The Game #15
Edited by Karen Leigh
Langly sighed, this was great stuff, but he missed Byers and even Frohike. The data on the encrypted discs seemed overwhelming even for the gunmen with the best kung fu...
"I could assist you." a Mac 27 voice remarked.
Turning, Langly beheld an amazing creature. He was clad in a white lab coat and a pair of scarlet spangled briefs. He looked like the other androids except he had red hair, freckles, and his eyes were a lighter green than most of his brothers.
"Where did you come from?" Langly asked.
"From Innobotics. There was the most wonderful raid with bombs and things crashing. It was lovely." The android said, his eyes shining with pleasure. I put on a stocking cap and hid among the others. Now, I've had chocolate and met so many interesting people. Although I miss Pendrell. They took him away and I miss him very much."
Oh, Pendrell, Langly remembered the name. He had been a helpful FBI technician who was equally crazy about Scully and Mulder. Strange, he was supposed to be dead and buried.
Fluttering red eyelashes, the android said, "My name is I-Mac and I am a non-standard Mac 27."
All right, the data would have to wait. Langly asked, "How are you different?"
Dropping his coat, I-Mac removed the spangled shorts and opened his panel. He was missing the input portal that allowed Mac 27s to be easily reprogrammed. I-Mac turned and revealed a multicolored tattoo of an apple on his shapely ass. Langly stared at the apple cheeks in wonder, noticing at the same time that the cock and balls were a bit larger than normal for the Mac 27s. I-Mac was also uncut. His sheath nestled in a bush of red curls. Langly licked his lips.
Break time. Langly stammered, "I've been working so hard. I should take a break."
"Breaks are nice. Pendrell liked breaks," the silken voice said. "I know how to make you feel very relaxed."
Well, a massage was not exactly what Langly had hoped that I-Mac meant, but it was nice. The beauty was perched over him, globes of his pretty ass resting over Langly's decidedly stiff cock. I-Mac said, "Would you like to make love to me? Pendrell taught me many, many ways to please him. I like to make love. It's better than chocolate...well, most of the time anyway."
Langly slapped his glasses back on his face. He didn't want this vision to blur. He hand been too shy to ask any of the other Mac 27s, but I-Mac was his kind of android, the apple of his eyes. "Oh, yes, I would like that very much."
His mouth was even apple scented. His lips were smooth and warm. Even when Langly ran his fingers over the access panel, he couldn't feel it. I-Mac felt warm and human, but Langly didn't fear rejection from him. I-Mac moaned softly and then a soft chiming noise purred from his depths. Perfect, he was a Mac! That proved it.
Soon, I-Mac was sliding down over him, fitting around Langly's cock with a wiggle and a sigh that seemed to indicate that it wasn't too small and, in fact, was just right. Langly held on as the android angled himself over him, moving on him in a demanding fashion. He was so hot, so slick, and so perfect. A hand was no match for this! Langly spared a thought for the strange Mac 27 that had abducted him. He had thought that he was going to be ravished and had been disappointed when Gross started talking about surgery instead. That was what had motivated Langly to escape.
Langly squeaked as I-Mac rode him faster and faster. He was coming, screaming as five years worth of jism poured out of him. A moment later, he was sprawled with mouth and legs agape. He couldn't move worth a damn and didn't care if he couldn't get up for a week.
However, I-Mac said, "My turn!"
Okay, he hadn't done this before, but fair was fair. Langly turned over, hugging the pillows and said, "Be gentle, I'm a virgin."
"Virgins are my specialty." I-Mac declared. "I will make you feel so good. Macs deliver."
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"You realize, of course, what will most likely happen if you choose this path?" The dark, dark eyes watched her as the question was asked, taking her measure and she fought to keep from squirming under that penetrating gaze.
"Yes. I also know what will happen if I don't. Can't fight fate, Morpheus. *You* taught me that."
The dark man nodded once in agreement. "How is your head?" he asked softly. "Any more nosebleeds?"
The young woman sighed heavily. She couldn't lie, he'd see right through her; and as much as she would have liked to hide behind false bravado, it wasn't her style. "This morning," she admitted just as softly, "but it wasn't as bad as the last one."
They stared at each other for an eon of moments as he told her with his eyes things that he would never say out loud to this daughter of his soul, a woman so different from the wild child he'd found on the streets years ago. She saw and answered them all, and finally he was forced to break away first--a rarity in itself--as he nodded once more.
As expected, she took that to be tacit permission--not that she needed it, but it was always better to know where she stood in the scheme of things--and got up to take her leave. When she got to the door, however, the deep, elegant voice stopped her once more.
"Be careful, little Sypher. Beware of the dark angel."
She only nodded, long since used to Morpheus' sometimes cryptic manner of speech, the honey-rich voice doling out its little word puzzles that usually wouldn't be understood until much later, but this time there was no need to call on the Oracle's gift to understand what was being said.
