“I just don’t like it,” Taun growled as he followed Zema through the crowd they had encountered.
“You don’t like what? That she isn’t treating you like an Elite Cyborg or that you have feelings for her?”
“F-feelings?! What? No!”
There was no room in his life for feelings. Never had been and never would be. It wasn’t unheard of for some of the cyborgs to retire and build a family. Taun had never thought that life was for him. He had been proud of what he did and who he was. Mate? No. Kids? No.
Zema made a movement with her hand in the air. “Feelings. You know that thing that they tried to strip out of us when they made us cyborgs? That.”
Taun grumbled. “I do not have feelings for her.”
Zema craned her neck to glance up at him. There was a twinkle in the corner of her eyes. Anyone else might dismiss it, but he recognized it as her ocular plant shielding her eyes from the sun that sat high in the sky. “As evidenced by your need to protect her?”
“She saved us and the only thing she’s asking for in return is for us to guard her while she picks up trinkets for that game of hers.”
They rounded a corner and, off in the distance, he spotted a store with a large blue awning. “I think that’s the place,” he said.
“Only when she has a need for us,” Zema pointed out.
“What?”
She made her way toward the store’s direction. “We guard her only when she asks us to.”
“So, we just let her trounce around this planet by herself where anything can happen?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Despite the sun’s high position, light rain began to fall and pelt his face.
“Because she’s a grown woman who has been living this life for a long time. She’ll let us know when she needs us.”
“How do you know she’s been living this life for a long time?”
Zema shrugged. “I know the look. The awkwardness of not being around people often.”
“From experience?” He realized at that moment he didn’t know much about Zema. He hadn’t known she existed before seeing her for the first time on the prison transport and since then there hadn’t been much time to get to know anyone. They were in a constant state of alert.
“I grew up on Eros with my dad.”
As soon as she said that Taun grunted. Eros was on a work colony on one of the habitable moons near Kirs. He had a job there once. It was a lonely, desolate place with a harsh climate. Only those who could live a solitary life stayed there. While there were children, they were few. Many families didn’t want their children to grow up in such surroundings.
Zema stopped on the porch in front of the store and turned around to address him. “Look. All I’m saying is that we can’t come into their lives and disrupt it. Nor can we judge how they live and feel sorry for them. They’re doing what they have to do to survive. I can relate. If she needs us, she’ll let us know.”
“Taun! Zema!” Suni’s frantic voice blasted over their comlinks.
“We’re here,” Zema said.
“Tayan’s gone! I think someone took her!”
Chapter Eleven
One look at Suni and Taun’s knees almost buckled. Suni stood outside of a clothing store with a staff member and a law officer. Fear rolled off her in waves and he wanted to do everything in his power to fix this and protect her.
“Uh oh,” Zema whispered as they headed toward Suni. “Do we really want to get involved with officers? What if we’re on a watch list and they try to detain us?”
Taun didn’t waver in his trajectory. Suni was like a beacon of light in a dark room. She talked animatedly to the officer while the female attendant patted her back, trying to soothe her. As if Suni could feel his eyes on her, she turned and lifted her tear glistened face. Their eyes locked and she raised a hand to him then dropped it. Taun’s heart slammed against his ribs. The urge to run to her and gather her in his arms was strong.
He quickened his pace. “We’re already involved. We’ll deal with the authorities when the time comes.”
If Zema had any other objections she kept them to herself as she walked beside him just as determined to reach Suni as he was.
Taun reached her and needing to feel her presence, brushed his shoulder against hers. “What happened?”
Suni wrung her hands together. Tears ran down her cheeks as she took in struggling breaths. “I went into the shop for new clothes. Tay was with me, then she wasn’t. I-I called for her and looked for her, but I couldn’t find her.”
Zema did what Taun didn’t trust himself to do. She turned Suni toward her and held onto her arms. “We’ll find her.”
“Tayan?” Taun asked into the comlink. “Tayan, answer. Your sister is very worried about you.”
There was no response. Suni let out a strangled cry. “I’ve been trying to reach her, but she isn’t answering.”
“Has she ever left before?” the officer asked. “She’s a child. Children wander off all the time.”
Suni hiccupped on a cry and shook her head. “She would never wander off. She knows to stay by my side.”
Taun opened a communication line to the ship. “Connect me to Vril.”
“Connection to Vril established.”
“Vril, Taun here. We have a situation on the planet.”
“Give me the details,” Vril said.
Taun had never been under Vril’s command or worked with him, but so far, he trusted him. He could’ve easily overtaken Saph to take control of the ship, yet, he’d deferred to her as captain and respected her, grudgingly. Vril didn’t have anything to prove, and he was all about finding whoever they could. Taun was glad Vril was with them.
“Tayan is gone, and she isn’t answering our calls. We don’t know if she wandered off or something else…”
“Oh, no!” Suni burst into a cry.
Taun angled himself against her and Suni turned to bury her head against the crook of his arm. Her petite body was racked with cries. Unable to stop himself, he wrapped an arm around her, cradling her to him. Every one of her sobs tore through him. He needed to fix this. Now.
“What happened!” Saph yelled over the intercom.
