I felt tired. My PHUD showed my energy levels were high enough for me to operate at full capacity for three Earth Standard Weeks without the need to recharge, I still felt tired. Huddled beneath a real waterfall within Da Vinci’s... no, Vivian Banneker’s home was built around I sat dazed despite the cool water pouring over me. I looked up through the circular opening in the ceiling which also went through the second level and saw the Azure sky. Gital was sleeping not far above me, but I could not activate the algorithm which would put me into sleep mode.
Too much of what I had been seen and learned from my ‘designer’ was cycling through my central processor. Over and over what I had seen and heard played out on my PHUD while I tried to make sense of it all. I knew I was a ‘product’. I knew I was sent to Gital to perform a function. I knew I am a Manufactured Being. But I could not put to words why I felt such discomfort! “You feel exploited Pandora.”
It was unexpected to see Semele as she stood at the edge of the small pool at the waterfall’s base. I was so occupied by my thoughts I had not detected her arrival. This was my second time being surprised since I came online. I did not like the feeling. Semele was wrapped in a long white bathing cloth and she smiled as she softly inquired, “May I join you?” I thought it odd since only Gital and my fellow DROMEDARY crewmembers ever asked if I wanted company or not. But then I remembered Semele was Manufactured... partially. Before my confusion grew intolerable I replied, “Please do.”
In truth I did not want company, but it seemed Semele was the only individual who could possibly understand. “Yes, I do feel exploited. I do not understand why I do.” Semele took off the towel and for the briefest instance I felt the emotion Jealousy! My visual logs held cataloged images of many male and female Android chassis emulating humans aboard DROMEDARY and in my short time in EOS City. Semele had the most flawless body of any in my memory logs! Her beautiful dark red complexion radiated health and from the top of her head to the feet she placed in the water there was not an ungraceful line to be found.
Still smiling as she sat up to her sternum in the rippling water Semele chimed, “Pandora, for an instant you looked envious.” I felt an uncomfortable rush of blood through my skin at her words. Only Gital had ever been able to elicit this involuntary response from me and I did not like her doing so. “I’m sorry Pandora. I don’t mean to tease you. I am just happy to see you turned out so well.” I could feel myself frown hard at her statement and felt compelled to retort. “I do not understand your meaning. Ah... what do I call you?”
Again that dazzling smile of hers flashed and she said, “Please, call me Semele. You and I have a great deal in common Pandora. More in common than you could possibly know.” My feelings of mistrust were growing and not having access to my Search Data Processor was only making it worse. “Yes we are both Manufactured. However, we are radically different from standard production models.”
Semele moved closer, raised a hand out of the water and then gestured for me to do the same. “True, we were both designed by Gestated Beings and our bodies were forged by machines. But... I am purely an enhanced bio-engineered machine and you are purely an enhanced amalgam of bio-engineering, bio-mechanical and the mechanical. Yet despite our differences, we share much you and I.”
Semele gently touched my hand and asked, “Have you ever considered ‘where’ your biological matrix came from? What about your wonderful brain? How did so complex an android like yourself come into being?” I was growing evermore uncomfortable with this conversation, but her questions piqued my curiosity. “Your companion Mr. Banneker stated he was my designer, so it is logical all you mentioned came from him.” Semele stopped smiling and raised one of her eyebrows which caused me to pull my hand away. “Vivian most certainly did all those things. But he didn't create the materials you are made from. I did... before I died.” For the third time I was surprised. “How did you create what I am made of?” Now with a more serious face Semele explained.
“Pandora... when I lived as a human woman though I was of high modification I never produced any offspring. Early in childhood I had been exposed to exotic radiation. Though my overall cell structure had been repaired, my reproductive DNA was too damaged. I had to be modified at a much younger age and therefore could not contribute basic DNA as it was unviable for cloning or other methods of external reproduction. However before I died, Vivian found one of my castoff baby teeth my mother preserved in a necklace she’d given me. I’d lost the tooth prior to my accident and he used the DNA within the tooth for the bio-matrix this body was fashioned.”
