True As Steel (Cyborg Redemption)

by Regine Abel

  The snitch flew a short distance away, probably checking if there was someone else with me. As I had been walking for 78 minutes already at a pace of 12 km per hour, I had put enough distance between the landing site and myself that the snitch didn’t bother going that far. It took a few more minutes before the silhouette of three riders appeared in the distance, followed shortly thereafter by the sound of their speeders. Now this was interesting.

  I continued walking as they closed the distance with me, the three men stopping in a half circle in front of me. Although not threatening in and of itself, their position somewhat hinted that they didn’t want me escaping without flat out stating they wanted me trapped.

  “Hello there,” called out the man in the middle, clearly the ‘brain’ and leader of the group. “Strange place to take a morning stroll.”

  In his late thirties, early forties, he had greasy brown hair tied in a tail and a two-day scruff on his oddly pointy chin. He stared at me with light blue eyes that starkly contrasted with his tanned skin, which testified to long hours spent under the brutal sun of Xyva. The man to his right looked like a young recruit, short-cropped blond hair and a bit of a babyface—the snotty kind that instinctively made you want to punch him in the throat. He was undoubtedly the grunt, whereas the brawny man on the left was the muscle.

  “Indeed,” I replied nonchalantly. “However, the scenery doesn’t quite live up to expectations.”

  He snorted and gave me a slow once over. “Judging by your outfit, you must be the lucky survivor whose escape pod landed a little over an hour ago. Why didn’t you use the distress beacon? Would have been easier to come to your rescue rather than having to scour this damn desert. The news broadcast is flooded with tales of the explosion of the transport ship from Kirs.”

  “A rescue party?” I asked, acting pleasantly surprised. “Had I known you would have gone through such trouble to assist a lost soul, I would have spent more time trying to repair it.”

  “The escape pod is damaged?” the young pup asked, his voice dripping with disappointment.

  That earned him a warning glare from their leader. Of course, they were scavengers and would have tried to recover whatever they could make a few credits off of.

  “It’s a miracle it even made it here,” I said with a shrug. “Debris from the explosion severely damaged it.”

  “Then it sounds like you’ve been lucky twice today,” their leader said.

  “Judging by your presence here, it sounds like I’ve been lucky three times,” I replied smugly. “I wasn’t looking forward to the very long walk back to the city. You are here to give me a ride back, right?”

  The greedy glimmer that flickered through his blue eyes told me everything I needed to know.

  “Sure, we’ll take you back to town…” he said.

  “But?” I insisted.

  “Should there be a but?” the mercenary leader countered.

  “No, but I sense there’s one coming,” I deadpanned.

  He chuckled, the other two imitating him like the idiots they were. By my assessment of them, their leader represented the real threat. Once I went on the offensive, the pup would freeze in shock first, then fumble with his weapon to take aim once he recovered. The muscle guy would be more stoic but slower. I could only hope he wasn’t an expert marksman. I clasped my hands behind my back and tilted my head to the side in an unimpressed attitude. But I in fact allowed the flat rock to slip from my sleeve back into my palm while my neural processor calculated the angle, speed, and force with which I needed to throw the stone to instantly kill their leader. It accounted for the wind and for the likelihood he would try to dodge the moment I made my move. I would have a fraction of a second to adjust my throw, depending on which direction he moved.

  “You know how it goes, my friend,” their leader said in an apologetic tone. “There’s a huge bounty on you Cyborgs—the kind of bounty that will have our families set for life.”

  “You know that you’ll never see a single credit of those bounties, right?” I countered. “The minute you inform the Emperor you’ve caught one of us, he will tell you to hand us over and be on your way. And if you make a fuss or tell anyone you didn’t get paid, he will make your life and that of those you love very unpleasant.”

  I knew it all too well for having been ordered to enforce such immoral practices. Where his minions snorted in disbelief, the leader hesitated. He was smart enough to know that with Emperor Shui, there could very well be truth in my words. But greed won the day.

