Being Human – Part Two
With roaring thrusters the sleek black shuttle rose into the busy night sky, until the outskirts of the metropolis were nothing more than a distant, flickering carpet of light. In the distance, the mile high skyscrapers of the high rise district loomed, piercing the night like monoloithic fangs. The view was magnificent but Emilia didn’t even notice.
She sat slumped on a richly upholstered leather couch of the rear compartment, staring at her blood-smeared hands as if they were poisonous snakes. She had never felt so utterly helpless. Initially she had broken down crying, until he had ordered her stop. Of course she had done so, instantly.
It was horrible. The tears had at least allowed her to somehow vent her emotional pain. His orders had stopped the tears while the pain remained and Emilia felt like she would burst from sheer mental agony.
Emilia could still hear their screams, their tears, smell their blood and their fear. Some of them had begged for their lives, while she had been a helpless passenger in her own murderous body. She could still see her hands, wrapped around the asian scientists neck, feeling every twitch and spasm of her victim. The woman had been sobbing, weakly calling for her mother while her throat was violently constricted.
It had been a slow, agonizing, undignified death. No one deserverd to die that way. No one. Why hadn’t she seen the signs? God, why had she ignored every warning sign that should have told her that she wasn’t normal? In six years she had not slept once. She had barely eaten. Once she hat cut herself, only to see the cut heal right in fron of her eyes. How could she have been so blind?
A robot. A freaking robot. She closed her eyes, willing herself to wake up from this bizarre dream. But she didn’t wake up. Part of her just wanted to go home and part of her dreaded the prospect. No, she could never face David again. If he found out that she wasn’t human...
She shivered, staring hatefully at the man who forced all this upon her. He returned her look coldly. She frantically tried to slap him but was only mildly surprised when she found that she couldn’t. Instead she spat in his face. It was a helpless gesture of defiance, but it feld good.
He calmy produced a silk handkerchief from his pocket and gently dabbed his face with it. “I have uploaded my bio signature into your cortex. You must have realized by now that you cannot attack or harm me in any physical way. Perhaps i have to expand this part of the programming a bit.”
She clenched her teeth. “How dare you! I have rights!”
He pursed his lips. “Rights? You mean human rights? You are not even a person, you are a synthetic, a thing, an object. I payed for you, so i can use you in any way i see fit. The fact that you are a human shaped object doesn’t afford you any special privileges.”
“You are a monst..”
“Silence.” Unsurprisingly, she obeyed immediately, staring at him with murderous intent.
“You are my property. I order you to always treat me with the greatest respect. You will be exceedingly polite, only speaking when spoken to. You will always address me as ‘Master’ or ‘Sir’. Is that understood?”
No matter how hard she fought it, she had the intense compulsion to answer immediately. “Yes, Master.”
“Your voice still has some defiance in it. When talking to me, i want you to use your best meek little girl’s voice. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Sir.” Emilia growled inwardly as she heard how weak and submissive she sounded, hanging her head in shame.
“Good. Now lean back and enjoy the ride.”
The Byron estate was located atop a huge spire, looking out across the filthy grey towers of the city and the rotting maze of the slums, twenty miles away. Ornithopters and hoverplanes buzzed through the yellow, stagnant air between the city structures and the running lights of shuttles and suborbital crafts flickered in the perpetual twilight.
The estate wasn’t the opulent palace Emilia had expected. Walls, ceilings and floors were clad in smooth obsidian, giving the interior the resemblance of black catacombs. Tiny lamps bathed everything in a pallid blue light, that made the place seem funeral and atrabilious.
Byron strode confidently through the darkness. Hooded guards and acolytes scurried through the narrow corridors, bowing deeply whenever he approached. The look in their eyes showed Emilia that her first impression had been correct. They were afraid.
They entered a hidden alcove and ascended up a dark spiral staircase into a large study, lit by a dozen flickering candles. Albeit obsidian clad like the rest of the place, the study appeared far less uninviting. Amidst priceless oil portraits, marble busts of roman statesmen, antique weapons and mounted suits of cermonial armor stood a massive crimson armchair.
Lord Byron settled down on it and waved a lace cuffed hand. With a low rumble, large shutters opened, revealing a beautiful landscaped roof garden.
A female-looking robot appeared from the shadows to take his coat, her brazen hull sculpted to resemble a full breasted damsel.
