Falling for Sky (Cyborg Seduction Book 11) Read online

“What’s wrong?” She bit her lip.

  He hesitated, staring into her eyes. “Tweak went to inform Flint what we just learned. A large group of pirate ships grouped together isn’t normal behavior. Nor is attacking stations, but they just attacked the Zippo. It’s noteworthy, and it tells us there’s a hell of lot more pirate ships around here than just the two we saw.”

  “Oh.”

  “It tends to make us nervous. The last thing we need is to fly into a trap. The Star has great defenses but a dozen or so ships swarming us would be a problem. I’m certain we’d still win, but our vessels are important to us. The last thing we need is for the Star to take heavy damage. We use it a lot to haul the larger vessels we find back to Garden. That won’t be possible if the Star needs months of repairs.”

  “Got it. Your life sounds very dangerous at times.”

  “Says the woman who strapped herself into a digger rig.”

  He always knew exactly what to say to amuse her. “True enough.”

  He leaned in to brush a kiss on her lips. She wished they were alone; she could almost feel the other cyborg watching them. Sky eased back and smiled at her. “Don’t look so worried, Mick. I promise that we can handle whatever comes at us. Cyborgs are tough.”

  “I believe you.”

  “Good.”

  Sky turned to the coms again, reaching out to another station located in sector seven in the Yornton System. She listened, amazed at how he seemed to know just what to say to make the communication officer open up to him. Then again, she thought ruefully, it worked with her. Within minutes he had the stranger chatting with him as if they were old friends.

  A part of her wondered if he’d reached out to her looking for information. Not that she could have told him much, unless he’d wanted to learn about mining a dead planet with hellish storms. In the end, she decided it didn’t matter why he’d taken the time to talk to her. They were together, married, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “Say that again, Denny.” Sky’s tense tone tore her from her thoughts. “I don’t think I heard you right.”

  “We had a carrier come in three days ago that suffered a cyborg attack. Can you believe that shit? At least that’s what the only survivor reported. The ship was banged up to hell and back, five crew dead, and he had to be rushed to the medical bay. Security interviewed him while he was being transported from docking to Medical, because the doctors didn’t know if they could patch him well enough to keep him alive for long. He ended up dying. Like it isn’t dangerous enough with pirates and those escaped defective androids, and now we’ve suddenly got fucking cyborgs?”

  Sky cleared his throat. “I call bullshit. Everyone knows cyborgs were all killed on Earth. Maybe he mistook Markus Models for cyborgs? They’re both killing machines, right? I probably couldn’t tell an android from a cyborg. Could you?”

  “Maybe.” Denny didn’t sound convinced, though. “I can only tell you what I heard. The captain taken off that carrier was ranting about a few cyborgs who’d boarded his vessel, and he said they started killing everyone. He blew out the cargo they were hauling, trying to get them to go after that instead of him. He had to set a self-destruct order on the computer to make them detach. There’s talk about Earth Government sending us a battle cruiser, since it happened in this system. Why the fuck would they think about doing that if it’s not true? The military even contacted the station owner to speak to him directly. Earth Government is taking it seriously, friend. The entire station is on red alert. We’re all scared. Everyone knows cyborgs only come after humans for spare body parts. And I want to keep my dick.”

  “That’s fucked up,” Sky muttered. “Did you see the attack on sensors?”

  “No. There’s twelve planets in this system. It happened in a blind spot on the outer edge, behind a moon. We got a response from the military not five minutes after that report was sent to Earth. They fucking ignored us when a pilot spotted dozens of pirate ships near the farthest moon two days before that! They weren’t going to do shit about pirates amassing, but once the cyborgs were reported, they were all over it. That proves that cyborgs are still alive, right? I guess that promise from EG that all of them were destroyed had to be a cover-up. Not that it’s surprising. I was also ordered to contact the three colonies stationed on the planets here to put them on red alert, also. Avoid this system, my friend. We’re supposed to shoot first and ask questions later.”

  “Will do. I’m going to go tell my captain and have him change course. Thanks for the warning, Denny.”

  “Any time. I wish I was on your freighter heading away from here.”

  Sky ended the call and shot to his feet.

  Mick stood, too. “Do you have cyborgs in that area?”

  “No, and we sure as hell wouldn’t attack like that. I need to go talk to Flint.” He glanced over at Hoover. “Keep Mick company, but if you touch my wife or flirt with her, I’ll kick your ass. Got it?”

  She wanted to protest, but Sky fled the room before she could.

  Hoover grinned at her from where he sat. “We’re finally alone.”

  “Behave, Hoover. You heard Sky.”

  “I did. I think I could take him a fight, though. Are you sure you don’t want two husbands?” He lifted his hands and wiggled his fingers. “Two words for you. Foot rubs.”

  She chuckled, amused and pleasantly surprised that he had a sense of humor. “One man is more than enough for me.”

  He let his hands drop. “Fair enough. I’m on the Star for a reason. I’ll find my own Earther one day. You think I chose communications without a motive? This shit is boring.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure. Anything.”

  She hesitated. “Why was Sky so certain that it wasn’t cyborgs who attacked that carrier? Do you always keep close tabs on where your other ships are?”

  “It’s not that. It’s how it was attacked. We don’t kill without provocation. It also sounded sloppy, and a self-destruct order on a computer wouldn’t be a problem for our kind. We’d just hack into it and shut it down.”

  She nodded, letting his words sink in. There was a lot about cyborgs she still needed to learn, but she to agree they came across as smart, organized, and pretty reasonable.

  “Hey, don’t look worried, Mick. Sky was right. We can handle anything that comes our way. Do you want to listen in on authority alerts? That’s what I’m doing right now.”

  “Sure.” The distraction sounded nice.

  She got up and sat closer to Hoover. He switched something on his control pad, and then voices came from a speaker. Some random guy with a bored tone, listing off arrests made at some station.

  Chapter Ten

  Sky sat grim-faced in the Star’s conference room with Flint on his left. The monitors before them displayed the council members at their various locations. He wished he had brought Mick with him, but it wasn’t a good idea to put her before all of them just yet. They didn’t trust her, and this was a tense meeting already.

  Zorus had paled at the news. “We didn’t attack a carrier, and we aren’t in that sector. It must be lies or a misconception. It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened. Remember that human who fell into some type of fluid and it turned his skin blue? Humans thought he was a cyborg.”

  Councilmen Coval and Rais sat side by side, transmitting from their shared home. “Perhaps more cyborgs escaped detention. We were able to get away from Earth with the help of Rora. It’s likely other humans sympathized with cyborgs still locked away in secret locations, and perhaps helped them escape.”

  Rais nodded. “In that case, they may not have been aware most cyborgs successfully escaped from Earth, and therefore didn’t send out signals to find us. That’s how Coval and I reunited with our race. Earth Government wanted everyone to believe all cyborgs were executed. We may have believed that lie if Rora hadn’t known otherwise.”

  Their human wife came into view, standing behind them. “I had friends who worked