Chapter Twelve:

---

Things went back to normal after they left Ghost City.

Kat woke up the next morning sore, bruised, but well-rested with a head full of dreams. At least she thought it was a dream when Bin-Three knocked on her panel with a gift of real food. Her stomach growled for the cooked eggs and fresh fruit before she could even take the tray.

“Good morning, Katalina Jones.”

“Call me Kat,” she said for the hundredth time. “Morning, Bin-Three. Thank you for the food.” She sunk her teeth into a slice of apple. The food was gone before she could truly appreciate it. But the fresh, sweet aftertaste remained with her. Bin-Three stayed within her doorway and watched. Kat handed the tray back to the android. “Where’s Dommik?” she asked, quickly getting dressed and following it out the door.

She combed out her hair with her fingers, finding it still damp from the night before. Kat took stock of her body as she walked. It felt well used, her calfs and thighs ached, even parts of her skin were raw to the touch and it all brought images of the Cyborg dominating her, touching her as if he was holding back a piece of himself. The image expanded in her mind until all she could focus on was the dark pitch of his eyes shadowed by the dim lights of the ship, twinkled with the reflection of the glass.

He called me a fairy? She paused.

“He’s in the gym, should I relay a message for you?”

Kat glanced away from her body and up at the android. She had hoped he would be in the facility waiting for her. She understood those unspoken agreements about sex.

Never get attached. Never assume. Never read into it more than what was there. And most of all, don’t fall in love. Love only lasts onto death and death always seemed one step behind her.

“No, thank you.”

The android left her at her pseudo-office and she took her seat without looking at the empty enclosure from the night before and instead logged into the EPED server.

The afterglow of great sex and fantasy were forgotten when her belly cramped, curled up, and punched her in the gut. Kat gasped and tried to massage it away but the ache only grew until she lifted her shirt to check her skin.

No blisters. No blemishes. What the?

She looked outside her small room, finding it empty but for one robot on the other side, cleaning the Wameck’s habitat. Knowing it was cleared, she peeled off her clothes and thoroughly checked her body, the cramps grew with her paranoia. Her muscles tensed as she twisted to look at her back, running her hands over her buttocks, slipping off her shoes to look at the soles of her feet. She then rechecked every area, grimacing from the pain.

A chat opened up on her screen with Mia’s name tagged at the top. It brought her out of her mania just long enough to redress and convince herself she was just getting her monthly. That she was giving into paranoia.

“Don’t go looking for things that aren’t there Katalina. Leave it alone and let it rest. You’re driving me crazy with how you’re acting, girl.”

Kat took a deep breath and dove into her work.

‘Where's your reports from yesterday?’

‘I’m working on them now. We had–’ Kat stopped typing, wondering if Ghost wasn’t known by her employers. ‘–stopped at a port.’ She opened her backlog from the day before, finding several other messages she received. All from Mia Stavke and all in states of annoyance to demanding to down-right mean. Communication with Earth or any of the bases in their solar system took time to deliver. It was like dealing with a digital pond of molasses that each missive had to swim through.

Kat pulled the data from the current creatures on board, and ran it through the division’s software. Everything the androids monitored, including food intake, emotional state, chemical levels, and growth, amongst a dozen other stats were always logged in. All she had to do was read it, note any shifts or changes, put in any reasons why the changes may be occurring and then write a visible report.

The visibility was why she was there. She wasn’t sure what had happened that created the need for this job but she knew it wasn’t with Dommik’s approval. The living areas on the ship remained unused, undisturbed, uninhabited. There wasn’t even a scuff on any of the floors… and there are always scuffs.

Kat finished her reports and uploaded them to the secure server, all before Mia could come back at her with another message. Her fingers paused on the keypad, debating whether it would be appropriate to ask...she was typing her question before she answered herself.

‘What happened that made this job, my job, become available?” She didn’t know if Mia would respond, let alone answer her, but it wasn’t going to stop her from trying.

Kat flexed her fingers and attached her portable to her wrist. It could be hours, even days before she received a response and the time increased every light-year the ship moved further away. She absently rubbed her stomach as she went to the roach room.

The echo of her steps followed her. A shiver shot up her back. She shook it away and walked through the door and stopped, and waited; until the lights shot on before moving further in. It didn’t matter how many weeks she had been taking care of the bugs, and the thought brought on a wave of nausea to her already invisible stab wounds in her belly, she would not take one step further in without the light.

When the roaches scattered behind the glass it meant they were not scattering outside the glass. Kat didn’t look at them as she cleaned the debris and stuck in the plants they feasted on, always leaving the Gliese ones for last. She shredded the stalk and jammed it past the filtration system.

Her breath caught and a gag welled up into her throat, the feeling of unease returned. She hugged her body and left the gross room behind.

She walked headfirst into a familiar chest. Kat jerked back. “Sorry,” she breathed as his hands cupped her shoulders, sending electrical fire straight into her, making her blush.

Dommik didn’t remove his hands. “How are you feeling?” he asked. Kat looked up at him, pushing her crimped hair out of her face and lost it with a sag.

She leaned into his body and burrowed herself in his heat. “Not good.”

His arms fell around her and the metal frame of him softened under her cheek until she felt cocooned, one she decided she never wanted to break out of. The cramps and aches of her body went away with each caress he gave her, over her back and shoulder blades, kneading the knots out of her neck to the base of her skull. She lulled into him and her mind went blank with pleasure.

Kat drifted off to that warm place that only an embrace can give.

“Feeling better?”

“Mmm, yes.”

Is he really comforting me? Her reverie went away as he picked her up and carried her back into the ship.

“Where are we going?” she asked, tangling her fingers in his loose hair.

