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  It was almost like being naked without the touch of air on her skin.

  “Okay. Ready.”

  Surat returned, and he cocked his head. “Are you able to walk?”

  “I am pretty sure I can make it. I will yell out if I need help.”

  “Excellent. Let’s go then.”

  He beckoned to her and placed one hand in the small of her back, using it to steer her through the halls of the adaptation base and into a luxury cafeteria that contained several seating areas and a large kitchen.

  Bryn’s stomach growled.

  Surat steered her toward a booth, and he nodded. “Remain here. I will bring your meal.”

  Bryn nodded, remembering the contract she had signed. At least she didn’t have to line up with a tray. That would have been shades of prison again, and it was bad enough having a personal guard follow her around and punching through bathroom doors.

  She started to giggle at that and realised that she simply thought it funny.

  Surat brought over a tray containing a pot of tea, a cup, some flatbread and a weird, pasty dip.

  “Start with that. I will finish the rest shortly.”

  The Lrrko language was strange. It contained references that were concepts, more than words. When he told her to start, the reference was eatfirst. She mulled it over while she took a wedge of the grainy pita-style bread and dipped it into the pale greyish paste.

  She had eaten worse things recently, so she closed her eyes and tried it. Bryn opened her eyes a moment later. It wasn’t bad. The flavour pallet fought description, but it was definitely edible.

  She shrugged and kept going, pouring and sipping her tea until the bread was gone.

  Instead of being full, her appetite seemed to rile into awakening as she waited.

  Surat returned a few minutes later, balancing a tray on his hand and sweeping the empty dishes away before he put the small, single-serving plates down in front of her.

  “Taste each one and figure out which you enjoy and which you do not. I will tailor the shuttle selections to your preferences.”

  She smiled slightly, and he handed her some eating prongs with a flourish. They were nearly a fork and nearly chopsticks. It took some getting used to, but she managed to make inroads on the food he provided.

  “Did you cook all of this?”

  “It is part of my duties as your Familiar. You need a smooth transition from Terran food to Lrrko. I am ensuring that.”

  She nodded and wrestled with a noodle that kept coming out of the bowl. When she finished the inevitable suction, it jumped up and smacked her in the face.

  Surat laughed, and that is when suspicion took hold. That was a living reaction. He was definitely metal on the outside, but what was he on the inside?

  Chapter Three

  Four days and twelve meals later, she was finally cleared to travel.

  Bryn nearly bounced with excitement as she strapped herself into the navigator seat. “I have looked up all the specs for this. The speed is incredible.”

  Surat settled in after sealing the hatch. “You are excited about the mechanics.”

  “I really am. Before the unpleasantness occurred, I was starting an engineering degree. According to the contract, I am entitled to pursue any field of education I enjoy, and I really enjoy mechanics and electronics.”

  She had spent every waking moment with her mind learning how to create a spacecraft that could actually fly.

  She had studied the metallurgy, the wiring of the command areas as well as the ever-important air scrubbers and life support. She was going to work on her grasp of guidance systems during their flight.

  “I read your file. On Lrrko, you would have been within your rights to kill him.”

  She chuckled and watched him do the pre-flight confirmations. “It would have been easier if I had. At least, then, he wouldn’t have been able to come up with a reason for stripping an unconscious woman.”

  “He came up with something?”

  “He tried. It didn’t matter though. The district attorney decided that it wasn’t worth fighting the sports fans during a trial. He was a good player, and that was all they needed to know.” She suddenly wanted to hit something again.

  “Calm down. Once we are underway, we can engage in some more combat practice, not that you need it.” He chuckled.

  She looked closely at him and waited until they had left the moon and were slowly rotating amongst the stars. When they were pointing the correct direction, the navigation computer triggered the engines and they were off.

  “Surat.”

  “Yes, Bryn?”

  “What are you? I mean, your reactions aren’t that of a robot, so what are you?”

  He turned toward her. “I am a metal shell with a psychic projection driving it. The Lrrko have a training program that allows us to send our consciousness into a shell, to avoid physical harm and political issues.”

  “So, you are Surat, you are just the projection of your own mind.” She nodded. It made a certain sense. “Why the metal bodies? I mean wearing them here to collect the Brides.”

  He cocked his head. “To put it as delicately as I can, we were not coming home without the residue of the survivors.”

  She blinked. The story had been told to her on the flight away from Earth. One desperate people waiting for a ship carrying Brides. That ship crashed on Earth and a few of those Brides managed to find matches with humans and reproduce. Five survivors of those bloodlines existed to this day, and she was one of them.

  “So, if the Recruiter had not been persuasive?”

  “I would have come down to get you myself. Well, this version of me. It can withstand the damage that your folk can inflict.”

  “I thought that Earth was a protectorate.”

  He let out a snort. “By the time the Alliance gathered to defend against one Lrrko, we would be long gone.”

  It made her feel better and worse at the same time.