  “If you don’t mind, we’ll take our chances,” he replied, his hand slowly moving towards the blaster cinched in his belt.

  It never reached the handle.

  Exploding into action, I flung the stone at the leader’s face while dashing towards the brawny guy. Their leader stiffened, his eyes widening in shock before he tried dodging to the left, as I had suspected—the side opposite to his weapon. He wasn’t fast enough. The rock found its mark in his right eye and sliced through his brain. He fell over without a sound. As anticipated, the rookie froze, staring at his leader in horror and disbelief while the brawny guy raised his weapon to take aim at me.

  I launched another rock at him while diving into a roll. I hadn’t hoped for a kill shot, only to cause enough pain to make him miss. But my lucky throw struck his Adam’s apple. He fired wide, not coming even remotely close to hitting me. His free hand flew to his throat as he coughed and emitted choking sounds. Flowing with the momentum of my roll, I jumped back to my feet, broke his fingers while ripping the blaster out of his hand, and snapped his neck.

  “You bastard! You bas—”

  The words died in the pup’s throat as I blew off his face. In his panic, he never even managed to get his blaster out of its holster.

  First order of business, I walked to their leader’s speeder, pleased to find the snitch’s controller and camera display hooked on the vehicle’s control panel. His speeder wasn’t as big as the brawny guy’s, but it would do. To my relief, the snitch was on a closed circuit. Therefore, no remote goons would have witnessed these idiots’ demise. I appropriated the three men’s weapons, the credit chips on them, and whatever else I deemed of interest, namely water. Although the brawny man’s clothes stank, they would fit me. With much reluctance, I stripped him and wrapped his pants in his shirt. As my Cyborg Rebel brand on my cheek would give me away regardless—but not as much as my uniform—I would keep these clothes as a last resort.

  Sitting on the leader’s speeder, I sent the snitch ahead and retraced my steps back to the escape pod. An hour and a half had elapsed since I’d parted ways with Tamryn. But it took less than seven minutes to backtrack the 12 km I had walked.

  I flew even faster over the last kilometer when the snitch revealed Tamryn had company. A dune buggy had pulled up near the landing site, and two men were cornering her. They were having a tense conversation while one of them closed in on her. The second man, standing slightly behind, was first to notice my approach. He shouted something, drawing the attention of his partner.

  Tamryn seized that moment of distraction to roundhouse kick the face of the man closest to her, sending him tumbling to the ground. She flowed into a roll towards him while throwing the care package knife at the second man, who was raising his blaster towards her. To my surprise, the blade met its mark, hitting the man on the left side of his stomach. He doubled over, shouting as his free hand flew to his bleeding wound. Tamryn, only halfway out of her roll forward, used her momentum to viciously strike the face of the first man who was trying to get back up. That she managed such a solid blow with her left hand—when she was clearly right-handed—genuinely impressed me.

  She’s no civilian…

  Blood exploded from the man’s nose, and he fell back onto his back. Tamryn half straddled him, her knee resting on his chest as she snapped his neck. She barely managed to dodge the clumsy shot of the second man, clearly severely wounded by the knife. Yanking the blaster from the first man’s
holster, she shot his wounded partner in the face. He collapsed with a thud.

  Breathing heavily, more from adrenalin and tension than from actual exertion, Tamryn rose to her feet, weapon raised in my direction. With me still being 200 meters away, it took her a second to recognize me. Although she quickly controlled her emotions, I didn’t miss the way her eyes widened. She lowered her weapon but kept eyeing me warily.

  I stopped the speeder and dismounted.

  “Impressive,” I said, assessing her work. “And here I thought you needed me to rescue you.”

  “Rescue me?” she asked, raising a dubious eyebrow as she crouched to search the first man she had killed. “What happened? Did those gears in your head manage to generate a spark of conscience?”

