Finding Her Cyborg (Cyborg Redemption) Read online

  “Really? I always wanted a brother.” Talyani’s wide gaze looked up to Pooja. “Why didn’t you tell me I had one, Mother?”

  “I…”

  “Well, you know now.” Pulling off his tactical glove, he extended his hand to her. “I’m Nasli. Nasli Demeter.”

  Talyani didn’t even hesitate to slip her much smaller hand into his. “It’s very nice to meet you, Nasli. I’m Talyani Zulfiqar.”

  “Nice to meet you, too. So, Little Sis, what are you doing out here in deep, dark space?”

  “I’ve been chosen to compete at Worlds.”

  Nas knew Worlds was a competition, held every five years, between the eleven countries on Kirs for bragging rights on who had the most talented, beautiful, and intelligent citizens. Winners became national heroes. And the losers? Well, no one ever heard of them again. Why anyone would want to compete in such a thing, let alone allow their child to, was beyond Nas’s comprehension.

  “What does that have to do with you being in space?” Nas asked.

  “Mother wanted us to go to Bionus because of their enhancing treatments. Mother said I needed one before I competed.”

  Nas glared at his mother, who just sniffed and raised her chin slightly. He turned back to his sister. “I’m sure you didn’t need any of that.”

  “That’s what my father said, but mother insisted. So, we went.” She looked to her mother, then leaned in closer to Nas as if sharing a secret. “I was only with my consultant for an hour. She showed me how to apply enhancements so my eyes would stand out on stage.”

  “I see. What are you competing in?”

  “Vocal,” she told him proudly. “I love to sing.”

  “I’m sure you’re very good.”

  She gave a little shrug. “People tell me I am, so I guess we’ll see.”

  “That’s enough.” Pooja put a hand on Talyani’s shoulder, pulling her away from her newly found brother. “If the ship is secure, I want you both to leave. NOW.”

  “But, Mother…”

  “Quiet, Talyani.”

  Nas didn’t like how his mother’s hand tightened on his half-sister’s shoulder, but as the wife of a Supreme Judge, he had to obey her. Keeping his eyes locked with his mother’s, he slowly rose. Pulling on his tactical glove, he swung his rifle around, letting its muzzle remain on her for a moment before aiming it at the deck. The widening of her eyes let him know he’d made his point.

  “Let’s go, Nas.” When Nas didn’t move, Reiji hardened his voice. “Lieutenant! Now!”

  That had Nas moving, but when they reached the lift, he looked behind him to find his mother and half-sister had followed them and knew he had one more thing to say. “I’ll make sure to watch your performance, Little Sis.”

  “Really?” Her eyes sparkled with excitement.

  “Really.” With that, he left.

  One month ago

  Talyani hurried towards her father’s office. She’d been working in her private wing of her parents’ estate when the news report came across the music channel she’d been listening to. She knew it had to be false. She just needed her father to verify it.

  Some thought it was strange she still lived on her parents’ estate. After all, she’d won the Worlds vocal competition at thirteen. Since then, she had become the most popular vocalist on Kirs and their closest neighbor, Bionus, where she traveled several times a year to perform.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t have enough credits to purchase her own estate. As Supreme Judge, her father’s security rivaled that of the emperor’s, and she needed that because she had some rabid fans.

  She knew this was a bad time of day to interrupt her father, and his assistant was going to block her, but she’d long ago learned how to get around that pesky man.

  Slipping out through a set of glass doors, she made her way along the stone terrace curved along this side of the estate, including her father’s office. As she approached the clear doors that led into his private office, she discovered they were already open and heard the raised voices inside.

  “But, Badar…”

  “No, Pooja, there’s nothing I can do.”

  “But he’s my son!”

  “Keep your voice down. Do you know what I had to do to ensure no one ever discovered that? Do you want me, us, to lose everything for which we’ve worked? Our standing? Our home? Think what would happen to Talyani.”

  “I know, and I don’t want anything to change either, but isn’t there something you can do? You’re a Supreme Judge, for God’s sake.”

  “Which is why I can’t do anything. The emperor isn’t just gathering up cyborgs, Pooja. He’s gathering up their entire family and any friends he even thinks might sympathize with them. He means to send them to Tyurma.”

  Her mother’s eyes widened. “What?! But that means….”

  Her father sighed and shoved a hand through his hair. “Now, do you understand why there can’t be even the slightest hint you have a son that’s a cyborg?”

  “Yes, Badar.” Her mother deflated as if all the air had been sucked from her.

  “You need to vocally support the emperor whenever you are out. Whether it’s dress shopping, having lunch, or just walking down the street. He needs to be assured we stand by him and only him.”

  Her mother nodded eagerly. “Yes, Badar. I can do that.”

  “You have to, or we’re all dead, including Talyani. Not even her fame will save her if Shui discovers she is the half-sister of a cyborg.”

  Talyani couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The news report was right? The emperor had recalled the Cyborg Military Elite and was incarcerating them. Not just them but their family and friends.

  And her parents were planning on supporting him even though they knew it was wrong. Spinning to leave, she inadvertently caused a pebble to strike a pane of glass in the door.

