Lifel1k3 (Lifelike #1)(41)

Tough crowd.

“Sooooo, about the whole being-tied-up thing,” she ventured. “Not judging if that’s what floaties your boaties, but I’m not too keen on it myself. You wanna let me up?”

“No, Lemonfresh.” The boy spoke her names awkwardly, smudging the two into one.

“Then, you want to at least tell me where we are and why we’re here?” Lemon asked. “Because this whole scene is getting a little creepy on the crawly.”

“Wuff,” agreed Kaiser.

“Lemonfresh is aboard the ship Nau’shi,” Salvage said. “She is here because Nau’shi did not wish her to die in the depths.”

“Wait …” Lemon frowned. “Your ship … didn’t want me to drown? How does a ship want anything?”

The boy tilted his head, looked at her as if she were defective. Somewhere in the back of Lemon’s head, a dusty light globe went off. She recalled watching mainland Domefights on the feeds with Evie, the massive constructs of BioMaas Incorporated doing battle with the machina of Daedalus Technologies. She scoped the soft walls run through with glowing veins. The shapes beneath that seemed like ribs.

Tech that wasn’t built.

Tech that was grown …

“BioMaas,” she breathed. “Spank my spankables, this ship is alive?”

The room shivered, a series of low notes rumbling through the walls. The boy named Salvage answered, head tilted as he warbled and hummed in reply.

“She said Lemonfresh should be unafraid,” Salvage informed her. “Nau’shi likes her pattern.”

Lemon glanced at the control panel. The bloody sliver of glass.

“My …”

“Nau’shi finds many strange things in the depths. Organisms that thrive in the black water. Species that have never seen the light. Most we set free after sampling. But some we bring back to CityHive for further study. We have deemed it so for Lemonfresh.”

Salvage blinked again, his gills rippling.

“We think Lemonfresh is important. And we like her.”

“Well, word to the wise, you don’t usually tie up people you like unless they ask you to first,” Lemon said. “And I’m missing my friends. They were with me on our ship, which I’m guessing crashed into the ocean. And I’m figuring they’re not still in it, because someone had to drag me out.”

“… Friends?”

“A girl named Eve. And a logika named Cricket. Oh, and this prettyboy murderbot named Ezekiel—you’d know him if you saw him, he’s got this dimple you just wanna—”

“Yes,” Salvage nodded. “We salvaged them. They are arranged for disposal.”

“Disposal? That sounds less than fizzy, Sal.”

“Nau’shi does not like them,” Salvage replied. “They are unimportant.”

Lemon blinked. “Well, that’s a little rude. I mean, full marks for saving us from drowning and all, but your Nau’shi is sounding more and more like a bi—”

The room shuddered, a deep, trembling warble running through the room.

“—iiig old pile of lovely,” Lemon finished, eyeing the walls. “A lovely person, is what I was going to say. I mean, ship! Yes, a big old lovely, lovely ship. Ha-ha.”

Salvage was staring at her, head tilted.

“Lemonfresh is a very strange girl.”

“Says the kid with gills and two sets of eyelids,” she muttered.

The boy squelched toward the doorway.

“Hey, where you going?” Lemon demanded.

“Salvage,” he shrugged.

“What about me?”

He spoke as if she were a three-year-old sprog. “We told her. Lemonfresh will remain here until we return to CityHive. Carer will be along soon with nutrition.”

“Yeah, see, kid, I don’t wanna go to your damn CityHive. I want to find my friends.”

Salvage simply blinked.

“Fine. You asked for it.” Lemon spoke loudly and clearly. “Kaiser, arm thermex.”

The blitzhund wuffed compliance, and his eyes shifted to a deep, furious red. A series of damp clunks resounded inside his chassis.

“You ever met a blitzhund, Salaroonie?” Lemon asked. “They’re basically assassin dogs, see? They can track you from one particle of DNA. And when they find you, they set off the explosives inside themselves and you can figure out the rest. There’s enough thermex inside Kaiser to level a house. So unless you’d like your nice, glowy walls decorated in a lovely new color called blood and brains, I suggest you let me up. Now.”

The boy sniffed. Singularly unimpressed.

“Yes,” he said. “We have salvaged blitzhunds before. And we disarmed this one’s detonators as soon as we fished him from Nau’shi’s belly.”

Lemon looked at the metal dog, muttering out the side of her mouth. “You couldn’t have warned me, Kais? A little teamwork, please?”

The blitzhund pressed his ears to his head and gave a small, electronic whimper.

“I … Okay, then.” Lemon nodded at Salvage. “I suppose that was well played, sir.”

The strange boy smirked, inclined his head. And with a series of damp slurping noises, the door squeezed itself closed.

Lemon thumped her head on the slab behind her. Glanced at Kaiser.