Saving The Cyborg (Cyborg Redemption)

by A. M. Griffin

  “Saph, it’s alright. I have the item,” Suni replied.

  Saph made an irritated noise. “Whatever discussion you need will have to wait. Taun and Raint, your Commander woke up and he’s asking for you.”

  * * *

  There was something about a man in uniform that made her libido wacky and the man Suni had her eyes on at the moment kicked that feeling into overdrive.

  Taun was handsome, unnaturally so, but not in that pretty androgenous way that was all the rage these days, thanks to popular holo-vid stars. He was all man. Hardened man. And she wanted him from the top of his buzzed cut hair to the tips of his booted toes.

  Taun and Raint stalked toward her as she waited for them by her shuttle. It gave her the perfect opportunity to watch Taun and admire his predatory gait. Even with a cloak draped over his body and the hood obscuring most of his face, he cut a striking figure. It was hard to hide a body like his, especially when corded muscles flexed when he walked—no, prowled. He was a predator and she wanted desperately to be his prey.

  Suni let out a shuddering breath at the thought of him pouncing on her.

  She clutched the front of her shirt as a tingling wave of pleasure coursed through her. “Oh, my.”

  Taun met her gaze and raised a questioning eyebrow.

  Had he heard her? Impossible. He was still too far away. Embarrassment had her turning fast to hide her face, which she was sure was turning all sorts of colors now. Suni slammed her palm on the button that would open the small hatch. She had to get herself under control.

  He’s leaving. There’s no future in a relationship with him.

  A firm hand landed on her shoulder before she could get in. She was spun around, her back pressed against the shuttle. Taun placed his hands on the sides of her head, leaned down and glared.

  “I can’t protect you if I don’t have eyes on you.”

  His dark gaze bored into hers. His voice was so deep and grumbly that it reverberated against her chest, making her knees weak. Suni couldn’t catch her breath. She wanted this…right?

  “I thought you would’ve been smarter than this.”

  Her lips were dry. It hurt to breathe when he looked at her like that.

  Wait. What?

  She frowned. “Wh-what did you say?”

  “You heard me or maybe the problem was that I trusted you to be smart?”

  She had heard him right the first time. Realization of his words set in., All the goo-goo, ga-ga feelings she had about him came to a screeching halt. She placed both hands on his chest—trying to ignore how hard his muscles felt under her palms—and pushed him backward. He was an unmovable force, but he stepped back for her benefit.

  Suni dipped under his arm to stand at his side. “You lost sight of me because you left me.”

  “I looked up and you were gone!” he snapped in disbelief.

  “Listen to yourself. You. Looked. Up.” She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked one hip to the side. “That means you weren’t paying attention. Isn’t it your job to watch me?”

  His eyes narrowed and lips tightened. “There was a boy. A thief.”

  “Ah, so now we get to the real story. So easily distracted, are you?”

  Raint raised his finger. “She has a point.”

  One side of her mouth twitched. “Don’t come checking me because you didn’t do your job properly.”

  “I don’t need you telling me how to do my job,” Taun countered.

  She took a step toward him and raised her chin to return his glare. “Don’t get sidetracked with thieves when you’re supposed to be guarding me.”

  They stood, eye to eye, not blinking, neither giving in or backing down. He would be the loser of this battle of wills. He obviously didn’t know that she got her stubbornness from the best. Yovit and Saph.

  Raint walked past them, ducking his head to clear the hatch of the shuttle. “A lover’s spat without being lovers. This reminds me why I don’t get emotionally involved with females.”

  Chapter Eight

  Taun pushed every obscene thought that ran rampant through his head about Suni deep into the back of his mind and into a box that he locked up tightly. Sex should be the farthest thing from his mind right now. His planet was in complete chaos. He wasn’t sure how his parents and siblings were faring under General Shui’s rule. He didn’t know where his pod mates were or if they had gotten off the prison transport in time.

