Page 6 of Human Reclaimed
“This woman means a lot to our survival efforts.” His piercing gaze seemed to see right through me. “But I suspect she might come to mean more to some than others.”
Heat flooded my body. “She’s invaluable strategically,” I managed, avoiding Sage’s amused glance.
“Of course,” Olivia replied with the ghost of a smile. “Just strategically.”
After ending the transmission, I stared out at the stars streaking past, my thoughts orbiting around the sleeping woman in our hold. Whatever was happening inside me was unexpected, unprecedented, and completely inappropriate given our mission.
Yet I couldn’t stop picturing her face when those blue eyes would open in our colony. Would she see past the betrayal of her abduction to understand what we were fighting for? Could she forgive what we’d done to bring her here?
More importantly—why did her forgiveness suddenly matter so much to me?
THREE
TALIA
I woke up with a gasp and sat straight up. My head throbbed like I’d gone ten rounds with a bottle of cheap bourbon. Sunlight shone brightly through floor-to-ceiling windows, casting golden patterns across a bed that definitely wasn’t mine. The sheets were too soft and the mattress too perfect. Even the air smelled wrong—cleaner, with hints of something sweet and unfamiliar.
“What the hell?” I turned my head to look around the room more, fighting waves of dizziness.
My last memory flashed like lightning—the veterans’ facility parking lot, the quick footsteps behind me, and the sting in my neck. And him. The man with those piercing blue eyes that had held mine as darkness claimed me.
The room around me looked like a cross between a luxury hotel suite and a medical recovery room, though suspiciously devoid of actual medical equipment. Cream-colored walls, soothing artwork depicting landscapes I didn’t recognize, and a comfortable armchair positioned perfectly beside a small table. Nothing clinical except the subtle scent of antiseptic beneath the floral notes.
I swung my legs over the bed’s edge and stood, swaying slightly. Someone had changed me into perfectly fitting beige tactical pants and a white T-shirt. The thought of strange hands on my unconscious body made my skin crawl.
“Bastards,” I muttered, bracing myself against the wall.
The windows drew me forward like a magnet. What I saw beyond the glass stole my breath completely.
It wasn’t Buffalo, New York. It wasn’t anywhere on Earth.
A vibrant settlement sprawled before me, buildings constructed of materials I couldn’t identify nestled between towering trees with violet-tinged foliage. The architecture seemed both primitive and advanced—stone and wood merged seamlessly with metal technology that gleamed in the morning light. In the central plaza outside, people moved about their day with casual normalcy.
Humans. And cyborgs. Together.
I pressed my palm against the cool glass, watching a cyborg male—recognizable by his slightly distinctive movements despite his human appearance—hand something to a laughing human woman. They chatted like old friends without the tension that had always existed back home on Earth before or during the war.
“That’s not possible,” I whispered, my heart hammering against my ribs. “Where the hell am I?”
The sky above answered my question. Twin suns hung in a pale turquoise expanse, one larger and golden, the other smaller with a reddish tinge. Not Earth’s sky. Not Earth’s sun.
Not Earth at all.
“No, no, no.” Cold dread slithered down my spine. “This can’t be happening.”
I yanked my gaze from the impossible view and rushed to the door, my military training kicking in. Escape first, process the trauma later. The handle turned smoothly in my grip—but the door didn’t budge. Locked from the outside.
“Hey!” I pounded my fist against the door. “Let me out of here! Now!”
My voice echoed back at me, mockingly empty. Desperation clawed at my chest as I tried again, throwing my shoulder against the solid wood. Pain lanced through me, but the door remained unmoved.
“Dammit!” I kicked the door, immediately regretting it as pain shot through my bare foot.
I limped back to the windows, forcing myself to look out again. The scene outside hadn’t changed—humans and cyborgs coexisting peacefully in this alien jungle city. It defied everything I’d known during the war about the cold, calculating nature of CyberEvolution’s creations.
But that man who’d taken me last night… he hadn’t been cold. His touch had been careful, almost gentle, even as he and his companion rendered me unconscious. My captor with intense blue eyes that seemed to see right through me. Definitely a cyborg, but something had been different about him. Something almost… human.
“Get it together, Reed,” I scolded myself.
