by Naomi Lucas
“Then that is where we differ in opinion, doctor, we owe it to ourselves to carve out a better future without forgetting about past transgressions. So was it worth it? Possibly committing treason?” Atlas found himself genuinely curious about the doctor’s answer.
“Yes.”
Interesting. “Why?”
“I would never have been given this opportunity otherwise. I never quite excelled beyond the best of my peers. Someone else would have been in my place if this was a sanctioned experiment, handled by the smartest in my field. It would never have been me. I guess I was lucky to be scheduled the day you arrived at my cybernetic lab. My job prior to this assignment was to stress cybernetic technology in variable atmospheres, different planetary environments.”
“Luck or fate, we may never know. I am glad we encountered each other, doctor, even if our beginning was unfortunate. Any one of your peers could have been better in skill or technique but it doesn’t mean they have integrity or honesty. I suppose we will disagree.”
Atlas glanced back at his body, and his skin had begun to weave itself together, ever so slowly; the changes were imperceptible to a mere human. Yesne shifted on his chair, bringing Atlas’s attention back toward the man. He watched as doctor fiddled with his glasses and ran his hand across his mouth.
“I’m a simple man.”
“Aren't we all?”
“I would have done anything to get on this ship. I would have lied. I did lie.” The doctor took a shaky breath.
Atlas froze. “Lie?”
“I was a cybernetic scientist who never had contact with a real Cyborg, nor a Neoborg. And this ship.” He looked around. “This ship and Captain Reina’s condition and the only Cyborg that had fully merged with the network, you, was on it. I would have done anything. You didn’t need a doctor to join you. I saw an opportunity and took it and exaggerated her condition in my reports.”
Atlas glared at the man. “That took courage. But you proved my theory.”
“Theory?” Yesne asked.
“That no one in the cybernetics division can be trusted.”
Yesne lifted the edge of his lab coat and wiped his glasses, keeping his eyes downcast.
“Was is worth it for you–scratch that, that’s a stupid question...”
“Go on.”
Yesne leaned back against the wall. “Does she know? Have you told her?”
“No,” Atlas clipped.
“Quite a shock.”
The conversation died as an extended, introspective silence descended between the two of them. It could have been awkward if their minds weren’t consumed with thoughts. Atlas, once again, looked down at his body. His chest moved as his lungs sucked in shallow breaths. That small spark of life meant more to him than all his years of living a half-life.
“Are you ready?”
Atlas smirked. “I have been ready since the day my heart erupted.”
Yesne warily got back on his feet and joined him at the opened cryostasis pod. “As you already know, it will be excruciating. The drip has very strong painkillers to help ease the torment but like all things with your kind, your body is constantly fighting off the drugs.” The doctor checked the tubes. “Will you have enough time to integrate before I am dropped off at the port?”
“Safely? Possibly. Regardless of the battle my cells are about to wage, I’m certain I will survive. I don’t like losing. Forging an artificial heart was a smart move. Metal is easier to control and I’ll be immensely less vulnerable although immensely less human.”
The doctor probed the tissue on his body. “I thought so too. Well, you have more courage than I. I have also covered all gaps to your central organs. As long as you don’t need to go under the knife again, the extra plating should serve to protect you, and you won’t have to worry about another part getting destroyed by a lucky shot.”
“It wasn’t a lucky shot,” Atlas said cryptically as he brushed his holographic fingers over the healing wound.
The doctor didn’t ask what he meant, possibly too tired to care, and that was okay with Atlas. That moment in his life brought out his anger and resentment. His willingness to just give into that insanity he was often fighting off, only to have it echo back in the closed channels of the network.
But the doctor asked a question anyway. “Will you do me a favor?”
“What?”
“If you choose to seek revenge against those that have wronged you, please warn me. Give me a chance to go underground,” Yesne pleaded with him warily.
“My revenge depends entirely on Captain Reina, so if you have faith in her then you should know what the future holds for you. Until then, you will be released onto Antix. Neither Reina or I will stop you and it will be up to you to choose what you do with the information that you have learned here.”
The doctor’s lips twitched. “I have faith in the girl. But that just makes me all the more curious.” Yesne lifted his head to match his gaze directly. “Why have you not told her about this? I don’t believe she would have stopped this from happening.”
Atlas frowned, unwilling to answer that question. His reasons were his own, whether his decision to keep it from her was right or not.
She keeps men at a distance... but she doesn’t keep me away because she feels safe with me.
Atlas was afraid to break the progress he had made with Reina. She may fear me when I am whole or lose the fragile trust we have built between us. With their potential deaths in the near future, he wasn’t willing to risk what he had with her.
He could very well go insane, his body may reject the implant, or he could die. Why give her one more thing to worry about, one more possibility of hope, a promise he may not be able to keep, only to fail once again?
