“We don’t have access to one to fix it and we’ve had to land it before. It will handle it.”

She glanced down. “And why is this area barren? It looks like the ground was once baked really good. It’s similar to glass.”

He stopped walking and pointed. She turned her head to follow where his finger indicated behind the shuttle and her mouth dropped open again. “Oh shit. Is that a volcano? It’s smoking.”

“It’s active.”

She stared down at the hard stuff under her feet, it suddenly making sense, and fear hit her. “Are you insane? What if it blows? We’re almost under that big mountain of hell.”

“It’s the only area with significant open ground to land both ships. Most of the inhabitants steer clear of the area and it will take them longer to reach us. We need the time to make repairs.”

“You really are nuts.”

He tugged on her. “That is why we chose this location. It’s not a rational choice and we’re hoping the Markus Models discount the probability of searching this planet for us. We need to fix the Vontage’s thrusters. They aren’t able to full burn. We estimate the repairs should take less than an hour with the manpower we’re using.”

She dragged her feet a little, slowing him. “I think we should stay inside the Bridden in case we need to lift off fast.” Her gaze darted to the smoking volcano. “That thing could erupt. It looks like it wants to.”

He halted. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Fine.” She swallowed another protest. “Let’s get this over with. What are we doing out here? Cheerleading, or are you going to actually allow me to work with them?”

“What?”

“You know, are we going to stand there verbally encouraging them to work faster while they make the repairs or are we going to help?”

“We’re going to help.”

“Awesome. This is going to be a riot, isn’t it?”

He shot her another frown. “Your use of the English language is disturbing. Did you forget how to speak it?”

“Did you forget that I sometimes want to bitch slap you? Keep it up, Krell.”

“What does that even mean? Abusing an animal is callous and I am not a female canine.”

“Oh hell,” she muttered. “You lived on Earth. A bitch slap is smacking someone who annoys you upside the head.”

His eyes narrowed. “Awesome.”

She had to laugh. He turned his head away and led them toward a group of men with large containers. They opened them and removed tools. One of them seemed to be in charge as he gave orders.

“Work in teams of six.” He pointed. “Start on thrust four.”

Men yanked out tools and moved quickly away. Krell approached the tall black-haired cyborg. “Deviant, how long do you believe this will take?”

Cyan’s eyebrows lifted as she studied the cyborg who turned to face them. He stood six and a half feet tall, a muscular guy with dark skin. His eyes were a startling color—a bright, nearly neon blue, and made his charcoal skin and shoulder-length black hair more drastic in comparison. She wondered if that’s why he’d been tagged with his odd name. He sure didn’t resemble most of the cyborgs she’d ever seen.

“We should be finished within an hour. We’ve assessed exactly what is wrong with them, the speediest way to repair them, and my men are excellent at what they do.” His gaze focused on her and he cocked his head during his close examination. “A human female? Odd.”

“She’s not human.” Krell didn’t explain further. “Is your father well?”

“He’ll be along shortly. He wasn’t harmed during the attacks. We were glad you arrived when you did. Your tactics were surprising but very effective.”

Krell hesitated. “It wasn’t my plan. It was hers. She is familiar with the Markus Models and the shuttle that attacked you.”

Deviant continued to study her. “I am confused. Who is she and how does she know so much about the androids? She appears human.”

“I’m from Earth,” Cyan spoke quickly before Krell could. She held out her hand. “I’m Cyan Eous and I’m kind of human but with extras. My body was built for me. It’s nice to meet you, Deviant.”

He glanced down at her hand and reached for it but Krell growled. “Don’t touch her.”

The other cyborg’s hand froze in midair as his attention shifted to Krell. “She is yours? I had heard ownership of humans had recently been banned.”

“It was and as it’s been established that she’s not human. The council ordered her to be my female,” Krell muttered. “I’m her primary male. Don’t you have work to do?”

“Of course.” His hand dropped to his side but he gave Cyan a sweeping glance. “She’s attractive. Congratulations. My father will be happy to hear it.” He turned and took two steps before he stopped, turned, and stared at Krell. “I’m assuming she’s recently been introduced into our society and if you are accepting applicants, I wish to be considered. Most cyborg females have refused to consider me because of my odd coloring. She obviously doesn’t have an issue with accepting males of our status.”

It was Cyan’s turn to be confused as she watched the guy approach another team to give them orders. She stared up at Krell and couldn’t miss his anger. He glared at her openly, not hiding it.

“You’re trouble.”

“I don’t even know what that was about.”

“He wanted me to consider him as a potential male for you to join into a family unit with. You’re not human, which implies you’ll end up with more than one male.”

She shook her head, baffled. “He doesn’t even know me.”

“You’re female, beautiful, and with me.” He nearly growled the words. “It is an assumption that you would seek other males quickly.” A flash of pain showed in his eyes.

