Avion (Cyborgs: More Than Machines, #7) (14 page)

Astride his lap, Lilith rocked back and forth on his shaft, driving him in and squeezing him so perfectly. Panting hard now, he did his best to keep up, but Lilith was the one in control now. With her hands splayed across his chest, she rode him, fast and hard. She rose and dropped on his cock with force. She squirmed on his lap, pushing him deep.

He couldn’t hold on. It was too much. Not enough. Too good. Too...

“Lilith!” He yelled her name as he came, and she said his too, but in his mind.

Avion.
Her affection for him surrounded him, along with the blissful glory of their orgasm, a meld of spirit, body, and mind that had him wrapping his arms tight around her, determined to never let her go.

Until death do us part.

Which, unfortunately for him, came too fast.

F
inally she understood the expression,
I wish this moment could last forever.

Some pleasures you never wanted to end. Unfortunately reality stopped for no one, not even a chosen one.

Lilith disengaged herself from Avion, who’d fallen asleep.

Did we kill him?

A slight panic infused her as she checked him over. A sigh left her. No, he wasn’t dead. He rested, exhausted by the exertion, even if he insisted on it, too much for his taxed system. Yet, Lilith couldn’t say no. She knew Avion recognized his approaching mortality, and much as she tried to deny it, she saw it too.

However that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight for him to live with everything I’ve got.

And everything she had was on a planet she couldn’t even name aloud and a person she could only recall as her mentor.

No face. No name. Nothing but a subtle remembrance of his voice and his teachings.
Don’t allow the emotional side of your host control you. The nanotechs know what is right. The bots will show you the correct path.

But the correct path for who?

A return to the bridge showed Aramus sharing the command seat with Riley, who sat tucked in his lap, napping. Kentry manned a console along with Rosalind, a fierce Latina with distinctive machine orb eyes. Her otherness would not be well received.

It might be best if she’s not one of the first to meet my mentor.

He’d take one look at her cyborg additions and order her destruction. Actually, he’d probably instantly spot all the cyborgs as impure ones, despite their normal appearance.

I need to talk to him first. Explain what happened.

Surely when he found out the depravity the cyborgs had suffered he’d understand.

A futile hope. She knew too well from her time with humans that logic often lost to fear—and in the case of her mentor, tradition.

Their run of good luck ended when they hit the airspace outside their target planet. Control of the vessel was wrested from Aramus, despite his colorful cursing.

“What the fuck is happening?” he bellowed.

“We are in their airspace now. They have a satellite system capable of generating a pulse that knocks the navigational systems of encroaching ships offline.”

“That’s not good.”

“It’s normal.”

Also normal was getting towed in to the planetary spaceport, as were the massive robotic guards who manned the gangplank when Lilith presented herself. Not alone. Aramus refused.

“I like you, freaky girl, but we haven’t known each other long, so how do I know it’s not a trap?”

He raised a valid point. Trust was earned.

Given her mentor’s attitude, Lilith took Seth and Anastasia with her. Laura and Adam too. Nothing in their outward appearance would announce their cyborgness, but her mentor would know. His nanotech would tell him.

As Lilith descended the ramp, bright lavender-hued sunlight made her blink. She’d forgotten the intensity of the planet’s suns, a pair of them that kept this world well lit and, yet, not overly warm.

For a moment, as she basked in true daylight, the first in years, she forgot why she was here and what she was about to do. She lifted her face and let the rays dance along her skin. She absorbed the ultraviolet, breathed in the fresh air tinged with a hint of floral. The planet—
E’dann, it’s called E’dann
—truly was a paradise world. Lush with foliage. The water proved abundant and fresh. The fruits of the trees and bushes sweet and juicy. The inhabitants, non-lethal and tasty when roasted over a fire pit. How her mentor freaked the day he caught her human group out hunting then eating the product of their labor.

Nanos don’t need to ingest the flesh of beasts. We can absorb whatever nutrients we need from the air, water, and ground.
He preached it. He made them eat it. But it didn’t mean the humans ever lost their craving for food. Real food.