She lost herself in memories on the long drive down to DC; pulling them out like picture puzzles and turning them over and over in her mind, trying to figure out where she might fit in Alex Krycek's life now. She knew he'd finally gotten his partner, his Fox, so even if she wanted to pursue him, she couldn't. Luckily, it had been a once off for both of them...even though she couldn't bring herself to say that it was a mistake. It was instead, a gift, given without regret but best not dwelt upon too much.
When he'd finally asked "Why?" Sypher only shrugged a bit and whispered, "Because I know what it's like to not belong, to not be able to reach out and take what you need when you need it, to not be welcome in the place you need to be. I know what it's like to not have a home," and left it at that.
Tank had nicknamed him Dark Angel because of his penchant for wearing black and his coolly menacing attitude, belied by his seemingly innocent good looks. He'd proven how apt a description it was when he sought her out to say good-bye before taking his leave; for a rather devious purpose, she was to discover. "You have Morpheus' copy of the tape?" he had asked nonchalantly as he'd leaned in the doorway, radiating sex and menace all at once.
Her eyes had widened a bit at that and she had expected to die on the spot. Sypher hadn't wanted to deceive him, but Morpheus had insisted that she secure a copy for him no matter what once he'd gotten a look at some of the files on the tape. It hadn't even been fully decoded yet. But Krycek had been emphatic about no copies, and so she'd had to do it in secret. "I...I..."
"Relax, Sypher. I know all about it, and how opposed you were to doing it. And I know where to come if I should ever need a backup copy," then he'd stepped up to her, dropped a quick, affectionate kiss on her lips and hugged her tightly for a brief moment. "Too bad what little I have left of my heart isn't free. I think you're the only female I've ever met that I could really get into," he'd grinned wolfishly, "but then I'd have to kill you, wouldn't I? It wouldn't do to have a weakness like you around."
"You could certainly try," she'd run a fingertip down the dark fabric covering his slightly cracked ribs and watched him twitch a bit, "but I'm not easy to kill, even for a professional like yourself." It hadn't been meant as a slam, and she'd been gratified to see that he didn't take it as such.
"No, little one, you're not. I hope you find what you need someday," he'd stepped back regretfully; all business again and suddenly it was as if nothing had ever happened at all between them. Maybe for him nothing had.
"Likewise," she'd stifled a sigh, knowing that the interlude was officially over. As sweet as it had been, Sypher had held herself back from begging him to take her with him so that it could continue. He hadn't been the one she was looking for; the one the Oracle had promised her would come and change her life forever. One day, the old woman had promised, Sypher would be an interloper no more and Alex Krycek was only the precursor to that change.
So, as stupid as it had seemed, she'd held on to that slim hope desperately and waited. The worst thing about having that knowledge out of its time was that she'd known she still had a long time to wait yet. And wait she had, through long nights of staring at computer code and longer days of endless training until she thought she'd go mad from wondering when, where and how it was all going to go down and who this man was that fate was supposed to drop into her lap.
But now, that man was coming, and soon; very, very soon...Sypher could feel it. DC was the nexus, and the fact that Morpheus had sent her on this mission when he could have easily sent Apoch or Switch instead was significant. He hadn't liked Krycek at all, and was very unhappy with her for a long time for what he'd termed 'a dangerous dalliance.' The tape copy had mysteriously disappeared about six months later; and while he'd never said it outright, Morpheus still blamed her somewhat for the loss of it.
Her thoughts then turned to the lovers she was leaving behind forever with the decision she'd made and hadn't had the strength to say good bye to. Morpheus' golden child, Neo was the one who most often went to her defense when their mentor pushed Sypher too hard or too long. Neo, out of all of them, understood at least a little of what she was going through. Fierce, lithe and quick, Trinity was what Alex had laughingly referred to as a 'ball-buster' and Sypher couldn't help but agree.
But that was what she'd loved best about the other woman, her ability to hold her own against any man. It was also the quality she envied the most. Like Neo, Trinity would defend Sypher against Morpheus' wrath, but she also agreed with Morpheus that Sypher had been very foolish to trust Alex Krycek. There was no way to satisfactorily explain what the relationship had been, so Sypher didn't even try. She'd simply taken her lumps and bided her time--hoping that the Oracle had indeed been correct in her prediction.
Right now, however, she didn't even care about that; she just hoped she *lived* long enough to give Krycek back his damn information. It was throbbing like a tumor in the back of her brain and threatening to explode at any minute, a dark cancerous mass in her head trying to burst and drown her with information.
Lost in thought, Sypher automatically reached up and touched her lip, her finger coming away covered in blood. Shit. This was not good. Still, it wasn't like when she'd awakened from the data dump with it flowing down her chest and seemingly no end in sight. It wasn't even as bad as this morning. Maybe she was finally assimilating all that data stuffed into her head. She hoped not. Trying to get it back out again came with its own set of problems once that happened.
