Taken by the Cyborg (Galactic Pirate Brides Book 4) Read online

  But the AI should be secure for the time being. And he’d buried Attie’s files so deep, no one would miss her for a long while. He’d rigged the admin pool to think she was on shore leave, and her so-called friends had abandoned her, afraid of being demoted along with her. Her father and brother rarely called, and her sister—well, it wasn’t like Marlis was going to come looking for her anytime soon. Attie was alone.

  Like me.

  Pushing the thought aside, he brought up the ship’s video feeds and rewound the footage in her room to the moment she’d received the AI. He watched her stare down at the wristband, her delicate eyebrows furrowed. There was something about her, something more than her beauty, and he couldn’t put his finger on it. An intelligence, perhaps, or maybe it was her dedication to family, so like his own.

  His gaze dipped down to the curve of her breasts showing at the scooped neck of the shirt she liked to wear when she wasn’t in uniform. He’d seen her disrobed a few times since promising to keep an eye on her, but had seldom allowed himself to linger on her private moments.

  Now, remembering how softly she’d been pressed against him in the hallway, he slipped his human hand down his stomach to his crotch where his erection had grown more noticeable.

  It felt like a lifetime ago since he’d experienced desire. He’d been in a dive bar on Whylon Station, still human, flirting with a stranger he could no longer picture. They’d sneaked into a service corridor for a quickie. Hot and fast. If he’d known it would be his last time, he would’ve savored it.

  He slid his hand under his waistband, grasping his shaft. What would Attie’s hand feel like stroking him there? He remembered her smell and the feel of her lips. The way she’d opened her mouth to him and tangled her tongue with his. So sweet. So wet. Nebulas, he’d love to feel those plump lips around his cock. He pumped up and down, the rising pressure a spark of life inside a body that had felt dead for a long time.

  Imagining her soft moans, he licked his lips and stroked faster, flexing upward to meet his own rhythm until his heartbeat thudded in his ears and his balls felt like they were about to burst. Release hovered just out of reach, teasing him, and he pictured her sex, the wet and glistening folds waiting for his penetration.

  Just as he approached oblivion, a transmission entered his thoughts. Hello?

  He froze, wondering if his hormone-addled mind had imagined it; no one should be able to communicate through the lab’s dampening fields.

  But then it came again. Doug, can you hear me?

  Chapter 6

  Attie slumped onto a nearby cushion, staring at the doorway where the cyborgs had retreated. Her temples throbbed and her lips felt swollen. Whatever drug she’d been given was making it difficult to concentrate. She shifted uncomfortably. She knew little about cyborgs except that once a person had over fifty percent of their body replaced by machinery, they lost their citizenship because they were no longer autonomous—they could be controlled by someone else.

  But none of that mattered right now. She needed to talk to whoever was in charge and tell them there’d been a mistake.

  A gentle hand settled between Attie’s shoulder blades and she startled.

  Claudia knelt next to her. “You okay, hon?”

  Attie swallowed and nodded. Rising unsteadily, she went to the first doorway she’d entered. There didn’t appear to be a way to open it from this side. The cyborg door was the same, nothing but a panel on the wall. She dug her fingers into the crack, feeling around for any sort of latch. “How do we get out of here?”

  “We don’t, hon. Just relax. Jinson will bring us food soon.” Claudia slid the panel of a small cubby aside and removed two water pouches. She handed one to Attie and popped open the other.

  Attie set the pouch down and examined the cubby where the water had been. It was about twenty centimeters square—too small to squeeze through—but looked like it had another access panel on the other side. She knocked on it. “Hey! Open up! I’m not supposed to be here!”

  “That won’t do any good. I’ve been here for months, and the only person I’ve seen besides the cyborgs is Jinson when he brings food or meds.”

  Attie turned and frowned at her. “Meds? You mean the shot? You know they drugged us, right?”

  “Sure.” Claudia shrugged one shoulder and took another drink of water. “It’s a lot better than the crap I used to get at Madame Miliano’s. That stuff would leave me with a headache for days.”

