Original Sin

by Midway, Bridget

  "She couldn't have walked out of here. Did you check the reprogramming room?"

  "Yes, sir. She wasn't there."

  "She's the one that we need. If she gets out, we're all going to be in trouble. Keep your eyes and ears open. And make sure the High Commander doesn't hear about this. The moon may get blown up early if she knew."

  The doors opened again, leaving Noah confused and wondering what Al-Tomlyn was talking about. Who was he talking about? Did he know who the chameleon was?

  The old Noah would have done nothing. Not the new Noah. Despite Sonjie's advice, he was going to start rattling some cages to get answers.

  * * * *

  Vivian's knee bounced as she waited for the next clerk to call her number at the identification office. She peered over to see a woman holding a small child on her lap. There weren't a lot of families on the moon, so the sight of a child was so endearing to her. Maybe one day Noah would want children. If he did, would he want them with her?

  A clerk finally called her number. Carrying Mona's identification in her pocket, she ran up to the counter.

  "Hi, my name is, um, Mona Wiit." Vivian wanted to kick herself for hesitating with her name. "I want to make sure my identification is valid." She slid the inter-galactic passport to the man who looked confused.

  "What do you mean, make sure it's valid? Why wouldn't it be?" He stared at her and kept his hands flat on the counter instead of picking up the document.

  As a way to lighten the mood, Vivian laughed. "You all might have me reported as deceased." She twirled in front of him. "As you can see, I'm not."

  At her declaration, he took the identifier and glanced at her. Still with her hair covering one side of her face, she hoped her look would be enough to pass off as Mona.

  "Why would we have you reported as deceased?" The clerk punched some keys on his computer.

  Vivian blinked as her mind conjured a story. "My husband and I traveled to Earth to a mountainous region where we went hiking. We got separated during the hike and I got lost." The more she told the story, the more real it felt. "My husband and the police searched for me for several weeks but never found me. I managed to survive on the land until I was finally able to get out and find help. But unfortunately my husband had me reported as dead after they gave up the search. But as you can see—"

  "Yeah, you're not. Interesting story." His droll demeanor made it seem like he really wasn't interested at all. "Let me fingerprint you."

  Vivian swallowed hard before offering her left hand. The clerk pushed a palm pad to her and watched her as she set her hand on the device. Sweat covered the back of her neck. She hoped the sign of anxiousness wouldn't show on her face.

  The clerk looked at the screen, then back at Vivian. He hopped off his stool and walked over to another man. During their whispered conversation, the other man peered over the clerk's head to gaze at Vivian. Within a minute, the clerk came back and resumed his seat.

  "You're a first, ma'am." The man began typing some information into his system.

  All sorts of ideas ran through Vivian's head. Was she the first to try stealing someone's identity and got caught today? Was she the first to have the police called on her? Or was she the first to make up a horrible story?

  "I've never had to resurrect the dead before." The clerk finally offered a smile.

  Vivian removed her hand from the palm pad. She had expected a fight. Actually, what she wanted was for someone to find out that she had no identity and test Noah's theory about what the government would do to her.

  "I just need to fill out some forms and we can get you on your way, Mrs. Wiit."

  Vivian's throat went dry. How was this possible? Her palm print matched Mona's? It couldn't be.

  "Welcome back to the land of the living!"

  More questions filled Vivian's head. After reading Noah's notes on his computer after her left on this mysterious chameleon, she started to connect the dots. Had everything been leading back to her?

  The only person who could answer them would be Noah. But would he tell her the truth? He'd lied about the drugs. Would this be any different? And would her—or could he—even help her?

  * * * *

  "I've got some questions for you, Al-Tomlyn. You're the only one who can answer them." Noah stood by his colleague's desk.

  Al-Tomlyn had to look at Noah twice before he finally smiled. "Wow, it's been years since I've seen you like this. It's nice to see the change before we go to Earth."

  Ignoring the compliment, Noah barreled through. "Who were you looking for earlier today?"

  Noah’s colleague furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

  "Don't play games with me. Do you know who the chameleon is?"

