Indulgence (100 page)

“I trust her.” Rage sat on a boulder. “Broadcast the
information to me.”

“And me too.” Gap never wanted to be excluded.

If Rage thought the chip was infected, he’d protest, try to
protect the kid, but he meant what he said. He trusted Joan, more than any
being in their cursed universe. He picked up a weapon, planning to repair it.

Crash slid the card into one of his neck slots. “I’m
broadcasting.”

A flood of images, narrated by his female’s voice, surged
through Rage’s processors and his gun was forgotten, her words tearing at his
heart.

I care for your friend. Very much.

His security is my first concern. If he dies, my
sacrifices will be for nothing, my life meaningless.

“Lucky bag of bolts,” Crash muttered.

He
was
fortunate. Rage didn’t realize how much until
this message. His female relayed a stream of information, positions of fleets,
lists of Humanoid Alliance-controlled planets and sectors, possible
modifications they could make to their mechanics, how to slow their energy
consumption if that was needed. Some of the insights they knew. Some they
didn’t.

A smile spread wider and wider across Crash’s face, his
upgrade-loving friend growing giddy on the data. Gap appeared as enraptured,
cuddling against a gun barrel.

Rage’s concerns, however, multiplied. He heard the sadness
in his female’s voice, the desperation, the fear. Her words spilled out of her
mouth faster and faster.

Then they stopped. The images of ships and systems
disappeared. Her beautiful face dominated the viewing area.

“I’ll record my message for Rage now. Remember your vow,
Crash. Only give this to him when he’s safe. I’m counting on--”

The recording paused.

“What the frag?” Rage turned his head and glared at his
friend. “Did you do that or is the chip corrupted?”

“Your female is trusting in me, is trusting in my honor as a
cyborg and a warrior, to uphold my end of the bargain.” Crash’s jaw jutted.

“I’m safe.” He wanted, no, he
had
to hear all of it.

“That’s not what she meant.”

Rage knew that. “That’s what she said.” His friend opened
his mouth. “We’re warriors. She’s aware of that. Warriors don’t interpret
orders or try to decipher their meaning. We follow them. She said to give me
the message when I’m safe. Am I in danger?” He looked around them. The
landscape was barren, devoid of other life. “No. I’m safe.”

“I--”

“Give. Me. The. Message.” Rage stood, prepared to beat the
chip out of him.

“Okay. Okay.” Crash waved his hands. “I’ll give you the
message, big guy.”

“You.” The recording played. Joan looked away from the
screen for a moment, her mouth moving, no words coming from her lips. She then
took a deep breath and gazed straight at him. “Rage, sir, when you receive
this, you’ll be home, wherever your new home is, and I’ll be dead.”

Dead. His Joan. He couldn’t process that thought, would do
anything to prevent it.

“Don’t be concerned about me, sir. I realized when I agreed
to our pairing that I wouldn’t survive it.” She touched the screen and he
reached out, wanting to feel her soft hands against his. Instead, he grasped
ash-heavy air. “I don’t regret that decision. These past planet rotations have
been the happiest of my lifespan. I care for you more than I’ve ever cared for
any other being. It was an honor to serve you.”

She swallowed hard, her eyes misting with tears.

That disturbed Rage more than her words. His female never
cried.

“I didn’t tell you the whole truth, sir, and I hope you will
forgive me with time. I knew if you were told, you’d try to save the others
first, and I couldn’t allow that. You’re my first priority.”

“Joan,” he rumbled.

“You’re not the only cyborg they plan to decommission. The
Humanoid Alliance is replacing every unit on the battle station.” Her beautiful
face hardened. “Every warrior who fought for us, who risked his life for ours,
will be terminated. I can’t allow that, sir. A cyborg didn’t save me solar
cycles ago so I could sit back and watch his brethren die. You, above all other
beings, will understand why I must take action.”

“Female, what are you planning to do?” Rage glared at her
image, frustrated that she wasn’t here to answer him.

“I’ll save as many of your friends as I can, sir.” Her
normally sunny smile held a heartbreaking sadness. “I am and will always be
your cunning, scheming female. Remember me that way and try to be happy. Oh.”
Her brown eyes glittered. “And forgive Crash for giving this message to you
now. I made him swear on his honor that he’d wait.”

