by Naomi Lucas
Table of Contents
Chapter One:
Chapter Two:
Chapter Three:
Chapter Four:
Chapter Five:
Chapter Six:
Chapter Seven:
Chapter Eight:
Chapter Nine:
Chapter Ten:
Chapter Eleven:
Chapter Twelve:
Chapter Thirteen:
Chapter Fourteen:
Chapter Fifteen:
Chapter Sixteen:
Chapter Seventeen:
Chapter Eighteen:
Chapter Nineteen:
Chapter Twenty:
Chapter Twenty-One:
Chapter Twenty-Two:
Chapter Twenty-Three:
Wild Blood
Cyborg Shifters: Book One
***
By Naomi Lucas
Copyright © 2016 by Naomi Lucas
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission in writing from the author.
Any references to names, places, locales, and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
***
Stranded in the Stars
Last Call
Collector of Souls
Star Navigator
(Coming Soon)
Cyborg Shifters
Wild Blood
Storm Surge (Coming Soon)
Chapter One:
Chapter Two:
Chapter Three:
Chapter Four:
Chapter Five:
Chapter Six:
Chapter Seven:
Chapter Eight:
Chapter Nine:
Chapter Ten:
Chapter Eleven:
Chapter Twelve:
Chapter Thirteen:
Chapter Fourteen:
Chapter Fifteen:
Chapter Sixteen:
Chapter Seventeen:
Chapter Eighteen:
Chapter Nineteen:
Chapter Twenty:
Chapter Twenty-One:
Chapter Twenty-Two:
Chapter Twenty-Three:
Epilogue:
Author’s Note:
Storm Surge:
Chapter One:
---
“Katalina, your life is worth more than this.”
She frowned, looking at her late grandmother’s house. It sat in the pit of her stomach. Heavy and hard.
It manifested in her eyes as the blank stare of someone who was looking but not actually seeing. Focusing. Kat felt the lump grow and expand until it closed up her throat, making it hard to swallow or hold back the tears that sprang to her eyes.
I’m alone now.
She stood there looking at the rusty old structure with love, fear, and a little bit of uncertainty. The house and everything in it were hers now. Except it wasn’t, at least not anymore. She had sold it to the first buyer.
To Kat, it would always remain the possession of the dead woman she had taken care of for the past several years. The last member of her family that she loved had been reduced to a fond memory; a ghost that now took the form of a stone in her gut or the invisible hands that strangled her neck.
Kat clicked the button on her key-chip, nearly breaking the small device with the pressure from her thumb. The house shut down. The metal shutters folded over the windows, barred and blacked out, and the alarm system activated.
She hugged herself as her ears twitched. The humming sound of moving metal, a sturdy zip of electricity; the groan of rusted edges filled her ears.
Goodbye Grandma. I love you more than anything. My life will never be like yours, but I will make it count for something.
She pocketed the key-chip and picked up the single suitcase by her side.
The old house had been sold and today was the last day before the new residents moved in.
The now useless key-chip in her hand would be her only memento. Kat ran her finger over the bump of it in her pocket before rubbing the back of her hand across her cheeks and clearing her face.
She heard the rumble of a land-flyer settling on the house’s landing pad. Her relatives. Kat turned away from the memories with a rushed goodbye and enclosed herself in her own flyer, throwing her bag in the back, and shutting the door closed just as her uncle called out. Without looking up, she programmed in her destination when his fist pounded on the window next to her face.
“Katalina! Get out of the craft.”
“Sorry, can’t hear you,” she mumbled under her breath.
“You can’t do this!”
“Watch me.”
Her flyer shot into the air just as her uncle started screaming obscenities at her only to be drowned out by the rushing wind. With her destination locked in and autopilot enabled, Katalina, for the first time since she could remember, felt the heady rush of adrenaline sweep through her.
She leaned her head back against the seat and let the energy of it take over, losing herself into the mire of her thoughts and her racing heart.
She was headed for the largest interstellar port in New America with no goal in mind. Kat had no plans for the future beyond getting away from the stink of slow, moldering death and her extended family.
They had descended like vultures in the weeks before her grandmother’s death. At first, she had been delighted that they were there, that they wanted to help out, but when the will was read and everything was left to her, things changed.
Earth was no longer her home. She needed to get off its surface before she suffocated on her own grief
Whiplash and heartbreak.
Kat wasn’t naive to the seven deadly sins, nor was she unfamiliar with greed, but she had hoped she wasn’t related to anyone who would succumb to them.
Now that the house was sold, along with everything left inside it, she was finally taking her grandmother’s advice.
“You’ll leave this place, even if I have to force you to do it.”
The scenery sped by. The old world slowly vanished until high-rises and metal structures surrounded her. Kat looked at her bag and took a deep breath. The city opened up like a cracked egg: the guts were a giant space field, miles upon miles of heavily guarded flat ground, all of it surrounded by the metal barriers of commerce.
