Page 26 of Human Reform (Cyborg Planet Alpha #3)

TWENTY-SIX

DAXON

Something felt wrong.

Alora had promised to find me when she finished working on her new protocol.

That was hours ago, and she hadn’t even sent a message.

I pushed back from my workstation and strode down the corridor toward her private office.

My footsteps echoed against the metal walls, matching the rapid beat of my heart.

This wasn’t like her. Not after everything we’d been through.

The door to her office was closed. I rapped my knuckles against it.

“Alora?”

Silence.

I opened the door slowly. The room was empty, bathed in the orange-red glow of sunset streaming through the window. Her chair was pushed back, and the spare chair lay tipped over on its side near the door.

A cold weight settled in my stomach.

Her wrist communicator sat abandoned on her desk, its screen dark. I picked it up, turning it over in my palm. Alora would never voluntarily leave this behind. It was her lifeline, her access to everything in the colony.

Something was very, very wrong.

I stormed back into the main operations area, my jaw clenched tightly.

“Sage,” I called out, my voice sharper than intended. “Have you seen Alora today?”

She glanced up, her ponytail swinging with the movement. “Not since this morning when you two came in.” She must have read the tension in my face because she immediately straightened. “Is something wrong?”

“She’s not in her office. Her communicator’s there, but she’s gone.”

Sage’s eyebrows drew together. “That’s strange. I’ve been at my workstation all afternoon. She never passed through here.”

I turned to Tegan, who was packing up his gear at his workstation. “What about you? Have you seen Alora?”

Something flickered across his face. “Actually, yes.” He straightened, running a hand through his auburn hair. “She pulled me aside earlier. Asked for my help, privately.”

“Your help with what?” A prickle of unease crawled up my spine.

Tegan shrugged, his green eyes not quite meeting mine. “She wanted to go home. Back to Earth. Said now that she’d fixed our glitches, she wanted to return to her mountains.”

I felt my fingers curl into fists. “And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“She specifically asked me not to.” His tone was maddeningly casual. “Said she couldn’t stand being here anymore, playing nice with you. Though she did mention the sex was enjoyable enough to pass the time.”

My vision flashed violet at the edges. “You’re lying.”

“Believe what you want.” He grabbed his datapad and headed for the exit. “I arranged transport for her a few hours ago. She’s probably halfway to Earth by now.”

I watched him leave, something primal and dangerous rising in my chest.

“Daxon…” Sage’s voice was cautious.

“It’s not true,” I growled. “She wouldn’t just leave. Not without saying something to me. Not after everything.”

I rushed back to Alora’s office and tore the place apart looking for a note, a message, anything that would explain what happened. Her screens were dark. Her datapad was locked. Nothing indicated where she had gone or why.

My fingers brushed the indent on her chair where she’d sat just hours ago, the faint scent of her still lingering in the air. The woman who had shown me what it meant to feel, to want, and to love—just gone now?

No. I refused to believe it.

“She told me she loved me,” I whispered to the empty room. “She wouldn’t just walk away.”

Tegan’s words echoed in my head. Said she couldn’t stand being here anymore, playing nice with you.

I’d seen the way Alora looked at me this morning in the shower.

That wasn’t a woman using me for temporary pleasure.

That was a woman who’d found her place—found her home.

I knew it as surely as I knew my own name.

Alora hadn’t left voluntarily. And if Tegan was lying about that, what else was he lying about?

I sprinted back to my workstation, my fingers hammering across the console. If Tegan wasn’t lying, there had to be evidence of what he did.

“Sage, check the departure logs. Any ships leaving the colony today?”

Her fingers moved across her screen with practiced efficiency. “Nothing. No authorized launches or landings in the past twenty-four hours.”

My blood ran cold. If no ships had left, Alora was still on Planet Alpha.

“That bastard is lying.” The words came out as a growl, my vision edged with violet. “Tegan’s lying about what happened to Alora.”

I didn’t bother with protocol or permissions.

I tore out of the security center, the cool night air of Planet Alpha hitting my face as I sprinted across the central plaza, past couples walking hand-in-hand and past vendors calling for last orders.

The residential sector loomed ahead, its modular structures gleaming under the twin moons.

Tegan’s quarters were in the east quadrant, chosen for its proximity to the security center. I didn’t knock.

The door splintered under my boot, crashing inward with a satisfying crack. Tegan jumped to his feet, his datapad falling from his hands.

