Chapter Two:

---

Dommik oversaw his beasts being taken off his ship. To him, they were his lifeblood, his mission. His duty to the people that created him. They each had a story.

The Urgoke from Gliese resembled the ancient Triceratops, the Ewayen from Elyria could have been a mad scientist's dream of flying fish that smelled like citrus, and the Shunkun plants from Tau-Ceti were as smart as chimps and had a taste for fresh meat. He captured them by order, by plea, or just by plain curiosity to be studied by the Earthian Planetary Exploration Division’s scientists.

He was waiting for those he worked for to safely contain his creatures, lest he needed to hunt them across the metropolis. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Dommik’s fingers tapped the worn black leather stretched over his knee. He wanted to get back to his ship before the EPED found him an assistant.

A goddamn spy. His eyes narrowed as the time ticked by. The grey suit and his young assistant were busy corresponding with the transporters. No one talked to him unless they had to.

He preferred the quiet. It made him a better predator.

Dommik eyed his patrons. It would take me three shots to down four of them. But they weren’t warriors like him. Just normal people going about their normal jobs, trying to make it through another normal day.

They overlooked the reinforced facility, up high behind thick glass. His creatures were now being handled by xenobiologists and botanists. His fingers stilled on his leg.

“We’re having you take the Molucs back. They began to breed and the scientists chose to tag them and have them released back into the wild. The weather here isn’t cold enough to sustain them without them going into heat,” the grey suit turned to him just as the truck arrived. Dommik could smell the furry animals from where he sat.

“I told you that before I delivered them.”

“The division needed to check them out–”

“Because they breed like rabbits?”

“Because poachers were stealing them off the planet and now they’ve been found on several other worlds.”

He watched as the Molucs passed through quarantine and moved out to board his vessel. They looked like baby dragons, if dragons existed, down to a fuzzy set of wings and a long tail that curled up into a cotton-like ball. He found the peaceful creatures endearing even if they had a tendency to infest.

Dommik stood up, the worn leather of his armor pulled comfortably taut around his large frame.

“Everything looks fine here. I’ll make sure the Molucs are checked out by my androids and boarded.” He turned toward the exit. His fists clenched at his sides.

“Dommik,” the suit called after him, stopping him in his tracks. “You won’t be cleared for takeoff until we have a live body on that ship of yours. The EPED can’t afford to break protocol for you anymore without eyes on the inside. If you get attacked again…”

Dommik felt the hard edges of his knives hidden under his armor. He felt the leather restrict his palms as his hands released. He heard the man behind him but wouldn’t acknowledge the Suit’s comment. It could hurt a man’s pride. A lesser man’s pride.

How can an opponent who was significantly weaker than you do anything but try? He felt a small smile twitch at the corner of his lips. It was a hard smile to keep hidden.

There was a reason he liked being out in the wilds alone.

“I get attacked every day. If you don’t need me anymore to bring in the beasts, then, by all means, send down a spy. I’m sure you could find someone to replace me,” Dommik warned.

His fist hit the button at the door and he strode out of the room. He didn’t make it three feet when the clatter of heels sounded behind him. He sighed and kept walking.

Mia.

“Dommik, wait, please. It’s not what you think.” A slender hand clutched his forearm. The man’s assistant rattled to a long, awkward stride next to him. His arm was her crutch. “We’re not trying to spy on you.”

He looked down at the cleaned up and tight blond. He towered over her slight, put-together frame that wore a pencil skirt and white blouse as accessories. Eyelashes thick with black mascara and cherry red lips parted as she met his eyes.

“I work alone.”

“You don’t have to be alone. Hire me. I’ll stay out of your way, I’ll stay quiet. I’m sure we could come to a mutual agreement.”

“I work alone, Mia,” he repeated. “I don’t have time to babysit.” Her bust strained against her shirt as she inhaled. Dommik looked away and kept walking.

“Don’t be like that, Cyborg, I’m the best bet you can have. I know the job, I know the people, and I know you,” Mia continued. Her argument was sound but the idea of having her smell up his ship with heavy perfume hurt any chance she might have had. He imagined how it would stick to him as he went out on hunts. The smell would give him away.

Beasts from nearby planets would know of his presence.

“You don’t know me, Mia, and you’re not getting on my ship.” He peeled her fingers off his arm. “I’m not your free ticket to see the universe or a way to sleep yourself into a better position. All you would be is bait up there. You’re pretty enough, find someone else to throw yourself at.”

“Fuck you, Dommik, I actually liked you. I would have been good by your side. Good luck with whoever they send you, you sure as hell will regret it.” She stopped following him.

“I’ll make sure to send you a missive when I do.”

“Dommik, wait!” Mia called after him, her tone changed. He sighed and turned around.

“What?”

“Please be safe out there.” She waved her hand at him and without a second glance, walked back toward the quarantine facility.

Dommik could only think of her rancid perfume as she vanished around a corner. Mia may have been his best bet as a co-worker but he had an even better bet in mind, no one.

He passed back through the gates that led to the last working terminal at the port. If he made it fast enough, if he left without being fully restocked, he may escape with the Molucs without another creature in tow.

Another human that would stare at him like an oddity. The denizens of the port stopped and gaped at him, moving out of his path and whispering behind cupped hands.

