But was that what he wanted? Night after night of wonderful food and pleasure dashed by rude awakenings? He couldn’t live with such uncertainty. And he certainly didn’t want a hand to mouth existence. Nicholas had given him ten pounds – a princely sum, but it wouldn’t buy him anything permanent. He had to take control of his destiny, not live clinging desperately to other people’s fickle desires.
He sighed, seeing only one alternative. He would have to go back to Icarus. He was the only one he could really talk to, and he did possess an amazing power over machines. Del realised with a jolt that when he’d mentioned arriving here via a fifth-dimensional transportation unit, Icarus had indicated his understanding.
He knew what a fifth-dimensional transportation unit was!
Del straightened up from the wall he had sagged against. Could he build one? A new hope flared in his heart. So what if he was some sort of undead creature? He was the only one who could help! I’ll have to put aside my prejudices and trust him, Del thought. After all, if he really wanted to kill me, he would have already done so. And all he did was get me a bed and a bath!
He remembered the previous dawn when he’d run from the lab. Icarus had called after him. He had been too preoccupied at the time to acknowledge it, but now he remembered how upset Icarus had sounded. Certainly nothing like the damned creature Del had accused him of being.
Icarus, I’m sorry, Del thought as he retraced his steps to the station. I’m coming back now.
Chapter 6
The Omniportallis
Del reached Icarus’s doorway at around dusk and searched for the drunk with the decaying face he had spotted the previous morning. He didn’t appear to be in residence, but the exile noticed an abandoned bottle and some bedding wedged into a crack between two buildings to keep it dry. He vowed to try and help the fellow when next he saw him.
If I wasn’t crippled myself I’d be able to halt his disease and maybe even restore his face, he thought darkly. Now I’ll be lucky if I can relieve him of some pain. He pushed against the door and for a moment it refused to budge. He wondered if Icarus had locked him out. But then the warped old wooden panel creaked inwards. It had simply been stuck. Del closed it behind him and crept down through the warren into the basement. Once again the lights came on for him.
His arrival startled Icarus from a corner, where he had been sweeping the rough stone floor near the coal pile. Judging by the clouds of dust, it was a job that looked like it hadn’t been done for a while. “Oh, it’s you,” he grunted, trying to sound nonchalant, and returned to his cleaning.
“Hello,” Del answered. Even without trying to read the cyborg’s mind, the Eridon realised he was only acting cool. From all the wards around the place, he probably knew I was coming when I first entered the alley. But he let Icarus keep his illusion of aloofness and crossed the now clean floor to his bed. The past two days he had spent wandering around the city had worn him out. At least here he would be able to sleep without being disturbed. He removed his cloak, noticing that a new hook had been attached to the side of the work bench for it. He hung it up, rested his hat on top, and stretched out on the bed.
Within minutes, perhaps even seconds, he was fast asleep.
Icarus continued to work, making sure the rest of the floor was clean. He couldn’t remember the last time he had swept up, but it could easily have been a hundred years ago. He had been the cellar’s only occupant for … Hell, when had he moved down here? He couldn’t remember. Sometime after the Great Fire. Now he no longer feared death, the years blurred into decades.
What he really wanted to do was rejoice that Del had returned. After he had stormed out the previous morning, Icarus sank into a depression, considering undoing all the changes he’d made. Now he had experienced the joy of finally communicating with someone who understood him, he didn’t want to be alone again. But he couldn’t summon the energy, instead spending the time seated in front of his furnace. How easily the hours had slipped away from him! Scarcely had he begun to brood when he felt Del returning! Then he realised that two days had passed! Two whole days! No wonder he couldn’t recall how long he had been here. By himself, he had no way of measuring its passing. His machines might have been full of clockwork, but he had never, ever thought to install an actual clock.
