“Yes.” She nodded vigorously. “I always get the worst cramps at that time of the month…” She lowered her voice almost to a whisper. “You know what I mean?”
The male nurse, who was probably no more than eighteen and looked to be barely out of basic training, swallowed and turned red. Kyrin had picked him for his innocent looking face, hoping she could use his obvious inexperience with women to her advantage. So far it seemed to be working.
“I mean, I know my father has forbidden me to call my old job at IPKA…” She waved a hand as though this hardly mattered to her. “But this is different. My old doctor is the only one who could ever help me during my lady days. Please…I’m just miserable…”
She allowed her eyes to fill with tears and watched as the young nurse got even redder.
“Okay, ma’am, please d-don’t cry,” he stammered, clearly getting upset himself. “Seeing as how it’s a medical call, I’m sure I can put it through for you.”
“Oh, thank you so much.” Kyrin laid a hand on his arm, which made him blush even harder. “And you can even stay and monitor the whole call if you want to. Of course…” She hesitated delicately. “If you don’t mind hearing about lady troubles.”
“Uh…sure thing. I’ll open a line for you.” He quickly punched some buttons into the small viewscreen embedded on the exam room wall and then motioned to Kyrin. “Okay, you can put in your doctor’s number.”
“Thank you.” Carefully keeping the viewer on blank, Kyrin punched in the ship coordinates she had found on the small scrap of paper Harper had left in her hand before they parted. He must have known it would come to this—or maybe he’d just wanted her to have a way to reach out to Rich. Either way, she blessed the big cyborg’s forethought as she placed the call.
The screen buzzed and a deep, rumbling voice said, “Metal Men Central. This is the Tin Man speaking. What can I do you for?”
“80, you idiot—that’s no way to answer,” someone else said faintly in the background.
“Well what am I supposed to say?” demanded the first voice. “We’re not exactly the Little Sisters of Charity, ya know. Maybe if I said—”
“Hello, is this Doctor Chambers’ office?” Kyrin asked loudly. “Or do I have a wrong number?” She looked over her shoulder nervously at the male nurse. “She must be training a new receptionist.”
“Doc Chambers? Oh, uh—sure. Sorry.” The first voice sounded chastened.
“Please tell her a patient of hers, Kyrin Pierce, is calling about an urgent medical problem,” Kyrin said.
“Sure thing. Transferring you now.”
There were some clicks and then a soothing female voice came over the connection.
“Kyrin? Is that you?”
“Dr. Chambers?” Kyrin made her voice sound weak and uncertain. “Please, I need to talk to you. Can we do a confidential call?”
“Oh yes, of course. I’m alone. We can talk now if you like.”
“Oh good!” Well aware that the male nurse was still watching over her shoulder, Kyrin put the viewscreen on scan and Dr. Chambers’ image popped up on its flat surface. She was looking very professional in a white lab coat with a pair of old fashioned glasses perched primly on the end of her nose.
Kyrin breathed an internal sigh of relief when she realized that the nurse wasn’t raising an alarm. Clearly, though Major Lewis had known who Dr. Chambers was and about her affiliation with the rogue cyborgs, this wet-behind-the-ears newbie nurse had no clue. She’d been banking on that and hoping that Dr. Chambers’ professional appearance would help her sell her ruse more convincingly.
“Oh, Doctor, thank you so much for being willing to talk to me on such short notice,” she said quickly. “I’m having that same problem I’ve had before. You know—during my cycle? When the blood starts gushing out and I just…” She turned her head as she heard a click. Sure enough the male nurse had excused himself from the room, shutting the door behind him. Good—it was exactly what she’d been hoping he would do.
Dr. Chambers seemed to see they were alone.
“Kyrin, what’s this about?” she asked, leaning closer to the screen, her face filled with concern. “Why are you really calling me?”
“I…I…” Kyrin knew she didn’t have much time but somehow she couldn’t utter the fateful words. Couldn’t say what was on her mind. “I miss all of you there,” she said, trying to gather her courage. “Especially Rich.”