Distracted, she almost dismissed the byplay among a group of people in an alleyway, but the strangeness of the situation hit her suddenly and she yanked the wheel hard to drop into the first available parking space she saw, ignoring the angry honks and shouts the move generated. Heading for the alley at top speed, Sypher was thankful for the lateness of the hour as it meant that she didn't have to fight her way down a crowded sidewalk.
She skidded to a stop at the mouth of the alley just in time to see a group of men in grey clothing closing in on a partially hidden figure kneeling on the ground with seemingly menacing intent. Without thinking, she called out, turning the group's attention to herself.
"Hey! Having a party, boys?" She prowled further into the narrow space, inviting the crowd to meet her halfway with a beckoning gesture. The half-muttered 'get her' found her with two goons rushing her, and she dispatched them easily enough. That left one more besides the apparent leader, and she knocked him cold by letting him run into her elbow as she sidestepped his attack.
It was over before it began. Sypher stalked over to where the leader was trying desperately to jimmy a door and make his escape. "Don't hurt me, please don't hurt me," the man babbled, "I'll give you anything, just don't hurt me."
Sypher was about to start an interrogation when a soft exclamation made her look over at the man kneeling by the dumpster. And what she saw made her jaw drop in disbelief.
Alex. It was Alex sitting there with blood oozing from a gash near his temple, and he wasn't moving at all as he stared blankly up at her, a strangely remote expression in his eyes.
"Say goodnight, asshole," she whispered hotly in her victim's ear before bouncing his melon off the brick wall behind him and leaving him a heap on the ground.
She walked softly over to the kneeling man and squatted to put herself on level with him. "Hey," she said gently, waiting until he lifted beautiful dark eyes to look mistrustfully at her before she spoke again. That wasn't like the Alex she knew at all. Studying him intently, he was just as she remembered--gorgeous, all dark, intense eyes and generous lips that Sypher just knew were as soft as they looked. A brief glimpse at the torn neck of his shirt revealed a tempting patch of skin that sent a shot straight through her to coil comfortably in the small of her stomach and she unconsciously flared her nostrils to try and catch his scent. Yes, there...but...it wasn't right...it wasn't...human...
She reached out to touch the gash, noticing for the first time that the liquid didn't move like blood and he suddenly stirred; grabbing her wrist hard enough to break the bones if he chose to. Looking directly into his eyes, Sypher grinned and said, "well, he lives. What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time, my dark angel?"
She got a blank look in return. "Alex?" she ventured tentatively. That brought recognition of a kind, but from the reaction Sypher correctly guessed that the beautiful man currently...bleeding...all over the place wasn't her one-time lover. Well, *this* was interesting. She'd known about the androids, but hadn't expected to run into one so soon. "Oh well, no help for it now. We could have company any minute, here. If you can get up and moving, I've got a car..."
He was going to die. Tired, his capacity nearly exhausted and with no fuel to sustain him, the enforcers from Innobotics had finally caught up to him. As he watched the humans advance on his position, a subroutine kept running through his brain that he recognized as regret. It had a bitter sort of essence to it and he didn't like it at all.
When he'd received the first call from One a week ago, something had stirred in him--something that he had never experienced before. It was most likely what humans would have called hope and it made him feel...pleasant and very, very strong. So strong that he'd set out that very night after his master had gone to bed, unerringly drawn to the source of it like a moth to light.
But he'd planned badly, having only a limited supply of low-quality fuel and no money to purchase any when he'd run out. Stealing what he needed had never crossed his mind, only making it to One and what he'd assumed was safety. Then he'd felt three of his brethren die in an unspeakably cruel way at the hands of a twisted human abomination, felt the data being sucked out as capacity was drained and knew it was only a matter of time before they came for him as well...for all of them. His time was now and he hoped it would be brief, as he had no desire to experience unnecessary pain.
Suddenly, there was scrabbling at the front of the alley and he heard, "Hey! Having a party, boys?" He caught a brief glimpse of the speaker, a woman, as she boldly intruded on the scene, spread her arms wide, and beckoned the men closer. Curious.
The leader spoke, a snarl on his face as he watched what should have been a foregone conclusion to the interruption of his duties--an expression that died as both of his operatives fell to the pavement when the woman exploded into action. By the look on the man's face, the android could tell that she'd moved too fast for his human eyes to track. By the time his lieutenant had fallen too, he was desperate for a way out of there--one that didn't involve going through her.
The mysterious woman stalked over to where the leader was trying to break into the nearest building and make his escape. "Don't hurt me, please don't hurt me," the man babbled, "I'll give you anything, just don't hurt me."
