by Mina Carter
MINE!
With a low roar, he pointed his pulse rifle at the monster and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
Either his rifle was jammed or out of charge—he didn’t have time to find out which. 85was trying to roll out of the way of the charging hopper but having Claudia on his back was slowing him down considerably. And it was clear that the diminutive doctor was the hopper’s prey of choice.
It was reaching for her again, its jaws peeled back to expose the nightmare fangs that reminded 77 of those deep-water fish back on Old Earth—the ones that lived so far down toward the bottom of the ocean they never saw the light. Long, thin and almost translucent, the curving fangs dripped saliva as the hopper reached for that first tantalizing bite, which happened to be Claudia’s pretty head…
77 was in motion almost before he knew it. Throwing down the pulse rifle, he reached for one weapon that would never be out of charge. A long, serrated hunting knife, the blade the length of his forearm, with a hardened leather grip that fit to his palm like another piece of his hand.
Charging forward, he buried the knife to the hilt in the hopper’s head, bringing down all his weight on the damn thing until the insectoid’s top and bottom jaws were locked together—pinned by the sharp silver blade.
It jerked against him, its massive body thrashing and its oddly jointed legs kicking out in all directions as it tried to free itself.
“Oh no you don’t,” 77 grunted. He twisted the knife brutally and drove downward, yanking the alien beast to the forest floor, where it came to rest right at the tips of Claudia’s dainty little feet.
It seemed to take the curvy little doctor a moment to unfreeze. When she did, she managed to take a step away from the still-twitching hopper. Its compound eyes, as big as dinner plates, glittered like jewels as it made a last rattling squeal.
“Oh,” Claudia gasped, looking at him with wide eyes. “Oh, Drew, thank you! You…you saved me again.”
Her words brought back an avalanche of memories—much more real and concrete than they had been before when the little voice was only whispering them to him. This time 77 could actually smell the scent of charred hopper guts—an oily, rancid odor like burning tires mixed with month-old garbage—could clearly see the tears in her eyes and hear the tremble in her voice.
The past and present seemed to blur together and for a brief, disorienting moment 77 was Drew again—not a cyber soldier but Captain Andrew Fisher of the Space Corps. And Claudia wasn’t a traitor. She was a frightened female he wanted to comfort. In fact, the urge to pull her into his arms and hold her close was so strong he was actually reaching for her before he realized what he was doing.
Of course you smell burned hopper guts, whispered the little voice sarcastically. You just fried five hoppers—well, four anyway since you knifed the fifth. You’re going to wind up frying more in a minute—unless they get you first—if you don’t get your ass moving out of here.
And don’t forget, Claudia isn’t for you. You might have thought so for a minute there back at the tree when she let you touch her…taste her. But she’s a traitor now. And even if she wasn’t, don’t forget what you are, buddy. You’re not Andrew Fisher anymore—you’re Unit 77 and you can’t fucking change that.
“Move it out,” he told the others, picking up his discarded pulse pistol and yanking the knife out of the dead hopper. “We need to get where we’re going before more of those big bastards show up.”
There were nods of assent and then they were on the move again, running through the trees and vines, heading for what 77 (Drew) hoped was safety.
He’d saved her. Again.
Claudia looked at the dead hopper on the ground in front of her and fought the urge to be sick. It had almost killed her. She’d seen the hunger in its huge black eyes as it had lunged for her again and again. Unit 85… Josh, she had to fight shakily through her memories for his name… had tried his best to evade it, to protect her, but she wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t fast enough, not hampered by carrying her. She’d been facing her own death, just counting down the seconds until those jaws had fastened around her neck and sliced her head clean off.
But Drew had been there. Again. Moving faster than she’d ever seen any man move, he’d taken on the creature practically with his bare hands. He thrust a big knife into its brain and slammed it down into the dirt. His face had been a mask of fury, nothing like the cold expressionless smoothness of his cyborg half.
For a moment she’d thought he would hold her against him, comfort her like he had the last time he’d rescued her. And she’d wanted that, with every cell of her being. Needed it. Needed to feel the safety and security she’d only ever felt in his arms. He would protect her…
But then he’d looked up at her and it had slid back into place. The pain seeing him pull back, retreat into his emotionless state felt like the hopper had actually managed to rake her with its claws and tear her heart in two. So much so that she had to look down to check she wasn’t bleeding.
He’d turned away, and she’d realized she was on her own. Her legs wouldn’t stop shaking as she wrapped her arms around herself. Any protest died a swift death on her lips. He’d threatened to leave her out here with these… things. A death sentence. She wouldn’t last five minutes out here alone and she knew it.
Her gaze fell onto some body armor that had been trashed in the hopper attack. Damaged now, it had been field stripped of anything useful and the remains discarded. Useless. If she fell apart now, she was useless to them… and they discarded anything useless.
85 stepped into her peripheral vision again and she forced herself to get it together.
“Doc?” he said, crouching again so she could climb onto his back. Trying to quell her shivers, she did, her knuckles white as she gripped her hands together, arms wrapped around his neck. Closing her eyes as he set off, she tried not to think. Drew didn’t trust her anymore. The rogue cyborgs weren’t her friends… and the only reason she was being kept alive was to ensure 78’s survival.
