Page 58 of Human Reform
My chest swelled with pride for her—this brilliant, brave woman who’d faced her demons and conquered them.Who’d fixed what was broken and found redemption along the way.And somehow, impossibly, had chosen me to stand beside her while she did it.
TWENTY-FIVE
ALORA
Commander Helix’spraise washed over me like absolution.Standing in the central processing hub with her gray eyes fixed on mine, I felt the crushing weight of nine years of guilt ease.My sins—turning thinking beings into mindless weapons—were being balanced by redemption.
“I want to thank you for bringing me here,” I said, my voice catching.“For the opportunity to make this right.”
Commander Helix inclined her head, her blonde hair gleaming under the hub’s lights.“Sometimes the universe conspires to put us exactly where we need to be, Dr.Bridges.”With that enigmatic statement, she turned on her heel and left the central processing hub.
I stared after her, my fingers unconsciously finding Tim’s bracelet again.Was that what had happened?Had some cosmic force orchestrated my kidnapping to bring me here—to this moment of redemption?
Daxon’s warm hand found the small of my back, his touch sending familiar electricity through me.“Ready?”
His ice-blue eyes, once so unreadable, now held warmth that made my chest tighten.How quickly this man had become my anchor in this strange new world.
“Let’s go,” I agreed, leaning into him slightly as we headed toward my private office.
The security center buzzed with renewed activity after our marathon processing session.Tegan glanced up from his workstation as we passed, his expression unreadable.For some reason, a chill ran down my spine.I shrugged it off—probably just lingering exhaustion making me paranoid.
“I’ve been thinking,” I said as Daxon closed my office door behind us.“I want to create something more than just a patch.”
He leaned against my desk, his imposing height making the space feel smaller in the most delicious way.“What did you have in mind?”
I paced the small confines of my office, ideas already crystallizing.“A comprehensive countermeasure protocol that could scale colony-wide.Something we could distribute to other cyborg settlements, too.”I turned to face him, suddenly needing him to understand.“I need to make sure no one can ever do this again—not to Planet Alpha, not to any cyborgs anywhere.”
Daxon’s face softened, his usual stoicism melting into something that made my heart flutter.“That’s…beautiful, Alora.That you’d want to help all the cyborgs that were wrongfully enslaved.”
“It’s the final piece,” I admitted, meeting his gaze.“Fixing what got broken, everywhere, and making sure it stays fixed for good.”
He pushed off from the desk, closing the distance between us in two long strides.His hand cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing across my skin.“You’re remarkable.Do you know that?”
I flushed under his praise, still not entirely used to this openness between us.“I just know how to fix code.”
“You know how to fix much more than that.”He dropped a kiss on my forehead.“I should catch up on my actual work.There’s probably a mountain of alerts waiting at my workstation after our thirty-six-hour absence.”
“You go ahead.”I nodded.“I’ll start mapping out this new protocol.”
“Find me when you’re done?”
“I will.I promise.”
After he left, I settled at my private workstation, my fingers moving across the keys as I began crafting the framework for the countermeasure protocol.I needed to integrate my patch with more comprehensive protections—something that would scan for and neutralize malicious code insertions before they could take root.
As I worked through the colony’s security framework to see how my protocol would integrate, something odd caught my eye.A thread of code I didn’t recognize from before—fresh, by the timestamp.It had been embedded just this morning.
I followed the thread deeper, my blood running cold as I realized what I was looking at.This wasn’t just malicious code.It was another kill switch.One that, when activated, would systematically break down every security defense the colony had, leaving them completely exposed to external threats.
“Son of a bitch,” I whispered, my fingers freezing above the keyboard.
The saboteur wasn’t just here.They were active right now.Someone working for CyberEvolution was embedded in the security center, just as we had suspected days ago.Had they been here since the beginning?A spy planted among the original colonists two and a half years ago?
My first instinct was to alert Daxon, but I hesitated, my fingers hovering over my wrist communicator.If this new malicious thread was as sophisticated as it looked, any network communication might trigger it prematurely.I needed to neutralize it first.
This wasn’t just about redemption anymore.It was about protecting these people from the very organization I’d once served.
“Not on my watch,” I muttered, diving into the code like a surgeon removing a tumor.