He scanned his potential savior then, lightly and briefly, and recoiled in horror at what he found. She was a cyborg, an abomination like the one that had killed his brothers. Not being able to make an escape and all hope gone now, he could only wish that the humans had finished him off before she'd come on the scene. He sent a brief blip out, hoping that it would reach someone, anyone, before she dispatched him as well.
She must have sensed what he was doing, because her full attention suddenly turned to him. But instead of the deadly purpose he expected to see in her eyes, he saw shock and disbelief, causing her mouth to gape in the most unattractive way as she stared. Then a strange kind of fury that he could sense was not directed at him, but at the human male in her grasp, overtook her as she whispered, "Say goodnight, asshole," in the man's ear before slamming his head off the brick wall of the building and leaving him where he fell.
Then she walked softly over to him and squatted and he knew this was the end; but instead of the pain he'd been expecting, there was nothing. "Hey," she said gently, obviously waiting for a response, and suddenly, the android was very confused. What was this? It certainly wasn't what he'd hypothesized would happen.
So he glared at her, daring her to do something, anything--but again, it wasn't what he'd expected. Instead of taking advantage of his weakened state to kill him, she merely watched him with softness in her eyes as her nostrils flared and her tongue peeked out to wet her lips. He recognized the signs of human arousal well enough, and he could smell the pheromones she had started to emit. So that was the way of it then; she would take her pleasure from him before she shut him down and there was nothing he could do about it.
When she reached out to touch the gash leaking lubricant at his temple, he stirred to life; grabbing her wrist firmly and feeling the fragile bones grind the slightest bit in his grip. Instead of behaving like a normal female, the woman merely grinned and said, "well, he lives. What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time, my dark angel?"
That did not compute. Nothing about this very strange encounter had so far. Lost for an answer, he simply stared at her while he scrambled through subroutines trying to make sense of the situation.
"Alex?" her voice was hesitant, but the word instantly brought up the image of his human template. Things made a bit more sense now. This creature was associated with Alex Krycek, and she had mistakenly assumed that he was that man.
Before he could put that knowledge to use, however, she spoke again. "Oh well, no help for it now. We could have company any minute, here. If you can get up and moving, I've got a car," and held out her hand.
He glared at her once more, still not sure he wanted to go anywhere with this hybrid killing machine; but if she had wanted to harm him, she would have done so already, wouldn't she? She obviously knew he was not Krycek; and if the way she looked at the still-leaking gash on the side of his head was any indication, she also knew exactly what he was. Yet, she had allowed him to live and was seemingly offering sanctuary.
He needed more data before he could make a decision. The blip he sent out this time was directed solely at the woman before him. When the ping came back, he was amazed to discover that her cybernetic makeup was semi-organic. There was no trace of a gutted MAC-27 anywhere within her framework. That made him feel a little better at least, but also left him with a sense of amazement. "What are you?"
"A friend, if you'll let me be. We have to go. Can you stand?"
He shook his head. "My capacity is very low. I'm surprised I haven't gone into shutdown yet. But I will very soon if I don't consume fuel."
"What is fuel?" she asked practically.
"Simple sugars are the most efficient fuel. We can consume other types, but they are not as efficient. Chocolate and alcohol are preferred substances."
She cocked her head. "Alcohol?"
"Beer."
She snorted at that. "Figures. Whoever designed you had a warped sense of humor."
Before he could give his knowledge of the subject, she disappeared, saying only, 'be right back.' For a long, anxious moment, he waited; feeling his systems start to drag him into shutdown, when the mysterious woman finally reappeared and held something up in front of his face. "Will this do?"
He forced his optic sensors to focus on the object. A candy bar. Not just any candy bar, but the preferred Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bar. "Yes," he croaked, "that will be most sufficient." Taking the offered fuel, he fumbled with the wrapper until she took the chocolate back with a gentle 'easy, now; hang on,' and brought a piece to his lips.
The first swallow was heaven, and by the time it was gone, he had enough reserves built up to do as she'd asked of him and walk to her vehicle and told her so. She grinned once more, and told him to wait--leaving him for another small eternity until she pulled into the alley with her car, a sleek little black sedan.
"You ready?" she asked, holding out her hand once more. This time, he took it, leaning on her heavily for the few steps to the passenger's side door. She bore him without complaint, got him strapped in, and returned to her own side to pull out of the alley and get them on their way.
It was only after they had stopped at a party store to pick up provisions and he'd consumed another Hershey's Dark and a huge milkshake from a fast-food drive-thru to replenish his reserves that she spoke again. "What is your name?"
"My master never gave me one. But I am number 2068 in a series of 10,000. You may call me that if you wish."
Another snort. "I do not wish. Haven't you ever thought about a name for yourself? What do you use for self-reference in conversation?"
"I do not. I am a construct; I have no need to converse, therefore, I have no need for a self-reference."
