Why did the pirates have to attack us? Dozens of ships flew from Lokostwa to Saddat. The one we’d picked wasn’t anything special.
The fighting drew closer. No way Dad could beat the whole pirate crew.
The hatch whooshed open. Dad sprang through, a fire grenade in his hand. Even with the mask covering his face, I saw panic in his eyes.
Where was Wurrud? Had the pirates already got him?
Dad threw the grenade through the hatch. A second later, his eyes widened. He leaped at me, crushing me against the floor.
The grenade bounced back into the room.
A wave of liquid fire washed over us. Pain tore through every nerve of my body.
Pain and a few blurred specters hovering over me were my only companions in the darkness that seemed to go on for ages.
Finally, the darkness and pain released me. My body ached, but it wasn’t the debilitating pain that had been my companion in the darkness.
I tried to open my eyes. My left refused to respond, but my right one opened, giving me a view of green. I blinked, but my vision was still blurry, and my thoughts were fuzzy.
A large ship’s vibrations thrummed through my bed. Where was I? I had to struggle to keep my eye opened. My traitorous body wanted to sleep, not awaken. Next to me, a machine beeped softly.
My vision cleared enough to let me see a curved ceiling painted in a forest canopy mural. It took all my concentration to turn my head until I could see one of the walls and surrounding beds. So it was an infirmary with walls painted in tree murals? Huge potted plants grew up the walls while other hanging vines draped along the upper wall. A few vines were even climbing along the ceiling and over the light fixtures.
I tried to sit up. My right arm only pushed a little before giving up, and my left side refused to move at all. What was wrong with me? Fear tingled at the edge of my mind, but exhaustion kept it from turning into panic.
A Chix darted across the floor, which was the only thing not painted green. He sprang onto the edge of my bed. His cybernetic eye telescoped toward me then retracted.
It was Klate’s crazy doctor.
“How are you feeling?” He waved his hand over my face.
I opened my mouth to speak, but my jaw muscles didn’t work right. A raspy croak emanated from my throat.
“Easy,” he said. “You’ve been out for almost five weeks.” His tail twitched. “Call me Doc. That’s what everyone calls me.”
“Get way,” I croaked. What had he done to me? I tried to rise but sank back to the bed.
Doc hopped over me, to the other side of the bed, and out of my line of sight. Was I blind on my left side?
Doc’s hand touched the skin around my left eye, prompting a strange tingle. What was wrong with me?
An odd sensation moved in my eye socket. Was he yanking my eye out? I tried to move, but he pressed a furry paw to my forehead. I needed to fight, but I was too weak to even resist the touch of a Chix.
Doc released me.
I turned my head enough to see him holding up some sort of black orb. He fiddled with it then reached toward me.
I summoned up all my strength and swung my right hand at his face.
Doc sprang backward off the bed, avoiding the hit. I tried to rise again. This time, I managed to roll onto my left side. A few tubes connected to my right arm tangled around me.
The arm that lay beside my left side was not flesh and blood but steel and gray replacement skin. I collapsed onto the bed. I’d been made into a cyborg, one that didn’t even work. I should have felt anger, but my thoughts were too fuzzy.
Doc sprang onto the left side of the bed and grabbed my head again. Something pressed into my eye socket. Vision shot through my eye. The colors were brighter than they should have been. I tried to blink. Nothing happened.
“It’s a state-of-the-art cybernetic eye,” Doc said. “I’ve got a few special features like color enhancement and night vision.” He prattled on, using terms I didn’t understand and didn’t care about.
I tried to push through the fuzzy feeling in my head, to get my mind to work right, but I couldn’t fight whatever drugs the crazy doctor had pumped into me.
Next to me, machines beeped faster. Doc glanced at it, his ears perking. “You’re getting too excited.” He pushed a few buttons on the machine.
Drowsiness flowed through me. “No,” I growled. My real eye slid shut.
CHAPTER FOUR
Prisoner
“She should wake up fully this time. I took all the tubes out and tweaked her chip a little.”