  Al-Tomlyn laughed. "Are you kidding?"

  "Am I laughing? I think you know something about Dr. Urlean's work. I think you know where this chameleon is and you're waiting to help it destroy the moon."

  Hi co-worker moved in close to Noah. "And I think you've been doing too much of that fucking drug you've been taking and it's finally gotten to your brain."

  Noah stood his ground, but bristled knowing that Al-Tomlyn and someone else knew he was self-medicating. He had stopped, and truly that wasn't the point of this conversation.

  "I heard you in the resource library earlier."

  Al-Tomlyn shook his head. "You bastard."

  "Who's missing? Who is able to get you and everyone else in trouble?"

  Al-Tomlyn poked his finger onto Noah's chest in a hard and aggressive manner. "You just worry about yourself and getting out of here. If you don't mind your business, you might end up getting hurt."

  "Oh really? By whom? You?" Noah, tired of not being taken seriously, planted his fists onto his hips.

  "Go home, Noah. Pack your stuff and take the next transfer station out of here. Let real scientists do the work."

  "Fuck you!" Noah shoved Al-Tomlyn from behind.

  In turn, Al-Tomlyn took a big swing at Noah. Not anticipating that move, but being fast on his feet, Noah ducked and managed to land a punch of his own to his colleague's gut. Al-Tomlyn doubled over, then wrapped his arms around Noah's to pin his arms down and prevent him from inflicting any more damage.

  "You're making a huge mistake," Al-Tomlyn said in a low, gravelly voice in Noah's ear. "They see everything. They know everything."

  By this point, the office filled with guards who separated the men.

  "Get off of me!" Noah jerked his arms out of the guards' grasps.

  "Why don't you go back to your quarters to cool off, Dr. Wiit?" Officer Ionta suggested.

  "Yeah, go home and make sure what you have going on there is in order."

  The way Al-Tomlyn gave him the proposal sent a distinct chill over Noah’s body.

  Vivian. Was she safe? Was she the one they were looking for?

  Noah ran out of the room. Instead of relying on technology, like taking the elevator or getting on the transfer glide, he ran the entire way. He couldn't have lost Vivian under his watch. It couldn't happen again like with Mona.

  When Noah burst through the door at his home, the last thing he expected to see was Vivian sitting on the floor with a knife to her wrist. The world and everything in it at the moment froze as he watched her.

  Tears streamed down her face as she positioned the blade lengthwise over her arm. After a beat, she finally peered up at him.

  Noah didn't feel safe or strong enough to ask her anything. He waited for her to open. And when she did, she knocked him over with her revelation.

  "It's me, Noah. I'm the chameleon."

  Chapter Twelve

  As soon as Vivian told Noah that she knew she was the chameleon that all of the scientists were hunting, a new wave of tears erupted. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt anyone, especially Noah. But if what she read in the report was true, then she had to be destroyed.

  "What are you doing, Vivian?" Noah crept up to her.

  She shook her head. "No, not V
ivian." With her free hand, the one with hesitation marks over her wrist, she reached into her front pocket and pulled out Mona's identification. "I went to the identification office and I tried registering as Mona."

  "Why would you do that? That was dangerous. You could have been arrested." Noah stopped in his tracks as he stared at her.

  Vivian threw the identification at Noah's feet. "Check it out." She glanced up at him, her eyes puffy from crying. "I had no problem registering as Mona because my fingerprints matched hers. I'm Mona Wiit, Noah. How is that possible unless I've taken over her life?"

  Noah shook his head. "It's not possible."

  Vivian pushed her hair back from her face, feeling that now was a great time to reveal her true self. "Look at me. Don't I look like her already?"

  Noah crouched down, staring into her face. "Coincidence. For all we know, you two could be twins separated at birth."

  Vivian shook her head. "It all makes sense. Your wife was killed five years ago. I lost my memory about that same time. That's when they did the switch."

  "Stop it. You're not the chameleon."

