A Fistful 0f Cyborg (Cyborgs On Mars Book 2)

by Honey Phillips

  “Addie!” he roared, struggling frantically against the titanium rope.

  Floodlights sprang on, casting a blinding white light over the area.

  “Surely you didn’t think I would be stupid enough not to know what you were planning,” Dr. Mingol drawled.

  He stepped out of the shadows, yanking Addie along with him, and Sam could see where his fingers dug into her slender arm. Her head was bowed, her cheeks so pale they looked translucent.

  “Let her go,” he growled.

  Mingol laughed. “Oh, I don’t think so. You see, Adelaide has agreed to marry me.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Tell him, darling.”

  For the first time, her eyes met his, those deep purple eyes shimmering with tears.

  “Tell me it’s not true, Addie.”

  “It is true,” she whispered, just as the sound of a helicopter appeared overhead. A moment later, it landed and General Biggs stepped out.

  “I am here to retrieve Major Wilson.” He shot a suspicious glance at Sam, still wrapped in the net. “Why is he restrained?”

  “Just a precaution. You’ve seen the results of my… testing. He will perform admirably.” Mingol gave Sam a mocking glance. “I will release the restraints if you are ready to leave, Major. After all, there is nothing for you here. Dr. Montgomery has completed her experiment.”

  Mingol signaled to one of his minions, releasing the net holding Sam to the ground, and he stood, still focused on Addie. Doctor Montgomery? She was one of these bastard scientists? And he had only been an experiment?

  Mingol continued to grip her wrist but she made no attempt to pull away despite the tears streaming down her cheeks. Still half-convinced he had misunderstood, he took a step towards her. She backed away from him, moving closer to Mingol. The pain tearing at his insides felt worse than anything he had been subjected to in the lab, but he turned his head and didn’t look back again as he crossed to the general.

  “Welcome back, Major Wilson.”

  “Major Wilson no longer exists. I am S-756.”

  Chapter Two

  Twelve years later

  “Dr. Montgomery?”

  The hopeful voice behind her jerked Addie out of her thoughts as she studied the ruined experiment.

  “The test is a failure,” she said, doing her best to keep her voice cool and professional, but she doubted that Reggie, her lab assistant, was fooled. They had such high hopes for this latest process.

  He peered over her shoulder. “Looks like the same issue.”

  “I’m afraid so.” She carefully scraped the remains of the experiment into the incinerator. “Unless we can determine how to control the reproduction of the nanites, they always overtake the host organism.”

  She pushed back from the lab table and rubbed her forehead as she tried to remember when she last slept. Twenty-four hours? Possibly even longer. Time in the lab had a tendency to obscure everything else in her life. Everything except one thing. Pushing aside the constant ache in her heart once again, she stood up.

  “We’ll have to report this,” Reggie said, fiddling with his glasses and avoiding her eyes.

  “I know.”

  “They’re getting impatient.”

  “I know that too.” GenCon had been sending constant missives demanding progress, each terser than the last. She forced a smile. “I’m going to get a few hours of sleep. Can you prepare a fresh batch of medium? I’ll go over the notes and we’ll start again tomorrow.”

  Reggie opened his mouth, probably to protest, but in the end he simply nodded. “Yes, Doctor.”

  As she strode along the corridor between the lab complex and the living quarters, she tried her best to avoid looking outside. God, she hated this. She hated the failed experiments, she hated the necessity behind them, and she really hated being on Mars under these circumstances.

  As soon as she reached her quarters, she collapsed on the bed, too tired to even remove her clothes, but her mind refused to settle. If her room had been a little larger, she would have paced the floor but while GenCon had spared no expense in equipping the labs, they were far less generous when it came to housing their scientists. Her room was only large enough for a narrow bunk, a desk, and a minuscule amount of storage.