My eyes snapped open. That is, the real eye opened and the other turned on. Klate sat next to the bed. Doc perched on a nearby table.
I tried to sit up, but my left side moved sluggishly. I sank back to the bed.
Klate touched a button on the side of the bed. The bed bent into a sitting position.
A bit of relief tingled through me. Sitting up made me feel a tiny bit less helpless.
“I’m sorry,” Klate said. “I didn’t realize it was a fire grenade until it blew.” His ears drooped. “Doc did what he could, but we couldn’t—” He motioned to Doc with his thumb. “Better get the mirror.”
Doc sprang off the table and ran across the room. He came back with a mirror, which he unrolled in front of me.
A half-cybernetic freak stared at me from the mirror. I touched my head and the thing in the mirror touched hers too. My hair was little more than fuzz and only covered the right side of my head. Fake gray skin and metal had replaced my left side. There had been no attempt at making the cybernetics look human.
“You monsters.” My voice came out as a thin rasp.
Klate flinched.
Doc rolled up the mirror and ran across the floor to the cabinet. He grabbed a bottle of water then raced across the room and sprang onto my bed.
I swung my real fist at his face, aiming for his cybernetic eye.
He did a backflip onto the table.
If I’d been in good shape, my fist would have connected.
“You need to drink. I took out your feeding tube.” Doc’s tail twitched. “I also unhooked the anti-atrophy machines.”
Where was Dad? Had they captured him too? I looked past Klate. No other beds in the infirmary were occupied. Had he escaped? My mind flashed back to the blast. He had thrown himself over me. No way he’d survived that.
“You killed him!” I launched myself at Klate. This time, my cybernetic arm moved, just enough that I made it out of the bed. My cybernetic leg snagged on the edge of the bed.
Klate caught me.
I slammed my real fist into his nose. He grunted and shoved me back into the bed.
I tried to rise again. Klate placed one huge clawed hand on my shoulder. His ears swiveled backward in annoyance.
Dad’s words came back to me. Keep your emotions down until you’re safe. I’d have to mourn later.
Klate glanced away. “We never had a chance to save him.”
“Don’t talk about him,” I choked out.
Klate took his hand off my shoulder and backed away.
Doc’s tail twitched. “Can you move your cybernetics?”
I clenched my cybernetic fist. The more I concentrated, the more I felt the cybernetics. I tried to move my foot. It twitched a little but didn’t move much.
“Keep working at it,” Doc said. “The chip in your head will learn from your movements. It interfaces better the more you move.”
A chip in my head? Doc had a bounty for illegal experimentation. I shuddered. He now had a perfect captive for whatever experiments he wanted. No one would come to save me.
“Leave me alone.” The cautious part of me told me to play along and be nice, but what did I have left to lose? I’d become a prisoner in my own body.
Klate backed away. “I’ll go. Let Doc help you. The sooner you’re better, the sooner you can get off this ship.” He ducked through a hatch and out of the room.
Doc watched me, his tail twitching.
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I glared at him.
Doc hopped onto my bed and set the water down in a cup holder next to my right hand. “You can drink when you want. I’ll bring you some food later.” He jumped back onto the table, then onto the floor. He ran to the other side of the room and climbed up a hanging plant next to some cabinets. Once he’d made it into the huge pot, he lay down and curled his tail around himself.
What did the pirates want to do with me? With ugly cybernetics, they couldn’t sell me to a brothel. Tupran pit fights? Cyborgs were popular in pit fights. It made no sense to spend money on cybernetics for an enemy and let them walk away. Why couldn’t they have killed me? Whatever they wanted with me, it had to be bad.
I moved my real arm and leg. Though weak, they worked okay. They just needed exercise. The minor burn scars on my skin would heal in time.
I focused on my cybernetic side. The metal on my leg glistened in the white light of the infirmary. The cybernetics were obviously not meant to blend in with the rest of my body, unlike the sort the nobility would choose.
