B785 (2 page)

At the end of several days, once he was done, he stretched and looked around the cleared room. Everything that could be fixed had cleared out and was put back into service rotation. Other than a few models who’d finally broken down beyond his ability, the room gaped, which made the large crate, almost coffinlike in shape, standing alone in the corner stick out. He approached it, wondering what it held. Parts perhaps that he could use to repair some of the models he’d given up on?

“What’s in this box?” he asked Bob when the human arrived for a final report, rapping on the lid.

Bob grunted. “Bah. That there is a dud sexdroid. I got it from a pirate in exchange for a freebie. I thought she just needed a new battery or something. But not only can I not locate a switch or her energy unit, I can’t even get the stupid bot to twitch. I’ve tried everything from electroshock to an EMP pulse to reset the circuit board, and nada. Stupid piece of junk is useless. I’ve actually been meaning to put her in the trash.”

“Mind if I take a look?”

“Be my guest.”

Einstein pried open the lid and took a step back to view the contents.
He’s calling this trash
? Eyeing the perfect features of the petite bot inside the box, Einstein couldn’t help but frown. Who could think of throwing out such a realistic droid? Sure, her skin lacked some of the vibrant tones of the other sexbots, the grey pallor more than likely the result of too much time spent inactive and gathering dust, but Einstein thought the unit attractive nonetheless from the dark hair tumbling around her bare shoulders to the realistic human body replete with fingernails and hair follicles on the legs.

“I’ve never seen a model like this,” he mused aloud.

“You and me both. I’m assuming she’s some kind of new prototype, which is probably why I can’t figure out how to get her going.”

“You don’t have a manufacturer name?”

“Nothing. Trust me, I’ve checked. A shame, because the clients would go nuts for something this real-looking. As it stands, she’s just a five-foot-six paperweight. And I don’t read.”

“If you’re just going to toss her, mind if I take a look?”

“Bah, you can just take her. Consider it a bonus for the work you’ve done. You’ve saved me tons of credits with the work you did. I hate hiring those outrageous company repair guys. Damned thieves. Not to mention, you cyborgs treat my girls better than most of the men we see out here.”

“I can take her?” For some reason, the idea pleased Einstein, on a scientific level of course.

“Take her. Bang her. Glue her to your prow as a mascot. I don’t care. But if you ever do manage to get her going, I’d sure like to know how in case I run into her model again.”

“You’ve got a deal.”

Crating her back up, Einstein ordered a worker droid carry her container back to the ship as he cleaned up his tools and prepared for his own departure. Exiting for the first time in days from the service bay, he ran into a broadly smiling Seth.

“Einstein, there you are. I wondered where you got to. Did you find any time to bang some pussy in between being responsible?”

“If you are referring to copulation, then no, but I assume by your lowered testosterone levels that you did?”

“Did I fucking ever. I might have just beaten a record for number of orgasms in a row.” Seth’s hips thrust and Einstein shook his head.

“You and your need for sex. I don’t think I’ll ever understand it.”

“I feel sorry for you.” Seth clapped him on the back. “But even sorrier for the droid you eventually bang, because when you do finally figure out what your cock is good for, you’re going to blow a hole right through her with your first load.”

Einstein didn’t grasp the jest, but Seth found it amusing enough that he chuckled all the way back to the ship. A single broadcast message gathered the rest of cyborgs who arrived from various areas of the bordello. More relaxed than when they arrived, except for Astro who bore a pensive expression he wouldn’t explain, they departed the pleasure ship and Einstein headed straight for the command center so he could plot an erratic course for home.

The cyborgs knew better than to leave in a direct line for their world. For one, human spies could be watching, and two, scans needed to be conducted on the crew and ship to ensure no one and nothing had inadvertently picked up a bug or tracking device.

The human military was getting more and more devious in their attempts to recapture their billion dollar projects. Their detection devices, too, had gotten more sophisticated bypassing normal sensors. If Einstein didn’t know better, he’d have called some of the newer hardware they’d run across alien in origin. Illogical, of course. If intelligent life existed in the universe, given the expansive exploration by the cyborgs, they would have discovered it by now. Or so logic dictated.

