Programmed To Protect (The Tau Cetus Chronicles) (15 page)

Chapter Nine

“Wake up, Wyatt.”

The familiar, dulcet tones of Wyatt’s automated alarm clock drifted lazily into his sleepy subconscious. He turned over in bed, intentionally ignoring the voice, but a very unfamiliar movement next to him startled him awake.

He automatically tensed.
What the –

Oh, right.
Ginger.

He relaxed into his pillow, a slow smile turning up the corners of his mouth.

Mmm.
Perfect Ginger with her amazing body and her incredible sexual expertise. How long into the night had they tried out positions that he’d previously only dared fantasize about? Wyatt’s cock stirred at the memory, making him inhale sharply. Damn, he was sore.

But what a wonderful kind of soreness it was.

His eyes drifted shut and his smile broadened.

Wyatt was no virgin, but he didn’t exactly consider himself a stud, either. His position as a Tau Cetus police agent demanded a dedication that rarely left time for a social life. Still, he’d never regretted or resented his choice of profession. He was helping to keep the planet safe. It was important work he did.

And yet, at this moment, he couldn’t remember ever feeling happier. Or more content. And it was all because of the woman beside him.

“Where is she?”

Wyatt forced his eyes back open, and turned his head on the pillow. Ginger – her red hair gloriously tousled after their amazing night of sex – was sitting up in bed, her perfect breasts exposed, her gaze furiously scanning the room. A frown was etched into her perfect brow.

Wyatt reached out to trail his fingertips down the side of her forearm. Her alien polymer skin was now as familiar to him as his own. The intimate realization sent a little thrill zinging through him. “Where is who?”

“That woman,” Ginger answered, clenching her hands into fists. “The woman who dares enter your bedroom uninvited. Where is she?”

Wyatt frowned. What the hell? What woman?

The auto-alert.
Ginger was talking about his alarm clock.

Ginger’s protective reaction sent another little thrill through Wyatt. Not only did she look prepared to defend him from any potential intruder, her words also conveyed a certain jealousy over the fact another woman might be in his room.

Jealousy! Imagine that. Ginger was jealous of a potential rival.

So very human-like.

“It’s not a person,” Wyatt assured her, directing his smile her way. “It’s my alarm clock. Now that it’s recorded our movement in the bed, you won’t hear her voice again. Don’t worry. She’s just a machine.”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Wyatt cursed himself.

As he’d feared, Ginger’s face fell. “I’m also just a machine, Leith.”

Damn. Given her newfound sentience, the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her or make her feel insecure. He laid his hand over one of her clenched fists. “No. You’re much more than a machine. You’re
almost human
, remember? You’re sentient.”

The look of hopefulness she gave him touched something deep inside Wyatt, and left him a little breathless. Damn, she was beautiful. And sweet. And trusting. Everything she did made him fall for her just a little harder. Deeper.

Shaking away the serious thought, he gave her a teasing grin. “You know, you wore me out last night.”

At the Doll’s immediate look of concern, Wyatt quickly added, “No, no. It’s a good thing, believe me. A man loves nothing better than to be worn out during sex. Hell, the last thing I remember was that incredible position you called The Pair Of Tongs.”

The memory of Ginger on top – and the way she’d squeezed yet another orgasm out of him – made Wyatt’s cock twitch again. His body was signaling that it was ready and willing, despite its current soreness.

Ginger blinked, as if considering his words. “You also seemed to enjoy it when we Split The Bamboo, Leith.”

Wyatt actually felt himself blush. “Hell, that one was…amazing.” He cleared his throat. “But …what did you do while I slept?”

“Slept?”

“Um…
hibernated
. Slept. Humans sleep”

“Oh. Do you recharge yourself that way?”

Wyatt smiled. “You could say that, yes. What did you do all night?”

“I watched you. You’re very… animated… when you sleep, Leith. Not like my hibernation mode at all. You turn this way and that, and make odd little noises.”
“The noises were probably me snoring.”

“And several times, I was able to study your body when the cover pulled away. You’re… you’re built as well as any machine, Leith.”

Ginger’s adorable hesitation while giving him the compliment made Wyatt’s chest expand a little. Hell, the fact that someone as perfect as Ginger could find him equally attractive made Wyatt a very happy man.

“Would you like me to wear you out again this morning, Leith?” Ginger asked sweetly.

Wyatt laughed into his pillow, a laugh that turned into a groan as his tender cock struggled to rise, determined to take her up on the offer. “No, no.”

Next to him, Ginger’s face went from her cautiously hopefully look of a moment ago back to a crestfallen one. “Are you tired of me, Leith Wyatt?”

“What?” The thought was idiotic. He couldn’t envision a day when he’d
ever
be tired of her. Aside from the sex, she was practically a newborn. There was so much he wanted to teach her. “No, no, absolutely not. I—”

His mouth fell open. Dear God, he’d almost said he loved her.

Idiotic.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t love, but in the few short days he’d known her, she’d come to mean a lot to him. The realization made him want to laugh with the absurdity of it, but also with a certain happiness.

“Ginger, I am definitely not tired of you. It’s just that a human male needs a little time to recover after… after being
worn out,”
Wyatt explained.

The Doll seemed to accept his explanation at face value, with none of the emotional doubts or resentments a real woman might harbor. How refreshing it was not to have to worry about any relationship games with her!

Ginger nodded. “How much time does it take for you to recover?”

“We can discuss it later.”

“When is
later?”

“When I get home from work.”
“What time is that?”

“I don’t know exactly… just later.”

“Being almost human is very confusing, Leith.”

