by Meg Ripley
“Are you okay?” the Hyppo asked. “I had to remove your clothes to tend to your burns.”
Ada shook her head and stood, backing away from him, throwing her hands out behind her until she could feel the cool press of the wall. Terror was now at war with the desire in her body, and they were both still there---something that she’d never experienced, not even at the peak of an emotional burst. Something had happened; she’d been corrupted. This was phantom emoting, and it was eating her sanity away. A cry tore from her lips as another emotion ripped through her---like sadness, but huge, crushing and cold, and somehow more empty---and it brought her to her knees. She could hear the Hyppo rushing toward her over the sounds of her ragged breath, but he stopped short, apparently afraid of hurting her with his touch. Distantly, she heard a series of clicks, and then he spoke.
“This doesn’t make sense.” His voice was velvety, more comforting than it should have been. She wanted to run toward the voice, and she didn’t know why she had to try so hard to stop herself.
Ada raised her head and stood, trying to breathe through the chaos inside her. The Hyppo was gazing at her with all of his eyes held wide open, and she realized the clicks were coming from him. He was standing now, reading her energy signature with his own sound waves, another unique Hyppo ability. Again she felt a strong warmth rolling from him, with the unmistakable taste of affection. Emotions don’t have tastes or heat value; I’m going insane.
Ada forced herself to speak, and she was surprised at the steadiness of her voice. “What doesn’t make sense?”
The Hyppo jumped, apparently as startled as she was. He still seemed afraid to approach her. “Wow. Your recovery time, for one. Also, your energy signature.” He knelt down in front of her hunched figure, peering at her intently. “You’re reading as a human, but you’re clearly not, by the feel of your body and the way you’re reacting to human-level emotion. You’re a cyborg from Earth, aren’t you?”
Something about the way he spoke made Ada realize that this creature knew something about her that she didn’t---or at least saw her in a way that she was unfamiliar with. Ada caught his gaze and nodded, feeling sweat run down her forehead. She sat back on her haunches and finally settled on sitting cross-legged, with her back against the cool wall of the cave, eyes closed. She puzzled over the Hyppo’s words, struggling to think through the storm of emotion still raging through her. He’d said human-level emotion, but he’d identified her as a cyborg from Earth. As her heartbeat gradually returned to normal and her desire and fear faded into the background, Ada opened her eyes and finally voiced another question.
“What did you do to me?”
The Hyppo seemed ready for the question. “Nothing, but a Bezoar had gotten to you when I turned around, so if something’s wrong, that came from it.” He pointed to a corner of the cave, and Ada looked to see a dark brown lump of slightly flat fur. A feeling of repulsion seized her muscles---disgust, she realized.
“Unluckily for it, I kick pretty hard.” He smiled, and Ada smiled back automatically, enchanted by the symmetry of his lovely golden face. Her heart leapt in her chest, and the sensation terrified her, but not as much as the sudden need to press his lips to hers. Then her eyes slipped to his chest again, and she felt another vicious burst of longing in her belly and between her legs. She gasped as a gentle heat rolled through her loins, and she pressed her thighs together, trying to relieve some of the sexual pressure in her body. Humans had been unable---or maybe unwilling---to remove most of the more animal urges from cyborgs, so each of them went through a puberty of sorts sometime between the ages of twenty and twenty five, and it usually lasted three to five years. For Ada, that meant feeling a pleasant tingle when she thought about Tod, and---when they had gentle, quiet sex every few weeks--- what had been the single most incredible sensation of her life until a few years ago, when she’d experienced the gentle awe of seeing Earth.
This, however, was nothing like either sensation. It was paralyzing, almost; she couldn’t think around it, and the need to feel his skin grew stronger than she could resist. Ada watched her hands reach toward his shoulders as though they were someone else’s. As soon as they encountered the firmness, there, however, she felt all of her consciousness return to her body as lust shredded her focus again.
