Page 49 of A Cyborg for the Alien Mercenary

“What you do mean ‘in this universe’?” Ryke asked over the comm.

Covak blinked. He’d missed that part, but trust Ryke to have caught it.

“We’re not from this universe,” she explained. “We were fleeing after a battle, but then we fell through some kind ofportal and ended up here. Dael and I were separated, and I had Jex’s onboard with me.”

Confusion rolled through his mind. Strange cyborgs were one thing, but another universe? Portals? They were beyond anything he’d encountered in all his years as a mercenary, and he’d seen some weird shit in his time.

“That dream I had,” she said, her gaze locking on to his. “The one where I thought I’d murdered someone? It was a memory of that battle. I was actually removing Jex’s onboard so he could be hot-swapped into a new body when we got back to base.”

He practically heard the confusion as it rippled through the room. Davis paused in the middle of cleaning up the cut on Mira’s cheek. “Hot-swapped?”

Jesh nodded. “We were fighting a war, and in a war, there are always casualties. Thankfully for us, death isn’t always permanent. Sometimes we have an organic body with a fried onboard, or sometimes only the onboard can be saved. We match the two up as best we can to get soldiers back out onto the battlefield.”

The weight of her words settled over the room. Covak’s chest tightened as the thought of what she’d been through went through his mind.

“So… you—” He reached up to touch the side of her head, where he knew the computer in her brain was. “Can be moved into a different body?”

She gave a small nod. “Kind of, yes. The core personality and memories can be moved. Obviously, since the organics are different, there can be changes in personality and behavior.”

“Lady’s teeth,” he breathed. Would they even be the same person at that point? He didn’t ask, though. It was too big for him to comprehend just at the moment, and he didn’t want to insult her.

“Who were you fighting?” Rann asked over the comm. “And why?”

A shadow passed over her face, and Covak knew whatever she was going to say, it wasn’t going to be good.

“We’re fighting the humans in our universe,” she said, her voice hard. “The humans who created us.”

“Humans?” Davis asked. “There are no Lathar in your universe?”

She shook her head. “No, I’d never heard of them before I came here. There are a lot of changes in our history compared to yours as well. I’d need more access to historical databases to pick out the point of divergence, though.

“So… humans created you?” Covak asked.

“Uh-huh.” She nodded. “They created us, and when they didn’t need us anymore, they tried to wipe us all out. We’re fighting for survival.”

“So what happened? How did you end up here?”

She paused. “My section… we were fleeing from a battle. Half of us made it to the evacuation point when suddenly, this… thing appeared in front of us. Like a huge blue flower… but made of energy. Never seen anything like it. Before Dael could pull up, it grabbed us and yanked us in. Next thing I knew, the ship blew up and everything went black. Then I woke up in hospital.”

The silence was deafening. Covak’s mind raced. Shit… and he’d thought he had it bad being kicked off his planet. She’d been fighting for years and then pulled into a different galaxy and blown up… and that was before whatever the asshole humans holding her had done to her. Protectiveness a mile wide surged through him along with admiration. She was the strongest person he’d ever met.

Davis broke the silence. “But why did they keep you for so long? It’s been years.”

Her expression hardened. “I’m a Taurus-class Zodiac cyborg. A battlefield medic. My systems self-repair. I can be virtually destroyed and, given time, repair myself. All Tauruses can. Small injuries heal quickly so we can tend to other members of our combat teams and get them back into the battle.”

She shrugged. “My guess is that the humans who held me took advantage of that. I’m registering internal scarring that indicates they continually stripped my neural circuitry and musculoactuator fibers. For what reason, I don’t know, but since all my systems are compatible with humans, I assume they were trying to retrofit Zodiac tech.”

“Shit…” he breathed, anger welling up within him. The thought of her being repeatedly torn apart made his blood boil.

“I’ll contact the Warborne,” Ryke said, his disembodied voice rolling around the medbay. “If the humans are holding a third cyborg, we need to rescue them.”

Jesh shook her head. “Jex doesn’t have a body at the moment, just an onboard. And we have no idea where he is.”

Davis finished dressing the cut on Mira’s cheek and straightened up, determination in his eyes.

“We’ll find out where he is,” he said, his tone brooking no argument. “Give me a couple of hours. I have an idea where to start looking.”

Jesh nodded, and Covak’s heart ached at the hope in her eyes. That hope quickly dulled as they were left along and she looked at him.

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