by Aurelia Skye
When she finally got a glimpse of what had disturbed the barrier, she stumbled to a halt. Her mouth dropped open, and she stared at the unfamiliar structure parked near the base. Parked wasn’t quite the term. It looked like it was anchored into the ground, and it was huge. The ship—though she wasn’t certain if that was the right identifier—looked to be at least four kilometers in diameter. That was just a guess, because she couldn’t see it all from her vantage point.
MX slipped up beside her, putting his arm around her waist and drawing her closer to the edge of the crowd. Somehow, he managed to maneuver through the others until they were standing in the front row, and her eyes widened when she saw Freydon Rote. “What’s he doing here?”
MX just grinned. “As soon as everyone’s quiet, he’ll tell us all again. He explained it briefly to DVS, and I overheard it, but he wanted to make the official announcement to everyone.”
Gradually, the crowd calmed, and it was quiet. At just the right moment, Freydon started speaking, though no mouth part appeared on the gelatinous matter composing his face. “Congratulations on defeating your enemies and finding your mates—at least some of you. Your next challenge is to fix the planet, and I’ve brought some help for that.”
It seemed to be a predesignated signal, because two sets of feet appeared on the ramp leading from the large vessel. They were green, but not like a reptile. More like a nice summer green, and the skin appeared smooth. Heather’s eyes widened with surprise when two women came completely into view as they left their ship. They were on the shorter side, both with flowing black hair, and adorable pointed ears that made her think of an elf.
“Everyone, this is Melia and Peila. They are the captains of this vessel, and their species is Grecopan.” Freydon’s eyes twinkled as he glanced around the crowd, seeming to be deliberately focusing on a couple of the male cyborgs. “You’ll be pleased to know Grecopans are compatible with humans, and there are several mate matches among you.”
DVS step forward, arms across his chest. “We appreciate the gesture, Freydon, but what are we supposed to do with more people? Our resources are carefully allocated, and we have a monumental task ahead of us. I’m not sure adding more mouths to feed is the right answer at this time.”
Once again without a mouthpiece, Freydon still managed to chuckle before speaking. “I think you’ll change your mind in a moment, Davis. The Grecopans are a terraforming species. Even with their skills, it will take decades to fully reclaim this planet, but it can be done. It will be done. You can take my word on that, since I exist outside of—”
“Time and space,” said several people in the crowd at the same time.
Freydon looked briefly discomforted, but then shrugged one of his jellylike shoulders. “I suppose I’ve mentioned that a few times.” After a moment, he chuckled again.
Then he appeared to turn serious, though his gelatinous being made it difficult to be certain. “Two generations ago, the Grecopans encountered a virus on one of the planets they were terraforming. It didn’t affect the women, but it rendered many of the males sterile. The Grecopans are willing to help you terraform the planet in exchange for being allowed to stay, mingle with your group, and find their mates. They have their own resources aboard, including vast hydroponic bays. I think you’ll find integrating with them will be beneficial and not a hardship. What do you say, General?”
DVS’s arms dropped away from his chest, and he traded a look with Carrie. Heather was happy to see him look to his mate for her input before he decided for everyone. He nodded once she had, looking firm. “We’d be happy to help them and vice versa. Thank you once again, Freydon.”
“It’s a pleasure to help all of you, General. I’ve been doing this for a long time and made millions of matches, but your group is among my favorites. I’ll miss checking in with you.”
“You can come see us again, whenever you’d like,” said DVS, looking a little uncertain as he issued the invitation.
This time, a mouth part appeared on Freydon’s face as he smiled. “I might pop in for a visit then at least once more.” He winked at Carrie before turning to Melia and Peila. “I’ll leave this operation in your capable hands, alongside the general’s. I wish you all the best of luck.” With those words, Freydon was gone.
“What do you think this all means?” asked Heather softly of MX.
He shrugged, but his expression was full of hope. “I think it will be a good thing for all of us, and for the planet. I suppose we’ll just have to see, but Freydon hasn’t been wrong yet.”
She reached out and took his hand, remembering the night before, and how they had bonded. “You’re certainly right about that.”
******
You’ll get to see Freydon one last time in the epilogue to this series, which is coming soon:
Bonus Excerpt
Fated For The Cyborg Officer (Celestial Mates series/Cybernetic Hearts #3)
PROLOGUE
The cyborg general DVS84, better known as Davis to his mate, Carrie, sat at his desk. His attention should be focused on the myriad tasks before him, but he was finding it difficult to concentrate on anything after his talk with Carrie that morning. She had blindsided him with her news, though he was surprised he hadn’t noticed in retrospect. His ability to detect her heart rate and temperature changes should have told him, though when he had scanned her after knowing her information, he hadn’t yet been able to pick up a second heartbeat. That meant she had to be less than six weeks pregnant.
Pregnant. Just the word left him feeling disoriented, and he couldn’t quite bring himself to imagine how her pregnancy would progress and ultimately culminate in a child. It wasn’t that he didn’t want a child with Carrie, but the world they lived in was no place to bring babies into, which was why the cyborgs had an embargo on reproduction. Carrie hadn’t been implanted with a chip to halt her ovulation, but Davis had one that should’ve prevented him from sperm production. He would have to ask OWN about a possible malfunction later, once he had absorbed the news and could talk about it with the others.
