Cyberella: Preyfinders Universe (19 page)

The blood had been washed away when they returned an hour later. No police tape, no one investigating that she could see. It was a reminder of how different things could be here.

“Are you safe with your business located in this area?” she asked Plito as he unlocked the door.

“Sure. As safe as anywhere. We live nearby. The trip here is short.”

After that, the day seemed surreal.

On the sixth day she found herself dawdling outside a shop she’d noticed Torgeir observing. It was, as far as she could tell, a kinky sex shop. The outside was suggestive, with flesh-exposing poses but without anything overtly sexual. Once she stepped through into the shop, devices and imagery of sexuality were displayed in stark imagery. From her half-recalled glimpses of Earth sex shops there wasn’t much new unless you counted the virtual sex equipment and the robot sex booths that lined one side. The sounds leaking from those made her want to block her ears. She hurriedly found an attendant and purchased the soft red rope that was recommended.

Even as she picked up the bulky package, the girl rattled off more possibilities in a monotone. Her neon-green cybernetic eyes only made the encounter weirder. “You sure that’s all? No harnesses, gags, cuffs, double-penetration anal and vaginal dildos, clamps, vibrators, or auto-fucking devices – orgasm guaranteed?”

“Uhhh. No. Thank you.” She hurried out, praying her sweaty forehead wasn’t assumed as a sign of arousal by any customers.

If Torgeir weren’t pleased by her initiative she’d be sad. She decorated the package with a red bow and a note then left it beside the bed to await his return.

That night she sat out on the balcony until almost dawn, staring at the stars and alternating between crying silently and thinking about where he might be and what he might be doing. She wished she didn’t know he’d gone somewhere to fight. She’d had no messages since the ship left the system and might not get any until their return. He might not return. He might be lying out there somewhere, dying. It was almost too much to bear but it wasn’t until the sun broke above the horizon that she dragged herself to bed to sleep a few hours.

Work. She needed to distract herself.

It was the seventh day. The halfway point before Torgeir returned, and she thought she might succeed in fixing the bird. She was so near to replacing all the damaged areas.

Yes, oh yes.
She blinked away the tiredness from her eyes. At least this was a cause for happiness. She placed the specs to one side and removed the bird from the recharging pad. The battery had been low, as expected. She swallowed and waited. The bird’s eyes glowed pale blue and brightened then brightened some more.

Her heart picked up pace and she bit back a squeak.

Small places on the creature seemed to ripple as if they moved an infinitesimal amount. A silver wing feather curled down. Some blue ones slid over each other like a fan unfurling. An eye focused on her and in one swift move, the bird hopped to its feet. The little robot shook itself, tinkling like the smallest bells, and took flight, whirring. A flicker of blue and silver circled the room before it returned to hover before her.

Ella clapped her hands and jumped to her feet, squealing. “I did it! I did it!”

Doc looked up, startled. Gears fell off his chair and swore. Plito leaped up and swirled over to her.

“Big hug!” he cried as he approached.

They hugged, spinning in a circle, with her legs flying out before he stopped. When she’d shaken hands with Doc and accepted Gears’s stuttered congratulations, she straightened her red skirt and smoothed her hands over her circuitry-etched tights, where they’d bunched above her knees.

“Time for a celebration and I know just how to do this. I’ll pay for some picnic food from Ravello.” This was a man with the most delicious savory-style dishes she had yet to see matched on Riptide. “And I will get a surprise for you all.”

“What? We’ll all pay.” Doc nodded gravely. “This is going to be a great boost for the business. I can see this.”

“I suppose it will.” When she whistled, the bird settled on her table and cocked its head at her. “You stay there, sweetie. Boys, I’ll be back soon.”

The fruit man looked surprised when she marched up to him. If this didn’t work, if he’d tired of her, she’d simply pay him. Doc was right; this was going to be a money-spinner. Already she knew the repairs would be faster in future.

“Would you like to try my fruit today?” He leaned on his cart, arms folded, smiling. His black hair was sleekly combed back from his face and tied at the back.

“Perhaps.”

When he plucked away a cloth, uncovering a mound of bright red, globular fruit her mouth watered. It’d been so long since she’d had real fruit too.

