Striking Freedom (Mechanical Advantage Book 6) Read online

  “Good. Let’s get you on slightly more even footing. Come on, you have a spa appointment in complete privacy.”

  “Now? Just like that? What about all the cyborgs waiting for repair?”

  Alphy snickered. “We have medics treating them in shifts, no one aside from us is authorized to use the machine that we are going to. It is in the secure part of the ship.”

  Lacey reduced herself to her normal height. “I think I am ready to give in to modern medicine. Time to rejoin the living.”

  Alphy linked arms with her robotic limb. “We are glad to have you.”

  They walked through the halls, and a few of the men gave her dark looks.

  Stitch muttered, “What is their problem?”

  “My last name. Those men have hated General Adams for years. That kind of hate doesn’t disappear just because the man is dead. That kind of hate has to move on to another target, and until they see the Splice again, I am it.”

  Lucky sighed. “That sucks.”

  “It truly does, but it is what I accepted as a consequence of my actions.”

  Stitch commented, “You walk really quietly considering your feet are rigid.”

  “Practice. It took a while to deal with the length of the limbs as well, but I got used to that, too.”

  Stitch chuckled. “I have seen the designs that Cracker made up for your replacements. She has created quite the rig. The change in height will be gradual and take about a minute, but you should still be able to manage it. The counterbalance will be in your lower back, and the increase in strength will be supplemented with struts running via your muscle groups. It might feel weird at first, but the pain relief will be built in.”

  Lacey sighed. “Pain relief would be good.”

  Stitch paused and looked back at her. “You haven’t had any pain relief?”

  “I haven’t dipped into any of the supplies I have accumulated. And these hands can’t really aim a hypo with any accuracy. I just used breathing.”

  Stitch swallowed, and her skin went slightly grey. “Yeah, I hear that can work.”

  Lacey laughed at the discomfort on her friends’ faces. “You get used to it. Having a period with robot limbs is an entirely different experience. That, I still can’t get used to.”

  The women all looked thoughtful for a moment before there were appalled giggles.

  Alphy shivered. “Thankfully, I am outside of that particular recurring condition. Still sucks for you, though.”

  Lacey laughed. “It does, indeed.”

  They chatted, and it was as if they were walking the halls of Adaptation Station again but without the paperwork load.

  When they had been scanned into the secure area, Lacey got nervous.

  Stitch murmured, “Don’t freak out. We didn’t bring anyone to hold you back if you do. I know it is scary. You might be in pain, but it is a body that you know. We get it. Change is terrifying.”

  There was a gurney waiting, and Lacey handed her staff to Lucky and removed her robes. When she was wearing nothing but her well-worn zip suit, Alphy gasped.

  “Sorry, Lacey. It is still so brutal-looking.”

  Lacey nodded. “That is what it feels like. So, do I keep the suit on?”

  Stitch shook her head. “We can get cleaner scans if you remove it. Can you remove it?”

  Lacey ran her finger down the center of the suit and down each thigh. She peeled the suit away from her skin, and the torso seals released.

  Stitch’s mouth tightened. “You have had infections.”

  “Yup. Every few months.”

  Alphy looked unwell. “That looks... how do you get out of that.”

  Lacey snickered. “This is where it gets less than ladylike. I rarely do. I sit down and unscrew the supports on the hips, and then, I undo the supports on the arms. The framework is then removed for maintenance. I can move in that state, but it causes tremendous damage to my body. These limbs are heavy.”

  Lucky nodded. “Right, well, we are going to get you out of the harness, and then, Stitch is going to remove the limbs, and we are going to put you in the healing unit for repairs.”

  Lacey sighed. “I know. This is going to hurt.”

  Stitch smiled. “Have a seat on the gurney.”

  Lacey murmured. “Don’t forget the nanite primer.”

  Alphy lifted the unit that was in her hand. It was small and a simple rod that would be slipped under the skin near her spine, but it would tell the nanites what to do and how to do it.

