Cyborg Doms: Fane (3 page)

Fane lifted his head and inhaled Jace's unique, masculine fragrance. He met the man's gaze, and then crushed his full mouth in a possessive kiss. Their tongues tangled, and Fane lingered for a long time, allowing Jace to take the comfort he needed. With one cock resting against Jace's puckered ass and the other stroking his friend's twin shafts, Fane moved his hips and slid into paradise. He rocked gently, sinking deeper with each stroke. Jace moaned delightfully against his mouth and Fane increased the pace, marveling at the man's tightness after an afternoon of abuse.

Continuing to kiss and caress his damaged lover, Fane murmured words of encouragement. Jace responded by returning his kiss with passion. Slick with sweat, Fane rode the man, overjoyed at his normal, loving response.

"I'm gonna come all over you." Jace broke the kiss and smiled wickedly.

Fane reared back on his heels and grasped the man's hips. "Oh, I'm so gonna fill your ass." He drove in hard and gave himself up to the forbidden pleasure of cyborg love.

Sated, Fane fell on top of his cum-slicked lover. He cupped Jace's face and kissed him hard. He drew back and met the man's smoky gaze. "I can't imagine why I dream of a girl when I have you."

"Oh, I dream too." Jace chuckled. "Of fucking two sweet subs . . . we dream of what we can't have."

The next morning, Fane sat opposite Jace in the small canteen. They avoided the other men and communicated with Mind Speak. They had plans to make. Commander 7 moved toward the table, sporting a wide grin. Fane ignored the stink of the sweaty man and met his gaze, keeping his face neutral.

"Well, well, well. Looks like you two are moving up the ladder." The Commander looked down at them with his hands on his hips. "The boss is sending you to the Upload Center. Finish eating lunch and report to the technicians." He turned and strode from the room.

"This might just work to our advantage."
Jace moved the food around his plate.

"Download as much information you can, star charts and how to maintain our computers. Find
specifications on any technology or craft we can use."

Casting his eyes down, Fane cut through his steak.
"Languages and the knowledge
to pilot any type of transport vehicle."
He glanced up at Jace.
"We know how to turn off our
personal tracking devices, but they will be able to follow the ship. Unless . . . ."
He glanced over his shoulder and watched the Commander leave. He turned back to the table and met Jace's gaze.
"Unless . . . we try escaping through the wormhole that opened in Sector 8

yesterday. It's uncharted, but what choice do we have?"

"Fuck."
Jace reached casually for his beer.
"That could take us anywhere—even back
in time."

"I'm counting on it."
Fane smiled.
"Can you imagine how much gold we could make
with our knowledge of technology? We had better add history of the planets in the Local Group
to the download."

"We'll need gold to live on."
Jace ran his fingers over the condensation running down the beer bottle.
"No one is going to take us in off the street."

Fane pushed away his plate and got to his feet.
"Gryd will supply the gold. We're
trusted couriers; he will give us the payment for the next batch of females. He always pays in
gold."
He turned to leave. "
Just how are you planning to incapacitate 729 and 384?"

"I can do a lot more than Mind Speak. I upgrade my AI every chance I get. If you get
your head blown off, there's a good chance I could rebuild you."
Jace sprang to his feet, and his chair legs scraped along the floor
. "I've been working on a virus. I'll link to the couriers
and upload it now—they won't know what's hit them. I'll let you know when it's done."

Without glancing back at his friend, Fane left the dining room. He headed to the transport tube and gave the verbal command for the Upload Center. Jace followed and stood beside him in silence, his face a mask of concentration. They stepped inside the foyer and followed the instructions from a technician to strip and then enter the first compartment. Without speaking, they moved through the sterilization chambers and endured the zon beams. They exited into a hallway, and a technician in a biohazard suit ordered them to dress in white coveralls, then pointed them to the biometrics lab. They stood together in a small room lined with vid-screens and computer terminals. In the center sat two comfortable, white leather benches.

"On the screen is a list of programs to download." Gryd boomed in Fane's earpiece. "You are to select five dreamscapes at random. I'm not sure if you remember what it's like to dream, but I have some erotic fantasies I want you to study, for further reference. Select from the blue section, 636 and 515 from the red section."