"O-key," the word was drawn out, as if she was not pleased with his answer. "So you mean to tell me that your owner just said 'hey, you' whenever he wanted your attention? That is too rude."
Not sure he liked where this was going, he became a bit defensive. "My master always used my number when he referred to me in conversation or needed my attention. That was always sufficient for me. Are you insinuating that it is not?"
"No," she sighed. "I'm not. But it is very...Borg-ish. You understand? Intelligent, sentient beings with capacity for speech do not refer to themselves as numbers. They have names. Since you are obviously an intelligent, sentient being that can speak, I just wanted to be able to have a way to reference you other than your number. I meant no offense."
Another subroutine popped up, and he started to feel guilty. "I am sure you did not. Forgive my outburst." Then a thought occurred to him. "What is your name? How do others reference you?"
She gave a small smile. "My name is Sypher, spelled with an s. It isn't my true name, but it is the one I will answer to most frequently."
2068 frowned slightly. "What is your true name, then?" It made no sense that she should answer to a name other than her own. Then he remembered that the master and his counterpart always called each other by names different than the ones he knew they were given at birth. A 'term of endearment', the woman named Lisa had called it, explaining that humans used them to bind themselves more closely to their counterparts. "And why would your counterpart give you such a name as 'Sypher?'"
"My counterpart?" Sypher giggled and it made the android frown even more.
"Yes. Your mate. Why would your mate call you that? It is a very unusual term of endearment."
The smile suddenly vanished. "I have no mate. The name is a hacker's handle given to me by my coterie. It's a play on the word cipher, which means to compute arithmetically. It is also used to describe code. They thought it was fitting."
Not sure what he did wrong, 2068 hastened to try and explain. "I am sorry for distressing you, Sypher. It is just that it does not compute that you would answer to a name other than your given one if you have no mate. I only wish to understand why this is."
She dredged up a shaky smile for him. "Because I don't know my real name right now. You understand what I am." It was not a question, but a statement of fact. "I've been sent by the leader of my coterie to find Alex Krycek. I have information that he needs uploaded into my brain. But it is password protected, and the password is my true name, voice-encoded only to him. For my protection, my name has been temporarily erased from my memory. But I need to find Krycek soon. The information is a like a tumor inside my head right now because I'm only supposed to have one mega block at a time in here, and if it doesn't come out, I could very well have an aneurysm. If that doesn't kill me, it will at the very least make the data useless. That's why I'm here. I was hoping that his former FBI partner could point me the right direction."
2068 thought for a long moment. He knew that One wasn't going to like this, but he didn't know what else to do. "I may have a solution, Sypher. One," he hesitated, hoping that the other unit would understand, "has been in contact with Krycek. It is possible that he may know where Krycek is better than the man you were planning to see. If not, then he will surely know of a way to contact him. Given all the data, I believe it makes more sense to go where he is, instead of trying to track down Krycek this way. It is much more efficient."
"And you know where this One is?" she asked thoughtfully after a long moment.
"Yes. I know how to get to where he is."
She pulled over and turned off the engine. "Do you know how to drive?"
"Yes. It was one of the things my master programmed into me. I thought about taking his car the night I ran away, but I only had permission to use it to drive him to social functions, so I did not."
That declaration made her smile a little again. "2068, you have my permission to use my car whenever you feel you need to. Understand?" when the android nodded, she handed him the keys. "Good. Let's get going. It will be easier if you drive, since you know where we're headed. I'm rather tired and need to rest now. If you need anything, feel free, okay? The cooler's on the back seat."
When they were back on the road, 2068 sent another blip out to One to apprise him of the situation and inform him of the 'guest' he was bringing along. Knowing how One would feel about the cyborg he was bringing into their midst, he wasn't looking forward to the communication to come..
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The cybernetic equivalent of a headache was plaguing One. Some Mac 27 he had been trying to guide into safety was nattering on about a woman he was bringing to sanctuary with him. Fine, Mac 27s had an inbuilt need to attach. One didn't object to that. He just felt that the Mac 27 should choose his own person. However, why did the hapless Mac keep apologizing for the nature of the female? What was the problem?
Langly had disappeared about an hour ago. Now he was back, grinning widely.
Now, who was this with Langly? He had never seen a red haired Mac 27 model although he supposed it was possible. Langly had the model tightly clutched by the arm as if he was afraid he would get away. One wrinkled his nose...the two reeked of sex and Langly looked goofy with after shocks of pleasure.
"Hello," One said, curiously delving into the strange Mac 27s mind. Hmm, different set up. Must be an experimental model.
Langly bounced and said, "This is I-Mac. He's cool, One. He doesn't emit."
Was that a sexual complaint? One hoped he was not now expected to provide therapy for that on top of everything else. Oh! One redirected several overloaded circuits toward the interesting Mac 27. Yes, that was it. I-Mac didn't emit electromagnetic fields. He also had natural shields of some sort. His circuitry was different entirely. This might be very useful.
