BioCybe (4 page)

As the bridge came into view, the smile on her face became a
beaming grin. The ship might be thirty years old, but the bridge had been
upgraded recently.

The doors slid wide open and she stepped onto the bridge to
meet Secombe, Daria, and another man. “The systems. These are the new
Holo-Nine’s, aren’t they?” She indicated to the shining control panels.

Secombe nodded. “Yeah. The latest ones. Sandon here, he says
it pays to be cutting edge. Our speed and efficiency, with the newest and best
engines and circuitry, give us the edge on our competitors.”

“Yes. I can understand that. It will also give you a faster
response time. I heard that the Holo systems can more than halve the energy
usage too. Is that right?”

This time she turned to Captain Daria, and he smiled thinly.
“Energy efficiency is important in space. But you already know that.” He wasn’t
asking her a question, so she inclined her head to show she understood.

“So, you called me to the bridge. What would you—”

“We have a pickup scheduled for 0900 hours. I want you to fly
the ship while Secombe shadows you in the co-pilot’s position. If I’m happy,
then we can get you involved in the route planning.”

If I’m happy.
He still wasn’t sure about a female and
her skills. For a moment, she wanted to roar with anger, but there was nothing
to be gained by a tantrum. She’d just have to suck it up. “Fine. Secombe, I’ll
require the codes.”

He gave them to her, and she memorized them all before taking
the captain’s seat, settling herself comfortably and tugging on the safety
restraints. With controlled movements, she entered them into the system then
turned on the comms. “Passengers and crew will take position.”

“Uh, aren’t you missing something? Like setting a course?”

She blushed a deep red. Too used to interfacing directly
with the ship’s computers, she’d forgotten this time she’d have to manually
reconfigure the directions.

Her hand hovered over the system.
Shame I can’t just plug
into the systems.
But with people on the bridge, she’d have to hand-fly the
ship.

Swiveling the captain’s chair, she looked over the star
charts. At least this wouldn’t take her long. She used the micro processing
abilities in her implants to compute the necessary information, accounting for
known issues and fuel loads before settling on a plan. “Fine by me,” she
muttered to herself, sure that her plans would be the most effective.

She started when Captain Daria addressed her. “What?” His
eyes burned into her, as if seeking the truth she hid. How had she made such a
decision so quickly?

It was something she’d rather ignore, so she took great
pains to clear the charts before grunting, “I have the route planned.”

He raised an eyebrow, but she ignored that too.

She knew exactly what he wanted to know. It was easy to
avoid. “It’s a habit, Captain.” Turning away from the charts, she laid her
fingers to the controls. “Engaging all engines now.” And she did.

* * * *

Sandon settled himself at the small desk in his office. It
might not be big, but it was his. Just like the whole
Golden Echo
. And
the crew…especially Levia.

He pushed away the lock of hair that had dropped down into
his eyes. Levia. She was damned fine as a pilot, but his crew thought she was
fine in other ways too. Jorgenstein from the shuttle bay had wolf whistled at
her just this morning when Sandon returned from the planet’s surface. Not that
she seemed to notice, but he did. Regularly.

Even Gorthos had cornered him in the galley yesterday.

“Captain Sandon, sir? The new pilot…the Zerana... Levia?
Is she partnered?”

Sandon shot a surprised glance in his direction. The
honorific title of Lady or Zerana ricocheted through him like a bombshell. “Oh,
come on, Gorthos. You don’t really mean to ask that, do you?”

“Does the pilot, Zerana Levia, have a life partner?”
Gorthos’s purple eyes bulged as he leaned closer, his mottled green-blue scales
undulating wildly.

Sandon grimaced. Gorthos wasn’t the first of his crew to
wonder about Levia, but this was certainly the most direct questioning he’d
received to date.

“I don’t believe she is.” His attempt at cutting the
conversation short didn’t work.

“Then, do you think Zerana Levia… As an Illurian, we take
a single life partner and I haven’t yet. I’m wondering if she’d agree to the…”
He made the signature blipping gulp of the Illurian males in heat. “Would she
agree to the Aparvee?”

Sandon growled under his breath.

