***

He drove them to his flyer stationed several miles away. Afterward, he helped Clara pack her things and load them into his vehicle. Like him, she had very little. It didn’t bother him because he knew once they left Earth, they’d collect things together and start a new life elsewhere.

Once they ditched the trailer, he flew them to the largest port in New America, and where his ship was stationed and ready for departure. Clara kept close on his heels as they passed different measures of security and he wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders.

“Don’t worry.”

“That’s easier said than done. I don’t want us to get caught.”

“There’s nothing they can do to stop us.” And to prove his point, he led her straight to the entrance of his ship and helped her inside. People looked on, curiously, but no one stepped forward. No one wanted to against a Cyborg. Like a lazy mob mentality, he knew they assumed he had jurisdiction over them. The door shut behind them with a finalizing thud.

He led her to his room to shower and clean up as he made his final preparations. Technology came to life around him and his past-life was on the brink of closure.

I may be the last fucking Cyborg on Earth.

When she was done washing, he knew, and retrieved her from their quarters. Every fiber of her body was tense with fear.

Reid cupped her face and rested his forehead against hers. “The first time is always scary.”

“Is it?” Clara whined.

“Even for a Cyborg, Clara, and our first time, we had to pilot. The scientists assumed we knew what we were doing, but it was all new on our part.”

“Hah. I’d like to have seen that.” She smiled and he led her to the bridge, and further into his territory. It thrilled him to know—once they were spaceborne—there would be no way for her to leave it. He’d always be able to keep her safe.

“Ready?”

Clara clapped her hands. “Ready!”

They buckled in and he nuzzled the soft skin of her neck. She still smelled of fear and berries, but he now smelled excitement on her too.

No one stopped him when he requested for take-off. No one stopped them when his ship’s thrusters powered on. No one came after them when they shot up into the air and left Earth’s atmosphere.

They left the old world behind, the secrets, and the misunderstandings; he didn’t look out at the stars in front of him, and he didn’t look back at his mistakes. He looked at Clara, at her awestruck face, and her wide eyes seeing the universe for the first time.

He saw it all through her.

Reid coughed, cracked his neck, and loosened his collar. His heart painfully full.

And with giddy laughter filling his ears, he warped them away.

***

“PUSH!” ROSE CAGLEY screeched between Katalina’s legs. Clara flinched; in fact, they all did as the female Cyborg forgot how loud her audio tech could go. She sat at Katalina’s side and gripped her hand. They held onto each other like it was the end of Ghost itself and that any moment, they’d be consumed by an explosion.

Reid stormed back through the medical door, disheveled, his eyes wide. He left immaculate but had come back looking like he’d just been in a brawl. Minutes earlier he had forcibly dragged Dommik out of the room, eight giant metal limbs and all.

Clara bit down on her tongue and focused back on Katalina, who, despite the chaos, looked the most put together.

Why am I envying her right now? It’s not like she was looking forward to giving birth, not after everything she’d seen her friend go through.

Reid waved a scanner over Kat’s stomach as another contraction hit her.

“The baby doesn’t want to come out,” he yelled at Rose.

“I don’t give a crap what the baby wants, push, dammit!”

Kat laughed and then her features wrenched. Clara squeezed her hand.

“You’re crowning, sweetheart, keep fighting her,” Rose pleaded and continued. “Don’t give up!”

The sweat poured off Kat and Clara wiped the girl’s brow. Their eyes met before another contraction hit. A screaming groan and a heavy breath later and progress was made.

“She’s like her daddy, likes the dark.”

Several minutes later and the baby girl was out, out, healthy, cleaned up and in Kat’s arms. Clara got her hand back, unsure if it was broken until she shook it. When the numbness went away, she was relieved

Reid and Rose had set to work cleaning up the bedding and the room, and after what seemed like days of labor, everything was over. Suddenly it was quiet where it had been loud for so long.

Marcy, Rose’s daughter, sat on the other side of Kat and cooed down at the baby. Besides Rose and Marcy, Katalina and Clara were the only women on Ghost. At first, it made her nervous, but then as time went by, she realized that just like on Earth, Ghost held up to its name. The Cyborg city was quiet and had few beings that lived on it, and the rest of its populace were Borgs that came and went as they pleased.

“Do you have a name for her?” Marcy asked, and was the first to break the silence.

“No,” Kat whispered, staring at her baby lovingly, as her baby stared back.

“Can’t decide?”

She shook her head. “It’s not that. I want her to choose her own name. Cyborgs get to choose their name.”

“Hmm...”

Clara continued to watch Kat and her child, finding the interaction pleasant but chilling. The baby squirmed and sputtered. No one had any idea how the child was going to react, how it was going to be, and all their speculation was for naught since the little girl appeared and acted human. Acted. It was what made her wary.

“You’re next, Clara.”

She jerked when Reid’s voice sounded behind her. His hand covered her shoulder. Clara quickly said her goodbyes and wished Kat and the baby a good first night and left with him. The hallways of Ghost were empty as they made their way from medical.

“Where’s Dommik?”

“In quarantine.”

“Really? Even now?”

“Even now...” He stopped them and lifted a finger to trace her lips. “They need rest. And he needs to let his systems cool off.”

Clara humphed and glanced back from where they came. “Will you react the same way?”

His fingers left her face to thread through her hair and tugged. He was always touching her now and she’d grown used to it.

“No.”

“Good. Because you need to be there when it happens. After what I just saw...” she shivered, “I’m going to be scared out of my mind.”

“Guess you should’ve thought about that before you walked into my facility,” Reid teased her, his hand moving down her neck, squeezing it.

“I had more important things on my mind.”

She smiled and he leaned down to kiss her.

“Me too.”