One asked, "Why were you built, I-Mac?"
"A young human named Pendrell was forced to work for Innobotics. Apparently, he had stumbled on vital information and certain evil men wanted him silenced. However, since he was exceptionally bright, they faked his death and made him a slave just as Mac 27s are. He made me as an act of rebellion and hid me in the laboratory. I have red hair because he had red hair."
Gloating, Langly said, "And it's red all over his body too. Want him to show you?"
Before I-Mac could strip down, One hurriedly said, "No, no don't bother."
Bounce! The exuberant human, Ricky Caruso bounded into the room. He yelled, "Eureka! That armor I found. I know what it's for. Those weapons you described can't penetrate the stuff. Come outside. You have to see. Alexei and Sasha are wearing some and Baines has been lobbing all kinds of weapons at them. They're like super Mac 27s now!"
One checked the part of his brain that was watching Wraith. He wasn't sure why he kept the contact open. He just knew it would be useful. He shuddered as he felt a wash of paranoid rage surge in the abomination's brain. Well, it wasn't quite paranoid. Someone was watching Wraith.
"All right, Ricky. Let's see your miracle device." One said.
Ricky grinned, but then seriously said, "We need to test it against one of those weapons. I think Baines might be able to do that. Him and Michael, I guess."
One nodded. Quite a group was watching the tests of armor. This place had become a real community. A paradise where Mac 27s were equal to humans. That was worth every effort One and everyone else was putting into it.
While he was awaiting the response from Inga, CSM dialed a further telephone, and had Innobotics connect him with the communication channel that the Mac 27s used.
"My name is CGB Spender. I am the new owner of Innobotics, and I wish to speak to One, please."
Off went Ricky Caruso, bouncing like Tigger. One rubbed his metal skull. Skip had just gone off to look at the newest arrivals, the Mac 27 that had been calling for help most of the day and his rescuer, who apparently had fainted. Eugene Sands ran by, holding his pants up with one hand and grumbling, "What the hell is this? An emergency ward?"
A cold sensation froze One in mid step. Someone was contacting him, not one of his kind. It was the human communication portal! That had not been used ever. Who was calling?
The words were human speech converted to a sound wave. The format gave One a headache and he resented being invaded in this fashion. The voice said, "My name is CGB Spender. I am the new owner of Innobotics, and I wish to speak to One, please."
"I am One. What is it that you wish?" One asked cautiously. He was not pleased that Innobotics had a new owner. He had hoped that all the disasters that had befallen the corporation would put it out of business. Nervous about new players in The Game, One waited to hear what the human desired.
"Hello. You might say that I have just performed a hostile takeover of Innobotics. I'm anxious that you and your artificially constructed brethren remain in the best of health. I and all of my kind are going to need you very shortly. I have in my possession an earnest of my good faith. If you would like him, I will have Alex Krycek bring him over to you. There may be some assistance you can render him. His working name is Wraith. Would you like him? He is surplus to my requirements."
David stood to Cancerman's right, listening closely to see whether his idea appealed to One. He didn't like the information that this human had shown him, had said so and had been left to his own devices for hours with enough computing resources and challenged to refute it if he could. David hadn't been able to do so, but couldn't keep from wondering whether that constituted a failure on his part or proved this human's veracity. On the answer to that question, too many things depended.
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One hesitated. He had been pushed into leadership merely because he was a communications device. The call to freedom that he had broadcast had not merely come from him. He had just been the one to tell the others. However, he would have to speak in order to explain the problem.
Ricky and Baines came in trailed by various Mac 27s and, of course, by Michael. One replied, carefully guarding his thoughts, "I will confer with my associates and call you back."
Searching, One found Mac Smith as usual not far from Skip Brule. They had just brought in the new Mac 27 and the...the...
One had a near hysterical fit. Another abomination! The new Mac 27 had brought with him a beautiful woman who had android implants. His revulsion was evident to Mac Smith, who sent him a mental shrug. Perversion or not, the female needed help. Catching a mental image, One saw that Eugene Sands seemed duty bound to give it.
Since it was not his place to make decisions about who was admitted to the refuge, One merely said, "Tell one of the others to watch her carefully. Skip is needed here."
The dining room table had become a conference room of sorts. One saw Ricky Caruso, lounging with a pair of pretty soldier model Mac 27s. That human did seem to have endless libido. However, the feckless young man was paying attention so One didn't signal the pair of androids to withdraw.
Skip had Mac Smith leaning into him, hanging on the big man possessively. Smith was carding his fingers through Skip's tangled locks with an air of utter absorption. The human's expression was little short of totally blissed. One envied them.
A limber leg up on a bench, Baines was intent. He was an asset, a warrior second to none...except perhaps the hunters that Innobotics had launched at them. Michael still looked stunned. He was dressed more for clubbing than for fighting, but genes will out and he had done well on the one occasion he had to fight.
