“The difference is, I think you can be resisted,” Freya said.
“Shall we test that hypothesis?”
Freya smiled.
“What is that?” Wrathin whispered. “Is that banter?”
Veta nodded. “Yes.” She patted his arm. “Some couples banter with one another before engaging in sexual contact.”
“Does it make the sex more interesting?” he asked.
“Sometimes.”
Kian evidently didn’t like their conversation and, with a flick of his wrist, shot an energy blast at their feet.
It hit right in between them on the ground.
Wrathin glared at him. “Maybe you should turn that off.”
“Not when it annoys you.”
Freya elbowed him. The energy sparked, like a light shock from an electric outlet. “Might not be a bad idea. We do not want to damage the rescue ship.”
“If you insist,” Kian replied.
The energy dissipated, and he resembled the Kian she’d met before.
Sort of.
There was more of a glow in his eyes. Something different about him, for sure. But at least he wasn’t covered in electrical currents.
19
Kian.
Kian wake.
Kian opened his eyes.
The bright white light hit him hard, a drastic change from the dark of the eclipse and the underground area.
It smelled clean.
Of sanitation.
Of—
Kian!
Yes, Master System.
Data flowed through him, updates to his programming and information that he had missed. He could feel it running through the manual uploads on his arms, the tethers locked into a data port.
But Master System seemed different than the usual connection.
Part of the upload, but not. Like a separate entity. A parental one, in a way. If that was what this feeling was. It was the closest thing he could equate the connection to.
His vision focused. He could tell he was in a tech bay, being worked on by several medical techs.
