Dominance and Dissent

by Cynthia Sax

  She spotted a black blur streaming along the pathway, moving toward their structure. “He’s back.” She rushed to the pack she was filling with fruit. It also contained a much smaller medic pack. All those items might be needed on their voyage. “Don’t tell him I was watching for him.” She waggled a finger at Nibbler. “He’ll make assumptions.”

  “What assumptions will I make?” Dissent stood in the doorway.

  He would assume she cared for him. Which she did. But she didn’t want to admit that to him. “You’d assume I was accompanying you to Khambalia 5.” That was another valid assumption.

  Her cyborg frowned. “If you wish to stay in the settlement, we’ll stay.”

  “I don’t wish to stay in the settlement.” With Zloy looking for her, she couldn’t leave the structure. “But I could go elsewhere.” She longed to explore unusual and different planets like the ones Dissent had told her about.

  Her cyborg looked at the miljoonasuut for a moment. His gaze returned to her face. “Then we go elsewhere. We can convey Nibbler to his home later.”

  “And if I wanted to leave the sector?” She pushed him further…because part of her still couldn’t believe he would follow her anywhere.

  “Entry to this sector is controlled by my brethren.” He reminded her of a fact he’d already shared with her, a fact she hadn’t forgotten. “I’d be better able to protect you here.” And that was important to him. She heard that in his tone. “But if you wish to leave it, we will leave it.”

  He would put them all in danger based on her whim. Her chest heated.

  She strode to him. “I want to see Nibbler’s home.” She placed her palms on her cyborg’s body armor. “I want him to be free.”

  “He is free.” Dissent strapped his arms around her, securing her to him. “But his movements are severely restricted on this planet and he needs to be around his own kind.”

  “Will we see Gnaw when we land?” She wanted to meet the full-grown miljoonasuut she had heard so much about. Her cyborg’s voice warmed with caring whenever he spoke of the creature.

  “We won’t be landing.” His kiss on her forehead didn’t soften that message. “Khambalia 5 is too dangerous for a human.”

  “If Doc’s female can adapt to our surroundings—” Dissent had told her about that occurrence also. “—I can adapt to hers. I host your nanocybotics now.”

  “There are other dangers.” His grip on her tightened.

  “You’ll protect me from those other dangers.” She trusted him to do that.

  Her cyborg rumbled with unhappiness.

  They had a long voyage to discuss her visit to Khambalia 5. She patted his chest. “I packed more fruit for Nibbler.” She slipped out of his hold and skipped around the chamber, unable to remain still.

  They were leaving the settlement, would be traveling across the sector. She tossed another fruit into the pack. It was all very exciting, was something she’d longed for since she was a child.

  And she would be semi-free during the experience.

  “I’ll put him in his cage.” Dissent made clicking and rattling sounds.

  Nibbler clicked and rattled faster and louder. The creature was already wearing the portable shade she’d designed for him, didn’t seem to notice it stuck to its back.

  Dissent repeated a portion of his command. His expression was stern.

  The look the baby miljoonasuut gave him could have dissolved stone but he did enter his cage, rattling and clicking the entire time.

  “He’s not happy.” Her cyborg explained to her.

  “I assumed he wasn’t.” She grinned. “Did you tell him we’re traveling to his home?”

  “I told him that.” Dissent’s gaze met hers. “He didn’t believe me.” His eyes glowed. “He’s like you in that way.”

  They had both been betrayed. “I’m beginning to believe in you.” She closed the pack as she said that, not wanting him to see her emotions.

  “I’m glad for that.” He removed a small gun from a holder in his body armor. “There are dangers waiting outside this structure. If we are to survive them, you have to trust me.”

  He was referring to Zloy and his cronies. They continued to hunt her. A shiver skittered down her spine.

  “I’ll follow your commands.” She nodded.

  Her cautious cyborg slid the weapon into an empty holster built into her ass coverings. “All warriors should have a spare gun.”

