Chapter Twenty-Four:

***

Norah stood before the mid-sized glass enclosure that held their prisoner. She knew it for what it was without having to read the stats on the console beside it. Stryker and Matt stood next to her. They stared at the beast together; no one spoke, but each of them fidgeted.

Maybe because it stared straight back at them.

All three of them at once with eyes that had the illusion of always looking at you no matter where you stood. Where you moved. Even if you crept around it in the dark.

She felt a knock on her arm and looked down to find Matt offering her his flask. She knew it now to be one of many. Norah took it and downed a big swig. She had never been a drinker before now, but things had changed. She wasn’t the same person anymore and the effects of this Gunner’s brew not only made her feel numb, it also made her feel normal.

She passed it back to Matt.

“I thought it was dead,” she said at last, a whisper; she felt she couldn’t speak normally in front of the monster.

“It is. At least the Wieraptor is. What that thing is now is something completely different.”

Norah held in the shiver that wanted to freeze her spine.

She glanced at a sealed glass case off to the side, finding her spare frozen sample behind it. The creature seemed to follow her gaze with a twitch but otherwise didn’t move. I need another drink.

“I say we jettison the fucker and be done with it,” Matt said as he leaned back against the wall. “I don’t like its eyes.”

“The eyes are…” Norah trailed off. “Disturbing.” Sunken, pale and pasty, hiding behind the loose flaps of hide that used to be the Wieraptor’s lids. They didn’t fit, too large for the eye holes but not big enough to expand outward. It was crouched within the confined space. There was no place for it to move besides to spin around in a circle and even then it would have to go slowly.

Stryker didn’t have another cage for it.

“Do you think it could break free?” she asked, her eyes still on the creature.

“No, it doesn’t have enough leverage to break the enclosure nor the strength or cunning the Wieraptor had, although it appears intelligent.” A mist sprayed down from attached piping at the top. “It has a continuous source of water in there, where...if it broke free, it couldn’t guarantee its survival.”

“Unless it takes us,” Norah added.

“So, let’s just kill it and be done with it,” Matt sighed.

Norah lifted her eyes away and looked up at Stryker, his hooked nose gleamed from the overhead lights. Her eyes trailed over his face and found it hard and calculating, unmoving in a way only he did, as if he was inside himself, in his systems and not actually present externally. His hair had grown back and the burns that had been on his face after he got hit by lightning had vanished.

He looked exactly as he had when he jumped down through the roof of the research facility. Intimidating, self-assured, and quiet. If Norah had known what was going to happen to them between now and then, she would never have pointed her gun at him.

She would have run into his arms and not let go.

His eyes gleamed as code ran over his irises. They sparked with indigo and electric blue every other moment. Norah blocked out the monster that continued to glare at her beside them.

Just look at him. Not at it. Him. The thought coursed through her as the weight of the shrieker’s gaze bore a hole through her soul.

Matt nudged her arm again and she took his offering and joined him at the wall. Every step away from the monster made her feel better. Norah didn’t trust enough to completely turn her back on it, but she managed to keep most of her body turned away.

“We keep it,” Stryker said at last.

“What?”

“No way, why?”

“EonMed is going to want proof and the EPED is going to want that Wieraptor. We bring it for both corporations to study. It’s better than the alternative: sending more unassuming people to both of these worlds that we’re so clearly not ready to conquer. This is contained and the stats are consistent.”

“But what if it gets loose on Earth or the facility it will be transferred to?” Norah struggled out. “I wanted to bring water back to Earth, not a waterborne bacteria that needs water to survive.”

“Makes Earth a great place for it then.”

“And the people?”

“We both know it won’t be enough to sustain it. The dead on Axone still needed to be in water to survive.”

“Yeah, okay, until the bacteria gets into our water reserves,” she argued.

“It won’t, it can’t, at least not with the EPED. The facilities are separated from the metropolises of Earth and have state of the art countermeasures to keep anything and everything contained. I’m not the only Cyborg that works for them. There are several others that work within the facilities themselves, there are also androids, and so many physical and bureaucratic shields in place it’s a nightmare. The most dangerous acquisitions are also not kept on Earth.”

“Where are they kept?”

“Classified, babe, even for you. The EPED will listen to me when I say that the Wieraptor homeworld should be left alone for now but will EonMed listen to you about Axone? Even if I backed you up, I don’t work for them, we’re affiliated and have many of the same goals but our commonality ends there. The creature,” his hand waved at the enclosure, “will help you convince them.”

Norah glanced at the unshapely ball of hide, blood, and flesh before quickly looking away.

“Won’t the EPED want it?”

Stryker shrugged. “Leave that for others to settle. They didn’t send me for this so they don’t have a claim on it.”

Norah wiped her hands over her suit and sighed. She didn’t want to bring the thing back, didn’t like the history it represented. Images of her fellows rose up in her mind but she willed them away. She trusted Stryker.

It didn’t stop her from wanting to agree with Matt about jettisoning the beast.

But they’ll want to know what killed the team. Her mouth dried up. They’ll send me back. They’ll send others. Norah chewed on the inside of her cheek as another wave of mist covered the creature. She steeled her nerves and braved its eyes.

