Taunting Krell
Page 16

She smiled, amused, and in a mood to taunt him a little. “Not at all. I’m only interested in blowing away one cyborg.” She lowered her attention to the front of his pants. “Or maybe that was just ‘blowing a cyborg’.”
The silence finally made her look back at his face. He stared at her with all emotion wiped from his expression. She wondered if he even got the joke but she doubted it. He took a step closer to her but halted.
“What does that mean?”
“Sexual term. Think about it and I’m sure it will come to you. You spent plenty of time around human guards and they loved to talk crap.”
That got a reaction. His gaze narrowed and his hands flexed at his side. “Oral sex?”
She wiggled her eyebrows and grinned.
He growled low. “You insist on using your extreme sexual appeal to make me lower my defenses.”
“Extreme? I’m flattered. Do you want to feed me?” She really enjoyed teasing him as she paused. “I’m talking about food. I’m hungry.”
“Follow me.”
He stomped off the mat toward a room she hadn’t explored and walked into his kitchen. It was compact and she had to pause at the door to avoid brushing up against him as he faced off against some weird wall contraption. He jerked it open, withdrew a box and turned, shoving it into some square, electronic device. She picked up a low hum that lasted twenty seconds before it silenced. He opened the thing, withdrew the box and set it on the counter. The thing unfolded and the smell of food filled her senses. Her stomach actually grumbled in response. Krell’s head jerked her way as he stared at where the noise originated from.
“I think it was your creator’s version of a joke.” She shrugged. “He really wanted everything he thought up to be human, only better, and his attention to detail was amazing.”
Those blue eyes of his lifted and lingered on her br**sts. “I would have to agree with that statement.” He backed away, tearing his attention away from the front of her shirt to get her an eating utensil from a drawer. “Eat there. I’ll get you a drink.”
“No table?”
“Do you see one? There’s no point in sitting to enjoy a meal. I don’t cook and packaged food isn’t a joy to eat. It’s a physical requirement.”
“I cook.” She glanced around his so-called kitchen. “Where is your stove?”
“I didn’t have one installed. It would have been wasted here.”
“Too bad. I could have made you a wonderful dinner and maybe taught you the joys of eating. It’s spectacular if you’re dealing with tasty stuff.”
He started to hand her a fork but paused, glancing at her and then it, and back. Wariness narrowed his eyes.
“For real? Seriously?” She held out her hand, palm up. “What do you think? I’m going to try to prong you to death? I don’t know who that would be more embarrassing for—you dying by fork or me needing to use something so silly to take you out. I just want to eat, Krell. I could use my fingers if you insist on being paranoid.”
“Don’t try anything.” He handed it over.
Cyan grinned and shook her head. “I’d try to give you a heart attack if I wanted you dead. That would be more fun. Death by sex sounds less humiliating.” She stuck her fork into the paste-like substance. It didn’t smell bad but it looked horrible. She detected an artificial meat scent, probably want-to-be beef, and yellison, a space alternative to Earth’s tofu. It was cheap, it lasted forever, and stuck together for low- to no-gravity eating. “This stuff is going to be nasty, isn’t it?”
“You adjust.”
“I saw the outside. Don’t you grow veggies and stuff? Livestock? Doesn’t the planet hold any life forms that are tasty? It reminds me of Earth.”
“We don’t eat the planet’s inhabitants. We consider that rude. We do grow vegetables. That’s what we make the yellison with. It’s not from Earth.”
She laughed, glancing at him as she stuck a warm bite of the food in her mouth. She chewed, made a face and swallowed. “Bland. Do you at least have salt? Some seasoning? They fed me good food at Medical.”
“No.”
“Figures. You know this stuff is made of unpopular veggies, right? They blend them all up until it’s a tasteless mass of crap and just add whatever flavor they think will sell. You’d think you’d one-up Earth and at least be original.”
“Food production is not my job nor is the choice of what they do with the vegetation we grow. I could allow you to send a complaint to them if you wish or to make suggestions. They welcome them.”
“That’s at least new. Companies on Earth don’t care. It’s cheap enough in bulk for people to buy it regardless of what it tastes like.” She forced another bite into her mouth. The stuff would sustain her body but it sure wouldn’t be something she’d eat by choice. “You need better food if I stay here. Don’t make me beg. It’s not pretty.”
“I could arrange delivery of food.”
“I don’t want to put you out if it’s costly.”
“We don’t use a monetary system the way Earth does.”
That got her attention. “What do you use?”
“We don’t. We don’t ask for more than we need and we all contribute to our society.”
“I like that.” She smiled at him. “That’s the best thing I’ve heard so far about what you’ve done with your lives.”
“I heard you didn’t agree with breeding pacts.”
“It’s barbaric!” She ate more, swallowed, and decided she wasn’t nearly as hungry as she’d thought. She turned away from the food to watch him instead. “I’m not a baby machine to churn out little cyborgs and the whole ‘being assigned to strangers’ is creepy and just wrong.”
