She jerked up, but he leaned over her, trapping her. Her mouth parted. The beating of her heart thrummed fast.
His heat, his smell, filled her nose. It was so much more potent than before.
“Have you heard of Axone?” he asked.
“It’s a planet like old Earth. It’s been playable on the Terraform games for years.” What did Axone have to do with any of this? It was one of the first planets she played as a child, but one she quickly gave up on.
“It’s not just in your game. It’s a real place. It was the next planet slated for the Earth’s government to colonize.”
Thinking back, she recalled Axone on the news when she first started out. It’d been many, many years since she last heard about it, though.
He continued. “Everyone, Vee, everyone who was sent there died horrible deaths. Everyone but a single scientist, and only because one of my brethren happened to intercept her distress call and answer it. He almost died too during the extraction, several times over.”
“I didn’t know…”
“You wouldn’t. The project, funded by EonMed, went dark. No one knows what happened except those who were a part of it. The Cyborg who rescued the lone survivor worked for Nightheart, the very same ‘borg you contracted with. Trillions of credits were lost, and billions more to cover it up. Who paid for that? EonMed and the EPED. Since then, all colonizing efforts have been halted. It was the only planet slated for human settlement—the only planet still to this day.”
“What about Gliese, Elyria, Kepler? They’re colonized but still have people like me there as the colonies grow bigger, into uncharted territories.”
“And what are the odds of you being sent there over residents that already live planetside, over those who’ve been in the business and know those planets better than Earth? You’re a dime a dozen. You Terraform players are expendable. No, they’ll send you to Axone, if anywhere at all.”
She bristled. “You can’t know that for sure.”
Cypher’s lips twisted. “No one lets trillions go to waste—for a simple monstrous outbreak. From a few unexplainable deaths.”
He was too close to her to think straight. Still, she’d forgotten all about Axone. Even if EPED and EonMed now worked together on the planet—even if it was to get their investment back—that didn’t mean she’d end up there. “There are moons and asteroids, smaller places owned by other private corporations where I could go. Not every place is regulated by the EPED or the government,” she argued. There were mining planets, prison moons, and much more. “You’re only trying to scare me. It won’t work.”
Cypher laughed, his face turning mean. She scooted back as far as she could go.
He leaned closer. “You forget one small thing, little human…”
Her eyes narrowed. “Which is?”
“You’re already contracted with the EPED.”
“How would you know all of this?”
“Know? For the very reason Nightheart had you pretend to be me to get me out of… It doesn’t matter. I know because the Cyborg who went to Axone is a… friend. But mainly because Nightheart has been trying to recruit me since the beginning. And you, Vee, are nothing but a pawn to get what he wants. Once he’s finished with you, you won’t matter anymore.”
She tore her eyes away from him and stared at the half-eaten food on her plate. Anger and worry swirled within her. How did it get to this? She was caught up in something that had nothing to do with her, and even if she tried to deny it, she couldn’t deny what happened to her apartment, or that she was on a Cyborg’s spaceship with him looming over her.
She couldn’t deny the angry comments on her media site or the protestors outside her building.
Vee wanted to dive back into Cypher’s bed and hide again—until she came up with a plan.
Was her lifelong dream worth all of this? She clasped her fingers together. Then it finally dawned on her…
I’m never going to have a normal life again.
“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “What should I do?” It hurt to feel so vulnerable. She hated it. And to be that way in front of Cypher… All she’d ever wanted was to help her kind and to find freedom in the process. But this?
None of what Cypher said had anything to do with helping her kind or finding freedom. In fact, it seemed like the opposite. Money, control, corporations…
The silence lingered, and she pulled her eyes back to him, her throat tightening.He probably thinks I’m an idiot, a naïve little girl.That pained her as much as everything else, Vee realized.
But as her gaze met his, she found him right beside her, mere inches away.
She jerked her head back.
