The Cyborg Chronicles (The Future Chronicles)

by Peralta, Samuel

  Rina 5ive rolled her eyes. “Move it. You’re holding up the whole class.”

  Nineteen years old and barely out of Ecumenical School, Avi was going to die lying in the dirt. The dim light of the tunnel flickered in her vision as she grasped at her throat. “I can’t breathe.”

  Each breath she pulled in came faster and the dusty air filled her mouth, drying out her tongue before she could get the next lungful. She was drying out from the inside, her lungs filling with dirt and grime with each inhale, making it impossible to catch her breath.

  “Just calm down. It takes a moment to get used to it, but you’re fine.” Rina stood next to her, arms crossed but offering her no aid as she lay on the ground. Just like a Tek.

  The underground tunnel tilted on its side in her vision. The rest of the class stood around her, annoyed. Part of Avi was surprised they didn’t just leave her there and keep going on their trek below Mezna City. It’s not like she had any friends. Being an opinionated Tek didn’t win positive attention, and questions were discouraged. Teks did the work their series had been designed for, nothing more. No friends, no parents, no lovers. They may have been born people, as organic as any other, but the implants and coding they received had turned them into Teks. All function and form, no soul.

  But Avi was broken. Not just because she couldn’t breathe, she’d been broken long before that. No matter how she tried to hide it, she couldn’t help feeling lucky. Because what the other Teks denied themselves, she’d found. Love.

  And now, deep below the remains of Old Nuuk, Greenland, she was drowning in the dirt. As a 5ive, her series was tasked with tending the alien terraforming biotechnology that built the city. The streets, even the buildings, were a living, growing organism. Keeping it healthy meant keeping their home alive. The parasitic organism sent tendrils down through the layers of the Earth, seeking nutrients and minerals.

  Her only function in life was to untangle tendrils that became knotted together and drill for nutrient veins. Her enhancements were supposed to help her function in high CO2 concentrations.

  But the DNA and physical form alterations didn’t help Avi.

  Pain clenched down around her chest. Her carbon lung must be malfunctioning. The pain of it radiated down her arm and the tighter the vice became, the harder she struggled to catch her breath. “I can’t...”

  Black spots in Avi’s vision alternated with bright white flashes, and her entire body became heavy, as if engulfed in cryogel.

  The lights went out.

  * * *

  “What do you mean I can’t see her?” Virgil 9ine roared at the massive Med-tek standing at the door of the 5ive Infirmary.

  The large man backed up. Surprise widened his eyes as Virgil stepped closer, towering over him. The external fastenings and implanted tack access of the average Tek was unimpressive when compared to the strands of iron-fiber laced throughout Virgil’s 9ine Series flesh. And Virgil was the epitome of a 9ine. He had always been big, and his body took to the DNA recoding and alien Mezna biological compounds naturally. His implants healed quickly and his eyes shone the brightest blue of any of the Teks. Right now, they shone through the narrow eyes of a very pissed-off man.

  Teks weren’t allowed to marry and weren’t supposed to pair off for more than the occasional release of sexual needs, but Avi had been there for him during the darkest times in his life, and he loved her more than he could imagine any species on any planet capable. All their hiding to keep from being discovered out of fear that one of them would be transferred out of Greenland meant nothing to him right now. Panic at knowing something had gone wrong in the tunnels and knowing she was here made him forget all the politics and rules. He had to know she was safe.

  The guard squared his shoulders. “Only Med-teks and Upper 5ives are permitted inside the 5ive Infirmary.”

  Virgil sneered and stepped closer still, the artificial light of the domed hall highlighting the patches of natural skin shining through the metal weave intertwined with his flesh. “I don’t think you understand. I’m going in there to see Avi and there isn’t much you can do about it.”

  “Don’t threaten him.” Avi’s weak voice came from further inside the infirmary.

  Virgil charged toward her voice and the Med-tek danced out of his way, disappearing down the hall.

