Chapter Five:

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“Is the girl strapped in for warp?” Dommik asked the android, Bin-One, at his back.

“Yes, Master, Bin-Three is with her. Would you like a status report?” the robot asked.

“No,” he mumbled, even though he did. He hadn’t approached his new employee, his assistant, his slave since the first day; and that was only because of his irritation.

She had finished the governmental-forced training to work the job she fought her way into. The girl, Katalina, had begun accumulating data from the creatures on board. She was now sending updates to the EPED and Mia was her main point of contact.

Dommik’s lips twitched at that.

They wanted Katalina to do more but he refused to allow her clearance. His androids were capable of everything the girl could do...except free-thinking and free-will.

The fresh smell of her had clung to him like a parasite. It stayed with him wherever he went. He couldn’t sterilize it, he couldn’t wash it off, he couldn’t get away from it. It made getting through the day unpleasant, and the night agonizing.

So he avoided her. If the girl knew what he really was, what he had done, or what he did currently, she would run screaming. They always do.

It’s best to keep her and stay away. If it isn’t her, it’s Mia…

He couldn’t even imagine the horror of having Mia spy on him while being stuck with her on his ship. She was desperate to get off of Earth and Dommik couldn’t bring himself to feel bad for her. Mia was good at her job but she was stuck soil-side doing it and she didn’t make enough cash to travel.

He turned to Bin-One. “Brace, we’re cleared for warp.” He turned back to his console, well used and faded, and thrust his ship into lightning speed. By the time the colors of the stars and planets flooded his vision, he was a system away from the Moluc’s home-world.

The steel wiring and plates in his body shook from the pressure.

His cyber-mechanical makeup was different than that of any normal Cyborg. Everything on his interior was completely fabricated, even his biological organs were fabricated. His brain was human but it was filled with more circuitry and wiring than it was with nerves and blood vessels.

Dommik thumbed his chest, finding the plates just below his muscles, and wondered when he would have to upgrade them next. He had suffered internal mechanical damage on several occasions, one of those occasions had been recent and was why he had a live-body on board now. Those pieces had been replaced.

After he dropped off the Molucs, he had a debt to pay.

The ship settled back into auto-pilot as he put their course toward the snow-covered planet. He ran his hand over his face.

“How did the girl do?” he asked the android as it detached from the wall supports it used.

Dommik knew the girl had never been space-side before. Kat had been green with it as her eyes had taken everything. She had taken him in, in the same way.

Wide emerald orbs with specks of gold. No matter how hard he tried to delete her from his thoughts, she refused to go away. The girl had reacted to him in the way he liked best: fear. Uncertainty. Trepidation. All of them had flashed over her wild features but her voice intoned otherwise.

Stubborn courage.

“Katalina Jones had an adverse reaction to the warp, Master.”

He turned to the robot. “How so?”

“She ran to the lavatory. Bin-Three is outside the door right now. Bin-Three hears sickness from her.”

Nausea wasn’t unusual for a first-timer.

Dommik turned back to the console and double-checked his coordinates. He could see the white ball of the planet in the distance outside the glass. The Molucs would need to be prepped for send-off. I’ll have to encounter Katalina. His cock jerked at the thought.

It didn’t matter that he was a Cyborg, he was still a man in many ways, and the rest of him was bestial, animalistic and those instincts were kicking in. They became harder to control when he caught a trail of her scent on one of his robots or when he passed her quarters at night.

He wasn’t designed to breed with females, he had been designed for theory and for war. A war that lasted nearly a hundred years before it ended with mutual hatred and acceptance. A war to fight for control of the Milky Way galaxy. An endless battle against another alpha species.

The Trentians were intelligent but protective and had odd, mystic ways about them. Where Earthians worshiped knowledge, the Trentians worshiped their god, Xanteaus, and everything the alien god mandated.

But he was different and so were his brothers. Why not try and add animal DNA into a Cyborg? Let’s find out what happens…

So he was created, tested, and approved and the part of him that was a beast wanted to be unleashed. Dommik flexed his fingers before he unzipped his pants.

