Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
He hadn’t planned on returning to Defiance Station this fast, but it had been the obvious choice.
The True had made the trip faster than he’d expected, trimming nearly two hours off their arrival time.
That was all thanks to Tix’s repairs. Whatever she’d done, it had the ship’s engines working better than ever.
That speed had worked in his favor in other ways, too.
The clients had been eager to take custody of the target.
So much so that they must have bribed someone to clear away the usual traffic control delays.
He’d received a berth assignment and clearance to approach only a few minutes after contacting the station’s control center.
The client had even given him an unexpected bonus for the quick delivery.
He could have stayed at the station longer, but Ashur wasn’t the kind of place you wanted to hang around unless you had a reason.
It was one of the first stations to arrive in the Drift.
Ashur was also the only platform that was not under corporate control.
On paper, it belonged to a consortium of mining and labor unions.
In reality, that group had long ago split into factions that were in constant conflict with each other.
Everyone involved in the business of mining asteroids knew it was the best place to go if you needed to find work.
Captains and crew chiefs from all over the Drift came to Ashur themselves or hired recruiters to find them the workers they needed.
That wasn’t all Ashur was known for. It was also the distribution hub for the majority of all illegal pharma and black-market goods that made their way to the Drift.
It was a dangerous place that offered distractions of every kind if you had the scrip to pay for it.
If he was being honest, the station’s reputation wasn’t the biggest reason he wanted to get back to Defiance.
It wasn’t even the vague uneasiness he always felt when he was out of contact with Mace.
He’d sent him a text message via the ship’s comm array once he’d arrived safely.
Still, the distance between them meant there was a small time delay.
It was enough to make having a decent conversation annoyingly slow.
As batch-siblings, they’d been linked by internal comms since they’d left the maturation tank. Without it, he felt isolated.
The link was only part of their connection.
It was something a lot of his brethren experienced.
Due to the way they lived, trained, and fought, most cyborgs were tightly bonded to at least one other member of their batch.
He and Mace had always had that connection, and it had only grown stronger as they’d lost the rest of their batch-siblings to the wars.
No, the truth was that he wanted to see Tix again.
She’d been on his mind since he left, and not for the usual reasons.
Yes, she was hot. No doubt about it. But he’d been designed to be physically desirable to humans of all genders.
It made it easier to trust him and to tell him things they shouldn’t.
That meant if he wanted the company of an attractive female, he could get it easily enough.
His interest in Tix went deeper than that.
She was a survivor. Strong and determined enough to make it out here on her own.
Yet somehow, she held on to her soul. She was guarded but still kind.
If she hadn’t been comfortable helping them with their ship, he had no doubt she would have found someone else to do the job.
Discovering she had implants had been a surprise.
She was more like him than he’d realized, which was another point in her favor.
He wanted to know more about her. Were there other secrets to uncover?
Yes, there had to be. But he also wanted to know simpler things.
What vids did she like? Where was she from?
He’d noticed an unfamiliar cadence to her words, but it wasn’t strong enough to be called an accent.
He knew she liked pizza, which showed she had good taste, but what else did she enjoy?
Did she have hobbies before the demands of survival turned free time into a luxury?
Everyone had something they did just for enjoyment. Right? Well, everyone but Mace. His batch-brother didn’t do anything just for the fun of it.
Which was yet another reason he wanted to get home. He loved his batch-brother, but Mace had never made a move on a female in his life. If they wanted Tix, Xaber would be the one to make it happen.
In fact, he wondered if Mace had been in contact with Tix at all. If he had, that would make the next bit easier. If not? It was time to get things moving.
He checked his location, considered doing the mental math involved, and decided it was easier to ask the resident expert. “Hey, Livy. Are we close enough to Defiance Station for me to have a real-time conversation with Mace?”
“Hello, Xaber. The answer to your question is yes. At our current distance, there will only be a three-second delay.”
“Thanks, Livy. Please ping Mace for me. Voice only.”
“Of course.”
Mace replied almost immediately. “You there yet?”
Xaber grinned. “I’ve been there, dropped off our delightful guest, and I’m now on my way home. You would not believe how much faster the ship moves now that Tix has worked her magic.”
He could hear the smile in his batch-brother’s voice as he answered. “You’re headed back already? That’s good news. I take it there were no issues getting through traffic control?”
“No issues at all. The client wanted their package delivered badly enough to pay for expedited everything on that end. Oh, and they gave us a bonus for getting it done so fast.”
“Now that is even better news.”
He paused as he pondered how to approach the next topic.
“Are you still there?” Mace asked.
“Yeah. You free to talk right now? You’re not at work?”
“I’m at Flek’s. That jazza berry juice he gave Tix the other night is good stuff. I needed somewhere relatively quiet to sit for a bit. So yeah, I’m free to talk. Is something wrong?”
“Nothing like that. I’ve just had a lot of time to think since I left. We’re still in agreement about Tix?”
Mace chuckled. “Definitely.”
“Have you spoken to her since I left?”
“Mhmm.” He sounded almost smug.
Xaber scowled. Something was up, but he had no idea what. “Good. I’ll be back by late afternoon station time. Do you think she’d like to go out with us tonight?”
This time Mace laughed out loud.
Xaber swore softly and then raised his voice. “Why the fraxx are you laughing?”
“Because I know something you don’t know,” Mace replied in a sing-song tone. “Switch to video. You need to see this.”
He switched to video format, but instead of seeing Mace’s face, he saw a static image of… Tix.
She looked stunning. She wore a silky blue outfit he’d never seen.
In the photo, she was smiling up at the camera like someone had just offered her a year’s supply of Flek’s pizza.
No, he realized a second later. She wasn’t smiling into a camera.
She was looking up at Mace. He’d captured the image himself.
“I was gone for one day! How did this happen? When?”
Now, the view changed to show Mace. He looked happier than he’d ever seen him. “This is from last night.”
“Who are you? And what did you do with my batch-brother? You asked Tix out?”
“Fraxx you, pretty boy. I’m more than capable of going after what I want without you orchestrating things. She came to the club with me. We had dinner before my shift, and then she watched the band while I worked.”
“You took her to work?” That sounded more like Mace. Less romance, more practicality.
“I did. She likes blues music, and she said the new band was excellent.” Mace’s eyes gleamed as his grin got impossibly wider.
“And, brother of mine, let me tell you something. She tasted even sweeter than she looked in that photo. So yeah, I think I can convince her to go out with us tonight. You’ve got some catching up to do. ”
He found himself smiling back at Mace. The big man’s happiness was contagious. “I’ll be there in a few hours. Since you’ve got this all under control, do you happen to have any idea where we can take her?”
Smug was not an expression he was used to seeing on his brother’s face, but there it was again.
“As a matter of fact, I do. Tix will love it. Did you know she’s lived her entire life on a space station?”
As Mace told him the plan, Xaber could only nod in agreement as he tried to wrap his brain around what had happened in the short time he’d been gone.
If Tix could inspire Mace to action, she was someone rare and special.
She might even be the one they’d been hoping to find someday—a female who had room in her heart for both of them, scars and all.