C791 (Cyborgs: More Than Machines) (4 page)

“I was at the military base that used to be in charge of cyborg development. Of course, now they’re more concerned with hiding their tracks and finding ways to destroy us.”

“What were you looking for?”

“Answers.” His reply emerged curt. “Are you done yet? I’m sure they don’t pay you to talk.”

She blushed at his brusque reminder. “Will you allow me to take a sample of your blood?”

“You’re asking me?”

She nodded.

“But I told you the sample will die before you get it to the doctors and their equipment.”

“Maybe, but at least they can’t accuse me of not doing my job.”

“Fine. Take it. But nothing else.”

“Why not?”

“Because then you might not have a reason to come back.”

His shocking reply made her meet his gaze. “You want me to return?”

“I find you nicer to look at than the regular fuckwads around here.”

She ignored his profanity, but found his roundabout compliment harder to resist. “Will you give me a saliva sample if I come back?”

“I’ll think about it.”

She didn’t push him. It seemed she’d already achieved more than those who tried before. She took the sample of blood while he watched her. Packing the filled vial into her kit, she snapped the locks and stood with it.

“Thank you for cleaning my wounds,” he said softly.

Startled, she met his eyes and couldn’t look away. “You’re welcome,” she replied. Mustering up the nerve, she blurted, “How did they catch you?”

His eyes crinkled with mirth, an unexpected human reaction that shook her. “Who says they did?”

She opened her mouth to point out the obvious, but the cockiness in his answer kept her silent.

He laughed. “Oh, little one. You are so adorably gullible. They caught me because I was careless. They blasted me with several toxic gases at once, and while they didn’t kill me, they managed to knock me out long enough to incarcerate me here.”

“But rumor says you’ve slipped your restraints a few times now. Why haven’t you escaped?”

“Escape where? Or has it not occurred to you that one cyborg, buried in a military base, several layers underground, chained in an electrified cage is at a slight disadvantage?”

His query, meant to make her feel stupid, didn’t entirely work. “What about your friends?”

“My cyborg brothers? What about them? Surely you don’t expect them to embark on a suicide mission just to rescue me. It wouldn’t be logical.”

“If you can’t escape and can’t hope for rescue, then why keep fighting?” she asked, genuinely puzzled. Surely, good behavior would achieve more for him.

“There’s always hope, little one. Every second of every day since our liberation is a reminder of that.”

For some reason, his parting words resonated in her and sparked a flame. They made her long for something she couldn’t define.

*

When she returned the next day, Chloe tried to stem her eagerness. The time since her last visit with the cyborg gaped like a blank spot in her mind. It seemed, since she’d met him, she only came alive when work took her to him. With less fear than the last two times, she went through the checkpoint routine before approaching the cell and the prisoner. He raised his head almost immediately, a smile briefly crossing his lips when their eyes met, and her heart sped up. A glare quickly followed his gentle look, but not aimed at her. Swiveling her head, she followed the direction of the cyborg’s gaze and caught the guard — not the same one from before — ogling her butt.

She snapped her eyes back to the prisoner. To give attention to the soldier’s actions might act as an invitation for him to try something bolder. Women buried deep in military installations didn’t enjoy the same kind of protection regular citizens did. Actually, women of the lower classes didn’t enjoy much protection at all. Unfair, but true.

This time when the electrical current ceased and the cage opened, Chloe barely hesitated before stepping in. Stupid or not, a part of her didn’t think the cyborg would hurt her, a foolish belief, but one she couldn’t prevent.

“Hello, little one. Did you miss me?” The cyborg’s mocking tone should have angered her, but she caught the warm glint in his eyes, and instead, her body tingled, as if erotically charged. She blamed it on hormones, reacting to his primitive maleness and proximity.

“I’m here for some samples,” she stated uselessly, opening up her kit, determined to get more than blood this time. She had to if she wanted to reap the full benefit of the bonus credits the military promised. Or so she told herself. A part of her wondered if he’d speak with her again, hoped he would.

“Exactly how many times do they need to test my blood?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know why they want it, just that they ordered me to get another sample of your blood, spit, and anything else I can get my hands on.”

