Choosing Chuckles

by Cynthia Sax

  “A ship is approaching.” Her cyborg pushed her off his lap and stood, wincing with that effort.

  Blue Eyes scrambled away from them. The other furry beings stopped chattering and looked at him, their brown eyes wide.

  He walked toward the clearing, his limp pronounced. The high humidity wasn’t good for his knee.

  Everyone, including Bettina, followed him.

  “Are your brethren arriving, sir?” She asked that question while suspecting the answer. He wouldn’t be concerned if it was their rescue ship approaching them.

  “That’s a Humanoid Alliance warship engine.” His expression was more grim than usual. He turned to the leader of the furry beings, speaking too quickly for her to translate.

  Leader chattered back, moving his front feet straight across and then straight down. He twitched his head to the right.

  “There’s a cliff close to us.” Chuckles scooped her into his arms and ran in that direction, his gait uneven. “We’ll have a fighting advantage there.”

  “They might be merely doing a flyover, sir.” She clung to that hope and to his neck. “It might not be Dusta and his males.”

  “I’m not taking that risk.” He moved at cyborg speed.

  Some of the furry beings, including Leader and Blue Eyes, kept pace, swinging in the trees high above her head.

  Bettina didn’t suggest her male release her. Her top speed didn’t match his. And she knew her protective sir. He wouldn’t agree to that.

  “What is our plan, sir?” She pressed her form against his.

  “We’ll stand our ground.” His breathing was level, her cyborg carrying her, thankfully, with little effort. “Wait until they approach us and then we’ll kill them all.”

  The ground shook. Fruit and leaves fell from the trees. The furry beings screeched. Other beings farther away from them screeched back.

  “What was that, sir?” She looked over his shoulder, couldn’t see anything.

  “They blew up the escape pod.” He jumped over a fallen tree, grimacing as he landed.

  Shit. The Humanoid Alliance beings had specifically targeted the escape pod. It must be Dusta and his males. They were hunting her and her cyborg.

  “I’ll set traps, sir.” Determined to be the best damn Bait Smarts had ever engaged, she had researched how to build traps, learning many techniques to snare beings. “Will you be able to detect my snares?”

  She didn’t want to trap her male.

  He grunted. That sounded like he could detect them.

  They finally stopped. He set her down, sliding her body over his. “The cliff is in that direction.” He pointed to the right.

  She peered that way. The trees appeared to thin. “I won’t run in that direction, sir.”

  “You won’t run anywhere.” He frowned at her. “You’ll stay here where I can protect you.”

  The furry beings exchanged screeches.

  Her cyborg talked to them. Leader talked back.

  Bettina, unable to follow the conversation, waited for the translation.

  “The ship has landed.” Chuckles’ tone was smug. “The arrogant humans are hunting us on foot.”

  Gunfire sounded in the distance.

  “Who are they shooting at, sir?” They should be out of the range of the males’ weapons.

  Her cyborg’s lips flattened. “They are attempting to kill the furry beings.”

  Outrage filled Bettina’s soul. The furry beings hadn’t done anything to the males.

  “Tell them to run away, sir, save themselves.” She didn’t want to be responsible for the furry beings dying.

  Her cyborg talked with Leader. The male scowled, flung his forefeet in the air, his expression dark and his tone darker.

  “The furry beings have nowhere to run.” Chuckles translated the quickly spoken words. “This is their home.”

  Her jaw jutted. “Then we have to redirect the males’ attention, sir.” And she would show the furry beings how to defend themselves.

  Because she doubted the males would be last humans or humanoids encroaching on their terrain, seeking to harm them.

  “Your safety is my priority, baby.” Her cyborg cupped her chin, lifting her gaze to meet his. “Set your traps, but don’t venture far from here, and don’t put yourself in danger.”

  He sounded as though he was leaving her. She wrapped her arms around his waist, trying to hold onto him. “My place is by your side, sir. We fight the males together.”