“Someplace to talk.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead as the elevator closed. Kat couldn’t stop the shock her wide eyes portrayed. Dommik was hard, the kind of hard that it took more than an explosive to break through, and he was quiet, she had seen him as a shadow-dwelling loner.

But now he was holding her, touching her, cradling her in his lap as he brought them to the lounge that overlooked the stars. He didn’t let her go but instead settled in.

Kat stiffened.

“What’s wrong?”

“This is awkward.” She tried to remove herself from his lap and after a short struggle, she settled a short distance away.

“Apparently it’s only going to get more awkward,” he muttered, closing ranks. “How are you feeling? Really?”

Kat curled her legs under her. “I have some aches, nothing major.”

Dommik’s eyebrows furrowing as he stared at her. He’s reading me. “Do you have any cramps?”

“What?”

“Cramping,” he sighed, exasperated. “In your stomach.”

“Yes...there is some cramping.” They watched each other in stony silence which is what every conversation and every interaction between them always came to quiet brooding, racing thoughts, and distrust. At least that’s how it felt for her. “We had sex.”

“I’m glad you remember.”

“It was only sex.” She stated more for herself than for anything else. “I don’t expect anything from you and I know why you did it.”

He sat back. “You expect your job? So, it was only mechanical for us, makes sense.” He canted his head. “We are two adults alone out in space but I think you forget Katalina, I let you back on this ship, and regardless of what happens between us, I’m still your boss and your captain. I know you’re lying and I can live with that. I also know everything that happens on this ship. Everything. To what you eat for each meal, how much you eat, where you spend your time, when you step off my ship without permission, and when you send questions out to the EPED that should be directed to me. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a machine and more so than most other Cyborgs out there. My ship is a machine, a machine, Kat,” his voice rose, “and I’m perfectly integrated with it.” Dommik took a deep breath. “This is not how I planned this conversation to go but I’m curious, why did I have sex with you?”

Kat rubbed her stomach and his eyes drifted over her movements. She knew he knew more than he let on, it was obvious, and she was aware that Bin-Three could likely have a camera on him. But they were practically strangers and when it came to his double set of arms, she probably knew his body better than the man himself.

“You said it yourself, you claimed me, and we’re going into Trentian airspace. They didn’t teach the nuances in school but everyone knows they’re dying out because of us and because of that, will do what they can to obtain un…” she paused and swallowed. “Uninfected women.” Kat looked away and out at the stars. “Which is really funny now that I think about it.” She laughed.

“What’s funny?”

“Nothing. I used you too, though.” She turned back to face him. “You don’t need to threaten me and I didn’t come with you just for the hell of it.” Her thoughts wandered back to the space port’s entry gate. “I had my reasons.” The conversation was taking a turn she didn’t want to go down with him. Sex was one thing but she knew better than to share her soul with someone, and only had several times in her life. She didn’t count the doctor who only knew the pond-scum that coated the top.

Dommik watched her as she rubbed her stomach his eyes boring holes into her flesh and under her skin. Kat couldn’t stop the blush that heated her cheeks.

“I wanted to have sex with you. The Trentians had nothing to do with that.” He reached out his hand, willing her to take it. Kat looked at it and at him, her Cyborg, and went with her heart. She took it.

He pulled her to his side and held her close, his breath tickled the loose strands of her hair.

“I wanted you too,” she whispered.

“I know. I could smell it.”

“Oh. Gross.”

He squeezed her hand. “A strong sense of smell helps when I hunt.”

Kat sniffed him too discerning nothing, not even the natural smell of a human. Dommik didn’t have a smell and it unnerved her. He really is...something else. She laid her head against his chest. “Can I ask you something?”

“Depends.”

“What happened that made the EPED force you to take on an employee?”

He didn’t respond, not immediately, and she could have sworn she felt the metal frame of him shift under his skin where she touched him. It was almost like he was tensing up, but not quite. Muscles didn’t physically shift to the side. Kat remained still and waited; for him to speak and for his interior shell to move.

“I was sent to a barely habitable planet, far off the main spaceways, it was called Argo.” Dommik paused and that eerie feeling of foreboding came back to her.

“I’ve never heard of a planet called Argo.”

“Argo-566 to be exact. It was a dust ball, another one of the billion lifeless planets on our maps charted out long ago by some of our first navigational and mapping scientists before I was created, and long before the great alien war.”

“Oh.”

“Several years ago reports surfaced and pictures were uploaded by another Cyborg onto the Network of life on that planet, not just microscopic life, but plants and, well, creatures. The EPED got ahold of the images. They became interested and wanted to know more.” He spun one of her curls. “I was sent out there about a year ago to verify, scope out, and prove one way or another that it was habitable and that it could sustain a military base or at best a port. It’s a standard job, not one we receive often, but not unusual.”

“We?”

“Other Cyborgs that work for the EPED, you met two, Gunner and Netto.”

Kat settled closer into Dommik, getting comfortable despite her aches and watched the universe fly by. “I didn’t realize there were others like you. Do they all have a double set of arms?”

“Some have other…well, let’s call them parts, but we’re all different.” He continued, “It took several weeks before I arrived at the planet, and I found something very unusual. Planetary perimeter blockades, satellites, and relays. Someone was there or at least was watching and guarding the place. I assumed outlaws. Tech isn’t my specialty but I was able to override it and hide my presence. I should’ve known then, that something was off, and I did for the most part but I chose not to regroup and turn back. So I landed, or I tried too.” Dommik stopped.

She draped her leg over his outstretched one and fingered the buckles of his chest piece with her free hand. Kat didn’t know how she knew, but this story was harder for him than she anticipated and tried to comfort him the best way she could. “Why couldn’t you land?”

“Because I couldn’t see it.”

Kat looked up at him. “How is that possible?”

“It was covered in corpses.”