A shard of hope buries itself in my soul.
I sit back, cradling Astra as the lights keep working. Maybe it takes longer for her? I mean, she’s missing half her body. Is the blob of her mass a little bigger than before? Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I swear it is.
“Astra,” I whisper against her surface. “I’m with you.”
Suddenly, tiny tendrils of silver material spring outward from her side. They form into long thread like silver tentacles; two, then four. They flow until they’re as long as legs and arms, and I laugh in relief as they thicken, take shape. The mass in my arms lengthens and reshapes against my chest, and if I’m not mistaken…
It’s her torso. Definitely torso shaped.
Her limbs are fully formed, now, though they lack detail. Hands and feet form like and invisible sculptor shapes her, drawing forth delicate fingers and dainty toes. Her breasts thicken against me, and her body curves as her stomach and backside finish shaping.
Finally, her head flows upward, a shapeless blob that thins, rounds. A silver cascade of hair sprouts from her scalp as her lips and nose take shape. Her eyes, closed and serene, are the last detail, deepening and widening in long strokes from an invisible paintbrush.
The lights fade, then die.
CONVALESCENCE COMPLETE: INITIATING ROOM TIMER
Astra opens her eyes.
She smiles.
The relief is so palpable, so real. I grab her and pull her close as she laughs against my chest. She rests there for long moments, cradled against me as neither of us speak. Not yet. We don’t want to.
The clock is ticking. But we have time.
Finally, she braces metallic fingers against my chest and pulls back, taking me in. She’s not fully formed yet, looks like she did when I first met her with no color, no defined shape. But she’s alive.
She gives me a little half smile. “Sam, why are you crying?”
I am. I hadn’t realized it. I’m not much of a crier; got that out of me when I was young, when my parents died. When I realized that the world was a giant shovel that buried you in shit, and all you could do was fight it to get to tomorrow.
But I’m crying now. I shake my head, smile back. “I thought I’d lost you.”
Her expression is blissful. Like there’s nothing better I could have said. “No, Sam,” she whispers, leaning into me. “You saved me.”
“Twice,” I tease as her lips press against mine.
For the second time since we tumbled into this room, the world ceases to exist. There’s nothing but her soft warmth, her tongue exploring my mouth, her hair threaded through my fingers. Our movements are slow and languid, exploring each other like we can’t quite believe the other is there. Like two people who’ve lost everything and then found hope again.
As we kiss, her body finishes forming. Her fingers lengthen as they till my hair, and as I run my hands down her back her shoulder blades take shape, hard against my fingers. Her nipples are little points as they thicken against me, raking my chest hair.
Astra doesn’t pull away, doesn’t relent for a moment. Her lips find mine again and again as her tongue darts out, running along my teeth or dancing with mine. I kiss her back, desperate for her in a way I can’t quite understand. That she’s alive. That we survived together. That I’m not alone.
My cock is hard, throbbing as she sits against it. She’s smooth down there, warm but featureless, but not for long. I gasp as the folds of her pussy deepen and form against my length. It feels so real, so human as the sudden heat and wetness of her rests hard against me, as her last little detail takes shape.
She moans with me before sitting back like she’s startled, eyes wide. She glances down to my cock nestled between her trim lips before looking back to me. “I… I don’t… Sorry… Sorry!”
Absence, sudden and unwelcome, as she bolts upright and takes a few steps back. “Astra, what…” I’m too surprised to say anything more intelligent.
Her eyes are still wide as saucers, darting between my face and my still throbbing shaft. “Sorry, I didn’t mean… I forgot myself. I shouldn’t have done that.”
I straighten, but don’t hide myself. I’m way past the point where I care. “Why? I mean, aside from the clock,” I laugh, glancing at it. 00:04:21 Not much time left. I’m so giddy I don’t care.
“Just… The others. The other Aspirants. What you have with them…” She blushes and turns away, heaving huge breaths. “That was wrong of me.”
