Cyborg and the Girl: A SciFi Alien Romance

by Juno Wells

  I slipped again, rather quickly, into dreams.

  It was the same as before, with minor changes. But always the same garden and house and man. The faceless man, with the perfect body. He had something for me, something to show me, somewhere to take me, I knew it. But for the life of me, the dream wouldn’t tell me what or give me his face. He faded into darkness, as I did.

  I felt like I was falling, falling into darkness. I tossed and turned, trapped.

  A voice spoke to me, as from a great distance away, echoing.

  “Happy Birthday, Aurora.”

  I jolted as though hit by lightning, sitting bolt upright in bed, my arms waving madly. I was drenched in sweat, the blankets twisted around me uncomfortably and my hair stuck to my face. In desperation, my heart patting quickly and a wave of tears threatening to overtake me, I disentangled myself wildly and stumbled out of the room, my vision spinning. I made it to the bathroom, swaying and stumbling all the while and slammed the door behind me. I leaned over the sink instantly and retched. I stood panting over the sink, gripping onto it with both hands as though it were my lifesaver.

  Turning on the faucet for cold water, I splashed it onto my face, smoothing my hair back, then I let the water rush over my fingers for a while. When I turned it off, I straightened up and looked at myself in the mirror. It was shocking. I both knew and didn’t know what I looked like. I felt like I always knew, as though it were obvious, but still in this moment, it was shocking. Like a friend you used to know and hadn’t seen in years.

  I moved closer to the mirror, inspecting my face, my nose, my eyes.

  And then it came to me.

  Rushing back in flow of memories, the moon, the guardians, the crashed ship and…Him.

  Several pangs hit me all at once. First, my heart swelled at the thought of him, then it burst like a balloon. What had happened? Confusion set in. We were supposed to run away together and then…? I was the AI. Maybe there was still something I wasn’t remembering. A gap, because of the AI process. Maybe he left me and didn’t want to be with me…

  But then, with another pang that sent my heart both rising and falling, up high in hope and then out the bottom, I remembered the man who woke me up. Oh my god.

  I sunk to the floor across from the sink, hand over my mouth.

  I screamed in his face. He kissed me…and I screamed in his face.

  Oh no. I buried my face in my hands, tears pouring out of my eyes.

  A knock at the door made me jump, so violently I almost kicked the sink with my bare feet. “Aurora? Is everything okay in there?” Ben.

  BEN! Ohhh nooo…no, no, no, no.

  “Yep! Peachy!” I said in my best happy-no-worries tone as another explosion happened in my heart.

  Ben. August. Oh no…what the hell. I hadn’t known! I didn’t remember. Oh god, I fucked this whole thing up.

  What was I supposed to do now? What could I do now?

  Ms. Zellman was possibly going to turn me into an AI again, and there wasn’t much getting out of that unless I ran away. Which I had no idea how to do in Ben’s ship, flanked by Goblyn with all his cronies and Rot with all of his. Not to mention, how did I know August still wanted me after I literally screamed in his face? Oh, he probably hated me now.

  I had curled up, my forehead resting on my knees that I’d brought right up to my chest. Tears fell from my eyes, and I had a great weight inside my chest of guilt and sadness and confusion. I felt trapped. Always trapped and frustrated that I skipped right from one into another and into another.

  What about Ben?

  My thoughts swirled around me, possibilities presenting themselves in rapid fire. It felt like a windstorm had started up, and each time I thought of a possible solution, another problem arose.

  Funny, easy banter Ben. I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t know what to do. I never wanted this to play out like this.

  But, I trusted Ben. Maybe if I told him I remembered my old life, he could help me get back to it. I knew that wasn’t likely. Trustworthy though he was, he wouldn’t disobey Ms. Zellman, both out of fear and out of loyalty. But was he loyal to me? At least enough to help me disappear…? I had to at least try…

  I got to my feet and checked my face in the mirror, ensuring there were no sign of tears, then I went to find him.