Aparvee was the blooding of life partners and required an
ongoing symbiotic relationship between a paired couple. His gut churned at the
thought of her partaking of Gorthos’s blood and giving hers in return.

“You’d have to ask her yourself.” Then he cursed himself
silently as Gorthos bared his teeth.

“You give me permission to address her?”

Sandon wanted to snatch the Illurian close and tell him
that he’d given no such indication. Instead, he shrugged. “It’s up to her. But
only when you both leave this craft.”

Gorthos blinked. “We’d have to leave?”

“I don’t want romantic complications on the
Golden
Echo
.”

He waited while Gorthos thought over his words, watching
the man finally give a slight nod. “I shall meditate on it.”

Knock!

Sandon raised his head to see who was at the door, but he’d
closed it. Feeling like several kinds of fool, he cleared his throat. “Come.”

The door squeaked open and Secombe crowded into the small
office. “Sandon, we need to discuss my departure.”

Sandon scowled. He wasn’t sure yet he thought Secombe
leaving would help his situation, but… Neither was he making any real
contribution to the crew. Levia was doing an amazing job of getting them from
point to point. She’d already proved her weight in gold when the
Orchin
drive failed, virtually stranding them in space. She’d known where to source
the appropriate spare parts and had undertaken the highly volatile negotiations
in the
Huerazon
language.

“Come on, Sandon. You know she can do everything you require
and more. Besides, I’m ready to go home. The harvest will be coming soon and
I’m needed.” Secombe loomed over the desk, and Sandon knew there really wasn’t
any more time for procrastination.

“Sure. Tomorrow, so long as nothing crops up.”

Secombe’s face split into a deep smile. “Great. Everything
will be fine, you’ll see. She’s more than capable of flying this bucket. And I
can be your stand-in from time to time.”

Sandon returned a facsimile of Secombe’s grin. In truth, he
knew once Secombe left, he would never return. As his grandfather had wisely
taught him long ago, you can never go back.

“Yeah. Okay, well, I guess I better get your payments
finalized.” He stood, reaching out to grasp the other man’s hand as another
knock sounded on the door.

When the door flew open, it was Levia, her eyes wide with,
he thought, worry and confusion. “Oh, I didn’t realize…”

“No, actually your timing is impeccable. Secombe here has
requested, and I’ve agreed, to him leaving the
Golden Echo
tomorrow.”

He watched as Levia bit her lip.

Secombe cleared his throat. “So, I’ll be getting along
then.” Rising from his seat, he headed for the door. He took a moment then
shook his head and left the small cabin, closing the door carefully behind him.

Sandon waited, realizing that she’d probably bolt if he
pushed her. It took a full moment before she spoke again.

“Uh, Captain, could I have a word with you?” She sounded
uncharacteristically hesitant, and his hackles rose.

“Of course.”

“Uh, I’ve um… I wanted to bring to a problem to your
attention. I mean, it’s not big, but…”

Her voice died away, and frustration built inside him. He
hated when people didn’t come straight to the point. “What’s the problem?”

“The ablution facilities. There isn’t… There’s no facilities
for…”

He could feel her discomfort sweeping out in waves. “Ahhh…”
And he did see. In an all male crew, he’d never needed to make a provision for
a female crewmember. “Has there been…” He let the words hang, unsure how far to
probe.

“No! Nothing like that, but… I can jerry-rig something in my
shuttle if you prefer. In fact, that would be preferable to me too. I have full
berthing facilities and…” She shuffled on the spot.

“I’m not sure that would really be satisfactory. After all,
how would we arrange an interface should we need you in a hurry?”

“Oh, that’s not a problem. I can assure you of that. Once
I—” She didn’t redden, but she dipped her face down to the floor. “Look,
Captain, I’d be much happier with that arrangement. With your permission?”

“What you’re suggesting is not exactly common practice.”

“Maybe not, but I’d be more than happy with it. So, if you’d
give your permission...”

He could understand her situation. Sharing facilities with
the men couldn’t be easy. She needed privacy, but it grated on him. “If I allow
it, it can only be for a short while. It’s my responsibility to provide
adequately for my crew.”

