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CORINNE

The ride back to the station and the next two weeks were miserable.

Corinne was locked in her room, unable to see K -lx or to find out if he was all right.

Her interface had been taken away so there was no way to call for help or to plead her case to the Company .

She was just stuck there in her room with the door locked.

If it hadn’t been for her replicator, which was able to make very simple food and drinks, she would have starved to death.

Not that she felt like eating—she was too distraught. She paced back and forth endlessly, feeling like someone she loved had died suddenly. The horrible sensation of grief never left her and in fact, as the days went on, it grew.

I did love him, she admitted to herself, at last. And he loved me. I let myself be blinded by the fact that he’s part metal— I thought we could never really be together. But I was wrong. If only I could have another chance I’d tell him how I feel.

Her mind went in circles, dissecting what had happened. If only they could have gotten away! Maybe if they had left the lab an hour earlier they could have gotten into the hopper and made a run for it…

But it was too late for regrets now. The worst had happened and she was stuck waiting to hear if there was any news at all. No one came to her locked door to tell her anything. Even Jose seemed to have forgotten her.

Silas had taken the drive with the lab information and had presumably presented it to the Company as his own, but she barely cared about that. She was too upset…grieving the loss of the male she hadn’t known she loved until it was too late.

Then at last, one night after she’d been pacing restlessly for hours, the door to her room slid open and Silas stepped inside…followed by K -lx.

“K-lx! Are you all right?” She rushed up to him eagerly, bypassing Silas .

“You can save your breath—he’s useless.” Silas sounded disgruntled. “ His memories have been wiped and he doesn’t do anything but stand there, no matter what you tell him.”

“You’re lying—he’s still in there somewhere. He must be!” Corinne snapped.

But one look at the big Cyborg’s emotionless face revealed that Silas was telling the truth and all her worst fears were true.

The big K - Unit looked at her with no recognition at all, just a blank look in his pale blue eyes.

She wished she was still Linked with him so she could tell what he was feeling.

But from the blank stare he was giving her, that was absolutely nothing.

“He’s useless!” Silas complained again. “ Not good for anything but spare parts.”

“No, don’t decommission him!” Corinne exclaimed. Even if the big Cyborg didn’t know her anymore, she couldn’t bear to see him junked.

“Oh, I’m not. Not right away, anyway.” A wicked smile curved the corners of his thin lips.

“ I still have a use for him—one more use before I junk him.” He patted K -lx on one massive metal shoulder.

“ You see, even though he’s not much use as a Cyborg , he’s still a perfectly good garbage disposal unit. ”

“What? What are you talking about?” Corinne shook her head in confusion. Nothing he was saying was making sense.

“I’m saying, Virelle , that you’ve been a pain in my ass from the minute you stepped aboard the station!” Silas hissed. “ Then the Company made you Director of the Cybernetics Division —they gave my rightful place to a stupid female!”

Corinne took a step back.

“What do you care? You got the position you wanted, didn’t you? You’re Director now. You got me out of the way.”

“Yes, but you continue to be a thorn in my side,” he snapped. “ First you Link with a massive priceless Cyborg and then you report me to the Company for not handling his return from Stasis properly.”

“Well, you didn’t!” Corinne put a hand on her hip. “ You should have brought him out gradually!”

“Yes, yes—whatever you say,” he snarled.

“ So then you insert yourself into my department again as a Handler . Then you go running off to Earth to find priceless secrets of Cybernetics that the Kindred left behind. I of course, reported you for stealing a hopper, so the Company knows you went to Earth and you’re the one who found the Kindred’s lab. ”

Corinne’s heart sank even lower.

“So I guess now they want to put me on trial?”

“No! They intend to give you a commendation, a finder’s bonus, and a promotion. They want you to take my job!” Silas snapped. “ The Chairman himself sent a hologram congratulating you on your ‘amazing find.’”

Corinne glared at him.

“In that case, you’d better let me out of here! Or the Company’s going to wonder why the Director of the Cybernetics Division has been locked away for the last two weeks like an animal in a cage.”

Silas’s weasely eyes narrowed.

