by Cynthia Sax
“Then we’ll place the bombs and blow the space station up.” Their offspring’s eyes gleamed.
That had been another heated discussion. His female had been nervous about having the girl accompany them while they set the explosives.
He had countered that she was less likely to get into trouble if she was with them. His female had conceded that point. The kid, she shared, had a history of causing chaos.
Grudge would contain that anarchy. He’d safeguard both of his females.
“We only blow the space station up if there aren’t any ships in the docking bay.” His female glanced at him. “That was our deal.”
His little enhanced human was honorable. Pride filled him. She’d never break her vows to him.
The image of the docking bay stretched across the main viewscreen as they entered it.
Jasny cheered. “We’re blowing up the space station.”
The space was devoid of ships. Huge containers had been set against the walls. Small cleaning bots rushed around the gleaming white floor. The larger machines were inactive.
Cadet would be disappointed. There were no ships to add to the cyborgs’ fleet.
But Jasny was happy. The girl wiggled in her chair.
His female appeared satisfied also.
“You want to destroy the battle robots.” He processed her dislike of the Humanoid Alliance weapons, understood why their destruction would give her comfort.
“Frag yeah, I do.” His female landed the freighter in a clear space. “I hate those fraggers.”
Grudge had never heard frag used in that way. He added it to his database of words.
“The medic packs and devices will be easier to gather also.” His female cut the engines. “They haven’t yet been distributed, remain in their transport containers. That’s one pickup place, compared to searching through many ships for them.”
“That should hasten the process.” He brushed his lips over her nape, unable to resist touching that delicate stretch of skin. “I won’t decrease my speed as much while I patrol the space station’s hallways, giving my little enhanced human—” He nipped the back of her neck and she twitched, the scent of her musk thickening in the air. “—and my little enhanced humanoid—” He glanced at Jasny. “—time to load the freighter.”
“Frag you, cyborg.” His female turned on his lap, facing him, and grabbed his shoulders.
Her lips collided with his as she kissed him hard, the force of her passion taking him by surprise.
Desire surged through his circuits. He opened to her.
But his female was already pulling back from him. “Let’s do this.” She jumped off his lap.
His little warrior was right. There was no time to linger.
“Stay in the docking bay.” Grudge was the first to exit the freighter.
He completed a perimeter check first, assuring the space was safe for his female and their offspring. There were no detectable threats. The guns mounted high on the walls were deactivated. The cleaning bots were the only signs of motion, and they were harmless.
As he moved through the doors, into the hallways, he faced the danger he expected, the peril he sought to shield his enhanced human and humanoid from.
Battle robots marched in his direction. Their steps were in perfect sync. Each unit was identical. Their expressions were blank. They held guns in their simulated fingers.
The machines detected his presence. They raised their weapons in unison, aiming them at him.
He ran at full cyborg speed toward them, zigzagging across the narrow space.
The battle robots fired lasers at him, but their reaction time was six heartbeats too slow. The streams of blue cut through the wall panels behind him.
Grudge leaped into the air, landed on one of the lead battle robots. His boot heels rang against his mechanical foe’s shoulders.
He inserted his fingers into the battle robot’s neck slot, accessing its systems. It took little effort to hack its coding. He shut that battle robot and all the other units down.
The Humanoid Alliance had disconnected the battle robots’ systems from the space station’s systems. But his enemy was renowned for being sloppy. Once a being accessed one battle robot’s programming, they could access all of the units’ code.
The battle robots’ eyes went dark. Their forms froze in place. The shooting stopped.
That threat had been neutralized.
Grudge jumped to the floor and sprinted forward. He passed a control panel installed near a doorway, skimmed his hands over its surface, performing a scan of the space station’s data.
There were no indications of any other hostiles.
He didn’t 100.0000 percent trust that feedback. It had been provided by a structure designed by his most hated foes.
And the lifespans of the beings he most cherished were at risk. His female and their offspring were on board the space station.
His speed increased. He would navigate the interior, verify the lack of peril with his own visual system. Only then, would he be reassured they weren’t in danger.
Chapter Sixteen
Taelyn worked quickly with the kid. They loaded the devices first. The handhelds and private viewscreens were situated in two large containers. Those containers were too heavy for Taelyn to move. She used packs to transport them to the freighter.
The damn cyborg hadn’t returned by the time they had completed transferring them. She pushed her worry aside and started conveying the medic packs.
As she returned to that container for the fifth trip, awareness shimmered over her. Her nipples tightened and her pussy grew wet.
“It is about fraggin’ time.” She glared over her shoulder, hiding her concern with grumpiness.
Grudge moved forward, placing one of his palms on her lower back, giving her the connection she craved. “I missed you too, my female.” He grinned at her.
Her male appeared whole and unharmed.
Thank the stars. Some of the tension eased out of her form. “Take this.” She tossed thirty medic packs in rapid succession at him.
He caught them, threaded his arms through the handle straps. “I scanned the space station’s systems. Hidden in the code is a number that decreases with every passing heartbeat.”
“It’s some sort of a countdown?” She could only carry ten medic packs.
