Page 6 of Her Alien Cyborgs
“I agree. Let me talk to my husbands again. It’s time to stop playing nice.”
That made Hezza laugh. “About time. I was starting to wonder if you were going soft. I hear marriage and retirement can do that to a person.”
Phylomenia flicked out two of her fingers in silent insult. “You don’t know what you’re missing. Seriously. I wouldn’t go back to my lonely life for all the scrip in the galaxy.”
She waved the other woman’s words away. “Don’t curse me with your bad luck. I’m happy with my life exactly the way it is.”
Was it a lie? Yes. But if she repeated it often enough, maybe she’d believe it was true.
“You keep telling yourself that. In the meantime, be ready to move. They can’t keep us off the station forever.”
“I’ll be right here, waiting for something to happen.”
The call ended, leaving her with nothing to do but stare at the console of her flight controls. Habit had her back in the cockpit despite the fact that her ship was docked. This was where she spent most of her time and was the one place where she felt like she was in control of things… even when she wasn’t.
“I hate waiting,” she muttered, tipping her chair back far enough she could comfortably rest her feet on the corner of the console. After two minutes, she was back on her feet, too keyed up to sit still.
For the next two hours, she kept herself busy with small, simple tasks she could drop at a moment’s notice. Hells, she’d even swept the cargo bay, despite the fact her small fleet of servo-bots kept the ship immaculate already.
When her comms chimed, she had to bite back a whoop of relief before answering. A brief glance told her it was a recorded message sent from the bridge of theBright Arrow.
Finally.
The message was audio only, but Barrios’s tone made it very clear he was not pleased. “The Orio research base has been secured. You and the other civilians are now invited to enter andbegin your part in this mission. As all military craft are currently busy, you are instructed to use your own ship as transport. Coordinates and docking codes are attached to this message. Colonel Jonathon Barrios. Out.”
She turned on her heel and hurried to the cockpit of her ship. “It’s about damned time.”
Of course, that wasn’t the end of the waiting game. The moment she’d set foot on Orio Station, a pair of soldiers had approached and escorted her to an empty room for a briefing that never happened. No doubt the other group were getting the same treatment, but someone had been smart enough to keep them separated. That didn’t stop them from using comms to stay in touch, but apart from a few tidbits Archer had managed to pry loose from their guards, they were still being kept in the dark.
All she knew was that the captured ship had several inhabited cryo-pods on board. One of the newly captured prisoners had stated that the beings inside were all experimental test subjects.
They had to be cyborgs, which meant she should be involved. Instead, Barrios had arranged things so that she’d rushed to Orio Station just as the cryo-pods were moved onto theBright Arrow.
She’d been played, and she wasn’t happy about it.
After waiting for half an hour or so, Hezza decided she’d had enough. Since she was on the station now, it was time to start poking around to see what she could find. After a lifetime of hiding contraband, she knew exactly where to start looking.
She went to the door with a story prepared about needing to use the facilities, but to her surprise, there were no guards.That made things easier. Since they’d brought her in from the right, she turned left. A lifetime spent walking the corridors of countless ships and stations gave her a rough idea of what the most likely layout should be. Usually, the upper decks were command and control with the middle decks designated for residential use—housing, dining areas, and on larger stations, even entertainment. The lower decks would be where the real work was done. In this case, that meant laboratories and offices. She intended to go lower still, down to the bottom decks. If any of the test subjects were still on the station, that’s where she’d find them.
The easiest way to avoid getting caught somewhere you weren’t supposed to be was to act as if you had every right to be there. She walked with purpose, her head up and her steps measured. The ID badge they’d given her to wear while she was on theBright Arrowwas clearly visible. They were on the same team, and she was just doing her job, the same as everyone else.
She ran across only one other group of soldiers on the way. They saw her ID, made the assumptions she hoped they would, and passed by with nothing more than a nod of acknowledgment.
The route she took kept her away from the core of the station, which meant it took her longer to get where she wanted to go. The layout wasn’t quite what she’d expected, either, but eventually she found what she was looking for.
This part of the station felt emptier than the other areas. The corridor lighting was dimmer, and the only noise was the hum of machinery hidden behind heavily reinforced bulkheads. There were no markings on any of the doors, and the usual navigational aids were all missing.
This had to be the right place.
Someone from her side must have gained access to the station’s controls because every door she passed through was already unlocked and open. Every door but one.
At the end of one corridor was a reinforced hatchway that spanned the width of the hall. The keypad beside was backlit with red lights, a sure sign it was locked.
That meant whatever or whoever was on the other side must be important. Why else would it be excluded from the standard opening command?
She took her time examining the keypad. It looked like countless others she’d seen in her life. Whoever had built this place hadn’t bothered with a high-tech system that scanned hands or retinas. This relied on users knowing the correct access code. She was no hacker and had no idea how tech like this worked. What she knew were people. And everyone, every species she knew of, shared some common traits.
She checked the bulkhead around the keypad and found what she needed scrawled in uneven characters to one side of the device.