I stand, swaying slightly. I feel almost drunk. The last few minutes have been… Nuts. From escaping and healing, to being sure Astra was dead, to the kiss… It’s too much for my exhausted brain to handle. But I put a hand on her shoulder, turning her back toward me. “Astra.”
She turns back, eyes downcast. Like she’s afraid of what she’ll see in my face. “Yes?”
I don’t know how to put what I’m feeling into words. I’ve never been great with them, and in the past I’d usually relied on cheesy pickup lines in bars. Girlfriends that never got too serious didn’t help matters.
There’s so much to unpack, here. So much to say, and we don’t have time. Screw it. “Astra, you’re one of us now.”
Her eyes, luminous and as deep as the ocean, raise to mine. A sheen of unshed tears glisten in the sodium light. “What?”
I run a finger along her cheek. “You saved us. Risked everything for us.” I shudder as I remember her locked inside the Shepherd. Her look of hopeless sadness and determination as she tried to control him while she sent us through the portal. “You think after all that, you’re no part of this?”
She trembles and her colors shimmer for the briefest moment. “One of you?”
“Hell yes,” I say, pulling her close again. “We’re in this together now. Come with us. Leave this place. It has to be possible. We’re dead, right? Nothing but data?” I try not to shudder as I say this. Or worry about the others. Later.
“Yes,” she says sadly.
“Well, so are you. Like I said before. We’re code, you’re code. What’s stopping you from leaving? Come with us.”
She bites her lip. She’s so goddamned human it’s hard to believe she’s not another dead person swept up into the Citadel like me. “I’m tethered here. As much a part of this place as the trials themselves.” She looks around helplessly, casting a glance at the clock above the far door. 00:04:33 “Look what happened when you pulled me from the Shepherd? I kept you here. You’re stuck here because of me.” She stares at the ground, miserable.
“Hey,” I say, lifting her chin with a finger. “None of that. I don’t regret what I did. I’d do it again. And now you’re disconnected, right? Maybe you’re no longer tethered. If that’s true, and we have to deal with this place one more time… You’re worth it.”
She shakes her head. “It’s really hard to not think certain things I shouldn’t when you talk like that.”
“Why shouldn’t you?”
“Like I said, the others. Mika and Syl. The bond you’ve formed with them is so important. The stakes are so high. What right do I have, ruining that because I can’t control my feelings?”
She looks so lonely. So sad. Her lips are still fresh in my mind, hungry as they slipped between mine. Desperate for my touch. “Astra,” I say, smiling. “That’s what I mean.”
She stares at me for a long moment. There’s something like hope in her eyes, but then she growls. “The other Aspirants weren’t nearly as confusing as you.”
I open my mouth to laugh, tease her back, but the sight of the wall clock behind us silences me..
00:03:46
Shit. “Later, Astra. For now, we need to get moving.”
“We need to get you moving.” She gives me another sad smile. “Get you back to Syl and Mika, and then get you off the Citadel. I’ll help.” She chews her lip. “Somehow.”
I sigh. “You’re not hearing me, and we don’t have time to argue, so hush up and listen.”
She opens her mouth to protest
, but I bridge it with a finger.
“Dude, seriously. If you don’t shut up and listen I’m going to spank you.”
Her mouth works and her cheeks flush. “Spank?”
“Yup. And we’ll be dead by then because we’ve got like three minutes, so I won’t have to worry about pissing you off.” I wink. “You’re coming with us.”
“But the others…”
“Would agree with me.” I let it go unspoken that, knowing Mika and Syl, they wouldn’t even have a problem with the kiss from a few moments before. I’ll explore that one later when we have time. “I can see in your eyes that you want this. We can argue about the how and why later. For now, we have to move.”
The color doesn’t leave her cheeks, and there’s something in her eyes that makes me think I’m going to pay for the spanking comment later. Good. She’s been so subservient, so pliable so far, that it’s good to see she’s got some fight in her. I don’t blame her; she’s an AI meant to serve and guide, so bending over backward for the Aspirants is probably part of her programming.
