HauntingBlackie (13 page)

“He’s the one being tended by a medic.”

“You took him by surprise with your swift actions. You are
fast and attacked before he could shut off his pain receptors.”

“Yeah. I am.”

He stood. “No more fighting.”

She hated to agree but his grim expression convinced her she
had given him a fright. “Okay. I won’t unless I absolutely have to.” She
paused. “That’s the best you’re going to get. I won’t stand there and let you
die if I can ever prevent it. That strong desire to protect the person you love
flows both ways.”

“Understood.” His hold on her tightened as he tugged her
toward the door and grabbed his weapon. “Stay close.” He released her to open
the door.

Blackie was furious as the doors to his quarters slid open
and his gaze lowered to the blood smears on the floor and the opposite wall in
the hallway. He had seen Eve attack Fleet but she’d been too quick for him to
reach before she’d taken him down. Part of Blackie experienced a sense of pride
but it could have turned bad if Fleet hadn’t been injured so swiftly,
preventing him from shutting off his pain receptors. A few more seconds and the
injury she had inflicted wouldn’t have kept him down.

He glanced at the weapon in his hand. They weren’t the
electronic ones they had taken onto the freighter. Those had been designed to
cause pain instead of death. One shot would have killed Eve if Fleet had used
his personal weapon. He shuddered at the thought of losing her.

No one attempted to stop them from reaching the cargo hold.
He tapped the pad to announce their arrival. Long seconds passed before it
opened. Gene wore loose black pants and gripped a weapon, which was pointed at
Blackie’s chest. He lowered it.

“What is wrong?”

Blackie entered the cargo hold, glancing around. “Seal the
doors. Fleet just paid us a visit by breaching my quarters.” Danica also held a
weapon, a sharp knife. She had made a bed on the floor near the cot Gene had
set up along the other wall. “We decided it would be safer to stick together
until we reach Garden.”

“Damn it,” Danica hissed, climbing to her feet. “I knew it.”
She kept hold of the blade. “Are you okay, Eve?”

“I’m fine.”

Blackie paused, studying Danica’s bed. He turned to shoot a
questioning look at Gene.

“I offered. She refused to take my bunk or share it.”

Eve left his side to go study one of the panels by the exterior
door. He watched her, wondering why.

“Already done,” Danica sighed. “It’s totally disabled.”

Eve spun, flashing her sister a grin. “I had no doubt you’d
already thought of that.”

“Thought of what?” Blackie was confused.

Danica hugged her waist. “They aren’t going to be able to
auto open those doors from the command center or anywhere else. I even used a
torch to seal the suckers while Gene was away getting food. I didn’t want to
end up sucked into space.”

“Those doors won’t open with life signs registering in the
cargo hold. I told you this,” Gene offered, placing his weapons on his bunk.

“Yada, yada,” Danica muttered. “Cyborgs. You guys could hack
anything so don’t bite my ass about being paranoid.”

Gene’s mouth fell open. “I wouldn’t bite your ass.”

Eve chuckled. “She meant she’s not taking any chances and
she doesn’t want you to give her any lip over it. Um, I don’t think that’s
unreasonable. It’s better to think of all the ways someone can kill you and try
like hell to screw up their plans.”

“We’d totally blow the doors to vent out pirates so I
thought of that first,” Danica pointed out. “They can’t shut down our air
either, to suffocate us. I kind of dealt with that scenario too by crawling
through the vents and making damn sure they can’t close. The seals are gone and
I wedged them in an open position. It was a pretty tight fit so I can’t see a
cyborg getting in there to reverse what I did. Even if they send out a cyborg
in a space suit to blow the doors from the exterior, it’s going to take a portion
of the shuttle with us and it will suck out the air through the rest of the
living areas they can’t seal off.”

“You didn’t tell me this.” Gene frowned.

“You would have just bitched at me about how cyborgs have
honor and wouldn’t do that. Heard it the first time and still don’t believe all
of you are great guys. No offense.”

“None taken. It wasn’t necessary though. I had already
disabled the exterior doors by severing the link between them and the computer.
It was only possible to open them from inside this hold.” He didn’t appear
happy as he frowned at Danica. “You crawled through the air vents?”

