Page 10 of Her Cyborg Commander
6
If River had her way,she would never have seen the inside of another cryo-pod. It was one more reason to hate Jens and the cabal he worked for.
The hardest part was always the wait between when awareness returned and the point at which she had enough muscle function to press the button that opened the pod. She hated lying in the dark, her limbs still too weak to move. It was like sitting in a nightmare version of death’s waiting room, unsure if you would return to life or die here, cold and alone.
The second she could move, she pressed her palm to the switch that would let her out. The door swung up and away, and suddenly she was bathed in warmth and light.
“So much better.”
“Go slow. If you’re anything like me, you want out of the damned coffin, but if you try it before you’re ready, you’ll just face-plant on the floor. That’s a problem because you’re too heavy for me to lift.” A human female with short-cropped gray hair grinned down at her. “Must be that fancy metal plating they put on your bones.”
“Must be.” River cracked a smile. “Nice to see you, Hezza.”
“Drink this.” Hezza handed her a bottle of water. “It’s good to see you too. I gotta say, though, I’d hoped we’d never have to go through with this plan of yours.”
“You and me both.” River popped the tab on the bottle and guzzled most of the contents before talking again. “Thanks for the water. And for everything.”
“You paid me to take care of you. That’s what I’m doing. Implying anything else would be bad for my reputation.” Hezza pointed a thin finger at her. “So don’t tell anyone I’m being nice.” With that, she produced a steaming mug of what had to beja’kreeshfrom somewhere behind her. “Bottoms up. Once your brain is working again, I want to know what happened to make you fly the coop. I knew at some point one of you would want me to smuggle them off-planet, but I never figured it would be you. Now that big, broody one. Edge? He would have been my bet. He’d head off to find a war somewhere so he could lose himself. I know the type.”
River drained the last of the water before switching her attention to the gloriously large mug of liquid many referred to as Torski rocket fuel. It had enough natural stimulants to keep one of the massive aliens on their feet for a day or more, and had become the drink of choice for many of the cyborgs once they discovered it.
She sipped the drink slowly, eventually easing herself out of the cryo-pod and onto a nearby bench.
“You’re set up for this,” River commented.
“Let’s say this is not the first time my cargo arrived in a cryo-pod. Not a nice way to travel, but it sure makes it easy to hide undocumented life signs in my cargo bay if I happen to be scanned by the authorities.”
“Did that happen?” River asked.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. I made a few stops on my usual run before making the detour to that little slice of hell you chose as your new home.”
River waved off the comment. “The nicer the planet, the more likely someone will show up and try to colonize it or claim it for resource processing. The place I picked has already been surveyed and rejected. The environment is too harsh for a colony and it has insufficient resources for any corporation to want to strip mine it.”
Hezza snorted. “It’s afraxxingdust bowl. That’s why no one wants to live there. But I get your reasons. What I want to know is why you’re here? I thought this plan was a last resort, all-hope-is-lost scenario.”
“It was.” River took her time before she spoke again. This wasn’t the first time she’d been in Hezza’s ship. Thrash had brought her on board several times, with the freighter pilot’s permission, to let her get comfortable with the layout of the controls and even run a few of the ship’s basic flight sims. Hezza had offered advice and encouragement, and she’d even given her the full run of the ship.
“This kind of work isn’t for everyone,” Hezza had told her. “There’s freedom, sure, but you won’t feel that when you’ve been cooped up inside your ship for three weeks. If this is going to be your world, you better be sure you can live with that.”
It was good advice. She would have liked being a pilot. Even if it was just ferrying cargo from the surface to the orbital platform and back. That wasn’t in the cards for her, though. Not anymore. She’d likely leave the dusty rock she’d chosen to hide on after a decade or so, but to do that, she’d need a ride, and Hezza wouldn’t be flying forever.
That was a problem for another time. One that would be a long while coming.
“So? What’s the story?” Hezza prodded.
River told her more than she’d originally intended, and when she finished, Hezza leaned in and gave her a hard, heartfelt hug. “No one should ever have to deal with the shit you’ve seen. You do what you need to. But if you change your mind, or the fecal matter hits the intake fan, you better promise me you’ll call for help. I’ve been on my own for a long time, and I know better than most how hard it can be, even when it’s what you need to do. There are times, my girl, when you need friends.”
River patted Hezza’s arm. “I will.”
“Mmhmm.” Hezza gave her a knowing look. “You’d better. And to be sure I hear it when that day comes, I’ll leave a relay buoy in orbit. I’ve got the perfect doohickey for the job, too—something small and stealthy enough not to draw attention. It can relay any message you send, and you can be sure I’ll receive it. Not quickly, mind you, but eventually.”
River wrapped the older human in a warm hug of her own. “Thank you. If you ever find out Jens is dead? You let me know. Maybe he’ll get hit by a comet and I can come home.”
Hezza laughed. “From your lips to the ears of whatever entity created this mad universe.”
Saying the wordhometriggered a cascade of thoughts and feelings. Haven was the first real home she’d ever known, and leaving it left an empty place in her heart. By her sense of time, she’d only been away for a matter of minutes, but the feeling of loss was still there. “I wonder how they reacted to the message I left. They must have found it by now.”
Hezza snorted. “They aren’t taking it well. Whatever you said, it was like dropping a cannister of rocket fuel into a blast furnace.” She spread her fingers wide. “Kaboom.”