No matter how many times he had sterilized his ship, bathed himself, or had the androids go through quarantine procedures, the smell lingered. He still couldn’t put a name to her scent, only that it was her and it was wild like her hair. It was fresh and clean and completely erotic to him.

The white planet grew closer. Dommik tapped his fingers, deciding what to do. His blood wanted sex. He wanted the girl with copper curls that had only entered his life days ago.

The blood of beasts. He gripped his dick and squeezed. Thoughts of her flooded his head, legs spread and wet sex. His palm moved up and down his hard length as his blood pooled hard and painful in the cusp of his hand. The tip of his cock pointed high and taut; straining and desperate. His fingers curled around the large head and massaged it as he thrust into his hand.

Freckles and green eyes beneath me. He released himself just long enough to spit into his palm and continue. The heated saliva did nothing but relieve a little pressure and fuel his thoughts. Curls wrapped around my fingers, damp and slick against my lips.

He came with a grunt and his cum shot into his hand. It dripped down his wrist and back onto his still-hard cock.

His ship had reached its destination. The white, swirling planet filled his vision and brightened the bridge with its reflection from a nearby star. Everything glowed around him, even his own sperm. Dommik flicked the seed from his hand and located a nearby cleaning cloth, wiping it over him. The smell of his cum lingered in the air and for the hundredth time, he programmed the sanitization units to run.

“Bin-One, I want you to land the ship in the exact coordinates from our last visit. Once we’ve settled into the snow drifts, release the hatch.” He turned to the android, buckling his pants. “Keep the systems secure and the current diagnostics running. Send a signal to Stryker and tell him to meet me at Ghost City.”

The android moved to follow his orders as he stepped out of the bridge. He pushed his long hair back and tied it at the base of his neck. Slowly, he regained himself and found the control he needed to proceed. His fingers gripped the hatch that led down to the girl and the menagerie.

Dommik dented the metal wheel.

***

Kat wiped the back of her hand over her mouth, staring into the receptacle. Her stomach was tied in knots, and she could have sworn her heart had burst. There had been no forewarning of the impending warp. If she had known, she wouldn’t have had breakfast just prior.

Feeling her senses come back to her, she got up and splashed water over her face and into her mouth. She shook out her curls and headed back to the chamber, feeling queasy but refreshed.

The android, Bin-Three, followed her. He was always within eyesight of her in any of the public areas. The robot kept constant tabs on everything she did and stopped her from doing anything that would upset the ‘Master.’ She wasn’t naive, she knew the Cyborg was watching her.

He just has his minions do it for him. Kat wasn’t sure if she cared that he kept his distance. The dark corridors of the ship were scary enough without having an angry Cyborg creeping around.

But he always visited her at night. Every rest cycle since that first day, she stayed awake until the footsteps sounded outside her door. She hadn’t fallen asleep until she heard them leave since her first night.

Kat entered the large laboratory, her eyes adjusting to the lights. The pinging sound of an incoming call rattled from the console room and she sighed audibly. The EPED didn’t trust her.

Well... I listened to you, grandma. I would count this as an adventure even though I’m alone with a bunch of machines, some alien creatures, and a pissed off employer.

It had taken her some time and research to run the reporting system for Mia, and no matter how accurate or how thorough her information was, it was never good enough. The girl disliked her and Kat wasn’t quite sure why. The EPED wanted constant coordinate updates, data based on the living organisms onboard as well as additional information and opinion from her. So she watched the androids and for the Cyborg as much as they watched her.

No wonder he didn’t want to hire anyone.

Mia and her superior wanted more information on Dommik but she had none to give them. They believed her that he kept his distance from but they didn’t believe he stayed away all the time.

He comes in at night when I’m gone. Bin-Three told her as much on the second day. Kat made her way past the room and headed for the Molucs. She wanted to make sure they were okay. The warp flipped her stomach, who knows what it did to the animals on board?

The fuzzy dragon-like creatures were curled up together in a nest of snow. She longed to pet them, her fingers touched the cold glass that encased them. They look so peaceful.

