“And you’re compromised.” She turned on her heel. “Fix it, Aeon.”
I watched her storm off, her boots leaving angry imprints in the soft earth of the path. My blood pounded in my ears, hot and insistent. The choice before me was cleaving me in two.
I stared at the medical bay doors, knowing Olivia was inside, already teaching the morning’s lesson to her cyborg trainees. I could picture her, gesturing animatedly with her green eyes sparkling in passionate intensity.
My mission had always been crystal clear: ensure the survival of our people at all costs. That purpose had driven me since we claimed this planet as our own. But now...
Now there was Olivia. Not just as a doctor but as the woman whose smile made my chest ache with something I was only now beginning to understand. The woman who’d somehow carved out a place for herself in my heart.
If I told her today about Dr. Naomi West, she’d realize rescue might be possible. She’d want to leave immediately. But if I kept her in the dark, was I any better than the humans who’d once treated us like property rather than people?
I dragged my hand down my face. The logical choice was obvious: protect the colony and protect our future. But logic seemed to be losing its grip on me lately.
“Damn it all,” I muttered to the empty path.
For now, I’d keep West’s search efforts to myself. Just until I could figure out a solution that didn’t end with losing either Olivia or everything else I’d fought to build. I told myself it was for the colony’s protection, but a voice inside me whispered the truth. I couldn’t bear to watch her walk away from me.
SEVENTEEN
OLIVIA
I saw two guards with their backs half-turned to me as I stepped into the main corridor of the medical bay. I paused, an automatic response to their hushed tones that didn’t match their usual confident stances.
“—news transmission about Dr. Parker,” one murmured, his voice carrying just enough for me to catch. “Someone’s getting persistent.”
My heart stuttered. Someone was looking for me? After two weeks of captivity, of building a strange new life in this alien colony, someone remembered I existed?
The second guard shifted uncomfortably. “Commander Helix is worried they’ll find us. Some doctor from her hospital?—”
They spotted me then, straightening like guilty children. I started walking, my expression carefully blank, though my pulse hammered in my ears. When I’d questioned Aeon earlier about his meeting with Sage, he’d brushed it off with a terse “Just colony security changes.”
He’d lied to me.
I found him in the supply room, methodically cataloging surgical tools. The muscles in his back tensed at my entrance. He knew without looking that it was me. That strange connection between us, the one I’d been fighting since our night of passion, crackled with new tension.
“Someone on Earth is looking for me,” I said flatly, not bothering with the preamble. “And you knew.”
He set down the instrument he was holding and turned to face me. Those intense blue eyes gave nothing away. “You overheard the guards?”
“Don’t deflect. You’ve been getting news updates from Earth. Haven’t you? How long have you known?”
The muscles in his forearms tightened. “I just found out this morning.”
“Yet when I asked you about that meeting you said it was just about colony security changes. You lied to me.” I slammed my hand against a nearby shelf. “You had no right to keep that information from me!”
“I was assessing the situation?—”
“No, you were making decisions for me. Again.” The betrayal stung worse than I expected. “First you kidnap me, and now you’re hiding that people are actually searching for me?”
He stepped closer, towering over me. “If Earth discovers Planet Alpha, they won’t just send a friendly rescue party. They’ll bring operative forces from CyberEvolution. They’ll either try to reclaim us or destroy us.”
“That’s not your call to make!”
“Actually, it is. Everything I do here is to protect this colony,” he growled, his controlled facade slipping. “These people depend on me.”
“And what about me? Don’t I deserve honesty and respect? Am I never allowed to go back home?” I moved closer, refusing to be intimidated by his imposing presence. “Or is this all about keeping your precious doctor? Am I just too valuable to let go anymore?”
Something flickered across his face. Hurt, perhaps? But his voice remained hard. “The pregnant women need you.”
