Laser (2 page)

“Good morning, Lee.”

“Morning, Icky. What is on the agenda today?”

“There is a new arrival coming in.”

“One of the fairies?” She looked forward to meeting more of the women and their ships.

“No. This is your proposed partner. We need a speed team for dispatch into risky situations. Your battle suit is just what the Guardian teams need in difficult situations.”

Lee nodded. “Right. So, what skills does he have?”

A low rumble of a voice announced. “The ones I was born with.”

She turned with her left arm up and her right arm drawn back. The limbs came with impulses and tactics built in.

A row of spikes ran up his peacock-green forehead until they were hidden by inky blue hair and more spikes ran in studs down his arms. He was completely at ease in the leather straps that had been woven into a suit to create a vest and trousers that adhered faithfully to the muscle beneath.

“Hello, Kilon.”

“Lukar! I wasn’t expecting you until later.”

Dr. Icky went toward the larger man, and to Lee’s surprise, they hugged.

The larger man picked Icky up and spun him around before returning him to his feet. He set him down, and they clasped forearms, touching foreheads before parting. The newcomer was at least half a foot above Icky’s height, which made him a foot taller than Lee.

Dr. Icky turned toward her and made the introductions. “Lee, this is my brother Lukar. Lukar, this is Lee.” He chuckled. “Lukar is the reason I went in to bio studies. He is a throwback to our ancient ancestors and highly venomous.”

“Oh. Goody. Well, Lukar, I got my arms and legs blown off in a terrorist attack on my home world, and your brother put them back on…sort of.”

He blinked and leaned back a little. “I see. You seem at peace with it.”

She shrugged. “Therapy is a wonderful thing. So are these new limbs. I can feel what I felt before, but it registers differently.”

“You are content with it?”

“It is better than the alternative.” She grinned. “So, yes. I am content for now, but I can hope for the future.”

Lukar looked surprised yet again. “Interesting.”

Icky smiled, “Her limbs have grown four millimetres since she was placed in the suit.” He had the look of a proud uncle.

Lukar was eyeing her. “How long until she needs to return here?”

“Five months.”

Lee watched as Icky brought up her specs, and he described her weaponry. After five minutes, she decided to interrupt.

“What is your speciality, Lukar?”

“Hostage extraction.”

The inner adventurer that had urged her toward the Volunteer Project perked up. “Hostages?”

“Yes. When negotiations are no longer an option, I am sent in to remove obstacles and free the hostages. You will be joining me on those missions for your shakedown.”

She quirked her lips. “So, I have five months to prove myself?”

He looked her up and down and crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes.”

She mimicked his posture and looked him over. “When do we leave?”

Their staring contest was broken when Icky bent over, doubled with laughter. “I just knew you two would get along.”

With that statement hanging between them, Lukar said, “My ship is being fueled and refitted for you. We will be leaving at station dawn tomorrow. I would suggest that you pack, but it seems you don’t need to.”

She stiffened. “I will have you know that I am a lady.”

She sniffed and walked out of the lab to go pack her clips and hairbrush.

Her father was excited for her. He had grown used to her appearance and was simply happy to see her up and smiling. “You look happy to be getting out of the lab, but are you ready?”

She smiled. “Like I said, I am as healthy as I can be and measurements say that I have grown close to half a centimetre on my limbs. The suit is working.”

She had rarely seen her father cry, but tears silently striped his cheeks.

He cleared his throat and said, “If you are going to be a superhero, you need to work on your look.”

Lee pressed fingers to her cheeks. “The control circuits are not enough?”

Her father grinned, “You might want to consider some heavy eyeliner so that your eyes look extra-pale. The freaky aspect might work in your favour.”

“Most fathers caution daughters against heavy makeup.”

He grinned. “We both know that I am not your average father. I am extraordinary, Lee.”

She smiled and felt her heart flip with warmth. He had gone for help when he wasn’t sure it would work and had brought her the lifesaving treatment, letting her go in the same instant. It took a strong man to give his daughter up to strangers with the slight chance that she might live to come back to him another day.

