The Crime of Protection

by Gloria Martin

  “There he is!” a group of men yelled as they ran into the compartment. What Krug didn’t know was that Zen had sent out a mental note to his other crew members, checking him back into his post. This immediately alerted the men to his whereabouts.

  “Commander, we have him,” Zen proclaimed as the men put handcuffs onto Krug.

  “Great. Take him to the hold. I’m going to make sure that the captive is okay and then I will be in to interrogate him,” Exonyie replied grimly.

  Chapter 5

  Avi slowly opened up her eyes and took in her surroundings. It looked like she was lying in a hospital room. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she realized that she actually was lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to a bunch of machines. She had no recollection of how she ended up here. She tried to sit up and her head promptly began to throb.

  “Be careful. The doctor said that you hit you head pretty hard,” Exonyie said as Avi tried to get comfortable.

  “What happened? Why am I here?” she asked as she stared at him, and then it all came rushing back to her. She remembered taking a shower and being startled by a strange cyborg. She remember hitting her head and everything going black. But, then her memories shifted. It was fuzzy, but she remembered Exonyie wrapping her in a towel and gently picking her up from the floor. She remembered him telling her that everything was going to be okay and that he was wasn’t going to let anything happen to her ever again. Then she woke up here.

  “How long have you been here?” Avi asked him.

  “Since I brought you here,” he replied.

  “And, how long ago was that?” she insisted.

  “Yesterday afternoon.”

  “I’ve been here since yesterday afternoon?” she questioned.

  “Yes, after the incident with Krug yesterday—”

  “What incident?” Avi demanded. Exonyie took a deep breath.

  “After I left you in the shower commons, one of my crew members, Krug, found you and tried to assualt you. From what I gather, you hit your head on the floor. When I found you, your head was bleeding pretty badly. I picked you up, wrapped you in a towel, cleaned the blood from your face and brought you here.”

  “And he hasn’t left your side all night,” a man said as he walked into the room. “Hello, I’m Dr. Michaels,” he introduced himself.

  “There’s a human doctor on this ship?” Avi asked confused.

  “Who else would treat our human captives?” said Exonyie. “We don’t know much about the human anatomy and we don’t want to. Dr. Michaels has been updating me on your condition. He says that there is no serious damage, but that you will need to take it easy for the next couple of days. Oh, before I forget,” Exonyie said as he handed her a bundle of clothes. “I know that these aren’t the type of clothes that you are used to wearing, but It’s all I have. Your clothes got misplaced during the incident.”

  Avi stared at the clothes that he had handed her. “Are you going to stand there while I get dressed?” she asked him. She noticed his face redden in embarrassment. Did she really just make this cyborg blush?

  “Well, I’m not leaving you alone again, but I will turn my back,” he conceded. Avi was about to object, but she felt comfortable wth him in the room. She gingerly got up from the bed and put on what appeared to be a smaller version of what the cyborg was wearing: a black one-piece body suit. The body suit fit snug against all of the curves of her body. It was actually a lot more comfortable than what she was used to wearing.

  “Okay, I’m ready,” she said as the cyborg turned around and his jaw dropped to the floor.

  Exonyie’s jaw dropped when he turned around. The child’s body suit that he had provided to the captive fit her admittedly attractive frame like a glove. His body started to react in ways that he never thought would happen in the presence of a human, and it wasn’t something that he could hide naturally. He needed to regain his composure, but he didn’t want to leave her side.

  “Come on. I will take you back to my room, where you will be safe,” he said to her as he took her arm protectively. The woman had no problem following his lead and even let him put her back into bed.

  “Would you like any food or water?” he asked her. “I know that you haven’t eaten much in the last 24 hours, and you must be starving. I can go and get the food myself,” he offered.

  “Yes, I’m hungry, but I don’t want to be alone,” Avi whispered reluctantly.

  “Okay. I’ll ask Zen to bring us in a plate of food from the kitchen,” Exonyie suggested.

  “Thank you,” Avi said.