The doctor’s intent gaze softened. “Well we miss you too. Especially Rich,” she murmured. “Are you calling to talk to him? Do you want me to get him?”
“No, no,” Kyrin said hastily. Somehow she didn’t feel like she could face the big cyborg right now. How could she tell him he was about to be a father when she barely knew him?
“Well then, what can I do for you?” Doctor Chambers looked honestly mystified.
“I…I…” You’re running out of time, stupid—just spit it out! “I’ve been throwing up every morning after breakfast,” Kyrin heard herself saying. “And my breasts are really tender…I get ravenously hungry for no reason and I feel like I’m going to faint if I don’t eat. And…and I’ve missed my period twice now. I’m afraid I’m…I’m…” But she still couldn’t say the word out loud.
Dr. Chambers said it for her.
“It sounds to me like you might be pregnant, Kyrin,” she said gently. “Is there anywhere you can get a test performed?”
“No, not here.” Kyrin shook her head quickly. “I’m still aboard my father’s ship. To be honest, I’m kind of a…a prisoner here.”
“What?” Doctor Chambers frowned. “A prisoner? You mean he won’t let you go? I thought you worked for IPKA.”
“He sent a letter of resignation to IPKA.” Kyrin could feel the tears coming—tears she’d been holding back for ages, but she couldn’t hold them back anymore. “He says he wants to keep me here where he can keep an eye on me—keep me safe. I can’t go anywhere and I’m so afraid of what might happen if he finds out I’m pr…pr…pregnant,” she forced herself to say at last.
Doctor Chambers frowned.
“He can’t hold you against your will. That’s against the Galactic Free Will Laws.”
Kyrin laughed bitterly.
“Who’s going to stop him? We’re on a Space Corps heavy battle ship with the deadliest array of weapons in the known galaxy. I’m stuck here, but what am I going to do when I start to show?”
“Maybe you should try to explain what happened,” Doctor Chambers suggested gently. “You’re a grown woman—not a teenager who got herself in trouble in the back seat of a space hopper, Kyrin. You can take responsibility for your own choices and let your father know what you want to do about the baby—if there is one.” She cleared her throat. “What do you want to do?”
“I want to keep it,” Kyrin said at once. She hadn’t actually thought about it before. This was the first time she’d allowed herself to say the “P” words out loud, after all. But the minute the diminutive doctor asked the question, the answer was there in her mind—immediate and instinctive. “I’d keep it,” she said again, her hands going protectively to her belly.
Doctor Chambers smiled.
“I think that’s a lovely idea.”
“I wouldn’t ask Rich to help me raise it of course—not if he didn’t want to,” Kyrin said quickly. “I mean, I wouldn’t want him to feel tied down or obligated or—”
“I think you might be surprised at Rich’s reaction to this news if you choose to tell him,” Doctor Chambers said. “I don’t think he’d be at all displeased. In fact—”
Suddenly the door slapped open behind her and a voice roared into the exam room.
“Kyrin Justine Pierce, what the hell is going on in here?”
Kyrin gasped and turned her head to see her father’s face looming over her like an angry, bloated moon.
“Father, I can explain,” she said quickly. “I just needed some medical advice about—”
“I know what yo
u needed advice about.” His face twisted into an expression of loathing. “You’re pregnant and not even by one of the human cultists that kidnapped you. You’re pregnant by a fucking cyborg!”
“Yes.” Kyrin raised her chin, remembering Dr. Chambers’ words. She was a grown woman and she would take responsibility for her own actions and choices. “Yes, I believe I am, father. And I want to keep it.”
“Keep it? You’re pregnant by a half-metal/half-man abomination and you want to keep it?” her father roared. “No, by the Goddess! I will not allow it!”
He grabbed Kyrin by the arm but she yanked away from him. Over his shoulder she could see the apologetic face of the male nurse. Little sneak. He’d probably called her father the moment he left the room.