Now, she was heading into danger and he was giving her makeup tips. “Dad, you are one of a kind.”

“And you are too, Lee. Never forget that. I raised a girl who can handle anything. Go and don’t prove it to me, prove it to yourself.”

She blinked rapidly. “Well, on another note, how goes the trial?”

He made a face. “Cory is nuts. He is one of the Terran Keepers now. Morons. Keeping humans in place serves no purpose if they want to leave, if they need to leave. He is being held but there is rioting. Applicants are now able to do some of the pre-screening at home followed by a phone interview, culminating in the physical interview under greater security.”

“Oh goody, they have a cute name now. They sound like a sports team.” Lee grimaced. “The Terran Keepers.”

“That’s my girl. I want to you go out and be the best cyborg you can be.”

He gave her the pre-sports grunt and she laughed.

She gave him a sharp salute with her silvery hand and winked. “Yes, sir. Love you, Dad.”

“Love you, Lee. Talk soon.” He put his hand over his heart, and she swallowed as she turned off the connection.

Sitting back, she exhaled as she tried to stop the tears. She missed him, but every time she saw her hands, she remembered that he had wanted this for her. She was going to live the life that he had saved for her to use and enjoy.

She had the contact codes downloaded, so she got to her feet. The com screen folded and retracted until it was inside her suit once again. Dr. Icky had filled her suit with every possible bit of tech he could think of. Lee grinned at the mental image of being a cartoon character back on Earth. She wouldn’t believe it if she wasn’t living it, but there was no doubt as to her current state. Lee was officially a walking and talking armoury.

She stretched and looked around the private area of the lab that had been set aside for her use. The charging station in her tiny quarters took up the majority of the space.

Lee left her tiny situation and walked the halls of the station, heading for the observation deck. It had been her first target when she had gotten mobile. Despite the damage to her body and the silver appendages that they had modeled from donations stemming from three different species, she hadn’t really believed she was in space until she had sat in the observation deck and watched the stars, minerals, gasses and asteroid belts all floating out there, waiting for her.

The draw of the stars had been what sent her to the Volunteer Centre that day. She wanted to go to some of those far-off worlds and walk on ground never touched by Terran feet. In all her imaginings, she had never guessed that a hard metal skin filled with conductive gel that supported her remaining tissue while it powered her suit for regular activities would have replaced her feet. She was a battery, a robot, cyborg, weapons assembly and a little bit of mutation thrown into the mix. It was a heady thing to get her mind around. She was wearing the alien worlds that she had lusted after.

“He said you would be here.”

She turned and watched Lukar approach. “He should know; he has had to track me here at least once a day.”

“Are you truly ready to leave? You have not been here long.”

“I am ready. If there is an issue, I will hitchhike back here with the fairies. Dr. Icky and I have already worked out an emergency contingency.”

Lukar sat next to her. “Could you not call him that?”

“Why not?”

“Because that was his nickname as a child, and it doesn’t suit the work he is doing. Also, it is my family name and I answer to it as well.”

She chuckled. “You could have just said that last part. He told me to call him Dr. Icky the moment that we met. I wasn’t in very good shape at the time.”

“I see. We are going to be going into some very tense situations. Are you capable of acting under stress?”

Lee grinned. “Yes, yes, I am. I know you won’t believe me, but I will be good at this. My father raised me to be independent and aware of the needs of others. This should be right up my alley.”

“I don’t understand how you can be so cheerful after being attacked by your own people.” He ran a hand through his hair and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

Lee turned toward him and met his amber and emerald gaze. “I wasn’t attacked by all my people, just a handful. Others died that day as well. I was lucky.”

“How so?”

