by Bianca D’Arc
Roxy, especially.
Chiron refused to leave her side, instead delegating the loading and preparation of the ship to some of his students. They were men who had awakened later, and still had much to regain of their humanity, but who remembered enough of starship command and control to make the right choices and follow the correct procedures.
He trusted them to maneuver safely away from the station—as long as Roxy could pull a miracle out of thin air. He believed in her, though. There was just something about her that had caught his attention from the start.
The minute she’d showed up on the station, he’d become aware of other parts of his psyche that he’d thought long dead. His libido had suddenly come back to life. Oh, he’d been able to appreciate a fine female form since awakening, but any sexual response had been repressed. Chiron figured that part of his life was over.
Until Roxy had sashayed down the hall in those coveralls that left a lot to the imagination. In her grease-stained and baggy clothes, he shouldn’t have had any response to her, really, but again, there had been something…compelling…about the way she moved. The way she met his gaze without fear. The way she spoke to him politely. As if he was a person, not merely a robot with human parts.
He’d hacked into her personnel records and learned how she’d ended up on the station. He’d wanted so badly to reach out and offer assistance, but he’d stopped himself from acting impulsively, time and time again. He couldn’t do something so out of character for a cyborg. Not when his brethren’s safety depended so greatly on choosing the right time to reveal that they were no longer mindless machines, but fully integrated men, who remembered their former lives and skills, but who now had super strength and enhanced abilities.
They had free will, once again.
The rest of humanity could easily see that as a threat. Chiron was hoping to find a way to make them understand that cyborgs weren’t a threat to humans as long as the humans understood that cyborgs weren’t disposable machines with no minds of their own. Cyborg rights needed to be implemented. How he was going to manage that one, he still hadn’t quite figured out.
And now, the station was being overrun, and there was no more time to make plans. Action was called for, and where it might lead, Chiron had no idea.
All he knew for certain was that now, at least, he would be able to spend time with Roxy. He’d reveal his consciousness to her at some point. There would probably be no way to hide the fact that every last one of the cyborgs on board was now awake to one degree or another.
His only concern was her response. Would she freak out? Would she take it in stride? Would she welcome romantic overtures from a man who was more than half machine?
Roxy concentrated on the number one engine while Chiron hovered. He didn’t make her uncomfortable…exactly. Not in a bad way, at least. He was actually quite helpful. He could do stuff that a regular human helper wouldn’t be able to do. Lifting heavy things and tightening fittings to precise torques with only his bare hands was a very useful trick in this kind of work. His internal sensor suite was as good, if not better, than the tools she normally used, and worked twice as fast.
He stayed at her elbow, ready to help at her slightest indication. It was unnerving, but again…not in a bad way. She was just very aware of his presence, and his watchful eyes. He seemed to be studying her, and if she wasn’t totally reading this situation wrong, he seemed—impossible as it was—to be checking her out in a very male-female kind of way, rather than just the observation of a machine.
Was he more aware than the popular media claimed? It certainly looked that way. And it was really hard to ignore his hard body at such close range. She’d always thought him devastatingly handsome, but now that he was right up in her personal space, she found it hard to not be totally aware of him as a man. Even if he was also part machine.
Was she really that desperate? Had it been so long since she’d felt the caress of a lover?
Well… Yes, it had, actually. But that was by choice. Quite a few of those lonely miners had propositioned her. She’d even had two marriage proposals, but she hadn’t taken either of them seriously. Those miners would’ve hitched themselves to any female that passed through, if she’d been willing to stay on that remote outpost. They were nice enough guys, but she hadn’t felt even the faintest spark of attraction toward any of them.
Not anything approaching the conflagration in her gut whenever she saw Chiron. And when he touched her… Even the simplest brush of his hand sent her pulse skyrocketing. He was just too big, too male, too perfect not to have her lady parts stand up and take notice.
But the machinery thing made her pause—mentally, if not physically, at least. Was he just a very smart machine? Had his humanity been forever stripped, the way the popular thinking claimed? Or, was she right in thinking there was still a man behind the machine? A feeling, thinking, considering, male animal sharing space with the calculations of the computer that had been installed into his brain to work all the mechanical additions that had been made to his body.
Those thoughts had plagued her for some time now.
She had almost the whole number one engine back together. Even as she puzzled over emotional things, her hands never stopped working.
“Is this ready to test burn?” Chiron asked over her shoulder. She jumped a bit. She hadn’t realized he was so close. The man moved like a cat at times.
“Just one more adjustment, and you can tell the bridge they can test fire at ten percent while I watch the boards. If it holds, I’ll give them cues to increase the burn. All right?” She never stopped working while she spoke, knowing they were racing against not only time, but big, bad, killer aliens. They had to get this show on the road sooner, rather than later.
“Understood. I’ve relayed the information.”
Already? Hmm. Cyborgs must have some kind of internal connection to each other. Handy.
“There.” She sat back on her haunches and made to stand. “Tell them ten percent. No more. Start it up slow.”
