Unit 77_Broken Read online

  “You’re gorgeous when you blush,” he commented, looking away so she could escape the prison of his gaze. “I should make you do it more often.”

  “You try and make me blush on purpose?” she asked, her heart skipping a beat as he nodded, put his mug down, and started to move toward her. Before he could say, or do, anything else... the raucous squark of the base alarm made them both jump.

  “Shit, not now,” he hissed, annoyance crossing his face for a second before he leaned in and dropped a kiss right there on her cheek. “Duty calls, Doc, but hold that thought.”

  The memory trailed off into sadness. The next time she’d seen him he’d been lying on her treatment table, broken and dead. Staring down a court-martial, thanks to Pike’s threats, she’d been forced to turn him into something else... turn him into the machine crouched in front of her.

  “We were friends,” she said again. “Close friends...”

  77 tilted his head. “Your heart rate just went up, and your pupils dilated. You and this body were sexually intimate?”

  “No!” Her response was instinctive, as was the heat that burned over her cheeks. Then she realized this wasn’t Drew. He was gone and she did his memory no honor by lying. “Eventually I think we would have been, yes,” she admitted, more to herself than the man-machine in front of her.

  “Interesting.”

  He didn’t let go of her chin so she stayed where she was. The metal fingers were warmer than she’d expected, his touch so soft even though she knew he could easily crush her jaw in his grip. She’d added all his implants and cybernetics, knew them as intimately as she knew her own medical record, so she knew the pounds per inch pressure he could put down... but she’d never considered how his metal skin would actually feel against her own.

  “Why did you take me?” she got up the courage to ask. “It wasn’t to ask if Captain Fisher and I were lovers...”

  He shook his head, a curt shake, and a little bit of the hope she’d still harbored in her heart died.

  “No. I needed a doctor. You were the closest I could acquire with minimal risk.”

  Chapter Three

  Unit 77 stared at her. The little female doctor stirred him—stirred the little voice inside his head that whispered about shadows of the past. When he was close to her and the scent of her hair and skin wafted to his nose, he had the strangest sensations—mostly centered in his groin.

  That part of him was still flesh, anyway. In fact, the only part that was all nonorganic metal was his left arm. He used it to lift her now, off the forest floor. She felt yielding and soft in his arms, but he forced himself to ignore that input…and the strange things it did to him. At the back of his neck, the CyBRG device was working overtime, trying to quell the overwhelming tide of emotions the little female raised in him.

  She made me like this, he reminded himself. She admitted it. She turned me into the monster I am now. It is illogical to have any emotion for her but anger.

  Squeezing her to him, he ran again, the underbrush crunching under his metal boots. There were hoppers nearby. He could sense them. But he didn’t say anything to Doctor Chambers. Because…

  Because she nearly got killed by one and you saved her. Back when you weren’t Unit 77. Back when you were Drew, whispered that little voice in his head.

  77 did his best to push it aside. He stopped a few hundred yards from the base he and the rest of the rogue cyber soldiers had established and set the doctor down. He was fairly certain that she was completely lost by now but he was taking no chances.

  “N-now what?” Her voice shook a little but she kept her chin lifted, looking fearlessly into his face.

  “You must be blindfolded,” 77 told her. “I cannot risk you knowing the location of our base.”

  “Blindfolded? Does…does that mean you’ll take me back? Eventually?” The hope and fear in her voice seemed to do something inside him—something even the CyBRG device couldn’t completely repress.

  77 fought it and frowned at her.

  “That will be determined at a later date. For now, your vision must be obscured.” He reached into his side pocket, searching for the strip of cloth he had placed there for just this eventuality. Unfortunately, it was sharing space with the spine of the cyber soldier he had killed entering the compound. When he pulled it out, the ragged material was dripping with blood and lubricating fluids.

  “Ugh!” Doctor Chambers recoiled from the filthy strip of fabric, a look of disgust stamped on her delicate features. Clearly she didn’t want it wrapped around her eyes, touching her face.