“Else? And what else could I possibly donate to your kind and benevolent military?” he asked with a derisive leer.

She couldn’t help the heat that rose in her cheeks. “Um, hair,” she answered, unable to think of anything else.

He snorted. “I didn’t even need my BCI to process that as a lie.”

“Urine?” Her new reply came out as a query, and he chuckled, the soft sound rolling over her skin and leaving it tingling.

“Our bodies don’t need to excrete waste like humans. We process all materials and absorb them.”

“What about the guy you peed on?”

“That was done for pure enjoyment.”

Her face must have expressed her repugnance because he laughed. She wrinkled her nose. “I hope you won’t try that with me.”

“Alas, without a drop of water since my incarceration, I am no longer capable of filling even a teaspoon.”

“So you don’t even…” She fidgeted as she looked for a polite way to ask if he excreted the other way. “Surely you don’t keep everything? You must have ways to remove excess materials.”

“Any surplus we take in is expelled, but as a rule, we don’t imbibe more than we can handle, and we can retain any excess for as long as needed. Store it if you will for times when supplies might be scarce.”

“Isn’t that uncomfortable?”

He shrugged his big shoulders. “We were programmed that way to be efficient. We required very little sustenance when on missions, able to nourish ourselves from the environment. Also the lack of excretion made us virtually impossible to detect.”

“So you don’t pass urine and other wastes like we do, but what about other liquids?”

“Such as?”

“Do you, um, actually eject anything from your, um, thing?” She blushed as she tried to phrase the question without actually coming out and saying it.

Her roundabout query made him laugh. “If you’re asking if we shoot semen, then yes, we are capable. Why do you ask? Did your superiors add a sample of that to your list of specimens to collect?”

Red cheeked, she could only nod, embarrassed at the topic of conversation.

“And how are you supposed to do that?”

“By any means necessary,” she whispered.

“Do you always do as you’re told?” he queried.

The disdain in his eyes shamed her and raised her defenses. “When the order comes from someone who controls my paycheck, then yes. And the way I hear it, if you’d done the same, your kind wouldn’t be hunted.” Her eyes widened in horror as she blurted it out. She slapped a hand over her mouth and cringed as his face tightened into a mask of fury.

“My kind were scheduled for termination before we ever found our will to live. Should we have mindlessly allowed ourselves to march into space and die?”

Her brow crinkled. “What are you talking about? The order to kill came only after the cyborgs revolted.”

“Wrong, little one. This isn’t a case of the chicken and the egg, which your scientists still stupidly debate. We revolted because of the order to destroy us.”

“But…”

“But what? Did your military and government lie to you?” he drawled sarcastically. “Gee, what a surprise. How do you think I and my brothers felt? They stole our bodies, stole our memories of humanity, leaving us with only shattered pieces, then made us into tools for their use. Expendable tools. And when they decided we were useless to them, they tried to terminate us. Is it any wonder we want to get rid of your kind?”

No.
She didn’t say it aloud but couldn’t help thinking it. Could she blame the cyborgs, once men, according to him, mixed with machine for wanting to live? And yet… “I can understand you wanting revenge against those who did this to you. More specifically the military. But what about the civilian spacecrafts you’ve attacked en route to the colonies? If you hate the military so much then why do you kidnap women and children, torturing them? They’ve done nothing to you and yet you punish them.”

“Do we?” he asked, his gaze focused entirely on her.

“You tell me. You say the military has been lying to us, and yet there are videos of your kind attacking the colony ships and kidnapping innocents.”

“Did your superiors task you with finding out?” he sneered. “Are they too afraid to ask me themselves?”

“I don’t need an order to ask questions, just basic decency. But apparently you lack the balls to answer,” she snapped, irritated he would label her a spy.

“Oh, I have balls, little one. Great big ones. Feel free to take a peek,” he said, his leer wide and not friendly like some of the ones from before. He laughed at her moue of disgust. “You want to know why we’ve taken a few handfuls of your kind? I will tell you because it’s not a secret. We take the women because we are men, and while we can control most of our bodily impulses, why should we deny ourselves the pleasure of a female’s touch? Or more accurately, why should we deny them the pleasure we can give them, a greater pleasure than they’ve ever known at the hands and cocks of human males?”

