Finally she understood the expression, I wish this moment could last forever.

Some pleasures you never wanted to end. Unfortunately reality stopped for no one, not even a chosen one.

Lilith disengaged herself from Avion, who’d fallen asleep.

Did we kill him?

A slight panic infused her as she checked him over. A sigh left her. No, he wasn’t dead. He rested, exhausted by the exertion, even if he insisted on it, too much for his taxed system. Yet, Lilith couldn’t say no. She knew Avion recognized his approaching mortality, and much as she tried to deny it, she saw it too.

However that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight for him to live with everything I’ve got.

And everything she had was on a planet she couldn’t even name aloud and a person she could only recall as her mentor.

No face. No name. Nothing but a subtle remembrance of his voice and his teachings. Don’t allow the emotional side of your host control you. The nanotechs know what is right. The bots will show you the correct path.

But the correct path for who?

A return to the bridge showed Aramus sharing the command seat with Riley, who sat tucked in his lap, napping. Kentry manned a console along with Rosalind, a fierce Latina with distinctive machine orb eyes. Her otherness would not be well received.

It might be best if she’s not one of the first to meet my mentor.

He’d take one look at her cyborg additions and order her destruction. Actually, he’d probably instantly spot all the cyborgs as impure ones, despite their normal appearance.

I need to talk to him first. Explain what happened.

Surely when he found out the depravity the cyborgs had suffered he’d understand.

A futile hope. She knew too well from her time with humans that logic often lost to fear—and in the case of her mentor, tradition.

Their run of good luck ended when they hit the airspace outside their target planet. Control of the vessel was wrested from Aramus, despite his colorful cursing.

“What the fuck is happening?” he bellowed.

“We are in their airspace now. They have a satellite system capable of generating a pulse that knocks the navigational systems of encroaching ships offline.”

“That’s not good.”

“It’s normal.”

Also normal was getting towed in to the planetary spaceport, as were the massive robotic guards who manned the gangplank when Lilith presented herself. Not alone. Aramus refused.

“I like you, freaky girl, but we haven’t known each other long, so how do I know it’s not a trap?”

He raised a valid point. Trust was earned.

Given her mentor’s attitude, Lilith took Seth and Anastasia with her. Laura and Adam too. Nothing in their outward appearance would announce their cyborgness, but her mentor would know. His nanotech would tell him.

As Lilith descended the ramp, bright lavender-hued sunlight made her blink. She’d forgotten the intensity of the planet’s suns, a pair of them that kept this world well lit and, yet, not overly warm.

For a moment, as she basked in true daylight, the first in years, she forgot why she was here and what she was about to do. She lifted her face and let the rays dance along her skin. She absorbed the ultraviolet, breathed in the fresh air tinged with a hint of floral. The planet—E’dann, it’s called E’dann—truly was a paradise world. Lush with foliage. The water proved abundant and fresh. The fruits of the trees and bushes sweet and juicy. The inhabitants, non-lethal and tasty when roasted over a fire pit. How her mentor freaked the day he caught her human group out hunting then eating the product of their labor.

Nanos don’t need to ingest the flesh of beasts. We can absorb whatever nutrients we need from the air, water, and ground. He preached it. He made them eat it. But it didn’t mean the humans ever lost their craving for food. Real food.

“You were not supposed to return.”

The bold statement shook her free from the memories. How had she gotten so distracted? Usually her nanos kept her mind on a more productive track. Lilith glanced toward the speaker. Tall and humanoid in shape, he wore an unadorned crimson cloak, the cowl draping his head and placing his face in shadow. He didn’t need any badges or marks to announce who he was. Everyone knew.

Master Z’. Her mentor. A male, very much like a human man, who didn’t seem as tall as she recalled but was definitely just as overbearing.

She executed a short bow. “Master Z’, it has been some time since we last saw each other.”

“Not long enough. You were not supposed to return, and you most especially should have never come dragging abominations with you.”

“She didn’t drag us, if it makes a difference. We came willingly.” Seth had stepped forward to flank her in a show of support. “We found this lovely lady languishing in a cell and set her free.”