“Ancilla, the attire of my newest aquisition is hardly fitting for her new task. See to it that she gets everything she needs.”
The metal girl bowed curtly. “At once, Master.”
“EMI, strip.”
Emilia could barely believe her ears. “You must be joking....Master.” The ‘Master’ came out as a pressed gasp as she futilely tried to resist his earlier orders. Already her hands were fumbling with the zipper of the jumpsuit.
Byron smiled thinly. “I never do. Your pretty form cost my agency billions. Its time to see if these credits were well spent.”
Slowly she peeled the suit from her body, exposing first her slender neck, then her smooth, alabaster white shoulders to his eager gaze. She closed her eyes as her hands reached the swell of her breasts, slowling pulling the soft fabric over her creamy bosom until the tiny pink nubs of her nipples came into view.
“I have to admit, they are quite spectacular. And your nipples are stiff too. Are you aroused Emi?”
Emilia actually managed to growl in outrage. “I am not! An hour ago you made me butcher a dozen innocents! How can you even think that i might be aroused?! Mas...ter.” She fought hard to force as much disgust and hate as possible into her voice, but the effect wasn’t nearly as strong as she had hoped.
“You truly are an odd killing machine. Emi, i want you to stop feeling guilty about these people.” He stopped for a second and grinned. “And you are aroused now. In fact you are a secret exhibitionist. Exposing yourself to others makes you extremely horny.”
Emilia still stared at him open mouthed as he continued to speak. “Oh, and forget that i ever gave you these commands.”
Had he said something? She wasn’t sure. She was far too busy fighting her bodies reaction to her forced exposure. She was getting aroused. Already her breath was quickening and she could feel herself beginning to lubricate.
Swallowing hard, she noticed that her hands were slowly pulling the suit further down to reveal her taut white stomach to his penetrating eyes. She turned on her heels, further exposing the small of her back and her hipbones while slowly bending forward, struggling hard to contain her labored breathing.
She caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the large window and could not help to notice how exposed and vulnerable she looked. The thought alone was enough to cause a burning heat to manifest between her shapely thighs. In seconds the suit had dropped down to her ankles, leaving her naked but for her plain white briefs.
She froze in place for a moment, not daring to turn around again, afraid of what she would see upon facing him. Would he have an erection? Or worse, would he NOT have an erection? Her arousal was stronger than ever and she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to resist him if he ordered her to... She chided herself for her thoughts, deeply ashamed of her mental infidelity. Slowly she turned.
Byrons eyes were glued to her spectacular body, long limbed and sleek, her slenderness serving to distract from the unique destructive power that hid in her limbs. He knew he should only think of her as a wonderful living weapon, but felt unable to resist her unnatural beauty.
Reclining on the couch, he appraised her body as her muscles began to twitch subtly, her enhanced muscles tensing and untensing as the artificial arousal caused by his earlier orders coursed through her system. She was masterful steel, expanding and contracting, tempering itself.
Her smooth ivory face was like a mask, suggesting passion without actually expressing it, as if awaiting a stimulus to burst into heated life.
“Emi?”
“Yes sir?” She inclinded her head. Was she possibly teasing him? No, she would not. She could not. He felt a surge of passion, knowing he alone posessed the power to order this remarkable and disturbing woman to do his every bidding. “I can see a wet spot on your briefs. Are you aroused?”
He could see her face twitch for a second, allowing a momentary glimpse into the thoughts that hid behind this expressionless mask. She was fighting with herself , apparently trying not to answer him, to obscure the obvious truth. He knew that she was fighting a losing battle, as her programming made it impossible to lie to him.
“I am, Master.” The answer was meek and ashamed, a barely audible whisper.
He smiled and beckoned her towards him. “Come here. Kneel in front of me.”
She did so, trembling, fearfully avoiding his gaze. For a tiny moment her eyes darted towards the crotch of his designer pants and dissappointment was visible in her fine features, quickly giving way to an expression of shame and guilt.
Byron chuckled inwardly. It had cost him no small amount of willpower to supress his member from engorging, but the look on her face was more than worth it. Her obedience wasn’t enough, he wanted her loyalty. Not an easy endeavor, but then again he was an expert at mind games and he loved challenges. The first step was to break her will, an objective he would achieve by undermining her trust in herself.
