Rage rubbed his hands together. Suddenly feeling lighter than he had in days. He’d get her here one way or another.
“So what we got?” He had to vocalise the request. Many of his men no longer had the use of their neuro net. No longer could they communicate electronically along their neural pathways. They’d been burnt out or cut deliberately by previous owners or handlers. It was unclear if they would ever be fixed.
“You have three options. All creative and I don’t understand some of it. Seems more like luck than anything, but she gave price options against capabilities. And, she assumed that what we sent her wasn’t up to date. She’s cleaver.” Rage couldn’t control the grin on his face or the pride washing over him. He watched Burn run through what she’d sent.
“Not sure that’s possible.” He muttered.
“Well?” Rage’s patience was paper thin and she’d pushed him to breaking point.
Burn shrugged, “bottom line, she can get more than triple out of the engines if you want to pay for it.”
Rage grinned. She was his. “Tell her we’ll take the full upgrade to the max. She starts tomorrow 8am. Pay her and Mack.” She wasn’t getting out of this. Rage rubbed unconsciously at his chest. It ached with a need he didn’t understand.
***
A banging on her door woke her. Kim looked over at the clock, 6am standard time. What the hell?
“Go away,” she mumbled at the door, then turning over.
“Not going to happen sweetness. Rise and shine your escort is here. Breakfast then work. So get that dam sweet ass in that shower or I’m coming in to join you.”
Kim rolled back and looked at the ceiling of her cabin. Rage was outside her door? She had a sweet ass? And he might come in and join her in the shower? Had she gone to a new reality?
Kim shook her head. “I don’t start till 8. Fuck off.” She could hear him laughing.
“Not a morning person firefly? Get up I have REAL coffee.”
Kim was close to telling him to fuck off again, she really was. But dam, real coffee? Shit.
“I’ll be out in 10.” She called back throwing off the flow blanket. A girl had to know when to cave right?
She’d actually been 11 minutes. She’d taken a bit of extra time with shaving those essential places. And God knows why! And she’d chosen those panties she liked so much, they were completely impractical. They’d be up her arse all day. But she’d still worn them and was in the kitchen, wet hair and all ready to go.
“Feels like a first date.” Rage told her as she walked in. Kim faltered. What date? Her newly shaved legs giving her an itch. She fought back a flush to the face.
“Didn’t know Cyborgs did first dates. I’m here to work, you promised real coffee. Let’s go.”
Kim stormed through the ship and down the loading dock with Rage behind her. She wondered if he was checking out her ass.
“How’d you get on the ship anyway. Mack’s not up so the ship’s in lockdown.” He caught up with her.
“Coffee’s this way Cher.” Kim gritted her teeth and followed him.
“So how’d you get on the ship?” She asked again. Rage just smiled.
“I have my skills you have yours.”
Ok that was annoying he wasn’t telling her shit. She hated not knowing things.
Rage escorted her to a high-end café on the top level. Kim hadn’t been here before. It was nice. Expensive, but real nice. She’d been to the top level many times while in Port. She loved the glass ceiling of the stars and the open space. It gave a sense of openness although still in an enclosed box. You could almost imagine being land based. Kim guessed the Cyborgs had plenty of credits. This wasn’t going to be cheap. He indicated an empty booth. Kim slipped in and picked up a menu. Dam. Just reading it made her mouth go crazy with anticipation. She was sure she was drooling.
The waitress appeared from nowhere and was all over Rage.
“Well hello gorgeous, what can I get you?” She purred.
Kim rolled her eyes at the obvious come on. “Coffee, the good stuff and we’ll eat.” He told her. His eyes never leaving Kim’s face. After patting him and calling him stud, the waitress made her way to the counter.
Seriously?
“You into females? Your staring at our waitress.” Rage asked her. Kim turned back to him with a seriously pained expression.
“Well who wouldn’t … stud.”
Rage bit back his smile. “I agree she’s quite the specimen.”
“You can say that again.” Rage heard her mumble. The waitress returned with the coffee and poured two cups. He watched as Kim’s eyes went wild at the smell.
“We’ll have two fully loaded, all the real stuff no substitutes,” he told the waitress handing over both menus. “Extra eggs, fresh rolls on both plates.”
Kim couldn’t stop looking at the coffee. It was dark and smelled delicious. The few times she had real coffee, had been for celebrations and treats. Although with some of her new income, she could probably buy it regularly. It just seemed such an extravagance. She ran her finger along the rim of the cup. It was hot and steamy.
“If you don’t want it I’ll have it.” Rage’s hand reached out to her cup. Kim looked up and hissed at him.
“Wanna loose a hand?”
Rage drew back the hand and smiled. She was feisty. He loved it. He watched as she picked up the cup with reverence and sipped. He could read in her face the moment the taste hit her buds. She looked shocked, surprised, elated and then relaxed and took another.
“So Kim, tell me about yourself.”
Kim looked up confused. “You still here?” Rage bellowed in laughter. So it would be like that. “And you’re paying for this.” She told him giving him a beady eye.