“The humans imprisoned you?” Even though he said it as a query, Master Z’ showed no other emotion.

“Yes, for a long time, that is when they weren’t experimenting.” Needles. Blood. Skin scrapes. Lab tests. No better than a rat.

“What of the other chosen ones? Are they prisoners too?”

“At first. Then the military killed them. All of them not long after our return. Only I am left.”

“Barbarians,” her mentor muttered. “Unworthy of the tech.”

“Not all of them are like that.”

“Enough to prove further selections from Earth are not worth the effort.”

“I wouldn’t say that. I’ve met many fine people.” She gestured to Seth and the others. “My friends aren’t like the ones who imprisoned me and killed the others.”

“No, they’re not. They’re worse. They are infected. Impure. They offend me, and I refuse to discourse with you in their presence.”

Said in a perfectly modulated tone, and yet, was it only Lilith or did it still sound petulant?

“Now hold on just a second there, buddy,” Adam stepped forward, but Laura held him back.

“You do realize those robot guards of his outnumber us,” Laura hissed.

Adam flicked a gaze to his left and right. “So?”

“So, it means we have to show diplomacy,” Seth said on a sigh. “We’re here to ask for help for Avion, and breaking all these wind-up toys probably won’t work to our advantage.”

Lilith bit the inside of her cheek, lest she giggle. Master Z’ wouldn’t understand her mirth just as she feared he wouldn’t understand why the cyborgs were different.

I’ll have to show him somehow.

“May I speak with my mentor alone?” she asked her friends.

“Are you sure?” Seth’s glance behind her implied a concern about her safety.

“I’m sure. He won’t harm me.” She hoped.

Once her companions returned to the ship, her mentor spun on his heel and strode away, his booted feet marking a smooth cadence on the perfectly aligned stone pathways. Everything around them was meticulously arranged, from the cobbled paths and cut stone to the identical block buildings made to efficiently house the robots and all their supplies.

Master Z’ liked order. Or is it the nanotech that demands it of him?

She’d never thought to wonder before. He kept walking, and she skipped to catch him.

“I need your help.”

“I sense nothing wrong with your host body or nanotech. Although I have to wonder if your programming has somehow been corrupted.”

The insult might have stung her younger self, but she’d suffered much worse than a verbal barb since she’d left E’dann. “The help isn’t for me, but Avion, a male on board the ship.”

“Another abomination?”

Had she sounded so disparaging when she used the same word? “Yes. And no. His bots are dead.”

“Then he is not a chosen one.”

“But he could be.”

“Doubtful.”

Said without even meeting him. She bit her tongue in an effort to control it. Her other side had some choice words to spew to her judgmental mentor, none of them polite or likely to advance her cause. “Even if he’s not, you could help him. He needs healing.”

No hesitation. “No.”

“Please. He’ll die if you don’t.”

“Doesn’t matter. I still won’t heal him.”

“Why not?” Lilith stared at Z’ trying to comprehend, but she couldn’t fathom a valid reason for his refusal.

Z’ could help. He had the knowledge, skills, and tools to do so. Access to science and medicine that didn’t rely on the nanos. He had it and yet deliberately chose to withhold it.

That made her very angry. Let’s rip his eyes out. Punch a hole through his stomach. Stomp on his face. She dug nails into her palms, a physical reminder to keep them by her side. Violence wouldn’t help in this instance. Barely, she held on to the reins of her temper. For now.

“You actually have to ask why?” Master Z’ spun to face her, and she finally caught a glimpse of his eyes, where a galactic storm brewed in a craggy face that while young in many senses—wrinkle-free, smooth bronzed skin, a full head of dark hair, a straight nose, and square jaw, not exactly a handsome man, but certainly arresting—was immovable in his beliefs. “He is an abomination. They all are. You know the nanotech was not meant to be enslaved in such a fashion, and yet you dare return bringing these things in tow. You! A creator of these impure beings. You are a disgrace. You ignored everything I taught you.”

“I didn’t have a choice. They enslaved me. Hurt me. Did things to curtail my power.”

