The Star Thief

by Jamie Grey

  “Now.”

  Renna and Viktis dropped to one knee, opening fire on the robots. Renna focused on the column to the right, Viktis on the left. She aimed at each robot’s head, squeezing off a shot with her blaster. Each one exploded in a mess of flying tissue and metal.

  Blood splatters turned the walls into crimson rivers, and the rich metallic scent filled the air, mixing with the smell of the drugs. She gagged, forcing her nausea back down with every shot.

  She fired again just as one of the robots surged forward. The bullet ripped a hole through the woman’s chest, spinning her away, but not before Renna caught sight of a living, beating heart through the wound.

  Bile burned her throat as her lunch tried for another return trip.

  “There are too many of them! Get Finn and the kid out of here!” Viktis yelled, still shooting. He’d cleared a path down the left side. She glanced back at Finn. He dashed past, and she followed, shooting at anything that moved toward them. The sound of Viktis’s blaster screamed through the narrow space behind them.

  “Up the stairs and to the right. The exit is at the end of the corridor!” She turned back to keep shooting at the robots following them. These things moved fast, and there were mere yards between her and the front of the crowd. The only thing left to do was stop and fight. Finn needed enough time to get out of there with the boy.

  “Take him to Aldani. He’ll be able to help,” she shouted over her shoulder. “Don’t wait for us!”

  “Renna!” Finn’s eyes were wide and terrified as they darted between the limp boy in his arms and Renna’s blood-smeared face.

  She flashed him a smile. “I’ll catch you later, Captain. You still owe me a shore leave.”

  He shook his head. “No. There’s got to be…”

  “Go!” she shouted, drilling two bullets into the head of the closest robot, then pivoting to hit the next one through the door.

  She heard the airlock swish open behind her, and then he was gone.

  Down the hall, Viktis’ gunfire was slowing. Was his pistol charge running out, too?

  Another surge of robots pushed through the door, and she picked them off until her gun whined and vibrated in her hand. She threw it to the floor and grabbed her knife from her boot.

  She slashed through two human-metal chests before glaring at the oncoming pack. “Who else wants to rumble?” she taunted.

  That’s when they charged.

  THIRTY

  Renna woke with her head spinning. She kept her eyes closed. Any other motion might have sent her over the edge. She licked her dry, cracked lips, but her tongue felt like it had been coated with glue. Around her, the hum of machines vibrated against her skin. She’d bet her life she was still in Navang’s station.

  Slowly, she eased her eyes open. Her head was propped on something soft and white. A pillow. So someone had moved her after the attack.

  She had a pretty good guess as to who.

  Renna blinked again, trying to clear the fog from her eyes. Everything seemed hazy, indistinct. Even her thoughts felt fuzzy. A series of machines beeped near her head, and her arm itched where a needle was stuck into the vein. It felt like spiders crawling up and down her skin, and she shuddered.

  A woman’s voice cut through the room. “She’s awake, Doctor.”

  Renna sucked in a breath. She’d had no idea someone was there with her.

  “Very good. I’ll be there shortly.” The man’s voice sounded as if it came from an intercom. Though tinny, it was firm and melodious.

  The nurse moved around to Renna’s head. “Please don’t struggle. Dr. Navang wants to help you. You’ve been exposed.”

  “To what?” she croaked.

  The nurse pressed a button, and the head of the bed rose enough so that Renna was propped upright. Then she handed her a glass with a straw.

  Renna drank thirstily before sinking back against the pillows. Her heart raced like she’d run a mile. Even sitting up had sent her spinning. What the hell was going on?

  The nurse smiled reassuringly at Renna’s expression, her sharp blue eyes softening as she said, “Just try to relax. The doctor will explain everything once he’s here.”

  Relax? That was the last thing she wanted to do. Had Finn and Myka made it out? Where was Viktis? And the robots? By her ear, the heart rate monitor beeps increased until they sounded like an alarm.