“What are you doing on the line?” Vril asked. “This is a private conversation.”
“This is my ship,” Saph growled. “I monitor all incoming and outgoing communication. Now, tell me how did you lose Tayan?”
Suni flinched at Saph’s tone and reflectively Taun cradled her closer.
“I’m so sorry, Saph. I wasn’t paying attention.”
“That question wasn’t directed at you,” Saph said. “It’s for Taun and Zema. How did you lose Tayan?”
“We weren’t near them,” Zema gritted.
Saph snorted. “That’s obvious. Why not? The whole reason you are allowed to stay on my ship is because of our deal. We give you refuge until you can get back to your people and you’re supposed to watch over us when we collect our game items.”
“We weren’t collecting items on this planet,” Suni said. “I-I told them we didn’t need their help and sent them away.”
“It doesn’t matter!” Saph yelled. “We had a deal!”
“May I remind you that Tayan would be safe if you would’ve left her on the ship as I’d suggested,” Vril chimed in.
“You didn’t suggest anything! You tried to tell me what to do!”
“Someone had to try to talk some sense into you! And because you wouldn’t listen, look what happened.”
“That’s it—”
“Saph, stop. In fact, both of you stop. There’s no point in arguing.” Suni pushed away from Taun and wiped her cheeks, clearing her face. He missed the weight of her on his body. “It was my fault. I sent Taun and Zema away and I wasn’t paying attention to Tayan.”
“Everybody, stop playing the blame game and find my daughter!” Yovit yelled.
“Yovit, don’t you dare yell at me!”
“Saph, Yovit is rig
ht. We need to find Tayan.”
“Wait. I have incoming communication.” Saph inhaled a sharp breath. “It’s from Kenzi.”
“Ignore him,” Yovit said. “We have more pressing matters to attend to.”
“We can’t ignore this one,” Saph said. “They have Tayan. They won’t return her unless we agree to drop out of the scavenger hunt.”
Suni’s lower lip trembled, and fresh tears breeched her eye lids. “This is all my fault. I’m so sorry, Saph.”
“Suni, get back to the ship,” Vril said. “Taun and Zema, I’m sending Raint down to you. He’ll help look for Tayan.”
“No,” Saph said. “I’m doing as they request and dropping out of the game.”
It felt like someone had punched her in the gut. The air left her lungs and Suni dropped to her knees. “I messed up so bad,” she whispered.
“We can fix this. You’ll do as they requested, drop out of the game then they’ll return Tayan,” Zema said.
Taun crouched beside Suni and she wanted to bury her head in his shoulder again. Instead, she dropped her butt to rest on her heels and shook her head. “This is all my fault, Taun. We’re going to be stuck out here forever.”
“You don’t think they’ll return Tayan?” Zema asked.
“They’ll return her.”
“What’s the problem then?” Zema asked.
Taun held up a hand to Zema, then turned toward Suni. “What do you mean, ‘we’re going to be stuck out here forever’?”
“We’ll have to drop out of the game.”
Taun nodded. “That’s the terms and conditions for Tayan’s release. Then you can go home.”
“We won’t be able to go home and it’s my fault.”
“I don’t understand.”
Suni ran a hand over her head, feeling the curls she had forgotten that she styled her hair in before leaving the ship. She’d wanted to look her best in hopes he would give her more than a passing glance. She had been so caught up in finding an outfit to go with her new hairstyle and wanting to look pretty. Now Tayan was gone.
“We needed the credits we would’ve won at the end of the game in order to make that happen.” Suni closed her eyes and lowered her head.
They hadn’t needed supplies. They could’ve waited for their order to get delivered but the space delivery service didn’t have normal everyday planet wear. They only carried the jumpsuits made for space. Because she had wanted to look cute and appealing to Taun, she had gotten her sister kidnapped and ruined the chance for her family to return home any time soon.
“Dropping out means we won’t have enough credits to pay off the debt we owe on our home planet.”
“You can’t go home without payment?” Taun asked.
Suni shook her head. “Yovit sunk every credit he had into the spaceship. When his business ventures didn’t pan out, we were left creditless and owing a lot of people back on Quitex. We didn’t have a choice but to leave to try to find a way to pay it back.”
“That’s why you entered the game, er, scavenger hunt?”
Suni lifted her head only to let it fall back. “We’re never going to be able to return. This was the only chance we had to make the credits needed in a short amount of time.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “You’ll find another way to make back the credits.”
Suni opened her eyes and stood. Fury took root at his callous response. “Really? When? Next year, within the next three years? Five?” A crazy chuckle left her mouth. “Yovit’s health is degenerating. Space travel is putting a strain on his heart and bones. We aren’t able to afford the daily vitamins we need for all of us to sustain indefinitely in space, so Saph and I have been giving Tayan our shares and even then, it isn’t the full dose she needs. She’s below weight and height for her age. I’ll have to make this right. We’ll get Tayan back and go back to transporting goods for Dhohet.”
“Who is Dhohet?” Zema asked.
Suni started for the jumper with Taun and Zema following behind her.
“Dhohet is the owner of a black-market transport company. Sometimes they contract others to take on some hauling jobs for them. The jobs are hazardous, but pay is good.”
