C- Sizzling

by Jessie Rose Case

  No one would have guessed that others out there would want to come and stay with them. They would look around their community, learn from their experience, see what they had to offer and had achieved. Make contracts to supply goods, both coming and going with the Council. It worked, and the people were happier than they’d been for a very long time.

  They walked into the walled compound. It was guarded by two Cyborgs at the main gate and had patrols that walked the walls. It was three times the size of the community itself. The wall was a relatively new addition. Not that they seemed to need it. The Community had its electrified shield that’s to Laura, but the Cyborgs preferred to have direct access to any trouble, not hide behind a shield as they did. The compound had enough resources to house over a thousand people, could feed them all and still have room for training and exercise. The ships in orbit also rotated their men and a third were always on R & R. Not that Elenor could see much R & R going on.

  They gave a nod to those on guard at the gates. They both knew them. These were Kane’s men. They stayed with their leader on-world unless he was off, then some went with him, but the compound was their base camp and Kane’s domain. He ruled here. Their home from home as well as for all those Cyborgs from different ships and worlds.

  They made their way into the building towards Kane’s office. Laura held her hand out to stop her and placed her finger to her lips at the top of the hallway. Elenor smirked and watched as Laura crept along the corridor to an open door ahead. As she reached it Laura went to poke her head around it and was pulled physically into the room with a squeal.

  Elenor wasn’t at all surprised. “You are too loud female, I heard you come into the building.” Elenor heard Kane tell his wife.

  “Not fair, Cyborg hearing!” Laura laughed out, her fears clearly forgotten.

  Kane laughed. “Elenor get in here your friend has been caught.” Elenor chuckled and made her way to the doorway to see Kane, hugging Laura who was giggling. Carrying her to his desk, he sat down depositing her on his lap. He glazed over for a second. Elenor knew he was using his neuro-net to give instructions.

  “So what did I do this time?” he asked Laura when he focused back on her.

  Elenor smirked. “Who said you did anything?” Laura asked him innocently. Kane raised an eyebrow and stared at his wife. Then brought his nose in and breathed her in at her neck.

  He hummed. “Since your injury and me supplying you with my nanos, your scent has changed, it carries my tag but recently for the past 28 days, your scent had been growing more different. It was barely there and has grown each day.” He pulled back. “You need to see the Doctor. Something is wrong.”

  Laura smiled at him. “I’ve already seen the Doctor I’m fine.” She took his hand and placed it on her stomach. “We’re having a baby.”

  Kane sat still in a way only Cyborgs can, then he grabbed Laura and stood holding her to him, then sat again, then stood, then sat. Laura was laughing, and Elenor could see he was clearly in shock and laughed with her. A flummox Cyborgs didn’t happen often.

  He gazed at Laura with an indescribable look on his face. Love, Elenor guessed, held no boundaries. She watched as Kane gently brushed the hair from Laura’s face and pulled her into him, kissing her lightly. “Truly?” he whispered. To Elenor he sounded a little in awe. Not sure if to believe it. Laura nodded.

  Kane burst out laughing and hugged her. Then let her go and started to remove her top. “I wish to see,” he told her. Laura tried to tap his hands but there was no real energy in it.

  “There’s nothing to see yet,” she told him laughing.

  Elenor watched as Kane gazed at his wife deeply and slowly undid her buttons. “I want to see any way…” he told her meaningfully. Elenor shook her head, neither of them really caring or aware she was still there. Getting up she made a quick exit into the hallway and closed the door.

  She knew Laura would be fine now. Kane would kill anyone who tried to harm her. She remembered seeing him on the battlefield when Laura had been injured in the pirate raid. He was consumed in madness and revenge, his only thought of getting to her. A deadly combination.

  She sighed and walked back the way she’d come, waving at a couple of Cyborgs working in the offices. She knew so many of them now. They didn’t bother her, and she didn’t bother them. She hated seeing the women hover when the Cyborgs came into the community. Not that they loitered around. Always on a mission of some kind. Work or food. They didn’t do leisure. Unless it was with their mate. Elenor guessed that spare time and leisure wasn’t part of the Cyborg make up.

  Clearly, it wasn’t wanted in their creation. The designers wanted warriors always on call, always ready to fight. As barbaric as it was, she could see why they wouldn’t programme it in. Why would they? They wanted the perfect warrior. Spent billions of credits on making them. They would want pure efficiency for as long as it was possible. The longer they were ‘productive’, the better value they were.

  Elenor shook her head. It was sick. How people could mess with life that way and happily do it, was something else she didn’t understand. It was beyond her. What they knew now, from what some of the other Cyborg mates had found, was a horrific story of creation. For over 100 years, scientists had played god. Used prisoners in Earth Corp prisons without rights, both male and female, soldiers on orders. All used and given no choice by scientists. To impregnate or deliver a fetus for testing or a child. A child they were never likely to see again, if at all. It was beyond imagination that people could be so cruel and yet, the evidence spoke for itself.