“I just said that.”

“You could have gotten stuck.”

“I wouldn’t have gotten jammed up in there. I took off my
clothes and greased up.”

His mouth fell open again. Blackie understood his stunned
response.

“Drais Three.” Eve chuckled. “Good one.”

“What does that space station have to do with this?” Blackie
frowned.

“They arrested us once.” His mate laughed. “We had brought
in a large number and they didn’t want to pay the bounty. Um, I mean a criminal
we captured with a high price on his head. They didn’t want to pay us when we
turned him over to the authorities. The jerk who runs the prison there thought
he could keep the reward and score some extra credits by selling two women to
skin traders. We stripped down and smeared the greasy crap they called food
over our bodies. The vents there weren’t too big but we made it through them
into the next room. That guard never knew what hit him. We stole his keys, got
our clothes back and took our criminal to Draven Six. They paid us without any
bullshit.”

“We kind of took some of their weapons with us for the
effort.” Danica winked. “You know, we were owed something for the twelve hours
we were stuck in that damn cell.”

Blackie glowered at Eve. “Your job was dangerous.”

“Everything is these days. We filed a report and that jerk
lost his post.”

“He’s probably cleaning toilets now. A pair of good bounty
hunters is more useful than some bloated jerk who would pull that shit. We’re rare
because most people in our profession aren’t nuts enough to be that far out in
space. The one who runs Draven Six was pissed because the creep we captured had
ripped off supply shuttles. We put that loser out of business.” Danica sat
down. “So, we’re stuck in here for the duration?” She glanced at the crates
packed along one wall. “I don’t suppose those have any liquor in them, do they?
I could totally use a drink or six.”

“No,” Gene said and sighed. “I already told you that.”

“Yeah, but you lie to me.”

His eyebrow rose. “I don’t know why you continue to accuse
me of that. Those crates contain building materials we traded for.”

“Garden is a dry planet, isn’t it?” Danica shook her head. “We’re
going to hell, Eve.”

“There is plenty of water.” Gene frowned at her. “Most of
the surface is—”

“No booze, no fun,” Danica cut him off. “I don’t give a damn
if most of your planet is wet. I’m talking alcohol.”

“You’ll survive.” Eve crossed the room, reading the sides of
the crates.

“They won’t have chocolate either,” Danica announced.

His mate softly cursed. “Rub it in.”

Blackie glanced at Gene. His friend shrugged. He took a deep
breath and released it. “I’m sure we can manufacture anything you want once we
reach Garden. Our food replicators are excellent.”

“I need a drink now,” Danica stated. “It’s going to feel
like forever until we reach that planet, isn’t it?”

Eve stopped her perusal of the crate labels. “Let’s hope so.
I’ll take boredom over the excitement of someone trying to come at us again.”
She returned to Blackie’s side. “Where do you want to sleep? There are some
pads stacked between the blue boxes. It won’t be the most comfortable thing to
use as a bed but it will do.”

“Take my bunk,” Gene offered. “I’ll take the first shift.”
He checked his weapons. “I’ll wake you in six hours to relieve me, Blackie.”

“Thank you.”

“What about food?”

Eve frowned at her littermate. “Later, Danica. We have
enough to worry about right now. It’s way too early for breakfast anyway.”

“Fine.” The woman stretched out on her bedding. “You can
sleep with me when your shift is over, Gene. Just keep your pants on and your
hands to yourself. No groping my boobs or poking my ass.”

Gene gasped. “I wouldn’t do that.”

She chuckled. “Pity. I might like you better if you were the
sort to molest me in my sleep.”

“Danica.” Eve shook her head. “Quit trying to bait the
cyborg.”

“He makes it too easy,” she admitted, burrowing under the
covers. “Night, John Boy.”

“Who is that?” Gene tensed.

“It’s a joke,” Eve smiled. “Whoever owned our freighter had
a thing for very old television shows from Earth. We watched the vids when we
were really bored. It was about a family with a lot of kids. John Boy was the
name of one of them.” She approached the bunk, kicked off her shoes and climbed
on it. “Night, Mary Ellen.”

Danica snickered as she covered her face to block out the
light.