  When Virgil saw her laid out on the infirmary bed, needles in her arms and wearing a white tunic instead of the black the 5ive Series usually wore, his panic doubled. “I heard you passed out.”

  “During our training.” She sighed and laid her head back on the pillow, black hair sticking out in a frizzy mess.

  “Did your carbon lung not filter the air correctly?” He stood a foot away from her bed. Now that he could see her for himself, he remembered what was at risk if anyone knew what they meant to each other. He wanted to reach out and run a finger down the black access bar that bisected every Tek’s chest. Worry seeped into his pores as he scanned her system.

  He’d tacked into the 3Spek information grid to pull up her medfile. The data scanned through his mind as he directed the search, finally pulling up her file and reading over it. He could skim the local drives without accessing the dataweave. Something they’d both sworn to never do. Not after Nelson.

  “The Med-teks can’t find anything wrong.” She smiled and reached out a hand. “Stop searching the files, I can tell what you’re doing even if you aren’t accessing the data threads. Aren’t you going to come give me a physical? Maybe some mouth-to-mouth?”

  Virgil frowned. “You aren’t funny.” He glanced around to see if anyone may have heard.

  “You mean to tell me you berated that poor Med-tek into letting you in and now you aren’t even going to say hello properly?”

  Virgil’s resolve crumbled. She’d charmed him, like he was the Serpent and she the beguiling Wasp. He came closer and sat on the very edge of the bed. When she reached for him, he scooped her up in his arms and held her as tight as he dared against his chest. Touching her, he could finally breathe again.

  “When I heard you were here, I panicked. Mother Goddess, Avi, I was so scared.”

  “I’m fine,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his impenetrable flesh.

  Despite having metal woven into his skin, Avi’s kisses felt like the softest breath of spring air. Virgil lowered his head into her hair and took a deep breath before releasing her.

  “So there’s nothing wrong with you?” Virgil placed a thick hand, engineered to hold heavy tools, on her stomach. The feather-shaped burn branded across the back reminded him of everything they had been through.

  “Nothing. They don’t know what happened. It was awful, though.”

  “Tell me.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know, but none of the drills we did, none of the training in the basement tunnels, is anything like being down there. I don’t know if it’s the CO2 levels or not, but the earth, it smells. It’s damp and everything you touch flakes away, leaving a residue of grime against your skin. Dirt and grime. They’d always told us, so I knew what it would be like. I’d even touched organic dirt in the labs, but being down there, surrounded by nothing but roots and stone, it’s disgusting.”

  Avi’s heart sped up and her breath quickened.

  Virgil watched helplessly as her eyes darted around the room, dilated and fearful.

  “Avi, I’m right here. You’re okay.”

  “It’s so awful,” she cried.

  “Shhhh.” He pulled her back to his chest, this time not caring who saw. “I’ve got you. I’m right here.”

  6 Years Ago

  The cafeteria swam with young bodies, all eager to partake in the holy festivities on the Feast of the Living Mother, to celebrate the ancient arrival of the Mezna on Earth. All the Series 2wos, 6ixes, and even the secluded 9ines, intermingled.

  Twelve-year-old Virgil watched as the children in his series tried to make friends with the others. Usually the 9ines ate in the dorms
, not even trying to socialize with the other Tek children. Virgil hated being separated from the others, but had always been too shy to try and approach any of the other Series’ kids.

  Virgil watched as his precocious bunkmate approached a short-haired 6ix, the skin around her ocular implant puckered and pink. “Hi, I’m Nelson.”

  Her one biological eye widened as she looked up, taking in Nelson’s size. She stepped back, panic on her face. Virgil could hear her breathing speed up, her pulse quicken, and her diaphragm contract. She was going to scream.

  Virgil stepped forward, hands up to calm her, but before he got there, another girl stepped up. “Hi, I’m Avendui, but you can call me Avi. You’re a 9ine, right?”

  Nelson’s face lit up as he held out his metal-laced hand shining in the light of the temple. “Yes. What gave it away?”