  She closed her eyes but her thoughts kept returning to the experimental protocols, so she finally sighed and pushed herself back to her feet. If she couldn’t sleep, she might as well get back to work. After a quick wash, she changed into her last clean pair of coveralls, grimacing as they strained over her breasts. The standard lab uniforms weren’t designed for women with her build and they were either too tight or too long and baggy. Given the overall shortage of clothing, she had shrugged and accepted it, but she preferred the oversized version to these. Thankfully, no one in the complex would dare express any interest in her as a woman.

  As she emerged back into the long corridor leading to the labs, a sudden impulse drove her to one of the windows that lined the hallway. She shuddered at the alien landscape that met her eyes, refusing to recognize the harsh beauty of her surroundings. A flicker of movement caught her eyes from one of the ridges surrounding the complex and she saw… a man on a horse?

  She rubbed her eyes and when she looked back, the figure was gone. Lack of sleep must have been affecting her. And yet, she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone had been there. But how? Six months on Mars and the only time she had been on the surface was when she transferred from the ship to a rover and then from the rover to the lab complex, and both had been accomplished at night. Was there more to the surface than she had assumed? Returning to the lab had little appeal. Perhaps it was time to get acquainted with her new surroundings.

  Pausing at the airlock to check the outside temperatures, she chose a thick thermal coat and one of the heavy-duty breathing masks. At least the atmospheric pressure had been stabilized to the point where she was not required to wear a pressure suit. Of course, all of the progress that had been made in terraforming Mars was due to the efforts of the cyborgs the government had sent to the planet.

  The familiar wave of pain swept over her. Twelve years, and it still hurt.

  Pushing aside yet another thing she did not want to think about, she opened the outer door. All of them had been thoroughly trained on what to expect on the surface, but as she stepped out onto the desert plain surrounding the complex, she realized that looking at the planet from inside didn’t begin to compare to actually being outside in the landscape.

  She took one cautious step, then another, before coming to an abrupt halt as she looked up.

  On an overcrowded and polluted Earth, she had no experience with such a wide expanse of open space. The pale orange sky was a vast dome far above her head. Behind her, the lab was half-hidden among the rocks but before her the land stretched out in a rolling red plain, interrupted by rocky outcroppings. It was awe-inspiring, terrifying, and oddly exhilarating. She was just a minute speck in the vast landscape but she was acutely aware of herself as a person, as a unique individual instead of one of the many cogs in the GenCon wheel.

  Even though she was sure it had been an illusion, she found herself scanning the horizon for the mysterious figure of the man on his horse. The ridge where she thought she saw him did not appear to be too far away. She took a quick peek over her shoulder at the complex, reassuringly large and permanent, and decided that a short walk wouldn’t hurt.

  Fifteen minutes later, she was beginning to regret her impulsive decision. The dusty surface beneath her feet was surprisingly hard to walk through, dragging against her boots despite the lighter gravity of Mars. She had reached the first of the rocky spires, but the ridge did not seem any closer. For a moment, she considered turning back, but the dogged determination that had carried her through more than a decade of unhappiness would not allow her to give in.

  A small canyon wove between the rocks, leading in the direction that she had chosen. The ground between the rock walls was harder an
d appeared to be less treacherous than the deeper dust of the desert plain. Checking her bearings once more, she started up the ravine. The towering rocks on either side blocked the limited warmth of the pale sun and she shivered, glad for the comfort of her thermal coat. As she walked, she studied the many layers within the rock, trying to remember her college geology classes. Whether the Martian canyons had been formed by wind or water was still under debate and, not for the first time, she regretted that her doctorate was in nanotechnology rather than a more innocent subject like geology. But a different choice would have meant that she never met Sam and, in spite of the guilt and sorrow wrapped up with his memory, she would never want to lose that.

  Still lost in memories of the past, she didn’t realize that anyone else was present until she stumbled into a small camp. She had reached the end of the canyon where it widened into a sheltered niche overlooking more of the desert. Three men were sprawled lazily against a rock face that caught the rays of the sun. A small portable heater was topped with a pot of food, bubbling merrily. All of the men were wearing the smaller breathing masks, leaving their mouths free to drink from the bottle they were sharing. Based on their dirty overalls and the equipment sled hitched to their rover, they must be miners.