“What the?—”

I crossed the room in three strides, seizing him by the throat and slamming him against the wall. His feet dangled, kicking uselessly.

“Where is she?” I demanded, tightening my grip.

His face purpled, his eyes bulging. “I told you… she left…”

“There were no ships.” I slammed him against the wall again. “No departures today. Tell me where she is, or I’ll crush your windpipe right here.”

Panic replaced the smugness in his eyes as his airway constricted. His fingernails clawed at my wrist, drawing blood I didn’t feel.

“You have three seconds,” I whispered. “One.”

He thrashed harder.

“Two.”

His eyes rolled back, his body starting to go limp.

“Thr—”

“The caverns!” he wheezed. “Eastern complex.”

I loosened my grip just enough for him to suck in a desperate breath.

“She found something,” he gasped. “In the security framework. I couldn’t let her tell anyone.”

A murderous rage coursed through me. “You’re going to take me to her. Now.”

I grabbed a utility cord from his supplies, binding his wrists viciously tight before shoving him toward the door.

“If she’s harmed, each step you take will be your last,” I promised.

The trek to the caverns took thirty agonizing minutes with Tegan stumbling ahead of me through the dense jungle. Fluorescent fungi illuminated our path in eerie blue-green light while nocturnal creatures called in the canopy above.

“In there,” Tegan finally pointed to a narrow opening in the mountainside.

I shoved him forward, following closely as we entered the vast chamber. The sound of dripping water echoed off stone walls, punctuated by something else—soft, hitched breathing.

And then I saw her.

Alora was tied to a massive boulder, metallic restraints cutting into her wrists and ankles. Her face was tear-streaked, her hair matted with sweat, and her eyes wide with terror until they landed on me.

“Daxon,” she sobbed.

Something primal snapped inside me. With a savage roar, I turned on Tegan, my fist connecting with his jaw in a sickening crack.

He stumbled backward but couldn’t escape.

My next blow caught him in the stomach, doubling him over.

I didn’t stop. My knuckles split against his face, again and again, blood spattering across stone.

“You. Will. Never. Touch. Her. Again.” Each word was punctuated by another blow.

He collapsed, unconscious, blood pooling beneath his broken face.

I activated my wrist communicator, overriding our security protocols to get an emergency ping signal. “Aeon. Eastern cavern complex. Now. It’s Tegan. He’s a traitor,” I said, my voice shaking with barely controlled rage.

I rushed to Alora, breaking her restraints with my bare hands. “You’re safe now,” I whispered, gathering her trembling body into my arms. “I’ve got you.”

She buried her face against my chest, her body shaking with silent sobs.

Aeon arrived within ten minutes, taking in the scene with a single glance.

“I’ll handle him,” he said grimly, hoisting Tegan’s unconscious form over his shoulder. “Take care of her.”

I carried Alora back through the jungle, her body light against my chest, my heart pounding with equal parts fury and relief.

“I found something,” she whispered against my neck as we neared the settlement. “In the colony’s security framework. A kill switch. If I’d alerted you before neutralizing it, it might have triggered.”

My arms tightened around her. “What happened?”

“Tegan ambushed me after I neutralized the infected thread. He’s been working for CE all along, Daxon.

For nine years. He’s the one who corrupted my original code back then for a nice paycheck.

Then, they paid him even more to sabotage Planet Alpha from the inside.

” Her voice broke. “He’s one of you, but he betrayed everyone for money. ”

I couldn’t believe I’d worked alongside Tegan for two and a half years, trusted him with our most sensitive systems, but never once suspected anything.

“He would have destroyed everything,” I murmured, pressing my lips to her forehead as we reached my quarters.

I placed her gently on my bed, activating my communicator. “Commander Helix, we have a situation. Tegan has been compromised—working for CE since the beginning. He planted a kill switch in our security framework that Alora neutralized today. She was captured trying to alert us.”

Helix’s voice came back immediately, tense with barely contained fury. “Understood. Secure her. I’ll meet Aeon at containment.”

I turned back to Alora, cradling her face between my hands. “You could have died trying to protect us.”

She gave me a weary smile. “Pretty ironic. Isn’t it? The woman who enslaved you while working for CE coming back to save your whole colony from them twice.”

“You saved more than the colony.” I pressed my forehead to hers, inhaling her scent to reassure myself she was really here and safe. “You also saved me. From a life without feeling. From a life without you.”