The image went black.

“I have no honor.” Crash’s shoulders slumped. “Your female
trusted me and I failed her.”

“What did she mean—she’ll be dead?” Gap looked at Rage for
an answer.

“She’ll risk her life to save the other cyborgs.” How? He
didn’t know. His female was too intelligent for his sanity.

The kid frowned. “But we’re returning to help her.”

“She doesn’t know that.” Rage paced back and forth, back and
forth, wanting to punch, kick, kill something. “She thinks we’re escaping
during this deployment.”

Crash lifted his head. “You didn’t trust her with the entire
plan?”

“No.” It was a mistake that might have cost him his female’s
life. “We have to return to the battle station.” She was in danger.

“If we return now, we’ll be violating direct orders.” His
friend was the voice of reason. “They’ll fire on us and our shields won’t hold
at close range. We can’t save your female if we’re dead.”

“If we do nothing, she’s dead also.”

“Use those huge primitive processors of yours.” Crash rolled
his eyes. “Your female is intelligent. Yes?”

Rage grunted his agreement.

“Her first priority, as she stated numerous times, is to
ensure your safety.” His friend spoke slowly. “Freeing the other cyborgs would
bring attention to all of us. She wouldn’t do that, not while we’re on
deployment. She’d wait until the last moment, until after we’re scheduled to
arrive. Your female relayed to us how long it would take for command to send
out reconnaissance probes. That’s when she’d take action.”

Crash’s logic was sound. Some of the tension eased from
Rage’s shoulders. “Ours will be the first ship to return.”

“Are we taking the female hostage?” Rage didn’t like the way
Gap’s humanlike eyes lit up.

“
I’m
taking
my
female hostage.” He wanted
there to be no misunderstandings as to whom she belonged to. No other cyborg,
not even his friends, would touch her. “We’ll remove our tracking devices now,
holding them in place with medical tape.” That part of his female’s plan was
solid. “When we return to the station, we’ll wait until we reach our chambers
to take action. Kill your handlers there, quietly. Wait for a tenth of a shift.
The guards will have discarded their weapons by then, making them easier to
kill. That’s when we’ll leave our chambers.”

“And then?” Gap leaned forward.

“Everyone, except for my female, dies.” The battle station
would be blown up, the blame cast on the Mantidae. They couldn’t risk any being
following them. Their ships were designed for short trips, not journeys across
vast galaxies.

“I’ll relay those instructions to the other cyborgs.” Crash
tapped the memory chip in his neck. “They’d benefit from the information your
female shared also.”

Rage hesitated for a moment, part of him wishing to keep
everything associated with Joan to himself. But Crash was correct and his
little engineer would wish every cyborg to have the knowledge she gave them.
“Share the contents of the chip with them.”

Crash’s eyebrows lifted. “Not
all
of it.”

“All of it.” They should know what their fate might have
been, that they were slotted for decommissioning and that one small human
female sought to stop that, to save them.

“But--”

“They’re risking everything to follow us, Crash. They
deserve to know why.”

His friend gazed at him for one, two, three triple
heartbeats. “True.” He lurched to his feet. “I’ll transmit the information.” He
strode purposefully around the ship, looking for the ideal spot.

Leaving Rage with the kid and, judging by the young cyborg’s
expression, too many questions. He braced himself, resigned to answering them.

“Do you think your female will like me?” Gap kicked a gun
handle.

“You won’t touch her.”

“I don’t want to touch her.” He wrinkled his nose. “She
smells like you. But if she liked me, she might help me find my own human
female, a being who would care for me as she cares for you.”

“That level of caring is rare,” Rage admitted. “Take off your
armor. I’ll remove your tracking devices.”

Gap unfastened his arm coverings. “That caring might be
easier to find with her assistance. She understands other human females, beings
such as herself.”

Rage opened his thigh compartment, removed the pain inhibitor,
medical tape and laser scalpel Joan had stored there. “Human females aren’t
allowed in the Homeland.” He sprayed the pain inhibitor over the cyborg’s
wrists.

“My female could be stored with yours.”

