Page 85 of Echoes of the Tide

All three of them burst into laughter. Maybe part of the hilarity was of anyone liking Fortis at all.

“Fortis and an achromo,” Maketes stammered through his laughter. “Can you imagine? He’d eat her in her sleep before he’d admit to wanting to keep her.”

“Eat her just so that he doesn’t have to admit maybe the achromos are prettier than he thinks?” Daios shook his head. “Maketes, what’s yours look like?”

Just like that, all the need was back. It burrowed into him like a knife and he groaned at the thought of her. “Soft. Everything about her is so soft.”

“They are awfully soft,” Arges replied. “Too easy to cut.”

“No, no...” He lifted his hands as though envisioning her ass already cupped in his palms. “There’s so much to grab. So much to spread out like a banquet before me.”

Daios made a disgusted expression and then slapped at Maketes’s hands. “Stop that.”

“What? There’s plenty of her to please me.”

“Stop... doing that.” Daios slapped his hands again. “Let’s get you back to your achromo before you tell us too many personal details.”

CHAPTER 34

“There we go,” Ace said, tapping the top of Bitsy’s head to send her back to sleep. “That should do it. Her hard drive was completely fried in the explosion, but droids like these usually have some form of backup. I think I found the right one.”

Anya sat in front of her, leaning forward with her head in her hands. It was very much like a family member would look when a loved one was in surgery. Which was sweet. There weren’t a lot of people who looked at droids like she did. Sure, Bitsy was a very important function of Anya’s life. But she was also a friend, and Ace knew what that felt like to need someone to be there with her.

Tera whirled in a circle on the table before them, very pleased with what had occurred. Ace’s own droid had been necessary to make sure that Bitsy was fixed right. But her droid had seen a lot of injured creations, just like Bitsy.

Together, they were unstoppable. Ace tapped her finger on top of one of Tera’s balls. “Nice job. I think that’s all we needed.”

Finally, Anya stirred. “Do you think she’s going to be okay?”

“Yeah, she’ll be fine. That personality of hers will come back in no time. We just have to wait for it to re-download, and that can sometimes take a while.”

Anya lifted her head, those terrified and lost eyes finding Ace’s. “What did you do to her just now?”

“I put her into rest mode. She’ll be... essentially sleeping while she downloads everything that she lost. It’s better for their processing core, and makes it a little easier on them to just wake up the way they previously were, rather than have to deal with the download while they’re awake. It’s sometimes a little stressful to try to accommodate the changes and new programming.”

What she didn’t want to admit was that it was also a little shocking for people to see. She’d only seen a droid get a new personality once while it was awake, and it had been careening about the room trying to figure out what it was supposed to be doing.

At the time, her professor had said some people likened the change to a seizure. She’d never forget seeing the poor thing like that. It had seemed so eerily in pain.

Mira knocked on the door and stepped into the room. “There’s an undine here to see you,” she said with a smile. “A yellow one.”

“Maketes is back already?” She frowned and stood. “I thought he had to go debrief his brothers.”

“It doesn’t usually take long. From my understanding, there’s something you’re supposed to give me?”

Shit. He’d already told them she would just hand over the keycard? Ace felt her stomach twisting and a rolling vomit rise the back of her throat. Again, her mind screamed in fear that this wasn’t the right thing to do.

Yet, her soul screamed that it was. She knew what was going to happen to them if she didn’t. She knew that the key in thewrong hands would only cause chaos unlike anything this world had seen.

Jacob didn’t deserve orders from the very best, but she had a feeling those in Tau might very well enjoy giving him those orders. He was an intelligent man, conniving and cruel. But they would know how to control a man like that and promise him all the things that he shouldn’t have.

So she reached underneath her shirt and pulled out the keycard. It dangled from her grip, right there for everyone in the room to see. And finally she murmured, “I think this is what he means.”

Mira’s gaze had lit up with curiosity. “Now, what is that?”

“The key to Tau,” she replied. “Apparently, there is another city. One that makes the decisions for all the others. I’m uncertain if this will open up a tracking beacon, though. It has a tracker on it.”

Mira snatched it out of her grip and frowned down at the card. “Well, we can’t hack into it here then. I refuse to risk this home, no matter what treasures we might find on this. Anya?”

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