As it was, he’d barely stumbled through the conversation with Carrie. He’d seen the fear in her eyes, and it had been his top priority to soothe that away. He thought he had left her feeling optimistic, but he himself hadn’t yet decided how he felt. The logistics were something he could focus on though. Trying to sort out the practical points to address and save the emotional consideration for later. Yes, that sounded like a good plan.
His wrist beeped, and Davis opened the communiqué. He didn’t know whether to curse or thank the little peach alien’s face that appeared on his screen. “I thought I’d never hear from you again, Freydon Rote.”
It was quickly obvious that Rote had recorded a message to send him. “General Davis, I need your assistance facilitating the next match. Please assign RVN99 as the next liaison to the humans. Have her work with the leader of the enclave to find out who’s opposed to your treaty. Instead of giving that duty to MX409, please assign him to focus on the mining and structural problems. Leith will assign him the proper partner. Thank you for your cooperation, General.” The alien’s visage hadn’t changed to form a mouth part, but now the eyes sparkled, and lips appeared in the gelatinous peach blob. “And congratulations on your impending fatherhood.”
That was the end of the message, and Davis replayed it twice before clearing the screen. He leaned back in his chair, considering the Celestial Mates agent’s request. Perhaps he should be reluctant to assist Freydon Rote, but the agent had given him no reason not to trust him. The little peach alien had delivered everything he had promised Davis—a mate, and possibly a viable way to end the war through reconciliation with the humans.
His sole reservation wasn’t because Freydon Rote had asked him to send another cyborg. It was because of the cyborg Rote had chosen. RVN99, or Raven as she preferred to be called thanks to Carrie, wasn’t his first choice for this type of assignment. He preferred to keep her on safer tasks. She was young
by cyborg standards, and she had been a young human when she had been changed to a cyborg.
It wasn’t her age that held him back though. Something had gone wrong in her conversion process, and while the flaw made her tenderhearted and empathetic, it had left her ill-equipped to be a cyborg soldier. Either she had not retained much training from her human military experience, or she had never gained it to start with, but either way, she wasn’t a soldier he liked to send into battle.
While he didn’t anticipate Raven having to fight the synthetics if she went to the human enclave, he was concerned about humans turning against her. After all, one of the humans had overloaded the environmental controls to cause an explosion last time they had been at the enclave. Even more concerning was Raven’s delicate feelings. He didn’t want her to be hurt by the snubs she was sure to receive from the humans.
Davis let out a sigh of frustration, wishing Rote had simply communicated directly rather than sending a recording, because he would have liked clarification. For one thing, was he sending Raven to meet her potential match, or was it simply to help other pieces fall into place so someone else could meet their match? If he was certain he was sending her to find her mate, he’d have fewer reservations.
In the end, what choice was there? Of course he could refuse to cooperate with the Celestial Mates agent, but he might be denying Raven or MX409 a chance at meeting their mates. He didn’t want to risk that, not after finding such happiness with Carrie. With another sigh, he summoned MX and Raven via their wrist comms and studiously kept his thoughts from Carrie and her unexpected news as he waited for them to arrive.
They arrived almost simultaneously, with MX stepping through his door only two seconds before Raven entered as well. He gestured to the seats in front of his desk so that they would sit down before leaning forward to look at both of them intently for a moment. “I have new assignments for you. MX, I’d like you to go to the enclave and ask Leith to assign you a partner for probing the mining problem and seeing what other options are available to us—either a new source of the minerals for terbium, or relocation for the enclave.”
MX hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yes, sir.”
It was difficult to tell from his expression, since it was so closed, but he was probably not delighted with being sent back to the humans. After accidentally killing one of them when he had misread the situation, he likely felt awkward around them, and he’d never been the biggest fan of humans before they started attempts at making peace.
That was too bad, because he was the best cyborg Davis had for the position now that Freydon Rote had requested he send Raven to do the task he’d planned to assign MX.
“Why am I here, sir?”
He turned his attention to Raven, smiling slightly in response. “I have an assignment for you too. I’d like you to work with the humans at the enclave to discover who else might be opposed to the treaty and might try to sabotage peace.”
Her brown eyes widened, and her shock was evident. “You want me to do that? But…” She trailed off.
He tilted his head slightly. “Do you feel you’re not able to complete that task?” He wasn’t certain whether he wanted her to give him an answer in the affirmative or negative.
She hesitated for a moment before slowly shaking her head. “No, I think I could do it. It’s just you never send me out to do anything but look for terbium or mine.”
He shrugged, wanting to avoid the topic of why that was, since he was certain Raven remained unaware of her conversion flaw and wanted to keep it that way. “That’s where your talents lie, but I need you for this. There isn’t anyone else I trust more than you two, and MX has his own assignment.”
Technically, he trusted JSN42 the most, but the commander was back at the base and working on the cloning project with Gwen Harrison, the former leader of the human enclave. Since she was also his mate, JSN was unlikely to want to leave her and her two children, and Davis could sympathize. If someone tried to send him away from Carrie for an unknown amount of time, he’d fight the order, no matter who issued it.
