Page 58 of Swept By The Alien Pirate Prince

“We’ll go after the Operator,” the I/We said.

Cyburn exchanged a ‘let’s do it,’ look with Nix.

“Alright.” Cyburn sighed. “You have our official compliance.”

“You are on board?”

“We’re on board.”

“Good,” the I/We said. “Let’s get going then. We don’t have a lot of time, and we must conceal ourselves as best we can in the shadows. The official infiltration plan begins now.”

“Let’s do it,” Cyburn said, as if he were the one to blow the official whistle to get the team started.

The mainframe sector was dark and cold. The frigid air, and the fact that our sight was inhibited didn’t help matters, but I was just thanking my lucky stars that we’d even made it here without being captured and killed.

The Operator stayed cloaked beneath the shadows, but as soon as we made our presence known, the enslaved robots and drones began coming to life, stirring from the darkness, and revealing themselves to launch an attack against the intruders.

“Come out of hiding. Don’t be cowardly.” Cyburn’s voice bellowed through the darkness. His voice plumed like white smoke against the icy air. “It’s time to fight. “You no longer deserve to keep residency in this place.”

We knew an attack would come. We expected it, and we were ready to rise to the occasion and fight back.

My heart was in my throat, and my stomach tingled with fraying nerves, but I stood by Cyburn’s side, vowing to do everything possible in my power to help him in this battle — a fight to the finish.

None of us were willing to die for robots, but we had to put our lives on the line to resist against them.

It was just part of the process. I had an undying love for Cyburn. I was in it to the final breath if I had to, no matter what happened in between.

ChapterNineteen

CYBURN

Ablur of flashing lights blinked in front of my vision. My crew raced around me. Everything was moving in slow motion, yet I had to keep my reactions and responses quick — acting fast as the ambush of attacking Belic enslaved robots began their attack.

Carmela’s clammy hand kept slipping from my grasp, but I tugged her along as fast as I could. We shuffled to the mainframe where I knew the Operator was located. Cyborg robots, and smaller, less humanized ones, whirled around us from all angles.

Carmela was amazing, using her incredible skill to disable as many of them as she could as we fought our way past them, weaving in a line to avoid a swarm here or there, and kill the rest that got in our way.

“Stay with me,” I shouted to her, hoping she would be able to cling to the resilience in my voice.

“How far is the Operator from here?” Carmela’s voice was hollow as it echoed through the frigid air. Her voice plumed like a white cloud in front of her face. Her posture was inverted, and her teeth rattled. It was freezing in here, even against all the kinetic energy we were using.

“I’m hoping we’ll get there soon,” I declared, motioning us forward. Although I wasn’t sure how accurate my words would prove to be in the end, I tried not to make it sound like an empty promise.

A robot swiped behind Carmela and stuck its long, hose-like arms to her back, then swung the arms around her chest and tried to coil them up around her neck.

“Quick.” Her voice was raspy, coming from a panicked place deep inside her throat. “Reach around it.” She grunted and grimaced, clasping her hands around the snaring robot arm to prevent it from tightening its twisting grip around her throat.

My heart was in panic mode, beating at a hundred miles an hour as I scrambled around the back of the robot, watching the love of my life flailing to fight it off.

It was pure torture, the most helpless I’d ever felt. I was sure my bones were going to break and turn to dust from the intense pressure — but Carmela needed me, and I wasn’t about to let her die roped around this monster.

My hands fumbled across the sleek, cool texture of the robot’s back. I ripped its control panel open. “There are a million buttons,” I shouted, my voice sounding more panicked than I’d wished.

“Does it have a red power button?” Carmela choked against the robot’s arms winding around her throat, tightening like a boa constrictor each second that ticked by.

I skimmed my fingertips across the grooves of the panel.

“It should be bigger than any of the other buttons,” Carmela squeaked.

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