Page 4 of Thruster (Hunted Relics #9)

My chest rattles and hums. The vibrations travel through my ribs into my other bones. I see nothing but darkness and flashes of slow-moving light. But in my mind is Thruster's voice telling me to hang on, to fight, to not let the Solcrue win.

I endure the shivering sensations until I’m not sure how much more I can take. Then I push a little longer and a little longer because Thruster is still with me. He is my tether to sanity.

Silence spreads through me. Light fades. And I’m left with a strange fuzzy feeling all over me. Inside my chest, my bones, my veins, my head, everywhere is numbness like I’m buried in hot, prickly sand.

A mask shifts over my face, making me sleepier until I forget I exist.

“Do not touch her.”

Thruster’s voice wakes me.

“She needs water.”

"Rebel said not to move her until she opens her eyes on her own, then for thirty minutes after."

“Why?”

“Her heart needs time to adjust. The initial surge will be taxing.”

I fumble around with a weak hand and find a warm arm caging my body. Blinking, I see Thruster protecting me with angry gold eyes pinned on a female Titan.

“Stay back, Poppy.”

She sighs like he’s being an irritating child. “You’re not even supposed to be in here, Thruster. This is the human female quarters. I protect and care for them. What are you doing in here anyway? Why aren’t you at your post? You two aren’t—”

“No,” he cuts her off.

I draw in a deeper breath and try to sit up, wondering what she’s talking about.

“Easy,” Thruster says to me. “Your augments aren’t quite in sync with your biocells yet.”

“My what?”

The female Titan comes closer and kneels beside me. She has rather rudimentary legs compared to the males that pass the tunnel. Behind her are many sleeping women, lying on blankets just like me. They are dirty and bandaged, wearing scraps for clothes.

Poppy’s red irises aren’t round like the males or even humans’. They’re shaped like flowers. “Rebel fitted your heart with parts of CyberTitan ultromotors. You have a dual-function heart now. Movement will keep it charged. It was the only way to help you endure the gravity here.”

I sit up with Thruster’s help, feeling much better than I did before I ended up in the tunnel. “Where are we?”

"Camp. It moves every day," Thruster says. "There are a few smaller groups, so we don't all get taken out if the Solcrue find one of us. But they rarely venture down here, mostly just try to shoot us from the sky."

A Titan with blue eyes, a red stripe down his chest, and black tactical pants walks into the women’s quarters and heads straight for us. He rests a hand on Poppy’s shoulder.

She stands and greets him. “Still can’t get used to your larger body, Rebel. I miss having a Titan around that’s my size.”

“I am sorry, Poppy. It was necessary to save Taline.”

“Your mate, I know.” Poppy takes my hand in hers. “If you need anything, call for me.” As she lets Rebel in to run a scan over my chest with a tablet, she squints at Thruster in warning. “Engines off down here. All of them.”

Rebel motions for my shirt. “I would like to check your incisions.”

I shrug. “You already had my shirt off once. At this point, any secrets I had are out.”

Rebel unbuttons my uniform top while Thruster watches. When Thruster sees me studying him, he looks away.

Rebel shakes his head and returns to his work.

Thruster shrugs.

Rebel nods.

I think they’re having a private conversation. “At least tell me what decision you reached.”

Rebel is careful to keep my breasts covered as he surveys the scar on my chest. “No sign of infection on the outside. Just make sure you take this when you wake and before bed for the next few nights to help you heal and accept your cybernetics.”

He hands me a small vial of crystals.

“What is it?”

“The best medicine Cara could cook up out here. It’s a concentration of minerals and antibiotics with a few calories.”

“Please don’t tell me I got a Titan’s heart.”

Thruster shakes his head. “Parts.”

“Yeah, but…”

Rebel touches my knee. “You do not have any one Titan’s heart. We salvage everything we can find. They didn’t die recently. They’re from older models, Wrecktanks, before we were made fully machine. Your heart should never stop again.”

“Again?” I slap a hand to my forehead. “You’re telling me I died?”

Thruster slumps. “Yeah.”

“Why don’t you go get her some water?” Rebel asks.

Thruster gets up slowly as if his entire body hurts. Then he walks off to talk to Poppy. She puts a hand on her hip and clearly scolds him, though I can’t hear what she says.

Rebel pulls a small pouch from a pocket and hands it to me. “This is a healing paste Cara made for burns. It works for Thruster’s heat, to a degree, anyway.”

“What’s going on with him? He was so strong up there but now seems shy.”

Rebel’s eyes are kind when they meet mine. “We are designed to protect your kind at all costs. He believes he failed.”

“Gravity isn’t his fault.”

