C791 (Cyborgs: More Than Machines) (13 page)

After several more minutes of walking while hugging the wall, she stepped into a nightmare. Everywhere she looked, violence reigned. Cyborgs fought soldiers, their stoic silence in strict counterpoint to the cursing human army. Bodies lay prone everywhere, machine and human alike, their blood the same red color when spilled. Laser blasts zipped through the air with little regard for the fact that, with one stray shot, they’d blow the fragile pressurization in this section to hell.

Or is that the plan
? she wondered, noting the soldiers serving with the human army wore air recirculating helmets. How nice of them to come prepared. She, however, bore no such protection, and she slumped as it came to her that she would probably die, and not pleasantly either. Part of her medical training meant she’d sat through the videos depicting what a breach could mean in space. The agonized expressions of the hapless victims would never disappear from her mind. And soon, she’d join them.

“Chloe!”

Joe’s yell lifted her head, and her eyes frantically scanned the frenzy of bodies until she located him. He strode through the chaos, his eyes fierce and locked on to hers. His intent gaze made his actions even more uncanny because, without ever turning his head, he kept raising his weapon and firing. More astonishing, he didn’t seem to miss.

She ran toward him, throwing herself at his body. He curled an arm around her as she buried her face in his chest, breathing in his scent, allowing his presence to calm her.

“I’m sorry I had to leave you. I was required elsewhere, then before I could return, we were attacked,” he shouted, so she could hear him over the din of battle.

“I’m just glad I found you.” She clung to him, trying to forget where she’d woken.

“I need to get you somewhere safe,” he rumbled close to her ear.

“There’s nowhere to hide. They’re going to blow the place up,” she cried, unable to stop her tears now that she’d found a small haven of comfort in his arms. “We need to leave if we want to survive.”

“I agree.”

If he agreed, then why did he half carry her in the direction of the battle? She opened her mouth to protest, only to choke on the sound as a trio of soldiers aimed their weapons at her. Quicker than she could blink, Joe thrust her behind him, and she clapped a hand over her mouth to hold in a scream as his body flinched with impact. Acting as a human shield, he reinforced the love she carried for him.

Her lover fired several times before he curled an arm behind him and hugged her to his back. Clinging to him, they proceeded again, moving straight into the heart of chaos.

“Where are you going?” she shouted.

“The humans coordinated their attack well. Our ships are too damaged to escape.”

It took her a moment to understand his meaning. When it dawned, she stopped dead. Not that it mattered to him. In one swift movement, he’d scooped her over his shoulder and continued.

“Are you insane?” she yelled. “You can’t hope to take their ship. They’ve brought an army to destroy you.”

“An army almost decimated. Despite their sneak attack, we were not caught completely unaware. But this should have never happened at all. Someone inside betrayed our location to them and deactivated our outer defenses and warning system.”

She trembled, but he mistook the reason.

“Don’t worry, little one. I will hunt down the traitor and kill him myself. But first, we must get you to safety.”

The words did nothing to reassure her, not with the certainty she somehow did something to bring the military here.
But why can’t I remember? And worse, what will Joe do to me when he finds out?
Somehow she didn’t think great sex would stop him from killing her, not when her possible actions killed so many of his friends.

Dangling over his shoulder, she flinched as shots continued to fly around them. Somehow they managed to miss her, probably because Joe kept dancing left to right, all the while firing his own weapon.

A steady thumping of booted feet saw Joe joined by some of his brethren. Without speaking aloud, they nevertheless dropped into position, probably communicating in that wireless manner she found so uncanny. Flanked by Solus, Seth and a handful of other cyborgs, they made their way across the impromptu battlefield, killing as they went, not that she looked much on the carnage, having clamped her eyes tightly shut.

Their progress across the large bay floor was slow until the frightening hissing sound and the sudden wind that sprang up. Before Chloe could ask what it meant, Joe dumped her off his shoulder and stooped to grab something. A moment later, he’d fitted a mask around her head, and she gulped as she realized the odd noise meant the secret cyborg facility was depressurizing around them.