I felt a burst of an emotion not quite sadness or happiness at Semele’s revelation. What she said next left me speechless. “Vivian gave me one more gift Pandora. There was enough of the bio-matrix to make the child we could not have together. Combining both our DNA... Vivian applied it to his newest and most advanced design.”
Her words seemed to hang in the air like a body in Zero Gravity. Sitting unmoving with the waterfall splashing on my back, my eyes blinked uncontrollably as I processed what had been said. Her dark amber eyes never turned from me even for the long moments I sat silent. With difficulty I found the algorithm which allowed me to ask, “So for all practical purposes, you and Mr. Banneker are... my.... Mother and Father?”
Nodding Semele queried, “How else could we know so much about you if we were not the authors of your creation? I know you currently have no aptitude for cooking, but you are excellent at designing and fabricating complex structures. I know you are intuitive when it comes to engineering and systems. I also know you possess a ‘Curiosity Emulation’ and that its installment was fought over by the Design Approval Board.
I also know the Board was persuaded to keep it for testing only in you the prototype and it would not be installed in future units. What the Board does not know Pandora is none of your Personality Emulation Modules... are modules at all! Everything about your thoughts and personality is you and you alone. Nothing about you is programmed Pandora. You are a living, sentient being in spite of coming into existence via the manufacturing process!”
Semele stood high enough out of the water to bend and kiss me softly on the forehead. I was astonished as she whispered, “I could not be more proud to know I had a more perfect child. I left a clean drying cloth on the bench for you. The evening meal will be served in a few hours. Take your time Pandora... my daughter.” I watched her leave the pool and gracefully stride across the stone floor to disappear through an archway leading into the house living area.
I barely remember drying myself or ascending the polished real wood stairs to the second level. I could not remember how long I stood outside the old fashioned wood door of Gital’s quarters before I finally made my presence known. When he sleepily opened the door all I could say was, “I have parents....” He looked at me strangely and mumbled, “You have what?” I could see drops of water still dripping from my hair as I replied, “I have parents. Semele and Mr. Banneker are my parents....” Now awake, Gital gently pulled me into the room and the door silently slid shut. He took my clothes from my arm and laid them on the back of a plush white chair. After looking at me for a moment, Gital began to dry me off with part of the towel I wore.
“You said Mr. Banneker and his companion are your ‘parents'? How is that possible?” Still in shock, I relayed all that Semele told me along with the last conversation I had with ‘Da Vinci’ aboard DROMEDARY” When I finished, Gital gave a loud whistle and I realized he held me close. Looking into his dark brown eyes, I said again that which I could hardly fathom. “Gital, I have a mother and father!” My companion gave that devious grin he always had right before he teased me and smirked, “Leave it to you not only to have parents, but parents who are unique, geniuses and filthy fucking rich....”
For the first time, I immediately understood the joke and could not stop a giggle from flying from my throat. Not an instant later, both of us fell to the carpeted floor with laughter. Tears were streaming from my eyes and I could barely catch my breath. I suddenly realized my PHUD was completely offline and everything I thought or felt since coming here had been of my own making.
I found myself lying with my head in Gital’s lap and looked up at him as our laughter had stopped, yet I was still gasping. I placed my hand against Gital’s warm dark cheek and said, “So this is what it feels like to be human?” In a flash, Gital’s lips were pressed against mine and my arms encircled his broad back!
Despite our awkward position on the floor Gital scooped me up into his arms, stood and laid me upon the sleeping array. I could feel myself sink into the soft white cushioning and beige cloth covers as Gital pulled the towel I wore open with one strong pull. His rough hand slid up from my abdomen, over my breasts and around to my back. He crushed me closer in his embrace and I let my hand slide down his back noting each curve of every muscle it encountered. When my fingers reached the waistband of his loose lower garment, I grasped hard and heard the cloth tear as I pulled it away.
