Gunner didn’t move and Elodie wished she could reach out and take his wrist. He stared at the door with a distantly. She felt bad for the door. When he looked at her that way, his attention was overwhelming, but he adored her. Gunner had no care for the door.
“Go,” Ely urged.
He glanced her way. “I’ll be back soon.” He looked at Cagley. “Make sure she’s ready to leave when I get back.” Then he was out the poor door and gone.
Elodie turned her focus to the doctor sitting beside her. “Is everything all right?”
“I don’t know.” She canted her head. “But there’s always something happening. I stopped caring about the small things long ago. If it doesn’t affect my ability to operate my lab or impact my supply chain I let the others decide what the appropriate response is.”
The doctor untied her long brown hair, and for a moment, a silken cascade of dark chocolate locks fell around the woman’s shoulders before it was re-tamed. It was alluring, almost unnervingly so, but inviting and warm. Her aura was maternal. The kind that could be clearly seen from a distance and understood without ever knowing the person at all. Elodie had never seen a more beautiful woman in her life. The female Cyborg’s beauty was so different from the imposing men of her species that she found it strange.
A vixen. I would’ve expected female Cyborgs to be provocative. Not motherly.Cagley looked no older than Elodie herself, yet she was drawn to her like a child to her mother.
“Why are you different?” Elodie blurted out, kicking herself as she said it.
“Different?”
“From the other Cyborgs. You were all made around the same time? The men,” she nudged her head, “look like battle machines.” Elodie briefly bit her tongue. “I don’t mean to offend you, but you make me want to hug you, and the others... They make me want to avert my gaze and walk in the opposite direction.”
Cagley burst out into laughter, and it went on for some time. Elodie blushed.
“Iamdifferent, but then again, every Cyborg is. I look the way I look to be inviting, and I’m glad I still am.” She released another soft laugh. “I was designed after the head cybernetic doctor’s wife. She had died years prior during the war. He was an old man by the time I awoke in my vat but he was standing over me, shielding me with a towel away from prying eyes. His wife was kind, he told me, and so he hoped I would be too.”
“And then he sent you off to war? That doesn’t make sense.” Elodie twitched her fingers wishing she could itch more than her palms.
“No, but I wasn’t meant for the front lines. I was pre-programmed with dozens of years of cybernetic research and human medical care. The cybernetics doctors couldn’t go to the battles, so they needed someone to go in their place, and so they made me. It was my job, along with several others created in my division, to take care of the Cyborgs damaged in battle.”
“I guess that makes sense. You’re very beautiful.”
“Thank you.” Cagley smiled.
“Aren’t you afraid of being surrounded by,” Elodie swallowed, “men?”
“The Cyborgs? No. They’re honorable for the most part. They wouldn’t come near me unless I invited them to and vice versa. I wasn’t designed to be helpless either. My strength is not at their level, but I’m still far ahead of a human and no Cyborg would jeopardize their relationship with me, as I’m the only one on station capable of rebuilding them. Why?”
“I was afraid to be around men.” Elodie tilted her head to look back at the door, hoping Gunner would return. When he didn’t, she continued, “Not so much anymore.”
“I’m glad. Even more so that the jackal has made you feel that way. They mate for life, did you know that?”
Elodie looked back at Cagley, eyes wide. “They do?”
Cagley nodded, her eyes twinkling with mirth. “They do. I guess you own Gunner now. Be careful where you point him.”
***
GUNNER ENTERED GHOSTCity’s top deck solarium, bypassing the entrance to the control room, and headed for the conference room. Without knocking he stormed in and slammed his hands on the glass-alloy table. It didn’t splinter, but it did shake.
Cypher sat heavily in a chair at the front while Breco stood off to the side.
“What’s this about?”
“Nightheart has contacted us, and since he isyour boss, and he asked for you personally, we figured you should be here,” Breco mused, flicking something off his sleeve. The Cyborg looked as uncaring as Gunner was irate. It was only the three of them in the large room, but the space felt small.
Gunner clawed his fingers over the glass before straightening. “And to answer my question?” He didn’t even want to be on Ghost City, let alone in a room with several of his brethren. If it weren’t for Elodie, he would be a trillion miles away, waiting and working on ship repairs with her, spending his cycles the way he wanted to. Withher.
But her health was more important, and this ‘upgrade’ was long overdue, as far as he was concerned. They also needed to resupply. So their little vacation had a minor detour, finding them stationed at Ghost.
Cypher mumbled, half-growling with his eyes closed. “There’s a problem.”
