B785 (3 page)

* * * *

Deep within the robot, encased in an impenetrable titanium shield, an organ thudded once as if in reply.

The first thing Einstein did once he entertained the possibility he’d found a female cyborg was dress her. Once he started thinking of her as person, even if an inert one, her nudity bothered him—and distracted him for reasons he couldn’t understand. One of his shirts acted as a decent cover up without getting in the way of his tests.

The overlarge button-up shirt hung on her still frame to mid–thigh, and stepping back from her poised in the center of his workspace, he spoke to her. “It’s not a dress or something fancy, but at least your private parts are now covered. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to run some tests.” Why he warned her or sounded so apologetic, again, was inexplicable, but he felt better for it. Actually, he easily fell into the habit of talking to his new, lifeless roommate, not that she replied back. The one time Aramus popped in and saw her, he declared her the perfect female because she was quiet. Oddly, Einstein didn’t agree. He wanted to know what she sounded like. Would her voice emerge high or low-pitched? Husky or shrill? His almost fanatical fascination should have rung warning alarms, but didn’t.

In between his usual tasks—running the ship, keeping an eye for intruders, and patching up his brothers—he studied the droid, keeping actual physical contact to a minimum.

The more he tested and discovered, the more he believed he’d found a cyborg female. But which one? Dead to all stimuli, she couldn’t answer him and the not knowing drove Einstein to distraction. He hated puzzles he couldn’t solve and here stood the biggest one of all.

His obsession didn’t go unnoticed. Seth wandered in as he was crouched on the floor, studying her feet with his enhanced eyesight, zooming in, looking for a serial number, a scar, anything he could use to lay to rest the mystery of her identity and origin.

“Einstein, dude, I know you’re innocent when it comes to affairs of the heart, but has no one told you that you’re supposed to start with her mouth and not her toes?”

Jumping to his feet, Einstein wondered why some of his synthetic blood rushed to his cheeks, heating them oddly. “I was studying her.”

“For what? This isn’t a test or rocket science. She’s a sexbot. A broken one, but still just a bot. If you need lessons on how to use her, let me know. Or better yet, let me show you.”

Seth reached out a hand to touch her and Einstein slapped it away. The silence hung thick at his act, the shock almost palpable in the air.

“Sorry,” Einstein mumbled.

“Dude, what is up with you? Don’t tell me you’re jealous? I understand you’ve never had a girlfriend and all, but you do know she’s a robot?”

Einstein turned away and played with the items on his workbench. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, I’m not one hundred percent sure she’s a droid.”

“Um, did I hear you say you’re not sure about something? You, the guy, who knows everything.”

“Yes.”

“Have you rebooted yourself recently?”

“Yes, actually. Why?”

“Because I’ve never heard you say that before. Since when don’t you deal in absolutes?”

A shrug lifted Einstein’s shoulders. “Since I can’t be absolutely sure she’s a sexbot.”

“Dude, you know I love you like a brother, but I think you’ve been in space too long. I mean seriously, what else would she be?”

Hands fidgeting in a restless behavior so unlike him, Einstein hesitated to answer.

Seth prodded. “Tell me.”

Time to speak his theory aloud—and listen to the ridicule. “I think she might have been a cyborg.”

To his surprise, Seth didn’t immediately shoot his theory down. “No fucking way. Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you think she’s a cyborg of course, dumbass?”

Turning to his notes, Einstein held up some of his findings. “Oh. Well for one, she doesn’t have an access panel anywhere on her body.”

“I take it you’ve
searched
her good?” Seth waggled his brows.

Again, Einstein felt that odd warmth creeping up his neck. “Yes. She contains no exterior access point. Tissue samples have shown no latex or other composites in her outer layers. All of her skin seems organic in nature, if currently inert.”

“Have you checked her for organs?”

“I’ve tried, but…” Einstein shrugged. “This vessel is not properly equipped for those kinds of medical analysis. I don’t have any MRI machines or ultrasounds I can use, and I’m not willing to cut her open, not until I know for sure.”

“But she’s dead, dude. Who cares?”

For a moment, his temper flared. “I do.”

“Geez, man, if I didn’t know any better, I’d have said you have a crush on dead girl here. Which is nuts. I think. Please don’t tell me you like this girl. You do know it’s hopeless?”

“Of course I know. I just find the case fascinating.”