  Lucky smiled. “I have the program in place for your new skeletal system.”

  Stitch nodded. “I have the muscle groups set up for your new structure.”

  Alphy grinned. “And I have an unlimited supply of nanites. Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Naked, Lacey straddled the gurney and settled herself in place. She felt a cool pressure near her spine, and she saw Stitch backing away with a hypo.

  “See you soon, Lacey.”

  She fell back on the gurney with a thud.

  Dreams. She had dreams of saws, drills, and masculine laughter.

  Lacey sat up with a gasp, and she promptly lost her balance. She fell out of the bed and hit the floor with the splat of skin on metal plating.

  Stitch looked up from a terminal and came running. “Damn, Lacey. You came out of it fast. Relax. Your nanites are still weaving your muscles.”

  Stitch lifted Lacey with a grunt and set her back in the bed, draping the sheet over her.

  “I am too used to pushing against the weight. I catapulted myself. Sorry.” She lifted her hands and watched as lights and silver streaks ran along her skin.

  “We had to pull you out of the machine before you were complete. There was too much infection, so we kept you sedated and let the nanites already in your system deal with it. Then, Alphy gave you more and then a third dose. When the reconstruction is complete, it should do whatever you want it to.”

  Lacey flexed her human-looking but still very skeletal hands. She pulled on the sheet until her metal-structured feet were sticking out. “Even looking like this, I feel more human than I have in years.”

  Stitch smiled. “That is the idea. So, you have half-siblings on the way?”

  Lacey wrinkled her nose. “Something like that. The men that we brought here; they are so angry. They had been helpless for so long, I was fairly sure that one or more of them would lash out at the girls.”

  “Had you experienced that before?” Stitch was casual about the question.

  Lacey nodded. “My grandfather was an unscrupulous bastard who liked the look of his own eyes. He started using me as a honey trap for some of the higher-ups in Earth Defense. I was a means to blackmail, and it was one of the victim’s wives that actually gave me the offer to join Adaptation Station. She did it at a public venue, saying that General Adams should show his commitment to the cause by letting his granddaughter join. So, I agreed and went online that night. She ran the recruiting station, and I was off-world on the next shuttle. I am convinced that she knew I wasn’t a willing participant in the seductions, but I was never able to speak with her again.”

  Stitch frowned. “Why not?”

  Lacey gave her a bland look. “Her private shuttle exploded on the tarmac. It was blamed on protestors, but I know that my grandfather was to blame. He hated being thwarted.”

  “Damn. I had no idea.”

  Lacey shrugged. “That was the idea. I had six months of companionship and freedom. Six months in a lifetime and I clung to those days when I really didn’t want to get up and keep going.”

  “You are going to make me cry.”

  Lacey snorted and reached for Stitch’s hand. “Don’t. Instead, help me undo what he was doing. Get Alphy in here and let me explain what I have been up to.”

  Stitch nodded and grinned. “You have to let go of my hand first.”

  Lacey opened her hand and watched the slow progression of nanite-generated skin and tissue.

  Alphy, Lexo, Yurik, Sti
tch, Niko, Lucky, and Sorouk were all standing around her as she explained her mission and her focus. Alphy’s expression grew from a scowl to a grin with a delighted gleam in her eyes.

  Lucky crossed her arms. “What if we do all this and they won’t take us back?”

  Lacey smiled. “I have homes, warehouses, supplies, businesses, and more on over thirty worlds. The leased city on Alguth is only one of them.”

  Alphy blinked. “How did you get them?”

  “Oh, I started with the bounty on my head, collected it, and went from there. Splice ships are worth quite a bit to the right buyer.”

  Lexo frowned. “How did you get all the ships that are showing up here?”

  “Salvage. You can do a lot with the right crew. I said I have businesses all over. That is one of them. The ships that can be refit for human use are. They are in my warehouses.”

  Niko asked, “What did you do with the cyborgs you found?”