  In short, there were one hundred and one things that should be on his mind, and having his way with the fiery petite woman shouldn’t be one of them.

  Shouldn’t. That was the operative word.

  But as Suni piloted them back to The Renegade, sex was all he could think about. Just staring at her back, which she held straight as a board, made obscene thoughts infiltrate his mind. Like how it had taken all of his restraint not to press his body against hers. Or how he had wanted to grasp her hands and hold them high above her head while he devoured her mouth.

  The thoughts had come out of nowhere. There’d been an attraction when he had first laid eyes on her and he had appreciated the hungry look she returned. He had been able to file away how she had made him feel.

  When he had glimpsed her next to her shuttle, safe and unharmed after thinking something awful had happened, all of it came pouring back. Pure unadulterated lust filled his veins and his cock.

  Her gaze devoured him whole as she stared at him making his way toward the shuttle. He had wanted so badly to take her then, have his way, but at the last second, he had recomposed himself and remembered that he was angry.

  Not at her, but with himself. He’d almost killed two innocent men. His rage had been white-hot. He’d already lost his pod mates, and all he could think about was the devastation of losing her too.

  Now she was angry. To make sure he understood just how upset she was, she had set her bag on the co-pilot’s chair, leaving him and Raint to take the two seats behind her.

  With the adrenalin of the afternoon’s events gone from his system, he could gather his thoughts. He had been tasked to watch over her and he had gotten distracted and off track. What he couldn’t do was get off track. Ever.

  That last thought was enough to totally clear his mind of all things Suni.

  Suni maneuvered the shuttle into The Renegade’s transporter bay and set it down next to their jumper. Once she turned off the engine, she initiated the door release and leaped out before Taun and Raint undid their safety harnesses.

  Raint turned toward Taun with a playful arch of his eyebrow.

  “Shut it,” Taun warned as he unhooked his harness.

  Raint did the same. “I think it needs to be said.”

  Taun stood. “Nothing needs to be said.” He ducked the hatch and stepped into the hanger bay. Ised and Aesh sat watching Tayan on the floor. On closer inspection, it appeared Tayan had a coil compressor sitting in front of her widespread legs.

  “The coil compression? The part that keeps the jumper functional and from overheating? You decided to play with that?” he growled as he passed her.

  Tayan didn’t look up at him as she said, “When I’m done with it, it’ll be like new.”

  That’s what she had said about the air compressor and the system’s wiring. He hadn’t had the time to check either one of the items she had been working on.

  “I’ve gone over everything she worked on. Hate to say it but everything she’s touched is working better than before. I did a diagnostic scan twice,” Zema murmured as she caught his glazed expression.

  At least that was one less thing to worry about.

  Ised thumbed toward the jumper’s ramp. “We thought you all needed to speak to each other alone.”

  Taun nodded and ascended the ramp with Raint on his heels. Before he reached the top, he heard clattering and curses, then Commander Vril suddenly appeared, blocking the doorway. The tawny hue of his skin had returned to its natural vibrant state. He no longer had the dusky, pale-ash tone indicative of his na
nobots being routed to vital organs for active repair.

  His appearance was far from fully healed. His dark hair had been smoothed down and his clothes, although wrinkled and dirty, were worn with pride.

  Using the doorframe to prop his body and clutching one side of his abdomen, Commander Vril still struck an imposing figure.

  Although they’d been in separate pods, Taun recognized Vril as a Commander and stopped to stomp in position, giving him a salute. The same stomp was heard behind him as Raint did the same.

  Vril nodded sluggishly. Even after days in full regeneration he still wasn’t back to one hundred percent. “Second Lieutenant Taun. Thank you for helping us get to safety.”

  “We all had a part in that,” Taun replied.

  Vril narrowed his eyes at Raint. “You disregarded a direct order.”

  “Wasn’t going to leave you behind, Sir,” Raint said matter-of-factly.

  “I could still have charges brought up,” Vril growled.

  “Add them to the charges from Shui.”

