Cyberella: Preyfinders Universe (17 page)

“My my myyy. I looked them up. Never seen off Sicar. I think she slid under the door and reformed in here and that door has less than a fingernail-sized gap.” Plito leaned forward across his table to see her better.

“Fascinating.” Gears actually sounded enchanted. Weird man.

The tableaux of this man with his flower blossom pink hair, with squiggles shaved in it, kneeling and stretching out a hand to a furry rock lump...it made Ella smile. Everyone in here was slightly mad.

A small bleep and the text on her comm said Torgeir was worried. “I think I’d better go.” Ella slipped off her chair.

“Did you still want Doc to look at that bird?”

She nodded to Plito. She’d almost forgotten the little robot bird but she found it in her backpack and took it over to Doc. “Can you do anything?”

“I doubt it. Gears, give me your
vir-specs.
Got the design for this one Plito? Send it.” He caught the specs when Gears tossed them over and settled them over his eyes. The little bird was laid out in a brilliantly illumination circle. “These are hard. Even with nanogeers we can’t usually get past the defects. Better to replace them.” He paused, head up, as if listening. “Least this one’s not just a toy.” With a miniscule metal syringe and ultra-fine needle that he sneaked in from the side, he injected something into the bird’s crescent-shaped beak. “Ahh. See. The dots are the nanogeers.”

Doc took off the
vir-specs
and helped her slip them on. When she bent over the bird she could see the metal skeleton of the creature in three dimensions. Numbers laced in and out of her vision, color-coded and scrolling. Whatever they meant, she had no clue, but deep inside the bird was an area with red outlines and spots and tiny white dots crawling around it.

She blinked and thought and the image zoomed closer, closer. The wee critters were scurrying about wanting to fix the problem. She could almost hear how frantic they were.

“They want to help,” she whispered.

“You see that? Yes, part of their programming. A good nano-surgeon can get them to slowly carve out new paths, but it takes forever. A great one can make them do a dance while they’re at it.”

“And can you do that?”

Doc laughed. “I’m learning. My knack is cyber surgery, but not on this nano scale. Give me and Gears your twisted limbs, your rooted cyber directories, your neuro messes and I can fix you. This might take the few nanogeers we have ages. The little frackers are expensive.”

“Really? They’re so eager though.” The energy of the little wiggling nanogeers seemed to be infectious. She wanted to get them a damn shovel or something. “And the bird is so pretty. Can you try, at least? I will pay.”

He grumbled. “Sure. Waste of time though. If I have any nanogeer deaths I’ll have to add extra. Tomorrow. That’s the max time I will spend on this.”

“Thank you!” Then she dragged off the
vir-specs
, leaned over, and planted a kiss on his forehead. His fevered blush and stammering made her giggle.

When she left, the day seemed brighter and she did a fast version of a whirling dance up the steps. Maybe she was as crazy as the nerd guys. Turning, she spotted the rusty door and a wide silver trail running down it. Under the rust was good, solid steel.

Mouth open, she stared. “Mimi. Did you do that?”

Though Mimi looked as blank and innocent as a rock could be, Ella tut-tutted. Still, she guessed they wouldn’t mind their door being cleaner.

Her humming and whistling of tunes must have stunned the fruit cart man. She shook her head at his offer of a polished red fruit but felt his eyes on her back all the way into Horuk. Nineteen units for one fruit? Were they made of platinum?

On the way through the foyer, reading the messages from Torgeir brought to the fore her loneliness. The boys had distracted her. Messages, even ones using a facsimile of his voice just weren’t good enough.

He picked up on the first buzz of the comm.

“Hi.” The hoverflow zipped her upward and she barely noticed stepping off. “Are you back soon?”

“An hour or two, Princess. Wait for me. No more going out, hey?”

“Okay,” she said softly. “I was going home anyway.”

Ella curled up on the bed and waited for him. Then she cleaned and prepared a salad, and waited on the bed again. It was dark and she was hungry but doing anything else seemed wrong until he came back. Midnight had gone past when he returned alone.

“Not even Dresdek?” She had her arms wrapped around him and her nose buried in his shirt. From the way his hands were roving he was as happy to see her as she was him.

“They’re coming soon. It’ll take a few days to get places for everyone. Though they’re willing to share, it’s not easy. I’m sorry.” He pulled back and tilted her chin up to deliver one long slow kiss. “You eaten?”