  The Cyborgs had gained access to a lot of the records. Found on a database Earth Corp should have destroyed. For most of them, they now knew who they were linked to biologically. Whose DNA had been used in their creation and who their family descendants were. The knowledge, when presented to the Cyborg Nation, had caused shock waves through the community. They had never hoped to have so much. To know their history. Who they were, where they’d come from. Many human descendants wouldn’t know of them either, so it was all very delicate. No one had expected to find this data. There were humans out there that had no idea they had Cyborg relations. And no one was sure how they would react to it. So for now, it was kept within the Cyborg Nation.

  There were still many people that remembered the propaganda, that Earth Corp had flooded the media with at the time they’d been discovered. Once the knowledge of what Earth Corp had done came out, they'd tried to save face. They apologized on the one hand and then disclosed stories of uncontrollable soldiers, battle-hardened, ruthless killers that could not be left unattended, on the other. Being ‘put down’ the only answer to what they then called ‘a mis-judgment’ in the fight to keep the peace.

  Elenor huffed. Seriously? They thought that answered it all? They were idiots and these men were far from uncontrollable soldiers. They were all about control, in everything they did. She thought that probably had something with the fact that they were so strong, so larger than life. They were only too aware of the difference and their protective instincts kicked in and over compensated for it. Over thought it, in her opinion. Humans being so much less than they were. Their training telling them all they needed to know. All the human frailties that made them good soldiers. You couldn’t miss it. Cyborgs were very careful when interacting with them. Unless you were an enemy. Then they were ruthless.

  She was sure an awareness of their human fragility was built into them. The Designers would have wanted to protect themselves. She had no doubt the Cyborgs could crush a skull with ease if they wanted to, but none of them ever stepped out of line as far as she could see.

  Did that scare her? crept across her mind. The knowledge that they could be so deadly? Elenor smiled. Nope, not at all. They would never harm her, she knew that. Fight to the death for her or any one of them? yes in a heartbeat. That was who they were.

  From what she could see, all they did was work, train or fight. The so-called Designer’s had a lot to answer for. S
he thought it a shame they were all dead now. She would have liked to have said hello with a large stick. Elenor walked out into the air. And there they were, training and fighting. Not all of them but a good percentage. She heard her mother’s mate tell her it was bred into them. The need to be at peak performance. Always. Their internal systems were wired, literally and figuratively, to maintain that. It showed their deficiencies and worked out what they needed to do to put it right on a daily basis. It was a constant presence. The need to be functioning at 100% efficiency. Forever ready to act. Prepared for the next encounter. Elenor wondered if time and evolution of their species would change that. Looking at them, she wasn’t sure.

  Would they ever be at peace with themselves enough to enjoy time outside of being a soldier? Non-Cyborg soldiers did. But she doubted it, unless their need to please their mates and children ever over rid the programming. Elenor blew out a breath, mates and children, it was a lot to think on and far too complex on so many levels. She wasn’t a shrink, but she knew the Space Station Doctor was working on that too. Elenor wondered if that was what she needed. Someone who could listen to her. Someone she could offload on that she wouldn’t have to worry about hurting. She felt she couldn’t burden her mother that way. It would be too much.

  Life found a way, she reflected. Mates were becoming pregnant, like Laura. It was still rare but becoming more common. By error, they’d figured out that the woman needed the males nano’s in her blood to hold conception. Otherwise, the body rejected the conception right from the start, too different, to alien. She’d been told the last five generations of Cyborgs were lab born. With the introduction of the self-healing nano’s, physical conception had ended, and the Designers couldn’t work a way around it. Considering the conditions, Elenor was grateful for that at least.

  Stepping down she took a deep breath. Laura would be awhile. Cyborgs liked to take their time enjoying their mates. Elenor smiled, she was sure Kane was doing just that. Re-connecting to his mate, reassuring her that her worries were unfounded, that he loved her and would protect her.

  Elenor took a seat on the top step and looked out over the compound. Men running in formation, some doing hand to hand, others completing an obstacle course. There was no mistaking how magnificent they were. Everyone, extremely good-looking, tall and broad and fit. Strong beyond human endurance. But then they’d been created to be like that, she reminded herself. Some of them bordered on ‘beautiful’, like a work of art. Michelangelo’s David sprang to mind. So many centuries ago and still, considered wonderful and beautiful, in its creation as much for the subject of the art form. She’d never really seen it, just on a datapad and in how her mother described it in some detail. Quite the wonder she’d told her. Elenor, looking at these men could believe it.

  Beautiful wasn’t what you’d first think of for any soldier, she thought. But then the Designers had wanted special skills to infiltrate strongholds or to seduce. They used the skills that they needed to, and sex was useful to gain intel or to persuade others to act for them. She could see how persuasive it could be. They were all highly skilled at both she’d been told. She believed it. Elenor wasn’t sure how they’d been trained to seduce women, but it had been done. Rumors circulated of women in the sexual arts being brought in soon after their birthing to teach them. How true that was, she didn’t know or want to.