“Sure you do. The fact she’s cute has nothing to do with it.”

“She’s a mystery. Nothing more.”

“If you say so, dude.” Seth paced around the female, his brow creased in thought. “Let’s just say for a moment you’re right, that she is a cyborg. This is some serious news. We’ve got to let Aramus know.”

“Do we have to?” For some reason, Einstein preferred to keep this secret to himself.

“Why wouldn’t we? It’s not like Aramus is going to do anything to her. He’ll just report your findings.”

“My hypothesis, you mean.”

“Whatever. Looking at her, I have to agree, she’s way too lifelike to be a droid.” Seth snapped his fingers. “You know there’s a quick and dirty solution we could try. Why not take a picture and send the encrypted image back to our home base? Maybe Chloe or Fiona will recognize who she is. Or was.”

Einstein frowned. “I hadn’t thought of that.” Yet another mental deficiency plaguing him since he’d come across the female enigma. He made a mental note to run a more thorough diagnostic on himself when he got to his main lab. “Let me get a proper camera with a flash.” While he could take images with his bionic orbs, he’d get better quality with an actual device. Locating the camera forestalled further conversation, which suited Einstein. He took some facial shots of his mystery woman and sent the files to Aramus along with a short missive stating his suspicions and findings.

Seth left soon after and Einstein paced in front of the inert body. “I guess we’ll find out soon now if you are in fact one of the missing cyborg females.” Which of the missing females, though, would she prove to be? Einstein hoped it wasn’t Chloe’s sister, the biological one, who’d ended up captured by the military at the same time. Even he and his clinical mind understood it would wreak emotional imbalance upon the delicate-natured Chloe. But the more Einstein studied his rigid roommate, the more he couldn’t help but see the similarities. Same shade of dark hair, similar facial construction.

Confirmation took hours to arrive as the signal, in an effort to elude any human military screening, had to bounce around in a seemingly erratic pattern before reaching their homeworld, then back.

Einstein received the encrypted but unmistakable message straight to his BCI and his shoulders slumped. His suspicions were confirmed. He’d indeed found a female cyborg. Feet dragging, he moved to stand in front of his previously unknown lady. Raising fingers, which trembled slightly as emotions he couldn’t name swamped him, he brushed at her cold cheek.

“Hello, B785, or should I call you Bonnie?” he said softly. “I’m sorry we didn’t find you in time. I wish we could have helped you.” Then in an impulse he didn’t understand, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss.

A flare of something passed between them, a spark almost. However, that shock was nothing compared to the one he suffered when her eyes fluttered open.

Darkness. She floated in darkness, a gentle ocean of nothingness and tranquility. Upon its gentle waves, she rested, relaxed in the cocooning embrace hugging her. Protecting her. Buffering her from the pain. The unfairness. She enjoyed the soothing touch. Never wanted to leave its comforting safety. But something disturbed her eternal rest. A voice, a gentle susurration, an insistent murmur penetrated the layers she’d sunk under, woke her, roused her consciousness…and stirred her curiosity.

She struggled to sink back down and remain in her deathlike trance, to recapture the peace of her final rest. However, the buzzing noise kept returning. Butterfly touches tickled her.

Like a flower unfurling in sunlight, or more aptly, the sleeping princess who wakens at the gentle kiss of her prince, her eyes popped open and she awoke.

The consternation on the face in front of her was almost comical, but not as hilarious as the male’s embarrassment, which swiftly followed as he stumbled back. She cocked her head as the back of her unknown kisser’s legs hit a precisely made bed and he fell upon it, arms and legs splaying in a most ungraceful manner. His mouth opened and shut, but no sound emerged, and yet, she could hear the sound of electronic devices and other noises perfectly fine. So the fault didn’t lie with her auditory senses. It seemed shock caused him to lose his ability to speak. Perhaps if she put him at ease, he would utter something meaningful.

“Hello, handsome. In answer to your query, B785 is the name
they
gave me. I prefer to be called Bonnie,” she answered in a soft voice that emerged more gravelly than she recalled, probably from disuse and a lack of moisture. Talk about waking up with a bad case of the pasties.

“You—But—How –?” Unable to string words in a coherent sentence, her rescuer, who’d managed to scramble into a seated position, blinked at her with bright blue, robotic eyes. They were kind of pretty, actually, bordered in thick, sinful lashes. She took in the rest of his facial features, from his straight nose to his angular cheeks and sensual lips, lips that moved with only the odd decipherable syllable emerging.

