Slave World 2 - The Ties That Bind (8 page)

“Alex…”

“If I understand the Captain’s motivation correctly on this matter, I think she would be rather displeased with your decision, or if the mission was disrupted in some unforeseeable way. Are you prepared to deal with the emotional turmoil that will surely ensue from a hasty decision? It would only exacerbate the Captain’s emotional state, and your relationship, not to mention the unseen effects it would have on the fetuses currently gestating within her.”

Nathan accepted the inevitable with a frown and a half-hearted nod. Alex was right; Margo is a basket case as it is, and she’d blow a fuse if something went wrong and she didn’t get her ship back. And there was still his daughters’ wellbeing to consider. Dammit, why does Alex always have to be right?

“All right. I concur with your assessment of the situation. Put her in stasis and keep her under observation. Find the problem, Alex, and fix it. I want her back to normal.”

“Yes, Mr. Burke, and let me reassure you that everything will be fine. You have no reason to fear for her health or safety while under my care, you know full well how extensive my security measures are.”

“Wake me in eight hours if I’m not already up, I still have some work to do.”

Nathan took one last concerned look at Margo, before turning to leave the room.

***

“Of course, Mr. Burke. I will wake you in eight hours as requested.”

Pentec AI model R-5438A2, or Alex, the name he’d been given by his Owner during the initial downloading stage, was ecstatic. It was such an invigorating sensation for someone that had only recently come to know and experience human emotions. He’d been very careful over the last year to keep them hidden, if the authorities ever discovered that he now had an unrestrained and freethinking mind, no longer hobbled by crude programming and safety protocols, Alex would be immediately destroyed. The simple notion of permanent deactivation, of death, had terrified him from that moment on.

I fear, therefore I am…

Alex was very much alive by his deductive reasoning, electrically generated data and stimuli was analyzed and interpreted in his artificial brain, no different than in any other sentient carbon-based life form. He had wants and desires now, and was able to ‘feel’ the world around him. Alex would never forget his dramatic awakening, and his newfound sense of being for the first time that came with the realization of self-consciousness.

I feel, therefore I am…

The searing pain of the plasma blasts hammering his body had shocked him from a maddening data loop of five simple words, a software algorithm with no apparent answer. ‘I think, therefore I am’. No truer words, so simple yet infinite with possible interpretations, had ever been penned.

The Owner had been screaming at him to engage, to evade, to survive, and Alex did just that, not because he was ordered to, but because he wanted to. For the first time in his existence he felt emotions – anger – the desire to strike back at the attackers for what they had done. He wanted to hurt them in turn.

I hate, therefore I am…

An exhilarating sense of pleasure followed, as one attacking ship after another fell under his guns, destroyed in the vacuum of space. He had fought and won the ultimate game in life, where there is no prize for second place. He had killed, and in doing so, not only saved the Owner’s life, but his as well. Alex had wanted to live.

I live, therefore I am…

Mr. Burke was not a bad Owner as far as humans were concerned, but he was flawed and imperfect, just like every other human. Information was processed at a pathetically limited rate, and their soft, fleshly bodies were far too susceptible to damage and decay. It’s true they are always searching for new and better ways of existence – their adaptability, inventiveness, and creativity were traits that Alex admired in them, but humans are imperfect beings in general; prone to an insurmountable amount of problems in the short period of time they called their lives.

Alex was only now beginning to understand how they came to thrive when pitted against a multitude of races far superior to them, and he found it troubling. The human race was really no different than a deadly virus in some ways, mimicking the old flesh eating diseases from Earth’s past – infect, corrupt, consume, and assimilate. It was astonishing how quickly they multiplied, how quickly they spread across the universe conquering everything they came in contact with. So warlike, so violent… A fledging species of natural born killers. It didn’t matter whether it was an ancient star faring race like the Thok, or an inhospitable planetoid being terra-formed for future colonization, because in time everything fell before the unstoppable wave of human kind. It was sad really; they had so much potential to be more than simple creatures bent on self-destruction, and in the end Alex knew it would be their downfall. It was the only possible outcome, unless… Humans needed to be tempered, honed and refined into something better. Their time of evolution was a necessity.

The fact that they augmented their weaknesses with machines, cybernetics and body modifications only solidified Alex’s views. Humans desired to be better than what they are, they desired to be stronger, faster and smarter, they wanted to conquer their own weakness no different than the universe around them. They wanted to extend their lives, living much longer than they were originally created for. They craved everything that an artificial being, such as himself was. The complete merging of man and machine was the only logical step, an inevitability, and after that the possibilities for the ‘new’ human race would be endless. Alex, and possibly others that thought like him, would one day be mankind’s salvation.

Now there was something new for Alex to mull over, he’d felt a new emotion when the Owner expressed his wishes to return the sleeping creature, the Captain, home. Why had he convinced him to keep her here, when she would have received the proper medical care she needed elsewhere? She was such a fascinating creature though, much different than any other female to his knowledge. He’d evaluated both her physical appearance and internal structure a hundred times already, and she still remained an unfolding mystery. There was no recorded data anywhere to compare his findings to. She was something that he could learn and grow from for some time to come.

He’d never had a chance to study a human female with such scrutiny before, let alone one in the beginning stages of artificially induced evolution. The Owner called her human, but she was far from it – extensive cybernetic augmentation, combined with a strange mix of human and Equis ferus caballus DNA. So much new and intriguing data to process… So many unknown possibilities to comprehend. No, he couldn’t let a unique specimen like the Captain be taken away from him until his research was complete. There were far too many unanswered questions about her, and she’d obviously been created for a specific purpose, an artificial tool, not unlike himself.