I lifted my left hand to get a better look at it. This time, it responded, though it jerked toward my face unnaturally.
With only three strong fingers and a thumb, all covered in leathery replacement skin, this had to be military style, not civilian. Shining steel covered the rest of it, the same as my leg. Both had some sort of extension partway down so I could lengthen my arm and leg. No replacement skin covered the arm and leg, though I did have replacement skin on my foot, which had four toes that stretched back into the cybernetic foot much farther than Human toes.
I touched the steel on my cybernetic arm. A tingle shot through it. There were sensory receptors planted in the steel. I touched my face. Fake skin covered it completely, leaving no steel to be felt. When I pressed harder, I realized that some of the stuff under my skin was probably muscle and bone, not steel. Steel and fake skin replaced my nose. Breathing through it made me feel stuffed up.
My real fingers traced around my fake eye. I ventured to touch it. It had a smooth surface. I saw my fingers through the eye, every wrinkle perfectly clear.
I moved the toes on my cybernetic leg, then worked with my cybernetic arm, forcing it through various movements. Every time I repeated a movement, it was smoother. I had to get to the point I could walk again. Even if I couldn’t escape, maybe I could throw myself out the nearest hatch. Then, I’d be with Mom and Dad.
Dad sacrificed himself so you’d live. No. Throwing myself into space wasn’t an option, not unless I knew for sure that I’d be tortured.
I kept moving my cybernetic leg. If Doc would leave, I could try walking.
The lights in the infirmary dimmed to mimic nighttime.
I kept working with my cybernetics, forcing them to do what I wanted. I also moved my real limbs, testing them and working out the stiffness. I needed to be ready for planetfall, most likely Tupra. Problem was, hunters weren’t welcome there. Even Akar and Reva wouldn’t dare hunt on the rogue planet.
My cybernetic eye picked up more light than my real one. I’d have to adjust to that, though it could be useful.
The water sparkled beside my bed. My throat ached for it.
I reached for it but pulled my hand away. The pirates wanted me to drink it.
I imagined the water sliding down my parched throat. If I didn’t drink, I’d die, or the crazy doctor would force it into me.
I grabbed the water and drank it in a few greedy gulps. My stomach churned, but the water stayed down.
I adjusted the bed and closed my eye. Images of Dad entered unbidden. I tried to shove them down. They refused to leave. I opened my eye.
Doc slumbered in the plant.
Tears streamed from my eye, but I kept myself from sobbing. I couldn’t let a pirate see my weakness.
What did it matter? They’d been messing with me while I’d been unconscious. I shuddered at the thought. Still, my instinct stopped me from crying.
Finally, sleep came.
Claws clicked across the floor. I opened my eye. The lights had brightened, signaling morning, ship time.
Melsha stood a short distance from my bed, a tray of food in her hands and the fuzzy himple coiled around her neck.
I adjusted the bed into a sitting position.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Like I’d rather be dead,” I snapped.
Melsha’s feathery tail drooped. “Sorry. None of us wanted this to happen.”
My eye narrowed. “You’re one of the pirates, aren’t you?”
Melsha bowed her head. “Yes, though I like to think of us as freedom fighters. Most of what we do is smuggling and freeing slaves.”
Maybe Melsha wanted to pretend she was one of the good guys, but without slavery, the criminals would be running loose in the streets.
Melsha set the plate of food on the table.
The food steamed. It consisted of a strange slice of blue bread, a bit of meat, and three circular narna fruits.
My stomach growled.
I glanced around the room. Doc still lay curled in his potted plant.
I grabbed the plate of food and bit into the orange fruit. It had the bland taste of something that had been picked a few weeks ago, but my stomach pleaded for more. I finished the fruit and grabbed the meat with my good hand. I ate that before moving on to the strange bread. It had a sweet but grassy taste. For being space rations, the food tasted pretty good.
Melsha shifted from foot to foot. Her tail swished.
I swallowed the last of the bread. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because you’re not bad for a hunter,” Melsha said.