  He was in the control room cockpit area, rumpling up his hair as he read some long and detailed thing on the screen.

  “Hey,” I said and sat down next to him.

  “Hey, how are you feeling?” He turned to me and searched my face.

  “Not bad… been having some interesting dreams.”

  “Oh?” he asked.

  “Yeah…Listen…” And I told him all I remembered, omitting the fact that I remembered August. I didn’t want to bring that up yet.

  “Wow! That’s great you remembered all that. You don’t look so pleased about it, though.” He peered into my face as though searching for the cause. “Was there something else?”

  I shook my head. “No. It was so sudden, you know? They all came back to me in a split second and…it was a bit overwhelming.” Which was true.

  He nodded. “Fair enough. Why don’t you go get some water? I put out a tray in your room with some food on it. You would do well to eat something. Besides, I’ve got to finish up some work for the boss.”

  I smiled at him and stood up. He turned back to the computer.

  “Hey, Ben,” I said as I reached the door. He turned to look at me again, his dark eyes on mine. “Thanks.”

  He smiled. “No problem.”

  I went back to my room. Ben had set a cold metal tray on a small table beside the bed. It had a glass of water, a small peach and a bag of compact protein balls. I sat down on the bed, ate and then laid down.

  By that time, Ben came into the room to check on me and I was all tucked in, arm under one pillow.

  He smiled at me endearingly and sat down on the bed next to me. He stroked my hair, his rough and callused hand gently caressing my locks.

  “I know this has been a bit of a whirlwind for you,” he said softly.

  I shrugged. “It is what it is.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” He took my hand with both of his and gripped it tightly, not looking at me. He seemed sad. Or troubled. It made my heart rate go up. I really didn’t want Ben to feel sad about me. I knew he probably suspected I wanted to run off now, whether he knew about August or not. I didn’t want to lose him as a friend. I couldn’t in good conscience kiss him again; I knew that. But his companionship meant so much to me.

  “Ben…” I said quietly. He didn’t look up at me but held my hand, tracing circles on it with his other. “I care about you deeply, and I wouldn’t never want to lose your friendship.”

  His hand gripped mine even tighter, and I saw a tear fall from his eye as, at the same time, I felt a sharp prick on my finger. I jerked, my face screwed up in care and bewilderment. He was still holding my hand tightly, tears still dripping from his eyes though he wasn’t looking at me.

  “Ben?” I said. “I-”

  “Aurora, I know you feel that way,” he said, still not looking at me. I think he felt ashamed to be crying like this. Which I understood. I’d never seen Ben cry before. It was…heartbreaking. I felt tired again, which was getting old. I felt like I’d had enough of sleeping.

  He looked at me then, his black eyes brimming with tears, his eyebrows pulled together and his jaw tight as though he held it there with great effort to keep from breaking down.

  The tiredness was coming faster, a full body exhaustion that seemed to weigh on my limbs, like it would pull me through the bed into darkness.

  I struggled to keep my eyelids open. I could barely make out Ben’s face. “Aurora…” His voice sounded to me as though we were underwater. “I’m sorry.”

  And everything went black.

  Chapter 10

  August Wood

  It wasn’t hard to locate the S.S. Dragonovich, the vessel captained by the le
ader of a black market cyber-gang. I set up a simple misconception shield, which would make my ship look like an asteroid floating in space if they happened to inspect their radar scanners. If they looked out their control board window and looked in my direction, that was another story. So I had to tread carefully to not be seen, fly inconspicuously, and be sure I knew which of the ships she was on before I made my next move. Most likely, a valuable like Aurora, who’d been the AI of their little operation, would be on the S.S. Dragonovich, guarded by the boss’s people, who were presumably the best. I could be wrong and they could have moved her to another ship as a decoy…but that wasn’t likely. They would put her where she had the best protection and, being that I was only one man (with a very special talent they knew not of), they wouldn’t be very worried.