Blackie glanced at Gene again. The male looked frustrated as
he studied Danica’s form. He understood why her saying another man’s name had
upset the cyborg. He appeared to be attracted to the woman. He approached Gene,
motioning him to move closer to the door, out of hearing range.

“She makes me question my sanity,” Gene whispered. “I don’t
understand her.”

“She’s human.”

“But not.”

“She
acts
human.”

Gene blew out a breath. “Does she want me to touch her or
not? She just said it was a pity I wouldn’t molest her. Why would she say that?
That is bad. I’m confused.”

“I don’t know.” He reached out and gripped the male’s
shoulder. “Let it go for now. Our priority is safely reaching Garden with them.”

“Danica is going home with me.”

“She agreed?”

“I won’t allow another cyborg to claim her.” Gene’s tone
hardened. “He’d probably kill her. The things she says are insulting.”

Blackie knew the male too well. “You’re attracted to her, regardless.”

“Yes.”

“Then take her home with you. I trust you won’t harm her.
She needs protection. They aren’t designed to take more than one male into a
family unit.”

Interest raised the other male’s eyebrows.

“My mate said it goes against their nature when they mate a
male. They develop an aversion to the touch of anyone else.”

Gene turned his head and stared at Danica.

“She also told me they are attracted to a dominant male.
Perhaps you are being too civil and sensitive, traits you think she’d be attracted
to in a human. Be what you are.”

Gene faced him and smiled. “Cyborgs take what they want.”

“Exactly.” Blackie smiled. “Wake me in six hours.”

“No one will get past me to harm her.” He paused. “Them.
They are ours to protect.”

“Yes, they are. Parlis isn’t about to lose his seat on the
council without attempting to silence them but it’s too late for that. He might
not understand that yet but I’ve taken measures to assure he won’t succeed.
Zorus will follow the plan once we reach Garden but we need to survive long
enough to get there. Varion will test our food to prevent us from being drugged
and bring it to us. I believe we can trust him.”

“He dislikes you but I consider him a friend. I won’t shoot
him when he arrives at the door.”

“We have a common goal right now.” He turned his head,
meeting the gaze of his mate. She patted the bed next to her, scooting against
the wall to make room for him. “I’m going to rest with my mate.”

Gene blocked his path, retaining his attention.

“How are we going to prevent Fleet from changing course if
he gets orders to keep us from Garden? That would be my plan if I were Parlis
and my attempts to stop the women from reaching Garden and speaking to the
council had failed.”

“Zorus handled that. The
Vontage
is scheduled for a
crew change. It’s in the vicinity and he has contacted it by now. He is
ordering them to meet up with us and provide an escort all the way home. He
estimated they should be able to make contact within a few hours and Fleet hasn’t
been warned.”

“The
Bridden
is impossible to locate if they go
stealth once they realize the
Vontage
is heading right at us. We’re also
much faster than the large vessel and impossible to catch even if they were
able track us.”

Blackie smiled. “Varion is equipped to handle that.”

“What does that infer?”

“His eyes.”

Gene appeared puzzled for long seconds. “How is a medic
going to be useful in that regard? He can execute scans with them and perform
minor laser operations.”

“I asked him to use his abilities to disable the shuttle in
that event. He can bypass Control with direct access to the engines. I
explained what to look for and how to shut down the power. It will take them
time to figure out what has been done and who is behind it. The
Vontage
will
just open a cargo door and maneuver our shuttle inside. At that point the crew
will breach the
Bridden
and make certain no repairs are made until after
we return to Garden.”

“Won’t we lose life support as well as engines and the
ability to go stealth?”

“I calculated how long we can survive with life support
inoperative. We’re in no danger of suffocation.”

“What if you miscalculated the time between when the
long-range sensors alert Fleet to their presence and the distance he can put
between both vessels before Varion is able to stop him?”

“We’re in the cargo hold.” His gaze traveled to the far
wall. “The six space suits located in that locker have oxygen to assure the
four of us survive. It would be unfortunate for most of the crew since there
are only two suits in the command center. We’ll fuse the doors to the interior
if the power fails. The welding torches work independently with their own power
sources for exterior repairs. The crew won’t be able to breach this area to
gain access to our suits.”