  "How do you know, huh? How can you be so sure?" Vivian dragged her hand under her nose. "You even said I sounded like a cyborg. It's because I am. I don't even know what to think of all of this anymore. Who the hell am I?" She peered down at her wrist. "And I tried killing myself. I tried so hard, but I couldn't do it."

  Noah managed to hold her left hand, the one Vivian had been attempting to cut the whole time she'd been home. "I checked your skeletal system, remember? You're not one of them."

  "What if you're wrong?"

  "And what if you're wrong? I don't want you to die." Noah placed her hand over his heart. "I do love you, Vivian. I'm going to clear all of this up."

  "Do you love me or Mona?" She had to know if the whole reason for his admission now had to do with the fact that she could be the second coming of his wife.

  "Both. When I was married to Mona, I loved her. Now that I'm with you, I love you. I do love you so much." He kissed her.

  The passion in his kiss was enough for her to drop the knife and wrap her arms around him. But she still wasn't convinced that she wasn't the one everyone had been looking for all of this time.

  "Will you do something for me?" Vivian wiped her eyes.

  "Anything. You know that."

  She stood. After a deep breath, Vivian removed her clothes.

  Noah rose to his feet. "I'll still make love to you."

  "I know." She smiled to reassure him. "But I'm looking for something else."

  Vivian walked over to a table that sat against the wall near the front door. After placing her hands on top of it, she looked over her shoulder at Noah.

  "Will you have anal sex with me?" she asked. The request, especially at a time like this, sounded so strange.

  Noah must have felt the same thing. "Why would you want that now?"

  "I read your reports. I've been in the cells, trapped with the other cyborgs and witnessed first hand the results. I know what anal sex will do to a cyborg not programmed properly. I need to know."

  "You don't have to do this."

  "Yes, I do. I don't know why it would bother me because that I know of, I've never had anal sex before. So please." She bent over more.

  Noah strolled to her, wrapped his arm around her waist, and kissed her on the cheek. "You don't have to prove anything to me. I believe you. You're not Mona."

  She glanced up at him. "Please."

  Her one-word plea must have been enough for him to oblige her request. Noah took off his clothes. He ducked into the bathroom and came back out with a bottle of clear liquid.

  "What is that?" Vivian watched him pour a dollop of the gel in his palm then coat it over his dick, which struggled to become erect.

  "Lubricant. It's old so I hope it's still good." He poured more of it in his hand then pulled one of Vivian's ass cheeks to the side so that he could coat that area as well. "Mona loved anal sex."

  "So I loved it?"

  "No, Mona did." Noah grabbed her hips. "We haven't found out yet if you like it."

  Just like he did when he fucked her, Noah teased her asshole with the tip of his cock first, dragging his plump head over her hole and making her twitch.

  "Relax. There is one thing I do know about this. It'll feel good to you if you just relax." Noah rubbed the small of her back.

  Unable to talk, Vivian nodded. In a few seconds, she'd discover whether or not she was the chameleon. After that, what would she and Noah do?

  * * * *

  Taking it easy on her, Noah eased the tip inside of her anus. As expected, Vivian writhed, clawing the table she braced her hands on and cursing.

  "You want me to stop?" Noah was about to pull out when Vivian wrapped her foot around his ankle to encourage him to keep going.

  He slipped the entire head inside of her and stopped again. With just the tip inside of her, he felt her pulsating, contracting around his cock. He couldn't imagine what the feeling would be like once he pushed the whole thing inside.

  Noah released a long, ragged breath then pushed the length of himself inside of her and held there. "Are you okay?"

  Vivian's body trembled. "Don't stop."

  As requested, Noah kept going, thrusting in and out of her in a slow and easy fashion. From Vivian's heavy breathing and the way she moaned, he suspected that she was starting to like this like act also.

  Noah grabbed her hips as he increased his speed.

  "Yes," Vivian hissed. "I didn't think—not like this—oh!" She pressed her ass against him, as though with a rounded ass like hers, he needed encouragement. "Faster."