The Hyppo’s eyes glazed over with an unreadable emotion as Ada pulled him on top of her and fell backward at the same time. His cock was already fully erect, hard as steel against the hot flesh of her vulva, and she moaned as pleasure enveloped her senses and took away all of her control. His golden hands cupped the firm mounds of her breasts, and his long fingers pulled and twisted her erect nipples, sending streaks of ecstasy through her body. Ada was screaming her pleasure, thrusting her hips against the long shaft of the gorgeous being on top of her. She plunged her hands into the softness of his thick hair and brought his lips to hers. He tasted unbelievable---smoky and sweet, and it lingered in her mouth after he pulled back.
“Tell me your name,” he breathed in her ear. Ada shivered as his hands moved from her breasts to her waist, then parted her strong thighs.
“Ada,” she answered, watching his powerful body ready itself to slip between her legs. Her hands were moving over her breasts, and she was marveling at how sensitive every part of her skin was.
“Ada,” The Hyppo repeated. “My name is Jax.” His hands gripped her thighs almost painfully, but even that had a dizzying edge of pleasure. The huge, round head of his member grazed against her swollen clit, and a burst of pleasure spread through her mound. She panted, and Jax smiled; she felt her body respond to the breathtaking grin with another rush of moisture between her legs.
“Are you sure?” Jax whispered, pausing as he pressed himself against her wet slit. She nodded her head deliriously, unable to speak around the fullness of her desire. She was dimly aware that she should stop, but something told her that her body wouldn’t allow her to move on until her lust was sated. Then the Hyppo’s body moved, and all thought was erased.
“Jax!” Ada screamed, and suddenly her pussy was being deliciously stretched by Jax’ long, thick cock. He groaned and cupped the firm flesh of her buttocks, steadying himself as he pushed his shaft deeper inside her walls. His skin began to change colors again; first it lightened to a pale pink, then the shade darkened until it turned red, then doubled back to orange. Jax closed his eyes as he stroked, pushing himself inside her to his hilt. Her mind tried to wrap around what was happening---what the hell are you doing?---but then Jax pulled his shaft back and rushed inside her again, and the ensuing tide of sensation was so strong that Ada felt her nails bite into the skin of her own breasts.
She bucked her hips against his slow, incredibly long strokes, aware that she was emitting a single low, continuous moan as Jax pushed his body against her. She wrapped her thighs around his muscular waist, gasping as his thick shaft pulsed inside the dripping walls of her pussy. His hips started to move faster, and his eyes closed as the pleasure moved through his body in waves. Ada started to grip her breasts again, drawing pinpricks of blood as ecstasy swept over her.
“Ada,” Jax panted, and pulled her hands from her body. “Ada, I’m going to come soon, you feel incredible!” His hips moved forward vigorously, slipping past the sensitive button inside her pussy that Tod used to have to try so hard to find with his fingers. Jax’s length meant he met it easily, and Ada’s body was so embroiled in bliss that for a moment she forgot to breathe. Then the Hyppo’s strokes started to increase in speed, and Ada cried out, desperately taking in air as her body was pounded into the soft soil. Jax was repeating her name as he thrusted inside her hot, wet pussy, frantically pumping toward his own apex of desire.
The sounds of his body slamming against hers mixed together with their lusty moans, filling the cave with a chaotic, carnal symphony. The light from his lamp made his body glisten, and the pureness of his beauty seized her heart and brought tears to Ada’s eyes. An odd sensation---like a key turning in a lock in
side her---flooded her and filled her with boundless joy as his brown eyes met hers, and Ada screamed as the soaking wet walls of her pussy contracted around Jax’s heavy cock.
For a moment, their bodies seemed to meld into one, and she saw and understood everything he did: what she really was, what the Hyppo people had seen inside cypeople---what she’d really been all along. At the same moment, she saw a deep well of fondness for her from Jax, a well nearly as fresh as the bruise Ada sustained when she’d fallen backward; she saw that as he’d healed her, his energy had been mingling with hers, tasting her as she was now tasting him. She saw his kindness, his desire to help her unlock her innate ability to experience the full richness of life, and the overwhelming nature of the feeling he got when he gazed at her emerald eyes against the milk chocolate of her oval face---that gigantic, trembling sensation she knew so well: awe. She’d never seen herself look so terribly beautiful, and as she felt herself return to her body, she realized she was tearing up again.