There was a sudden stillness about her, then she nodded.
“For now.” She turned away, ready to leave.

“Fine. Oh, and Levia?”

She glanced back at him.

“One day, you’ll tell me what you’re running away from. I
know you don’t interact with the rest of the crew, and I’ve seen the way you
jump when taken by surprise.”

Her eyes widened and she gulped. “I’m not running.” Then
with a single swift move she turned the handle and pulled the door open.

* * * *

Levia settled back onto the sleeping platform in her
shuttle. It was better this way, at least now she could log into the ship’s
systems and no one needed to be aware. The syntha-net fed directly into her
enhanced synapses while she rested and her brain could upload and download
system updates without any echo of the files on the
Golden Echo’s
comm
drives.

The quiet
blip blip
of the system lulled her to
sleep.

“Seven-One-Four, report.” The echoes of the general’s
voice irritated her. Cold and remote, as it had always been, and no matter how
much she shrank away from it, the sound grew louder and more insistent.

She rolled to her side as she sought to block out the
sound.

“Seven-One-Four, report now.” This time the voice
changed, morphed. Deepened, just like Sandon’s voice. “Report, now
.”

Sandon
? When did I start calling him that?
For an
instant, the fear that choked her melted away and she lay back, peaceful
sensations filling her. That didn’t last long though.

“Seven-One-Four? You’re a BioCybe?” Horror and loathing
filled the air, and she squirmed harder, trying to get away from him. The deep,
oily emotions that she railed against rose, eclipsing the feeling of belonging
that had recently begun budding.

“Get away! You can’t see me like this.”

Through the gray mist a face emerged. Sandon’s face.
Dismissive and cold. “You didn’t tell me you were a BioCybe. It’s bad enough
having a woman on the
Golden Echo,
but a Cybe? Pack your things and go.
We don’t want you here. Cybes only bring danger, and your lot is the worst. An
assassin! How many innocent men, women, and children have you killed?
Murdered?”

“I didn’t… I didn’t ask for this. Please! You have to
understand…”

He grimaced, the action chilling her to the core. Her
heart pounded like a combustion engine inside her chest.

Icy cold terror filled her. “Don’t make me leave. I
haven’t… I’m not an assassin. I don’t want to leave. Where would I go?”

“You don’t belong here. Not among real humans. Go back to
your manufactured life with the others like you.” He sneered, and she shrank
back.

“You don’t mean that. You’re not like the others.”

“Not like them? I’m just like them. You aren’t human, and
we don’t want your kind here.”

The final words, ‘we don’t want your kind here,’
reverberated over and over in her mind, while she twisted against the bindings.
The white walls of the room closed in on her. Suffocating her. Crowding closer
and closer. Each individual tile seemingly doubled in size, and the astringent
scent of disinfectants filled her senses.

Once more, she was in the medi-bay, with bright halogen
lights shining down. It was cold and she shivered, realizing she was naked, the
syntha-derm gleaming brightly. “Where’s my skin? I don’t want to see the artificial
skin.”

Gloved hands reached out, pushing her back as she
struggled, and the cold blue eyes shone as the lights dimmed. “Nooo… Nooo! No!”

She woke with a jerk.

Reality impinged. She was alone in her tiny shuttle. No one
was there and no one knew. The wild thudding of her heart slowed.

Her body shuddered as cold trickled down her spine. It was a
trick of course. She didn’t really feel cold, the syntha-derm warmed her body
from the inside. It wouldn’t let her suffer anything like that.

She dragged the syntha-net away from her naked form and rose
on unsteady legs. The sensation of wetness on her cheeks startled her. She was
crying. For the first time since she’d been enhanced.

Stumbling to the tiny ablutionary unit, she gasped and
shuddered. “It was only a dream.”

In her mind though, it took on a much larger theme. She was
an abomination. Something no one wanted. A murderer and assassin.

“I’m not that anymore. Now I just want to be Levia Endrado.
A normal citizen.” But she wondered, could she ever be just that? Was there any
hope of a normal future that included a mate and children? Or would she forever
be an outsider?