Dominance and Dissent

by Cynthia Sax

  I require a battle. Truth asked for what he wanted also. Dissent’s kill rate has increased by one on this mission. He shouldn’t have all of the fun.

  There is to be no killing, not unless those beings attack us first. North reminded the D Model of Captain’s rule.

  A warrior’s female was considered to be part of that warrior. A threat against her was a threat against him.

  I can convince beings to attack me. Truth, like most cyborgs, enjoyed battle. I’m told I can be very provoking.

  You’re provoking me. North huffed. Concentrate on the mission.

  Dissent decreased the volume on their nattering and focused on reaching his female quickly. She would be upset about being confined to the chambers. He would have to work hard to coax a smile from her, might shamelessly use Nibbler to bridge the distance between them. She liked the offspring.

  The perimeter sensors he’d set sounded an alarm. He increased his speed. Someone was close to the domicile. Those beings could be innocent offspring or they would be hostiles. He wasn’t taking any risks with his female. Dissent’s hands lowered to the handles of his guns.

  He turned a corner, came into view of the structure, and his big cyborg heart malfunctioned for a moment. The entire side of the domicile had collapsed. Debris littered the pathway before it.

  Had someone attacked Greer and Nibbler? He ran toward the site. The rumble wasn’t randomly distributed. It had a pattern. There was a circle of broken wall around what appeared to be a makeshift shelter. His lifeform scans indicated a creature under that shelter.

  “Nibbler, are you damaged?” He projected the offspring was its inhabitant.

  “The cold brightness attempted to damage me.” The miljoonasuut responded, clicking its teeth and rattling its exoskeleton. “But I defeated it.” There was a pause. “The female two legs assisted…a little bit.”

  Dissent suspected the female two legs, Greer, had done the defeating. The knot in the pit of his stomach loosened. If she had helped Nibbler, she must have survived the attack.

  “Where is the female two legs?” He was 97.8567 percent certain she’d taken the opportunity to escape him. It was the remaining 2.1433 percent that filled him with trepidation. “Did the attackers capture her?”

  “I defeated the cold brightness.” Nibbler misunderstood his reference.

  “Who destroyed our home?” Had the attackers been the friends of the Balazoid? Dissent ducked into the structure, retrieved Nibbler’s cage and a covering cloth.

  “My home is far away.” The miljoonasuut was thinking of Khambalia 5, his home planet.

  “How did the cold brightness attack you?” Dissent removed the pieces of wall. Nibbler made a sound of distress, tried to scurry away. He grabbed the creature and placed him in his cage, draping the cloth over it. “Don’t eat this. It is blocking the cold brightness.”

  “I’m not hungry.” The miljoonasuut yawned. “I ate the smooth tree. It was delicious.”

  His fraggin’ creature had devoured the exterior wall of the structure. Dissent shook his head. Truth. He reached out to the D Model through a private transmission line. Can you look after Nibbler while I locate my female? He is situated in what is left of the cleansing chamber.

  What is left of the cleansing chamber? Truth laughed. I have to see this. Consider Nibbler looked after. Go. Find your female.

  “Be good for Truth.” Dissent told the miljoonasuut as he set his cage in the debris-strewn cleansing chamber.

  The creature should be safe there. Dissent returned to the pathway, walked around the area. His female’s scent was easy to pick up and that reassured him. She had escaped mere moments ago.

  He moved at top speed, following her trail through the settlement. She had predictably headed toward the main gates. It damaged his emotional system that she had fled from him.

  She needed more time. He issued that rationalization to himself.

  Her progress abruptly stopped. The scent of blood, her blood, irritated his nostrils and destroyed his calm. His female had been damaged.

  He circled the spot, picked up her scent again, tracking it to a darkened pathway bracketed by two tall structures. His vision system adjusted.

  The need to kill, to inflict pain, coursed through his circuits. His female lay face down, her lush body draped over a stack of used containers. She didn’t move, didn’t yell or curse.

