True As Steel (Cyborg Redemption)

by Regine Abel

  “While I appreciate the rescue, why did you come for me?” he asked, his gaze boring into Jarog’s.

  “Because you’re a fellow soldier. Because the galaxy cannot afford for Grellik to have a Cyborg or the technology to make one in his hands. And because, for the time being, you’re the only other Cyborg that I know for a fact is still alive,” Jarog said.

  Despite his neutral tone and expression, I’d grown to know my man well enough to perceive the underlying pain. But it was the haunted look that crossed Loreus’s handsome face that caught my attention.

  “Your pod?” he whispered.

  “Decimated,” Jarog said, matter-of-factly. “The last of my brothers isn’t exactly dead, but…”

  “His presence is da… dimmed,” Loreus concluded on his behalf.

  I suspected he had intended to say damaged instead of dimmed. Teeth clenched, Jarog nodded.

  “I’ve lost two of mine,” Loreus said, a sliver of sadness audible in his tone. “I can only hope that the two remaining have made it to our rendezvous point and are together.”

  Jarog nodded again, but this time, I could have sworn his shoulders slightly slouched. If Loreus still had pod brothers, he would seek to reunite with them and wouldn’t need him… they didn’t need him. Jarog was once more all alone.

  But their pod is incomplete now.

  They could still technically take him in. A part of me rejoiced at that possibility, while the other selfishly hoped they wouldn’t. Jarog would leave me to be with his new family, which was only logical. And my man certainly rocked the whole logical-thinker role.

  “Hopefully, you guys weren’t planning on rallying on Gorkon or Trija,” Jarog said cautiously.

  Loreus narrowed his eyes. “We were not. Why?”

  “Shui sent his troops to slaughter any of the rebels who had survived the explosion that sought refuge there,” I said angrily. “Apparently, the word spread that many Cyborgs were headed to one of those two planets.”

  “I should have killed the bastard when I could,” Loreus said.

  There was something incredibly creepy and terrifying in the calm and collected way, he spoke those words, his face neutral, but his golden eyes burning with hatred.

  “Why didn’t you?” I couldn’t help asking.

  He held my gaze for a moment, as if trying to decide how he would answer before turning to Jarog and locking eyes with him.

  “Because it would have required killing some loyalists to get to him,” Loreus replied.

  I felt myself blanch as my eyes flicked between the two men.

  “Loyalists?” I repeated, playing dumb.

  “Some Cyborgs remained faithful to their oaths of loyalty to the Emperor, all the way to the end,” Loreus said in a non-committal fashion, turning his attention back to me.

  “Do you know who they are?” I insisted, fighting the urge to hold my breath while awaiting his response.

  Once again, I felt him hesitate for a split second before he shrugged.

  “I know some of them, but not all,” Loreus replied.

  I couldn’t decide how I felt about the fact that he hadn’t outed Jarog yet. I hated not knowing if it was because he worried it might backfire on him, out of gratitude for Jarog getting him out of that lab, or due to some kind of loyalty or code of honor between Cyborgs.

  “Well, Tamryn and our Narengi hosts know that I was one of those loyalists,” Jarog said nonchalantly. “The question is: how did you know?”

  Although subtle, Loreus’ eyes ever so slightly widened in surprise.

  “I would not have outed you,” Loreus said, looking pensively at my man.

  “I figured as much. Your comment aimed to make me aware that you knew,” Jarog replied with a dismissive wave of the hand. “But how?”

  “My pod and I headed logistics for the Cyborg Military Elite,” Loreus replied calmly. “It was our business to know everything, and plan for every contingency.”

  “Dakran Setti?” Jarog asked.

  Loreus nodded. “One of my pod brothers—one of the two survivors. He oversaw the sectors your pod served in.”

  Jarog snorted then slowly nodded. “I am glad he made it out of this mess. My pod and I, as well as the other units we served with, have often only managed to survive thanks to his efficiency. We all hold… held him in high regard.”

