Her Cyborg Awakes (Diaspora Worlds) (10 page)

“I’m so glad your brother was able to remove the
implant and clean out the nanos. I know you are going to be fine.”

She held his limp hand to her cheek and brushed
kisses against his palm. “Soon you will be awake and strong.”

What am I going to do?  She was completely in love
with him. At least he would be healthy. And with his family.

Karvar reappeared, and she pressed a kiss on
Kaistril’s cheek. “Sleep well,” she whispered.

As the men escorted her back to the lonely,
utilitarian room, she struggled not to cry. She loved him. Real love, the kind
that lasted a lifetime. Locked back into the ugly room, she cried hard, gulping
sobs. Kaistril would live…he would get better…he had a full life with a family
to return to. Maybe there was even a woman, back on New Prague, some strong
athletic Puregen…

Was there any place for her in his new life? Did
he even have good memories of her? She’d been his mistress, while he’d been a
slave cyborg…that couldn’t hold good memories for him. She must remind him of
his captivity.

But the ship. Sabralia was sure his memories of
their time together on the ship were pleasant. She knew he enjoyed the intimate
sexual interludes…but for her it had been life-changing. She would never
forget. For her, it had been lovemaking, not just for the pure carnal pleasure,
but for the soft look in his light blue eyes after he came, the warm arms that
held her without a command. But did he want her in his real life?

Chapter Nine

A summons at her door awoke her. She sat up, full
of hope that Kaistril would be awake and alert soon.

However, two soldiers entered her small room.

“Pack the items you want to take with you,” one of
them said.

“Take with me? Where?”

“We are moving you to a nonmilitary transport. It
is safer.” Confused, Sabralia packed the few items she had placed around the
room into her bag. Safer than a military transport?

“Is Kaistril going to be on this transport, too?”

“I do not know. He is still under the doctor’s
care and may follow when he is stronger. Our orders are to get you out safely.”

“It will be more comfortable for a lady, than on a
military ship,” the other soldier said.

That might well be true, if the rest of this ship
was anything like this room.

The men escorted her off-ship to a small
transport. From there, they flew away to a dock across the Hub.

One soldier got out to arrange her departure. When
he returned, they walked her to a glide path that moved them toward a loading
dock.

The walkway was full of people and even a few
herds of farm animals in transport container fields. People were talking all
around them, and Sabralia was shocked to hear the language of her homeworld.
She turned to the people speaking it.

“You are from Coloun?” she asked in a low voice.

“Yes, miss. We are returning to Coloun with
breeding stock.”

“This ship is going to Coloun?”

“Of course.”

Anger filled her. They were sending her away from
Kaistril. Back to her home world, where Sirn could find her, where Sirn ruled.
She turned her face away slowly, trying not to show her emotion to the escort.

Along the walkway were small booths and portable
merchant stands. Several held the Jack boots and glider boards that were so
popular with Hub people.

She had credits, left over from the ship’s sale,
and she knew they would work with just a thumbprint.

She just needed to lose the escort.

Two young men with a stack of glider boards were
near the walkway and she would soon pass them. She caught their eyes and
smiled, wiggling a finger to get one to come close. “Get me off this glide path
and away from these two soldiers, and I will pay a triple price for a glider,”
she said to them, in her home language. I hope they understand.

The boys’ faces burst into smiles. “Certainly,
miss,” one spoke in Coloun.

“Where to, miss?”

“Farther down. These men I’m with are forcing me
onto the ship. I don’t want to go. But I don’t know how to run a glider or the
boots. Could you carry me down a couple levels? And show me how they work? I’ll
pay you.” She spoke quickly. One of the guards was starting to frown.

“Sure. We get it.” Sabralia turned away and walked
with her escort several paces, until the two boys suddenly grabbed her on both
sides, and yanked her off the path. She screamed as they dropped—she thought
they would hit bottom. However, the boys’ gliders suddenly burst on, and they
floated down several levels, finally landing in a crowded plaza, full of
eateries and other businesses, clogged with customers. Far above she could hear
the angry shouts of her escort, and she grinned.

