“What?” Kat lifted away and looked at him with shock.
Dommik could count the number of times he had ever been disturbed, and that count didn’t go past his first hand. But that day did something to him that he couldn’t fully understand, it had changed him, evolved him beyond the physical restraints of his body. There were new parts, software and hardware updates, there was even new technology, like his body-suit, that upgraded him. They didn’t prepare him for Argo. And they didn’t prepare him for Kat.
He didn’t know why he felt compelled to tell her about it.
“There was no ground to be seen because it was covered up. And even within my ship, I could smell the stench, it was everywhere and it clung to everything. I was expecting a desert. Eventually, after several hours of flying over the dead, I gave up and landed amongst the waste. The ship popped the bloated things it landed on and settled in. So, after my vessel scanned the vicinity, it managed to find life amongst the dead, at least what remained and it was deep, and I meandeepunderground.
I geared up and went out to investigate. It took some time but I managed to dig my way to the planet’s surface only to discover that the dead things had lived beneath the sands and the creatures on my radar were likely the same as the ones on the surface. I don’t know what happened but it drove the beasts from underground to die planetside.” Dommik reached for Kat again and brought her back against him.
“What did you do?” she asked.
“My job. I found a tunnel and went after the live ones.”
“How does this involve you needing me? You made it back.”
“I did.” Dommik sighed. “But it wasn’t that simple. I went down into the tunnel and the live ones began to move toward the surface. They started to move toward me as well and I was ready for it. I thought it was a lucky break on my part and managed to catch several of the small ones, young I assumed at the time; and as I was retreating back to my ship with the paralyzed beasts dragging behind me, the tunnel collapsed.”
“Oh my god.”
Dommik laughed. “Maybe. Maybe not.” He sobered up. “I was alive, partially crushed, for nearly a week and for a good portion of that time I was unconscious. I’m not sure how much you know about Cyborgs but we heal at an extremely fast rate and we can survive without food and water for months before our nanocells begin to fail. My body was healing itself around crushed metal and I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t estimate my time of death, and I so very much wanted to die. On the fifth day, I turned myself off and waited for it to happen.”
“Why did you wait so long?”
“I was hoping one of the beasts would open up a tunnel nearby or through me and the ones I had captured perished long before they woke up.”
“So how did you get out?” He felt her body shiver against him.
“Remember those satellites and perimeter blockades I mentioned? Well, my override didn’t work and alerted the owner. It was the Cyborg who first uploaded the images of life out there to the network. He had come to dispose of me, of my ship, but ended up saving me instead. He tracked my signal down and we connected wirelessly. It took him two days to get me out. In exchange for letting me live and healing me, I had to keep the EPED from getting involved. I docked my ship to his and we left Argo together.”
Kat moved onto his lap and started kissing his jaw, light touches, just the barest hint of her lips that were dry but still soft and velvet. The parts inside him that wanted to shift into hisotherform became harder for him to keep under control. Dommik settled with letting her do what she wanted.
He continued, “I was out of commission for months and had my humanity off even longer. We stayed out in the fringes during that time so my ship couldn’t be tracked. I was off the grid, completely, for an entire season. And when my reports were filed through, they had already assumed my death.”
She stopped kissing and looked at him. “Why would they assume that? Did they even send someone out there to find you?”
“They didn’t, couldn’t, each mission costs them a significant amount of money and is queued far in advance. Even if they jumped my rescue to the top of the list it would have taken them months to get there, at best. I have the best track record of any hunter in keeping communication with the EPED, so when I vanished they assumed the worst. Gunner of all Cyborgs was the only one who fought to go look for me. Keep kissing me,” he demanded, harsher than he intended.
She looked away from him, “Okay,” and leaned in, her mouth as light and airy as a butterfly. He flexed and grabbed her legs, pulling her firmly into his lap to straddle and sit on his hard-on.
“I know you want me.”
“Well, Cyborg, I know you want me too. Finish the story, what happened when you returned?”
“Shock, confusion for the most part and quite a bit of anger. I told them the planet was dead and couldn’t sustain life, that I had taken an injury and had recovered, and I would not tell them more. In return, they withheld payment for the mission and business went on as usual. They didn’t believe me, of course, but they couldn’t afford to lose me either. In retaliation, they have kept me on the easiest jobs since and close to Earth. And here you are, and here we are on my first mission since Argo, heading to a place they are probably hoping will get rid of you so they can put one of their own on this ship.”
Kat shook her head and stopped feathering kisses on him again. “I don’t understand,” she leaned back to find his eyes. “Why did you have to keep Argo a secret? Why does a dead planet matter so much? Did he...did the other Cyborg kill it?”
“He told me there was a disease there, something he came into contact with and he took it upon himself to keep it contained.”
“And you believed him?”
“Yes and even if I didn’t. I owed him a life debt. I owe him a lot more. He fixed me, metal frame and all. I can’t even begin to tell you how much money that would have cost him. All he asked for was silence and so I paid up.”
She looked at him, head canted and questioning with messy hair framing her heart-shaped face and lips pressed firm into a straight line. Dommik lost control when she parted her lips to speak. “No more questions,” he mumbled and kissed her. She swallowed her words with a moan and kissed him back.
He took her lips with a desperation he didn’t know was inside him, a need for her exotic, unknowable taste in his mouth, simmering and wild. She parted her velvet soft mouth under his and gave him access to take her as, burning, chaotic desire lit up between them. A wildfire, explosive and uncontrollable. Dommik needed her like this, always like this, and only ever for him.
Kat’s hands gripped his shirt and tore it as she dragged her hands down his chest, his abs, over his pelvis and found the cock she was currently sitting on. He didn’t stop her when she began to dance on him, rubbing him through his body-suit, with her fingers and her pussy.
