Seth: Futuristic Spy Romance (Cyborgs: More Than Machines) (15 page)

“Like what?”

“Things that show you care and value me. How am I supposed to hate you?” She slugged him in the gut again before whirling to stomp off. She changed her mind before she took a single step and did a complete three-sixty. Leaning forward, she plastered her mouth to his after a whispered, “Thank you.”

But she didn’t let him enjoy the embrace for long before she tore her lips away. “Don’t think this means anything.”

A twinkle in his eyes went well with the curve of his lips as he replied, “I would never think to presume with you.”

“Good.”

“Um, if you’re both done, may I finish unhooking Seth here and check his vitals?”

While MJ completed the unfreezing process, ripping the tubes out and letting Seth’s body seal over the holes, her husband fired some questions at him. “What ship are we on?”

“The
SSBiteMe
.”

“Seriously?” she interjected. “
All the cool names in the universe you could choose from and you choose that? Your idea, I presume.”

Seth laughed.
“Not this time. That distinction belongs to Aramus, the ship’s commander. I assume he’s on board?”

MJ nodded.
“Yes, but—”

“I’m surprised he’s not here supervising.”

“Well, you see—”

“Is he on the command deck?”

“No, his quarters, but you really shouldn’t—”

“Say hello to my bestest friend in the whole universe?”

“Your best friend has a girlfriend and doesn’t want to be disturbed.”

The slap to MJ’s head didn’t even rock him
, but he wasn’t happy about it nonetheless. “What the fuck was that for?”

“You obviously have a screw loose. I was trying to fix you
,” Seth replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“No loose screws. Aramus really has a girlfriend.”

“Like fuck! This I have to see.” Pulling free of the rest of the wires, Seth stepped out of the cryogenic coffin and went straight to a cabinet, where he pulled forth a pair of pants. He also tossed her a smaller pair. “Cover up your girl parts,” he commanded. “This isn’t a nudist ship.”

“Says the guy going topless.”

“You’ll need to control yourself, as there’s no time to cover my impressive upper body. I have to go document this rare and probably short-lived event. Aramus with a girlfriend.” Seth snorted. With that comment, Seth strode off, leaving a dumbstruck MJ to gape after him.

“Oh, this won’t be good
,” mumbled the cyborg doctor.

Anastasia cocked her head.
“What do you mean? I thought they were friends.”

“Kind of, if you
consider Aramus’ threats to kill him ‘friendly’.”

“I think death threats and Seth go hand in hand.”

“True. But this time, Seth could end up going too far. Aramus hasn’t been the same since he met this girl.”

“
Are you saying there’s something defective with this Aramus fellow?”

“Not really
, unless you count the fact the biggest, orneriest bastard of a cyborg alive finally admitted he was capable of caring.”

“Why is that so surprising?”

“Because the woman he fell for is human, and Aramus hates them. And, by hate, I mean he’d nuke them all in a blink of an eye and not feel an ounce of remorse.”

“
Is this your way of saying this woman is in danger?” Anastasia might not agree with what some humans did, but she wouldn’t stand by and watch one be abused.

“No
, she’s not in danger, but Seth might be if he interrupts Aramus at the wrong moment. He’s very protective of Riley and, given his mixed feelings on Seth, could react violently.” MJ shrugged. “When it comes to jealousy, we have no control it seems.”

Something she knew all too well.
“My husband, ever the idiot. Which way to this Aramus’ quarters? I’d better head him off.”

Because
she hadn’t saved him then had him save her and then gotten defrosted only to lose him to a jealous cyborg.
This saving his stupid ass gig is starting to become a habit.
Just like the old days. By all the nanos in her body, it was good to have him back.

Whistling a jaunty tune, Seth waved and said hello to the cyborgs he saw on his way to Aramus’ quarters. Most stared at him dumbstruck. It might have been his lack of shoes and shirt. Maybe it was his grin and the fact that he ran, staying out of reach of Anastasia, who shot irritated mind commands at him;
Halt your stupid, mischief-making ass right this instant
.

As if. He rather enjoyed having her chase him. Besides, he really wanted to see Aramus. The grumpy bastard was, whether he liked it or not, one of Seth’s best friends, and he’d probably been worried sick at Seth’s disappearance.
I’m just being a good ol’ buddy and reassuring him of my wellbeing.
Nah. He just wanted to meet the woman nuts enough to get cozy with Aramus.

The lock code on
Aramus’ room took but a few seconds for him to break through. The door swished open, and Seth strode in, only to stop dead. For a moment he wondered if his eyes were defective or whether they’d entered a wormhole during his sleep and crossed over to an alternate universe. Something cataclysmic must have happened because there was Aramus, in bed, with a human! MJ spoke the truth.

Holy
shit. Somewhere in the universe, pigs flew.

“Seth!”
Aramus snapped out his name. “Where the fuck did you crawl out of?”

