Ashland 297: The Alien Agenda Read online

  Ashland 297

  The Alien Agenda

  Donna McDonald

  Visit Donna’s Website

  Copyright © 2020 by Donna McDonald

  This story was previously included the Loved In Space anthology which is no longer for sale.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is coincidental.

  Cover by MYST Partners

  Edit by Madison Kamer and MYST Partners

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  About This Book

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Note From the Author

  Want To Read The Original Series?

  Also By This Author

  About the Author

  Dedication

  This book is for my cyborgs readers. I hope you enjoy it.

  Happy Reading…

  xoxo Donna

  About This Book

  Ashland 297: The Alien Agenda was originally published and included in the Loved In Space anthology which is no longer for sale.

  Some new content was added to the story, such as expanded conversations between characters, but nothing to dramatically change the story.

  1

  Despite new UCN initiatives to find Cyber Soldiers who fought in the last World War on Earth, they haven’t found all the missing cyborgs. This story is about one man who remains among the missing and the woman who refuses to give up looking for him…

  Dia Daniels stood at her sink and sipped her coffee as the shower down the hall shut off. Did she feel a sense of anticipation about who would soon join her? Or just a warm feeling of gratitude from not having had to spend last night alone?

  She waited for the telltale burst of happiness to hit when a tall blond male with broad shoulders and a bright blue gaze walked into her kitchen. Some part of her advised that staying open to the possibility might sway her to feel something more. But it didn’t happen.

  Instead, the moment her handsome companion walked across her kitchen’s threshold, Dia immediately imagined a shorter, darker, and comatose-in-the-morning male stumbling over to her. He’d press his insistent male body against hers, promising all kinds of sexual favors as he stole her morning coffee from her lax fingers. That unpredictable man would continue to lean against her as he drank what coffee was left in her cup. His favorite pastime had been luring her into unglamorous kitchen sex punctuated with talented tongue kisses and masculine groans of need when she made him work for her concession.

  But that imaginary man was gone. He’d been gone a very long time. That’s why the other man was here. So why didn’t she just have Ashland declared dead?

  It wasn’t hard to do, especially not with someone who’d been converted into a cyborg during the war.

  Maybe memories of them together would finally fade if she gave herself closure. That’s what her shrink kept telling her.

  Her morning after etiquette sucked at the best of times so Dia was grateful this morning that her tall, blond lover was unaware of her internal debate. Sergei was open and naïve in the wonderful way all young men managed to be before they settled down and got serious.

  Since Sergei was smiling at her, and because she was still feeling guilty about her memories, Dia poured him a cup of coffee and put the four sugars in it that he always took.

  “Spasibo,” he said, thanking her in his family’s version of Russian.

  Any way Dia studied him, she always concluded that Sergei Baranov was an amazing man. He was smart, a great bed partner, and the same age Ash was the last time she saw her husband alive over a decade ago.

  Like her, Sergei was a rocket rider, which meant he understood trying to talk your body into going much faster than mother nature designed it to go.

  They’d been friends for several years, and lovers for two now. Dia liked that she never had to explain the demands of her work to Sergei. It was a blessing to find such understanding in a companion—she knew that. Most women didn’t get lucky enough to find such a life partner at all, and yet somehow she’d managed to find two of them. She could only be grateful.

  Outside of being a little overly fond of his portable com, Sergei was a pleasant companion… and a very good man. Her problem was that he wasn’t the right man.

  “What’s that?” Dia asked when Sergei set a small box on the counter and pushed it over beside her.

  “It’s a treasure for you. I brought it from Mother Russia with me. You should feel honored, zvezda moya.”

  Dia smiled at his accent thickening. Sergei always called her his star, but usually he called her that it in English. His change to his native language alarmed her in a way she couldn’t describe. To stall while she thought about it, she pretended to ignore his gift.

  “Do you have a time machine you haven’t told me about, Sergei? Last time I checked, Mother Russia was long gone and the entire continent is actually called the Unified Soviet Republic now.”

  “Bah…” he said with a hand wave. “You and your facts, Dia. You ruin the romance of my gift. Open it now and let the weeping begin. This is real life, far more important than your facts.”

  Dia rolled her eyes at his dramatic command, set down her coffee, and opened the box. Inside it was a key card. She looked up at him. “At the risk of being trite, is this supposed to be the key to your heart?”

  Sergei shrugged. “That is yet to be seen. Until we can be sure, that is the key to my apartment in New St. Petersburg. I want us to be exclusive, Dia. I want you to give up your quest for a dead man. There… I have spoken aloud my only two wishes in the entire world. What do you have to say about my offer?”

