Kat quietly made her way to the open door of her quarters. A trickle of fear ran up her spine. She looked down each end of the hallway but she couldn’t see far beyond the gloom.
“Hello?” she called out. “Dommik?” she whispered under her breath.
Kat shook herself and quickly walked into her room. The door shut behind her and the lights came on. Her fingers trailed through her curls as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her heart raced. And it wasn’t entirely with fear. The image of the Cyborg’s muscled chest filled her head, his depthless dark eyes that made him ghoulish in the shadows, and his sculpted arms trapping her in the chair.
The blistering heat he radiated.
She heard footsteps outside her panel door, heavy and slow, stopping right on the other side. Kat turned around to face whatever came through.
But they picked up again and faded away.
***
That night, hours later, Kat’s eyes sprang open. She was curled on chemically cleaned bedding that had magically appeared, and a loose cotton blanket that smelled like the Cyborg covered her to the tip of her nose.
The footsteps had returned but accompanying them was the sound of clicking. Metal on metal.
Once again they stopped outside her room. The lights were set to dim and she twisted her head on her flat pillow to stare at the closed door. She could see him, in her mind, right on the other side of the barrier, standing there breathless like she was.
Kat moved her fingers into the blanket and tucked it tighter under her chin. Her body was flushed despite the cold temperature of the ship.
Her eyes burned. She refused to blink. The footsteps had yet to move.
Part of her wanted Dommik to walk through the door. Part of her wanted him to go away.
Kat licked her lips and waited until time slowed down and sleep gripped her remaining energy and pulled her under into its blissful throes. She fell asleep without ever realizing it had taken her. She never heard the footsteps leave.
Chapter Five:
---
“Is the girl strapped in for warp?” Dommik asked the android, Bin-One, at his back.
“Yes, Master, Bin-Three is with her. Would you like a status report?” the robot asked.
“No,” he mumbled, even though he did. He hadn’t approached his new employee, his assistant, his slave since the first day; and that was only because of his irritation.
She had finished the governmental-forced training to work the job she fought her way into. The girl, Katalina, had begun accumulating data from the creatures on board. She was now sending updates to the EPED and Mia was her main point of contact.
Dommik’s lips twitched at that.
They wanted Katalina to do more but he refused to allow her clearance. His androids were capable of everything the girl could do...except free-thinking and free-will.
The fresh smell of her had clung to him like a parasite. It stayed with him wherever he went. He couldn’t sterilize it, he couldn’t wash it off, he couldn’t get away from it. It made getting through the day unpleasant, and the night agonizing.
So he avoided her. If the girl knew what he really was, what he had done, or what he did currently, she would run screaming. They always do.
It’s best to keep her and stay away. If it isn’t her, it’s Mia…
He couldn’t even imagine the horror of having Mia spy on him while being stuck with her on his ship. She was desperate to get off of Earth and Dommik couldn’t bring himself to feel bad for her. Mia was good at her job but she was stuck soil-side doing it and she didn’t make enough cash to travel.
He turned to Bin-One. “Brace, we’re cleared for warp.” He turned back to his console, well used and faded, and thrust his ship into lightning speed. By the time the colors of the stars and planets flooded his vision, he was a system away from the Moluc’s home-world.
The steel wiring and plates in his body shook from the pressure.
His cyber-mechanical makeup was different than that of any normal Cyborg. Everything on his interior was completely fabricated, even his biological organs were fabricated. His brain was human but it was filled with more circuitry and wiring than it was with nerves and blood vessels.
Dommik thumbed his chest, finding the plates just below his muscles, and wondered when he would have to upgrade them next. He had suffered internal mechanical damage on several occasions, one of those occasions had been recent and was why he had a live-body on board now. Those pieces had been replaced.
