It was while Raze was refilling their mugs with more coffee that Eddi broke the contented silence. “Pilot Rem, are you available for a status update?”

Her comm device was still by the bed, so she left the table to retrieve it.

“I’m here, Eddi. Relay update.”

“I have located the cause of the power fluctuations and initiated repairs. Several couplings were damaged by the micro-meteors, which was causing intermittent connectivity issues in the—”

“I don’t need the details. Just tell me that you can fix it.”

“I already stated that I was fixing it. Are you receiving my transmission clearly, Pilot Rem?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, I am. Is there anything else you need from me right now? I’m having breakfast with Raze at the moment and would like to get back to my meal.”

“Of course. I do have one inquiry before I terminate this transmission. Do you have any further information to add to the log regarding the presence of the undocumented humanoid lifeform known as Raze?”

“Nothing at this time. I’ll update the record once I’m back onboard.”

“Understood.”

She turned off the comm device and set it back down on the side table.

“Undocumented lifeform?” Raze’s gruff voice rumbled from across the cabin.

She turned to find him staring at her with a thunderous expression that would have made a Nantari rhino halt its charge and find somewhere else to be.

What the fraxx was he mad about? “Well, that’s what you are, isn’t it?”

“It’s not nice to call the man who saved your life an undocumented lifeform.”

“I didn’t. Eddi did.”

“You didn’t correct her. I’m not a lifeform, scout. I’m the man you spent the night with.”

Understanding dawned. “I know who and what you are, Raze. This isn’t about you being a cyborg. I was trying to protect your privacy. Whatever Eddi knows, Torex will eventually know, too. Right now, all she has is your name. When I make my report, Torex is going to discover that you’re trespassing on their planet. There isn’t much I can do to protect you, but I can limit what information they start with.”

His scowl deepened. “Do you have to tell them about me at all?”

“Yes, I do. It’s my job to scout planets and report my findings. That includes anything and anyone that could be a factor in their decision to mine a planet’s resources.”

He started to speak, but she held up a hand to forestall whatever grumpy thing was about to come out of his mouth. “Even if I didn’t tell them, Torex would find out about you eventually. If that happened, they’d come after me for falsifying a report, and I could lose everything I’ve been working for. You of all people should know what it’s like to work for the corporations. They don’t tolerate anything less than complete obedience.”

He placed their freshly filled mugs on the table but didn’t sit down. “I saved your life. You’re going to repay me by reporting me to Torex and letting them take everything I’ve built here?”

“It’s not that simple.” Sevda lifted her arms in an all-encompassing gesture. “This planet already belongs to them. Spoils of war and all that. They’re not going to let it go just because you want to live here.”

“Spoils of war?” Raze’s voice rose to a roar. “Do you have any idea what you’re talking about?”

Raze rounded the table and grabbed her wrist. “With me. Now.”

He dragged her out into the yard in her stocking feet, ignoring her attempts to pull free. He strode down the middle of a muddy pathway, leaving her to scramble through the ooze to keep up. It didn’t take long for the oversized socks to slide off her feet, leaving her barefoot.

“Yeouch! Will you at least slow down?” She finally demanded as she stepped on yet another rock hidden in the mud.

“What’s wrong?”

She stuck out her mud covered foot and pointed to it. “No shoes, remember? You dragged me out of the cabin before I got to put any on. Not to mention I’m still feeling the effects of my little aquatic adventure in the flood yesterday.”

“You still hurt from yesterday? I thought you took something for that?” he asked.

“Yes, but I’m still healing. I will be for another day or so. I’m not like you, Raze. I don’t have a host of medi-bots swarming through my blood healing me up as fast as I get hurt. The pain-blocker helps, but not if I push myself too hard or get dragged around by a big, grumpy cyborg.”

He growled in frustration. “I’m not grumpy!”

“Says the man growling at me.” She curled her upper lip back, revealing her fangs as she uttered a guttural snarl back at him.

“Don’t push me, scout. You’re already on thin ice.”

She drew herself to her full height and stood her ground. “Don’t threaten me because I dared to tell you the truth. You can’t stay here, Raze. If you do, you’ll die.”

“Then I’ll die, because I’m not leaving.” He didn’t say another word, he simply scooped her into his arms like she weighed less than a noat and started back down the path. She could have protested, but what was the point? He wasn’t going to relent until he’d shown her whatever they were going to see.

She was going to turn him in to Torex. He’d saved her life, and instead of thanking him, she was going to destroy everything. He shouldn’t have let her get close.

“Where are we going?” she finally asked.

“I’m going to show you the price that was paid for this planet. Then, when you fly away and make your report to Torex, you’ll truly understand what the spoils of war look like.”

He had walked this path so many times in the past few years he could have navigated it blindfolded, but it took him longer than normal to cover the final stretch. He had never imagined there would be a moment he would share this place with anyone else.

The sun broke through the last of the clouds as he crossed through the final line of trees and entered a clearing, bathing the valley in light. The land here was covered with lush green grass and wildflowers. He had planted some of the flowers himself, adding to those that had already taken root here in the years he had been away. This is where he had buried his family. Twenty-one graves, each marked with a single stone with their names etched on a chiseled space.

“Graves?” Sevda asked, her voice hushed.

“My batch siblings.”

“Veth. So many.” She counted the stones aloud. “Twenty-one? Did you all come here after the war…or…” She looked up at him with dawning horror. “You were here during the war, weren’t you? You lost your family fighting for this planet.”

