CADE

  Heart pounding. Breath ragged. A raw soreness in Cade's side, where a bullet struck him just moments ago.

  The suit is failing him. It deactivates piece by piece, dropping away from his body like the molting skin of a snake, until he has no protection left.

  He keeps running, down the long, corridor, occasionally glancing back over his shoulder, seeing the white-haired Biodroid pop into view at intervals. She carries a pistol. She's waiting for the right moment to take her shot. Take him down.

  She already shot him once. Luckily the suit blocked most of the impact. Still hurts though. He hasn't looked at it yet, but he has to imagine there's a big welt on his abdomen, bruised black and blue. He hopes there's no internal damage, no long-lasting trauma to his body. Most of all, he hopes he can find a way to deal with this crazy bitch.

  He managed to take out the other Corsairs. There's that, at least. Now it's only a matter of staying alive until he can be saved by the people who are actually good in a fight around here. Someone like Silas.

  Then again, Silas already has his hands full with the HERALD. Waiting to get saved is not a good plan.

  There's an open door ahead, at the end of the hall. Cade doesn't remember leaving it open. Must be Shiloh's doing.

  Sure enough, as soon as he gets through the doorway, the door zips shut behind him.

  "Cade!"

  Cade's heart just about jumps into his throat.

  Shiloh's standing just inside the doorway. Not at the command console, like Cade supposed.

  "Shy, what are you doing!?"

  "What do you mean, what am I doing?" Shiloh hisses. "I'm here to help you!"

  "You're--you're supposed to be the guy in the chair!"

  "I can't help you from the chair!"

  "And how are you supposed to help me from here? You're gonna--"

  "I-- I dunno!"

  "Then why--"

  "Shhhh!"

  A split second after Shiloh shushes him,holding up a finger to her lips, something slams into the door from the outside. Then a green glowing blade pokes through the middle of the door, slowly cutting a big rectangle.

  "What side?" Shiloh mouths, gesturing to her own waist, where a belt would be. "Gun?"

  Cade tears his eyes away from the glowing blade to look at Shiloh. "Right."

  She nods, and then presses her back against the wall, on the right side of the doorway.

  Cade moves to join her, but she holds up a hand. "No. Stay. There. Distract."

  "You're using me...as BAIT!?"

  Shiloh nods gravely, shooing with her hands.

  Before Cade can reply, a square chunk of metal falls off the door and hits the floor, and the white-haired Corsair ducks in through the gap, green-bladed knife in hand.

  Her eyes are on Cade. Her shoulder-length hair is messy and frizzy from the fight. There's a film of sweat on her face. She's panting, catching her breath. She has this pained, frustrated expression. She takes a step toward Cade, then stops, hesitating. She holds up the green knife, but it's like there's an invisible rope attached to that hand, holding her back. She inches the knife forward, slowly, her face screwing up in concentration. She shakes her, mouthing the word 'no'. She freezes in place.

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  She's-- she's fighting it. Something's not right here.

  Suddenly, Shiloh is there, pulling the Corsair's pistol from the holster. The Corsair is so lost in concentration she doesn't even seem to notice.

  Shiloh points the pistol at the back of the Corsair's head.

  Cade holds up his hands. "Wait!"

  Shiloh doesn't wait. She pulls the trigger.

  The bullet grazes the side of the Corsair's head as she moves her head at the last second, her white hair smeared with red splotches of blood. She turns on Shiloh, knocking the pistol out of her hand and lunging toward her with the knife.

  Shiloh raises her arms in self-defense, grabbing the Corsair by the wrists, holding her back somehow.

  No, that's not what's happening. The Biodroid is holding herself back, again, even as Shiloh strains against her with every bit of strength she has.

  They both tumble onto the floor. The white-haired Corsair rolls on top of Shiloh. Both of Shiloh's hands are now gripping the Biodroi's wrist, the one connected to the the green knife, trying to stop it's slow but steady descent toward Shiloh's chest.

  Cade dives, grabbing the pistol off the floor. He aims at the attacker's head.

