“What are you talking about?” Casin looked at him as if he’d grown a second head. “There are eight of us here. And we’re all cyborgs. Don’t you know what we can do?” Casin demanded.
For once, Corin stood behind his brother. “Right. We should do some damage to this ship at least.” His eyes narrowed. “You are a cyborg, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he answered impatiently. “But this is not our ship. We don’t control the systems. Could anyone take one of you on your own ship?”
Casin scowled. “Of course not.”
“The king isn’t going to be taken on his own ship, either. Now quit fighting me, dammit. Help us get these guys some armor and get to the docking bay. There are too many of us for an escape pod now.”
Tristin helped the fourth cyborg from Kirelle’s lab into his exoarmor. “What’s your name?” he asked the man.
“Lucas,” the cyborg answered groggily.
Kirelle was transferring the device to the sixth cyborg, XO21.
Casin was examining their glass storage containers. He saw Tristin’s. “Omega? Why didn’t I get a cool name like that? Here I am stuck with XO33.”
“This is not the time to discuss your fake cyborg name,” Tristin reprimanded. “Be glad you have a name at all. I just thank the gods that both of you made it through the cyborg surgeries. Most don’t.”
“It’s because we’re Tuorins,” Casin replied confidently.
Red lights came on overhead.
“Fuck!” Tristin’s heart began to speed up. He gestured to their exoarmor along the wall as he grabbed the last cyborg, XO25, who was still unconscious. “Get the armor for this last one. Jaffa, Evett, lead the way to the elevator. Savar, protect our rear. Lucas, grab some of those Ardak swords. They could come in handy.”
Kirelle shoved the device into her pocket and followed him.
In seconds, he had everyone on the back elevator, and he’d just pushed the button for the cargo bay. Casin and Corin were carrying the two unconscious cyborgs, and two others were carrying their exoarmor.
“This elevator is very large,” Casin commented.
“It’s usually used to transport patients to the labs on the metal tables,” Kirelle answered.
Tristin threw her a look and she went silent. Shifting the unconscious man, he handed Casin and Corin each one of his blasters.
Casin laughed. “We don’t need those, Cousin. We are the weapon.”
Savar eyed their exoarmor. “Don’t use those ray cannons unless you’ve got an Ardak directly in front of them. You can blast a hole straight through to the outside of this ship.”
They simply blinked at him.
“Why don’t you just turn down the power level?” Casin suggested.
Savar stared at them, then down at his wrists. “Mine doesn’t do that.”
“That’s probably for the best,” Kirelle broken in. “I don’t have rechargers for you so you have to limit your use of power.”
Corin frowned. “How much can we use?”
“Don’t get below half of your battery. Otherwise we won’t have time to get anywhere else to recharge.” She turned to Tristin. “We need to steal a ship that can take the gravity of wormholes.”
“Let’s hope there’s one readily available,” he grunted.
“Take your damned ray guns back,” Corin ordered. “Because we know how to use ours.”
“No,” Tristin ordered. “Keep them and use them before your suits. I don’t want anyone running out of power.”
The elevator stopped, and just before the doors slid open, he turned and shoved Kirelle behind him, passing the unconscious cyborg back to Evett. Then all seven cyborgs faced the front of the lift.
The elevator doors opened, but they weren’t at the docking bay. And the space before them wasn’t empty.
Instead, they were looking directly at X-Blade and two Ardak guards.
He felt the others glance at him for directions, but short of outright attack, there was nothing he could do. He knew she wouldn’t be able to talk her way out of this.
“Get in,” X-Blade commanded the Ardaks. “The cyborgs are programmed to obey me.”
The Ardaks silently obeyed, squeezing in the front of the elevator so the three of them faced them.
X-Blade pushed a button on the elevator’s panel and spoke into the com. “I have them. We’ll bring them back to the labs.” The Ardak’s eyes bored into him, then Kirelle. “Why are you in this section of the ship?”
“I repaired Omega,” she answered shakily. “He still has much scientific value in our creation of other cyborgs. I was taking them to the training center.”
“Really?” the head scientist replied dryly. “Going to test him against all the rest of the cyborgs, were you?”
Her eyes widened, but she simply nodded.
X-Blade sighed. “I really wish you wouldn’t have done this. It makes everything that much more difficult.”
Tristin saw her eyes grow wide with fear. He had a feeling that no matter what happened now, there was no way all of them were leaving this elevator alive.
But it was a pity. Of all the Ardaks he’d encountered, the head scientist was the only one who had treated the elf—and him—with a modicum of respect. And he’d been helping the ARF—which she probably didn’t know. It was he who had met Tristin in the personal room of the Flouriant and given him the moon base coordinates and codes.
“I’m sorry,” Kirelle said, staring down at the floor.
“I know you are.” The words were slow, defeated. But in one swift movement, X-Blade pushed the stop button on the elevator. As it halted, he slammed into the Ardak to his right.
Tristin did the same with the second Ardak, but the guard unsheathed his claws, slashing at him several times. The claws didn’t pierce his exoarmor, however, and it wasn’t long before he was able to knock the Ardak unconscious.