“You were not supposed to return.”

The bold statement shook her free from the memories. How had she gotten so distracted? Usually her nanos kept her mind on a more productive track. Lilith glanced toward the speaker. Tall and humanoid in shape, he wore an unadorned crimson cloak, the cowl draping his head and placing his face in shadow. He didn’t need any badges or marks to announce who he was. Everyone knew.

Master Z’.
Her mentor. A male, very much like a human man, who didn’t seem as tall as she recalled but was definitely just as overbearing.

She executed a short bow. “Master Z’, it has been some time since we last saw each other.”

“Not long enough. You were not supposed to return, and you most especially should have never come dragging abominations with you.”

“She didn’t drag us, if it makes a difference. We came willingly.” Seth had stepped forward to flank her in a show of support. “We found this lovely lady languishing in a cell and set her free.”

“The humans imprisoned you?” Even though he said it as a query, Master Z’ showed no other emotion.

“Yes, for a long time, that is when they weren’t experimenting.”
Needles. Blood. Skin scrapes. Lab tests. No better than a rat.

“What of the other chosen ones? Are they prisoners too?”

“At first. Then the military killed them. All of them not long after our return. Only I am left.”

“Barbarians,” her mentor muttered. “Unworthy of the tech.”

“Not all of them are like that.”

“Enough to prove further selections from Earth are not worth the effort.”

“I wouldn’t say that. I’ve met many fine people.” She gestured to Seth and the others. “My friends aren’t like the ones who imprisoned me and killed the others.”

“No, they’re not. They’re worse. They are infected. Impure. They offend me, and I refuse to discourse with you in their presence.”

Said in a perfectly modulated tone, and yet, was it only Lilith or did it still sound petulant?

“Now hold on just a second there, buddy,” Adam stepped forward, but Laura held him back.

“You do realize those robot guards of his outnumber us,” Laura hissed.

Adam flicked a gaze to his left and right. “So?”

“So, it means we have to show diplomacy,” Seth said on a sigh. “We’re here to ask for help for Avion, and breaking all these wind-up toys probably won’t work to our advantage.”

Lilith bit the inside of her cheek, lest she giggle. Master Z’ wouldn’t understand her mirth just as she feared he wouldn’t understand why the cyborgs were different.

I’ll have to show him somehow.

“May I speak with my mentor alone?” she asked her friends.

“Are you sure?” Seth’s glance behind her implied a concern about her safety.

“I’m sure. He won’t harm me.” She hoped.

Once her companions returned to the ship, her mentor spun on his heel and strode away, his booted feet marking a smooth cadence on the perfectly aligned stone pathways. Everything around them was meticulously arranged, from the cobbled paths and cut stone to the identical block buildings made to efficiently house the robots and all their supplies.

Master Z’ liked order.
Or is it the nanotech that demands it of him?

She’d never thought to wonder before. He kept walking, and she skipped to catch him.

“I need your help.”

“I sense nothing wrong with your host body or nanotech. Although I have to wonder if your programming has somehow been corrupted.”

The insult might have stung her younger self, but she’d suffered much worse than a verbal barb since she’d left E’dann. “The help isn’t for me, but Avion, a male on board the ship.”

“Another abomination?”

Had she sounded so disparaging when she used the same word? “Yes. And no. His bots are dead.”

“Then he is not a chosen one.”

“But he could be.”

“Doubtful.”

Said without even meeting him. She bit her tongue in an effort to control it. Her other side had some choice words to spew to her judgmental mentor, none of them polite or likely to advance her cause. “Even if he’s not, you could help him. He needs healing.”

No hesitation. “No.”

“Please. He’ll die if you don’t.”

“Doesn’t matter. I still won’t heal him.”

“Why not?” Lilith stared at Z’ trying to comprehend, but she couldn’t fathom a valid reason for his refusal.

Z’ could help. He had the knowledge, skills, and tools to do so. Access to science and medicine that didn’t rely on the nanos. He had it and yet deliberately chose to withhold it.