  Dia stared at the key card and rolled it over in her fingers. Sergei—out of all the men she’d dated over the last few years—might actually give her a life that wouldn’t bore her or be a massive disappointment. The man’s offer was certainly one many women would have happily wept over.

  Wasn’t it time for her to move the hell on? Dead men were not helpful when a woman was horny or lonely or when she couldn’t stand her own company for a second longer.

  Dia’s gaze raised to the very alive man who was drinking his own coffee and checking his com for messages. Despite his inability to be someone else, Sergei might still give her a good life. But what could she give him?

  Dia thought about it and decided that what mattered most was what she couldn’t give Sergei, which was her whole heart. Part of hers still belonged to the man she married before the last World War. Sergei deserved someone who could commit to a whole relationship with him… and that simply wasn’t her.

  Dia put the key card back in the box and pushed it toward him.

  Sergei looked down at her action and then back up at her. He lifted one shoulder as he stared. “I knew the odds were against me, but I had to try. Unless this has ruined what we have, perhaps I will one day try again. Chto budet, to budet. It means a wise man knows he cannot force love.”

  Sighing over his niceness, Dia stepped into Sergei’s arms to hug him. He felt good against her—solid and alive. Sergei kissed her hair and hugged her back. Miraculously, he did so without overwhelming her heart and mind with more remorse. If she was being an idiot about him, why couldn’t she see it?

  Sergei groaned. “You wound me with your hugs and sighs, Dia. If I had known today would be our goodbye, I would have never let you out of bed this morning. You have taught me a lot, but you did not teach me how to be happy in love. I was hopeful you would do so.”

  “You deserve someone who will love you far more than I ever could, Sergei. You deserve to become a father and I know that’s what you want. Motherhood isn’t for me. I’m a broken woman.”

  Sergei sighed as he held her close. “I disagree about you being broken. Though brilliant in many things, you are wrong about this, Dia. I deserve you, but the problem is that you won’t let me have you. An invisible competitor still owns your heart. How is that fair after all this time he has not returned? I will say for certain that it is not fair. I hope one day you say that too.”

  Dia closed her eyes and didn’t answer as she slipped loose from his embrace. Sergei offered her a chance for a future when no one else had offered her anything except a few hours of company.

  What the hell was wrong with her?

  Apparently more than she realized, Dia thought, as she put some physical distance between them. Letting go had to be done gently, carefully, and with whatever fragments of caring you could offer a person who’d been a light in the dark for you. Though she would never toss her bald feelings in Sergei’s face, Dia also would not apologize for loving the man she’d married… nor for continuing to look for him even when seemed hopeless.

  It’s what Ash would have done for her if she’d been the one missing. She had no doubts about that at all. So until she took her dyi
ng breath, Dia would keep searching for her husband, his body, or at least a story she could accept about Ash’s fate.

  Someone knew something. One day that person would find her and tell her. She refused to believe otherwise.

  But if her faith failed…

  and she never found out what happened…

  Well, like Sergei said, life wasn’t fair.

  2

  “Dr. Winters?”

  “Yes,” Kyra said as she rose from the desk she hadn’t used in nearly a year.

  It was strange being back at Norton after spending so much time traveling the globe. So far, she and Peyton had shut down two more work camps that were hiding cyborgs. Combined with the broken cyborgs finally being released from military prisons, they’d accounted for all but thirty registered ones. Or at least that was Eric’s most current count… the number changed frequently.

  “Dr. Logan can see you now. She wanted me to tell you that Nero—I mean, Dr. Bastion—will join you both for the UCN conference.”

  “Thanks, Jake. It is Jake, right?” Kyra asked as she let the young man lead her down the hall.

  A lot had changed at Norton in the year since Rachel had taken it over. Many of the cyber labs had changed. Most of the restorations were being done with neural processors instead of using replicates of older processors like the kind her cyborg husband, Peyton, refused to change.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jake said with a smile as he tapped the spot on his scalp that hid his panel. “I’m on my third tweak and feeling pretty sure of myself these days. Rachel says I’m as normal as a person can be, but I want it all back. Originally, I thought about going back to medical school when I discovered I could, but now I’ve stayed on in the program. I think I’ve found where I belong—where I can make up for what I did when Creator Omega had me under his control.”

  Kyra nodded. She still wasn’t able to think clearly about her evil ex-husband, Jackson Channing, who’d faked his death and done his vile work for years while calling himself Creator Omega. She tried hard not to feel stupid for believing he’d been dead all that time, but the truth was that she still did.

  Even when they’d at last cornered him, he’d once again nearly killed Lucy, aka Captain Lucille Pennington, who was the most dangerous and deadly female cyborg her husband ever made. Luckily, Lucy had killed Jackson instead. The video of their fight to the death was the only reason Kyra pushed herself to believe Jackson was finally dead this time.