  “I can eliminate the threat faster alone.” His voice was gruff. “This is what I was manufactured to do.” He bent and straightened his left leg. “I might be damaged, but I’m skilled. Trust your sir to protect you.”

  “I trust you, but—”

  “Are you questioning your sir?” He glared at her.

  “No, sir.” She bowed her head. “I worry about you, sir.” She braved his displeasure to share that, wanting him to know how she felt. “If anything happened to you…” Her voice broke, the thought of losing him unbearable.

  “Finish that communication, baby.” His tone told her she had no choice.

  She looked up at him through lowered eyelashes. “If they hurt you, if you don’t survive this, it would destroy me, sir.”

  The mere thought of that happening filled her with the most intense grief. He was a part of her now, a shield from the rest of the universe, a warm place to return to at the end of a cold planet rotation.

  “You’d be free.” He said that as though he believed it was something she wanted.

  “I have no desire to be free of you, sir.” She placed her hands on his body armor-clad chest. “I’m your willing captive, don’t ever want to escape.” She brushed her lips over his square chin, tasting metal and male. “A universe without you in it holds no appeal to me. I—”

  He crushed her to him, covering her lips with his. She gasped, surprised by the kiss. He stroked his tongue along hers, ravishing her with a breath-stealing savagery.

  She moaned, leaning against his hard form, her hands creeping upward. Males were hunting them. He was a cyborg, one of the best warriors ever created, but even the best warriors made errors and could die. She clasped his shoulders, trying to keep him safe.

  He kissed her until her head spun and her lips hummed, then he pulled back, gazing down at her with brilliant blue eyes. “You have earned another reprimand for doubting my abilities. Once I have eliminated this threat to you, to us, I will deliver it.”

  She wiggled, her pussy growing wet. “I look forward to that, sir.”

  His lips twitched. “You’re a bad, bad female.”

  “I’m your bad, bad female, sir.” She summoned a smile, her worry for him remaining. “I’ll set the traps while you do what you have to do.”

  He’d kill the males. She didn’t want to say the words or think about that.

  “Take this.” He handed her one of his daggers. “You have your guns?”

  “I have them, sir.” She patted her pockets, ensuring the weapons hadn’t fallen out.

  “If you see one of the humans, shoot him.” He gave her that daunting order.

  She had never killed anyone, didn’t want to start her lifespan-ending spree now. Stunning the being would stop him.

  “Be safe, baby.” Her cyborg brushed his lips over hers one more time, a fleeting embrace that was over too soon.

  She sucked back the urge to hold onto him, make him stay. “Be safe, sir.”

  He dipped his head, turned, and left, departing faster than her eyes could track, his big form blurring.

  She looked in the direction he’d moved, trying to spot him through the trees. The male furry beings trailed him, swinging from branch to branch. He wasn’t alone. The little creatures knew the terrain, would give him that advantage over their enemies.

  The female and baby furry beings stayed with her. Blue Eyes curled her small fingers inside one of Bettina’s palms.

  She wasn’t alone either. Bettina squared her shoulders. And she wasn’t defen
seless.

  As she gathered the longest, thickest vines she could find, cutting them, the female furry beings did the same. Able to climb, they could reach the vines higher on the trees, used their sharp teeth to sever them.

  Bettina braided three vines together and tugged on them, testing their strength. She nodded, satisfied with her makeshift rope. It should hold a human male.

  The little beings copied her movements, braiding, tugging, nodding. She looped one end of the braided vine, showing them how to create a noose.

  Blue Eyes chattered. It sounded like she was adding commentary to Bettina’s demonstrations.

  Old Mother added her inputs, waving her hands and making disgusted noises whenever a furry being didn’t heed the advice.

  Bettina moved to the next steps—hooking the makeshift rope over a branch and planting the trigger. Having studied that procedure yet never having applied it, it took her a couple attempts to set the first one correctly, much to the furry beings’ amusement.

