by Lucas, Naomi
The first requisition was in a couple of days. The Questor was due to arrive at Luxor Port soon, a moon that circled Gliese and was a corporate mining base for EonMed. Many of their processing plants were there.
EonMed also ran drug trials on Luxor. One such trial had proven great results in curing G Fever, an infection brought on by exposure to a rare fungus that grew on ships with aging life support systems.
He was to pick up a case of the prized vaccines and bring them back to Earth. Vaccines worth millions, wanted by thousands.
The door zipped open as he neared and he came face-to-face with the last person he wanted to see.
A woman with fake black hair and bland brown eyes. Eyes he was certain he’d seen before but couldn’t place.
There were no direct matches for them in his memories.
“Dear,” he said, stilling.
She jerked back as if she wasn’t expecting him. “I’m sorry!”
His brow furrowed. She’s supposed to be on the lower level, in her quarters or the menagerie.
“What brings you to my room?” he asked. “It’s the middle of the night shift.”
His nostrils twitched as he got a whiff of her scent. It wasn’t pleasing; she smelled like chemicals. She used dye in her hair, the cheapest stuff on the market, he’d bet.
Black. Jet black. It was so unnatural against her pale skin that it made her look sickly under the bright ship lights. And the way she kept her hair cinched tight in a bun made her features sharp, cold.
Her gaze skidded away. “I was looking for the lounge.”
Lie.
His eyes narrowed. Why is she lying?
“You passed it,” he kept his voice level, stepping out of his room and pointing down the hall. “It’s the first room on your left coming up the stairs.”
The door to the lounge was always open… The lounge was impossible to miss coming from the stairs. So why was she in front of his cabin?
And how the hell had he not known? Hysterian bristled.
“Yes. Right,” she coughed, straightening her uniform.
He couldn’t help but notice how it conformed to her curves, or lack thereof. He asked for a woman to be on his crew, hoping for a veteran, or a matron to soften the male dynamic. Studies showed that having a feminine presence did well for keeping morale up on the long flights. When he saw Dear’s picture, he hired her without reading her resume. Her severity was perfect, her plainness almost comforting. He’d never be tempted to touch her. If someone on his crew wanted to pursue her, that was up to them, though he wouldn’t be thrilled having a couple on his ship.
“I knew that,” she muttered. “I’ll head there now.” She scurried away.
“Dear, is there a problem? Something you want to tell me?” he asked.
She stilled.
Is that why she’s here?
She turned back to face him. Brown eyes met his. Eyes that didn’t belong on such a frigid woman. For a moment, he thought he saw anger creep into her features.
“There’s no problem. I just got caught up in my head and missed it. It’s been a long day. Thank you for your help, Captain.” She turned to leave again. “Goodnight.”
He wasn’t buying it. He always knew when someone was lying. It was what made him so good at interrogation… Torture.
He stepped toward her, and the door closed behind him. “I’ll walk you there.” He didn’t like being lied to. Whatever Dear was searching for, he was going to find out.
“There’s no need. I didn’t mean to bother you,” she said.
He joined her anyway. “It’s fine.”
“Captain…”
But he continued to walk and she went silent, following him.
He knew everything about the Questor and its specs, its layout. Every detail of his ship was in his head, permanently in his memory banks. If Alexa Dear was searching for something, it had to be in his quarters or the bridge. There was nothing else this far down the hallway.
Nothing pertinent was accessible. She’d have to be a genius hacker or a spy. He couldn’t even hack his ship or the systems Nightheart set in place. So, why else would she be standing in front of his cabin? Only someone seeking death would spy on a Cyborg in his domain.
Dear didn’t seem the type to do something so idiotic.
Hysterian stilled. She was looking for me.
The shadowy phantom female in his mind, the one he pictured screaming his name earlier, morphed...
Without glancing her way, he eradicated the picture of her in such a state. It wasn’t safe. For him but especially not for her. And she’s not my type.
He usually fantasized about supple women with soft curves. Women with sun-kissed skin that were warm and inviting. He imagined sunspots he could kiss, tan lines his tongue could trace. A female who’d never spent any of her life in the dark cold of space, and had never been hurt by death, drugs, or violence.
An unattainable woman. One he had yet to encounter. Someone happy, perhaps naïve, and loyal.
All too soon, they were outside the lounge. Daniels was gone.
Hysterian stepped aside to let Dear pass through.
“Thank you,” she muttered without meeting his gaze.
“You’re welcome.”
When she walked by, he got another whiff of her hair dye. His systems flushed it out but not before he winced.
She stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face him. For some reason, he stood there and stared back at her. She was a sliver of darkness in an otherwise white and gray room.
She cleared her throat. “I’m good now. I really am sorry. It won’t happen again, Captain.”
Hysterian shook himself, nodding. “Make sure it doesn’t. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
He turned and made his way back to his quarters, deciding he was going to need another shower. Hot or otherwise, because in the back of his mind, Alexa had come to see him.