The glider wasn’t that hard to use, it already
held an energy charge, while the boots would have to be moved to rev up. She
chose a glider with a narrow hand stick for direction. Then, after paying the
boys well and practicing with the glider, she took off to a mid-section plaza,
this one very large.

The soldiers would look for her, she thought. Her
bright blue floral cloak would be easy enough to spot. She found a clothing
store and covered her fashionable floral cloak with a dark brown one. On
impulse, she ducked into a small tea shop after seeing several women at the
windows. Soldiers would not think about looking for her there, she was sure.
While drinking a cup of spice, accompanied by a plate of sweet buns, she asked
general questions about the Hub from her server, a kind-faced older woman. By
the time she left, she had coordinates for a safe, but modest, sleeping inn.
Some hours later, after she arrived to her safe, tiny room, she tried to decide
what to do.

Kaistril hadn’t sent her away, it was his brothers—that
bossy Kyler and that scary silent brother with the hair all slicked back, and
the focals…they wanted her out of Kaistril’s life.

Sirn might still be alive, she’d heard that rumor.
Perhaps that was why they’d sent her away. She was still a married woman. But
Kaistril said she could be divorced by New Prague law. Or maybe their
information wasn’t current and they didn’t know about the coupe…maybe they
thought she was loyal to Sirn.

Sabralia couldn’t think of anything else to do
except wait for the guards to quit looking for her. Kaistril…a tear slipped
down her cheek. He would be all right. His brothers did care about him, even if
they were unkind to her.

Her credits would last for a long while. There was
enough to get on a transport to anywhere. Not to Coloun, though. If Sirn was
alive, harboring her would be a death sentence for her cousin. Not that Sirn
cared. It was just a matter of pride.

She could take a transport to New Prague. From
there perhaps she could get a message to Kaistril, letting him know where she
was.

Daveed had his personal contact information!

She left her cubicle and took a transport toward
Daveed’s apartments.  Daveed and Amira we surprised to see her. They were
packing in preparation for their journey to Yonder

She left them, with full contact information, then
searched for transport packages to Yonder. She stayed up long past her sleep
cycle, researching various immigration packages, trying to decide what would
work for her. Many came with a skilled training course. She would definitely
need one of those, since she had no life skills. A transport to Yonder would be
boarding in three days. It might even be the same one Daveed and his family was
on. She could hide from the New Prague Military until then. At least they were easy
to see in their uniforms.

I will probably never see him again.  There was
war and more war, and she would be on a remote world, sewing tough work
clothing for farmers, or growing herbs for harvest. Kaistril would be with his
Tier fighting for freedom. Right before she left the Hub she would beam a
message to him through the Hub’s system, so someday he would be sure to receive
it, telling him where she was going.

It was a long time until she slept.

***

Kaistril awoke in a medbed. It took a moment before
he remembered Kyler and Karvar. He was on his way home. He stood up, expecting
to feel weak and dizzy, but he felt great.

Karvar suddenly burst into the room. “You’re
awake. How do you feel?”

“Great. Not dizzy. Normal. I probably lost some
muscle mass, but that will return.”

Karvar smiled. “Since I’m not familiar with the
appliances you wore, we were worried.”

“Where’s Sabralia?” He could hardly wait to see
her. He could hardly wait to get her alone…

Karvar pushed up his focals and Kaistril frowned.
That was a nervous sign…

“Well, the thing is, Kyler decided…I decided too,
that she should return to her home planet. She is Sirn’s wife, you know. A
security risk.”

Kyler joined them.

“She’s one of Sirn’s wives. He has dozens. And
Sirn’s probably dead. There was a coupe at his pleasure palace. We managed to
escape.” Kaistril frowned at them. Fury roared through him. They’d sent her
away, into danger?

“She mentioned something about a fight or
something.”

“You didn’t ask her about what happened?” Kaistril
stared at his larger brother in disbelief.

“No. We were concerned about getting you
stabilized.”

Kaistril raised an eyebrow. “Really? You attended
Karvar in the surgery to remove the appliance inside my head?”

