Page 3 of Trusting Warik (Hissa Warrior #9)

Chapter 3

Nisha

With her finger cleaned and sealed and her entire body scanned, Nisha was finally able to get back to working on the droids. Warik was nice enough to carry Shift’s broken droid back to the workshop for her, although he seemed like he’d rather dump it out of an air lock.

It only took a quick examination to reveal the source of the fire. She should’ve spent more time repacking the track’s primary drive wheel. Thankfully that would be a quick fix, and she could pull parts off the droid that would never function.

“You should rest before resuming duties,” he said. He refused to leave the workroom and was standing much too close for comfort.

Why did he smell so good?

“I don’t need to rest,” she answered without looking up at him. If she didn’t stay focused on the droid, she might get distracted by staring at the muscled body outlined nicely by his tight uniform. She knew the outfit was tight so it would be easier for him to put on armor or a biosuit in a hurry. Knowing that didn’t keep her from wanting to trace every outline she could see through the thin fabric.

Finding the release switches, she tugged them all into neutral positions, then carefully worked the droid’s bottom shell free.

“You might not realize how fatigued you are,” Warik said and leaned over to help pull the droid's bottom shell off.

Nisha tried to push his hands away. “Stop that, you’re going to break it!”

He stopped but didn’t let go. “I’m only trying to help. I don’t want you to get cut again.” He sounded hurt and determined.

She barely kept from rolling her eyes. She had been wanting him to be nicer, but this sudden switch from closed off to overly concerned was both disconcerting and annoying.

I’m confused by Warik’s actions, Shift said.

“You and me both,” Nisha muttered under her breath.

“Both of us are what?” Warik asked.

“Nothing,” she said. “I talk to the droids as I work on them.” She took his hand and ran it all along the edge of the shell. “See, there’s nothing sharp for me to cut myself on and if I’m not careful, the connectors will get damaged during removal.”

He tugged his hand free of hers, as if he didn’t want her touching him. That was annoying but then he pointed to the back side of the droid. “I can hold that steady for you so it doesn’t rock. Will that be helpful or a hindrance?”

“Helpful,” she agreed, and he jumped around the table to grab the droid. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that he didn’t want to be touched but that he was eager to assist her.

“Have you always done that?” he asked as he held the droid, and she tugged.

“Done what? Worked on droids?” she asked.

“Talked to them,” he responded.

“Almost my entire life,” she answered honestly and stifled a laugh when Shift’s static laugh sounded in her ear.

If he only knew! Shift said.

At the same time, Warik spoke. “Do you talk to other non-sapient items as if they were thinking creatures?”

Yes, you! Shift snarked, making Nisha cover a laugh with coughing.

“Uh, right, yes,” Nisha said. “I’ve always talked to myself or my droids or whatever I’m doing. It helps me concentrate.” With a final tug, the shell came free. She set it aside and noticed Warik was still holding onto the droid. “You can let go. If you want to keep helping, you could start taking these two droids apart. I’m going to need them for spare parts for the other ones.”

She led him to a spot where she’d dragged two droids with broken body casings. The damaged internal scaffolding meant they wouldn’t hold them together so they couldn’t be repaired. They’d be sacrificial droids.

Looking around, she found the tools he’d need and grabbed them. “Here you go. You can start by taking off this and this section, then you can get to the control arms. I need those first.”

Warik nodded and then looked at the droid Shift had used. “Can that one be repaired?”

“Easily,” she agreed.

He didn’t move to start working, only continued to stare down at her. “We could buy more droids. It wouldn’t take long to stop at a station and purchase several dozen.”

“We can still do that,” she agreed with a shrug. “But fixing these guys is still a good idea. What if they don’t have any droids in stock or they’re all agricultural droids?”

“What’s wrong with agricultural droids?”

That question told her this guy didn’t know much about droids outside of ships and stations.

“They’re massive,” she explained. “They wouldn’t fit down most of the corridors. Besides, what else are we doing right now?”

“True.” His expression didn’t change as he sank down to the floor and started examining the droid.

I like a man on his knees! Shift said with some loud static. The AI was cackling.

Nisha went back to the table, put her hand to her mouth and whispered, “You’re not as funny as you think you are.”

I’m hilarious, Shift said with more static. There was a moment of silence, then she spoke again, her tone more serious. The Hissa like to do all kinds of tasks to prove they’re worthy mates. Do you think this might be one of them?