  For a moment—just a moment—77 thought of forcing her to wear it anyway.

  After all, whispered the little voice in his head, she forced you to wear your metal arm and the rest of your cybernetic components. Maybe she deserves a little payback.

  But the inner part of him—some core that still remained of the man he had been—resisted the idea. He didn’t really wish to hurt her or disgust her, no matter how much she might deserve punishment for what she had done to him. Still, her eyes must be covered.

  Since most of his body was covered in the hyper-strong, blast resistant silvery alloy of his cybernetic components, 77 had no other fabric to use, other than his combat pants, which he was not about to tear.

  Doctor Chambers, however, did.

  “Take off your blouse,” he told her.

  “Wh-what?” She took a step back from him, a look of uncertainty on her face. “You…you want me to undress? Why?”

  A whisper of the past woke in his brain, and 77 suddenly understood her fear.

  “I do not wish to take you sexually against your will,” he growled. “But I must have something to bind around your eyes before we proceed further.”

  “What…what about my lab coat?” She started shrugging it off.

  Unit 77 frowned. “Too bulky. Take off your blouse…or I can still use the strip of fabric I brought for this purpose initially.”

  “No, don’t do that!” She looked at the sodden strip of fabric lying on the forest floor and shivered with disgust. “All right, I’ll take off my blouse as long as you promise I can put it back on as soon as we get where we’re going.”

  “I do not think that will be a problem,” 77 said. “Now hurry! Your medical expertise is desperately needed.”

  She nodded and began quickly unbuttoning the silky gray blouse she was wearing. The color made her own gray eyes look almost silver, 77 thought, like sunlight reflecting off a lake. Then he wondered why he had thought such a thing.

  There used to be a lake, whispered the little voice. Far away on Old Earth. You lived by it when you were a boy. Fished in it with Dad…

  But then all the ghosts of his pasts were blown away like dry leaves in the wind when Doctor Chambers finally shrugged out of the long-sleeved gray blouse and stood there wearing only her skirt and a black lace bra.

  77 shouldn’t have cared what she looked like. He had acquired her for one purpose only—to heal Unit 78 (Rich) and that was all that ought to matter. But he couldn’t help letting his eyes linger on her soft flesh and the creamy slopes of her full breasts, cupped lovingly in black lace. They were so full she seemed to be spilling out of the bra like ripe fruit, and he could clearly see the tight little points of her nipples pressing against the lacy fabric.

  Without knowing what he was doing, 77 reached out—with his right hand, not the metal left one—and traced the curve of one full mound with his fingertip.

  Beautiful, whispered the voice in his head. You always wanted to touch her there…to rub your cheek against those perfect breasts…suck her nipples into your mouth just to hear her moan your name…

  Doctor Chambers shivered under his light touch.

  “What…what are you doing? I thought you didn’t…didn’t want me that way.”

  Her voice sounded high and breathless and her heart rate had climbed. Her pupils had dilated, just as they had when he’d asked her if she had been intimate with his body before he
was…what he was now.

  What you are now is a monster, the spiteful little voice in his brain informed him. Remember that fairy tale they used to tell—Beauty and the Beast? Guess which one you are, 77?

  Abruptly he pulled his hand away, though her skin was so soft he wished he could touch her all day.

  “Sorry,” he muttered. “I was…calibrating my senses. Give me your blouse—I will blindfold you with it.”

  Mutely, she handed him the silky gray material and 77 tied it roughly around her eyes. She gasped but made no protest when he knotted it tightly. After making certain she couldn’t see, he picked her up again and bounded off, changing directions several times just to be certain she would have no idea where they were going. If the CO found their lair—the secret place he and the other rogues had carved out for themselves—he would send a unit of cyber soldiers after them too large to hold off.

  The result of that would be death, and 77 had no intention of dying a second time.

