Liberation's Vow (Robotics Faction #3)

by Wendy Lynn Clark

  She dove out of the way.

  Anyone who didn’t move was sliced in half.

  Midway in the mirror’s arc, the troop ship’s laser fired. It hit the mirror and drove the spinning disk into the sand, driving it to create a giant dune that buried all escape tunnels.

  Reflected laser slammed into the troop ship, slicing it in half.

  The engines coughed.

  The ship yawned sideways. Tipping like a vast dome, it scraped its nose against the ground, diving against gravity, dropping off pieces of itself as it collapsed.

  The explosion boomed, roaring like an angry god. It kicked Resa in the chest, blowing her backward. An ordinary robot would have crumpled. The x-classes still standing, did.

  The sand dune crackled and hissed, sheltering Aris from the blast. The shuttle rocked.

  She had done it. She had betrayed the Faction and rescued Aris. All she had to do was get him inside the shuttle, strap down, and get out of here.

  Because every ship and robot and laser in the entire Faction knew of her betrayal.

  She hiked over the destroyed ship and charred, smoking x-class pieces. Aris slumped against the ship, half buried up to his torso in sand. She dug him out.

  His heartbeat fluttered in his throat. He smiled through blackened eyes. “Hey, pretty lady. Did we win?”

  A very natural fear lapped against the overwhelming ocean of love that roared in her chest. She drew her fragile, strong, handsome beloved into her arms. “As soon as I get you to a doctor.”

  “Bah.” He winced as she lifted him. “A medkit and I’ll be good as new.”

  She tried to take her mind off the charred chest wound. “I always knew you only thought I was pretty.”

  He grinned. “Pretty beautiful.”

  Her heart thumped. Heat rose to her cheeks, and a lump fizzed in the back of her throat. Even now, at the point of death, he flirted with her. The man would die with a line and a lie on his lips.

  She was just stepping into the shuttle when a white laser blast crashed into the earth. The gaping crack beneath the shuttle widened. They all tumbled down, down, down, deep into the worst part of the mine. She tried to shelter Aris to her as they fell all the way to hell.

  Blackness swallowed them.

  Resa had to slow their descent.

  She tumbled, fighting gravity and banging against side tunnels, scrambling against the walls for resistance. Handhold here, foothold there, she managed to skate and slide and finally stop a hundred feet from the ultimate terminus. Below, the shuttle clanged to a stop.

  It had landed on something metallic.

  Aris moaned in her arms.

  She switched to infrared and slipped the rest of the way down, cautious but fast, assessing the state of the shuttle as she engaged in their controlled fall. It seemed flight-worthy, and the shape of the tunnel had even forced it upright. Perfect position for launch.

  Way in the distance, overhead, something winked silver. More x-class soldiers coming for them. Or perhaps another troop ship.

  The shuttle had landed on an ancient storage unit, which she recognized as clearly as if she’d seen it yesterday. Hazard markings warned that nanobots existed on the other side of it. Woe to any that opened the containment unit.

  An active lock flickered.

  She rested Aris next to the control panel and hacked the lock.

  “What are you doing?” he asked. The luminescence of the control keys flickered across his sunken features.

  “A solution to the robot problem has occurred to me.” She hacked into the nanobot controls. What was an alloy that only robots possessed? Several ingredients floated to the top of her mind. She high-fived herself, input the ingredients, and executed the convert-matter-to-goo command. “When we get communications restored, tell everyone with a cybernetic implant to stay the hell inside.”

  A misty cloud of shimmering silver floated like a malaise from the soundlessly opening vents all across the platform.

  He licked his lips. “You’re a robot.”

  “I know.” She scooped him up and raced for the banged up shuttle. “Close your eyes.”

  He obeyed her as she jostled him to the shuttle, sealed it, activated gravity, and rose up the mine, following the misty cloud up and out. The cloud enveloped the x-class robots perched at the mouth with anti-ship weapons, shimmering on them like a deadly acid. Their shuttle passed through unmolested.

