Chapter 10 Evo
Beautiful Aera is the last original descendant of the Creators’ resistance, which means she must find a human male to bond with if we do not find Xiphos. It is all I can think about as I guide them through the hangar toward the hatch in the side of the ship that has latched to Aegis.
Every touch from her suddenly seems more precious, and I value it far more than I should. It’s not just because of what she is. I’m getting attached and starting to feel more responsible for her than my simple protection programming requires of me.
The hatch is still large enough for us to walk through, but Titans have to duck. It is an older design, archaic by even Relic standards. But the ships are joined, and we have safe passage.
Evo>>Mother: Request access for four humans under my guardianship.
Mother>>Evo: Granted.
“Mother will scan you as you enter. She will consider you familiar after this, but you cannot bring others who are not approved, or they will be zapped hard enough that it will stop their hearts.”
Daken laughs nervously. “Is that all?”
Aera elbows him.
He grunts. “Bitch.”
I glare back at him. “You should not talk like that toward females. Definitely not Aera.”
“It’s just an expression. But you’re right,” Daken mutters. “Sorry, Aera.”
“Whatever.” She chuckles. “I don’t give a shit. We’re here. You call me whatever you want. If we live, I’ll be happy. Other niceties are just bonuses. If swearing helps you chill out and focus, then you do it. But I am sorry if I hurt you.”
Daken straightens and stretches with a wheeze. “I’m fine. Your little pointy elbow is no match for my abs.”
She snorts a laugh. “Sure.”
Aera and Daken stay right behind me while Steele and Brodin take up the rear.
We weave through the chrome hallways and to a large open hangar where Relics, Rogues, and humans work together repairing a variety of ship parts from our stolen armada and the Rebels’ scrapped-together fleet.
A section of the warm ship is filling up with medical beds and Aera’s people.
Savage coordinates with Rogue Socket over the local area net to get critical repairs done on Centurion with available Titans.
I see the conversation in my vision but ignore it to listen to Aera and Daken who muse at the shiny interior of the Rogue’s ship and how crazy it is that humans could conceptualize such a thing, and how the creation of Titans led to Titans becoming Creators…
in a way. Their surprise and awe at the life my Brothers’ have built for themselves lingers in my mind.
Savage, Poppy, and several others are already inside the meeting room around a holographic table that’s lit up in a blue column of schematics and lists.
Jackknife, still in his gray armor with the blue jagged stripe across the chest, types on one screen, tallying Centurion survivors that someone is relaying to him, likely Rebel and Atox.
The numbers float in the holographic projection in one corner.
Flashbomb, his armor white with gold veins like his husk, works at the other end of the table, sorting the floating grid of supplies.
“Commanders, we only have enough supplies for a few more days at best. Oxygen and water are adequate due to sourcing from the nebula. But food...medicine...” Ash shakes his head.
“We do not have proper protection equipment ratios. There are not nearly enough weapons or spare shield generator parts.”
Chasm circles the table like an obsidian version of Fracture. “Options for gathering more supplies?”
“All the outposts have been scrapped already,” Ash reports. “So we’re going to have to travel.”
“Or...” Aera starts.
When the gathering Rebels, Relics, and Rogues turn to look at her, she shrinks back behind me like she’s changed her mind. Savage’s team, Chasm’s team, and Toriszi’s have all gathered. Even Poppy and Clover of the BlazeStar look over at her.
Savage tilts to get a better look at her. “Speak up, female. There are no bad ideas when ideas are limited.”
She touches my back as she moves around my side. The willing and unnecessary contact knocks my ultromotor into a faster pace.
“We have, on occasion, taken out small Solcrue vessels, only ones we knew we could overpower. But maybe there’s a way we could lure in a vessel, slip in with maybe Chameleon and Atomizer. They’re sneaky.”
I’m saddened she does not consider me for infiltration.
The recording of her hands grabbing my sides during the rough passage through the asteroid field replays.
Each time she touches me, my ultromotor keeps spooling like I’m prepping to enter a high-conflict zone.
I had hoped she was interested or at least was starting to feel as I do. But now I’m not sure.
“I could get with that,” Vandal says with a sinister grin and wicked delight in his neon green eyes.
The way he says it, while he looks at Aera, makes me put a protective arm around her. He doesn’t know what she is. And he can’t have her.
