Laser (3 page)

It was a detailed plot, but he had been authorized to bring the two together. The rest was up to them.

* * * *

The ship was wide bodied and resembled the fairies in design. From what Lee could determine, there was no highly intelligent mind behind the walls and displays of the
Stinger
, or not one that was immediately apparent.

Inside the ship, she waited for Lukar to finish parting with his brother. She was going to miss the base, but with luck, she would be back in a few months with a ton of stories to tell.

When Lukar entered, she turned to smile at him. “So, where do you want me?”

He blinked slowly and then sealed the hatch. “Your quarters are this way.”

She followed him and noted that in the weaving of his shirt there was a line of spikes that ran down his spine. The peculiar setup finally made sense. It was either go shirtless or punch holes in everything he owned. This looked like it would flex with him.

He walked through the cargo hold and up a level into the living space of the ship. She followed him at a safe distance.

Once up the steps, he turned left and walked down a passageway twice the width of his shoulders. He paused outside a door.

“Press your hand to the plate and look into the scanner.
Stinger
will recognize you and open when you approach.”

She quirked a smile, pressing the metal of her hand to the plate and looking into the scanner with her artificial eyes. “
Stinger
is intelligent?”

A deep bell rang and a shimmer of light danced against her vision.

She focussed and saw the outline of a man in the glow. “That answers that. Pleased to meet you,
Stinger
.”

The door opened, and she smiled at the familiar sight of her charging station. It was definitely her room.

The bell rang again.

“Thank you for your welcome.” She smiled and carried her two small bundles into the room with Lukar behind her.

“Would you like me to help you unpack?” Lukar was smiling.

“No, thank you. I will just put this down, and then, would you be willing to show me the rest of the ship?”

“Of course. Place them in the chest at the foot of your bed. It is fastened to the floor.”

She quickly put her small toiletry bag away along with the going-away present from Icky.

He looked like he was stifling laughter. “Are you sure that you don’t want help unpacking that?”

“I am sure.” She looked at him. “It appears that you and Icky share a sense of humour.”

He shrugged. “It happens in families, or so I am told. Come on, I will show you the kitchen.”

She followed him as he left her room. “Isn’t it called a galley?”

“And you are called a cyborg, but I will address you as Lee. Are all your people called by your central names?”

She wrinkled her nose. “No, my grandmother’s name was Adora, and when my mother died, she cut us out of her life. She saw too much of my mother in me, apparently. My father began calling me Adora Lee, and then, he changed it to Lee after a year. Now I am Lee Kellner.”

He paused in the small dining area. “This is the galley, Lee.”

Lukar gave her the rundown of the kitchen and how everything worked. The next stop was the command deck where he settled into the central chair. “
Stinger
, fold out a jump seat for the lady.”

A seat folded out of the wall, complete with a restraint harness. Lee took the hint.

Settled and strapped in, Lukar looked at her and nodded. “Here we go.”

To her surprise, the station itself opened to let them out. They dropped away from the pull of the station’s gravity and floated free before
Stinger
turned and made for deep space.

Lee stared at the front screen, loving the look of the stars as they got larger and seemed to blur a little. She was in space after a lifetime of staring up and hoping to see another world before she woke up in the hospital with tubes keeping her alive. The dream was the easiest way of dealing with what had happened. If she thought of everything as a dream, it was easier to roll with the punches and get undressed in mixed company.

Her organs had survived unscathed, but her abdomen and breasts had suffered a lot of damage. Her waist and hips had been behind the metal banding the counter, but the wood at the base had been no contest for the blast set underneath. Her hands had been resting on the high countertop and their fate was on record.

The grafts she wore covered her down to her knees and both arms completely. Her breasts were reformed out of the Seth-Ari tissue grafts and the metalwork went down to her ribs. Her pelvis was completely unscathed.

As she watched the stars, she held out her hand, looking at the stars through the metal of her hand. The Genaran exoskeleton was surprisingly pretty. It contained and confined her weaponry, but it also acted as secondary clothing and physical support. If it weren’t for the Genarans, she would be in a heap on the floor.

She clenched her hand, watching the stars streak across it in the reflection.

“You seem unnaturally quiet.”

She looked at him and met his strange eyes. “This is my first time seeing space as we pass through it. The last time, I was frozen.” Lee swallowed. “It is what I dreamed of seeing.”

He went quiet and nodded.

They sat in silence, and she unclasped the harness to stare out at the stars as they rushed in their eternal dance.

The bell rang and got Lukar’s attention. His appearance went from calm to an excited tension. “I think they have just gotten the inkling that we are open for business.”

Chapter Four

If her palms could sweat, she would have been wiping them on her thighs. As it was, Lee clenched her hands tight as the ship lowered itself into the alien environment.

“Remember. We are going in as representatives of the Nyal Imperium. We will only fight if it becomes necessary.”

She swallowed and nodded. “Got it. I am still getting used to this.”

“Be strong, be calm. By the way, the eye makeup and lipstick are striking.”

She quirked her lips. “The eyes were my father’s idea.”

“They definitely give you a serious air. I would hesitate to flirt with you at a dinner party.” He smiled.

She caught the vein of his banter as he tried to calm her down. “I am not going to jump out of
Stinger
.”

He grinned. “Good. We just landed.”

“I didn’t feel anything.”

He laughed. “
Stinger
won’t take that personally. I would.”

She blushed. “Right. You are going to do the talking?”

“I am. Keep your eyes out for any moves. The Yinshin are always unpredictable.”

Lee nodded and checked her energy levels. “Shoot to stun or to kill?”

He gave her a strange look. “Start with stun and work from there.”

She sucked in a breath and waited for his direction.

