Last Call (Stranded in the Stars Book 1)

by Naomi Lucas

  Allie had her hand over her nose, her eyes pinched tightly closed. He could sense her growing wariness.

  He rummaged through his pack and pulled out a flashlight and handed it to her. “You’ll need this. We won't have much light going forward.” She let go of her nose, wrinkling it, and took the light from him.

  “Thank you.” She held it to her chest as he replaced the pack on his back.

  Jack moved deeper in, keeping a hand running along the wall of the passage and keeping his connection with the vessel. He mapped out the ship’s interior layout and coursed the quickest path to the reactor. There were several barriers in the way but nothing he couldn’t take care of.

  They would be climbing steadily upward as the nose of the battle cruiser had all but been decimated in the dirt from impact. What remained of the cockpit was now buried in layers of dead ground.

  Lucky for me, what I need is in the middle-rear of the ship.

  The light from the entrance had all but diminished and continued to fade as they made their way steadily deeper. He heard Allie click the flashlight on behind him and a second later a bright ray of white light pierced through the dusty gloom. It made the space around them a monochrome, stale grey that had contrasted deep black shadows. Dull reflections bounced off the dirty chrome of the wires and walls.

  He looked behind, the natural light was but a dot of color at the end of the tunnel, obstructed by the hanging pipes off of the ceiling. He watched as Allie followed his gaze and shivered.

  This place looked like somewhere the thing from earlier would inhabit, as creepy and messed up as its broken, wide grin.

  Jack switched his vision partially to night while he left his other eye on infrared. There was nothing alive in this place but he knew it never hurt to be careful. He started to move forward.

  They steadily made their way through, stopping now and again for him to dislodge or destroy obstructions in their way, breaking through rusted out panel doors and to help Allie over dangerous sections. The ship was larger than his own by quite a bit, it was meant to maintain weaponry as well as a large crew where his could comfortably be operated alone.

  The flyer wasn’t big by normal battle cruiser standards, this one would have been an outlier to the usual World Eaters the military used. People lived and died on World Eaters. Regardless, he was pleased at the progress they were making.

  He heard a startled gasp behind him, the direction of the light no longer pointed forward. The beam had landed on a pile of human remains. He walked closer but didn’t need to use his scanners on them, the pile was large enough to be from several bodies.

  “They’re in a pile. I never left bodies on this ship that I found, let alone in a pile.” She whispered, a hitch in her voice. He moved closer to them and kneeled down. His arm resting over his knee while he unsheathed his dagger to move the bones apart.

  “They were placed here deliberately. It looks like they were discarded.”

  “I would never. Not with the dead.” She breathed.

  “I know, sweetheart. If I thought you could do something like this, I would never have slept next to you.” Jack laughed lightly, hiding his growing concern.

  “Don’t laugh about this. If it was deliberate, who did it?” He could tell her question was rhetorical but he answered anyway.

  “It doesn’t matter, these bones were moved here long ago. Whatever did this is long gone. We’re alone on this ship.” He got up and moved away, disturbed. “Let’s keep moving, I want to be out of here by this afternoon and we’re almost to the core.”

  He placed his hand on her arm and led her quickly away. Jack did not want Allie to see what he had.

  That there were long perforations in the bones as if something ate the meat off of them and then continued to chew them down, that some pieces had entire chips bitten off while other had long claw marks along their sides as if sharp teeth had been scraped across them.

  He concluded that it could have been done by the creature from last night. He was unable to get it out of his head, perusing the images over and over. The broken and sharp teeth came to mind, the similarities convenient. He filed away the new information to investigate later.

  The reactor and the circuitry was just beyond the wall before him now. He dropped his hand away from the girl and felt around the cool metal for any weaknesses, locating several soon after. Jack shrugged out of his pack again and sheathed his dagger.

  “Stand back.” He ordered, hearing her move away.

  He placed his hands over the frail metal and forcefully transferred his nanorobotics into it like he had earlier but programming them this time for deterioration. It wasn’t long before he was able to transfer enough into the wall before him; watching the metal visibly rust away.

  Jack moved his hands and let the bots do their job. The place his hands had just been crumbled into a small gap. The rust fragments falling away. When it was wide enough for him to thread his fingers through, he gripped the edges and broke apart the decaying wall, helping it along.

  Taking the opportunity to store some of the larger broken pieces away, he strapped them to the outside of his pack.

  Allie had moved forward to shine a light on the disappearing wall and he sensed her heart beat increase.

  “It’s like magic. How did you do that?” She stepped back as he tore off a large chunk and set it aside.

  “I transferred some of my biomechanical cells into it. They’re programmable and always a part of me wirelessly until they dissipate. They can fix, destroy, scan, or take over other things.” He said. “They can’t take over inanimate objects like this wall but they can take it apart.”

  “Can you transfer them to people and change them?” She asked cautiously. He knew why, referring to inserting them into her days prior.

  “Yes and no. They can’t change organic material that has a different genetic makeup other than mine. Eventually they would be attacked and destroyed, my nanocells don’t last long outside of my body.”

