Valdjan looked over her shoulder, reading along with her. “This is weird. In addition to synchisite, the crystals on that moon are very similar to the ones on Baihu.”
“Then why are the Ardaks focusing on Aurora?”
“Maybe those monsters are pretty damn bad,” Mordjan noted.
Aria looked back at the screen. “The Ardaks don’t really have the details in here. That is odd in and of itself because they are usually so detailed about terrain and population. It just says the moon is to be avoided.”
Valdjan whistled. “Then it must be bad. I didn’t think the Ardaks would be afraid of anything.”
“Oh, they are,” Aria informed him. “There are some things even the Ardaks don’t want to mess with. For example, the white powder.”
“Really. Why don’t they want the cure?” Roihan asked.
She searched the files. “The computer says it’s toxic to them.”
Mordjan’s eyes lit up. “So we could use it to kill them.”
“Yes,” Aria replied flatly. “I’ve already thought of that, but we have to make enough to save everyone before we start using it to kill them.” Aria closed her eyes for a moment. “I’ve set a flight plan for that moon, and at this rate we’ll be there in four hours.”
“Not enough time for a nap,” Simban noted.
“Right, but there is enough time to set up the lab and make sure we can manufacture the preliminary cure. Roihan and I might even be able to modify one of the devices I was making to channel crystal energy. That way, when the elves give us a crystal, we simply insert it into the housing and the machine will do the rest.”
“Sounds good,” Mordjan began to search the cabinet closest to him. Then he paused. “How will we know the synchisite when we find it?”
“That’s easy,” Aria replied. “I can simply program my visual cortex so that when it lands on the synchisite it will glow.”
“So, what we’re saying is that we’re going to send Aria out onto an alien moon with unknown monsters in search of a rare mineral. Over my dead body,” Roihan stated flatly.
“The mission has to come first. And this is what I’m designed for.”
He gestured to the lab. “Then let’s design something else to do it. We have all types of devices here that might work.”
“We don’t have time to do that. We have to set up the new lab so we can synthesize the cure once we have it.”
She examined the stubborn set of his jaw and realized she wasn’t getting through to him.
Mordjan stepped between them. “We can discuss the specifics of the mission later. But we’re wasting time now.”
“Agreed.” She turned away from them to focus on the microscopes, knowing the fight wasn’t over.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Roihan
It took about thirty minutes for Roihan to get Aria alone in the new lab. He didn’t like the idea of those monsters one bit. He had to convince her that she shouldn’t leave the ship.
“I don’t want you going out there.” This lab actually had a window to the outside, and Roihan glanced out at the blackness of space. “We don’t know anything about these monsters. We don’t even know what they look like or what they eat. We only know that the Ardaks were afraid of them.”
She exhaled loudly then pressed her lips together. “You know I have to go. I’m the only one who has the visual acuity to find the synchisite.”
“What about my idea to build a device?”
“I did consider it,” she admitted. “But it would take too long. You know how much work we have to complete, and with every day that passes, more people will die from the Red Death. Only the strongest can survive six months to a year of exposure.”
Roihan thought back to the women and children he’d seen walking past him in the tunnels. “I know it’s of the highest priority.”
“More important than me.”
“I disagree. If something happens to you, how will we fly the ship back? And how will we manufacture the Red Death?”
“That’s why I have to hurry!” she exclaimed. “You have all downloaded the flight programs. It won’t be as easy as if I flew the ship, but you can do it. And I’m working to ensure that the lab is ready to manufacture the cure and that the process will be smooth even if I’m not around.” Aria tried to work even faster.
“I can’t let you go out there. It just isn’t in me.”
Aria’s voice was calm and cold. “Let me be clear. If we fail this mission, there won’t be any others. The fate of Aurora is in our hands. We must do everything possible to return with the cure. And one life, or even two lives, are nothing compared to the entire population of the planet.”
Roihan’s mouth snapped shut, and he clenched his jaw. He couldn’t argue with her logic. “If something happens to you, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“I can live with that.” Her gaze sliced through him. “This isn’t about me. Or you. It’s about everyone back on Aurora.”
When she left to go to Mordjan’s lab, Roihan slammed a fist against the metal workbench. Then he swallowed the lump in his throat.
She doesn’t know what she’s asking me to do.
She might not remember losing him, but he remembered losing her all too well.
In principle, she was correct. With the lives of everyone at stake, there was no logical reason for Aria not to head the team to find the synchisite, but his emotions weren’t really allowing him to be rational.
He headed back into the new lab to help Aria, who flinched when she saw him. “It’s all right,” he reassured her. “Your logic is correct. I’ll help you get everything ready.” He didn’t bother to tell her that he would be going with her and would be glued to her side the whole time.
But when they landed on the frosty, glistening moon four hours later, Roihan wished he hadn’t backed down. At least they were close to their target; they had flown low over the moon until Aria had spotted an outcropping of synchisite through her telescopic lens.
