Dark Hysteria: Cyborg Shifters #8

by Lucas, Naomi

  He just needed to find a male and a female, and as for the assessment... He didn’t care about the assessment. Still, he took a sample of the wet webbing and shoved the capsule in his pocket.

  Something emerged from the darkness up ahead, and Hysterian spread out his feet, loosening his limbs. He couldn’t fully shift, but he was springy.

  Enclosed spaces weren’t preferred but were manageable.

  A clacking, snapping echoed in the mines just as he lowered his head and shot down the passage.

  He landed atop the creature and pummeled it before it even knew he was there. Segmented legs, too many to count, went wild. They clawed and lashed out, slicing the ground. They couldn’t bend back to reach him. He bore the entirety of his weight onto it and wrapped his bare hands around its middle.

  The bug had a chitinous exterior leaving the back and legs protected, but the underside, like many bugs, was significantly less armored.

  Hands covered in poison, Hysterian held them onto the creature’s underside, expanding his fingers out to touch as much of it as he could. The compound of his secretion shifted to the bug’s organic makeup as his systems were fed knowledge about it.

  Within seconds, the poison took effect.

  What started as a clash ended in silence. The bug’s many legs gave out first, and then its body fell. Hysterian kept his weight on it long after it stopped moving, making sure it wasn’t a trick.

  With a bored sigh, he got up and rolled the bug over. It was half his size, and not nearly as large as Titan’s ambassador said it would be. But figuring out whether it was an adult, or a male or female was another matter. Every fucking alien species was different.

  Hysterian unlocked his net and shot it over the creature. The webbing cinched around it, ensuring it was trapped.

  When he was done, he stepped back and shook out his hands. He stared at his acquisition as his poison dismantled and evaporated from his skin.

  He was almost done with the job. He itched to return to his ship, to check on his crew. He didn’t know what they were doing or what they were up to, and that bothered him.

  Was Raul jacking off to Alexa? Was Daniels cornering her? They wouldn’t be leaving for a drink at the local port bar since Titan didn’t have an official one. It had a landing zone of bleak cement.

  He needed to know what Alexa was up to. Was she in her room? Was she touching herself? Did she ever? Was she thinking of him? He wanted answers, and he wasn’t going to get them down here.

  He hoped Alexa snuck her hand between her legs and drove her fingers into her cunt fantasizing that it was his hand instead of her own. It would be a small conquest against his misery.

  Was she avoiding the male locust? Even Hysterian had noticed the male’s fascination with her. It was much like his own—including the fucking wall that stood between them.

  His fingers twitched, wanting so very badly to be driving into her pussy and exploring it thoroughly, stretching it. Was her G-spot smooth and soft or bumpy? Would she gasp when he stroked it? She was small of stature, and his fingers were long. He could do a lot to her and more.

  Hysterian’s cock thickened.

  I need to know if she squirts when she cums.

  He fucking hoped so.

  His mouth watered imagining it.

  Not wanting to linger, Hysterian strode down the dark chamber. He snapped images of the slick webbing growing around him as he went. More critter noises reached him, but his passing was nothing but silent now.

  Something skittered across his feet, and he paused, adjusting his visuals. A hatchling. The tiny bug climbed the wall next to him.

  The ceiling shifted above him.

  He looked up to find thousands of hatchlings. His lips twisted in disgust.

  And worse, his stomach growled. It fucking growled.

  For a Cyborg who stole most of his replenishments from the air and molecules around him, the small bugs made him ravenous.

  He snatched one from the nest. The bug fought his grip but a tiny dose of his secretion quickly took care of that. He pulled out another capsule from his belt and put the hatchling within.

  He snatched another and stuffed it in his mouth. It fought as his teeth crushed it and his poison simultaneously killed it. Swallowing, Hysterian closed his eyes.

  Strangely sweet, slightly bitter, the bug settled his stomach. He grabbed another.

  It gave him information, more than any scientist could discern in a day.

