Falling for Sky (Cyborg Seduction Book 11) Read online

  Falling for Sky

  Cyborg Seduction - Book Eleven

  By Laurann Dohner

  Falling for Sky

  by Laurann Dohner

  Mick knew signing up to run a solo mining operation would be boring, but a ten-year stint will earn her enough credits to retire. She’s got her robot companion to keep her company, and she even makes a friend via communications who she gets to talk to every few months when Sky is flying within range. Once her years are up, she fantasizes about confessing her true identity as a woman and maybe he’ll be interested in more than friendship. Until then, she must follow protocol by keeping her voice synthesizer on, pretending to be a man.

  As the cyborg expert on all things human, Sky’s job includes chatting with Earthers, gleaning any intel that might lead to the deadly Markus Models—androids who are bent on ending all life. He particularly enjoys talking to Mick, a friendly Earther stationed on a mining planet. But Sky gets the shock of his life the next time he hails him and discovers not only is his friend under attack by pirates, but “he” is actually a “she.” Mick is short for Mickayla—and she’s captivating.

  Sky’s always wanted an Earther woman for his own, someone he’ll never have to share with another cyborg, and Mick is his for the taking. All he has to do is disobey direct orders, abandon his current mission, and rescue Mick, all before his council can punish him for his misdeeds.

  Piece of cake, as the humans would say.

  Cyborg Seduction Series

  Burning Up Flint

  Kissing Steel

  Melting Iron

  Touching Ice

  Steeling Coal

  Redeeming Zorus

  Taunting Krell

  Haunting Blackie

  Loving Deviant

  Seducing Stag

  Falling for Sky

  Falling for Sky

  Copyright © October 2019

  Editor: Kelli Collins

  Cover Art: Dar Albert

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-950597-04-8

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal, except for the case of brief quotations in reviews and articles.

  Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is coincidental.

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Falling for Sky

  Chapter One

  “Oh, I’m in it deep,” Mick muttered, tossing down the welder and viewing her handiwork. She spun and grabbed her weapon from the top of a crate where she’d placed it. The jog back to the communication room was short. “Computer? Any word from Drais Three?”

  “Negative,” the cool, synthetic voice replied. “Long-range coms are still down. There has been no response to the distress signal. The satellite could be malfunctioning. There is a high probability it was destroyed by the attacking shuttles and the message wasn’t relayed.”

  Her legs felt as if they’d turned to rubber, but she locked her knees to stay upright. “How long until the supply shuttle arrives?”

  “Seventeen cycles.”

  Mick closed her eyes in dismay. She’d never survive that many days. It would be a miracle if she’d last a week before the pirates found a way inside the control center building. The ground cannons had brought down their three enemy ships, and she’d expected the crews to die on impact. It was just bad luck that so many of them had survived.

  “How many life signs are you reading out there?”

  “Forty-one,” the computer clearly stated.

  “Did you reestablish connection to the mine drones?” Mick opened her eyes. “I can attack the pirates with them if I can gain remote control.”

  “Negative. The communications tower to the mine isn’t responding.”

  Mick’s gaze drifted to the screens. The home she’d shared with Jorg had been utterly destroyed by one of the crashing space shuttles. The rubble still burned, and her beloved android had been inside. Pain gripped her chest at his demise, but she had a backup of his memories and personality on a data chip. It would be a temporary loss until she could buy a new model to download him into.

  The building that housed the router tower near the opening of the mine was also rubble. The pirate ships had somehow managed to steer close enough to hit the automated mining camp as they’d been crashing, after the ground cannons targeted their engines. It was fortunate that Mick had even made it inside the heavily shielded control room when they’d attacked. The reinforced building could withstand severe surface weather and even debris from shuttles.

  “Double check to make sure all the shutters are secured.”

  “They are registering as closed. We can withstand a grade-six tornado,” the computer stated.

  Mick stumbled forward and dropped into a chair. She placed her weapon on the console while staring up in dismay at the destruction being shown on the screens. It had grown dark outside in the hours she’d spent welding but the fires from the wreckage put off enough light to confirm pirates scurried about.

  “Check the weather. A monster storm hitting right now would be perfect. They wouldn’t stand a chance of surviving one of the scrubbers.”

  “Weather is mild and clear.”

  “Damn.” She rested her elbows on the console and dropped her chin onto her fists while watching more dark shapes come into camera range. “What’s the probability of a scrubber storm hitting within the next week?” The high wind storms that turned into tornados were common on Velion One, but there were months when the storms were inactive on the planet. “I’m looking for some hope here.”

  “Scanning.” The computer paused. “There is a two percent probability.”

  I’m not going to make it.

  That grim realization put tears in Mick’s eyes. She would die on a mining planet.

  The pay for overseeing the automated operation had been irresistible. She fixed broken drones occasionally, but mostly she had to keep from growing bored. Jorg had helped her avoid that.

  “Computer, can we aim the sky cannons at the ground to hit the life forms?”

  “Negative. They aren’t designed to target anything under fifty yards from the surface. It’s a safety feature.”

  Mick lifted her chin and touched the console to pull up the blueprint of the camp. The four cannons weren’t near her building. She’d have to go outside to physically reconfigure them. It would be suicide. The pirates would get inside the building the second she opened any of the metal shutters or one of the two outer doors—the ones she’d just welded shut. They’d grab her before she reached the weapons.

  It would also be suicide if she managed to abandon the building to flee the area altogether. She might make it far enough to lose the pirates, but she’d die the first time a storm hit. They were called scrubbers due to the way they ripped away everything along the surface of the planet. Strong, violent winds could strip away yards deep of dirt, tossing head-sized stones that littered the ground as if they were light as leaves.

  If the weather didn’t kill her, the heat would. And if she found shade, there was a lack of food and water.

  I’m screwed five ways