It was at the center of a large crater, which Aria deftly landed the ship in, but he didn’t like the idea that there were caves and cliffs from at the edges of the crater surrounding them on all sides.
He glanced out the windows of the docking bay doors while everyone else finished putting on their protective suits. The fact that they didn’t see any monsters, pick up movement with their scanners, or find any heat signatures bothered him. It was much better to have a monster you could see to fight.
Finally, they were ready. Aria opened the bay doors and they went as quickly as possible to the synchisite. Aria went first, with Mordjan and him on either side of her. Simban and Valdjan brought up the rear, carrying a large metal container with a saw inside so they could extract the synchisite and carry it back.
It was twenty-seven steps to the center of the crater. Valdjan and Simban set the container down, as Mordjan took out the saw as quickly as possible. Roihan kept watch while Aria directed how to cut into the ground to get the maximum amount of the mineral.
“What are those structures over there?” Valdjan pointed at the top of the opposite side of the crater.
Roihan took glanced over. “They look like ruins. But nothing would surprise me anymore.”
“And we’re only here for this chunk of rock. Here goes,” Mordjan warned them, turning on the saw.
And then every wall of the crater began to move. Tall, spindly icicles peeled away from the edges, coming toward them. A high, tingling sound filled the air.
“We need to hurry,” Roihan shouted, bringing their attention to the monsters.
“They aren’t that fast—keep cutting,” Aria instructed to his disbelief.
Roihan shot at one of them, but the ray gun did nothing. “They’re fast enough, and the guns don’t work on them! We need to get out of here,” Roihan yelled at her.
“And we need as much synchisite as we can get,” she yelled back.
Mordjan finished cutting, and they loaded the case, not bother
ing with the lid. The circle of icicle monsters was closing in fast, and he threw a knife at the closest one. It splintered apart and became two smaller monsters that ran much faster than the big one.
They were almost to the ship when the synchisite container tipped, spilling the giant chunk of mineral onto the ground.
“Fuck!” Valdjan screamed, but Mordjan and Roihan were already there, grabbing the chunk of rock and sprinting back to the ship.
Then Roihan realized Aria wasn’t with them. He looked back to see Aria picking up some larger pieces that had broken off.
“What are you doing?” he yelled, his voice breaking, watching the ice monsters close in on her as if in slow motion.
He ran down the ramp and grabbed her, pulling her up with him and slamming the door shut.
She screamed just before the lock clicked home, and he dropped her on her feet, spinning her so he could see what was wrong.
An icicle was sticking out her forearm near her wrist.
“It stung me!” she cried. “It burns, it burns!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Roihan
Roihan tried to hold on to Aria as she continued to writhe and scream, grabbing at her arm with her other hand. He watched in horror as ice began to spread outward from the icicle. He ripped it out, but it didn’t change the speed of the spreading ice. In seconds, her entire hand was frozen.
“It’s freezing her!” Simban shouted.
“We need something warm!”
Valdjan found a blowtorch, and they hovered her hand over it. But to everyone’s horror, her fingers simply melted.
“Fuck!” Mordjan was there with the saw, shoving everyone else aside and screaming. “Put her arm here.”
“You’re not going to cut it off!” Roihan shouted at him, trying to pull her arm away.
The ice was spreading toward her elbow at a rapid rate.
Mordjan shook him with one hand, forcing Roihan to meet his gaze. “Do you want her entire body to freeze? Because we don’t have a way to thaw it.”
He met Aria’s gaze, her eyes wide, pleading.
“They can’t do this!” she screamed, trying to pull her arm away.
“Put it here, dammit!” Mordjan commanded.
“Fuck!” He kissed her, slamming her hand against the wall. “And I can’t lose you again. I love you, baby.”
“Noooooo!” Her shriek was high-pitched and terrified as Valdjan grabbed her arm and set it against the wall.
Mordjan sawed it off cleanly just below the elbow, and Roihan held her as she screamed and writhed, then suddenly went limp.
“She fainted, and it looks like the spreading of the ice has stopped. Get her to the med bay,” Mordjan commanded.
“There isn’t much blood,” Valdjan noted, grabbing Simban’s shirt, which the other man had quickly taken off. He peered at it curiously. “It was a cybernetic! The arteries automatically closed when it was damaged.”
Roihan felt faint himself. “That doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt like a son of a bitch!” he shouted, still angry at the entire situation. He hefted her into his arms so her head was tucked protectively into the crook of his neck and hurried down the hall and into the med bay.
“Did you download the medical files?” Mordjan asked calmly, going through one of the drawers.
“Yes,” Roihan replied. He had, but his brain was too rattled to sort through the files. He was still shaking with adrenaline.
“What about the cyborg files?”
Roihan shook his head.
“All right. Remember the lab where I took you to talk about the mission?” Mordjan didn’t look up, but turned and opened another drawer, sorting through needles and tubes.
Roihan nodded, unable to speak. His throat was closed, and he was too hot and too cold at the same time.
