“Be glad I only used twenty-five percent of my strength,” she replied.
“Twenty-five percent?” His eyes widened. “You’re a cyborg?” He shook his head in disbelief. “They never make female cyborgs.”
“You thought a non-enhanced being could fight like this?” She clashed her knife with his sword once more and knocked his sword away before kicking him in the stomach.
He caught her leg and used it to push her back against the wall. “Enhanced?” he shot back, his voice hard. “Is that what those bastards are calling it now?”
She tried to wriggle out of his grip. “Of course. What do you call it?”
“Damaged. Broken. Enslaved. Take your pick.”
“We are stronger, faster, and more intelligent than normal beings. That makes us enhanced.”
He snorted. “Whatever you say. For the past year, it’s just made us prisoners of the Ardaks.”
“Why do you hate them so much? They save planets. They saved me.”
He cursed, parrying her back into the wall. “Is that what they told you? They lied. Those cats enslaved our people, killing most of them in battle or turning them into cyborgs.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”
His brows drew together. “I don’t care what you believe. It’s the truth.”
Having her words thrown back at her had a greater effect than anything else he’d said. She paused, giving him time to grab her arm and throw her over his shoulder, disarming her before he locked her arm behind her back.
“Prove it,” she demanded.
“With pleasure,” he replied. Then he spun her around, locking her arms behind her, and walked her out into the corridor and down a few doorways to the left.
When they entered, she knew the room immediately. The command center. Monitors dotted the walls, control consoles below them.
Valdjan led her across the large room and pressed her against the window, pointing out at the wide plain below. A plain that was a hazy red.
“That’s the work of the Ardaks.”
Aria tried to inhale, her world beginning to crumble around her. Her throat had closed, she was suffocating. The sky was turning red as far as she could see, the Ardaks’ huge metal canisters pumping poison into the air. “The Red Death? What . . . what is it doing here? We’re all going to die!”
A voice from behind them boomed through the room. “What the hell is the Red Death?”
She turned to see another cyborg striding toward them, followed by several others. The first one was tall, broader than the others, and his presence seemed to suck the air out of the room.
This is the leader.
He came toward her swiftly, his arms open.
“Who are you?” Her voice was strangely breathless as she found herself being pulled into the center of his blue-green eyes.
The cyborg stopped just before her, his gaze intent. His eyes flashed to Valdjan, who shook his head. “I am Roihan. Don’t you know me?”
“No. Do you know me?”
“I know who you were,” Roihan responded, his voice guarded. “Who are you now?”
“I am Aria.” She took a step back as all five cyborgs surrounded her, raising her chin to hide her nervousness. “What are you going to do to me?”
“We aren’t going to hurt you. Let go of her,” Roihan ordered Valdjan.
“I don’t know, Roihan—she could be dangerous.”
Something in his voice made her glance over in time to see Valdjan wink. Incredulously, she shrugged him off. “Are you laughing at me? I am the most advanced enhanced being—cyborg—ever created.”
Valdjan snorted. “I bested you in three minutes.”
“That’s because my purpose is much higher than battle.” She smoothed her uniform. “And I could have shot you before you even reached me.”
“You could have if the ray guns still worked, but they don’t.”
“What is your purpose?” Roihan asked, his keen blue-green eyes landing on her again.
“I have many abilities, but my main purpose is to integrate with the ship as its pilot,” she replied, eyeing him.
“Gee, that sounds difficult.” Valdjan’s sarcasm made her face burn.
“It is difficult,” she insisted. “I have to do the work of seven Ardaks to make the ship run. It required multiple processors at once and Chief Innovator DeathWatch had to modify my chip several times to give me the proper capacity.”
“DeathWatch.” An angry cyborg with black hair and deep blue eyes said the name like a curse. “That’s appropriate. He watched a lot of death.”
Roihan exhaled. “Let it rest, Mordjan.”
She wasn’t sure if she should trust them. And although they appeared nonthreatening at the moment, cyborgs were deadly. Even to her.
“How did you get here?”
“The Ardaks said they rescued me from a dying planet. That my body was broken, and they had to rebuild it.”
The other cyborgs stared at her, obviously aghast.
“No,” Roihan said decisively. “The Ardaks invaded our planet, stole you, and enslaved the rest of our people. We ourselves just broke free of their mental commands.”
“No.” She shook her head. “There’s no way they could lie to me about that.”
“Why couldn’t they?” the leader demanded. “What do you remember of your past?”
“N-nothing,” she admitted.
“Exactly. How hard would it be for them to make one up for you?”
She searched for an answer.
Valdjan turned her back toward the window. Then another cyborg stepped up beside them. She studied her reflection for the first time, surprised at her appearance. The Ardaks hadn’t encouraged reflective surfaces in the labs, so she had only seen her outline. Her hair was long, braided as the Ardaks sometimes braided beards. Her eyes had dark circles under them, and she looked much smaller and thinner than the others.
Then her gaze went to their reflections. Although their eyes were different colors of blue, there was no questioning the similarity between the three faces that stared back at her. Three faces with similar shape and features. Three heads with matching dark hair.
