***

The music woke her. Rylie sat up in bed, one moment asleep, the next moment tangled in her blanket as she struggled to get up. Her bedroom door slammed open to reveal her wild-eyed sister.

The holo-clock read three hundred hours and Kepler’s sun had yet to shine through her window.

“We gotta get down to the watership,” her sister yelled as she ran back to her own room, grabbing an already packed bag, and rushing down the hall.

“Wait!” Rylie grabbed her own bag, and without a second thought, went after her. Apparently, she and her sister had come to the same conclusion last night: their da was going to start out without them.

It was dark as she ran from her house down to the docks, knowing her way without guidance, even through the impenetrable early morning fog.

The music still played and it came as a relief when her bare feet hit the dock. The lights of her watership were an easy beacon to guide her to the end. She was following them when her sister’s laughter pealed through the mist.

Not Janet’s, but Lily’s. Her baby sibling collided with her, shrill with excitement that only little kids had, laughing and screaming at the same time. Lily knocked her back a step.

“Woah, you okay?” Rylie wrapped her arms around her sister, who struggled to remain contained.

“I’m gonna getcha!”

Rylie looked up as her sister screamed and was lifted out of her arms. Zeph raised Lily up into the air. “Gotcha.” She couldn’t help but smile seeing her spun around, by a frightening Cyborg, no less.

“You two have become fast friends,” Rylie exhaled and winced at her sister’s high-pitched laughter.

“I’m fast friends with everyone!”

Netto stepped out of the fog behind Zeph, impeding on their little bubble. Zeph stopped spinning her sister and lifted Lily up instead, placing her on Netto’s shoulders. Rylie had to strain her neck to look up at Lily’s gleeful face. Baby hands ran all over Netto’s shaved head.

He looked serious. An odd contrast to Zeph’s and Lily’s faces. His eyes found hers, ignorant of his partner, and she realized she still wore her oversized nightshirt and shorts.

“It appears you’re the last one to arrive,” Zeph interjected. “I would have wagered on your sister.”

“I want to be a Cyborg!”

“You two are encouraging her.” Rylie ignored her embarrassment under Lily’s excitement.

“Of course we are,” Zeph chuckled. “Who wouldn’t want to be a Cyborg? Look how handsome we are.” He waved his hand between him and Netto. “Although little Lily here is already gorgeous, she would wreak havoc as a Borg, melting everyone’s hearts.”

Rylie laughed. “I guess that could be her special ability. Heart melting.” She ignored Netto and kept her focus on Zeph and her sister, but it was hard when he stared bullets at her, into her. His eyes heated her skin despite the early morning chill.

Lily took that moment to yell out, “I want to fly! And have pointy teeth and be blue.”

“It looks like you’re already flying, little love,” Zeph preened as Lily leaned over Netto’s head and pulled at his lips. It made a funny picture and she wished she had a way to capture the moment.

“Don’t encourage her. You two won’t have to be here to see her heartbroken after you leave,” she laughed.

“I wanna see your teeth.” Lily continued to claw at Netto’s face, who began to shuffle back and forth on his feet to jostle her around.

“How can we leave such a precious beauty behind?” Zeph smirked down at Rylie, and she had the notion he wasn’t speaking about Lily anymore. “That would be a sin if another Cyborg entered her life and took her under his wing. I’d think Netto and I would have to call him out.”

She decided to ignore Zeph as she stepped past him. Rylie raised her arms to take her sister from Netto’s shoulders. “Time to come down from there, Lily. We have work to do.”

To her sister’s fussy cry, Netto lifted her above his head and handed her over. Lily wailed as her playtime ended. Rylie hugged her writhing limbs while she fought to break free. Being the enemy under the dual gazes of two Cyborgs was uncomfortable, and for the first time she was profoundly happy she wasn’t a Trentian...or a soldier on the wrong side of the field.

Rylie turned and led Lily off the dock and shooed her back up to the house. Their mother retrieved her at the steps of the bluff. When she was safely away, Rylie headed back to the boat, finding the dock empty of strangers.

She stepped up into the watership, and into an array of unusual tech.

The men at work were placing the gear away. She scooted past them and into the housing part of the ship, heading toward her bunk. The watership was made like a tugboat but had some of the amenities of a yacht. There was the top deck at the front, the lower deck in the back where they had spoken the night before, and the bridge in between. She passed through the kitchenette and attached lounge, toward the crew’s quarters.

