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ELEVEN

OLIVIA

I stared at the datapad in my hands the following afternoon.

The pale blue light from the screen illuminated my face in the otherwise dim medical archives.

The numbers told a heartbreaking story. Three women dead.

Five babies who never took their first breath.

All within the first year of the colony’s establishment.

“Jesus,” I whispered, swiping through another case history that made my stomach twist painfully.

A shadow fell across the screen. Aeon stood beside me, his broad shoulders blocking the overhead light. His presence was no longer as threatening as it had been those first days, but it still made the hair on my arms stand up—though I wasn’t entirely sure it was from fear anymore.

“Our efforts have been... insufficient.” He leaned forward, close enough that I caught the clean scent of whatever soap they used here. His blue eyes searched my face. “You understand now why we brought you?”

I set the tablet down with more force than necessary. “You mean kidnapped me? Because your medical knowledge is so catastrophically limited that women and babies are dying?”

His strong jawline tightened, a muscle jumping beneath his tan skin. “Yes.”

That single admission knocked the wind from my righteous anger. No excuses, no justification. Just acknowledgment of their desperate situation.

“Your protocols are medieval at best,” I said, gesturing to the screen showing their current birthing procedure. “This wouldn’t pass a first-year medical student’s practical exam.”

“We lack your training and knowledge.” His voice dropped, revealing the vulnerability he tried so hard to hide. “These deaths... they weigh on us. On me.”

I looked away from him and back to the medical files.

They had been trying. God, they’d been trying so hard with such limited knowledge.

What they’d cobbled together from the information they could extract from Earth’s systems before they were disconnected, and their experience this past year, was woefully inadequate for the complexities of childbirth.

I looked up at the ceiling. “I just want to go home, Aeon. I want my life back.”

“But these women need you. The colony’s survival is dependent on your help.”

“I know.” The weight of that truth settled on my shoulders. “And I can’t just... let them die when I can prevent it.”

His hand moved, hesitantly covering mine for just a moment before pulling away. “Then you’ll help us?”

I finally met his gaze, those piercing blue eyes that seemed more human each day. “I’ll help the women. But this doesn’t mean I forgive how I got here.”

He nodded, something like relief softening his features. “Fair terms.”

“Not terms. A human conscience. Something you seem to be developing, despite yourself.”

His lips quirked in what might have been the beginning of a smile. “Perhaps we’re both learning new things on this planet.”

I couldn’t argue with that.

He suddenly straightened, his head turning toward the door like a predator sensing movement.

“Commander Helix is here,” he said, his voice dropping to a lower register. “For her scheduled examination.”

I glanced up from the medical files, my heart quickening. “Now? You could have given me some notice.”

“She’s early.” He shrugged those impossibly broad shoulders, the light catching on the scar that ran across his collarbone, visible above the collar of his fitted black T-shirt.

Before I could protest further, the doors to the medical archives slid open. Commander Helix strode in with a grace that belied her heavily pregnant form. Her normally stern face was lined with tension, dark circles under her eyes speaking of sleepless nights.

“Doctor Parker.” She nodded curtly, one hand resting protectively over her growing belly. “I trust you’re settling in better.”

“As well as any kidnap victim could,” I replied, but the bite had gone out of my words. The medical files had changed something in me.

“Let’s proceed with the examination.” Helix sat on the edge of the medical bed I had moved into the archives for convenience.

I guided her to lie back, and as I prepared the portable scanner, Aeon loomed over my shoulder. His warmth radiated against my back, uncomfortably intimate yet somehow reassuring.

“Your progress with Dr. Parker today is taking too long, Aeon,” Helix said sharply as I ran the scanner over her abdomen. “How soon can you implement a full training program for our medical team?”

“I’ve barely had access to your equipment,” I countered, focusing on the holographic image forming above Helix’s belly.

Aeon shifted his weight behind me. “We’re moving as quickly as possible, Commander.”

“Not quickly enough.” Helix’s voice wavered slightly. “I’m in my third trimester. Every day without proper protocols is another day I might—” She broke off, swallowing hard. “Three women, Aeon. Three women dead. I won’t be the fourth.”

Her breathing quickened, her pulse visibly racing at her throat. I recognized the signs immediately—a panic attack.

“Commander, I need you to focus on my voice,” I said firmly, setting aside the scanner. I placed my hand over hers. “Slow, deep breaths. In through your nose, out through your mouth.”

“I can’t—” Her eyes widened in fear.

“You can.” I maintained steady eye contact. “The baby feels everything you feel. Your stress becomes their stress.”

Something in her fierce eyes softened at the mention of her child. She followed my breathing pattern, her chest rising and falling more evenly.

“That’s it,” I encouraged. “Babies need calm. They need peace.”

Her fingers curled around mine, surprisingly strong. “It’s difficult to find peace when you’ve seen people you care about die the way I have.”

“I understand that better than you know,” I said softly, thinking of Benjamin. “But your baby needs you to try.”

The tension gradually melted from her shoulders. “You do genuinely care,” she said, sounding surprised. “About me. About the baby.”

“I’m a doctor. That’s what we do.”

“Even for your captors?” Her gaze was searching.

I looked out the window at the sprawling colony nestled against the jungle backdrop, buildings gleaming in the alien sunlight. “Even for stubborn cyborg commanders who clearly need to schedule more rest periods.”

A smile briefly lit her face. “I’m beginning to see why Aeon insisted on you specifically, Dr. Parker.”

