“I can still smell them.”
“How? The last one...died over two weeks ago.” There was a muffled hint of remorse in Nickel’s voice that spoke volumes. It surprised Gunner that of everyone who must’ve been on Nickel’s crew, that he was the one to survive.
“I have a great sense of smell,” he muttered before the entryway to the reactor.
Nickel sidled up to him. “That really sucks. I can’t stand the smell right now, and I can’t even smell the decay anymore. You enhanced with cybernetics? Your eyes had a red glow earlier.”
Gunner forced through the reactor’s separate security, and APOLLO suppressed the breach alarm without question. “You could say that.”
“I’d like to get some work done myself...”
They walked into the machine room together, his liner gun tapping his chest with each step.The kid doesn’t see a Cyborg.Not many did when it came to him, because his frame wasn’t as bulked up as some of his brethren; instead, he had a tall, wiry internal structure. The beast didn’t need extra mass to shift into shape. The jackal preferred speed over strength.
And my jacket hides the rest.Gunner pulled out what he needed from his lining and started on the reactor. There was coding to be done before his ship would be able to connect directly to it, coding that was easier done in person than it was in cyberspace. He peeled back the barricaded, triple-layered mainframe until it exposed the computer housed within.
“What kind of work?” Gunner asked.
“A big dick, for one,” Nickel laughed. “The kind that never quits unless forced and does all the work for you. But no, I kid, if I could get anything done, it’d be a metabolism regulator. After these past few months, forcing my body to shut down would’ve been great. You were right about the food. I’m down to quarter rations now.” As he said it, his stomach growled low and hollow. Gunner pulled out a protein bar from one of his many pockets and handed it to him.
“Thanks man...” Nickel took it without question.
“Hmm.”
Gunner turned away and cracked the reactor open like an egg, almost surprised with how easy it was. Any hacker with half a brain could’ve done what he did. TheBlessedwas a disgrace to all Earthian cybersecurity.
The security on his own ship had started out the best that money could buy and was then enhanced by a team of his more paranoid Cyborg brethren. He learned from them and now maintained it with APOLLO. Unlike the other Cyborgs in the EPED, he needed the best security. He was given jobs that dealt with monsters on an entirely different level.Humanmonsters.
It was a game of Russian roulette with his employers. It was easy for the EPED to put him on missions that were more likely to cause his death than not. He was expendable and always would be. But he was also an asset because he never. Fucking. Died.
And he never questioned.
Browning once told him that his death would as likely cause a celebration as it would a wake. That whether he lived or died, the universe would be interrupted for a heartbeat, but it would then go on without him. His death would never be more than a nuisance. But then he stuck his cock in her mouth, she got him off, and he watched in resentment as she traipsed to the sink in his brew room, spit out his seed, and clean out her mouth so thoroughly that it had pissed him off. A sex-bot had angered him. Browning had been demoted to maintenance for a year after that stunt and he had to make do with the others.
In the end, she won, and his favor returned with his mirth.
The connection to their ships fused and he left his AI to take care of the siphoning process. Gunner lifted away.
“You’ll have enough power to get to the nearest port in several hours,” he said.
Nickel pocketed the protein wrapper and eyed the reactor’s computer. “I appreciate it. So about that conversation? You get lonely out here in space all alone?”
Gunner slammed one the barricades back in place. “What makes you think I’m alone?”
“Based on what I saw, you are. Androids are nothing but a shield. The goddesses give them no favor.”
He turned to the boy. “It’s true, a good guess, I don’t like to share. Humans need others in their lives, robots don’t.” It wasn’t the real reason there were no humans on his ship, but the boy didn’t need to know that.
Nickel laughed and sat on a nearby pipe. “A shame that. I’d corrupt myself all over them if you know what I mean.”
Gunner narrowed his eyes. Nickel’s laughter wilted.
“If you even breathed on my ship, you’d be as good as dead. When I said I don’t like to share, I meant it. I won’t tolerate the idea either.”
‘Approaching vessel entering perimeter.’Gunner snapped out of his anger and pulled out his gun.
“Shit! I’m sorry, I was making a joke!” Nickel jerked back.
‘Power up the guns, hail them, send me diagnostics,’he flooded his AI with commands.