  “Don’t talk to him,” the first girl whispered as Avi laughed. The girl’s gaze swept to Virgil. “Sweet Mother! You’re even bigger!”

  Avi slapped her friend on the arm. “Don’t be so rude, Florence!”

  “They’re freaks,” she said, turning her back and walking away in a huff.

  Nelson’s face fell.

  Virgil liked Nelson. He was always the first to offer to help the younger 9ines when they moved into the bunkroom with the older kids and never minded taking the time to talk to someone. Virgil didn’t have any siblings, none of the Teks did. They had all been abandoned and taken in by the temple. But if he could pick one person to be his brother, it would be Nelson. It broke his heart to see anyone to be so cruel to him.

  “You aren’t a freak,” Virgil said, placing an adult-sized hand on his friend’s shoulder.

  “Of course you aren’t,” Avi said, her hands balled up in fists. Anger permeated her words as she whispered something Virgil himself had always thought but had never been brave enough to say. “It’s bad enough the people in the city treat us like slaves. We shouldn’t turn on each other.”

  “Be careful, if the priests hear you, you’ll get recogged.” Virgil reached up and ran a finger along the black veins running under the skin of his skull. His short blond hair did nothing to hide his biomechanical enhancement.

  “I’m Nelson, this is Virgil.” Nelson reached out a meaty hand to Avi and she took it, her own small hand disappearing inside his grip. Instead of recoiling or being repulsed, she laid her other hand on top of his and smiled.

  “How old are you?”

  “Ten,” Nelson said.

  “I’m twelve,” Virgil added, not wanting the girl to forget he was there too.

  “Well, I’m thirteen and I’m hungry. Let’s get some chorizos, they look amazing.” Avi kept Nelson’s hand and led the boys toward the conveyer belt filled with delicacies they never ate in the dorms. No bland sandwiches or soupy oatmeal at this meal.

  Avi spoke as they took trays and walked the line, picking treats to savor. “I met an upper 4our last week who said they’ve been growing the ingredients for baklava in the hydrofarms since last year. You know they can detect the nutritional value of anything they smell? And they can determine any mineral deficiencies just by touching the plants.”

  “Sure, that’s what 4ours are for,” Virgil said, trying to sound older, like he knew all about the other series’ duties.

  Avi frowned and turned toward him. “And that’s all they are?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never talked to one.”

  “Don’t talk about them like they’re furniture.”

  “I didn’t mean... I’m sorry.”

  Avi walked away from the boys toward the crowded tables.

  “What’d you do that for?” Nelson hissed.

  They followed Avi to an open table and sat down. Virgil didn’t know what to say. Should he apologize? He’d probably look even stupider.

  “Do you get to go out in the city much?” Nelson asked as he shoveled chocolate soy pudding into his mouth.

  Avi’s eyes shot at Virgil. “Why? Curious about what the 5ives do in their free time?”

  “No,” Nelson mumbled around his food.

  “Why don’t you go sit with the other 9ines? You’re just like everyone else.” She gathered her utensils and started to stand, but Virgil reached out and grabbed her hand.

  “I didn’t mean anything by what I said. I don’t know any 4ours. Until now I didn’t know any 5ives. No one wants to talk to us.”

  “Because we’re freaks even in this madhouse,” Nelson added.

  “All the other Teks are afraid of us. Will you please eat with us? It’s nice talking to you.”

  Avi narrowed her eyes and sat back down with a huff. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Virgil.

  He felt like he was being dissected, like she had tacked directly into his brain to evaluate his thoughts. Her gaze made his cheeks heat and he had to look away before he started babbling every musing that had ever crossed his mind. Something about her made him want to talk, and he had never been one to say much.

  “Assuming Teks are nothing more than their series is such a simian cognition,” she finally said, accusation and blasphemy falling from her lips in tandem. “It’s the same thing as the others thinking you’re freaks. Are you just big gorillas or is there more to you under all that mass?”

  Nelson stuffed another bite of sweets into his mouth and Virgil looked down at his hand. He opened it and laid it on the table, palm up. The metal fibers woven through his skin danced across the calluses already thickening from hard labor.

