Suni shifted a wary gaze from Taun to Raint. “You’re military, right?”
Taun’s heartbeat kicked up its pace. His bio scanner also picked up on Zema’s and Raint’s increased respiratory as well. They had successfully jumped from Eridani, the sector where Shui had a presence, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t reach them here.
“I-I’m guessing by the uniforms you are wearing. I could be wrong though, and you could just be wearing a standard issued uniform from a pleasure ship.” The chuckle she let out was uneasy.
Raint snorted and Suni’s eyes flicked to him. Taun gave her a curt nod, not confirming or denying anything she had said. He needed to know where her line of questioning led first. Then he would decide their next course of action.
“We actually have two possible propositions.” Tayan was clearly a child, but the sureness of her tone made her seem older. “Do you have enough credits to pay for our fuel to get to Stindrol?”
Taun exchanged glances with Zema and Raint. From their surprised looks he guessed they hadn’t thought about credits either. Their situation was more dire than he had originally thought.
They had only planned to get off the prison transport and out of Shui’s reach. There hadn’t been discussion or thought into how they would stay out of Shui’s reach. There wasn’t a plan yet, but any plan would be dependent on credits. They had plenty of credits in their accounts, hardly used because everything they needed was paid for by the military.
Until now.
The urge to open his mainframe and check his credit status was great, but he ignored the temptation. There would be no accessing any of their accounts from here on out. Shui probably had already gone in and emptied out everyone’s accounts, assuming they were dead or as part of their punishment.
Raint chuckled and leaned to the side. “What’s your second proposition, little person?”
“You don’t have any credits?” Suni asked.
Taun shook his head, the reality of their situation sinking in deep. They were beholden to the trio of females before him. Without their help they couldn’t fix the jumper, they also needed to eat and get some rest. In that order. Because of the high amount of energy it took to maintain their muscle mass, cyborgs needed to eat a high-protein meal every two-to-three hours, otherwise their bodies would begin to use their muscle mass as fuel.
Both Zema and Raint must’ve finally understood their situation as well. Zema held her head high and folded her arms behind her back, a gesture used when showing a sign of respect and the hint of mischief dropped from Raint’s demeanor.
They needed help in more ways than one.
Did they even have enough fuel to jump to the next planet? And once they made it there how would they eat? Energy only fed their bodies partly. What about shelter?
Saph folded her arms over her chest and cocked hip to the side. “Our other proposition is that you watch our backs while we retrieve a item valuable to us.”
“Item valuable to you,” Zema repeated, eyeing the two with justifiable wariness.
Tayan took a step back and another big step to the side, away from Suni and Saph.
“And only to us,” Saph added with sharp eyes on Zema.
“We’re participating in a scavenger hunt,” Suni said.
“Suni!” Saph yelled at her.
Tayan manuevered around some items slowly and unbeknonst to her family.
“We’re not sharing with them!” came a voice from an intercom system. It was the same old, male, gruff voice they had heard earlier that had put them on alert.
Tayan made her way back up the ramp and into the jumper. Taun didn’t stop her this time. She was a curious child and Ised and Aesh would keep an eye on her. Once she was bored with poking her little nose around, she would leave.
Suni put up her hands. “Everyone, calm down. I’m not talking about sharing anything with anyone. What I’m proposing is that to pay us back for the supplies and a means to fix your jumper, you come to Stindrol with us and provide us protection while we’re there. We’ll also provide you with food and a place to rest until we get there.”
Tayan shot by him with something in her hand. Saph grabbed her arm before she was able to make it to the door. “What do you have there?”
“Wait. Is that our temperature gauge?” Zema asked in a high-pitched voice.
Saph turned Tayan around. “Put it back.”
“But it’s broken!” Tayan whined.
“How did you get it out?” Zema started for the jumper. “That temperature gauge is buried beneath the sensor coils!”
“You weren’t in there for very long. How in Ancients did you get it out to quickly?” Taun asked.
“She works fast.” Saph pushed a reluctant Tayan forward. “Put it back. Now. And fix anything else that you might have messed up while wrestling that part from the engine.”
As Zema walked up the ramp, Ised poked his head from the doorway. “I told the little girl to leave everything alone, but she swore to me that she had permission to fix the jumper.”
“Back to our proposition,” Suni said with a sigh, bringing the focus back to her.
Taun breath hitched as his eyes settled back on Suni. His heart also skipped a beat. Neither action should have happened. His Neural Net Processor should prevent any anomalies and regulate all of his systems. Something was definitely wrong.
He focused on “Run self-diagnostic” that was visible on his ocular scanner. The scan was quick and conclusive. Everything came back within parameters.
Suni pushed wayward strands of hair from her face and behind her ear. It was such an innocent motion, but it sent a pleasurable sensation to his cock.
“It’ll be a win-win for the both of us,” she said.
His cock hardened. He shifted to hide the effect her voice had on his body. What was wrong with him? Was this some species who could seduce their males with words? He glanced at Raint. He wasn’t hard.
If he had been?
The thought made Taun’s vision cloud with fury.
