Bender of Worlds

by Isaac Hooke

  “Show me your shoulder, I mean,” Tane continued, stumbling over his words. “Because even if you were infected with microcrillia, it wouldn’t matter.”

  “The hell you talking about?” she said. She outstretched a hand toward the door.

  “It wouldn’t matter because if the aliens took you I’d come after you all over again. They wouldn’t be able to keep me back. I’d fight for you, and I’d find you, dying if I had to. I’d travel to the darkest depths of the Umbra for you.”

  She turned around to face him fully.

  Tane found himself suddenly unable to speak, and he merely stared at her. It was so much easier when her back was facing him…

  “Go on,” Sinive said.

  Tane shook his head.

  She stepped forward, returning to the foot of the opposite bed, and stared intently at him. Her eyes were like bottomless pools that swallowed him up. He could lose himself in those eyes. In fact, he was lost already...

  “Sometimes I just want to hold you in my arms and never let go,” Sinive said. “Sometimes—”

  But Tane stood up then, surprising himself. He walked over to her, and wrapped his arms around her.

  “Then never let go,” Tane said. He squeezed tightly. “Never.”

  She enveloped his waist with her own arms and smiled. “Okay.” Her voice trembled.

  Surprising himself again, Tane kissed her, his lips crushing hers. Her eyes widened slightly before squinting tenderly.

  Tane savored the moment. It wasn’t his first kiss, but she was only the second girl he had ever locked lips with. He had forgotten how to do it properly, so when she opened her mouth slightly, he tried to hide his inexperience by doing the same, but his timing was off. When her lips pressed together, once more he failed to match her.

  He pulled away, feeling awkward.

  “Oh no you don’t,” Sinive said. She slid a hand behind his head and yanked him back onto her mouth, and he tried again. Better. She closed her eyes this time during the kiss, and strangely, that helped his confidence somewhat. It was like she wasn’t watching him. Wasn’t judging him.

  He almost couldn’t believe his lips were touching hers. It almost didn’t seem real.

  I’m actually doing this!

  He instinctively slid a hand behind her neck and wrapped her loose hair into a ponytail, then pulled her head backward, breaking the kiss. He sucked at her neck, biting slightly. She moaned.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing,” Tane announced. The words came out husky, and he immediately felt like a loser for saying them.

  “Just shut up,” Sinive said, sounding equally hoarse.

  “You,” Tane said defiantly. He planted tender kisses along her jawline. He truly didn’t know what he was doing, but she didn’t seem to mind.

  “You’re following your instincts,” Sinive said, as if reading his mind. “That’s good enough.”

  “It’s not my instincts I’m following,” Tane said. “It’s my heart.”

  He cringed. Try not to sound so corny.

  He was expecting some comment to that affect when she broke away again, but instead she merely looked into his eyes once more. Her gaze seemed so… sweet. Like she was going to melt. She kept her eyes open as she kissed him again, her deep blue irises peering into his.

  Yes, she peered into his soul, and those eyes swallowed him up. In a good way. With an intensity that rivaled Siphoning.

  He was suddenly very happy he’d added that extra point to Charisma, if it meant this outcome. He felt complete, inside. Free.

  “We should have done this last time,” Sinive said softly, between kisses.

  And then, against all reason, against all natural instinct, Tane pulled back and turned his face away. For a moment he thought the control chip must have taken over, until he realized why he had done it. It was perhaps a flimsy, almost silly reason, but it was important to him. He just wasn’t sure how to explain it to Sinive.

  “We shouldn’t,” he squeaked. Not good enough.

  He turned his face toward hers. Sinive was wearing a hurt expression. Almost tearful.

  “You think you can’t trust me,” Sinive said, dropping her gaze. “After I pulled my pistol on you a second time back there, I don’t blame you.”

  “That’s not it at all,” Tane said.

  “Then what?” Sinive said. She met his gaze once more.

