Zero's Heart (Lathar Mercenaries: Warborne Book 1) Read online

  “Oh god, Zero…” she moaned, her hand sliding up the back of his neck as the other skated down his arm. “That’s… I’m… fuuuck!”

  He felt her climax wash up, the tiny contractions of her body before she clamped down. The rush as her release hit bathed his fingers in more slick heat. Tilting her head, he claimed her lips at the same time, sliding his tongue deep to taste her passion as she shattered apart.

  And it was glorious.

  Her back arched, her body tight and she clung to him like he was her only anchor in the entirety of existence. Her kiss was white-hot, sensual as she drowned in pleasure, demanding a response from him that he was more than eager to give as he kept touching and stroking her. He stretched her release out as much and as far as he could until she shivered in his arms and collapsed against him, boneless.

  Gently, he pulled his fingers free, still holding her against him. His own body screamed for completion, but he wasn’t going to give up the soft trust she placed in him, this moment of togetherness as she lay against him.

  “That was…” He tilted her face up to his. “You’re beautiful—”

  He didn’t get the chance to say anymore or even kiss her as the shipwide comm sparked into life, Sparky’s voice filling the room.

  “Hey, guys. I know you’re probably naked and doing it right now, but… we kinda got a problem.”

  “I fucking hate that human,” Zero groaned, resting his forehead against hers.

  Eris kept her eyes closed, not wanting to lose the intimacy and closeness of the moment just yet. Her pants were still undone, and Zero’s hand on her stomach was a reminder of what they’d done… where it would have gone if they hadn’t been cock-blocked by an ex-con.

  “Guys?” the comm sparked again. “I’m not fucking about. SO13 are on our tail, and I can’t operate this tub alone!”

  “Fuck!” Zero’s expression was grim as he pulled away. Quickly she fastened her pants as he scooped her up into his arms. “He’s right. We’ve got three on our tail, and there’s no way we can outrun them.”

  “Get me to the bridge,” she ordered, a little redundantly because he was already running that way.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him, knowing he wouldn’t drop her. Curiously she looked at him, noting that division of attention again. It was weird. She knew he was right there with her, concentrating on where he was putting his feet… but at the same time, she knew part of him wasn’t with her at all. It was somewhere else. Somewhere…

  “Are you linked to the ship as well?” she asked softly, knowing he would hear her.

  His terse nod was all the answer she needed to confirm that he hadn’t been lying about not being human. Given her situation, she’d made sure to keep up with technological advances on the cybernetic front. It had pretty much stalled when the Scorperio units had crippled their operators. The furthest doctors would venture these days were things like the exoskeletal supports she’d been forced to rely on over the last few years. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the level of technology he so casually displayed… humanity wasn’t anywhere close to it. Obviously, the Lathar were.

  They reached the bridge to find Sparky strapped into the copilot’s seat. He cast them a look over his shoulder. “Glad you’ve both got clothes on. Strap in. This is going to be a bumpy ride.”

  “Put me there,” Eris ordered, motioning to the gunner’s position. She wasn’t surprised to see it. Ships that ran in the Pheidian Belt were often armed to the teeth, a show of force to put off pirates. Hopefully, it would be enough.

  “You got it, babe,” he murmured, setting her down gently. He reached for her harness to strap her in but she slapped his hands away.

  “My legs don’t work, not my hands. Now go!” she ordered, nodding toward the pilot’s chair.

  “Yes, ma’am.” He stole a quick, hard kiss and was gone.

  Her hands were swift and efficient, buckling herself in as she looked at the screen. To her relief, it was familiar. An argus seventeen control unit with what looked like byzantine seven rail guns and, she flicked the screen across… yeah, a full complement of torpedoes. It was just the big brother to the weapons system in her suit, one she’d spent many hours training on.

  “Weapons systems coming online,” she called out, attention on the tracking systems as they came online. Her expression tightened. Three lancer class troop carriers were following them. They were fast, maneuverable and unfortunately armed to the teeth.

  “Confirm, three targets coming in hot. I can keep them off our tails but not for long. Gonna need some fancy flying, boys.”

