Chapter Two

Alphy watched the reports from the short-range satellites spinning around the intelligence station. The nearest Splice were too far away to see her, and the base was getting nearer with every passing hour. She should be able to see it in just over a week.

The guys had stopped screaming at her over their new destination and were sullen as they took in the information from the satellites about the surrounding system.

The three battle zones they had passed through on their journey had finally made the situation real for the strategic command. They were alone. Bodies of men were out there in the black, and ships had been shattered in confrontations. No one was safe if the Splice were roaming the area.

Alphy was checking the trajectory toward the battle base when an incoming alert echoed through the facility.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.” She tried to find out which sensors had given the alert, but the intruder alarm sounded before she could.

She got to her feet and sprinted for the weapons’ locker. Alphy wasn’t really good with weapons, but the new targeting system that had been designed into her implants increased her chances of hitting a target exponentially.

Every bit of experimental enhancement to human cognition was at her disposal, so she downloaded stealth techniques and brought up the interior schematic of the station. She had to protect the brains, and that meant the junction of the only two corridors that led the way.

With three large weapons that were point-and-shoot by design, she sprinted down the halls to get to that junction. They might be annoying, but they were hers to protect. She might want to kill them, but no one else was allowed to.

The cheering in her mind was hushed when she growled at them. She needed all her concentration for keeping her newly downloaded battle skills in place.

The link to the station showed her the entry point. The intruder was in one of the shuttle bays and heading her way.

She pulled the gun into a firing position and kept heading for the split in the hallway.

 

* * * *

 

Lexo grimaced. According to Stitch, Alphy was an officious nerd who liked to organize data more than anything else. He didn’t anticipate too much of a fight. They were on the same side, after all.

The station seemed empty. His footfalls echoed in the halls as he headed for the command centre, and no other sounds were heard. It was eerie.

Checking the propulsion for this monstrosity was his first job. Getting it under his control was the second.

The surreal situation that he was in brought a smile to his lips. He hadn’t imagined that his sister would have entered the war and definitely wouldn’t have thought that she would be in charge of a base. Getting ordered around by his little sister had been weird enough, but seeing all the fighters that she had doing her bidding had been a shock.

The alien contingent was also something that took getting used to. They looked so close to human at first glance that it wasn’t until you saw the wings that your brain filled in the gap.

He walked through the halls, thinking about how useful flying would be as an adaptation, completely relaxed and introspective. The bolt of energy that slammed into the wall near his head was a bit of a surprise.

Lexo tucked, rolled, and shielded himself with a corner. “I am guessing you are Alphy.”

There was a pause. “You are human.” The voice was definitely female.

“Sort of. Would it matter if I said Stitch sent me?” He waited for three beats of his replaced heart.

“How do I know that?”

“Because she is bossy, smart, and my sister. I am her brother, Lexo. They just thawed me out.” As he chatted with her, his targeting system was telling him where to shoot and how to kill. He ignored it.

“Why are you here?”

“Because they don’t want you to crash into the Adaptation Base. I am a pilot.”

Weapons clattered to the ground for so long he wondered if they were all she was wearing. There seemed to be enough to cover a whole body.

“I am not a pilot. My name is Alphy. I have put down my guns.”

He slowly straightened and kept his hands at his sides. “I am coming around the corner.”

“Okay.”

He turned the corner and faced her, blinking in surprise at the tiny beast that had almost blown his brains out.

A bodysuit wrapped her curves from ankle to collarbone, and she was definitely female. The silver line across her forehead made him pause. “Head injury?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Oh, yes. Same incident that blew your sister’s arms up.”

“Blew... She’s a cyborg?” He blinked. It hadn’t occurred to him to actually look at her. Her face was still hers, and that is what he had been looking at. His little sister, all grown up.

“Yeah. They tried to kill us. They nearly succeeded.”

He looked her straight in the face, taking in the bright swirl of colour in her eyes and the detailed edge of the join between metal and flesh. “You were hurt as well.”

She snorted. “Come with me, and I will explain things. I just need to get some confirmations from the database.”

“Of course. I have a message packet from my sister as well.”

“Good. Bring that too.” She gathered her weapons and stalked down the hall, leaving him to watch her curvy backside as it swayed in front of him. It had been nearly a decade since he had been this close to a woman, and the light scent in the air made his eyes narrow as he inhaled to memorize it.