  She suspected the gun was as beautiful as the first one he’d given her. It would have her name engraved on it, a declaration to everyone that it was hers and couldn’t be taken away from her.

  “Am I a warrior now?” She had been training, but it felt strange to hold a role other than slave.

  “You’ve always been a warrior.” He extracted a small dagger from a sheath it shared with his much larger one. “This is to defend yourself at close range.” Dissent strapped it to her left arm. “If you have to use it, I’ve failed you.”

  The set of his lips was grim.

  “You could never fail me.” She reached upward, balancing on the tips of her boots, and kissed his square chin. “Zloy is expecting a defenseless female. And he’s certainly not expecting one of the best cyborg warriors in the universe and a baby miljoonasuut who could devour a wall in mere moments.” Her lips twitched. “We’ll survive this.”

  “We’ll survive this.” Her cyborg’s head dipped.

  He slung the pack over his right shoulder. She’d stuffed it to the brim with fruit, couldn’t shift it at all, and he lifted it as though it were empty. The cage with Nibbler in it was another object she couldn’t move. Her cyborg grasped it with one hand and held out the other to her.

  She looked around the chambers she’d called home for the past planet rotations and then laid her palm on top of his. Their fingers linked.

  They walked out of the structure together—the three of them, Dissent, Nibbler, and herself, an unusual makeshift family she had grown to cherish. With them, she had found peace and belonging and a stronger sense of self.

  Beings stared at her as she strode by them. They didn’t look at her as though she was a slave, as though she was an object to be used, abused, pitied. They gazed at her as though she was a being to be revered and respected.

  Precious sunstones circled her neck. A huge handsome powerful cyborg was by her side.

  Her chin lifted. She was inferior to no one.

  Dissent led her though the settlement. They moved quickly, yet took a longer route to the main gates, circumventing the market. She didn’t know if he did that for her or for Nibbler. Both of them had bad memories of that space. She was grateful to avoid it.

  The pillars at the front gates came into view. Their ship was parked outside that point.

  Five males stepped in front of them, blocking their route. They had guns in their hands and smirks on their faces.

  She recognized the males. “Those are Zloy’s cronies.” She whispered that information to Dissent, inwardly cringing at what they would say to him.

  All of them had used her. Multiple times in the cruelest of ways.

  “The slut’s not yours, machine.” The tallest one spoke first. He believed himself to be a leader, yet had followed every order Zloy had made. “Where do you think you’re going with it?”

  “Move out of the way.” Dissent stepped protectively in front of her. “And we’ll allow you to live.”

  “The machine will allow us to live.” The male dramatically waved his hands in the air. “Oooh…we’re so scared.”

  Dissent set the cage containing Nibbler down. Stone rang against stone.

  One of the males gulped air.

  He was scared. She saw that in his eyes, in the sweat beading on his brow, the shaking of his hands. It wouldn’t take much to convince him to abandon the tall male and when one male left, the others might depart also.

  She knew these males, had watched them, listened to them natter on. They were cowards. Every single one of them. Their great
er numbers gave them courage. Alone, they were weak…which was why they gravitated toward Zloy. He kept them organized.

  “You have something that belongs to me.” Her former master’s voice boomed, heads turned, and Greer winced. It was as though he had been summoned by her thoughts.

  His arrival dashed her hopes that the confrontation would end without bloodshed. Zloy would rally his cronies behind him, wouldn’t allow them to retreat.

  His loudness signaled he was very angry. When he was angry, beings felt pain.

  Someone would hurt this planet rotation. She hoped it wouldn’t be anyone she cared for. Her gaze shifted to her cyborg’s back.

  The crowd parted and Zloy appeared. He was accompanied by five more males.

  Dissent set down the pack.

  “Give it back to me.” Zloy’s top lip curled. “And I will allow you to live…barely.”

  The males sniggered.

  “I understand how a nice tight pussy can mess with a male’s mind.” Zloy looked at her. His eye glittered with malice. “But I’ve had better.”

  A deep, dark rumble rose from her cyborg.