“Cyborg women choose their males when they join a family unit. You’re unique. The council felt the need to assign you into one.”
“Thanks but no thanks. I pick who I go to bed with and nobody else. They better not assign me to anyone or the cyborgs who get me are going to be eunuchs if they try to touch me.”
His mouth tightened into a grim line. “It’s a good thing they sent you to me. I would never force you.”
Worry ate at her and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Is that what they are planning to do once I settle into this planet? Send men to come get me and drag me somewhere to form some kind of messed-up family unit?”
“Not currently. You’re safe from other males.”
“But it could happen?”
“They assigned you into my custody. I wouldn’t force you to accept males into your bed. I’m in charge of you.”
She grinned. “Lucky you. What is on today’s agenda? Are we going to stare at each other all day or do you plan to give me a tour of the planet? I admit I’m curious. I’d love to see more of it.”
“We’re staying here. I thought we could talk and get to—”
A loud beep sounded and Krell jerked his head toward the living area. He moved swiftly out of the room. Cyan followed him to the front door. He pressed his palm on the scanner and the door slid open. A grimfaced cyborg she’d never seen before stood there in a black uniform. She tensed, hoping he wasn’t there to try to talk her in to checking out his sex skills.
“What is it?” The annoyance sounded strongly in Krell’s snarled tone.
“You weren’t hooked into your monitoring system. There’s been an urgent development.” The cyborg craned his neck to stare at Cyan for long seconds before he met Krell’s gaze. “Open a link. The entire council has been trying to reach you. They need an immediate assessment.”
“Thank you.” The door closed, sealing the guy out, and Krell closed his eyes. He kept hold of the wall pad.
Cyan watched him, assumed he was linking to other cyborgs and wondered what kind of urgent development had occurred. She inched to the side to get a better look at Krell’s face and felt alarm when she saw him pale, anger tensed his features next, and a soft growl rumbled from his throat. His jaw clenched.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered, not sure if linking meant someone else could hear her or if it was just inside his mind.
“Quiet,” he ordered gruffly.
She leaned against the wall, trying to remember exactly what he did for a living. He’d said he analyzed data and something about threat assessments. She hugged her chest harder, praying she wasn’t the topic. Had they decided it was too risky to allow her to live? Krell was convinced she was some kind of spy. Maybe they would believe she was too much of a danger to them. Fear inched up her spine. She’d hate to be killed by the people she’d once died to save. That would totally bite ass.
Time passed, Krell stood there with his eyes closed. He finally snapped them open. His hand left the wall scanner and he spun, nearly walked into her where she leaned against the wall, and shot her a frown.
“I’ve assigned two cyborg females to collect you. They will protect you from other males and keep an eye on you while I’m gone.” He moved fast, striding away.
Leave? She darted after him, having to jog to catch up to his longer stride. “Where are you going? What is wrong? Is it about me?” She grabbed at his arm, forcing him to spin around and come to a halt. She nearly slammed into him. “Where are you going? What is going on?”
“I don’t have time for this. I need to pack a bag. You will be safe. I assigned two females to guard you at a safe location.”
Her hold tightened. “Is it about me?”
He blew out a deep breath. “One of our ships has been attacked by the Markus Models.”
He jerked his arm out of her hold and spun away, rushing for his room. Cyan stood there shocked before rushing after him again. She practically ran into his bedroom and jerked to a stop to avoid slamming into him as he bent to pull a bag out of a lower drawer.
“Are there casualties? Are they still under attack? Did those bastards board it? What classification of ship do your people have?”
“They took damage and there are injuries but no deaths.” He threw clothes in the bag, not glancing at her. “They managed to escape but they are being pursued. We’re sending another ship to intercept. I need to be on it. I’ve been assigned to lead the mission since I’ve analyzed all the data and know best what we’ll be up against.”
“What classification of ship was attacked? What are you sending to help them?”
He ignored her. Anger gripped Cyan and she lunged at him, grabbed his arm and forced him to stop packing.
“Listen to me, Krell. I know the Markus Models. They can remote hack systems. I traveled to intercept them on an outdated dinosaur of a shuttle because its main computer was only voice activated from the cockpit with my voice imprinted along with my speech patterns. They can mimic voices but they suck at imitating how people talk.”
He glared at her hand gripping his forearm. “We’re aware of their hacking skills. The cyborg commander saw the ship coming and took control of the system first to prevent other breaches.”
“It’s not just the main computer they need to worry about. Do you know how the Markuses escaped? They targeted the nonessential systems.” She refused to allow him to pull away from her. “They bypassed the mainframe computer and focused on silly shit that nobody grew alarmed over until they caused the system to crash. They were playing with lights and food systems, the air flow regulators, and if you get more than four of the Markuses together they work as one, able to assault hundreds of non-secure functions as though they are a computer cell. It adds up. They overloaded that master computer until they caused a massive power surge. They walked out of the manufacturing plant because everything electrical crashed. You need to warn your people to watch for that and manually override everything they can. Everything.”