Taunting Krell (4 page)

Her mouth opened but she cried out from the stabbing pain her brain suffered when she attempted to answer him. The hold on her throat eased but she felt his big body against hers. She reached up slowly to cup his face. She stared into his eyes, trying to convey that she wasn’t the enemy.

“I’m a friend.”

She tried to frantically work around the conditioning she’d endured for three years. Her father’s team had really messed up her head, programmed her brain with the help of technology to keep her from saying too much. But as she stared at the cyborg inches from her face she hoped he’d be able to figure out what she couldn’t say, as impossible as it seemed. She was grateful her father had never learned how close she’d been to her cyborg guard and he hadn’t used Mavo’s name as a pain trigger.

“Who are you?” he roared. “How do you know of Mavo?”

More tears slid down her face. “I’ve been conditioned. I can’t tell you how I know him but I do. I’m his friend.”

Confusion crossed Krell’s features and some of his anger eased away before coldness swept his handsome face. “You somehow accessed computer records from our time on Earth. There had to be pictures of us with detailed information of our cyborg associations.” He growled low inside his throat. “Stop messing with my mind. I will kill you. This isn’t a path you want to take to spy for your government. We have no friends from Earth.”

Heartache stabbed at her chest that he didn’t believe she meant no harm. “It’s not a trick. It’s technology. I’ve been conditioned to never speak about it. I’ll go into convulsions if I try.” Her headache grew worse, she knew she bordered on blacking out and had to stop thinking and talking about the past.

“Answer me. Are you here to spy for Earth? Are they aware of our existence? Did they somehow extract information from Zorus that he wasn’t aware of when they captured him? Are my people in danger? Is a military detail on its way to this section of space to hunt for us?” He snarled the words. “You’re a soldier. Are you their scout? Did they order you to memorize files in case you found us, to make us trust you?”

She stared into his eyes and refused to answer. She couldn’t. The headache started to dissipate, barely, and she breathed easier. The cyborg might be angry but at least she remained conscious.

“No,” she whispered. “Please don’t hurt me, Krell. I need to see Mavo.”

He roared loudly, enough to make her ears ring. She gasped when he spun and her body was airborne. She hit the floor on her side, rolled into a wall, and lay there stunned.

“No!” Onyx yelled.

“She’s a danger to our people and she just threatened Mavo.” Krell snarled the words, pushed at the other cyborg and glared at her with murder glinting in his dark eyes.

Cyan lifted her head, ignored the pain the impact with the floor had sent throughout her body, and watched as Onyx tried to hold the bigger cyborg back to stop him from attacking her. Cyan knew, by the sheer magnitude of rage twisting his scarred features, that Krell would hurt her if he got his hands on her. She swept her gaze across the room.

She’d struck the chair when she’d been thrown. It had broken the metal leg off and she reached for the broken piece. It hurt to struggle to sit up but she rested her back against the wall. Krell shoved Onyx aside and snarled at her. She saw her impending torture in his chilling blue eyes. He noticed her weapon, his fists balled, and it became obvious he intended to finish her off.

She stared at him, hesitated from the dread of what would come, but still stabbed her thigh as hard as she could. The agony made her scream. She nearly blacked out from the intense, fiery pain and her hand released the metal. She writhed from how much it hurt to have the jagged, broken chair leg impaled in the top of her thigh.

Shock made both cyborgs freeze where they stood. Onyx recovered first. “Medic!” he yelled. “Get a medic!”

Cyan tore her gaze from the stunned Krell to stare at her thigh. Blood spread across the floor under her leg. The black material of her pants looked wet where the metal had breached and she had to fight tears from the intense pain. She peered up at Krell.

“Why did you do that?” Krell still gaped at her. “I wouldn’t really have killed you.”

The door opened and a cyborg rushed in carrying a white first-aid kit. He dropped to his knees, cursed, and tore open the box to access the medical equipment inside.

“This is your idea of getting answers?” The new cyborg sounded outraged. “You hit an artery.”

A cold feeling numbed Cyan as she leaned back, refusing to look away from Krell. He watched her grimly. She knew the moment the medic gripped the metal and tore it free. She clenched her teeth, hissed out and knew the bleeding grew worse. She had a big hole in her leg.

“I didn’t do it,” Krell rasped. “She did. Very smart but this won’t stop the interrogation, human. It will only delay it until you are treated.”

Material tore as the medic ripped her pants open to expose the wound. He dumped liquid over her skin to clear the blood and stop the bleeding so he could inspect the wound. He gasped loudly.