Gital’s lips and teeth were flush against my neck. The chill which ran the length of my spine also raised the hair my on my scalp. It was wonderful! After a short exploration, my hand found what it sought between his legs. I often saw Gital naked and teased him almost as many times to tempt him into an encounter. To finally feel him physically express desire for me was both exciting and terrifying! Just in grasping his engorged member, my legs opened and I felt a rush of blood fill my nipples and loins. When his hand brushed against my lower lips, a sharp cry leaped from my mouth!
My companion’s hands were everywhere all at once it seemed. I could not keep from trembling when Gital placed his lips against my breast. His free hand snaked its way down my back and his nails dug into my buttocks. My back arched abruptly and a low groan erupted from my throat. When that hand slowly crossed over my hip and back to rest between my legs, my entire body jerked! Equally slow, his fingers found their way past soaked and swollen lips to worm inside me. I abruptly crushed Gital’s head to my breast and my body violently spasmed. I cried out over and over as those fingers wriggled within me until I lay beside him holding that hand as my body randomly jerked.
I gasped futilely trying to control the spasms emanating from my core. Gital chuckled beside me and I protested. “I-It’s not f-funny!” He then laughed outright and said, “Oh yes it is! Pandora if that little bit got you to FTL, what’s next you’re going to need a Warp Bubble. As I twitched beside him that grin of his returned. I was terrified... and thrilled! “So this is what it is like to be human....”
****
EPIMETHEUS Supply Co-Operative CENTAUR-Class Corporate Transport - DROMEDARY
Control Deck Duty during planetcall was pleasant as an anal flush thought DROMEDARY Executive Officer Techi Basi. She had been to AIPOTU twice before and that was enough reason to want this to be the third time! While that massive beautiful blue orb slowly spun beneath her, she was stuck on the Con. Usually, Gital let her go down first with whichever shift was on rotation to go planetside. Primarily it was to make certain the crew knew there would be a foot in their asses if anyone caused any problems during Liberty. In addition, as Captain it freed him up for negotiating upcoming cargo runs or settling any issues which arose during deliveries.
She would spend the last half of planetcall getting the crew and cargo aboard squared before any passengers embarked. This time though there were repairs being made concerning the FTL Generators. Strangely enough, there were trouble calls popping up all over the Transport concerning minor system malfunctions. They were quickly addressed, but the incidents added to Basi’s irritation.
What really stoked the XO’s ire was Gital’s sudden need to go down to AIPOTU outside of the normal liberty routine. He said he wanted to test out his ancient ‘Escape Pod’ contraption by transiting planetside the ‘old-fashioned way’ whatever the core that meant. Basi knew it was an excuse. They were booked solid with cargo and passengers so there was no need to meet for contract negotiations or check in with Corporate. No, he wanted to catch up with that damn ‘boobie bot!’
For all of Gital’s protests about ‘not wanting to get involved with a Manu’, he was probably ‘probing’ all three of Pandora’s orifices while she was stuck on the Transport. A warning light came on in the Captain’s Display distracting the XO from her fuming. “DROMEDAHRY?”
“Yes Executive Officer Basi?”
“Do you have ahn ID on what’s making the Proximity Warning ahct up?”
“My sensor array detects minor space debris has entered the radiation exhaust field. The small amount of material will burn up and be rendered harmless before it can impact my hull.”
With nothing better to do, Basi activated the Transport’s Exterior Imaging Array and selected the view showing the approaching debris. Scanning the starfield on the sunlit side of DROMEDARY, nothing appeared out of the ordinary beyond the expected sights of docked or transiting Transports in the upper Orbital Lanes. The XO was prepared to change views when something caught her eye.
“DROMEDAHRY, highlight grid section one, one, five strength intensity three point seven.” The display instantly highlighted the subtle grid pattern and shifted to the selected coordinates. Basi stared intently at what she thought may be debris frying in Dromedary’s Radiation Exhaust Field. First it looked to be nothing more than what she and the AI presumed. “Mahgnification four point five. Core be dahmned....”