  They laughed and grinned and chattered. It sounded like they were giving her pointers. When she was finally successful, they cheered.

  She gazed at it with pride. One trap was laid.

  And the next one was quicker to configure. The furry beings who could set traps, did, her efforts compounded by those nimble minions.

  Old Mother and the less-able furry beings offered unsolicited advice, critiquing their efforts, while they cared for the younger ones.

  Bettina and her furry-being team worked until the terrain around them was completely covered with snares. Her cyborg would have to leap over them to avoid being trapped.

  Then she leaned against the trunk of a tree and waited, watching, listening, worrying about her male.

  The females fed their babies, rocking them in their arms. Blue Eyes sat on the toes of her boots, gazing in the same direction she did.

  More gunfire rang out. Was Chuckles safe? Bettina drew her guns, fighting the urge to run after her cyborg.

  If she left her post, the furry beings would follow her.

  They chattered as she stood guard over them. According to the few words she could translate, she’d gleaned they had no natural enemies on Vega R.

  The furry beings had never learned caution, were confused by the humans’ aggression, questioned the need to set traps. The act of deliberately killing another being was beyond their comprehension.

  She couldn’t put them in danger.

  And she had to obey her sir. He had told her to remain where she was, trusted her to do exactly that. Her cyborg was monitoring her location. If she moved, she might distract him. That distraction might end his lifespan.

  And that would destroy her.

  Bettina’s jaw jutted. She wasn’t leaving her spot.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chuckles had to protect his female.

  He ran through the tree-filled terrain as fast as his damaged knee allowed. Raising his left foot was difficult. It banged against rocks and fallen tree trunks. He ignored the pain and pressed on.

  His plan was to battle the humans as far from Bettina as possible. Judging by the sound of gunfire, the males were trigger-happy, and his little female was extremely fragile. One stray projectile could end her lifespan.

  That would end his. He wouldn’t survive her death. She was his joy, his companion, his baby.

  The furry beings swung from branch to branch above his head. The males communicated constantly with their brethren positioned closer to the humans. They were like cyborgs that way. Transmissions originating all over the universe continually flowed through Chuckles’ processors.

  “Why is your kind trying to kill my kind?” Leader decreased his elevation. “What did we do wrong?”

  “They aren’t my kind.” Chuckles curled his top lip, repulsed to be grouped with the Humanoid Alliance humans. “And you did nothing wrong. They like to kill beings.”

  “They like to kill?” The furry being looked at him, his expression shocked. “What type of being finds happiness in ending another being’s lifespan?”

  “Plenty of beings in this universe enjoy killing.” Including himself. It pleased his design to end lifespans. That was why he was manufactured. “Those beings will eventually come here.” The planet was too resource rich to be ignored for much longer. It would be raided for the stones and fruits and other offerings. “Either you learn how to fight or you learn how to die.”

  The furry beings would have to change to survive. Chuckles had seen species like them, had killed those beings upon the Humanoid Alliance’s orders.

  He’d had no choice. Either he ended their lifespans or the humans ended his and his brethren’s.

  Now, having escaped the Humanoid Alliance, he could help beings like Leader, could give them intelligence that might allow them to endure.

  “We cannot throw rocks as hard as the shiny sticks can.” Leader must have decided fighting was his kind’s best option.

  “The furless beings we’re fighting have thin skin. Slice through it with your sharp teeth.” There were numerous ways to kill. “Rip out their throats and they’ll die quickly. Almost all beings can be killed with a pointed stick plunged into their eyeballs.”

  Cyborgs were an exception. His vision system was based on mechanics. The stick would break before his eyes did, and there was little access through them to his brain and processors.

  The information he shared was relayed through the group of furry beings. Some expressed their discomfort with killing.

  Chuckles had no knowledge to impart about dealing with that. He enjoyed killing, was fabricated for that purpose. The Humanoid Alliance had decommissioned any of his brethren who had qualms about ending lifespans. They didn’t survive training.

