C791
Cyborgs: More Than Machines

Excerpt

Arriving at the checkpoint, the same fresh-faced private from before let her through, but as she reached the outside of the prisoner’s cage, she stopped dead. Hanging in his restraints, head bowed, was the cyborg. Traces of dried blood marred his skin, while red puckered wounds dotted his chest.

“What happened to you?” she gasped.

The cyborg raised his head, his tanned skin of before now waxy and pale. Through stiff lips he said, “Happened? More of your scientist’s tests, little one. This particular one, the remnants of which you see, is used to discover what I can endure without dying and how quickly I can regenerate flesh.”

Her eyes flicked up and down his torso, noting his almost healed wounds. “But I was here just yesterday. These look like you’ve been healing for weeks.”

A mocking smile curved his lips. “Isn’t science marvelous? Now if only you humans could figure out a way to harness the nanobots in my blood without becoming cyborgs yourselves.”

“Your blood can make us into machines?” Her horror came through loud and clear.

He laughed, a mirthless sound that sent a shiver up her spine. “No. The nanobots are useless without a BCI. So fear not, I am not some contagious monster out to convert all humans into cyborg.”

Speaking of blood, drops of it peppered the floor. As if sensing the direction of her thoughts he said, “I wouldn’t bother trying to collect any of that. One of the fabulous properties of my blood is it becomes inert and useless seconds after leaving my body.”

Hearing this explained how her small sample of the day before had proved useless before she got it to the lab. But annoyance did imbue her as she recalled the dressing down she’d gotten for not being more careful with her collection method. That bastard. Just because Dr. Drossinger ran the science department didn’t give him the right to be an asshole. Then again, it wasn’t like she could do anything about it.

“Why does your blood do that? And how?” she asked.

“Because that way our enemies can’t use it against us.” He grinned at her, a feral grimace that made her flinch. “What I can’t understand is why your human doctors keep sending people in trying to steal samples. It’s a waste of time and personnel if you ask me.”

“Well, if it’s such a waste, then why don’t you let me take what I need?” she replied, opening her kit and pulling out a syringe. She slipped it into her pocket for the moment, needing her hands free.

“Why make it easy when I can make it entertaining?”

She ignored his goading taunt to open a package of sterile wipes. Donning rubber gloves, she approached him.

“Gloves? Aren’t you just the kinky one today? I warn you though, if you insert any fingers or other objects into my out hole, I won’t be responsible for the consequences.”

His crude remark made her frown. “For a machine, you’ve got a potty mouth and a bad attitude. I would have thought your programming would make you more polite.”

Instead of getting angry, he laughed. “Oh, little one, your innocence is a treat. Manners were never a part of our programming. Tools, after all, don’t need any. What you hear now is a shadow of my former self merged with my new identity.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Your human military tried to wipe away my humanity. Tried to erase who I was. But I broke those chains of bondage and what I didn’t recover of my past life, I replaced.”

“What are you talking about? Cyborgs are made. Everyone knows you’re specially grown in the labs and emerge full-grown. You have no memories.”

“Wrong. We were once human like you with families and lives. Your military took that away from us.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You lie. The officials in charge said—”

“I don’t give a damn what your officials say,” he snarled. “We are human. Or were until the military experimented on us. For a long time we were also slaves until we threw rebelled and retook our freedom. Since our revolution, some of my kind have remembered fragments of their pasts, and what we couldn’t recall, we taught ourselves again. Television and movies are wonderful tools for learning how to act so we can blend in.”

She absorbed what he said, his words making sickening sense. It wouldn’t be the first time the military lied. She took a step closer, staring up at his face and meeting his gaze. “But you’re a cyborg. How could you hope to fit in?” she asked, casually wiping the dried blood from his skin, hoping he’d keep talking instead of focusing on her actions. He didn’t seem to mind her ministrations though, even if she found herself reacting to the proximity. She wondered if he noticed how her nipples tightened into points that pressed against her jumpsuit. Thankfully he couldn’t see how the heat he transmitted, even through her gloves, made her pussy moisten and tighten in erotic interest. She wanted to halt these insane reactions to his presence, deny them, but for whatever sick reason, the robot encased in flesh attracted her.

He laughed, a low taunting chuckle that made her freeze and peer at his face. “Ah, little one. Are you truly that naïve? Look at me. If they’d not told you I was part machine, if you’d seen me on the street, wearing clothes, going about my business, can you honestly say you would have given me a second look?”

Her first impulse was to say he possessed too much presence to ever be ignored, but at the same time, she recognized that, while his virility and size made him noticeable, would she have immediately known or sensed he was less than one hundred percent human? Hadn’t his lack of metal parts surprised her? “You might pass until you open your mouth. You have an odd way of speaking.”

A frown creased his forehead. “A flaw I am working on, I assure you. But, speech aside, even you have to admit, I look all too human.”

“So how did you get caught then if you’re such a master of human disguise?” she said sarcastically, her pert query shocking her as much as him.

His left brow arched, and a half smile curved his lips. “Metal detector.”