“Fucking Bash!”
Freya kicked up the speed on her hover bike, pushing it to dangerous speeds. She had to get to Gu’Sabu Colony and make sure the idiotic man that stole her heart was still alive and safe.
After she’d heard his voice in her mind, something they hadn’t used since right after Valentine’s Day, she’d tried to respond telepathically, but the connection was gone. Completely severed, which she hadn’t felt since it first formed after Bash’s nanites had linked them together.
Their relationship had already been rocky, but with all the drama that happened over the holidays, their relationship was even more strained. Instead of embracing the telepathic connection she never thought would happen, both of them pushed it into the deepest recesses of their minds.
“I should curse myself, not him. It’s my fault he felt helpless and unneeded, dammit.”
A warning indicator lit up on the display of the bike, but she ignored it. Even with the protective tech gear she was wearing, if she hit something, she’d likely die from the impact. Feelings for Bash overwhelmed her as she spiraled into her emotions. Debris and plants flew out of her way meters before she got near it. Realization hit that her emotions were fueling her telekinesis and clearing her path for her.
The colony appeared once she passed through the cloak, and she zipped into the garage. Locking the bike, she stormed into the colony, almost forcing the pneumatic doors open in her desperation to find him. Sprinting to the center of the colony, she approached the grated metal walkway leading to the central spire of stairs and the lift system for the entire spherical structure. Pounding a path down the stairs, she listened for the telltale sound of static that Bash’s mind used to give off when she searched telepathically.
Jumping off the last step, she gasped for air as her hands shook. She couldn’t hear him. There was no static, and the connection in the back of her mind was still dead. Ice flushed through her as she pushed her telepathy out, seeking every mind she could find for a clue about Bash.
She’s lost her damn mind if she thinks I’ll tell Nova that we lost the man.
“Fuck.” Focusing on that one mind, she narrowed it down and tracked the woman. It was easy enough. Her telekinesis grabbed the unknown woman and dragged her toward Freya. Ear piercing screams echoed down the hallway as they neared each other. The woman was dead if something happened to Bash on her watch.
Pulled by an invisible force, a woman dressed in all black slid across the sheet metal floor on her ass while screaming for help. The horrible acoustics of the metal walls gave her screams an eerie quality as they echoed that would have frightened someone else, but it fueled Freya. Three unknown women followed her until they looked up and met her eyes.
“Oh shit! Go get Nova.” One called to the other, but none of them moved.
“No one leaves.” Freya stalked toward the group, throwing the three standing women against the wall as she pinned the screaming woman against the ceiling with her abilities.
Barging through her thoughts, she found the woman’s name. Kai’La.
“So Kai’La, will you tell me what happened or should I painfully rip the information from your mind, possibly leaving you damaged or brain dead?”
Kai’La’s jaw trembled so severely, she couldn’t get a single word out.
“Freya?” The voice was barely a squeak.
Freya turned and glared at the woman as she reached into her mind. “Ale’Rei, unless you can tell me what happened, you are flirting with death by opening your mouth.”
“If you just let us get Nova, we can explain.”
“Fuck Nova. You have until I get to the count of one.” Freya made eye contact with all the women as she spoke.
“But-“
“Five.”
One of the other women struggled against Freya’s telekinesis, but it was nothing compared to the emotions that fueled her strength.
“Four.”
Two of the women started sobbing as Kai’La slid back and forth across the ceiling like an invisible hand was shaking a rag doll.
“Three. If you think I can’t kill all of you simultaneously, you’re mistaken.” With telepathy, Freya started pulling the info she needed from the women’s minds, which wasn’t much.
“Two.” Running footsteps grew louder from behind her. They didn’t know it, but Freya already knew everything they did now.
“One.” All the women screamed and closed their eyes preparing for the painful death Freya threatened them with.
“Freya, stop.” A hand grabbed her shoulder. In a microsecond, she released the women, spun on Nova, and Freya’s fists tightened in Nova’s shirt as she shoved Nova against the wall.