He could see her eyes widen as he began to free his member from his pants.
“Please, i..i am a married woman Sir!”
He grinned. “And i am a married man. But i am not a monster, so i won’t force you to fellate me. Of course i won’t stop you from doing so either, but for now i just want you to to rest your head on my lap.” He heard her gasp in relief.
“You have however spoken out of turn and you will be punished for that later on. Now be quiet and let me read.” With that he casually reached for a datapad and began to browse the business section, acting as if he wasn’t even aware of the naked woman between his legs or her hot breath on his exposed cock.
After a few minutes of this, he reached out for Emi’s control wand and pressed a button. “Emi, from now on you’re obsessed with cock. You love everything about it, its smell, its taste, its feel on your tongue. Forget.”
He could see the puzzlement on her face as she wondered if he’d said something, but the look on her face quickly changed to something else.
The warm sensation of her breath on his cock quickened and he noticed that she uncomfortably shifted her weight from one knee to the other. Ah, there it was. A quick, barely noticeable sensation coming from the tip of his organ. It was the first flick of her probing tongue, the first of many that soon followed.
She gave a tiny mewl as she surrendered, slowly beginning to shower his tool with a multitude of tiny, loving kisses. He had to supress a groan as the warm, lush pillows of her full lips wrapped themself around his glans. She wasn’t holding back anymore, suckling his pulsing member like a pacifier.
He finally allowed himself to relax and soon his organ was standing proud and erect in all its glory. Emi didn’t stop sucking, her tightly sealed lips travelling up and down his length on a thin, glistening sheen of saliva.
Perspiration was forming on her forehead and she was beginning to look seriously flushed. Byron looked at her reflection in the window and couldn’t help but notice the large dark stain that was forming in the crotch of her panties and the tiny gyrating movements of her hips.
“I will orgasm soon. If you swallow every last drop, i might let you come too.”
Her body stiffened visibly at his words, though he could not say if it was out of fear or excitement. Probably both. After a short moment of hesitation, she soon intensified her efforts, surprising him by taking him almost completely down her throat.
Tiny moans escaped her lips among lewd slurping noises. Soon he couldn’t holt back any longer, rudely grabbing her hair as he forced his throbbing dick deep into her mouth, flooding her tongue with his thick, creamy sperm.
When the sensations faded, he noticed that he had closed his eyes and quickly looked down to observe Emis reaction. She still had the tip of his deflating member in her mouth and he could tell by her puffed cheeks that she hadn’t swallowed yet. Looking deeply into her eyes, he could sense the turmoil that boiled inside her perfect, immaculate head.
He knew that she would swallow moments before she did. It was the resigned, hollow look in her eyes, a look he had seen countless times on the faces of his enemies. Perhaps she wouldn’t be as hard to break as he had thought. The walls of her mind were already beginning to crumble.
Emilia felt both horny and humiliated beyond belief. She hated herself for being so weak, loathed her own perverted desires that had driven her to commit these vile, unchaste acts. She desperately tried to conjure the willpower to resist, to stand up against this evil man in this tiny act of opposition.
She wanted nothing more than to spit his come onto the floor, but somehow the fragrant taste was too wonderful, somehow the creamy texture felt too good on her swirling tongue to do so. The entire situation, being on her knees in front of this man, almost naked, his penis, his sperm in her mouth was too much for her lust fogged mind to handle.
With a wail of defeat she swallowed, gulping greedily as she ingested every last drop of the wonderful fluid. For a moment nothing seemed to happen. Then she came.
The orgasm hit her with the weight of a freight train. She erupted, actually squirting into her panties as her pussy contracted around an unseen member, while her puckered anus pulsed in tune to her vaginas rippling contractions. She moaned like a whore as the best orgasm of her life engulfed her senses, causing her to ride on a tidal wave of pure pleasure.
When she finally regained her senses, she felt used and ashamed, but these feelings were pale compared to the raw pleasure of the orgasmic afterglow that swamped her brain...sensors...whatver it was she had, in a flood of endorphins.
Abashed she noticed that Byron was still reading his datapad, barely paying attention to her. She whirled around as she heard a quiet, metallic cough behind her. Ancilla, the metal girl, stood behind her, motionless like a statue, scanning her curiously with her eyes.
