Striking Freedom (Mechanical Advantage Book 6)

by Viola Grace

  She faced the airlock as they docked, and the cycle began to twist her ship to the base. When the lights went green and everything chimed, she stepped toward the hatch, and it opened to let her through.

  She felt a slight pressure on the lead, and then, Yurik stepped forward, keeping pace.

  The guards in the interior of the space looked at her in surprise.

  “What is your purpose here?”

  She twisted her head slowly and hissed, “Business.”

  The human guards were nervous. “Where is your point of origin?”

  “I reside on Ikovar, my origin is Neebokan.” She twisted her head slowly again.

  One of the men looked past her to Yurik.

  “What is he doing?”

  She reached over and ran her fingers through Yurik’s hair. “Pet.”

  They looked over at Yurik with a combination of fear and contempt.

  “You cannot bring him before the emperor.”

  She hissed. “My pet. Goes with me. My responsibility. You think I cannot keep him in control?”

  She twisted the chain and tugged. Yurik obligingly dropped to his knees.

  “Is good pet. Good with hands.”

  The men shuddered.

  She looked to the men gathered. “I have appointment.”

  They looked at their data pads, and they blinked. “Apologies, Ambassador. We did not properly examine the documentation you provided.”

  She clutched her staff, wrapping and unwrapping her fingers in a manner that was well known to be a sign of irritation in the Neebokan.

  One of the men nodded to the one next to him, and they watched her fingers.

  “Pardon, Ambassador, we don’t often meet those of your kind with artificial limbs.”

  She elevated herself to the ten-foot height that she rarely used. “Splice took for a debt. These let me enjoy life again.”

  Her legs were encased in boots that mimicked Neebokan flesh, and she knew that their scanners were recording only her limbs as artificial.

  She looked around, her head canted forward and a low hiss coming through the translator. “Is emperor dead?”

  The men jolted. “No, of course not.”

  She cackled. “Acting like he is dead. All profit for you, no risk. Funny.”

  That was just the right thing to say. They escorted her and her pet through the halls and into the huge garden where the throne was, and on the throne was the emperor.

  She walked at her normal pace with Yurik running behind. They passed pillars with cyborgs in place on them, blades and spikes slowly embedding into their flesh.

  Not one of the men even looked at her as she passed. They knew there was no assistance from her.

  She stopped at the prescribed distance from the throne, and she bowed low. “Emperor Adams.”

  “Ambassador Hulinakiata.” General Adams smiled slightly. “You are remarkably punctual.”

  She lifted her head. “It was between storms on Ikovar. Best to leave while air is clear.”

  “I have never met a Neebokan before.”

  She made a coughing noise. “Lemiriano made such a small impression then? You had him at court for a year, until the Splice lost the scientist.”

  The general smiled. “His death was regretful.”

  “I am not here to discuss that, Emperor. I am merely here for the Ssrath tree that I contacted your people about.”

  She made an undulation with her head to indicate her earnest query.

  “Of course. Of course.” He sat back. “First, what do you think of my decoration? I see you have one of your own.”

  She tightened her grip on the tether. “He is good. He has soft touch.”

  Adams cackled. “For a beast like you, I bet that is good.”

  Lacey smirked under her mask, but she kept to her confused tone. “Beast? I have come to trade.”

  “I don’t trade with monsters. My shields keep freaks like you from getting to me.”

  She swayed in confusion. “Shields?”

  “They keep the nanites and the non-humans from me. It means that when I summon the Splice, as I just have, they leave me alone and do as I say.”

  Lacey shrugged and whispered. “What good is protection if you eventually wither and die?”

  He leaned forward with a leer, and he tapped one of the controls on his throne. A door opened, and soon, five young women with pastel skins walked out. Each of them was wearing Lacey’s face, and it was rather disturbing. What was worse was that their bellies were distended.

  “My children. They never make it past the fifth month, but the Splice are working on it. Once I have a male child, they have promised to transfer my consciousness into him. I will live forever through my own line.”

  She nodded and slowly unwrapped her hand from the tether. “Yeah, I can’t let you do that.”

  She took three steps and felt the pressure of the field against her. She passed right through it, while the leggings she wore crumbled away.

  He stared, and he got out of his throne, scrambling back to put the women between him and her. “What are you?”

  She stood to her full height, reached over the heads of the women, and grabbed him with her robotic arms.

  She lifted him and then slammed him down onto the floor. Lacey placed a foot on his chest to hold him, and she pulled the mask off, untying the translator.

  “Am I more familiar now? You had them make me into a freak, after all. Hello, Father, or is it Grandfather, or is it both?”

  She looked into his stunned face, and he started screaming. She chuckled. “Oh, don’t scream so early. I haven’t even started yet.”

  She shifted her foot to his right bicep. She leaned down and used the power of her limbs to crush his arm.

  “Now, you can scream.”

  She worked on him for five minutes before she leaned in to whisper, “I know, you are thinking that you can get healed if you can get to the med unit. I will let you go to the med unit, right?”