Her world began to crumble around her. “Why do we look alike?”
“Because you are our cousin,” Valdjan said. “But not his.” He winked at the leader.
“I don’t understand . . .” Her processors were on the verge of overload, and she was on the verge of panic.
The leader stepped up behind her, his eyes blazing at her in the reflection of the window. “I think you do.”
It can’t be true.
But I’m the best cyborg ever made. Their greatest weapon.
If she wasn’t that . . . who was she?
“Why? Why would they do this?”
“They were looking for crystals from the elves.”
She gasped. “The big crystal?”
Roihan shrugged. “I’m not an elf, and I don’t know anything about the crystals except that the Ardaks wanted them. But we defeated most of them in battle one solar rotation ago. However, there are still quite a few cats on the surface of the planet who escaped us.” He put a hand on her shoulder, turning her to face him. “Our people are already sick and getting worse. What else do you know about it?”
She shook off her trance. “I know what I read in the files. The Red Death is a poison they distill from the red flowers on Baihu, their homeworld. It kills every being with a large prefrontal cortex.”
“Huh?” A shorter cyborg who stood behind the first scratched at the short dark hair on his head.
“It kills every being that walks on two legs within a year. And although they are immune, even the Ardaks have a healthy respect for it. And a mortal fear of the antidote.” Unbidden, her eyes filled with tears. “How many people live on this planet?”
“Who knows? There are five races, but we all live in different realms, far apart from each other. I don’t think anyone keeps count. What is the ant
idote?”
“It is distilled from white flowers on Baihu. A group of raiders from another star system discovered it not too long ago.” She swallowed. “If we can find the white flowers soon enough, we can cure most of the beings on this planet. The Red Death stays in the air for years, but once you ingest the cure, it doesn’t harm you anymore.”
“Do the white flowers grow here?”
“No, only on Baihu.”
“Fuck! So, we just kicked their asses in battle, and they’re still going to kill us?” Valdjan asked.
Roihan slammed his fist into the rock wall of the command center. “There are probably a million beings on this planet. The human population to the east is especially large. How are we supposed to get to their homeworld to get the antidote?”
Aria watched tiny cracks spread out from the impact, her mind whirling from hunger and the strange situation. The leader’s response startled her.
He really cares about them. Even people he doesn’t know.
Then her mind began to race. “Actually, I have a ship. But there is not enough power in it to leave Aurora.”
Roihan clenched his jaw, and his hand went unconsciously to his sword. “Let me guess. It runs on crystals.”
“Yes.”
“I have a small one, and I might know where we can get more. The elves use them for their magic. And their fate is just as dire as ours, so they might let us have one. But it’s a big maybe. If we get one, can you fly it?”
“Of course. I passed all the final simulations with perfect scores.”
“Simulations?” Roihan’s eyebrows rose. “Have you ever flown the ship for real?”
She frowned. “Well, no. We didn’t have the power to waste.”
“Great.” Mordjan narrowed his eyes. “Something tells me we’re going to regret this.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Valdjan said bracingly. “She knows where the cure is, and she can take us to it.”
“What are your purposes?” she asked defensively. “Since you seem to think you’re so much better than me.”
Roihan stepped forward. “Engineering. I fix all types of machinery, and I don’t think we’re all better than you.”
Slightly mollified, her eyes turned to the cyborg slightly behind him on his right.
“Mordjan,” the dark cyborg said without preamble. “Infiltration and assassination. But since my chip failed, I make my own purpose.” His serious gaze and steady hands hinted that he would not be one to meet in battle.
The cyborg with the short hair stepped forward haltingly, and to her surprise, he smiled at her and pointed at his chest. “Simban. I shoot people. And smash rocks in the mine.”
There was something about Simban that was just . . . likeable and disarming enough that she smiled back at him.
The one to Roihan’s left stepped forward. “I’m Tanis. Sabotage.” His hair was slightly longer and his build was thin and wiry, making him look like a rebel compared to the clean-cut warriors around him.
Valdjan came around from behind to face her. “And I’m Valdjan. Exploration. And judo.”
“What’s judo?” Roihan asked.
“A fighting style developed on Earth about twelve thousand years ago for hand-to-hand combat,” Aria answered, her processor instantly finding the information in her chip’s database of Ardak files. “That explains the speed. And the grappling.”
She surveyed the enhanced beings in front of her. They had a wide array of skills, which might be enough to keep them safe while they attempted the impossible.
For a moment, her hopes rose, but then reality set in. “Acquiring the cure means getting past the Ardaks. If they meant to do this, they won’t want us to get the cure. Do you have more warriors?”
Roihan laughed, an angry sound. “I have all the warriors you could want. And believe me, they all want revenge against the Ardaks. What are we looking at as far as defenses on Baihu?”
“Baihu used to be well protected, but it can’t be that secure now. Their forces are spread too thin across several galaxies. If those raiders somehow got in and got the powder, there’s a chance we can, too.”
“Smaller teams are better, more invisible. I think we’ll have a lot more cyborg volunteers than we need.”