  It was the sound distant thunder made, a warning of wicked weather on the horizon, and it reverberated in her soul.

  Dissent wasn’t angry with her. He had been tortured in similar ways. He already knew about her past. She believed him when he said he wouldn’t judge her for the abuse she’d endured.

  No. Dissent was angry for her. And that scared her more. Her cyborg had proven he’d kill to protect her and he perceived her former master’s aggression as a threat.

  “I’ve had much better.” Zloy wrinkled his nose. “What about you, males?”

  “The slut was good. It gripped my cock.” The tall male cupped his groin. “But I’ve had better.”

  The rumble grew louder.

  The storm was approaching. Greer braced herself. It would bring death and destruction with it.

  “I’d fuck it again.” Another male volunteered that information. “But I’ve had better.”

  One by one, the males made it clear to Dissent and to everyone listening that they’d had her and they’d had better. With each confession, the sound originating from her cyborg intensified until it drowned out the males’ voices.

  He was on the verge of combustion, wasn’t thinking clearly. Greer lifted her chin. She would have to evaluate the situation for him

  There were eleven males, maybe more. And only one of him, one and a quarter, if she counted herself. Her cyborg was extremely skilled, but she doubted even he could overcome those odds.

  She glanced at the opened gates, at that symbol of freedom, and then looked at the male she’d grown to care for, to love.

  Shit. She knew those emotions would cost her dearly. And she knew the action she had to take.

  Her love for him would be the weapon that finally killed her.

  “Do as Zloy asks, Dissent.” Each word was a dagger in her heart, death to her dreams, to the only goal she’d ever had—to die free. “Leave me with him, take Nibbler, and walk away from this.”

  The rumbling abruptly stopped. “You’d return to him, be his slave?”

  “Yes.” For him, she’d do that.

  Her cyborg looked over his shoulder at her. His eyes blazed with heated emotion. “All you want is your freedom. You relayed that message to me…forty-three times.”

  Fuck. She must have been boring to listen to. “I want something else more.”

  His forehead furrowed with thought lines.

  One of the males brushed his thumbs above the triggers of his guns.

  Panic filled Greer. “They’ll kill you and I’m not worth it. Let me go.” She placed her hands on his back. “I’ll be okay.”

  That was a lie. She’d be tortured and then killed. But he’d be alive. Nibbler would be alive. And that would make her death worth it.

  “You would give up your freedom for me?” Her cyborg seemed unaware of the danger he was in. He stared at her.

  “Yes. Yes.” She smacked his body armor-covered back. “I would give up my freedom for you. Now go. Take Nibbler and your huge form the fuck away from here.” Before the shooting started. “I’ll handle this.”

  “You can handle Zloy.” Dissent returned his attention to the males. “I’ll handle the rest.”

  “What the fuck.” Her terror loosened the profanities. “Did you not listen to a word I said? I—”

  “I always listen to you.” His voice went flat. He had reverted to what she called his cyborg mode. “I listen to what you say and what you don’t say.” He studied each male. “You care for me.”

  She opened her mouth to deny that. Before she uttered a word, two males had daggers sticking out of their throats. Their eyes widened. They touched the blades.

  They fell to the stone pathway, their arms and legs thrashing.

  The other males shot at Dissent. He broadened his stance. The fucking fool was protecting her. He fired back, calmly picking his targets off one by one.

  But there were too many of them. A projectile carved into her cyborg’s cheek. It was so deep she saw his frame. Sunlight reflected off that silver metal.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She drew her gun and aimed at the males. But she was scared out of her mind, terrified for Dissent, worried he might die. And the males were moving targets. She hadn’t trained to shoot those.

  A better weapon was needed. Her hands shook as she opened Nibbler’s cage. “Eat only the bad beings.” She straightened the shade on the baby offspring as he scurried forward.

  His exoskeleton rattled with a fury she shared. His teeth clicked. Males were trying to kill Dissent, a member of their family. They would defend him.

