Page 61 of A Cyborg for the Alien Mercenary

“They’re too advanced!” she shouted, her voice hoarse. “I can’t?—”

Her warning was cut short as a massive hand closed around her throat, brutal pressure that lifted her off her feet. She found herself staring into the faceless visor of the Scorperio suit, its grip tightening with inexorable force as it tried to crush her windpipe.

Through the haze of pain, she saw Covak charging toward her, his face contorted in a primal roar of rage and desperation.But before he could reach her, another Scorperio intercepted him, slamming him to the ground with bone-crushing force.

“No!” she screamed, struggling against her captor’s grip. “Covak!”

She watched in horror as Covak went limp, his eyes rolling back in his head. Instantly, she knew what she had to do.

“Stop!” she choked out, forcing the words past the iron grip on her throat. “I… I surrender. Just… don’t hurt him.”

The Scorperio holding her paused, its featureless faceplate regarding her with cold indifference. Slowly, deliberately, it lowered her to the ground.

As her feet touched the floor, her eyes locked with Covak’s. He had regained consciousness, his gaze filled with pain, doubt, and desperate longing. She wanted to run to him, to explain everything, to make him understand. But it was too late.

“I’m sorry,” she mouthed.

A sharp pain exploded into agony at the base of her skull, and darkness rushed in to claim her. The last thing she saw was Covak’s anguished face, a silent scream on his lips as she was torn away into darkness.

Her eyelids fluttered open,Jesh’s vision blurry and unfocused. The harsh white light above her seared into her retinas, and she winced. She tried to lift her arms to shield her eyes, but nothing happened.

What’s happened?she asked her onboard as she tried to move again, but the familiar voice was silent.

Panic surged through her, hard and fast.

She couldn’t move. Anything. Not even the slightest wiggle of her toes.

The sharp, sterile smell of antiseptic filled her nostrils, triggering memories of pain that made her catch her breath as her panic threatened to surge out of control. She blinked away the bright spots in her vision, and then she could see past the lights trying to blind her… she was in a medical bay. But this wasn’t the warm, comforting environment of theLady’s Dream.

No, this place was cold, clinical… and very familiar.

A figure moved into her field of vision, and her heart rate spiked as she recognized him. Dr. Tanner loomed over her, his thin lips curved into a smile that had nothing to do with humor and everything to do with causing her pain. Now she had her memory back, she remembered him… and the years of torture he’d subjected her to.

“Ah, our troublesome subject is awake,” he said, peering at her from behind the thick glasses.

“How are you feeling, Jesh? That is your name. Isn’t it?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. How did he know that? When she’d been here before, she’d made sure to keep everything about herself that she could from him and his team. No information had passed her lips, so all they knew was what they could glean from her body and her implants.

The doctor’s smile widened, revealing teeth that were too white, too perfect. “Oh, don’t look so surprised. We reviewed the footage from the aliens’ assault on the storage facility. Quite enlightening, I must say. It seems you’ve finally regained your memories.”

Anger flared within her, burning away the grogginess. Whatever they’d used to keep her under, it was effective. She tried to ping her onboard again, to enlist its help in purging her system, but there was no response. A chill rolled down her spine. What if they’d removed it? But that was ridiculous, while an onboard could function without a body, the organics of a Zodiac body couldn’t function without an onboard…

“Jesh is the name the aliens gave me,” she snarled. “And when I get up from here, I’m going to rip your spine out through your asshole.”

His eyebrows shot up, and he chuckled coldly as he reached for something by her head. She tried to move to see what he was doing, but her body was locked into place. A prison of unresponsive flesh. A wave of coldness washed through her, followed by an odd numbness in her throat.

“I’m afraid I can’t allow any of that kind of talk,” Dr. Tanner said in a chiding tone. “I’ve taken the liberty of freezing your vocal cords. We can’t have you causing any more trouble. Can we?”

Her eyes widened as she tried to speak again but couldn’t. That coding had been disabled when the Zodiacs had broken free of their captors. How had he known how to re-enable it?

He moved closer, his bald head gleaming under the harsh lights. She could see the faint scars from failed hair transplants crisscrossing his scalp. He reached out and patted her arm. If it could, the skin of her arm would have crawled to the other side of her body to avoid his touch.

“Now, let’s discuss your friend. Shall we? The large one… Covak, I believe his name was?” His pale eyes gleamed. “What an utterly fascinating specimen. I’ve never seen anything quite like him. Humanoid, yet so physically imposing. I’m quite looking forward to the dissection, I must say.”

Dissection. They’d killed Covak.

Her heart stalled in her chest and then cracked at the grief and rage surging through her. The scream remained locked in her throat, her body unresponsive even as her heart shattered into a million little pieces.

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