“They do?” she whispered. “He could just be trying to help. It probably means nothing.”

If he buys you soft, colorful clothing, then we’ll know for sure.

“Have you always been alone?” Warik asked. Nisha moved around her table so she could look up and see him instead of having to turn around.

“It was just me and Mom for a long time,” Nisha said. “Now it’s me and, um, my droids.”

Warik didn’t look up as he spoke. “Sounds like a lonely childhood.”

“It really wasn’t,” Nisha said, remembering those days clearly. “Torl is a well-established planet, and we lived in the heart of the second biggest city. Torl is part of the Lorkin Commonwealth, and they’re really big into public safety so the crime rate is low. We were also in a typical big, exciting city so there were always things to see or do in our spare time if we wanted.”

“But what about companionship?” Warik asked.

“Mom tried to get me to play with some of the local Lorkin kids, but I was always too much in my own head. I’d forget I was supposed to be playing and wander off to look at someone’s new power regenerative cell or something.”

And you made me, and we’ve been together ever since, Shift said. Except you didn’t entirely make me. You kind of started me and then I blossomed on my own, and we grew up and learned together. Does that make you my mom or my sister? Sister-mom? Eww, no, that sounds wrong!

Nisha bit her lip to keep from laughing at Shift’s irreverent humor. She’d started creating the AI when she was about seven years old. Nisha taught the program the same way she’d been schooled so it was a slower way to teach. Everyone else simply plugged in databanks and let the AI sort it all out. That usually ended in disaster. However, because the AI learned with her, Shift turned out kind, empathetic, and in possession of a strict code of ethics that no other AI developed.

Nisha’s mother had said Shift was the only AI created with love so it was the only AI who could love back.

“What was your mother like?” Warik asked, pulling her out of her memories of those early years teaching Shift.

There was only one suitable word to describe her mother. “Brillant.”

She looked over to find Warik watching her with a slightly sad expression. “Brilliant but not loving?”

“She was very loving,” Nisha assured him. “She always put me first. That’s why I grew up far away from Earth or any of the human colonies. After the corporation started selling Decanted humans as slaves, she was enraged and lost all faith in humanity in general. The Lorkin are very communal. They value equality and respect above all else, so she decided to raise me on one of their colony planets.”

Her mother had been the scientist who’d first developed the Decanting technology. She’d seen it as a way to give desperate couples children. It had been a career-long project of love and then she watched as her technology was used deplorably.

There wasn’t much she could do. No one would listen to her at the time. It was only decades later that Earth Government decided to do something about it. The one thing Nisha’s mother did successfully accomplish was taking all her genetic splicing research with her.

They could only accomplish the Decanting accelerated growth with the samples she’d left behind. Those would’ve run out eventually, but Earth Government triggered a catastrophic failure at the lab and destroyed everything anyway.

After that happened, the two of them assumed it was all over. It would be many years, or maybe never, before anyone could recreate what Farah had done. She’d died assuming no new children would be grown and sold.

She’d been wrong, and it was up to Nisha to fix it.

“Did you ever meet your father?” Warik asked.

Years of being teased by Lorkin children for only having one mother and no siblings made Nisha drop her gaze to the droid and respond quietly, “I have no father.”

Me neither, we have that in common too! Shift said, breaking Nisha’s tension. She tapped the implant behind her ear, it was a way to tell the AI she was being amusing.

“Is it painful to think of your mother?” Warik asked. “You keep using the past tense, so I assume she’s passed on.”

“She died about five years ago,” Nisha answered. It was nice to be able to talk about her mother without crying. Now Nisha could think about her and remember all the wonderful things instead of dwelling on her loss. “She was on her third neural-net and this time it wasn’t integrating. She was 121 years old, and you can only push the human brain so far. When the implant failed, she asked not to have another one. She died in her sleep, holding my hand.”

This wasn’t the first time she’d told someone this story, but it was the first time she’d said it to a person who’d never met her mother. Nisha wasn’t sure what to expect from Warik, but his silence wasn’t surprising. He probably regretted asking.

I miss her so much, Shift whispered. Nisha put a finger to the skin behind her ear and pressed.

“I’m like you,” Warik said.

She startled and looked up to find he’d silently moved from the droid on the floor to standing next to her at the table. He was so close; she could feel heat radiating off him. She had to force herself to keep her hands from reaching out to touch him.