Vandal>>Evo: Easy, big guy. I didn’t mean your female.
Evo>>Vandal: She is my Bond, not my mate. But do not get ideas. She deserves a human male.
Vandal waggles his brows. He plants his hands on his hips, and I catch the scent of fresh paint from him.
Vandal>>Evo: That’s a shame. You should see your synthskin right now. If that isn’t a blush, I don’t know what is.
I run assessments but don’t know what he’s referring to until my temperature sensor lights up, signaling extra heat production in my body.
Evo>>Vandal: I am keeping myself warmer for her. She was half frozen when I found her.
Vandal>>Evo: Whatever you have to tell yourself, Brother.
Chasm looks me over with curiosity and paces the far side of the table.
“Okay, so we take a Solcruean ship. We need to find one large enough to have the supply volume we need, come up with a plan to rid it of Solcrue, and break it free from the Solcrue network, so they don’t summon the army after us before we’re ready for a full-scale battle.
It’s going to have to be a quick, efficient mission. ”
“Give us a day of food and rest, and you’ll have more soldiers ready to fight,” Brodin offers.
“No offense,” Savage remarks. “But you are not in fighting shape after such a long time rationing critical supplies.”
Daken speaks up. “Do not take the honor of fighting from us. We want to be in this war as much as anyone.”
Vicious, a stealth model Rogue Saber with fuming red eyes that shimmer with wisps of steam, counters their participation. “You will only be a hazard since you’re operating at suboptimal capacity. When we go in, we have to be able to rely on each other. Humans cannot carry Titans.”
“Fuck that.” Aera straightens beside me.
“Solcrue have taken enough lives. If the mission is a go, I’m going with.
I’m tired of hiding, of barely staying alive in the middle of dead space.
I want to take from them like they have taken from us until they are the ones begging for hope or for death, whichever chooses to greet them first.
“Send me in with a specific task that doesn’t require dead-lifting metal dudes. I don’t care. But I want to kill some of these bastards!”
Daken smirks privately to himself.
“If she goes, I go,” Steele says. “Maybe only a few of us are ready, but take us. A lot of us have been on Solcrue ships and operated within thin margins of existence before.”
“Same with us,” a female says behind us.
Many of my Relic Brothers’ mates fill the doorway, covered in StarJumper suits and armed to the teeth.
Savage’s mate, Leah, adjusts a rifle that hangs from her shoulder. “Cara would join us, but in case we gotta use the blue bomb or Iridithatium shots, she’s staying here, in the center of Mother, in isolation so the nebula doesn’t drive her crazy.”
Esthi, with a bag of CyberTech gear strapped to her back, hooks a thumb over her shoulder.
“I got her and Amp working on some new Titan telenet headsets to coordinate with all these additional human crews, so Titan coms will feed into an audible network for us in case we have to switch suits or our visors go offline.”
Chasm points at Aera. “You may go with Evo. The rest of your team needs to stay and recuperate.”
“Yes, sir.” Aera and her team reply like they’re used to taking orders.
Vandal moves a portion of the holographic screen before him and opens a star chart. “What about this Solcrue battle cruiser? I’d like to take that for a joy ride.”
“Can we take the whole ship?” Ash asks.
“Sure as shit,” Navi waves from the back of the females’ group. “Esthi and I can tag team. It will go faster than with Ravenger. You know Craze will want in on the mayhem.”
Chasm puffs out a breath.
Brodin gets Aera’s attention and whispers to her. While my Brothers work on a plan, Aera’s quietly defending her right to join the mission.
“There is no future if we have no people,” she retorts.
“You are the last. You cannot throw your life away.”
I agree. But I know that wherever Aera goes, I will follow.
And it’s not just because I am Bonded to her.
It’s because she’s the only one who looks at me the way Navi looks at Craze or Leah looks at Savage.
I am certain it will not last once Aera uncovers my past. But I just need a few more recordings of her to assemble a companion program in my mind, something to keep me company when I am alone again.
“You didn’t send me here because I was the most qualified,” Aera bitterly remarks to Brodin. Her frustration draws me back to their conversation. “You sacrificed to protect me because of what I am, because of something I can’t change about my body, my blood...or whatever.”
Brodin hushes her. “Yes. Because as far as we know, you are the last. If we lose you, there’s no getting back what is still out there, waiting.”