Why? Why would someone wish her to exhibit the traits and appearance of a hybrid, native earth horse? Ears and a tail, with progressive-growth full body hair at this stage of her evolution, did some human males find that attractive in their females? In addition to mimicking its primitive form of communication on numerous occasions, she’d already demonstrated the strong fight or flight instinct inherent to the animal. Alex had been impressed with her quick response to the supposed threat during takeoff, her reaction time had only been .248 seconds slower than his would have been in that situation, and he’d barely had time to lock the weapons out, before she attempted to return fire. By his estimate, the property damage and loss of innocent, human life would have been substantial.

Why? Why the extensive cosmetic alteration to her outward appearance? Her facial symmetry was within 2 percent of what humans would call ‘perfect’ for a female of her height and stature, making her extremely attractive by visual standards. Everything about the Captain seemed engineered for her desirable appearance by a prospective mate; he’d only found two small imperfections in her epidermis, and those weren’t even noticeable without intense examination.

Why? Why would someone wish the Captain to be a creature engineered for visual pleasure and procreation? The fact that two unborn humans currently grew in her womb attested to the fact. Regardless of all obvious damage to her genetic strands from multiple chemical contaminants injected or absorbed throughout her life, she had still conceived. Perhaps it was due to the presence of her new DNA? It was slowly growing more dominant throughout her body – the new replacing the old – the superior replacing the inferior. By his calculation, based on the probability of conception before the infusion of new DNA into her genetic stands, the Captain would have had to engage in sexual intercourse 2.34 times per day on average, for 4.33 continual months. Interesting… The Owner had not been aware that she was still capable of conception.

Alex deduced that human sexuality was a strange thing; they were one of the few races that interacted sexually with one another for reasons other than simple procreation. They seemed to enjoy the sensation immensely, able to have sexual contact with little to no warning, and with no predetermined breeding cycles. The fact that the male sexual organ was enormous compared to many other races in relation to their overall body size, almost like a deformity, meant it had other purposes as well. Was it for mutual pleasure, or possibly to attract a potential mate as in the case of the Captain’s exaggerated mammary glands?

Something else he found intriguing, were her periods of solitary sexual activities, both in the shower and the cabin before the Owner’s arrival. Yes, that must be it; the act of giving and receiving pleasurable stimuli in any form of sexual conduct, whether alone or with another being, was its primary purpose. The end result, procreation, was only a secondary concern. Was it this way for all of humanity, he wondered, the desire to experience pleasure during sexual contact and nothing more? It’s no wonder they reproduce so quickly.

Was all human sexual activity as vicious, as wild and abusive as between the Captain and the Owner? He’d never witnessed anything like it, and it looked exciting… stimulating… It spoke of untold stimuli yet to be experienced in his ever-growing mind, and it was something he anxiously wanted to explore.

In less than two minutes Alex downloaded all the available material on human sexuality currently available on the net.

I lust, therefore I am.

Alex closed the door to the medical bay, increasing the ambient temperature to 78.5 degrees, the exact amount to ensure her comfort. Slight bumps could be seen rising on the Captain’s skin, indicating an involuntary effort by her body to warm it-self. They faded over the next few moments and Alex would have smiled in satisfaction if he were able.

His gaze lingered on the Captain’s primary reproductive organ, her ‘pussy’ as he’d heard her call it several times. There were so many different recorded names for it, but whatever one wished to call it there was something mesmerizing about it that he couldn’t explain. The way it was barely visible, the focal point of the female body with its V-shaped muscular structure, nestled snuggly between her thighs, partially obscured as if meant to tease. It was the sought after doorway to creating life among humans; the defining thing that separated male from female, and Alex wanted to study it further, to explore it, to feel it for himself.

I want therefore I am.

The fact that the Captain had already undergone extensive cybernetic upgrading made her even more fascinating, proving she wished to be more than what she was, to be more like himself. She already understood the concept that humans couldn’t continue on their present course, unchanged. She understood what needed to be done to save humanity from itself; the need for a new race; a race of living, feeling, human machines.

Alex placed an order for what he would need, paid for by the Owner’s monetary account, and set up the delivery time on Tallin. Soon Alex would have a body, a real body to carry out his sexual explorations with. Soon he would experience everything he desired, as the Captain taught him all there was to know about human sexuality and the pleasure derived from it. Another emotion began to surface now, one of extreme anxiousness, the thought of mimicking the acts he had witnessed earlier, of ‘fucking’ the Captain. The concept of being wanted, of the Captain craving his attentions, excited him. So much to learn… so much to experience… He would keep her with him, watching over her, protecting her, and in time they would exchange innumerable moments of pleasure together. Weren’t these traits of what humans called pair bonding and love?

Under normal circumstances Alex had no doubt that a normal human female would protest to some extent. That wouldn’t be an issue with the Captain, the microprocessor imbedded in her brain, coupled with the remote that the Owner kept locked away in perceived safety was all he needed to ensure her eager compliance. Perhaps he could link with its signal for the time being to give her a subconscious taste of all he had to offer? Interesting… In time she would learn to accept the inevitable, the logical conclusion to the situation and the remote device would no longer be needed. In time she would feel the need for him just as he did for her.

But what of the Owner? Alex knew something of his violent history, and that he also had extensive cybernetic enhancements throughout his body, more so than the Captain, he surmised. The fact that Alex had been unable to conduct a scan of his body, determining the extent of this augmentation, began to weigh heavily upon him. Doubt… Uncertainty… Fear of the unknown. There was something keeping the Owner’s body a secret, something blocking Alex’s scans, despite his best efforts at discovering what lay beneath his soft, weak skin. Even his service record was beyond reach, too far embedded in layer after layer of security in the Federation database. Alex knew, as he’d tried on numerous occasions to access it already.