In the Arms of an Android

by Tracy Lauren

  “I was attempting nothing. We made love and we created life—like any other beings might. Now, I want her and my child back, brother. Give her to me.”

  “There are too many tests to be done, too much data to be collected. You are both required on Origin.”

  “Over our dead bodies!” Renzo counters.

  “Very well.” The nameless android raises his weapon and begins firing on my team. He’s too close to Andrea for me to safely open fire and all around me my men begin falling to the ground. The android’s weapon shifts and I see him take aim at Renzo, but I cannot bear the thought of that loss and I step in front of the line of fire.

  The blast hits my shoulder, burning through my uniform and melting away my synthetic flesh. I shut down my pain receptors and dive for the monster who holds my mate in his arms. He turns his weapon on me and my wide-eyed Andrea kicks and fights against him. Her efforts don’t do much, but they do enough to reduce the android’s precision. I hold my damaged arm in front of me, allowing it to take the brunt force of the blasts he’s still firing—the blasts that were meant for my neural network. Killing shots. The last of my flesh melts away, leaving nothing but a skeletal metalloid arm. But my strength is intact.

  I grab the android’s weapon and wrench it away from him, but our power is evenly matched and we struggle against one another. In every way, he should be my equal, but I refuse to believe that is the case. He will not win against me because in this room I have my team, my best friend, my mate, and my child. Because of them I am more than he will ever be. I am no longer just a machine—I have creativity, personality, friendships, emotions, and loved ones. I have carved out a life for myself—something this android will never have the chance to understand, because I won’t let him leave here alive.

  I begin to get the better of him and he’s forced to focus his efforts on fighting for the weapon. He releases Andrea in the process. And even though my own attention is on our grappling, I am ever aware of my mate and the fact that Renzo scoops her up and drags her from the room. She screams my name in protest. But I am glad for a friend like Renzo, someone who can anticipate exactly what I need. And what I need right now is for my mate to escape here with her life. No matter what else happens, Andrea needs to be rescued from this place.

  Renzo calls for the security team to begin making its retreat and they work together to pull fallen bodies from the room. The android’s weapon clatters to the ground, and though he fights to use all of his strength against me, he stares at me with an impassive face.

  “There are other humans,” he points out.

  “None are like my Andrea,” I growl, knocking him back into a wall. It shakes and dishevels his too-perfect hair.

  “Is there something unique about this one that allowed implantation?” he wonders, misinterpreting my meaning.

  “You will not touch her!” I shout, taking him to the ground.

  Despite his place on the floor, he cocks his head to one side, a motion I vow to never replicate again. “You would rob us all of knowing more about our creators?”

  “It is not a specimen growing inside her! It is my child!” I slam his head into the ground willing him to hear me. “What if—what if that is our purpose? What if the creators made us so that we could keep on living? Perhaps we are meant to love, and be fathers, and husbands? You would rob me of that? Of my Andrea?”

  “You have grown selfish, number 2349. If you would have remained on Origin it would not be so.”

  “Origin is death. It was for the creators and it will be for you if you choose to remain there.”

  “It is death no longer, not now that we have the power to manipulate life.” The android spins out of my gasp and both of us are quick to jump to our feet. Not far away, a gun lies discarded. We both eye it.

  “As I said, I will not allow you to have my mate.”

  “Perhaps not. But there are 63 more where she came from.”

  I startle at his words, thinking of the other pods, filled with women just like my Andrea. They float through space, forgotten by time, waiting for their rescue. But if the androids of Origin find them first… It won’t be a rescue. It’ll be a science experiment. My shock gives the android an unforeseen advantage and he’s a millisecond ahead of me as he dives for the gun. My fingers come up empty.

  “We do not need you to comply,” he says, pointing the weapon at me. “We have learned to traverse the collective unconscious. Already we have hacked into your neural network. We will take all the information we require.” He cocks his head to the side. Only a moment passes before he raises the gun. “Download complete. You are no longer required on Origin.”

  But before he has the chance to fire, a blast spears through his chest. He looks down at it blankly and a second shot fires. This time, it fries his neural network and the android falls to the ground.

  I look up in time to see Andrea push past Renzo, who holds the smoking gun. His own shoulder looks to be suffering from a minor burn and he hisses as he drops his weapon. “ATR’s on the way with reinforcements. We can transfer prisoners to them,” he tells me. But I’m not listening, my focus is on Andrea.

  “Valens—your arm! Are you hurt? What can I do?” She touches me gingerly as if afraid she might cause me pain.

  I ignore her concern and pull her against my body. It has been far too long since I held my mate in my arms. “I love you, Andrea. My mate. Please, do not leave me.”

  “Vesi!” Andrea screams over her shoulder. “He’s hurt!” she pleads to Renzo.

  But Renzo just grins, wild and carefree. “No, he’s fine now,” he assures her, just before he leaves us. Andrea looks to me, her fear plainly written on her face.

  “Did they hurt you, Andrea? Has Vesi checked on you and the baby yet?”

  “Valens! Your fucking arm has melted! Are you okay?”