Food arrived and her coffee was pushed to one side. Kim looked at the plate. Then looked at Rages. There was enough food for an entire army. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten like this, if ever. She watched Rage pick up his knife and fork and dig in. There was no syn food on his plate and that was twice the size of anything she’d seen before, and real bread. She grabbed her own. Rage was setting a mighty fine example and she was determined to follow it.
“You going to leave that?” Rage asked her when Kim eventually leaned back and rubbed her belly. Kim looked down at her plate. She couldn’t manage another bite. But o did she want to. It was so dam good. All that deliciousness but her stomach was screaming NOOooo. She shook her head.
“I’m done.” She told him sadly. Rage scrapped her left overs onto his plate and added three slices of bread. That just pissed her off. Where did he put it all?
She sipped heaven and checked out the male opposite her. Clearly he had no problem eating. Dam the man could eat enough for an entire planet. He was all lethal grace. And, they were soldiers.
“So, you guys from the Federation, the Corp or private hire?” Rage finished his mouthful.
“Were once Corp, no longer.” Kim nodded. There were plenty of ex-soldier’s out there.
“So now your what? Traders? Merc’s? For hire?” She asked.
“We’re searchers. Looking for others of us that might be lost.” Kim frowned.
“How come they’re lost?” Rage finished off his meal, wiped his mouth with finesse that surprised Kim, and grabbed his own cup taking several gulps.
“Some don’t know their lost. Some don’t know the war’s are over. Some are too damaged.”
“Then how do you find them?”
“We have some records. We use those. Go places, search. Ask around. Have people who help. Do the math. Whatever we can.” She watched him drink some more. He even did that gracefully.
“Have you found any?” She asked. Rage grinned at her.
“Yes lots. They have their own ships and are seeking as well.”
“And when you find them all, what will you do?” He put his mug down. Kim thought he looked sad.
“We won’t find them all.” He motioned the waitress over. “Check plea
se.”
Kim was glad his ship was a walk away, she needed the exercise. Her stomach was complaining in a good way. She needed to work it off. As she turned the corner and got the first real look at it, she stopped. Hell. It was a Demon flight class ship.
“This yours?” She asked knowing the answer. Rage grabbed her arm.
“Come on it won’t kill you. Unless you fuck up my engines, then I might.”
It was way bigger than any craft she had ever been on. Galaxy class. An inter world ship. No wonder it dragged its ass. Look at all that re-enforced metal. She’d not seen it on the vid screen when they’d attacked.
“You know all that metal is going to drag like a bus right?” She told him still focused on the beauty of it.
“That’s why you’re here sweetness.”
“Look you didn’t say anything about this.” She pulled her arm free stopping at the ramp. She pointed to the craft. “This has to weigh far more than you told me. The stresses will be heavier. I have to celebrate for that and you guys.” She looked him up and down. “How many of you and how much weight your carrying, plus cargo weight. It will all add to the load.” Rage grabbed her arm gently and walked her up the ramp.
“You can do that now.” He told her calmly. Shit. Why did everything always turn out to be more than she’d planned for? Distracted she suddenly realised she was inside the hold of the craft and 8 men were standing in front of her.
Now she was here, she wasn’t sure they were men. They were just too big. Too tall. Moved …… too smooth. Too ……… silent. And they looked kinda similar. All lethal and far too good looking. One or two had some nasty scars. One had an artificial hand. One an eye. A couple were clearly communicating between themselves. Movement from the back caught her eye. Out of a crate a naked male sat up and turned towards them. She recognised that crate.
Holy fuck. Cyborgs.
“Well that explains a lot. Your man over there appears naked and in need of some assistance. Engine room. Now.” One of the men looked from her to Rage. Rage must have agreed or something cos the new guy pointed and she walked towards him and followed him deeper into the ship.
Chapter Two
Kim had taken one look at the engine and knew she’d been had. This wasn’t a second upgrade. This had been regularly modified with latest tec. Yeah, she could do better than what they had, but it grated. She got to work and soon lost herself in the synergy of power and movement.
As she worked, they’d brought her real coffee regularly. That made up for being pissed. She’d scanned the current engine system, checking it’s read out. Then looked at faults and dangers, and what stresses it was under. She’d been right. It dragged its ass and there were several stress points working in conflict. Yet another patch job. Why did they insist on doing that? Cos it said it would be faster, didn’t mean it worked well!
She shook her head exasperated. Bigger wasn’t always better! Her mind turned to Rage. Well, maybe in something’s they were. She gave herself a mental slap to focus. Pulling up the computer read outs and the inflight information again. Everything was so dam heavy. Including the crew. What they weighed alone, was staggering. If they had to drop weight suddenly, the crew would be heading to an airlock. Not cool.
She blew out a breath. They needed to lighten the load. She drummed her fingers on the display. Sadly, throwing Rage out the air lock didn’t look like a viable option. Kim pulled up the ship design. Not very streamlined but then, with the original design that hadn’t mattered. Now it did.
Kim pulled up her graphic on the original spec they’d sent her. She needed to make changes to the design. This was newer and better than what they had told her. She needed to compensate for that. If she couldn’t strip anything out, then she needed to do something else. Kim pondered her options. She needed to displace the weight. Her mind came up with the answer. It was unusual but if her mind told her it would work, it would. She did the math.
