Chloe’s nerves were as taut as a bow string as she stood in the observation room overlooking the docking bay. It was only partly because of the craft they were awaiting, however. A good bit of it had to do with the fact that Jared seemed to have decided he was running the ship and that he’d formed the cyborgs onboard into a militant group who now surrounded her, at rigid attention, and bristling with every weapon they had onboard.
Not that she could argue with the fact that he knew a hell of a lot more about military strategy than she did—which was zero. Even her father had delegated anything to do with security, defense, or offense of the Salvager to Jared and she certainly trusted her father’s judgment. Beyond that, her instincts were telling her that it would be best to let him handle it.
The fact remained, though, that she hadn’ttoldhim to handle it. He’d decided to do it on his own, and she was pretty sure he shouldn’t have been able to do that.
And that made her pretty damned uneasy, especially considering that she’d begun to notice he was acting just a little strangely about other things, too.
It was almost more unnerving that all of the new cyborgs had followed his orders without question—including Damon.
She couldn’t convince herself that it wasn’t a bad thing that the cyborgs appeared to be acting completely autonomously. Of course, they were supposed to … to a degree. There wouldn’t have been much point in making them appear so life-like and realistic if they couldn’t interact without having someone always instructing them.
The thing was, they were always to yield control to any humans who established command of them, whether the particular human was their owner or not—especially if they were their owner.
And she was, damn it!
The bay doors began to open, snagging her attention and drawing her from her uneasy thoughts to the more pressing threat. The craft currently gliding into their—her—bay had answered the hail, but she hadn’t found it particularly reassuring that they’d claimed to be friendly. Why had they followed them if they were friendly? That was what she would like to know. Why not contact them immediately instead of chasing after them—even through a fairly lengthy jump—which they shouldn’t have been able to follow without the exact same coordinates.
It was almost as if they’d managed, somehow, to tie into her computer, but the computer had denied that it had been accessed by intruders and, of course, it couldn’t lie. In point of fact, she shouldn’t even have had to ask because it was also supposed to alert if there was even an attempt.
She sure as hell didn’t think whoever was onboard was psychic, though. Of course, there were species in the confederation capable of telepathy and therefore also capable of reading the minds of others, but they had to be in close proximity. They couldn’t read minds that were separated from them by hundreds of miles, much less thousands or light years.
It didn’t help her feelings when the craft finally settled and the engines were cut to see that it looked distinctly military in design. There were no insignias on it to identify it—which made her wonder if it was pirates. She tensed more as the gangplank extended and then slowly descended toward the deck. The rear hatch opened and men began to march down the plank with the sort of military precision that was hard to misinterpret.
Chloe threw a frightened glance up at Jared when nearly two dozen soldiers, most of whom were clearly men, had assembled on the deck.
Jared’s face was so hard it made her even more uneasy.
He glanced down at her. “You should go to the bridge.”
Chloe felt her jaw go slack. “But … I’m the captain!”
His lips tightened. “You are also human. That is nearly a full platoon of cyborg soldiers down there.”
Chloe’s mind went chaotic. Fear surged through her, but she wasn’t certain why she felt threatened. She shouldn’t have felt threatened. They had to be soldiers of the Confederation …. Right?
“You’re expecting trouble?” she asked shakily.
“I do not know what to expect. I think it would be better if you were elsewhere if there is trouble.”
Chloe blinked at him. “I don’t know how that’s going to help when I can’t get off the ship!”
His lips tightened. “It would remove you from potential harm at this time and I would know where to find you.”
Chloe glanced around at the cyborgs surrounding her. “I think I’d rather just take my chances and stay with you guys.”
“Go to the bridge, Chloe!” Jared growled.
Chloe’s eyes widened. After a moment, she merely shrugged, turned, and stalked off. When she reached the door that led into the bay, however, she leapt for it, snatched it open, and charged toward the soldiers. She’d barely made it out the door when something as hard as steel encircled her middle and close-lined her, knocking the breath from her. She grunted, sucked in a breath and glanced a little frantically at the soldiers in her bay. “I don’t want to alarm anybody—especially me—but I think they’ve gone rogue!”
A tall, dark cyborg stepped away from the platoon and advanced toward them. He halted in a rigid stance when he reached them, looking her over with mild curiosity as she dangled from one of Jared’s arms.
“This is Captain Chloe Armstein of the Salavager?”
“Yes, I am!” Chloe said, relieved until it dawned on her that he hadn’t exactly addressed her. In fact, he hadn’t addressed her at all.
“You did not identify,” Jared said tightly.
“Reuel CO469.”