“Believe me, Ginger, being fully human is even more confusing.”

“Oh, dear.”

Wyatt grinned. He’d been teasing her. Ginger had a lot to learn about the difference between literal and figurative speaking, but Wyatt looked forward to her instruction. In fact, Wyatt looked forward to teaching her about a lot of things. Hell, he couldn’t seem to wipe the silly grin from his face. He hadn’t been this happy in a long, long time.

Because his Beautiful Doll was sentient.

Good God, Ginger was
sentient.

Wyatt abruptly sat up in bed, his eyes going wide.

Last night, his primary concern had been spiriting her safely away from the former Beautiful Dolls factory before Titus Veraine realized his experiments on her had succeeded. But today, Wyatt was faced with a much bigger problem – the ramifications of her evolution.

By rights, Wyatt had a duty to tell Theus that Ginger was sentient, and that Carron’s robots had the potential to achieve sentience. Theus would definitely view it as a threat, and one that would need to be dealt with immediately. Since the High Council effectively owned Carron’s artificial army, Theus might order all the robots destroyed preemptively.

Would that include Ginger? Hell, it might
especially
include Ginger, since she was the forerunner of this robot evolution. She didn’t technically belong to the Council, but by being in Wyatt’s possession, it left her open to Theus’ reach.

The thought put a sick taste in Wyatt’s mouth. He could not – he
would
not – let his Beautiful Doll be harmed.

But what could he do to stop it?

Think… think
…

Wyatt didn’t trust Anson Carron as far as he could throw him. If Carron had Titus Veraine testing programs to make his robot soldiers sentient, Wyatt had no doubt Carron wanted to use those soldiers as a force against Theus. Carron was power-hungry. Hell, just yesterday in Terra Acer, Carron had tried to insist that regulator Jaqan owed
him
for the protection of his robot army, not Tau Cetus’ High Council.

But, seen logically, Carron didn’t actually need the robots to be sentient in order to use them to overthrow Theus. Robots were powerful. Robots simply took orders.

So that led to another possibility… What if Carron didn’t
know
Veraine was working to make the machines sentient? What if the testing on Ginger was something Veraine was doing in private, hoping to use their sentience for his own mysterious ends? After all, Veraine was the one who had arranged for Wyatt to take Ginger home, in part to ensure Wyatt’s help in usurping Carron’s position with the Council, claiming that
he
was the true brains behind the robots.

Veraine’s efforts to make robots sentient couldn’t be allowed to succeed. Theus would undoubtedly believe it was safest for everyone if the robots were destroyed. There were just too many potentially dangerous variables.

But Ginger?

No, no.
Wyatt shoved a hand through his hair. He cared for Ginger. She was sweet, smart,
good.
She was not an evil machine, and he couldn’t conceive of her ever becoming so. She deserved to live.

There must be another solution…

Breathe. Just breathe, and think.

Carron’s robot army was in Terra Acer, far from the reach of Titus Veraine testing his sentience programs on them. Wyatt had some time to try and figure out an alternative. He just needed to give this some thought.

The personal communication device on his bedside table chirped loudly three times, the screen lighting up. Wyatt frowned. Who the hell would be sending him a message at this hour of the morning? It could only be Theus. With a sense of trepidation, he reached for the device.

But the message wasn’t from Theus. It was from Callex Industries’ Zan Talesin. Wyatt raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the screen.

Regulator Egidia surrendered at 0700. Terra Radix now part of Terra Acer.

Wyatt blinked, but before his brain could even digest the surprising information, his screen beeped again with a new message, this one from Anson Carron.

Come to my factory immediately.

Wyatt swallowed hard.

Dear God. Five-thousand robot soldiers with the potential for sentience would soon be coming home.

#

Anson Carron rocked back on the legs of his desk chair and stared at the screen of his personal communication device. He’d lost count of how many times he’d read the message already.

Regulator
Egidia surrendered at 0700. Terra Radix now part of Terra Acer.

The announcement had been sent jointly to him, Theus, and Leith Wyatt.

Carron scowled. His minion Loris Rhean should have been the first one to alert him of this monumental news, the idiot. Granted, Rhean’s own message came just minutes later, but hell, that was the primary reason Carron had sent Rhean to Terra Acer with the robot army. To be his spy and conduit. Still, with amazing news like this, Carron was far from upset. He let out a bark of laughter, read the message on his screen again and ran a hand through his thinning black hair.

“I’ll be damned.”

No one had expected this. The High Council had arrayed Carron’s robot soldiers along the border of Terra Acer in order to establish a defensive shield against the threat of aggression by regulator Egidia. The army was meant to be there indefinitely, used either as a deterrent or to engage in fighting as needed. Instead, without so much as a single word or shot fired, Egidia had surrendered his lands and power less than twelve hours after the soldiers had been deployed. Which was surprising, considering that the ruthless, ambitious Egidia had forcibly conquered Terra Domus by killing its regulator, Florens Hericus, with one of the wasp missiles Carron had stolen from Callex Industries and covertly sold him.

“What a disappointment. I would have enjoyed a fight.”

He might still get one. After all, he’d also sold off wo stinger missiles he’d stolen from Callex Industries. But not to Egidia.

So why should he be surprised at Egidia’s move? The regulator had simply bowed under the pressure of superior weaponry. There was no chance he’d win a confrontation with an indestructible army.

Carron scratched his chin thoughtfully. To be honest, even
he
was amazed at the apparent power of his robot army. But as part of the big picture, this new development would fit well into his carefully crafted plans.

Yes, his plans…