“He insulted you, didn’t he? What is it with cyborgs? There isn’t a thing wrong with you.”

“It wasn’t meant as an insult. He cares for me. We have a close connection through his father. He just believes you might accept him since you don’t mind my scars and undesirable status with cyborg females. It’s also a reasonable assumption that you wouldn’t want to spend much time around me. Females divide their time between the males in their family unit. Some females will spend days, weeks or months with one male before living with another. It depends on how many males are included in it and where their jobs assign them.”

Cyan made a grimace. “Yuk. Ewww.”

“There isn’t anything disgusting about it.” His gaze narrowed. “I’m assuming from your unique descriptive words that you find it unappealing.”

“Damn straight. Where I come from guys would kill each other if they had to share a woman…in most cases.”

“Females are limited. Fewer models were created and survived long enough to escape when we fled Earth. It was deemed more acceptable to share a female than for a larger population of males to fight over gaining the attention of the minority. Fights broke out at first and our competitive natures weren’t beneficial to our survival. We had enough enemies attempting to kill us without battling each other to the death to impress the females with our skill and fighting abilities.”

“I get it.” She remembered too well why more male cyborgs had been created than females. The first batch of female cyborgs had been abused and killed by humans. The ass**les had thought they’d make great sex toys, the women attempted to defend themselves from being raped, and they’d been killed by men in supposed self-defense. It was bullshit, it had devastated their creator and his team, and production on the females had been limited to jobs with safe environments where they could be carefully monitored against sexual abuse. “I heard the horror stories.” Tears filled her eyes but she held them back. “When the women tried to defend themselves they were deemed unstable, failed models, and slaughtered.”

Anger tightened his mouth. “Yes. They were. Humans are brutal murderers.”

“I’m not.”

Some of his anger faded. “Human males.”

“Thanks for the amendment. I appreciate it.” She hesitated. “I still don’t agree with your family units. Your civilization has forced those women to continue to take lovers they don’t want. It’s wrong.”

“No female is forced, Cyan. They pick the males they wish to be with. You were the exception because of your unclear status and your unique situation.”

“I’m not marrying anyone and I don’t care what your council decides. I pick who I sleep with and it’s only going to be with one guy. I’m not into group sex or multiple partners. I usually go about five or ten years between lovers and that’s only out of necessity to avoid them finding out what I am. Opening up to someone hurts when you know you just have to leave them in the future.”

His gaze darted away from hers before he glanced at her again. “You wouldn’t be forced to accept more than one male if you were human. You’d be asked to have a child to fulfill his obligation to replace his life in our society’s future if he hadn’t already done so. Some active breeders who have donated for their pacts have been waived from that requirement due to the overuse of their DNA. You’re not human and the council will want you to take at least two males, preferably three, and produce a child for yourself as well as each male. It’s to ensure our future survival.”

“That’s not going to happen.” She shook her head. “Not ever. Your council can kiss my ass if they think I’m going to just allow men to pass me around until I meet their baby requirements.”

He swallowed and released her. “It’s the law, Cyan.”

“It’s screwed up, Krell.”

“I agree.” He took a deep breath. “I wish I could protect you from the future. All I can do is currently keep males away from you and drag it out as long as the council allows it.”

“What does that mean?”

The long pause worried her as he seemed to find the ground, the sky, anywhere interesting, but looking at her.

“Krell?”

He met her gaze. “I’ve been trying to find the perfect time to inform you of what the council has done where you are concerned. This isn’t the ideal setting but we’re on the discussion. They have given you to—”

“Krell? It is you!” A deep voice boomed.

Krell spun away and Cyan peered around him. The sight that greeted her of the quickly advancing cyborg sporting a black uniform nearly took her to her knees. She only remained standing by locking her legs together.

Mavo hadn’t changed at all in the years since she’d last seen him. Not one bit. He grinned broadly, flashing white teeth, and happiness shone in his green eyes as he reached Krell. He hugged the cyborg, patted him on his shoulders, before taking a few steps back.

“It is so good to see you, my friend. I wasn’t aware you were on the Bridden. Was that your plan to use the Vontage to damage the attacking shuttle? It worked well.”

Cyan couldn’t breathe at first but managed to gasp in air to her frozen lungs. She stepped forward, her attention solely on her dear, beloved friend, and knew why she’d had such a crush on him when she’d been young. He was as gorgeous as she remembered, so handsome, and his eyes were just beautiful. Memories of the past hit her hard and when he turned to study her, his eyebrows lifted.

“Who is the human?”

She lunged, unable to stop it from happening, and grabbed him around the waist in a hug. His entire body turned rigid in her tight embrace, shock seemed to hold him immobile, but he didn’t take it as an attack since he didn’t shove her away from him.