  “Who’s out there?”

  Hearing her father’s footsteps quickly moving toward the opened door, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the earbuds she always carried. Sticking them in her ears, she bobbed her head up and down as if listening to something.

  “Talyani?” When she didn’t respond, he touched her shoulder.

  Shrieking, Talyani quickly spun around and dramatically grasped her chest. “Father! You startled me.”

  His brows lowered, and he scanned the area behind her. “What are you doing out here?”

  “I was coming to see you but knew Zau wouldn’t let me in, so I took my ‘special’ way.” She gave him a smile she knew he could never resist. “But then Kru sent me this new arrangement for my latest disk, and I couldn’t wait to listen to it. You know how I am.”

  “I do.” Relaxing, he gave her an indulgent look.

  “Do you have time to chat?” She glanced behind her father. “Oh, hello, Mother. Am I interrupting something?”

  Her mother brushed an imaginary piece of lint from her sleeve. “No, dear, of course not. Your father and I were just discussing some upcoming social events.”

  Talyani feigned surprise. “How funny, that’s what I was coming to discuss with Father.”

  “You were?” he asked.

  “Yes, I wanted to let you know I scheduled my next concert on Bionus, so I’ll be going off-planet in the next few weeks.”

  He grimaced and shook his head. “Oh, baby, I’m not sure that’s a good idea right now.”

  “Why, Father?” Her crystal blue eyes widened in confusion. “Is there something going on I don’t know about?”

  “Of course not,” he immediately replied.

  “Then I need to fulfill my contract. Otherwise, I’ll owe the promoter an obscene number of credits.”

  “Yes. Well, we can’t have that,” he agreed.

  “Well, I just wanted you to know. If you’ll excuse me, I want to listen to this arrangement again. Hopefully, I’ll be able to debut it on Bionus.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Returning to her suite, Talyani began to pace. What was she go
ing to do? She couldn’t let Shui send her half-brother to Tyurma. After meeting Nas all those years ago, her mother swore Taly to secrecy, telling her it would upset her father if he ever found out they’d met.

  She hadn’t understood it then, but she’d obeyed her mother and never mentioned it. That didn’t mean she hadn’t kept in touch with Nas.

  At first, she wasn’t sure how to do it, but after winning Worlds, she requested to perform for the soldiers who’d saved her, and her request was granted. During the concert, she’d been able to slip Nas a secure comms code. It allowed them to communicate and be involved in each other’s lives, although Talyani always revealed more about her life than her brother ever did.

  After his father died, Nas would only say it was because of a cluster fuck. He’d also talked even less. For months Talyani hadn’t heard from him. She and the rest of Kirs were told their space forces had encountered a previously unknown species with deadly consequences, but their forces had been victorious. Those lost were honored as heroes.

  Nas’s name hadn’t been on that list.

  Still, she hadn’t heard from him. She’d been ready to go to her father for help when Nas finally reached out.

  During the alien confrontation, he’d been badly wounded and decided to enter the Cyborg program. If she thought he’d been distant before, now it felt as if there was a universe between them. He only ever contacted her on her birth day to wish her well, then would disconnect. None of that mattered, though. He was her brother, and she wouldn’t let him die on Tyurma.

  She just needed to figure out how to prevent it.

  Chapter Two

  Talyani couldn’t believe she’d done it. She’d been able to sneak onto one of the Tyurma prison ships. It had been easier than she thought since the emperor had demanded everyone attend or watch his sham of a trial. It left no one to guard the ships.

  She looked like every other guard in her drab green shirt, pants, and black lace-up boots. It had taken a great deal of work, but she’d finally been able to restrain her signature hair beneath a cap the guards wore.

  From the information she’d gathered, the prisoners were to be loaded in order of their unit designation, which meant Nas would be on the second ship. She quickly moved to the cell-level control room and found the perfect hiding place.

  A maintenance closet.

  It had evenly spaced slats near the top for air circulation, and with her height, she could see out perfectly. She needed to watch which cell the controller assigned Nas’s pod and what security code he used to seal them in.

  Simple.

  Nothing could possibly go wrong.

  Right?

  In what seemed like a lifetime later, she leaned back against a side wall. Had something gone wrong? Had the cyborgs been found not guilty? Had all this been for nothing?

  No.

  She knew Shui. He wasn’t going to change his mind. He wasn’t that benevolent. He wanted the cyborgs gone. So, they would be gone, and no one had the power to stop him.

  Hearing voices, she straightened and peered through the slats.

  A guard walked into the room, and after pushing several buttons on the control console, he ordered, “Group 146. Cell 225.”

  “Move it, you traitors!” A guard from outside the control room barked.

  Talyani covered her mouth to muffle her gasp as she saw a group of cyborgs move past the large viewing window that faced the cells, their cheeks branded with the letters “CR.” Her father hadn’t said anything about that.

  The control room guard pushed several buttons again. “Cell 225 secure. Group 147, Cell 226,” the guard ordered, and she saw another group pass, this one filled with civilians, and their cheeks were branded, too, but with the letter “R.”

  This went on and on. Some groups she saw, some she didn’t. But she saw the guard in the control room repeatedly touching the same buttons.