She shifted her gaze when his head jerked up to stare at her. His darker gray, dusky skin turned a sickly shade of ashy, grayish white. She looked down but knew what she’d see—a ragged wound in her flesh and shiny metal where white bone should have been.

“This can’t be,” the medic whispered.

“What?” Onyx stepped closer.

The medic reached out to suddenly grab Cyan’s face to pull her attention to him. “You look human. Your skin is flesh colored.”

“She is human,” Krell rasped.

Both Cyan and the medic turned to stare at Krell.

“No, she’s not. At least not all the way. She’s…” The medic’s voice faded to silence.

Cyan watched Krell move closer, couldn’t look away from him, and knew the moment he saw what the medic had. He jerked his shocked gaze to hers.

“You’re a cyborg?”

“Not quite,” she whispered, in too much pain to do more. “But close. I’m not a spy and I’d never hurt cyborgs.”

Krell reeled backward until his back hit the wall. His blue eyes were wide, stunned, perhaps even a little horrified, and Cyan watched him. The medic seemed to recover, tending to the painful wound. He’d stopped the bleeding and Cyan tried hard to ignore how much it hurt as he began to cauterize some of the damage that would start bleeding again quickly once the liquid that froze the blood started to thaw.

Onyx cursed before he rushed outside the room. The long-haired cyborg with the icy-blue eyes kept her attention. He was her link to Mavo and the only familiar face she’d seen since running into cyborgs.

Chapter Three

“What is she?”

The cyborg council, at least ten of them, stood in the hallway outside Cyan’s room where she sat handcuffed by one wrist to a med bed. They were visible through the open door and she could hear them.

The doctor hesitated. “I’ve never seen anything similar to her, to be honest. She’s mostly organic but her bones are made of a metallic substance that isn’t the same as our enhanced bones. Her rib cage is…” The doctor sighed. “It’s not just bones. The interior is enclosed to totally protect her heart and lungs. I’d guess it’s an alloy that is resistant to weapons. Her tissues appear completely human until you see how quickly she’s healing. I took a sample to study but it appears totally normal. No human could have survived having their bones removed to be replaced with what she has in there. I can only assume they made the frame and had to grow tissue around it. It’s miraculous technology.”

“Does she have implants?”

“Yes,” the doctor stated. “Four inside her brain but they were near impossible to detect through whatever material they used for her skull. When you scan it, it reads as if she has a totally human brain. It appeared too perfect though so I managed to wire in a tiny camera to go under the skull at the base of her neck. That’s when I noticed the shadows of the devices. From where they are located I’d say two of them are linked to her speech and thought areas. I have no idea what the other two are for or what they might do. It’s not a mapped part of the brain that I’m knowledgeable about. They aren’t placed where I’ve ever seen them. On scans you’d swear she has human bones but she doesn’t. When I closed her thigh I was able to get a good look at the metal. I didn’t take a sample because it might have crippled her. The only way to do it is if I removed an inch of the material and I’m not even certain what would cut through it. I may have had to take the entire leg at a joint. I refuse to do that.”

One of the council members turned his head toward her. “Has she talked?”

“She just states she’s been conditioned not to give out information relevant to what she is or her purpose of creation. I’m assuming those implants connected to her brain are there to prevent her from sharing classified information such as her designation. They seem to trigger intense pain if she attempts it. She has tried to cooperate.” The doctor glanced at her before looking back at the council. “She inflicted that injury to show us what she couldn’t put into words. Otherwise we never would have known she wasn’t what she appeared to be. Every test, every scan, comes back human. Even her blood work doesn’t raise flags. Whoever created her had technology I’ve never seen before or thought possible.”

A female cyborg council member wearing a red two-piece outfit moved away from the group to walk inside Cyan’s room. She paused at the door and smiled warmly.

“My name is Jazel. I am one of twelve cyborg council members.” Her pale-blonde hair was a striking contrast against her dull, deep-gray skin tone. “What is your name?”

“Cyan.” She paused. “My official name is Cyan Eous.”

The tall cyborg crept a little closer. “You’ve caused quite a stir in our community.”

“I bet.”

“Are you a cyborg?”

“No.” Cyan paused again. “I don’t know. I don’t think so but we have similarities.”

“Were you cloned?”

“No, I know I wasn’t cloned, but I wasn’t given many details.” A headache stated to throb in the back of her head. “Talking about it causes pain. We’re bordering on me screaming in agony. Can we change the subject?”

“We’re very curious about you.”

“I know.”

“Did Earth Government send you to track us down?”