And he wasn’t sure why…
Four
She watched from her station as Hysterian waited for Horace in the hallway outside the menagerie. He checked the battery of his laser pistol then attached it to the belt at his hip. From where she sat, she could see the open armory behind him.
They’d landed on Luxor thirty minutes ago.
It had been three days since the encounter with Hysterian outside his quarters.
Alexa curled her fingers where her hand rested on her thigh, trying not to tap her foot. Hysterian looked at her, and her eyes shot to the screen in front of her. When Alexa peered up a moment later, he was staring at her.
She stiffened, nodded once, and turned away. Whether he continued to watch her afterward, she had no idea. All she knew was that she’d been on edge for days, kicking herself for being so stupid.
I knew better.
I shouldn’t have approached his door.
She had anyway. She’d been on her way to the bridge—a nightly stroll, she called it—but had paused when she came across his quarters.
Part of her wanted to see if her wristband would give her access if she neared, but a bigger part of her wanted to test fate. She was finally close to her target, after years of chasing him, and that other little part of her, the piece that couldn’t believe her luck, wanted to see him. Alexa shook herself.
They’d been in space for days since then, and she hadn’t been in the same room as him once.
Cyborgs are supposed to be heroes, but they’re fucking villains. To an entire species, Cyborgs are devils incarnate. But up close, Hysterian looked like a normal man. A strange, albeit tall man, with dark, twitchy eyes, but a man all the same.
A man with a body of metal. A being ran partially by code.
Still, she had to chance upon seeing him. She needed a reminder for why she was here.
Because she’d been focused on doing her job, and doing a good job at that.
That, and there wasn’t any place on the ship the crew was told to stay clear from. The armory and medical
chambers weren’t accessible without a manual punchcode, but they were allowed to use the spaces when needed. She wanted to see if that was true.
Fortunately, the armory and medical chambers weren’t places she cared to go to. If she had a choice, she’d stay clear of the medical facilities entirely. Her medical files were on record, but they’d been forged. She paid a lot of money to a doctor on Elyria for that. Almost a year’s worth of wages due to the law they were both breaking. She had to make it worth it for him, though she was certain the doctor had done the same things for others.
How else had she obtained his name?
There was no way she was going into the medical rooms on this ship unless she was dragged, kicking and screaming.
Feeling Hysterian’s gaze on her, Alexa stared at her screen, wishing she had something pertinent to do to keep her from storming up to Hysterian and asking him what his problem was.
Yeah, I went exploring… Alexa wanted to snap but thought better of it.
She planned on knowing every corner of this ship before long. But the other night was just a stroll. One where if she happened to be on the bridge, trying to hack into the captain’s panel, she couldn’t be blamed for it. Or any of the myriad concerns in her head.
Because she was just familiarizing herself with her new surroundings… Right?
Alexa wiped her palms on her pants.
Horace’s voice came down the hallway. She kept her head down. She didn’t want to know if Hysterian still watched her. Because although she hadn’t encountered him since the other night, he’d made sure to catch her gaze and keep it until she was forced to turn away. She knew who the alpha on the ship was… She didn’t need him to remind her.
“Ready, Captain,” Horace said. “How long do you think this’ll take? I just got a missive from Mia about Atrexia.”
Mia?
“Minutes if we’re lucky, hours if we’re not,” Hysterian answered him. “Let’s get this over with.”
They walked away, the opening of the ship’s back hatch and the quarantine chamber sounded soon after. When the hatch closed, and a vent of pressurized air filled her ears, Alexa knew they were gone.
She sagged.
“You okay?”
Alexa peeked her eyes open to find Raul staring at her from where he sat to her left.
She straightened. “Yes. Only taking a moment.”
“Riiight. Is there something up between you and the captain? Something you’re not telling me?”
“You’re implying I tell you anything,” she snapped. What had he seen? Was she being that obvious? “There’s nothing between me and the captain. I don’t like what you’re insinuating.”
He stood and shrugged. “Whatever you say. If you’re up to mischief, I’d recommend against it. If you make enemies with someone out in space, there really is nowhere to go to get away from them. Especially on a ship like this. It’s sizable until you try living on it, then it’s a fucking prison. Come join me and Pigeon for a drink at the port bar? Pigeon’s meeting me at the hatch in five.”
“There’s a bar here?”
Raul’s lips turned up into a smile. “Oh, Dear… There’s a bar on every space terminal. You’re so green it’s almost cute. Alcohol in space is top-notch, and the gravity shifts play with your head. Getting wasted every time you make a landing is tradition for people in our field.”
“Are we allowed to leave the ship during a job?”
“Sure, we’re not needed right now. He doesn’t give a damn what we do in our free time. The ship isn’t taking off until tomorrow morning—the reactor needs to cool down—so as long as we’re all here and doing our jobs, our time is our own. You really are new to this whole space traveling thing, aren’t you?”
One thing Alexa learned growing up, especially with the childhood she had and the world she lived in, there were far more things to worry about than being offended over the small stuff. A drink sounded great, but she couldn’t let her guard down.
Alexa leaned forward anyway, an idea forming in her head. “Is Daniels going?”