It was her watership but Da kept the detached captain’s suite. It held a mini-office they both worked in when alone at sea.

She peeked through the open door into an additional room of bunks and stopped short. Inside was one large, open duffle bag.

She sucked in her breath and leaned in to look at it. Her fingers tightened their grip on her own bag as she made out a myriad of things she didn’t know the name for. But they all had the look of something that would be used by a Cyborg.

A hand came around her forearm and she jolted around to face her sister, a finger over her lips. Janet dragged her into their room, shared for now, with both bunks descended from the wall panels. Her sister closed the door behind them and Rylie tossed her bag on her bed.

“What’s with the shush?”

“They can hear,” Janet whispered, turning to face her. “Keep your voice down.”

Rylie’s eyes shifted to the closed door before going back to her sister. “What do you mean they can hear?”

“Because they can. I looked it up on the network last night. They can also see much farther than we can, especially at night.”

“Do you think they can hear us in here?”

“I don’t know.”

She sighed and opened her bag, quickly changing into her swimwear and grunge clothes, feeling moderately more presentable and less bedraggled.

“I don’t like this,” Janet said.

“I don’t either but it’s already done. Netto promised he could fix whatever juju is happening. We can at least give them a chance.”

“So you spoke to him alone?”

She willed herself not to blush. “Last night. He was by the beach when I left the docks.”

Janet laughed under her breath, “But those teeth... I’m surprised you didn’t run away. You know what they say about sharp teeth.”

“What?” Was there a saying about sharp teeth?

“They’re that way to tear through meat.”

Rylie flashed her sister a deadpan expression. “I don’t see you running away from them. Anyway,” she moved to change the subject, “We’re here now and onboard. Da would have to forcibly remove us if he doesn’t want us to come along if he changed his mind. I’m surprised he didn’t wake us.”

“Or he’d have the Cyborgs do it for him.”

Rylie watched as her sister tied up her hair and applied gloss to her lips. The faint hint of lavender reached her nose and she narrowed her eyes, studying Janet’s getup. “You need to promise me something...”

“What?”

“You won’t sleep with them,” Rylie leveled. “Please, Janet. Please promise me!”

Her sister pursed her lips. “You think they’ll be that easy?”

Rylie grabbed Janet’s hand and begged. “Please. I don’t want to see you get hurt. They’re not normal.” The thought of her sister with Netto sparked a twinge of jealousy. She’ll use him. And Zeph. Rylie forced Janet to meet her eyes. Then leave him. Leave both of them. “They won’t be manipulated,” she said under her breath. “Promise me.”

“It doesn’t hurt to try.”

“There’s no information you could possibly glean from them. They’ve probably encountered a hundred women like you in their life.”

“Harsh,” Janet tugged her hand away. “You don’t have to be such a bitch. It’s not like I haven’t protected our family. I just go about it my own way. And unlike yours, my way works.” She placed her hand on the doorknob. “Anyways, maybe it’ll be fun. All men are willing to talk if you ply them with enough spirit and the promise of a fuck.” She shrugged again, “I wonder which one I can get in bed first. Wanna make a bet?”

Rylie looked away. Her sister had always been a siren, or at least that was what her parents called her. A witch of the waters. One who wouldn’t be silenced and gleefully led men to their deaths. More like to their beds. She had read about them on the network: beauty beyond compare, voices that could seduce, deadly in their intentions. Apparently, they were ancient myths, but whenever she looked at Janet with her current victim, she believed there was some truth in those myths.

Calling her a siren was right.

She sighed and let her misgivings pass. “I won’t wager with you. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“That’s too bad,” Janet laughed. “I would’ve put my money on Zeph.”

Rylie ran her fingers through her long, tangled hair. “I would put my money on him too. Just, please, be careful.”

Her sister winked. “Trust me, I always am.” Janet leaned forward and whispered, “They’ll spill all their secrets.” She twisted the knob and walked out the door. Rylie followed shortly after, only to stop at the open doorway of the Cyborg’s quarters, her eyes landing back onto the open duffle.

Weapons. It repeated in her head. She lowered her breath and tiptoed in, boosted on by the loud music from above and opened the bag further. The dull sheen of metal, mixed with powered-off electronics became a jumble under her gaze.

She licked her lips and checked the corridor, finding it empty, before she displaced the top tech. Her fingers shook as she lifted the largest piece, a long cylindrical tube with a connector at one end and glass at the other to find something utterly familiar.