“No.” The pain eased. “They sent me after Markus Models. They are a defense android line that didn’t work out so well. An Earth company made them too smart and the creepy things think they are alive but they aren’t.”

“The same has been said of us.”

“They are totally different from you. I’m aware of your kind. These things are not people. They are cold, killing machines that have decided they are alive but they don’t have souls. They share mind links, don’t even have their own personalities, and decided to kill anything breathing since they believe their so-called race is better than any other.”

More council members and the doctor entered the room but they hung back, allowing Jazel to be their spokesperson. Cyan glanced at them but focused on the cyborg female.

“The government doesn’t know about me.” Cyan paused. “Only my father and his team knew I was no longer fully human.”

“Who was your father?”

Pain throbbed. “I can’t say. I’m supposed to say his name was Edward Pack, there’s an entire history created for me to assure my past is covered, and every fifteen years it changes.”

“Why?”

“I don’t age.” Cyan tried not to show the relief she experienced over being able to tell someone, anyone, something true about her life. “Every fifteen years I retire from Earth Government and take a few years off before I reenlist in another branch. They believe I’m my own daughter.”

One of the council members moved forward. “I am called Coval. You expect us to believe this? They do intensive scans.”

“I’m an excellent hacker.” Cyan met his curious gaze. “And I have access to a lot of their hive information networks thanks to my father’s connection to the government. They don’t change passwords often and they are slow to add new technology. It’s not difficult to upgrade the information they keep on me, switch out the files, or erase them. When I reenlist nothing is triggered.”

“Why do you work for them if they don’t know what you are?”

Cyan sighed, staring at Jazel. “What else am I going to do? I’m stronger than most humans, I have been trained to fight, and for the most part I don’t draw any attention as a soldier.”

“Are we your enemies?”

“No,” Cyan stated sincerely. “Can I talk to…?” She was half afraid she’d set someone off in a rage once again. “Mavo? I knew him from before this was done to me.”

The doctor inched closer. “She claims this was done to her while she was an adult. We couldn’t get much else out of her without triggering the pain implants. She stated yes when I asked if she used to be human.”

Jazel gasped, stunned, and gawked at Cyan. “You were once fully human?”

“Yes. My body suffered traumatic injury during your rebellion from Earth.” Her head started to throb again and she reached up with her free wrist to rub her temple. “This was done to me to save my life.”

The council members backed away and the doctor spoke. “She claims she helped us escape. I requested Mavo be sent here but it was denied. Onyx said Krell is convinced it’s a trap.”

It hurt that Mavo wouldn’t arrive any time soon, if ever. Cyan tried to hide the tears that threatened to spill. “I need to see Mavo. I gave him the launching override codes to the shuttles. We were friends.”

“That’s impossible,” a new male voice sputtered.

A tall black-haired cyborg entered the room. Cyan regarded him warily. He appeared angry, out of sorts, and glared at her. She hesitated.

“Mavo needs to talk to me if you want to figure this out. I did give him the codes. Tell him that and he’ll know who I am. He can figure out what I can’t say.”

The new cyborg paled. “Impossible. That young human was Emily Pleva.”

A sharp jab of pain shot through her brain but she managed not to scream. A few of the cyborgs reacted to the name, or what had once been her name. They knew of Edward Pleva. He had started the cyborg project, created them to be a disposable workforce for Earth Government, and he’d been feared by all.

“Yes,” Cyan admitted carefully, trying to word things in a way that wouldn’t set off her implants, waiting for the pain to strike. “You know how insanely smart he could be with creating living beings with his research.” She carefully avoided saying the name Pleva. It would have sent her into convulsions instantly. “He couldn’t stand to watch me die. I’d been ill for a while and he’d started a special secret project to find a way to extend my life. He and his team rushed me inside his lab after I was critically injured during the escape and I woke weeks later with this.” She waved at her body. “Six inches shorter, totally not the same in appearance, yet here I am.”

The dark-haired cyborg continued to glare at her. “I don’t believe it. You somehow accessed the information and are trying to fool us.”

“Zorus,” the female cyborg warned softly, “listen to her.”

Cyan sighed, wary of the headache. “I understand your suspicion. I really do. I don’t even blame you but that’s the truth. I used to be that girl you mentioned but now I have this body. I’m the same inside, for the most part, but they messed with my brain to protect me from revealing who I really am. The Government instantly ordered me to be executed as a traitor since I helped with the escape. My father wasn’t about to lose me again. They conditioned my mind and used implants for anything those didn’t cover until it’s a landmine of triggers for certain words and information. Of course I never wanted to tell anyone the truth until now. I may not have had much of a life but it beat dying.”

