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CORINNE

The Rogue Alert came in the middle of the night but Dr . Corinne Virelle was still up. She hadn’t been able to sleep well for the past six months—ever since her demotion.

She was watching multiple screens displaying the science station—most of it was underground since the terraforming efforts had been halted due to lack of Company funding.

Supposedly she was supervising the flock of cleaner-bots that were swarming over the station while most people slept.

But it was a job the lowest AI could do—an insult to her intelligence.

She had two advanced degrees in Robotics and Cyber -biology specializing in cybernetic organisms.

Corinne tried to push the bad memory away.

The Handler had been Isla —her protégé and one of the few female scientists aboard the station.

Her death left a hole both in the Cybernetics Division of the Company , and in Corinne’s heart.

She had mentored the other woman for years and had been proud to see her rise to the position of Cyborg - Handler .

Cyborgs were necessary for the protection of the far-flung colonies the Company financed to expand scientific exploration…but they were also dangerously unpredictable and sometimes deadly. It was their human DNA that made them so difficult to deal with.

Some scientists wanted to return to pure robotics for deep-space protection, but since the AI uprising of the early 2030s back on Old Earth , that had been forbidden.

By law, any free-ranging robotic organism had to have a biological component to balance its mechanical side.

It was thought that the emotional element would temper the pure logic of the mechanism.

But all too often, it was emotion that caused a Cyborg to go Rogue .

It was Corinne’s firm belief that this was why female Handlers were better than male Handlers .

When it came to dealing with big emotions, women were simply better at it than men.

And since Cyborgs were invariably male, they often responded to a woman’s touch.

It was one reason she had mentored Isla and tried to bring other women scientists into the Cybernetics Division of the Company .

But all her work was being destroyed now.

The new Head of the Cybernetics Division was trying to get around the Cyborgs ’ emotions instead of dealing with them head-on.

The last Corinne had heard, he was advocating for growing the biological components in flesh tanks and artificial wombs instead of using wounded and dying veterans and adding mechanical components, which was the usual practice.

Currently half of the station’s defense force was guarded by these soulless monsters but they were too stupid to comprehend orders half the time. At least, that was what Dr . Jose Herrera , one of her few remaining contacts in the Division , told her.

It was Jose who was calling her now.

“Rogue Alert ! Rogue Alert !” His voice sounded panicked over her intercom. “ Dr . Virelle , please respond!”

She leaned forward and waved a hand over the interface to allow his holo-image to form. He looked as panicked as he sounded—his thinning hair was sticking up like he’d been running his fingers through it and his eyes were wide under the thick oculars he wore.

“Corinne, can you hear me?” he demanded.

“Loud and clear,” she assured him. “ What’s wrong? Which Unit went Rogue ? Is it C -17 again?”

The killer Cyborg was much too expensive to be scrapped—even though it had “caused a loss of human life” as the Company euphemistically put it.

But once a Cyborg went Rogue , it was twice as likely to happen again.

Even with reprogramming, memory wipes, and reconditioning, it simply wasn’t safe.

Not that the Company would listen to any kind of reason on the subject—they weren’t going to retire an asset they’d poured millions of credits into just because it had killed a human or two.

But to her surprise, Jose shook his head.

“No, it’s a new Unit —or rather, an old one.”

“Explain.” Corinne frowned and pushed a sheaf of wavy, reddish-brown hair behind one ear.

“The exploration team found a Stasis tube on a crashed ship, drifting in from the Outer Rings ,” Jose explained.

They brought it in because the organism inside was still alive.

We believe it’s one of the old K -units—the ones that used Kindred warriors as the biological components for their Cyborgs . ”

Corinne frowned.

“That would have to be hundreds of years old. The Kindred protected Earth back before the AI Uprising .”

“Exactly. And those things were built like tanks because the Kindred were so much bigger than humans. The team thought it would have valuable knowledge stored in its memory unit but when they opened the Stasis tube, it went berserk. Look !”

Jose pointed the com-unit he was using at the main lab and Corinne sucked in her breath.

Past the glass barrier that enclosed the lab, an absolutely huge Cyborg was going berserk.

His mechanical arms were working as he grabbed equipment that would be much too heavy for a human or even another Cyborg to lift and threw it over his head.

Already there was a spiderweb of cracks in the supposedly unbreakable safety glass—she wondered how much longer it could hold out.

From the look of things, not much longer.

“You see?” Jose demanded, turning the com-link back towards his own face, which was creased with worry. “ We’re in big trouble down here!”

“Yeah, I see—he’s really trashing the place,” Corinne said flatly. “ Why are you calling me about it? I don’t work in Cybernetics anymore—remember?”

“I’m calling because the K -class Cyborgs have a special glitch—they won’t hurt a woman under any circumstances. It has to do with their Kindred DNA ,” Jose told her. “ And you’re the only female Handler left on the station. It’s already killed two male technicians who tried to stop it.”

“Right— I’m the only one left after Silas cleaned house.” Corinne couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.

Dr. Silas Drex had led the inquest that had ousted her from her position as the head of the Cybernetics Division and had then taken her place.

He was a misogynistic pig—always joking that the only good place for a woman was on her back or in the food-prep area.

Sexist , stupid remarks that had no place in the twenty-second century.

Yet males like Silas persisted and their hatred and disdain of women did as well, even after the Equality Act , which had been passed hundreds of years ago.

“Actually, Silas is trapped in the lab with that thing,” Jose informed her. “ He’s hiding under a desk, I think. Just imagine how much he’ll hate it if you’re the one who saves his ass.”

Corinne considered. There would be a certain satisfaction in proving her successor wrong about his loud and proud beliefs that “women have no place in the lab” and “female Handlers are useless.”

But it might be even more satisfying to watch him get body-slammed by the Rogue Cyborg .

“Give me one good reason I should save him,” she said to Jose . “ He made his bed—got rid of all the female Handlers as soon as he took over the Division . Now let him lie in it.”

“Don’t you see? This could get you reinstated!” Jose exclaimed. “ If you can get this K - Unit under control, you can get back into the lab. Maybe not as the Director , but at least it’s better than being stuck on Cleaning detail!”

Corinne had to reluctantly agree he was right.

“True,” she said. “ But I don’t know if I can get him under control. Just because the K - Units won’t hurt women, doesn’t mean he’ll obey my commands.”

“Just try ,” Jose pleaded. “ He’s trashing millions of credits worth of equipment in there! The Company will shut down the whole station and drag us all back to Old Earth if we can’t make good on their investment. And you know what a shithole that is!”

Corinne knew it firsthand. She’d been born and raised on one of the moon colonies but she’d visited the dying planet often and she had no wish to go back.

The station might be boring and monotonous but at least it was safe.

Back on Old Earth you couldn’t go ten feet without someone trying to mug you, rape you, or cut you up for illegal cloning. Or all three.

“All right,” she said, making a decision. “ I’m on my way.”

“Hurry!” Jose pleaded. “ The only other option is to send in several of our own Units , but this Rogue is so strong you know he’ll destroy them—the Company won’t like that!”

He was right—the only thing the Company liked less than the destruction of property and equipment was the destruction of one or more of their multi-million credit Cyborgs .

“Coming,” Corinne told him and waved to end the interface. She was already on her feet and striding down the corridor before the holo of her colleague faded.

She just hoped she could stop the Rogue unit in his tracks. Otherwise , they were all going to pay the consequences.