  Noah was more than happy to oblige that request, not only because he enjoyed giving her anal sex, but because Vivian was starting to get into it. Her happiness over this act could be a good thing or a bad one. As long as Noah thought of her as a woman and only as a woman, her reaction was a very good thing.

  "Noah, oh, yes! I can't believe it!" Vivian's puckered hole clamped around his shaft as she undulated her hips. "This is so amazing!" She screamed.

  Even through her orgasm, Noah continued pushing himself inside of her, faster and harder until his own climax came. Panting like he'd gone through a cyborg field test, Noah pressed his chest against her back.

  "How do you feel? Are you ready to kill me now?" he joked.

  Vivian peered back at him. Before he knew it, she raised her elbow and knocked it against his face. It was the last thing he remembered.

  * * * *

  Had Vivian not knocked Noah back from her after their intense anal sex, the shot blast from the doctor's gun would have gone right through Noah's head. Vivian recognized the doctor as the one who walked the hall with Noah. How he got into Noah's living quarters was beyond her.

  When she saw Noah lying on the ground unconscious, Vivian covered his body with hers. She didn't mean to render him immobile, just push him back.

  "Who are you? How did you get in here?" she asked the intruder.

  "All scientists have codes to each other's rooms so that we can look out for one another. Despite Noah being a mediocre scientist, he is still one." The man held his gun on the two until he holstered the weapon. Reaching in his pocket, he pulled out a small package and threw it at Vivian. "Break off the top and wave it under his nose to wake him up."

  With a shaky hand, Vivian grabbed the small pack. Before administering anything to Noah, she examined the outside.

  "Trust me. It's harmless." He seemed angry with her for not doing what he asked her to do immediately.

  "I don't trust you. I don't know you."

  "Knowing me and trusting me aren't important. What is important is that you both need to listen to me."

  Vivian regarded him for a moment.

  "I don't have a lot of time."

  She broke off the top of the package. The strong scent caused her to turn her head away. It only took one quick pass under Noah's nose for him to wake up, coughing and sputteri
ng.

  Noah stared at Vivian. "You hit me."

  She touched his bare chest. "No, I was trying to push you back." Then she turned to the stranger.

  Noah looked at the man also. "Al-Tomlyn? What are you doing here? What the hell is going on?"

  "You two fucked while the moon is on the verge of being destroyed. Are we all up to speed now?" Al-Tomlyn crossed his arms over his chest.

  "Why did you try to shoot Noah?" Vivian wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

  "I wasn't. I was trying to take you down." Al-Tomlyn glared at Vivian. "You should have just stayed hidden."

  Noah split his attention between Vivian and Al-Tomlyn. "You know Al-Tomlyn?"

  Vivian shook her head while the other man felt compelled to verbally answer.

  "She wouldn't know me except for when she saw me in the hallway with you." Al-Tomlyn pulled up a chair as he faced the duo.

  "Can we at least get dressed?" Noah peered down at himself before returning his attention to Al-Tomlyn.

  Instead of allowing them to get up, Al-Tomlyn kicked over the clothes they were already wearing that day. Vivian slipped on her shirt and wiggled into her skirt while still seated on the floor.

  "Where should I begin?" Al-Tomlyn mused.

  "Am I the chameleon?" Vivian needed to know.

  "No."

  She breathed a sigh of relief.

  "And yes," Al-Tomlyn concluded.

  "What the hell do you mean?" Noah was about to stand but Al-Tomlyn held his laser gun to him.

  "It means that only half of her is a cyborg."

  Vivian glanced at Noah. She shook her head. "It can't be true, right?"

  "What do you mean half? How is that possible?" Noah slipped his hand out of Vivian's.

  It was that moment that tore at her heart.

  "Let me start at the beginning. When Lars Urlean's journals and reports were shipped here, I took the liberty of going through them before anyone else. I found his secret file on the chameleon. It was one heck of a story. Lars had been looking for a perfect candidate to try this chameleon experiment. When you showed up to the lab, all bright eyed and bushytailed, along with your stunning wife—that's you, Mona—he knew he found the right one."