  “I see you kept some of your musculature,” Kyra said to change the subject… and clear her mind. She would not waste the day dwelling on the past.

  Jake nodded and folded one white-coated, corded arm for her to see. “I kept most of it, but only what we deemed safe for my body size. I enjoyed working with Nero to find the healthiest limits for me.”

  “Do you mean you enjoyed being his test subject?” Kyra asked, knowing exactly how Nero was.

  Grinning, Jake shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah, I guess you could call it that. The time Nero spent on me allowed us to get the answers so we could restore both Tad and me before we lost any more of our original lives.

  Kyra smiled. “Good then. How is your friend, Tad, doing these days?”

  Jake’s grin widened. “Tad loves working with Seetha. He’s back in school part-time and getting an engineering degree now. His heart wasn’t really in medicine anyway. Mine never really left it no matter what Creator Omega did to me. I don’t understand how that was possible, but I’m proud of myself for keeping what I did on my own.”

  When they stopped in front of the conference door, Kyra put a hand on Jake’s arm and turned him to look at her. “I have a lot of experience in wondering about what ‘might have been’ and living in ‘if only’ land. Let the past completely go, Jake. Give your time and energy to what you love today and let that be enough restoration. That human mind of yours is too precious to waste on regrets.”

  Jake hung his head and nodded as he pushed open the conference door. “It’s kind of you to care, and I’ll keep what you said in mind, Dr. Winters.”

  “See that you do,” Kyra ordered before slipping inside.

  Kyra’s hand flew to her stomach as she stepped to the table. Rachel and Nero stopped talking to stare at her.

  “It’s okay. I’m fine,” Kyra said, holding up a hand. “The sick stomach reaction probably will lessen once I’ve gotten desensitized to this room again. Few good things ever happened for me in here.”

  Rachel reached a hand across the table. Kyra stared at Rachel’s hand then took it. Rachel smiled. “What you fear no longer exists as a reality, Kyra. The application of your theories truly have changed the world.”

  “But we can’t fix how everyone thinks,” Kyra whispered as she squeezed Rachel’s fingers. “And we don’t have the right to decide who needs to become a nicer person. Conflict brings change to the world. The balance of good and evil are necessary. There are limitations to what we should alter, even when we know how.”

  “I agree, which is why I applied your mental adjustment protocols three times only. You have my word on that,” Rachel whispered back.

  Kyra nodded and squeezed once more before she released Rachel’s fingers. She turned and gave Nero her bravest smile. “You’re looking well, Nero. How are you and Aja doing in your new home?”

  Nero lifted an eyebrow as he mock-glared. “There is no need for subterfuge, Nani Winters. I know you’re really asking about how your beloved grandchildren are adjusting.”

  Kyra lifted a shoulder. “Perhaps I am, but I still admire the two of you for taking on the entirety of your cousin’s young family. Five children under the age of twelve would be a lot for anyone to raise. Despite being barely the oldest, Soriah sends me update coms every week about what’s happening to you all. She says she loves, loves, loves her purple room.”

  “They each have their own color—some more discordant than the rest—but childhood is childhood.”

  “Are their biological parents still cooperating with you?”

  “The authorities are no longer involved or threatening to take the children into custody, which is a relief to everyone in my family. Aja and I allow my cousin and his wife to visit the children, but we do not allow the children to leave with them. It is quite obvious to everyone that Aja and I are far superior parents.”

  “It never crossed my mind that you would be anything other than perfect,” Kyra said with a smile.

  “Was that a compliment or sarcasm?” Nero asked with a snort.

  “Sure,” Kyra replied.

  The conference call opened and interrupted their personal conversation.

  Rachel cleared her throat and smiled at the screen. It took a moment or two, but all three UCN chancellors eventually mirrored her smile back to her. “Greetings, Chancellors. I hope the esteemed members of the UCN council are having a blessed day.”

  “We are indeed, Dr. Logan. Congratulations on receiving your third official doctorate. I’m sure there will be many more to come.”

  Rachel bowed her head respectfully. “Thank you for the well wishes.” She looked at Kyra and lifted a hand. “As you can see, I have lured Dr. Winters here as you requested. I believe you said you had something important to discuss with her.”

  Chancellor Owens leaned forward in his chair. “Greetings, Dr. Winters. We have some information to share with you about some missing cyborgs. Unfortunately, it does not reflect well on some of the UCN’s previous actions. I wish we didn’t have to go into it, but we must address this old situation because we face a difficult decision about it.”

  Kyra stiffened in her seat, not sure she was ready for their confession. She wish Peyton could have been with her. “I appreciate your willingness to give me any information that will aid our efforts to find those missing men. I will do my best to listen with an open mind and will strive to suspend judgement of the past.”