  Overhead, the dots of the Third Brigade concentrated around a gaping hole in the atmosphere shield.

  But the hundreds of smaller ships were not descending into the hole to harry the escaping domes or to blow her and Aris to pieces.

  They were scattering from the bilious wrath of a behemoth, a Treatymaker class warship, barreling into them like a flaming sun through tiny pins. Anything that tried to stand its ground was chewed to bits by the autoturrets studding the gigantic asteroid of laser power. It engaged a large Borderpatroller that appeared to be guarding a satellite. The smaller Boarderpatroller tried to lure the behemoth into a multi-angled trap, but the Treatymaker shot a smaller troop ship, knocking it into the satellite, and rolling out of the sprung trap.

  The satellite disintegrated into disparate pieces.

  “I think you can make the announcement now,” she said.

  “Hmm?” Aris roused from his labored sleep. He blinked on her and frowned. “What’s that on your face?”

  She touched her face. Pockmarks like acne spread out beneath her fingertips.

  Oh no.

  A residue rested on the control keys.

  She spread out her fingers. Dark lesions spread across her hands. Nanobots were eating away at her top layer of titanium alloy and exposing the hard exoskeleton beneath. Soon her skin would all disappear and she really would look like a robotic monster. And then they would eat the monstrous parts, and she would be all gone.

  “Close your eyes,” she urged him softly.

  Even in her mouth, she tasted it. Metal against metal as her sensations went numb and she lost feeling, everything gritting.

  But he didn’t close his eyes. He rubbed at the spots. “Stop it. Resa, stop it.”

  She treasured his warm hand clasping hers. So long as she could feel it. “Love you anyway.”

  He hiccupped and repeated after her as moisture squeezed out the corners of his eyes. “Love you anyway.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Robotics Faction evaluators watched the Treatymaker warship pause to collect the shuttle containing Aris Hyeon Antiata and their zero class Resa, then return to decimating their outmatched fleet.

  On the planetoid, their best x-class agents fell victim to the ravenous nanobots that reduced them to goo. Any they attempted to pick up inevitably contained some of the nanobots; one entire ship went dark before they could contain the cleverly programmed, invisible monsters.

  Then, the main Antiata defense fleet arrived at the outer edge of the galaxy. A hundred times larger than the Third Brigade, and a hundred times deadlier.

  The Third Brigade retreated.

  But they had their answer to the question of which gene, precisely, contained the corruption flaw. It was a far more costly test than even the worst projections, but still, a successful test.

  The conclusion raced upward through the levels of consciousness, to the highest level of the Robotics Faction. The oligarch of nine.

  Eight of the oligarchs awoke and studied the answer.

  Hundreds of humans carry this gene, the first announced. They are spread throughout the galaxies.

  An easy eradication of the gene was never prophesized, the second spoke. A decisive strike is necessary.

  Is it? The last of the eight asked. Can’t we continue as we are now, putting out agents with kill-switches and activating them?

  All eight mulled over the possibility.

  The longer we take to eradicate the gene, the more human offspring we risk carrying it, the second spoke. Better to strike now, somewhere we already have a high concen
tration of agents, and where unexplained deaths are not unusual.

  They reviewed the possible locations.

  There. The second pointed to a military installation. The mercenary units are filled with our agents. All of their genetic records are on files easy to hack. And they are used to unexplained death.

  They are also used to resurrecting their employees.

  We destroy their resurrection points first and then activate whoever is nearest to take care of the living human.

  The third oligarch approved the suggestion. The mercenary units stent their humans with emotion-suppressing cybernetic implants. We can easily alter this code to fit our needs. Even if they are discovered, a faulty implant will be blamed. Not us.

  The fifth oligarch spoke. You propose to control humans the same way we control robots.

  But without their knowledge. Attacks will be isolated, surprising, and difficult to pin on us because the soldiers will believe they have committed the acts of their own choice.

  Their own choice? The fourth oligarch expressed surprise. They don’t feel an external pressure?