  “I just… I…” He exhaled. “I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”

  “There it is again,” Sinive said. “That friend thing. We’re not friends anymore, not after this. There’s no going back now. I don’t want to be friends, don’t you get it?”

  “Okay, you’re right, I kind of don’t trust you,” Tane admitted. “How can I even be sure this is you, and not the control chip acting? I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

  “You suck at seduction, too…” Sinive said. “Way to spoil the mood.” She turned her back on him. “It’s me, not some chip. Of course it’s me. It’s always been me.” She sighed. “But if you don’t believe it, I can’t force you to. I… I guess I’ll just go.”

  Tane had a good thing going, and he had to go and ruin it. As usual.

  But she was still standing there in front of him. Even if her back was to him. That told him she was still willing to give him one last chance.

  A final opportunity to set things right.

  She’s correct. There is no going back, not now. She’s my destiny.

  “I don’t want to be friends, either.” His voice came out a rasp. “Don’t go. Never go.” He stood, and grabbed her roughly by the shoulders, turning her to face him. She gasped slightly at his aggressiveness, but when she gazed into his face, and saw the way he was looking at her, she must have understood his intention. Because she slammed her lips against his.

  “I’ve wanted you for so long,” Sinive said.

  “I’ve wanted you from the moment I met you, my Sinive,” Tane said.

  “My?” Sinive said, pulling away slightly. She arched an eyebrow, and her eyes glinted playfully. “I like the sound of that. But you do realize, you’re the one who’s mine?”

  “We’ll see,” Tane said.

  “And so we will.”

  Tane lay in bed with his eyes open, staring at the darkened ceiling. Sinive snuggled against his side, her head resting on his bare chest. She was sleeping, judging from her breathing. He felt the slow rise and fall of her side against his own. The soft touch of her nipples against his skin.

  I did it. I finally did it.

  He looked at her sleeping form.

  Man, I really like her. Really really like.

  An icon flashed distractingly in the lower right. He highlighted it, and read the new notifications that had gone off during their lovemaking.

  Level up. Social Skills are now Level 2. Look at you go. You managed to successfully sleep with a woman without messing it up. Notch that belt! Or something.

  New skill learned.

  Kissing. Level 0. Slurp. Smack. Drip. Erm. Don’t sweat it. You’ll get better.

  New skill learned.

  Sex Mastery. Level 0. You know how to please a woman! Not really. Then again, who knows, she might have enjoyed your random thrashings. On the bright side, you can only get better from here.

  Those sarcastic level and skill messages were starting to get on his nerves. Making fun of a man’s sexual prowess was never a good idea at the best of times: he was surprised the chip designers hadn’t realized what a touchy issue that was. He could imagine a bunch of nerds sitting around a room brainstorming the wording of the alerts; nerds whose ideas of sexual prowess was fooling around with a multi-vagina’d tri-breasted sex robot they’d purchased on the Galnet.

  Who am I kidding? I was once one of those nerds. Well, minus the sex robot part.

  Either way, he didn’t really appreciate the humor. Though, he supposed he should lighten up, and not let a tiny machine bruise his fragile ego. The chip could make fun of him all it wanted, bu
t he had finally slept with Sinive, and that was something no one, chip or otherwise, could ever take away from him. Something special. A moment to be treasured. She seemed to have enjoyed it. And like the notifications mentioned, he could only get better from here.

  He dismissed the alerts and closed his eyes. He relished the feel of her at his side. He listened to her gentle breathing, and it lulled him to sleep.

  He awakened when the bed shifted. Sinive was dressing in the dim light. The clock on his HUD read a little after midnight.

  Why was she leaving already? Was she embarrassed about what had happened? Or maybe she didn’t want Jed and G’allanthamas to know?

  Tane said nothing. She would quickly realize he was awake, because if his breathing was anything like hers, it would’ve changed when he became conscious. He decided to inhale slowly and deeply, pretending he was asleep. Saving them both the embarrassment of an awkward good-bye.