If the whole crew was leaving the ship, then she’d have free rein. For the first time since take off, a real opportunity presented itself to search for information. Real information. The kind that could either destroy Hysterian or give her a lead in how to kill him.
Raul pressed his hip to her desk and crossed his arms. “He might be going. Why?”
“No reason,” she said. “Curious, that’s all.”
“He’s not your type.”
Her lips flattened. “Really? How would you know?”
Raul laughed. He always laughed. It was annoying. “Dear, we’ve been working together, practically sleeping together for the past week. Daniels is harder, colder than you, and that’s saying something. You two together would be like glaciers colliding. There’ll be a lot of ice, a lot of sharp edges, a lot of noise, and a lot of pain. You need someone softer. Daniels is fucking miserable. I think I might hate him.”
What was it with the crew thinking she needed someone to hook up with? Not even in the academy had men asked after her. Was there something about space and companionship she wasn’t getting?
“Like you?” she muttered, suddenly finding her screen fascinating. It only took three days in space for Raul to make his move.
She’d told him off. Told him there’s no way she was going to bed with him. She couldn’t risk growing attached to anyone.
Companionship wasn’t in the cards for her.
Last time she loved and cared for someone, he was murdered.
Raul stretched, undisturbed. “I’m up to the task. I’m pretty soft when I want to be. Very soft, actually. Hard as hell too when the need arises.”
“Hey, you coming?” Pigeon called from outside the menagerie.
Alexa could’ve kissed him for his perfect timing. It was easier to ignore Raul’s advances than to actually interact with him. And sadly, she didn’t know if he even wanted to be with her. He could be teasing her for all she knew. She had no idea. Flirting and the interplay between a man and a woman was something she was sorely ignorant about. No one had ever wanted her.
“Trying to get Alexa to come with us!” Raul yelled back as Pigeon entered the lab.
Alexa stood as he approached.
Pigeon’s face wrinkled when he smiled. “If anyone needs to take a load off, it’s you. Join us. For one drink at least.”
“Not today.” She was already backing up to her cabin door. “I think I’m going to catch up on some sleep. Raul snores.”
“I don’t snore,” Raul grumped. “Maybe a little. They’re affectionate snores, the robust kind. My body’s natural way of attracting a mate.”
Pigeon laughed. “Next time then. Being cooped up on a ship isn’t good for anyone. You’ll look forward to these port visits once you’ve been in space for a few months.”
“Next time,” she agreed.
“Taking that as a promise,” Raul said as he followed Pigeon out.
When she heard the pressurized sound of the hatch go off, Alexa stood there on the precipice of her quarters for another minute to make sure she was alone, twirling her wristband.
She glanced around the space and the giant glass cages that were lined on either side of the menagerie, most embedded in the walls. Some were small, some huge, like the ones the locusts were using. Each had its own habitat, own computer system, all linked up to the main panel she and Raul sat at.
In the last week, she’d explored every inch of the space. The rooms off the sides created for plants, the empty cylinder capsules filled with chemicals to transport corpses, and the biodomes for microbes. The plant room also could grow food—like the leaves the locusts consumed.
They’ll need to be fed soon… That reason alone was good enough for her to stay behind. She grumbled for having not thought of it. She and Raul could set them up to be manually fed, but the locusts were finicky with the machines and so they did it themselves.
A thump sounde
d, and her gaze snapped to the male locust. Its four forearms were braced against the glass, framing its large, fanged face, and between its furry legs was its rigid cock, purple and meaty. Hell.
Its eyes were on her.
Like Hysterian’s.
The male locust watched her constantly. It made her skin crawl.
The locust was almost worse than Hysterian. She didn’t know if the locust wanted to eat her or to do something far more horrific. Considering its bulge, she had an idea… She did her best to ignore the beast as much as possible, only approaching it when necessary. Even Raul noticed how much the alien creature was interested in her. He offered to do its feedings.
She appreciated his concern but refused him. If she couldn’t handle the first alien animal to be transported, then she wasn’t qualified for this job.
Which amused her to some degree since she only took the job for one purpose only: to get closer to her target. Still, she didn’t want to do a bad job in case it took a while for her to figure out how to achieve her goal.
Getting fired is out of the question.
It was perhaps also hope that she’d survive destroying Hysterian and that she’d have a real future someday.
After all was said and done, she’d go to Gliese or another world like it, get a quiet position, and live a quiet life. If she could help it, she’d never return to Elyria.
Alexa made quick work of feeding the locusts then stepped out of the menagerie. She looked at the armory but kept going, leaving the weapons for another day. Passing the medical chamber and the side passage that led to the reactor and the ship’s bowels, she made her way to the stairs beyond them that led to the upper level of the ship. Sleek silver and white walls surrounded her on every side. Tubes of light ran across the ceiling as well as the floor, embedded into the ship.
The Questor was gorgeous, brand new, completely remodeled from a previous EPED ship. The remodel was obvious, even if she wasn’t already privy to that information. Alexa had never seen a nicer ship.
She was lucky—real lucky—to be here.
Just need a new captain… Then the job would be perfect.
