The bar was in ruins when the smoke began to clear, but Chip couldn’t worry about that. He had to get to Lila. She was the important thing right now. He set his metal minions to sentry duty near the door and let what few bots were left recharge. There would be time for cleaning later. For now, he had a battle to monitor and a woman to protect.
Chip stalked back through the bar, intending to make his way through the hidden door, but Lila was there, just disappearing inside the office. Damn. She hadn’t left.
“Before you say anything,” she called from inside the office, “I did leave, but I came back. There was nothing for me to do inside a cupboard with no computer access. I figured I could be of more help here.”
Sure enough, when he joined her in the office, she’d already brought up views of the ongoing battle. Things were winding down now that Maddie was involved directly. She was aiding the defenders by whatever mechanical means were at hand and the tide had long since turned.
Chip closed and locked the office door behind him and kept walking until he had Lila in his arms. Damn, she felt good.
“Oh, Chip, you’re bleeding!” She drew her soft hand away from his shoulder and he resisted letting her go for a moment, but she wouldn’t be denied.
“It’s just a graze.” He tried to make light of it, though now that she mentioned it, his shoulder began to throb with a dull, annoying pain. Dammit.
“Sit down. There’s a first aid kit back here. Let me just find it.” She moved around the desk and rummaged in the bottom drawers for a moment, her perky butt up in the air, giving him ideas. But he sat in the chair he’d occupied before, and let his mind take in everything.
Not only could he gaze upon the most beautiful sight in the universe—Lila—but he could keep track of the ships flitting around the station and those that were drifting with no power. Even as he thought about it, boarding parties began to secure a few of the pirate ships and take the crews into custody. Julian was organizing things in a style worthy of an admiral. Hell, he just might get that promotion when the brass heard about his actions here. He’d done a good job leading the small fleet he’d managed to scrounge. Chip would personally recommend him for promotion based on his ingenuity alone.
Maddie was having a good time stopping pirates inside the station wherever she could. The securecarts were chasing them down and in a few interesting cases, actually being used by Maddie to capture miscreants. Maddie was delivering the offenders directly to the nearest police lockups.
The only sticking point was the small group that still held out inside C&C. Bjornson was in there, along with a few of his closest allies.
Maddie hadn’t yet realized all she was capable of, and perhaps it wasn’t the best thing to teach a space station how to take control of itself, but in this instance, Chip had no choice. He let his computer-enhanced mind enter the C&C subroutines and he began… changing things. Little things in unimportant programs that should not have mattered, but with enough small changes, he would be able to gain control of the cleaning bots in C&C itself. They were all in their storage compartments, along with a plethora of cleaning chemicals, three of which could be mixed together to form something that would put everyone in C&C asleep for a long time.
Chip used the metal arms of one of the bots to do the delicate work of mixing the concoction, then allowed all of the bots to load up with the stuff. This had to be done quickly. The element of surprise would work in his favor. Undoubtedly the saboteurs in C&C already knew bots were being used as weapons all over the station. Maddie had learned from what Chip had done in the bar.
He felt a touch on his shoulder and looked over at Lila, kneeling at his side. She smiled up at him and his soul felt lighter, joy filling him at the look of love on her beautiful face.
“Want to see something?” he asked, using his mind to change the view on the wall screen to the inside of C&C.
She cut the cloth barely covering his shoulder with gentle hands and turned to face the screen. “Let me get this on first,” she said as she worked a med pad over his wound. It held chemicals that would clean, cauterize and anesthetize the area, bringing nearly instant relief to the nagging pain he’d begun to feel. “All right, what have you got planned for them?” A mischievous smile lit her face as she faced the screen.
“Watch this.” So saying, he sent the command that would spring the bots into action. On silent rollers and padded feet, they crept from their storage area and touched each of the saboteurs. One by one, they began to fall unconscious until only Bjornson was left, sitting all alone—though he didn’t realize it yet—in the command chair.
A bot trundled up to him and he looked at it in confusion for a moment before standing in alarm to look around and find everyone in C&C unconscious at their stations. He glanced downward and saw the bot touching him. A look of horror and rage passed over his face before it went slack as he fell face down, whacking his head on the hard decking as he fell.
“That’s got to hurt,” was Lila’s dry comment. “What did you do to them?” She turned back to him, curiosity on her smiling face.
“It’s amazing what sorts of chemicals are kept on hand to clean with,” was all he’d admit to. It was all he needed to say.
Lila sat in his lap as he tugged her closer, wrapping her arms around his neck, careful to avoid his wounded shoulder.
“Beezus is dead. Bjornson is unconscious and will be captured as soon as Freight Train and Hank enter C&C, which should happen at any moment. Julian’s got the pirate fleet in hand. Maddie’s handling everything else, which leaves me only one thing to do.”