We’ll have to change that.
“Clothes,” I ask hopefully. “Last time Mika…” I wave vaguely to the wall.
Astra glances down, cheeks reddening further. We’re still naked, something I’m having trouble forgetting thanks to her heaved breaths. And thanks to the fact that under the nerd clothes, her chosen body is incredible, I’m still so hard it aches. She’s thin but somehow still curved, not muscled like Syl. Softer yet athletic. Pretty much like a lab nerd who works out a few times a week.
It’s working for me. A bit too well, given the circumstances.
Astra stares at my cock a split second longer. “Yes… S... Sorry.” Her open gaze is so hungry, like she’s completely forgotten herself. She blushes, eyes darting up to mine. “Sorry!” She says again, spinning in place. “I… I forgot myself… I…”
“I won’t say that isn’t flattering, because it kind of is.”
Her shoulders hitch. “Stop. Don’t say things like that. You’re making it worse.”
“It?”
“Memory.”
Realization dawns. “Elise.”
“Yes. I… Remember. What it’s like to… Be with someone. To take him inside me. To love.”
“But you’ve never actually experienced it.”
I can’t see her face, but her nod is miserable.
“That’s… Fucked. To remember stuff you’ve never done.” I touch her shoulder, the lightest brush. “Astra, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’m okay.” She gives me a little smile over my shoulder. “But you don’t make it easy.”
My cock still throbs. This isn’t really the right moment to tell her what I’m really thinking; that I suddenly want to show her everything she’s missing. “Neither do you,” I manage.
“Clothes!” she coughs as she dashes to the far wall. She unlocks the hidden spot effortlessly.
00:02:54
“Can you see the same runes Mika did?” I ask, coming up behind her as the wall elongates and dissolves.
She bends over and reaches into the locker, and I have to avert my eyes as she stretches deep. “No,” she says, voice echoing up. “I just knew where the button wa–” She squawks, falling forward into the wall. I barely grab her in time to keep her from tumbling, arms around her hips. She’s so warm against me and the memory of her heat around my cock is still so fresh. I have to twist to avoid jabbing her with my length, and my eyes linger on the heart shaped curve of her ass as I let her go.
“Thanks,” she says from inside the hole, voice laced with unshed laughter. Her moods change so fast, from sad to almost giddy.
“Yeah, ah… No worries,” I say, turning back away. This is ridiculous. We’re minutes from the Shepherd using us as a knife sharpener and I feel like a horny teenager sneaking glances into the girl’s locker room. Need to take control, get ready for the first trial.
But it’s really goddamned hard as she stands up on tiptoes, halfway swallowed by the wall, naked ass bouncing in my face.
Finally, she stands, holding my clothes and two daggers. “Here,” she says. Then, “What?” as she notices that I’m turned away.
I cough. “Nothing. Just, you know… You might need some clothes, too.”
“Oh, right.” She laughs, and its music after the last, desperate hour. “Right. Sorry. I said before that most Aspirants preferred me in a… certain form. I guess I’m kind of used to it.”
“I could get used to it,” I laugh, pulling up my pants and hiding my shame. “But now might not be the best time.”
“Sorry. How should I… I don’t…”
“That’s up to you. Remember? Don’t worry about me. Go with what you want.”
“Okay. I knew that. And I should have remembered what you said before. What you taught me about love, that I’m more than a process.” She smiles. Her eyes close briefly as her skin thickens, changes shape, and clothes melt from her flesh. In seconds she’s in her preferred form, lab coat and all. She opens her eyes, smile radiant. “Better?”
Damn, she’s beautiful. “Yeah. Much. Though you might want to lose the coat where we’re going. Replace it with a leather jacket or something.”
“Good idea.” Her coat dissolves.
“Handy. I’m jealous,” I say, fingering my skintight white shirt. I hold my dagger tight; there’s nowhere else to put it. “Really miss the Han Solo outfit you made for me.” I sigh. “And my rifle.”