Running diagnostics from the main control center of the ship, Einstein perused the reports the main computer returned, carefully looking for any signs of low level signals or anomalies. Nothing showed up, but Einstein knew better than to trust their first level of security. He’d repeat the tests several times before he declared them clean enough to go home.

Aramus, leader of this mission and commander of the ship, sauntered into the command area and sprawled in his seat, drumming his fingers. “Any signs of pursuit?”

“Nothing so far.”

“That’s good. Did you find the time to partake of the sexbots while we were docked, or did you hide in the repair lab the entire time?”

“I was not hiding, I was working.”

“Sure,” Aramus drawled, “and I’ve suddenly decided that not all humans are bad.”

“Really, and when did you come to that realization?” Einstein teased, knowing full well Aramus spoke sarcastically.

“Oh ho. Is my geeky friend getting a sense of humor? Please don’t. It makes you sound too human and you know how I abhor that. It is bad enough I have to put up with Seth. I’d hate to have to beat the hell out of you too.”

“Did I hear my name?” Seth strode in, shirt untucked, hair ruffled, sporting a grin. “Good day, gentlemen. What a fine day for exploring.”

“The only thing you’ll be exploring is the outer hull of this ship for tracking devices when we get beyond the Milky Way.”

“Aramus, I see the copious amounts of times you ejaculated did nothing to improve your demeanor. A pity,” Seth mocked.

“Why you
—
”

“Seth! Aramus!” Einstein swiveled in his seat and fixed them both with a glare. “Control your tempers. Or have you both forgotten what happened last time?” Last time being when Seth baited Aramus to the point they engaged in a full scale brawl in the engine room, causing damage to the machinery that took weeks to fully repair and left them without hot water, a luxury that while not necessary, Einstein still enjoyed.

“Yes, Daddy,” Seth mumbled with a roll of his eyes. “And here I thought Solus was stern.”

“Not since he took up with that female,” Aramus grumbled. “Now he’s downright soft.”

“Solus, soft? Ha. I dare you to tell him that to his face,” Seth taunted.

Aramus glowered. “No thanks.”

Settled down with a woman or not, Solus still possessed a nasty attitude and an even nastier right hook. Once the most vehement among the cyborgs about women being the scourge of their kind, Solus fell fast and hard for a cyborg female they recovered from an abandoned mining planet. Fiona, formerly known as F814, had turned the once always somber Solus into someone almost likeable, not that anyone dared tell him that to his face. At times, Einstein wondered if the same softening of disposition was possible for Aramus. Not that they were likely to find out. For one thing, Aramus hated human females, so he wasn’t likely to hook up with one, and the chances of him falling for a cyborg were even more astronomical given they’d not found any clues to the location of any of their female brethren since their discovery of F814. Short of a cyborg female falling in their lap or them stumbling upon a cache of secret files with their location, it seemed their quest to locate the female version of themselves was doomed to failure.

But they wouldn’t give up. Just knowing more of their kind existed, in slavery, being abused, unknowing of who and what they were, was enough to keep them looking, not to mention it kept their need for vengeance alive. Missing, without a clue, at least ten cyborg females needed to be rescued. Good thing Einstein enjoyed a good mystery. Speaking of which…

“I’ve got the ship running diagnostics and we won’t see the Milky Way for a few days, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to my lab.”

“Your lab or the secret package you had smuggled aboard?”

“It wasn’t smuggled,” Einstein replied indignantly. “It was given to me by the owner.”

“You mean you brought a sexbot back?” Seth’s brows arched up. “Einstein, you dog.”

“I possess no canine DNA.”

“You and your literal sense. I meant dog as in, you know what, forget it. I can’t believe you negotiated to bring back a droid. How much did that cost you? And more importantly, are you sharing?”