Then the air was filled with mingled shouts and growling and a single, horrible yowl from the second guard. Tristin turned just in time to see Corin holding him while X-Blade beheaded him.
“Damn, what a mess,” X-Blade said calmly, one hand going to his side.
Tristin looked down to see that X-Blade had taken a knife in the side. The hilt pointed downward, meaning the blade was angled upward into his chest. “What the hell happened?”
“What do you mean what happened?” Savar demanded. “I didn’t know he was with us.”
Then two guards were dead, and the cyborgs backed away as X-Blade slid to the floor, holding his side as blood pumped from it. “It’s all right. He couldn’t know.” The head scientist coughed and his lips turned red. “Fuck.”
At that moment, everything came together and Tristin realized that he knew who had saved him and his cousins from destruction—who’d set him up to be the best cyborg ever created.
He owed all their lives to X-Blade.
Chapter Twelve
Kirelle
Kirelle fell to her knees beside the fallen Ardak. “Let me see. I can fix it.”
“No.” X-Blade reached up and grabbed a gold chain around his neck, yanking it off and handing it to her. “For the ARF. And you.”
“The ARF?” she asked numbly.
“Yes. The Ardak Resistance Force.” X-Blade coughed again, then looked up at Tristin. “You must call them to meet you and finish your mission.”
“You’re with the resistance?” Kirelle was having trouble processing the information. X-Blade had always been so straitlaced.
“We need to help you,” Tristin replied.
X-Blade shook his head, and for the first time, the expression on his face looked. . .normal. Almost relaxed. “Leave me. Get the fleet. It’s the only way you’ll get off this ship alive.”
“Fuck!” Tristin kicked the wall. The expression on his face was one of grief. “It was you. You saved us all.”
“What do you mean?” Casin demanded.
“He pulled us from the prison for cyborg creation before they could exec
ute us,” Tristin explained. “X-Blade has been the one working with the ARF. He’s the one I met aboard the Flouriant.”
Shock went through her as she stared at him, the pieces falling into place.
Tristin clenched his fists and tightened his jaw.
“Tristin.” X-Blade’s voice was calm. “They need you now. There’s no time for this.”
Tristin ran his fingers through his hair and knelt beside the head scientist. “Tell me what to do.”
X-Blade’s eyes focused on him, then moved up to her. “What device did you use to give them back their memories?”
“The one I got from Andraya.”
He grunted. “An old one then. But it should still work. Tristin, search your memories for the communication codes. In any ship you use to escape, enter the first four numeric codes, then the last is 314159. Send the codes you worked out to have the ships meet you at the moon.”
“We need to get the others somewhere to recharge.”
X-Blade coughed. “Take them to Aurora first. The upgraded cyborgs are there. Ask for Mordjan.”
Tristin nodded. “Let us take you to an escape pod.”
“No.” He turned to her, his expression growing slacker. “I would have saved you, you know. I wouldn’t have let those Ardaks kill you. But this way is probably better.” He sighed again, wincing. “I believe in science. When I began, I thought I would be creating things to make the universe a better place. But I’ve begun to see that I was wrong.” His eyes slowly closed. “Get to the ARF. Stop the king. Goodbye, Kirelle. Goodbye. . .Tristin.”
Then he was gone, blood loss taking him into unconsciousness.
She stared down at him, then turned to Tristin. “I can fix him.”
“No. This is what he wants,” Tristin said resignedly, pressing the button on the elevator. As it began to move, he divested the guards of their weapons, shoving them in the bags.
“We can take him with us,” Casin suggested.
“He doesn’t want to go. Let him die with dignity,” Tristin told him roughly. He took one last look down at X-Blade. “Those bastards are going to pay for this, my friend. I promise.” He pressed the button to take them to the docking bay level.
“But he’s a great scientist,” Kirelle argued. She couldn’t see why they should leave him behind. It went against everything she believed in. Everything X-Blade had worked for.
Tristin turned to her. “All right. If the coast is clear, we can try to take him with us. But I think it’s going to be a fight for our lives, and he will only slow us down. He probably knows it as well, which is why he asked us to leave him.”
“How much firepower can these suits take?” Evett asked, slipping the body of exoarmor over XO25’s unconscious form.
“A hell of a lot. More than they’ll want to use unless they want to blow holes in their own ship.” Savar answered. He saw what Evett was doing. “That’s a good idea. At least he’ll be covered and we’ll have five cyborgs free. Everyone help us with this.”
The other cyborgs hurried to get the complete suit of exoarmor on the unconscious cyborg. They finished just as the elevator was stopping.
“Everyone get ready.” Tristin faced the door, raising his blasters. “I have a feeling this is going to be a fight.”
“But X-Blade told them he was taking us to the labs,” Kirelle said.
Tristin didn’t look back, but she could see his head tilt toward the ceiling. “Did you believe him?”
She stood just behind him, peeking through the space between his shoulder and Savar’s. When the elevator doors opened, her blood went cold. There were at least twenty Ardaks gathered in the bay facing the elevator.
And when the elevator doors slid open, all twenty pairs of eyes focused on them.
“Yep. The king didn’t believe him either,” Tristin muttered.
