by Naomi Lucas
“I thought of that but no, enough of it was different that it wouldn’t have been possible to evolve in such a way in such a short amount of time.”
“Radiation?” she asked him, her eyes trained on the bugs.
“Did you grow up on cartoons?” They glared at each other before he continued. “I found more and kept them to study and compare. It wasn’t until several years later on a mission to Taggert, to fight back the monsters that tried to break open the prison that I found these,” he indicated the second enclosure closest to the door in the room. A roach that was small and beige, light and sandy in its color, designed to blend into the wastes of that world. “I captured a handful and brought them aboard. They shared DNA with the roaches from Earth and Elyria.”
Kat cocked her head and studied the new roaches with interest. “That’s not possible,” she whispered after a time.
“Is it?”
She looked up at him and threaded the hair back from her face. Dommik’s internal mech ground against each other. The inhuman parts of him wanted to take over and unleash on the girl that gazed at him. No matter what he told himself, he knew he was no better than Gunner or any other man. It had nothing to do with his urges but more to do with his restraint which had never been tested as such since his youth.
The scientists in the cybernetics lab had tested him and every other Cyborg like him against their basic animal instincts. First food, then territory, shelter, space, and finally the need to breed.
They didn’t need any more rapists in the field during wartime. Not to mention, more than half of his doctors were women and knew better than to send super soldiers out into the field without knowing that aspect about them.
Their mothers made sure they knew how to behave like all mothers should. As far as Dommik knew, no Cyborg has ever forced him or herself on a victim. And he wasn’t about to be the first.
Kat looked away from him. “I don’t know. I didn’t study history, space law, or hard science.” She admitted. Her arms sunk back into the long sleeves.
“What did you study?”
“Nursing. It’s in my file. I studied hospice care,” she whispered, “to take care of the dying.”
“And you walked onto a ship that holds life and death in its hands.”
“It was that or tea.”
Dommik studied her, confused. He wasn’t prone to be curious about humans, but the twinge to ask her to explain herself was felt in his gut. He would have to meditate on it later...or consult his brethren.
She went on, “What about the others?” Changing the subject and walking to the next glass.
“Those are from Gliese.” The girl stiffened, furthering his curiosity. “I saw them when I was stationed there during the Great War. I only went back for them recently.”
“They also have the same DNA?”
“Yes.”
He could hear her heart speed up, elevate, pulsate and erratic. He watched her staring at the bugs. Her delicate hands lifted up to plaster themselves on the glass. The roaches twitched and scurried away.
“Truly. The same?” she asked again. The heat of her hands created a weave of condensation.
“Yes.”
So many emotions flashed across her eyes that he couldn’t pinpoint one. Her face was blank before it was sad until it turned to stone. The need to reach out and touch her was great but his metal muscles remained stiff at his sides. He saw his doom in her eyes.
Kat absorbed the roaches, her body was in profile now, and if he wanted to, he could reach out and touch her in less than three strides. He could have her in his arms in a second.
“How similar?” she asked. Her hands dropped and vanished back into the jacket’s sleeves.
Dommik shrugged, “As similar as the rest.”
“Have you encountered any other bugs on Gliese?” She continued to study the black roaches from that planet, a faraway look in her eyes. He looked at the critters that held her attention.
“Many.”
“Do you have them here? On the ship, like these?”
“No. I only study roaches.” He watched her watch the bugs. Her body heat fogged up the glass case. Eventually, her mouth puckered and she took a step back. “Why?”
Kat finally looked back at him, her face softened with worry.
Dommik stood up and stepped toward her. He asked again, “why?”
“My parents were doctors stationed on the orbiting medical center,” she trailed off, her fingers twitched at her sides. “They met there and went planetside in rotation and did fieldwork for the base and new colony efforts. When they conceived me, they returned to Earth so I wouldn’t be labeled as an ‘offworlder.’”
“And they brought bugs back with them?”
