Page 55 of Swept By The Alien Pirate Prince

I bristled, unsure of how long he would be able to keep it suppressed.

“You will not be allowed to pass,” the robot declared.

Cyburn and Nix stepped forward, along with a few guards and officers behind him. They stood, towering, glaring at the hovering robots, skirting around us, coming in close contact, but staying just out of reach to avoid being touched or harmed by our crew.

Even if Cyburn attempted to shoot at them to strike them down, I worried he’d miss. It was almost impossible to hit a moving target.

“Please allow us to explain both our identity, and role in this situation,” the robot ventured once he started to realize that Cyburn was done beating around the bush and playing games.

“Go ahead, then,” Cyburn growled through clenched teeth. “You have thirty seconds.”

The robot wouldn’t be intimidated. It remained in its hovering state, looking at Cyburn as if it didn’t view him, or our crew as any type of threat.

“We are called I/We,” the robot explained. “We are a collective, run by a telepath’s mind. We have been pieced together with human organic matter.” Here, the robot paused, it’s eyes meeting with mine. I looked away, avoiding eye contact. An icy sensation shivered up my spine.

“What does that have to do with us gaining entry?” Cyburn’s impatience rippled through his brooding voice.

“Please allow me to finish,” the robot declared in a flat tone. “You must help us to gain entry into the capital.”

Cyburn’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Why should we help you?”

“Because we are not the enemy.”

“You are guarding the enemy gates,” Cyburn said. “That, by default, makes you an enemy, or at the very least, a being without mutual interest.”

“This is where you are mistaken,” the robot insisted. “We share more common interest than you think.”

“Give me an example, then,” Cyburn demanded.

“We need your help, and in return, we will offer the same level of assistance to you,” the robot explained.

“How?” Cyburn kept his shoulders tense. His posture reflected that he was hopeful, yet on edge. “How do we know it’s not a trap?”

I too, had my doubts about the mysterious robot’s intentions and needed to hear more about the suggested, and strange, arrangement.

“You must help free us from the Belic's control and allow us to become free allies instead of taking control over us yourselves. We know what purpose you have here on Alesis. We don’t want any part of it. We would rather make a deal than risk losing everything — including our lives."

Cyburn cast an uncertain look in my direction, then to Nix, then his eyes scrolled over his own crew as if he were torn on what to do.

“I think it’s an option,” I whispered into his chest. “A good one, even. We need to think about this.”

“How can we be sure that this is really what they want, that they are telling us the truth?” Cyburn asked.

I blinked up at him, my gaze firm. “We can’t, but it might be worth a try. We would have to face and fight them either way. Why not try to omit, or at least lessen the fight, for as long as we can?”

Cyburn’s eyes flashed with more uncertainty. He was silent, thinking, weighing our choices. It was going to be a tough decision to make for all of us, but I hoped we would be able to make one as a unified group.

ChapterEighteen

CARMELA

“What’s in it for you?” Cyburn stepped forward, eying the I/We robot with narrowed eyes and a tight jawline that revealed his suspicion. Everything about his brooding posture gave away that he was skeptical of every word that leaked from the I/We’s mechanical mouth.

“Everything is in it for us,” the robot responded.

Cyburn released a scoffing sound from the back of his throat. “I don’t think you understand.”

“What is not to understand?” The robot’s machine voice whirred.

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