They reached the fence fast trying to knock her off. Nicky clung on as they laughed at her, pulling on it. They argued over who’d get her first as she neared the top. Nicky had no doubt they meant to rape and maybe kill her. She kept climbing as one jumped up and followed her. He was fast. Hauling herself to the top in desperation she got a leg over. A hand grabbed her other foot, then another her calf and he started to climb her. The strain on her hip was unimaginable. He was using all his weight to try and pull her off. Nicky tried to kick out, but he held on, his nails biting into her ankle and leg. A dull pain suddenly assaulted her leg and she looked down to see a knife sticking out of her thigh.

  Nicky cried out, holding on to the other side of the double layered wire fencing. Her fear and anger exploded. Holding on fast to the other side, she swung her other leg back towards him and kicked harder, hitting him repeatedly in the face and neck. His attempt to get to her suddenly went into fever pitch. Screaming obscenities as she kept kicking him. He tried to grab both her legs and lost his grip, it was enough for him to slip. Nicky kicked out with both legs as hard as she could, his hand on her calf came free. She kicked at him again, harder still and her foot twisted as he came free and fell back down to the floor hard. He didn’t move as she caught her breath. The other one stood and stared while she wasted no time, pulling herself all the way over and started to drop down the other side.

  The other assailant bent to rouse the fallen one. He started to move, he’d knocked himself out and was coming too. Number two, cracked his neck reaching for the wire wall. The snarl on his face told her everything she needed to know. She was dead now if they got to her and the wall wouldn’t hold him back for long, the other one was already crawling to his feet slowly. She dropped to the floor on her side and looked at the first one trying to stand. He looked dazed and blood was coming from his head. Snarling he reached for her through the fence, but the double layer a foot apart stopped him. She backed off quickly avoiding his hands, catching her foot on the corner of a box twisting the ankle and fell. She was sure she’d felt a ‘crack’ when she’d dropped.

  Shit! Get up, her mind screamed. Nicky listened, scrambling up she hobbled over to the crates dripping blood as she went. She needed….. something ……. Anything to fight with. Ripping her shirt, she made a rough torque around the knife, then started pulling boxes and pushed replacement parts out of her way. She heard the first one grunt as he got to the top, the second started to climb again. Telling her exactly what he was going to do to her when he got to her. Nicky concentrated on what she needed. The first boxes were no good. Replacement charges. She needed riffles, hand guns or grenades. Spying what she needed in the back, she hobbled over and flipped the locks and pulled the packing away. Riffles. Thank the universe…

  She saw the first one coming over the fence. Shit, out of time. Grabbing one she powered it up. No charge. Damn it. Throwing it to one side she grabbed another. No charge. Fuck. Come on. She grabbed another, she pressed and it powered up. He was over and climbing down towards her, the other guy had reached the top. Nicky breathed hard, watching the riffle slowly come on line. Come on, come on. She willed it to move faster. She knew it had to move from red to green for her to fire it. “New acquisition. Register officer?” The weapon asked.

  She put her hand print on the grip and firing trigger. “Yes.” Nicky bit out quickly as the guy nearly reached the floor across the room on her side. The other guy swung over the top and started to descend. First guy hit the ground, turned and grinned at her.

  “I’m going to enjoy this.” He told her. The other guy was nearly down too now and laughing.

  “Ready to deploy?” the weapon asked.

  The pirate looked strangely at her, then the weapon as his colleague dropped to the floor beside him.

  Nicky smiled. “Fuck, yeah, automatic fire.”

  ***

  Her saviours eventually found her. They’d searched the whole Space Station doing a better job than the pirates ever had and wasted no time in getting to her. She wondered if that was because it was a weapons store and they needed to secure it. Probably. That made sense to her. In any event, they somehow knew someone was in the room, calling out that they were friendlies. Nicky wasn’t taking that at face value, not after what she’d just been through and held onto the weapon until it was clear they were no longer a danger to her.

  Telling her to remain where she was in case the lock was booby trapped, they’d opened the large double doors. It wasn’t. She didn’t think it would be. Then they waited on her to go to them. They didn’t rush her or enter the room but called her forward slowly. Nicky held the weapon and moved cautiously from her hiding place. If they weren’t friendly, she stood a chance, she’d told herself as she moved forward. But once she’d seen them, she knew that had been a lie. She wouldn’t have stood a chance and realised her saviours were war machines.

  Had they come from Earth Corp? Soldiers, she realised as she moved gingerly into the open space, still holding firmly on to the riffle. She’d heard the stories before she’d left Old Earth. Earth Corp playing god, men created to win battles for their own greed. Fighting the Corporation Wars. She didn’t know much about it, but she knew soldiers when she saw them. Only these were a lot bigger and ….. all really good looking…. Not an average man amongst them. That, wasn’t normal, she thought as a large male stepped forward.

  He clocked the men on the floor inside the room, then looked at her. He breathed in, studied her for a moment then looked down at her leg. “You are injured.” Nicky shrugged, that was obvious, but she’d survived. She expected many hadn’t. Not feeling her injuries was a bonus after all. “They tried to harm you?” he asked.