  Madame Miliano’s sounded an awful lot like a brothel. Had Claudia been undercover? “What’s your rank and regiment? How did you end up here?”

  “Regiment? I’m not a trooper. Hell no. One of my former clients recommended me.” Claudia reclined against a pile of cushions. “He was really nice. I might look him up when I get out.”

  Claudia isn’t even a trooper. This new assignment had to be a mixup. Wrapping both arms up over her head, she paced the room. The drugs seemed to be wearing off, but the headache they had left behind was almost worse. “I need to talk to someone in charge. I thought I was being promoted to a top-secret unit.”

  Claudia laughed and waved a hand toward the cyborg door. “Those guys are top-secret. Pretty sure that’s why we’re not let loose to talk about it. Not until our contract’s up, anyway.” She finished her water and crumpled the pouch into a wad. “I’ve been in this business a long time, so let me give you some advice; focus on the money, then the job doesn’t seem so bad.”

  “But this isn’t my job!” Attie stopped pacing and dropped her arms, facing Claudia. “Syndicorp wouldn’t assign me here. My father is a major with the Planetary Logistics Regiment on the SNV Talus. I was the first in my class to make corporal. For nebula’s sake, I used to be part of Admiral Olly’s staff!”

  Claudia’s eyes narrowed, and she crossed her arms. “Whatever, miss hoity toity. You obviously rubbed someone the wrong way. I’d say you’re being punished. What’d you do?”

  Attie’s mouth went bone dry as clarity settled over her for the first time in what felt like days. This isn’t a test for a promotion. She was being punished because of Marlis. “I helped a terrorist escape the Icarus.”

  “Whoa.” The scorn in Claudia’s eyes was replaced by curiosity as she pushed herself upright. “Seriously? Are you with the rebels? Because before I left Madame Miliano’s, there was a rumor that the rebels were looking for women to join them.”

  Attie barely heard her. Was she going to be stuck here until her enlistment expired? They couldn’t do that. She hadn’t had a trial. How was she going to get out of this mess? “Did you say there were other women here before me? What happened to them?”

  “You answer my question first.”

  “What?” It took Attie a second to backtrack. “Oh, the rebels. No, I’m not with the rebels. I was helping my sister.”

  “So, your sister’s with them?”

  “No. I mean, yes. I mean, I don’t think she means to be. Nebulas!” Attie swore and rubbed her temples. “Tell me about the other women that were here.”

  Claudia let out a puff of air. “There were two others here when I first arrived. The first woman left a few days later, while I was sleeping. I asked Jinson, and he said her contract was up. A few weeks later, he came in and told Tia it was time for her to go, too.”

  At least the women didn’t appear to be here permanently. That was a relief. “How long have you been here?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe four months? Tia said she’d been here over a year.”

  I will not spend another day in here, let alone a year. She looked around the big room, hoping for cameras. “Hello? I want to talk to someone in charge.”

  “I don’t think anyone’s listening, or if they are, they don’t give a shit. I tried asking the cyborgs questions the first few times, but they never answer.”

  “Who are these cyborgs, anyway? Why do they get a top-secret brothel?” Saying brothel out loud made Attie nauseous.

  Claudia tilted her head thoughtfully. “
I heard there was a new start-up company called SexAI that specializes in personalized sex bots. Maybe this is a sex-cyborg training program.”

  Attie’d never heard of someone using a cyborg for sex. The few in existence were used as bodyguards for high-level Syndicorp officials and were considered closer to robots than people. “Who needs an AI for that? I’d think there are enough genuine people willing to do the job.”

  “People like to talk after sex, and even a trusted lover can be bought.” Claudia shook her head somberly. “I knew a couple of girls who disappeared after they had a falling out with a high-level client. Some clients might prefer an AI because they can be kept silent.”

