The mechanical battle reverberated off the walls as metal fought metal, and even when it was over the resounding vibrations continued to parrot throughout.
When it was over, he sent the few robots he forcibly controlled to scout the hallways ahead and check the crew’s quarters.
He rose from his spot and jumped over the crate, flexing his muscles, and tugged one of his guns out of his holster.
The corridor remained in the condition he left it, but the bodies he’d decimated were rotting now. The stench of bloated decay was overpowering. Even the acrid burning laser residue from the android showdown was quickly eclipsed.
The stink awoke memories he would have preferred to keep buried. It brought forth a million recorded minutes of feed from the war.
Gunner closed his eyes, trying to find his way out of the maelstrom of chaotic memories. Elodie’s face surfaced, floating above the raging torrent of death that engulfed his conscious mind. He latched on to his promise to protect her and clawed his way out of the nightmare caused by the carrion’s reek. His beast protested Gunner’s dominion, but he subdued the animal behind an iron resolve.
After he regained control, he lifted the gun in his hand—the gun that still smelled of his mate—and rubbed it across his nose. The jackal was pouting before, but now it was ecstatic. When his senses and systems cleared and his zombie-like androids returned, he kicked the crate inward and let the elevator go.
His lips twitched up.Ten minutes.It took him less than ten minutes to claim new territory. It reminded himwhyhe was an impatient man and sneaking about a ship in the dark was not his thing. As he waited for the others to join him, he surveyed the carnage that decorated the floors and walls in gruesome overkill.
The captain didn’t have it cleaned up.Gunner kicked through the human and android remains, nudging them to the sides with his boot as he went.He has to know there’s a Cyborg on his ship. He must know I’m coming for him.That depended entirely on the two men he let go... The thought was unsettling. He turned his eyes up and stared at the ceiling as if he could look through it.
He expected real men—a real fight—to bar his path.Another trap?Ballsy was gone but that didn’t mean there couldn’t be one. The shaft groaned, interrupting his thoughts. Shortly after, half of the group appeared, clutching weapons in nervous, sweat-dampened hands. He looked over them to find Elodie at the back with Chesnik. They stepped off the elevator wide-eyed and uneasy.
“Where’re the others?” he asked.
“We figured it was best if we didn’t all come up at once,” Chesnik mumbled as he looked around.
They didn’t trust him. Clearly, they didn’t want to. He, on the other hand, had nothing to prove to them and he almost wished they would dissent and leave him be.My life would be easier for it.But only as long as Elodie remained with him. His eyes landed on her. Only if their dissension didn’t bleed into her. She came to him as if his thoughts could summon.
Gunner’s eyes remained on hers as he yelled out to the others, “Loot what you can find but don’t attack the working androids, they’re ours now. Stay on point. We don’t know if there’s any traps.” Ely turned her attention to the dead as he spoke, her face devoid of color.
“You did this?” she asked.
Gunner closed the short distance between them and blocked her view. “Yes.”
“Indiscriminately?”
“In self-defense.” His voice lowered, “There were survivors.”
She lightly rested her brow upon his chest and nodded. The muscles in his arms stiffened. His fingers twitched. He wanted to wrap her up in his arms, hold her to him, but resisted the urge. “You did it for me.”
He narrowed his eyes in question.
“For our deal,” she added.
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
The color returned to her skin and he opened his mouth to ask herwhy. Why was she thanking him? He never got the words out because the elevator reopened and the remaining men poured out. Elodie turned away from him at the sound.
The rest gathered with them and they made their way in silence through the winding hallways of the new floor. Doors were left ajar on either side of them, revealing the crew’s quarters, bedding and all the human detritus that went with it. There was nothing for them here unless someone wanted a change of clothes or to scavenge old tech. Eventually, the smell of decay faded into the background.
Gunner eyed the ceiling again. He hadn’t been up on the top deck since he was dragged aboard but he would have remembered the layout even if he hadn’t downloaded the ship’s schematics into his systems.
The top deck. The working deck. The best security and the most essential rooms apart from the engines. The medical bay, the armory, and the bridge crew. There’d be a docking platform above as well as below. On normal ships two access points were available; docking below was meant for supplies, storage, and machines while the entryway above was meant for people—diplomacy.
The entry sat to the front of the vessel, separated from the floors below and because of that it only had one central entry and exit point to the rest of the ship. It was designed that way so that if any of the machines malfunctioned or blew up for any reason, theimportantfuckers would be well away from it.
Gunner stopped short of the panel to the second elevator shaft and pressed his hand against it, making a direct connection.
Nothing.Security was dead everywhere.
