“Let’s make her more appealing, shall we?” Zavis asked.

“Go ahead,” Pete said. “Unless he’s more a machine than man, but he’ll probably just kill her straight away.”

She felt the cold metal from a knife as Zavis cut her clothes open, revealing her naked chest. She felt cold dread run inside her body as the fabric slid aside and exposed part of her right breast. What the hell were they up to now?

“She looks nicer than I thought,” Pete said as he looked her over.

The guard they had put on the outside came barging inside the room. “The cyborg is coming. Let’s get out of here.”

They hurried out of the cabin, leaving her on the cyborg’s bed. She knew exactly who they were talking about, even if she’d never talked to him. She’d only seen him at a distance, looking grim and unapproachable. But there were so many stories about him that she couldn’t avoid learning about his presence. None of it was good. He was known to show no mercy when he fought their common enemy. Instead, he did the job efficiently without any remorse or breaking into a sweat.

He kept to himself, but his large and muscular body made him stick out in any crowd. There was really no way to know how he would react to finding a half-naked woman in his cabin. If she was lucky, he would just throw her out. She felt the drug was finally clearing from her body. Slowly, too slowly. The bindings made it impossible for her to get away before the cyborg got here. At least he couldn’t consider her a threat. Or she hoped he wouldn’t.

A short while later, she heard him enter his cabin. She looked over and saw him. The largest man on the shuttle was certainly impressive this close-up. He looked at her, not showing any emotion at all. Not even surprise or mild curiosity. Maybe he was more machine than man. A killing machine with no feelings whatsoever.

It matched what she’d always heard about the cyborgs. They were good fighters but not sociable at all. Every space shuttle was instructed to have at least one cyborg among their crew. But none of them had ever talked much with the humans.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

His voice sounded coarse like it hadn’t been used for a while. He was covered in blood and dirt, looking as if he’d just been engaged in a war. He probably had, considering his tasks revolved around taking care of any rebellion or problem.

She struggled to form words. A cough helped her. She still felt dozy because of the drug. “Sir. I’ll get out of here. If you can release me.”

“You are the female navigator.”

“Yes. Look, I don’t want to be here, so could you just…?” Miya pulled at her fastenings, letting him know she wanted him to loosen her hands. The movement made the fabric covering her breasts slide aside. She watched his eyes move over her breasts. Her eyes opened wider as a spark of interest flickered suddenly in his unreadable eyes. Crap, she thought.

“No,” was all he said as he started to undress.