Computer, connect to mainframe, cloak all download information.
Fane lay down on the padded leather bench beside Jace and closed his eyes. He ran through the list of information he required, ignoring Gryd's list completely. After three hours, he tested the information and smiled. He had everything he needed. Out of interest, he scanned the list on the screen. The boss wanted him to enjoy blood sport and the use of instruments of torture. Bile rose in his throat. The bastard wanted him to kill on command. The dreamscapes were nothing short of snuff movies. Anger rose and Fane drew in a deep breath to steady his frazzled mind.

"Gryd wants me to feel pain. He must think I'm real dumb if he thinks I'd download that
shit into my matrix."
Jace joined Fane's mind.
"I think he's planning to let his friends kill
me."

Fane ran both hands through his hair and sat up.
"I'm guessing he wants me to do
the killing. Just as well we're leaving. Did you immobilize the couriers?"

"Yeah."
Jace slid off the bench.
"I bet the call will come real soon to download the
program to fly the ship."
He laughed. "
Oh damn, we already know how to do that, don't we?"

Gryd's voice came through Fane's earpiece. "The download records are corrupted. The system will require maintenance. Did you have any problems processing the items on my list?"

Fane winked at Jace. "No sir."

"515, do you have experience in female selection?" Gryd growled.

"Yes, sir." Jace stared at Fane with a blank expression.

"Good. The mainframe will be up and running shortly. I want you to download the Starship Cruiser navigation program. Leave the Dreamscape files until further notice. Tomorrow, you will both report to my office at 06:00. I'm sending the pair of you to collect a batch of females from Vallion."

"
Bingo."
Jace gave Fane a meaningful stare.

The following morning, Fane and Jace listened patiently to a long speech about Vallion protocol from Gryd. They collected five hundred gold strips from the treasury and made their way to the launch pad. The ship sparkled under the overhead lights like a killer whale with wet-looking, black skin and white trim. Built for speed, the small ship also had the ability for stealth and could remain hidden underwater indefinitely.

Food replicators would supply them with everything they needed. Fane grinned up at the sleek beast—the ship was perfect.

They stepped into the transporter beam. A millisecond later, they arrived on the bridge. Fane glanced around to get his bearings. With a single thought, he joined his neural pathways to the ship's system. His AI sent images so rapidly that the ship looked familiar. Hell, he even knew the sounds it made. The instrument panels blinked in a rainbow of colors, a recognizable humming sound filled his ears. The faint smell of Nu-Leather from the comfortable seats brought false recollections of missions. He laughed.

In his memory, he had flown this ship a thousand times. He helped Jace push the case of gold into a locker and then moved to the front of the ship. Without delay, he settled in the captain's chair. His AI interfaced seamlessly with the vessel's computer; Fane could relax and enjoy the ride. Jace dropped into the chair beside him and raised a blond brow. Biting his bottom lip to stop from grinning, Fane sent the command to start the ship. "Starship Cruiser 7 requesting permission to take off."

"Permission granted." A scratchy voice replied.

The next second, the engines roared. The ship blasted into space, the G-force throwing Fane back in his seat. Clouds rushed by and the ship erupted into an endless, clear blue sky. The vessel shook and shuddered through the atmosphere, and then glided effortlessly toward the sister planet, Vallion. Fane disengaged the intercom and accessed his AI. "Computer, destroy my tracker chip, break communication with the mainframe. Set course Fane 1 maximum speed."

The starship made a slow, sweeping arc and changed direction. He glanced at Jace. The man's face was a mask of concentration. "You done?"

"Yeah." He grinned. "And for added security, I just sent a virus to the mainframe.

They should be down for a while."

"Shame we couldn't save some of the other guys."

"Most of them are dead already." Jace shuddered. "They are walking zombies.

Trust me; I have tried to break into their programming. They're machines . . . there's nothing left. The only humanoids capable of training their AIs are the Javronians and you, my friend." He smiled. "We don't have to worry about the Javronians . . . after they realize we've flown the coop, they'll figure out how to escape."

Fane's stomach clenched. The wormhole spun ahead, a swirling mass of bright blue in the distance. They faced two possible outcomes. The ship could travel millions of light years to another universe or be thrown back or forward in time. He gripped the arms of the chair and gazed into the awesome, spinning beauty. "Well, there's still time to change your mind."

"I'm not going back." Jace stared into the distance. "I'd rather die." He turned and smiled at Fane. "What do you say,
Captain
? No guts no glory?"