  A human in a Humanoid Alliance uniform kicked her feet apart. He lowered his ass coverings.

  Two other Humanoid Alliance males jeered and laughed, waiting their turn. All three of them planned to abuse her.

  As Humanoid Alliance males had abused him and his brethren. That remembered pain, humiliation and frustrating sense of helplessness meshed with Dissent’s anger.

  He couldn’t stop that abuse. It had been in the past. But he could stop this torture. Permanently. He extracted two daggers from the sheaths on his body armor. His wrists snapped. The weapons zinged through the air. Eyeballs popped. The force of the throws had driven the tips of the blades through the watching males’ skulls.

  They fell to the pathway. Their arms and legs gyrated. Air whistled through their parted lips. Their smirks were fixed forever on their faces, their deaths too quick for Dissent’s liking.

  The third male would hurt before he died.

  Dissent hooked his right arm across the male’s neck and flipped him over his shoulder. He turned, placing his form protectively between the enemy and his unmoving female.

  “What the fuck?” The Humanoid Alliance male pushed himself upward. His eyes widened. “Machine.” He drew his guns.

  Dissent did the same. Faster. He shot the weapons out of his enemy’s hands, removing some of the male’s fingers while disarming him.

  The human male howled.

  “I’m a cyborg, not a machine.” Dissent said that for Greer. “And you’ll die for daring to touch this female.”

  “The female—” The male’s lips twisted. “—is a slave. You can buy a replacement for it in the market for a handful of credits.””

  The Humanoid Alliance male referred to Greer as it, as an object. As his kind had often referred to Dissent and his brethren. The male didn’t consider them to be beings.

  “There is no replacement for this female.” Dissent shot two, four, six more of the male’s fingers off. “She is the most precious being in the universe to me. I would battle a thousand of you to safeguard her.”

  “I was merely following Zloy’s orders.” The enemy tried to draw another gun, was unable to do that. The weapon slipped from his bloody palms, clinked against the stone pathway. “He owns it. That’s his mark on its chest.”

  “She is a being.” Dissent traded his guns for daggers. “No one has the ability to own her.” He slashed the male’s face, adding red stripes to his cheeks.

  The Zloy being would die also. His female would then be safe and truly free.

  Dissent’s gaze lowered to the Humanoid Alliance male’s cock. It remained semi-erect. The male was aroused by the violence.

  He would soon experience more of it.

  “You shouldn’t have touched her.” Dissent spun the daggers in hands.

  The male turned and tried to run, his garments hobbling him. Dissent drove one of the blades between his target’s ass cheeks. The male screamed and toppled forward. Blood gushed.

  Dissent dragged the dagger upward, slicing along the male’s spine until he reached his neck. The sounds coming from the male’s lips didn’t resemble a human’s.

  “You’ll bleed out in mere moments.” Dissent sheathed his dagger. “A being would kill you now, put you out of your misery.” He retrieved his other weapons, cleaning them on the human male’s garments. ‘’A machine wouldn’t care.”

  The killing had dissipated some of the rage churning inside him. He was now able to show his female the gentleness, the reverence she deserved.

  Dissent moved to her side.

  She was bloody, battered, and bruised. He cradled her
in his arms. But she was alive. Her chest rose and fell, the rhythm regular. Her eyes were wide open.

  “They stunned you, didn’t they?” He looked over her form, spotted the red mark on her back. That confirmed his projection.

  She was human, would take a few moments to recover use of her arms, legs, mouth. Until then, he would have to anticipate her wishes.

  The wounds on her face and form appeared to be minor. He could wait until they reached their private chambers to breed with her, repair her.

  The pathway was too exposed. There were too many points of entry.

  The Humanoid Alliance male’s screaming and breathing had ceased. But Zloy and any other males were hunting his female.

  Dissent had to convey her to terrain he could more easily defend.

  “You’re safe now, Greer.” He held her close to his chest as he ran with her. “I failed you.” That shamed him. Greatly. “My protection was substandard and I allowed others to damage you.”