  “I sent them either to Alpha Base or Khiron Station. I made sure that they arrived under guard until they could be taken into care.”

  Niko nodded. “The men don’t know where they were when they were redirected.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I kept to the shadows, gave them painkillers, and sent them on their way.”

  Niko inclined his head. “That doesn’t answer one question I have always had.”

  “What is that?”

  “How they arrived in Earth Defense ships?”

  Lacey smiled. “Ah. That. I thought the stations wouldn’t shoot at our own, so it was safer than sending them in Splice ships.”

  “Where did you get the vessels?”

  “Oh! Abandoned stations. There are seventeen unmanned stations that are just floating around out there with no occupants. Plenty of ships to be had.” She shrugged. “Well, less of them now. I disarmed and stripped them and sold them on for starting capital.”

  The folk around her were shades of amused and appalled.

  She grinned. “Sorry, you have to do what you have to do, and I needed to put us in the best position to wipe out the Splice and defend Earth.”

  Alphy narrowed her eyes, and it looked like she was thinking. When her eyes widened, she whispered, “Sonovabitch.”

  Lexo looked at her with raised brows. “What?”

  “Hidden files. Hidden bases. I had to run a de-encryption protocol. Those bastards. All that equipment, just sitting there.”

  “No med units, though. That is the one bit of tech that travels with the men.” Lacey sighed.

  Stitch smiled. “If you had them, you would have used them.”

  “Those men didn’t need to suffer, but they did need to get to safety. I wish I could have helped them immediately, but sending them to where they could get help was all I could think of.”

  Lucky gripped her hand. “You did good. Khiron Station wasn’t the best place for me, but it took care of its men.”

  Niko nodded. “So did Alpha Base. We took care of anyone arriving in an Earth Defense ship. It was a good call.”

  Lacey sighed and leaned back against her pillows. “That is a relief.”

  Alphy looked around the room. “Are we all agreed to pursue this particular course of action?”

  Stitch grinned. “I am.”

  Niko nodded. “I am.”

  Lexo crossed his arms. “Alphy, if you and Stitch are in, so am I.”

  Stitch grinned.

  Lucky smiled. “Of course, I am in.”

  Solouk inclined his head. “I can speak for Liakon and the other Alguth on this vessel. We are in.”

  Yurik smiled. “I have spoken with the other awake first-gens. We are in.”

  Lacey’s eyes went wide. “Even the Furies?”

  He nodded. “Even the Furies.”

  Lacey looked around and exhaled slowly. “Well, hell, then. I guess we are going to go to war. Again.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Lacey kept flexing her hands as she stood watching the Alguth working out in the domed area above the in-ship forest.

  Yurik moved next to her and took her hand. She blinked and blushed at the feel of the warmth of his skin against hers. A slow, fat tear made its way down her cheek.

  “What is that for?”

  She chuckled and wiped at her face with her other hand. “I can feel it. I can feel your hand against mine, the nanite pulse in the skin. I can feel my fingers on my cheek, the hot wetness of the tear. I can feel it.”

  He sighed. “Oh. That I understand.”

  She chuckled. He couldn’t understand. She hadn’t been injured in battle or woken up with adaptations, she had lived for over four years with no feeling aside from pressure in her arms and legs. It had taken her months to interpret the sensations so that she could move with any kind of skill. She had spent the first months stumbling and breaking the metal railings and walls around her as she flailed for support. Now, she was so used to pushing and pulling her body into place, she felt light as a feather.

  She leaned against him and watched the fliers, at peace as the base moved through the stars and headed for Earth.

  “Hey look, it’s the Adams bitch.” One of the men called it out.

  She sighed and straightened, putting her hand on Yurik’s shoulder to keep him from getting between her and the other men.

  She cocked her head. “I prefer to go by the name Lacey.”

  “You can prefer it, but we know what you are. One of our guys was surfing through files, and he found your makeover vid. I think everybody should know what kind of a rich bitch you are.”

  She winced. “That file isn’t what you think it is.”