  At last he reached the enormous tree where he and the others had established their base. The huge growth had rough, gray-blue bark that gave plenty of hand and foot holds, yet even the lowest branches were too high for the hoppers to reach. It was a safe place—as long as no one found it.

  “I need you to cling to my back now,” he told Doctor Chambers, setting her down. “I will crouch so you can put your arms around my neck.”

  “Can I take off the blindfold now?” she asked, sounding both uncertain and anxious.

  Unit 77 considered. “Negative. It’s better if you don’t see where we’re going.” The heights they would soon be ascending would likely frighten her, and that hidden part of him—the core buried deep inside—didn’t want that.

  He crouched in front of her and took one of her blindly seeking hands, placing it firmly on his shoulder. After a moment, she seemed to get the idea and clambered awkwardly onto his back, her arms gripped tightly around his neck.

  When she felt secure, he rose smoothly.

  “Hold on tightly,” he advised her and began to climb.

  “Oh!” Doctor Chambers gasped in his ear and her grip on him tightened. 77 tried not to notice the soft press of her breasts against his back or the feeling of her lush thighs wrapped around his waist.

  She is here to help Unit 78, he told himself sternly, even as the CyBRG unit in the back of his neck clicked and whirred, trying to damp the emotions of lust and desire that rose in him as he felt the curvy little female press tightly against him. There is no other reason for her to be here. No reason at all and no need to have any emotions about her.

  But being so close to Claudia Chambers seemed to do something to him—to make the brokenness inside him worse. What was it that was broken or breaking? Was it the CyBRG unit…or something else?

  77 had no answers, and he was relieved when he finally reached the broad branch he was aiming for and found the hollow in the tree’s trunk.

  Inside the vast tree, he and some of the other rogues had taken what had been a rough opening and hollowed it into a kind of living cave. They had all donated various extra lighting components from their own cyber armor, which meant they had illumination inside the hollow tree as well.

  He set the doctor down just inside the living cave, between the sentries who stood watch there, and removed the blouse from her face.

  She looked at the two tall cyber soldiers on either side of the entrance with wide eyes, but all she said was, “Where is he? Where’s my patient?”

  “This way.” Unit 77 nodded her further into the tree-cave. He approved of her courage. Any of the rogues around her could break the petite female in half with one hand—not that he would let them. A feeling of possessiveness not even the CyBRG device could quell swept over him at the thought. But despite her danger, the doctor thought of nothing but the one she had come to heal.

  Unit 78 lay on a rough wooden slab they had been able to hew from a broken branch. His eyes were closed and he was breathing shallowly, the wound in his torso still leaking blood and lubricating fluid, which dripped onto the wooden floor.

  Doctor Chambers gave a low curse and dropped to her knees beside him.

  “Light—I need more light!” she exclaimed. “How did this happen?”

  “He was shot by a pulse rifle,” one of the other cyber soldiers—Unit 80—answered.

  “Yes, yes…” Doctor Chambers waved one hand impatiently. “I can see that. I meant, why did the other cybernetic Soldiers shoot at you in the first place? Why did you disobey orders?”

  Unit 77 felt a wave of emotion even his CyBRG device couldn’t control. Anger…betrayal…fear…

  “Because,” he grated. “The CO ordered us to eliminate targets. But they were not targets—they were people. People such as we used to be. Colonists who were only trying to farm the land.”

  “Colonists…” Unit 78 began and then coughed weakly. “Colonists must…must be protected. First…order of business.”

  “He ordered you to kill colonists? Right here on Hast?” Doctor Chambers looked confused. “But…why?”

  77 shook his head. “Unknown. But we could not comply with his order.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t. I just have no idea why he would have ordered it in the first place.” Her face went dark. “If I know Pike, it will have something to do with turning a personal profit. He’s dirty—I’m sure of it. But ordering you to kill helpless colonists would make him more than dirty. That would make him a sociopath.”

