Embrace the Romance

  Zara said something to the guy, but kept her eyes averted and chewed slowly. Only she could make that sexy.

  The asshat wasn’t taking the hint as he stroked his fingers along the length of her upper arm.

  The muscles in her jaw clenched. Did she even know how dangerous these guys were?

  Shit. He got up and walked around, coming up between them. “Excuse me mister, but that’s my girlfriend you’re feeling up.” He leaned on the back of her chair. “Hey, baby.” He covered her surprise with a kiss.

  Pillow-soft lips parted in shock, and a spark of electricity shot through him. He pulled away reluctantly.

  “Coulda said something, bitch,” the outlander said, getting to his feet. “And I better not find out this is bullshit.” He pressed his finger into Marco’s chest before leaving.

  Zara stared at him, her lips moist.

  He’d missed those lips. “Sorry. I thought you might need some help here.”

  “I— I don’t need help. Least of all yours.” She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth.

  “Yeah? So, you meant to talk to an outlander?” He motioned to the serverbot for a drink.

  Her eyes narrowed, tiny wrinkles that hadn’t been there before lay at the corners. “He’s an outlander?”

  “This place is full of them. The group over there,” he nodded inconspicuously. “They’re all outlanders.”

  “Others are scattered around the bar,” Ru said from his shirt pocket.

  Great.

  “Who said that?” Zara asked.

  Marco set the device on the bar. “My com.”

  She was more concerned with the outlanders than his com as she scanned the room. “I didn’t know who they were. We should have been warned.”

  “You should have. Why are you here?”

  She turned her attention back to him. “That’s none of your business.” The gold specks in her brown eyes had always intrigued him. They were shooting daggers now.

  “You’re right, none of my business. Look, I don’t want any trouble with these guys and neither do you. Your boyfriend over there is watching us. I’m going to order some food. We don’t have to talk much. Just make it seem like we’re together and he’ll leave us alone.”

  He’d forgotten about that crease in her forehead when she frowned.

  Casting a furtive glance at the outlander, she nodded and returned to her food. He placed his order and they waited in silence. “We should probably say something once in a while. You know. Fake it.”

  “Why are you here now? I waited an hour later hoping you’d have come and gone by now.”

  Before he could reply, Ru spoke up. “Marco had the same intention.”

  Zara gave the com a suspicious tilt of her head. “Is someone listening to us?”

  “Sort of. More like something. Zara, meet Ru.”

  “Why are you introducing me to someone on your com?”

  “I can see how this would be misconstrued as such,” Ru said. “But I am, in fact, his com. And Marco, your physiological parameters are once again behaving in an anomalous manner.”

  “I told you I don’t need any more reports on my physiological parameters.” He needed to have a talk with Ru about boundaries.

  “What the hells, Marco?” Zara lowered her voice and leaned in closer. “I’m not interested in your humor or your charms anymore, all right?”

  “I swear I’m not messing with you.” Although the thought was seriously appealing. They’d bantered back and forth from the moment they’d met. He breathed in her spicy scent. It was the same perfume she’d worn before.

  “You’re introducing me to your com?”

  Getting her involved was a bad idea, but he couldn’t get up and leave, and turning off Ru was just wrong. “I’ve been tweaking it for months. Gave it access to Earth’s internet and—”

  “What does that even mean? Gave it access?”

  “It, he, is really curious. After a few weeks, we started, I don’t know, having conversations.”

  “You are such an ass. You expect me to believe that?”

  “It is true,” Ru said. “I am fully aware this is an unusual situation, although there is another unit similar to myself.”

  “That’s right,” Marco said. “It belongs to another Earth Protector like me, and she’s—”

  “You’re going to tell me about your girlfriend now?” Her face flushed a deep crimson.

  “No! No, that’s not what I meant. Ria is mated. We never dated. Geez, she’s just a friend.”

  Zara snorted. “Will wonders never cease? A woman you haven’t slept with.”

  He probably deserved that.

  “What Marco is failing to explain is Ms. Ria also has a com unit that’s gained a level of intelligence. I do, however, believe my self-awareness is superior to that of her com. As is my intelligence.”

  Zara looked at Marco. He shrugged. “They both seem pretty smart to me.”

  “That’s not saying much,” Zara said.

  Ru made that damn cracking sound again.

  “What was that?”

  “His laugh. Kind of scary at the moment.”

  “He laughs?”

  “I found it humorous,” Ru said. “Marco commenting on the intelligence of com units.”

  “Are you saying I’m not intelligent?”

  “You are no Dr. Zara Mancini,” Ru stated.

  “Yeah, well, there aren’t many like her in the universe.” He gave her his best flirty grin. “I think my com just insulted me.”

  “How does he know about me?”

  “Marco showed me our surroundings last evening. I identified ninety-four-point five percent of the life forms present. The missing data is undoubtedly due to the presence of the outlanders, who prefer to remain out of confederation databases.”

  There was a light in Zara’s eyes, and he’d be willing to bet she was suppressing a smile. He’d like to see that again. Well fuck. This wasn’t good at all.