“Not yet.”

“Ella! Next time eat before I get home. Let’s find you something now.”

“Yes, sir. I will. Next time.” She yawned.

“Good. We renamed the ship
Zeus
. Your name. It’s a good one. Thank you”

*****

Incoming. Henchman 1

I should be able to deliver the black app within a Riptide day, sir. Confirm that you wish a three-month period of effect?

Confirmed...

The next day, after cleaning Torgeir’s rooms, she headed for the Hack and Slash boys’ shop, with Mimi in tow. On the way past his cart, the fruit guy offered her a cheap piece of fruit, almost waving it in her nose, but she brushed past. Over-pushy sellers made her want to wash and that man seemed creepier every time she saw him.

No hacking success yet. No live bird. She convinced Doc to try for another day. The boys didn’t seem to mind her being an observer so she stayed. Only Plito was technically a boy but they were all shorter than her and she had this crazy maternal thing going. Considering the poor diet they had, it was no wonder they’d not grown taller. She’d brought a huge lunch with her and planned to share. So she watched and watched, customers came and went, and she chewed her nails, until her allergy to sitting on her butt overcame her.

Waiting in the rooms above for Torgeir to return would drive her nuts. She began rummaging about in the boy’s shop, picking up stuff, and generally making tidy out of chaos.

“What,” Doc said, tersely. “Are you. Fracking well. Doing?”

She screwed up her nose, her mouth, then let out a sigh. “Dusting?”

“Don’t,” Plito muttered. “Dust gets into shit and makes things go pa-zoing.”

“Soooo technical, is Plito.” Gears glanced up at her, saw her frown, and ducked down again.

He had this laser welder thing going. Or it could be an Armageddon weapon for all she knew. Why the hell couldn’t Torgeir take her to the ship? “I hate dusting.”

“Then why the frack –” Plito began.

“Come over here, Ella. Ignore Mister Rude. You seemed interested in the nanogeers yesterday. You want them to do this job? Come and see why this isn’t going to work.”

If she hadn’t been so disgusted, it would’ve been funny hearing Doc call Plito rude when he’d only just sworn at her himself.

“You want me to see something that I will hate? Fine.”

Mimi trotted over before her and wobbled, standing, on her little hind limbs to see the bird. Which she couldn’t, being short. The poor bird lay as still as ever in the circle of light. One wing had unfolded like a silver fan, as if it had attempted to take flight.

With a flourish, Doc unclipped the
vir-specs
and offered them to her. “Princess.”

“Ugh.” She halted, her arm in mid-reach. “Why did you call me that?”

“Your boyfriend says that.”

She rounded on Plito. “You hacked my messages!”

“Ooops.” He half-smiled. “Whenever you answer one in here, it just...” He waved his hand. “Happens?”

“Urrrr.” She swiveled, snatched up the
vir-specs
, and there was the bird, dangling from Doc’s hand all slimed with Mimi goop.

Mimi did a little bounce whereas Doc was frozen with an expression of delight plastered on his face.

“Did you?” She looked from one to the other and back again. “You didn’t?”

“I thought maybe? Have you seen our door? Your pet rock made it shiny! I just thought –”

“And so you fed her the bird?” Eyebrow cocked, dreading what this might have done, she rescued the bird from Doc and laid it in the light.

“Doc.” She could hear the dismay in Plito’s voice. “You should’ve asked first.”

“She looked so eager. It can’t have made anything worse. The bird was going in the trash soon. Go on. Take a look, Prin –”

Her glare stopped him dead and he snatched up a second set of
vir-specs
and pulled them down so she was left staring at the front glass with blue concentric circles shrinking on the lens, over and over.

Below the specs, his grin manifested and she huffed.

After dabbing the bird clean of Mimi goop, she donned her specs and focused. Zooming in took seconds. The nanogeers sped up as she watched, zipping around all over the circuitry. “The corrosion blockage is gone!”

Doc chuckled. “Yes!”

“But there’s still all these red areas, like potholes.”

“Microscopic holes. It figures. Take away corrosion and the damage is revealed. There’s still too much for the nanogeers.” He added slowly, “Are you doing anything to them?”

“Yes. I told them to repair the holes. These specs let you communicate with them, don’t they?”