Disgust at his bold statement — that warred with her body’s burgeoning intrigue — made her spit, “Pig.”

“It is not crass to state the truth. Cyborgs are accomplished in the sexual arts. We are doing the females we capture a favor.”

“Since when is it a favor to abduct and rape a woman? And how can you justify doing that to the children you steal?” It was a claim the news networks made, that, for some reason, she desperately hoped was a lie. She didn’t want to think that this cyborg, so like a man, was also a monster.

This time it was his turn to widen his eyes. “We do not bed the young ones,” he snarled, his vehement reply easing something inside her. “We bring only the ones who belong to the females we take. Our programming makes our sperm unviable for human eggs. We are not monsters the military would make us who would separate a mother from her child. Besides, having children to care for keeps the females happy. Keep in mind the stories of the numbers we capture are grossly exaggerated. Only about a dozen women and their progeny have made it to our secret location.” He clamped his lips tight as if he realized he’d said too much.

However, Chloe couldn’t stop her questions from coming. “Liar. I’ve seen the videos. I know your kind have taken more than just a few woman and children. How about the old men and the handicapped? On your last raid, five of them were abducted. What of them?”

“Aren’t you a curious one? Well, those I’m afraid to say, we use those captives for spare parts, but at least they’re more useful to us than they are as burdens on your human society.” His wide grin at his announcement didn’t frighten her like he’d intended.

She tightened her lips and glared at him, a spark of anger giving her courage. “You’re inhuman.”

“Exactly. And don’t you forget it.”

Slapped with his cold agreement, she grabbed a swab and jabbed it at him. “Open up,” she ordered.

“I told you before, if you want some spit, then you can kiss me.”

“Why? So you can hurt me?”

“Only if you count the fact I can’t fully satisfy your needs being somewhat tied up at the moment.”

“That’s disgusting.” Right response to his vulgar innuendo, now if only her body would follow suit instead of tingling with awareness and arousal.

“Come on,” he goaded. “I already know your superiors have offered you the bonus of all bonuses if you can get a sample of my semen. I might not be able to hoist you for a good fuck, but if you bend over and wiggle back onto me, I can probably get enough momentum to drive you.”

Shock made her jaw drop. He laughed, his whole body shaking in the restraints. She got mad. Having had enough of his taunts, she took a step forward and grabbed the rigid flesh poking through his loincloth. Hard and scalding hot, even through the fabric, his prick filled her hand enough she couldn’t fully close it around him. Not that it mattered it seemed, because he instantly shut up, his eyes taking on a smoldering intensity.

She leaned up on tiptoe, a part of her screaming she was going to die, while another part of her screamed to get closer. As if inviting her nearer, he bent his knees and his head dropped. She let her lips come within a hairsbreadth of his, the flutter of his breath ghosting across her mouth. Unable to completely resist temptation, she gave his cock a quick back and forth slide.

“I wonder… Are your attempts to shock me all talk with no action?”

He didn’t reply, instead he closed the distance, brushing his lips across hers, softly, surprisingly so. Heat shot through her, the molten kind that made moisture seep into her pussy. His lips tugged at her full lower one, sucking on it, the jolt of pleasure travelling through her body right to her cleft. How would it feel to have his seductive mouth touching her elsewhere? Licking her. Sucking…

Without realizing it, she swayed closer, and a contented rumble went through him, vibrating his chest. It brought her back to her senses. She didn’t immediately push herself away, but she did tighten her grip on his dick, which throbbed in her palm. He let out a sigh, and in that lapse of his attention, she raised her free hand and swabbed the opening of his mouth. She then quickly stepped away, a triumphant grin on her face.

As she knelt to pack the swab away, her pussy screaming at her abrupt termination of the kiss, she waited for his angry diatribe at her trick. Instead, a husky chuckle tickled over her, and she peered up in surprised.