“First off, I didn’t negotiate or pay anything. The unit is a dud, as in unresponsive. The owner was going to trash it so I asked for it. I’m going to see if it has any parts we can use.” Because despite the nanotechnology running through their systems, cyborgs weren’t immune to permanent damage. Not to mention, their raids of some of the colonies netted them some humans, dregs of society cast off by earth to work the lonelier outposts as a way of making them useful. It was supposed to be a humane way of getting the non-desirables out of the public eye and off the welfare payroll. In reality, it was banishment. Out of sight, out of mind.

When the cyborgs attacked, demanding resources, many of these broken organics begged to come along, anything to get them away from the barren and hard existence they eked out on the ill-provisioned colonies.

The heartless cyborgs had a hard time turning them down. They knew only too well what it was like to be outcast, but at the same time, cybernetic units were practical. Broken humans did their burgeoning society no good and while the injection of nanobots did help improve the health of some, many others required parts to make them a useful, functioning tool for their society. However, they’d quickly ended up with more broken parts than replacements.

It was Seth who pointed out the flaw in his logic regarding the female bot he’d acquired. “Use her for parts? Um, is it me or do you not think the guys might take issue with you saddling them with girly bits? I mean, I’m all for equal rights, but I can’t say as I’d like to end up wearing a woman’s hand. Although, I wouldn’t mind seeing what Aramus would look like with tits. Maybe then he could get in touch with his softer, more feminine side.”

“I am going to ram my fist up your
—
”

Einstein tuned the following rude threat out. Laughing loudly, Seth took off running, Aramus on his heels. Einstein hid a smile. Some things never changed.

After calling up two of his brothers to watch the command center, even though his internal BCI kept a steady link, he made his way to his lab, which also doubled as his private quarters. Entering, he barely spared the space a glance. Why bother when he already knew what it contained down to the last bolt tidily stored in labeled containers on his clean workbench?

The crate from the bordello sat square in the middle of the cramped room and kept drawing his eyes. He tried ignoring it as he put his tools away, skirting around it as he stored his belongings and took a well-earned shower. But as if magnetized, the mystery box drew his gaze, roused his curiosity, and finally, he caved in to the urge. Grabbing a crow bar, he pried the crate open.

And there she was. Still inert, eyes closed, in the same position he’d last seen her, as lifeless as ever. Yet, alone with her in the confined familiar space, Einstein found himself noticing things about the sexdroid he’d not remarked upon before, such as how she only reached his chin. The gauntness of her frame, which delineated her ribs, and given the direction of his glance, made him note the size of her breasts, larger than a torso her size should sport and less perky than usually seen in the models he’d noted parading about. The way they hung heavily, the nipples dark with one slightly larger than the other, small imperfection that fascinated him. He also found himself intrigued by the fact she actually possessed hair between her legs. Most sexbots had no hair at all below the neckline. Legs, arms, mound, all tended to remain bare because the majority of clients preferred it and it was easier to keep clean. But not this one. A thick down covered her cleft area and when he crouched to examine, he noted the follicles on her calves and the unpainted toenails. How realistic and unexpected.
It’s a
lmost like she was once a human, but
got
frozen in time.

The thought made him pause. No way. Could it be? Surely not. Yet the oddities kept mounting and it made him think of Occam’s razor, which stated sometimes the simplest hypothesis was the most likely. In this case, given all the human characteristics, could he have inadvertently stumbled upon one of the cyborg females they searched for? On the surface, it seemed impossible. How would a bordello get its hands on one? Then again, the owner admitted to buying her from a pirate. But how would a pirate have gotten one in the first place?
He stole it
,
of course.
Did it matter from where?

Excited at the possibility, Einstein rubbed his chin in thought. Theory was all well and good, but how should he test it? It wasn’t like he could ask her.
I could take some samples?
He dismissed the idea. Dissecting her might irrevocably damage the unit or harm her if his theory panned out. Then again, given her gray pallor and the things the former owner admitted to subjecting her to, to no avail, more than likely meant, even if she started out cyborg in origin, she’d long since died.

For some reason, the thought made him sad.

“Were you once human like me?” he asked aloud. “Or am I just deluding myself?”

He’d have to find out later. A silent alarm went off as the computer picked up a signal, and Einstein left to investigate, leaving his female anomaly behind.