“We all know that. But it doesn’t change how we feel when we think we could’ve done more.”

Thruster heads back with a canteen.

Rebel checks on him, then says one last thing quietly to me. "Holo has never seen him fly so fast in all of his operation. You did something to him—changed him."

“Good or bad?”

Rebel smiles and gets up. “Transformational.”

I find my bra lying on the ground beside me and pick it up as I think about what he’s said. “Can I wear this again?”

“You’re healed enough to return to normal life. Just take it easy until you get acquainted with what your new heart can do.”

“Thank you.”

Thruster hands me the canteen and sits as Rebel leaves. “Everything okay?”

“Sounds better than okay, but I guess time will tell.”

He watches Rebel leave the women’s quarters. “I’m glad one of us breaks rules. He’s saved more lives and Sparks than I can count.”

“I suppose that’s why he’s called Rebel?”

Thruster nods. “All our names come from our inherent talents.”

“And yours is thrust ?”

When he drags his gold eyes back to mine, I can’t help but smile a little.

He hangs his head and bashfully laughs. “Not that kind of thrust. It's because of my engines. We all had similar names. Jet, Spitfire, Dart… Levi had the most human name of our batch but only because Levitator was too long. He was a beast. He could pick up fighters from the ground."

“Was?”

Thruster taps the ground, then rests a pale gold hand on it.

Dead?

"A few survived only to meet their fate in the decommissioning plant on Hyperion after we were captured. Some, I just don't have a definitive answer. There are brothers who went silent, turned off their coms. Either they wanted to die alone, or they didn't want to risk being traced by the enemy back to us. We can self-destruct. But that is a last resort only."

He draws a symbol of a shooting star in the dirt. “StarJumpers.” Then another symbol like a falchion. “VoidLancers.” Another with wings. “Terrangels. And Cosmic Piercers.” Thruster pulls a strap from a pouch inside his harness and hands it to me.

"That's what you are?" I study the crest with the stars, planet, and the wings, and realize he is all three.

“Was.” Thruster turns away from me. “Now I’m just a Titan that can fly and smash into things like a Wrecktank. And I have to get back to work as soon as Rebel has a chance to inspect my damage. He’s been busy.”

He gets up to leave, and something about it doesn't feel right.

I rush forward and take his hand. It’s warm in mine, far warmer than a human’s, and hard like metal, even with the strange synthflesh over it. I’ve only heard stories of them and worked with the little robots in my father’s hangar on VAL.

His chest swells with light when I snag him. It’s an interesting display that catches the attention of many in the cavern, even a few passing Titans outside.

Poppy steps into the opening. “Any more of you try to get in the women’s quarters will get my size whatever-this-is…” She lifts a mechanical foot that squeals. “Up your ass!”

The Titans move along.

“Thruster,” I call to him when he doesn’t look at me.

“Kelta.”

I push myself to my feet. Thruster eagerly helps me up. It's a sweet gesture from a machine. But now I know he's so much more than a starship shaped like a human with AI instead of a brain. Mother always said we made immortality a reality at great sacrifice. It means something very different from stories and holovids now that I can stare it in the face.

He is my only connection down here. I don’t want to lose him. So I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him as close as I’m able without his engines getting too hot against my skin. “Thank you.”

Thruster’s nose leaves a trail of warm breath down the side of my face. Then he unhooks my hands and encourages me back. “I’m glad you’re okay, Kelta. But it isn’t safe to touch me. And if I hurt you again, even by accident, the Brothers will decommission me if I don’t do it first. I am their only eyes in the stars. Their need for my protection is greater than my…”

He stops, reaches for my face, and pulls back before he can touch me. "I'm sorry, Kelta, for everything: the Solcrue attacking you, being sent here into another battle, the burns, and not being able to show you the kind touch of humans. Maybe one of my Brothers can."

He turns and walks off, leaving me standing alone on my blanket bed, realizing the howling loneliness he feels is slowly killing him. Thruster can't see the good through the bad, only purpose despite loss. I have to show him what he still has to fight for. He can't give up. It isn't safe to confront the enemy at half-power with some systems inoperable.

Poppy gives me a pitiful look from the entrance, and I think she feels it, too. So I drink a hefty portion of water, put my bra back on, grab the canteen, and walk to her.

Returning the canteen to Poppy, I scan the floor for Thruster and see him on a rock at the far end of the main cavern, getting looked at by Rebel.

“So you’re a pilot?” Poppy asks.

“Yes. Built my own ships, three in total. My father made us do it so we’d respect their capabilities.”

“We could definitely use your help.” Poppy slings the canteen’s strap across her chest of raw metal.

“I’ll help however I can. But first, what can you tell me about Thruster?”