“And the elves,” Simban broke in.
Roihan’s brow creased. “You’re right. The elves will probably want to fight them, too.”
“Well, cyborg, elf, or human, I hope they are ready for another war. Because if the Ardaks sent the Red Death here, you can bet they’ll be back in a year, expecting an empty planet.”
There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone processed what she had said.
Roihan cleared his throat. “The first thing we need to do is procure the antidote. Then we can figure out the long-term strategy of how to fight them.”
Aria had been assessing Roihan for the entire conversation. What was it about him that drew her? There was something about him that made her believe him, and it wasn’t in his words.
What if his story is true? What if I wasn’t saved from another planet—but stolen from my people on this one?
If the Ardaks lied to me about my past, how can I trust anything they told me?
And if I don’t have my memory, how can I trust anyone?
But the truth was, she didn’t have a choice. If they didn’t get the cure, then every being on the planet, including her, would die. “Where are these warriors?”
“Back at Renwyn.” Roihan grimaced. “And as much as I hate the idea of boarding an Ardak ship, it would be a lot easier to fly there. And faster.”
“They might try to attack the ship,” Mordjan cautioned.
“And do what?” Valdjan raised his brows. “We couldn’t do anything against their ships before.”
She sheathed her knife. “I’ll take you to the ship. Then we see if they will allow us to borrow a crystal and pick up your warriors.”
Roihan nodded once. “Lead the way.”
Chapter Five
Roihan
Ifound her.
For long seconds as she had examined him in the command center, he’d forgotten to breathe. He’d searched for a glimpse of the Aria he remembered, sure he would see a twinkle in her laughing blue-gray eyes.
But it hadn’t been there. Nor any sign of recognition.
His wife didn’t remember him.
As Aria turned and led them from the command center toward the ship, Roihan marveled at her beauty and her grace. But the precision in the way she moved and a tiny blinking light at the back of her neck gave away her status as a cyborg.
Seeing her here, alive, was like a dream. She wasn’t his Aria, but she was back. He could see the light in her eyes, the will to live.
“No one remembers the time before the chip,” Valdjan told him silently, seeming to read his mind.
“I know,” Roihan replied, his shock giving way to anger as he followed her through the tunnels and wondered what else they replaced inside her.
His memories of becoming a cyborg were filled with horror, and he was almost grateful that she couldn’t remember them.
The Ardaks will pay for this.
And although his mind was filled with anger, his heart was torn between heartbreak and hope.
She doesn’t remember me. But the elves can fix that.
His heart skipped a beat because he wasn’t sure he wanted them to. He didn’t want her to fade away again. Maybe the Ardaks had actually helped her. After all, being a cyborg is better than being dead.
Then he thought back to the memories he’d reacquired, of what they’d done to him.
Is it really?
Who knows how she will react when her memories return.
He glanced briefly down at his legs. Beneath the skin, his bones and muscles and tendons were entirely an Ardak creation. And he’d heard the cries of anguish from the others when their memories had returned. They had been through so much pain. So much anguish.
Why didn’t you tell
her who you were? Who she was?
But Roihan knew the answer to that. She wouldn’t have believed him. His wife had been completely remolded in the Ardaks’ version of a perfect slave, and she would only accept his reality in increments. If he told her too soon, he would lose her completely.
So, he waited, walking silently behind her and trying to figure out his next step.
In finding Aria, his entire reality had turned upside down.
His wife was a cyborg, which the rumors said never happened.
And the Ardaks were still going to kill them even though they had defeated them in battle.
“What do you remember of your past?”
Aria’s question startled him, but he should have been expecting it. “When I first woke, I didn’t remember anything. The chip blocked it. What do you remember?”
“Nothing before I awoke six months ago.”
A shiver went through him. “Only six months?”
“Yes. Chief Innovator DeathWatch told me they had to keep me unconscious for a long time so I would accept the enhancements.”
Valdjan snorted from behind him. “I bet they did.”
She stopped in her tracks, turning to face them, and he almost ran into her.
“Look. I’ve decided to trust you for this mission because I can see the Red Death myself, and know we need a cure if we don’t want to die.” Her words were measured. “But until I know for sure that the Ardaks were lying to me and that I can trust all of you, you can keep your sarcastic comments to yourself.”
Roihan stood a little straighter, his training for the king’s guard—and as a husband—kicking in. “Yes, ma’am.”
She looked him squarely in the eyes and then glared at Valdjan before turning and continuing down the tunnel.
“I can’t wait until you get your memories back,” Valdjan muttered under his breath.
She turned to face them again, and he barely stopped in time. “What are you talking about?”
Roihan started. “You heard that?” The retort had been faint, even to his own ears.
She ignored the question. “Is there a way to get my memories back?”
“Yes.”
She just stared at him, so he continued, “The elves have some type of magic surrounding their throne room that brings cyborgs’ memories back. It worked for all the cyborgs that went through its doors. We’re going to the palace anyway to ask for a crystal, and you can walk through the doors yourself.”
Roihan Page 4