  A strange expression flitted over Loreus’s face as he studied Jarog’s features. “Dakran wanted to try to sway you, to turn you against the Emperor. He believed that if he convinced you, the rest of your pod would follow.”

  “Why didn’t he?” I asked.

  Loreus smiled at me before looking back at Jarog, his face slightly hardening. “Because I discouraged him,” he said, coolly. “You are too hardcore in upholding your word and duty. While I do not doubt you abhorred some of the things you had to do, you still did them. I wasn’t going to risk you ratting him out and getting my pod executed.”

  I swallowed hard while staring at Jarog. I wanted him to tell Loreus that he wouldn’t have exposed Dakran had he revealed his rebel activities. My man was true as steel when it came to upholding his word and honoring his duty. But where did that leave his moral convictions?

  Jarog pursed his lips and slowly nodded. As if sensing the weight of my gaze on him, he turned to look at me, an unreadable expression on his face.

  “I don’t know, Tamryn,” Jarog said, answering my unspoken question. “I honestly don’t know what I would have done. I only know that I would have hated myself either way.” I shifted uneasily in my seat as he turned back to Loreus. “So, you were wise in holding him back. I should thank you for sparing me from making that decision. And yet, a part of me wishes you hadn’t, because now I’ll never know if I would have made the right choice, or the one I felt compelled to.”

  My heart ached for Jarog. In that instant, I realized that his inner turmoil ran even deeper than I ever believed. However, that conversation had to be postponed as we began our descent into Satos. Every single defense system of the city was active, every tower and the defensive wall were manned, ready for a potential retaliation.

  And retaliation would definitely come.

  Although there had been no casualties, Grellik had taken two major blows, both of which had severely tarnished his image and undermined his power, but the spaceport sabotage would do a number on his wallet. That, he would never forgive.

  We touched down on the landing pad behind Perdition. The relief on Haelin’s face when she saw me walk out of the shuttle unscathed touched me more than I could ever express. She glanced at Jarog and the rest of the crew with pride before her gaze landed on Loreus. I couldn’t tell if the slow once over she gave him screamed more of triumph or lust. The rescued Cyborg was undeniably a fine piece of man.

  “Excellent job, my friends,” Haelin told us as we closed the distance with her. “You can give me your full report a little later. Hello, Loreus, I am Haelin Zorani. Welcome to my city.”

  “Hello, Haelin Zorani,” he replied in an enigmatic way that had my brows shooting up.

  “Do you require further medical assistance?” she asked.

  “No, thank you,” Loreus said. “My latest diagnostics state I am fully operational.”

  “Excellent!” Haelin said with a pleased look on her face. “In that case, I will have Yelena escort you and Jarog to the boardroom so that I can better acquaint myself with you.”

  I recoiled and gave the Narengi leader a questioning look. Why the fuck was I excluded?

  “You need to head back to your quarters,” Haelin said to me with a soft expression. “I finally heard back from your uncle. He’s in a safe place for now. You can establish a direct connection from the vidcom.”

  “Uncle Cedric!” I exclaimed in a whisper.

  In my impatience to speak with my uncle, every other thought fled my mind as I raced inside the club and down to our suite. I didn’t even remember to thank Haelin, the rescue mission also forgotten. The one-floor ride through th
e elevator took an eternity. I stormed inside the suite and threw myself at the couch, nearly smashing the interface of the remote in my frenzy to activate it. The connection took forever and a day, only for it to give me an error that it had failed.

  “No!” I shouted, my chest painfully constricting as I tried again.

  I almost felt dizzy from holding my breath while waiting for the result. I nearly wept when the ‘connection established’ message appeared on screen. Seconds later, Uncle Cedric’s beloved face filled the monitor.

  “Uncle C,” I whispered in a choked voice.

  “Hey Tam!” he replied in that gruff, affectionate voice of his. “It’s good to see you so well, sweetie. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine! Haelin is taking good care of me,” I said with sincerity, although somewhat dismissively. I wanted to hear about him and the others, not speak about myself. “How are the others? How is Da—”

  My voice gave out before I could pronounce my brother’s name. The look on his face only sank the knife further into my heart.

