Read Online Avion (Cyborgs: More Than Machines, #7) by Eve Langlais - Free Book Online

our bots were slaves. We threw off the chains of slavery. We don’t answer to anybody now but ourselves,” Aramus said.
    “You might not, but the nanos are still bound by the BCI you all have.”
    “You mean, the nanotech works without the brain chip.”
    “For those chosen, yes. As for you...” She shrugged. “My knowledge about your creation is incomplete. If you truly wish to understand, then you must speak to those inhabiting the T’xanian world.”
    “Judging by the look on my woman’s face, she is dying to find out more. I don’t know about you guys, but I, for one, would also like to some answers. Kentry, set a course for this T‘xa place. Lilith, feed him the coordinates.”
    Answers to their origin? Avion couldn’t deny excitement at the thought. While all indications pointed to Lilith as having donated their nanobots, it still left the question of who gave them to her. It certainly wasn’t the military, as they’d once suspected. And what was this about a choosing?
    “Course is set, sir. Arrival time in four days, fifteen hours.”
    Plenty of time to grill Lilith and get to know her.
    “Okay, folks and idiot”—Aramus pointedly stared at Seth, who grinned—“while we’ve got a lull, let’s all catch up on some R & R. I want it going on the record right now that anyone who disturbs me or my woman will get an iron knuckle sandwich.”
    “Does it come with mustard?” Seth asked.
    “Anastasia?” Aramus said with just a raised brow.
    “Don’t worry, commander. I’ll keep him busy and out of trouble.”
    “I’d prefer in trouble,” Seth whispered, as if all the cyborg ears couldn’t hear him perfectly.
    “Kentry, you’ve got first watch. I’ll be back to relieve you at seventeen hundred hours.”
    “Color me surprised,” he said.
    “Rosalind,” he said aloud for the benefit of the microphones that would relay his word to the engine room. “I also need you to stay on duty and do a thorough check of our engines and other support systems. I want a full report by the time I come back on shift. Anastasia, you’ll relieve her and oversee the duty roster she establishes. Seth and Adam will provide the labor.”
    Seth coughed into a hand. “Task master.”
    “What about me?” Riley asked, hands on her hips. “And don’t pull any fragile human crap with me.”
    Avion loved how the little human doctor never feared standing up to Aramus.
    “You will stick by my side and prevent me from killing Seth.”
    Ever the doctor and curious, Riley didn’t agree with his plan. “Sorry, but you’ll have to restrain yourself. I’d prefer to talk to Laura and Lilith about their conditions. That is, if they don’t mind. I’m sure Laura especially is wondering about what’s happening with her body.”
    Indeed she would, considering Laura had been one hundred percent human a few days ago until she accidentally came in contact with some of Lilith’s nanotech. Now, Laura was one of them, a cyborg. Kind of.
    Unlike the cyborgs created by the military, Laura didn’t have a BCI—a brain computer interface—embedded in the mushy parts of her mind. Nor did she have any metal organs or parts. Nothing extra, as a matter of fact, other than some nanobots, nanobots currently working without the benefit of a brain chip or anything.
    Which led to the question, if Laura didn’t have any hardware or software to control them, then who, or what, did?
    Lilith was similar to Laura in the sense that she also didn’t have the upgrades. But she also had powers a hell of a lot more powerful than anything other cyborgs had managed thus far.
    Then again, no one truly knew what they were capable of. Avion had come to know dozens of cyborgs since their liberation—more like bloody escape. Their skills varied and were always changing. Adapting.
    Enhancing them from the frail homo sapiens they’d begun life as to what they were now: cyborgs.
    But we are more than machines.
    They were also flesh, and flesh had