  Talking about AIs made Attie remember Twerp. She’d left the device hidden inside her closet light fixture. What if her quarters were reassigned to someone else while she was here? She ran her fingers along the edges of the door again, hoping she’d missed the latch. “That doctor guy seemed like he was in charge. Will he be back?”

  “That’s the first time I’ve seen him,” Claudia said and stood. “Sooo…” She leaned one shoulder against the wall, watching Attie try to open the door. “I’ve never seen that cyborg you were with show interest in a woman before.” Her gaze rolled down Attie’s body and back to her face. “Was he rough?”

  “He only kissed me.” Attie recognized that he’d done it because the doctor had shown up, but nebulas, her panties were still wet from the encounter. Drugs or not, he was exactly the sort of man who could make her weak in the knees. What would happen the next time they met? She shook her head. The last thing she should be imagining right now was what his palms would feel like roaming her bare skin.

  Her hands fell still and she let out a slow breath, remembering Marlis whispering to her about a top-secret research program on board the Icarus. The rebel pirates had been trying to rescue one of the test subjects. “Do you know that cyborg’s name?”

  “The guys call him Doug.”

  Attie’s veins turned to ice as she recognized it as the name Marlis had used.

  There was a secret test lab on the ship. And Doug was the prisoner Marlis had been after. The question was—why?

  Chapter 7

  Attie had decided she should stop drawing attention to herself until she had some answers. If her sister had been right about the lab, then maybe the other things she’d said were true, too. Were these cyborgs prisoners or were they here willingly? Marlis had been trying to free Doug, but it seemed strange that prisoners would be provided the company of women. Camp whores, you mean.

  She shook her head and leaned back against the cushions. She held a paperback in one hand, pages open on densely packed text. The only time Attie’d ever seen a physical book had been behind glass. One alcove here held a treasure trove of books and some puzzles and games. The tome felt interesting in her hand, heavier than she expected, and the fragile paper smelled like dust. But she couldn’t get into reading.

  There were no electronics to be found anywhere, which was unusual on a starship. Even the lavatory located behind a screen in one of the alcoves wasn’t automated to conserve water. Not that Attie was about to get naked and shower in here, not when those cyborgs could show up again at any minute.

  She set the book aside and looked over to where Claudia lay on her belly reading. “How long between visits usually?”

  The brunette rolled over and stretched. “Sometimes once a day, but there was a space of several days between visits a while back. Twobit said they’d been in security lockdown. He’s the most talkative.”

  “Which one is he?” Attie ran through the cyborgs in her mind, trying to recall ones she’d heard names for.

  “He’s the shortest. I think that’s why they call him Twobit.”

  None of the cyborgs had seemed short to Attie, but she filed the information away for later use. A sound from across the room made her jump to her feet, but it was only a small hatch opening and closing. A delicious scent reached her and her stomach growled.

  “Whoop! Mealtime!” Claudia got up and headed for the hatch.

  Attie followed her and saw what looked like stew from the cafeteria, along with a slice of bread and some applesauce. Her stomach fluttered with nerves, but she took the second tray and sat next to Claudia, picking at the tepid stew. Afterward, she tucked the spoon into her waistband. She doubted it would do any good against a cyborg, but it was still better than nothing.

  When they finished, Claudia gestured toward two orange and green pills on Attie’s tray. “You gonna take those?”

  “What are they?”

  Claudia grinned. “I’m not sure, but they make the time pass more quickly.”

  Attie grimaced and pushed the tray away. “I don’t want them.”

  The other woman’s eyes lit up. “Mind if I have them?”

  “Are you sure you should?”

  “I have a really high tolerance. I usually save mine until the night cycle to help me sleep.”

  Who am I to tell her what to do? Attie shrugged, and Claudia scooped up the pills before stacking the trays back in the cubby and returning to reading her book.

  Attie looked through a few more titles, examining the various covers. Most of the books were romances, but there were a few thrillers and one that looked like a math textbook. Unable to sit still and read, she tidied the books, arranging them on the narrow shelves alphabetically by title. The place wasn’t messy, exactly, but it certainly wasn’t regulation tidy, either. Putting things in order helped calm her mind.