He kept his secret as much for himself as he did for her. She’ll only know me when I can be sure the real me is what I can give her.
Without giving Yesne an answer, Atlas responded, “I think it’s time.”
“I will get some sleep then.”
He watched as the man left, the door opening and closing quietly through his passage. Yesne had not been a prisoner of the ship since his first day onboard.
Atlas paired back with his body.
No one heard as he screamed at the walls inside his head, as he felt the pain of retaking control of his form for the first time in seventy-five years, fifteen hours, fifty-two minutes, and eighteen seconds.
Chapter Fourteen:
Her head was filled with cobwebs. Reina tried hard throughout the night to stay out of the network, and even harder to stay out of her dreams, but it proved a daunting task that left her feeling unrested.
At one point in her dream, she had found herself back inside the upscale hotel spaceport bar, once again with a drink in her hand, and the clarity of the prior dream came back to her, knowing the man who had joined her before was actually Atlas, and that he had joined her inside her subconscious.
He’s been watching me from the beginning. The thought shouldn’t have put her at ease but oddly enough it did. She liked knowing that she truly wasn’t alone. It gave her a different perspective on things.
But he hadn’t shown up in her head this past night and she wondered if it was because of her desperation to control her actions. Reina had tried hard to compartmentalize the power she now had.
She had sat at that imaginary bar and kept her eyes trained forward, refusing to acknowledge anything beyond her immediate environment, even ignoring the shadow-like beings that fluttered behind her and conversed. She had even tried to ignore the drink the bartender put in front of her.
Perhaps Atlas was with me, just watching me from the background. Maybe he was waiting for me to look. I should have looked.
I could have turned around and stolen kisses from him; I could have pretended it was real for a short time.
Reina mused over her regrets as she stood before the tall mirror in her lavatory, her eyes lazily inspecting her body. She had slept but she didn’t feel rested.
She didn’t even think she looked rested.
She leaned forward and rested her forehead against the glass, letting her metalloid arm hang limply at her side, too tired to even work the muscles to lift it. Reina eyed the fog that clouded her reflection where her breath hit the surface.
The Council hadn’t responded yet. She swiped her hand over the lavatory’s control panel, changing the interface, and rechecked for any communications. Nothing. She wasn’t looking forward to their response and secretly hoped that it wouldn’t get to them before they left Antix. At least then she could pretend she never received it.
Being off the grid did have some benefits. She smiled to herself.
The strange electrical currents that traveled through her body whenever her bare skin met the ship were beginning to feel normal. She was even learning to enjoy it; the effect was slightly arousing, given Atlas’s presence in the ship. It made her aching and wanting and in desperate need to climax. Reina left the bathroom and eyed the tousled sheets on her bed, wishing her steely Cyborg navigator were lounging on them waiting for her, his cock hard, impossibly large, and erect... just waiting for her to seat herself on it.
Her body flushed as she pictured herself riding him. His rod stretching her as she used him like a toy, his hands gripping her hips, keeping her thrusts wild and steady as she began to tire on top of him. Until exhaustion took over and he began to use her like a toy.
Reina could feel the quiver between her legs as her body began to prepare her for a fuck that wasn’t going to happen. She closed her eyes and tried to will it away. Ten minutes of agonizing meditation later, her fingers strumming over her clit, a very unsatisfying orgasm finally shot through her. She sprawled back over her bed.
She kept her eyes closed shut as she caught her breath before she slowly opened them, expecting Atlas to be standing over her watching her pleasure herself. She wanted him to watch her, and know that she ached because of him and only for him.
But he wasn’t there. Reina got up and went to the unit still placed in the center of her room. It was turned on.
“Good morning, Atlas,” she said breathlessly and smiled. Reina waited but there was no answer.
“Atlas?” Still no response.
Where is he?
Annoyance etched her features as she watched the unit for another brief moment before she turned and slipped on her flight suit, her actions tinged with a sense of uncertainty.
Reina headed for the ship’s lounge after one last glance around her room.
Several minutes later, she was sitting at the central table with a mug of terrible instant coffee in her hand. Why do I feel strange? She tapped her fingers on the table, the soft thuds the only sound around her.
Had she scared him off? It’s not like Atlas to ignore her call.
Reina couldn’t help but think the walls her mind had painstakingly crafted the night before had shut him out without her realization. Questions raced through her mind, all of them central to her sexy sentient intelligence, and it was only made worse by the heavy silence that clouded around her head. Even the soft patter of her fingertips felt suppressed under the weight.
Just when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, the click of footsteps broke the bubble and Yesne walked through the door.
“Good morning, Captain.”
“Good morning, doctor.” She took a sip of her drink as Yesne replicated a mug of “coffee” for himself and joined her.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked.
“I did,” she lied. “You?”
“Quite so.”