  After dressing, she quietly made her way to the door without a word. He thought she paused along the way to glance back at him, but he couldn’t be sure, because his eyes were closed and he was relying on his sense of hearing alone. When he opened an eye a crack to peak, she was already gone.

  The door closed with a soft thud behind her.

  So that was it.

  She had used him for sex.

  He rolled over. Whatever.

  He resolved never to bring up the incident with her again, so as not to embarrass her in front of Jed and G’allanthamas. And besmirch her precious honor.

  He closed his eyes but couldn’t sleep for all the conflicting emotions running through him. On the one hand he tried to tell himself he didn’t care. That it made him a badass that a woman had used him for sex, and that he had likewise used her. On the other hand, he knew that wasn’t true, at least not for himself. He never intended to use her. For a moment there, he actually thought there was a real emotional connection between them.

  Yes, it had felt like far more than sex for him. And he wasn’t ready to dismiss outright everything she had told him. What were her exact words again? That she wanted to hold on to him forever and never let go? Why would she say that if she hadn’t meant it?

  He stayed up half the night, going in circles like that, but finally around five in the morning he fell into a restless repose.

  18

  Tane was awakened again only an hour and a half later, at six thirty standard time by a soft knocking on the door.

  Sinive!

  He sat up smiling, and eagerly accessed the external camera’s remote interface. He was disappointed to find Jed standing outside.

  Tane realized he was naked, so he quickly pulled on the clothes that were scattered about the floor beside the bed. “Just a second!”

  He finished dressing, sat back on the bed, and then opened the lock remotely.

  Jed entered and closed the door behind him. The warrior had his power armor set to its smallest thickness, and had slung a long-sleeved shirt and cargo pants overtop so that he didn’t look so conspicuous. The small portions Tane could see above the collar and below the sleeves looked like an undershirt more than anything else. The overlying fabric was loose on the tall man, Tane noticed—perhaps in an attempt to hide the bulge of his sheer musculature.

  Jed tossed Tane a cap with a large brim at the front. “I picked this up on the black market.”

  “What is it?” Tane ran an ID, but the description said it was an ordinary cap.

  Jed glanced at the alcove containing the assistant robot, which was still covered by the pillowcase. The Volur apparently seemed satisfied the robot was offline because he answered momentarily.

  “It’s a cap with a holographic blur field built in,” Jed said. “Wear that, and your features will be hidden from cameras city-wide, preventing the facial recognition algorithms from flagging you. The blur effect is done on the infrared band, leaving your features intact on the visual light spectrum. It’s essentially the technological equivalent of the Blur Features Essencework, allowing you to venture out into the city in the day.”

  Tane slid on the cap and then glanced at himself in the nearby mirror. He didn’t look any different, as Jed had promised.

  “I figured you would need it,” Jed continued. “Considering the Dark Essence version doesn’t work too well in the day.”

  “Why didn’t you ever learn the White work?” Tane asked. “Blur Features? I know Lyra has it. Why not you?”

  Jed tapped the top of his shirt and his finger clanged on the thin battle armor underneath. “This provides all the feature blurring I need.”

  “What are the Strength requirements for that armor again?” Tane asked.

  “You don’t want to know,” the Volur replied.

  Tane removed the cap. “Must have been expensive to pick this up. I thought you had no money? Wait, let me guess, those investments of yours finally matured?”

  Jed nodded. “I sold off all my investments this morning, emptying out the last of my portfolio. I also sold some spare equipment at the market. I spent only a fraction of what I made on the cap, of course. I still have enough to purchase skill upgrades for you, and to buy passage on a ship.”

  “Buy passage?” Tane asked. “You didn’t contact your friend?”

  “I did,” Jed said. “I’m waiting to hear back. I doubt she’ll help us at no cost, however. She does run a business.”

  “She talks like a certain smuggler we both know…”

  “Yes. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll make other arrangements.” Jed took a seat on the bed opposite Tane and sniffed the air. “Smells like sex in here.”

