Burn, page 9
part #14 of Galactic Cyborg Heat Series
***
Burn came back on line. Data blinked and paused across his optic. Then it re-booted and lines of code filtered across. He breathed deeply. The first in a long time. Systems checks. Diagnostic start up, programme running.
Last recorded data; Shutdown. Time delay; 17.8 Years.
It was too long, was his first thought. Something had gone wrong… Burn breathed deeply again flooding his system with the oxygen it demanded and understood it had taken longer than anyone had expected. A data dump fed into his systems bringing him up to date. She was awake and talking. No sign of permanent damage.
Opening his eyes, he registered he was still on the Space Station and sat up. It had worked. The Admiral, Dark and Pain stood in the room with him. The Doctor in the corner waiting. Her mate Dark, wouldn’t let her near him until they knew for sure what his responses would be. It wasn’t unexpected. “Admiral, Commanders, Doctor,” he acknowledged.
The patriarch of their Empire stepped forward. He had several names and titles but this, was how he knew him. “Do you retain your sanity Burn?” he asked.
He knew why he’d asked this question. He’d not been sane when he’d been shut off. He’d not coped well with her dying several times on him. Each one, worse that then last. In the end, Doc told him he had ‘cracked’ under the strain and needed time to recover. He wasn’t sure what that meant but they thought it had something to do with that part of his brain that was missing, his lack of control and his overriding emotions. So, he’d elected to be shut down and to wait for her, if she ever regained consciousness. He would too. “I am.” It was an easy price to pay.
The Admiral nodded. “The treatment worked while you were sleeping. The female has awakened as was hoped. Mac informs there does not appear to be any lasting damage. The time delay worked. She will make a full recovery but will need time, to adjust to losing nearly eighteen years of her life. She does not know the nano’s you gave her will prolong her life, as it has our mates or that eighteen years in our lifetime, means very little. But to her right now, it will feel like a huge loss.”
Burn nodded. Information on the Empire was flooding into his systems. They had expanded further, gone into more unknown Space and found new worlds while he’d been asleep. But he cared only about one thing. The female he wanted.
“You will find a replay of her awaking. She does not blame you Burn. She was given a sedative after introducing her to the changes and is now resting. You might want to be there when she wakes up.” Doc told him from her corner completing her scans of his system. Burn gave a nod. “He has no lasting damage from the breakdown.”
The Admiral turned to walk out, both Dark and Pain going with him. “Doc needs to check you out. Don’t fuck it up,” he called out. “Kim will be pissed if you do and she misses out on a new human friend.” Could be heard coming from the corridor as they walked away. Kim, the Admirals mate was a force of nature no one messed with.
She didn’t blame him. Burn breathed easier. Maybe, they had a chance now. He’d nearly lost more than once, he wasn’t about to let that happen again. He replayed her waking. Needing to know everything. Doc stepped forward. “I’m going to run some more scans and check them against your base line, then you can go to her.” It was the best news he’d heard in nearly eighteen years.
***
Angel shook off the last clinging images of sleep and came too once more. This time feeling stronger, better. It seemed knowing where you are made all the difference. She didn’t have the anxiety she’d had that first time. She expected to see the medical room. Expected to see the staff of the Space Station this time and guessed being asleep for only hours and not years, had something to do with feeling better too. Blinking awake fully, she took a deep breath and looked around her.
A body appeared, smiling down on her and helped her to sit up, adjusting her bed and passed her some water. “Thank you.” They smiled and moved off.
For a medical facility it was so very peaceful and seemed at odds somehow with being one. The few times she’d been in one on her world, it meant pain and little comfort but then, it was vastly different to this. She wondered if her people had had some help in the years she’d lost. They had needed those med beds. And felt sad and angry that she’d lost so much. If Bertl was still alive …..
“You’re alive, that’s all that matters.” Came from the corner of the room.
Angel turned her head to look at him. He was partially in the shadows just how she remembered him. He’d not aged at all. Getting up, he picked up his chair and walked with it to the side of her bed. So quietly, he barely made a noise. She remembered that too and smiled at him. Were they friends? He stood over her for a moment, almost like he was checking she was still there and then sat down. “It has been a long time, but to you, it will seem like yesterday,” he told her quietly.
He looked so well, thought Angel and tears threatened to spill. “I’m glad to see you are well,” she told him holding them back. “I was wrong to say the things I did on our last meeting. I was angry, afraid, I think.”
He shook his head. “You were right to accuse me. Had I not moved back, been less focused on what you were saying, I would have seen him and been fast enough to make a difference.”
Angel shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter now. Bertl?”
“Dead.”
She expected that and felt no sympathy for him. “Nearly eighteen years. It must have been bad?” she queried.
He didn’t move, like he was remembering. He didn’t speak for a while and Angel wondered if he’d heard her and gave him some time. “You died… more than once. On the third occasion they shut me down and put me in stasis. They were told not to wake me until you did. If you did.”
Angel stared at him open mouthed. “You did what? What if I did not wake? What about your life? Your command?”