“You surely had options.”

“You mean dying? I didn’t realize being a host required I make a martyr of myself. And it’s not something my nanotech ever suggested.”

“Apparently your nanotech weighed the situation and thought there was still a chance for redemption. Which should have occurred when you did escape with these things. You had an entire journey where you could have rectified the wrong.”

“Rectified? What are you saying?”

“You did not exterminate the impure ones when you should have. Nay, instead, you precipitated violence against our allies and brought with you the objects of your travesty.”

When he put it that way, he made it sound kind of bad. Except for one thing. “Stop blaming me. This is not my fault. I didn’t make them. The human military did. I wasn’t given a choice. Nor were they. For years they were slaves, but then something happened. They found their humanity. They think for themselves. Did you not see them? Even with the D’zpi chip, they are their own masters. They are not controlled.”

Master Z’ let out a snort, the disparaging sound so surprising she almost stumbled.

“So just because these abominations are reportedly sentient, that is supposed to make up for the nanos that are compelled in their blood?”

“So they’re not perfect.”

“An understatement. And you want me to fix one of them? To aid the slave host in keeping the nanotech prisoner?”

“Avion, the man who needs healing, doesn’t have live nanos. The military found a way to kill them. It’s why I came here.”

He didn’t seem surprised, judging by his answer. “It is because his neural interface threw the kill switch.”

“Their brain chips have that ability?”

“All chipped machines do. It is the D’zpi protection against the enslaved tech taking over all organic life.”

“If you know of that switch, then you can fix it. Turn it back on so his bots reanimate and heal him.” Simple. Flick it, and poof, Avion would heal.

His next words sank her hope. “The switch works only one way. Dead bots can’t come back to life.”

“I refuse to believe that. There must be a way.”

“Sure there is, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Tell me.”

“It involves removing all the foreign parts in him, flushing his body of the blood and all the dead bots, and then introducing him to the pool to see if some of the tech will accept him as a host. However, that won’t happen.”

“Why not?”

“Because I won’t allow it. This is not how things are done. Candidates for the tech are carefully chosen. They must adhere to the criteria set forth.”

“You didn’t care about that criteria when you placed me in the program.”

“You were an exception.”

“You were bribed to take me.” She didn’t recall specifics, but her father had leaked enough for her to glean that, in exchange for taking Lilith and attempting to heal her, Z’s people would be allowed to take some Earth resources like water, lumber, and all the humans they wanted.

“A business transaction that worked in all our favors.”

A little girl in exchange for goods. And Master Z’ thought the cyborgs were an abomination? She really had to wonder. “So do me a favor now.”

“You have nothing to offer. By your own words, your people have rejected you, which means you cannot make a treaty. You’ve broken numerous of our rules, and now you would ask me to break more? Why should I go against our beliefs?”

“Our beliefs? Or yours?”

“Does it matter? I see no reason to break tradition. No valid argument for your request.”

“Because Avion will die if you don’t.” The very thought filled her with a sucking sadness that dragged at her emotions.

“That makes no difference to me.”

What a callous bastard. For once, her other voice said it perfectly. Z’s refusal to listen made her scream, a wordless yell that finally startled a reaction from him.

“What are you doing?”

The last note of her cry still echoed before she replied. “I am expressing emotion. Something you, with all your teachings, don’t seem to know anything about. Were you always this clinical?” Was her master always this cold and calculating? Good grief, was this how Lilith treated others, as if they were just objects, things of no worth or feelings?

It horrified her to realize that a part of her was just as cruel and uncaring as the supposed evolved being before her. All the enhancements in the world could not make someone grasp compassion.

This is what happens when you try to suppress your emotions. Her inner self, far from snide, said it rather sadly. For once, Lilith didn’t immediately slam the door shut. For years, she’d tried to lock away that voice along with its emotional wisdom and ranting. Perhaps it was time she let the other half of herself have more of a say.

I don’t want to be like Master Z’ and view the world so strictly. Caring might prove tumultuous, but it sure beats the sterility of a life void of emotion.

“I am beginning to think that the nanotech severely erred when selecting you as a host. You have not adapted or followed our teachings well at all.”