  I shook my head. As a Cyborg, I often received that kind of remark. However, coming from her, for some irrational reason, it stung.

  “No more than they normally do,” I deadpanned. “My reasoning for leaving you earlier was rational. Your chances of survival if you’d accompanied me were nil. As you can see, the parameters have changed,” I added, gesturing at my speeder. “I am now able to take you to safety. Therefore, I returned.”

  Although still upset that I had left her, Tamryn’s features softened.

  “Right… Thanks, I guess,” she said begrudgingly. “But, as you can see, I’ve secured a sweet ride of my own.”

  She gestured with her head at the dune buggy. I casually strolled towards it under Tamryn’s watchful eye. Like my speeder, it wasn’t state-of-the-art or the newest model, but it looked sturdy and reliable.

  “I would advise against it,” I said after giving it a summary glance.

  “Oh?” Tamryn said, crossing her arms over her chest in a defiant stance.

  I smiled, something I rarely did. For some reason, that woman stirred illogical responses from me.

  “It is a great vehicle for this desert, but it is not ideal for the other terrains we’ll travel through,” I explained.

  “We?” she challenged. “First, I’m not going to Kuryn—that’s just suicide. Second, I’m not sure I want to travel with you if you’re going to ditch my ass the minute a challenge arises. Whatever happened to the ‘leave no man behind’ ethos?”

  I sighed, starting to feel irritated.

  “I’ve already given you my logic for my earlier actions. I stand by them. I will not waste my time rehashing the same things,” I said in a cold voice. “Leave no man behind doesn’t mean sacrifice the entire crew when one member will clearly not make it or cause the entire unit’s demise. It means that the able-bodied ones do what they must so they can live to fight another day. And as soon as the situation allows it, they go back for those who couldn’t follow the first time, be they dead or alive. Which is what I did. Now, this matter is settled. Get over it.”

  She pursed her lips, looking as if she was pondering my words for a second and then gave me a stiff nod in concession. I realized then that she hadn’t actually questioned my reasons for leaving, but my ‘abandoning her’ had personally wounded her.

  “You are clearly not helpless, and neither am I. We can manage on our own, but we should fare better watching each other’s backs,” I continued, matter-of-factly. “As for our destination, you mentioned having a contact in Satos. I’ll be happy to go there instead.”

  The tension that had started bleeding out of her shoulders came back with a vengeance, and she narrowed her eyes at me. I snorted, feeling amused instead of annoyed, as I normally would be in a similar circumstance.

  “You have an excessively expressive face, Tamryn,” I said, teasingly. “I can literally read your thoughts on your features.”

  “Can you, now?” she replied, her voice dripping with suspicion.

  “Yep,” I said, heading over to the second man, whose face she had blown up, to search him. “You are now thinking that I didn’t come back here to rescue you, but merely because I want to take advantage of your contact. Tell me I’m wrong?”

  I turned to face her, locking eyes with her. She held mine unwaveringly.

  “You’re spot on,” she replied defiantly. “Is that why?”

  “Nope,” I said, retrieving the man’s weapons, including the care package knife, before getting back on my feet and approaching her. “I genuinely came to rescue you. I may be a Cyborg, but I’m not a machine. Our emotions are muted, not non-existent. I do have a conscience. I took no pleasure leaving you here. If you wish to part ways, I will proceed with my initial plan to go to Kuryn. But whatever decision you make, I still recommend you do not travel with this vehicle. The speeder is faster and will allow you to navigate narrower spaces like forests, and glide over bodies of water. That buggy? Not so much.”

  “Fair point,” she said with a nod while eyeing my speeder.

  “If we make haste, we can go back to where I encountered the idiots I took this speeder from. There are two more. You can take one and decide what you want to do,” I explained. “It’s less than a ten-minute ride from here. I would rather not stick around here too long. We might get more company.”

  “Sold,” she said. “Hang on.”

