The console attached to his wrist buzzed. Stryker turned away. “I’ll procure us more tranquilizers. Make sure the remaining enclosures are ready for Gunner’s load.”
“Yeah, yeah, will do, boss. Get that wasted taster brew he makes for me, okay? The stuff in the bathtub. I’m low on it.” Matt and his sweat-stained clothes left him at that.
The beast stirred imperceptibly as he went to answer the call. The doors opened for him automatically and closed again behind him.
He initiated communication.
Dommik.Another Cyborg like himself, an abomination beyond reasoning. A shifter hidden within a suit of flesh and a structure of steel bones. Dommik was an arachnid whereas Stryker was...something else.
His coordinates had yet to change as he flew toward Ghost City.
“We on track?” The Spider’s voice crackled through the comm.
“If only. Waiting to hear from Gunner, that damned dog won’t answer.” Stryker lifted his band away and let it hang like a noose around his neck.
“You could be waiting for a long time, especially if he’s head-deep in trouble or cock-deep in ass. Just turn in the acquisitions and locate him afterward. Changing coordinates to Ghost City.”
“‘bout time, I’ve only been waiting since our last talk.”
“Had to make several stops on the way. You know how it goes.”
Stryker trailed his thumb over the wounds on his hand. “No, I don’t, and I have far too much cargo that needs off-boarding than my ship can handle. I can’t work when I have no room for more.”
All he could think about was the Wieraptor. He did have too much cargo, and a beast that could withstand his poison wouldn’t be contained long.
“Yeah, well, I would feel the same way if I were helping Gunner too.”
Stryker gritted his teeth.
The audio fizzled, disrupting what Dommik was saying as a third-party message bled into the channel that they had been communicating across. He immediately located its source and found its host only a few light-years away.
Who in the hell would be out here?Euthenia wasn’t a main throughway. In fact, it was on the outer edges of any currently colonized sector.
“You got my payment then?” Stryker mumbled, watching the signal grow weaker as he sped out of its range.
“Yeah, and then some,” Dommik chuckled.
The intruding audio vanished, gone before he realized that he had made a calculated decision to ignore it.
It’s probably marauders, pirates, a beacon for a secret meeting…He reassured himself.
Or a distress call.
“Mia told me she’s pissed at you.”
The auditory static blared back to life, cutting into his feed, tunneling like a weed into his personal systems and into his wired-up head. Stryker disabled auto-pilot and turned around. “Fucking hell, hold up!”
“What’s wrong?” Dommik’s voice was deadened, forgotten, and buried under a woman’s voice.
“Please, oh god, please. Is anybody out there? This is Norah Lee, a scientist of Earth. I–I don’t know what to do. I think everybody...everyone is dead. Please if you hear this, please help us.
I can hear them outside. They’re coming…
I don’t want to die!”
Chapter Two:
***