“That’s because I am not a drone. Or a robot. Or a mindless being. I am Lilith.” She straightened her spine and stared him straight in the eye. “I have feelings. Thoughts. And emotions. I do not wish to make choices based on logic. I want to be happy.”

Z’ actually snorted. “Happiness is overrated.”

“But you know of it, or else you wouldn’t claim that,” she prodded.

Something flickered in his expression. A muscle might have tightened across his forehead. What past did Master Z’ hide? “I once knew the wildness you speak of. Once upon a time, I, too, let feelings control me.” For a moment sadness stormed across his eyes, a blue swirling agony that briefly touched her before his usual placid expression overtook it. “But I learned that happiness is fleeting. Uncontrollable. Only with logic can we truly live without chaos.”

“What if I want the chaos?” she asked softly.

Again with the slight twitch in his face. “Why are you so determined to save this abomination? You have known him but a scant time. He is broken. Impure…”

“Kind. Gentle. Funny. But most of all, he sees me. Not as an object or a tool or a host for another life form. He sees me as a person.” And I’m pretty sure I love him.

Her mentor had no reply initially. Z’ spun from her and stared out the grand window spanning the chamber. The surreal view of the purple mountainsides, the striated rock peppered with brighter splashes of red as foliage struggled to grow was pretty. However Lilith couldn’t appreciate the beauty, not when she was involved in a discussion that would decide the wellbeing of her friends—and maybe save Avion’s life.

Z’ continued to stare out the window even as he spoke in a low tone. “Once upon a time, in a past forgotten by everyone, I loved someone. A female, from the same planet as me. She was the sum of my world. On a mission of exploration, we came across a drifting ship unlike any we’d ever seen. Inside, there were no bodies. No pilot. Nothing. Just a pool of energy that beckoned.

“The nanotech?”

“Yes. A war had nearly wiped them out in a part of the universe so far none have gone and ever returned. But I didn’t know that then. All I knew was the pool called to me. They wanted me to touch it. So I did. I was chosen to become.” His eyes rose to the sky, a supplicant to the recollection of a defining moment in his life.

“You became a host to the nanos and somehow became their guardian.”

“I became. But my lover didn’t.”

“The nanos rejected her. And you did too?” Lilith didn’t understand why he told her this. Lilith would never abandon Avion. She didn’t care if he bore tech or not. She simply enjoyed his presence.

“I am not that shallow,” he practically shouted the words in an outburst she’d never seen. “I still loved her. I begged my nanos to accept her, but she was part D’zpi. A very small part, but even then, they were enemies.” He paused, and his shoulders hunched. “I did what I could with science and medicine, but in the end, as do all organic species, she aged and died. Without the nanotech, I could not keep her alive.”

The ultimately sad love story. “So, you refuse to save him because he might die eventually?”

“I do this to save you the pain of losing him.” He whirled on her, and his face was drawn into a rictus of agony. “You’ve known this male, what, a few days? He is still easily forgotten. You can still save yourself from the emotional crush that will overcome you when he dies. I do this now so you will not suffer later.”

“But that’s not your choice to make. I care for him. Killing him now or later, that won’t change. All of us are mortal. Even you. You might have lived longer than most beings, but you can still be killed.”

“I can’t. I must protect the tech.” Said so wearily.

“Did it ever occur to you to share the burden? That you’ve punished yourself over her death long enough?”

“Share?”

“Sharing is caring.” She blurted the words without thought, and he whirled around to eye her.

“Sharing is caring?” he repeated, arching a brow.

She shrugged. “It’s an Earth expression, and something the cyborgs believe in. They are incredibly resilient and honest. Their bond to one another is enviable. You and the tech might have saved my life a long time ago, but at the same time, you stole it. Like the military, you sought to impose your views and to make me someone I’m not. I’m not just a host. Not just a means of spreading the tech. I am Lilith, and I want things, even if some of them might make me sad. Or angry. But that choice should be mine. I deserve a chance to experience life to its fullest.” I deserve a chance at happiness.