  The sound of gunfire stopped, the silence ominous. Had the humans killed all of their furry being targets? Or had the males somehow sensed his approach?

  “The fast throwing of small rocks could start again at any time.” He cautioned Leader, using the terminology they knew. “Be cautious.”

  “Eight of our kind are dead, furless being.” The male glared at him. “I know the dangers of the shiny sticks.”

  Chuckles bore some responsibility for those deaths. The humans were in the terrain hunting him and his female.

  He decreased his speed, moving silently through the underbrush. The scent of blood and projectiles hit his nostrils, the combination making his circuits surge.

  “Tell him he got two.” A male voice said in the universal language. “You got two. I got three.”

  Chuckles lowered his body, crawled forward. His knee ached. He ventured forward, not stopping.

  “Fuck you.” A human dressed in Humanoid Alliance garments spoke into a handheld. He was carrying a blood-soaked pack. The arms of furry beings hung out of it, grisly mementoes only a human would collect. “I’m not cheating. If you don’t trust me, you can be the being who retrieves them next time.”

  Leader growled, the sound low and menacing. The furry being might not understand the words spoken but the tone and topic was easy to determine. The human was casually discussing the killing of the male’s brethren.

  “I’m returning now. Relax.” The human lowered the handheld.

  Chuckles switched his guns for daggers and rushed toward his target, moving quickly and silently.

  The human’s head lifted. He looked up at the trees, squinting at the furry beings.

  Chuckles stabbed him in the throat, piercing the windpipe, before the enemy realized he was being attacked.

  Blood squirted. The human gurgled, clutching the wound. He was silenced, would soon die, was no longer a threat to anyone, including Chuckles’ female.

  That meant he no longer interested Chuckles.

  “He’s yours.” He told Leader. “Finish him.”

  The furry beings, formerly peaceful and non-violent, were incensed by the slaughter of their brethren. Rage contorted their faces.

  They swarmed the human, tearing him apart with their shar
p teeth, biting off hunks of his face, ripping off his limbs. It was a grisly painful death.

  The human deserved it.

  Chuckles ran forward. He sensed two beings in front of him.

  A boom sounded above him. Branches fell. Trees toppled. He zigged and zagged, avoiding the debris.

  “Put that away.” The slap of skin against skin punctuated the male’s words. “If you kill one of our own, Dusta will dusta your ass.” The male laughed at his own bad joke.

  “I should be hunting the cyborg and the slut.” Another male grumbled. “Not shooting at irritating little heathens.”

  “You know the rules—three away and three with the ship.”

  Chuckles only sensed two beings. Where were the other three?

  He traded weapons yet again, choosing guns this time. Creating the greatest commotion, the loudest noise, was his goal. He wanted to redirect the focus of the three missing humans, attract them to the ship, away from his female.

  It was his turn to offer himself as bait.

  He lowered his body and moved toward them. They stood by the ship. It was parked on the expanse of rock and was easily visible. The vessel’s engines were silent. Its doors were wide open.

  The humans’ arrogance amazed him. Anyone could board their ship, steal their only means of transport. The two beings guarding it were situated far from its doors.

  The biggest human was positioned behind a missile launcher. That was the weapon they were using against the small, unarmed furry beings.

  The other human balanced a long gun over one shoulder and fondled his groin with his free hand. Both males had dead furry beings strapped to their waists, wearing their corpses as decorations.

  Chuckles would damage the humans, stop them from running, but leave them alive for Leader and his small warriors to kill. The furry beings deserved to have their vengeance, to give their brethren justice.

  He shot the short human’s hands, piercing his palms with projectiles. The male howled, dropping his weapon.

  “What the fuck?” The big human swung the missile launcher toward his injured friend.

  Chuckles shot his hands also.

  The missile launcher fell to the ground, metal clattering against rock. The human male waved his arms in the air. His surroundings were sprayed with crimson.