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Falling for Sky
Cyborg Seduction - Book Eleven
By Laurann Dohner
Falling for Sky
by Laurann Dohner
Mick knew signing up to run a solo mining operation would be boring, but a ten-year stint will earn her enough credits to retire. She’s got her robot companion to keep her company, and she even makes a friend via communications who she gets to talk to every few months when Sky is flying within range. Once her years are up, she fantasizes about confessing her true identity as a woman and maybe he’ll be interested in more than friendship. Until then, she must follow protocol by keeping her voice synthesizer on, pretending to be a man.
As the cyborg expert on all things human, Sky’s job includes chatting with Earthers, gleaning any intel that might lead to the deadly Markus Models—androids who are bent on ending all life. He particularly enjoys talking to Mick, a friendly Earther stationed on a mining planet. But Sky gets the shock of his life the next time he hails him and discovers not only is his friend under attack by pirates, but “he” is actually a “she.” Mick is short for Mickayla—and she’s captivating.
Sky’s always wanted an Earther woman for his own, someone he’ll never have to share with another cyborg, and Mick is his for the taking. All he has to do is disobey direct orders, abandon his current mission, and rescue Mick, all before his council can punish him for his misdeeds.
Piece of cake, as the humans would say.
Cyborg Seduction Series
Burning Up Flint
Kissing Steel
Melting Iron
Touching Ice
Steeling Coal
Redeeming Zorus
Taunting Krell
Haunting Blackie
Loving Deviant
Seducing Stag
Falling for Sky
Falling for Sky
Copyright © October 2019
Editor: Kelli Collins
Cover Art: Dar Albert
eBook ISBN: 978-1-950597-04-8
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal, except for the case of brief quotations in reviews and articles.
Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is coincidental.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Falling for Sky
Chapter One
“Oh, I’m in it deep,” Mick muttered, tossing down the welder and viewing her handiwork. She spun and grabbed her weapon from the top of a crate where she’d placed it. The jog back to the communication room was short. “Computer? Any word from Drais Three?”
“Negative,” the cool, synthetic voice replied. “Long-range coms are still down. There has been no response to the distress signal. The satellite could be malfunctioning. There is a high probability it was destroyed by the attacking shuttles and the message wasn’t relayed.”
Her legs felt as if they’d turned to rubber, but she locked her knees to stay upright. “How long until the supply shuttle arrives?”
“Seventeen cycles.”
Mick closed her eyes in dismay. She’d never survive that many days. It would be a miracle if she’d last a week before the pirates found a way inside the control center building. The ground cannons had brought down their three enemy ships, and she’d expected the crews to die on impact. It was just bad luck that so many of them had survived.
“How many life signs are you reading out there?”
“Forty-one,” the computer clearly stated.
“Did you reestablish connection to the mine drones?” Mick opened her eyes. “I can attack the pirates with them if I can gain remote control.”
“Negative. The communications tower to the mine isn’t responding.”
Mick’s gaze drifted to the screens. The home she’d shared with Jorg had been utterly destroyed by one of the crashing space shuttles. The rubble still burned, and her beloved android had been inside. Pain gripped her chest at his demise, but she had a backup of his memories and personality on a data chip. It would be a temporary loss until she could buy a new model to download him into.
The building that housed the router tower near the opening of the mine was also rubble. The pirate ships had somehow managed to steer close enough to hit the automated mining camp as they’d been crashing, after the ground cannons targeted their engines. It was fortunate that Mick had even made it inside the heavily shielded control room when they’d attacked. The reinforced building could withstand severe surface weather and even debris from shuttles.
“Double check to make sure all the shutters are secured.”
“They are registering as closed. We can withstand a grade-six tornado,” the computer stated.
Mick stumbled forward and dropped into a chair. She placed her weapon on the console while staring up in dismay at the destruction being shown on the screens. It had grown dark outside in the hours she’d spent welding but the fires from the wreckage put off enough light to confirm pirates scurried about.
“Check the weather. A monster storm hitting right now would be perfect. They wouldn’t stand a chance of surviving one of the scrubbers.”
“Weather is mild and clear.”
“Damn.” She rested her elbows on the console and dropped her chin onto her fists while watching more dark shapes come into camera range. “What’s the probability of a scrubber storm hitting within the next week?” The high wind storms that turned into tornados were common on Velion One, but there were months when the storms were inactive on the planet. “I’m looking for some hope here.”
“Scanning.” The computer paused. “There is a two percent probability.”
I’m not going to make it.
That grim realization put tears in Mick’s eyes. She would die on a mining planet.
The pay for overseeing the automated operation had been irresistible. She fixed broken drones occasionally, but mostly she had to keep from growing bored. Jorg had helped her avoid that.
