B00BKLL1XI EBOK (42 page)

“Thank you Mr. Newman,” nodded Ace. “I knew we could find a compromise.”

The holographic screen went blank. Newman took another quick glance around the opulent room and walked out with great satisfaction. A board seat and hundreds of millions in solid, blue chip stock was certainly worth backing off Ace and the Nation for a while. But only until the war was over. Over the decades, he made many deals with a wide variety of Devils. As far as this one went, it was pretty good.

[ chapter _ 040 ]

Newman kept his word and convinced his friends to move on to other topics in their commentaries. Ace, Dot and Nelson reappeared on global news networks. After months of speculation, the mascots of the Nation were finally answering questions and updating humans on the status of the galactic war complete with broadcast quality footage from the front lines. By some magic, a calm settled over the planet as people turned their attention to familiar figures of authority.

Ace’s first appearance was on a prime-time newscast. Dressed in his human clothes and talking from one of the libraries in the Temple of the Shades, he was following Nelson’s request not to remind the audiences on Earth that he was in an alien solar system clear across the galaxy. Although technology made it possible to follow current events in real time, Nelson was concerned that any alien artifacts or background views would make geocentric humans doubt that anyone could keep in touch across such vast distances.

“Ace, how do you feel about the negative press the Nation has been getting?” asked one of the anchors. “Do you think that some of the commentators stepped over the line there?”

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t see any lines,” Ace laughed in reply. “When there are sudden changes, negative press is expected and it’s just a question of how negative it will get. It just seemed to me that the pundits were much more interested in fighting with each other than to get to the bottom of the story. If you take a good look, all of their editorials focus on how bad their rivals are and frankly, if they want to tackle a topic like human to cyborg conversion, they owe it to their audience to get the real story.”

“And may we ask what the real story is?”

“Certainly. When it comes to the actual technology we’re pretty much there, just ironing out some potential issues with gene therapy and its effects on the DNA of a human born on Earth. We’re adding two nucleotides to the DNA and the RNA and reprogramming the body to create an extra 17 or so amino acids. It’s nothing we haven’t done before. The robotic body is very easy to program as well. But from the social or economic standpoint, there are just too many things that are up in the air. We don’t want to withhold anything from you, but it’s very, very obvious that conversions should be made slowly, by choice and with respect to how fast you’re willing to accept change.”

“So what you’re saying here is that you want us to decide what we want and how we want to do it and the technology will take of itself from there?”

Ace replied with the charming, knowledgeable smile of an old, wise man, momentarily showing his advanced age.

“Technology always does,” he said. “By itself, technology will let you do whatever you want. The question is why you want it to do it. We care about the population of Earth and we don’t want to hand them something they’ll eventually grow to despise. Becoming immortal is the most far-reaching decision anyone could ever make and it can be made only once without completely obliterating a society that’s just not ready for it. We can only make the technology available once or never because once it’s out there, there’s no going back. We never had a choice. What I became was decided for us. But you have a chance to really mull it over before you say yes or no.”

“What do you think Earth needs to do?”

“Why does my opinion matter? Sure I could pick in ideological stance, quote from the talking points and tell some people what they want to hear. But my opinion isn’t fact, I’m not an expert on modern sociology and I can’t give you any definitive answers. If I give you a sound bite opinion, it’ll be all style and no substance.”

“Ok, well...” the anchors tried to find a new line of questioning, not used to someone refusing to opine on global TV when given the opportunity. “Having gone through the conversion, can you give us a little more detail as to what areas of human life would be affected?”

Ace paused for a moment before replying to gather his thoughts, massaging his chin with his thumb and index claws.

“I think ‘what wouldn’t be affected?’ is a more accurate question here,” he said. “It would change the definition of society, family, and even what it means to be human. It would also change acceptable and unacceptable behavior, goals in life and what exactly constitutes a legacy. Human life is very organized and structured, milestones are very clear and we can pretty easily describe the life of a person from cradle to grave. All those clear markers and milestones are going to disappear because with an unlimited lifespan, they become moot. If I live until an accident kills me, when do I have kids? What do I do for a living? What’s my overall goal in life? How many kids can I have if I’m going to be fertile for thousands of years? All of that’s going to have to be answered.”