Her eyes snapped open to seek him out. Carried just ahead of her by a group of four units, who kept passing his stretcher between them, he was awake, a rifle in his hands as he watched the skies above them for more hoppers.
She breathed a sigh of relief. Even strapped to a board, he’d survived the hopper attack. So, for now, she was as safe as she was going to be…
Chapter Eight
For the next few days, 77 tried to avoid the little doctor—tried not to even see her though it seemed she was somehow constantly on the edges of his vision everywhere he went.
They had reached the base without further incident and to 77’s relief, it had been relatively intact. Once 86 and 87, who were tech specialists, had gotten the generators going, they’d been able to power the massive perimeter fence. The fence was a good one, built before they’d decided to abandon the base. Its blue, glowing bands of energy extended seventy feet into the air and had overhead power-arcs to keep out any high-flying hoppers that decided someone inside the compound looked like a tasty snack. Once it was up and running, 77 felt much more secure.
But it was a temporary kind of security. Though the fence kept the base safe from the monstrous insectoids, its low, buzzing hum also seemed to draw them closer. Almost every night they clustered around the perimeter, their compound eyes glowing in the artificial blue light, their teeth gnashing hungrily. Every so often one of them would take it into its dim-witted head to charge the fence—which resulted in a burst of energy as the blue power bands wrapped around the invading creature and fried it until it popped like a kernel of corn in a too-hot skillet.
The result was most often an unpleasant shower of half-fried hopper guts and the nauseating smell of burned rubber and rotting garbage permeating the air.
If that was the only problem, though, 77 thought they could have lived with it. But when one area of the fence was attacked, the rest of the perimeter was weakened considerably as all available powe
r was thrown into killing the intruding hopper.
“Ya know, boss,” 80 remarked, as the two of them watched the fence dim and flicker while yet another hopper fried. “We’re damn lucky those things are dumb as dirt and don’t seem to have any kind of a hive mind. All it would take to bring this place down is if more than one or two of them got it into their heads to attack at the same time. We’ll be some done Tom Turkeys if that ever happens.”
77 didn’t like it, but he had to admit it 80 was right. He nodded his head reluctantly.
“We need to go clean out their nest,” he told 80. “Slip in during the day when they’re less active maybe.”
“Hell, yeah!” 80’s eyes were shining. “Throw some death-charges down into the center of their hive—blow the damn things sky high!”
“You think we have enough fire power?” 77 asked, raising an eyebrow. “They’re a fucking lot of them down there, 80, and we don’t just want to stir them up. We want to eradicate as many as possible.”
“You leave it to me, boss—I’m a munitions expert, don’t forget,” 80 said. “I’ll wire a few things together—blast the buggers to Kingdom Come. I swear it.”
“Well…” 77 sighed. He didn’t like it but what choice did he have? The fence couldn’t hold up to this kind of nightly assault forever. “Fine,” he said at last. “Do it. We’ll go tomorrow at dawn—they’re most sluggish when the sun is coming up or going down.”
“You got it, boss!” Grinning in anticipation, 80 hurried away.
As another hopper fried itself, 77 knew he had things to do to get ready for the coming attack on the nearby nest. And one of those things was something he’d been putting off. He needed to check on 78.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see how his old friend was doing. It was just that Claudia was most often at the med shack where he was recuperating. Still, if they were going out on a bug hunt, he had to see how 78 was before he left.
Reluctantly, he turned toward the hut, arriving just as the dinner bell rang. There was a good store of MREs as well as plenty of nonperishable ingredients in the base’s stores, and Unit 82 had taken over the cooking. When he rang the bell, the others knew they’d better get to the mess hall quickly. 82 had been the company chef before he was Cyber-ized and he still had considerable skill with rations. The food he made went quickly.
Tonight 77 decided he would just have to eat a protein bar. Knocking on the med shack door, he poked his head in and looked around. Claudia was missing, though he could still smell the faint feminine scent of her skin hanging in the air. Good—she was probably in the mess hall with everyone else.
Breathing a sigh of relief, 77 made his way to the back of the shack. There was a table to one side with the half-dissected CyBRG device lying on it. Rows of instruments lined the edge of the table and a microscope as well as a laser spectrometer were set up on the end. Clearly Claudia had been hard at work. She claimed she was trying to find a way to turn off the agony waves the CO still occasionally sent through them—though why she bothered now that they all knew she was a spy, 77 didn’t know.
Just the thought of it made him feel even more broken inside so he pushed it away.
Toward the back of the med shack, six intensive-care cots were set up, three on either side. The only one that was occupied at the moment was on the far right where Unit 78 lay sleeping.
77 frowned as he went to stand over his old friend. Because, 78 had been his friend… before. Lately he didn’t even need the little voice in his head to tell him. It seemed that more and more memories were coming back to him—77 didn’t know if that was a good thing, or a bad thing but he did know it troubled the hell out of him if he thought about it too much, which he tried not to do.