  She chuckled and leaned back until she was a few inches above his pale and panicked face. His pain was causing his pulse to thunder in his veins, and she could see the agony in his gaze.

  “Please. Please stop. Please help me.”

  She leaned in and whispered words that she needed to say, and he needed to hear. When she was done, he looked at her and fury crept back in his gaze. “You were mine to do with as I pleased.”

  “There it is. Thanks for being an asshole to the end.” She took his head and broke his neck with a snap.

  She paused, sighed, and got to her feet. She spoke to the women in Lionar. “You are free to go now. I will lower the barriers. When your children die, mourn them. If any survive, find me. I will raise the half-born as my own.”

  One of the women whispered, “Our faces...”

  “The gene therapy will wear off when your body cycles again without the medication. There will be a withdrawal, and you will become yourselves again. You are strong people. You will recover.”

  She went to the throne, and she hit the release button for all of the cyborgs. They dropped to the floor, and Yurik went to help them.

  Lacey glanced back at the women. “Where is the med unit?”

  Five hands pointed to the right of the throne, in the gardens.

  Another flick and she disconnected the shield.

  Lacey spoke to Yurik. “Med unit is around the corner. The guy third on my left looks to be the worst off.”

  Yurik and another one of the cyborgs grabbed the injured man, and they carried him into the gardens.

  The other cyborgs followed, and there was some yelping and the sound of fist-fighting, but soon, conversation began to ripple out, and Lacey smiled.

  A small hand reached out to her. Lacey turned and looked down at one of the concubines. “Yes?”

  “Take us with you, please. We are no longer what we were, and we don’t know when we will be again. We do know that we look like you, and in that, we ask you to take us with you.�
�

  She frowned. “I am going to war with the Splice.”

  The girls looked at each other and nodded. “We are good medics, good attendants. We can help. When it is our time to birth, we can do it and return to work. Please. We do not know if our people will take us back.”

  The pale blue girl whispered. “They sold us.”

  This rescue had gotten more complicated. Lacey rolled her eyes. “Aw, shit.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Ladies, stay here. I need to check on the cyborgs.”

  “Empress, there are guards coming.” The yellow woman was nervous.

  “Remain here, ladies. I will deal with this.” Lacey looked at the men sprinting toward her, and she smiled, removing her outer robe and the one beneath. She stood there in her limited glory, framed by the harness that supported her and kept her limbs in alignment.

  The guards slowed in horror as she stood up with her staff in her hand. A flick of her wrist and the stone in the top began to glow.

  She walked toward the guards, and they stopped, pulling weapons. Lacey grinned, and it was not a very nice grin. “Why are you pulling your blasters? Am I not one of the pure humans you have welcomed into your midst?”

  She stepped toward them, and when they aimed and shot, nothing happened.

  “My grandfather is dead, but he left his safety measures in place. I only turned off the ones that would stop cyborgs. You are going to have to go hand to hand.”

  She switched so that she was holding her staff in both hands; a slight squeeze and it shot out a beam of light. It caught one of the guards and flipped him up and off his feet.

  One of the men lunged at her, and she released the staff and struck him with her fist, sending him flying into one of the cyborg torture podiums.

  She leaned forward and whispered, “What are you waiting for?”

  Footfalls warned her that others were coming, and she punched, kicked, and zapped her way through as many as she could.

  Yurik moved in between her and her attackers. “We can take it from here.”

  She looked around, and six fairly intact cyborgs were moving to stand between her and the incoming wave of guards.

  She stepped back and watched as the warriors did what they had been trained to do.

  Lacey walked back to her robes, and she calmly got dressed as the fight waged on.

  The concubines were staring at her. When she finished dressing, she turned to them and smiled, “Do you have questions?”

  The blue one whispered, “What happened to you?”

  “Ah. General Adams turned me over to the Splice as a goodwill gesture. I, too, was sold.”

  The humans were fading fast. They formed a heap as the cyborgs outmatched them physically and with nanite-driven stamina.

  She looked at the girls behind her. “Are you sure you want to come with us?”

  The females nodded. The blue one said, “We have no future here.”

  Lacey looked at her grandfather and nodded. “Right. Well, are there any other cyborgs here?”

  The women nodded. “There is a stable down below. He keeps them in case the ones on display die before they can be healed.”

  “Right. Show me.”

  The females shook their heads. “We are not allowed to pass. Only humans can pass.”

  Lacey nodded and sighed. “Right. Point me in the right direction.”

  The ladies pointed to the opposite side of the dais from the med bed in the garden. She took her staff and walked calmly around the structure, heading down the hallway that snaked behind it. The sounds of the fight behind her faded.

  Lacey sighed. She had heard of the collection of cyborgs that her grandfather kept, but she had assumed that he had killed most of them. It was time to see how many were left.

  The hallway got shorter, so she hunkered down as she walked. She felt the pressure of the human test again, and when she pushed through it, she was overlooking a vast collection of cyborgs, all sitting, standing, or mining.

  She took her staff and hit the restrictors on either side of the door. Lacey rose to full height, and she spoke calmly. “Cyborgs of Earth Defense, if you want to leave, I have ships standing by.”