“How are you like me?” she asked.

“I’m alone too,” he explained softly. “My entire family is dead, and I have no mate. We are very similar.”

Poor Warik, Shift murmured.

“You have all the other Hissa,” Nisha said, trying to smile.

“And you have all the humans back on Earth, does that make you feel any less alone?” he countered. There was no malice or anger in his voice, only firmness.

“Good point,” she agreed. “I have a community back on Torl.”

He tilted his head. “You do?”

“Is that so surprising?” she asked. “I grew up there and took over the same shop my mom set up.”

“It's not shocking or surprising, but you’re far from Torl. We’re not even close to Lorkin controlled space. You’re all alone out here, Nisha.” He spoke in a low, sexy voice, but at the same time, his words sounded almost like a warning—or a threat.

“I’m not as alone as you think,” she countered.

Damn right you're not , Shift agreed.

“You don’t need to pretend bravery,” he said.

She felt vaguely insulted. “Pretend?”

He ignored her and continued. “I know I haven’t been a good companion on this journey. It isn’t because I don’t like you. I can tell you’re trying to do right by the Decanted children being grown illegally and came to the Hissa because we’ll raise the children to be free people among us.”

“All of that is true,” she began, but he cut her off before she could continue.

“I also know you’re still keeping things from me.” His soft tone turned hard, and his expression went back to the cold blankness. “I’ll do my best to protect you during this mission, but if one of your secrets ends up hurting those children or my people, I’ll end you myself.”

Woah! If you look up “intense” in a Space Standard dictionary, his picture stares back at you, Shift quipped, helping to keep Nisha calm. He never even raised his voice, and I want to retreat! That’s talent, but not the good kind.

“It’s true I have secrets,” she agreed, refusing to look away from his gaze. Pretending to be brave? Not her! She was fearless, and she was going to prove it! “But none of them would impact this mission. Not in a negative way. One of my secrets isn’t even mine to share. There is someone else I need to keep safe.”

A growl ticked out of Warik’s throat. He leaned over and put his face close to hers. “Who is he and what is he to you?”

Nisha drew back, confused. “Who are you talking about?”

Warik followed. “Who is the male, the one who’s secret you’re keeping?”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, almost grinning at his severe expression. Was she mistaken or had his scale pattern turned slightly darker? Maybe a hint of black?

“Who. Is. He?” Warik repeated, enunciating each word with menace. She didn’t feel scared, but if there was a flesh and blood male in her life, she’d be worried about their continued health.

The most worrying part of this exchange with Warik was why was she finding his tone and actions so… so… hot?

“Are you jealous?” she asked.

He reared back as if she’d tried to hit him. “Not at all. But I’m concerned for this mission and your safety.”

“Suuuuure,” she said, drawing out the single word. This time, when Warik’s expression shut down, she wasn’t surprised or hurt. She smiled up at him. “Just so you know, I don’t have anyone waiting back home for me. Not a lover or partner or husband or anything like that. I love the person who’s secret I’m keeping, but not like that. She’s more like a sister to me.”

“She’s like a sister,” he repeated. She could tell he was trying hard to keep his tone cold and aloof, but Nisha could clearly hear the relief in his voice. “All that matters is that this person or their secrets won’t impact the mission. There are many children’s lives at stake.”

Warik could pretend to be detached and unaffected all he wanted, but she knew his secret—he liked her. It might only be lust, but it was nice to know her attraction to him wasn’t one-sided.

We can work with this, Shift said. All that masculine intensity is going to be a wild ride. But don’t do anything until you get the droids up. I need to be able to stop him if things get out of control.

Nisha ignored Shift. She had absolute confidence that Warik would never intentionally hurt her. When she stepped closer to him, the big warrior shied back, making her grin.

“I know what’s at stake. We’re not enemies, Warik,” she murmured. “Maybe we could even learn to be friends?”

An unfamiliar alarm sounded, making Nisha jump and Warik curse in his native language.

“What is it?” she asked, looking around and expecting to see fire.

That’s not a ship alarm , Shift said. It’s not in any of my alarm catalogs. Warik must’ve set it up himself .

“That’s the alarm for the room where we locked the Diniki,” Warik explained as he hurried out of the work room. “He’s trying to break out! Stay here and lock the door.”