Free Being Green (Cyborg Sizzle Book 5) by Cynthia Sax

 
    Chapter One
    Green wanted Doctor Shelby Cooper.
    It was an irrational desire, especially for a normally logical cyborg such as himself. He’d never seen the botanist. He’d never spoken with her, never heard her voice. They had only communicated through written messages.
    But her words had intrigued him. She shared her knowledge of plants fearlessly, not caring if she was judged harshly for her unique stances. Her quirky observations often made him smile.
    That, in itself, was a miracle. He’d suffered a lifespan of abuse from his sadistically cruel human masters before he had escaped. Interacting with other beings had given Green little pleasure.
    The exceptions being Zip and Barrel, his friends, and Windy, his beloved plant, and now, his Shelby, as he’d grown to think of the human female.
    Enthralled by her messages, he had investigated her and these findings had increased his fascination. She lived alone on a planet, cut off from the rest of the universe, enjoying a lifestyle he’d often dreamed of yet hadn’t thought possible.
    He had to talk with her, had to see her.
    Not only for his sake. Windy remained damaged, unhappy with her new surroundings. He had to repair her.
    Zip and Barrel didn’t agree with his strategy. They thought him reckless and had organized one last intervention on the bridge of their ship, trying to talk him out of it.
    It wasn’t working.
    “We’re hailing her,” Green declared, jutting his jaw.
    “Hailing her isn’t without risk.” Barrel met his gaze. The cyborg sat in the middle of the bridge, in the captain’s chair, in front of the giant viewscreen. He was the leader of their group by default. No one else wanted that role. “Your little botanist is human. She could report our existence to the Humanoid Alliance. They’d then know we’re alive and free and come after us.” He glanced at Zip. “After all of us, every cyborg.”
    “That is a risk,” Green admitted. “But the risk is limited.” He’d investigated his Shelby thoroughly and wasn’t concerned. “She’s isolated from the other humans in some unknown location, by choice, it appears, and if she did report us, this isolation has made the Humanoid Alliance skeptical of her insights.”
    “They think she’s crazier than a Palavian strung out on Mox-X.” Zip, the technical specialist and mood lightener in the group, grinned.
    “There’s nothing wrong with wanting some peace and quiet.” Green wanted that for himself. He was tired of fighting, tired of pain, of conflict, of seeing beings die. His gaze drifted to Windy, his plant. Her head was bowed, her leaves limp and brown around the edges. “We have to save Windy.”
    “We do.” Barrel sighed. His friend knew how much his plant meant to him, how she’d once been the only being keeping him sane. “But is this the best way to accomplish that goal?”
    Green knew it was, but he allowed the others time to think. They gazed at the viewscreen, their processors whirling.
    Stars sparkled against a sheet of endless black. Green was weary of that vista also. Due to the risk of contagion, Windy wasn’t allowed on the cyborg home planet. It had been half a solar cycle since he’d stood on soil, had breathed anything other than recirculated air.
    For a cyborg valuing solitude, life on a small ship was an ordeal. Zip and Barrel tried to accommodate him, tried to give him space, but it often wasn’t possible.
    “Her assistance is necessary.” He broke the silence. “My Shelby is an expert in ancient Earth plants.”
    “ Your Shelby,” Barrel repeated.
    Green ignored him. “Zip has determined that Windy is an ancient Earth plant.”
    His friend nodded. “There are some variances but there are too many similarities not to reach that conclusion.”
    “We need this botanist’s insights,” Green stressed. “It’s the logical approach.” That was the truth but it felt like a lie. There was nothing logical about his turbulent emotions, about his intense