  “I’m not going to lie to you, it’s a real mess, honey,” Uncle Cedric said in a pained voice. “We lost a lot of people on that ship. Many died, but many also made it off. It’s going to take a long time before we know for sure who escaped and survived.”

  “But is he alive?” I insisted.

  “The truth is, I don’t know if Damien made it or not,” he said in an apologetic tone. “We were together, trying to flee, but then part of the hallway collapsed. We were split up by people trying to avoid getting crushed. We both made it to the ship hangar. However, trying to get onto the same vessel would have been impossible. They were filling up too fast. You had to jump on the closest one and hope you didn’t get trampled to death in the process.”

  I could relate to that all too well. Without Jarog, I’d be dead right now.

  “I saw him get onboard a vessel, and his ship got off, honey. That I can guarantee you. His vessel left the transport ship,” my uncle said with conviction. “But then the transport ship blew up, and that fucking shockwave screwed everyone over. It wrecked our chaser. Frankly, it’s a miracle we made it to Andarta without blowing up.”

  “Is that where you are now? On Andarta?” I asked, my mind reeling.

  He hesitated. “We left Andarta a while ago now, but it’s better I do not name my current location,” he said apologetically. “You know the drill. We’re trying to bury this signal in case we’re being traced, but we can never be too careful.”

  My throat constricted again, and I nodded in understanding.

  “I was unconscious for two days, and our vessel had no com. Everyone is crippled right now, be it physically or technologically. So, I need you to be even stronger than you’ve always been,” Uncle Cedric said. “I don’t know if and when we’ll hear from Damian or any of the others that are missing. With everyone currently in hiding, it makes things even more challenging. But we’re finding new survivors every day, civilians and Cyborgs alike. I’m not giving up hope.”

  “Okay, and how do I reunite with all of you?” I asked.

  “You don’t,” my uncle said with a finality that broke my heart. “It’s not safe for you, and it’s even less safe for us. Haelin will take good care of you, and you can help our cause by staying right where you are. This is going to be a long-hauler, sweetie. But we will be together again. Your dad and I just need to know you’re safe while we try to get back on our feet.”

  I stared at him in silence, feeling betrayed and abandoned, even though my head understood the logic of his words—and had in fact expected it.

  “Don’t cry, honey,” he said with sorrow. “You know we want you here.”

  Only when he spoke those words did I realize that my face was indeed covered in tears. I angrily wiped them with the back of my hands. This was all Shui’s fault. That bastard would pay, even if it took ten or twenty years, he would get his comeuppance.

  Uncle Cedric cast a glance at something or someone offscreen, and his shoulders slouched.

  “I have to go, my darling,” he said with a sad expression. “I’ve already been on too long. We’ll talk again, as often as we safely can. I love you, sweetheart.”

  “I love you, too, Uncle C,” I said.

  He raised his hand in goodbye and the screen went black. I stared at the dark monitor without seeing it and hugged myself. Emperor Shui had taken everything from me. And now, the Cyborg we had just rescued would likely take Jarog away as well.

  Chapter 13

  Jarog

  I watched Tamryn hasten away with an odd sense of loss. Since our arrival here, she’d been dying to finally speak to her relatives. Will it be the news she’d hoped for? Will she be going home to her family, to her people?

  With Haelin in the lead, we entered Perdition through the back door and made our way to the second boardroom in the executive lounge where we’d previously planned the attack. Loreus reminded me of myself on the day Tamryn and I got here. Through subtle movements, his eyes analyzed every centimeter of the building, identified exits, potential weapons, security systems, guards’ location, and obviously who was the biggest threat.