Turning to glare at the four idiots, Freya threatened. “Don’t you fucking dare try to escape my wrath, I’ll kill you before your foot touches the ground on your first step.” Returning her attention to Nova, she slammed her against the wall again. Nova’s face remained stoic as she sucked in air.
You had no fucking right to keep this from me. Freya assaulted Nova’s mind with her telepathy.
Poke around, you’ll know that I just found out. Nova sent back.
She didn’t need to, Freya had pulled it from her mind before Nova had touched her shoulder. Freya recognized that she was lashing out at everyone she could, but she didn’t fucking care. She was hurting, so they could too. How do we find him?
I don’t know. Let everyone go, then you and I can figure this out.
Freya stared into Nova’s matching purple eyes, a sign that they both suffered through ARI’s cruel experimental program to turn children into super-soldiers. Logically she knew that Nova would never betray them, but emotionally she was ragged and couldn’t handle the amount of pain she was feeling.
“All of you leave right now. Report to disciplinary immediately.” Nova’s voice carried a commanding tone that usually sent Resistance members rushing off, but this time they remained frozen in place. Rolling her eyes, Nova mentally nudged Freya.
“Get the fuck out.” The moment the words left her lips, all four women disappeared so fast, they almost left a vapor trail.
“Are you done throwing a fit?” Nova looked down at her shirt.
“I wasn’t actually going to kill them.” Freya released her shirt and stepped back as Nova gave her a knowing look. “Probably… maybe.”
“You and I both know better.” Nova waved at Freya to follow, and they both remained silent until Nova shut the door to the floor’s command center. “You know him better than I do, but I can guarantee that he’s off the grid somewhere.”
Freya walked over to the large display, her fingers tapping on the interactive wall display. While there were large stations with keys and smaller displays that she could use, she preferred getting up close and personal to the larger one. Her fingers shot out, dragging surveillance windows, records, and safe house locations all over the screen so she could compare them.
“According to the message he sent me, he prepped before he left. Which means he would have covered his tracks and may have erased the existence of the safe house he chose from the Resistance database. What he didn’t plan for was me. My handheld hasn’t connected to the Resistance server since I turned off the connection before I arrived. I thought he might try something like this.”
“I would have never thought of that. You two know each other so well.” She heard Nova sit in a swiveling metal chair at the main console. “I’m so glad Cay isn’t as paranoid or tech savvy as Bash.”
Freya pulled a device from her pocket and stepped back, comparing it to the enormous screen. “I found him. When I get there, I don’t know if I’ll kiss him or kick him in the balls.”
Nova sucked in a breath. “For his sake, I hope it’s the kiss.”
Unnamed Safe House: Bash
Existing hurt, or at least he thought he was still alive. Could someone hurt this much if they were dead? Bash wanted to push the acid burning through him away and return to the calm bliss of nothingness.
Pain burned brighter as something touched his skin, making him mentally curse until he ran out of ways to express how he felt.
“Bash.” A soft voice drifted past his consciousness, bringing him closer to reality, but he didn’t want to go back.
Something bad happened, and he wanted to avoid it. Leaving the pain behind, he retreated to the calm darkness. Warmth caressed his cheek, then wetness dripped onto it. Was he crying? It couldn’t be him, this was the least pain he’d been in since he could remember.
“I love you,” carried through the emptiness until the words found his heart. Freya.
Racing away from the calm, he crashed back into reality with a gasp. Freya’s eyes were a stormy violet as she glared at him. Blinking several times, he realized he was lying on the ground with his head in her lap.
“Uh.” He couldn’t remember how he’d ended up on the floor or why he was in so much pain. “What happened?”
“You better be happy you didn’t die, or I’d have to kill you for it.” Tears ran down her cheeks.
Without thinking, he reached up and wiped the tears off her cheeks. “Why are you crying?”
With a shake of her head, she smiled at him. “It doesn’t matter right now. I’m sure we’ll discuss it soon, but I don’t want to ruin this moment.”
