give a fuck whether or not you want my protection but you’ll have it if you
follow my orders.”

  A thunderous noise filled her ears as Gunner’s fist hit the wall. The men startled back around her from the violent impact. Gunner’s expression was wild and pissed. It was frightening in its intensity, even more so as the red glow died back into the grey.

  He made a slow show of pulling his hand away from the indent his violence had created, popping his metal joints, and jerking fingers that and been wrenched at odd angles back into place. Some of the metal inside his hand had pierced through his skin. A hush fell over the group. He showed no pain.

  Elodie knew a punch like that would’ve drilled right through a person, obliterating every atom in its path. She understood why he did it but she hated that he hurt himself on her account. She wanted to go to him, but something kept her feet rooted to the spot. It wouldn’t help anyone if she went to him now and took his hands in hers.

  “I’ll go first and clear our pathway. When the elevator comes back down, that’s your cue to follow. I’ll be waiting for you above. It won’t be long.” Gunner looked at her and no one else. She nodded.

  No one else said a word.

  He turned away and shoved the crate into the elevator.

  And then he was out of sight.

  Elodie took a step forward before she could stop herself.

  Chapter Twenty

  THE zing of laser fire sounded right as the door shot open. Gunner plastered his back to the side wall and kicked the crate forward to stop the doors from closing.

  He dove down and ducked behind it as more shots blasted his way.

  Androids. He scanned the periphery and triangulated the energy signatures. They assaulted him from further down the hallway; the robots had been programmed to fight him off. He channeled his way through the space and counted at least two dozen. There could be more that were still powered off and waiting as reinforcements.

  He quickly overpowered those closest to him and scrambled their coding. He searched through their transmitters, rearranged them to connect his own, and took control. Those in his power stopped abruptly, turned around by his will, and shot down the other androids at the end of the hall.