"Something like that."

The starship increased speed. Inside, Fane listened for the click and hum to indicate the wings had retracted. They would fly through the wormhole like a bullet and hope they did not encounter any debris on the way. The swirling, gaping maw opened up before them bigger than Fane could have imagined. "Holy shit. Look at the size of this thing."

"The bigger the wormhole, the safer it is for us." Jace leaned forward in his seat.

"There's much less chance of it collapsing."

Fear rose in Fane's chest, the unfamiliar sensation making it difficult to breathe.

He swallowed hard. The starship hurtled through space toward the wormhole, gaining speed by the second. Blue walls spun around them, crackling with lightning. The sight reminded him of his past life, a memory partially suppressed by Gryd's programming.

Without prompting his AI, Fane received images of surfing a tube in Hawaii.
Hell yeah
.

What a rush.

Seconds later, the ship erupted into open space. The Milky Way spread out like a welcome-home beacon. Earth spun in blue glory, a night-light for a weary traveler. Fane turned and grinned at Jace. "I know you wanted to go home, but this is where I belong."

"I have no home since my planet was invaded." Jace stared bleakly out the window and shuddered. "It's overrun by Trans." He turned back and looked at Fane. "I wonder where in time we are."

Fane accessed his AI. "2040. Hell, earth didn't have interplanetary space travel until 2078. They are peaceful at the moment and have only just repaired the ozone layer.

They have robotics, but they use them mainly for prosthetics. The neural pathway technology is in its infancy. They use flybikes and hovercars. They developed the PFV, that's Earth's personal flying vehicles, this year, and then put the manufacturing on hold until they work out the travel grid." He glanced at Jace. "What did you get on health? Do we need to turn on disease protection?"

"They have eradicated cancer and a few other uglies. Oh yeah, and all sexually transmitted diseases, but they still haven't found the cure for the common cold." Jace chuckled and pointed to Earth. "It's right under your noses."

Turning in his seat, Fane frowned at his friend. "They will spot us as soon as we get into range. We'll go in under stealth and hope for the best. We'll have to stash the ship in a nice little lake and hike to the nearest town. I'm accessing suitable coordinates now."

"I'm betting they haven't ever seen a guy with two cocks." Jace grinned, but then his expression grew somber. "Let's hope we don't end up as lab rats here as well."

"We must stay one step ahead all the time." Fane got to his feet. "My AI insists we won't be able to trade in gold. We have to make it into armbands and sell it to merchants." He moved to the locker and slid out the gold. "Here, the strips are thin enough to bend." He tossed two strips to Jace.

"We'll need identities. You have a name you want to use?" Jace bent a gold strip around each upper arm. "Their systems are so ancient I could hack them in my sleep."

"My name is Fane Jacobs. My birth date is 15, January . . . make it 2010."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Jace Brand, 28, May, 2015." Jace inclined his head. "I'll do a background on both of us and upload it into your AI." He chuckled. "I'll add some impressive IT credentials. Anything else we need, I can handle it as we go."

Fane grinned. "I'm assuming my AI will be able to communicate directly with their systems?"

"There's only problem. We will need to be very careful logging on to their primitive servers. Our AIs will overload their ancient systems." Jace shrugged. "Their computers run very slow, so we will experience a delay we're not used to."

"Will they be able to detect our presence?"

"They'll have no hope breaking our code, so we'll infiltrate like virtual ghosts on their mainframe." Jace met Fane's gaze. "They'll only discover what we want them to know."

* * * * *

Jace relaxed in his seat. This was his first visit to Earth. The ship dropped into a lake on the outskirts of the city of Broadoaks. Local time flashed on the vid-screen as 3:30 p.m. The transporter dropped them in a deserted wooded area. Jace glanced around, inhaling the sweet scents of pine and leaf mold. Redwoods and pine trees reached for a cloudy sky. Underfoot, the earth sank beneath their boots, the grass still damp from recent rainfall. Clumps of fallen leaves, wet and glossy, littered the pathways in every shade of autumn. He glanced down at his clothes. The blue jeans and black T-shirt hugged his body like a second skin. With a grin, he pulled the Nu-Leather jacket around his chest. "It looks like men have worn this get-up for a few thousand years. I must say I'm surprised they use leather. The Nu-Leather we have is much better and smells the same."