“Since when do pirates care about that?” I pushed. If she got mad and killed me, I wouldn’t have lost anything.
Melsha’s feathers drooped. “We have morals.”
“Your captain killed Dad.” I clenched both fists.
“I warned you.” Melsha’s lips curled back, almost exposing her teeth and her hackles shot up. “Klate was trying to protect his crew. He never wanted to kill your father.”
I glared at her. “And what happened to the captain of the ship you attacked? Bet you killed him too.”
“No. We sold him on Tupra. Klate would have let him go free until he saw the state Hirami was in. Poor kid looks like he’s ten, but he’s thirteen. That captain only fed him scraps.”
So that’s what they’ll do with me if I can move. Then again, I could probably escape slavery if the chip in my head wasn’t rigged to kill me. Anger flared. Doc had done all this without getting my permission, disobeying multiple laws to do it. Were the cybernetics even legal, or were they modified to the point of being illegal for civilian use?
“Klate only sells people into slavery if they deserve it,” Melsha said.
“I bet hunters deserve it,” I snapped.
Melsha sighed. “He won’t sell you. I vouched for you.”
And pirates always tell the truth. Perhaps he kept me alive because his twisted view of justice meant he thought I deserved punishment, but not death.
Hirami darted into the room and jumped onto the table so he was eye level with Melsha. “Amellia said she’s gonna teach me how t’ fly!” He spread his arms, which stretched the thin membrane that passed between them and his legs. “She says I’ll be a super good pilot ‘cause I’ma Chix and we have fast reflexes.”
Doc climbed out of his potted plant.
“Why didn’t ya fly the Deathhorn?” Hirami cocked his head at Doc. “Youra Chix.”
“I don’t like flying,” Doc said. “I can help Ralkom fix the intricate parts. Flying’s too wild.”
I watched the pair chatter away, their tails twitching. The little slave was thrilled to be a pirate, and the others treated him like an equal.
After chattering with Doc, Hirami bolted from the room.
Doc pulled a round ball about the size of his fist from the cabinet near his plant.
He tossed it in my direction. Without thinki
ng, I caught it in my right hand.
“Now toss it to your left,” Doc ordered.
My eye narrowed. I wasn’t going to be ordered around, not by a mad scientist.
Melsha glanced at Doc, then to me. “How about I help you stand instead?”
I laid the ball on my bed. I swung my real leg over the edge of the bed, then swung the cybernetic one over. I still had a fair amount of my thigh but past that, the leg was cybernetic. Like my arm, the crazy doctor hadn’t even attempted to make it look like a real leg.
Melsha grabbed my cybernetic arm.
I stiffened at the pirate’s touch. Better her than one of the others. My feet touched the floor. I put weight on my legs. My real knee trembled, weak from the lack of exercise. The cybernetic one stood firm though my balance was off.
Melsha pushed her feathery shoulder under my cybernetic arm.
I moved my artificial leg into a less shaky position so I could put more weight on it. My real leg trembled but held.
Melsha stepped away. I grabbed the bed with my real hand. My legs supported me.
A wave of dizziness washed over me. I swayed, and the cybernetics didn’t compensate. I fell.
Melsha scrambled to grab me but missed.
I face planted into the floor, my real arm not strong enough and my cybernetic too slow to catch me. I lay there for a second, catching my breath. I hadn’t been hurt, at least not badly.
Melsha squatted down to help.
I ignored her hand. I got my hands under my body and pushed myself into a crawling position, then tried to rise. By using the bed as support, I made it to my feet. My arm trembled, too weak to hold my weight.
Without asking, Melsha helped me back onto the bed.
The ball fell from the bed. Melsha scooped it up and handed it to me. “Keep practicing. If you can use your arm, that will help with your balance.”
Doc watched, unmoving for the first time since I’d met him.
Melsha picked up my empty plate. “Got to cook for the rest of the crew.” She headed through the exit hatch.
“There’s a button on the side of your bed. Press it if you need something.” Doc scurried after Melsha.
Hand of Steel Page 3