He cleared the last of the flagstones, dumping the dust and ash into a bin beside the furnace, then busied himself at his work-bench for a few hours, cleaning up some of the parts he had left lying around. He made some noise, but Del never stirred. Icarus found his gaze increasingly drawn to the alien being who slept so soundly, sprawled on his back, his long dark hair spread around his head in a thick blanket. Icarus had never seen hair like that before. What people he did encounter during his rare nocturnal outings had fine, wispy dirty hair. Not even the whores he saw from a distance had hair like that, and they had spent money on wigs! He had to touch it. Slowly he got up and crept towards Del, trying to be as silent as possible. The alien seemed asleep, but he couldn’t be sure.
He stroked the shining strands with his one human hand. Since he had died his sense of touch had become stronger. He could feel as precisely as a blind man. The dark locks felt like silk. All of a sudden the strangest sensation washed over him, something he had never felt before … no, that was incorrect. He had felt it before, but so long ago he had almost forgotten it. He had thought that since his death he would never experience it again and so had banished all such memories and emotions.
He was feeling desire.
How can this be? he wondered in confusion. I am no longer equipped for it! But the feeling was there nonetheless, like the phantom itch left in the stump of a severed limb. It was something that could never be scratched. Even though there wasn’t much left of him, his brain still remembered.
A tear of frustration stung his one remaining eye. He had lived, no, existed for so long without feeling anything that the sensation left him almost crippled with pain. He couldn’t move. It would have been better if Del had not come back, Icarus thought miserably.
“Icarus?” asked Del.
Icarus had been so preoccupied that he hadn’t even noticed Del wake up. And he had been so frozen with despair that he hadn’t even bothered to let go of Del’s hair. Then acute embarrassment galvanised him into action. He leapt to his feet with an incoherent cry of anguish and scuttled off across the room, disappearing down the little corridor at the back.
Damn, I should have given him more warning, Del thought as he sat up. He had woken when Icarus first touched him, but lain still, pondering his next move. He got up and followed Icarus into the passage, finding him in the first room. He was powering up the electric chair.
Icarus thought maybe a good jolt of electricity would banish the feelings he couldn’t control.
“Icarus,” Del called from the doorway.
“Go away!” Icarus shouted without turning around. “Leave me alone, damnit!”
“It’s alright!” Del stepped into the room. “You can talk to me. There’s no reason for you to be so embarrassed.”
“You don’t understand,” Icarus snarled as he pulled down the big two-pronged switch to charge up the chair. “You can’t possibly understand!”
“Try me. I am telepathic you know. I would understand if you’d let me.”
Icarus whirled around. “No, look at yourself!” He shook his metal fist at Del. “You are complete! While all that is left of me is my head and one arm! I am barely a quarter of a person! How can someone like you possibly see any more? You... you-” His voice caught, “you are perfect.” He turned away, feeling more tears. Damnit, why did that part of him still work when everything else was dry as dust? He punched the brick wall with a steel fist, cracking the bricks.
Because of his emotional state, Icarus was no longer blocking his feelings. But Del didn’t need to be inside his head to experience them. They were painfully obvious. He crossed the little room, touching Icarus on a narrow shoulder. “I have never thought of you
as less than a … human being. Out there in the universe where I come from, a cyborg may be just a brain suspended inside a completely mechanical body, but he – or she – is still considered a complete person.”
“You said I was damned,” Icarus continued without turning.
Del took a deep breath. Deep down, he still believed this. He couldn’t deny what lay in his own corrupted heart. But he was determined to placate Icarus. “I’m sorry. I am damned as well, and I had no right to point a finger. But we can fight it together.”
Icarus managed to compose himself. He really didn’t like appearing so weak. He was supposed to be centuries old – he should have had the control to match. Slowly he turned, forcing himself to look up at Del. “I … I am still not worthy of you,” he declared. “You are beautiful, and I am … a freak.”