The hours flew by. Her stomach told her it was well passed lunchtime. They hadn’t supplied her with any food to go with the coffee. She guessed they didn’t get many humans on board. No food, meant she’d have to go in search of the kitchen. She reasoned she was due for a break anyway. Grabbing her mug, she pulled up the ships layout. She headed out the door following it. Several corridors and stairs later she started to hear chatter. She slowed her pace. It was the wrong end of the corridor for the kitchens, but she had to pass it. What the voices were saying sounded strange. Kim approached slowly and popped her head around the open doorway.
The Cyborg from the crate they’d hauled, was sitting up on a med bed. Clothed, with two of Rages men around him. They were doing something she couldn’t see, they were standing in her way. “Pain.” A voice said. One of the Cyborgs moved a bit doing something else. “Pain.” It said again. They moved again. “Pain.” Fuck sake.
Kim stormed in. “What the hell are you doing?”
She stood inside the room hands on her hips going for her best, ‘don’t mess with me’ look. Rage’s men turned to look at her and then, stared at each other for a bit. Kim guessed they could communicate.
“Cut the shit guys. That’s rude. Speak now.”
They looked back towards her. “He is damaged. We are trying to fix him.”
“Name’s?” She asked. “I am Torc, this is Brak.”
“Tell me how causing him pain, gets him fixed?”
“There is damage to his circuits, we are not sure where it is. We look for it and ask him when he feels pain. The damaged area does not feel pain.” Fuck that. Thought Kim.
“Seriously? That’s your game plan here, to torture the guy?”
Kim shook her head and walked over to the newbie and put her mug down. “Jesus he’s just a kid.” She blurted on seeing him. Both Cyborgs moved to the other side of the table opposite her. They looked at her confused.
“He is 53 universal years.” Torc told her. Kim was shocked.
“Doesn’t he age?” She asked suddenly fascinated by the news.
“He’s aging was stopped.” Kim looked back at him.
“You can do that?” He shook his head.
“No. We can’t. Designers can.” They had deliberately stopped this Cyborgs aging for a reason? He looked like a late teen.
This was seriously messed up. Thought Kim. “What’s his name?”
“C583.”
“C583 can you hear me?” She asked gently.
“Yes.” He answered, his voice so neutral it was automated. It made him sound robotic not human. Kim frowned. Had they done that too?
“Why is his voice automated and not like yours?
Torc answered. “His human inflections are turned off or damaged.”
Kim seriously wanted to kick shit out of someone. This was just cruel. She looked at C583. “With your permission, I would like to take a look and see if I can help.”
“Yes.” He told her. Kim turned back to Torc.
“Can he say anything else other than ‘yes’?” Torc shook his head.
“He doesn’t understand you asking for permission to work on him.”
“Why the hell not?” She asked him annoyed.
“Designer’s don’t ask.”
Ok that was it. Kim had heard enough. “Out the way big boy, let a professional take a look.” Torc moved. Fucking ‘Designer’s? Kim wanted a word with them with a pointy stick and Mr Sparky. The back of the kid’s head was open and although he’s brain was there, so was a large amount of computer hardware. OMG. Kim swallowed.
“You got schematics?” She asked. Brak shook his head.
“Nope.” Fuck. Helpful.
Kim blew out a breath. If she looked at this like any other engine, she’d need x- rays to check for cracks, damaged wiring and what’s broken. An in-depth scan, would also showed up faulty wiring and connections. She chewed her lip thinking. Then she could do an infrared scan of the brain working. It would show what is working and what isn’t.
“Stand back.” She told the t
wo Cyborgs, then lifted her data pad and called up the diagnostic programme. Lifting it in front of C’s face, she engaged the programme and slowly walked around him coming full circle.
Kim brought it back down and engaged it again. This time to work on the problems it had showed. “Pain.” C583 called out. Kim looked up confused. Brak had gone back to work. What the fuck!
Kim lost it. “Did I tell you to continue?” She shouted at him. He stood back. Good. “Don’t move a fucking muscle unless I tell you.” This whole situation fucked her off. It seemed to be a Cyborg trait.
The programme stopped and drew her attention back to it. There were highlighted problems all over it. Kim frowned and blew out a breath. There appeared to be some organic matter interfering with the major chip. That seemed to filter into everything else that flowed from there. She opened the graphic wider. Some broken wiring sat around it and a piece of something stuck in there, that didn’t appear to have a purpose. She wondered if it was shrapnel. She zoned in on several other bits like it. How was he still functioning?
“This guy have a head injury?” She asked quietly. Not sure what to expect. She’d heard the rumours like everyone else.
Torc nodded. “Sold out for infiltration work. No access to Designers, patch job the tissue mended. Then he was shut down and crated.”
“Yeah well, it mended too dam well. There’s shit in there that shouldn’t be. Wiring that’s not working. Interference all over the place. You need to remove it all and fix it.”
Galactic Cyborg Heat Series Book Bundle 1-4 Page 3