  “Group 371. Cell 450.” Talyani’s breath quickened. That was her brother’s group. “Cell 450 secured. That’s it. We’re full. Send the rest to the next ship.”

  With that, the guard left the room. Talyani had to force herself to wait and not immediately jump out of her hiding place to release her brother. If she made a mistake now, Nas would be instantly recaptured.

  No, she had to wait until they were close enough to Tyurma for her plan to work.

  Feeling the vibration beneath her feet, she spread her legs wide and braced herself for takeoff.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Major Ranvir Somerled stared at his clenched fists as he sat in his holding cell. They’d been so close to stopping the emperor. So close to preventing the needless slaughter of millions of innocent lives on Bionus because of the emperor’s hunger for power.

  Instead, he was on his way to prison, and the rebellion was dead. Lifting his head, he assessed the other four occupants in the cell. One was a gangly civilian who cupped his branded cheek and sobbed. He couldn’t be more than twenty.

  The other three were dressed like him in the black-trimmed, grey uniforms that all cyborgs wore. None of them were part of the pod he’d commanded, so he couldn’t use his closed network to talk to them, and he refused to use the open network because the emperor would be monitoring it.

  His gaze returned to the civilian. “Why are you here?”

  Ranvir kicked the other man’s foot when he got no response, causing the man to shriek.

  “What?” he sobbed, his terrified gaze shooting to Ranvir. “What do you want?”

  “Why are you here?” Ranvir repeated. He wouldn’t put it past the emperor to insert a civilian spy into their group, knowing how protective cyborgs were of them.

  “I… I’m a communications specialist,” he stuttered. “I forwarded messages between rebels.”

  “Cyborgs don’t need their ‘messages’ forwarded,” Ranvir growled.

  “Non-cyborgs do.” The civilian dragged his shirt sleeve over his face to wipe away the snot and tears. When he hit his new facial enhancement, he winced, “Fuck, that hurts.”

  Ranvir ignored him and turned his attention to the other cyborgs. “Are any of you members of the same pod?”

  The three silently looked at him before the largest one spoke. “No.”

  The other two shortly followed.

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “Can any of you link with your pods?” Ranvir asked.

  Again, he received a chorus of noes.

  “They’re separating us in the hope it will weaken us. It won’t.” But Ranvir knew it could.

  During Shui's sham of a trial, he’d been able to communicate with the other members of his pod through their closed network, but then one by one, he’d lost them.

  That meant they were either dead or out of the closed network’s range. The cyborg part of his brain calculated the odds and was sure it was the second, but the human part worried it could be the first because Emperor Shui had lost his mind.

  Through his boots, he felt the vibration of the engines starting up. He leaned back against the wall, gripping the bench with the back of his knees, and braced for takeoff.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  “What are you doing?!” The exclamation stilled Taly’s hand as she was about to push open the door of her hiding place.

  “I forgot the visual of my family.” The guard hurried across the room to rip the visual off the view screen.

  “You’re willing to lose your life over a visual?!” the other guard sputtered.

  “It’s the last one taken where my father was still alive,” he defended, stuffing it into his jacket.

  “I still say you’re an idiot. Now can we get to our escape pod? I want to be as far away as possible when this ship explodes.”

  “Calm down. We still have fifteen minutes before we can launch. The emperor wants the ships close enough, so the explosion is seen from Kirs, but far enough away, so the debris won’t cause any damage.”

  Talyani stood in stunned silence as the guards
left the room.

  She couldn’t have heard what she thought she had, could she?

  Was the ship really going to explode?

  Had the emperor planned to murder these people all along?

  Oh, Gods, she needed to get off this ship!

  Everyone needed to get off this ship.

  Shoving open the door, she rushed to the control console. Shaking, she reached out only to curl her trembling fingers back.

  Oh, Gods. What was the code?

  Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and calmed herself down. Deep breath in then out, just as she did every time before going on stage. After a moment, everything settled, and she recalled the code.

  Opening her eyes, she took in the console. All the cells had been open when the prisoners arrived, but the guard had closed them individually. There had to be a way to open them all at once.

  Then she saw it. Along the top of the console, similar to what her sound engineer used during concerts to control the vast number of speakers, was each cell’s number listed individually and the large icon that synced them all. Every cell number lit up when she pressed it. She entered the code she’d seen the guard use and pressed enter.

  The cell doors started to open. Perfect! She rushed out of the control room to cell 450 and her brother.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Ranvir was immediately on his feet and ready to fight when the energy bars to their cell doors suddenly disappeared. So were the other cyborgs. They weren’t anywhere near Tyurma. There was no reason for their cells to be opened yet. Unless the guards were coming to kill them, they wouldn’t find that so easy since the wrist and ankle cuffs that had restrained them during the trial had been removed when they entered the cell.

  Ranvir was more than ready to defend himself. However, he wasn’t prepared for the beauty who rushed into the cell in an ill-fitting guard’s uniform and a cockeyed hat, strands of white hair escaping from it. Her striking blue eyes quickly scanned the cell.

  “Where’s Nas?” she demanded urgently.

  “Who?” one of the other cyborgs asked.