Doc cleared his throat. “Well-spotted. This will
probably
help too.”

She felt him press something, a button perhaps, at the side of the specs. The nanogeers began running around faster than she could follow. “I swear they’re having a party. Look at them go!”

“You do have a knack. Making them do the right thing is an art. Are you certain you’ve not done this before?”

“No. I think they like me.”

He snorted. “I fear we’ll have a high nanogeer mortality though. Overwork kills them.”

“Can we buy more?” So close. Getting the bird fixed had become this ultimate goal for her.

“We can’t. No. Two thou units for a vial of fifty. We don’t have that. Not right now.”

She thought through that price and what he’d said before that. “I’ll pay for more if you try me out for a job. Train me in what to do. I want to work with these.” She rattled onward before he could say no. “I feel I can do this and you said you were better at bigger cyber-surgery? This’ll free you up.”

“Plito? You hear that?”

She took off the specs and found the boys exchanging looks.

“What about we let her have a table here?” Plito said. “Your bondmate, this Lord Rakkel, won’t object?”

She raised her shoulders, let them slump. “I don’t think so. He knows I want to find work. You said there were loads of these birds? Toys that people want fixed?”

Gears nodded and pointed at a bin. “Not all are toys either. We got another brought in this morning that’s a child-minding device. People use them for all sorts of things. If she can fix them, there’s a market. Providing the costs aren’t high.”

“My answer is aye.” Doc grasped her hand and squeezed.

“Aye.” Gears nodded.

“Aye.” Plito smiled. “Providing Mimi doesn’t eat our stock.”

“Licking is more likely. If it’s okay,” she drawled. “I’m going to try making her my first option when there’s corrosion.”

Doc slipped off his chair and walked around the table. He stared down at Mimi who seemed happy chewing on the metal he’d given her earlier. “We can try her on some junked pieces first.” He put out his hand. “Ella. You got a job.”

“Thank you.” She shook his hand, grinning. “I hope I can do this. I’ll try my hardest and I promise I won’t harm your business.”

“That’s the spirit. It won’t hurt us, girl. All you’re going to be let near is thrown-away toys first off. Plus, whatever you earn is up to you. If you get good enough we’ll charge you rent. Right?”

The other two agreed with Doc.

“Wow.” She let out a shaky breath and did a small jump on the spot. “This is awesome. I have a job!” Then she couldn’t contain her joy any longer. She gave Doc a huge hug then ran over to Gears and then Plito to do the same. Then she messaged Torgeir. Her scream probably blew the speakers on his comm. It certainly left the boys with their hands over their ears.

That night Torgeir came home exhausted and late again.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, as she crawled on top of him and cuddled up. He hugged her shoulders and patted her butt. “It’s going to be like this until we go. We have a job lined up and the launch date is in four days.”

She guessed he was apologizing for the lack of sex.

“It’s okay. I’m tired too.” She yawned. “Four days? Oh. So soon.”

“Yes.” The distant noises of Horuk night life reminded her of how this would be when he’d left her. At least she had friends now, well business associates. She raised her head and put her chin on her forearm so she could look at Torgeir. “I have a job now. I can make money too, while you’re gone. You won’t be gone long will you?”

The bed would be so lonely with only her in it.

“I’m not sure. Two weeks, I think. It’s a close job. What’s yours, Princess?”

“I’m doing cyber repair work. With these guys called the Hack and Slash Cyber Repairers.”

“Guys?” Though he was staring at the ceiling, she could hear the frown. “I think tomorrow I will come see this place and say hello.”

“Hmmm.” She tapped his chest. “Okay, but you be nice. They’re good.”

“And you know this how?”

She wriggled off and slid into the gap between his arm and his body, hugging his arm this time as sleep sifted into her mind. “’Cause. I know.”

True to his word he went with her the next morning. At least having him as escort deterred stalker fruit man.

She tapped the code on the door, the now totally shiny steel door, and it swung inward at the slightest shove. Even the hinges had stopped creaking. The boys knew Torgeir was coming. She’d messaged them and they were lined up inside, waiting. “Morning.”

“Morning,” they all chorused back.

Torgeir walked in and nodded vaguely to them as he studied the room, then he swung back and pinned them all with his gaze. By then Ella had shut the door and reached his side.