  “I shut off my pain receptors. I can replace the synth skin, but I cannot replace you.”

  Andrea’s face finally crumples and her shoulders cave with her sobs. She leans her forehead against mine and cries. “I was so scared, Valens.” Her delicate hands clutch at my uniform.

  “I have never been more terrified,” I agree. “I had so many regrets, Andrea, and I feared I would not have the chance to set them right.”

  “It’s fine, Valens, everything is going to be okay.”

  “No, this needs to be said. I know you were upset to discover this pregnancy—and you have every right to be angry with me for not thinking to talk to you about it first. But I want you to understand, while I had considered conception a chance, I had likened it to a miracle. I never thought it would come to pass. And though I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you, I am not sorry that it happened. I love you, Andrea. Together we have created life. Though the DNA might have come from my creators, I think that this is my purpose. I will be a father. I am not just a machine that the creators made to live in servitude. No, they made me so that I might find someone to love and from that love I could start a family. I am meant to be so much more. I am meant to live. That was their goal. And while I cannot qualify that belief with research, I still know it to be true. I know my purpose, Andrea, and it is to love you and our family.” I place my hand over her belly, knowing that inside her grows the ultimate expression of our love.

  Andrea swallows the last of her sobs. “Valens—I was mad. Not just at you, but at the universe—granted I took it all out on you. But my first thought was that Leninger’s greatest desire had come true. He wanted to breed me and here I am, not two months after waking up, and I’m pregnant with an alien’s baby. It felt cruel at first and it kept me from thinking about the fact that I wasn’t bred like an animal. I chose to be with a man that I loved—a man who loved me from the very start. What we have here, it’s about us. Whatever Leninger wanted doesn’t matter anymore. I’m just sorry it took a second abduction for me to sort through all this.”

  “I hate to break up the reunion, but we need help securing the prisoners,” Renzo calls.
/>   Though I don’t want to leave her side, I send Andrea back to our ship so that she might help Vesi with the injured. I join the others and we stand guard over the prisoners until the ATR arrive with the means to detain so many androids. The entire time, my brothers from Origin simply watch us—with those blank and distant eyes.

  I hate that they were able to hack into my neural network. I hate that they know anything about me and Andrea, and about all those other vulnerable humans out there, floating in those cursed pods. But part of me hopes that through seeing what I have—seeing all this love I am surrounded in—it will allow the others to recognize the error of their ways. We should be a part of society, not isolating ourselves from it.

  By the time we clear everything with the ATR, treat the rest of our wounded on their larger, more equipped ship, and head back to the Salutation, Andrea is nodding off in my arms. I’d be content at this point to never let her go. I cannot believe how close I came to losing her. I run my hand down her arm.

  There has been so much about her that I have failed to anticipate…from the very beginning. I never imagined we would end up where we are now. But such is the case when living with organic beings—there are simply too many variables to calculate. It makes life very interesting to say the least.

  What I should have anticipated, however, was my isolated brothers’ interest in our apparent ability to conceive. While they seem to have no desire to participate in civilization as a whole, those who remained behind have always bordered on obsession when it came to uncovering the mysteries surrounding our creators. It is a curiosity I understand, but for a different reason entirely. I have always wanted to know what I am capable of—the depths of my ability to experience life. But I have found that those answers will never be uncovered in a lab.

  Andrea shifts in my arms, snuggling closer to my chest, and across the bridge Renzo and I lock eyes.

  “Valens,” Renzo whispers, nodding to the view screen. I follow his gaze, looking out at the shuttle bay of the Salutation. There are perhaps a dozen ships pulling into the bay—an abnormality on a science exploration vessel in deep space such as our own. I stiffen at the sight.

  “Hail ahead.”

  But Renzo shakes his head. “No warnings coming in from the Captain, shuttle master says we’re clear for landing.”

  “Still, I want everyone on guard.” I gently rouse Andrea.

  “Are we home already?” she asks, trying to leap back into awareness, but her fatigue shines through.

  “We are, my love. But the security team and I are going to disembark first. You wait here with Renzo and Vesi.”

  That sharpens her. “Why?” she asks, concern written on her face.

  “The Salutation seems to have company,” Renzo tells her, pointing to all the ships.

  “After today I want someone to train me on how to use a weapon,” she says, looking out at the chaos in the shuttle bay. But it isn’t the kind of chaos we encountered on the androids’ ship. No, here the people seem to be milling about, waiting for something. Though I can’t imagine what.

  We land, and Vesi and Renzo guard my mate. The security team and I step out, and though our weapons aren’t drawn, we are all on alert. The tension amongst my team intensifies when we see the Salutation’s new passengers. All of them…they’re androids. It takes a moment to realize, however, that these androids are not dressed as those from Origin.

  While their attire is simple, each of them appears to be unique and separate from the others. We file out of the ship, hands on our guns, but Captain Nilsson is there to greet us.

  “Welcome back,” she calls. “I hope you weren’t planning on a rest shift.”

  “Who the hell are all these androids?” Renzo calls from the platform. I look back to see him leaning out and assessing the crowd. “What are they doing here?”

