I love it when I start posting excerpts. (grins) It means release day is fast approaching!
While we wait for the release of Grin And Bare Him, the second core story in the Cyborg Unity series, here is the first scene from the first chapter.
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Chapter One
Cyborgs were designed for breeding and for war.
Grin could easily defeat a human in battle. He had the fighting skills to accomplish that feat. But he didn’t enjoy killing. It made him…grumpy.
As a result, he didn’t train sufficiently to master the ending of lifespans. He couldn’t vanquish his brethren in mock combat. Their abilities and their love for the skirmishes far surpassed his.
He was admittedly no warrior, and he had no desire to ever become one.
Breeding wasn’t an option for him either. He hadn’t yet met his genetic match, the one being in the universe he was destined to bond with.
That special individual might not exist. Not for him, a cyborg operating out of spec.
He might never enjoy that connection with another being.
Processing that possibility, he focused on a skill he excelled in – designing structures.
He absorbed knowledge from every database he could access; experimented with techniques, styles, and materials; was constantly looking for ways to improve the construction of buildings.
His expertise was greatly needed. The cyborgs had escaped the Humanoid Alliance, their cruel manufacturers, and had claimed several planets as their own.
Domiciles and other spaces had to be erected in vast quantities. And he preferred for those structures to last.
Cyborgs had unlimited natural lifespans. Their buildings should have the same longevities.
They should be fabricated from durable materials.
Grin studied the six panels set before him. The metals had been sourced from planets situated all over the universe.
He was alone in his contemplation but not physically solitary.
Strive, his friend and fellow K-model cyborg, stood beside him. The male stared down at the shadows cast across the floor tiles. “Focus on the shapes.” His voice was soft as he chattered to himself. “Find the calm.”
Around them, warriors perfected their battle skills. Mock gunfire echoed. Bodies thumped against walls. Cyborgs exchanged gibes.
“Find the calm.” His friend’s voice gained an increasingly hard edge. “Find the calm. Find… Fraggin’ hole. Would all of you be blasted quiet?” Strive yelled at their brethren. “Some of us are trying to fabricate art.”
Grin smothered his mirth. The K model was seeking to manage his overly active emotional system by expelling energy creatively.
“Relocate to a different chamber if you want quiet.” North, a visiting D Model, relayed that unwelcomed advice as he passed by them.
The training chamber was the ideal site for Grin to test materials. The space was designed for rough usage.
“Frag all the way off, D Model.” Strive cursed at him.
Truth, another visiting cyborg, laughed.
“Find the fraggin’ calm.” Strive returned to studying the shadows on the floor. “Find it.”
Grin shifted his full attention back to his tasks also. He crouched by one of the panels to examine it closer.
It appeared strong, but he’d seen the strongest of beings crumple under strain.
Moments passed.
“Frag finding calm.” Strive gave up on serenity. “It’s completely lost for me this planet rotation.” He looked at Grin. “Do you have something you want me to blow up? How about one of your panels?”
That was a fast and efficient way to test materials, and it would soothe his friend.
Grin glanced around them. The space remained crowded with warriors.
“If we set off an explosive now, the medic team would fry our processors.” He straightened. “The last time we did that, every cyborg in the chamber had to have their limbs reattached. The medics were fully occupied for three shifts.”
“I lost both of my arms and one of my legs in that detonation.” Strive’s good humor resurfaced. “That was fun.”
“It was…illuminating.” None of those panels had shielded warriors. The exterior of a structure should do that, should keep its inhabitants safe. He had discarded those materials. “We’ll utilize guns for this first test.”
Grin drew two weapons.
Strive did the same. “Can you hit the panel?” His friend lifted his eyebrows. “Its aim is suboptimal.” He mimicked the disapproving tones of their former Humanoid Alliance trainer.
“At least I aim at targets.” Grin returned the teasing. “You press your triggers before you process where the targets are.”
“Aiming is for offspring.” Strive rolled his eyes.
“Aiming is also for mature beings.” Grin laughed.
They were both battle-impaired.
If they hadn’t escaped their manufacturers during their training programs, they would’ve been decommissioned. They would’ve been killed in the most painful way possible, stripped for parts while still alive.
And they would never have reached the Homeland. They would never have processed freedom.
Grin braced his booted feet apart. He was never leaving the cyborg-controlled sector, would never risk that fate again.
There was no reason to do that. He had several human lifespans’ worth of structures to construct on the planets situated within that space.
***
Read the next scene (available October 31st) here:
http://tasteofcyn.com/?p=10133
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Grin And Bare Him
This cyborg will be the warrior his female requires.
Cyborgs are designed to fight. That is their primary purpose and 98.2356 percent of the manufactured warriors enjoy battle. Tremendously.
Grin, a K model, is one of the rare exceptions. When he escaped his cruel creators, he set down his sword and allocated his processors to less violent pursuits. He projects he’s left his war-waging planet rotations behind him forever.
Then he meets his beautiful, beguiling female, the one being he’s destined to protect, to claim, to love for all eternity, and his plans for peace are completely decimated.
Mohini needs a ship.
She has a dangerous mission to complete and the first step in that assignment is arranging transport to an enemy-controlled planet. The vessel she has set her sights on is guarded by the sexiest cyborg she’s ever seen.
To gain access to his ship, Mohini is prepared to kiss, caress, seduce the muscular male. The mission is her focus. The pleasure she experiences will merely be a bonus.
A female has to do what a female has to do to save the universe.
Grin And Bare Him is a Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a humanoid female undertaking a dangerous mission, a cyborg intent on keeping her alive, and an enemy with enough firepower to blow up an entire sector.
Pre-order Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09ZCWMSDV
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09ZCWMSDV
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B09ZCWMSDV
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/grin-and-bare-him/id1622100495
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/grin-and-bare-him-cynthia-sax/1141413965
