The vibration of the transport changes and I’m awake. Cersei’s head rests on my shoulder, but her eyes are open when I glance down.

“Refuel?” she asks.

“Has to be,” I agree, and then we hear a soft clanging sound that verifies it.

I rest my head back onto the pillow, and the tension drains out of my shoulders. When I slide my hand down her side to rest on her hip, Cersei snuggles in closer, pressing her soft skin against me. Closing my eyes and pushing aside anything else, I appreciate the moment.

I’m feeling my heartbeat in a way I never have before. I’m alive.

Dimly, I recall feeling like this, so many years ago now that it’s barely there. Long before I was enhanced. When I was still a man, not a half-man, half-machine. She brings me back to life.

It’s odd. Realizing that the life I was living was no life at all. While I was in the Service, there was always the mission. That was the driving force. I lived for it, the accomplishment of a target, and when it was done, there was another one to achieve.

As more parts of me were replaced, I drifted further from humanity without ever noticing. Once I would look forward to going out with friends or enjoy the touch of a lover. Those things became less important until they were gone, leaving the mission.

It was good for the Service, and I never noticed.

When I was retired out, no longer eligible for new upgrades, so no longer of use, I lived for my code. I had no friends, no allies, no one except for Strek, who wormed his way into my life, but even him I kept at a distance.

Until her.

Cersei broke down the walls around the cold remnants of my heart, breathing new life into it. Life I hadn’t known I was missing.

Her heart beats against my chest, in time with my own. Her breathing matches mine. She is perfect. Able, stunningly good looking, but more, she’s brilliant. Her insightful mind captures me more than her beauty.

When I run my fingers through her hair and then down along her spine, she shudders, shifting against me. My cock rises on impulse, as I feel her breasts shifting against my skin and calling my attention to our nakedness.

She doesn’t miss the cue. Her hand drifts down my chest and encircles my girth, which expands at her touch. Slowly she moves her delicate fingers down my shaft. Tilting her head up towards me, I lean in and kiss her lush lips.

She tightens her grip, and I groan into her mouth, my hips involuntarily thrusting against her. She grabs my lower lip between her teeth, clasping and pulling back. Her tongue licks my upper lip as her hand strokes faster.

After sliding my hands down her side and across her hips, I shove it between her legs, roughly thrusting two fingers inside of her. She gasps, setting my lip free as she throws her head back, closing her eyes. Exploring her slick walls with my two fingers, I probe deep.

Her hand spasms on my cock, causing waves of pleasure. My balls tighten against me, ready to explode, but I control the building pleasure, focusing on her. Sliding my fingers in and out of her wet slit, curling them up with each thrust in and rubbing her secret spot.

She shudders, gasping, rolling over onto her back and giving herself over fully to my ministrations, throwing her arms wide. Sliding along her, I take her left nipple in my mouth while continuing to push my fingers in and out, but faster now.

Her breath is ragged gasps accented by moans. Grabbing the hard point of her nipple between my teeth I lash at it with my tongue. My dick is pulsing in time with my pounding heart, wanting to bury itself inside of her, but this isn’t about me. It’s her.

She pushes her hips up, meeting every thrust in, grunting as I drive her towards the edge of pleasure. As I pull my fingers out, I curl my hand tighter so that I’m rubbing her clit with each retreat then thrusting in to the hidden spot on the insertion.

My awareness of her pleasure is an awareness beyond her sounds or the feel of her against me. It’s deeper, truer, almost like the System built into me, but different. Sensations of her wash through me like water moving through, pulsing through my veins along with my blood. She is part of me, and I am hers.

Her breath catches as I thrust in—her pleasure is about to claim her. Sensing it, I curl the fingers, holding them tight against her and squeezing to add pressure to her clit. I take my mouth off her nipple because I know it will be too much for her.

She stiffens, her back arches up, and she bites her lower lip as an orgasm rips through her. She grabs me by my shoulders, fingernails digging into flesh as she quivers beneath me.

“Ah,” she sighs, relaxing to the bed once again.

She looks at me with half-lidded eyes, her face slack with the hint of a smile.