Raven squared her shoulders, though she still looked uncertain. “Thank you for the opportunity, General. I won’t let you down.”
He gave her a small smile, one he hoped was laced with encouragement. “I know you won’t. Had I any doubts, I wouldn’t have selected you to start with. You can handle this.”
“Thank you, sir.” She was practically glowing now, almost vibrating with excitement at the prospects before her.
It was all Davis could do to bite back a chuckle, not wanting her to think he was mocking her enthusiasm. Her smile was just contagious. He was certain he wouldn’t be the only cyborg to miss her while she was on her new assignment. She contributed a great deal to the morale of the entire base.
“You’re dismissed then. You’ll leave tomorrow. I’ll contact Gwen and have her liaise with Leith, so he’ll be expecting you.”
They left quickly after, and he was almost sorry to see them go. Mainly because he didn’t want to dwell on thoughts of Carrie and the baby. It was impossible to avoid doing so though, and he soon realized he was excited by the prospect, though fearful for her safety and for the future world in which their child would grow up.
CHAPTER ONE
After spending a mostly sleepless night, Raven woke early to prepare for her journey to the human enclave. She packed a few essentials and refilled her nutrient fluid reservoir, but still had too long to think.
She paced around her room, doubt eating away at her. Could she handle this? It was the first time Davis had trusted her with that level of responsibility, and she was afraid she would let him down. She might fail and end up even more cosseted by the other cyborgs. They might not think she knew, but she realized how they protected her. It was endearing, but it was also stifling. This was a chance to prove herself, but she was afraid of cracking under the pressure.
Finally, she left her quarters when it wasn’t indecently early and went in search of the general. She intercepted him as he and Carrie were entering the mess hall, and they paused as she approached. Feeling nervous, she clenched her hands in front of her. “Do you have a moment, General?”
After a quick look at his mate, who nodded, the general moved away from Carrie toward her. “What’s on your mind, Raven?”
“Why are you sending me? Do you really think I can do this?”
He didn’t hesitate. “I think you can do it, but I wasn’t completely forthright with why I chose you. I had a message from the Celestial Mates agent who brought Carrie to me. He requested I send you to facilitate the next match. I don’t know if that match is for you, MX409, or someone else, but I felt like I should trust him and honor his request. You know he exists outside of time and space, so he can see the outcomes before things happen. He chose you for a reason, and I trust him. More importantly, I trust you.”
Raven let out a ragged gasp and took a step back. “I see.”
“Do you still wish to go?”
She nodded at the general’s words. She was still frightful and uncertain, but the lure of finding her own mate was enough to overcome her fears and continue pushing her forward. “I’ll be ready to leave as soon as MX is. Thank you for the information, General.”
She parted from him a moment later and returned quickly to her quarters to gather her things. She was still nervous, but slightly reassured by Freydon Rote’s intercession. As General DVS had said, he could foresee what was going to happen and knew where she should be and why. She would eventually discover those answers for herself as well, and all she could do in the meantime was go where she was supposed to and do her best.
***
The human enclave was a grim and depressing place. Raven had intellectually expected that, but seeing it for herself prompted a completely emotional reaction. It left her sad and more than a little drained to see the existence these people endured. Their enclave was hewn from a mountain rising above it and had once been a human VIP base. Technica
lly, it still was, but age had taken its toll, along with an uptick of seismic activity from the cyborgs’ mining operation hundreds of feet above.
As she examined the main room, she wanted to scoop up all the humans who had gathered nearby at their entry and take them back to the base. It was an underground facility as well, but it wasn’t as depressing as the human enclave.
Only the expressions of the humans kept her from making a rash suggestion that the general would have vetoed anyway.
They looked at her with varying degrees of curiosity, distrust, or visible loathing. The cyborgs who had visited the base before had warned her to expect this, but her emotional armor still wasn’t thick enough to keep from feeling hurt at their reaction. It filled her with sadness to see their distrust when she had only good intentions. She couldn’t just tell them that though. They would have to see for themselves.
Her sensitive hearing caught a mechanical hum before she saw the source. A moment later, a man in a wheelchair rounded the corner, his chair hovering a few inches off the ground as it brought him closer to where she and MX stood. A tall woman with long brown hair walked at his side, and they were conversing, so she didn’t see the leader’s face until he suddenly looked up, breaking off in mid-word.
His eyes were a shade of seafoam green, and his face was pure sculpted masculinity. He had short, spiky brown hair and nicely shaped lips that she could imagine kissing. When his gaze met hers, it was like a zing of electricity shot through her, short-circuiting both her human nerve endings and her cybernetic relays.
That sensation convinced her that Freydon Rote was correct, and she was here to facilitate his next match—a match between herself and the leader of the human enclave. Never before had she felt anything like it. Perhaps she had when she’d been a human, but her memories of that time were vague and deliberately obscured because of the military during the conversion process to a cyborg. In her cyborg lifespan, she had never experienced such a feeling of certainty or need.