Page 3 of Her Cyborg Commander
Zanyr began by announcing that his mate Jenna had fully recovered from the attack that had nearly killed her. Everyone brightened at that, with smiles and words of encouragement easing the tension. The moment didn’t last, though, as Zanyr briefed everyone on the details leading up to the discovery that they had been infiltrated.
Once Zanyr finished, Raze was the next to speak. “Yourmahayawas a spy for our side? Why weren’t we told about this? I thought this council was supposed to be kept apprised of everything important.” The big cyborg managed to keep his voice calm, but there was no missing the anger behind his words.
“I had the same reaction,” Zanyr replied. “But think about it for a minute. The more beings who knew, the more likely it was that someone would make a mistake. The fact none of us treated her any differently is why she was able to keep up the façade as long as she did. I don’t like it any more than you do, but it makes sense.” His voice dropped to a growl. “And if she ever does anything like that again, Torren and I will tie her to the damned bed and never let her leave the house without us.”
That statement triggered an outburst of laughter and hearty agreement from every male present.
“I still don’t like it,” Raze grumbled when the laughter faded. “Once we start keeping secrets, where does it end?”
“We have to trust each other,” River stated softly. “As much as we can, anyway. We’re all here because we want Haven to thrive. Sometimes, that might mean we have to keep secrets.”
“And who decides what to reveal and what to keep hidden?” Edge asked. “Vardarians? The humans? Who?”
River’s deep brown eyes fixed on him. “We do. That’s what this council is for. To make sure our decisions reflect the needs of the entire colony.”
She was right, but it still rankled him for some reason. Probably because he had trust issues the size of a small planet and wasn’t good at sharing responsibility. At least, that’s what River had told him once, long before they were free.
Zanyr waited for a heartbeat before continuing. “So, in summary, we know the Shadows are behind this infiltration. The good news is that if they are still trying to introduce spies, they’re not getting the information they want any other way. Whatever they’re after, they haven’t gotten it.”
“Yet,” Denz added. “They haven’t gotten it yet. But they will keep trying. Obviously, they view the Vardarians as a threat to their control over this part of the galaxy. They don’t want the races here forming alliances with anyone who might disrupt the status quo.”
“You mean anyone who might cut into their profit margins,” the Vardarian prince said, his tone drier than moon dust.
Denz nodded. “And that. But it’s about more than money. We don’t know who the new players inside the Shadow organization are, but the Gray Men were all corporate owners or high-level executives trying to gain the upper hand. Control means everything to those kinds of beings—not only the flow of wealth but resources and manpower. Haven represents something vastly different, and I don’t think they want anyone else to try and replicate what we’re building here. They need us to fail, and they’ll do everything in their power to make that happen.”
Edge hadn’t intended to speak, but he couldn’t stop the words from coming. “So, what you’re saying is the corporations are coming after us. Again. And we’re playing defense. Again. When is it our turn?” he demanded, scanning the faces around the table. “Or should I say, when is ityourturn? Because none of the cyborgs are allowed to leave the planet. Not even to defend ourfraxxinghome.”
To his surprise, no one tried to interrupt, so he kept talking. “We need to do something more than sit here and wait for them to come after us again. They’re applying pressure to all our weak spots, waiting for something to break. Eventually, it will, and then what? We react to yet another emergency. I’m tired ofreacting. First it was the raids to steal tantalum from this planet before we could mine it ourselves.
“Once we activated the security net around the planet, they tried messing with us in other ways: with spies from Earth, with nanotech designed to weaken the Vardarians. Then it was the VardarianLiq’zaand their intolerance for anything other than total racial purity. Now we’ve got operators wandering around in cloned bodies. What’s next?”
Zanyr cleared his throat but didn’t speak until Edge nodded his way and asked, “What else do you know?”
“I don’tknowanything, but I think someone has been messing with the machinery at my farm. The coordinates I programmed for one field shifted slightly, so some of the seed ended up in the ground too rocky for it to grow decently. Water is going to the wrong field, flooding out some areas and making others too dry. Bugs happen, but this season it feels like they’re happening too often. I didn’t put the pieces together until the last few days.”
Several councilors spoke at once, but Tyran’s voice carried over the others. “You’ve got enough to do already. Can you handthe investigation off to someone else? Someone you trust to find the answers without triggering more rumors?”
“Already done,” Zanyr replied.
Edge growled in frustration. “This is what I’m talking about. We’re running around, putting out fires instead of making a move of our own.”
“We’re all in this together,” Phaedra spoke for the first time. The prince’s human consort wasn’t officially part of the council, but she attended most meetings and spoke up for the human contingent until the first elections were conducted.
He turned to look her way and did his best to stay outwardly calm. The last thing he wanted to do was to set off Tyran’s protective instincts. Not to mention the fact the little fuchsia-haired human female was slightly terrifying in her own right. “I know that. But if this goes sideways,youcan find another world to call home. The cyborgs can’t go anywhere. If we lose this place, we loseeverything.”
Raze slapped the table with an open hand. “Fraxxthat. We’re not losing to those void-sucking bastards. This has been my home far longer than any of you, and I’m not leaving. So long as I draw breath, the cyborgs have a home—one we’ll defend together.”
Edge was caught between gratitude for his brethren’s words and surprise Raze had said so much in one go. The male could go for an entire meeting without uttering more than an occasional grunt.
“None of us are leaving,” Tyran said. “Edge, I heard what you said. It is time we did things differently.” The prince looked around the table, his expression serious. “We need to open the armories and arm Haven’s citizens. I know most of us are already armed in some fashion, but that won’t be enough if there’s a real attack.”
Edge sat back in his chair and tried to process what he’d heard. The armories contained body armor, combat gear, and tactical weapons. Enough to ensure every adult on the planet was outfitted for battle. One of the first decisions they’d made as a council was to keep the armories locked until there was an undeniable threat.
Holyfraxx, Tyran had heard him. More than that, he agreed. If the others felt the same way…
River shook her head, shooting down Edge’s hopes before they even got off the ground. “Not until we’re finished scanning everyone. The last thing we need is to arm our enemies before we know who they are.”
Frustrated, he snapped at her. “You mean the scans you’ve spent the last few days performing on the cyborgs? The ones that don’t mean afraxxingthing because we already know none of us have been compromised? It’s impossible because while a cyborg clone might look the same, they wouldn’t have the same implants or internal comm-channels. We’d know if one of ours was replaced with an infiltration unit.”
