of her admiration.
“You would have killed the enemy faster.” She patted his chest, seeking to appease him. “Especially now. The injections have made you stronger.”
“I would have always killed them faster.” Her warrior cuffed her bare ass and she yelped, more surprised by the reprimand than hurt. “I’m a C Model. My kill rate has always been much higher than Valor’s has been.” He paused. “But I am stronger now. Your injections were successful at boosting my nanocybotics, my clever little medic.”
A smile lifted her lips. She had accomplished that at the very least.
“Are you free from Humanoid Alliance control now?” Had she also helped them achieve that feat?
“The cyborg ship doesn’t arrive for another planet rotation.” Malice’s reply dashed that hope.
A planet rotation was too long a duration to wait. Alarm cascaded over her. Too much could change.
“The Humanoid Alliance knows you’ve freed yourselves.” She gripped his shoulders. “They’ll take action, try to retrieve you.”
All the sacrifices, the pain, the killings would then be for nothing.
That couldn’t happen. She frowned. They had to delay the enemy’s arrival.
“We could launch the tracking devices into space…somehow.” She didn’t know yet how to do that, but she would figure it out. “That could confuse them, might give you the planet rotation you need.”
“They won’t retrieve us.” Her warrior’s words were sharp with bitterness. “They’ll destroy us, target the lab with missiles and blast us into bolts.”
The Humanoid Alliance might do that.
There was only one way she knew to stop that possibility.
She could inform the enemy that she had succeeded where many of the previous medics had failed—she had formulated a functioning nanocybotics booster.
Her stomach twisted.
That sharing of information would result in the Humanoid Alliance having a greater reason to re-capture Malice and Valor. And it could potentially give them an advancement that might destroy entire civilizations…if they used it incorrectly.
Which the Humanoid would do. They were fixated on universe domination, would do anything to achieve that. The nanocybotics booster injected in the Resurrected would be that anything.
Illona met Malice’s gaze.
She could do nothing, could leave it up to chance, hope the cyborg ship landed before the Humanoid Alliance vessels did. That would risk her warrior’s lifespan, his friend’s lifespan.
Or
She could tell the Humanoid Alliance she had perfected the nanocybotics booster and gamble that she, Malice, and Valor would be either dead or gone before the enemy arrived. That would risk countless lifespans, cause deaths of millions of innocent beings.
A good medic, a medic like her mentor, would choose the first option. Help as many beings as you can, Medic Anahit had told Illona. Not harming as many beings as she could was its equivalent.
But when she was with Malice, she wasn’t a medic. She was a female who would do anything to save her male.
Her cyborg narrowed his eyes at her. “Whatever you’re planning, Medic, the answer is no.”
She frowned at him. “You don’t know what I’m planning.”
“I don’t have to process what you’re planning.” He bracketed her face between his large palms. “I see the damage in your eyes. The answer is no. I forbid it.”
“If I told the Humanoid Alliance I had successfully formulated the nanocybotics booster, they wouldn’t blow us up.” She presented her case. “They would seek to retrieve us.”
“No.” Malice scowled at her. “If you tell them you have a formula they want, they’ll hunt you for the rest of your lifespan.”
Her gaze shifted from his. “They won’t hunt me if I’m dead.” She muttered that reply under her breath.
“No.” Her cyborg almost deafened her with his roar. “You’re not dying.” He pressed his hands harder against her cheeks. “You’re not fabricating deals with the Humanoid Alliance. You’re my captive and you’ll do as I say and only what I say.”
Why would he reject her solution to the situation? It was logical, practical, should work.
She studied him.
“You care for me.” She tossed that wild idea into the universe.
“I-I-I…” Her warrior spluttered.
It was a reaction she didn’t realize cyborgs could have.
And it was one she would have never expected from him. She blinked once, twice. “Do you care for—”
“Fraggin’ hole.” He threw up his hands. She missed the contact with him the moment his palms left her skin.
He paced around the chamber.
“You will fry my circuits, you impossible female.” He shot her a dark glance. Her warrior was angry. Again. “I should strap you to a sleeping support while we wait for the ship. That would keep you out of trouble.”
She pictured herself naked and bound, her cyborg