“That is what we project it to be.” Grudge walked with her, shortening his longer stride to match hers. “The space station near Rohini 9, when I adjust for the moments passed, was counting down to the same date.”
“Frag.” She blew out her breath. “Do you know what the Humanoid Alliance is planning to do on that date?”
“No.” One of his arms brushed against hers as they moved. “Based on our knowledge of them, there is a 98.1458 percent chance it involves an invasion or a different form of hostility.”
They’d be using the battle robots to kill innocents. Dread gripped Taelyn. “We have to destroy all the space stations before that date.”
“That is the best plan.” Her cyborg nodded.
She had been considering giving up her fate-given mission to blast every battle robot in existence into pieces. It was a dangerous task to assign to her newly obtained family.
But not accomplishing that assignment would now be more perilous. Antares II could be one of the planets the Humanoid Alliance targeted. And other beings elsewhere could also die, beings like her parents, her siblings.
“Then that’s what we do.” She plopped the medic packs in the cargo chamber.
Grudge did the same.
The kid hustled to arrange them. “It’s full.” Her voice lilted with excitement. She slid the pack of explosives to the front.
Grudge grabbed it.
Taelyn shook her head. He was a pain in the ass, always wanting to carry shit she could handle. But she didn’t have time to tell him off.
“Close it up.” She gave the kid that order. “And get out here.”
She had never se
en Jasny move so quickly.
That made her nervous. “I’m not allowing her out of my sight.” She leaned against her cyborg. The kid was a menace, was a little too thrilled to be accompanying them for her comfort.
“I’m not allowing either of you out of my sight lines.” Grudge hooked his free arm around her, pulled her closer to him.
The kid emerged, skipped down the ramp.
“You’re staying by my fraggin’ side.” Taelyn frowned at her. “You don’t touch anything. You don’t kick anything. You watch for danger. If you see anything, you tell us. Got it?”
“Got it.” The kid said that too quickly for her to have got anything.
Taelyn knew that truth from past experience. She stifled a sigh. “Let’s go.”
They navigated between the massive containers in the docking bay, entered the hallway. Battle robots were situated in that space. Their eyes were blank. Their forms were still.
“Are they dead?” The kid reached out with her right hand.
“Don’t touch it.” Taelyn barked that command. Fear churned her stomach. Acid burned the back of her throat. “They’re dangerous.” She flexed her mechanical arm. “If you see a flicker of fraggin’ light in their eyes, you run as fast and as far away from them as you possibly can.”
Grudge clasped her hand, squeezed it. The damn cyborg knew of her past, of her terror, but he thankfully said nothing.
The kid viewed her as a badass warrior, depended on both of them to protect her. Taelyn didn’t want to shake the girl’s confidence in her.
Once they cleared the section with the battle robots, they increased their speed, racing through the hallways. They followed the plan she’d crafted for the previous missions. The farthest-placed explosives were set first. Grudge handed them to her. She set them. The kid’s official role was to look for threats. Her gaze, however, tracked their movements.
Taelyn wasn’t relying on the kid’s surveillance. She was doing her own. As she suspected her cyborg was also. His brilliant blue-eyed gaze was more attentive. He constantly scanned the space.
They reached the battle robot storage chamber. Her shoulders crept upward. She hated that fraggin’ space.
Her cyborg must have sensed that. He linked his fingers with hers. That contact bolstered her courage as they entered the chamber.
“Don’t touch the battle robots.” She reminded the kid.
“I’m not touching them.” Jasny rolled her eyes.
There was no concern in the girl’s voice…because she didn’t realize how damn dangerous the fraggin’ things were. They could slice all three of them to bits within mere moments.
Taelyn shuddered and sprinted along the chamber’s perimeters. They placed bombs in the designated spots. The battle robots stared at them with their dark, deactivated eyes.
She fought the urge to freak the frag out. They were too close to the beings she cared about.
“Why are we putting so many explosives here?” The kid whispered the one question Taelyn didn’t want to answer. “Are the battle robots that dangerous?”
Taelyn glanced at Grudge. Her chest was bound too tight with emotion. If she spoke now, she’d worry the girl.
“They’re dangerous when active.” He answered for her. His voice was soft. “And there are 225,500 of them in this space.”
“225,500.” The kid’s eyes widened. “That’s a lot.”
Only one battle robot was needed to kill a being, to end the lifespan of Jasny or Grudge, taking them from Taelyn forever.
She set the last bomb and slipped through the doors. The air immediately felt lighter.
Her cyborg drew her to his chest and rubbed small circles over her back. That soothed her. Greatly.
“Are you going to kiss again?” The kid sounded disgusted with that possibility.
Grudge’s chest shook. The male was silently laughing. “There is a 100.0000 percent certainty we will kiss again. When we will kiss next hasn’t been decided.”
“How about never?” Jasny offered her opinion. “Badasses don’t kiss.”
Her cyborg disagreed with that statement.
The two of them nattered back and forth.
Taelyn’s breathing leveled. She felt more like her normal self. Her terror had dissipated. Her coolness under pressure had returned. She could manage.