“Computer, can we aim the sky cannons at the ground to hit the life forms?”
“Negative. They aren’t designed to target anything under fifty yards from the surface. It’s a safety feature.”
Mick lifted her chin and touched the console to pull up the blueprint of the camp. The four cannons weren’t near her building. She’d have to go outside to physically reconfigure them. It would be suicide. The pirates would get inside the building the second she opened any of the metal shutters or one of the two outer doors—the ones she’d just welded shut. They’d grab her before she reached the weapons.
It would also be suicide if she managed to abandon the building to flee the area altogether. She might make it far enough to lose the pirates, but she’d die the first time a storm hit. They were called scrubbers due to the way they ripped away everything along the surface of the planet. Strong, violent winds could strip away yards deep of dirt, tossing head-sized stones that littered the ground as if they were light as leaves.
If the weather didn’t kill her, the heat would. And if she found shade, there was a lack of food and water.
I’m screwed five ways
to Sunday. Trapped. A sitting duck inside a building that will eventually be breached.
The weapon she had was only effective up to about ten feet. That wouldn’t do her any good if she went on top of the roof and fired down at the pirates. She estimated the ground was at least thirty feet from the top of the building. It would be a waste of her time and energy. She even contemplated tossing heavy objects just to take out one or two, but they’d catch on quick. Killing a few of them wouldn’t really make a difference. There were just too many pirates.
“Maybe they’re too stupid to find cover when the sun comes up or they won’t have anything they can salvage to cut through the shutters,” she muttered aloud.
“There is zero probability of the pirates not breaching the control center before the supply shuttle arrives. Activating screen nineteen,” the computer stated.
A black monitor clicked on to Mick’s right. The camera had night vision and she easily could make out the grisly mutated features of the closest pirates. Their faces were misshapen, lumpy, and they had droopy skin from years of exposure to radiation leaks on their shuttles. Three of them didn’t have hair, but the fourth had a few clumps spread over his skull. They attacked a shutter with laser weapons.
She leaned closer and spotted bubbles in the metal, even with the poor-quality view.
“I estimate they will breach Control in eleven hours, six minutes, and four seconds at this progress. The metal will degrade to the point of structural failure.”
“They’ll run out of energy on those weapons.”
“They are solar-chargeable models. I added that factor into my calculation.”
Mick wanted to curse. “Where is that? I can weld metal behind that shutter to reinforce it.”
“Activating camera sixteen.”
The computer changed the view to two more pirates working on breaching another exterior shutter. They were also using their weapons to slowly cook the metal to weaken it. She watched as a few pirates switched places, allowing their weapons to recharge.
“Activating camera fifteen.”
Three more pirates stood in front of another section of shutters.
“There aren’t enough spare sheets of high-grade exterior metal to reinforce the shutters.”
“Enough,” Mick ordered. “Turn it off. I don’t want to see any more.”
All hope fled as Mick leaned back in her chair. She was going to die a horrible death.
Space pirates were humans who’d once abandoned Earth in search of freedom from an oppressive government. Those first explorers had been banned from docking with the few space outposts at the time and hadn’t been able to fix their aging ships. Years of radiation leaks from their engines, faulty air recyclers, and living in deep space had mutated their bodies and minds. They attacked other humans for money, to salvage from their ships, and sometimes even for food. If they came across a woman…
Mick shuddered.
She reached inside her shirt to grip Jorg’s backup data chip, which she wore as a necklace, curling her fingers around it. It would be a comfort to have him with her when the end came.
Her gaze drifted to her weapon. She wouldn’t go down without a fight. They’d brutally rape her, pass her around until she died, or worse, keep her alive to be a breeder.
Horrible pirate stories were legendary and documented.
Hours passed as she thought about all the things she’d wanted out of life but would never experience. Mick had planned to spend ten years on the mining planet, using the money to set her up for life on Earth. She’d have enough credits by then to last for a century.
There’d even been a fantasy about finding a certain space captain she spoke to every few months.
She smiled thinking about him. Her captain was probably bald and ugly, but he had a sexy voice. He was a long-distance freight hauler who spent a few hours talking to her every time he passed within coms range of the planet.
“I guess we’ll never meet, Captain Husky Voice. What a shame. I imagined tracking you down to introduce myself once I left this place. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. It’s probably for the best. Imagination is always far better than reality.”
* * * * *
Sky frowned, peered at the readings. His spine stiffened. Three shuttles had recently passed the area, but he doubted any of them were the ones they were looking for. The slight traces the sensors picked up were specific to one type of ship…
“Pirates,” Onyx confirmed. “They leave those radiation signatures.”
“I know. The trail shows at least three ships. I’m just wondering what they’re doing in this sector of space. They usually avoid it. There’s nothing out this way to rob or kill.”