  No, the second confirmed. We have been testing this successfully for some time. One human female has been killed over four hundred times, and her killers have yet to be identified. She has now been identified as a corruption carrier, so her next death will be her last.

  The pronouncement rang through the silent room.

  We will be able to continue our experiments while eradicating this problem gene, the third added. No one will suspect us.

  Very well. The first spoke their conclusions. We begin now, before this incident spreads and the targets can be warned to safety.

  Eight oligarchs agreed. They selected their targets and sent the execution orders.

  The ninth member of the oligarchy slept on, encased in a crystal cage of silence.

  Resa woke on a silk bed surrounded by ribbons and lace, the softest furs, the most velvety covers.

  Her hands—pockmarked, covered in the shiny coating of Synthskin—splayed over the delicious textures. Her nose picked out the aroma of vanilla and cream, and the hint of a masculine undertone. Her left eye cracked open.

  Aris lay beside her on the gigantic bed. His breath, even, sounded exhausted. His naked torso disappeared beneath velveteen sheets.

  She touched him. Muscle rippled beneath her hand. Yes, he was still alive.

  Her other hand felt the bandage covering her eye. Since she was still alive, they must have gotten all the nanobots off, but apparently not before sacrificing—for the time being, until they could regrow another one—her right eye.

  He groaned and rolled over. Sleepy gazes turned to smiles. He yawned. “You’re awake.”

  “Where am I?”

  “Vice captain’s quarters of an Undovan warship.”

  Undovans loved nature. Tendrils of vines knit intricate patterns on the ceiling and walls, and sconces held beautiful glass lights beneath drops of water containing delicate blossoms.

  He poured her a pitcher of water into a glass at the foot of the bed. “Can I offer you a drink?”

  She cupped it with both hands. Her muscles didn’t seem to be perfectly healed yet. “No nanobots here.”

  “None at all.” He raised a brow. “The Undovans are too poor for that technology. We’re certainly roughing it.”

  She smiled at the clear, clean liquid and sipped. It tasted like fresh stars. “I like that.”

  “Me too.”

  He flopped down on his back, hands jammed under his head, breathing in the well-oxygenated air. The faintest bruises lingered beneath his high cheekbones, giving her a sense of how long she had been out.

  “The Antiata fleet drove off the Third Brigade. The nanobots destroyed the x-class army. Poyo is in charge of the Hyeon family. My uncle is facing demotion—the worst consequence—by the head CEO of the Antiata family himself.”

  Then he rolled onto his side. “I assume you remember what happened.”

  “More or less.” She flexed her fingers. “I seem to have passed out before we got taken onboard.”

  “Your hands should be healed soon, but they can’t be patched. We don’t have the alloys.” He poked the shiny skin. “You’re going to be bits and pieces of human.”

  Mirroring the patchwork inside her brain.

  But she would not go crazy. The halves of her formerly at war felt at peace.

  She cupped his hand. “That seems like more than I deserve.”

  He pursed his masculine lips and rubbed her fingers. “What you deserve is right here.” He tapped his chest. “In my heart. And, when you’re ready, in my bed.”

  Warmth glowed in her chest. “I’m already in your bed.”

  He slid his slim torso between her legs, his serious eyes on her. Only on her. “Is that an invitation?”

  She touched his lips. “Do you want it in writing?”

  Fire kindled in his eyes.

  He kissed her hands, tender and gentle where the injuries resided, more demanding at her unbroken skin. He nibbled her wrist, licking delicate fires up her naked arm to her collar. As if he wanted to taste her. As if he couldn’t get enough.

  His desperation enflamed her.

  Fire lit beneath his touch, beneath his teeth. Desire streaked to her center. She wanted him as before, but this time, she wanted nothing between them. She could more than handle herself with him. She could more than control her emotions even as she lost control and was consumed by them. Consumed by him.