  He hadn’t accounted for Nibbler’s ability to consume metal when he completed his calculations. That error jabbed at him.

  “But that won’t happen in the future.” He pressed his lips against her forehead. “I’ll implement corrective action.” He would ensure she didn’t escape him again, didn’t place herself in peril.

  Truth was repairing the exterior wall when Dissent reached the structure. The D Model was chattering to a caged Nibbler. The miljoonasuut was threatening to kill the warrior. Truth, that rarely serious male, was giving the creature suggestions as to how best to accomplish that feat.

  Truth’s smile wavered when he saw the state of Dissent’s female. “Did your kill rate increase?”

  “It increased by three.” It would increase by more before they left the planet. “I have to repair her.”

  “I’ll complete this task.” Truth waved at the wall. “And tend to Nibbler. Apply yourself to your female.”

  Dissent nodded. The warrior was a good friend.

  He entered the chambers with his female. The untidy state of it startled him. Fruit juice stained one of the walls. Remnants of nourishment was smooshed against the floor. Water was everywhere.

  The sleeping support was surprisingly clean. He set his female upon it.

  “I will decrease your hurting first.” He retrieved one of the pain inhibitors Doc had left in the space, injected Greer with it.

  Some of the agony reflecting in her eyes instantly faded.

  His strong female had endured so much damage. Dissent brushed his lips lightly over hers. She required someone to shield her from others, from the harshness of the universe.

  He had hoped to be that someone. Now, he questioned if he was worthy. Her current hurting was due to him, due to his inability to protect her.

  Grasping a cleaning cloth, he swept the fabric square over her form, removing the blood, the dirt. The wounds weren’t deep. They would repair. But they shouldn’t have occurred at all.

  “That Zloy being might believe he owns you because he placed this mark on your chest.” He tapped the round red circle gently with his fingertips. “As the Humanoid Alliance believed they owned me, owned my brethren, because they put this mark on us.” He touched the letter and numbers inked on his cheek, ensuring his face was directly within her range of vision. “But the Humanoid Alliance was wrong. We escaped our manufacturers, are now free. And Zloy is wrong. You have escaped him and are also free.”

  He bent his head and licked her wounds, sucking the pebbles out of her skin. There were nanocybotics in his saliva also. They would repair her.

  And utilizing his mouth would communicate the extent of his caring, his adoration. She wasn’t an object to be used. She was a being to be cherished.

  “Until I have vanquished your enemies, until this settlement, this planet, this universe, is safe for you, I might act like I own you.” He regretted that was necessary. “I will restrict your movements, confine you to spaces where I can protect you, issue orders I expect you to follow. But that will be done for your well-being, not for my benefit.”

  She was his first and his only priority. Her happiness, her security, came first. He laved her right nipple with the flat of his tongue, repairing that sensitive flesh. The scent of the other male clung to her, irritating his nostrils. He ignored it, applied himself to the task of repairing her—physically and emotionally.

  “The cyborg council sets similar parameters for me, for my brethren.” He swiped his tongue over her curves. “We are given rules. Some warriors might disagree with them.” Truth hadn’t yet identified the rebel cyborgs. “But they are issued for our well-being, for the well-being of the majority of us.”

  As he repaired his female, licking her from the top of her head to the tip of her pebble-ravaged toes, he relayed information about cyborgs, speaking in a low, calming, comforting tone.

  Dissent talked about the mass rebellion and the Homeland, about the harsh training they’d undergone, the many losses they’d incurred, the heart-shredding decommissionings, and the skill-testing battles.

  The experiences he communicated centered around others. He spoke of his brethren and of generalities, never of his own background, never of the torture and humiliation he’d endured.

  His female had been attacked. She required his strength, needed to process he could safeguard her.

  That wouldn’t happen if she heard there was a time when he couldn’t protect himself, when he had been at the mercy of the males hunting her.

  When the prospect of her, a female he hadn’t met, had been the only thing keeping him alive.