Huge ships could be seen, bigger than she remembered. The battleships and mining freighters couldn’t land here. Their girth was so massive, so giant, that it would disrupt Earth’s shields and crush the ground. Kat had seen pictures of them. She knew people could spend their entire lives living on one of those monsters.
They bruised the sky with their thruster output. Once spaceflight had taken off the weather patterns had never been the same, as the massive engines plowed right through the clouds and dispersed them.
Her flyer came to a stop at the intake gate. Her adrenaline came flooding back, her breaths quickened, her palms dampened. Excited, she allowed her vehicle to be scanned and added to the docking base for storage. It drove her to its new semi-permanent parking spot.
Kat grabbed her bag and hefted it into her lap before opening her door to the arid heat of the desert city. Her lungs filled up with dry, hot air as she oriented herself to the new environment. With one last perusal, she locked her flyer up and headed for the port.
Her uncertainty grew with every step.
Kat switched her bag from shoulder to shoulder, trying to alleviate the strain it was putting on her neck and back.
I have no idea what I’m doing. Her jaw tensed. The entryway loomed before her, beautifully decorated reinforced glass an
d silver metal, it glistened to the point that it hurt her eyes.
Welcome to space, it said. Welcome to the gate of Hell, it meant. Did you know that your survival rate drastically decreases once you leave Earth? it implied. Let’s explore!
It said a lot more than that.
With a sigh, Kat walked through the doors. She was greeted by screens and holograms, all projecting and trying to sell her on a new adventure. A commercial cruise around Jupiter. A trip to see the battle monuments on Gliese. She flinched and looked to the next thing; a billboard listing hundreds of jobs.
She walked past it and toward the large, domed windows, where stores were set up to overlook the space field. They were up on a plateau, and the view outside showed everything.
Kat lugged her bag to a bench that looked over the commercial and private vessels where she could watch them enter the atmosphere and shoot up into the stars.
I’ll be on one of them before long.
She sat there an indefinite amount of time, people walked by behind her, her eyes trailed them in the window’s reflection. Loved ones coming together, people breaking apart. Kat circled her wrists, missing her grandma.
She debated contacting her uncle and going back to her extended family. To stay here and deal with them and curl up in their familiarity.
Kat was pulled out of her thoughts when a woman sat down on the bench next to her.
“You’ve been here for some time, are you waiting for someone?” she asked. Kat looked at her warily. The woman was older, with greying hair, and draped with scarves.
“Uh. No. No, I’m not waiting for anyone,” Kat answered.
“Ah, I supposed that might be the case. We get your kind here every now and then. Waiting for something to hit you over the head and change your life. Mmm Mm.”
Kat shuffled in her seat. “Didn’t realize I had a ‘kind.’ I wish I knew of my people before this.”
The older woman laughed, hoarse and mirthful. “I once saw a young man sit in this very seat, every day, for days on end, waiting and watching the ships. I went up to him after the third day, my curiosity always gets the best of me, and asked him what he was up to.”
“What was he up to?” Kat asked, intrigued.
“Well, he was discharged from the military for having a bum leg. He didn’t know what to do with the rest of his life, as his whole family was a military family. He felt hurt, lost, insecure. So after hearing this, I offered him a job.”
“Did he take it?”
“He sure did. He’s manning my exotic teas booth behind us. Been with me for damn near ten years. Can’t get rid of the sucker. He’s a good worker, though. Doesn’t talk enough for my liking so I have to talk for the both of us.” The woman rambled on.
Kat looked behind her at the tea booth and saw a middle aged man pouring a cup for a customer.
The woman continued, “I was the one that hit him over the head that day and made a decision for him. He’s great at lifting the heavy stuff. As you may have noticed, this port is large but only one terminal is still in operation. Everywhere else is barred off and unused but my tea shop still stands and it endures. There’s something about a nice cup of tea from another planet or the last chance to drink something from home–”
Kat cut her off, “Why is only one terminal in use?” She eyed the giant ships resting in the distance.
“Oh, honey, you know the answer to that. There’s just not enough people anymore. Even for the biggest spaceport in New America. This place should be a bustling bazaar but nope, can’t sustain it anymore. What’s your name, dear?” The woman was a word race-horse. Kat could understand why the man she hired never talked.
“Katalina. Kat for short.”
“What a pretty name! Do you want a job, Kat? You see, my knees are gettin’ achy and the long hours, well, are too long these days. John, my employee, is a friendly guy to work with and could use the extra help too. It’s hard to find help these days and who knows? Maybe you and John might like to take over someday. He’s a nice man, could use a nice girl. The job comes with free tea.”
Free tea, eh?
The port rumbled. Kat turned to see a jet black ship descend from the sky and the giant vehicles that drove out to meet it. It looked like a bullet with spindly legs. A spider. A terrible, black widow of a spider.
“Oh, monster-man is back! Have you ever seen a Trentian in real life, deary?”
Monster man? Trentian? Kat glanced at the scarved woman. “What? No?”