“I need you to go back in there and grab me an arm from the cabinet labeled Aria. It’s at the back of the room, the top right cabinet. Then I need you to grab a black box full of tools from the tall gray cabinet next to the door. Got it?”
Roihan watched as Mordjan inserted a needle into her prosthetic arm, feeling faint.
I was supposed to protect her.
Mordjan hooked the IV tube up to a bag of clear fluid. “Hey!” he said sharply. “If you can’t do this, get Valdjan. I need that arm. Stat.”
Roihan hit himself in the leg, the pain making him focus. “I can do it.”
Mordjan’s tone softened. “It’s just an arm, man. She’s going to be okay. The thing that kills most cyborgs is brain death. So get your shit together. She’s going to need you.”
Roihan met his gaze, pulling the rest of himself together. “Arm. Tools. Be right back.”
Mordjan nodded absently, injecting something into the IV bag as Roihan took off at a run to get what Mordjan needed.
He found the arm and tools exactly where they were supposed to be, but before going back into the med bay, he took a deep breath. He’d lost her so many times, he was always afraid that this time might be the last.
But he had to realize that not all pain was death, and that she would survive this.
When he returned, Mordjan was already starting on the surgery.
“I think I know why they made Aria a cyborg,” he mused as he peeled back the skin a few more inches.
Roihan examined her face, glad she was unconscious. “Why?”
“When I read the files, it seemed that they didn’t change women because they exhibited too much emotion. Highly emotional beings are difficult to control.” He took the new arm and began to adjust it so the arteries would line up. “But if you remember . . . Aria was affected by the loss of your children, so she wasn’t exhibiting emotion. I think that’s why they chose her.”
Roihan ran a hand through his hair. “So one tragedy led to another,” he muttered.
“Or the death of your children inadvertently saved her life,” Mordjan replied absently as he began to connect the new arm one artery at a time. “I don’t know if you saw the rest of the women and children, but your wife looks a whole hell of a lot better than they do, even without an arm.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Aria
Aria awoke on a bunk in the med bay with Roihan asleep next to her, his head resting on her arm and his fingers entwined with her own.
She remembered the ice monster and being stung. Her fingers simply melting. The sharp fear that filled her because she was convinced she was going to die.
But she didn’t. Instead, they’d sawed off her arm.
Panicked, she raised the arm that had been mutilated, only to find shiny metal where her forearm and hand should have been.
Roihan awakened, lifting his head to look at her, his eyes searching hers. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I just had my arm chopped off,” she replied, barely managing a watery smile as more tears broke free.
“You didn’t really,” he told her. “Your arm was already cybernetic.”
“Really?” She examined her arm and hand again, a terrible feeling in her gut. She had always thought her only modification had been the chip at the back of her neck. Her vision blurred and bile rose in her throat.
What else did they enhance? And why?
“I never thought my arm wasn’t . . . real.”
“Just because it isn’t the one you were born with, it doesn’t mean it isn’t real. It works just the same.”
“Right.” She tried to accept it, looking down at her legs. “Do you think all of me is just wires beneath lab-grown skin?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
She wondered why he didn’t seem to care. “They said I was the most advanced cyborg ever made. Maybe they meant the most enhanced.”
“You’ll probably find out when you get your memories back,” he replied, his voice heavy. “Unfortunately.”
Her tears stopped. “You don’t want me to get my memories back, do you?”
He was silent for long moments. “Not really,” he finally ad
mitted. “There is so much pain in the past, things you’d probably rather not remember. The procedure for your cybernetic enhancement is just one of them.”
She examined her cybernetic arm, still just metal and tubing. “Is there skin growing now to cover this?”
“Yes, Mordjan already has some ready.”
“Good, then I can pretend to be normal again,” she said bitterly.
He frowned. "What are you talking about? You’re a cyborg. You’ll never be normal, and you don’t have to pretend to be."
"Yes, but who knows how artificial I am? I might be more machine than flesh at this point,” she shot back angrily, flexing her metal fingers. “There is probably very little about me that resembles your wife."
"I already know that isn’t true," he murmured, pulling her close.
She fought him, part of her not wanting to give in and accept her condition. But there was nothing else to do. She would never get her flesh back.
Roihan kissed the top of her head. "It doesn't matter what lies beneath your skin. You are still my wife." He paused. “Neither of my legs are my own. The Ardaks sawed them off at the hips and replaced them with cybernetics so I would be stronger and faster for my engineering work.” He stared forlornly down at his legs. “The pain was like nothing I’d ever known. I screamed until I passed out with the first, and then begged them not to do the second. Most of us cried and screamed for days while the cybernetics attached to our bodies properly, finally healing the open flesh. Does that make me less of a man? Or any less your husband?”
Anger swept over her, and she reached out and grabbed his arm. “No. No, goddamn it. It makes you more of a man.”
He looked back up, and his eyes blazed into hers. “You’re the same. You could never be more of a woman than you are. But I love every inch of you.”
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