Excerpt: Kira

Prologue

It took a moment for her to get her breathing under control. It wasn’t every morning that Gemini woke up with a Sigma towering above her. Lucky for her it didn’t have its blaster drawn and her quick reflexes allowed her to quickly tumble to the other side of the bed, to take cover and grab her gun. It had only taken a few well aimed shots to bring the robot down. She leaned against the wall for only a moment to compose herself before getting back into action, not knowing if or when more Sigma’s would show up.

The woman took a few quick steps across the room, where her armour had been discarded the night before, trying to get her thoughts together. She and Chase had been using this abandoned apartment building for months now. It was an area of town that the Sigmas didn’t patrol, so why did one show up all of a sudden. Even so, if the robots had known that they would be here in advance, why not plan a better attack? It didn’t make any sense. Gemini was in enough battles that they knew her fighting abilities. Surely they knew that she wouldn’t have any problems destroying one Sigma.

‘They must be sending more’, she thought as her final piece of armour clicked into place, ‘Gotta move.”

But where had Chase gone? She stepped out of the bedroom with her weapon ready to check the other rooms in the house but could not find him or his body anywhere. He wouldn’t have just left without her. He wasn’t that type of guy.

Gemini and Chase had been an item for some time now, since her operation. After a battle gone seriously wrong, Gemini’s best friend and mentor, Fiona, had been fatally wounded. The only way to save her friend had been to turn most of her body into that of a robot... the one thing they were fighting against. The science and technology to do so was there, however, had never been used. Gemini had agreed to be their test subject, replacing a great deal of her body with cybernetics. The operation had been a success. Of course, living as a cyborg wasn’t easy when you’re at war against a robot. The other humans viewed her as a disgrace, most believing that death was a better alternative then the path she chose. Some even viewed her as a traitor... But Chase had been sympathetic to her cause. He joined her for some of her patrols, and they’d usually end up spending the night together. It had started out as just sex, but as time went by, something more had begun to grow between them...

So no... Chase would not have just left without letting her know. And if he knew that danger was approaching he would have alerted her. Unless he went to fight the Sigmas off; but there were no sounds of a battle being fought. So then where was he?

‘I’ll have to figure that out later, I’ve got to get out of here before...’

Her thoughts trailed off as she reached for the door knob, her glance looking down the hall to the bedroom where she had come from. There was blood on the floor... She looked herself over quickly but found that she hadn’t taken any damage at all. And Sigmas didn’t bleed! Her eyes widened.

“Chase?!”

She took one step forward and then just ran back into the room she had begun this crazy scenario in. She found what she had dreaded and feared. Chase’s body was lying in a pool of blood on the ground by the side of the bed. A loud CLANK resonated in the room as her weapon dropped to the floor and she hurried to her lover’s side.

“No no no no. Chase? Chase wake up!” but even as she spoke the words she already knew that he was dead. His skin was cold and she hugged his head against her chest. She felt for a pulse but there was none, “Please no...”

Suddenly, she didn’t care if there were more Sigmas coming or not. She stayed in the room, cradling Chase against her chest. Tears stung her eyes and she didn’t have the courage to hold them back. She couldn’t understand how this could have happened. She had been right here in the room with him when that blasted robot had killed him. How could she have heard nothing?

Her eyes glanced over to where the robot was lying... or should have been lying. At first, she thought her vision to be distorted by the tears, but as she wiped them away, she frowned when she noticed that there was, in fact, nothing lying on the floor. Where was the Sigma?!

She got to her feet in a flash, grabbing her gun and aiming it around the room. It couldn’t have just gotten up and walked away. It had been right there, and it had been dead, she was sure of it. She had hit the core in its chest so it HAD to be dead. It was dead and had fallen right next to Chase’s body... Her eyes went to the ground and she noticed that there was no evidence of a battle other than the man on the ground. Finally, she noticed a critical piece of information...

There were no burn wounds on Chase’s body... none at all. Sigmas always used blasters, which ALWAYS left burn marks... The wounds on Chase’s chest were done by a handgun... a handgun just like the weapon that Gemini used. Her breath caught in her throat.

‘No... No no no, I couldn’t have....’ her knees buckled and she found that she couldn’t breathe, ‘It was a Sigma! I KNOW it was a Sigma that I shot! This isn’t happening... it’s not...’

But the evidence showed otherwise. Chase was dead, with two bullet holes in his chest, the very same place that Gemini had shot the Sigma that had towered over her only moments ago.

That’s why there had been no signs of a struggle. That’s why Chase wasn’t lying next to her when she woke up. That’s why there had only been one Sigma sent in...There were no other Sigmas coming in for an attack, because there had never been one in the room to begin with...