  “I want to be more than this.” He whispered it, like a vow.

  “You already are.” Avi reached out and wrapped both her tiny hands around his one large one. Her delicate fingers traced along the veins and wrinkles of his palms.

  He may have had the body of an adult, but the twelve-year-old heart beating inside his chest leapt at her touch.

  3 Years Ago

  Avendui snuck down the dormitory halls. Her black tunic and loose pants made it easy to move quickly and hide in the shadows when the guards or nuns passed by. That and no one ever expected a Tek to be out past curfew.

  Her sensitive blue eyes took in the shadowy movements through each door’s small window. 5ives all had enhanced vision thanks to genome sequencing and feline cells spliced with their own cells. Every now and then, one of the 5ives would come back from a med upgrade with a tinge of yellow in their otherwise uniform blue eyes, and it always gave her a sense of an oncoming storm. There was something not quite right about the Tek system. Something she couldn’t completely place her finger on.

  She tiptoed around another corner, heading deeper into the building where the nuns slept. Where were the 9ines? Virgil had sent a message to her that morning to come see him as soon as she could get away. Waiting never had been her strong suit, but too many people had already seen them together and rumors were flying through the dorms. Even cyborg teenagers had nothing better to do than gossip about each other’s love lives. Plus, it wasn’t like that. There was something about Virgil she trusted.

  When she found his note under the leg of the cafeteria table, a place she could easily check, but hard for him to get to, she knew it had to be something serious. Why else would he risk the evidence of a note? And one asking her to be out after curfew!

  Avi’s mind spun as she approached a door at the end of a hall. She was exposed, standing there in the middle of the hallway leaning up to look through the window. Why was she risking so much to talk to someone everyone else feared? Why bother with Virgil or any of the 9ines? She honestly didn’t know, but she couldn’t seem to stop.

  Beyond the window, the dark room glowed with the moonlight drifting in through the barred windows. She could make out rows of large beds along one wall. Two or three kids could easily sleep in one of them, but these all held only one of the oversized 9ines.

  Virgil had moved to the Upper Tek dorm last month.

  She wondered if he liked it better than being with the little kids. She missed the lower dorms.

>   In the back of the room, a large, dark figure shifted and looked right at her. His blue eyes caught the moonlight and sparkled. She imagined that’s what the oceans used to look like, before they’d turned brown and acidic.

  Virgil gave her a half smile and moved through the room to the door. Despite his size, he had a gracefulness about him as he maneuvered around the furniture and clutter on the dorm floor.

  Avi kicked herself for being surprised. Even she fell so easily into the assumptions about the other series Teks. She hated when someone called her a worm or dirt-dweller, but then she turned around and did the same thing to Virgil, someone she knew didn’t deserve the reputation of a 9ine. He wasn’t cruel or stupid or clumsy. He wasn’t just brute force, no matter what the priests had done to his body.

  She ran a fingertip along the scar of her most recent surgery: mineral and nutrient sensors implanted in the palm of her left hand and tied into her internal neural weave through the conduits running throughout her body. The priests had done plenty to all of them.

  “Avi,” Virgil whispered as he slipped through the door. In the hall, his bright white tunic and matching pants shone under the dim lights.

  She giggled, pointing to his clothes. “You’re glowing.”

  “I didn’t think of that.” He hurried back inside the dorm and returned with a thin gray blanket wrapped around his hulking shoulders. “Better?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Come on.” Virgil took her hand and the sensor in her palm automatically worked to break down the mineral content of his skin. Iron, magnesium, sodium, potassium, silicone... The names ran through her mind by concentration level. The steel fibers didn’t harden his grip though. She wondered for a moment if the iron levels in his skin could be poisonous.

  In the distance, the heavy footsteps of Series 9ine guards headed in their direction.

  “In here,” she said, ducking into a med-sensor closet where the data files for all the biodata the grid collected on the Teks was stored.