And then, the time to think disappeared as the small group of cyborgs — and one very frightened human — swept up a long covered gangplank, killing the few soldiers left to guard it and entered the docked spacecraft.

Joe set her down before he whirled to pound at a panel which detached the docking tube, and then sealed the entrance. The noise of battle muted itself to a distant roar that tapered the farther inside the ship they went, the chaos of the landing bay replaced with a stillness that frightened her more. In the lull, the cyborgs went still as they communicated in wireless silence.

Where are the rest of the soldiers?
Surely the paltry handful at the gangway weren’t the only ones left? It made no sense and just increased her unease.

It startled her when Joe suddenly thrust a laser pistol into her hands. “If it moves, shoot.”

“I can’t,” she murmured.

“You will if you want to live,” he snapped. His expression softened. “I won’t let anything get past me to harm you, but just in case, I want you to be able to protect yourself.”

Swallowing hard, she nodded. “What now?”

“My brothers are trying to access the ship computer, but the humans disabled all wireless access, so they are strategizing and working out backup plans should the first scenario fail.”

“And what’s plan A?”

“Solus and Seth will go to the engine room, while Kyle and Moon guard the ramp onto the ship.”

“What are we doing?” Hiding sounded good right about now.

“We will take over the bridge.”

“Are you insane?” she whispered a tad too loudly.

“We do not suffer from that human malady. As we converse, my brothers are infiltrating the other docked vessels.”

“That’s all well and good, but aren’t you the least bit concerned one of the other ships not under your control will blast us to pieces?”

“If they haven’t destroyed us already, then it is because they have need of us still.”

“But for what?”

Before she could answer, Solus interrupted.

“We must leave now if we want a chance of escape. Avion has already gotten control of his vessel, and he says there are two more military vessels arriving. And they’ve armed their weapons.”

So much for Joe’s theory. They probably had orders to try and take some alive, but if the tide of battle turned, the military wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice a few so the operation would not result in a complete loss.

“Let’s go.” Joe signaled for her to follow him as the others took off jogging down various corridors.

Sweaty hands clenched around the grip of the gun, Chloe followed. To her relief — and disquiet — they encountered no one.
Where is everyone?
Because there was no way all the troops had abandoned the vessel to fight.

Despite her foreboding, Joe didn’t waver and seemed to know exactly where he wanted to go, unerringly walking at a quick clip until they reached a closed door with the military emblem on it.

“Cover your eyes,” he ordered. As he raised his laser pistol, she squeezed them shut, but before he could fire, the door slid open with a mechanical whoosh.

Stunned, she opened her eyes and saw Joe, still in a crouch, aiming at the opening.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Unit X109GI back to say hello. And would you look at that, you’ve brought a
friend
.”

Chloe froze at the first silkily spoken word. The ball of dread in her stomach exploded.

*

Joe entered the command center with his gun trained on the human in charge, an easy thing to decipher given the male stood dressed in full military kit and bore a derisive smile. A handful of other humans in uniform peppered the space around their leader, but none moved from their stations, instead watching with wide eyes.

It threw Joe for a nanosecond, as he expected them to rush him and start firing the moment the door opened.

“What, no greeting for me after all this time?” The man in charge, who bore the bars of a general, mocked him with a familiarity that Joe found disconcerting.

“Who are you?”

“General Boulder, and one of the people you’ve been looking for, cyborg.”

“You’re one of the creators.” The statement emerged flatly as he eyed the human up and down, not impressed with the florid-faced individual whose corpulence strained at the seams of his uniform. While the general seemed vaguely familiar, Joe didn’t recall anything about him.

“No, I’m not one of those science hacks who fucked with things best left alone. I was, however, one of your teachers, and then the voice of reason when it became obvious you needed to be destroyed.”

“You had no right to do this to us,” Joe growled, approaching the man while keeping his other senses trained on the enemy around him.