  At that exact moment, the Corsair turns to look at him. Despite her strength and ferocity in combat--Cade has seen it--she has a young, girlish face, like someone Cade's own age. Her eyes are wide. Pleading.

  She doesn't want to do this. She's being manipulated. Controlled. But she's trying to fight back.

  "Cade!" Shiloh yells.

  No time to hesitate. He has to act. But can he really pull the trigger, knowing this Biodroid isn't a willing participant, that she doesn't actually want to hurt them?

  "CADE!"

  Bracing himself, Cade aims at a point just below the Biodroid's collar. He fires once. Twice. Three times.

  The bullets spark as they ping off of the armor. Shiloh screams, turning her face away, shutting her eyes.

  The third bullet manages to dislodge the plate over the maintenance ports.

  "Shy!"

  Shiloh cracks an eye, looking up at her attacker. With a yell, she pulls out the cable in her own neck and jams it into the Corsair's port.

  The Corsair stiffens, then falls sideways, landing on her back. The knife slides a ways before coming to a stop, a sizzling, acidic stream of smoke issuing upward from where the blade is touching the floor.

  Cade lowers the pistol. But he doesn't put it down. Shiloh and the Corsair lie side by side, facing each other, eyes closed. Shiloh's chest rises and falls. She's breathing. She's...fine?

  Fuck. What was he thinking? What had he just sent Shiloh into? There was no way to know. It had been merely a hunch. A feeling. A preference to not want to kill another person today. Someone who had clearly been fighting the compulsions of their military protocols. Someone who had wanted to survive.

  He's already taken the lives of over a dozen Biodroids, today. He's still trying to process that. Rather, he's trying not to think about it at all. He keeps telling himself they're just robots. Artificial. Beings without souls. But he knows that's not true. Even before he met Silas he wouldn't have believed it. At this point there's no way to deny it.

  As it turns out, Shiloh isn't human either. But she's still a person. She's still…Shiloh.

  None of this makes it any easier. But it doesn't matter.

  Cade tucks the pistol into the waistband of his pants and crouches next to the fallen Corsair.

  Should he pull out the cord? What will happen if he does?

  What will happen if he doesn't?

  Shiloh is his friend. He chooses Shiloh. That's all there is to it. He shouldn't be risking her life to preserve his own conscience.

  He reaches toward the maintenance port in the Corsair's collar. He grabs the cable prong with his index finger and thumb. His eyes flick upward, drawn to the white-haired Biodroid's face. Blood runs down one side of her face, dripping off her chin, pooling onto the floor.

  What a world humans have created. Violence; it's all they know. They created life. Living weapons.

  It's all they know.

  Cade swallows, and a lump catches in his throat. He draws the pistol. He presses the bore against the Corsair's neck. The girl's neck. Her head lolls a bit to one side from the pressure. Dreaming. Vulnerable.

  The order is important. He has to disconnect Shiloh first. Then he has to pull the trigger.

  Just when he's about to do it—or tells himself he is—the cable unplugs on its own, slipping between his fingers, rolling back into Shiloh's neck.

  Cade stands and takes a step back, eyes fixed on the Corsair.

  In his periphery, Shiloh sits up, blinking. "Hey. It's okay, Cade. Put the gun away."

  Cade takes a deep breath, lowering the pistol. But he doesn't put it away.

  The Corsair's eyes flicker open. She sits up. She's tense, but not combative, not on edge in the same way she was before.

  She looks over at Shiloh. Nods to her. Then looks up at Cade. "Thank you…"

  "I managed to disable her Corsair programming," Shiloh says, rolling her neck as she gets to her feet. "Wasn't easy, but...here she is. Viper, meet Cade. Cade, Viper."

  "I-- I want to help," Viper says, getting to her feet. She runs a hand over her face, wiping away the blood, pushing matted hair out of her face. "Artifice is willing to let your entire human colony be collateral damage for the sake of the mission. I don't want that. And neither does Parallax."