“Well what about the Nation? Could you describe the life of the average, everyday cyborg?”

“I couldn’t. We’re still trying to figure this one out and with the wars, establishing and stabilizing our territory, we just haven’t had calm, transitional periods where we could think about it and figure it out. It’s always either stabilizing and expanding or going to war.”

“Sounds like a lot of stress there. Oh and before we have to go, I understand that you’re just back from the front lines in the war with the alien species that attacked Earth last year. How would you say is the war going?”

Ace shook his head and flashed a weary smile.

“Ah, slowly, carefully and one day at a time,” he sighed. “If you want to win a war, you have to take it one day at a time and do what you can to make progress. There are casualties of course and we try to pick up the pieces and keep going.”

“Thank you very much for your time today Ace,” the anchor said with a trained, wide, toothy grin. “We appreciate you joining us this evening.”

“Always a pleasure,” nodded Ace as the operator cut away from his video module and went to commercial.

For the next few weeks, Ace, Dot and Nelson filled their days with countless interviews and television appearances reiterating the same message. Technical difficulties were easy to fix. The big question is whether humans really want the Nation to complete this technology and make it available. Rather than shy away from the divisive topic which served as rich fodder for pundits and political wars of words, they confronted it head on and did their best to reveal the true nature of the issue.

Debates over the pros and cons of human to cyborg conversion were still front and center but now they were more rational, had less emotion and took on more careful analysis. Without Newman and his friends to infuse the debates with passion and antagonism, staunch followers of traditional ideas drastically reduced the fire and brimstone in their rhetoric. Grey and Tina held back overzealous progressive pundits in search of neo-traditionalist blood to cool the arguments on their side of the cultural divide as well.

On Abydos, the High Command nervously watched reports from Earth whenever they could take a quick break from monitoring their military positions. With great relief, they found that Nelson’s charm offensive and Ace’s straight talk soothed wild imaginations and gave an incredibly divisive issue a much less fearsome form. Confidence in the Nation began to climb upwards and customers started resuming purchases and taking delivery of their postponed orders to the delight of the cyborgs’ companies. By late May, the interplanetary market was returning to normal. The Nation dodged another bullet.

Deep within the Temple of the Shades was something spectacular for most space faring civilizations. It was a cavernous chamber with two heated indoor pools and a hot tub big enough to fit ten human sized creatures. The hot tub was shaped like an oval and the two pools fit in the space around it like puzzle pieces, providing plenty of room to walk around and for decorative columns that held up a domed ceiling decorated with lights arranged like stars. Running through the center of the alien constellations was a simulated Milky Way.

The chamber itself was dimly lit to create a relaxed, cozy, almost sensual mood and let visitors enjoy the variety of lights from the star formations on the ceiling. High Commanders and their guests would often come here to swim in the hot water or relax under the pulsating jets of the hot tub that massaged their polymer muscles. Today, Ace, Dot, Christine and Steve were taking a breather in the hot tub. The cyborgs entertained their human partners with wild stories of hazing rituals in the Nation’s military, enjoying a moment of calm as what could only be described as their hellish month seemed to be ending on some positive notes.

“So Kay goes to fire off an IGF at the mock opponents...” went Dot’s story as she tried to hold back her laughter, “and her aim looks right on. So she presses the button...”

“Oh no...” chuckled Christine.

“Oh yes,” chimed in Ace. “And she doesn’t know that little miss nightmare here disconnected the firing mechanism.”

“Dot, in the middle of a war game,” moaned Steve, “that’s so... so cruel! So what happened?”

“Well obviously it didn’t fire,” continued Dot, “and Commander Wilson is standing there, tapping his foot and going ‘Kay... where’s the IGF?’ She’s looking back at him in panic and I’m trying not to die laughing my ass off. She bolts down to the firing tube, reconnects the wires and gets back up to the bridge.”