That made her very angry.
Let’s rip his eyes out. Punch a hole through his stomach. Stomp on his face.
She dug nails into her palms, a physical reminder to keep them by her side. Violence wouldn’t help in this instance. Barely, she held on to the reins of her temper. For now.

“You actually have to ask why?” Master Z’ spun to face her, and she finally caught a glimpse of his eyes, where a galactic storm brewed in a craggy face that while young in many senses—wrinkle-free, smooth bronzed skin, a full head of dark hair, a straight nose, and square jaw, not exactly a handsome man, but certainly arresting—was immovable in his beliefs. “He is an abomination. They all are. You know the nanotech was not meant to be enslaved in such a fashion, and yet you dare return bringing these
things
in tow. You! A creator of these impure beings. You are a disgrace. You ignored everything I taught you.”

“I didn’t have a choice. They enslaved me. Hurt me. Did things to curtail my power.”

“You surely had options.”

“You mean dying? I didn’t realize being a host required I make a martyr of myself. And it’s not something my nanotech ever suggested.”

“Apparently your nanotech weighed the situation and thought there was still a chance for redemption. Which should have occurred when you did escape with these things. You had an entire journey where you could have rectified the wrong.”

“Rectified? What are you saying?”

“You did not exterminate the impure ones when you should have. Nay, instead, you precipitated violence against our allies and brought with you the objects of your travesty.”

When he put it that way, he made it sound kind of bad. Except for one thing. “Stop blaming me. This is not my fault. I didn’t make them. The human military did. I wasn’t given a choice. Nor were they. For years they were slaves, but then something happened. They found their humanity. They think for themselves. Did you not see them? Even with the
D’zpi
chip, they are their own masters. They are not controlled.”

Master Z’ let out a snort, the disparaging sound so surprising she almost stumbled.

“So just because these abominations are reportedly sentient, that is supposed to make up for the nanos that are compelled in their blood?”

“So they’re not perfect.”

“An understatement. And you want me to fix one of them? To aid the slave host in keeping the nanotech prisoner?”

“Avion, the man who needs healing, doesn’t have live nanos. The military found a way to kill them. It’s why I came here.”

He didn’t seem surprised, judging by his answer. “It is because his neural interface threw the kill switch.”

“Their brain chips have that ability?”

“All chipped machines do. It is the
D’zpi
protection against the enslaved tech taking over all organic life.”

“If you know of that switch, then you can fix it. Turn it back on so his bots reanimate and heal him.” Simple. Flick it, and poof, Avion would heal.

His next words sank her hope. “The switch works only one way. Dead bots can’t come back to life.”

“I refuse to believe that. There must be a way.”

“Sure there is, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Tell me.”

“It involves removing all the foreign parts in him, flushing his body of the blood and all the dead bots, and then introducing him to the pool to see if some of the tech will accept him as a host. However, that won’t happen.”

“Why not?”

“Because I won’t allow it. This is not how things are done. Candidates for the tech are carefully chosen. They must adhere to the criteria set forth.”

“You didn’t care about that criteria when you placed me in the program.”

“You were an exception.”

“You were bribed to take me.” She didn’t recall specifics, but her father had leaked enough for her to glean that, in exchange for taking Lilith and attempting to heal her, Z’s people would be allowed to take some Earth resources like water, lumber, and all the humans they wanted.

“A business transaction that worked in all our favors.”

A little girl in exchange for goods.
And Master Z’ thought the cyborgs were an abomination? She really had to wonder. “So do me a favor now.”

“You have nothing to offer. By your own words, your people have rejected you, which means you cannot make a treaty. You’ve broken numerous of our rules, and now you would ask me to break more? Why should I go against our beliefs?”

“Our beliefs? Or yours?”

“Does it matter? I see no reason to break tradition. No valid argument for your request.”

“Because Avion will die if you don’t.” The very thought filled her with a sucking sadness that dragged at her emotions.

“That makes no difference to me.”

What a callous bastard.
For once, her other voice said it perfectly. Z’s refusal to listen made her scream, a wordless yell that finally startled a reaction from him.