He wasn’t just a Cyborg in their eyes. He was a miscreation. Dommik knew all the names that people called him behind his back. It was easy to hear whispers, even those from across a room, with the technology built into his ears. His work required the best in perception enhancements and he took it seriously.

The money that he didn’t funnel back into the ship went straight into his head as newer waves of cybernetic enhancements rolled out. Scope sight, hearing, a keen sense of smell. It made him the hunter he was today.

He wouldn’t call himself the best. There were other Cyborgs that hunted, other Cyborgs he would even call friends, that did what he did. Sometimes he was called in on a special project or asked to help out on another hunt. Sometimes teamwork was a necessary evil. One he took better than other Cyborgs.

Dommik wasn’t afraid of cutting the throat of a corrupt politician. Or even taking a side job every once in a while to take out a person he thought deserved it.

Even humans were monsters. They just hid it behind a suit of flesh and honeyed words. He owned up to his crap.

The sticky smell of human musk, potent lotion, and processed food made him hurry his steps. Even as his tech reconfigured for the increased speed; silence was always on his mind. Dommik left the semi-busy terminal behind, seeing his gate at the end of the hall.

He also saw a girl sitting on a drab suitcase next to his exit to the field.

How? It’s been three minutes since I turned down Mia.

As Dommik got closer he recognized the female from earlier. The brief eye contact they made as she became one of the many gaping bystanders. She didn’t breath when she looked at him. He hadn’t understood why. The girl was quiet.

She tapped her cheeks and sighed. She isn’t quiet now.

Dommik stood over her. His shadow blocked out the light. Her delayed reflexes annoyed him.

Death comes so easy to the weak.

The girl looked away from her hands and slowly up at him. Green eyes met his, wide and startled. He walked past her to his gate.

The picture of her was solidified in his mind. Short copper curly hair that framed rounded cheeks with a splattering of freckles. Her hair was pushed back behind her ears but small tendrils rebelled and fell forward. If he ever had a missive to hunt down and kill a sprite, he knew what to look for, who to look for.

“I’m here for the job,” she said.

“There is no job.” Dommik opened the door and walked through. A thump sounded behind him, a gasp and a bang. The girl forced her way through the doors and followed him. He repeated without turning, “It’s already been filled.”

She huffed, keeping pace. “I don’t see anyone else here.”

They walked out into the open airfield. Dommik took a deep breath of almost fresh air, filled with the smell of dust and engine exhaust. And the subtle smell of the girl behind him that he couldn’t place.

“I don’t need you and if you keep following me, you’ll have security on you within seconds. You’re not authorized to be out here.”

“You haven’t even given me a minute. Look,” she breathed heavily, stumbling behind him, “I heard what you do. You’re not a monster!”

Dommik stopped.

He turned around.

His ship loomed over them like a wave about to crash.

She continued with a gulp, “I heard what the others were saying. You’re not a monster.” Emerald green eyes met his again.

“And you’re an idiot.”

The girl dropped her bag and crossed her arms. “I’m not.”

“I’m a Cyborg. I hunt for fun. I kill for fun. I am the fiend everyone says I am. If you’re looking for an adventure,” she flinched at the word. “or trying to prove something, find someone else. If you’re looking for a Cyborg to fuck, join the breeding facility. You’ll be dead within a week of working for me.” Dommik turned toward his ship’s hatch and watched as the Molucs were led into his high-tech menagerie. “I told the EPED, I work alone.”

“So you don’t have an assistant.” Her eyes narrowed at him.

Dommik warned, “Dead within a week.”

“That would be my problem, not yours.”

He tensed as she followed him into his ship, breathing heavily and pulling her bag behind her. It screeched over the concrete. He moved toward his androids who were settling the Molucs into their temporary home. He heard the girl gasp as long, white fuzzy wings extended out behind their bullet-proof habitat. His robots programmed the interior to mimic the Moluc’s planet’s icy ecosystem.

Their fuzzy fur extended out, threatening, like a spooked cat. The pair of dragon-like creatures hopped around the home they knew from many moons before. He couldn’t be sure if they were upset for being moved again or reluctant to be back on familiar ground.

The girl moved up to the glass as the creatures buried themselves into the quickly accumulating snow until they disappeared under the drifts.

“Get off my ship,” he growled. Seeing the girl, so unlikely and wrong on his ship, and in his space unnerved him. He had half a mind to throw her into a cell like one of the other countless animals he transported.

The girl clutched her bag, her hand clenched on the handle of the suitcase as he stepped forward and invaded her personal space. She was tall but still a head shorter than him. He could hear her heart race, could sense the tension wrack her body, he could even smell the desperation and courage come from her.

They stood there, staring at each other, neither one backing down and slowly, strangely, something shifted between them. It was muted and weak but it was there.

Her soft, round face gave her the appearance of a pixie. The tiny curling tendrils of her hair stood to attention and didn’t move as they should have. It was a disservice to her features. They were meant to move in a breeze.

I’ve never had a fairy before. Dommik broke the moment and looked around at all of his empty cages.

“Let me explain,” she said, pulling his eyes back to her. She set the bag down. Bright green eyes stabbed him. A soft stab, but a stab nevertheless. “I need this job.”

Dommik hardened. “There is no job.” He grabbed the back of her shirt, tore the bag out of her hand and threw them both off his ship.