  “Commander,” Zema said, making her way up the ramp. “Come back and sit down. You need to rest.”

  Vril waved her off and shouldered his way through the door. Taun and Raint stepped to the side to let him pass. Neither one gave him a lending hand as he struggled down the ramp and to one of the crates they had been using as a chair in the bay.

  Taun would’ve been glad to help, but he knew Vril wouldn’t have appreciated the gesture. Vril, like Taun, would want to do things on his own, especially after being down for days and at the mercy of someone else’s care. Being a cyborg meant there was a network of brethren who always had your back, but that didn’t mean being dependent on others came easily.

  “Zema filled me in. We need to figure out where the others have gone. Has anyone heard from their pod mates?” Before Taun could say anything Vril glanced at Suni and raised a finger to silence him. “We need the room cleared for privacy. Take Ised, Aesh and the child with you. We’ll also need sustenance—high protein meals. Leave it outside of the door and we’ll retrieve it.”

  “Um, I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Suni said as Saph breezed through the entrance.

  “Oh, great. We have two that can’t properly guard anyone and another who has decided to wake up from his beauty rest to bark out orders.”

  Vril straightened in his seat and glared at Saph. “I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you. I’m Commander Vril.”

  Saph humphed and walked past him to hold out her hand to Suni. When Suni handed over the bag, Saph peered inside, ignoring Vril’s greeting.

  Vril glanced from Saph to Taun with a questioning look on his face.

  “They saved us,” Taun offered.

  “Was there any trouble?” Saph asked Suni.

  “None on my end.” Suni nodded toward Taun. “But someone spooked them.”

  “Spooked us?” Raint growled. “We’re elite military. Nothing spooks us.”

  “They took off and left me in the market and that was somehow my fault.”

  “That’s because we lost sight of you and had to follow your comlink transmission,” Taun told her.

  “Like I said.” Saph tucked the bag under her arm and looked Taun and Raint up and down. “Not very good at bodyguarding.”

  “There was a boy.” Raint snapped his mouth shut when Saph raised an eyebrow at him.

  “No, don’t stop now. Please finish telling me about this boy.”

  Tayan giggled from her position on the floor. Saph shook her head and handed the bag to Tayan. “Here. Log it.”

  “Don’t mess with that,” Tayan said, pointing at her work. She stood and took the bag.

  “Is that a coil compressor?” Vril glanced at Zema. “Don’t tell me that belongs to our jumper.”

  “She’s been helping with the repairs.”

  Vril scrubbed a hand down his face. He pointed at Taun and Raint. “You two are personal bodyguards now,” he pointed to Zema, “and you’re letting a little girl play with our equipment. Put it back.”

  Tayan paused at the door. “I have to recalibrate it first. Otherwise, it won’t work.”

  “Zema.”

  “But I wanted to do it!” Tayan whined.

  “It’s fine. Let them put their jumper back together so they can be on their way. They couldn’t even uphold the end of their bargain,” Saph told Tayan.

  “Bargain? What bargain?” Vril asked.

  “We gave you all the tools and supplies needed to fix your jumper and a lift to this planet in exchange for providing personal protection for me while I retrieved an item from the planet,” Suni said.

  “We clearly got the wrong end of the bargain.” Saph snorted and turned on her heels. “I’ll expect you to be off my ship within the hour. Our ‘bargain’ is concluded. Come on Suni.”

  Suni walked past Taun with her chin held high. She was still upset and Taun didn’t blame her. They hadn’t upheld their part of the bargain and he had been just as rude to her as Vril was now being to her and her sisters. That was the only reason that he felt bad. The only reason.

  And not because there was talk of parting from Suni.

  No. That wasn’t the reason for his discomfort at all.

  “Wait.” Everyone turned to Taun. “I apologize for what occurred on the planet. You’re right. We didn’t do as we should’ve and we shouldn’t have let a thief distract us from our mission. Let us make it up to you.”