  The bugs didn’t have venom—anything for his systems to replicate. But they did have blood. The hatchling’s chitin was not developed yet either, making them easy prey. They only had two segments, making them part of the arachnid family… If they’d been discovered on Earth.

  Though they had more than eight legs.

  Something crunched the rocks around the bend of the passage ahead. Thousands of more hatchlings were gathered on the ceiling before him. He continued anyway, eating as he went, his systems usurping everything useful and destroying the rest.

  The crunching grew louder as he neared the bend.

  He quieted his approach. A breeze gently slipped across his cheek, and his brow furrowed. The air grew chillier with each step.

  He turned the corner.

  A giant cavern lay before him, one crawling with alien spiders. Throughout lay other passage openings similar to the one he stood in, pocketed amongst the thousands of creatures. There were so many they climbed atop each other.

  They swarmed.

  There were so many his systems could only give him a rough estimate. And as he recorded the cavern, he noted the bugs came in many sizes. Some, far below, were the size of a small house. The biggest ones had antennas that were three times their body length. They dug at the walls with their many legs while dust and rocks fell from the cave ceiling high above.

  It’s a hive.

  One that had been here long before any human ever knew Titan existed.

  Fuck this.

  Titan’s ambassador lied. How hadn’t Hysterian caught it? Because I was thinking about fucking black-haired little human females who are way too serious.

  They had to have known what was down here. Hell, I bet the tunnels weren’t even made by machines. Looking back, the tunnels didn’t have the clean finesse of perfection. He’d thought perhaps Titan’s miners cut costs by using old tech.

  They’re sending men and AI—sentient shells—down here to die. And they want me to help them eradicate this?

  He couldn’t eat all these bugs in a day.

  Nor was he planning to die today. Not here, and not on Titan of all planets. It was a drummed-up mining planet similar to Earth, but worse. In every possible way.

  Hysterian slid to the wall and calibrated his suit to shift in color and texture. Releasing a minuscule drone from his pocket, he sent it flying into the cavern. It was programmed to send the feed to his databases.

  He made sure the spiders didn’t attack his drone before he did a final once-over. The cavern was miles deep… Not only was Titan a shit planet, but it was also infested.

  Cursing, he turned to leave before he was spotted.

  Hysterian stopped, startled.

  The hatchlings are gone.

  Hysterian paused. His scans showed the entire passage as being empty.

  How?

  He glanced behind him to make sure the hive was still there. They were. He rubbed his mouth.

  There was nothing to tell him where the hatchlings had gone, and they had to be somewhere. There were far too many for them to vanish entirely. But they had, and they had done so within the minute he had his back turned.

  The only ones that remained were being digested and dissected in his stomach.

  Something moved up ahead, catching his eye. His tongue shot out catching it, bringing it back. A hatchling. He swallowed it as he moved forward.

  It had been heading back the way he came. His brow furrowed.

  Leaving his drone behind to collect data, he made his way for the
surface, watching for the hatchlings as he went.

  He came across them a short time later.

  A wave of them, to be exact, filling the entirety of the passage and blocking him in. Chittering and screeching pierced the damp air, echoing low. Stunned, he watched as the hatchlings swarmed the larger bug he’d caught earlier, devouring it whole. It had woken up just in time to be eaten alive. And they were fast, so much faster eating than they were moving about.

  Yeah, Titan has a problem.

  A real big one.

  And he suspected they already knew that. Hysterian’s nostrils flared.

  He waited until the hatchlings finished their meal—when they noticed him—before he pulled out his laser gun. They charged at him right as he twirled the weapon, melting them where they skittered. He continued until there was nothing but guts and sizzling remains. Even still, hundreds remained.

  He grabbed some of the stragglers and placed them in his remaining capsules, kicking out and swiping the ones that got on his boots and suit.

  On his way out of the mines, he blasted one of the lower passages, closing off the hive to the surface. At least from this access point.