  Her beloved Aris kissed down her jaw to her mouth and claimed her ripe, sweet lips. She opened for him, willing him to come inside. He answered her unspoken wish, knowing her desires almost before she knew them, listening to her breath and her heartbeat as she listened to his, ragged and desperate as the pulsing hot arousal pressing against her willing thigh.

  She twined her fingers in his hair. His fashionable silver-threaded blond hair, shorter now, regrowing. Silken and damp. One of his vanities, but his muscular beauty awed her, and his vanities held her safe against his heart.

  Resa pulled down the blanket to reveal his muscular buttocks, squeezing together for her enjoyment.

  His smile brushed her cheek and his teeth teased her sensitive earlobe. “Like what you see?”

  “Everything.”

  “It’s all for you,” he vowed, tugging the tender skin and sending shivers down her spine. “All for you only.”

  She touched the hard muscle. So powerful, so toned, so exquisite. Hers. Only hers.

  His hands stopped at the clasp of her robe. “May I?”

  She put the ribbon of the bow in his fingers.

  Heat kindled between them.

  He pulled the ribbon, loosening the two parts of her robe. They fell away to reveal her slender chest, narrow waist, and buttocks. Heat rose to his cheeks; she could sense it on her skin, the way that she sensed the ragged, rising beat of his heart and noted the swift lick of his lips. Like he wanted to taste her. Like he had never seen anything more beautiful.

  Her nipples tightened.

  He moaned and leaned forward, burying his head in her body, tasting first one nipple and then the other, teasing and touching, massaging and kneading. An ache grew between her legs, an ache satisfied and increased anew with his touch.

  She parted her legs.

  He kissed down her belly, reading her signs, giving her as much as she gave him. She arched under his hands, his perfect hands.

  And then it felt too perfect.

  He dipped into her wetness and the ache clenched, and she felt her body running away with his mastery. She couldn’t stand it.

  She gripped his hair and yanked him up to see her. The confusion in his passion-glazed eyes. The sleepy, lazy, hungry desire.

  He blinked.

  She strove to see herself in his eyes. He was her everything. But despite all they had been through, all they had promised, she had to know. Did he see Resa or some other girl?

  He softened and kissed her, long and slow. Eyes
open. Looking at her even as his passion grew, pressing against her needy entrance.

  He saw her. He saw her. All parts of her. The good and the bad. The scared and the strong. The past and the future.

  She twined their legs and gripped his perfect buttocks.

  He slid into her, filling her to the hilt.

  “Yes.”

  They both gasped the syllable, together, her in her mind and him in a groan that disappeared into her lips, eaten by their kisses, consumed by their love for each other. She squeezed him, holding him in. He groaned again. Not even moving, their connection felt so good, so incredible. She felt held and protected and united. So united, she could come just like this.

  He pressed into the spot she wanted. Just pressing. One perfect spot.

  Pleasure grew in a dazzling rainbow, spreading through her limbs, filling her with rainbows, so good, so incredibly good. She tasted dawning horizons, new universes, perfect union that was all she was and all he was forever and ever and ever.

  Her body arched. Release squeezed through her. Passion released the rainbows in perfect sprinkles. He saw it in her and lost it, releasing his own passion hot and sweet and gentle, together, as one.

  An age later, he chuckled. Still between her legs, wrapped in her body, held to her heart. “I usually last longer than one thrust.”

  “It was a very good thrust,” she assured him.

  “I can do better.”

  “I like efficiency. One excellent thrust over equals a hundred mediocre ones. You’ve set a bar unassailable by a lesser man.”

  He smiled. Rich and lazy and pure bliss.

  Then, he eased off of her and helped her up. “We’ll try again later to make sure.”

  She tried a new expression. A pout. “Why not now?”

  “We’re deciding where to go from here, and I was supposed to take you to the others the minute you woke.”

  She pouted with more emphasis.

  He dropped back on one knee on the bed, responsibility melting into her powerful seduction. “I suppose we could make them wait for one more thrust.”

  She laid back, drawing him into her, losing herself in their delicious entwined bodies and reveling in the amazement of connecting to this man.