Familiar footsteps entered the giant chamber, they echoed off the quiet, steel walls. Her fingers froze on the glass and the shivers that ran through her weren’t from the cold. Kat took a step away from the enclosure as the thuds came to a stop next to her.

She looked up into dark, emotionless eyes, but her gaze didn’t linger on them for long as they drifted down a hard, lean body covered in a white form-fitting bodysuit. The Cyborg was imposing and far too large not to be noticed, not to be appreciated and frightened of. If Dommik ever happened to fall on her, she would be crushed. She glanced down and saw the outline of a large cock, it twitched when her gaze settled on it. His body was frightening but his bulge was terrifying.

The Cyborg cleared his throat and her eyes shot back up to his emotionless face.

“Your name is Dommik,” she uttered. Her cold fingers rubbed her cheek as the Cyborg studied her.

“And yours is Katalina.” He turned away as she blushed. The outline of his ass came into view and she had to stop herself from reaching out and touching it.

“Call me Kat.”

“Don’t care.” He handed her something long and black.

Bastard. Her eyes narrowed as she took the item from him. It was a jacket, military quality, and sized for a large male, not her small form. The coat was heavy and rough in her hands.

“What’s this for?”

“Put it on, we’re about to land and return the Molucs back to their homeworld.” Dommik dismissed her as he turned to the console next to the glass unit and typed. His long fingers danced over the screen. “Make sure you watch my every move so you can add it to your next report.”

Bastard.

Kat shuffled on the thick jacket, dwarfed by it, consumed with the smell of metal. Gravity shifted under her feet, briefly disorienting her. The androids operated a device on the other side where part of the Moluc’s enclosure began to fold in on itself. The creatures shifted and uncurled, waking up, fluttering their fluffy wings in the drifts.

The hatch opened to a glorious white and turquoise world. Giant, crystalline snowflakes fell quietly from the sky and between the flakes she saw a flock of Molucs flying in the distance.

“Are they going to be okay?” she asked.

“Yes, they’ll start their own flock. They’re a mated pair and the female is heavily pregnant.”

She walked over to where the creatures were being ushered. “Bonnie is pregnant?” How had she not noticed? It wasn’t like she hadn’t stared at the dragons for hours desperately wanting to cuddle them.

Dommik stepped up behind her. “You named them?” The glass enclosure shut and the snow inside began to melt away.

Kat watched the dragons cover each other with their long, white wings. “I named them Bonnie and Clyde.”

“Attachment grows when you give things names.” He turned toward her. “They mate for life and no other Moluc would approach a bred female, regardless, they are herbivores and very territorial of each other.” Dommik looked down at his leg as a knife appeared in his hand, he strapped it to his thigh.

Kat flinched as a freezing gust of wind hit them. Her curls flew back in a mess of webs around her head. “I wish everything bred for life, a life-mate, or such. It would make the world better.” She shoved her hair out of her face.

Dommik stepped between the opening and her, blocking out the wild wind that wanted to freeze her skin. “Unless your soul mate turned out to be evil, a murderer, a drinker of the blood of innocents. Or a rapist. A system like that wouldn’t differentiate.” He took a step closer to her and Kat felt the cold breath in her lungs seep out through her parted lips.

A tingle, slow and steady, drifted down her body and settled between the crux of her thighs. The Cyborg, with every hard muscle outlined, moved a hairsbreadth in front of her. His thick black hair fell between them, a soft whisper would shift the silken strands.

He looked down at her, towering and deadly. Only the heat coming off his body touched her now, an invisible force-field to the elements.

“Evil people may be paired together?” Kat kept her eyes on Dommik’s dark ones. Her nipples pebbled against her shirt, she sucked in her stomach and lifted her chin. Caws and high-pitched cries rose from the Molucs, their excitement at being home was evident in their raucous frenzy. “Maybe we shouldn’t paint everyone as black and white. Some people lose their way and that one person was meant to bring them back.”

A twitch of a smile hit the Cyborg’s lips. Kat leaned into him, intrigued by the show of emotion. She knew better, she didn’t even know the man, but she couldn’t deny her attraction to him.