“Good?” I grin.

“Wow—" she exhales but is cut off by a flashing alert at the edge of my vision before she can say any more.

Her eyes darken, and she rises to a sitting position, aware in her own way that something is happening. When I pull the alert up, I find the system has picked up on a transmission.

“They’re here,” I say.

She nods, knowing it as well as I do.

“There are only two ways out of here,” she says. “They’ve covered both ends of the transport.”

“That leaves one,” I say, looking at the window.

Outside that window is open vacuum. Zerix doesn’t have much of an atmosphere. The quadrants are enclosed, not that anyone ever notices it because it’s so well-hidden into their structure. It only comes into play if you are traveling between quadrants.

Her worry gnaws at me, an aching itch inside my head. She grabs clothes, throwing them on, chewing on her cheek.

“I’m picking up twenty,” she says. “Heavily armed.”

“At least,” I agree. “They’re going light on us. I expected better.”

She snorts. Enclosed space, little room to maneuver, and we don’t have heavy weapons.

“Lot of innocents on board,” I observe.

“And they won’t care who gets hurt,” she says, her words hanging between us.

It’s unspoken that we do, but for her, it’s a huge change from who she was when she was Athena. It speaks volumes to how much she’s changed.

An idea comes to me, but I push it aside. It’s insane, stupid, crazy, and a terrible idea. There has to be a better way, any other way. The system pulls up the blueprint of the transport which I quickly scan over, but it changes nothing. They’ve got us cornered. While I’m confident Cersei and I could fight our way out of here, what would be the cost?

“When you’re cornered, do the unexpected,” I mutter.

“What?” she asks, checking the magazine on a gun.

“Do you trust me?” I ask.

She stares, bites her lower lip, then nods sharply. “Yes.”

“Okay,” I say, reaching over her head and slamming my fist into the ceiling compartment.

It breaks open, and an oxygen kit falls out, landing on the bed. She looks from it to me.

“You’re kidding me,” she says, but it’s not a question.

“Got a better idea?”

She hesitates, starts to say something, then stops. Finally she shakes her head, grabs the kit, and puts it on.

“What about you?” she asks, but there’s no more time.

Footsteps are pounding down the hall outside the berth. I hold her around her waist, spread my wings, and wrap them protectively around her. Kicking the window only cracks it—it doesn’t shatter. Damn protective glass.

Firing lasers at it from the tips of my wings, I’m counting heartbeats to time my fire as the sounds outside draw closer. A shout out there is followed by a scream. The protective glass takes on a soft glow. After taking a deep breath, I kick it again.

Air rushes out as the glass shatters. Cersei wraps her arms around my chest, then her legs around my waist as we’re sucked out along with the glass shards and everything that isn’t fastened down. The lights flash red as we exit the berth, and emergency protocols block the room off to keep the entire transport from decompressing.

We tumble through the air. Have to time this right. Open my wings too soon, and the force will damage them, too late, and I’ll hit the ground, potentially causing further damage.

The system blinks, numbers running along the edge of my vision. The world spins around me so I focus on the data streams. Now!

I spread my wings and catch just enough wind to stop the tumbling and hang for a moment. The light natural gravity of Zerix pulls me down, but with the wings, it becomes a gentle glide instead of a flat-out fall.

Cersei breathes heavily, gripping tighter around me. I activate the rockets built into the wings and soar up and away from the transport. Bullets rip through the air around us. They were prepared for this move, it seems. Men are stationed on top of the transport.

Several bullets ricochet off of my metal wings, and I begin evasive maneuvers. Warnings flash across my sight as I zig and zag through the air trying to make us as difficult a target as possible.

Clessis isn’t as close as I’d hoped. I’m not going to reach it if I have to keep up these maneuvers. There’s only one choice, go higher.

Angling up, I increase the thrust to break free of gravity’s pull. Cersei pounds a fist against my chest. When I glance down, her eyes are wide behind the mask, and she’s shaking her head. I want to reassure her but there’s no air for me to speak with.

All I can do is will her to understand. It’s dangerous, but it’s our only chance. We have to go suborbital.