Yes, something was definitely wrong with him, despite what his diagnostic testing revealed. Maybe that was damaged too? Cyborgs didn’t get hard without willing it so. He controlled how much blood went to his cock and when. Embarrassing hard-ons were unheard of for the elite. One couldn’t be an elite if their cock could rule their decision-making process.
Aesh poked her head through the doorway. “Can we have food and water while we think about this? It’s been a while since I’ve eaten anything.”
Raint tapped his stomach. “I could go for food.”
Suni slapped her hands together and gave a smile. “We’ll have food delivered and wait for your answer.”
“Don’t take too long, though,” Saph ground out. “We’re not running a charity vessel.”
* * *
Not long after the trio left, barely palatable food arrived via an electronic rolling cart. Everyone except Vril gathered in makeshift seats they had made from crates and anything else they could sit on in the bay. Vril remained in the jumper, his body comfortably situated as he continued the regeneration process.
“Can we trust them?” Taun voiced what they were thinking between bites.
Taun wasn’t so sure about this group of females. He’d run test after test and each one came back clean. There wasn’t anything wrong with him. There had to be a reason he’d suddenly reacted the way he had to Suni and Taun didn’t know if he wanted to find out.
“Better yet, do you think they’ll give us up?” Raint said around a mouth full of food.
Taun lifted a shoulder. “Take a look around. They obviously could use the credits turning us in would fetch them.”
Zema grimaced as she swallowed a lump of her food. The distaste on her face spoke volumes and Taun withheld a smirk. “They could use the credits to buy a good food processor, that’s for sure.”
“But what if they are trustworthy?” Ised asked. “They might really only need our, er, I mean your help so they can
retrieve this item of theirs.”
“Then, what? They let us go on our way?” Raint asked with a snort.
“And why not?” Aesh asked. “They answered our distress call and have helped us so far. If they wanted to turn us in, they could’ve brought us on board and locked us in here and not have gone through the pretense of pretending to help us.”
Taun chewed the awful food thoughtfully. It was rough on his tongue and swallowing was a chore, but he was grateful for the sustenance. “If we stay here, we can hide from Shui and gain our bearings until we can re-group with the others. Even a few days rest will go a long way.” It would also give him time to run another diagnostic test in case the previous five had been incorrect, then fix any deficiencies before they left.
“I agree,” Zema said. “This can work in our favor. Stay here, fix the jumper, get a ride to Stindrol and figure out what to do from there.”
“And if they try to turn us in?” Ised asked.
“We kill them,” Raint said while tearing into another bite of his food and in a menacing tone without compromise.
At the thought of someone hurting Suni, a pang settled in his heart that caused him to rub his chest.
What is the matter with my systems?
* * *
“Oh, great. They’re wanted criminals and on the run.” Saph swiveled her chair to glare at Suni. “And you decided to bring them on board.”
Suni grimaced. They had been listening in on their guests’ conversation. Suni didn’t think their eavesdropping was rude. The ship was equipped with communication speakers throughout. It was a nice-sized ship, meant to take multiple families across long distances. Communication was key and it allowed them to talk to each other while on different parts of it. And besides, this was their home and, just as the newcomers didn’t trust them, Suni wasn’t entirely sure she could trust them either.
“They look like they can handle themselves and anyone that comes after us.” When Saph opened her mouth, Suni touched her hand. “Saph, we need to get the next item. If Kenzi stops us again we’ll have a hard time catching up.”
Saph snapped her mouth shut. That was a hard point to argue with. While it was expected that none of the participants would be able to get their hands on all the items, Suni and Saph had vowed to try.
So far, they were in possession of twenty-seven items and had lost out on five. One had been too hard to find. One had cost more than they had the credits to buy. One they hadn’t been able to crack the code to figure out what the item was. And Kenzi had blocked them from getting two.
“I don’t like the way they’re talking about our home,” Yovit said, grumbling over the intercom. Suni double checked and confirmed he wasn’t broadcasting throughout the ship this time.
“Neither do I,” Tayan’s voice came over the intercom as well. She had found her way to their father’s room.
Suni and Saph hardly ever visited Yovit’s room. He had chosen to take the largest suite meant for the Captain and the Captain’s family. While there were five other rooms in that wing, Suni, Saph and Tayan had chosen rooms in one of the other suites, opting to stay close to each other rather than being close to Yovit. They all loved him, he was their dad, but there was a lot of hurt and pain not too far under the surface that Suni and Saph tried to keep a bandage on for Tayan’s sake. Everything wrong that happened before she came along, they tried to shield her from. Their mother would’ve wanted it that way.
“Tayan, what is that?” Yovit asked.
“Oh, an air conductor.”
“Tayan! Did you steal another item from their jumper?” Suni groaned and buried her face in her palm.
Chapter Six
Taun could ignore Saph standing against the wall by the bay door with her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at them. He could also ignore the old man with the wild white hair zipping around the open space on a hover chair. Then there was the little girl, Tayan, who’d gone against everyone’s admonishments and crawled into the jumper’s engine compartment. The grumblings she made as she pulled out wires and conductors didn’t sound good and made Zema’s eyes twitch.