  “You got it, doll,” Sparky replied, and a small lurch told her they’d just disengaged the autopilot.

  Sliding her hands into the gun controls, she called out over her shoulder. “Any pearls of wisdom to impart about fighting SO13, Allen?”

  “Yeah,” he called back. “Don’t get fucking shot.”

  “I had heard that tends to sting a little,” she threw back, just as Zero warned. “Going for a high-g right and then prep for flight pattern Alpha-three-three-nine. In three, two, one… mark!”

  Eris gritted her teeth as the ship rolled, peeling off to the right. The high-speed maneuver raised a question she filed for later. If Zero wasn’t human, how the hell did he know Terran combat patterns so well?

  Automatically she adjusted her line of sight, her chair swiveling in its mountings to keep her level as she focused on the ships following them. Working in concert with the targeting systems, she grinned in triumph as two lit up red.

  “Torpedoes away,” she announced, hitting the triggers. The tail plumes of both torpedoes blossomed in her view screen for a split second. Then the ship pitched and dropped, sliding behind an asteroid just as the lancers engaged their rail guns. Without line of sight, she was forced to rely on her screens.

  “Direct hit, one down. One shook the lock,” she called out, but then it was game on.

  Both Allen and Zero called out flight patterns. She responded on the fly, adapting her firing techniques to the flight profile and the cover from the asteroids around them. They played hide and seek with the lancers, trying to stay in shelter and inflict the maximum amount of damage without getting tagged themselves.

  But nothing could last forever.

  “Guys,” she called out in warning, cutting the rail guns as they slid behind another asteroid. “Running low on ammo. I have maybe two engagements left. We’re gonna need to make a break for it. Or we’re fucked. Seriously.”

  8

  ❖

  “Fuck!” Sparky, strapped into the seat next to him, spat. “She’s right. And we’re almost down to vapor on the fuel. We’re out of options, big man. Any ideas?”

  Zero’s lips compressed into a thin line. He didn’t need to check the systems to know they were both telling the truth. As soon as he’d slid into the pilot’s seat and taken control, he’d known they had a snowball in hell’s chance of beating the three human ships. All they could do was evade and delay the inevitable.

  Well… almost all they could do.

  “Conserve fuel and ammo,” he ordered, adjusting the ship’s systems on the fly. Opening airlocks and depressurizing whole areas, he increased efficiency so their fuel would go further. At the same time, he used the long-range sensors to plot a course through the asteroid field. Multitasking was the beauty of being a cyborg. If someone had given him a broom, he could’ve swept the floor as well.

  Then he felt the smallest tickle at the back of his onboard and smiled.

  “Eris, I want you to bring the guns to bear on the following coordinates,” he ordered, rattling off a sequence in the human format. “Sparky, ready the ship for flight pattern Kilo-seven-five.”

  Sparky jerked in his seat in surprise, turning to look at him even as he keyed in the sequence. “Sure about that, big man. That’s gonna put us flying through a whole fucking heap of rock when shotgun back there blasts that rock to hell. Our shields can’t take tha
t load.”

  “Trust me,” Zero shot back. There was no time to explain, so he just gunned the main engines. The instant the little ship shot from its hiding places and into the open, the lancers were on it, a warning tone ringing through the cabin as they got a torpedo lock.

  Behind him, Eris bellowed a wordless war cry as she let loose with the guns, the rock in front of them exploding a second before they swung into where it had been at speed.

  “We’re dead,” Sparky whispered. “We’re fucking dead. There had better be virgins in heaven or I want a refund.”

  He felt the tension, the expectation in the air from both humans as they waited for the ship’s shields to get shredded by the shrapnel field where the asteroid had been. It was so thick he was surprised any of them could even breathe.

  “Hey, Zero,” a new voice broke over the comm. T’Raal. “You look like you might be in a spot of bother. Need a hand?”

  Zero grinned as the Sprite dropped out of high-speed right in front of them, the bigger ship extending its shields to deal with the shattered asteroid. The two ships side-slipped through the field, leaving it between them and the lancers trying to follow.