“Regardless, they aren’t the Markus Models’ stolen shuttles. We should continue our search. We need to find and destroy them.”
“It bugs me.” Sky glanced at the other male. “We come through here every few months and haven’t encountered pirates before.”
“What bugs you?” Onyx grinned. “Yes, I know what that means. Your preference for Earther slang is rubbing off on me. See?”
He grinned. “I hear you.” His attention returned to the readings. “They wouldn’t be in this sector without a reason. I’m wondering if they’re chasing something. Targeting quality Earth shuttles is probably irresistible to their warped minds. The Markus Models may have drawn pirate attention.”
“I suppose it’s worth investigating.” Onyx shrugged. “We’ll track the radiation trail to see where they headed. It shouldn’t take more than an hour or so to catch them and discover if they’re following those stolen shuttles. I’d say they passed through here within a day, and their engines are slow-moving.”
Sky took control of the shuttle and piloted it toward the radiation trail. He burned the thrusters to gain speed, knowing they’d easily catch their prey.
But the computer didn’t register other vessels on long-range sensors. It didn’t make sense to him.
“It’s as if they disappeared.” Onyx sounded equally baffled. “We should have picked them up by now. They don’t travel fast enough to outrun us.”
“I know.” He scanned the charts…and a grim realization struck. “They could have landed on a planet.”
“There’s nothing out here.”
“Shit,” Sky groaned. “There’s one semi-habitable planet. Velion One has extreme surface conditions but there’s a breathable atmosphere.”
“The one being mined by Earth?”
“Yes.” Sky increased speed.
“What are you doing? We’ve determined their target. We need to change course and search for the missing Markus Models.”
“I just want to check on Mick.”
“That Earther you speak to? It’s a bad plan, Sky. It’s also not our mission. The mining operation has planetary defenses, correct?”
“Yes. I still want to check.”
“There’s no valid reason.”
“Mick is cool, and we’ve shared lots of jokes. He’s a good one, as far as Earthers go. Be quiet. I’m hailing the mine.”
“We can’t interfere if your friend is in trouble. Those are council orders. You know we’re not to have any physical interaction with Earthers. You were never supposed to contact them without prior permission to begin with, but your ability to pass as one of them when you speak has been helpful. You’ve picked up important information. It’s the only reason the council has allowed the rules to slide with you.”
“I’m aware, but I’d just like to make sure Mick is fine. It will bug me otherwise.”
Onyx shook his head. “We can’t interfere if the Earther’s in trouble.”
“I know. Quit repeating yourself and stuff it. I’m opening a channel.”
* * * * *
Mick jerked awake when static blasted through the room, surprised that she’d managed to drift to sleep. Stress had driven her to exhaustion.
A noise filled the room, and then a voice came through a speaker, badly distorted.
/> “Incoming message,” the computer stated.
“I know. Can you clean it up? Maybe Drais Three received my distress signal.”
“Boosting power,” the computer acknowledged.
“Mick?” The husky, familiar voice came through clear—and suddenly hope soared that she’d be rescued. “It’s Captain Sky. I’m reading a radiation trail from possible pirates in this vicinity. Respond.”
She lunged forward. “Open coms,” she demanded. “Sky? Can you hear me?”
“I can.” He chuckled. “It’s good to hear your voice. I take it your planetary defenses took care of them?”
“How far are you from me?” She gripped the console. “I’m in deep shit, Sky. It’s so good to hear your voice! I was attacked, and they crashed right into my camp. I lost two outer buildings but I’m barricaded inside the main one. There are some seriously pissed-off pirate survivors who are trying to get inside. I need help.”
The long seconds of silence twisted up Mick’s guts.
“Sky? Did you hear me? They’re going to break in here and kill me.”
“I’m out of range.” His voice could barely be heard. “Tell me your situation, and we’ll figure out a solution together.”
My situation? Figure out a solution?
Disbelief flooded her. He was refusing to come to her aid.
“How far out are you?” She glanced at the monitor, realized she’d slept for two hours, but if Sky’s freighter was within coms range, he could make it to her in time. “I’m issuing a flag distress call. You have to respond to that.”
She hated to do it, but it was law for all Earth vessels to respond to a flag distress signal. Sky would be arrested if he ignored her plea for assistance and just kept traveling on to Earth. She could issue one since she technically worked for Earth Government.
The silence scared her. Maybe he’d cut coms.
“Sky? Please! There are forty-one pirates out there using lasers to cook their way through the shutters of the building. I’m down to hours before they break inside. I have one weapon with me. The others were destroyed in the crash. Since I wasn’t expecting my day to turn to shit, I was just carrying the sidearm I’m required to wear. The other more-powerful weapons were stored inside my sleeping quarters. It’s a burning pile of rubble now.”