“From what the records show, I was blown out into the street, which made me one of the first to receive first aide. I was the first lifted from the centre and first taken away to the hospital. Two minutes would have made the difference between life and death. I was lucky that my identification was in my purse, still slung across my body and that my phone was cracked but functioned so they could call my father. He arrived an hour after the blast, and once he saw me, he went to the centre, slipping into the chaos and grabbing the paperwork from my severed arm. He took that to the Recruiter and signed me over to the Volunteer Project. Recruiter Norz brought a healer team to stabilize me, and they froze me and mailed me here by express courier ship.”

She chuckled at his uncomfortable expression.

“So you see? I am lucky. My dad could have arrived after my heart shut down, I could have been killed outright. Norz could have refused. The Imperium could have refused. Everybody got together and here I am—the tech of three worlds on my body and enough power to help others. I want to use it and see how far this luck will take me.”

He sat back. “In that case, I am honoured to have you aboard.”

To her surprise, he stuck out his hand. She clasped his hand with hers, and she could feel the ridges and scars on his palm. The sensitivity of the silver structure let her feel as if it was real skin, but she wasn’t as sensitive to heat now.

“Kilon has provided the ship with a line of replacement limbs in case you need them. It has to be the oddest cargo I have ever seen.” He grinned and released her hand.

“Let’s hope that I don’t need them.”

Chapter Three

“Lee! You can’t leave yet. You need this.” Icky came running toward her, waving a container above his head.

“What is it? I have everything that I need as far as I know.”

He pressed the box into her hands. “We discussed this.”

“We discussed a lot of things.” She balanced the case on her left arm while popping the locks with the right.

Lukar was watching curiously. “What is it?

Lee opened the case and blushed furiously, slamming it shut.

Lukar asked, “What?”

Lee looked at Icky with a narrow-eyed look, daring him to tell his brother that he had just handed her enough sex toys to chafe her into the next world.

“Lee doesn’t have any means of stress relief while in that suit, so I designed a few things based on her specifications.” Icky grinned at her and dared her to contradict his statement.

She made a face and locked the latches again. “Thank you for your consideration. I will keep this option in mind.”

Lukar looked curious, but he didn’t press it when she quickly went up on her toes and kissed Icky on the cheek. “Keep busy and stay safe. No more lab explosions.”

A wave of metallic purple crept up his neck. “That was your fault.”

She winked and headed to the
Stinger
with Lukar watching her with amusement. “See you in five months, Dr. Icky!”

* * * *

Kilon looked at his brother and sighed. “Take care of her or you will have to answer to me, Lukar.”

“You have grown attached to her?”

“She reminds me so much of Preha. A similar spirit fighting to be heard from a small, delicate body.” Kilon straightened. “That aside, you are to treat her with the utmost respect. She is a lady and must be treated like one. She deserves respect.”

Lukar inclined his head. “What was in the case that you gave her?”

Kilon waved that away. “Just some pleasure equipment for stress relief. We don’t know if her sex drive will return, but if it does, we want her to be ready to deal with it.”

“She has no sex drive?”

“Her body was only cleared for duty three days ago. She is still adapting to the damage, no matter what she said.”

Kilon walked close to his brother. “I want regular reports about her health, but she won’t like it, so try and do it quietly.”

“I will take care of the little friend you built in the lab, brother. You keep yourself occupied until we bring her in for her tune up.”

“You had better or I will take you apart from the knees up, brother. Lee is more than a subject; she is a friend. You know how I protect my friends.”

Lukar winced. “Yes, Kilon. I will take care of her.”

“Then, go and enjoy her company. She is a charming conversationalist and an excellent card and game player.”

“It sounds like you are interested in her.” Lukar raised his brow.

“I am not and you know I am not. She is a good friend who has remained upbeat through a very difficult situation. She deserves respect for her fight to survive.”

Lee had arrested three times during the implant phase. Each time, she had fought to bring herself back from the brink successfully. While Kilon preferred the company of males, he suspected that his brother would be tempted by the new Terran. It was the only thing he could think of to keep her in his life in one way or another. It was self-serving, but if it worked, his brother would have a mate, his friend would have a match and he would have a new sister.