“I’m my own person. This is my body,” she shouted back at her father, pressing her hands to her belly. “I’ll make my own choices.”
“Not when your choice is to have a cyborg spawn,” he spat. “That metal bastard—I told him not to lay a single finger on you!”
“You don’t understand! Rich did what he had to do to rescue me!”
“No, you don’t understand, young lady. No daughter of mine is going to have a cyborg’s bastard,” her father snapped, grabbing her arm again, this time in an unbreakable grip. “You’re coming with me.”
“What? Where?” Kyrin tried to fight back, but her father was a strong man. He wasn’t letting her go this time.
“Somewhere to get that thing out of you,” he snarled, yanking her toward the doorway.
“Excuse me? Admiral Pierce?” Doctor Chambers’ voice came from the viewscreen and Kyrin looked over her shoulder in surprise. In all the confusion she’d completely forgotten the doctor was on the line.
“Help!” she shouted to the other woman. “Help me, please!”
“Admiral, your daughter is a grown woman with rights to her own body,” the doctor said sternly. “You must let her go and allow her to make her own decisions regarding the baby, if there is one. Acting in any other way violates the Galactic Free Will Laws.”
“Shut that thing off,” Admiral Pierce snapped at the male nurse who was still standing helplessly to one side. “I ought to have you locked in the brig for letting Kyrin make a call outside the ship in the first place.”
“Yes, sir! Of course, sir!”
“Admiral Pierce—” Doctor Chambers began again but then the nurse slapped the kill switch, and her image abruptly faded from the small square screen.
Kyrin felt a surge of despair.
“Let me go. Let me go!” she insisted, trying in vain to wriggle away from her father’s punishing grip.
“I don’t think so,” he snarled. “What’s wrong with you, Kyrin? Have you completely lost your senses? Wanting to have a baby by that…that metal thing?”
“His name is Rich and I love him,” Kyrin sobbed, tears of rage and pain rising to her eyes. The minute she said the words, she knew they were true. Just as she had known the minute she said it out loud that she wanted to keep her baby.
“You what?” Her father’s face went from red to positively white with fury. “That’s crazy,” he raged at her. “Listen to yourself. You sound like you’re stark raving mad.”
“It’s not crazy. It’s my life and I’ll live it how I want.” Kyrin felt like she had somehow been transported back to her teenage years. “You can’t tell me what to do!”
“Oh, yes I can.” An ugly look began to creep onto her father’s eyes. “And if you want to act like a crazy person, I’ll treat you like a crazy person. Come on.” He started pulling her out the door and through the medical suite. The other doctors and nurses prudently looked away, pretending to study the walls and floors with great interest as they studiously ignored what was going on between their CO and his daughter.
“What do you mean? Where are you taking me?” Kyrin demanded. She didn’t like that look in his eyes. It was every bit as dangerous and fanatical as the look she’d seen in Sister Yancy’s eyes every day at the Breeding Compound.
“Someplace where they can take care of your little problem.” Her father gave her a disgusted sneer. “And where you can act as crazy as you want to.”
Chapter Thirteen
She’d left him and he was too much of a fucking idiot to realize it.
Rich growled and slammed his fists into the bag in front of him again, then again, unleashing all the pent-up fury inside on the helpless heavy canvas and sand bag. Strange that technology had allowed them to navigate the stars and rebuild broken soldiers like him, but still, when they trained to fight, it was on a piece of equipment that hadn’t changed since antiquity.
It had been two months—two whole fucking months—since her father had collected Kyrin and she hadn’t contacted him once. Not once. Not even to say thanks. He hissed in annoyance. How fucking difficult was it to pick up the comm and place a call. Even a recorded one to say “Hey, Rich, thanks for saving me from nutjob breeder lunatics. I’m all good now and getting on with my life. Kthanksbye.” would have been better than nothing.
He punched the bag again, one of the seams starting to spill and weep sand down its side. The floor was already covered in sand, two of the bag’s comrades already victims of his rage. They lay discarded near the wall, deflated and sad as he pounded their brother relentlessly.