  “What about the yes though?”

  He looked over at her. “If I wanted to impregnate a woman then they would align with the female’s egg, altering the genetic code but also altering their own over the maturation period. Any child procreated by a Cyborg is born with their own naturally designed nanocells.” He continued, “It was a byproduct of our production. Unknown until after we were created.”

  “There are Cyborg children?” Her mouth had dropped open.

  “Yes but they’re not Cyborgs, the children are human but genetically enhanced. They also always look similar to the original host of the nanocells. They’re a secret, so few exist that the council is not aware of their existence. It’s a secret we all keep.”

  “Why?” She asked.

  “That type of technology requires a lot of money and a lot of time and resources. To create nanocells that are compatible with a human is very difficult and very expensive. I’m a very difficult, expensive machine to create. Could you imagine what would happen if they had inexpensive access to that technology? I prefer not to find out.” Jack turned back towards the collapsing wall. “We Cyborgs have a tense relationship with our creators. We’re free because we’re men and women and we earned our freedom. With blood and pain. Some would prefer us decommissioned or enslaved, we try to kill those people off when we can.” He stated ominously. The hole was now big enough to walk through. He and Allie moved into the armored core.

  Jack bent down to work on powering up the reactor, slowly feeling the beginning vibrations of electrical currents pulsating outward. The ship coming to a half-life state of being. Several minutes passed before Allie spoke again.

  “Does the council still make Cyborgs?” She asked.

  “They do but very few. We call them Neoborgs and they’re not readily trustworthy. The Neoborgs are not created for war like the originals were; like me. They usually have unique purposes. Mainly it’s just a creation to enhance humanoid knowledge or new
processes being tested, new information. Neoborgs are built mainly for intellectual enhancement and theory.”

  He felt a hand on his forearm as he turned away. “Jack…” The girl whispered. He looked back at her, concern and wonder painted her face. He felt enchanted and leaned down to kiss her when she spoke, stopping him in his tracks.

  “Could I be pregnant?” His internal systems felt like they were crashing around him and he was suddenly aware about how inappropriate this conversation was deep inside a dead machine that was littered with bones.

  He looked at her stomach before lifting his gaze back to her face. A look of concern clouded her eyes as she waited for his answer, he watched as she began to notice the stifling metallic rust around them.

  “You’re not pregnant.”

  A small smile lifted her lips and he felt compelled to kiss her again. “Oh. Good. I don’t think I’m ready yet.”

  Without turning back towards her he lowered his voice in authority, “Keep an eye out. I’m going to need to focus on retracting the circuitries. Any other time this would not be an issue but the ship is scrambling with my electrical signal and I can only surmise that it will be more powerful now that I’m next to the reactor and it’s powering on. If you see anything, hear anything, yell.” Jack warned as he ducked under a metallic band-like barrier, losing his view of the girl. “This shouldn’t take me long. When the ship starts to power off, you’ll know that I’m done.” He kneeled down and looked at her from under the barrier. “Kiss me.” He demanded.

  He watched as she stepped closer to him, gingerly bending down with that small smile on her face. Right before their lips met, he grabbed the back of her neck and roughly took her mouth and was rewarded with a gasp.

  He slipped his tongue between her lips to mimic their loving from earlier. He pushed his way in, sliding his tongue along hers then retreating; assaulting her until she was barely holding herself up, panting from the blast of passion. He made his kiss a wicked promise to her for later.

  They came apart as seamlessly as they had come together. Jack watched as she took a step back and straighten her makeshift tunic. “You smell good.” He teased, unable to contain his grin. He could sense a blush spread over her skin.

  “Stop smelling me.” She demanded, her voice pitched and indignant.

  “Never.” He laughed, “How else would I know when you want me?”

  “Maybe you could ask.” She stewed.

  He shifted so he was fully facing her, still kneeling but spreading his legs apart, revealing his hard-on. “Do you want to fuck me, Allie?” He asked, laughing. “Because I sure as hell want to fuck you.”

  He heard an embarrassed moan escape her as she buried her face into her hands, the light from the flashlight bouncing around.

  “See? Smelling you saves you from embarrassment.” Teasing her was becoming one of his new favorite pastimes. He briefly looked at her stomach again before pushing the uncomfortable thoughts away.

  “I do want you again.” She confessed, peeking out from her hands to stare at the bulge between his legs.

  “Once I finish up here. I’ll give myself to you first thing.” He winked at her, “You can have your wicked way with me.” He watched as she dropped her hands and revealed her face. “It’s a new deal. I’ll be your sexual slave.” She laughed softly.

  “Deal.” She whispered as a pulsing light flashed out from the reactor behind him.

  “Watch my back Allie.” He reminded her as he turned back to the job at hand, opening up the holographic keylock, hacking the dated system with ease.

  His last conscious sound was of her turning away to watch the darkness as he became a robot, dropping his humanoid half away.

  Chapter Twelve:

  ---

  Allie was shivering with desire again. The promise of his body was enough to replace years of pent up loneliness and frustration; evaporating her old fantasies. She knew she needed him more than she wanted to admit. Attachment was a dangerous thing.