“I was a passenger on the ship you just acquired. I take it you didn’t read the captain’s log. I was enjoying a lovely, restorative nap in one of their stasis capsules, not entirely by choice, when MJ woke me. He told me you were busy getting your rocks off with a human. I assumed he was delirious, but when repeated slaps to his head to jolt his synapses didn’t change his story, I had to come see for myself.”

Wearing a familiar scowl, Aramus growled. “Go away.” It seemed sex hadn’t cured his friend of his ornery nature. What a relief. One of Seth’s enjoyments in life was antagonizing Aramus. The fights kept him fit.

As for leaving?
No freaking way. “But you haven’t even introduced us yet.” Seth waggled his brows at the human, who bit her lip, probably so she wouldn’t giggle. Mirth shone clearly in her eyes.

Aramus
, however, seemed less than amused. “Who she is, is none of your business.”

“Aw, come on, Aramus. Don’t be like that. Aren’t you just the teensiest, tiniest bit glad to see me?”

“Not really. It was a lot more quiet and peaceful with you gone.”

Before Seth could reply, probably with something that would have really irritated Aramus, the dulcet tone of his
wife interrupted. About time she’d caught him.

“Funny. I would have said the same thing myself.”
Anastasia crowded into Aramus’ room, and while she flicked Seth a look, her gaze was snagged by the woman in the bed. Her voice couldn’t hide its interest when she said, “If it isn’t the forensic doctor. I’ve got questions for you.”

“And I have a question too. Just who the fuck are you, lady, and what do you want?”

Ah, how sweet. His wife, who wanted to hate him and his best friend, who also pretended to hate him, were about to meet and probably hate each other. Seth beamed. Things were about to get truly interesting. “I think introductions are in order. Aramus, and hot-looking naked girl in his bed, I’d like you to meet Anastasia. My wife.”

“Ex.”

He couldn’t let that pass unchallenged. “Now, darling, you know I don’t believe in divorce.”

“And I’m fine with becoming a widow.” With those words, Anastasia, in a blur of movement, took Seth to the floor and held a gun to his head.

A wide grin stretched his lips wide. “Isn’t she wonderful?” Now if only they were in a more private location and wearing fewer clothes.

“Would someone explain to me what the fuck is going on?” Aramus bellowed.

“It’s a long story.”

“Then download it to my BCI.”
The joys of cyborgs with wireless technology. To expedite matters, they let their chips do the talking. While Aramus processed the data, Anastasia released him with a whispered, “Point for me.”

“Ha. I let you take me down. We both know who’s the better fighter.”

“You wish, golden boy.”

“Is that a challenge?” Seth arched a brow, but before Anastasia could reply, Aramus, as usual, ruined the moment.

“Hey, annoying one, leave the nice lady alone.”

“Nice? Wait until you get to know her. She’s mean.
Cut-throat. Always trying to one-up me and determined to make me look bad.” How he loved her.

Aramus actually chuckled. Someone get a medic. There was something wrong with his friend! “Like I said, nice lady. But back to what you’ve just reported. I
t seems like you’ve been a busy boy. According to your memories, the scientist responsible for the drug that works on cyborgs was on board that ship we blew up.”

“Unless he escape
d.”

“Nothing survived.” Aramus said with
unabashed glee.

“A shame,”
Anastasia replied. “I wouldn’t have minded taking care of Jerry myself. The files on his and Stanley’s computers too would have been useful.”

“We downloaded what we could, but it’s far from complete, and some of it is ciphered.”

“I might be able to help with that. Here’s to hoping you got the transmission logs. After our capture, I’d like to see who Jerry and Stanley contacted. Cyborgs of our caliber don’t come along often, and I know the company would have special instructions for our capture.”

“Think highly of yourself
, do you?” Aramus couldn’t help his sneer.

Seth let his wife handle it.

“Yes I do. Unlike you, I am much more than a simple soldier model.”

Seth braced himself for fireworks. But
, once again, the stranger in Aramus’ body surprised him by laughing. “I’m happy being a grunt. It beats being an annoyingly human dickwad like Seth over there.”

His wife shot him an amused glance. “You have a point.
But back to my original theory. Someone would have been told about our capture, just like a report of the drug would have been sent for the company to use. It’s protocol with every breakthrough. While Seth shook off its effect easily—”

“It’s hard to bring down idiots with no brains.”

“—I, on the other hand, apparently lacking some of his more recent upgrades, did succumb.”

“Speaking of succumb
, the soldiers I dealt with, while temporarily in their custody, had some of those new Taser weapons as well,” Aramus informed them.

“
Ah yes, the Tasers. Somewhat crude in nature, but again, with the simpler models, effective in forcing a reboot, which gives the military time to either restrain or dispose of cyborg units.”

“
Making them easier to experiment on,” Aramus extrapolated.

“Indeed
, as I’m sure your lady friend, Riley has told you.”

“You know
Aramus’ girlfriend?” Seth interjected.

