Aramus by Eve Langlais Read Free Book Online Page B

after they discovered we’d infiltrated. I managed to save some bits and pieces. Hopefully Einstein can make some sense of it. I’ve got Kentry yanking out drives as we speak in case Einstein can restore the information.
    Try to make it quick . We have no idea if the ship that escaped is going to return with friends. We might have taken them by surprise with our ambush, but we’re not equipped to take on a fleet of attack cruisers.
    Understood.
    Excellent. I’ll be coming aboard shortly with my human prisoner.
    Marching the doctor up the gangplank, Aramus found she didn’t require any added incentive to keep her moving—she remained glued to his side—but she also didn’t remain silent.
    “Who are you?”
    He didn’t answer. She wasn’t deterred.
    “Is this your ship? Where are you taking me?”
    “I’m going to take you back to your cell if you don’t shut up,” he finally growled.
    He immediately regretted his harsh tone as her thin shoulders rolled in, making her petite frame even more compact, as if she braced for a blow. For some strange reason, a part of him wanted to offer reassurance.
    Reminding himself she was a human and not deserving of pity didn’t help. Damned human emotion frailties. They sought to overcome his common sense. He’d reboot himself the first chance he got and cleanse himself of the defective feelings that threatened.
    I will not let my weaker, human side win. I am cyborg. Logic is all that matters.

Chapter Seven
    Riley didn’t know what to think. On the one hand, when the imposing figure dressed head to toe in space gear had shown up at her cell door, kicking his way in like some movie action hero, she’d felt such fear then hope as he stated his intention to rescue. Then he’d made it clear with his tone and words that he didn’t consider her a victim, but a prisoner. And the way he spoke of her, as if they weren’t from the same species…
    She sneaked peeks at him as they strode up the violence -splattered hallway to the loading bay. With the environmental suit he wore, she could discern very little about her rescuer other than the fact he bore a human shape. Then again, the mutant bodies she’d examined were also bipedal.
    Was this a rescue party for the poor experiments? Had she gotten flung from one untenable situation to another? Oh god, I hope they’re not going to run tests on me like they were doing on the corpses I examined. Given what she’d seen during the past few months, she wouldn’t blame them if they felt a need for retaliation, but how to make them understand she was just as much a victim? Would they even care?
    A hole blasted in the bay doors show cased another of the suited rescuers standing guard. To preserve the pressure and integrity of the installation—a fact she appreciated—a sealed tunnel had been suctioned to the hole leading onto a very military spacecraft.
    “Are you from earth?” she asked , forgetting his order to remain silent.
    The big being didn’t reprimand her, but his reply didn ’t really answer her question. “Not anymore.”
    What was that supposed to mean? “So you’re human?”
    “Nope.”
    “Alien?”
    “Most definitely not!” Before sh e could query further, he growled, “Zip it.”
    She clamped her lips shut. No use provoking him. Not until she knew more about the situation.
    Marched into a barren room, if she ignored the huddled forms of other prisoners, she jumped when the door behind her slid shut with an ominous clang. Bolts slid shut, locking her in.
    Great. I exchanged one prison for another.
    Straightening her spine, she decided not to let herself despair. They obviously didn’t intend to kill her, or the big fellow would have done so already. But he could be saving me for some torture later.
    Yeah, she wouldn’t let her mind stray in that direction. Not yet. She needed to stick to the positive if she wanted to stay sane. So what do I have going for me?
    One, she was alive with all her body parts