Page 7 of Her Cyborg Commander (The Drift: Haven Colony #9)

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If River had her way, she would never have seen the inside of another cryo-pod. It was one more reason to hate Jens and the cabal he worked for.

The hardest part was always the wait between when awareness returned and the point at which she had enough muscle function to press the button that opened the pod. She hated lying in the dark, her limbs still too weak to move. It was like sitting in a nightmare version of death’s waiting room, unsure if you would return to life or die here, cold and alone.

The second she could move, she pressed her palm to the switch that would let her out. The door swung up and away, and suddenly she was bathed in warmth and light.

“So much better.”

“Go slow. If you’re anything like me, you want out of the damned coffin, but if you try it before you’re ready, you’ll just face-plant on the floor. That’s a problem because you’re too heavy for me to lift.” A human female with short-cropped gray hair grinned down at her. “Must be that fancy metal plating they put on your bones.”

“Must be.” River cracked a smile. “Nice to see you, Hezza.”

“Drink this.” Hezza handed her a bottle of water. “It’s good to see you too. I gotta say, though, I’d hoped we’d never have to go through with this plan of yours.”

“You and me both.” River popped the tab on the bottle and guzzled most of the contents before talking again. “Thanks for the water. And for everything.”

“You paid me to take care of you. That’s what I’m doing. Implying anything else would be bad for my reputation.” Hezza pointed a thin finger at her. “So don’t tell anyone I’m being nice.” With that, she produced a steaming mug of what had to be ja’kreesh from somewhere behind her. “Bottoms up. Once your brain is working again, I want to know what happened to make you fly the coop. I knew at some point one of you would want me to smuggle them off-planet, but I never figured it would be you. Now that big, broody one. Edge? He would have been my bet. He’d head off to find a war somewhere so he could lose himself. I know the type.”

River drained the last of the water before switching her attention to the gloriously large mug of liquid many referred to as Torski rocket fuel. It had enough natural stimulants to keep one of the massive aliens on their feet for a day or more, and had become the drink of choice for many of the cyborgs once they discovered it.

She sipped the drink slowly, eventually easing herself out of the cryo-pod and onto a nearby bench.

“You’re set up for this,” River commented.

“Let’s say this is not the first time my cargo arrived in a cryo-pod. Not a nice way to travel, but it sure makes it easy to hide undocumented life signs in my cargo bay if I happen to be scanned by the authorities.”

“Did that happen?” River asked.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. I made a few stops on my usual run before making the detour to that little slice of hell you chose as your new home.”

River waved off the comment. “The nicer the planet, the more likely someone will show up and try to colonize it or claim it for resource processing. The place I picked has already been surveyed and rejected. The environment is too harsh for a colony and it has insufficient resources for any corporation to want to strip mine it.”

Hezza snorted. “It’s a fraxxing dust bowl. That’s why no one wants to live there. But I get your reasons. What I want to know is why you’re here? I thought this plan was a last resort, all-hope-is-lost scenario.”

“It was.” River took her time before she spoke again. This wasn’t the first time she’d been in Hezza’s ship. Thrash had brought her on board several times, with the freighter pilot’s permission, to let her get comfortable with the layout of the controls and even run a few of the ship’s basic flight sims. Hezza had offered advice and encouragement, and she’d even given her the full run of the ship.

“This kind of work isn’t for everyone,” Hezza had told her. “There’s freedom, sure, but you won’t feel that when you’ve been cooped up inside your ship for three weeks. If this is going to be your world, you better be sure you can live with that.”

It was good advice. She would have liked being a pilot. Even if it was just ferrying cargo from the surface to the orbital platform and back. That wasn’t in the cards for her, though. Not anymore. She’d likely leave the dusty rock she’d chosen to hide on after a decade or so, but to do that, she’d need a ride, and Hezza wouldn’t be flying forever.

That was a problem for another time. One that would be a long while coming.

“So? What’s the story?” Hezza prodded.

River told her more than she’d originally intended, and when she finished, Hezza leaned in and gave her a hard, heartfelt hug. “No one should ever have to deal with the shit you’ve seen. You do what you need to. But if you change your mind, or the fecal matter hits the intake fan, you better promise me you’ll call for help. I’ve been on my own for a long time, and I know better than most how hard it can be, even when it’s what you need to do. There are times, my girl, when you need friends.”

River patted Hezza’s arm. “I will.”

“Mmhmm.” Hezza gave her a knowing look. “You’d better. And to be sure I hear it when that day comes, I’ll leave a relay buoy in orbit. I’ve got the perfect doohickey for the job, too—something small and stealthy enough not to draw attention. It can relay any message you send, and you can be sure I’ll receive it. Not quickly, mind you, but eventually.”

