Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) (27 page)

“Wait a minute—you mean you use the same
machine to make food and everything else?” Mei-Li was a little nonplussed.

“Of course. Why not?”

“Well, I mean…it just seems weird. But you
must have a different kind of raw material—a different kind of
tresh
to
make the non-edible items. Right?”

Six shook his head. “That is not
necessary.
Tresh
is both nutritious and structurally flexible. It is a
raw material which can be made into literally anything. The clothing that I
synthesized for you is made from it, as well as the
garn
you ate this morning.”

“Well I’m never eating
garn
again
now that I know I can think up some French fries,”
Mei-Li muttered,
helping herself to a long, crispy looking fry.

“Excuse me?” Six said, just as she was
about to bite into it.

“Um, nothing. That’s really amazing,” she
said louder, smiling. “One more thing though—what are the nutritional stats on
this stuff? I mean, back home this is junk food—fat and carbs and sugar that
aren’t really good for you at all,” she explained, seeing his puzzled look.

“
Tresh
is mostly protein and
fiber,” Six answered. “Anything made with it has only the highest nutritional
value.”

“In other words it’s not fattening or bad
for you?”

He shook his head. “It helps build lean
muscle mass. As you see.” He nodded down to his own impressive physique.

“Mmm-hmm, I
do
see.” His bare chest
was almost enough to distract her from the hot fry wafting its delicious scent
towards her nose. Again she had to restrain herself from touching him.
We’re
doing the no-strings-attached version of the Claiming Period,
she
reminded herself.
Touching—even casual touching—is out unless we’re in the
bedroom.

With some difficulty, she turned her
attention back to the fries and shake. She could hardly believe it. Junk food
that was
good
for you? There had to be a catch somewhere…

“Try it,” Six urged. “If you do not like
it I can sim you something else.”

“No, no—I’m sure this will be just
delicious.” With a smile, Mei-Li popped the crispy fry into her mouth and
chewed…and chewed and chewed…

Damn—I knew there had
to be a catch!
The delicious
smelling, nutritionally good-for-you French fry was incredibly bland. Oh, it
had the right texture, crispy on the outside and fluffy in the center—but that
was all. It was like eating
garn
all over again.

“Is it not good?” Six was looking at her
anxiously. “Do you not like it?”

“No, no—it’s fine. Delicious.” She
swallowed and reached for the chocolate shake. Taking a sip, she tried to
smile. “See?
Yummy
.” Actually, it tasted just as bad as the fry. Which
was
so
disappointing—she really could have used some chocolate right
now!

Six frowned. “You are telling me a
falsehood.”

“What? What are you talking about? How can
you tell that?” Mei-Li demanded, put on the defensive.

“My sensors indicate that you are
lying—you are not enjoying these comestibles at all. In fact, you are barely
tolerating them. Tell me the truth, Mei-Li, what’s wrong with them?”

“Well…” She sighed, giving up the whole
polite guest routine. “They taste like the
garn
from this morning.”

“Garn
tastes fine.” Six was clearly mystified by her answer.

“I’m sure it does if that’s all you’ve
ever eaten,” Mei-Li said. “But it’s very bland—it has almost no flavor. Isn’t
there anything you can, I don’t know, add to it? Some kind of spice or herb
that can make it taste like something—anything at all?”

He frowned. “There
are
certain
additives available at the Serlix market. But it is in an…undesirable part of
the city.”

“Oh…okay.” Mei-Li sighed and reached for
another French fry. If she was going to eat
garn,
it might as well be in
this form. At least it had a better texture than the weird, solid-to-liquid
stuff she’d had for breakfast.

“I will go there tomorrow,” Six said.

“What—to the market? But I thought you
said it was in an undesirable part of town? Aren’t you worried it might be dangerous?”

“It isn’t dangerous per se…” He frowned.
“At least not for me, though I might worry if you were there.”

“But I want to come with you,” Mei-Li
pleaded. “I want to see the city! I’ve never been to another planet before—I
want to do some sightseeing.”