  Dissent jutted his jaw. He would shield her from his weaknesses, from his past, wouldn’t cause her emotional damage in that or any other way.

  She required the perfect protector.

  And that was what he’d be.

  Chapter Eight

  Her cyborg had saved her a second time.

  Greer hadn’t expected to see his handsome face ever again.

  Yet he had miraculously appeared. She had sensed his arrival in that darkened pathway before she saw him, before she heard his voice. Dissent exuded dominance and power, and there was a connection between them she could no longer deny.

  He had dispatched her tormenters with speed, inflicting bloody vengeance on the males, and she had rejoiced in the carnage. She didn’t anticipate he would keep her when he was done with the killing. Saving her had been enough, had been more than her defiant soul deserved. He could have taken her to the market and sold her to another being. That action would have been justified.

  Instead, he had carried her back to the domicile they had shared, had set her on the sleeping support. She’d braced herself for the harsh reprimand she was certain he’d deliver. He owned her and she had fled from him, disobeying his orders to stay in the structure.

  Dissent had surprised her once more by carefully cleaning her, licking her wounds, relaying information about his own duration of servitude, his enslavement by the Humanoid Alliance.

  His voice had been deep and low. His fingers and lips and tongue had been light. She felt cherished, adored.

  And that confused her. No one had ever treated her that way. Her mother died when Greer was young. Her father wasn’t one to dote over anyone, especially not a slave. Zloy was a monster.

  Caring for Dissent, her cyborg master, blossomed within her. She was unable to stop her feelings, was powerless against his sensuous assaults.

  Her body remained frozen. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t protest his tender handling, couldn’t place emotional space between them.

  “All of your damage should be repaired.” He swept his hands over her form.

  Her cyborg had cleaned and licked her everywhere. Her lips, breasts, stomach, the groove between her ass cheeks had been laved by his tongue, his touch frustratingly fleeting. He had spread her legs and lapped at her pussy, flicking the tip of his tongue over her clit.

  Her body had responded of its own accord, quivering under his mouth, yet he hadn’t
given her satisfaction. His focus stayed on healing her.

  And she couldn’t ask for more. All she could do was inwardly scream in exasperation.

  As she was doing now.

  “I won’t fail you again, Greer.” He brushed her curls away from her face. His expression was solemn. He had made that vow numerous times during the cleaning. Her cyborg took full responsibility for the attack on her.

  Her fingers twitched. She didn’t understand his guilt. It had been her choice to escape.

  Nibbler had facilitated it. She’d thought she’d heard the creature when they returned to the structure. Had the miljoonasuut been recaptured also?

  “Nib—?” That was all she could manage to say. Her mouth refused to work.

  “Nibbler is in his cage in the now-repaired cleansing chamber.” Dissent’s lips twisted. “I should have projected he’d eat through the wall. Miljoonasuuts enjoy metals of all types. Only rock stops them.”

  Nibbler was safe yet confined once more. Greer’s relief mixed with her disappointment. Neither of them was free.

  “Thank you for constructing the shelter over him.” Dissent kissed her forehead. “The sun would have severely damaged him.”

  “Escaped.” She had fled him. Why wasn’t he angry with her?

  “He did escape.” Her cyborg misunderstood her reply. “He wants to return home. Desperately.” Dissent wasn’t upset with the rebellious creature either. “He misses his father, doesn’t realize that male is dead, and the sun of his home planet doesn’t damage him, not like the sun of Altair Alpha.”

  Her cyborg petted her hair, gazing at her as though he was honored to caress her.

  She didn’t understand that. He had seen what the males planned to do to her, how they sought to use her. Why hadn’t he been repulsed by that sight, by her?

  Her fingers twitched.

  “You’re regaining your mobility.” Her cyborg noticed the movement immediately.

  He helped her wiggle her fingers. She tried. For him, she tried. His eyes glowed as she curled her toes, wriggled her jaw. He rubbed her stiff muscles, easing the transition.

  His patience, his tenderness, increased her confusion.