River wrapped the older human in a warm hug of her own. “Thank you. If you ever find out Jens is dead? You let me know. Maybe he’ll get hit by a comet and I can come home.”

Hezza laughed. “From your lips to the ears of whatever entity created this mad universe.”

Saying the word home triggered a cascade of thoughts and feelings. Haven was the first real home she’d ever known, and leaving it left an empty place in her heart. By her sense of time, she’d only been away for a matter of minutes, but the feeling of loss was still there. “I wonder how they reacted to the message I left. They must have found it by now.”

Hezza snorted. “They aren’t taking it well. Whatever you said, it was like dropping a cannister of rocket fuel into a blast furnace.” She spread her fingers wide. “Kaboom.”

“ Veth . That wasn’t my intention. They have enough to deal with already.”

“Intentions are funny that way. Doesn’t matter what you meant, once you sent the message, what happened next was out of your hands. I’ve heard from my girl Anya, Striker, and even the pretty pink princess herself. They told me what happened, that you were gone, and that they were scouring the planet for you with no luck.”

River winced. She’d hoped they’d be too busy to do that right away. The longer it took for them to start looking, the more time it would take for them to realize she wasn’t where she said she was.

Hezza’s tone softened. “Did you really think they wouldn’t try to find you? You’ve got good people who care an awful lot about you back there.”

“I know. But I asked them not to.”

Laugher rang out, bouncing off the bare walls of the cargo bay. “I imagine they considered that option… for about ten fraxxing seconds.”

She huffed out a rueful breath. “Fair point. Did they say anything else?”

“They did. Every one of them asked me to keep an eye and an ear open for even the tiniest scrap of a rumor about you or any cyborg female seen traveling alone. I think they suspect you’ve left the planet, but they don’t want to say too much.”

“Because if they do, word will get back to Unified Governments and the corporations that another one of the scary, dangerous cyborgs from Reamus Station is roaming the galaxy unsupervised.”

“Because Chance has done so many terrible things since she escaped.” Hezza rolled her eyes. “And she’s hardly unsupervised. Erik is as protective and growly as a newly mated Vardarian.”

“I wonder if she foresaw my departure.” It hadn’t occurred to River that the only other cyborg to leave Haven could have known what she would do. Chance’s abilities were unique. Instead of a combat role, she’d been designed to aggregate data and calculate outcomes based on what she’d analyzed. That made her one of the most dangerous cyborgs in existence, and now she worked with Nova Force and others to help track down criminals, including the Gray Men and now the Shadows.

“If she did, she wouldn’t have said anything. She’s careful about what information she gives out. You know that.”

“I do.” River finished the last of her ja’kreesh . “If you see her again, tell her I’m glad she found what she needed to be happy.”

“Will do. And I’ll see her soon. I’m scheduled to run some supplies to Defiance Station, and she’s already there along with her husband and the rest of the Nova Club crew.”

“That’s good to hear. I always hoped I’d get to see the new station someday. Chance did predict that the cyborgs would eventually be allowed to leave Haven.” River shrugged. “Plans change.”

“Indeed, they do. That’s something I had to drum into my daughter’s head when she was growing up. She wanted consistency, the kind of stable home-life she saw some other kids have. It wasn’t something I could give her, though. I’m glad she’s found it now. And she proved something I’d always suspected in the process.”

“What’s that?”

“She’s such a handful it takes two beings to keep her out of trouble. I never had a chance. But now she’s got Tra’var and Damos watching over her, she’s in good hands.”

River laughed. “Yes, she is. Though I suspect any tendency to find trouble comes from her mother.”

“She certainly thinks so. She demanded to know if I’d smuggled in anything for you, like gear to help you survive in a ‘hostile environment.’” Hezza made air quotes around the last two words. “I could honestly say that I had not since everything I did for you was delivered to a different star system per a standard contract, and it was all legally paid for.”

“And the only thing you actually smuggled for me was, well, me . And I was an outbound package.”

“Exactly.” Hezza winked at her. “Any reason why they thought you’d need to survive in a hostile environment?”

“I told them I was heading to the planet’s polar region. I even sent a shuttle there on autopilot as a decoy.”

“Uh-huh. Gave them a false trail to follow to give yourself some leeway before they worked out you weren’t there?”

“That was the plan. If there are still spies among the citizens of Haven, news of my departure will make it to Jens or someone else in his organization, eventually. If it keeps him away from the colony, that’s a win.”

It was the best she could do, but a little voice in the back of her mind whispered it wouldn’t be enough. Jens had already proven he would not stop looking for her. His obsession could only end one way. Either he died, or she did, and she didn’t intend to be the one cashing out.