“And what’s that?” she asked breathlessly as he rubbed his stubbly cheek gently against her hair. How he loved this woman. She was more important to him than anyone or anything in the entire universe. It was time she knew it. Time he took the biggest risk of his life.
“My biggest, and most important task of all, my dear. I need to convince you to marry me.” He looked deep into her startled eyes. “I can’t live without you, Lila.”
Tears gathered in her eyes and he wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. Uncertainty made him nervous.
“Will you marry me, Lila?” he repeated, worried that she’d give him the wrong answer.
Instead she smiled. “I think I will. Of course, I’ll need a lot of convincing.” She lifted her lips to his and whispered against his mouth. “Convince me, my Charlemagne. Convince me all night long.”
Epilogue
General Winters showed up in person a few weeks later. His visit had a number of different purposes. First, he wanted to meet and assess Maddie, who had made her presence well known on the station in the weeks since the pirates had been routed. He was also there to take stock of the changes in Chip’s abilities. He brought a cyber-neuro specialist with him to quietly examine Chip. In particular, they wanted to determine if it was safe for him to travel with the changes to his implant. Most ships and stations had detectors of many kinds that might be able to sense his changed internal technology and bring unwanted attention.
Until the docs gave him the all clear, Winters had ordered Chip to stay on Madhatter Station. That suited Chip just fine. He was putting the bar back to rights with Lila’s help and spending every private moment with her, making love and getting to know every little thing about her. What she liked. What she loathed. What made her smile and what made her scream with pleasure.
Chip had already filed commendations and recommendations for all the vets involved in the defense of the station. He knew Winters would meet with all of them—especially Julian. Chip suspected the pilot was going to be given a lot more responsibility, should he choose to accept it. Chip figured Julian would. He’d taken charge of the pirate fleet quite handily and helped capture and contain all the crew members on every ship. None had escaped, which was a huge victory for the rule of law.
Chip had run an errand to a shop on the adjoining concourse that supplied and repaired cleaning bots and had just returned to The Rabbit
Hole when he saw General Winters sitting at the bar. He looked surprisingly comfortable among the old vets, making small talk.
This was the first Chip had seen of the general since his arrival on station. Winters had been busy seeing to other business before making his way here. After all, The Rabbit Hole was just a bar where local vets tended to hang out. It wasn’t anything special. Only Maddie knew the full extent of the role Chip and the bar had played in the recent action and she’d understood his need for secrecy even before he discussed it with her.
“Sir, it’s good to see you again,” Chip said, extending his hand in greeting, as soon as he was close enough where his words wouldn’t be casually overheard. The vets formed an informal protective barrier between the old man and the rest of the bar, giving them enough space to have a more or less private conversation.
Winters shook his hand heartily, a broad smile on his usually serious face.
“Damn fine work, Quartain. Damn fine. The doc tells me you’re cleared for duty.” Chip had already submitted to a very thorough examination the day before, given by the doctor Winters had brought along with him.
Much to Chip’s surprise, the doctor hadn’t been able to find any real change in the technology. Nothing within the implant had changed. It was Chip’s brain that had adapted. That wasn’t something they could exactly quantify and reproduce. Chip and his implant registered essentially the same on all the tests as he had before. It was something internal—something nebulous—that had allowed the incredible synergy between his brain and the technology.
So life, and work, could go on as before. The only thing that was new and different was Chip’s incredibly enlarged computing capacity. For all intents and purposes, he was a human computer on a scale never before seen. He had a feeling his assignments were going to change in the future, but it would take a while before Winters figured out how best to utilize Chip’s expanded abilities.
The only thing Chip knew for sure, that he had to make absolutely clear, was that from now on, Chip and Lila came as a set. They’d had multiple, long discussions about how they wanted to proceed. Chip had offered to give up the spy game, but Lila convinced him she wanted back in. He’d only countenance that if she wasn’t put in direct danger. She countered by telling him about previous situations she’d been in and how her psychic gifts brought her to the right place at the right time and seldom put her in real danger.
It took some convincing, but he’d computed the probabilities and realized the best way forward for them as a couple was to use their amazing gifts together. Lila laughed at his analytical approach, telling him not to question fate.
“If you’re comfortable here…” the general broke into Chip’s roaming thoughts, “…you might as well stay for a while. Alex and Della will return, and we need this place ship shape when they get back.” Winters sent his gaze pointedly around the bar room. They’d been able to get the place open, but it was still quite a mess. Most of the station was still a mess, of course. It would take a while to get it back to the way it was.
“I’m game, sir. Lila and I like it here.”
“Yeah, I’d heard you had taken up with one of the Senna ladies.” Winters turned back to Chip with an odd twinkle in his eye. Chip wasn’t sure quite how to take his words.
“We plan to marry.” Chip wanted Winters to know he would not be dissuaded. He put all his conviction into those simple words.