  The nurse frowned and turned down the sound. “Please be calm. I don’t want to have to sedate you again.”

  Renna’s muscles twitched and rebelled, but she took a deep breath, trying to get her racing heart back under control. Her head began to ache, and everything had a strange halo of light around it.

  What exactly had the doctor done to her?

  Her hand drifted to the necklace at her throat, and she squeezed it like a talisman. Panicking was not going to help. This was bad, but she’d gotten out of worse. She was Renna Carrizal, the Star Thief. It was going to be fine.

  Across the room, she heard the door slide open and turned her head to watch a man in a white lab coat enter the room.

  “Miss Carrizal, I’m glad to see you’ve finally woken up.” His smile didn’t reach his cold, blue eyes. “I’m Dr. Navang.”

  “What did you do to me? To Myka?” The effort of talking left her out of breath and shaking. She forced herself to relax back against the pillows. She’d need all her strength to escape these people.

  The doctor shook his head, his cropped white hair glowing in the helolights. “I did nothing, I assure you. The people you work for did that themselves.”

  Renna rubbed her eyes with a shaking hand. “You’re saying MYTH created these…hybrids? I highly doubt it.”

  “Then you’d be mistaken. Let me show you.” He flipped a switch near the door, and the monitors along the wall flickered on.

  “Five years ago, the MYTH installation on Banos Prime discovered an interesting element in the soil. It had strange properties, ones that held promise in the medical industry. MYTH sent a research team to investigate and work with the element. Myka’s parents, both MYTH doctors, headed up the project.” He paused and adjusted one of the monitors to display an image of utter destruction. What looked to be some sort of building lay in pieces around a crater. Bodies lay everywhere, along with chunks of machinery.

  “Two years into the project, there was an explosion. Many of the MYTH staff were killed or injured, and Myka was caught in the worst of the blast. His parents knew MYTH was developing advanced cybernetic implants in secret in another facility, against all regulations. They proposed an exchange. Use the new implants to save their son and the others injured, and in return, get a real-world test case.”

  Renna opened her mouth to protest, but the doctor held up a hand. “Let me finish. MYTH granted approval for the Aldanis to try out the implants, but there was an interesting wrinkle. Myka had been downwind of the mine when it exploded and cast the experimental element into the air. He was exposed for several hours before they could rescue him. Thee others, both MYTH agents and civilians, who were injured in a different area of the mine weren’t exposed.”

  He pressed another button, this time bringing up an image of a lab full of bodies on tables. Some were obviously dead, bleeding out of wounds too horrific to fix. Others had the same sort of robotic hands and eyes and legs she’d seen on the mercs back on Banos Prime.

  “The child was the only one who survived the experiment. The other human bodies rejected the implants, killing their hosts in days or weeks. But Myka…his body embraced them. Integrated with them until it was impossible to find where the boy left off and the machine began.”

  “I don’t understand.” Renna’s head throbbed like her brain wanted to ooze out her ears. She forced her eyes to stay focused on the doctor. “Are you saying Myka was the first hybrid?”

  Navang nodded. “Myka’s parents were already familiar with the work Aldani and I had done on an anti-rejection drug. After seeing Myka’s miraculous recovery, his parents hy
pothesized that the new element they’d found in the destroyed mine had been the missing key. They developed a new formula and tested their theory on other accident victims. Each one was given a cybernetic implant and put on the drugs. Sixty-five percent of the cases were successful. But Myka was the most important because his implants truly became a part of him. They changed him, and he changed them.”

  “So where do you come in?” she asked.

  “I was part of their team in a consultant capacity. MYTH asked me to step in when the Aldanis were killed.”

  She shook her head. “Why you? David Aldani seems like a better choice.”

  “He wasn’t given the opportunity. MYTH was afraid his emotions would cloud his judgment, and you must be impartial when running these kinds of experiments.” Navang’s lips curved into a smile. “Besides, they needed the best. Aldani is a washed-up has-been.”

