by H. C. Brown
“And if we go forward?”
Fane rubbed his chin. “You’re a genius, you’ll find a way upgrade us. Won’t you?”
“I guess. Wherever we end up gold is a universal currency. We’ll need something to live on.” Jace ran his fingers over the condensation running down the beer bottle. “No one is going to take us in off the street.”
Fane pushed away his plate and got to his feet. “Gryd will supply the gold. We’re trusted couriers. He’ll give us the payment for the next batch of females—he always pays in gold. “He turned to leave. “Have you worked out a way to incapacitate 729 and 384?”
“I can do a lot more than Mind Speak. I upgrade my AI every chance I get. If you get your head blown off, there’s a good chance I could rebuild you.” Jace sprang to his feet, and his chair legs scraped along the floor. “I’ve been working on a virus. I’ll link to the couriers and upload it now—I’ll be able to detonate it off world. They won’t know what’s hit them. I’ll let you know when it’s done.”
Without glancing back at Jace, Fane left the dining room. He headed to the transport tube and gave the verbal command for the Upload Center. Jace followed and stood beside him in silence, his face a mask of concentration. They stepped inside the foyer and followed the instructions from a technician to strip and then enter the first compartment. Without speaking, they moved through the sterilization chambers and endured the zon cleansing beams.
They exited into a hallway, and a technician in a biohazard suit ordered them to dress in white coveralls then pointed them to the biometrics lab. They stood together in a small room lined with vid-screens and computer terminals. In the center sat two comfortable-looking, white leather benches.
“On the screen is a list of programs to download.” Gryd boomed in Fane’s earpiece. “You are to select five dreamscapes at random. I’m not sure if you remember what it’s like to dream, but I have some erotic fantasies I want you to study for further reference. Select from the blue section, 636, and 515 from the red section.”
Computer, connect to mainframe, cloak all download information. Fane lay down on the padded leather bench beside Jace and closed his eyes. He ran through the list of information he required, ignoring Gryd’s list completely. After three hours, he tested the information and smiled. He had everything he needed. Out of interest, he scanned the list on the screen. Gryd wanted him to enjoy blood sport and the use of instruments of torture. Bile rose in his throat. The bastard wanted him to kill on command. The dreamscapes were nothing short of snuff movies. Anger rose and Fane drew in a deep breath to steady his frazzled mind.
“Gryd wants me to feel pain. He must think I’m real dumb if he believes I’d download that shit into my matrix.” Jace joined Fane’s mind. “I think he’s planning to let his friends kill me.” He grimaced. “Just as well, I placed a firewall in our AI’s so he can’t scan our programming.”
Fane ran both hands through his hair and sat up. “I’m guessing he wants me to do the killing. Just as well we’re leaving. Did you immobilize the couriers?”
“Yeah.” Jace slid off the bench. “I bet the call to download the program to fly the ship will come real soon.” He laughed. “Oh damn, we already know how to do that, don’t we?”
Gryd’s voice came through Fane’s earpiece then. “The download records are corrupted. The system will require maintenance. Did you have any problems processing the items on my list?”
Fane winked at Jace. “I am unable to verify that information, sir.”
“515, do you have experience in female selection?” Gryd’s agitation vibrated through Fane’s earpiece.
“Yes, sir.” Jace stared at Fane with a blank expression.
“Good. The mainframe will be up and running shortly. I want you to download the Starship Cruiser navigation program. Leave the Dreamscape files until further notice. Tomorrow, you will both report to my office at 06:00. I’m sending the pair of you to collect a batch of females from Vallion.”
“Bingo.” Jace gave Fane a meaningful stare.
The following morning, Fane and Jace listened patiently to a long speech about Vallion protocol from Gryd. They collected five hundred gold strips from the treasury and made their way to the launch pad. The ship sparkled under the overhead lights like a killer whale with black skin and white trim that almost appeared wet. Built for speed, the small ship also had the ability for stealth and could remain hidden underwater indefinitely. Food replicators would supply them with whatever sustenance they needed. Fane grinned up at the sleek beast—the ship was perfect.