“I can make you another, later. As for the weapon, we have to make it back to the selection chamber. For now…”
01:23:43
“Yeah, what’s the plan?” I grunt. Trying to get my pants up while the effects of a girl’s curves are still in effect is a struggle every guy knows. “You know more about this place, so you’re the boss, applesauce.”
“Apple… What? Never mind. Let me think… Hold on. I might not be connected anymore, but I know a few tricks.” She stands before the exit door, then raises her hand like she’s going to put it into her groove. Instead, she taps into the spots her fingertips would go at various points. It lights up and beeps, chiming out a complex pattern of tones as her hand moves faster than I can follow.
“Keypad hidden in the exit door?” I elbow her. “Would have been handy to know about that.
“Hush. I wasn’t allowed to tell. Against the rules,” she says, hand still tapping away.
“Rules I’m really happy you decided to break.” I bump her with my shoulder. “You’re my hero.”
Her hand pauses for an instant, so quickly I almost don’t notice. Dark curls hide her eyes, but full lips I can barely see curl into a smile. “I’m glad I broke them, too. You’re… Very…” She pauses to swallow. “It’s not hard to understand why Mika and Syl are willing to share.”
Worry for them threads through my heart. But if I’m back in the Citadel, that means they are, too. Somewhere. Just have to find them. But I don’t say any of that. I don’t want to worry Astra more. “They care for each other, too, you know. Like we care for you.”
Astra ducks her head. “Yeah. I… Sure. Anyway, just one more second… And…”
She trails off as she taps one last button, then steps back. The door lights from inside, so bright green I almost shield my eyes. The twin hand impressions flash rapidly like some kind of insane Morse code before fading.
The door turns red, and then the color fades.
Nothing changes.
“So, it’s true…” Astra says, voice hushed. Terrified.
“What? What happened?”
“The system.” She turns to me, real fear in her eyes. “It’s marked me. As an Aspirant.”
“Shit, that means…”
“Yes. I don’t… I can’t help us again. Like I did before. When I couldn’t command the Shepherd, I still hoped I was wrong. Hoped there was a way to reconnect my programming.”
“That’s what you just tried?”
A nod.
“And it
failed?”
Another.
“Okay. Dammit.”
Astra grips my arm, so tight I can feel her trembling fear.
I hold her hand tight in mine. “Hey. We’re good. You may be one of us lowly Aspirants, but you know this place. Know its design, how it works. We’ll be okay.” I don’t say what we’re both thinking. That this place wasn’t meant to be won, something I suspected and Astra confirmed when she rescued us from the fifth trial.
“Yeah.” She looks back to the door. “I know a few tricks.”
“Exactly.” I squeeze her hand tight. “And you’re stronger than you know.”
She trembles, eyes me skeptically. “How do you know?”
I remember her trapped inside the Shepherd. Waiting to die so that we could escape. The courage and sadness in her eyes.
I smile. “I just know. Now, let’s find the others, and then we get the hell out of here.”
“How?”
00:37:12
I take a long breath. “We fight. Survive long enough to form a new plan. As for finding the others, I hoped you could help with that. But first, we face the trial.” I smile with confidence I don’t fully feel. “Should be a cakewalk this time, right?”
“Right.” She hugs me tight, just a brief embrace. “Thank you, Sam. I… I’m so happy you’re with me.” She leans back, pecks me with a last quick kiss. “That you saved me.”
And maybe doomed humanity. She doesn’t say it. Maybe she doesn’t even think it. But I do as our hands slap onto the panel.
I grit my teeth and step through the door, Astra’s fingers twined with mine.
I’m not giving up. Not yet.
We fight.
3
Chamber 1
Aspirant #1
Room Timer: 00:15:00
I’m not sure what the hell I expected.
A medieval dungeon isn’t it.
“Again?” I say, turning a full circle in the same tiny, dank cell Mika and I landed in what feels like a lifetime ago. “Seriously?”
Aspirant 2: A Sci-Fi Harem Adventure Page 2