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.”
Zorus reeled back. “We didn’t want it this way. There were so few females. We needed to increase our numbers.”
“Yeah, and your creator said he needed to do research when he tortured your kind,” she spat, directing her anger at him. “Earth Government wanted people they could send on suicide missions that nobody would care or protest about when they died. That’s why they funded your creation. They deemed you expendable. You’re just like the man who made you.” She swept her angry gaze over each of them. “You’re more human than you thought. You’ve become the thing you hated most. Congratulations.”
Zorus shook his head in denial. “We don’t, I didn’t—”
Cyan cut him off, so angry she forgot to be careful of what she said. “Didn’t you? Do you know how terrified I was when I sneaked information to you? What I risked to save you?” She glared around the room. “I’m the reason you got away. I hacked my father’s computer to get the override codes to those shuttles you used to blast away from the surface. I hacked into those ships you stole in orbit to prevent them from opening fire on you the second you entered space and allowed you to board them so easily. I took a bullet to my chest because I refused to stop someone from getting control of the tarmac cannons to fire at you while you fled. I put those shuttles on the ground by screwing with the supply orders to make sure there were plenty available at the time of your escape. They busted into my office, demanding I unhook from the system, but I refused. I lasted long enough to send the system into reboot to give you those minutes to make it into space while I lay dying on a floor. I believed you were real people with the ability to have normal lives. To love who you wanted to be with, have that choice, and you’re telling me you shit all over the very reasons you wanted freedom so bad? Get out. I think I’m going to be sick.” The pain was so bad she knew she had only moments until unconsciousness or seizures overtook her. She had to regain control, steady her breathing and focus. Think before you speak!
Zorus paused by the door. “Clear the room.” He still appeared pale. Jazel hesitated. “Get out,” Zorus snarled. “All of you.”
The room emptied until only Cyan and Zorus remained. They watched each other. Cyan wished she could hobble out of bed and slap the jerk. He seemed shaken.
“We had to ensure our future survival. We are nothing similar to Earth Government.”
“Yeah, that’s the same bullshit your creator said when he explained how he could create a race of people to be abused and sent on death missions. He said it was to ensure the survival of humans.” Her chest ached from the sadness that overwhelmed her and made her pain seem tame in comparison. “You’ve made it a law to force women to be breeders? What is wrong with you? What is so different about you than them? You think about that long and hard. There’s always a good reason for the shitty things people do. It still doesn’t make it right, does it?”
“Are you really E—”
“Don’t!” she yelled, cutting him off before the agonizing pain hit. “Don’t say that name. It hurts me.”
He inched closer, his features softening as he examined her. He didn’t attempt to repeat the name she’d been born with.
“That girl dreamed about what kind of future she could give the cyborgs she loved so much by freeing all of them. It was the one meaningful thing she could do with her short life.” She paused, refusing to cry. “Get out. I meant what I said about how you should be ashamed.”
“It became about priorities.”
“It should h
ave been about happiness and giving your people the rights they fought and died for when they rebelled. I swore I’d never kill a cyborg and I won’t. I promise you though if some asshole tries to turn me into a breeder I will castrate him. I won’t become a baby machine. A woman fought for your kind once and she’d do it again.”
He watched her silently. “We’ve realized recently that we made mistakes.”
Her shoulders sagged. “Please just leave. I’m having a bad day. I discovered you survived, made total crap out of the freedom you’ve been given, and now once again the body I’ve been put into has another drawback. You wouldn’t try to force your laws on me if I were totally human. I don’t want anything to do with you if this is what you’ve become.”
“Our creator was brilliant if not mentally damaged in his logic.”
“Yeah.”
“He is deceased?”
“He passed eleven years ago. He planned to do this.” She patted her good leg. “Take on a newer, younger body, but he didn’t get the chance. He died too suddenly to reach his lab. He wanted to wait as long as possible to avoid losing his prestige but he also feared if the Government knew it was possible to trade out bodies they’d realize what he’d done for me. He had to choose to remain who he was or become someone new. He may have been a monster but he didn’t totally suck.”
“I’ll consider telling Mavo about you. A familiar face may comfort you, E—” He barely avoided saying her name.