He’d spent two months in hell. Absolute fucking hell. He just couldn’t get her out of his head no matter what he tried. Running patrols with Harper, working with the doc on new techniques for their cybernetic systems… hell even reading dull maintenance manuals until he got so tired his eyes crossed and the damn things fell from his hands… nothing worked. Kyrin was there, in his head, day and night.
The days were better, he decided, turning and clipping the bag with a backfist before rapidly following it up with an elbow strike. His onboard processor kept a log of the hits, assessing them for lethality against various opponents. So far he’d killed seventeen marines, four hoppers and almost killed Wilkins. Seemed the other cyborg, even though he was less metal than Rich, was damn hard to kill.
At least in the day he could distract himself. Work. Talk to the others aboard… even go talk to the doc. Long confidential chats where he tried to straighten out the cogs in his head that weren’t working.
Mostly, he was successful. If he could just stop thinking she’d walk around the next corner, or that he’d walk into a room and find her there. The med bay, the one place on the ship she’d been apart from the shuttle bay, was the worst for that… he’d had to ask the doc if they could talk elsewhere, the memories too much for him.
But the night… that was a different matter. He couldn’t banish the thoughts of her at night. They assaulted him, forced him to relive his memories of her soft body beneath his as he drove into her time and time again. Of her moans and pleas for him to take her. The way her tight pussy clenched hard around his cock as she begged him to give her more.
He couldn’t resist touching himself, cock in hand, as he pretended it was her softness he drove into. He played the memories from his processor so it all felt real and like she was really back here with him.
It wasn’t just memories, though. His imagination went into fucking overdrive, presenting him with all new scenarios with Kyrin as the star. Scenarios where she was waiting for him after his shift, soft and eager for his kisses and touch. Naked in his bed as he took her slowly and gently, soft sighs filling his quarters as the sounds of sex rang in the air.
Of him taking her, hard and fast in the shower, her breasts bouncing with each thrust as he slammed his thick cock home, a look of utter ecstasy on her face as he took her with all the power and precision his half-human, half-metal body could muster.
And finally, the absolute kicker. Of her turning to him in one of the corridors, a smile on her lips as she stroked a soft hand over her rounded abdomen. Of her pregnant, her belly swollen with his child.
Absolute longing stole his breath and he sagged against the bag, hands clutchi
ng at the sweat and blood-covered surface. Absently he realized he’d cut his flesh and blood hand to ribbons, but the lacerations barely registered over the pain of the ragged hole in the center of his chest.
He sucked air, trying to get his lungs to work. To have her bear his child, his imagination was too cruel… presenting him with the one thing he longed for but would never have. He hadn’t realized how much he wanted it until now, with her, but there was no way it was going to happen. She’d left him without so much as a backward glance.
And what did you expect? the nasty little voice was back. He’d had the doc check out his processor and implants and nothing was corrupt, so the voice was all down to him. His conscience or common sense perhaps. There’s no way she’d want a metal monstrosity like you to father her child. You’re a monster, a half man, and she got away from you as quickly as she could. She’s probably already found someone else, a real man, to take your place.
He snarled again, pushing off from the bag and intending to go another round when a deep voice sounded behind him.
“She’s pretty. Can see why you’re pining for her.”
“Fuck off, Harper.” Rich slammed his fist into the bag again, savoring the pain from his split knuckles as he ignored the big cyborg leaning against the wall by the door.
“Touchy!” Harper grinned as he wandered over. “You really do have it bad. Don’t you?”
“Nope.”
Rich refused to engage. Harper was an annoying SOB at the best of times, but when he wanted to, he could be an epic pain in the ass.
“Bags say otherwise.” Harper circled around, holding the bag steady as Rich pounded on it. His gaze was keen as he studied Rich’s form, but he didn’t say anything about the blood over his knuckles.
“You wanna spar with something that hits back?”
Rich broke away, his chest heaving as he backed up.
“Fuck yeah!”
“What’s this about, doc?”