Provoking Odium, the first story in the Cyborg Unity series, is releasing next week! Woot!
Today, I’m sharing the fourth and final scene from the very first chapter.
You can read the first scene here:
***
Metal shrieked as the freighter’s wings scraped the stone. They burst free of the funnel. The ship spun. She fought, fought, fought to level their flight. It took all the strength in her body.
But she did it. Their trajectory straightened. The strain on her arms eased.
They had escaped the dormant volcano, the planet and, temporarily, the Humanoid Alliance.
“Take that, asshats.” Briella slapped the console. Her success made her giddy.
It didn’t make her stupid. Or careless.
The Humanoid Alliance might send out ships to pursue them. That had happened in the past.
She continued to monitor their surroundings and didn’t slow her freighter’s speed, while she celebrated. “I pulled off the impossible. That warrants some tunes.”
She pressed the button and music filled the bridge.
“There’s nothing left of mine.” She sang with everything she had. Her heart pounded in her chest. She was high on danger, grateful to be alive. “Ohhhhhhh…”
“Are you hurt?”
“Fuck.” Briella hastily donned her goggles and muted her music yet again. “What the fuck did I tell you? The bridge is off-limits.”
“I thought you were in pain.” Mohini lowered herself gracefully into the chair next to hers. “I heard moaning.” Her fingers fluttered against her chest. “It was such a horrible sound.”
“That wasn’t moaning, you unappreciative music hater.” Briella shook her head. “I was singing.”
The female’s eyes widened. “It was—”
“It was horrible. I heard you.” Briella loved singing, didn’t want to hear any criticism of her vocal abilities. “Go back to your chambers. There are nourishment bars, containers of beverage, a medic pack if you need it—everything you should require.”
Silence stretched.
Her unwanted guest didn’t leave.
Briella tapped her fingertips against the console. She was tempted to blast the music again and frighten the Praecipuan away with her horrible singing.
“Look at me.” Mohini dared to issue a command on Briella’s own blasted bridge.
“I’m flying the fuckin’ ship.” But she obliged her because the humanoid had been through battle trauma and other shit, and, despite that name everyone called her, she wasn’t a complete beast.
It also didn’t take much effort to fly the freighter in a straight line, even at the speeds they were traveling. She looked at the female.
The Praecipuan attempted to meet her gaze through the goggles. “We require transport to Keid 9.” Her voice lowered. “You will take us there.”
“Like Hyadum I will.” Briella couldn’t believe the gall of the female. “The deal is, I take you to the first friendly planet—and that’s not it. Keid 9 is halfway across the universe, and it’s a Humanoid Alliance-controlled planet.”
Mohini’s forehead furrowed. “Look directly at me.” She grabbed Briella’s face and forced her to comply with her order.
The female was stronger than she appeared.
“You will take us to Keid 9.”
“Fuck you.” Briella slapped her hands, breaking the female’s grasp on her. “I will jettison you into open space before I do that.”
Mohini stared at her. “My abilities don’t work on you.” She tilted to her head the side. “How is that possible? They work on everyone.”
The fucker must’ve tried some Praecipuan mind tricks on her. “Figure that out somewhere else.” She returned her gaze to the main viewscreen. “You’re in my private space.”
“There’s no one else on the bridge.” Mohini leaned back in her seat.
Briella gritted her teeth.
The female had no intention of leaving.
“You must get lonely in here.”
She was also determined to chatter.
“I don’t get lonely anywhere.” That was a lie. Briella did get lonely, but that was preferable to the pain of rejection. “There are beings you can talk with in the back chambers.”
“They’ll ask me about our next actions, and I don’t know what those actions are. Yet.”
The way Mohini looked at her made Briella uneasy.
“If we had credits, would you take us to Keid 9?”
Briella lifted her eyebrows. “Do you have credits?”
“No.” The female’s lips quirked upward. “But I might be able to get some.”
“I require the credits in advance.” Briella’s tone was dry. She wasn’t born last planet rotation.
“You would require that.” Mohini laughed. “I like you, Beast. We’re going to be good friends, you and I.”
“Fuck no, we’re not going to be friends.” Briella hadn’t been friends with anyone since she’d been ejected from her home planet.
Being friends with someone required sharing confidences, telling the other being about one’s past, spending time together. Eventually she’d have to take off her goggles.
She wasn’t willing to open herself to that kind of rejection, of pain.
“Yes, we will be friends.” The Praecipuan propped her surprisingly sturdy-looking boots up on the console.
“Get your fuckin’ feet off the control panels,” Briella barked at her.
The female didn’t move her boots. “What are those two red dots on the screen?”
Red dots? Briella looked at the main viewscreen. “Oh shit.” Those two red dots were shaped like Humanoid Alliance warships.
“What is it?” Mohini finally lowered her booted feet.
“Could be something,” Briella muttered. “Could be nothing.”
The warships were situated far away from them, on the edge of their monitoring range. They might be en route to another destination, might not be tracking them.
Seeking to test that theory, she deviated from their course, steered the freighter toward a nearby moon.
The two warships immediately changed direction.
“Fuck.” She corrected the freighter’s course. “It’s something.”
The warships’ appearance on their monitoring systems was no coincidence. They were following her freighter, following them.
That frightened the shit out of her.
She wasn’t scared for herself. The missions she accepted were dangerous. She knew she’d eventually die during one of them.
But she didn’t want to die with innocent souls on board her freighter. She didn’t want to fail yet another group of beings.
“We’re being followed, aren’t we?” Mohini leaned forward. “What should we do?”
“You don’t need to do shit.” Briella was the captain. She was responsible for keeping her passengers alive. That was her primary role.
She quickly ran through her options.
Warships were much faster than freighters. If she stayed on their set path and all three vessels flew at their top speeds, their pursuers would catch up to them.
When the Humanoid Alliance warships reached them, they were fucked. The weapons on the freighter weren’t designed for battle. She didn’t have the firepower to down anything substantial.
They would be blown out of space, because their shields were equally shitty. Their defenses couldn’t withstand a bombardment of missiles.
There was only one way out of their increasingly dire situation—they had to deviate from their set path. She’d travelled amongst the stars since she had eleven solar cycles, knew the sectors like she knew the hum of her freighter’s engines.
Briella lifted her chin. She would utilize all that knowledge now to save them. “I’m going to shake these fuckers off our ass, lose them in the depths of space.”
No one else would die on her watch.
***
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Provoking Odium
A Beautiful Cyborg
While accompanying his leader on a mission, Odium, an E Model cyborg, hears a distress call over the communication lines. The voice on that message makes his circuits surge with energy and all his systems light up. He has to respond to the mysterious female, would risk his lifespan and the lifespans of everyone on board their ship to protect her.
A Human Female Others Call Beast
Briella gained her nickname due to her flying abilities, her fearlessness, and her scarred countenance. Her verbal-only relationship with the sexy cyborg who answers her distress call is a steamy yet short-lived fantasy. His kind is physically perfect, and she is…not. He will uncover that truth when…if they survive the attack upon her freighter.
Provoking Odium is a STANDALONE Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a human female intent on remaining mysterious, a cyborg warrior determined to uncover her identity, and an enemy seeking to destroy them both before they have the opportunity to meet.
Pre-order Today:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NRXGLFW
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09NRXGLFW
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B09NRXGLFW
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/provoking-odium/id1605490349
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/provoking-odium-cynthia-sax/1140894003