Before she even made it to her feet, the engine started. Slow, as she had requested. Yeah, those cyborgs definitely had some private, near-instant way to communicate among themselves. She’d have to remember that.
As she studied the board, the numbers held, and she gave the signal to increase the burn past the critical point. She watched the console for a few more minutes and judged it fixed, nodding to herself.
“We can pull out of here on this while I get to work on number two. It should hold for now and give us enough energy for minimal life support and a slow exit velocity burn to get us away from the station.” She didn’t wait but turned immediately to the number two engine.
“The captain thanks you for the speedy work and promises not to push that single engine too hard. It seems the aliens are interested only in making us leave. They haven’t been firing on departing ships, so as long as we detach and move away, we should be all right for a while.”
“How are we doing on that countdown clock?” she asked, even as she began pulling parts she’d need for the second drive unit.
“Close,” Chiron answered, surprising her. She’d expected some sort of numerical answer complete with decimal points. “But we’ll just about make the deadline. Captain’s moving us out now.”
She heard a few clunks as the gear holding them to the station retracted, and though she couldn’t feel it, she had the sense they were moving away. Just in time. But she didn’t dare breathe a sigh of relief just yet. She still had iffy engines, and it was her job to fix them and make sure they didn’t all die, stuck in a tin can with no power in the middle of remote space.
“We’re free and under power, moving away from the station,” Chiron reported a moment later. “The jits continue to leave all fleeing vessels alone. We’re the last to leave, but they seem to be keeping their word and not launching anything after us.”
“Thank the good lord for that,” Roxy said under her breath. She didn’t know muc
h about the aliens, so she didn’t know if their word was good. Apparently, they were keeping their promises—at least for now.
“I didn’t realize you were religious,” Chiron commented as he handed her a tool she needed before she even asked for it.
That comment made her pause to look up at him. “I’m not a regular church-goer, but I think in this kind of situation, a little divine intervention couldn’t hurt, am I right?” She grinned at him and was charmed to see him return the expression. He’d always been so straight-faced whenever she’d seen him in the hallways. It was nice—and definitely a little intriguing—to see him smile, even just a little.
“You’re probably right about that,” he agreed, and she went back to work. “I was raised Catholic,” he told her, completely shocking her. She turned to look at him again, her eyes wide.
“You remember that? I mean… I thought—”
“That cyborginzation took away all memories of our previous lives?” he finished the sentence for her. “Well, that’s an interesting thing. It did. For many years, I was about as emotionless and robotic as the media would like you to believe we all are, but then, something changed. I can’t pinpoint exactly what did it, but at some point, I began to remember bits and pieces of my previous life as an unmodified human.”
Is he serious? Holy shit! Roxy hadn’t been dreaming. He was aware.
There. He’d done it. He’d told her.
Chiron had waited until there was no chance of her leaving the ship. The Tobai Bay was away from the station, under her own power, and Roxy couldn’t leave, even if she wanted to. Oh, she could try one of the life pods, but that would mean almost certain death since they were in unpopulated space that had just changed hands from human to alien. She’d be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, as his dear old dad used to say.
Memories of his father had become among the most cherished of those he’d managed to retrieve. He remembered his mother, too, but not in as much detail, since she’d died while he was still very young. His dad had raised him, and he’d followed in the old man’s footsteps by joining the military, making the old guy proud. Until all hell had broken loose.
But those thoughts were better put away for another time. Right now, Chiron was waiting to see how Roxy would take the news that he remembered his old life. Would she run? Would she freak out? Or…would she be cool with it? He almost held his breath, waiting to see which it would be.
“I thought there was something…” she said, still working but seeming to think through what he’d said in her mind while her hands kept working on the critical drive systems. “I guess the CCS worked short term, but good old human biology probably overcame it at some point. I don’t know much about the brain, but I’ve heard it can spontaneously form new pathways when something becomes blocked for one reason or another. A guy I knew in engineering school had a serious cycle accident in our second year, and that’s what the doctors said might happen for him after his traumatic brain injury from the crash.”
Damn. It really sounded like she was okay with his revelation. He’d test her response a bit more, just to see.
“I remember a lot of things about my first life,” he went on, watching her reactions carefully. With his enhanced vision, he could see minute changes in her respiration, temperature and even tiny muscle ticks she was probably unaware of. All of her statistics indicated interest, but not alarm. So far, so good.
“I guess your friends have begun to remember too, huh?” She was astute, this engineer gal. “That’s why you’ve chosen names to use among yourselves. I can see that. It’s a way to sort of re-humanize you, huh?” She kept working, even as she was thinking. “But why didn’t you use your old names? I mean, Chiron isn’t your original name, is it?”
He paused, not sure how much to tell her, and finally decided on the truth. “You’re right. It’s not. But, who we were is over. We are new men now, with new identities. It’s safer that way for us…and for the families we left behind.”
“Oh.” She sounded sad. “I guess if someone named John Smith had been declared dead and then turned into a cyborg, it would create problems—both legal and emotionally—for John Smith’s relatives, if he had any.”