Surprisingly, Winters grinned and held out his hand for a congratulatory shake. “Welcome to the family, son.”
“The family?” Chip was nonplussed by the old man’s words.
General Winters gave him a big grin. “Didn’t she tell you? Your Lila is my niece by marriage. It was her aunt who told me to send you here, and look how that turned out. If you’ll take my advice, you’ll always listen when a Senna woman tells you something about the future. They always know what they’re talking about.”
The general gave him an uncharacteristic wink and turned back to the bar.
Chip was still recovering from his astonishment when Lila slid her arm around his waist and cuddled under his arm. She fit so well in his embrace, he never wanted to let her go.
“Is Uncle Neil giving you a hard time?”
“No, not at all.” Far be it for him to complain about anything the commanding general had to say to him. This was going to take some getting used to.
Lila leaned into him, squeezing him around the middle lightly. “Don’t worry. I foresee we’ll have the rest of our lives to figure it all out—and we’re going to live a very long, happy time together.”
The general’s advice fresh in his mind, Chip decided not to question her gift or his good fortune. Lila was his and that was all that mattered.
###
About the Author
Bianca D’Arc has run a laboratory, climbed the corporate ladder in the shark-infested streets of Manhattan, studied and taught martial arts, and earned the right to put a whole bunch of letters after her name, but she’s always enjoyed writing more than any of her other pursuits. She grew up and still lives on Long Island, where she keeps busy with an extensive garden, several aquariums full of very demanding fish, and writing her favorite genres of paranormal, fantasy and sci-fi romance.
Bianca loves to hear from readers and can be reached through Facebook, her Yahoo group or through the various links on her website.
Website
WWW.BIANCADARC.COM
Other Titles by Bianca D’Arc
Now Available:
Jit’Suku Chronicles: Arcana
King of Swords
King of Cups
King of Clubs
Jit’Suku Chronicles: Sons of Amber
Ezekiel
Michael
Brotherhood of Blood
One & Only
Rare Vintage
Phantom Desires
Sweeter Than Wine
Forever Valentine
Wolf Hills
Tales of the Were
Lords of the Were
Inferno
The Purrfect Stranger
Dragon Knights
Maiden Flight
Border Lair
The Ice Dragon
Prince of Spies
Wings of Change
FireDrake
Dragon Storm
Resonance Mates
Hara’s Legacy
Davin’s Quest
Jaci’s Experiment
Grady’s Awakening
Gifts of the Ancients
Warrior’s Heart
String of Fate
Cat’s Cradle
StarLords
Hidden Talent
Print Anthologies
Ladies of the Lair
I Dream of Dragons Vol. 1
Brotherhood of Blood
Caught by Cupid
Guardians of the Dark
Half Past Dead
Once Bitten, Twice Dead
A Darker Shade of Dead
The Beast Within
Dead Alert
Coming Soon:
Jit’Suku Chronicles: Arcana
King of Stars
Available in ebook - Late 2012
Jit’Suku Chronicles
End of the Line
Available in ebook - Early 2013
Dragon Knights
Keeper of the Flame
Available in ebook - February 2013
We hope you’ll enjoy this excerpt from an upcoming short story set in the world of Bianca D’Arc’s Jit’Suku Chronicles…
End of the Line
by
Bianca D’Arc
© 2012 Bianca D’Arc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter One
She saw the incoming fire too late to save her ship. The one-man fighter was going down, and if she didn’t pop her canopy in the next five milliseconds, she was going with it.
Lisbet realized she had no choice. Hitting the CATASTROPHIC FAILURE button, she checked herself out of her ride split
seconds before it blew into a million little weightless bits. Out in the nothingness of space near the galactic Rim, she was in no man’s land where rescue was hard to come by. She had either a long wait or a slow death to look forward to in the next few hours.
The enemy jits had won this battle, though hopefully not the war. Skirmishes on the Rim had escalated in recent years as the jit’suku empire looked for ways to gain a foothold in the Milky Way galaxy. The expansion from their home galaxy was fueled by the comparative ease of travel via an inconvenient wormhole and several jumpoints that had been created before humans had realized how the jit’suku truly viewed the human race.
Inferior. That’s what the jits thought of humans. Inferior in every way to their war-mongering race. Though they looked very human in appearance – if built on a bit larger scale than most humans – jit’suku society was one that most humans had a hard time understanding.
They prized warriors and seemed to scoff at diplomats or anyone who wanted to negotiate peaceful coexistence. The only thing the jits understood was conquest, it seemed.
Which was why they’d been fighting so long and so hard out here, on the Rim of the Milky Way galaxy. Lisbet was just the latest in a nearly endless rotation of human fighter pilots who had drawn the dreaded, but vital, duty of patrolling the Rim.
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