He set her down on the thick grass, keeping one arm wrapped around her as he belatedly realized he hadn’t given her a chance to don a jacket, either. “There were twenty-six of us in the beginning. Three years later, I was the only one left. Twenty of my siblings are buried here.”

“But there are twenty-one stones.”

“That last one is for me.”

She stared at him in confusion. “Why?”

“Because this is where my life ended. I might still be breathing, but I lost everything that made life worth living the day I buried the last of my family here.”

She leaned into his side and sighed. “This is why you don’t want to leave.”

Now, maybe he could make her understand the need for her to protect this planet from destruction. “You see? This is why you have to help me. You can change the reports so they don’t come back. If you don’t help me, then Torex will take them from me all over again. I’ve given my life, my blood, and my family to them already. When will it be enough?”

“I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t know that there is an answer. The corporations do what they want and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”

He pulled away from her. “Bullshit.”

“Do you think I’d be doing this – working for them – if there was another way?” she demanded.

He jerked his thumb toward his chest. “Do you think I’d be here if that were true? They were going to kill us, scout. All of us. If we hadn’t rebelled, I’d be dead. We took a risk, because it was the only chance we had. Now, the only chance I have is you.”

Even as he said the words, he knew what her final answer would be. He could see it in her eyes. The scout he’d saved from drowning, the woman he had spent the night making love to—she was going to leave him to fight this battle alone.

Sevda threw her hands in the air in frustration. “You’re not being reasonable! You keep seeing the world in black and white. There are more than two options for you. You could make another choice, Raze.”

He scoffed and folded his arms over his chest. “What choice would you like me to make? Where could I go? I was created to be a soldier; a mindless killing machine that would obey every order without hesitation. I don’t know how to be anything else. I don’t fit in with anyone, anywhere.”

“That’s not true, you stubborn idiot! Look around you. You’re not a killer anymore. You’re a farmer. You have crops and livestock and a home you made yourself. As for where you’d go…” She softened her tone as she opened her heart. “You could come with me. We could work adjoining claims, help each other…”

“Why would I do that?”

Humiliation fueled her angry response. “Right. Because I’m just a one-armed, half-breed freak. I just thought that maybe going with me was a better choice than dying here. I want what you have. A farm. A quiet life. When I’m free of Torex, I’m going to make that happen. I was trying to show you there was another choice. But I guess there isn’t, since you’d rather die than be with me.”

He spat out his words through clenched teeth. “I told you, I can’t leave. If you tell them about me, you’ll be signing my death warrant.”

“It’s not that simple!”

“I think it is. You just don’t want to make the hard choice.”

For him, she might have. Veth, she had actually been tempted to try, but that was before he’d rejected her. “I can’t do what you’re asking, Raze. I don’t think I could even if I wanted to. My ship records the scans automatically. I don’t have access to those files. Everything is sent back to Torex for processing and review. Eddi knows you’re here. I have to complete the scans, or my mission will be marked as incomplete, and I won’t get paid.”

“So it’s about scrip now?” his voice was all acid and ice.

“No! Fraxx, you really don’t think much of me, do you? I’m not selling you out. I’m telling you it’s not possible. I can’t protect you, or this place. This planet is going to be mined. You’re going to die if you’re here when that happens. Even if I destroyed Eddi and stranded myself here, that would only buy you a few months until they sent someone else to finish my mission.”

He started to speak, but she cut him off.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to do that. You’ve made it clear how you feel about me. I don’t want to stay where I’m not wanted. You’re not the only one with plans, you know. You might think your life has ended, but I haven’t even started to live yet. I’ve been indentured to Torex since I was thirteen. I want my life back.”

“At what cost, scout? If you reclaim your life at the cost of my future, how are you any better than Torex?”

“What future?” She stormed across the clearing to stand over the final stone, the one meant for him. “You already carved your name on your headstone. That’s not the act of a man who thinks he has a future.”

“My future is here, with them.”

“That’s not a life. That’s a life sentence. A short one.”

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t know. Clearly, that’s a mistake on my part, since you care more about the fraxxing noats than you do about yourself or me.”

Raze glowered at her. “I brought you here so that you’d understand why I can’t leave this planet. If you’re not going to help me, then there’s no point in continuing this conversation. I’ll take you back to the cabin.”

“And if I want to continue talking about this? What if I want you to accept that this is not my fault?”

He looked down at her bare feet. “Then you’d have a long, uncomfortable hike back, alone.”

“You are the most stubborn, difficult ass of a man I have ever met! I understand your reasons, but it doesn’t change the facts. If you stay here, you will die.”

“I’m not afraid of dying. My home is here. My family is here. I have to stay.”

“No, you don’t! I don’t think you’re afraid of dying at all. I think you’re afraid of living.”

“I’m not afraid of anything! Cyborgs don’t feel fear. It’s not part of our programming.”

She folded her arms across her chest and snarled in frustration. “You’re not a machine, Raze. You’re a human being. We feel fear all the time, as well as guilt, and grief, and sorrow. Even half-breed freaks like me. Pain is part of living. I should know, I lost my entire family, too.”

“Sevda…” he trailed off as if he didn’t know what else to say.

“No. Don’t say anything else. Just go. I’ll find my own way back when I’m ready.”

“I didn’t…”

She cut him off with a sharp slash of her hand. “Go the fraxx away, Raze.” She turned her back on him and started reading the names he’d chiseled into the other grave markers.