An awkward silence drifted between them and Reina wished for the return of her lonely, oppressive silence. Together they calmly drank their coffee.
Atlas had yet to make an appearance.
She lifted her eyes to face the doctor and noticed, for the first time, how tired and drawn he looked. He appeared to have lost the slight pudge around his frame.
“Yesne. Are you okay? Are you sick? You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine, Captain. I get lost in my work sometimes and the physical result is always the same. I’ll bounce back.” He smiled.
Reina realized she had no idea what the doctor had been up to. “What work is that? I can’t imagine monitoring my processes could have done this to you.”
Just then the familiar zing and soft blue light filtered through the room.
“Oh, just this and that. A ship of this nature has never sailed the stars under Earthian command before,” Yesne replied. Atlas’s projection appeared next to them, standing over their table, oddly menacing. Yesne continued to talk. “There was a fair amount of unique data to collect under the emergency warp and the technical events leading up to the attack. Did you know the protocols for initiating fire never went into effect? That must mean you have more power over the ship’s processes than those that have been built in.” The doctor went on but Reina’s attention was on her Cyborg.
She released a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding as their eyes met, and his flashed with a hard possessive glint that was unusual for his perceived, calculated appearance.
He looks more human...he looks angry. What the hell happened?
Reina instinctively reached out and pushed a chair back, giving him the option to join them at the table. It was then, when he held her gaze with a transfixed darkness that she realized Yesne had stopped talking and both men were staring at her.
“Are you okay, Reina?” Atlas asked.
She blinked hard and looked down at her hands. “Yes. Sorry, I got lost in my head again.”
“Thank you for offering me a seat, but I think I’ll stand if you don’t mind.” His voice harsh yet soft. Reina looked up at him when he continued to speak. There was a tightness to his form, almost as if he was willing himself to look normal. “We’re now about one Earth rotation away from Antix. There has been no activity near us since yesterday’s warp. Our network connections have begun to fail, so I won’t be able to give an accurate reading on any long term or far distant trajectory pathways. At this point, if we happen to break down or get attacked, we may very well be on our own.”
Reina sipped her coffee. “What are the odds of our mission deviating from the current timeline?”
“About even.”
“That’s just great. That doesn’t help.” She sighed.
“Like I said, we’re progressively going dark.” He responded evenly.
“We still have a strong connection to Antix. We’ll shift over and use their relays from here on out. I’m going to try and reach the Council one last time before we disconnect. It doesn’t make sense to try and retain our frequency to the main channels when we can bolster our connections to the middling ones. At least that way, any communication we make through their systems will eventually get to the main hub, even if it’s delayed.” Reina looked over at the doctor, who was silently staring into his empty cup. “Are you ready for port? Our superiors have been pressing me on your data logs and reports not being regular or on time. Will you be able to finish them and have an accurate backlog to send them when you reconnect?”
Yesne wiped his glasses over the vest of his flight suit. Reina tried not to look back over at Atlas but she knew he was watching her out of the corner of her eyes. His perusal burned.
Always in my periphery.
“I will have everything ready for the cybernetics department today. I apologize that I have grown lax in my reporting–”
“–I just want to make sure it wasn’t because of my rehabilitation, my mutation,” she said the last part under her breath.
“No, not at all. I have just been occupied with this vessel. I don’t travel through space often and have never dreamed of doing so on a living machine.” He coughed. “It has been a vacation.”
Reina laughed. “If you say so. At least we’ll have a great view.”
The silence descended again and it was all the more poignant as it engulfed the three of them. Reina could feel the sizzling tensi
on between her and Atlas; it didn’t help that he was watching her like he wanted to consume her.
His eyes bore into her in a way that made her want to crawl out of her skin.
She couldn’t stop the red flush spreading over her cheeks as she thought of the performance she put on for him this morning. Or the empty, begging ache that pulsed between her legs at the thought of his steel cock pistoning into her.
Why do I keep going there? It’s not like it’s ever going to happen between us. She felt herself getting frustrated and pushed the thoughts of sex away.
Today was the last day before the real darkness began. Everyone could feel it; everything was coming to a head. The silence became suffocating.
Reina looked down at her hands as a tiny flash of fear shot through her.
My hands are shaking...?
SOMETIME LATER REINA found herself sitting at the helm of her ship, shuffling through the holographic screens of data that relayed the ship’s systems. Everything down to the warp drive, the nutrient packets and proteins for the food replicator, and even the water recycling system as well as all daily resource usage. A fair amount of power had been running through the medical bay systems, including some of the chemical supplies.
But she had assumed it was Yesne running data analysis, and she knew she should have investigated further but the thought of being examined like a lab-rat, or worse, a thing kept her away.
Reina shook the thoughts away, focusing on the ship’s subsystems. The screens filled her vision but she could still see beyond them to her slightly skewed panoramic view of space.