“We get them here sometimes, they walk by my shop. Once, a diplomat stopped and ordered a drink. Scared me he did. Ordered chamomile of all things. Handsome bugger, though. John was on break that day, and the Trentian asked if I’d join him. You know, out there.” She pointed to the sky. “Thought I could be his bride, he did. Me? An old woman on the arm of someone like him? Shoo’d him off and told him I’m married to my teas. John doesn’t believe me. I wonder if monster-man brought us any monsters today?”
Kat turned back toward the ship. It landed with power, a visible plume of smoke and dust shot away from it as it settled onto the ground. There was a sudden stillness, a sudden silence and her eyes were stuck to it. Nothing could pull her away from the spider.
It looked like a bug. I hate bugs. Her hands twitched.
Other people came forward to watch. The shopkeeper next to her turned to someone that appeared at her side.
“Think we’ll see another El’Mook? I love their ears.”
The back of the ship, or what she thought was the back, opened and the huge vehicles lined up to it. A group of armed men closed in. It was below her and in the distance, but she could still see everything.
A man walked out. Decked out in black, black and unsettling like his ship. They matched.
“Who is he?” Kat asked absently.
“Monster-man? A Cyborg. Scary guy, he works for the government, capturing and containing creatures and plants from all over the known galaxies. He’s well-known here. Oh, what do you think that is?”
A huge cage was unloaded, glass and metal barricades enclosed whatever was inside. The Cyborg-monster-man was overseeing the process. Dozens of guns pointed at the beast. The cage shook with a violent impact from a creature nobody could see.
Whatever it is, it really wants to get out.
Someone murmured, “Nothing I’ve ever seen before. Don’t know how he captures beasts four times his size.”
Kat couldn’t take her eyes off the man. A black dot in the distance. She was curious about the creature but the Cyborg commanded her attention and she gave it to him gladly. She just wished she was closer so she could see him more clearly.
A tingle rushed through her. Her hands clenched at her side. More cages were taken off and loaded into the trucks. Giant plants. Glass tubes filled with strange liquids. Even a cat-like creature with a tail that stretched out in yards was led out by a leash.
It was all over too quickly. The Cyborg and those that had met him walked toward the port and out of her sight.
Kat picked up her bag when a hand landed on her arm. She turned back to the old woman.
“Deary, the job is yours if you find your way back here. Could always use a pretty face behind the counter. I’d sell more tea with you pouring it.” And then the woman was gone.
Kat stood up and looked at the tea stand. Her body leaned toward the comfortable prospect of an adventure of being a tea seller, meeting humans from all over the universe, people traveling to exotic places, all while surrounded by good drinks. The thought of going to sleep at night with a cup of tea next to her.
A heavy thud and a gasp stopped her from choosing that future.
“It’s a Cyborg.” A tourist stepped back, alarmed.
Kat saw the pathway open up as everyone, not many, backed away.
A man in a grey suit walked beside the large, imposing Cyborg: The monster-man from the spider ship. A woman trailed behind, writing notes. The Cyborg looked like a Cyborg, larger, taller, and perfect with
a face that could’ve been carved from stone. It was angular...sharp.
So very sharp. He looks angry.
It made it all the more frightening with his thick, arching eyebrows and midnight hair, not quite black, almost a deep, dark blue that bordered onto black. It was slicked away from his face to fall down his back, held together by a loose string.
He was white. Not like human white but white as snow, white as a wraith, and the Cyborg almost glowed against the dark clothing he wore.
Monster-man looks like a killer.
“You need another body on board, you can’t keep going out there alone.”
“I won’t be responsible for someone else. I have enough to take care of as is.”
Their voices echoed throughout, demanding everyone in the terminal to eavesdrop and look on. Kat forgot all about the tea stand.
“Which is exactly why you need someone to manage. You won’t be responsible for anyone, they’ll be responsible for you. A liaison of sorts. We can’t have another incident like last time. If you don’t pick an auditor, an assistant, a contact for us, we will pick one for you. Resumes have been uploaded onto your console.”
“I’m leaving immediately. There’s no time to onboard a useles-”
“-We will pick one for you or we will dissolve your contract and Stryker’s and force you to work together.” The suit repeated. “Or you can be let go.”
They walked past her. She stared wide-eyed at the Cyborg man. Kat was like everyone else in the port.
He glanced at her and she felt the breath get sucked out of her lungs, then he looked away. The group moved out of earshot. They were gone as quickly as they had arrived.
His eyes. They sizzled her flesh. Even with just a glance.
Kat was dumbstruck. She headed toward the ticketing station and made her way through the gates.
Chapter Two:
---
Dommik oversaw his beasts being taken off his ship. To him, they were his lifeblood, his mission. His duty to the people that created him. They each had a story.
The Urgoke from Gliese resembled the ancient Triceratops, the Ewayen from Elyria could have been a mad scientist's dream of flying fish that smelled like citrus, and the Shunkun plants from Tau-Ceti were as smart as chimps and had a taste for fresh meat. He captured them by order, by plea, or just by plain curiosity to be studied by the Earthian Planetary Exploration Division’s scientists.