“He means that much to you?”

“He does. They all do.” They’re my friends. She could say it without a giggle.

The resigned expression on Z’s face made her heart flutter.

“Because I am irrationally fond of you, which means I am probably due for a system check, I will allow you to attempt to save your friend. However, I warn you, there is a high probability he will die.”

“He will die if we do nothing.”

“Since you insist on this, have him brought to the building adjoining the temple. I’ll have medical tools for the two doctors you have on board. We will need them to cut the hardware from his body if there is any chance this will work.”

“Thank you.” On impulse, she threw her arms around her mentor.

He stiffened, his thick body as yielding as a tree trunk. To her surprise, his arms came around her in an awkward hug.

“Don’t thank me yet. This might not work.”

But at least it was a chance.

A chance that others had plenty to say about.

“Are you nuts?” Laura exclaimed. “That microchip in his brain is embedded. If we remove it, we’ll probably kill him.”

“It’s the only way,” Lilith repeated. “We must purge his body of all non-organic parts, especially the D’zpi programmed ones, if we are to have a chance of making this work.”

Riley shook her head. “It can’t be done. I have to agree with Laura here. While we can get rid of his robo eyes easily enough, his mechanical heart, not to mention his skeletal structure, can’t be removed. As for his BCI, we could slice it from him, but the damage it would cause might leave him a vegetable.”

“That’s mineral if you don’t mind,” Avion whispered, lucid for the moment, but oh so very weak.

Lilith squeezed his fingers. I know it’s a huge risk, but Z’ is convinced the BCI is the problem. It has to come out, or else it will keep telling the bots to shut down.

He caught her mental projection and replied aloud. “Let’s do it. I’ve always been a risk taker. This is no different. I either die in this bed, without a fight, or I take a chance.”

With Avion determined, it didn’t take much organizing to get them to the temple where Z’ waited.

He’d changed his crimson robe for one of pure white. The entire temple was a blinding ivory with marble buffed to a high gleam and pure metal accents highlighting their glare. As Lilith looked around at a place she’d only seen once before while still a little girl, she couldn’t help but frown.

This was a church. An alien one, unlike any on Earth, but still it was a place of worship for a religion, one dedicated to the nanotech.

The pool, a large round basin in the room with beveled metal edges, extended down into the floor. Who knew how far. Staring into it hypnotized a person, all those dancing bright sparks of light. Motes of energy and…life?

On the far side of the pool, upon a dais several steps high, sat a throne. Master Z’s seat of power.

She remembered seeing him seated there, head held regally high as he went through his precious ritual, and one by one, the supplicants were given the tech—and judged.

As part of the ritual, there was an altar. The carved stone bed resided at the foot of the pool. A potential host lay upon the surface, hands clasped, eyes closed. The nanos would then ride up the channel that led from the edge of the pool and flow over the altar. They tasted the applicant. If they liked what they found, then some stayed. If they didn’t, back they flowed into the electrical pond.

There was one difference from her recollection though, such as a hovering trolley upon which there was an array of tools, tools Master Z’ took exception to.

“You cannot operate on him here. The applicant must arrive free of the impurities.”

“He needs to be here, next to the source. Any farther and he’ll bleed out before we can douse him with bots.” Laura planted her hands on her hips and actually tried to stare down Lilith’s mentor.

She quite enjoyed it. “Laura is right. Since you insist we remove the hardware, and the process is so risky, we need proximity. You know it and so does your programming.”

When ritual interfered, throw common sense at a rational being to fluster it.

Z’ beetled his brows. “Exactly how many rules do you expect me to break?”

“As many as it takes for you to listen to reason,” she snapped.

“If he doesn’t want blood in his temple, then we’ll do it in the hall,” Avion said, awake for the moment but leaning heavily against the altar.

“You would desecrate this place with your dirty blood. Such barbarians.” Z’s disapproval rang through loud and clear.

“Oh for fuck’s sake. This is getting stupid,” Aramus grumbled. While quiet up until now, he finally snapped.

And did the one thing that left them all speechless. He grabbed Avion and tossed him in the nanotech pool.