Burn took a deep breath he did not need and took comfort in the little piece of calm it brought him. Calm he also should not need but did. This conversation would not be easy, but he insisted on doing it himself. He now understood things much better. Much clearer. Time had helped with that but in the beginning, he thought he would go mad. And maybe for a time, he had. Now he knew his logic waged a war with his emotions and often lost. Turned off or on. It bled through and burned deep. He was unable to prevent it and his namesake once more. It seemed right, that she should burn as deeply as any fire could.
He leaned forward and took her hand. It was small and fragile like the rest of her but, he knew her to be stronger now. He caught the reaction in her face. She looked surprised and stilled and then relaxed. He was glad to see it. He hoped she didn’t fear him and tried to put his thoughts in some order. It was important they made sense to her. Getting it right was everything. “We had a very short time together,” he told her quietly smiling. “But it was more than just enjoyable it was important. Important to me. You were a surprise. A big one. One I was ill prepared for and Cyborgs pride themselves on being prepared for everything and I failed miserably in that. I do not believe, I dealt with it well. The err, Admirals mate, Kim, told me I was an idiot and needed to get my shit together.” He smiled wider at the memory. “She was right. At that point, I had little control and was in danger of making things worse,” he told her nodding.
She frowned up at him, uncertain now. Even sitting, he was far taller than her in that bed. Burn pushed on, he had to get it all out there. She had to know it all. “Cyborgs, we do not lie or cheat and only recently found out we could find our mates and have a life beyond war. It was and still is, a surprise to those of us that do. Over 60 or 70 years, some longer, waging war, dying, killing, being the worst, this life can offer with no possibility of more than that, came to a shuddering halt with our freedom.
And suddenly with the Admiral finding his mate, his Kim, our lives became far more than we’d ever expected. A future was offered to us in that one simple connection and suddenly, we had needs of our own. Wanted things that were once forbidden to us and a whole new world opened up. But our logic still rules us and the odds of finding one are very great. We hold that knowledge and carry on, only pulling on it when it is time. We are complicated beings. Half machine, half human. We do not age like humans. Without looking, I know I do not look any older than when we last met. Our nano’s keep us in peak condition, removing or mending anything that is not functioning at 100% as they were designed to do. They did the same for you.”
He glanced up to make sure she was still with him. She was.
“You are the same age now, both visually and physically, as you were when you were put in the med bed. You have not lost the chance of making new life, if that is want you want and in that way, it may never be any older.” She breathed in sharply. “We do not know for sure but the mates of other Cyborgs, have pulled back time on their bodies, becoming younger in appearance and physically. Some back to childbearing age in their early 30s. For human females with mates who were later in years, this came as a surprise to them and the Cyborgs. Others found younger stop at their maturity and have not aged at all. Mac, our Doctor keeps an eye on it. She’s a mate too.”
Angel squeezed his hand. “Do you know what people will do with that knowledge? You’ll be hunted. I will. You are offering eternal life.”
Burn shook his head. “We’re not. Our nano’s only affect our mates. No mate no longevity. We will expire at some point. Our power supply is not indefinite. But our people live on our worlds and anyone that stupid to come looking, will find the Empire to deal with.”
Angel frowned. “What if I do not want to live on one of your worlds?”
He held her hand a bit more tightly. The thought of her leaving him after everything just too much. “I’m guessing you want to go home?” She nodded. “A lot has happened in the last eighteen years. That world is now in the Empire. Our people live on it. Our technology supports it, trade works in everyone’s favour. The Overlord support us. Your people buy from us and our other worlds, we buy from you. They have plenty of our med beds now and real facilities to put them in.”
Angel remembered then that the Doctor had told her Burn had saved her business. “You saved my business?” he gave a nod.
“When can I leave?” she asked suddenly needing to feel her own soil under her feet.
“We can leave whenever your ready. My ship will be back soon from it’s last mission and will have a permanent base on your world.” He told her.
“Are those your orders?” she asked.
Burn shook his head. “No, that’s my choice.”
Angel didn’t get it. “Why would you do this?”
Burn smiled and stared into her beautiful eyes. “You are imprinted here,” he told her and touched his head, “and here,” he touched his heart. “It burns more fiercely than any of the fires I endured in the wars. The scar is deeper too. It affects my logic and my emotions. I am bonded to you. There is no going back for me. It’s you or its no one. I had to be put in stasis, weeks after you were first injured. I was unable to function. A little insane I think. As a Cyborg I was a failure. Mac says it’s what happens to those who are separated from their mates and as we did not know how long it would take, I agreed to be shut down.”
“They can’t just go around shutting people off. That’s not right.” She told him vehemently.
Burn smiled wider. She was angry he’d harmed himself to be with her. It was a start. He would build on that. She had craved him once, she would again. Her skills were needed in the Empire and he needed her too. They had no Designers and she was one. Her world was vastly different now. It offered more choice and was no longer isolated. She would need to find her place in this new dynamic and he would be by her side helping her every step of the way. She was everything he needed.