  Nicky glanced over to the two men who’d chased her and climbed over that fence to get to her. “They thought I would be easy prey,” she told him, as a cold calm came over her. She blinked, then turned back to look at him. “They were wrong.”

  “You are safe now female.” He told her stepping forward.

  Nicky held tightly to her riffle and huffed, narrowing her eyes. “We will see.”

  To her surprise they let her keep the weapon and insisted on escorting her up to medical. The big one that had spoken, offered to carry her. Nicky gave him a look that clearly told him she thought him crazy and declined, saying she didn’t need it. Her foot was painful but manageable. She couldn’t feel the knife wound much at all. She walked slowly back the way she’d come only hours earlier. Her escort stayed with her. This time she was using the lifts.

  What she saw as the lift doors opened to the Gallerea at the top of the Space Station, sickened her. The once, spectacular glass dome that welcomed everyone and enclosed the entire top of the Space Station, known as their social and entertainment area, was a war zone. Or had been. Even before stepping out, she could see the damage and debris everywhere. Buildings showed signs of fighting. And the people, people she knew, that had been taken, mostly women and children were here, on this level. She’d had no real idea of what was going on, but this? Not in her wildest imaginations could she believe such horrors. There were bodies. Everywhere.

  Nicky felt like sobbing. She couldn’t breathe. Started to shake. Praying for the people that were gone. Needing to know, is what had first pulled her from her own hiding place. She’d been hiding for nearly two days before she’d come out. Desperate to do something, beating herself up for not doing enough. She’d tried to get a signal out, but the systems were down. It wasn’t her field, but she kept trying until she had no choice but to give up. Then she’d gone looking for answers and it had led here.

  Nicky hesitated. She knew she was hyperventilating and couldn’t stop it. “Can’t…. breathe,” she whispered trying to gasp the air. She felt the injector against her neck and almost immediately her body calmed, and she took her full deep breath in what seemed like forever. She nodded fretfully. Guilt and feared for what she might find on coming out the lift assaulted her. The large guy moved closer, his arm held out for her to take.

  “Slowly and calmly.” He told her. Nicky reached out a shaky hand and steadied herself. Her home was wrecked. They’d destroyed everything. She took one hesitant step after another and walked onto the Gallerea. Soldiers were everywhere, helping people, clearing up. There was no way to ignore that people had been murdered, the women that were dead were being carried to one side, carefully wrapped. Those dying or had been raped but alive, were getting medical care.

  Tears dropped silently down her face as she walked forward. Others wandered around in a daze. Some asked about people they couldn’t find, men asking for their wives and partners. Children gone. Families gone. It was beyond comprehension that this could have happened. But in her heart of hearts, she’d always thought something like this could happen. Every time security seemed to get lax it bothered her. But seeing it, living it. How could this be real? She never wanted to see it again. As he helped her walked in the vague direction of medical you couldn’t miss how the buildings showed signs of damage and looting. Nicky choked back the lump in her throat. What the hell had they done?

  She staggered forward, unable to take it all in. Her strong support with her, helping her to remain up right. Looking around she tried to think where she’d be most useful. It was overwhelming. So much to deal with. “You need medical attention,” he told her holding her arm more firmly. The shaking had stopped but her shock would stay with her forever. She was never forgetting this. Even registering that he’d spoken, seemed too much. She glanced at him wondering why he sounded confused.

  “It can wait a bit longer.”

  “The injury will be worse.” He told her insistently.

  All her emotions erupted. She pointed to the pile of dead just dumped by the pirates in a corner room of the Gallerea. The door was wide open, and it was clear what it had been. A dumping ground. To her relief the soldiers were wrapping them with dignity and moving them. To be identified, she guessed. More tears threatened to break her, and she stood tall. “But it won’t kill me, yet,” she told him with conviction and walked off as best she could towards the shattered people milling around. The world had gone to shit.

  Dare watched the female go. There was something different about her. Try as he might, he couldn’t get a reading from her skin on her emotions. His system ran a diagnostic. No fault showed up across his optic, he was functioning at 100%. The data flowed, all systems working at optimum level. He wasn’t faulty, but he couldn’t read her? He could read her body language to a degree, her voice and mannerisms as with any other human, but the subtilties, in her skin’s reactions, the changes in her heat, the movement of the hairs on her skin, the subtleties he’d been trained for, were….. missing.

  Dare was intrigued and followed her. Giving instructions to his men to help where needed over his neuro net. The wake of her scent surrounded him and her blood mixing with the air molecules, both called to him. Using his neuro net, he connected with the Admiral sending his report. Two men left on guard with the weapons store, escorting a female to medical and shut the link.

  On one level he did not understand why he was intrigued and on another, why it demanded retribution. He breathed in before her scent dissipated even more. He’d never met anyone, male or female he couldn’t read. It was what he was made for. To understand what triggers emotions in humans, to know what they were thinking, feeling, needing, in order to find what they did not want you to know. To find the secrets they had hidden. And within moments of meeting them he knew everything there was to know.