  She already knew more than she wanted. Stories of their creation, Designers making sure they had access to the most prized of male specimens of their time. Mixing the best warrior genes, with those of immense strength and those with polished good looks. Over and over again, selecting what they wanted, discarding the rest and adding in animal DNA depending on what they looking for. Elenor shuddered, what that meant was sickening. Were there others out there discarded somewhere? She hated the thought of it or what might be still happening. She could understand the Cyborgs need to find their 'brothers'. She would too.

  And this was the result. Refined over several generations of trying. The best at what they were programmed to do. An army of near-infallible men that took your breath away, were deadlier than anything you could imagine and enticed you willingly towards them. Elenor was suddenly thankful she didn’t feel like that.

  Growling suddenly sounded behind her. Elenor stilled. She knew the sound only too well. An interested Cyborg unhappy at what they were seeing. Elenor blew out a breath. “If you are mistakenly aiming that at me, move on. Not interested.” She told him whoever him was, without looking back.

  She didn’t need to turn around, there was no point. She didn’t want to see who it was. There was nothing on offer here that was for her. Elenor stood. Walked down the steps and out the compound.

  Laura would understand why she hadn’t waited, she told herself. Walking to the community she bi-passed several other Cyborgs running and training or on a task and kept going. Suddenly feeling she couldn’t breathe. She needed some space. Some time to think. She walked straight to her house and up to her room and continued packing. She’d spend some time at the farms as she'd planned. They always needed help, she told herself, convinced she’d feel better there.

  C watched her go. He didn’t understand why he’d growled. Seeing her sitting there watching his team and others training had brought it forth. He didn’t seem to like that she showed interest in watching them. He did not understand it or know why. It wasn’t logical. His chest expanded breathing her in and his cock hardened. His sack filling with seed. He ran a diagnostic. His optic flashing the results. His emotions were still off and yet, he had felt that, and his body had responded again. His body recognized the female if his mind did not. It had done so each time he’d seen her.

  C contemplated running another diagnostic, but logic told him the results would be the same. Nothing. He looked to where the female had gone and had an undeniable desire to follow her, taste her. C frowned. That wasn’t logical either. His emotions were turned off and yet he had the ‘desire’ infiltrate him. He was malfunctioning no matter what the diagnostic informed. He needed to shut down, he told himself, and quickly. He was a danger and his systems not reliable. He would talk to Kane. A compromised Cyborg could not be trusted to lead himself and he was in no condition to lead others.

  ***

  Chapter Three

  The wagon moved slowly along the path. Elenor always felt so at peace out in the countryside. She couldn’t put her finger on it exactly. She loved her work with Laura and her mother but this, called to her. There was something about the soil giving life to something that hadn’t been there before that appealed.

  She knew to the Cyborgs the sky, trees, plants and soil were a strange color but to her, that was all she’d ever known. Did it matter that the sky was a purple color or that the trees were not green? Not at all. It was life, it flourished, and she loved it.

  The hours had flown by. She knew every rock, every hill. She’d been out this way so many times since her mother had first brought her on a visit to see her friends as a child. They were creators of one of the farms that produced the crops initially for the community and now, with better equipment and help, for contracts to other Cyborg worlds. As she rounded the last corner, George and Athena’s place came into view. Elenor stopped to take in the view. It was breath-taking in its beauty and simplicity. From this point, she could see the wagon wheel shape of the rotated crops. The different colours of each of each section being grown. The house in the center. It was the same layout all the outa farms used. It was simple and worked.

  Further out, there now stood four more. Surrounding the initial one like a crescent moon on the flat landscape.

  She could see how well they were coming on and a number of workers hard at work. Some she knew were Cyborgs, loaned out in rotation to support the growth and development of the crop yields. Other’s the younger human generations that now, had to do a three-month rotation on each farm. Both had brought new life to the farming community in the out-laying areas, that had once, been close to being on their knees
when Laura came.

  Her people had been so caught up in the raids and preparing for them or looking for ways to defend themselves, that they’d forgot to support the farmers in any meaningful way, but still expected the crops to continue to arrive to appease the pirates. Laura on her first trip out had seen the problem. It was an embarrassment to all of them, that the community hadn’t noticed.

  She spotted Athena coming towards her from the house down one of the spokes of the wheel. They were the highways of the massive open pieces of land. Big enough to move equipment along each of them. Elenor moved the horses on smiling and waving to her friend, suddenly realizing how good it was to be back.

  ***

  “You are not faulty, or damaged or compromised." C thought Kane looked annoyed. It was difficult to tell as he couldn’t use his neuro net to filter the data. He had to go on body language and facial expressions. Sometimes they were not always clear in their meaning. "Well, more than you already are.” He told him. C wasn’t sure he agreed with him. “You have sighted a female that your system recognizes as a possible mate. It has woken up parts of your system that were in shutdown. With or without your emotions turned on, it is strong enough to override your basic programming, pushing you to seek out and secure that female.”