Rage hadn’t yet decided where to store his little human.
He’d research planets near the Homeland during their voyage, find a safe,
secure location for her. “Do you feel this?” He pinched Gap’s skin, mimicking
Joan’s process.

“No.” The kid stared down at his wrist. “It’s possible to
take away the pain like that?”

He grunted and made an incision. It took him several moments
to find the tracking device. The wound healed. Rage didn’t have a cleaning
cloth so he stuck the bloody mini machine to Gap’s wrist and layered medical
tape over top of it. He smeared more blood over the surface to disguise the
cut.

Joan would shriek with horror if he returned from deployment
looking like that. Rage doubted that the kid’s handler would notice.

He turned his attention to Gap’s other wrist, following the
same procedure.

“It’s a long voyage to the Homeland.” The kid chattered more
than his little engineer. “Your female might run out of upgrades to perform on
your mechanics and require another cyborg to make faster, stronger.” He flexed
his lean muscles. “I could be that cyborg. I want to be at the top of my
ability range when I meet my female. She’ll know then that I can protect her as
well as you protect your Joan.”

He was doing a poor job of protecting his Joan at the
moment. Rage’s lips flattened into a grim white line. She was on a battle
station, surrounded by males who wished to harm her.

He removed the second tracking device, taped it to the
cyborg’s skin.

Crash returned. He avoided their gaze.

That wasn’t like him.

“What is it?” Rage demanded. “You have some new intelligence.
Share it with us.”

“You’ll be angry and we can do nothing about it now. Getting
us all killed won’t help her.”

Won’t help her.
His female was in danger. “They plan
to attack her during this deployment.” He set the laser scalpel aside, unable
to use it. He couldn’t be gentle right now, not even with the kid.

Crash nodded. “They won’t kill her. They believe you’ll
complete that task for them.”

The humans thought he was a brutal machine. He curled his
thick fingers into fists. “I’d never hurt her.”

“I know that and you know that. They don’t.” His friend’s
voice softened. “She’ll survive, Rage,
if
you react logically. Keep your
processors functioning, ignore their taunts, and stick to the plan.”

“I’m to do nothing?” His knuckles cracked. “I’m to stay here
and allow them to abuse my female, to hurt her, violate her?”

That would dim the light in her eyes, damage her spirit,
destroy their relationship. Knowing he failed her, she would never look at him
the same way, with trust, confidence, caring. Fraggin’ hell,
he
wouldn’t
look at himself the same way. He’d be less of a cyborg.

“You have no choice. You have to complete this deployment.”

That was easy for his friend to say. “Would you complete the
deployment if she was your female?” He picked up a damaged gun and threw it
against a boulder, shattering it.

“If she was my female, I’d want her to live.” Crash looked
as angry as Rage felt. “I’d put my fury, my fear, my pride aside and do
whatever I had to do to ensure that happened.”

Rage glowered at him.

“Return early and they’ll kill you.” His friend hammered him
with logic. “Attack your guard before he and the others have been disarmed and
they’ll kill you. Disobey their commands and they’ll kill you.”

“Death doesn’t frighten me.” Joan being harmed did.

“It should frighten you because your death translates into
hers.” Crash looked at him, sympathy reflecting in his dead black eyes. “As
long as you remain alive, she does also.”

What his friend said was rational. Rage could try to fix any
damage the humans caused. He couldn’t bring Joan back to life.

He knew that, deep in his processors, and, if he were a more
evolved E model cyborg like Crash, he might remain on this fraggin’ hole of a
planet, might allow his female to be hurt, abused.

But he was a C model, primitive and protective, and he’d
safeguard her or die trying.

“I’ll use another cyborg’s ship.” He put on his armor, his
movements sharp and jerky. “If they blow that up, they won’t know who died.
You’ll have the opportunity to save Joan.”

“Rage--”

“I’m doing this.” He traded his guns for weapons once
belonging to the Mantidae. The humans could remotely lock the guns they
supplied, preventing them from being fired within the battle station. “I won’t
allow her to be harmed.”

“I won’t allow you to get yourself killed.” Crash raised his
gun, switched the setting to stun, and aimed it at him.