One of the Ardaks roared, and the worst thing imaginable happened—the Ardaks parted and the king strode forward in the center, flanked by two guards. And they were wearing a type of exoarmor similar to the cyborgs.
“Who the fuck is that?” Casin asked.
“The king,” she answered without thinking.
They were all going to die.
Chapter Thirteen
Tristin
Tristin’s stomach hardened into a tight knot when he saw the king, as he surveyed the cargo bay with a glance. A fighter would be better, but too small for all of them. “Leave X-Blade. Head for that cargo ship on the right,” he ordered, stepping forward and shooting with the lasers of one hand, then starting sideways to offer cover to the others behind him.
It was a short sprint to the small craft, and with any luck they would make it.
The Ardaks let out vicious, yowling roars, their leaps covering the distance between them in record time. And even worse, he saw the flash of red blades in some of their hands.
“Those red blades will cut through the armor!” Kirelle shouted.
“We know, dammit,” Tristin shouted.
In a split second he knew they weren’t going to make it.
“Casin!”
Casin stopped and he gave his cousin the unconscious man, then shoved him toward the ship. “Run!” he ordered Kirelle and Corin, who had also stopped.
He took a red-bladed sword from Savar. Evett, Jaffa, and Lucas did the same. They ran a few more steps toward the small cruiser so they could block the entrance from the onslaught, then the five of them tuned toward the oncoming Ardaks.
With a scream of rage fired the ray guns from his suit continuously. He killed two and disabled another, but the blasts bounced right off any Ardaks wearing exoarmor.
Then the Ardaks reached them and he used his red-bladed sword to block theirs.
Shots came from over his head and he found Corin and Kirelle were standing higher up the cruiser’s cargo bay ramp and were shooting over their heads while they fought hand-to-hand. They’d taken out several Ardaks, but more Ardaks were reaching them every second.
There were simply too many of them, and killing them required direct shots to the face since most were wearing helmets. Every time they killed one, two more took its place.
At this rate they would do more damage with the red-bladed swords.
A glance told him one of their blades had made contact with Jaffa’s arm, leaving it hanging useless at his side.
Suddenly, a wall of fire exploded just in front of them and he shoved his Ardak back into it. The others did the same, and while they yowled he turned to see Kirelle in the doorway of the cruiser with her arms raised high.
“Get to the ship!” He ordered the others, still facing the wall of fire. Something told him that might not stop the king.
Seconds later, the king stepped through the center, a red-bladed sword flashing in each hand. He glanced down at his torso. “I must admit, this armor is better than I’d expected from an elf.” His eyes narrowed on Kirelle. “So it wasn’t just X-Blade who conspired against me.”
“You were going to kill me,” she shot back.
The Ardak king nodded. “And my instincts were right. Look where we are now.” He focused his slitted eyes on Tristin. “I killed you once already, and I will kill you again. You killed my cousin.”
“You killed my sister,” Tristin shot back. “And billions of others on peaceful planets. We’re nowhere near even.”
“Stop talking to him and get to the ship!” Casin’s voice came into his head, and he realized it was via a frequency.
“Leave me.” He told the cyborgs over the same frequency. “Get out of here.”
The king leaped high and launched into an attack, both swords raised, coming down toward Tristin from above.
He raised his own swords to block them, thrusting the king backward. But the Ardak didn’t fly far. The king roared and came at him again in a series of fluid movements, using the double swords almost as he would have.
He brought his swords up to block, and the king matched him move for move as they dueled across the floor
, swords flashing quicker than the eye could see. If he didn’t know better, he’d say the king had trained in Xu, the martial art of the House of Tuorin.
Then the king jumped and spun with his duel swords spinning, the signature move of Xu, and the resemblance was unmistakable.
“How do you know Xu?” Tristin demanded, blocking the swords using all the years of training he possessed.
“The universe is smaller than you think, Tristin of the House of Tuorin.” The king spun again, and impossibly, his swords sped up into a phenomenal cyclone of motion.
Tristin had never fought anyone this good. He matched the king’s speed and ability, but he wasn’t better. And he needed to be better to win. They circled each other, dual swords spinning, striking, swirling in patterns too quick for the eye to follow.
The king jumped up again and Tristin sprang off the ground to match him, their swords meeting in the air with furious clashes of energy.
And suddenly, Tristin knew he wasn’t going to win. At least he could buy the others time while he fought the king.
As he spun once more, he realized the cargo ship hadn’t left.
“Why aren’t you leaving?” he asked them with his mind.
“Are you kidding, Cousin? We don’t know how to fly this thing,” Casin replied.
“It’s not like the spaceships from home,” Corin added. “And we weren’t trained in Ardak ships yet.”
Tristin gritted his teeth, backing toward the ship as he countered the king’s blades. He could not let the king capture them all again.
But he had no idea how he was going to break free. The battle had waged in a wide arc, and now the king was blocking access to the ship.
Several fireballs came from behind the king, hitting the king and two Ardaks in exoarmor in their heads. The king spun and raised his swords to block them, but it wasn’t entirely effective and part of the fur on his head caught fire.
Tristin looked over his shoulder and saw that Kirelle was the one throwing the fireballs.
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