“You need another body on board, you can’t keep going out there alone.”
“I won’t be responsible for someone else. I have enough to take care of as is.”
Their voices echoed throughout, demanding everyone in the terminal to eavesdrop and look on. Kat forgot all about the tea stand.
“Which is exactly why you need someone to manage. You won’t be responsible for anyone, they’ll be responsible for you. A liaison of sorts. We can’t have another incident like last time. If you don’t pick an auditor, an assistant, a contact forus,we will pick one for you. Resumes have been uploaded onto your console.”
“I’m leaving immediately. There’s no time to onboard a useles-”
“-We will pick one for you or we will dissolve your contract and Stryker’s and force you to work together.” The suit repeated. “Or you can be let go.”
They walked past her. She stared wide-eyed at the Cyborg man. Kat was like everyone else in the port.
He glanced at her and she felt the breath get sucked out of her lungs, then he looked away. The group moved out of earshot. They were gone as quickly as they had arrived.
His eyes.They sizzled her flesh. Even with just a glance.
Kat was dumbstruck. She headed toward the ticketing station and made her way through the gates.
Chapter Two:
---
Dommik oversaw his beasts being taken off his ship. To him, they were his lifeblood, his mission. His duty to the people that created him. They each had a story.
The Urgoke from Gliese resembled the ancient Triceratops, the Ewayen from Elyria could have been a mad scientist's dream of flying fish that smelled like citrus, and the Shunkun plants from Tau-Ceti were as smart as chimps and had a taste for fresh meat. He captured them by order, by plea, or just by plain curiosity to be studied by the Earthian Planetary Exploration Division’s scientists.
He was waiting for those he worked for to safely contain his creatures, lest he needed to hunt them across the metropolis. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Dommik’s fingers tapped the worn black leather stretched over his knee. He wanted to get back to his ship before the EPED found him an assistant.
A goddamn spy.His eyes narrowed as the time ticked by. The grey suit and his young assistant were busy corresponding with the transporters. No one talked to him unless they had to.
He preferred the quiet. It made him a better predator.
Dommik eyed his patrons.It would take me three shots to down four of them.But they weren’t warriors like him. Just normal people going about their normal jobs, trying to make it through another normal day.
They overlooked the reinforced facility, up high behind thick glass. His creatures were now being handled by xenobiologists and botanists. His fingers stilled on his leg.
“We’re having you take the Molucs back. They began to breed and the scientists chose to tag them and have them released back into the wild. The weather here isn’t cold enough to sustain them without them going into heat,” the grey suit turned to him just as the truck arrived. Dommik could smell the furry animals from where he sat.
“I told you that before I delivered them.”
“The division needed to check them out–”
“Because they breed like rabbits?”
“Because poachers were stealing them off the planet and now they’ve been found on several other worlds.”
He watched as the Molucs passed through quarantine and moved out to board his vessel. They looked like baby dragons, if dragons existed, down to a fuzzy set of wings and a long tail that curled up into a cotton-like ball. He found the peaceful creatures endearing even if they had a tendency to infest.
Dommik stood up, the worn leather of his armor pulled comfortably taut around his large frame.
“Everything looks fine here. I’ll make sure the Molucs are checked out by my androids and boarded.” He turned toward the exit. His fists clenched at his sides.
“Dommik,” the suit called after him, stopping him in his tracks. “You won’t be cleared for takeoff until we have a live body on that ship of yours. The EPED can’t afford to break protocol for you anymore without eyes on the inside. If you get attacked again…”
Dommik felt the hard edges of his knives hidden under his armor. He felt the leather restrict his palms as his hands released. He heard the man behind him but wouldn’t acknowledge the Suit’s comment. It could hurt a man’s pride. A lesser man’s pride.