“Icarus, I have never thought of you as freakish, not once. Like I told you before, I have seen many different and unusual beings in my time. Creatures taller than this room with doglike ears and snouts, catlike beings with whiskers and tails, aliens made entirely of stone, intelligent plants … and cyborgs, thousands and thousands of cyborgs of all shapes and sizes. On my world everyone – and I mean everyone is beautiful. Not a single blemish, deformity, unwanted hair. Compared to humans, we look like angels. But that’s what makes us so ordinary. I like differences. I like interesting and unique. That’s why I joined my father exploring the universe.” Memories of what he’d done to his parent returned. Angrily he banished them. This wasn’t the time.
Icarus became aware that his machine had reached full power. If left humming for too long, it would soon overload his generator. “Could you give me a minute?” He motioned for Del to leave.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Del asked. “Truthfully, all you are doing is energy channeling. I do it all the time. I absorb the warmth in here and it revitalises me. I must – If I were to eat all the human food I required to keep me going, I would be eating all the time.”
“You meant what you said? That you don’t find me repulsive?” Icarus asked softly.
“No. I find you fascinating. That you have managed to fashion yourself an entirely new body in this pre-technological age is incredible. You must tell me how you accomplished it.”
Icarus removed his coat and handed it to Del. Then he took his place on the chair. He reached across and flicked the switch. The clamps locked around his limbs, holding him in place. Then thousands of volts of electricity sizzled into him. The power did soothe him, but not enough. When the surge finished, he sagged in his chair in despair. The clamps released him, but he didn’t move.
“What’s the matter?” Del asked. “You don’t seem any happier.”
“Stop reading my emotions,” Icarus growled. “It’s not polite.”
“I would if you stopped broadcasting them!”
Icarus glared at him, but Del felt him blocking him once more. Then he snatched his coat out of his hands and stalked back out into the main body of the lab. “Why did you come back, anyway?” he asked without turning around. “I’m sure someone like you could find any number of better places to spend the night!”
“I did find a very nice place to spend last night, but early this morning – yesterday morning,” Del corrected himself as he leaned against Icarus’s work bench. “I was very rudely kicked out of bed!” He took a deep breath and revealed his adventure with Nicholas Gordon. Being Eridon, he saw no need to hide any of the facts or beat around the bush, and explained exactly what had happened between them. Icarus could only gape at him in amazement.
“You … you slept with this fellow?” he gasped.
“Eventually we slept. I only need a few hours of sleep per night, but even I was exhausted after three bouts of love-making! He woke me too early and made me leave. He was afraid his own servant would see us together. His own servant! The subterfuge we had to conduct to be together could have come from a spy story! The prejudices you humans have about sexual intimacy are unbelievable!”
Icarus had to sit down, and perched on his stool in front of Del. “He … he must have thought you were a male whore.”
“He did give me some money.” Del found the wad of notes, still wedged in his pocket. He pulled it out and Icarus craned forward for a better look. He hadn’t seen that much cash in years! “Imagine the tools I could buy with that! I might even be able to finish the Omniportallis at last!”
“The what?” Del asked.
Icarus quickly changed the subject. Del’s story had fascinated him. Despite the painful desire in him, he wanted to hear more. He wanted details. “Tell me more about … what you and this Nicholas Gordon did together,” he prompted, then held his breath – metaphorically speaking of course. He fully expected Del to chastise him for his nosiness.
Icarus had piqued Del’s curiosity with that strange word, Omniportallis. Perhaps he would tell him more about it later, after he had revealed the rest of the tale. So he gave Icarus a far more detailed description of the events. He couldn’t read Icarus strange face, but he felt some of his crude mind-shields slip, revealing his deep internal struggle. He had no idea what to do about his rising desire for Del, but he had to hear more. He had to be a part of that story.
“Because it’s not difficult for me to telepathically experience human emotions, I felt his pleasure and in turn my own was enhanced,” Del explained. “We Eridons don’t maintain our shields during sexual intercourse, so I lowered my veils and transmitted my pleasure to Nicholas. Each time we made love, he thought he climaxed twice.”