“If I wanted a life with you, I had no option. It’s what mates do.”
The End ……
Thank you for reading this book. I hope you enjoyed it and check out the rest of the series on sale now. In the meantime, here’s a bonus excerpt from one of my other novels. Enjoy xx
Prince of the Demon Realm.
Chapter One
Clair stood on the street, with her back pack cutting into her shoulders, holding her letter. She looked up at the plain black glass building at the address she’d been given. As she hiked up her back pack nervously, she glanced around and saw nothing other than what she’d expect to see. A busy street, in a cosmopolitan city. Nothing that would raise her suspicions. She looked back at the building, rubbing her thumbs and forefingers together subconsciously. Feeling the vibe flowing from it.
The building held no business name. Just a number and street. 302 Clydesdale Heights. It sounded so normal, but she knew that didn’t tell the whole story. She’d always been a bit intuitive. She thought of it as a guide and right now, she was getting a strange vibe off that building. She tried to filter it. Get a grip on what it was, that had stopped her going in. It wasn’t bad exactly, it just felt …wrong. Like being told to stay away. Yet, there was something else about it. Claire grasped her letter tighter, trying for a better feel of the place. Part of it seemed strangely …… familiar but different at the same time. Clair frowned looking down. Staring at it, made it worse somehow. She focused, trying to remember. She filtered the vibe looking for……….. The only other time she’d felt that particular vibe or something like it, was ………. The fire.
She opened her eyes in shock and surprise and looked up. Clair’s eyes flared, understanding the connection. She took a couple of steps back. As something hit the back of her legs she turned and saw the bench and sat down. Hard. It was just the shock, she told herself. It did feel easier sitting down. It had been so long ago, and she’d been so young, but the memories flooded her. The house burning, the screaming of her sibling and parents. Being unable to get out of the house because of something, an invisible barrier stopping them. Then her parents shouting to run to the concrete cellar and her hoping they would follow. Only they didn’t. The door slammed shut and she was all alone. Clair breathed in deep slowly.
She’d always thought she must have passed out down there. The memories were scattered, she couldn’t pin them down exactly. It was too painful, so she’d left it. Time held no meaning to her in that place and she couldn’t focus on what had happened. Until the door was being opened like it was paper and her saviour appeared. Unconcerned for the flames and smoke all around him. He stood, looking down on her, his piercing blue eyes, cool as ice, as he seemed to wipe the flames and smoke away with the sweep of his hand.
Then he’d told her her family was gone and bent down to offer his hand. She remembered feeling safe and that it was right to go to him. He’d picked her up and carried her from the burning building.
It was so very long ago…..
She rubbed her thumbs and forefingers together unable to stop. Feeling the vibe once more. It couldn’t be …… The large male that had carried her, had the same feel she was getting now. Only it was so much stronger now, more complex, heady even ………. She felt her body responding. That couldn’t be good. She frowned. It had been nearly 20 years, but the memories had come back thick and fast and just as fresh, as yesterday.
Clair looked at her letter and re-read it. It had looked like a genuine job offer. Was it? she frowned deeper. Was this some kind of ploy? A game? She’d done her research and the company was legit. It had shareholders and made one hell of a profit. The salary was dam good too. She’d come a long way to take this job, now …… she rubbed her fingers together some more, tuning into the vibe……… Her body tingled, responding to it. She wasn’t quite so sure …….. There was a darkness here and there was something wrong about that building ……
***
The intercom went off on his desk. Irritated, Damon reached over and punched it. “What.”
“My Lord, we have a situation at the front of the building. An invite has been sitting, staring at the building for several hours. It is long past their interview time, but they have not left and continue to stare at us.”
Damon frowned distractedly and impatiently blew out a breath. Invites either came in or didn’t come at all. It wasn’t his remit to deal with them. Where was Orcus when he needed him? But he knew the answer to that.
He took a moment. He’d never known one to arrive and not take the interview. That was a little strange. The internal shutters started to rise on the buildings windows. The sun was going down. The staff would be changing from day to night walkers.
He focused on the conversation. “And your telling me this why?” There was silence on the other end. Damon bit back the ‘for fuck sake’ that was riding his tongue. “Find Orcus, he deals with interviews. In the mean-time leave them. If they come in now it’s too late and will be turned away.”
“Yes sir.” Damon took his hand off the intercom and looked at it. Granted, it was unusual for an invite to be staring at the building, but he had real problems to deal with.
Agiel, walked into the room without knocking. Damon didn’t expect him to. He was his brother if not in birth, in life or death. “They’re here.” Damon nodded. He knew they would be. The invite was clear. Sundown. “You think this will work?” he asked him.
Damon shrugged. “Either way, the outcome is what we need. I’m sick of their shit. We don’t want a war and with todays technology, we couldn’t hide it anyway. No one wants to go back to the old days. Taking out strategic players and waging a war underground. We need to move forward and meet this world head on. Not pretend we can ignore it and carry on like its 400 years ago.”