The Hyppo threw his head back, letting out a long, passionate cry as his cock twitched and then grew still inside her. Ada felt another surge of heat as her body seemed to absorb his energy, even as he pulled away and collapsed on the ground next to her, panting. His beautiful features seemed too calm and blissful, especially since Ada’s own mind was reeling with the shock of the truth he’d shown her the moment before. Ada drew a shaky breath as she watched his body return to its brilliant golden honey tone.
“We all have empathy boards?” Ada whispered.
“Yes,” Jax answered immediately. He seemed to hear her heart hammering in fear, because the next moment he’d grabbed her hand and was pulsing a gentle energy into the skin of her palm. It cooled her terror, and she could breathe again. Ada asked the next question that sprang to her lips.
“Why don’t they tell us? Why don’t they let us all be Pathos?”
“Well, they claim it’s for your own good,” Jax answered, and his voice made it clear that he didn’t agree. His third eye blinked, irritated. “But our people think it’s because it made you something more human than they could be…or something simply more.”
Ada tried to wrap her mind around the pronouncement, finding it exceedingly difficult. “So what did it for me? The furry thing?” She tried to remember what he’d called it, and was surprised to find it zoom to the front of her mind: “A Bezoar?”
“Yes,” Jax said again. “Electrical activity stimulates the empathy board. A large enough shock will awaken it, and for Pathos, it’s usually done at birth. But for you, and cypeople like you…even the simple act of thinking, living, and learning generates enough electricity in the soft part of your brain that it can jostle the empathy board.”
Ada laughed darkly as bitterness washed over her for the first time, acidic and invigorating. “So, we don’t have undersized empathy centers?”
Jax laughed sadly. “No, just deactivated ones. It seems that cypeople like you are happening more and more, though---both naturally awakening very slowly, and through accidents like…” Jax stretched one of his golden arms toward the dead Bezoar.
“And the ones they kill?” she asked as anxiety gripped her heart again. “Are they just…waking up? Why won’t the ships recognize them?”
Jax hesitated. “The ships recognize them, but they really are corrupted. Because of the capacity for natural activation, there’s also the capacity for the board to be activated…inefficiently.”
An icy sheet of dread settled over Ada, and she whimpered involuntarily. Jax squeezed her hand again, and calm rolled through her muscles and slowly melted her fear. “So they are suffering,” she said through gritted teeth, “but it’s the humans’ fault?” Jax didn’t answer, but because she’d already tasted all of his knowledge, she could see the yes clearly in her mind.
Ada locked eyes with Jax as they both sat up on the soft floor of the cave. “What will they do now that I’m…like this? Will they kill me?” Her heartbeat sped up. “Will you report me?”
“They likely already know,” Jax said, and Ada saw in her mind that it was true. It was unsettling having access to someone else’s information---it was like having a giant library in her head. It would take some getting used to.
“But they’ll want to use you as a poster child, most likely, and claim they didn’t know it was possible to the public. They’ll try hard to do anything that would upset the population, and once the population finds out you’re more identical than they thought---” Jax shrugged, and Ada answered for him.
“They’ll want the engineers to answer for it. Maybe not now, but eventually.” She didn’t know if wars were started over things like this on Earth, but she didn’t want to find out. “Come on, we have to get back to the hub.” She sprinted to the mouth of the cave, and Jax followed.
Jax stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, surprise clear in all three of his eyes. “Why me? I mean, I would like to tag along,” he said bashfully. “But why do I have to accompany you?”
“You can back me up,” Ada said urgently as she dropped to her hands and knees and pushed through the hole. “Also…I kind of don’t want to be without you. Is that weird?”
“Not at all,” Jax said behind the sheet of aluminum.
There were no weighted boots to hold her down, so she hesitated as she stood outside the cave. Her alloy frame was far heavier than a human’s, but this planet’s gravity was also very different. Jax frowned at her when he slipped through.
“What’s wrong?”
Ada pointed to her ship. “I need to get over there quickly, but…” she pointed at her naked body. Jax laughed in understanding and grabbed her hand.