You’re contained, fucker, she said in her mind. We’ll find a way to cure your disease.

She didn’t want anyone else to go back to Axone, not if she could help it, but if another team was sent she would insist on going with them. Even though she knew the dangers, the horrors, and storms that could tear apart the countryside, she would never let an innocent team of people go to Axone without her.

Her lab was there, after all, and there were still beakers within its shelves. It wasn’t like Robert’s body was still lying under a shroud on her lab bench.

But she didn’t want to go back. Norah lifted the flask she still held and took another swig all while looking at the shrieker dressed up as a Wieraptor. If the presence of the creature had any ability to redlight that planet, she would take it.

“Okay,” she said at last and walked out of the lab. She hurried her steps toward the lavatory, feeling the need to scrub its eyes off of her body.

“Hold up,” Matt called out from behind her. Norah turned around and faced him although anxious to get away. “Do you understand what just happened?” he asked, reaching out and taking his flask back that was still in her hand.

“What do you mean?”

“Stryker gave up his record for you.”

“I don’t understand? What record?” she asked, confused and a little wary.

“His obsession, it goes with his continuous need for perfection, he’s never failed a mission. Ever. It’s his life but back there, he gave the specimen to you, and he’s returning home without it. A Wieraptor that is. I’ve never seen him do that,” Matt rocked on his feet and rubbed the flask he held over his chest. “He’s a piss poor man to work for, couldn’t keep a crew to save his life. Never been worth the stress, if you know what I mean.”

Norah understood. And it became clear to her why he had asked her if he was still perfect, now she fully understood. He didn’t seem like a man who could have mental quirks and it made her wonder what else she may not have noticed about him.

“I understand,” she said at last. Norah looked beyond Matt back into the lab to see if Stryker was there, watching them. It made her want to go back, even if it meant she would have the shrieker’s eyes on her again. Her nails grazed across her skin.

She turned back to Matt. “Why did you stay?”

He seemed to be anticipating the question. His lips quirked up. “I should say because, under the animosity between us, we’re friends, but that would be a lie.” He winked at her and lifted his flask to the light. “But it’s for the booze. If it ain’t for Stryker, I’d never see Gunner. And that, Ms. Lee, would be a shame.”

Matt began to walk past her and into the ship. She laughed and called out to him, “Why don’t you just work for him then?”

“Because I’d be afraid he'd kill me in my sleep. Just for the fun of it,” he laughed back before disappearing around the corner.

That's horrible. But she couldn’t help the hiccupped chuckle, it relieved some of the pressure in her chest. Norah appreciated every moment that made her laugh these days because underneath it, if she cared to dwell, the monsters would emerge.

Norah gulped down the air, reminding herself that she was on a ship, free of humidity; that it was dry, cold, and clean. She closed her lips. There was no rainwater in her mouth. She walked back into the laboratory and found Stryker working on repairs. If he wasn’t in the bridge, or with her, he was fixing up his ship. It made sense.

Norah sat down next to him and watched him work.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“There’s nothing to thank me for, babe.” He glanced at her.

His eyes flashed, and all at once, she saw the intimidating Cyborg he was all over again. It was so easy to love him and even easier to be nervous around him.

“But your record?” She reached up and swiped a strand of his hair off of his forehead. Touching him helped remind her that he was real and not just a desperate concoction created from her nightmares.

He lifted his hand and trapped hers before she could move it away. “Doesn’t matter to me anymore.”

“You can’t say that I trump it, Stryker, that’s ridiculous,” Norah huffed while he squeezed her hand.

“I didn’t. It just doesn’t seem to matter much anymore. I’m not good,” he looked up then back down at her, “I’m not good at this,” he waved his free hand between them. “Humans don’t get close to me, at least not for long. I frighten them.”

“You don’t frighten me,” she quickly interjected.

He chuckled. “I do something to you. You’re still tense–you’re tense right now.”

Norah frowned and took her hand back. “I find you intimidating, so what?” She added as he continued to snicker at her, “I’m not good at this either.”

“You’re cute when you’re feeling affronted.”

“I wish,” she murmured but leaned up on her knees and pressed her forehead to his. “I wish my body would heal as fast as yours.” Even though she could barely see them anymore, she still felt the bruises under her skin and the exhaustion that closed in around her mind. She twisted her fingers through her tangled locks. “I wish my hair would finally settle down! It’s been driving me crazy since the storm. It’s like the moisture embedded itself in it.” Norah sighed, “I’m rambling again.”

“I like it.” Stryker let go of her hand and tugged on one of her curls. “I like all of it.”

A sound blared above them; she looked up for its source.

“We’ve reached Ghost,” he said, standing up with her. “Time to dock up.”

“To the city that doesn’t exist?” Norah patted down her hair and smiled. They walked to the bridge, her hand slipping into his.

“Figuratively.”

Matt was already strapped into his seat in the cockpit. Stryker took the helm and let Matt maneuver the vessel. He had taken it upon himself to teach him how to fly.

For the next few minutes, the bridge was filled with arguing, taunting, sarcastic quips, and some words she didn’t even know. It was almost a blessing when they flew into the outer intake port and joined with one of the largest freighters she had ever seen.

As if this didn’t exist.