  “You’re very welcome.” Exonyie watched the woman as she struggled with what she wanted to say next.

  “Why do you care about my safety so much? I’m just your prisoner,” she blurted out. Exonyie was startled by the brashness of her statement, but he understood why she had felt compelled to ask. He wasn’t like most cyborgs; even though he didn’t have any human friends or associate with any for that matter, he didn’t feel the same way as other cyborgs. He didn’t resent humans for their weakness and their inability to protect themselves from alien attack. They contributed a lot to the well-being of cyborg society and they should be given the credit that was due them.

  “It is my responsibility to make sure that you make it back to Zethron safe and sound. That is what I was hired for,” Exonyie explained simply.

  “Is that the only reason?” Avi asked. Exoniye was taken aback by that question. Was that the only reason that he cared for her safety? Because it was his job? His mind flooded back to the day that he saw Avi cowering on her ship, how strangely protective he had felt of her. He had no idea at the time, but her heart had held him captive from that very moment. From the moment he first laid eyes on her, he had fallen in love. How did he tell her this? How did he explain this to her?

  “Well?” Avi asked him impatiently. Exonyie gulped.

  “No. That is not the only reason why I care about your safety. To be pefectly honest, I care about your safety because I care about you.” There. He had said it. The woman put her head down and smiled.

  “What’s your name again?”

  “Exonyie.”

  ***

  “Exonyie.” Avi loved the way his name sounded on her lips. She said it over and over again when he left the room. Zen was standing gaurd outside the door and wouldn’t let anyone else into the room without the commander’s approval. Avi had been in this bed for a little over a day now and she was starting to feel restless. Her body screamed for action, but she knew that Exonyie wouldn’t let her out of this room, even though their feelings had changed for each other, the fact still remained the same—she was his captive, and he her captor. He was completing a mission to take her back to Zethron where she would be tried for the murder of Authority Figure 718.

  Her mind raced back to that awful day and she tried to push it away. It always hurt when she thought about what happened to Aric. Would it matter that she was trying to protect her brother, who was now in a coma? Avi wondered how her mother was doing and she felt tears start to bubble up. She did not want to cry for them. She had to be strong.

  “Why are you crying?” Exonyie asked as he carried a tray of food into the room and set it down beside her.

  “I was just thinking about what was going to happen to me when we get back to Zethron.”

  “You will be tried in court for your crimes,” he said as he sat down beside her. “What happened that day, Avi? You can trust me. I won’t tell anyone.”

  Avi sat back and brought up the memories that were so vivid in her mind. It had been almost a year, yet the events of that day were so fresh in her memory that it felt like it all happened yesterday. “I remember that day well. It was my brother Aric’s twenty-first birthday and we were going to throw him a party. My mother and I had worked for days to prepare for the event, and it was finally here. We were in the kitchen completing the finishing touches to the cake, when we heard a noise outside our compound. My mother and I rushed to see wha
t was going on. She fainted at the sight.” Avi paused, remembering the events.

  “What happened to make her faint just like that?” Exonyie asked.

  “My mother has a very weak heart, but I can tell you that she would have fainted, even if that wasn’t the case,” Avi explained as tears welled up in her eyes. Exonyie moved closer to his charge and took her face in his hands, turning it towards him.

  “You can trust me, Avi. Tell me what happened?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she spat as she pulled herself away from him, retreating back inside herself.

  Exonyie was fuming. Hadn’t he given her enough reason to trust him? He had locked up one of his crew members for her! “Try me,” he said. Avi glared back at him, but he could tell that her resolve was fading. The defiant woman that he had known suddenly crumbled to the floor and started sobbing. Exonyie had no idea what to do. He had never experienced this type of emotion before.

  Avi composed herself before she started talking. “I’m sorry for this little outburst. You just have to understand where I’m coming from. No one has believed me so far and it hurts. Why would I lie about this situation? What would I gain from it? You can clearly see that there has been no advantage to my situation. The consequences of my actions that day caused me to lose my home. Every day after, I’ve been on the run from the authorities. This whole situation is a nightmare...”

