He runs back toward me, jumps off a boulder and tries to snag my ankle. “Aera!”
But the ship is too fast and too strong. Metal doors close beneath me, and the beam cuts off, dropping me to the floor like a sack of rocks.
I scramble up and reach for my rifle when a warm gun barrel nears my temple. I can hear the high-pitched whine of the igniter, smell the hot metal dust, and see the green glow in thecorner of my eye. I release my weapon and lift my hands. “The fuck do you want?”
“Your blood. All of it. Aera Nova.”
“You have that wrong. My name is Aera Nereus.”
“They’re both hazardous names.” The male Solcrue picks me up by my throat and pins me against the wall. “And I know who the fuck you are.”
I stare in horror at the officer I shot in the side years ago.
“Funny thing about being an important rank in our empire,” he says, casually waving his gun around as he talks. “We get these cool little machines that can heal us from death. We’re basically immortal. So let’s try this again,Aera. Where is the human’s backup defense system?”
He inhales a breath near my face like he’s trying hard to catch my scent when he never will. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll just drain that blood out of you and hack the nanos myself. So be good and tell me.”
I spit in his face. “Fuck off, snake. If I knew, I wouldn’t tell you because you’d be dead, and we wouldn’t be here, would we?”
His hand tightens around my throat. “That was your last mistake.”
Chapter 20: Evo
My ultromotor surges in my chest as Aera vanishes into the belly of a Solcrue battle cruiser. It glides off like I’m not a concern, but I line up its trajectory and calculate a possible intersection at another cliff side.
I drop my gear as I run to make myself as light as possible, and sling my rifle over my back so I can have my hands free. I pull up Panther’s contact and the way it felt to run on all fours.
My body shifts, dropping down into his shape, and I bound faster across the loose rocks, catching up to the ship. The cliff nears.
Target: Cruiser. Line up intersection.
My programming replies.
Eighty-two percent of required speed.
I sprint as fast as my motors will let me go. Probability of success drops.
Fuck! They have Aera. Stupid... Thruster!
As I run out on the final rock, I leap into the air and morph into Thruster’s gold form with engines all over my body. But my fuel is limited, because I’m not actually his kind of unit. I manage only a burst before the transformation cuts out, and I’m back to my stardust form, careening wildly toward the cruiser.
I kick on my rocket boots and get enough of a flare out of them to snag an aileron. The moment my hands wrap around the metal, confidence returns. My boots shut off, and I walk across the hull to a nearby airlock, rest my hand on the control panel, and open the exterior doors.
When I step inside, I focus on isolating Eon’s skill of invisibility. The rifle slips in my fingers, and I realize I’ve dippedtoo far.Don’t blend us. Just Eon.I wince as I adjust my grip.How does he feel?
Like no one sees him. Something I used to understand...before Aera.
My hands disappear, then my arms and my suit follow. But I can still see the rifle, because it isn’t reactive like my armor. So I set it down and all the other weapons on my body that aren’t doing what I want them to.
When the airlock opens, the Solcrue soldiers outside stand in confusion. It’s the perfect distraction, and I think I’m going to like being Eon a lot more often.
I move among the soldiers, rip a knife out of one’s belt, and stab him through the neck with his own weapon. I break the neck of the second. As he falls, I guide his gun around to shoot the third behind him. Then I pry it free and shoot the next, who runs in after hearing the commotion.
Tossing the gun aside, I exit into the hallway and use the same tactics. I am an invisible force, smashing soldiers into one another, slaying them with their own blades and guns, fueled by desperation to have Aera in my arms again and rage that anyone would dare hurt her.
I make it down to the level where the gravity beams are and catch Aera’s scent on the breeze. She’s here somewhere. I just can’t see her.
Scanners run and show several hot bodies in the forward rooms. I try to ignore the drips of human blood on the floor, but the fury that pours into me is too much. I break my cover as I step into the containment room where Captain Crezlith,Captain Crazy, wrestles Aera toward the officers’ quarters.