  Not that he appeared to be in danger. Her cyborg continued shooting, downing each male with a single shot to the head. The humans and humanoids shrieked. More of their kind joined the fight.

  She tried to do her part. It was chaotic. Everyone was moving, attempting to avoid projectiles and the flesh-hungry miljoonasuut. The baby creature devoured beings in mere moments. Dissent clicked his teeth and issued rattling sounds, calmly directing Nibbler, while he shot male after male.

  Her cyborg had said Zloy was hers. She should concentrate on him. Maybe if she killed him, the others would stop fighting, stop doing his bidding.

  Zloy, that fiend, had partially withdrawn from the battle. He hovered at the back of the pack, shielded by the other males’ bodies.

  She surged forward, intent on her target.

  “No.” Dissent grabbed her by the back of her neck, picked her up, and repositioned her where she’d been. “You will stay behind me at all times.”

  She couldn’t shoot her target there. “But—”

  “No.” The dominance in that one word made her hair stand up and her nipples tighten. “You will allow me to protect you.” A projectile skimmed the side of his head, leaving a red trail in his golden skin. “You can hit him from there.”

  “Okay. Fuck.” If he thought she could do it, she’d do it. “Go back to fighting.”

  Projectiles bit into her cyborg’s body armor, chipping away at it. One of them might find a weak spot, might hurt him. Her heart twisted. Or kill him.

  He resumed shooting. She aimed at Zloy, pressed the trigger, missed, aimed, pressed the trigger, missed.

  “Fuckin’ fuck fuck.” She cursed her gun. “Why can’t I hit him?”

  Dissent’s body shook. “Focus, human.”

  “I am fuckin’ focusing.” But that was a lie. She took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself, aimed once more, fired. That bolt of energy hit the male standing beside Zloy, stunning him.

  Nibbler attacked the being. Blood splattered everywhere as the miljoonasuut ate him alive.

  Zloy ran. She tracked him with her gun. The male wouldn’t evade her for a long duration. His solar cycles of decadence had shortened his endurance.

  He stopped. His ugly face was soaked with sweat. His chest heaved. The effort he’d expended had made him
careless. Much of his body was exposed.

  Fuckin’ focus, Greer. She raised her gun, aimed, and calmly pressed the trigger.

  The energy blast smacked Zloy right in the chest. He froze in place, his eye rounded in surprise.

  “Woot.” She cheered. “I got him.”

  “Great shot.” The pride in her cyborg’s voice amplified hers.

  He disposed of two, three more males. His other opponents, after noting Zloy’s immobilized state, must have realized their leader wouldn’t survive the battle. They ran from the scene.

  Greer holstered her gun and drew her dagger. “I’m going to kill my former master.” She moved beside Dissent. “But I need your help to slit his throat.”

  “As you needed my help to slit my throat.” Her cyborg grinned, acting like that gruesome experience was a happy memory for him.

  She shook her head. “Yes.” It felt right to kill Zloy together, to put that part of her lifespan firmly behind her.

  “I will be your gun…or, in this instance, your dagger.” Blood dripped down Dissent’s handsome face. His wounds were healing, but they must be causing him agony.

  “Hold this.” She gave him her blade. It looked tiny in his huge hands. “Zloy is stunned. He can wait a few more moments to die.” She searched the pack, found the pain inhibitors, administered them to him.

  “You’re putting me first again.” Her cyborg’s eyes sparkled. “You care for me.”

  Her face heated. Did he care for her also? Could he do that after what he’d heard? “What the males said—”

  “What they said made me respect you more, not less.” Dissent’s voice rang with sincerity. “You’re a strong female…and a great warrior. I’m honored to be your male.”

  He was honored to be hers. Fuck. He’d make her cry.

  She rummaged through the pack, trying to hide her emotions from him. “Where is the gauze?” She muttered that question under her breath. “You require gauze.”

  “I don’t require…Nibbler.” Dissent clicked his teeth and emitted frantic rattling sounds.

  She straightened and followed his gaze. Her jaw dropped. “What the fuck, Nibbler?”