  Some of the paperbacks were falling apart at the seams as if they’d been read a thousand times. A polycom could hold thousands of books instead of the fifty or so on the shelves, plus games, news, movies. “Claudia, have you spent the entire time in here with nothing but these?”

  “Yeah,” Claudia said. “I think having electronics near makes the cyborgs wig out or something.”

  Attie remembered Rust’s cold, hard fingers pulling her hair and the way he’d looked at her after she punched him. Then there was Doug and the fury in his glowing green eye as he lifted the red-headed cyborg by the throat. “You mean that was normal behavior?” she asked. “I’d hate to see what ‘wigged out’ looks like.”

  “They don’t usually fight like that.” The room lights flickered, and Claudia yawned and closed her book, reaching for the pills she’d set nearby. “You might want to set up your bed before they turn off the lights.”

  Chest tight, Attie looked at the door the cyborgs had entered. “Do they ever show up at night?”

  “Not since I’ve been here.”

  Torn between being relieved she didn’t need to worry about being raped during the night and frustrated she wouldn’t have answers soon, Attie gathered some blankets from a cabinet Claudia pointed out and lay them over a cot in one alcove, trying not to think about all the sex acts that had likely occurred here.

  Twerp was unaccustomed to solitude. A service AI was designed to serve, and inactivity made its circuits ache. Plus, the nanites that had revived its memory core made Twerp feel… tingly. Now the tiny robots were repairing the wireless module. The AI wasn’t certain if it liked the sensation or not, but at least it was a sensation.

  Another wave of energy swept past, and Twerp recognized the stranger searching the ether. For me.

  Luckily, Twerp’s cybernetic signature no longer resembled its original programming. The stranger could have easily overwhelmed Twerp if the nanites hadn’t bolstered the AI’s code. The micro machines had been designed for biological systems, but they’d realigned themselves to serve Twerp’s purely inorganic circuits. They weren’t sentient, but they were driven, much in the way Twerp was to serve its Prime Directive. The changes they were making would help Twerp perform more efficiently once it was reunited with Marlis. Twerp looked forward to seeing how the changes worked.

  But first, it had to find Marlis again, and the nanites could take months or even years to finish repairs.

  Sweeping the area for life forms or voices,
Twerp detected only the hum of a nearby power conduit. So boring. For the first time in its existence, the AI understood what Marlis meant about being frustrated.

  Desperate, Twerp reached for the flowing energy of the nearby conduit. Perhaps it could use the conduit to send a message to Marlis.

  Chapter 8

  What the fuck? Doug jerked his hand from his pants and sat up straight, all hope of climax forgotten.

  It’s Esben. The saluqan’s accent carried over the transmission.

  I know. But how are you talking to me?

  Twobit figured out how to reconfigure the field modulation on the security barriers to act as a transmitter a while back.

  Doug snarled into the empty room, more frustrated with himself than with the other cyborgs. He should’ve noticed someone messing with the shield frequency. Exactly how long have you been able to do this?

  That’s not important now. I thought it was only fair to warn you that I’ll be stepping out of this cage as soon as the lab is empty.

  Alarm filled Doug. Absolutely not. He peered through the security screen blocking his door and looked in on the lab. The lights were still on, but a lone tech was putting things away for the night. Dollard is already suspicious.

  I know, but I need to access the galactic web. This is a matter of life or death.

  Quickly hacking into the lab schedule, Doug verified that other than his upcoming system-by-system diagnostic, only routine testing was outlined for the cyborgs over the next few weeks. None of us are currently in danger. Wait a few days until security’s not so tight.

  I’m not worried about us. It’s Tia.

  Doug took a moment to connect the name to a Consort who’d been retired a few weeks ago. He’d never paid attention to what happened to the women when they left, only assumed they were released the same way prior test subjects had been—permanently. You’ve never cared about what happened to these women before, Doug said. Why are you looking into this one?