“She has about ten seconds until she’s in enemy range and when she’s in range, she’s out of the game,” added Ace. “So when she gets to the bridge, she slams on the button as hard as she can.”

“And then the IGF takes off towards the other team,” Dot picked up. “Beautiful trajectory, right on time, on target, she’s right out of range so she’s thinking she aced her test.”

“Oh my God...” Steve grabbed his sides. “And when it blew?”

“When it blew,” winked Dot. “it just came apart and the balloon inflated itself. She freaks out, zooms in on her monitors and all she sees is a big, red balloon that says KA-BOOM. The other team fires and takes her out of the game. And that’s when Ace and Wilson just lose it, howling like hyenas over the intercom.”

“Oh poor Kay,” squeezed Ace through bouts of laughter. “She was a good sport about it though, she knew we were just playing. We took her out to dinner and hooked her up with someone for the night. With who did we set her up again?”

“I think it was Alex...” guessed Dot. “I’m not sure, it was a long time ago.”

“Ah fun stuff, fun stuff...” chucked Ace.

“Sex is kind of a frequent theme for you guys,” noted Christine. “In the Earth’s military it’s pretty subdued.”

“Well, you know we like to have some fun,” shrugged Dot, “and sex is always pretty fun. Since our bodies are mostly synthetic it’s not like we have to worry about STDs or accidental pregnancies.”

“Ok, there’s something I’ve been wondering about,” nervously started Christine. “Now, please don’t think I’m a pervert or anything, this is solely for scientific research...”

“Christine, just say it,” playfully encouraged Dot.

“Ok, here it goes. How does it feel when you’re having sex?”

“What do you mean?” asked Ace.

“Well I mean... When your skin is touching...”

Ace grabbed Christine’s hand and put it up against his stomach. He gently rubbed her open palm against this abdomen, taking care to avoid his scar.

“Oh wow, you’re warm,” she gasped. “ It feels like human skin, but a little more slippery and just a little bit firmer. What do you feel when my hand is on your stomach?”

“I feel your hand,” Ace replied, sticking out his tongue.

Christine teasingly slapped his side with an open palm and a soft giggle. Ace flexed his index claw and touched her cheek. As its point slowly went down to her chin, the claws on his other hand tenderly brushed the skin on her stomach. She curled her toes and grasped his wrists. Her body trembled, getting warmer and warmer. Breathing a little faster, she drew her face closer to his and closed her eyes. Ace leaned in and allowed his lips to meet hers. Christine kissed back and began to wrap her hands around him, caressing his trademark scar as the fingers of her other hand ran up and down his lower back.

Steve glanced over a Dot who looked at their embrace with open curiosity. She took off her top as she got more and more excited. When Ace broke his kiss with Christine, she gracefully glided to the human and confidently slid her hand underneath her top. Christine turned to face Dot and was promptly given a kiss.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” winked Ace.

“Oh yeah,” replied Dot with an excited shiver. “Steve, how long has it been for you?”

“Um... well...” Steve hesitated.

Rather than let him finish, Dot wrapped around him, kissing him and using the tip of her warm, soft tongue on the base of his neck. A little unsure of what was happening at first, Steve restrained himself and tried not to respond too quickly to her advances. But seeing Ace extract Christine from her swimsuit and his partner’s face lost in pleasure, he allowed his hands to explore Dot’s body. Just like Christine noted, the cyborgs’ skin felt warm and organic. It was too firm to pass for human skin, but it felt warm and alive. Her kisses were aggressive but at the same time they were soft, gentle, and very arousing, especially when the very tips of their tongues met.

Unfastening the bottom of her tight bikini, Dot positioned herself on top of Steve and started to gently grind her hips into his. Placing her hands on the waistband of his trunks, she easily tore them in two and wrapped tighter around the human, guiding his hands to touch the sensory runes on her breasts.