  “Well, since we are both awake and I have extra energy, how about that combat practice?”

  She unlatched her safety harness and stood up, getting used to the feel of artificial gravity. “Just one question, where am I going?”

  Surat’s hand touched her back, and he rose, steering her through the ship, giving her a tour of her sleeping quarters that included his charging station.

  It was that moment that she realised she might never be truly alone again, and it was both fascinating and terrifying.

  When they reached the cargo hold, which doubled as a sparring area, she took a look at the padded floor and thought it was a very good idea.

  “Wrap your hands, Bryn.”

  She snorted and walked to the bench along one wall, opening the kit of fight supplies to find the hand wraps. Bryn had already been shown how to put them on, so she slid her hand into the glove, made a fist and triggered the wrap to tighten. After a few seconds, both hands were ready for a fight.

  Surat was standing in the centre of the space, and he beckoned to her. “Attack me.”

  She grinned and let her normal aggression surge to the fore. With a rush of speed, she attacked him, striking him in the joints. The wraps protected her hands, and the metal protected Surat.

  She punched at him, kicked and followed her impulse to back up a few steps, jump toward him, and she let her entire body weight come down on the side of his faceplate. She heard a crack and felt a warm stickiness in her wrap.

  While she landed gently on the mat, he staggered back, hit the wall and slid down it.

  Her wrap had shattered and sliced her hand. Bryn grimaced and opened the wrap while she waited for Surat to right himself.

  He pressed a hand to the faceplate, and it snapped off. “That was unexpected.”

  “Sorry. It just seemed like the thing to do.”

  He pushed himself upright. “You are injured.”

  “Yeah, the hand wrap couldn’t take it. I got a little e
nthusiastic.”

  “Come on. Let’s get to the medical kiosk, and when you are repaired, I will work on the faceplate.”

  She stared at the wheels and wires that filled the sides of his head where the cameras were not.

  “You are trying to figure out how the bot goes together, aren’t you?”

  “Yup.”

  “You can stare at me as much as you like, but we have to get that wound sealed.”

  Bryn smiled cheekily and followed him down the hall to the stand-up scanner and fold-down med table. She propped her hand on the table, and he examined the gash.

  She had torn open four inches along the back of her hand. He reached for the med kit and got to work.

  Bryn watched the camera move as the lens zoomed in to examine the cut. A light spray numbed her skin a moment before he wielded a pair of tweezers to remove slivers of the wrap.

  She looked at the wiring that activated and controlled the motors that moved the cameras. It was marvellously detailed.

  “Since you are so keen on mechanics, how about you figure out a way to repair my faceplate.”

  Bryn nodded. “I think that would be entertaining.”

  “Excellent. Now, hold still.”

  A small jet of foam came out of the implement he was aiming at her, and he smoothed it even with her skin as it hardened.

  She blinked as the foam contracted rather than expanded. “That is neat.”

  “You won’t think so when the numbing agent wears off, but it will allow your body to heal along the torn cellular lines. Tomorrow, we will switch it out for synthetic skin.”

  “Nice. Can I move it?”

  “As much as it will let you. No more punching today.” The harsh chuckle came out of a speaker near his jaw.

  “Fine. You left your faceplate in the workout room?”

  “I did.”

  “Great. Where can I work on it? Where are the tools?”

  It would have been nice to see a smile, but the lenses were set back in his head, and he got to his feet. She was stuck looking at mechanical features, which—fascinating as they were—were a little too inhuman for her liking.

  The small repair kit was not designed for this kind of work, but she had broken his face, so she had to fix it.

  First, she restored it to the proper shape while Surat cleared up medical. Welding took a few tries, but eventually, she managed to seal the metal that she had broken. The wiring on the interior was the tricky part. It connected to the speakers and made the mechanical voice sound more human.

  It took her two days to get the wiring just right and get Surat sounding like he had when she first met him. He had been wearing his faceplate when she wasn’t working on it and had grudgingly handed it over when she figured out what needed fixing.

  “Excellent. I am in complete working order again.” He shared a noise that sounded like a snort.

  “Good. I want to get back to training.”

  “You can work on agility. Your combat moves are fine.”

  “I can already stand on my hands and walk.”

  He put his hands on his hips. “Then try flips.”

  With his help, she managed a few less-than-graceful flips. She was flushed with triumph when the ship started shrieking at her.

  Surat left her and ran to the command deck. Bryn followed and watched the displays as Surat’s hands moved over the keys.

  “What is it?” She clamped her hands over her ears.

  “We are being chased. The ships that are following us are... damn it.”

  Bryn couldn’t see his hands moving. They were a blur of motion that suddenly froze.

  The ship went dark.

  Bryn crouched in silence in the hold. The box she was hiding in was masking her heat signature. That was the theory anyway.

  She heard the shuffling of feet, and the language was Meratti. They were looking for the life sign and wondering how much ransom she would earn them.

  She heard them leave the cargo area and head to the front of the ship.