“You’re not going anywhere. You’re going to stay right here with your little pet Cyborg until he does his duty.”

“Does his duty? What do you mean?” Corinne demanded.

“I mean until he kills you, of course.” Silas held up one hand. In it was a gleaming metallic red chip, about the size and shape of a food cube. “ See this?” he asked. “ Can you guess what it is? I’ll give you a hint— C -17 was wearing one when he went Rogue and attacked Isla .”

Corinne suddenly felt cold all over.

“Oh my God . Is that…that can’t be…”

“It’s a Kill Chip ,” he snarled, giving her an angry grin. “ Once I attach it, your pet Cyborg is going to go fucking crazy. And you’re going to be right here—easy prey.”

“You…you can’t do this!” Corinne’s voice shook though she tried to keep it steady. Kill Chips were supposed to be illegal. They drove the Cybernetic Unit they were attached into a crazy, destructive frenzy. As evil as Silas was, she never would have believed he would stoop so low.

“Why not? I did it to Isla’s Cyborg . And once he killed her, I was able to take your job.

” Silas gave her an evil grin. “ Once I put this on K -lx, I’ll leave you two together for the night.

When I come to check on you tomorrow morning to ‘tell you about your promotion and your bonus,’ what do you think I’ll find? ”

“You—”

“I’ll tell you what I’ll find,” he snarled, giving her that hateful grin again that had no humor in it.

“ I’ll find a no-good lazy whore who tried to steal my position twice in pieces.

And of course, then your beloved Cyrborg will have to be scrapped.

He’s much too dangerous to go on existing and since he’s useless now, we might as well take him apart and see what we can learn from him. ”

“No! You bastard!” Corinne threw herself at him, but he was already out the door and she heard it locking behind him. “ Let me out! Come back here and let me out!” she shouted, banging on the door, but no one came. Instead , she heard the sound of heavy footsteps behind her.

A feeling of dread filled her. Turning , she saw K -lx had come to life and was now tracking her motion with narrowed eyes.

The red cube-shaped kill chip had come to life also.

It was stuck to one of his broad metal shoulders, near the top of his arm, and blinking slowly.

The light inside it pulsed like an evil heartbeat and the glow from it made the big Cyborg’s eyes look as though they were filled with flames.

Slowly, Corinne backed away from him. Her heart was pounding and her body had broken out in a cold sweat. Oh she was in trouble now— so much trouble. If she wasn’t careful she was going to die.

And she had no idea of how to save herself.

“Oh please,” she begged under her breath as she slowly backed further away. “ Oh please, stop him—don’t let it end like this! It will kill him if he ever comes back and realizes what he did to me. Please —don’t let this happen!”

The words flowing from her mouth felt like a desperate prayer, though she had no idea who she was praying to and no hope of her prayers being answered.

K-lx was coming faster now, tracking her every movement. He had his hands outstretched to grab for her and Corinne knew if he got those deadly metal fingers wrapped around her throat, he would squeeze until he crushed her trachea and choked the life out of her.

Can’t let him catch me—but where can I go?

She thought about locking herself in the bathroom, but what good would that do? He could break down the door in no time and then she would be cornered in the tiny room with no exit. But how long could she keep circling her larger living area until he caught her?

“Please!” she breathed again. “ Please —someone help me!”

To her surprise, someone answered.

“You are not alone, daughter,” a warm, feminine voice said in her ear.

“Huh?” Corinne looked wildly around as she dodged the big Cyborg , but there was no one there—just a comforting presence as though someone invisible was standing beside her.

“The warrior is not himself but he has not forgotten you entirely,” the voice went on. “ I will begin the process of retrieving his memories, but it will be up to you to help him regain them fully.”

“I don’t understand—who are you?” Corinne looked around again as she skipped away from K -lx’s reaching hand. Was she going crazy? Was her fear so extreme she was losing her mind?

“Fear not—your sanity is intact. I am the Mother of All Life and the Kindred are my children. This male was meant for you but it is up to you to take him,” the invisible person who must be the Kindred Goddess K -lx sometimes talked about informed her.

Then the voice stopped talking as mysteriously as it had started, leaving Corinne to wonder what in the hell was going on.