  Exonyie eyed Avi and waited for her to continue. She sighed deeply.

  “...What my mother saw was my brother being dragged on the back of a cyclepod whilst being whipped by Authority Figure 718. As she ran out there to confront the cyborg, I ran into the back of the compound and grabbed my father’s rifle. When I got outside, my mother was weeping as the cyborg continued to whip my brother into a bloody pulp.”

  Exonyie gasped. “That is against code 5403, ‘No cyborg is to ever harm a human without the consent of the Authority.’ Did he have that consent? What were his reasons?”

  Now it was Avi’s turn to glare at the cyborg. “His reasons? His reasons!? His justification was that my brother had asked for a day off to celebrate his birthday with his family! Even though he had given proper notice, the cyborg couldn’t afford to let him off that day. So, he strapped him and dragged him on the back of the cyclepod and whipped him to make an example out of him to his other workers. He wanted them to obey his authority. He told the driver to start going again, tossing my mother aside and turning a deaf ear to her pleas for mercy. We just wanted to celebrate his birthday, but the cyborg didn’t care about my brother or us! If I hadn’t done anything, he would have continued what he was doing, and killed my brother. So, I ran in front of the cyclepod and told him to let my brother go, or I would shoot. The whole community was gathered outside by now, watching. The cyborg laughed and told me to get out of his way or he would make sure that my mother lost both her children that day. He didn’t believe that I would fire the gun. Without hesitating, I pointed the gun at his head and shot him right in the face. He went down and he never got back up. As the authorities came to take my brother to the hospital, my mother told me to run and never look back. She sent me to a friend that lent me his escape pod and I’ve been running ever since,” Avi finished with a sob.

  Exonyie looked Avi in the face and saw her clearly for the first time. This woman had opened up her heart in front of him, all because he asked her to trust him. This was the third time that she had done what he asked, suprising him. The way that the cyborg had hurt her brother, he could understand why she was so wary of their kind. All Exonyie wanted to do was protect her, now and forever. He grabbed her hands and held them for a minute and decided to tell her how he really felt.

  “You are no murderer. In my eyes, you are a hero for saving your brother. Anyone else would have done the same and who could fault you for that?”

  Avi planted a kiss right on Exonyie’s lips. Her lips were sweet and moist and sent a shiver through his spine. He kissed her back as he laid her down on top of the bed. Exonyie sat up and leaned on his elbow as he looked directly into Avi’s eyes. He moved her hair out of her face and leaned down, kissing her again. This time the kiss was hot and sensual. There was a warmth that spread throughout his body and before he knew it he was kissing Avi harder, as the passion inside him grew. Exonyie smoved to her neck and her breathing quickened. Avi ran her hands across his chest, desperately tugging at his bodysuit in an attempt to rip it off.

  “We should stop. I don’t want to hurt you,” Exonyie whispered gruffly as he looked down at Avi.

  “I don’t think that you could hurt me if you tried,” Avi said as she pulled him closer.

  Exonyie chuckled, “Look at you trying to seduce me. Let’s be serious for a second though. You know that it is against the law for cyborgs to have sexual intercourse with humans...” Avi raised an eyebrow. “ Don’t give me that look. You know that we are generally stronger and more agressive than humans, especially when we are sexually excited. I could hurt you without even trying. I would never forgive myself,” Exonyie admitted quietly.

  Avi sat up and caressed Exonyie’s face. “Then be gentle—but I don’t break that easily,” she murmured seductively as she kissed him, moving to lay on top of him. Exonyie reached for Avi’s waist as he pulled her firmly against him. His hands found her belly and stroked it lovingly. Just like Avi, he started to fumble with her bodysuit. He was desperate to take it off her, so that he could feel her skin on his.

  “Be careful with that. It’s the last piece of clothing that fits me on this ship.” Avi said as she laughed.

  Exonyie chuckled as he found the side zipper to the body suit and gradually slid it off of her breasts, reveling her perky nipples. He rubbed circles around her nipples, pinching them until they grew hard under his fingers. Avi moaned softly as Exonyie put her breast in his mouth, teasing her areolae with his tongue. Avi pushed her body close to his as the heat between them increased exponentially.