“You would have died without the program. Or don’t you recall lying at death’s door?”

“Better to kill me than make me a mindless slave.”

“Such melodrama. You should thank us. Within our program, we gave you new life. Strength. Abilities men would kill for.”

“And you took away who I was.”

“Not a big loss, I assure you.”

The disgust in the man’s tone made Joe’s hackles rise, and he took a step closer, his gun never wavering from the human’s sneering face. “Why are you not afraid?” It occurred to Joe as he conversed with the general that the human lacked any of the telltale signs. He didn’t sweat, his eyes didn’t roll, nor did he stammer in fear. It made no sense. Joe held the upper hand, a hand dealing certain death.

“Fear is for cowards. Besides, why act afraid when you fell into my trap? And, even better, led the other units into it along with you.”

A cold smile crossed Joe’s lips. “It is you I think who is trapped. My men are infiltrating the ship as we speak. We’ve already gotten control of the others.” He lied because he only knew of the one, his wireless inquiry to his brothers going unanswered probably because of a jamming signal.

“Lying? How remarkable. And how human of you. Those ships your friends have boarded? I like to call them collateral damage. Watch.”

The large screen on the wall switched from its scrolling numbers to a view of the space surrounding the asteroid. The doors to the landing bay, both the inner and outset set, had opened while they boarded the vessel. Objects littered the area around, the suction of space pulling free the dead bodies – and a few unfortunate live ones – to float in eternal cold.

Joe watched as a military ship left the docking area, followed by another. They hovered above the asteroid surface as they angled into different directions, their escape protocol preplanned in case the human military ever found them and designed to lead the enemy on a chase. A smile almost crossed his lips as the actions of the vessels told him, without actual communication, who controlled them.

“I see my brothers making their way to freedom.”

“Wrong answer.” The general smiled tightly as one by one the ships on the screen exploded. Joe felt each one like a punch to the gut, knowing the cyborgs on board had just been annihilated. “A shame about the soldiers on board, but there’s more where they came from.”

“So you’re going to blow this ship up as well?” Joe asked through clenched teeth, his anger not willing to return to the cold clinical closet his BCI usually relegated it to.

“Why would I do that? I’m not suicidal, you know.”

“And yet, with your actions, you’ve guaranteed your death,” Joe spat. He closed the few steps left between them, his gun level with the general’s grinning countenance. He pressed the barrel against the man’s forehead. The lack of trepidation on his face made Joe pause.

“Protocol alpha nine, four, seven, charlie, mark, six, six, one.”

Joe didn’t recognize the numerical stream, but he did recognize it as a trigger code of some kind. One that didn’t work. Joe smiled, baring his teeth in a feral response. “I don’t answer to your commands anymore.”

“You don’t but Unit C791 does.”

The muzzle of a gun pressed against his temple, but that didn’t stop Joe from turning incredulous eyes down at Chloe. Blank faced, she held the weapon against him, and so great was his shock, he didn’t move when she stripped him of his gun.

“Chloe?”

“The cybernetic organism you’ve come to know under that designation is actually known as unit C791.”

“But there are no female cyborgs.” Joe whispered the words as he searched her eyes for any spark of recognition — or life.

“Wrong. There is one poor excuse for one. Just like there is finally a weapon to take you bastards down.”

Joe’s logical side knew what it needed to do. Take out the enemy holding a gun to his head, kill the humans and take over the ship. But unfortunately his heart got in the way. He couldn’t hurt Chloe. So when she stepped away, he could only stare, looking for a spark in her eyes as the soldiers approached him with tasers readied.

I hope they’ve got a hundred more,
because the voltage in a half dozen wasn’t enough to even tickle him.

As one of them shot the electrifying clamp, the sizzle not the timid voltage of a regular weapon, something entered her expression, gone in a moment, but it lasted long enough for her to reach out to him and join him in the electrifying dance he couldn’t prevent. It seemed the humans had finally discovered something that did work against cyborgs because he felt his knees buckle, his body sinking as his neural net shut down.