  Renna snorted, then winced as her head pounded. “Aldani is a better man than you’ll ever be.”

  Navang shrugged. “You know nothing of me. Of the work I’ve done for this organization. I’ve used my research to create an army for MYTH. One that will be unstoppable.”

  She stared at him. It couldn’t be true. MYTH wouldn’t have hired her to find the boy if they were already involved. None of it made sense. “You’re saying that MYTH asked you to create an army of hybrids to take over the galaxy? That doesn’t make sense.”

  The man was insane. Completely and utterly mad. He’d created a new race with the blessing of a government agency. They’d be completely undetectable once they assimilated into the humans.

  If it was true.

  “But it does make sense,” Navang said. “Someone wants power, and undetectable assassins and spies are the perfect solution. I don’t ask questions. I just get paid for my work. One branch of MYTH is the same as any other to me. Besides, who’s to say the order came from MYTH headquarters itself? The bigwigs probably had no idea what we were working on. Dallas certainly didn’t when he sent you after the boy.”

  She struggled to sit up. Enough of this mad man’s ramblings. Aldani had said not to trust him. These were probably all lies. “Where is he? Where’s Myka?”

  “I was going to ask you the same thing.” The doctor narrowed his eyes. “Seems like the good captain has escaped with our template. I want him back.”

  She forced her face to stay expressionless, but she felt herself relax against the pillows. Myka and Finn were safe. That was the most important thing. And if she could keep Navang talking, maybe she could figure out a plan to get out of here.

  “So who was behind the attacks on the planets?” she asked.

  “MYTH was, of course. I needed test subjects to build my army, and my contact was more than happy to oblige. Each attack gave me thousands of dead or dying humans to work with. A virtually unlimited stock of research subjects. It was the perfect solution.”

  Impossible. MYTH would never condone that. The people she’d met were honorable. But a sliver of doubt wormed its way into her mind. She’d wondered before about how easily the kidnappers had found Myka. About the attacks on the planets. But surely they wouldn’t kill their own people. Unless…

  There was a traitor within the organization.

  Navang smiled as he watched her come to her conclusion. “Don’t look so surprised, my dear. An organization as large and decentralized as MYTH has to have its share of bad apples. I don’t care who I work for, as long as I get paid. You and I are alike in that way, I think.”

  “Never!” she spit. “I’d never murder thousands of people or torture innocent children.”

  “No. You’d just steal a priceless cultural artifact and let its people die in a pointless war.”

  She blinked at the doctor, going perfectly still.

  “That’s right. I know who you are. And I think you may be even more useful to us than Myka.”

  White-hot anger scorched through her, momentarily burning away the fog. “At least I can assure you you’ll never get Myka back.”

  “We may not need him. We have enough of his genetic material to work with for now. And the new subjects are coming along very well. Most of them are on a steady dose of the drug and hooked into our neural network. They are completely under my control.” He shrugged, looking smug and haughty. “And the few that we are unable to control are destroyed once we know they are no longer viable.”

  Navang pulled a pair of rubber gloves on and smiled over at the nurse. “Rebekka, please remove the IV from Miss Carrizal’s arm. I think she’s had enough. I’ll be curious to see the effects of the drug at this dosage.”

  Renna’s gaze flew to the needle in her arm, and then to the orange liquid that had been dripping into her vein. “What have you done to me?” she demanded.

  “We’ve simply made you better, my dear.” Navang’s smile turned his face into a hideous mask. “I haven’t been able to try our new dosing on the current subjects yet, and with the addition of Myka’s DNA, I think the implant integration process will go even more smoothly than before. By using the antibodies and genetic material in Myka’s blood, we’ve developed a way to allow the implants to fuse with your nervous system seamlessly, until you’re able to control your implant like you would another limb. Or so we hope. Plus it’s always interesting to deal with someone who already has one.”

  “How did you know about my implant?”

  “You don’t exactly keep it a secret, my dear. Now take a few deep breaths and calm down. I’d hate to have to knock you out again.”