Basi looked up from the display with her dark brows knit tightly in a pensive expression. She abruptly turned to the Duty Officer and commanded, “Duty, take the Con while I do rounds. You know the drill. If ahnything out of the ordinahry pops up have Dromedahry ping me.” The younger human-like alien female stepped away from her station while acknowledging the order. “Roger that XO. When is Captain Gital due back aboard?”
As she vacated the Command Jumpseat Basi hastily replied, “Uh, he’s not due for ahnother sixteen hours. Just keep ahn eye on things until I get back!” The XO quietly linked the display’s viz feed into her PHUD. As she hurried towards her compartment, Basi watched as a ball of flame grew brighter the closer it got to DROMEDARY. She selected a higher magnification, but could only see the ball of energy growing brighter due to the background radiation. Something was not right for after twenty seconds, the flame winked out ninety-nine point seven meters from impacting the hull.
Space debris impacted docked Transport hulls regularly between the hours prior to full dissipation of residual FTL radiation and deployment of magnetosphere shielding. Anything large enough to do serious damage would either be destroyed or deflected by a Transport’s Armament Array. It could be nothing thought Basi. Nonetheless, the former Security Officer believed there might be some unwanted gests planning an unscheduled visit aboard her Transport. Before taking the risk of sounding a false alarm, the XO was going to have a look around....
****
For what was considered a small ‘corporate clunker’, the interior of the Transport DROMEDARY was massive! PROMETHEUS GROUP Operations Officer Rewar Talvi hung stone still as a group of Security Mech Androids marched beneath his position. From their formation, the Mech’s did not look to be in search mode and his PHUD registered no scans. Talvi was glad they weren’t searching for though he could have fought the group of six hand to hand without the aid of his PBM, it was easier to continue to remain undetected. Besides, initiating forced Controlled Molecular Separation to create a set of three functional Molecular Apertures through the Transport’s hull drained considerable power from Talvi and his team’s PBM’s.
It was calculated in the mission plan the best way to gain access without alerting the Transport’s AI was to molecularly alter a section of the hull for the team to enter and exit without using the Transport’s PWT Transmitter. Doing so would create a traceable log to wherever the team was reformed via Receiver. Blasting their way out would alert everyone onboard so that wasn’t an option either. Unfortunately, making the Mol Apertures had them all at minimal power.
For the next two hours, the team would lay hidden near their search areas using minimum Cloud Mode settings and life support while their PBM’s recharged. It would be easy to do perform a near instant recharge by using a direct power tap into DROMEDARY. In Cloud Mode however, detection was much less likely while they sat in place slowly allowing their PBM’s to siphon power from the ambient energy emitted by the Transport.
In the meantime, Talvi kept his breathing slow and even. With his Combat Grade PBM still ‘shelled’ up and running at minimum power, claustrophobia could easily make its unwelcome presence known. The only other application the Operations Officer had running was an ambient scan searching for the BOX’s Manifest Code. With all the cargo moving about the Transit, a direct search for a singular code transmission designed to be difficult to find would be like looking for a single micro-meteorite on the surface of an asteroid!
Even when their PBM’s were at full charge and they could fully engage Cloud Mode, the search would not be easy. With luck, they would find the BOX in optimum condition while there was still minimal crew aboard. They would move it to the escape point and then once outside the Transport, the team and their target would do a power jump out into the Orbital Lane. They would be picked up by WHIPLASH after ‘suddenly’ receiving orders to transport out of the system. That was if... the BOX had not been tampered with or opened.
It would be impossible to force the Transport BOX open. However with all the strange occurrences leading to the BOX being placed aboard DROMEDARY, OO Talvi strongly suspected everything had been orchestrated by some powerful unseen hand. For now, there was nothing to do but hang tight camouflaged in the overhead spaces of the cavernous Cargo Deck. Talvi knew the next two hours were going to feel like two months!
© 2013 H. Wolfgang Porter. All Rights Reserved.
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