  All of the screens on the walls lit up. She heard the Splice voices and heard her grandfather speaking.

  “So, we have a deal, then. Take her.”

  She watched as she was unlocked from her grandfather’s side, gagged with a grid of metal that held her jaw immobile. Her hands were manacled, and her feet were manacled. She was carried off by four Splice, their long fingers wrapping around her arms and lifting her from the ground. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t move.

  She held Yurik’s hand as she watched herself being strapped down to the table. The Splice unlatched her gag so that he could hear her scream.

  Lacey stayed with Yurik while the entire ship saw her naked body carved into pieces. Each limb examined after removal.

  The screen flickered, and then, Lacey was lying there, taunting the medics in Splice until they brought her limbs to make their own robotic cyborg.

  Her murder of the surgeon was on video, as was her reaching for the camera.

  Lacey walked to the cyborg, and she whispered in his ear. “Do you want to know what happened next?”

  He turned toward her, and he was grey. He shook his head.

  “Oh, but I want to tell you. The implanted limbs were so heavy that they cracked my bones and tore my skin and muscles, but I got into a ship, and I got out of there. Once I had gotten myself safe and burned the only surgeon who knew how to operate on living humans, I began to collect things that would help us win this war. I am not my grandfather, my father, or my missing parts. Nor are you. You lost a leg and were tortured, but you are not the pain you were given, nor are you the damage that was created. You are healed physically, and you need to let go of everything but hope for a future, or you won’t have one.”

  He chuckled weakly. “Because there is so much to live for?”

  “No, because if you show that vid again, there are folk here who will kill you, and they are the same men that you brought with you to intimidate me.”

  “How could you live with someone like him?” His words were soft.

  “I was a child when my mother killed herself to stop from giving him a proper heir. I was put into his custody, and that was the end of my future. It took a bit of an annoying path, but here I am, more hope than ever, and he can’t ever darken my door again.”

  “We wanted to kill him.”

  She patted his shoulder. “I know, but
I had a lot more claim to the life of that monster than anyone else, so I took it.”

  He looked around at the accusing faces, and he whispered, “I am so sorry.”

  She patted him on the arm. “It is fine. It is better that folks know and disabuse themselves of the notion that I am the beneficiary of my grandfather’s legacy. I make my own path.”

  She looked around, and she asked. “Any other questions?”

  One young cyborg raised his hand. “Do you miss being tall?”

  She laughed. “Yes. Yes, I do. I am tall for a female, but it still isn’t quite enough when you are used to looking down at everyone.”

  The spell was broken, and the ship got back to normal.

  Yurik was furious. “When I find out who leaked that file...”

  She was walking back to her quarters. “Spoiler alert. It was me. I knew they would go looking, so I named it something that seemed innocuous but could only be accessed the once. This was their shot to humiliate me as a vacuous idiot.

  “It backfired, but it cleansed me. Now everyone knows, and they have seen an actual Splice lab at work. Many will be haunted, but others will remember it and use it as fuel for their attacks on the Splice.”

  “And they will be nicer to you.”

  “Yes. Manipulative but correct. I wish I could react like a normal person, but the normal person died a long time ago. Now, it is just me.”

  “Are you ready for the battle?”

  “Of course. I have been training for this.”

  He chuckled. “You, dear one, have weird hobbies.”

  She laughed. “I really do.”

  “Where are you going now?”

  “I am going to take myself out of the public eye for a few hours. While I am glad that everyone saw and that part is over, I really don’t want to deal with memories on top of answering questions and horrified looks.”

  “I will stay with you.”

  She looked at him and took his hand. “Thank you.”

  They made it to her quarters, and she pulled him inside, remaining clothed, and invited him to her bed. It was time to feel what a welcome visitor to her bed felt like.

  She wrapped his arms around her and exhaled, it felt pretty nice. She would remember this moment. The next few weeks were going to be stressful, and one bright point was going to have to keep her positive. Things were going to get nasty.