He aimed it at the monster and emptied the clip. When the movement stopped, Hector crawled to his brother’s side.
A couple minutes later he was beside Zeph. The signal between them was even weaker than before. Hector stared down at the Cyborg. His head was nearly severed off. Hector pressed his hand to Zeph’s chest and found the frame underneath cold.
He rolled onto what remained of his back and gazed blankly at the ceiling, listening to the dead sounds of the ship.
It took him three weeks to drag his brethren’s body to the medbay to and try and bring the Croc back online. In that time, the last tendrils of Zeph’s consciousness had become nothing but a glimmer of a memory. Hector kept it alive, wiring Zeph’s damaged remains to his own power source. Zeph had saved his life, the least he could do was try to return the favor.
But he couldn’t replace the pieces that were missing with new ones, and at the end of the fourth week, he’d come to a decision.
The only piece left that worked…was him.
Hector decided to break Cyborg law and kill his friend.
21
“Hector?” Janet stared at the Cyborg above her, confused. “Why do you want to be called Hector?”
Zeph lifted off of her without answering, his features flashing from black to green. She watched as he righted his clothes and buckled his pants. Afterward, he picked up the slip of her dress and handed it to her. She pulled it on over her head, still waiting for an answer.
“Tell me why you want to be called that?” she asked again.
“Because it’s who I really am.”
“Hector?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand?” She really didn’t.Maybe he has two names?“If you want to change your name, I guess I can get onboard but I’d like to know why first.”
“Janet…” He clenched his jaw and curled his fingers around the wheel.
“Well?” she prompted. “Go on.”
Zeph’s entire demeanor tensed at her urging. Janet pulled her legs under her and faced him, giving him all of her attention. She ached between her legs as his seed began to dry on her inner thighs but she barely noticed it. It was a mark. His mark. And she liked wearing it.
“Have you ever killed someone?” he asked.
“I—I haven’t.”
“Be thankful for that. There’s nothing like living with the ghosts of your past.”
“Is that what’s bothering you? I mean, haven’t you taken more lives than you can count? Blown up more ships than the average human will ever see in their lifetime?”
“Those are nothing but numbers to me. They bother me but not in the way I think they should, not in a human way. The first time I ever truly experienced humanity was twelve years ago, while I was on a mission to an asteroid belt out in the Andromeda system. I’d been alive for over half a century at that point, and yet I had never understood the true reason to being human. When you’re made up of so many components, I suppose mixing up my animalistic or cybernetic instincts can be easy, when you throw in humanity as well… How can I know I’m doing something wrong when one part of me thinks it’s right, and the other insists it’s the exact opposite? I have two demons on my shoulders whispering in my ears.”
“What happened out there? That made you feel that way?”
“I murdered my brother.”
“Another Cyborg?”
“He and I were born hours apart, in the same laboratory, each with his own unique makeup. I don’t know why, but having him there, when you’re experiencing light and shadow, noise and smell for the first time, it was calming. The doctors and robots who created us saw that bond and kept us together. We remained together afterward, in all things that mattered. I didn’t realize the gift I’d been given until it was to late. There were no other Cyborgs out there with a bond like ours. We were genuine brothers.”
Janet couldn’t imagine the trauma she’d go through if she killed Rylie or Lily, or even her parents. They meant everything to her.
“Hector?” she asked. “His name was Hector?”
“His name was Zeph.”