  “Cutting it fine, Sprite,” he replied aloud for the benefit of the two humans in the cabin. “And yes, we’d welcome a hand here. Got ourselves a couple of dance partners that are a little clingy, if you know what I mean?”

  “Yeah, well, Beauty was shopping, so we need to go back for him. Maintain current course and speed. We’ll be right back.”

  “Roger that. Maintaining current speed and heading.”

  The Warborne ship wheeled away, using a short hop to take it to the other side of the asteroid field before opening fire.

  “My god,” Eris breathed, leaning forward in her chair to watch the battle on screen. “What kind of weaponry is that thing packing? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Little green men,” Sparky added wisely. “Although in the Warborne’s case, large and not at all green.”

  “I dunno… sometimes Fin looks a little green around the gills when Red cooks,” Zero chuckled, a whole lot more comfortable now the Sprite had their backs. He’d never intended to take the Aegis all the way. He’d merely wanted to use it long enough to get the Warborne’s attention all the way out at Praxis-Four.

  “You have a crew member called Beauty?” Sparky leaned on the arm of his chair, watching Zero avidly. “Now either she’s a stunner or a ten-pinter. Which is it?”

  “Ten-pinter?” For once Zero’s innate ability to decode “human-speak” deserted him and he looked at the tall human blankly.

  “Ten-pinter,” Eris supplied, shutting down the weapons console. “AKA, a potential sexual partner who requires the intake of a certain amount of alcohol, in this case, ten pints, before they become attractive enough to bed.”

  Zero’s eyebrow winged up toward his hairline. “Ah… pleasant. No, Beauty’s neither. In fact, I’m not sure how he got his nickname… his real name is Altav.”

  “You all have nicknames?” Sparky demanded. “What’s yours? Tinman?”

  “Ha-fucking-ha!” Zero flipped him the bird. “Actually, Zero is my nickname. My real name is too long and complicated to be translated correctly.”

  Not entirely true. He didn’t have a name, just a serial number that showed in a tattoo across his cheek if he let it. Not that he planned on telling the piss-taking human that.

  “The only one of us who doesn’t have one is T’Raal.”

  “Oh?” Eris asked as he unclipped himself from the pilot’s chair. Now they weren’t in combat, he didn’t need to be there. He could pilot the ship from anywhere. “Why is that?”

  He shrugged, heading over to her. Reading his expression, she’d started to unclip herself, reaching her arms up around his neck as he plucked her from her seat. “No idea, just the way it is.”

  There was a clunk, and the deck shifted sideways a fraction of a millimeter. The humans wouldn’t have felt anything but to Zero, it was like a tectonic plate movement.

  “How about you ask him yourself?” he suggested and then hid his smile as her arms tightened around his neck, an apprehensive look on her face.

  “They’re here. Now?”

  ❖

  Eris had never met an actual alien before. Not one that wasn’t human in origin anyway. And Zero didn’t count because he looked so human she couldn’t tell the difference between him and Allen. But as soon as she saw the leader of the Warborne, T’Raal, standing in the airlock, she knew instantly he wasn’t human.

  “Your eyes were different when you came to Tarantus before,” she blurted out as Zero walked across the boarding tunnel between the ships. And they were. On the security footage they’d been blue and human-like. Now, it was like looking into a cat’s eyes. No, it was like being studied by a blue-eyed lion on two legs. The man was a predator through and through, of that she was sure.

  “Contacts,” he replied, an easy smile on his lips. “Welcome aboard the Sprite…”

  “Eris Archer,” she supplied quickly, holding out her hand.

  “Eris sustained neural damage operating an armored suit to get us off the station,” Zero added. “Her suit needs recovering from the aft airlock and bringing aboard. I’ll need Talent… did you manage to get the medbay fixed?”

  “We did. Try not to blow it up this time,” the large Warborne leader replied with a quirk of his lips. Then his gaze slid past them. “Jayce Allen… why am I not surprised? You’re like a magnet for fucking trouble.”

  “Hey, hey!” The ex-con held his hands up, palms out. “These two found me. I was trying to stay out of it but noooo, they insisted on my help. Probably wouldn’t’ve made it without me.”