She took a deep breath. “You could say that.”
Dommik pressed a button on the panel next to them, directly under the glass enclosure of the Gliese roaches. The panel popped open to reveal a filter contraption and debris from the creatures above. He indicated a button off to the side. “Food. It’s now part of your job to feed them daily and clean out the waste.” Dommik walked to the door and it slid open soundlessly. “If you have any questions, ask one of the Bin’s.”
She called out after him, “What about the reports?”
He closed his eyes only to open them slowly. The EPED didn’t know about his hobbies and he would like to keep it that way. But he wouldn’t ask her to lie for him on his behalf. “It’s your choice.”
A soft sighed, “okay,” was his only answer.
Dommik turned back toward Kat, her body and her eyes far away again. “It’s not uncommon, you know, to accidently bring back things to Earth. Or to any other planet.” He wasn’t sure why he needed to say it but he felt the odd need to console her. “It can’t be helped. Mistakes happen.”
“I know,” she murmured, glancing his way.
“That’s where I come in, Katalina, I help prevent these mistakes, mitigate them, contain them. It’s why the Earthian Planetary Exploration Division exists. I might only be the one that captures the snake but those in the background use that snake to create the anti-venom.”
He left her at that.
Chapter Seven:
---
Days passed in a quiet, vacuous haze. Kat had no sense of time anymore. Only the ushering of Bin-Three to take her back to her quarters at the end of her shift and the android waking her up each morning with a bland protein bar.
What she did have to tell time was reports, wrappers in her waste receptacle, and the lengthening of her nails. She could have looked at the date on the network but time seemed meaningless when stuck in a small space with no eyes on the skies. No eyes on space.
She had not seen Dommik in days, not even in passing, and her need for human contact was beginning to grow strong. She could deal with no contact with the outside world as long as the loneliness was interjected with other people. It was almost comforting to recreate a fantasy of her childhood. But this fantasy came with androids and monsters rather than doctors and nurses.
Kat curled into a fetal position on her cot, tugging the cloth blanket up to her mouth. Today was a rest day and although she had nothing better to do than study diagnostics on the screens and the creatures onboard, this morning she was going to take it slow. She sighed into the covers.
Twice now, new species had appeared in the menagerie, and she knew it was all happening late at night while she was asleep. Dommik was avoiding her and doing his hunts at night. It perturbed her that she had slept through two landings, missed two worlds, and with no knowledge of it.
So now she tried to keep herself up at night. Only to perceive nothing, not even the heavy footsteps of the Cyborg lurking in the passageway.
She was determined to be awake the next time the ship landed.
Except I need sleep too.
A ping sounded at the door. Kat shifted her head to look at it and willed the android to go away. Her eyes narrowed and began to close when a knock accompanied the ping. Whoever
was outside her room was adamant about making themselves obnoxious.
The sound followed her as she jumped out of bed and peeled the curls stuck to her cheek away from her face. “I’m coming,” she groaned.
The door opened to one of the Bins carrying her morning nutrition. “Good morning, Katalina, I have brought your breakfast.”
She took it and waited for the robot to leave. It didn’t.
“Call me Kat… Please. It’s the rest cycle,” Kat reminded it.
A light flashed across its non-face. “Yes. We have expected a routine from you and when you did not follow it, the other Bin’s and I decided to follow up.”
Kat opened the bar and bit into it. Peanut butter. Ugh. “I’m fine.” The android turned to leave. “Bin, wait! Do you have a kitchen on this ship?”
It stopped and flashed. “We have a molecular replicator.”
“Can you take me to it?”
“No. It is in a restricted area.”
Kat looked at the uneaten bar. “I’m very hungry.”
“I will provide you another bar.” It turned to leave again.
She followed it, leaving her room barefoot and in an oversized shirt. “I need real food, Bin, please. It can’t be restricted enough to stop you from taking care of me.”
“A protein bar is food. I will provide you another.”