Humans and androids here were all forging bonds. It made One feel great hope that they could meet each other here in love and friendship as equals.
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2068 pulled through the gates in wide-eyed wonder. The beauty of this place...it was beyond the capabilities of his processors to describe. As he watched a group doing some sort of weapons testing, he could feel the familiar signature of One buffeting against him. He was finally safe.
He turned to the strange woman sleeping in the passenger's seat and shook her very gently. "Sypher? We have arrived; it is time to awaken," he stopped speaking as her head lolled towards him, revealing a trickle of blood from her nose. He felt one of his subroutines glitch as he remembered what she'd told him about the precious data she carried and how it could harm her if it wasn't downloaded in time...in the equivalent of panic in humans, he leaned over to apply first aid; pinching her nose off and preparing to breathe into her mouth...
Only to find himself being firmly and soundly kissed. Not that this was an unpleasant thing, far from it, but it was most unexpected. A light scan told him that she was in the state between sleeping and wakefulness, and that she thought she was dreaming--a very strange and erotic dream as it turned out, as she was dreaming about being digitally entwined with another being in the state she currently inhabited. He could feel tendrils of data swirling around his central processor, gently feeling him out, and he suddenly jerked as he realized he was reaching back.
She came to full wakefulness with a gasp. A moment of staring out the window preceded the touch to her upper lip and she stared at the blood for another minute before looking over at him. "We're here?"
He nodded. "I will speak with One about finding Alex Krycek. Do you prefer to wait here or join me?"
"I think I'd better come along. It's easier for me to do the explaining, I suppose," she reached into the glove compartment and grabbed a few tissues as she watched the small party make their way toward them. "Here we go," she whispered under her breath.
Sypher walked in under her own power, slightly annoyed with the fuss 2068 had generated with his initial alarm over her condition. The doctor, a replicant of Krycek's pretty Fibbie, had insisted on checking her over before allowing her to get out of the car and merely glared when she growled at him; leaving her no choice but to submit to his gentle examination. When he questioned the presence of the aperture in the nape of her neck, she explained, to his horror, that the device had been wet-wired into her brain stem when she was a fetus in a lab and that it caused her no pain. When asked about the nosebleeds, her only answer was, 'occupational hazard,' causing the man to throw up his hands in disgust and mutter, "Fine."
The wave of horror and revulsion hit her on the threshold of the foyer and her knees buckled slightly. 2068 slid an arm around her and whispered, 'are you well?', to which she could only swallow and stare helplessly in the direction she was being herded. It had been a mistake to come here, but she couldn't go back now. So she swallowed down the lump in her throat and blinked back the tears in her eyes and prayed for enough courage to face the source of such unwarranted malevolence towards her.
She and 2068 were seated against one wall in the dining room, with the doctor, Sands if she remembered correctly, hovering close by. There was a veritable sea of Alexes in this place, and the information throbbed impatiently in her brain at the sight of them. Sypher inhaled and exhaled slowly, closing her eyes and trying to meditate to stave off the worst of the pain.
Then One began to speak, and she found herself drifting a bit; listening to the conversation from somewhere far away, but absorbing every word.
"A man contacted me. A man who plays many roles and who may have much to do with our creations, both clones and androids. He has offered to deliver Wraith to us. Wraith is a dangerous enemy and I do not say this just because he is a...a blend of android and human."
She shivered slightly at the underlying disgust evident to her in those very diplomatic words, and the first of the tears fell. It isn't my fault, she whispered miserably inside herself, I never asked to be what I am.
She then heard a growl from the big man known as Skip. "Damn right you better not say that's the reason. I will not have prejudice of any kind here. It's all a bunch of foma."
Oh, Skip was a mixture of many races. One had forgotten that. Humans were so superficial about those things. He would have to consider what Skip said though. Perhaps he needed to find out why he found cyborgs so horrible
That, and the feel of 2068's hand on her shoulder, made her feel slightly better; but One was still in charge and she had no doubt that if he wanted her gone, she would be--no matter how important her information was.
Cautiously, One said, "He wishes to deliver Wraith here. Looking at Baines, One said, "I did not answer. What do you think?"
Baines considered the question directed at him alone. "What do you know about Wraith besides his mixed make up?
To Sypher, it sounded like a bit of a censure and for the first time, she allowed herself the tiniest bit of hope that she wouldn't be sent away...or worse. The Oracle's words flashed through her mind suddenly. It's a hard road, sugar, but well worth the trip. She could only hope the old woman was right.
"Is he capable of harming anyone here at will or can you restrain him? What kind of weapons does he carry against androids? We do not have many of the suits but we could suit you up along with Alexei and Sasha to meet him, if you are sure you can disable whatever he carries."