“Why didn’t you just say so?”
Ada turned to ask what he meant, but a wave of nausea knocked her focus askew. She doubled over, gasping from the strength of it; it took her a few seconds to catch her breath. She stood up---and nearly fell over again when she saw she was standing right beneath her ship. Jax was grinning at her foolishly. It suited his handsome face, somehow. She felt warmth squeeze her heart, and she let herself enjoy it this time. What is it? She shook her head roughly.
“I forgot you guys could teleport, but I didn’t realize you could bring passengers,” Ada admitted. She looked up. “Just a second.” She looked around in the dirt, and sure enough, she found the bubble she’d dropped earlier. She pressed it and waited for it to spring around her.
When it did, she dropped into a squat and jumped as high as she could; Jax let out a low whistle, and she felt her whole body blush as she rose gracefully into the air, floating harmlessly above the force field. Her palm pressed the ship’s access panel, and for the first time in her life, she forgot to feel fear as she waited for it to open---and for the first time ever, it stayed closed. Ada had a moment to register what had happened before she went sailing back to the surface of Oro and into Jax’s arms.
She realized she was crying again just as he caught her. She wiped her tears away angrily as he held her in his strong arms, cradling her to his broad chest as she the bubble’s field dropped away and she finally broke down. Oddly, most of her tears weren’t sad; the first feeling she’d felt when the panel blinked red was the same boundless joy she’d felt when Jax’s energy locked with hers---the feeling of knowing, finally, who and what she was.
As the sea of emotions quieted inside her, she made a decision. She’d go back---and force them to activate the other cypeople. She didn’t know how, but he had more knowledge then they were counting on. She was determined and felt reinforced by the limitless energy of the new bond she’d formed. She took a breath and focused on Jax’s words.
“It’s okay,” he was saying. “I can teleport us; we’re not far from Earth’s hub. It’s okay… it’s okay.”
“Jax,” Ada cried. “Shut up and take me home.” His body rumbled as he laughed.
“Fine,” he said warmly, and kissed her forehead. “Hold on.”
His lips left an unbearable tingle behind, a gentle, velvety warm
th that squeezed her heart and had nothing to do with their nakedness. It grew to a burning heat, and she was still trying to name it when he started to teleport them. She had the sensation of being pressed through a hole the size of a marble, but she felt so full of the feeling that it blocked out everything else; her last thought before her lungs started to pull in air was a single word, and her mind screamed it as sure as it new her own name:
Love.
Saved By Alien Love
It took forty-six Galaxy minutes to get from Caden’s hub to Xondux, and only ten of them had passed. This was the longest inter-system flight she’d ever taken. She kept looking out the ship’s windows expecting to see that they’d actually circled back to her hub, or gotten caught in the atmosphere of a planet. The cyborgs in her dorm were fond of pranks, and once they’d convinced her that her weekly mission had begun without her in her sleep. No matter how often she checked, all she could see was the inky blackness of space, dotted with pinpricks of light and occasionally interrupted by a gas giant or a belt of asteroids. She tried to remember her parental unit’s words--- Evan and Willow were all about logic: close to one hundred percent of cypeople make it through a flight vessel catastrophe. Their fatality rates in common accidents were far better than most other organisms, but this statistic never did anything to stop the ice rattle of anxiety from coiling around her heart.
Reflexively, she tapped her right index finger against the cuff of her left sleeve, activating the projection screen in her suit that allowed her to access the ships data as well her own. Caden brought up the map of their flight path, letting her cold gray eyes move over the bright blue trail for what must have been the tenth time. Thirty five more minutes, no stops. Thirty-seven if they allowed for possible interceptions of the Ridley Asteroid Belt around the gold sector. The belt was a nuisance, but it was more effective at keeping out pirates than any other method the Intergalactic Council had come up with thus far, so no one could object to its continued existence. Caden didn’t mind, because that meant fewer incidents and therefore fewer reasons to have her pulled from regular patrols---but her regular patrols seemed to be at an end now, anyway. She always felt more daring on pirate missions, and those were often the times she liked to pretend she was a caped crusader, or a masked vigilante.