It kept walking away. Kat looked briefly back at her room, the door now closed, and decided that sleep could wait.
“Check my stats.” She stopped and reached out her arm. The robot came back to her. “I’m actually not feeling well at all. I think I need to go to the medbay.”
The Bin jerked and moved up to her. It took her hand and the metal of its fingers heated in her grip. Kat held still as something pricked her skin and the android beeped. She had encountered her fair share of the medical mech, it was easier and cheaper to employ an android than it was to find a human routine-care doctor. A series of lasers ran up her arm and the pinch on her hand released.
“You are not at optimum. You have higher than average sodium levels and are moderately dehydrated. I will take you to medbay.”
Kat hid her smile and continued to follow the robot. It led her toward the hull but stopped at a door opposite of the facility. One that had remained closed for her until now. It opened for the Bin, and just beyond was an elevator.
She stepped into the small dimly lit boxed lift, and immediately felt the temperature drop. The door shut as tiny butterflies fluttered her stomach and bumps covered her skin.
Maybe I should have gotten dressed. It was too late now. The lift stopped and opened to another dark passageway.
Kat fell in line behind the android. It looked like an exact replica of the floor they had just left. But as they turned the corner, an aura of light filtered through the hallway, she could see a view to the stars as they walked closer toward it.
Black and white starfields filled her vision off of a side alcove with plush chairs sitting in a ‘U’ shape for watching it. Her stomach grumbled, reminding her to seek the kitchen, but her feet were rooted to the floor.
She could barely take in a breath and the pleas of the robot behind her went unnoticed.
Kat had been out in the open before, living in the metal and cement cities of Earth, her grandmother’s sizable backyard filled with flowers and trees that glowed soft light at night. But this was different, almost painful, almost heart-breaking. She wanted to turn away and go back to her room but her body remained rooted in place.
Her muscles tensed and her hands became slick. She bunched them up into her night-shirt.
“Ain’t nothing good out there, Katalina, nothing but experience and space. Tried to tell your Ma that but she wouldn’t hear it. Young thing like her wanted to find her own way and she was determined that her ‘way’ was out there and not here on Earth.” Her grandmother sipped her sweet tea as she rocked the swing with her foot. Nothing but dirt lay below her rocker. The grass got squished away by the soles of her bare feet. They gave up growing long ago. “Ain’t nothing good here either. I’ll give her that.”
Kat found her footing just enough to flop into one of the plush chairs.
“Katalina Jones, you are not authorized to be there. I must insist we leave.”
She ignored the android.
“You are not authorized to be there. I must insist we go to medbay,” it repeated.
Stars flew by, and sadly she couldn’t tell if they were meteors or asteroids.
“All the good left Earth when your grandpa passed away,” her grandmother mumbled into her cup. “You’re here though, that says something.”
She never knew her grandfather. “I miss you,” Kat whispered to herself.
“The Earth will miss you too when you leave.”
She wasn’t sure how long she sat there but she vaguely registered that the android had stopped talking at some point. Her eyes were glued to the scene and her mind drifted. Kat needed to watch the universe.
It made her feel small, really small, and insignificant. And stupid. She didn’t know why she was where she was and couldn’t figure out the choices she made to get to this moment. But the one thing she knew was that it made her sad. She pressed her hands against her face and cried.
***
“Changing coordinates to Ghost City,” Dommik called out.
“‘bout time, I’ve only been waiting since our last talk,” Stryker’s voice came through the intercom.
“Had to make several stops on the way. You know how it goes.”
“No, I don’t, and I have far too much cargo that needs off-boarding than my ship can handle. I can’t work when I have no room for it!”
Dommik smirked. He leaned back into his chair. “Yeah, well, I would feel the same way if I were helping Gunner too.”
All he got was a grunt for an answer. He clicked his fingertips on the armrest, a spool of rope in his lap. “Is he meeting up with us?”