I felt Aeon shift behind me, uncomfortable with the praise. When I glanced up at him, something was unreadable in his blue eyes as they met mine—something almost tender that made my pulse jump unexpectedly.

After Commander Helix left, I found myself alone again with Aeon in the medical archives.

The glass dome ceiling revealed a darkening sky, stars beginning to emerge—constellations I didn’t recognize.

Six days had passed since my arrival, but it felt like an eternity.

I sank into a chair, exhausted by the weight of what I’d discovered in their medical records.

“Their learning algorithms are... fascinating,” I murmured, more to myself than to Aeon. “You’re all essentially figuring out how to be human as you go along.”

Aeon leaned against the nearest wall, his arms crossed over his broad chest. “Is that what the medical files show you?”

“That and more.” I rubbed my temples. “It’s like watching children trying to perform surgery. You have very limited knowledge with no emotional context or intuition that comes from experience.”

He pushed off the wall and took a seat beside me, his presence growing less and less intimidating. “We were originally designed to follow orders, not to think for ourselves. Learning human nuances has been... challenging.”

The vulnerability in his admission made my chest tighten. I found myself thinking of Ben—my Ben—who always saw the potential for good in everyone, even when I couldn’t.

“I’d had a best friend back on Earth. We ended up working together during the war,” I said quietly, the words sliding out before I could stop them. “Benjamin Reeves. He was everything I’m not—optimistic, trusting, and saw the best in people. Even in cyborgs.”

Aeon’s head snapped toward me, his eyes widening. “Benjamin Reeves? The neural programmer medic from the Eastern Front?”

My heart stuttered. “You knew him?”

“Not personally,” Aeon said, his voice softening.

“But his name... it’s spoken with reverence among our kind.

” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

“Benjamin Reeves supplied the foundational coding for our reprogramming. He smuggled the algorithms to us when he learned that all cyborgs were to be deactivated after the war ended.”

My throat closed up. “What?”

“He saved us, Olivia. Without his work, we would have been scrap metal. His coding taught us how to learn and how to grow beyond our initial programming.”

A hot tear slid down my face. Then another.

“He never told me,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “He died during the attack on our field hospital. I never knew he was?—”

“A hero,” Aeon finished.

The dam broke. Sobs racked my body as two years of grief I’d never fully processed poured out.

Ben fought for something he believed in—the humanity of these beings I’d been taught were just machines.

And he died before fully realizing his efforts had been successful.

But I somehow survived and I could see it now—the emerging humanity in the cyborgs of Planet Alpha.

Suddenly, I felt strong arms wrap around me, pulling me against a solid chest. Aeon held me with a gentleness that contradicted his powerful frame, one large hand cradling the back of my head while I cried.

“Ben would’ve loved it here,” I managed between sobs. “He would’ve been so proud of what you’ve built.”

Aeon’s chest rose and fell against my cheek. “I didn’t realize Benjamin Reeves was someone personal to you. I’m sorry for your loss, Olivia.”

I pulled back slightly to look up at him, suddenly aware of how close we were, how his arms encircled me completely. His blue eyes held an intensity that made my heart race.

“If Ben believed in you all to risk everything,” I whispered, “then the least I can do is help you live.”

Something had shifted between us during this moment of comfort, the wall that I’d built since my arrival crumbling. Through my lingering tears, I noticed the way his blue eyes searched my face with concern, and how his thumb gently brushed away my tears.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “For telling me about Ben. For...” I gestured vaguely at his arms still around me. “This.”

Aeon didn’t pull away. Instead, his hand came up to tuck my hair behind my ear, the gesture so tender it made my breath catch.

“I’m not good with...” He hesitated, searching for the right words. “Human comfort. But I couldn’t watch you cry alone.”

My anger at being kidnapped still simmered somewhere deep inside, but alongside it grew something new. Admiration. Attraction. The realization that he knew exactly what I needed without being told.

“You’re more human than you give yourself credit for,” I said.

His eyes darkened. “Is that a compliment, Dr. Parker?”

The teasing note in his voice made something flutter in my stomach.

How could I be developing feelings for my captor?

For someone I should, by all rights, hate?

But it wasn’t hate I felt as I studied the sharp line of his jaw, the small scar above his eyebrow, and the full lips that looked surprisingly soft on such a formidable face.

“It is,” I admitted, my voice barely audible, even to my own ears.

Through the dome of the archives, the alien moons cast silver light across his features. Beyond the window, the colony’s lights sparkled against the jungle’s edge—a small city of hope carved from wilderness.

Without thinking, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his.

The moment our lips touched, electricity surged through my body. Aeon froze for a heartbeat, and then his hand slid to the back of my neck, pulling me closer as he returned the kiss with unexpected hunger.

For someone who had likely never kissed a human, he was remarkably good at it. His lips moved against mine with growing confidence, exploring and tasting. When his tongue traced the seam of my lips, I opened to him with a soft gasp.

The kiss deepened, and I found myself clutching the front of his shirt, desperate for more contact. His arm tightened around my waist, nearly lifting me from my chair.

“Olivia,” he breathed against my mouth, my name sounding like a prayer on his lips.

I knew I should pull away and should question this sudden, overwhelming desire.

But all rational thought evaporated as his hand tangled in my hair, angling my head to deepen the kiss even further.

I craved more—more of his touch, more of the hard body pressed up against mine, and more of the surprising heat radiating between us.