“We are as close as we can get. Shall we?”

Lee unbuckled her harness and got back to her feet. She followed him back down to the hold, and she stood behind him while the door opened.

She whispered to
Stinger
, “Wish me luck.”

He chimed deeply and ended with the shimmer of a cymbal.

It seemed she had just achieved her luck.

With her shoulders back, her hair as perfect as she could get it, they stepped onto the unnamed world and approached a large hunting party with some grey-green creatures standing up in response to their arrival.

It seemed odd to Lee, seeing as how the arrival of the
Stinger
could not have been mistaken.

Those who approached them moved in a peculiar manner. It took only seconds for Lee to realise that they were drunk.

She went on guard and measured the speed of their movements through her enhanced gaze. Of all of the enhancement she had received, the vision had been the best change to her body.

One of the party challenged Sting. “You have no call to be here.”

Sting moved forward. “This is a protected world. You have no call to be here and even less call to hunt.”

The Yinshin looked at each other with an expression Lee was familiar with. They thought they were entitled.

“By what authority do you even speak to us?”

Sting smiled. “By the authority vested in me by the Nyal Imperium, I order you off this world and to release all captured species.”

Lee tensed as the Yinshin went into motion. She began firing stun shots in precise order, and she continued until they were all on the ground.

She remained on guard until Sting turned and said, “Stand down, Laser.”

She lowered her fists and cocked elbows, and retracted the blaster built into her back-plates that rose up and offered her two additional firing options.

Lee blinked at him. “Laser?”

“I can hardly call you Lee in front of enemies. It lacks a certain something.” His lips quirked.

She moved to his side and looked around. “Now what?”

“Now, we find the voice that sent for help. This way.”

He began striding toward a rocky beach, and she followed, opening a monitor pod and dropping it near the Yinshin as she passed.

The pod rolled along and stood up, watching the pile of bodies and relaying it to her in the corner of her vision. If they woke up, she would see and hear it.

“My brother did that to you?”

She grinned. “He helped. It was a group effort.”

They followed the sounds of chain flexing and jerking.

Lee blinked in astonishment as a wide, thick ray flexed and fought against the wrapping of restraints in a shallow pool made of piled rocks. It was a cage that kept the creature from getting enough momentum to jump and the water was only enough to keep it breathing.

“That is one of the species that called us. This world is for the non-bipeds. The Yinshin will be fined. First, we need to get the youngling free and back with his parents.”

Lee moved forward and into the water. Without waiting, she reached down and snapped the chain tethering the creature to the large stone behind it. She moved on to those binding the rest of the creature and heard a splash next to her.

Sting held the long barbed tail of the creature, and he sighed. “Always watch out for a flailing, panicked victim. They are usually more dangerous than those perpetrating the offense. They are frightened and that makes them blind to whether you are helping or hurting them.”

Lee nodded and kept working. When the creature was free, she waded to the wall that separated it from the amethyst sea. In the water, she could see a gathering of dozens if not hundreds of wide silver wings beneath the surface.

Blasting the rocks away might injure those waiting, so she began to throw the stones to one side as fast as her arms could manage.

When the small sea wall began disappearing, the prisoner began to push at her from behind.

Lee stepped aside and lifted the beast up and over the ridge, sliding it into the sea with its people. She sighed and waded to the edge.

Sting sloshed to the edge of the seawall, and he placed his hand in the water. His eyes changed colour as he touched one of the huge bodies that glided under the surface. He smiled and stood up. “They thank you and apologise for their youngling’s bad behaviour.”

“You can speak to them?”

He snorted. “No, I read their body language. Yes, I can speak to creatures.” He waded out of the water. “More to the point, I can speak to all other sentients. My people used to be great peacemakers between colonists and the species they moved in with. They lost the ability over centuries, but throwbacks like me crop up now and then with the talent for communications.”

She stood up and looked back up the beach. “Our guests are waking up.” She could see the Yinshin stirring on the ground where she had left them.

“We should not keep them waiting then. I do have a few questions for you, but they can wait until we are back on board the ship.”

Lee nodded and walked back up the beach with him, heading for the Yinshin.

Sting looked at her. “Can you carry them?”

“One by one? Sure.”

“Good. Stun them again.”

The stunners projected from her back and over her shoulders, took aim with her and she began firing until they were all motionless once again. “Where am I putting them?”

“Their ship is over to the left. Put them in the hold and I will get the locks. They will have to either go to an Imperium law enforcement outlet or saw away through their ship. It is their choice.”

It seemed fair. Prison for prison. “Will they know how to get themselves out?”

“There will be a message on their com unit.”

“Well, as long as they can find out how to get out before their rations run out.” She shrugged and walked over, picking up two Yinshin with an arm around each waist and heading for the ship. They weren’t as heavy as they looked.

Sting gave her a look and shook his head as he headed off to their ship.

She had taken three rounds of Yinshin to the ship and dropped them on the floor of the hold. She whistled as she walked back to the last three beings she had to haul.

Sting had returned with the locks, and he merely shook his head as she lifted two more up and walked away with them.

Once they were dropped, Sting installed the lock.

She quickly ran to the final Yinshin and grabbed him, sprinting back with all the speed she could muster. The monitor pod followed her, and she settled it into her suit before entering the Yinshin vehicle.

Sting looked at her when she exited the ship. “Yes, we definitely need to discuss a few things.”

Lee guessed that he was surprised at her speed and possibly her strength. She was going to have to have
the talk
with him.

She watched him set the locks on all the hatches and use a remote to seal them.

When he was done, he said, “Would you care to say farewell to the Venyik?”

“Is that what they are called?”

He snorted and held out his hand. “Come on.”