He looked triumphant. Why he was so keen on her eating, she had no idea. He wasn’t exactly slobbering over her hand, even if he stared far too intently for politeness.

She may as well try. “You want me to purchase your fruit? You’ve been begging me for days.”

“I think you’re a beautiful young woman and if you enjoy these, I’m sure it will be worth it to me a thousand times over when you tell your friends. Here. Free.”

He took a fruit from the top of the pile to his right and offered it to her. It shone with healthiness.

“If you want me to try this, I want you to offer ten people that same deal. One free piece of fruit.”

His eyebrows rose.

“And I have three friends so I need four for myself.” She waited, smiling. If he said no, she had money. Today was a day to be generous.

“Ten?”

“Yes.”

He inhaled and then he held out the fruit again. “I agree. It will also spur on new customers. But...you must taste this now and declare to one and all how delicious it is. Out loud, to one and all. Hear this people! I offer ten pieces of fruit to the first of you to step up if this young lady tries my merchandise!”

“Well, well, well. You
are
a man of your word.” She took the red fruit from him.

He nodded. “Of course I am.”

“Then. Here.” And she crunched her teeth into the fruit until she bit off a chunk. She chewed and swallowed, feeling the sweet juices run down her throat. The taste was magnificent, enough to make her wonder if fruit could give her an orgasm. “Yum!” She held it up as people cheered. How weird to have eating a fruit cheered. But the line of eager customers was already long. “Beautiful! Thank you, sir.”

“My pleasure.” He bowed to her, low, and straightened. “All of you, step up slowly, keep in line, and I will give these out.”

She saved her fruit to finish later and walked away after selecting three more pieces for Doc, Gears, and Plito. Her grin seemed to buoy her up. Fixed the bird and done a good deed for the day?
Win-win.

All the work for the past few days had made her eyes feel as someone had rubbed grit into them. The virtual keypad blurred when she began to type and she had to shake her head to get the code correct. Then she realized the boys would’ve let her in if she’d yelled. She really should get an early night’s sleep. As if to reinforce that decision she tripped over something on the floor and ended up on one knee.

“Ella! You okay?” someone asked.

Her head seemed full of sludge, her thoughts were going round and round, and everything seemed to be slowly drifting away. Sounds dulled and echoed. She put her palms on the concrete and was appalled to see the fruit rolling away from her. One, the fruit with a bite taken out of it – white flesh showing stark against the red – stopped a few inches away, and wobbled, rocking, rocking, like a metronome ticking. Her little robotic bird flew in, wings singing as it landed. It pecked at the flesh of the fruit and turned a lurid green then red then green again. A thin siren erupted, loud enough to make her shut her eyes and want to vomit. She couldn’t open them again. Her forehead met the cold floor with a thud. Was she drooling? She shouldn’t drool. Her eyes...where were they?

There were footsteps around her, hands on her back.

“What’s happening? She’s sick and that bird... You never said. Is it a food taster?” someone asked in a high voice.

“Yes! Ella, Ella, hold on. Doc, get a real doctor. Fast. I’m plugging in her cybernetics. From what the bird’s doing, it’s a double attack. Cyber and organic.”

“This is bad.” Was the last she heard.

Incoming. Henchman 1

Done, sir.

I added an automatic aversion response to the neurocyber component of the black app. There were collateral casualties. I’ve left the planet as a precaution, temporarily.

Excellent.

*****

The message came in when
Zeus
entered the Riptide system, scrolling across his private holo-display like a snake out for a stroll.

Ella was poisoned. Please contact us as soon as possible. She’s alive but unwell.

Plito.

“Unwell?” He swore off a streak of words while raking his hand through his hair. He should never have trusted them. Should’ve brought her with him.

Their own casualties whipped him back to reality. The fight on
Jorburr 5
had been an eye-opener. With a little less skill and luck, none of them would’ve returned.

“Ella’s been poisoned. Get us down to Riptide as fast as you can,” he declared to the bridge room in general.

“Affirmative.” Wez, the new navigator, nodded.