  She froze in place. They looked so at ease as they passed the bottle back and forth. Part of her was tempted by their lazy camaraderie and the idea of talking to someone who was not a GenCon employee, but three male strangers didn’t seem like the best choice for conversation. A little regretfully, she decided to slip away but as she backed up, her foot caught on a loose rock and she tumbled to the ground. Her ankle twisted under her and she couldn’t suppress a cry of pain. As she reached down to check the damage, a shadow covered her, and she looked up to find all three men looming over her.

  “Well, well. What do we have here?”

  The question came from the largest of the three men as his eyes traveled over her in a way that set off every alarm in her head. She tried to scramble to her feet, but her ankle wouldn’t support her. The best she could do was edge back until a rock reared up behind her. Her heart thudded painfully against her chest, but she raised her chin and did her best to use the cool authoritative tone that worked on her assistants.

  “I am Dr. Montgomery. Unfortunately, I appear to have injured my ankle. Would one of you gentlemen be kind enough to escort me back to the lab?”

  The smallest man laughed and elbowed the leader.

  “Escort? She’s looking for an escort, Jimmy.”

  “Yeah, I heard her, Steve.” Jimmy rubbed his chin as he studied her. “I don’t know about that, Doc. Gonna take time and fuel take you back to this lab of yours.”

  Since she knew the rovers were solar-powered, his argument was completely false, but she bit back her protest.

  “I’m sure that you will receive appropriate remuneration at the lab.” Now that they were closer, she spotted the small GenCon emblems on their chest pockets. Many of the miners had been brought here under contract with her employer. “We all work for the same corporation.”

  “GenCon?” The small man spat in the dust. “Those bastards are more likely to charge us than to reward us.”

  “I have funds of my own,” she said, trying not to sound desperate. Her hand dropped to the ground next to her, trying to feel for a rock she could use to defend herself. All she could find were a number of smaller stones, but she surreptitiously pulled them closer.

  “I got a better idea,” Jimmy said, grinning as he grabbed his crotch. “We already got credits. What we don’t have is a woman.”

  “I’m not available. I’m… married,” she said quickly. Her divorce had been final for more than two years, but maybe some good could come out of that nightmare.

  “Don’t see no husband.”

  “He’s back in the lab.”

  “Pretty lousy husband that lets his wife go wandering around alone,” Jimmy said thoughtfully.

  “Yeah, and a scientist too.” Steve leered at her. “Bet he hasn’t given you a decent fuck in years.”

  The memory made her shudder. If one man had been able to hurt her so badly, how much worse would it be with three? Her heart fluttered wildly in her chest and she searched desperately for more stones. Little enough protection, but she would fight. She had always fought no matter how little it helped.

  The big man stepped closer.

  “Please don’t do this,” she said quietly, trying not to beg. Begging never seemed to help.

  The third man, the one who had yet to speak, grabbed the leader’s arm.

  “Come on, Jimmy. Leave her alone.”

  “Ah, hell, Ronnie, I’m not gonna hurt her. Just gonna play with her a little. I’ll make sure she likes it.” A cocky grin split his face.

  She shook her head violently. “I won’t.”

  Jimmy paused at the dead certainty in her voice, but Steve laughed.

  “All the girls love Jimmy. Hell, the whores at Madam Cherry’s practically fight over him.” Before she could respond, he darted forward with surprising speed and snatched at her coat. She kicked at him and he stumbled back, but not before ripping her coat open. All three men stared. When she risked a quick look down, she saw the top of her coveralls had parted, her breasts spilling into the opening.

  “Now ain’t that a pretty sight?” The leader’s momentary doubt seems to have disappeared as he rubbed his crotch again. Her stomach churned at his obvious erection. How could this be happening to her again? She had thought once her divorce was final she would never again be subjected to a man’s painful lust.