They stepped into the transporter beam. A millisecond later, they arrived on the bridge. Fane glanced around to get his bearings. With a single thought, he joined his neural pathways to the ship’s mainframe. The computer sent images so rapidly to his AI that within moments of receiving the craft’s schematics he, had a running knowledge of every system
The instrument panels blinked in a rainbow of colors, and a recognizable humming sound filled his ears. The faint smell of Nu-Leather from the comfortable seats brought false recollections of missions. Fane laughed. In his memories, he had flown this ship a thousand times. He helped Jace push the case of gold into a locker and then moved to the front of the ship. Without delay, he settled in the captain’s chair. His AI interfaced seamlessly with the vessel’s computer; Fane could relax and enjoy the ride. Jace dropped into the chair beside him and raised a blond brow.
“You don’t look a bit nervous.”
Fane shrugged. “I’ve programmed my response to relax, or Gryd will sense something is wrong. I suggest you do the same until we’re clear. No one knows we plan to escape. Control believes we’re two fucking cyborgs on a routine mission.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Jace leaned back in his chair nonchalantly.
Fane bit back a grin and sent the command to start the ship. “Starship Cruiser 7 requesting permission to take off.”
“Permission granted.” A scratchy voice replied.
The next second, the engines roared. The ship blasted into space, the G-force throwing Fane back in his seat. Clouds rushed by and the ship erupted into an endless, clear blue sky. The ship shook and shuddered through the atmosphere, and then glided effortlessly toward the sister planet, Vallion. Fane disengaged the intercom and accessed his AI. “Computer, destroy my tracker chip, break communication with the mainframe. Set course Fane 1 maximum speed.”
The starship made a slow, sweeping arc and changed direction. He glanced at Jace, whose face was a mask of concentration. “You done?”
“Yeah.” Jace grinned. “I activated the virus in the mainframe. They should be down for a while.”
“Shame we couldn’t save some of the other guys.”
“Most of them are dead already.” Jace shuddered. “They are walking zombies. Trust me. I have tried to break into their programming. They’re machines… there’s nothing left. The only humanoids capable of training their AIs are the Javronians and you, my friend.” He smiled. “We don’t have to worry about the Javronians… After they realize we’ve flown the coop, they’ll figure out how to escape.” He pointed out the window. “Wow, is that our ride?”
Fane gazed into the distance, his stomach clenched. The wormhole spun ahead, a swirling mass of bright blue in the distance. They faced two possible outcomes: the ship could travel millions of light years to another universe or be thrown backward or forward in time. He gripped the arms of the chair and gazed into the awesome, spinning beauty. “Well, there’s still time to change your mind.”
“I’m not going back.” Jace stared into the distance. “I’d rather die.” He turned and smiled at Fane. “What do you say, Captain? No guts no glory?”
Fane laughed. “Something like that.”
The starship increased speed. Inside, Fane listened for the click and hum to indicate the wings had retracted. They would fly through the wormhole like a bullet and hope they did not encounter any debris on the way. The swirling, gaping maw opened up before them,
bigger than Fane could have imagined. “Holy shit. Look at the size of this thing.”
“The bigger the wormhole, the safer it is for us.” Jace leaned forward in his seat. “There’s much less chance of it collapsing.”
Fear rose in Fane’s chest. “Don’t mention the collapsing bit.”
The ship increased in speed and spun out of control making it difficult to breathe. Fane swallowed hard. The starship hurtled through space toward the wormhole, gaining speed by the second. Blue walls of light spun around them, crackling with lightning. The sight reminded him of his past life, a memory partially suppressed by Gryd’s programming. Without prompting his AI, Fane received images of surfing a tube in Hawaii to calm him. Hell yeah. I remember that summer in Hawaii. What a rush.
Seconds later, the ship erupted into open space. The Milky Way spread out like a welcome-home beacon. Earth spun in blue glory, a night-light for a weary traveler. Fane turned and grinned at Jace. “I know this galaxy. We’re heading for Earth, my home planet...”