  When he stood in front of Titan’s ambassador two hours later, Hysterian tossed him the hatchlings, sent him the video access from the drone he deployed, and told him to get his people evacuated out of the area and to leave these mines alone. To go far, far away and hope they never encounter the billions of aggressively hungry insects beneath them.

  Life was too short, after all, for a human.

  Even a sick one like him.

  Then Hysterian told him to go fuck himself.

  Eight

  “Leave,” Hysterian ordered.

  Horace and Daniels stopped what they were doing and stood. They walked out of the bridge when Hysterian changed his mind.

  “Daniels,” he barked. “Stay.” Hysterian triggered the door to shut once Horace was on the other side.

  Hysterian had just returned from his meeting with Titan’s ambassador. He had yet to wash the dirt and guts from his suit. The ambassador had been furious Hysterian hadn’t offered a solution to their problem. Having a bloated man yell at him did nothing for Hysterian’s mood.

  Titan’s ambassador reminded him of Raphael, and not in a good way. At least Raphael came up with his own solutions. He massaged his brow.

  “Do you need something from me, Captain?” Daniels asked.

  He pivoted to face his bridge officer. “Why were you in my quarters?”

  “Your quarters? I don’t know what you mean, I wasn’t in them.”

  He always knew a lie when he heard one.

  Daniels is good at lying.

  Or I’m losing my mind. Hysterian’s mood soured further.

  “Don’t bullshit me. I have you on video. I have everything that goes on in this ship on video. It all streams back to the source: me. I knew you were in my quarters the moment you walked in. I won’t ask again.”

  Daniels crossed his arms, straightening. Hysterian had to give it to the man; Daniels wasn’t as intimidated as he should be being confronted by battletech like Hysterian. Daniels was either confident or dumb. Hysterian hadn’t paid his officer enough attention the past few weeks to know which it was.

  He just hadn’t fucking cared.

  “I was in your quarters, Captain, several weeks ago,” Daniels said. “I was looking for my stash. I thought you may have found it, confiscated it, and I wanted to prove to you I can still use and do my job well.”

  “Your…stash?”

  “Simple boosters, just enough to tweak my energy, nothing more.”

  “And you thought they were in my room?”

  “I didn’t know where else they could be, sir.”

  “I didn’t take your fucking stash. I don’t care if my workers use drugs. Get off my ship.”

  Daniels finally flinched. “Get off the ship? Are we boarding on Titan?”

  “No, the Questor is disembarking tonight. You are not.”

  “It was a mistake. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

  “You’re a fucking liar, that’s what’s wrong. And you threatened another crew member while you were at it. The only reason you’re still employed is because I couldn’t get rid of you sooner. Now, get out. I’ll have Mia transfer you your final paycheck and help you find boarding on the next commercial transport off this planet.”

  Daniels’s chest swelled. He’s going to fight. Hysterian wiped the grime from his sleeve, ready for it.

  At least a fight would stop him from searching for Alexa and stupidly finding out how tight her cunt was with Hysterian’s still-twitching fingers. That was, of course, if her quiet invitation was to be read correctly. He could stretch her; he just had to wear a damned glove on his hand first.

  “So I get sacked and stranded in space, while you, a messed-up Cyborg with more issues than a wingless fly, gets off the hook? You don’t fucking deserve to be a captain,” Daniels spat.

  “You’re playing with poison,” Hysterian growled.

  “I know you bounced with Raphael in Elyria, a fucking drug dealer. Do those hiring you for these important ‘jobs’ know? I sure as hell wonder what the media would say if they knew what kind Cyborg you really are, especially since so many already want you dead.”

  Hysterian cracked his jaw. “So you know about Dimes?”

  “I was a regular there between jobs. I know everything,” Daniels sneered.

  “And you applied for this job because?”

  Daniels’s nostrils flared.

  “If you know so much, you have nothing to lose in telling me. Go ahead.” Hysterian waved his hand. “Though my inclination to kill you is increasing. And just so you know, I wasn’t going to kill you to start. Remember that.”

