Zal

I grabbed my staff and stood up. “Why? Just for the sex? They can bloody well get that from someone else. You’ve paid them back and more.”

“Not just that. The data stores. The archives. They’re here.” Torian thumped their chest with a flat palm. “All of it, stored inside my cybertronics. I hadn’t thought. I hadn’t considered. But if the attack destroyed the Lab computers, I’m the only backup they’ve got left.”

“No fear. I won’t let them take you. Unless…” I studied Torian, who looked flustered, frightened, and half-frozen. “Unless you want to go with them. I know this world isn’t what you’re used to.”

Torian clutched my arm. “I don’t want to go. I want to stay here. With you.”

“Now, we talked about that, my friend. That choice won’t be mine to make.”

“But shouldn’t it be mine? You’re always saying your society is founded on free will, on the right of every citizen to make their own choices. I choose here. I choose you. Unless… oh, fuck.” They carded trembling fingers through still-damp hair. “You don’t want sex. I keep forgetting. There’s nothing I can offer you in exchange for keeping me with you.”

“Oi. You’ve got way more to offer, believe me. But just so we’re clear, if you want sex, I can’t give it to you. So if that’s what you need—”

“No. It was only ever a job for me. I’ve had enough to last for quite a while, possibly forever, trust me.”

I gazed down into their troubled face. “Aye. I do.”

“You… trust me?” Torian’s eyes widened. “I don’t think anyone ever has before.”

I brushed Torian’s cheek with the backs of my fingers. “What did I tell you? People are idiots.”

“Torian.” A gravelly voice spoke from the forest behind us and Torian flinched.

I whirled, my staff held across my body, shielding Torian from the threat. “Who goes there? What do you want?”

The man who stepped out of the trees was shorter than me but taller than Torian and soft around the middle like Barkon. He wasn’t Moon-born pale or Earth-born mid-brown or Sun-born dark. He was somewhere in between earth and moon, with near-black eyes, a broad nose, and an expression of total irritation.

So this is a Star-born. I wasn’t impressed.

The man didn’t pay any attention to me. “Torian. We’re evacuating, and this stunt of yours has put us seriously behind schedule.”

Torian stepped out from behind me. “Then by all means, Edric, feel free to go. I, however, am staying here.”

Edric’s thin eyebrows shot up, astonishment joining the irritation on his face, as if his breakfast egg had grabbed his fork and stabbed him in the belly. “Don’t be ridiculous. The facility is compromised. The recidivist faction… well, they don’t intend to allow us to rebuild. It’s time to regroup.”

“I told you. I choose to remain.”

“Have your circuits been damaged? I said we have no time. We have to activate the destruct sequence before we go, and the mother ship won’t wait for us.”

“Destruct sequence?” My gaze bounced between Edric and Torian. “What’s that? Is something in danger?”

Torian’s fists clenched at their sides, their attention fixed on Edric. “You intend to go through with it, then? Destroying the whole planet, the civilization that you started, murdering all these people, just to cover your tracks?”

“Clearly you need a complete system diagnostic. I’ll start it as soon as we’ve docked in orbit.” Edric looked Torian up and down, his glance cold, dispassionate. “I hope the backups haven’t been corrupted.”

I’d had enough of Edric’s attitude. “Let me see if I understand you. You don’t want Torian from affection or loyalty. You want them for what they know? As if they’re nothing more than a book to open and discard at your whim?”

“It doesn’t know anything. It’s a repository and a sexual surrogate. Nothing more.”

I took a step forward, fingers tightening on my staff. “They’re not an it. And they’re far more than a fragging book. You don’t deserve them.”

“If not for for the Lab, for my work, for me, it wouldn’t exist, so I own it, legally and wholly, and I intend to take it with me.” Edric beckoned to Torian. “We’ve a task to accomplish. If you continue to behave irrationally, I’ll have to wipe your memory. As if I didn’t have enough to do.”

I turned to Torian and grasped their wrist, the little zing that always accompanied contact with their skin sizzling along my veins. “Don’t go with him. You can’t want this. They exploited you.”

Torian’s gaze cut to Edric. “He’s right, Zal. This is all I am. All I’ve ever been, but for this time with you. It’s better this way.”

“It’s not. It’s not better for you. And it’s not better for me.”

“Enough.” Edric held a strange object in his hand, pointing it at me as though it were a mage’s staff.

“What in the name of the Sun is that?”

“It’s a blaster.” Torian’s murmur was strained. “Don’t move.”

“Come now, Torian.” Edric gestured with the blaster. “Or do I silence this fool for good?”

“Please, you needn’t do that. I’m coming.” Torian gripped my arm. “Don’t follow.”

My heart gave a painful lurch. “Torian—”

“You said you trusted me,” they murmured. “Trust me now.”