“You can’t do anything illegal,” Taun said.
Suni snorted. “Why and who are you running from again?”
“That’s not an issue. We don’t need to discuss that.”
Suni chuckled. “Right. Since you obviously want to live your life on the up and up, we’ll part ways here.”
Chapter Twelve
“We can’t let them drop out of the scavenger hunt,” Taun said to Vril.
The jumper ride from the planet’s surface to the ship had been quick and silent. Zema didn’t need his help piloting back to the ship, but Taun needed something to get his mind off of gathering the woman crying alone in the seat behind him in his arms.
Vril was in his cabin. Taun entered and Vril looked up from reading the sector map. “You heard Saph. If they drop out of the game, Tayan will be returned to her family.” Vril went back to studying the map. “Were you able to ask around and find out if any other cyborgs are in this area?”
“Didn’t get a chance to.”
“Damn. I was really hoping this deal would’ve worked out. Staying with this family and hiding who we are was a good cover while we searched for the others.” Vril thrust his fingers through his hair. “Looking for the others without this cover just got a little harder.”
“We’ll find the others, but first we have to get Tayan back.”
Vril glanced at him and frowned. “Tayan’s coming back, or you don’t believe they’ll return her?”
“Suni believes they will.”
Vril leaned back in the chair and spread his long legs wide. “Then what’s the problem?”
“Dropping out of the scavenger hunt can’t be an option for them. We have to rescue Tayan.”
“Rescue Tayan?” Vril smirked. “We don’t need to rescue anyone. She’ll be returned.”
Raint entered. “What’s going on here?” Vril’s bed creaked under Raint’s weight when he sat on it. As far as beds went, Taun had slept in better. But then again, he had also slept in a lot worse.
“I want us to rescue Tayan,” Taun said.
“And I’m saying there’s no need since she’ll be returned after they drop out of the game.” Vril lifted his shoulder. “If that stubborn female decides not to drop out and have her sister returned to her, it’s not our fault.”
Taun leaned against wall. “Saph will drop out because she wants her little sister back.”
“But if they drop out, they won’t get the credits they needed in order to pay off their father’s debt and return to their home planet.”
Taun turned to Raint. “How do you know that? I just found out.”
Raint tapped his left ear. “I heard Suni crying to Saph about it.”
“It’s just a game,” Vril said. “I’m sure they can find another one to join.”
“Not to them,” Taun said. “It’s a way to return home.”
“We all know what longing for home feels like,” Zema said, entering the already cramped room and taking a seat next to Raint. “They’ve been living out here for eight years and they had their hearts set on winning, getting the prize credits and returning home within the year.”
Vril remained unmoved. “So, their plan is pushed out until they can find another game.”
“You keep saying ‘it’s a game’ when it’s much more than that for them. This was a way for them to return to a sense of normalcy. Besides, Saph is right. We shouldn’t have split up. This is partly our fault too,” Zema said.
“No,” Vril said slowly. “If Saph would’ve kept Tayan on the ship as I told her, Tayan would be safe. Besides, you said yourself that Suni sent you two away.”
“We had a deal to protect them until we part ways. Our deal wasn’t determined by which planet we were on or if we had to watch them only during an active retrieval of the scavenge
r hunt items.”
Raint and Taun nodded. “She’s right,” Taun said. “I’ve had a few missions where the package didn’t want my services and I’ve never walked away just because they were upset with me.”
Vril scrubbed a hand down his face and scratched the stubbles of hair on his chin. “We might expose ourselves in the process and I don’t like that thought.”
“Not if we’re smart,” Raint noted.
“So, leave you on the ship while we rescue Tayan? We can do that.”
Raint playfully punched Zema on the shoulder and she pretended that it had hurt.
“We need to find out where the kidnappers are,” Vril said.
“I ran a scan and found where their ship is docked. It wasn’t hard to find where their communication originated from. They weren’t trying to hide. My guess is they aren’t afraid of Saph retaliating,” Zema said. “Getting on and retrieving her shouldn’t be a problem. They have a security system I should be able to bypass allowing someone to get onboard and off without detection.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” Taun said. “For added measure we’ll slow down our systems so that are vital signs are unreadable. As long as we can get in and out within fifteen minutes—the time it will take for us to bring our systems back online—we should be fine and undetected.”
“I have a lock on Tayan’s heat signature,” Zema said. “I have Saph monitoring her, making sure there aren’t any deviations indicating something is wrong or she’s being harmed.”
Vril let out a heavy breath as he watched Zema. “You have this already planned out, don’t you?”
“I agree with Taun,” Zema said. “It doesn’t matter that Saph was the one who let Tayan go to the planet. We were the ones who didn’t do our jobs.”
“Does Saph or Suni have any idea of our plan?” Vril asked.
“No, not yet. I wanted to get your buy-in first. You’re the highest-ranking member and in charge.”
Vril leaned back in his chair, looking tired. He had been going non-stop since coming out of his regeneration stasis. “I feel like half of myself at the moment. I don’t know if I have the capacity to lead.”
Saving The Cyborg (Cyborg Redemption) Page 10
