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Just as quickly, the moment was gone, but her friend’s suggestions still echoed in her mind.She dearly hoped cyborgs couldn’t read regular human minds too.
“To new beginnings,” she repeated, and took another fortifying sip of wine.
ChapterSix
An unfamiliar metallictaste filled Rhys’s mouth as he stared into the seemingly bottomless pool of black water that filled the flooded bulkhead.His heart skipped a couple of beats.His cybernetics told him that there was nothing wrong with his pulmonary functions.Instead, the cause of his heart’s irregularities was the rarest reason of them all: unknown physiological causes.
It took another few seconds for Rhys to realize what he was experiencing—fear.
He was afraid of deep water.
He closed his eyes and locked down his connection to the cyborgs’ broadcast link, not wanting his brethren to know how he felt.It was completely irrational.He was acyborg.He had underwater breathing capabilities.He didn’t know why he had them, since he had never had the opportunity to go deep sea diving while living aboard a space-faring vessel, but there must have been a reason his original cyborg unit was designed with such capabilities.Perhaps the original Rhys Hammond was afraid of water and this was simply a residual feeling.
He tore his vision away from the flooded bulkhead and steeled himself.Closing his eyes, he focused on the pleasant heat New Eden’s twin suns left on his exposed skin.He breathed deeply, noting the scents of earth and grass surrounding the power station.
He was being ridiculous.His programming meant he knew how to swim.The bulkhead was eight meters deep, hardly life-threatening to a being like him.
Rhys opened his eyes to see the other cyborgs on the edges of their respective bulkheads, standing on the flimsy platforms in little more than their flight trousers.Metal components embedded in their skin flashed in the sunlight as a further reminder that they were impervious to drowning.
Let’s get this over with.
All they had to do was get into the bulkheads and open the drains, diverting the trapped water into the nearby river.It was easy enough and shouldn’t take longer than ten minutes if he concentrated.BE89—Brandon, he reminded himself again—had already spent plenty of time in the water, both in the drains and in the river, to make sure the pipes were still functioning.He’d come out none the worse for wear.
I’m a leader, damn it.I should be able to do this.
Splashes around him alerted him to his fellow cyborgs already jumping in.He was the last cyborg standing on his bulkhead’s platform.
He took a deep breath and jumped in feet first.
Panic clawed at him as the shock of cold water overloaded his senses.He forced his eyes open and activated his night vision function, so he could better see the drains lining the bulkhead as he slowly sank to the bottom.Water filled his nose and throat, making him cough and choke.
I’m malfunctioning!
He tried to call for help, but nothing came out.He thought about Hannah, how he had failed her and her people.
She would be working in a field right now, probably chatting with SP29.When he thought about them talking and laughing, jealousy clawed at him, warring with his panic.
RH103?Are you all right?
Brandon’s voice filled his head, and Rhys realized his broadcast link had reactivated itself.Great, now everyone was feeling him drown.
No, Rhys replied.He hated to admit that but didn’t want to lie.
You can breathe in there, I promise.The other cyborg’s voice was calm and rational, almost soothing.It’s all right to be afraid of this.We’ve never seen this much water in one place.Breathe in through your nose.
Rhys tried but coughed again.
You’re fighting it,Brandon continued.You’re not going to drown.If you were, you would have already.Don’t think about the water.Pretend you’re on land.
As if he could pretend the weight of hundreds of liters of water wasn’t pressing around him.Rhys took a shallow breath, hating the sensation of fluid in his nasal passages and throat, but he didn’t sputter again.Some of his panic ebbed away, and he was able to focus on the nearest drain lock.He twisted it open.
I’ve opened a drain, he reported back to Brandon.
One down, four to go.The other cyborg’s voice was annoyingly chipper.He sounded more organic than machine in that moment.Not for the first time, he wondered what Brandon’s original had been.
Only four more drains to unlock, then the worst part of the power station’s restoration would be over.He pictured Hannah, how happy she would be when it was restored.He wanted to see her smile again, smile athim.
He was doing this for Hannah.