She wiped at her cheek with the back of her hand, then leaned down and pressed her lips against his. Her fingers combed through his beard as she cupped his head with her other hand. The tender moment lasted an eternity, in an alternate reality where they weren’t one mistake from death. Where they lived a normal life in a small cabin in the woods and friends were minutes away. Nights would comprise dinner next to a campfire before a long night of passionate love.
“What the hell?” Nova’s shriek had them jumping apart, looking for the threat.
Freya was on her feet with her hands splayed out. Bash climbed to his feet as pain receded from his body. A cold shock ran from his left foot through his leg, disappearing in his thigh. Glancing down, shreds of fabric dangled below the knee of the leg with the odd sensation. His right pants leg had a few tears in it and his right boot was still on. Examining his left foot, something about it seemed off, but he couldn’t quite place it.
“Bash… you have some explaining to do.” Her sweet loving tone now filled with wrath.
“I’m sure I can explain as soon as I figure out what I did.” Joining the two women, his left leg gave out, and he dropped to his knees, sending a similar shot of ice through his left arm. “A few answers would be great.” Passing the remains of the table, he froze the second his eyes located what they were looking at.
Fragments of an arm and leg were laying a few meters away in pools of blood. The foot was even wearing a boot that matched the one on his right foot. He opened his mouth to object, but memories rushed back. Laying on the ground with blood pouring out of him and jagged stumps where limbs used to be.
“It was an explosion which explains why my arm and leg are over there, but not this.” He stomped his left foot and waved his arm then gasped at the strange sensations that reverberated through him. “And why they feel so damn weird.”
With a quick glance around, he found the tab he’d been using to program the replicator and retrieved it from the floor. There was a large crack along the screen, but thankfully it still turned on. Dropping onto the couch, his fingers danced over the screen, checking the performance logs right before things got explosive. Except there was an active log for the small batch of nanites replicated. Reading through, he looked at the women from the corner of his eye before shifting on the couch.
Freya joined him while Nova sat opposite them in a green armchair. Refocusing on the tab, he couldn’t believe what he was reading. The nanites were functioning, self-replicating, and in his body. One of the fail-safes he’d created was they couldn’t function without being in contact with his DNA. He’d read one too many old artificial intelligence horror novels to not put a billion checks and balances in their system.
“Freya, did you get the message I sent you?”
“Oh, you mean the reason I raced to Gu’Sabu Colony and broke hover bike speed records while doing it?” He regretted looking at her the moment their eyes made contact. There was an extra level of hurt in her expression, and it sucked the air out of him. His intent had been to reassure her, not cause her panic.
“Uh, yeah, that message.” He waved the tab. “I wanted to refine the nanites, and I did. Though I’m not a fan of the trial run.”
“What?” Freya snatched the tab, read through it, then glared at him. “You injected yourself with unknown technology then blew yourself up to test it?”
“Psh, I’m not that stupid. The replicator exploded and I think it embedded the nanites in my skin like shrapnel, which activated them.”
Freya cocked an eyebrow at him. “Is that supposed to be better?”
“Heh, I guess not.”
Looking closer at the display, Freya frowned then choked. Before he could ask what she’d read, she grasped his left wrist and dragged a knife she kept in her vest over his forearm. Hissing, he pulled out of her grasp. She snatched his arm and examined the wound as he realized he hadn’t felt pain from it. He’d felt a sensation for sure, but not anything like he expected.
“You’re a…” Her voice trailed off as he joined her in looking it over.
Under his skin was a silvery metal. Sliding his fingers underneath, he felt more mechanical components. This explained where the remains of the replicator went, and they must have repurposed the debris. While he was glad that the nanites were functioning way beyond his expectations, he needed to know what else they might surprise him with.
“I believe the word you’re looking for is cyborg.” He pushed the skin back together, and they watched it knit closed within seconds.
“Well, isn’t this quaint?” A strident woman’s voice he didn’t recognize came from behind him. “I should get at least one promotion, possibly two after they finish raiding that colony you just left.”