  Tamryn made a beeline for the dune buggy and quickly searched it, retrieving a bag that she shouldered with a grin.

  “Let’s go,” she said, coming back towards me. She gestured with her head at the bag. “Some water, food, and a couple of other trinkets.”

  I smiled approvingly. Self-sufficient, skilled, and able to make quick decisions based on facts—the woman was growing on me. I headed towards the speeder. As soon as I sat down, I sent the snitch ahead to scout our destination while Tamryn settled behind me.

  The softness of her breasts and the heat of her chest pressing against my back stirred long forgotten emotions. It unsettled me. When her slender arms wrapped around my waist, my abdominal muscles clenched, and a pleasant heat ignited in the pit of my stomach.

  “Hang on tightly,” I said before starting the speeder.

  Tamryn tightened her hold around me. It felt almost possessive, especially the way her palms lay splayed on my stomach. I didn’t understand my physiological responses to this stranger. Sure, she was an attractive female, but I had seen plenty of them before my transformation, and many more afterward without getting aroused or feeling this drawn. Granted, the emotions weren’t overwhelming, but in my muted state, that I responded like this spoke volumes about the extent to which she affected me.

  I forced myself to ignore it and started speeding ahead.

  Chapter 4

  Tamryn

  I held on to Jarog’s muscular body, feeling far more relieved than I’d ever admit it aloud. With my military training, facing off against two men was usually cakewalk for me, but not today. After smashing my head on the ship and getting trampled by a stampeding mob fleeing, I still required some recovery time. The headache that had mostly faded while I tinkered on the escape pod was flaring up again—my body clearly expressing its disapproval of that little fight.

  But beyond my weakened state, and despite my hesitation about his trustworthiness, the wretched Cyborg made me feel inexplicably safe. It wasn’t his strength and elite combat training, but the man himself. There was no logic to it either. However, I appreciated the bluntness with which he stated facts. No sugar-coating, downplaying, or bullshitting. He spoke his mind. If your feelings got hurt, tough titties.

  I liked knowing where I stood.

  I also really liked that he had come back for me. I’d never know if he’d only done so for my contact, but my gut told me he’d been sincere when he said that had not been the driving factor. The only downside about not traveling in the dune buggy instead of speeders was that it made conversation a bit more challenging. Now wasn’t the time for us to have a heart-to-heart, but I needed to know who I was dealing with and what his intentions were.

  Aside from getting my butt to a safe place, my priority was finding out whether my relatives and the other members of our rebel organization had survived the explosion
. We’d been separated after our capture. While being led to my cell onboard the transport ship, I thought I’d glimpsed Damian in the distance, but I couldn’t have sworn to it. The last I’d seen him was right before the Emperor’s guards had branded my cheek with that wretched R.

  I refused to believe the worst could have happened to my brother. If I’d managed to make it, I had to hold on to hope that he, and many of the others, had made it as well. Too many dark thoughts swirled through my mind, threatening to increase the headache lurking at the back of my head.

  I pressed my cheek against Jarog’s muscular back and inhaled deeply. I had simply meant to try and relax, but his earthy scent filled my nose instead. Just like that, my brain registered the fact that I was wrapped around his hard body. My fingers twitched with the sudden urge to explore the grooves of the chiseled abs beneath my palms. My reaction all but gave me whiplash. I had never been this close to a Cyborg before, let alone been this intertwined with one. It usually took far more than a hot body—and his most certainly was—to turn me on. Judging by this unusual reaction from me, I’d clearly hit my head a lot harder than I thought.

  Thankfully, we reached our destination before I had too much time to dwell on it. With surprising reluctance, I released Jarog and got off the speeder as soon as it came to a stop. Once I did, the way he stared at my hands and then at my face threw me for a loop.

  Does he miss my touch as much as I didn’t want to let go?

  That was obviously a ridiculous thought, and yet it wouldn’t leave my mind now that it had entered it.