Touching Ice Read online

  “What is that?” Megan sat back, sitting on her legs, and put her hands over her ears. The piercing sound hurt her ears and she had to yell to be heard.

  “I don’t know,” he yelled, bending down to grab his clothes. “Get dressed now. Hurry!”

  She wiggled toward the edge of the bed, not wanting to move her hands from her ears. The sound deafened and a red light flashed by the door. Whatever had triggered the alarm was a mystery.

  Ice put his pants on but not his shirt. He strode to the door, slapped his hand on the pad, and closed his eyes. She watched him as she released one ear, reached down and found her shirt. Ice released the door and spun. The look on his face told her the news wasn’t good.

  “Those damn human look-alike robots rebooted,” he roared. “Move it!”

  Terror slammed through Megan so hard her knees buckled and she fell back onto the edge of the bed, gaping at Ice. Her worst nightmare had come true. The damn things had gotten around their programming and she had no further doubt in her mind that was how they’d escaped the testing facility on Earth. No one had thought they could do that since they weren’t supposed to be able to bypass a shutdown code. She’d been afraid they could but hadn’t really wanted to believe it was possible.

  “Get dressed. They are attacking the guards, one of whom is severely injured. We need to get to control and help take them out.”

  She bent, her hands shaking, as she reached for her pants. She fumbled but got her legs into them. Standing proved trickier since she still shook badly. Ice suddenly moved in front of her, his boots on already, and helped her yank her shirt on. She only did a few of the snaps, leaving the lower buttons over her stomach undone.

  Ice gripped her hand and ran for the door, dragging her more than leading her since her legs didn’t want to work right. She knew that Ice thought they could win in a fight against the androids but he hadn’t watched the things walk through walls of fire and not even flinch as their cloned skin completely burned away. They experienced no pain, no emotions, and they were killing machines. She vaguely realized she was barefoot but she didn’t argue the point as Ice forced her into the hallway, one hand gripping her, his other hand withdrawing his weapon from the belt he’d snapped on when he’d dressed.

  The alarm fell silent as they reached the lift. Ice froze and Megan did too. She stared up at him with raw fear. “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t link to the other cyborgs on this ship without touching access panels first to hold the communications open. I didn’t hack their computer to gain remote access.” His voice turned harsh. “I was too focused on fucking you instead of acting rationally.”

  Her mouth opened, not sure what to say to that, but the lift opened at that moment. Ice pushed her forward into it, steered her into the corner, and released her. He spun around, faced the doors, and touched the control. The doors closed and then he stepped back, pinning her to the wall, and pointed his weapon at the doors.

  “If they are out there, I want you behind me so I take their weapon fire instead of you. I’ll attempt to close the doors and get you to another floor. Run and hide. Take my weapon if I don’t survive.”

  Ice was willing to die to protect her, using his body as a shield, and it brought tears to her eyes as love for him swelled painfully in her chest. She started to pray for his safety. If anything happened to Ice…she couldn’t even imagine life without him now. The lift moved and she held her breath, her heart hammering when the lift stopped and the doors opened. She couldn’t see what waited in the corridor, if anyone was there, but then Ice took a step forward.

  “Stay on my heels.”

  She moved, breathless as she tried to keep up with Ice, whose long legs and strength gave him such advantage. The hallway was clear and he stopped at the curve so fast she ended up slamming into his back. He growled something low but she didn’t catch what he said. He hesitated, peered around the corner and then started moving again. They were nearing the control room when the doors ahead to the left opened.

  Ice’s reflexes where fast as he threw himself against the wall, his weapon aiming at the open door, while his other arm shot out to slam into Megan. She hit the wall hard beside him. It knocked the breath from her lungs, and she found herself pinned where Ice held her. She gasped in air and turned her head, only able to see Ice since he’d put his body between her and the threat again.

  “Both of them are dead,” Councilman Zorus’ voice called out. “We need to get to the emergency pods.”

  “What pods?” Ice released his hold on Megan and stepped away from the wall. His weapon lowered. “It’s a shuttle. There was no pod in the cargo hold. What is the status on the androids?”

  “They killed our men guarding them but before Vess died he blew out the power to the doors. The Markus Models are currently trapped in the cargo hold but it won’t keep them for long. They are using a cutting tool to burn through the bulkhead.” Zorus had turned a sickly pale gray and fear showed in his eyes as he stared at Ice. “We discovered six life pods onboard when we pulled up the designs to see if we could open the exterior cargo doors or separate that area safely from the rest of the shuttle if we sealed the bulkheads. They are located on the same floor as the living quarters.”

  “This shuttle isn’t big enough to hold a pod anywhere but in the cargo hold and definitely not that many.” Ice wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure?”

  “It’s in the shuttle schematics,” Zorus snapped. “Move. We don’t want to stay here.”

  One of the cyborg council members nodded. “We set a fire in control so they can’t use the shuttle to come after us and Mellno is sealing the bulkheads between us and the cargo hold to slow their progress in reaching us before we can escape. He’ll be along shortly.”

  Megan realized that one of the two cyborg guards was gone, only one remained with the four council members. Ice spun and gripped Megan’s upper arm. Moving fast, he yanked her along the corridor back to the lift.

  The seven of them were cramped in the lift. Ice kept her against his body. She looked up at him, saw the grim set of his jaw, and knew her fears were justified. They were in really deep shit.

  The doors opened and they rushed down the hallway to a curve. One of the council members stopped, frowning, and examined the wall. “I don’t understand. There should be doors here for the pods.”

  Megan inched away from Ice’s body, fighting his tight hold, and saw six squared, large wall tiles instead of doors. She’d seen them before once, in that vid about the shuttle, and had completely forgotten about them until that moment.

  “Shit!”

  “What is it?” Ice stared down at her.

  “Let go.”

  He released her arm and she pushed past two of the council members, her hands touching the tiles. She found a button along the seam at the top and pushed it. The tile moved and she jumped back as it slid out from the wall, the cyborgs scrambling to get out of the way so they weren’t crushed as it extended outward into the hallway.

  “They are life capsules,” Megan explained, staring at the long, box-shaped cylinder she’d revealed before lifting her gaze to Ice. “Each one only holds one person.”

  Zorus broke the silence that met her explanation. “How do you open them?” He stood behind her, ending up on her side of the hallway where it had divided when the pod had blocked it.

  Megan hesitated. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen one in person, just in a vid, and they didn’t exactly show how they worked. I just remember they were concealed in the wall and they are state-of-the-art.”

  “Move,” Zorus pushed her roughly out of his way and touched the metal. A popping noise sounded and the lid started to lift.

  Megan stared at the cushioned, black interior and shivered. It reminded her of a coffin, only much deeper than a burial one. On the interior of the lid were controls. Zorus softly cursed.

  “We have no choice. Parlis, get in. You are first.”

  The councilman didn