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CORINNE

“Fuck—the Earth has changed!” K -lx looked around at the ruined buildings and rubble that littered the long-deserted streets. “ All this was green and growing the last time I was here.”

“It was the wars,” Corinne said sadly. “ Greedy , incompetent people who only cared about wealth seized power and started conflicts that couldn’t be de-escalated.” She shook her head. “ The whole world paid the price.”

K-lx slipped an arm around her shoulders.

“Fuck, baby— I’m sorry. It must hurt to see your home planet so broken.”

Corinne sighed.

“Not really. I’ve been here several times but I actually grew up on one of the Moon colonies. It’s sad though—especially when you see the pictures of how it looked before the wars.”

She looked up and down the deserted streets, saddened by the destruction but grateful that there didn’t seem to be any Cloners or Skin -thieves lurking in the shadows.

If anyone was watching them, seeing K -lx probably gave them second thoughts about attacking.

The Earth was a dangerous place now but having a seven-foot-tall Cyborg at her side certainly made it a little safer.

K-lx was looking around alertly. He kept one arm protectively around her shoulders as they walked.

“Is the lab entrance around here?” she asked him. “ I don’t see anything that isn’t destroyed.”

“It should be right here.” They had come to a pile of rubble that clearly used to be a building. Huge chunks of concrete lay in a tumbled pile. “ The entrance to the lab was right inside this place,” K -lx said.

Corinne stared at the rubble in consternation. Had they come all this way for nothing?

“How in the world are we supposed to get in? There’s no way to get past this mess!” she exclaimed.

“Sure there is.” K -lx didn’t sound a bit upset. “ Stand back and let me get to work.”

Corinne stepped back, putting a healthy distance between them, and the big Cyborg got to work. She watched, astounded, as he lifted the huge chunks of concrete like they weighed no more than pebbles and moved them aside, clearing a path through the rubble.

“My God !” she whispered, as he moved a chunk the size of an elephant—which were all now extinct. She’d never seen a Cybernetic Unit with this kind of power. Truly K -lx was unique. How had the Kindred managed to make their Cyborgs so strong?

She hoped the lab was still functional so she could get some answers. Clearly a lot of the secrets of Cybernetics had been lost when the Kindred left the Earth hundreds of years ago.

In no time, he had cleared a path through the rubble. It led into the depths of what once was a building.

“Come on—here we go.” K -lx came back out to take her hand and then led her through the path he had made. “ There it is.” He pointed and Corinne looked.

There, standing under a reinforced titanium cage, was the door to an elevator. Even when the building had collapsed around it, the metal cage had kept the elevator from being destroyed. And when she pushed the down button, a green light blinked on.

“Oh—it’s still working!” Corinne exclaimed when she heard a soft humming sound and the doors slid open smoothly.

“Kindred tech—you can’t beat it.” K -lx nodded in satisfaction. “ Come on, baby—let’s go see what we can find out.”