  Tane straightened nervously. “What?”

  “Just kidding!” Jed leaned forward and slapped him on the knee. “So now, what’s your plan to remove the control chip? And please tell me it doesn’t involve boarding a TSN starship to look for the shutdown codes.”

  “It doesn’t,” Tane said.

  “Well that’s a relief,” Jed said. “Because remember, even if you kept all the transmission capabilities of your original chip offline, the control chip can still be accessed when you’re within range of a controller.”

  “I haven’t forgotten,” Tane said.

  “You’d also first have to find which TSN ship contains the shutdown codes,” Jed said. “And then determine their location onboard, and then hack into whatever storage device holds them.”

  “I don’t plan on boarding a TSN ship…” Tane reiterated. “Though it sounds like you were considering that very thing.”

  “Maybe,” Jed admitted. “Then what do you plan, precisely?” Before Tane could reply, the Volur once again answered his own question. “We could break into one of the TSN’s main nanotech manufacturing facilities. Steal the plans for the control chip. And maybe capture a scientist with knowledge of the particular protein encodings used.”

  “Yes, you’ve definitely given this a lot of thought on your own,” Tane said. “But no, that’s not it.”

  “Then what, Engineer?” Jed said. This time he kept his mouth shut.

  “I’ll tell you when we gather the team,” Tane said.

  Jed pressed his lips together into a tight line, then stood, obviously aggravated. “Gather your things, then. Leave nothing here. In case the room rents out while you’re gone.”

  “All right then.” Tane donned the cap.

  “You’ll also want to wear this.” Jed tossed him a long red fabric.

  “A sari?” Tane said. “I didn’t think men wear these...”

  “They do here,” Jed said.

  “Where’s yours?” Tane asked.

  “I’ll put it on before leaving,” Jed replied.

  “I think I’ll do that, too.” Tane stowed it in his pouch and then went to his discarded spacesuit. The alien blood had dried by then, and when he touched it, the blood left only sooty marks on his fingers.

  He unwound some of the carbon fiber cord from the utility belt and used it to bind the various pieces. When that was done, he threw
the whole thing into a slot in his storage pouch. The blood-smeared comforter remained on the floor.

  “Nice touch.” Jed nodded toward the comforter.

  “Alien blood,” Tane quipped. “Always makes a room more homely.”

  The curtain beside him was closed; he lifted the edge and peered past the window. Below, he saw that life had returned to the street below: the occasional land-based vehicle drove past, while pedestrians walked to and fro on the sidewalk. They all wore multicolored saris, similar to the one Jed had given him. Delivery drones buzzed past above them.

  Tane left the pillowcase hanging over Mizzy’s head as he followed Jed out of the room. He paused in the bathroom to wash off the remnants of alien blood from his fingers.

  They picked up Sinive next. She answered the door, looking lovely as always in that white dress of hers. She had twisted her hair into the usual intricate braid.

  Jed tossed her a cap similar to Tane’s.

  “What’s this?” Sinive asked.

  “Blur cap,” Jed responded. “Wear it at all times. Grab your gear. We’re having a meeting.”

  They proceeded to the second floor where they’d left G’allanthamas. Tane hadn’t yet said a word to Sinive, who was avoiding meeting his eyes.

  So that’s the way it’s going to be, is it?

  He suppressed a lingering anger. Hell with her.

  At the dweller’s quarters, Sinive let them in. They found G’allanthamas lying in the center of the suite. The beds had been shoved aside, the mattresses and frames leaning against the walls so that the dweller had room. The alien had repositioned the nightstands, tables, and chairs so that the furniture formed a circle around him, allowing G’allanthamas to prop up his feet and tentacles.

  “I don’t understand how you humans can possibly sleep without proper holes drilled into the floor.” G’allanthamas stood up, knocking over the different fixtures around him. “You’ve come to take me to the new ship?”

  “No,” Jed said. “It’s only daybreak. We don’t have a ship yet.”