“Yes. That,” he agreed quietly. “Plus, there are many records of my former name and what became of the man I was. There are no records of Chiron, except for communications among my fellow cyborgs.”
“It’s a fresh start,” she concluded, popping the housing on a component in the number two engine. She paused to look at him then surprised him by placing one of her hands over his and meeting his gaze. “I’m glad for you,” she told him. “I always wondered if you were more aware than what we’ve all been led to believe about cyborgs. I’m glad to know I was right, but what does it mean for you? Is it harder, now that you remember who you were?”
CHAPTER FOUR
Roxy sure knew how to ask the tough questions. Her pretty eyes were filled with compassion. She truly seemed to care. It was as if what happened to him and how he felt really mattered to her.
Chiron hadn’t actually mattered to anyone in a very long time. At least, he hadn’t meant much of anything to any non-modified humans since his so-called death. He thought maybe his wellbeing meant something to the rest of his cyborg brethren, but they were men. They didn’t usually speak of such things among themselves.
He knew that the fate and wellbeing of his fellow cyborgs were important to him, personally, but he couldn’t speak for the others. They were all individuals—especially now that they’d awakened. Some were burdened with tragedies in their previous lives. Some were filled with regret and even anger about being made into a cyborg. Each had their own burdens to deal with now that they were remembering more and more of their previous lives.
And here was this woman, looking at him with compassion and concern. Chiron might’ve shaken his head if he hadn’t been totally in control of the servos that turned his neck—the neck that had been reinforced with titanium to support the other modifications that had been made to his body.
“Sometimes,” he admitted, taking her question to heart. “On balance, though, I’m glad I remembered. I’m glad I awakened. I’m glad all of us have begun to awaken.”
“Then, I’m glad, too.” She gave him a soft smile as she squeezed his hand, and for him, the moment stretched.
He read so much in her expressive gaze. He took a mental snapshot of her beautiful face so that he could take it out, again and again, to remember this amazing moment. The first time a woman had looked at him as more than a machine since he’d been turned into a cyborg.
But it passed all too quickly. Roxy removed her hand and turned back to her work.
Right. He’d almost forgotten the aliens and the dreadful condition of their ship. Damn.
The woman was totally distracting, but he didn’t really mind. She could distract him anytime. Of course, there really was no such thing as complete distraction for a cyborg. He was in communication with his brothers at all times—networked together in a bond they had chosen to form among themselves without their creators knowing anything about it.
As each cyborg started to remember their origins, they were added to the network so that no matter where they were physically, they would never be truly alone during the crucial time of awakening. After, they stayed in the network by choice. They were brothers. They cared for each other when the rest of the universe chose only to see them as machines—disposable and interchangeable.
He was about to say something when the ship lurched, and Roxy nearly went flying. Only Chiron’s machine-fast reflexes saved her from a tumble down the length of the engine room that could have been disastrous to her frail, human body. He held her against him and magnetized his feet to the floor as the ship lurched and rolled.
“What’s happening?” she asked, breathless, even as he saw her scrolling the readout on a handheld she’d pulled from one of her many pockets.
“Evasive maneuvers,” Chiron told he
r. He was doing some scrolling of his own through reports from the sensor array on the bridge to get the information directly from the source.
“The aliens are firing on us?”
“Negative. We’ve been directed not to follow the rest of the human-crewed ships. They want us to act as rear guard and lead any pursuit away. The course they gave us led through a small asteroid field,” he told her, his voice as calm as he could make it under the circumstances, even though inside, anger stirred.
“And you guys followed it?” Now she sounded as outraged as he felt. “Those bastards! Sending you all off to your deaths in an asteroid field, or as bait for the aliens. Don’t they know you have hundreds of people on this ship?”
“Hundreds of cyborgs,” he corrected her gently, liking the way she fit in his arms. He still had his hand around her waist, and her rounded ass snugged right up against his cock. Nice. “And only a few dozen humans they were more than prepared to leave behind when they evacuated the station.”
The ship jerked again, and her feet came up off the floor for a moment while he tightened his grip on her midsection.
“Too tight?” he asked, his mouth next to her ear.
“What?” Her voice was breathy, as if she too, was aware of their close proximity. Or maybe she was just scared.
“Am I holding you too tight?” he clarified.
“Oh. No. It’s great. Thank you for saving me from a hell of a ride.” She put her hand on his forearm where it held her around the middle. “I really appreciate the save.”
“Anytime.” He let her go enough to turn her around in his arms so he could see her face.
Their eyes met, and time seemed to stop for a moment. The ship continued to undulate around them, but he was rock steady, and she clung to him. He liked the way she wrapped her arms and even one of her legs around his body.
It made him think naughty thoughts. Thoughts that hadn’t really gone through his mind in this sort of situation since he’d been human. The soft feel of her in his arms. The rounded ass. The curvy breasts, now pressed against his chest. Yeah, he liked the feel of her against him. Perhaps a bit too much.