  One of the men called up. “Who are you? What are you?”

  She inclined her head. “Of course. I am Lacey of Adaptation Station. I am the fixer. What I am is a Splice-made cyborg. I am leaving. You can stay, or you can come along. Your choice. No pressure. Oh, the emperor is dead. General Adams can only command the underworld now. He had better start digging.”

  She turned and headed back the way she had come. They could follow or not.

  She met Yurik in the hall, and she nodded. “The men are below. I am calling in some additional transport. Or, perhaps the emperor had something a little more suitable for troop transport.”

  “You had best get to your ship. The concubines are a clear indicator of who you are, and some of the men are insisting that you be stamped out, as well as the girls. Please, make them your priority.”

  Lacey grimaced. “Right. I will get them and put them in the hold.”

  “Can you check on the ships?”

  “That is my next task. If I have to, I will summon some from my nearest outpost.”

  Yurik chuckled. “Of course, you have something nearby.”

  “I do. Now, I am going to attend to those women. They have been through enough.” She walked past him and headed back to the dais where the concubines were surrounded by cyborgs.

  “Aw, fuck.” She stepped forward and eased the men back with her staff. “Come on, ladies. Come with me.”

  One of the cyborgs got in front of her. “You aren’t taking them anywhere. They are carrying the spawn of that bastard.”

  She looked at him and sighed. “I am the spawn of that bastard. Two generations of it. He raped his daughter, and I was the result. I, however, am not an evil prick. I have spent my last four years working to break the hold of him and the men like him, who are after wealth and power at the price of our entire world.”

  She glared at him, and he shifted back. “These females are carrying children that are not likely to survive their own gestations. I will take care of them as victims of the general, just as I made sure to take care of as many cyborgs as I could over the last four years.”

  She beckoned to the girls, and they clustered around her. “No more deaths with Adams at the center. He isn’t worth it.”

  One of the men asked, “How did you get through the field? You are a cyborg.”

  “I am a cyborg built by the Splice. I don’t have nanites, nor a primer kit. It was part of his orders, I could join the Earth Defense, but I could not taint myself.”

  She chuckled. “It would have been nice to let him know that my next stop is at the new base and I am going to request a makeover. I actually want legs again. Fingers would be good, too.”

  She moved her group along with her. She felt like a hen with chicks. Two men with furious expressions stepped in between them and the exits. She lifted her staff. “Get out of my way, or I will knock you on your asses.”

  The girls whimpered and clung to her.

  The two men moved fast. She used her stunner, and they flew back, lying and groaning on their backs.

  She raised her head. “I spent six months at Adaptation Station. I was in the blast, and I do know how to craft a neural pulse that will short out your non-essential implants. We are leaving.”

  She walked, and the other cyborgs got out of the way. The girls scuttled to keep up with her, and she walked with long strides past the human guards and back to her Neebokan ship. She got the girls inside, and she took them to the smuggler’s hold immediately. “Do you know how to use a food dispenser?”

  Blue nodded as they walked through the halls. “We do.”

  “Good. I am putting you in a place that the men won’t find you. I don’t trust them. They are engaged in a lot of hate and pain right now.”

  The girls whimpered. “What if we go
into labour?”

  “There is an emergency com. I will keep the receiver on me. If you need me, I will come running.”

  She showed the girls the hatch and helped them down, lowering them into the safe space. She followed them and showed them how to use all the equipment.

  The girls hugged her. One by one.

  Blue straightened. “I thank you for your efforts. We know we have been used to torture and torment the men. It was not our will then, nor is it now. We will hide.”

  “Only for a few days. I have a plan for what to do with you after that. You can regain your own faces, and you can blend in with the humans if that is your wish.”

  The girls looked at her with surprise. Blue asked, “How?”

  “Turning you into cyborgs.” She smiled. “Don’t worry. I already am one. It doesn’t hurt and will give you protection.”

  She smiled. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but it will let you draw a line beneath what you have been and what has been done to you, and give you a choice to move forward and become what you want to be.”

  “What about our children?”

  She chuckled. “They are my siblings. If they survive, I will take them and raise them as my own as soon as this war is over.”

  The women looked relieved. Lacey left them and headed to the com station. The girls were safe, and they had what they needed.

  Lacey downloaded all the security footage, and in a matter of seconds, she saw what the girls had been made to do. Teasing the pinned cyborgs into orgasm, which caused spasms, which caused agony. Pleasure and pain were never supposed to mix this way.

  She shook her head and checked the roster of vessels. She smiled slowly. Ah, ambassadors were always prepared with luxury ships that could hold hundreds.

  She made a call. “Alphy?”

  There was a startled voice through the com system. “Lacey? Windy said you went quiet.”

  “I got busy. However, I am done with my business now, and if you will have me, I am ready to come in, and we can discuss the next step.”

  “Lacey, I am ordering you to get your butt in here right now.”

  Lacey laughed. “I am bringing approximately fifteen hundred cyborgs to the base. Do you have room?”