  As quietly as she could, Bryn eased open the container and slipped out, moving by the low emergency lights around the edge of the cargo bay.

  Bryn found the hand wraps, and she fastened them in place. This wasn’t facing assholes on Earth. She was allowed to keep going until she was safe.

  She crept to the workspace and found the wire that she had been playing with during her self-teaching. Anything that could be a weapon was hers.

  She grabbed the hammer she had used to reshape Surat’s faceplate, and she gripped it as she moved forward, following the flickering lights.

  They were laughing at Surat, shoving the bot body around. Bryn lunged out of the darkness and silenced one of them in seconds.

  The second intruder shouted and fumbled for a weapon. She saw his grey-scaled skin a moment before she struck him with her fist. She pounded over and over until her hands were covered with black ick and he wasn’t breathing.

  Now, she had two bodies to get rid of and a ship to get moving. There was nothing like learning on the job.

  * * * *

  Surat came out of his suspension unit with two attendants fighting him.

  Medic Tuso came over and cleared his throat. “Surat, what is it? Why are you here?”

  “Meratti struck our ship with a pulse. My body is down and the ship is dead. Bryn is up there alone.”

  The medics were giving him supplements and boosting his awareness.

  “The Meratti are scavengers who will ransom her back to us. She will be fine.”

  Surat gasped as they removed the life-support implants. “You haven’t met Bryn. Those Meratti aren’t going to leave the ship alive, and she is going to be up there on her own.”

  * * * *

  Bryn worked out how to use the processor for the food unit to provide power to navigation. It took her two days, but the ship finally came back online.

  She looked over at the hulk of Surat. She hoped that the final coordinates were the same ones that he had in the short-term storage of his body. They were the only ones she had to use.

  The nav computer was waiting for input, so she keyed in the coordinates and waited for it to plot the course based on their current location.

  The next part was going to be uncomfortable. Bryn looked at the wires and command unit that she had salvaged from the robot, and before she could change her mind, she plugged it into the jump controls. When the ship flashed that the jump was ready, she put the halo on and held onto the armrests.

  The ship shot forward and to the jump point, the halo’s connections dug into her head, and she was in two places at the same time before shooting for the next one.

  It was going to be a very long day.

  Chapter Four

  “Unidentified vessel, please, remain where you are and submit to an escort.”

  Bryn sobbed in relief as a voice speaking in Lrrko came through the system. “Um, hello?”

  “Identify yourself.”

  “Uh, I am Bride Bryn McFarland of Terra. My Familiar is Surat, but his bot had an accident.”

  “A moment please.”

  Bryn waited for the longest moment of her life. She hadn’t been able to get the lav working properly, she hadn’t showered in days and the cold rations she had been eating had not been satisfying. Sleep was something she didn’t remember being able to do.

  Her condition was embarrassing. If she had known more about how the ship worked, she would have been able to get it back online. She was grubby, filthy and desperate for another voice.

  “Set your ship down in the centre of the landing field.”

  “How?”

  “I beg your pardon.”

  “How? I don’t know how to fly a ship. I don’t even know if this one can land. The controls are a little sketchy. I was lucky to get life support back online.”

  Two ships were approaching, and she tensed as they got closer.

  �
��Bride Bryn, cut your engines, they will catch you.”

  “Are you sure?”

  A familiar voice rolled through the com. “Bryn, they are going to catch you on their wings. We do this in training all the time.”

  “Surat!” She sniffled a little. “I wrecked the ship... and your body.”

  “Whatever kept you alive. Now, cut the power, and we will catch you.”

  She looked at the nest of wiring that she had created. “When I cut the power, I will lose the coms.”

  “I will see you in a few minutes. Just trust me.”

  She nodded, though he couldn’t see her, and pulled the wires.

  The ship dropped straight down, and she bounced around in the cabin. A few seconds and she heard metal on metal. She could feel it through the flooring. Something was scraping against the outside of the ship.

  She counted the seconds as she crouched on the floor of the silent ship. Five minutes and thirty-two seconds passed before the ship stopped moving.

  Bryn remained crouched over the body of Surat as she waited for the sound of the hatch.

  When the hatch released, she lifted her head. She scented the air of a world in the grips of autumn. There was dust, pollen and ripe fruit hidden behind the smell of tarmac and mechanicals.

  “Bryn?” Surat’s voice rang out.

  She looked down at the robot body lit by the emergency lights and got to her feet. “Here.”

  She heard his boots as he made his way through the ship, and she walked toward him. He paused when she got ten feet from him.

  She kept walking.

  When she drew even with him, he put his hands on the small of her back and her knees buckled. He caught her and helped her out of the ship with a grip that let her look like she was walking on her own.

  “A med team is waiting for you.” He spoke in a low whisper.

  She nodded. “That sounds good right about now.”

  She hid her hands from him. Her nails had been torn to bits when she used them to strip wires. The smell of blood was something she was used to.