  When I was finally in position, floating parallel to them at a great distance, I inspected each ship in the formation. At the head was the largest and most sinister looking ship out of the bunch, sleek and angular. Following was a ship that was grey and had a main fuselage and then two triangular extensions on either side. Behind that, a puce ship which had probably been bit and pieced together in a rubbish yard, and another very old and most likely commandeered government official ship.

  “Well, you’re a bit fucked, aren’t you?” Flora had snuck in quietly, and I jumped at the sound of her voice.

  “Well if you want to look at it with the glass half empty, then yes, I’m a bit fucked. However, I know I can figure this out. Somehow. I need…a distraction,” I said, drumming my fingers on the dash.

  “Do we still have that pod?” I turned to Flora, who was sipping on some dirt-brown cocktail.

  “You mean the one you stole? Or the one you crashed in and nearly killed yourself?” she asked, not looking up.

  “Either,” I said, smirking.

  She sighed. “I’ll check.” And she hopped down from the co-pilot’s seat and scuttled out of the room. About a minute and a half later, her voice came through the ship’s intercom system. “Yes, we have both.”

  “Even better,” I said, and I ran out of the captain chair and down to the pod storage.

  I dialed in the launch pads for both of them, setting a different course for them each.

  “Oh, I see,” Flora said, sitting back and sipping her drink again.

  7-w-xy9-55

  I punched in the codes for each as quickly as I could. I had to get back to the control room. If they spotted us, the game would be up, and they’d either shoot us down or I’d hyper-jump fast enough. But the only trouble there was what if they kept moving her…

  No. It’d have to be here. Now. No waiting.

  The pods launched from the ship, shooting off in each of their directions. I ran full tilt back to the control panel and aimed a few turbo-shots at some asteroids in front of the ship, blasting them to bits.

  Those bits flew off, narrowly missing hitting my ship, and moved towards the ships at the end of the procession. Good.

  I turned my own ship upwards and parked it beside an asteroid, shielding it from view.

  I ran back downstairs and used the pod I hadn’t told Flora about, having freshly stole it.

  I launched it at the main ship, heading straight for the S.S. Dragonovich and to where I knew she had to be kept.

  I saw the back two ships blast some of the debris from the asteroids, but they didn’t manage to hit them all, and were pummeled by a shower of the space rocks. Blasts erupted from the points the rocks impacted.

  Good. They’d be kept busy.

  The two pods were both flying near enough the middle ship, the bird-looking one, that I was sure they’d be shot at. They weren’t. I suspect they were scanned for life and, no life found, it was assumed they were nothing to bother with.

  I watched them as I got closer to the main ship. I needed to be at least under the S.S. before the pods got too close to the bird ship, otherwise I’d be shot immediately.

  BOOM!

  Both pods exploded, one after the other, near enough to the ship that the shockwave and force hit parts of the bird-ship.

  I was close enough now to board, and latched onto the underside of the ship. I’d stolen this little pod specifically for the undetectable shield it possessed. In fact, I’d stolen it from the very boss I was likely about to go visit.

  I slipped on my mask, checked my hips to make sure my blasters were locked and loaded, and then I crept out of my ship onto their docking bay.

  There were a few people running out of the room, no doubt to help secure the ship from elsewhere. They hadn’t seen me. Yet.

  I snuck along the ships, ducking from one to the other and scanning the room for cameras or anyone else watching. Then finally I reached the other side of the bay and went through a door into a hall.

  Men were running up and down, but none of them paid me any attention. I, in fact, blended right in to their mishmash of black and grey attire, all multicultural scavengers, businessmen, thieves, murderers, you name it, picked up from all ends of the galaxy and all different in race. No two were of the same make and model or size.

  I slipped among them, picking up my pace to blend in with them more evenly. I had to find the mainframe room.

  I jogged along and eventually came to another hall, less crowded. I ran along that until I came to a door that was ajar. I went inside. It was dark and smelled like antiseptic. It made my skin crawl. The only light was from various monitors and beeping machines that surrounded the room. In it was another cryo-sleep unit. My heart leapt and I walked up next to it…but it was empty.