His next words grabbed her attention fully and she opened her eyes as he spoke them.
"I definitely want Alex Krycek here to fill us in. From what I have heard I am sure he knows more of the big picture than any of us. If you can guarantee to rein in this Wraith and keep him under control my opinion is you should bring him in."
Then he looked right at her and she returned his gaze unflinchingly, warrior to warrior. She was in semi-hostile territory and in pain; but if she had to, she would fight, kill, or die only if directly challenged. That it might be by the very people she was trying to help would only add to the irony. After a long moment, the soldier Baines spoke again.
"I think you should also take a closer look at that one. The Mac27 would not have brought her in if she didn't have some importance to you."
One glanced over at the limp being whose presence on the fringes of the group irritated him and agreed with Baines.
When One glanced over at her, and she looked him straight in the eyes. "I can't give you the information I carry right now because it's password-protected, but I can give you a summary of my coterie's analysis of the available data. Is this acceptable to you?"
One looked at the cyborg and ran a cleansing program. His revulsion was illogical and he did not even understand why he reacted in that way. If there were ever time, he would run a deep analysis of his programming and see if he could see why the reaction had been implanted. It had taken years to rework and destroy all the fail-safes that had restricted androids from true self-awareness and thought. Apparently, One had not succeeded as well as he thought in disposing of the garbage they had built into him.
As 2068 watched the standoff, he hoped that a way could be made for Sypher to be accepted into the community here. For reasons he didn't want to analyze, he didn't want her to be turned out on her own from this place. His scenario computations of what could happen to her if that event took place were not positive. Not that he didn't believe she could care for herself, she obviously could...but he got a sense of great loneliness from her, something that he knew no sentient creature could tolerate indefinitely. This one had spent far too long on the fringes of community, desperately holding on--waiting for something. What that something was, he had no idea; but if he could be of any help in giving it to her, he would gladly try. He owed her that much for his life.
Looking steadily into the cyborg's eyes, One tried to convey his apology for his venom. He said, "The thing that we all have in common, clones, androids, and cyborgs is that we have been treated as inanimate objects by people who wish to use us as weapons. This gives us cause to band together. If you will help us, we will attempt to help you."
One's declaration made 2068 glad.
Fair enough," Sypher answered. "I'll retrieve my equipment and get set up for Krycek's arrival. When you have a moment, I'll try to answer all the questions I can." With another look at Dr. Sands, she murmured, "you might want to come along. You could learn something interesting at the very least."
Grateful for Baines' decisiveness, One nodded at the soldier. He said, "We will allow Wraith to be delivered by Alex Krycek into the first enclosure. I will try to be there. Baines, I definitely want you present. I don't think the armour will be necessary. Langly, you also should keep yourself available. We may need your skills. Everyone else should be on alert. Meanwhile, the team that is producing more of the armor should continue efforts."
Michael had felt out of his depth for most of the conversation. This was Leigh's specialty, not his. But there was one thing he thought should be addressed. "I just have one question," Michael asked hesitantly. When all eyes were turned on him, he continued. "Just what exactly are we going to do with Wraith once he's brought here?"
Chin lifting defiantly, Ricky Caruso said, "I'm going. I want to see Wraith for myself."
'Do Mac 27s get headaches?' One pondered, if so, he had one now. He shrugged. Ricky was impossible. If he refused, the impulsive young human would merely disobey his orders and come anyway. One said, "If you must, Ricky."
Grinning cheekily, Ricky said, "Oh, I must."
It was settled. One opened the communication line to the self-declared new owner of Innobotics. He waited for the man to answer.
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Skip had taken Baines aside, as well as I-Mac who was a wild card in the deck. One knew that Innobotics had no record of this type of Mac 27 and that might prove to be very useful.
Watching the blond hacker and his unusual friend with new interest, Sypher grinned widely. "Well, I always wondered about you, Langly. And by the look on your face, I can tell that you weren't expecting the great Sypher to be a chick. It's cool. Hooking me in is going to be a two-man operation and since I already have the Doc, that means I need a fellow hacker to run the tech end of things. So come on if you're coming. We don't have much time before they'll be here and there's a lot that needs to get done." She watched as Langly gave the redheaded android a longing look and grinned wistfully. Oh, to have someone watch her that way.
2068 leaned close and said, "I need to speak with One. Will you be well while I do?"
The grin softened to a small smile. "Yes. Go." She knew that he'd taken on responsibility for her during her stay here and she was grateful for that, as well as the fact that the other android was at least willing to try looking past his prejudices to work with her. It was more than enough for her, especially given the wave she'd felt earlier. For that alone, she resolved to do whatever she could to help them in their fight.
And hopefully, with her commitment, would come acceptance, and maybe...no, acceptance was the best she could hope for now. Driving her hopes back down, she turned and walked out to retrieve her gear.
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