A stockpile of guns.

A wave of heat hit her back.

She pulled her hand away but knew it was too late.

“Need something?” Netto’s deep voice sounded directly behind her. She turned around, wincing, and willing away the immediate perspiration of sweat on her brow.

“No.” She met his grey eyes above her, his head bent down awkwardly, his frame too large for the space. The Cyborg filled up the doorframe, and part of the quarters, as well as the area beyond in the hallway. I’m not only caught, I’m trapped. When he didn’t say anything and didn’t move, she continued, “Can I go?”

His heat filled the small space and made it hard to breathe.

“What are you doing then?” Netto didn’t move, instead, remained a barrier. She saw the sharp edges of his teeth as he spoke.

“Looking in the bag.”

“Why?”

Rylie licked her dry lips. “Curiosity,” she admitted. Snooping, she said to herself.

“They’re weapons.”

“I figured that out,” she snapped, and for a brief moment, she thought she saw a smile flash over his lips. “Why do you have them?”

Netto looked down at the bag, unpinning her once again. “Protection.”

“Protection... From what?” Rylie followed his eyes back to the bag. She vaguely realized that the music had died above deck.

“From anything that would hurt you.”

Rylie didn’t know what to say, only that she all at once felt a strong wave of comfort wash over her. His proximity had gone from unnerving to nice in the beat of a second. She had the urge to burrow into his chest and wrap her arms around him, to soak up all the protection he was willing to give. She looked back at the Cyborg to search his face but it remained devoid of any emotion.

She liked protection. And safety. The homestead made her feel safe and so did the watership.

“Thank...you,” she choked out.

Rylie held her breath as he reached around her and pulled out a small sheathed knife from the bag. His frame twisted to accommodate his size in the small space. He offered it to her.

“Take it.”

Their fingers touched as she relieved him of the weapon. It was light in her grip. “I have weapons to protect myself.” Rylie unsheathed the dagger and twisted the blade around, finding it unusual compared to the knives she wielded to skin swimmers. Her finger caught a hook on the side and pressed it. A red laser shot out to surround the edges of the blade.

“A laser dagger,” he said, his voice above her ear, “will penetrate anything with enough force.”

Her hair shifted against her scalp. The Cyborg’s mouth inches away from her head. Goosebumps prickled over her skin.

The glow from the dagger cast everything in a blood-red light, muddying Netto’s blueish skin into a brown. It also made his proximity more intimate. She clicked the dagger off just as the buzz of the watership turning on vibrated the walls.

“Will it burn the case?”

“No.”

Rylie sheathed the weapon and held it against her chest. She moved to escape the room. “Thank you. I’ll keep it with me.” Her fingers tightened their grasp. She couldn’t bring herself to meet Netto’s eyes. “I think we should head back up.”

Netto hunched lower and turned, backing up into the hallway, slowly freeing her as he maneuvered in an awkward angle. She scurried past him but stopped at the stairs, turning back to look at him.

“I forgot your jacket!”

“I won’t need it.” His whole frame moved and collided with the wall as he shrugged.

“It gets cold at night, and I have a feeling you won’t fit on that bunk.” Rylie smiled at the image, feeling the sway of the ship pulling away from the dock beneath her. Netto grunted and she took it as assent.

She coughed, realizing what she had said could be portrayed as flirting, and went up the stairs now being the one to free her previous captor. Regardless of his size, she heard him following her. Rylie didn’t want him to be another notch on the bed for her sister.

The glass enclosure came into view, still clouded by the thick morning fog. If she wasn’t aware of every shuffle and buzz of the ship, it would appear as if they were still docked.

Da sat glumly on the captain’s seat staring at a large hologram radar. He didn’t look up when she peered over his shoulder, watching the steady increase of distance grow between them and the shore. Netto passed behind her and up through onto the top deck.

“What is it, Buggy?”

Rylie waited until she was sure Netto was gone before leaning down to answer.

“They have guns. Lots of them.”

Quinten Montihan, her mentor and sire, the head of the Montihan Settlement and owner of its agri-lots, looked away from the controls and caught her eyes.

“Good. We may need them.”

It was enough for her stomach to ball up into a fist, hollow and hard. Rylie stepped away from him and looked out the window toward the water she could barely see. The sheath of the dagger rested firmly in her grip.