Dresdek glanced up, grief on his face. “I’m sorry, sir. I’ll get the landing expedited as much as I can.”

“Thank you.”

Though he monitored their approach and descent into the atmosphere, there was little more for him to do. The cyborg had his own sadness to deal with and now this. Dresdek might rarely show affection for women but Nephelle and Ella had seemed to crack through his outer shell.

What did
unwell
mean?

He sent a reply but the only answer was:

Ella is alive but lacking in some cognitive responses. Lost speech. Lost some memories. We’re not sure what else. From your ETA, she should be at the shop when you come back.

She was at their shop? If they had anything to do with whatever had happened to her he’d string them up by their entrails and feed them to the stray pelk scavengers that infested the streets of Pelagia. He almost sent that in a message to them but stopped himself, barely.

Here he was with a locked-in contract to return to
Jorburr 5
and his woman had gone missing.

He left Dresdek and the others to finalize the landing procedures and hopped on a cab that arrowed straight to the
Hack and Slash
.

When he bellowed through the door at them, the lock unclicked and he shoulder charged his way in, flinging the door into an arc that banged it into the wall.

Doc, Gears, and Plito were at their usual posts, and Ella was facing away from him, sitting at a stool before a table. Black tights, long ivory corset wrapped about her beautiful figure. A pang of dread struck his heart.

But...the strap around the back of her head said she was using
vir-specs
. She couldn’t be too ill. He said a fast prayer to every god he could remember existed in the ’verse.

“You’re okay!” Relief flooded him. He strode forward to wrap his arms around her. In the fragment of time it took for his arm to brush at the underside of hers, before he could truly register he again held his love, she shrieked, then she flung herself off the stool sideways, spinning from him.

Eyes wide, she backed away, her hand palm out, her head shaking in the universal body language that said
no
.

A mini holoscreen popped into view between them. One word appeared.
Fire.

By then the boys had gathered, grouping in the space between him and Ella.

“Ella?”

*No.*
She was one-handed typing on a virtual board. *
No. It burns. I don’t know you!*

There were tears on her cheeks. Fresh ones dribbled from her eyes.

He’d hurt her? “Ella?”

*No. Stay away.*

Confusion wracked him.

“I’m sorry, sir,” began Plito, his bare spine-legs clicking on the floor as if he too was torn. “We couldn’t get her to remember you, and now...” He glanced at where Doc and Gears were comforting her with whispered words. “I’d say there’s a physical component.”

“I hurt her?” He couldn’t fathom this. “How?”

“Some neurogenic application that’s altered her sensory input? Maybe? This is new. She’s not done this with anyone else. Sir, we barely got to this in time. Others suffered brain damage. Five people who ate the same fruit. One other person survived with minor problems.”

The glistening he saw in Plito’s eyes made him uncurl his fists. “Thank you.” Ella was crying still, sobbing. He wrenched his attention away from her. “Tell me it all. Please. How do I fix this?”

Plito wore a new frown line, dead center in his forehead. “I wish I knew. I wish.” He gulped. “We’ve done all we know how to.”

He’d seen worse in combat and she was alive. That was the best. With life came hope. With finger and thumb, he swiped at his own watering eyes. He needed facts.

Torgeir went to a chair and sat, gestured to Plito to take another seat. “Start at the beginning. Please.”

“There was a fruit seller.”

Plito paused, shut his eyes as if sorting out his emotions, then he went on. “Gears thinks the man had targeted Ella for days, only we didn’t figure it out until after. It happened the day she repaired the little blue bird up there.” He pointed upward and Torgeir spotted three robotic birds flying about. “We wanted to celebrate her doing it. They’re really hard to fix and she went off to get food. She did a deal with this guy and he gave her some free fruit as well as another ten pieces. He made her taste it first. That’s how we knew. By the time she got here it was working on her but that bird.” He inclined his head and smiled lopsidedly. “It’s a food taster and it set off its alarm. We got a doctor as well as did some fast cyber-analysis. The poison aimed at both her organic and her cyber systems. I hacked in, took down some of it, the doc got in some antidote too.”

“Thank you.” He’d choked that out. And he’d been blaming these kids. Was his own fracking fault.