  In her shock at the man ripping her coat, she had forgotten about the stones beneath her hands, but she grabbed one now, clutching it in her fist.

  “Leave me alone!” she cried.

  “Aw, don’t be like that, Doc. We’ll just have a little fun and then I’ll take you back to that lab of yours.” Jimmy stepped forward, his hand already unfastening his overalls.

  Her hands shaking, she tightened her grip on the small stone and threw it as hard as she could. To her shock, it hit him, glancing across his temple and leaving a bloody gash in its wake. He looked almost as shocked as he put a hand to his head, then stared at the blood on his fingers.

  “Why you little bitch. I was gonna be nice but if you want to play rough, I can play rough. Grab her hands, Steve.”

  Tears filled her eyes, obscuring her vision, but she grabbed another stone, and another, throwing them wildly in a vain attempt to keep the men away from her. But then Steve swore and caught her hand, squeezing her wrist until she dropped the rock.

  “Got her,” he panted, as she tried desperately to escape his grip.

  “Good,” Jimmy snarled. “Hold her for me.”

  “Goddamn it, Jimmy. Why do you get to go first?”

  “Because I say so,” Jimmy said impatiently as he freed his erection. “Unless you’re willing to fight me for her.”

  Steve ducked his head. “Nah. Go ahead.”

  “Don’t hurt her, Jimmy,” the third man said, but even he had his hand on his crotch.

  “She’ll like it. They always do.” Jimmy grinned as he knelt over her. He seemed to have gotten over his anger but it made no difference; she knew he was going to hurt her. Closing her eyes, she turned her head away, trying to find a place in her head where she could hide. Jimmy’s hand touched her breast and she couldn’t help but cry out.

  “Damn, woman,” he groaned. “You’re wasted on some damn scientist.”

  She tried to twist away from him and his hand tightened.

  “What the hell is going on here?”

  The harsh voice surprised all of them. Her eyes flew open, trying to focus through the remnants of her tears. A rider on a massive black horse was silhouetted against the desert. He dismounted from the horse and strode towards them, looming even larger as he approached.

  Four! Now there were four of them!

  Panic tearing at her insides, she started struggling again. Steve’s grip
had loosened, and she managed to pull free and throw herself backwards, but the rock wall was too close. Her head cracked against the unforgiving surface and a bright flare of agony washed over her before the world dissolved into darkness.

  Chapter Three

  S-756 swore as the woman tried to scramble away and cracked her head against the canyon wall. A soft cry escaped her lips before her body went limp. His enhanced sense of smell caught the coppery tang of her blood in the thin air, mingled with something tantalizingly familiar, and his vision went red with rage. Fucking humans.

  The small man who had been gripping her hands stepped away from her, holding up his hands in surrender.

  “It-it’s not what it looks like,” he stuttered.

  He didn’t bother to reply as he focused on the man who had been bending over her. The man jumped to his feet, hastily trying to tuck his cock away. He was big, but not as big as S-756, and he wouldn’t have a cyborg’s strength. Even with the evidence of his intentions still half-visible in the opening of his overalls, the big man tried a cocky grin.

  “We’re just having a little fun, Ranger.”

  “So much fun that a woman would knock herself unconscious in order to get away from you?” he growled as he grabbed the man and tossed him away from the small figure lying huddled on the ground. “Where did she come from?”

  The men exchanged a quick look before the third one spoke.

  “She said something about a lab. Back that way, I’m guessing.” He pointed down the canyon.

  Fuck. He had seen the GenCon lab earlier. He didn’t want anything to do with those bastards, but he couldn’t leave her here. And he still had to take care of these three.

  “I should just shoot all three of you and get it over with,” he snarled.

  The little guy’s hand flicked towards his gun belt. Before he could reach it, S-756 grabbed him, snapping his wrist in one quick movement.