  “I’m glad we came to assist you,” Ru said.

  “We? I did all the assisting.” Marco stabbed a juicy piece of cardiff and savored the delectable flavor. This place may be rife with outlanders, but if this was any indication, the food alone was worth the trip.

  “I swear if this turns out to be a joke I will never talk to you again,” Zara said. “You have ten seconds to fess up.”

  Marco raised both hands in the air and swallowed. “You have my word we’re telling the truth.”

  Zara mumbled “Your word.”

  “I am quite real,” Ru said. “I found your background interesting, Dr. Mancini.”

  Zara waved a hand in the air. “Just Zara, and why interesting?”

  “Dude, we don’t need to bother her,” Marco said, trying to redirect the conversation.

  “Are we bothering her? I assumed this was a conversation similar to those you and I partake in.”

  “It is,” Zara said before he could respond. “Why did you find it interesting, Ru?”

  “Marco and I were discussing yesterday that it would be most beneficial, and personally for me, quite thrilling, if I could inhabit an alternative physical form.”

  Marco could see the wheels spinning in her head.

  “He said thrilling. Like, he’d be thrilled.” She frowned at the com. “What does that mean to you?”

  “It is not an easy construct to put into words. I have listened to Marco and others for over a year, and I have explored the earth’s internet with great interest. Especially where emotions are concerned. When I first started experiencing unidentifiable phenomenon, I searched there. I have concluded that I experience certain emotions with some regularity. And the range is increasing. Humor, for example, has recently developed. I...enjoy it, when I find something that amuses me.”

  “And thrill? What does that—” Zara shrugged. “Feel like.”

  “It is an elevated experience. As though my consciousness is excited, somehow. I do not know how to describe it in words.”
br />   “Welcome to humanity.” Zara flagged the waiter bot. “I’ll have a Spinner-tini.”

  Well crap. She was getting far too interested in this. He bit back a grin, nonetheless. Zara was fun after a few drinks. Three was the magic number. Or, at least, it had been. He took another bite. Not going there. Like it or not, everything about this would appeal to her. Everything but him. “He wants to be an Earth bird. It’s similar to a Sandarian Trek.”

  “Why a bird? Why not a humanoid form?”

  Ru explained his reasoning.

  “So, you want to be more like a pet?”

  “That had not occurred to me,” Ru said. “Yes, that is precisely how I see myself. A pet, and Marco is my owner.”

  “I’m your friend, dude. Not owner.” This whole conversation was making him increasingly uncomfortable. “We can’t actually do this, can we?”

  “What kind of body experience are we talking about here?” Zara asked

  “Can you explain your question in further detail?” Ru asked.

  “Well, I’m pondering the current state of cyborg technology. I have the latest tech. At least, of anything we’re aware of here. Do you want to be able to experience things like eating? I assume you want basic sensory input such as temperature and whatnot. Some of my cyborgs get their fuel from eating just like a living animal. That type of form is more organic than the purely synthetic ones. The others simply plug in and don’t have to bother with eating. It all depends on the application. Of course, if you eat for your fuel, you’ll have to deal with the waste byproducts, just like any living thing. And that would include periods of sleep for your body’s restoration.”

  “If I sleep, will I dream?”

  “It’s possible,” Zara said.

  The two went back and forth for nearly an hour. For every question Ru asked about the process, she responded, then added another question of her own. She was testing him. searching for something that didn’t add up.

  The outlander had left with a woman on his arm, which meant they were free to go. But she didn’t notice.

  “I think I would enjoy the process of eating, and any life-like sensory input you think will be able to function.”

  “Oh, we can get you all kinds of input,” Zara said. “Taste, touch, smell. Did you know that smell isn’t so much smelling as hearing with your nose? It’s pretty freaky when you get to the molecular level.”

  That was Zara. She could go off on tangents for days.

  “How about speech? Will I lose that as a bird?”

  “Normally yes, but I can integrate a speech synthesizer. Do you want the same voice you have now?”

  “I am not sure.”

  “Well, don’t worry about it. We’ll have the ability to modify it. You’ll be able to laugh properly too.”

  “That is most pleasing.”

  Pleasing, thrilling? How did that work for a computer? “Hold on. Before we get carried away here, what are the risk factors?”

  “There are risk factors with any procedure, but these are within acceptable parameters,” Zara said.

  “What’s acceptable?” Marco didn’t like the thought of losing Ru.

  “Well, this would be a first for me, but only insofar as using a com unit as the core processor, and, of course, dealing with an AI. And the more I talk to him, I think that is what you have here.” Zara was on her second drink and fully engaged.

  “Can you give us odds?” Marco asked.

  “Full integration with a biological form, I’d put Ru’s survival rate at nearly one hundred percent. Success of the procedure itself is in the mid to high nineties. I’m good at what I do.”

  Marco didn’t doubt it. “But there is a chance that Ru wouldn’t make it?”

  “There is a chance this station could be depressurized by a systems failure,” Ru said, “an asteroid impact, attack from hostile forces or any number of things. Existence is always accompanied by the possibility of extinction.”