  It took so very little. Simply the right questions with the right answers, the right touch, both verbally and physically and the information would start to flow. But not this one. He’d never come across this before. Was it a new human? Something he was not aware of?

  After so long his systems lit up with the unexpected challenge, as he followed her across the concourse. When the Admiral had sent him and his men to the lower levels to secure the power to the Station, then the armoury store, this was not what he’d expected to find. Cyborgs were rarely surprised. It was ……. Pleasing.

  His men with him, they’d started at the bottom of the Space Station and worked their way up. They’d done their job sweeping each new area. Looking for any pirates holed up, or any explosives or captives held. The lowest section being engineering, providing the mechanics of the Space Station, but no one was home and the place had been stripped of some equipment. Luckily the Stations systems were on automatic and still working and the pirates hadn’t been stupid enough to take them off line. They moved up to the bio-clean zone, with sanitation above it and again found no pirates. In fact, no one was there at all. It was poor judgment on their part to leave those areas undefended or unsupervised. He knew without thinking, Cyborgs never would sanctioned that.

  It looked like the pirates had started to clear everything out and then stopped. Dare wasn’t sure why. There were no data recordings on file of how events had unfolded, other than the security vid that had been erased. It was obvious someone had tried to hide their tracks. So they knew, someone or several someone’s were in on this. They kept looking, taking it grid by grid, missing nothing out. Until they’d arrived at the Armoury store. Commander Pain had infiltrated the Station schematics on docking and it hadn’t been hard to find. On locating it, Dare and his team had been ordered to secure it. Luckily for the female, the pirates hadn’t secured it first.

  Scanning the room had brought up her heat signature. It was clear that she’d managed to get in although the door was still locked. The imprints on the wall fencing told him several people had climbed it recently. A scan with his optic told him there were three different DNA on it. Two sets of large foot prints and a smaller set under them. There was also blood. A lot with a female tag running down it, a little less from a male. It was obvious the two cooling bodies were the men and they’d gone in after her. It also told him she was lucky to be alive and injured. Scared and cornered. A cornered female could be deadly and unpredictable. There was no telling what she would do to defend herself.

  His man connected to the control pad and the doors opened. Pulling them wide, he called her forward. She moved out of the shadows, limping and stood, holding the pulse riffle. He could feel the energy coming off it. It was charged. The air around them and one look at the men on the floor told him she’d discharged it twice. Clean kills, her aim true. Victory and pride soared through him. Dare frowned, he did not know the female and yet, he shared in her victory.

  Stepping slowly towards the doors, words came to him he’d not requested. She was damaged, and he’d stated the obvious asking if they had harmed her. There was no logic to the words, she was clearly injured but he found he needed to ask, to engage with her on some level. Let her know she was safe with him. She told him the dead thought she’d be an easy target. His blood raged against hearing the words. They had come for her, his logic told him. Dare’s anger spiked, the need to lash out filling him. The female looked squarely at him, and Dare knew to shut down his emotions before he scared her more. “You are safe now,” he told her.

  The female looked back at him. “We will see.”

  Was she scared? He didn’t know and never before, had he the urge to comfort a female. To ensure she was safely cared for. But he did this day. Dare couldn’t take his eyes off her. The readings on his optics told him his emotions were turned off. And yet, ….. the minute she faltered out the lift, he wanted to carry her woes, take her burden from her, give her ……. He didn’t know what.

  Nicky walked slowly over towards the women coming from several rooms on one side of the Gallerea. They had been bars and shops, now, they’d been raping rooms, death rooms to many. Someone came with blankets and sheets. “There are medical kits in each of those bars,” Nicky called out hobbling towards them. Some went back in to look for them. She noticed the soldiers giving medical attention to some of the women, giving first aid and triage. A couple were screaming, begging to be let go and the men moved back, other women went to their aid. Others were not moving at all, shards of clothing all that was left. All broken and damaged, they were being wrapped up. Nicky recognised far too many and her heart broke. These had been her friends.

  A lucky few came up the stairwell into the main area with their saviours. A couple, some single men and women, more couples, a family the mother holding back the children grabbing the husband to take them back to their rooms. Nicky couldn’t blame the mother. This was no sight for a child. The Stations public address system kicked in.

  “Ladies and gentleman, Earth Corp has abandoned this Station. They are not coming. Under salvage law, this Station is now under our protection. We will continue to protect you and you are now free as we are.” Nicky looked over to her rescuers. The lead guy was never far away, his eyes remained on her. “We are the Cyborg Empire. Do not fear us. We are friends. The pirates raiding this Station have been dealt with. If you are in hiding, it is now the time to come out. We will not hurt you. You are safely under our protection while this situation is resolved. All community leaders and anyone in need of medical attention, should make themselves known to a Cyborg. Thank you.”

  Holy shit. Cyborgs? Nicky looked away quickly and got back to work helping the woman beside her. The stories were true then. Earth Corp had made super soldiers. No, not soldiers, they’d made Cyborgs. What the heck was a Cyborg? They looked like men to her. Bigger, clearly stronger and better looking than most but what did that mean for them now? Were they now safe. Did they have to worry about their rescuers? Too many questions.

 

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