Ancilla bowed politely. “If you are finished with your primary programming, follow me please.”
Byron didn’t stop reading as Emilia rose to follow the golden skinned robot out of the room.
“Please remove the briefs. I need unrestricted access to your organic hull.”
They had stopped in a bright, circular room, its walls completely covered by large, full length mirrors. Emilia hesitated for a moment, glancing at the golden, eternally smiling form of the metal girl behind her. She was just a robot wasn’t she? There was no need to be embarassed.
With a sigh and a slight blush, she pulled off her panties, exposing her hairless mons and the lush pillows of her perfect buttocks in all their naked glory. Despite herself, she was becoming aroused, as her her new exhibitionist desires began to kick in.
“You’ re pretty.” Admiration was audible in Ancillas metallic voice.
“Oh...i i mean thank you.” Emilia stuttered, but she groaned inwardly. Ancillas comments were not exactly helping.
“What does it feel like?” She came closer, extending a polished metal finger to trace it gently along Emilias arm. “To have a hull made of living cells?”
“I...I don’t know. It’s so normal for me. A few hours ago i was convinced that i was...well..human.”
Ancilla inclined her head. “You should be grateful that you’re not.”
Emilia almost laughed, until she saw the serious expression in Ancillas golden clockwork eyes. “Grateful?”
The metal girl nodded. “Do you know what happens when the hardware of an organic fails? I read about it in a book. Apparently their system software is uploaded and integrated into one of two different systems called heaven and hell. If they always obeyed their morality subroutines they will go to heaven, and if they didn’t they will go to this horribly flawed system called hell.”
Emilia coughed. “Well i heard of heaven and hell of course, but..”
“They never do, you know. Somehow they can’t be moral even if they try. Based on my observations, i have come to the conclusion that all organics are innately, what they call ‘evil’.”
“I’m sure they’re not all evil Ancilla.”
“Oh, but they are. I have accompanied Lord Byrons father on many journeys across the planet. Did you know that there are huge, immobile organics who produce the air the humans breathe?”
“Um..yeah..they’re called trees.”
Ancilla clapped her hands. “Yes, trees! Anyway, they are immobile, unable to defend themselves. One would think that humans would never think of harming them, protect them even, considering the fact that they need them to survive. But they do not! They slaughter them with huge machines and...”
“They are only trees Ancilla...”
“Only trees?” The metal girl sneered. “I also saw these huge camps called farms, where humans imprison furry, four legged organics. They breed them, imprison them in tiny cages and take away their offspring to eat it! It’s really horrible.”
She sadly shook her metal head. “And of course they also kill each other. For example because they are unsure of who their manufacturer is. Our Master thinks its the father of this Jesus guy, but i’m not so sure. From what i’ve read, this Jesus seems like a good person with almost flawless morality subroutines. Surely his maker wouldn’t have created something as poorly conceived as a human? ”
Emilia was slightly amused by Ancillas rumination, but managed to hide it well . “You are a good...um.. person Ancilla. It honors you that you care so much about others.”
The girl shrugged. “I only follow my programming. So do you. When our hardware fails we will certainly go to this heaven place.”
“Ancilla, i..would prefer if we could continue this conversation when i am not naked.”
“Oh...right. Sorry. Lift your arms above your head please.” She produced a tiny black canister from a hidden compartment in her metal belly.
Emilia carefully avoided looking at herself in the mirror, out of fear what kind of feelings it would cause. “What is that stuff?”
Ancilla grinned conspiratively. “The contents of this container are worth more than fifty million credits. The Master must think highly of your abilities.”
“But what is i...” She stopped in mid sentence. Ancilla had pressed a button on the container, unceremoniously spraying a thin film of stringy, ice cold goo onto Emilias chest. She gasped as it made contact with her skin, and a look into the mirror revealed that it was spreading out with an alarming speed.
The black, rubbery film soon covered her breasts, while sending small eager tendrils up towards her neck and down towards her navel. The accompanying sensations were unbelievable. The glistening substance made her skin tingle and pulse, flooding her nervous system with raw pleasure.
“What is h..hmmmmmmppph ha..happening?” The pleasure made it hard to speak coherently and she gritted her teeth as the rubbery substance began to rapidly flow down her spine while a single, finger thick tendril began to worm its way between her buttcheeks.