“Wait!” Icarus lifted a hand. “I know you can experience other people’s thoughts and emotions, but can you truly transmit what you are feeling into another person’s head?”
“That’s what I said.”
Icarus grabbed Del’s arms. “Can you send feelings to me?” he asked with such urgency that Del was momentarily stunned.
“You’re shielded. You would have to drop them.”
“I can do that.” Icarus squeezed Del’s arms so hard he actually yelped. “Can you transmit that pleasure to me? So that I might feel it despite my lack of … equipment?”
Del understood. Somehow he managed to extricate his arms from Icarus’s vice-like grip. “The mind is a powerful thing, Icarus. You don’t need any … equipment to feel pleasure.” He snickered. “But it’s no good me transmitting my memories of last night – I’m no longer a mentalist. All you will get are images.”
“Then you must feel it right now.” Icarus touched his thigh with his human hand. Compared to his grip of earlier, his fingers were surprisingly delicate. He ran his hand up Del's leg to his crotch. “Bear with me – I haven’t done this in … centuries. I’m a little … rusty!” It was his turn to laugh.
Del caught his hand. His forwardness had surprised even him. “Why don’t you watch me first?”
“Yes, alright.”
Del began stripping out of his clothes. Like when he had undressed for the bath he felt no shame or embarrassment. Seated on his stool Icarus couldn’t believe his eyes. Surely this couldn’t be happening. Surely he had to be dreaming!
But he hadn’t dreamed since his death – only spent the quiet hours in motionless solitude. This was real; the magnificent being standing before him, so tall and slender, but with well defined muscles and not a single hair marring his silky smooth skin. Icarus could not tear his gaze from him. The last time he had seen a being so perfect, it had been a drawing inside one of Leonardo’s notebooks.
Del began to pleasure himself, broadcasting his feelings to Icarus. Icarus lowered his carefully constructed shields and immediately experienced the warm rush of the Eridon’s pleasure. He wasn’t nervous or embarrassed. Truly he had no inhibitions at all. The sheer strangeness of the situation was exciting him. Icarus could feel every touch, every stroke, every caress on body-parts he hadn’t had for years. Then he experienced something else he hadn’t felt for hundreds of years – the beating of his heart! All of a sudden the hot stea
m flowing through his mechanical body was blood, and the hard metal of his skin became soft flesh.
Del knew exactly what he was doing. In order to maximize his own pleasure he teased himself, building up towards his climax, then letting it ease so it would be stronger next time. But even he, with his superior control, couldn’t hold it forever. With one last lingering stroke he let the ecstasy fill him - and flow into Icarus.
Icarus, who had been sitting still the whole time, only reveling within, was knocked off his stool. He fell with a crash and lay still, gazing unseeingly at the ceiling. Del fell to his knees with a gasp, convinced the influx of unfamiliar pleasure had knocked him unconscious. “Icarus, speak to me!” he cried.
“I feel like I’ve been run over by a train!” he wheezed. Del helped him to sit up. “I’ve never felt anything like it … not even when I was alive!”
“I did intensify it somewhat.”
Suddenly Icarus hugged him. “Thank you,” he whispered. Normally the heat of his body would have burned a normal person. But Del welcomed the warmth and held him back.
“You needn’t worry about your … er ‘lack of equipment’ either,” Del told him. “I’m sure, with your mechanical knowledge, you can manufacture something suitably long and hard to pleasure me with.”
Later, after the sun had risen sufficiently, Del dressed and went out to purchase some items for Icarus. Knowing he would be alone for a few hours, Icarus visited the storage area beside his electric chair room. Beneath some large sheets of canvas lay a collection of metal rings of different sizes. Icarus had beaten them into shape himself over several years, and the time had come to fit them together. That was the hard part. They needed to join together snugly, but not so snugly they couldn’t spin. They also needed to move frictionlessly. Icarus hoped Del would bring back the right bearings.
The Circus Infinitus - Genesis Infinitus Page 10