  Chapter 39

  Andrea

  Everything after that is a whirlwind. All I want to do is go back to my room with Valens and have him hold me on our couch, but we seem to be caught up in an interstellar fiasco and every diplomat, emissary, ambassador, and I don’t know what else, within 100 light years wants to be in on the discussion.

  I was naïve when I first came here, never thinking about the larger scheme of things going on beyond this ship. But of course, even 2,000 years into the future, there is still bureaucracy. When I was first located, a report had been sent to the ATR. Somewhere, on a faraway world, a conversation was being had about the other pods. A rescue effort was forming, but the priority was low.

  The androids from Origin changed all that.

  Again, I find myself in the debriefing room, seated once more at the head of the table. This time a chair was brought in for Valens so he could remain close to me the entire time. I’m glad someone anticipated that need, considering all the important-looking people filling the room. I wouldn’t want Valens to rip another chair from the floor…might be awkward. Renzo, Vesi and the Captain sit closest to us and the rest of the table is crowded with officials.

  “I have the report on the initial victim right here, Captain,” a stern reptilian-looking woman is saying. “I am aware of how Miss Lancaster came to be aboard your ship. What confuses me is how the androids became not only aware of her presence but also grew desirous of her as well. Thirty years and we have not heard from the reclusive race and now suddenly a woman was abducted and ten ATR security personnel have been killed. Explain to me why they came here and why did they attempt to steal her?”

  I feel a growing sense of tension as I begin to realize just how wary these new people seem to be of Valens. All people I’ve met so far know my android personally and they’ve all seemed very accepting of who and what he is—even if they have always spoken to the fact that not everyone in the known galaxy shares their feelings. Still, I never imagined how deep the distrust of the android race truly went.

  “My people share a collective unconscious, Ambassador Jaxer. I believe those who remained on our home world—a place they now seem to be calling Origin—have been monitoring that resource. That is how they became aware of Andrea.”

  “A collective unconscious? Explain what that means exactly, Officer Valens. Can the androids monitor what is going on in this room right now?”

  “After having learned of the depths of their ability to subvert the unconscious I have since shut down my links. They no longer have access to my life with Andrea.”

  The room seems to bristle at the way Valens words that particular gem of information and I’m not talking about the whole collective unconscious thing. I’m talking about the fact that he brought our relationship to light. I see numerous sets of eyes dart from his exposed mechanical arm to my hand linked with his.

  “You have told us how they became aware of her, but why did they want her in the first place?”

  A tense silence stretches and it seems no one wants to answer that question. I figure this is my cue. “Because I’m pregnant,” I offer.

  There are a few confused glances amongst the diplomats. “Alright. For some reason they wanted a pregnant woman. What are we to assume? That you were simply the closest one available?”

  “They wanted me because I’m pregnant with Valens’s baby,” I correct, and the room erupts in gasps, rebuts, and even some exclamations of outrage.

  “Impossible, Miss Lancaster. Officer Valens is a machine, he is not capable or procreation,” the woman named Jaxer explains.

  “Look, I won’t claim to understand the science behind what’s going on inside of Valens’s body. But he got me pregnant.”

  The Captain steps in to confirm. “We were able to take a sample from our science officer. He is carrying the required ingredients to impregnate a female and the DNA of the embryo is a match.”

  I can’t help but notice some of the disgusted looks being shot in my direction and I hold Valens’s hand a little tighter.

  Valens takes over. “The androids of Origin, they have become fixated on understanding why our creators made
us and the mysteries behind that dead civilization. There were no records left behind by the Inuewin, no directives, or parameters for the development of our abilities. And after what occurred between Andrea and me, all I can assume is that they believed they could learn more about the Ineuwins by studying our child. But they were impatient, they had no concern for the implications of simply taking Andrea.”

  “So you admit they are lacking in morals and emotion? This has been the argument against your race since the beginning, Officer Valens.”

  “But Valens isn’t lacking in either,” I interrupt, feeling defensive. “There was a stark difference between Valens and the guys who took me. Valens is a real person—they were like…machines.”

  “While we appreciate your input, Miss Lancaster, you seem to be biased on the subject.”

  “Am I biased or am I informed? I know Valens more intimately than any of you and we’re the only ones here who’ve interacted with the androids from Origin.”

  “Be that as it may—”

  “Be that as it may? I honestly hope you don’t plan to dismiss my experience, Ambassador. This situation means more to me than any of you. Not only did these guys try to make me their science project, but let’s not forget that they now plan to go after the other women like me.”

  “I agree with Andrea,” the Captain puts in. “Valens and Andrea’s team have the experience and insight to deal with the efforts ahead of us. I plan on recommending them to lead the search efforts for the other pods.”

  “Valens and Andrea’s team?” I echo.

  The Captain turns to me. “We are going to recover those pods, Andrea, and we’ll need someone there to help the women inside cope with the situation. We can’t expect Valens to be liaison to all of them, can we?”

  I scoff at the idea. No, Valens is all mine. “I’d love to help.”

  Chapter 40

  Andrea