“Yeah. The man is a system behind me. I think he’s planning to stay in the city for awhile, at least until I finish this shipment and wire him his payload.”
“Odd.”
“A little but who knows with him? He’s just on the edge of psychotic. Maybe Brash is lodged at the city as well and he’s fixing to get himself another tattoo. I’m assuming you got my payment then?”
“Yeah and then some.” Dommik looked down at the bundle of rope in his lap, his hand buckled and split in two as he picked it up and started to weave it. Rough cord slid across the metal appendages as his extra fingers unclipped from within his arm until he had three working hands. He could split his legs as well until he was nothing but a torso, a head, and a man with eight pieces. He was truly terrifying in his other form.
“An imp of a girl, I heard.”
Dommik’s hands crashed back together in a crunch, the rope torn into pieces and dropped to the floor.
“Who told you about Kat?”
“A kitten? Even better.” Stryker laughed but it came through fuzzy. “Mia told me. She’s pissed at you.”
“She has no reason to be. There’s no way she was getting on my ship. I took this job with the understanding that I work alone.”
“Yeah until they can’t trust you anymore with their equipment. What about the girl?”
Dommik sighed. Bin-One’s electronic footprint walked up beside him, Dommik raised his hand to keep the android silent. “What about her?”
“She’s obviously there to spy on you, you gonna keep her, or drop her off? If she’s registered, I’ll take her off your hands. Could use a little conversation now and then. And I’m as boring as they come, nothing to tell the pegs back at base.”
“What happened to your crew?” Did he want to drop Kat off at the port? He liked her, he hated to admit, and she smelled nice. Better than any other human he had encountered. He avoided her for the same reason.
“Hold up.” A crash and a curse came through the channel.
“What’s wrong?” Dommik leaned
forward. He turned up the volume to listen in.
“Help...Ever...dead. Trapped. Anyo…” Several minutes went by in silence.
“Distress call.” His voice had lost its ease.
“Are you going to answer it?”
It was quiet for another minute before Stryker responded, “No. I need to turn in these acquisitions. It’s on an unregulated channel. Probably a trap.”
Dommik’s thoughts turned back to Kat. His feet hit the cords lying at his feet. “If you’re sure... It sounded like a woman.”
Would he answer it? Even if it was a trap? What if it was Kat on the other side calling for help? That was the problem about distress calls, only one in five were real...the rest were fake. And they always filled you with doubt. Doubt, guilt, death or enslavement.
“I’ll relay it over to Gunner and see what he thinks,” Stryker’s voice went hard.
“You already know the answer he’ll give you.”
“Yeah, well, it’ll ease my mind.” The Cyborg let out a short laugh. “‘Fuck it into the dirt. Shoot it twice in the temple. Make it swallow bullets. Grab their balls and make them bleed.’”
Bin-One remained as a statue at his side, except for the intermittent flashes, each flash was a correspondent between his androids...and the flashes had been picking up. Dommik glanced at the robot. It flashed again as he stared at it.
“‘One and done,’” Stryker continued.
“I need to go. See you at Ghost.”
“Yeah...maybe.” The comm clicked off as Dommik swiveled his seat to face his android head on. He kicked the rope away from his chair. It flashed again.
“What?”
Bin-One stopped relaying and focused on him. Am I actually being spied on? Did someone tap into my bots? It was his first thought.
“Master, Katalina Jones is in a restricted area and refuses to move.”
Dommik stood up. “How the Hell did she get past one of the doors?” He focused his attention on his ship and connected to its systems, scanning the interior for her heat signature.
“She said she wasn’t feeling well and Bin-Three took her stats. They were headed to the medbay when she stopped at the view lounge down the hallway.” Dommik found her just as the robot said it. “Katalina Jones won’t leave the area. We cannot touch her without your permission, Master.” He started out of the bridge and through the door. Bin-One followed closely behind. “Do we have your permission?”