  Saph stopped mid-step, turned to address Taun. “How can you make it up to us when you look to be needing so much work yourselves?”

  Fair. Taun gave her a nod. “You upheld your end, and we did not. It would be wrong of us to take advantage of your hospitality like this.”

  “We don’t have further need of you.” She turned and started for the door again.

  Suni stopped her with a hand on her arm. “We could use their help when we find the other items.” She glanced quickly in Taun’s direction. “That’s if they can stick around for a bit.”

  “We don’t need or want them sticking around.” Although Saph had whispered it to Suni, Taun, as well as the other cyborgs, didn’t have any trouble with hearing her. “Remember what happened when we let Baenon stick around?”

  Suni cringed and turned red. Taun narrowed his eyes. Who was Baenon and why did Suni have that kind of reaction? Was he an old lover?

  “This time isn’t like that,” Suni whispered.

  Saph chewed the inside of her lip as she cast a gaze toward the cyborgs. Then she turned her back on them. “That guy, the Commander, just woke up and he’s already barking out orders. Pretty soon he’ll be trying to run my ship.” Although Saph spoke in what she thought were hushed tones, Taun heard everything perfectly.

  Taun glanced at Vril. In order for them to stay, Vril would need to tone it down. If Saph wanted them gone, there was no mistaking that they would be gone before bedtime.

  “I agree with Taun,” Vril said.

  Taun had offered their services without the Commander’s input and just now realized that fact. As Second Lieutenant, he deferred to Vril. “Thank you, Commander. I apologize for speaking for our group.”

  Vril shook his head. “You’ve been in command since I’ve been down and have done a good job at it. You made the right decision to call for help and this is another right decision. We can stay here, offer our services where needed and in turn be provided a place to lay our heads and sustenance while we search for the others. Once we find them, we leave and be on our way.”

  Saph held up her hand. “Wait. What others? And slow down. This all sounds like a plan to freeload off of us.”

  Zema gave Vril a sideways glance. Taun slapped his lips together. He didn’t want to lie to Suni or Saph but he couldn’t tell them the all of it either. He didn’t know Saph, but he had met people like her. She would do anything to protect and watch over her family. If she knew they were wanted criminals with a possible bounty on their heads she would either send them on their
way because she didn’t want her or her family involved, or turn them in to collect any bounty that was out on them.

  “There was trouble with our transport, and we had to evacuate,” Vril responded.

  Technically, Vril didn’t lie.

  Saph eyed Vril up and down. The state she had found them in would check out with Vril’s story.

  “We don’t know where our brethren are or if they made it out alive and safely.”

  “Are you trying to fix your jumper to return home?” Suni asked.

  “The jumper’s been badly damaged, and it won’t get us back to our sector without a major overhaul. What we need to do is try to find others from our transport and hook up with them.”

  Again, no lies from Vril without revealing that returning to Kirs now wasn’t an option.

  “We need a place to stay in order to do that. We don’t anticipate that to take long, but it would be nice to have a safe place while we look.”

  “But why us?” Saph asked. Her gaze bored into Vril. She was smart. Vril had to choose his words wisely or else Saph would poke holes in his story and recognize everything he wasn’t saying. “Why not stay on this planet and put out a transmission to find your friends?”

  “We’ve travelled far from our sector, and we don’t know who else—if anyone—would’ve also travelled this far. Staying on your ship would be perfect for us. While you all are visiting different planets and sectors looking for your items, we can try to establish contact to any brethren that might be in that area.

  “We’ll pull our own weight. Despite the mishap this afternoon, we are very good at our jobs. We can provide protection for you while on-planet. We can also help to make any needed repairs around the ship.”

  Suni and Saph glanced at each other. Then they both burst into laughter. “We have Tayan for that.”

  Saph was already shaking her head. Suni leaned in her sister’s side as if pleading. A heartbeat later Saph sighed and turned to Vril. “This isn’t an indefinite arrangement.”

  “Understood. We will plan for our departure.”