  She stared at him, her heart racing beyond her control. The fog in her brain was swirling back in. What would the drug do to her? Would she become a machine like one of those…things?

  “What’s going to happen?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

  “I’m not entirely sure. Regular implants and transplants are superficial; their limitations well-documented. Even the most well-designed technology fails after a few years as your body attacks and rejects it. What I hope will happen is that this new drug will allow your nervous system to gradually integrate with your implant until it becomes a part of you. Something that physically ties you into the technological world.”

  He rubbed his hands down the front of his lab coat, tugging at the lapels as if he was giving a lecture to a university class. “Some of our subjects have almost been able to control the flow of information on the network. Others had brief integration with electrical systems, like power centers or computers, allowing them to turn entire power grids on and off with a simple thought. We haven’t been able to make it work long-term yet, but you’re strong enough. And now that we’ve integrated Myka’s genetic material, I think it might finally take.”

  Okay. That wasn’t too bad. When she thought about it rationally, it could actually be pretty useful. Especially if it helped her break through safes or into buildings. “What’s the catch?”

  “I don’t know what you mean, Miss Carrizal.” His smile was slimy and full of lies.

  Fuck this. She flexed her muscles beneath the sheets. Luckily, they’d left most of her clothes on, only removing her shirt so they could stick her with the needle. She was grateful for the army bra keeping her girls firmly in place.

  Before she could let herself think about what she was about to do, she jumped from the bed and snatched the scalpel from the tray nearby.

  THIRTY-ONE

  Dr. Navang’s face paled, and he backed away.

  The nurse held her hands out and approached Renna. “Just get back into bed, dear. It’s the drugs making you do this,” she said soothingly.

  Renna shook her head. “Nope. This is all me.” She stalked toward the doctor. He stumbled backward as she approached, his long legs looking oddly like a spider’s as he tripped and scuttled away from her. When his back hit the wall, Renna pressed the blade of the scalpel to his neck.

  “Tell me what’s going to happen.”

  “I don’t know.” Navang’s voice wavered, and he glanced at the nurse
.

  “No. Look at me.” She yanked his chin so he was forced to meet her furious gaze. “What is going to happen?”

  A trickle of sweat ran down Navang’s cheek. “The drug we gave you has destroyed your antibodies and replaced them with Myka’s. It’s also begun to break down the neural connections between your implant and your nervous system. Once the process is complete, the technology will begin to fuse with you. It will grow and connect in ways we can’t even imagine.”

  “Right. I got that. Then what?” The scalpel trembled in her hand, and she gripped it tighter, trying to steady it.

  Navang shook his head. “I don’t think you understand. The drug we injected you with is destroying your immune system. If the process isn’t kept in check, your implant will take over your entire body. Or it will fail completely. Either way, you’ll die.”

  Renna lowered her hand and blinked at him. Each breath she took felt like it was on fire. “How do I stop it? Reverse it?” she demanded. “There has to be a way to fix this!”

  “We can keep your immune system working and the implant from being rejected, but you’ll need a steady dose of the drug I developed. Once you’ve stabilized, any disruption in the protocol could cause the implant to fail or your organs to shut down.”

  Renna’s voice trembled as she brought the edge back up to his neck. “You mean I have to take those drugs for the rest of my life now?”

  He swallowed, the scalpel nicking his Adam’s apple as it bobbed. A small bead of blood welled to the surface of his pasty skin. “Possibly. Or the implant could stabilize. It’s hard to say since it was already installed in you when we started the process. Your body may already have accepted it. We had a sixty-five percent acceptance rate in most of our subjects.”

  “How would I know if my implant is failing?”

  His eyes lit up. “You’d know. There would be tremors and headaches. You might feel like you’re coming down with the flu or catching a cold. And then your muscles would go stiff. Eventually you’d lose your sight before your brain shut down. It depends on your body. It’s a fascinating process.”