Kat rubbed her stomach and his eyes drifted over her movements. She knew he knew more than he let on, it was obvious, and she was aware that Bin-Three could likely have a camera on him. But they were practically strangers and when it came to his double set of arms, she probably knew his body better than the man himself.
“You said it yourself, you claimed me, and we’re going into Trentian airspace. They didn’t teach the nuances in school but everyone knows they’re dying out because of us and because of that, will do what they can to obtain un…” she paused and swallowed. “Uninfected women.” Kat looked away and out at the stars. “Which is really funny now that I think about it.” She laughed.
“What’s funny?”
“Nothing. I used you too, though.” She turned back to face him. “You don’t need to threaten me and I didn’t come with you just for the hell of it.” Her thoughts wandered back to the space port’s entry gate. “I had my reasons.” The conversation was taking a turn she didn’t want to go down with him. Sex was one thing but she knew better than to share her soul with someone, and only had several times in her life. She didn’t count the doctor who only knew the pond-scum that coated the top.
Dommik watched her as she rubbed her stomach his eyes boring holes into her flesh and under her skin. Kat couldn’t stop the blush that heated her cheeks.
“I wanted to have sex with you. The Trentians had nothing to do with that.” He reached out his hand, willing her to take it. Kat looked at it and at him, her Cyborg, and went with her heart. She took it.
He pulled her to his side and held her close, his breath tickled the loose strands of her hair.
“I wanted you too,” she whispered.
“I know. I could smell it.”
“Oh. Gross.”
He squeezed her hand. “A strong sense of smell helps when I hunt.”
Kat sniffed him too discerning nothing, not even the natural smell of a human. Dommik didn’t have a smell and it unnerved her.He really is...something else.She laid her head against his chest. “Can I ask you something?”
“Depends.”
“What happened that made the EPED force you to take on an employee?”
He didn’t respond, not immediately, and she could have sworn she felt the metal frame of him shift under his skin where she touched him. It was almost like he was tensing up, but not quite. Muscles didn’t physically shift to the side. Kat remained still and waited; for him to speak and for his interior shell to move.
“I was sent to a barely habitable planet, far off the main spaceways, it was called Argo.” Dommik paused and that eerie feeling of foreboding came back to her.
“I’ve never heard of a planet called Argo.”
“Argo-566 to be exact. It was a dust ball, another one of the billion lifeless planets on our maps charted out long ago by some of our first navigational and mapping scientists before I was created, and long before the great alien war.”
“Oh.”
“Several years ago reports surfaced and pictures were uploaded by another Cyborg onto the Network of life on that planet, not just microscopic life, but plants and, well, creatures. The EPED got ahold of the images. They became interested and wanted to know more.” He spun one of her curls. “I was sent out there about a year ago to verify, scope out, and prove one way or another that it was habitable and that it could sustain a military base or at best a port. It’s a standard job, not one we receive often, but not unusual.”
“We?”
“Other Cyborgs that work for the EPED, you met two, Gunner and Netto.”
Kat settled closer into Dommik, getting comfortable despite her aches and watched the universe fly by. “I didn’t realize there were others like you. Do they all have a double set of arms?”
“Some have other…well, let’s call them parts, but we’re all different.” He continued, “It took several weeks before I arrived at the planet, and I found something very unusual. Planetary perimeter blockades, satellites, and relays. Someone was there or at least was watching and guarding the place. I assumed outlaws. Tech isn’t my specialty but I was able to override it and hide my presence. I should’ve known then, that something was off, and I did for the most part but I chose not to regroup and turn back. So I landed, or I tried too.” Dommik stopped.
She draped her leg over his outstretched one and fingered the buckles of his chest piece with her free hand. Kat didn’t know how she knew, but this story was harder for him than she anticipated and tried to comfort him the best way she could. “Why couldn’t you land?”
“Because I couldn’t see it.”
Kat looked up at him. “How is that possible?”
“It was covered in corpses.”
Chapter Thirteen:
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