Damn it, 78…Rich, he thought as he looked at his old friend’s face. He’d been healing well back at the tree base but the run through the jungle and up into the mountains hadn’t been good for him—despite the fact that he’d been carried most of the way on a backboard. His face was pale under the scruff of beard and his broad chest rose and fell shallowly.
77 was about to turn away when 78’s eyelids fluttered open and piercing blue eyes focused on him.
“Captain.” 78’s voice was weak, his cheeks pale. “To what…do I owe the honor?” He coughed and winced, as though it hurt him.
“Just checking on you,” 77 told him gruffly. “I wanted to let you know I’ve decided we have to make a raid on the hopper nest at dawn. The perimeter fence can’t hold up to these constant attacks forever. We need to thin the bastards out some.”
“I’ll be ready.” Despite his pallor, 78’s eyes blazed.
“No, you won’t. You’re not coming,” 77 told him. “I just came by to see you and let you know what was going on. In case…”
“In case something happens and you need me to look out for Doc Chambers?” 78 raised an eyebrow at him.
77 frowned. Was that why he’d come to see his old friend? Surely not—he just needed to check on Rich—make sure he was doing all right. After all, the man was his second in command, even if he was out of commission at the moment. He deserved to be kept in the loop.
“Don’t bother trying to deny it,” 78 said when he opened his mouth to do just that. “I’ve seen the way you look at her, Drew. It’s the way you’ve always looked at her.”
“Always?” 77 frowned at him but his friend seemed unperturbed.
“You want her,” he said simply. “The longer we’re away from base—from the CO—the more I remember. You used to look at her like a starving man looks at a steak, Drew. If the rest of the guys called her ‘MILF’ or tried to joke about her, you shut them down fast. She’s been your ideal from the minute you saw her.”
“What do you know about my ideal?” 77 growled. “And even if she was, you think she’d want me now? I’m a fucking monster, 78. So are you. So are we all.”
“Call me Rich, like you used to,” 78 said quietly. “I know we’re made of metal now—or parts of us are—but that doesn’t make us into monsters, Drew. It just makes us…different.”
“Speak for yourself,” 77 said shortly. “I only came to inform you of the raid as a courtesy. If I bite it, you’re next in command.”
“Then you’d better not bite it because I’m weak as a kitten,” 78 informed him. “In fact, I hate to say it but maybe you ought to leave someone else here along with me to help guard the doc. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to her if the perimeter gets breached while you’re gone.”
77 didn’t like the idea—but he had to admit it was probably a good one. Still, who could he leave that he trusted to take care of…Claudia…of the base while he was gone? Who—?
“What’s this about a raid on the hopper nest?”
Claudia was striding down the center of the med shack, a frown on her delicate features. She marched right up to 77 as though she wasn’t a bit afraid of him, despite their vast size difference.
“None of your fucking business,” he growled and started to leave.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Claudia moved quickly to plant herself squarely in his path. “You can’t just take everyone on a raid like that and leave me here! What if you need a doctor?”
“There’s no way you’re going so don’t even start,” 77 told her. He tried to sidestep her again but once more she blocked his path.
“Is it because you still think I’m a traitor?” she demanded. “Is that why you won’t let me go? Please, Drew…” Her voice dropped a little and she looked at him pleadingly. “You have to believe me. I had no idea that tracker was in the med bags! Pike is crazy-paranoid. He puts trackers everywhere. Please take me with you—please!”
“I’m not taking you with me because I can’t protect you out there, all right?” Drew roared. The sight of her, so lush and curvy—the scent of her so close when he’d been avoiding her for days seemed to break something inside him.
“But—”
“I almost lost you twice,” he growled. “I won’t risk it aga
in!” Grabbing her by the shoulders he dragged her close, meaning to shake her to make his point.
But somehow he found he was kissing her instead.
Claudia gasped and then she was kissing him back, reaching up to wind her arms around his neck and press her soft little body to his as though she couldn’t get close enough.
Goddess, she tasted sweet! Drew wrapped his arms around her waist and backed her against the wall of the med shack. Though part of him shouted that he needed to stop, he found he couldn’t. Instead he went on ravaging her mouth, taking what he wanted so desperately—what he had wanted for days, ever since he’d tasted her sweet pussy and made her come for him.
Claudia gave herself up to him with no resistance at all, molding herself against his much larger body and parting her thighs eagerly when he pressed forward, letting the bulge of his aching cock rub against her pussy. She was making soft, needy little sounds in the back of her throat and running her fingers through his hair as she thrust her hips up shamelessly to meet him. Goddess, she was driving him fucking crazy!
That’s exactly how you’re acting—crazy! whispered the little voice in his head. She’s a fucking traitor and you’re a fucking monster. You don’t belong together and you know it, Drew! You need to leave her the fuck alone!
Reluctantly, he pulled back from the kiss and pushed Claudia away from him.
“What…why?” She looked up at him, her eyes drugged from the kiss, her lips swollen and red from his assault. “Why did you stop?”
“You know why,” 77 growled. He was in control of himself again. He was 77 again, he told himself. The CyBRG device at the back of his neck clicked and whirred, as though agreeing with him.
“Drew—”
“I have to go.”
He turned but she stopped him with one soft little hand on his arm.
“What?” he growled, turning back to her.