“Well, no, but…” His voice trailed off.

“So, what did you talk to her about?”

“I didn’t talk to her, all right? We ran a bio on
her. We knew she was married to Sirn. I figured she was a security risk. Then
we searched her belongings and found films. Dozens of them, with Sirn’s Forces’
encryption.”

“I knew they were there. We were bringing them to
you, you idiots.”

“We thought she might send information back to
Sirn.”

“Seriously? How does that make any sense! About
what? A cyborg getting appliances removed? That she had a lot of his high-tech
military secrets?” Kaistril shook his head in disgust. “So find me a transport
to Coloun. I’ll meet up with her there.”

Kyler and Karvar exchanged quick glances.

“What?”

Kyler took a deep breath. “She didn’t make it onto
the transport. Apparently, she paid a couple glider vendors to glide her off
the walkway. The escorts I sent didn’t have floaters on. She got away.”

Kaistril burst out laughing. “My plump little
queen outwitted your ensigns?” He stared them down for a moment, then knew what
he had to do. “I want my cyborg appliances. Right now.”

Karvar looked confused. He pushed his focals back
up his nose.

“They are in my lab. I wanted to look at them.”

“Get them. And get me some quick food and clothes.
Not a uniform.” Then he turned to Kyler. “So do you have soldiers out looking
for her?”

“Yes. But it appears she has many credits, enough
to rent a room and find different clothing.”

“Of course she has plenty. We sold half of the
harem’s jewels and a state of the art luxury cruiser.” Karvar came back with a
tray holding the cyborg appliances.

“So you got that inner piece out?” Kaistril asked.

“Yes. We also ran your blood through a filtering
process to clean out the nanos that were keeping you asleep.”

“Good.” Kaistril grabbed the temple appliance and
went to a small mirror over a lav.

“Well, study up those films, little brother. From
what I could see, they hold most of Sirn’s campaign notes, cyborg mechanics and
weaponry specs.” As he spoke, Kaistril activated the temple appliance and
slapped it onto his head.

“I can find her with these appliances. They are
keyed to her.” He pushed the arm com on over the neatly healed wound and did
the same with the thigh appliance. Their lights flashed as the appliances
grounded themselves in his body. It didn’t even hurt that much. Data poured
into his mind. Just like old times. Only not. Now they would serve his
purposes, he wouldn’t be serving theirs. He smiled.

“I need clothes. Not a uniform. Now!”

“What are you doing? Are you crazy?”

Kaistril raised an eyebrow at his little brother.
“You removed the remainder of the failsafe and the nanos, right?”

“Y-Yes,” Karvar sputtered.

“Then it’s all right.” He searched data on his arm
com. “Since you idiots lost my woman in the sphere, I’m going to go find her.
With my appliances, I can track her. I need my weapons, too.”

“We wanted to research those,” Kyler protested.

“Then some of your weapons.” Kaistril’s words were
clipped. He was losing what little patience he owned. If he wasn’t so glad to
see his brothers, he would have pounded them by now. Putting Sabralia in
danger, alone in a hub!

He looked up at his astonished brother. “I want
those items now. If I don’t get them in five minutes, I’m leaving without them.
You can tell Maman that you let me go out into a Hub with no weapons.”

“I’ll get some men to accompany you,” Kyler said.

“No thanks. If I get close and she sees your men,
she might take off. You didn’t exactly make her feel welcome, did you? It will
be quicker if I go alone.”

“I’ve got clothes you can wear,” Karvar said.

Karvar left and retuned with a small bag of
clothing. Kaistril dressed in New Prague clothing—syntho skin leggings, a blue
tunic of brushed cloth, and a wide belt that held several compartments. Karvar
had the knee-high boots of treated eth skin, which molded to his feet just
right. “I’d forgotten how good it felt to be dressed like a Protectorate,” he
said. “It is good.”

“You look fine.”

Afterwards, they led Kaistril to the dock, trying
to dissuade him the whole time. Giving up, Kyler offered him a small blaster
and a small credit stick.

“Don’t need the stick, I have lots of credits. Got
a floater vest?”