Page 26 of Max
“Falyn and I are going to my base to pick up com-tablets that will allow you to communicate with the Enclave and access the AI net for news, information, and entertainment archives.”
“I’m not sure I would even know how to use something like that.”
“Easy as pie,” said Falyn. “You can just tell it what to do. Even turn it on by voice command. Max got me one, and I learned to use it right away. That means you can call me when you’re running low or have one of my orders ready.”
“Now, that would be really handy.”
“Since cargo space is limited on my sky cycle, we will probably bring back twenty-five this run. We’ll give you one and see the mayor about distributing one to each family. We can have a drone drop deliver more if needed.” Max explained and turned to Falyn. “Is there anything else you need to discuss with Millie?”
Falyn thought for a moment and shook her head. “We should go if we expect to get back in time for chores.”
“Yes. If you two think of anything else, you can chat when we bring back the tablets.” Max stood, then Falyn and Millie stood as well.
The two women hugged, indicating clearly to Max that they cared for each other deeply.
Since Mayor Kevin Gray’s house was only two houses down, Max and Falyn walked. Falyn also knew him and his wife fairly well. They traded seeds for food crops and grain.
Mayor Gray was in his garden picking squash when they arrived. As he stood to his full height, he was only a few inches shorter than Max but with a slender, wiry build. He wore a short dark beard, with shoulder-length hair tied with a leather string at the nape of his neck.
“Hello, Falyn. This is a pleasant surprise. What brings you to Marcus Flats? And you brought company.” Kevin nodded to Max, assessing the other man briefly before turning his attention back to Falyn.
She made introductions and reviewed the information they’d given Millie just a few minutes earlier. Kevin was both intrigued and interested, including that there were cyborgs in the territory looking for genetic mates. The mayor of Marcus had four grown daughters of mating age, and there were slim pickings of suitable males in the town and the surrounding area.
“Once you have your com-tablet, you can contact the cyborg genetic matching service to enter your daughters into the database. Perhaps they will match some of the thousands of cyborgs in our database looking for mates.”
“How long will that take?”
“Once we get a tech to you for the scan, you should hear back in a day or two. They will be notified with an attached video if their matches are found. The cyborg will not be notified unless your daughter approves.”
“And you say that genetics is the only criteria?”
“Each cyborg is engineered to respond only to a female with specific genetics, and she is the only female with whom he can mate and have children.”
“Well, doesn’t that just beat all?” Kevin said, smiling in amazement.
As Max and Falyn walked back to his sky cycle, Max said, “It’s really nice to come to a place where people are actually glad to see me instead of shooting at me.”
Falyn laughed ironically because she was one of those people, glad Max wasn’t holding it against her.
Chapter Sixteen
“They’re coming tomorrow,” said ganger looking back at Colton from his com-tablet.
He was one of the gangers who’d infiltrated the ruins to get into the cyborg base. Lander was his name. He’d been hanging around eavesdropping wherever he could.
The cyborgs naturally shared information over their exclusive internal network, but had started to share orally as they became integrated with humans. They didn’t see any threat in the humans they rescued from the ruins.
Colton didn’t fault their logic. Most of those people were harmless. Thrix wanted intel; Colton made it happen. Even with the Mesaarkan tech, they didn’t have enough manpower and arms to hold off a hundred cyborgs with heavy armor and weapons. They would have to bug out.
Thrix would probably lose his collection of humans for shipment to the slave auctions. Colton Price didn’t care about that. Unless he found Tessa first, he would sign on with Gergis and go to the auction houses to hack the sales records for clues to where she was sold. He would never give up until he found her or her remains.
No one would convince him that she left days before he was due back to reunite with her. They loved each other too much for that. Not once did Tessa waver in her enthusiasm for his homecoming. She had been marking off the days for three months.
All that aside, the devotion in her eyes never wavered. Nor had his. He only signed up for war to help fend off the invasion of Earth two years before the peace treaty was ratified. A year and a half later, he’d suffered catastrophic injuries that took him out of the fight. To save his life, they made him a cyborg.
When he came to terms with it and contacted Tessa, the treaty was signed, and the war was over. Colton told her how he’d been changed in case she couldn’t accept his physical changes.
“Colton Price! After all these years, you should know me better than that. I love you, and that’s never going to change. I don’t care if they replaced some of your parts with cybernetics. You still have two arms and two legs. You still have your dick….”