“I have no home since my planet was invaded.” Jace stared bleakly out the window and shuddered. “It was overrun by Trans after I signed up with Gryd.” He turned back and looked at Fane. “I wonder where in time we are.”
Fane accessed his AI. Check the star charts and pinpoint the approximate time. “2040. Hell, earth didn’t have interplanetary space travel until 2078. They are peaceful at the moment and have only just repaired the ozone layer. They have robotics, but they use them mainly for prosthetics. The neural pathway technology is in its infancy. They use flybikes and hovercars. They developed the PFV—that’s Earth’s personal flying vehicles—this year, and then put the manufacturing on hold until they worked out the travel grid.” He glanced at Jace. “What did you get on health? Do we need to turn on disease protection?”
“Yeah might as well, but they’ve eradicated cancer and a few other uglies. Oh yeah, and all sexually transmitted diseases, but they still haven’t found the cure for the common cold.” Jace chuckled and pointed to Earth. “It’s right under your noses.”
Turning in his seat, Fane frowned at Jace. “They will spot us as soon as we get into range. We’ll go in under stealth and hope for the best. We’ll have to stash the ship in a lake and hike to the nearest town. I’m accessing suitable coordinates now.”
“I’m betting they haven’t ever seen a guy with two cocks, but I guess we can control the extra one if we have to.” Jace grinned, but then his expression grew somber. “Let’s hope we don’t end up as lab rats here as well.”
“We must stay one step ahead all the time.” Fane got to his feet. “My AI insists we won’t be able to trade in gold in the markets. We have to make it into armbands and sell it to precious metal merchants.” He moved to the locker and slid out the gold. “Here, the strips are thin enough to bend.” He tossed two strips to Jace. “Best we don’t let the locals know about the stash we have on board. No one will worry too much about two guys selling their armbands.”
“We’ll need identities. You have a name you want to use?” Jace bent a gold strip around each upper arm. “The world runs on a single mainframe. The system is so ancient I could hack it in my sleep.” He grinned. “And yes, our AI’s are sophisticated enough to communicate with older systems.”
“My name is Fane Jacobs. My birth date is 15, January… I’m thirty, so make it 2010.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Jace Brand, 28, May, 2015.”Jace inclined his head. “I’ll do a background on both of us and upload it into your AI.” He chuckled. “I’ll add some impressive IT credentials. Anything else we need, I can handle it as we go.”
Fane grinned. “I’m assuming my AI will be able to communicate directly with their systems?”
“There’s only one problem: we will need to be very careful logging on to their primitive servers, otherwise our AIs will overload their ancient systems.” Jace shrugged. “Their computers run very slow, so we will experience a delay we’re not used to.”
“Will they be able to detect our presence?”
“Nah. They’ll have no hope breaking our code, so we’ll infiltrate like virtual ghosts on their mainframe.” Jace met Fane’s gaze. “They’ll only discover what we want them to know.”
* * * * *
Jace gripped the arms his seat in anticipation. This was his first visit to Earth.
The ship dropped into a lake on the outskirts of the city of Broadoaks. Local time flashed on the vid-screen as 3:30 p.m. The ships transporter dropped them in a deserted wooded area. Jace glanced around excited to discover woodland he recognized. Well I’ll be damned. He inhaled the sweet scents of pine and leaf mold. Redwoods and pine trees reached for a cloudy sky. Underfoot, the earth sank beneath their boots, the grass still damp from recent rainfall. Clumps of fallen leaves, wet and glossy, littered the pathways in every shade of autumn. He glanced down at his clothes. The blue jeans and black T-shirt hugged his body like a second skin. With a grin, he pulled the Nu-Leather jacket around his chest. “It looks like men have worn this get-up for a few thousand years. I must say I’m surprised they use leather. The Nu-Leather we have is much better and smells the same.”
“Yeah, but they don’t have an AI to engineer their own body coverings.” Fane moved off in the direction of the city. “Remember, when you find a sex partner you have to undress manually.”
