Chapter Forty-One

“Bring Them to Me”

The apartment Maya shared with her sisters in the southwest sector was simple and spotless. It was a place for solitude. They did not need rest as living things did, but they did enjoy shutting down as many circuits as possible, allowing their data cores to self-check, download, correlate, and update in peace.

Droids designed for constant contact with living things needed this time or they lost efficiency and effectiveness. They needed to interact with one another in native form, rather than the modified behavior they assumed in dealing with living beings.

She needed to know this awaited her on returning from her rounds. It was home. This time when she entered, she realized she was not alone in her nest. She heard a sound in the shadows, immediately recognizable as not-sister. She felt a mixture of joy and trepidation. Joy at sharing presence with her new friend, and trepidation at what she had to tell him. “Mace?”

The Gigoran hunched in the shadows chuckled. “Maya. I don’t think you’ve been entirely honest with me.”

“Master Nala? I—I have always been honest with you. Do you need more translation, perhaps?”

“No more lies.” The albino Gigoran sneered. “Who is this ‘Mace’ you were calling out to?”

“A…a client.”

He came closer. “You seem quite happy. He is probably more a friend than a customer, I think.”

“I know nothing,” Maya said.

The killer raised his voice. “Take her.”

The door burst open, and three enforcers came in.

Maya had considerable modifications to her physical shell. The first attacker got a faceful of acid from her internal reservoir, directed through her right hand. Another reared back screaming as flame jutted from her left directly into his eyes.

In an instant before she turned to attack Nala, she was hit by a pulse weapon, totally disarming her and rendering her unconscious.

Nala kicked her motionless body. “And find her sisters as well.” He turned to the soldier at his left, a wiry human woman with dark skin beneath her shock helmet. “Corporal Thanna Tan, bring them to me.”

“I will,” she said. But if he had truly looked at her, he might have seen that this soldier, recently transferred up from level ten, had purpose in her eyes.