  She hadn’t known it was possible that she could procreate with Jack and that made her wary. He alluded that Cyborgs could control it and she hoped that he had.

  Her emotions had been thrown around like a sandstorm. All of them had jumbled together until she couldn’t tell them apart. It made her emotionally and mentally drained and during times like these; where her fear was palpable and her desire fierce she found herself confused on which feeling belonged to which emotion.

  Allie felt her mind snap under the stress.

  Jack’s laughter had banished the darkness for a moment but it creeped its way back in around her now that he was gone. And ever since they had left the grave pit, she could feel something following her. The smell lingered– clung to her– and it only got worse with every second.

  She squeezed the handle of her dagger to reassure herself of its presence.

  She waved the flashlight around the exterior of the room, checking every shadow in every corner.

  The machine behind her pulsed bright light intermittently. It built up a tempo as the power source grew stronger. She assumed Jack was coaxing it. The noise of the metal clanging around the room was welcome in her mind. It was the spaces beyond and the pathways after that remained dark, silent, and scary.

  From where she stood, there was only one direction to get to Jack but the ship’s corridors spider webbed off after the core room; and it was those directions she watched with intensity, moving the beam of light between.

  A loud clamor blasted out from behind her, coming from the reactor. Soon after a bright light source that ran along the hallway walls flickered on, bathing the space in a wash of deep red before they flickered back off.

  Allie stiffened in place. She could have sworn she saw a being illuminated when the red light was casted. Frantically, she waved the flashlight around to locate the anomaly but it only lightened up a single section at a time. The shadows flooded in whenever her light moved away.

  Her heart beat fast, the breath in her lungs held tight, her throat closed up. Fear stopped her from doing anything but maneuvering the light and she was losing the will to do even that. The light was her defense but it was also the fastest ticket to losing her mind. She desperately did not want to see her fears take a physical form.

  Allie’s fear made her focus and that focus was suffocating her. She had walked into the bowels of her worst nightmare and she had done it willingly; and for what? Closure? Jack? What had she been thinking?

  She never considered herself to be brave; before her arrival here she was a simple, oppressed girl who followed the rules and dictations of the commune. She never stuck out, never brought attention to herself. How did she end up here?

  Allie was about to give in to her cowardness when she was stopped, hearing her name whispered in the dark.

  “Allieee,” a strained wisp came from the gloom beside her. She turned toward the sound and lifted her light.

  Nothing was there but a darkened pathway that led into nothingness.

  “Aaalliee,” her name came again, slithering across the air. She stared down the path, contemplating her next move when the darkness spoke again.

  “I need you.” It was fainter now as if it was moving away from her.

  “Who are you?” The breath she held for the past minute being released. She waited for an answer that never came. “Hello?” She moved the light around the room again.

  Ghosts.

  Just then the red neon glow of the ship flickered back on and the machine behind her shook. When it stayed on, not immediately flickering off, she was able to look around and upon first glance, everything was as it should be.

  Metal flakes from the deteriorated wall was pooled under her feet, the machinery laid in ruins around her. Allie looked up at the pathway where her name had come from and froze.

  The low red dim stretched far out before her to the end of the corridor and at the end of the tubular metal hallway was a black ghostly f
igure, suspended in air. It was far away and it made the details blurred but she knew that it was stagnant and staring in her direction. That the figure had long flowing black hair that stuck to the shadows like sludge.

  “Allie.” A breathy, dull whisper washed over her again. It filled her nostrils with rot.

  “Who are you?” She whispered back as if she was next to the wraith.

  “You left me here…” the sound hung in the air between them.

  “Ophelia?” Allie felt her heart break open, she knew, tears forming in her eyes. It was her, her friend Ophelia, a young female like herself. Ophelia was chosen to be the mate to the usurper Warlord's closest General.

  When Allie had first met her soon after arriving at the female commune, she had been a simpering, naive girl who had been excited to pair with a Trentian male. Nobody liked being near her, shadows followed her around and she was often caught talking to herself and sleep-walking at night.

  Nobody liked me either.

  "My male is out there right now, fighting for the right to my body, for the future children we will create together." She remembered Ophelia sighing longingly.

  The day after the brutal examination that had taken place at my commune. I was taken aside to be prepared for the joining. A ritual where I would be claimed in front of the Warlord’s closest Generals. On display for all to see as my status went from a maiden to mate.

  Other women of her community were petulant and jealous that she had been chosen to be the consort for the Warlord and that she would hold more status than any other female in the colony. But all Allie had been concerned with at the time was the pain that her new master would cause her. Ophelia, on the other hand, had been claimed the previous day while still in line with the other maidens.

  She also cried but unlike me, her virgin blood was dripping down her legs. I couldn’t save her.

  Ophelia told her afterward that the Warlord's best General went straight for her and licked off her tears. He had told her she was pretty when she cried and that she was special to lose her innocence to the Warlord's hand; that he would finish the job during the ceremony the following day in support of his Warlord's celebration.