  “Looking for something?” a silky voice asked from the darkness.

  I wheeled around, searching for the source as the door slammed closed behind me. I backed up, looking for a wall, and pressed myself against one.

  Four eyes glowed and gleamed at me in the dark. I could make out two outlines from the lights of the technology.

  A slender female figure, tall, with glowing yellow eyes, and red ones, which were set into an animal of some kind, with wings. I couldn’t quite tell in the darkness.

  The red eyes stirred a memory.

  “YOU!” I shouted as it came back to me with a pang. My hands were at my sides, fingers closed on the handles of my blasters.

  She laughed, a silky, dangerous laugh that reverberated through the room. “Yes, dear boy, me. I see you remember our last meeting now.”

  I had been waiting, happy as I’d ever been in my life, for Aurora to show up that day when a crow landed in front of me on the grass. It cawed, and I felt air blowing down on me from above. I’d looked up to see a dragon coming down, and then next thing I knew, I was stranded somewhere else, far away from Aurora, feeling groggy and drugged and with a very big headache.

  “You know,” she said, and I could hear the relish in her voice, “I’m actually pleased you stopped by. Your father, tsk tsk, not a very team player, that one. But after I’ve killed you, I’ll send him your head, you know, as incentive to our business deal.”

  I unholstered my blasters and shot, but the dragon spread its wings in front of her and took the brunt of my attack. I back away, hopefully towards the door, or at least to a light switch. I didn’t want to fight in this tiny room or in the dark. If I could lure them out into the hall…

  “Your father is a proud man, which I respect, but he is stupid, isn’t he? I mean, you should know. You’re the son who ran away.” She laughed again. “Not very appreciative of your father, are you, boy?”

  “My father has ten times the intelligence you ever could, and more heart than you’re capable of,” I said, trying to sound strong and brave, though my heart pounded in my chest horribly. “Where’s Aurora?”

  She laughed again. “Oh, my dear. I’ll unite you two, don’t worry. She’ll be able to hold your corpse while she’s in cryo-sleep. It’ll be like you lived and died together, though she won’t remember you.” Her cruel eyes stared at me through the darkness, unblinking.

  I aimed another few well placed sh
ots her direction, still moving towards the door. The dragon blocked it again, though I could tell it was hurt now. “Kill him,” she whispered.

  The dragon pounced. I could see its sharp fanged jaw open wide as it made to clamp down upon me, but I rolled to the left, finding the handle and flinging open the door. It flooded the room with light, and I could see the dragon with strange blue symbols glowing on its black head, its red eyes shining brighter as a light erupted from inside its mouth.

  Shit.

  I fell backwards out of the door, the jet of blue-red fire crackling with electricity shooting over me, shocking me even though the flames passed over me.

  I rolled out of the doorway and leapt to my feet as the huge black lizard scuttled out of the dark room, eyes fixing on me, its jaw opened wide. I aimed a shot at it, attempting to hit its open throat, but missed and hit the snout instead.

  I ducked out of the way as it roared and shot another flame in my direction.

  “You can’t outrun him forever,” the woman said. “He’s unbeatable. He will rip you limb from limb.”

  It charged, and I shot again, aiming for its face. I hit its eye, and it whirled in anger, roaring. Its heavy tail hit my stomach, knocking me aside, and I gasped for air to return to my lungs. I had to keep going. I looked up and aimed my next blaster shot at the woman. It hit her in the shoulder, and she fell back against the wall, her previous expression of smug-evil turned to a twisted anger.

  “Kill him!” she shrieked.

  The dragon was whirling about in pain, but obeyed its master’s command. It used its good eye, focusing like a sniper, ready to blast me with another jet of fire.

  I let out a deep breath then touched a finger to my forearm pad. Time slowed.

  The lens in my left eye focused, seeing every minute movement in excruciatingly clear detail. I could’ve grabbed a fly’s wing if it was near.

  I didn’t often use this special function, but thinking of Aurora and my father…this woman, this monster, needed to be put out.