“I know of her. Those co
-ordinates I told you to give Joe were for the planet Riley was imprisoned on. I assume you found the cyborgs there.”

“We found some,” Aramus replied. “
Not many. Avion was there.”

“He’s alive!” Seth couldn’t hide a note of surprise.

“Barely. They did quite the number on him.”

“
But he’ll heal.”

Aramus’ face turned darker than usual, which didn’t bode well.

Despite his certainty he wouldn’t like the answer, Seth forced himself to ask, “What’s wrong with Avion?”

“They turned off his nanos.”

“They what?” Seth slapped the side of his head, then stuck a finger in his ear and waggled it.

“What are you doing?”

“I think my hearing malfunctioned. I thought you said his nanos weren’t working.”

“They aren’t.
MJ says he’s healing at a slightly better rate than a human for the moment, but, without the nanos, it’s only a matter of time before his parts start failing.”

Something very much like fear gripped him. This was serious news.
“We have to fix him.”

“No shit. Problem is we don’t know how.
Reboots of his operating system have failed. As have blood transfusions.”

“
Of course it didn’t work. Nanos are cyborg oriented,” Seth mused aloud. “Else they would act like a virus taking over any live organism it came into contact with.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Aramus snapped.

“I’ll bet you didn’t know that I have a heart-shaped mole on my left ass cheek.”

Aramus shot him a glower. “We don’t have time for me to kick your ass right now.”

“While I would usually take you up on your challenge and enjoy the exercise, you are right. We have no time to waste. Avion must be fixed.”

“No shit. Problem is w
e haven’t the slightest idea how to begin.”

“And the people who might have
had a clue are all dead,” Anastasia concluded. “Or, if they’re not dead, then they’re buried in some company facility.”

Seth rubbed his chin.
“So we need to find some scientists, or get him back to Einstein.”

“I don’t know if we have that kind of time.
They fucked him up good.”

“What about
placing him in one of the cryo capsules,” Anastasia suggested.

“We could try, but
it’s a temporary measure at best.”

“But better than doing nothing. We need to find out where they were shipping us and get our hands on some scientists.”

“I agree, but first we’re going to need to tell Joe about everything that’s happened. Given the fact your wife’s cover was blown, our planet is most likely compromised.”

“I did my best to keep it safe,” Anastasia protested.

“But your best wasn’t enough. Apparently you weren’t as smart as you thought. How else do you explain your lover fucking you over?”

Seth didn’t like Aramus’ tone. “Watch it, dude. That’s my wife you’re talking to.”

“I don’t give a fuck. The fact remains that in fetching you for her revenge mission she put the whole planet at risk.”

Anastasia hung her head. “Sorry.”

“We can still fix this.” Seth paced the room as he furiously tried to think of a way to salvage events.

“How?
If you ask me, there’s only one real solution if we ever want peace. Time to wipe out humanity, something I’ve been saying for years,” Aramus snapped. Then, as if recalling whom he cuddled, amended, “I mean eradicate the military and company asshats.”

“
Hold onto your metal hate there, psycho bot. No need to get so radical.” Anastasia waved a red flag at Aramus, but the little human kept him in check with a simple hand to his arm. “What we really need is to even the playing field.”

Seth glanced at his wife
, who bore a pensive expression. “Do you have an idea?” he asked.

“
What if we could get our hands on the cloaking technology? Do you think this Einstein fellow you talked about could use it to hide the settlement?”

“Are y
ou saying you know where to get it?” Aramus perked up, which meant, instead of a glower, he wore just a scowl.

“
Yes. Kind of. It’s how I bribed Seth to get him to help me.”

“She lies. She promised me sex.” Yeah, he totally deserved her jab to the stomach
, but he wasn’t about to admit he’d have helped her for free.

“The cloaking technology might possibly work. And
, even if we can’t use it to hide the colony, we could definitely equip our ships with it. Where is it?”

“
Yeah, that’s where we have a slight problem. I originally planned to have one of the equipped science vessels
disappear
.” She made air quotes. “But someone blew them up.”

Aramus drew his brows together and grumbled,
“It wasn’t my fault this time. The humans set off the bomb.”

“Let’s not play the blame game.” Because Seth never fared well when it came down to facts. “Let’s look for solutions. Obviously, those weren’t the only vessels with the technology.”

“No, but they were the ones I had access to. Give me a few hours and a steady network channel, and I can tell you which other ones have the new technology, and we can go get ourselves one.”

“Forget getting our hands on a ship
. Why aren’t we going after the factory building them?” Seth asked. “I, for one, think we should even the odds by ridding them of the advantage they have.”

Anastasia paused her pacing and planted her hands on her hips. That didn’t bode well. 
“Great plan except for one thing.”

“Which is?”

“From all indications, the factory to create the cloaking device is on earth.”

Seth clapped his hands together and with a voice rife with glee said, “Whoo-eee! We’re going
to raid our home world. I call shotgun!”