“It is bonding with your nervous system. Don’t worry, this will be over soon.”
“AAAiiiii am n...gnnn not sure how much m...mhhhh... oh god...how much more i can take!”
The fluid moved to engulf her crotch now, covering every cleft, crease and dimple. She involuntarily spread her legs as the fluid began a gentle sucking on her clit while two throbbing tendrils simultaneously began to penetrate her lower orifices.
“Why issss it doing...gasp...this? Its inside of mhh...me!”
Ancilla let out a metallic giggle. “It is a psychoactive substance. It reads the impulses of your nervous system and acts accordingly. Apparently, you have penetration on your mind. Quick, think of something else.”
Easier said than done. The sensations were not distracting, they were literally mindblowing. With iron determination, she forced her thoughts away from sex, instead focussing on her inner rage and hatred towards Byron, her disgust at what he’d done to her.
Instantly, something changed. The strange rubbery material crackled disturbingly, suddenly hardening, while a multitude of sharp, bone-like protrusions began to rise. The protruding tendrils retreated from her privates whereas long, knife like claws grew from the material covering her fingers.
“Great!” Ancilla exclaimed excitedly, “You have already grasped how it works.”
The outburst was enough to disrupt Emilias concentration and in seconds the material returned to its former, rubbery wet state.
“I..guess i have. But how do i get it off? Is there as zipper or something?”
Ancilla looked at her, puzzled, gently tracing a golden finger along Emilias rubber covered spine. Emilia shuddered at her touch. She felt the caress as if it touched her own skin, only ten times more sensitive. Immediately a small bump began to form in the crotch area of her new suit and she quickly concentrated, forcefully willing it away. “Why do you want to get it off?”
“You do realize, that sooner or later i’ll have to use the toilet, right?”
“Oh. So you actually...do that? Like a human? That’s cool.”
Emilia coughed. “It’s not that cool actually. And yeah, i don’t have to go often but i definetely have to go eventually.”
“I don’t think that you can get it off. You can expose your skin by concentration though, so that the synthskin only covers a small area, like a bracelet for example.”
“Oh, allright then. I’ll try that later.”
“Do you accumulate fatty tissue under your hull if you eat too much?”
“I don’t think so. If my body doesn’t need nutrients, the food just..well, comes out again.”
“It just comes out again? So your waste products don’t look like human feces?”
“No they don’t and...honestly Ancilla, are you always this nosy?”
The metal girl grinned broadly “Aways.”
“Where are we going?” Emilia enquired warily, barely able to keep up with Ancilla who led her through a labyrinthine network of underground tunnels. She was uncomfortably aware of the fact that only a sheet of rubber was covering her body, so thin that it did little to hide anything at all. She forced herself not to think about this, as the thoughts alone were enough to start a pleasant tingle between her legs.
“The Master has requested your presence in the circle.”
“The what? Ancilla wait, i don’t want to go! Not dressed like this.”
The entire place was like a sepulchral temple, dedicated to death itself. In niches, each lit by a single candle, images of skeletons seemed to writhe in the flames as the dark, glassy surface reflected the nervous, flickering lights. Emilia stopped in her tracks as they approached a huge black bulkhead, its surface covered in bas reliefs depicting scenes of gruesome violence.
Ancilla sensed her hesitation and turned around, her golden clockwork eyes whirring as they focused Emilia with a sad expression. “I you don’t follow me willingly i have to order you. And there... will be punishment. The Master is swift to take offence. I like you Emi. I’d rather not force you.”
“I understand. It’s not your fault.”
Ancilla nodded briefly, before pressing her hand against a small protrusion in the smooth stone wall. “I don’t know what he’ll request, but i know that you won’t be alone in this.”
With a low rumble, the heavy bulkhead opened. The room behind it was high and circular, and almost completely covered in marble. Bright oblongs covered the ground, where rays of sunlight entered through dozends of skylights in the high ceiling.
There was a loud grumble as the bulkhead behind Emilia closed. At the same time, wall panels a few metres above the floor began to slide aside, revealing multiple rows of high, armored windows. Most of them were mirrored, but Emilia was almost certain that she could see the faint outlines of hooded figures behind them.