  “Do it. I dare you. The rest of the crew will find out. You said it yourself, there’s footage in the security feeds. I’m sure those above you will have access to it. They are Cyborgs as well, aren’t they?”

  “Why, Daniels, did you take this job?”

  He turned to leave. “Fuck you. I don’t need this shit.”

  Hysterian stopped the doors from opening. Daniels slammed his fist into them when they didn’t open for him. He slowly turned around. “I’m leaving, isn’t that what you want? Or have you changed your mind?”

  Hysterian uncrossed his arms, took a step toward his former bridge officer, and removed his glove. Daniels’s eyes snapped to it.

  Hysterian held it out between them. “Go ahead.”

  “Fuck you, you fucking cyshit.” But Daniels’s gaze didn’t move from Hysterian’s hand.

  “You obviously know about me. You know what I can do. Not many outside Raphael’s inner circle know, so you must have connections on Elyria. Go ahead, take my hand, unless you’re scared?” Hysterian flipped his hand over. “Isn’t this what you came here for? Isn’t this what you want? People pay thousands of dollars to touch me, they pay hundreds of thousands the second time. You couldn’t afford it, could you? ”

  Daniels hesitated.

  “You were looking for me, weren’t you, in my quarters? At least a part of me, the part that intrigues you,” Hysterian continued.

  “I told you, I was looking for my fucking stash,” Daniels muttered.

  “I’m better than whatever your stash is. Far better. I’m the best thing you’ll ever experience. One touch is all it takes, and you’ll be dancing in the heavens. The universe will finally right itself, any pain you might have will vanish, and a sublime delirium will take you over. That’s what you’ve heard, wasn’t it? A druggie looking for a higher high?”

  Hysterian’s palm glistened as millions of microscopic glands opened up. Invisible to the eye, they produced an opioid that was, to a druggie’s dream, a high to die for.

  “But if you take too much, you’ll miss that bliss and fall asleep instead. You’ll fall asleep and never wake up. And even if you survive, you’ll never find another drug that can do for you like I can. You’ll go mad wit
h desperation for more. Do you dare?”

  Once people had a taste of his opioids, they were ruined.

  Daniels stared at Hysterian’s hand with want. A hungering want that Hysterian had seen so many times in his past. So. Many. Times. He’d refused to count. He hadn’t only been a bouncer and bodyguard to Raphael; he’d made the man a lot of money.

  Daniels swallowed, reaching out his hand.

  “How long—” Hysterian began.

  “Ms. Dear is requesting permission to enter the bridge, Captain,” Questor’s AI said.

  Daniels startled, freed from his trance, and Hysterian drew his hand back.

  Daniels grabbed his head and turned away. “Fuuck!”

  Hysterian slipped his glove back on. “I suppose she saved you once again,” he said with disgust. He wasn’t a saint. He hoped Daniels would touch him and take on the consequences of his actions. “Let Dear in,” he announced to the ship.

  The bridge doors opened, and there she was. The bane of Hysterian’s recent thoughts. Stiff and cold, straight spine and all, arms crossed behind her, Alexa glanced between him and Daniels.

  “Dear,” Hysterian said, “what do you want?”

  “Am I interrupting something? I can come back later.”

  “No, you’ve arrived at the perfect time,” Daniels answered with a growl. “Like always.” Daniels clenched his hands and, without another look at Hysterian, stormed through the doors. He rammed his shoulder into Alexa on his way out.

  Alexa stumbled and righted herself.

  “Are you okay?” Hysterian asked, rushing to her and clasping her elbow.

  “Yes.” Her soft brown eyes met his. “I, uh, can really come back another time, Captain.”

  “No. You will stay. I’ll be right back.”

  He released her and stalked after Daniels. The fucker chose death, and so death he shall have. Hysterian had been inclined to let the man live, even if he’d taken what Hysterian had offered. But he’d touched Alexa, disrespected her in front of her superior, and thought that he was going to get away with it?