“It’s a—” then he remembered he’d hacked the closest artificial intelligence to his target. He must be in one of Zeph’s android crew. Not the Croc’s ship’s AI. Gunner finished his diagnostics in record time—proving his theory right.Trust those calculations.
At least he—and Heartface’s intelligence—could tell that the girl before him was indeed female. That was information he’d never take for granted again.
Thank fucking guns.He focused in on her and her endless chatter.
“It’s now Bulls-eye,” he said, changing the image projected within his glass face.
Lily’s eyes widened and her happy expression shifted to pondering, all while her innocent stare remained on him. Gunner stared back, finding her steady gaze increasingly uncomfortable.
“Like when we practice guns,” Lily said before smiling again.
“Yes… What?” Had he been able to narrow his eyes, he would’ve at that moment.
“Ma and Da only let me watch. I’m not old enough yet.”
His curiosity piqued. “Old enough for what?”
“To shoot a target.” Her voice heightened. “It’s your turn!”
There were wires attached to a Cyborg’s heart that were better left alone, but those annoying wires had strummed to life for the first time. Gunner scoffed and looked down at the screen he was holding. The flashing bright letters quite indeed indicated it washisturn. Terraform Zero 18.A game with eighteen fucking editions? What’s wrong with humans? Get it right the first time.
He bypassed Heartface’s coding and opted on landing on the pre-generated planet. Screw surveying and data analysis. If he was going to terraform a digital planet for fun, he was going to do it his way—hard, fast, and dangerously.
“Your turn,” he mumbled, unhappy he couldn’t look up hacks without making a network connection and being discovered by Zeph.
Lily sank back into the lounge beside him, pulling her knees to her chest and resting the screen against them. And just like that, he forgot all about his mission until the match ended, with his hard and fast approach resulting in the death of every human he tried to settle on the planet—by ravenous made-up alien trees no-less. Lily won by default.
“Again!”
Gunner started first on the second game before he remembered what he was really there for.
“Lily,” he started slowly, knowing he should wake up the older sister and question her instead. “Are you being treated well here?”
“You’re gonna lose if you keep landing on the first turn. Even babies know that.”
Gunner scowled and completely disregarded the girl’s criticism. “Do you like Zeph?”
“Uncle Zeph plays with me sometimes.”
“How so?”
“He lets me use this big screen that comes out of the air and turns up the music real loud.”
His choice of settlement in the game was inhabited by horned beasts. Gunner attacked them. It was the best location. “Are you happy?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to go home?” The horned beasts couldn’t be stopped by gunfire and his remaining settlers were forced to retreat. Now, they were suffering from dehydration. He was losing. Again.
“Nah. All there is is ocean. I don’t like the ocean. I’m not allowed to swim when I want to and the salt makes my hair hard and then I have to takeanotherbath.”
He nodded in agreeance, sending the android’s head bobbing because it was much lighter than his own. “I hate the water too.”
“Is that why you’re an android? The androids at home don’t go in the water.” Lily hummed, taking her turns with more calculation than his own.
“Mr. Heartface isn’t designed for water…” Gunner found water in the game as he spoke, but was now dealing with elevation sickness in all but a quarter of his remaining settlers. Humans were so fragile. The beasts had stopped chasing them at least. “But I hate it because it washes away my scent.”
Lily glanced up from the game. “Why?