Entertaining or not, she decided not to wait and see if he ever located his power of speech. Running a quick overview of her status, she gauged her most urgent need. “Can I have some water?” she asked, as her internal diagnostics flagged the fluid as her most immediate need.

“Water?” he squeaked. “Of course. So sorry. Right away. Just give me a second.” Off he dashed to a small sink in the corner. He returned quickly with a cup, the contents sloshing over the side. Her first attempt to grasp the drink failed, her stiff limbs not cooperating. The container splashed to the floor, wetting her bare feet. Her skin absorbed it like a sponge.

“Can I have more?”

Off he scurried again, refilling the cup, but this time, when he brought it back, he held it to her lips and she parted them, letting him pour the contents into her mouth. Swallowing, the fluid quickly got processed, along with the next few cups he poured into her mouth until she said, “Enough. I’m good.”

“Do you need anything else? We don’t have much in real food onboard, but I do have some minerals and other raw materials for you to digest.”

How unappetizing, but necessary. She wrinkled her nose. “If you could. My resources are rather depleted.”

The act of fetching her other items to ingest did much to help the male—
his name is Einstein
,
her BCI supplied, vague memories of him speaking to her a dreamlike recollection—regain his composure. Or some of it at least. He still appeared quite agitated and ran his fingers through his light hair, ruffling it. She found his nervousness oddly quaint and a refreshing change from her final memories where the soldiers treated her as nothing better than an object for their use. Ugh. Now there was a memory she preferred to forget. Back into the room of things-she’d-rather-not-deal-with, she shoved it along with her sadness over Chloe’s demise. She locked that door and concentrated on the present.

Humming underfoot seemed to indicate she was on some kind of vessel. A ship maybe? She was definitely in some kind of lab, the various computers and apparatus around her a familiar sight to someone used to almost daily testing. As she took in her surroundings, he gathered items and brought them to her, not meeting her gaze as he thrust them into her much steadier hands.

The powdery substances he handed her, ground nutrients that tasted of dry dust and chalk, didn’t taste good, but her body took them all and used them to rebuild her strength, bringing her literally back to life. “Mmm. That’s better,” she eventually purred as her systems all came back online. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I wish I’d known you were starving. I would have fed you. But I need to ask, how is this possible? I thought you were dead. All my testing and observations pointed to that conclusion.”

“I was dead.”
I think.
Bonnie still didn’t understand what happened herself. One moment she existed in a dark limbo, a peaceful floating existence with no stress or pain or drama, the next…a voice spoke to her in the darkness. Asked questions she didn’t answer. Touched her gently. Then, lips pressed against hers, lips sparking with something she’d not felt in ages. Something that woke her from her slumber despite her decision to end her life. “What did you do to wake me?”

Flustered, Einstein wouldn’t meet her gaze. “About that… I, um, guess I should apologize for the liberty I took in kissing you. I would have never done that if I’d known you were still alive. It’s just I found out who you were and –”

“Thought to play prince charming?” Her lips quirked at his gaping mouth as she once again rendered him speechless. “Don’t tell me you’re not familiar with the tale?”

He gathered himself. “No. I know the story, it’s just I never expected you to wake up, not when everything else failed. It makes no logical sense.”

“How would you know? Do you often go around kissing sleeping girls to see what happens?”

“No. Never. I’ve never kissed any female that I recall, as a matter of fact.”

“Never?” Again, she teased him, which flustered him to no end. Oh the irony. She, a former high school slut, military whore, and all-around girl known for a good time, woken by an inexperienced geek. Bonnie let out a little laugh and stretched, limbs and muscles expanding like they hadn’t in what seemed like ages, or more accurately, according to her onboard computer, three hundred and thirty-nine days, sixteen hours, and seven minutes.

“Are you teasing me?” he asked this with what seemed like sincere puzzlement, as if the very concept was foreign.

“Yes. Why? Is that a problem?”