“If this is true, which I doubt,” Zorus growled, “why didn’t you seek us out beforehand?”

“Earth Government kept reporting that none of you had survived. I never heard any conflicting reports besides scary space stories that tended to be bullshit to keep humans from venturing out into pirate-controlled regions of deep space. You can bet I would have tried to find Mavo if I’d known he had survived.”

“Zorus?” Jazel tried to get the dark-haired cyborg’s attention. “Order Mavo to report for duty. We need him to talk with her to verify this story. We need confirmation if she is the human related to Doctor Pleva. He has information only she would know.”

La la la
, Cyan thought, trying to block out the conversation to keep her implants from inflicting pain. She remembered a trick Bella had taught her to use when hearing her father’s name caused pain and tried it.
It’s just a history lesson. Not personal. Not about me
. The pain eased and she relaxed, hoping hearing them discuss the past wouldn’t hurt now.

“I won’t do that to him. This is deception.” Zorus glared at Cyan. “I won’t subject him to your cruel game. He loved that human and her death devastated him. He’s never emotionally recovered. You may not have any compassion but I do. He thought of her as a friend and perhaps even as his child. It took him a long time to find peace from the guilt of leaving her behind.”

It made Cyan’s heart ache to think of Mavo suffering year after year. She could relate. She’d never stopped thinking about him. Every sleep cycle she’d imagined his face inside her mind to keep his memory alive. He’d been the only man she ever loved despite him not returning those feelings in the way she’d hoped.

“I don’t want him to suffer.” She stared at Zorus. “Don’t make him come here to talk to me.”

Coval cleared his throat. “We have a dilemma. She’s not human and she may be more cyborg than she admits. What do we do with her?”

“Keep her locked up,” Zorus ordered. “When she’s cleared from Medical send her to detention. We can’t have her running around. We aren’t sure of what she truly is or what her actual motives are. For all we know, she could be a spy sent from Earth. I’d like to believe her but we can’t risk the lives of our people.”

“I protest,” one of the male cyborg council members sputtered. “She’s an attractive female and if she’s a cyborg despite her coloring, we can’t ignore that.” He glanced at the doctor. “What is the condition of her reproductive system?”

“Healthy,” the doctor announced. “She can breed.”

Cyan’s mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”

Jazel sighed. “It’s law on Garden, our planet, that every cyborg breeds at least one child to help the advancement of our race. Our females are fewer in numbers. You need to take at least two males into a family unit if you are a cyborg. You will be ordered to produce at least three children, one for each of you.”

“No way in hell,” Cyan hissed, shooting a glare at the guys in the room. “Anyone touches me and I’ll slice your nuts off. I’m not a baby factory.”

Jazel gave her a sympathetic look. “I understand but it’s a necessity. You are probably a cyborg and a part of our community. You need to follow our laws.”

Rage burned in Cyan. “This is what you’ve allowed your society to become?” She fixed her anger on Zorus since he seemed to be in charge. “Earth Government told you what and when to eat. How to live. Even who you had to have sex with. You wanted freedom and real lives,” she raged. “You fought for the right to make your own choices. Earth used to be the enemy. When did you decide to use their playbook to force people to be breeders?”

Zorus paled.

“You escaped, risked everything, and you’re telling me you make others go through that same bullshit now? You order them how to live and even how many kids they must have? Even Earth banned those breeding tests.”

The cyborg leaned forward, still pale, and stared at her. “You’re really angry.”

“You bet I am.” She wanted to lunge at him and do damage. “I…” She paused, her headache grew worse, remembering the past. She had to avoid personal detail. Anything she discussed with the cyborgs had to be nonspecific to her former life, her actions. She took a few calming breaths.
History lesson—use that trick
, she ordered her mind. It helped ease the pain as she carefully reworded what she wanted to say, trying to pull her memory away from vivid details, focusing on her anger instead.

“A human betrayed everyone who trusted her to do the ethical thing. It seems she cared more about granting you rights than you did if this is what you’ve done to the society you built. What is wrong with you?” She shot venomous looks at every cyborg in the room. “They used to tell people that you couldn’t think for yourselves, that you needed them to do it for you, and maybe they were right.”

“We don’t need humans,” Coval grunted.

Thinking so much about the past caused severe pain and she grabbed the back of her head but kept glaring at them. “Someone didn’t suffer all that, risk her ass, and lose the life she had just so you could do this to your own people. Shame on you.”