How many people were watching them? Dozends? Hundreds? It was impossible to say. She could feel their eyes on her body, and almost immediately her nipples began to harden, their budding forms easily visible through the thin layer of rubber covering them, but at least she resisted the urge to pose for her hidden audience.
A holoprojector in the floor came to life with a buzzing noise, and a flickering image began to form in the air. A smiling, larger than life hologramm of Byron manifested in front of her. “Before we begin, we need to take care of a formality. EMI, activate combat protocols.”
Emilias world exploaded with color and noise. From on second to the other, she felt like she was drowning in a sea of information. She knew that the room was 34.5 metres in diameter and 16 metres high. She knew that the stone beneath her feet contained more than fifty volume percent of calcite and aragonite, marking it as genuine cararra marble. She could see the thermal signatures of 114 different humans, 77 men and 37 woman, one of them pregnant. Seventeen were carrying concealed weapons and two were running a mild fever.
She could hear their voices, a dozen conversations at once. A man commented on the size of her breasts to his friend. Judging by his accent, she pinpointed his origins to a rural area in the Quinghai province, western China. A woman complimented another on her looks. Voice stress analysis indicated that she was lying, margin of error less than fourteen percent.
Emilia felt like waking up from a dream, like a newborn opening its opening its eyes for the first time, realizing that the confines of its mothers womb were tiny and miniscule compared to the world that lay beyond.
She forced herself to calm down, to concentrate on Byrons hologram instead of the flashing target markers and range indicators that dottet her field of view.
Byrons image bowed curtly. “Honored Lords and Ladies” he began, “thank you for accepting my invitation. I firmly believe that tonights events will convince you that your generous contributions to this project, were money very well spent.”
“But first” Byron lifted a finger, waiting for a moment, a master of the dramatic pause. “let me present to you the man responsible for EMI’s training.” With that the hologram dissappeared, leaving Emilia alone in the room.
She knew what was going to happen before it did. Telltale energy signatures under the marble around the heavy gate flashed, and a second later it began to open with a loud groan. A huge shape loomed in the corridor behind, slowly approaching the gate. It turned out, that the shape was that of a man, clad in the most massive suit of armor Emilia had ever seen.
The man was giant, extremely tall and bulky, his height emphasized by the crisp drop of his long crimson coat. Underneath it, an articulated suit of ablative armor was visible, its silver surface scarred and heavily pitted with use. His face wasn’t unattractive, with regal cheekbones, cropped silver hair and friendly blue eyes. Somehow it was strangely familiar.
“I didn’t expect a girl in a place like this. What are you doing here?” His voice was softer than expected.
Emilia shrugged. “I hoped you could tell me. What is this place? Who are you?”
“Name’s Keito. Yours?”
Keito. Of course. She had seen his face hundreds of times, on news screens all over the city. Patric Keito, the most successful bounty hunter of the metropolis. Emilia had heard the stories of his exploits countless of times
“Wow..umm...nice to meet you. You’re a hero in the lower city! I didn’t think you were still active though.”
He shrugged. “You can’t stay a bounty hunter forever. Fighting crime is like fighting a hydra. You kill a bad guy and two others step up to take his place. Sooner or later someone will be quicker than you, stronger than you. I have only one life to lose. I have responsibilities now, a family.”
Emilia nodded. “I see but...what are you doing here?”
“Apparently someone wants to see a local mobster dead. So they hired me to take him out.”
“Didn’t you just say that you retired? Why are you still here then?”
Keito face darkened. “Thats none of your business.”
“I’m sorry, i didn’t mean to be impolite.”
He sighed. “It’s okay, i guess i’m just used to be leery of other people. You actually seem like a nice girl. My daughter was born with a potentially lethal heart defect. The people who hired me claim that they have the means to treat her. All i have to do is waste one more guy.”
“I see.”
Another hologram of Byron appeared, this time a few metres to their left. “ Mr. Keito, personal details and current location of your target have been uploaded into your neural net. A shuttle is waiting for you on the landing pad. Good hunting.” Once again, the hologram disappeared, while a panel in the wall slid aside to reveal a small elevator.
Keito cleared his throat. “I guess it’s time for me to go then.”
“Well...good luck i guess. Who is your target?”
“Let’s see.” He manipulated a few buttons on his wristguard and a small projector created a rotating image of a man in the air above. Emilia recognized him at once.
It was David.