He lifted his hands and tugged the lapels of her jacket. Startled, she watched as he zipped it up to her neck only to tug the hood over her head. Long, white fingers, painted metal in their strangeness, tied the hood at her nape.

The Cyborg leaned forward until their faces were an inch apart. Kat thought he might kiss her and the need to stay and feel his mouth was almost as strong as her need to run and find a weapon.

“Good thing there’s no such thing as fated mates,” he whispered, his breath hit her lips. Kat shuffled as the ache built at her core. An ache that badly needed to be soothed.

His nostrils flared and his face darkened. Dommik jerked back with disgust on his face. He turned from her and strode toward the exit.

What did I do? Do I smell bad? She looked down at herself dwarfed by a jacket that reached her knees. Kat glanced up just as he walked out into the wind and swirling snow.

Kat called after him, “You can’t go out there in just a skin-suit! You’ll freeze.”

“Make sure you get all of this in your report,” he grated back at her as the hatch closed behind him. The Cyborg vanished in the white.

She looked around as the wind was cut off and everything went quiet. Two androids were inside the glass cage and cleaning it. She wrapped her arms around herself feeling her skin prickle from the heat and the cold and the betrayal of her body tingling with desire.

Eventually, the heat left her and she was just a shivering stick.

The androids finished up what they were doing. The Moluc’s habitat closed up with all traces of the furry creatures gone. Kat felt alone. She didn’t know why she stood there and waited until it occurred to her she was waiting for Dommik’s safe return.

Bastard. It wasn’t her job to wait on him or for him even if her life directly depended on his.

“It might come for you too, Kat, you’ll have to be strong now waiting for it and even stronger if it comes for you.”

She was always waiting and had been ever since her birth.

Her parents had been doctors and like all doctors had followed the Hippocratic Oath. ‘I will do no harm...I will prevent disease whenever I can but I will always look for a path to a cure for all diseases...’

They had met in the civilian medbase outside Gliese while the settlement of the off world colony went underway. It was once a military base during the great war against the Trentians but now it was a growing homeworld for half-breeds. Earthian and Trentian couples; ruled by both species and the appointed representatives that lived planetside.

Kat sighed and walked back toward the console room. The drag of the jacket flapped against the back of her knees.

Her parents had contracted a parasite from a local food source on the planet. It stayed dormant in their bodies, living and growing in their guts, invisible and alien. When her ma got pregnant with her, her parents made their way back to Earth.

Kat was going to be an Earth-born human. They wanted unrestricted access for her to go to the best universities, the best hospitals, the best ‘Earthian’ everything. It wasn’t until her mother was in her third-trimester that something went wrong. She started to form blisters all over her hands and feet.

When she was delivered, her mother never recovered, she only grew worse. First, it was the blisters, then nausea, body aches, and insomnia. Her father started to show symptoms too and it was then that a group of officials seized her parents and herself and placed them into quarantine.

Kat was too young to remember much, she only had vague memories of doctors with white masks on and her grandmother’s musings. Sterile rooms and small spaces.

The parasitic outbreak was streaming on every channel back then and doctors from all over the universe, Trentians and Earthians alike came together to save their sick people. They eradicated the species that carried the parasite, ensuring no new people would unknowingly get infected.

Many people died because there was no way to cure it once the symptoms began to show and everyone else was forced to take a vaccine.

She had watched her parents bloat and boil until they eventually popped like the blisters that started on their feet. Her child-like eyes shielded from them only by a glass barrier. Her father had curled his body around her mother’s corpse as black mucus dripped from his nose.

The doctors took her away from that world and kept her in quarantine for years. But she exhibited no signs of the dormant, microscopic parasite.

Kat had learned a lot back then, she learned how to take her own blood, run the medbay machines, test her own urine. By the age of seven, she could change her feeding tubes and run the physical exertion tests, her toys were replaced with medical equipment.

When she turned ten, her grandmother won the case for her guardianship, but there still wasn’t a cure for the Gliese parasite. Only a preventative treatment, a shot filled with nanoparticles that cleaned out the system, it worked for all illnesses but it was only temporary. So, Kat was released from her white prison and from the impersonal doctors, her medical toys and into a world filled with metal and green, blue-grey skies, and water that fell from above. A world where the temperature couldn’t be regulated and where food wasn’t served in packets.