But Taun couldn’t ignore her.
When Suni walked through the open bay door followed by another cart ladened with what was sure to be more poor-quality food, his vision tunneled. The moisture in his mouth suddenly dried.
He was hungry, but not for the food on the cart.
After a fitful night’s sleep in the transporter bay on the hard ground with Zema and Raint taking turns on guard, Taun had awakened aroused. Dreams of a dark-haired beauty with a petite and curvy body had plagued his mind. And still, after every self-diagnostic test, nothing wrong could be found with any of his systems.
This morning Suni’s hair fell in a straight wave past her shoulders. She glanced his way, and her sure steps faltered.
When was the last time he had been with a female? There’d been the one he had paid for while on leave a few years back. It had been his only leave in a while. Everyone in the unit received a few days off each month and some took that time to visit friends, family and loved ones.
The only friends Taun had were his pod mates. His parents liked to spend their retirement years traveling and were off planet more than on. What use did he have for personal time off?
He didn’t. He had donated his time so that others could enjoy what he had never had a need for. When the itch for sex became too much to ignore, he hired a brothel worker to scratch it.
Hmm. Maybe that was why he eyed Suni like the mouthwatering dessert.
Suni stopped in front of him and the scent of her floated on the air, enveloping him in a clean, flowery cocoon. Taun closed his eyes and took a deep breath, reveling in her womanly aroma and the way it made him feel. It took him back to a time of being a child and playing carefree in meadows.
Taun opened his eyes to find her staring directly into his. “I-I thought you all might be hungry.” The way she chewed on her bottom lip made him want to do things to her. Sexy, passionate things.
Raint stomped from his spot by the jumper, where he maintained his vigil near Vril. With Vril still down, Raint didn’t want anyone around him while the other cyborg was vulnerable to attack. He didn’t fully trust Ised or Aesh any more than Taun did.
Once he reached them, Raint snatched a few of the dinners and a water jug from the cart beside Suni.
“I-I made extra,” Suni said, eyeing Raint as he returned to his original spot and laid his food out in front of him.
“We appreciate it. Thank you,” Taun replied.
Suni pulled her gaze from Raint to eye Taun again. Her cheeks darkened to a red hue. “Um…you all eat a lot. You….” her eyes roamed up and down his body, “and Raint. I can see where it all goes. You’ve got muscles on top of muscles. But Zema? She’s so tiny.”
Zema swiped two plates from the cart and snorted, already on her way back to where she had been working on the jumper’s outside hull. “No one has ever described me as tiny.”
“I didn’t mean tiny as in tiny. I meant smaller than them.” Suni flicked a hand toward Taun and Raint. “When you stand next to them you look like a child.”
Zema stopped mid-step and turned, leveling a glare on Suni. “I’m an elite soldier in one of the most feared militaries in the Eri—”
Taun cleared his throat—loudly. None of them was sure if this family knew who they were and, if they didn’t, Taun didn’t want to help them figure it out.
Zema snapped her mouth shut and grumbled as she returned to her task.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend her. It seems that I can’t get my thoughts and words together when I’m around you.”
There. The way she tilted her head down and looked up at him with shyness in her eyes, and the way his heart skipped a beat when she did, was enough to snap Taun out of whatever was happening or at least trying to happen between them.
None of this could happen.
Taun stood, dwarfing Suni. She inhaled sharply, head jerk
ing back up to stare him in the eyes. Taun took a step to the side and maneuvered around her to view the items on the cart. After grabbing two plates and a water canvas, he stalked toward the ramp. The feel of her gaze burned his back with searing intensity.
* * *
Suni’s face was aflame. While she had been expressing her interest with all the skill of a bumbling idiot, Taun had walked away. But there had been something there. Returned desire, until a dark shadow crossed his face and he’d shut it down. He probably thought of her as a naïve child. When he was around, she couldn’t form the right sentences and couldn’t speak without stammering.
It wasn’t like she had had many opportunities to learn how to flirt or work her feminine wiles on the opposite sex. Something else to thank Yovit for. Living on a spaceship didn’t afford her many opportunities to interact with other people or perfect the art of seduction.
There had been one male. Baenon. She paled at the mere thought of him. That had been a whirlwind romance that had ended just as fast as it had begun. It turned out he was a grifter who needed an idiot to take him from planet to planet so he could swindle unsuspecting people out of money and goods.
She’d thought it was her flirting that had gotten him to notice. It had been her access to The Renegade and their flight plan. That experience had left her even more insecure about her looks and ability to find and catch a male partner.
No wonder she didn’t know how to behave around Taun.
Instead of being embarrassed about Taun, she leveled a gaze on Yovit—the one person who was here that she could take this out on. He’d decided to leave his room today and watched Taun and his crew as if they would take over the ship and claim it for their own.
If that was their plan, Suni was sure they could find a much better vessel than The Renegade to steal. Secondly, it was near impossible for anyone to take control of the ship. There were voice and biometric controls in place to prevent it, and X-9 wouldn’t let that happen anyway. The A.I. was worth the credits Saph had spent on it.
Saving The Cyborg (Cyborg Redemption) Page 5