“Did you have to mention sex?”
The sexy image of fucking two sweet, male subs crossed Jace’s mind, and a tingle of awareness shot straight to his balls. The thought of choosing his own playmates and having them for the entire night made him hard. How would they react to him? He rubbed his chin. In truth, he had a craving to wake up beside Fane, too, but he understood deep down that his lover craved a woman of his own. Would his friend find a woman here to suit him? He glanced at Fane. “Earth females of this time were not nesters, were they? The history I have is sketchy on personal stuff.” He fell into step beside Fane.
“They bred, but most held high-profile jobs in order to survive in the failing economy. They allowed older females to care for their young.” Fane pushed through the bushes. “The males treated them as equals. The females welcomed this equality—until they moved women into mining and other extreme work and expected them to do men’s work. Females don’t have the build for continuous, manual labor. But the women didn’t back down and worked until they started to become sterile. Female domination in the workforce almost led us to extinction.”
“How?”
“Earth women are super-intelligent and can multitask, but most put off breeding until they were financially stable. Many waited too long. In my time, females are still equal, but we encourage reliance on males for protection. If they want to pursue a career, that’s fine, but we’ve removed the pressure of having to work.” Fane smiled. “Most are highly skilled before marriage and now have the time to pass that knowledge onto their offspring.”
Jace scratched his five o’clock shadow. “So how did your Earth recover from the economic crisis?”
“We stopped trying to kill each other and found an alternative power source, the eternal one that runs our AI. It stabilized the world economy. We eradicated disease and repaired the ozone layer. In our time 3011, every country in the world is on an even footing financially. The main trade on Earth is in food and knowledge” He smiled. “They won’t have wormhole technology until 2050, and in 2090, Earth will be the founder of the Interplanetary Alliance”
“Hell.” Jace grimaced. “Then we started going to war again.”
“Yeah and if we stay here we’ll get to enjoy it all again.” Fane grimaced
Jace drew a deep breath. Starting over on a new planet wouldn’t be easy. They had to find some sort of work. He glanced at Fane. “Any ideas how we’re going to survive here? The gold won’t last forever.”
“We’re Doms. We’ll have enough gold to set up a club... A very exclusive club.” Fane grinned like a monkey. “Fuck, I’d love to call it Cyborg Doms, but I guess that�
�s asking for trouble.”
Jace slapped him on the back. “You’re a crazy SOB, but the club is a great idea.”
* * * * *
They paused at the perimeter of the forest and scanned the area. From this high vantage point, the town below looked sleepy and still. Fane relaxed. The smell of hot bread drifted on the air. His gaze dropped to a brick building with white smoke streaming from the chimneystack. A large sign displayed the words: Good Food Bakery. Across the road, a parking lot filled one full street corner, and in the distance, a sparkling city spread out in glass, red brick, and cement. Flybikes flashed by overhead and a variety of brightly colored cars sped along the roads. Children congregated in a small group outside a school building. The streets were busy with people going about their everyday lives. Fane and Jace walked down the hill and blended into the crowd walking casually, side by side, down the sidewalk.
Fane turned and grinned at Jace. The tight ball in his gut vanished. “We’re free at last.”
“Let’s make a list of priorities.” Jace rubbed his chin. “First, sell some of the gold, find shelter… and food—I’m starving hungry.” He chuckled. “Then I’m going on a hunt for some prime ass even if I have to insist my AI keeps my second cock in check.”
Fane laughed. “And beer. Lots of beer.”
Chapter Three
Fane pushed his hands into the pockets of his jacket and gazed at the sign above the shop window: We buy gold, silver, precious stones. He turned to Jace. “Are you sure you’ve set up everything we need to pass as locals?”
“Sure.” Jace grinned. “They use primitive scanners. Trust me.”
Fane pushed open the shop door. Computer, give me local language speak. He walked casually to the counter, slipping off his jacket. The shopkeeper eyed him with suspicion. Fane smiled and pointed to the gold band on his arm. “You buy gold? What will you give me for this armband?”