  He had no reason to trust us, least of all me. Fuck, I couldn’t even trust myself. This whole mess had forced me to look at my own reflection under a different light—one that I didn’t enjoy. I’d wrapped myself in a shroud of self-righteousness and honorability that was proving to have been a cop out. I should have rebelled the minute I realized how bad things were getting instead of burying my head in a heap of denial and hiding behind my oath to the Emperor. What about my oath to the people?

  We settled at the conference table, Loreus and I sitting side by side, Haelin across the table from us, flanked by Yelena and Lanish. For a reason I couldn’t explain, I suddenly felt like my fellow Cyborg and I were on trial, facing our judge and jury.

  “All right. So, how did it go down?” Haelin asked.

  Yelena, Lanish, and I took turns recounting the events of our mission. Loreus listened as intently as the Narengi leader, especially when it came to what took place in the spaceport. The Narengis were also discreetly studying him. I didn’t quite understand this approach, which was so radically different than the one they had taken with me. However, I had noticed the silent communication between Miko, Shalla, and Haelin at the landing pad. I didn’t doubt for a minute they’d shared their impressions of the conversations with Loreus on our way back here.

  “How extensive is the damage to their spaceport?” Haelin asked.

  “We constrained it,” Yelena said. “The power generators will require extensive repairs. We only damaged the computers of the departure and arrival terminals. So, about three weeks of intense work and some common pieces of equipment to get things going again.”

  “Excellent,” Haelin said before turning her attention to Loreus. “And that brings us to you.”

  “It does,” he replied, matter-of-factly.

  “Grellik will want you back,” the Narengi leader continued. “If you don’t already know what you want to do, I can provide you with temporary asylum while you decide whether to stay in Satos or leave Xyva altogether.”

  “You’re not going to try to force me to stay?” Loreus challenged. “You would just let me walk away after going through all this trouble to break me out of there?”

  “Yes,” Haelin said with a shrug. “You are a free man, and the risk was worth it to make sure Grellik didn’t have a Cyborg.”

  “Ah… You don’t want him to have what you do,” Loreus replied.

  I stiffened and looked at him.

  Haelin snorted. “Jarog isn’t mine,” she replied teasingly, leaning against the backrest of her chair. “I’d like him to stay here and work for me, and I’d like the same from you. But he has only committed to stay here until you were freed. I have no idea what his plans are moving forward. If you both decide to leave, I will provide you with the basic means to do so.”

  “Why?” Loreus insisted.
<
br />   “First, because I’m not a slaver,” Haelin said with a shrug. “Second, because you are wanted rebels with a huge bounty on your heads. As long as Emperor Shui lives, you will not be safe. That means you will bend over backward to eliminate him, which serves my purpose. And third, because my homeworld is Bionus, and Shui threatens its sovereignty. I would love to see the surviving Cyborgs regroup and for the Emperor to get obliterated by the Military Elite he built before turning on it.”

  “I believe your rival is trying to do just that,” I intervened.

  All heads turned questioningly in my direction, although Loreus merely narrowed his eyes at me.

  “What do you mean?” Yelena asked.

  “Grellik is trying to build his own Cyborg army,” I explained. “Judging by the look of the people in stasis at the development lab, they were experiments gone wrong. I believe Loreus was going to be the key to solve the problem that kept them from succeeding.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Haelin breathed out, visibly shaken for the first time since I’d met her.

  “I concur with Jarog’s assessment,” Loreus said. “Based on the failed experiments in stasis and the amount of parts on display in the lab, that man is on a mission.”

  “And with us being outlawed, I suspect Grellik will not rest until he has one of us under his control to study and dissect,” I continued. “I downloaded all the data they had in their computer before wiping the drive. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have backups somewhere else.”

  “Good thinking,” Haelin said.

  “But between that, taking Loreus from him, and disabling his spaceport for a few weeks, I believe he’s going to retaliate more violently than you initially expected,” I warned.

  “I agree,” Lanish said.

  “So do I,” Haelin said, while Yelena nodded. “We’ll prepare accordingly. Do you have any idea as to where your own plans are leaning, Loreus?”

  Even though I already knew the answer, I caught myself holding my breath.