Kat took the preventative shot right after her grandmother died. Her fingers came up to rub the spot on her arm.

Her grandma got the parasite. From Kat herself, no doubt, and it was still uncertain how it transferred to the woman. Her nana had been with them from the beginning, always on the other side of the glass barriers, a constant fixture in her young life although cold and distant and far.

It wasn’t until her grandmother had first wrapped her in a hug that warmth entered her childhood.

But Kat could never stay away from the cold, crisp, sanitized rooms of the medical facilities and when she got her GED online, locked in her paisley-splashed room, she went for her nursing certificate. She wanted to think it was in honor of her parents but deep down her reasons had been selfish. It was comforting to her in a nostalgic way. The way only childhood memories could be.

Maybe she was a little crazy, evidence with her being on a Cyborg’s ship alone, god-knows-where in space, surrounded by stark conditions that were only differentiated by darkness, and an unknown amount of androids.

A message popped up on her screen. Mia.

Kat sighed and without reading it first, began relaying her observations of the day. Complete with seeing the icy planet and the Molucs. She referred to them as Bonnie and Clyde for her own satisfaction.

The tips of her fingers swiped over the smooth keyboard, numb from the brief opening of the hatch. She slid her hands into the long arms of the jacket and brought them to her lips; eyes closed and her body tense. Her breath warmed up her cheeks.

Her body had just started to thaw when the flash of a new missive appeared on the screen, catching her eye. Without her interference, it opened up and the blur of a video-feed came on. Her eyes narrowed as a man’s face appeared through a haze of static and a struggling connection.

Kat noticed the tattoos first. Guns on both cheeks pointing toward his mouth, numbers below his eyes that looked like code and hair buzzed off in a military cut.

The man flashed his teeth. “You must be the EPED spy.”

Her first thought should have been ‘he can see me?’ but instead, she blurted, “I’m not a spy!” Kat’s hands fell from her face.

“So Dommik caught himself a girl. The word has gotten around that he had a human on his ship.”

Kat tried to exit out of the video-chat but her screen was frozen.

His laugh came through with fuzz that grated on her ears, gleeful and menacing. An android stepped into the doorway and stared blankly at the exchange. Kat looked at it, knowing it was reporting to Dommik, the lights over its face flashed. Kat looked back at the video-feed.

“Who are you? What do you want?”

The man smiled and sat back, his foot braced on his knee. “I wanted to see for myself if the rumors were true. Dommik likes to trap his victims.”

“I’m just doing the job I was hired for,” she said but now did feel trapped. “Who are you?”

The guns on his high cheekbones expanded as his smile grew wider. “Let’s just say I’m a co-worker. A fellow EPED employee. Tell me, how did you talk your way onto his ship?”

Kat pursed her lips. “You’re not working for Mia are you?” Mia had asked that same question and she kept asking it every time Kat made a mistake.

The man let out a shrill laugh. He leaned toward the camera until his tattooed face filled up the feed. His eyes were white-washed, almost as if he were blind with a moldy glare to them. “Mia has her way. She’s desperate, that one, but not desperate enough to talk to me.”

Curiosity killed the cat. ‘Or Kat in this instance.’ “Is it because of the guns on your face?”

The man flashed his teeth at her and for a moment they were sharp and canine. “I can put guns on your face, babydoll, or I can put them elsewhere.”

She couldn’t stop the disgust on her face. She tried again to unfreeze the console even though a large, sharp grin filled her screen, at the corner of her eye. Kat could see it clearly but refused to look at the man dead-on.

“You should ask him about the roaches. Ask him about the webs.”

Kat didn’t realize it, hadn’t heard the tell-tale footsteps or the hum of the hatch opening, but the next moment her chair skidded back and her hands flew to the armrests. Dommik, in his white suit once again blocked out the view she wanted and didn’t want to see.

“See you in Ghost City, friend.”