  Exonyie grew hard as Avi pressed her hips against his. He flipped her over in one single stride. Her breathing became labored again and with Exonyie’s help, she pulled the rest of her body suit off. Exonyie ran his hand up her leg to her inner thigh. When he reached the fold of her panties, he looked into her eyes as he teasingly caressed the thin fabric. He could feel her wetness, and he suddenly needed to feel her, bare, all of her. Exonyie slid her panties off and moved his hands between her legs. Avi pushed her thighs up to meet him as he opened her up with his fingers. Exonyie could feel his arousal growing eagerly. Avi must have noticed because she had a look of wonder on her face.

  “Is it really that big?” she asked him.

  “ I told you I didn’t want to hurt you. Tell me if you need me to stop,” he said with a growl.

  “Stop? I don’t want you to stop,” she whispered with excitement.

  Exonyie grabbed the back of her head and pulled her hair just hard enough to make her look at him while he continued to play with her. Avi’s moans increased as he teased the top of her clit with one hand and released her hair as he put two fingers inside of her. He moved his fingers in a steady but hard rhythm until she reached for him.

  Avi found Exonyie’s zipper and started to unzip his body suit. He helped her slide it off and waited as she roamed his chiseled body with her eyes.

  Avi moaned as Exonyie’s fingers explored deep inside of her. The need to touch him was growing stronger by the second. She suddenly grabbed his waist, searching for the side-zipper that connected to his body suit. Once she found it, she unzipped him and took in his chiseled form. Avi felt like she was looking at a Greek god. His body was so flawless that she wondered if she should pinch herself to wake up from this self-indulgent dream. Exonyie’s skin was flesh colored, but lighter in pigment compared to the skin of the humans on her world, with its dual suns. Avi’s fingers touched his chest and moved down to his hairless stomach.

  “Where’s your belly button?” Avi asked when she noticed that he didn’t have one.

/>   “Cyborgs don’t have belly buttons,” Exonyie chuckled softly.

  “Then how do you survive in the womb?” she asked curiously.

  “Is that something you really want to discuss at this moment?” he replied.

  “No. I guess it isn’t,” she said as she continued to rub her hands across his body. Avi’s eyes moved down towards Exonyie’s perfectly sculpted thighs. She gulped when she saw the size of his manhood. Exonyie was definitely bigger, and thicker, than any human could possibly be.

  “Everything okay down there?” he asked as he was encompassed in a warm wetness that could only be Avi’s mouth. Exonyie moaned as he felt a sensation he had never experienced before. Goosebumps appeared on his flesh when Avi ran her tongue around the tip of his penis, as she was stroking him with her hands. Exonyie couldn’t take it anymore, he needed to see how this woman tasted. He flipped around, so that Avi was still able to suck him while he tasted her wetness.

  Avi gasped as Exonyie stuck his tongue all the way inside of her. Her body squirmed as she felt an orgasm rising simply from the penetrative action of his tongue, but then he took it out teasingly and started licking her clit. She moaned as he brought her pussy closer to his face. He started licking her so determinedly that Avi had to hold onto the bed as she felt her body begin to climax.

  “I need you,” Avi begged. “I need to feel you inside of me,” she moaned. Exonyie didn’t need to be told twice. He laid Avi down on the bed as she opened her legs in an invitation, which he gladly accepted. Avi cried out as he entered her, her need for him was so great. Exonyie didn’t want to hurt her, so he took it slow and continued to move at a moderate pace. Avi put her legs around his waist to pull him closer.

  “Deeper. Please go deeper,” she pleaded. “I want you to give me all of you. Please don’t hold back.”

  Exonyie gave in to her request. He immediately thrust into her more forecefully, each snap of his hips more intense than the one before. Avi’s moans increased as she felt her body teeter on the break of climax. Exonyie’s breathing increased and Avi knew that he was nearing the point of climax as well.