  “We do not know why he ordered what he ordered,” 77 told her. “We only know we could not comply.” He nodded at Unit 78 who appeared to be unconscious now. “Can you heal him? Can you fix my broken comrade?”

  “I’ll try, but I don’t have any equipment.” She frowned, her brow furrowing. “You should have let me bring my kit! I had it right there in the med shack.”

  “I should have considered the fact that you would need instruments. I will go back at once,” 77 said.

  “No, wait!” She put a hand on his arm. It was the first time she had touched him on purpose without him touching her first. 77 couldn’t help noting that it caused his heart rate to increase considerably for some reason.

  “Is there something else you require?” he asked her, trying to keep his voice level.

  “I just…I don’t want you to leave me.” She bit her lip, an expression of anxiety crossing her delicate features. “Can’t…can’t someone else go for it?”

  77 considered. Why did she want him? Because she used to be friends with the one who inhabited his body? With the one he used to be?

  “Please, Drew,” she said softly. “Please don’t go.”

  The sound of his old name seemed to stab at his heart but 77 ignored it.

  “Well, I suppose, if there has been no alarm about the sentry I deactivated, sending someone else should not be a problem…”

  “Deactivated?” She shivered.

  “Killed,” 77 said harshly.

  Her reaction bothered him for some reason. He felt as though he had been weighed in her scales of judgment and found wanting. It was not a pleasant feeling.

  “The unit I deactivated—killed—was one of those who didn’t mind shooting colonists,” he reminded her. “In fact, I believe he was also the unit who wounded 78 here.”

  “I…I see.” She nodded hesitantly. Their eyes locked and for a long moment, neither looking away. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “I can get the med kit,” Unit 80 said, breaking in at last. “If no alarm has been sounded, it should be simple enough to slip in and get it, Captain.”

  77 nodded his ascent. “All right.” He looked at Doctor Chambers. “Is there anything else that you require?”

  “Well, let’s see…” She thought for a moment and then rattled off a list. “All of that should be available in the med shack or the supply shack right beside it,” she added. “Can you carry it all, do you think?”

  Unit 80 grinned and made a muscle at her, curling one bicep to make i
t bulge. 77 wondered if his comrade’s CyBRG device was also malfunctioning, allowing some emotion to seep into his system. Though, if the memory in his head was right, 80, who had once been called Jake Wilkins, had always been…

  A fucking show-off, whispered the little voice.

  “I am capable,” 80 boasted.

  “All right, thanks—go get it, then.” Doctor Chambers smiled a little—the barest quirk of one corner of her lush mouth. The expression brought a wave of emotion that even the device in 77’s neck could not control.

  You always loved to make her smile like that—that soft little almost-smile that turns her from pretty to gorgeous…whispered the voice of his past—the unquiet ghost that lived in his head. You wanted to make her smile like that and then kiss her…

  77 frowned. Kiss? What was that? There were still huge gaps in his memory—holes he couldn’t explain—words he couldn’t define. He couldn’t remember the meaning of this one but when he looked at the petite doctor, leaning over Unit 78 with a concerned look on her face, he wished he could. It seemed…important somehow.

  80 was back in record time and he had thought to bring some MREs—self heating meal kits—too. A good thing since the organic parts of the cyber soldiers’ bodies still relied on human food for nutrition. And of course, Doctor Chambers had to eat.

  Not that she would.

  Though Unit 77 asked her several times to come and eat to replenish her energy, she refused. Once she had the medical supplies in her kit, she worked tirelessly on 78 for hours, her hands stained red and pale blue with the mixture of blood and lubricating fluid.

  Once, in the middle of the operation, 78 jerked and groaned, his entire long frame going stiff with pain.

  “Oh no, I’m sorry!” The doctor looked horrified. “I must have hit a nerve! I wish I had better anesthetic here.”

  “No,” 77 grated out. He too, felt the pain—another agony wave, coming from the damn CyBRG device. “Not…your fault. Agony…bolts. Punishment for not…coming back to base.”