“I’m ready.” She lifted her head, tilted her head back and gazed up at Grudge, making no attempt to hide her caring, her gratitude.
He’d deflected the kid’s attention, hidden her reaction from the girl.
She owed him for that, for so much more.
“We’re kissing now.” Her cyborg cupped Taelyn’s cheeks, bracketing her face with his big hands, and he covered her lips with his.
The kid made gagging noises.
Her male stroked into Taelyn’s mouth, ravishing her senseless. She sucked on his tongue, seeking to hold onto him, to draw him deeper into her.
His lips curled upward, pulling hers with them. Joy filled her soul.
The gagging noises grew louder and more enthusiastic.
“She’s a fraggin’ menace.” Taelyn pushed her cyborg away from her and laughed. “Come on. Let’s finish this and we can kiss in the privacy of our own chamber.”
“Please do that.” The kid scuffed one of her boot heels against the floor, leaving a black mark on the spotless white tile. “Kissing is disgusting.”
“You might not always think that.” Taelyn placed one of her hands on the Jasny’s shoulder, gripped Grudge’s fingers with the other.
“I will always think that.” The certainty in the kid’s voice made her laugh harder.
She loved the little pain in the ass so fraggin’ much.
They were returning to the docking bay, were situated within view of the battle robots deactivated in the hallway when the lights in the space station flicked off one by one.
The darkness was eerie. The silence was even more shocking. There was no hum of energy around them, no rush of air through vents.
“Grudge.” Taelyn stopped. “What is—”
The lights turned back on. Buzzing originated from the wall panels. The air flowed once more.
“There must have been a power fluctuation.” Her cyborg stalked to a control panel by a door, placed his palms on it. “The systems have all reset. I’m deactivating the space station’s monitoring devices and its defenses.”
“Does the Humanoid Alliance know we’re here?” She stepped toward him. “Is that why they cut the power to the space station?”
“There’s a low probability the Humanoid Alliance is aware of the fluctuation.” Grudge gazed at the control panel. “There’s a malfunction in one of the power grids.” He shook his head. “The fabrication of the space station was sloppy.”
Her male was unimpressed with their shared enemy’s abilities.
She was glad for their ineptitude. “As long as that sloppiness doesn’t get us killed, I don’t—”
“Mom.” The fear in Jasny’s voice purged any objections she had over that word.
Taelyn looked in her direction and inhaled sharply. Terror gripped her.
The battle robots were turning toward them, toward the kid. Their eyes were illuminated, the red light in those depths chilling her to her bones. They lifted their guns.
“Get down.” She lunged forward, shoved the kid out of the battle robots’ range. A blue ray cut through her left arm, severing the mechanical limb in two.
Her hand dropped to the floor. Pain swept up the remaining part of her arm, its intensity almost blinding her. She dropped to the floor beside Jasny and tapped her shoulder socket, manually disabling the sensory connectors.
A form blurred.
“Find cover.” Grudge was now in front of them, positioning his big body between them and the battle robots. He had guns in both of his arms, was shooting their mechanical foes. His projectiles merely chipped their forms, redirected their aims. Blue rays sliced through wall panels.
“Crawl to
the alcove.” Taelyn utilized her one remaining hand to push the kid toward the nearest wall. “Keep low.”
Grudge moved with them, using his body as shield. He was able to block the rays…thus far…but there were many battle robots and they were all targeting him.
“Faster.” Taelyn couldn’t hide her panic.
The kid reached the alcove. “Mom.” Her bottom lip quivered.
“We’re safe.” Taelyn yelled at Grudge. “You can move now.”
She flattened Jasny against the door.
The kid’s face was the palest of greens. She trembled violently against her mentor.
“Stay here.” Taelyn relayed those instructions to the girl. “You’re safe where you are. The battle robots won’t harm you here.” She wouldn’t allow that to happen. “Don’t come out until they’ve been deactivated.”
Immobilizing them could cost Taelyn her lifespan. But the kid would be safe. She could contact Grudge’s friend, be rescued, live for many more solar cycles.
One of them would survive this.
“I have to help Grudge.” She crouched, drawing a gun. “Remember—you’re a badass, kid.”
She poked her head out of the alcove.
Her male was miraculously still standing. But he hadn’t altered his position, continued to shield them with his big form.
And all the battle robots were targeting him. The damn warrior couldn’t deflect their laserfire forever.
“I told you to move your ass, cyborg.” Taelyn yelled at him, panic sharpening her voice. “We’re safe.” She shot a battle robot in the shoulder, seeking to spin it. All she accomplished was shifting it slightly to the right. “Take them out. Now.”
“I’m moving my ass.” He bent his legs, lowering his form, and jumped.
She shot and shot and shot but she only had one gun, one hand, and she was too fraggin’ slow. The battle robots synchronized their attacks against Grudge. Streams of blue swept from the right and from the left. There was no escaping the deadly rays.
Her cyborg’s legs, both of them, were severed completely. Taelyn screamed as blood spurted, as his limbs fell. Metal clinked against tile. Flesh smushed against hard floor. The hallway’s white wall panels were coated with crimson.