  “That’s depressing,” Marco said.

  “He’s right.” Zara eyed him over the rim of her glass.

  She wanted this now. That had escalated quickly. “Ru, are you sure you want to take this chance?” He wasn’t.

  Ru paused a long while. “The quality of my existence would be sufficiently enhanced from my current state. The risk is acceptable.”

  Zara started to speak, but Marco cut her off. “Hold on. Why are you willing to risk your existence?”

  “Because I am alone.”

  “You’re not alone,” Marco said.

  “I exist on your terms, dependent upon your desire or need to transport me wherever you go. I cannot interact with anyone on my own. When you sleep, I am powerless. If I had a physical form, and the ability to communicate as I do now, I could...do things. I could converse when you were sleeping. The possibilities are endless. I am quite certain the risk is acceptable.”

  Marco knew defeat when he saw it. “We should probably talk finances.” He was pretty well off thanks to the Cavacent Clan, but there were limits.

  “Tell you what,” Zara said, a spark in her eyes. “I’ll cut you a deal in exchange for being able to monitor Ru and his health for my research.”

  Which would mean they’d be in touch indefinitely. He wanted that. And he didn’t. “Sure.”

  “Does this mean you will assist me in...evolving?” Ru asked.

  Surprise crossed her face as she glanced from Marco to Ru and back again.

  And then she smiled.

  Oh, mother of all the gods, that smile was what had started everything.

  Marco approached the lab where Zara had been working for the past week. He clutched Ru in his sweaty palm.

  “Are you waiting for something?” Ru asked as he stood outside the entry panel.

  “I don’t know if this is a good idea.” The thought of spending time with her was both appealing and unnerving. She did that to him these days.

  “Perhaps not for you. However, I believe she is the best chance I have of a successful transformation.”

  Right. This wasn’t about him. He knocked on the door and waited.

  The panel slid open a moment later. Zara stood inside, next to the man he’d seen her with the first night.

  A wave of jealousy punched him in the gut.

  “Come on over,” she said.

  She introduced him to Dr. Marcus Conn. They were wrapping up their research project and Dr. Conn was returning to Xycor, where the company they worked for was based.

  “I’ll see you in a week,” Zara said, giving Conn a peck on the cheek.

  Conn made his exit, leaving them alone. Well, alone with Ru.

  “You staying another week?” He and Ru only had three more days.

  “I assumed you were too. I need to run some extensive tests on Ru. I’ll also need to procure some DNA of the bird he’s selected.”

  “What will you do with it?” Ru asked.

  “I’m going to grow you a body. You’ll be the first cyborg bird I’ve created.”

  “This is very exciting,” Ru said, and he sounded excited, too. Every day his voice was becoming more and more inflected. More human. “How long will it take?”

  “A couple of months. I’ve perfected a technique whereby I can grow organic material from a DNA starter to maturity rapidly, and then decelerate the growth rate to subnormal ranges. You’ll probably have a hundred or more years in the body, if you want it.”

  “Whoa. That’s cool,” Marco said. It also meant that, one way or another, they’d be in touch. Again, the mixed bag of anticipation and anxiety.

  “But what about the animal?” Ru asked. “Are you going to be removing the brain? I’m not sure I’m comfortable with taking a life in such a manner.”

  Zara shook her head. “If I had any doubts about you before, it’s settled now. That’s a very compassionate attitude, Ru. You don’t have to worry about it, though. The body I grow will be fully operational, including the medulla portion of the brain that controls involuntary thin
gs like breathing and heartbeat. The higher functioning part of the brain will be grown along with the neural lace, which will eventually integrate your circuitry with the physiological neural network of the body. My human cyborgs do it, I don’t see why we can’t take this in the opposite direction. A computer integrating with a biological body. We’ll be integrating your circuitry with the brain’s impulse and neuromuscular control center. That way, you don’t have to consciously think about things like flying and chewing. You will be a true avian cyborg.”

  That sounded incredible. It also sounded dangerous. “Risks?” Marco asked.

  She reached out for the com and he placed it in her hand, her fingers warm and soft against his skin. “There is a risk, but it’s not unprecedented. I have cyborgs with human brains as well as ones with computers. They’re the next generation of robotics with multiple applications, including companions for the handicapped or otherwise disadvantaged.”

  “Or lonely. You know, the sex industry will be all over this.”

  Zara laughed. “You aren’t wrong there. In fact, they’re already a substantial source of funding for my research. That and the military.”

  “Sex and war. Figures. I’m surprised you haven’t done any birds before.”

  “We’ve done plenty of small flying droids and such. Insects, too. They’re easier to use for covert surveillance. It’s got me thinking, though. I can see a need for a line of cyborg pets. Lots of lonely people out there that could benefit from a smart pet. So, boys, back to your schedule. When are you leaving?”

  “Three more days, then back to Earth. We can get the DNA sample there.”

  A shadow crossed her face. “Okay. Well, let me start my tests and see how far I get before you go. All right if I hold onto him?”

  “Sure.”

  “Great. I’ll call you later then. You should get a new com.”