  “Yeah yeah…” Eris broke in as T’Raal motioned them through the door ahead of him, triggering the airlock and tunnel retraction.

  “You still didn’t explain why you know so much about SO13… or why you ended up in Mirax Ruas,” she added, nodding toward the tattoos around his upper arms. Each marked a year in the most brutal prison in the human systems, where life expectancy was less than eighteen months. Anyone with those tattoos was considered a cross between the grim reaper and the bogeyman.

  “Crimes against fashion,” he supplied promptly, his expression serious. “Apparently spots and stripes don’t go together.”

  She sighed, shaking her head. She should have known she wouldn’t get a straight answer from the smart-mouthed ex-con.

  “Well,” T’Raal said, “welcome aboard the Sprite. Sparky, your room assignment is the same. Just don’t make too much noise, Red and Fin are back aboard and either of them will squish you like a bug.”

  Sparky grinned. “You finally got some more crew? Good on you!”

  T’Raal sighed, rolling his eyes and shaking his head as the human wandered away up the corridor. “Why I put up with that shit, I have no idea,” he groused, making Eris smile.

  “I think most people feel that way around him,” she commented, waving goodbye as Zero turned and they walked away up the corridor.

  She was all eyes, fascinated as she looked about. This was her first alien ship... and it looked a lot like a human one. Only bigger. But then, the Lathar were bigger. Much bigger. Her eyes widened as they reached medbay and she saw the scorch marks on the wall.

  “Your boss wasn’t kidding about you blowing this place up. Was he?” she whispered to Zero.

  Like what she’d already seen of the ship, it was laid out very similarly to a human medical bay. Even though most of the equipment looked odd, she could make a guess as to what it was. But then, a rumor had filtered down through the media that the Lathar were humanity’s ancestors. She wasn’t sure how accurate that was, but the Lathar did seem very human-like at times.

  “Nope, he wasn’t. We only just managed to get the door closed in time,” Zero answered with a grin as he laid her down on one of the beds against the wall. He looked around and whistled lowly. “Although I think we did it a favor. All this equipme
nt is new… and that’s a new imperial scanner over there. We had to steal the last one, and none of us knew how to use it.”

  “Well, that would be the advantage of being mated to the Lord Healer’s sister-in-law,” a new voice announced from the doorway.

  Eris had to shove at Zero as he turned so she could get a look at the newcomer. Like T’Raal, he was Latharian, his unusual eyes striking, but unlike T’Raal he had short hair.

  “Hey there. I’m Talent… the medic on this tub. But call me Tal…” he winked as he approached, offering her his hand. “It sounds a lot less egotistical.”

  She smiled as she took it, shaking firmly. “Eris Archer. Sta… well, formerly station chief on Tarantus before someone tried to have me killed.”

  “Yeah, well,” the medic replied. “That’s just Tuesday around here. You’ll get used to it. So… how about you tell me what’s going on and I’ll see what I can do to help.

  “She can’t walk,” Zero broke in, his expression tight as he glared at their hands. “She already said her hands work just fine. Read me?”

  She raised an eyebrow at the possessive comment, but Tal stepped back, a smile on his lips. “Reading you loud and clear. Now… let’s see what’s going on. Shall we? Lady Archer… you were saying? Did this damage occur when someone on the station tried to kill you?”

  She lay back as the alien medic set up equipment around her. “Yes and no. It wasn’t the result of a direct hit or injury from enemy forces. I’m a veteran. Medically discharged ten years ago from the armored infantry unit.”

  “I’m afraid you’ll have to treat me like a layperson,” Tal responded, shooing Zero away to lean against the wall close by. “My knowledge of Terran military units is sorely lacking. Why were you medically discharged? Were you injured in the line of duty and the battle on the station aggravated old injuries? That I can believe. Terran medicine is sorely lacking.”

  “Medical care in the armored units was state of the art,” she argued, her hackles rising at the possible slur. Then she sighed heavily. “Soldiers in the units are enhanced cybernetically to interface with their suits. It’s all filament mesh and implanted driver units at the interface points.”