“No. It’s just, considering not even an hour ago you were dead to the world, I kind of would have expected
—
”

“More melodrama? Maybe some tears? I guess I could collapse into a weeping heap if you’d prefer, although it seems like a waste of water and time, if you ask me.” She’d never found depression or hysterics accomplished anything. It was why she adopted a more of an
if you can’t beat them, participate
motto early on when life took a drastic turn for the worse. She couldn’t say it was much better, but at least then she felt in control, even if that control proved of her own imagining. She’d only given up when… Nope. Not going there. She wouldn’t think of her reasons for putting herself in a deathlike coma.

“I guess.”

Given his doubtful tone, she laughed. “Oh my, you’re a cute one. Enough about me, though. Who are you?”

“I’m Einstein.”

“As in the eccentric scientist?”

“More or less. It’s the name I chose for myself when I liberated myself from the military programming imposed upon my mind. I used to be known as unit IQ221.”

“Ooh, I hear a fascinating story behind that. You’ll have to tell me about it later. First though, Einstein, formerly known as IQ221, where are we? And if you tell me in military custody, keep in mind I know a thousand ways to kill you.” She winked, but her jest went right over his cute, tousled head.

He backed away, unable to hide his disconcert at her teasing claim. “We’re on a military issue vessel, but it’s not under human control anymore.”

“You mean to say you and everyone aboard is cyborg? Fascinating.” And unexpected. Last she’d heard, the orders came through to destroy them all. “But how? Did the military finally give the cyborgs their freedom? I never thought General Doom would. Last I remember, he seemed determined to either kill or hide his precious projects.”

“You remember your time as a prisoner?”

Unfortunately. It was her turn to frown. “Of course I remember. It was one of the things that most vexed the bastard, the fact that no matter what he did, I refused to forget. Although, after awhile, I pretended to. One can only take so many sessions in the pit before you realize it’s best to play along.” Actually, it took losing her eyesight and getting outfitted with her robotic orbs for her to finally realize her stubborn stance needed revising.

The door to the room swished open without warning and they both swiveled to see who entered.

“Hey, Einstein old buddy, I just got the sad news
—
” The newcomer halted in the doorway and his eyes widened as he took her in.

Bonnie gave him the same once-over. Taller than her prince, the new cyborg possessed a thick head of hair cut in layers, a nice physique, and a bright white smile. In other words, he reminded her of a certain boring, yet popular doll whose type she remembered only too well. She understood this kind of male. If he were human, he’d be the kind of guy easy to manipulate, especially if promised sex. If he were human. Did male cyborgs share the same personality traits as their organic counterparts? Only one way to find out. “Hello, handsome. Nice of you to join the welcome party.”

To his credit, the new guy didn’t immediately fall for her charm. Nor did he address her directly. “She’s alive?”

So much for smart. It seemed when the military created male cyborgs, they left out a few key ingredients such as intelligence. But hey, at least they left them with the ability to state the obvious. Bonnie linked her arm through Einstein’s. “I am very much alive thanks to prince charming over here. He woke me with a heck of a kiss. Romantic, isn’t it?”

“Einstein? Kissing? Dude, what the hell is she talking about?”

Poor Einstein, his poor BCI appeared to have gotten caught in a loop because he didn’t answer. She took pity on her speechless rescuer. “
She
is called Bonnie and I already told you what happened. My sweet little geek over here gave me a smackeroo on the lips and woke me from my long sleep. I’ll admit, I was surprised too, but, hey, shit happens. Now, since my prince seems at a loss for words, mind telling me who you are, where we are, and what the hell is going on?” She finished her demand on a questioning lilt.

“I’m Seth, head of covert operations, and this is Einstein, chief medical and communications officer. You are on the
SS
BiteMe
under the command of Aramus, rudest bastard known in the cyborg world. But a decent shit nonetheless. Just don’t ever tell him I said that.”

“Seth!” Einstein rebuked him with just his name, not that the other male seemed to care, not if his wide grin was any indicator.

“What? I’m just telling her how it is. She’s gonna meet our beloved commander any minute now. Best we brace her.”

“Brace who for what?” bellowed a raspy voice. “I got a mental call to get my metal ass down here right away. This better be good, Seth, or I am going to pour water in your circuits just to watch you jiggle. Holy fucking shit.” The big male who shoved his way into the room let out the curse along with a whistle.

Bonnie waved. “Hi there. You must be the boss of this operation. I’m Bonnie, formerly known as B785, or as the general liked to fondly call me, that irritating bloody bitch. But you can call me your newest pain in the ass.” Then, she smiled broadly.