The woman stiffened. “Dude, if you are sniffing me, I am going to write your sister a scathing letter.”

Lexo grinned and watched her back as she led him through the station. Flying this monster was going to be interesting, but the company was good.

 

* * * *

 

Alphy clutched the weapons and led him through the station to her private grotto. The moment that he crossed the threshold, a laser cage sprang up and out from all sides of the garden.

“What the hell?”

She turned and looked over her shoulder. “I am just going to check your credentials, and then, you will be free to go.”

He scowled as he stood with his arms crossed and legs splayed. “What happens if I don’t?”

She shrugged, “Your cage gets very small, very fast, and then bots clean up the mess. Hang tight. I will be back in a few minutes.”

She walked back to the armoury and got two pistols, settling them on her thighs and tying the holsters into place. She didn’t know what was going on, but she needed to find out.

 

The data stream told her what she needed to know. Captain Lexo Carter was indeed back on duty. After years of being in stasis, Stitch had woken him up and applied a few new programs.

When Alphy read his history, her eyes widened, though they were blind to the physical world.

He was a prototype. She had thought that they all died in the early days of the war against the Splice, but here he was, on her station and in her prison.

His programming had been basic. He had been given a nanite override to do his best to keep the war effort moving forward. When he had been assigned to a suicide mission with his men, he had simply killed the general giving the order. No commander meant no command that would take out his men on a mission that couldn’t be won. The war effort required a different tactic, and the command needed to find it.

After the murder, he had been court martialled with the result being that he was not guilty of insubordination. He had followed the programming set to him by Earth Command. Unlike any of the other men fighting, the prototype cyborgs literally had no other option. The nanites made them carry out the programmed protocols.

She moved past the records and disciplinary hearing that ended with his request for stasis. Alphy was looking for details on his flying skills.

Whoa. Huh, so the only thing that he couldn’t fly was a paper airplane. Anything made in the last hundred years had been in his list of familiar machines. Lexo had been an aviation fanatic before he became a cyborg, and it hadn’t stopped just because he was missing a few limbs.

“Well, I guess he can do the job.” She removed her tabs and sat up.

“I am so glad you think so.” Lexo’s voice came from her left.

She sat up in her cradle and stared at him. “How did you get out?”

“My family designed more than just the cyborg program. We also dabbled in defense systems. No projected laser can go through a mirror.” He held up his wrist. A small reflective circle on his skin flashed as he moved his arm.

She swung her legs out of the cradle and got to her feet. “You killed your commanding officer.”

“I did. He was ordering his team to commit suicide for no purpose other than his own ego. That countered the directives that were controlling my system at the time.”

“Are you still bound by that?”

“No, Stephanie had the protocols removed. It is all in the data packet I am carrying.”

“Steph—oh, right. Stitch. Good. She does usually think of everything to get the most out of her patients.” Alphy rubbed her arms.

The cheerful menace of her guest was unmistakable, but his credentials had checked out. He had flown mission after mission, bringing the maximum number of men back to the base. His willingness to wait for the last batch of retreating warriors had not gone down well with his superiors. The devotion to his missions had been all-consuming, and now, he was assigned to her.

The triplets were shrieking in her thoughts, and she grabbed her temple while holding onto the barrier that wrapped around the data cradle.

“Is something wrong?”

“I am just being yelled at for not shooting you. They will get over it once I put in the authorizations.”

“By whom?”

She laughed. “We are definitely not the reason for this asteroid. Just let me get you to the command deck, and you can try to steer this turkey to Stitch’s base.”

He nodded. “Fine. I will address the issue of the cage at a later time.”

She wrinkled her nose. “You do that. I am more than willing to excuse your unannounced incursion onto my base.”

Lexo was surprised. “I suppose that is true.”

“Yeah. Let’s just suppose that.” She straightened and ignored the inner squabbling, walking nonchalantly past the tank that held the minds of the three screaming idiots.

“What’s this?”

She should have known that one of Stitch’s siblings would have keen intuition. “It is classified for now. Once we get to the base, I am sure that you will learn all the ins and outs of the rock.”

He was behind her with all the subtlety of a warm wall. “Lead the way.”

She didn’t comment but hiked away from the accumulated information of the Earth forces and led Lexo to what was going to be his domain. He could steer, she would read, they didn’t have to bump into each other more than that.