Six frowned. “I don’t know if that is
advisable. You are a Feeler.”

“With a big, glowing sign on my arm that
says I’m
allowed
to
feel
,” Mei-Li reminded him. “Look, isn’t
there something in the contract about you wooing me—you know, taking me out to nice
places and things like that?” She hoped there was—she seemed to remember
something like it, anyway.

“Well, actually…there is something of that
nature in the contract,” Six conceded reluctantly. “But I don’t know…”

“Oh, please?” Forgetting her promise to
herself not to touch him, Mei-Li leaned against his arm and looked up at him
pleadingly. She
really
didn’t want to be stuck inside the little metal
house for her entire stay here—she would go stir crazy.

“Does it really mean so much to you? I
thought after nearly being crushed by that wheeler you’d wish to remain
indoors.”

“Of course not!” she exclaimed. “I’m a
born tourist. I want to see
everything
. Museums, theaters,
restaurants…well, if you have anything like that, I mean,” she ended lamely,
thinking that they probably didn’t.

“There are a few places I can show you,”
Six said slowly. “I am not sure that you would like them, though.”

“Let me be the judge of that.” Mei-Li
grinned at him. “Just take me out and show me the town, that’s all I ask.”

“Well, if that is what you wish…”

“It is,” she assured him, popping another
bland French Fry into her mouth. And maybe while they were out, they could
visit the market and get some kind of seasoning that would make the food taste
like something. In the meantime, she was content to eat what he had made for
her and look forward to tomorrow.

Chapter
Twenty

“Spice! Spice for sale. Additives to spice
up your comestibles!” came the familiar cry from the stone covered square that
housed Serlix market.

Six frowned as they worked their way
through the crowded street to get to it. Traffic was particularly thick today
and he had wanted to carry Mei-Li, fearing she might get crushed. But she
refused his offer, preferring to dodge nimbly through the crowds in a way that
made his heart pound every time she slipped between two wheelers or slid past a
tracker. She drew numerous looks from the various organics but the mechanoids
mostly ignored her.

So far their tour of the city had been a
success. Mei-Li had been enthralled by the vast infrastructures that housed the
Collective and especially interested in the historical exhibit which depicted
the last Great War and the rise of the thinking mechanoids which now ruled Z4.
The exhibit showed the decline of the organic population until the incubation
tubes were built and also the influx of Kindred immigrants, centuries before,
who had swelled the ranks of organics when the species seemed almost in danger
of dying out altogether.

“So most of the non-robotic people here
are grown in these?” she had asked, eyeing the large, round incubation tube, a
cylinder about eight feet tall and three feet wide, filled with cloudy green
nutrient liquid.

“Yes.” Six had nodded. “Almost all of
them.”

“But…
you
weren’t?”

“No, I came to Z4 as an adolescent,” Six
had replied shortly. Mei-Li was unfailingly inquisitive—a sign of intelligence
which he so admired in her. He had waited, therefore, wondering if she was
going to ask about his past. Truthfully there wasn’t much he could tell her
since he had stored away his memories. He got occasional flashes
Please,
Jax! Help me…
But for the most part everything he had known and experienced
before his induction to the Dark Kindred was a blank.

But though he waited with a strange
sensation of unease in his midsection for her inevitable questions, they didn’t
come. Mei-Li simply nodded and went on to the next exhibit, asking questions
about the evolution of the enhancements and the various abilities they
bestowed.

Six had answered her questions, bemused by
her contradictions. More and more he found the tiny Earth girl he had claimed
fascinating and enigmatic, which only made him want to know more about her. And
then, of course, there was her behavior the night before.

After they had gone to bed—Six sleeping
with her on the
sousa
instead of in his recharging station for the first
time in more years than he could count—she had rolled over close to him. Six
had been eager to take her in his arms but she had refused to kiss him.
Instead, she had reached for his shaft and taken it in her soft, cool little
hand.

“My turn,” she whispered in his ear and
then proceeded to stroke and caress him until he could not contain himself and
came, groaning her name.

It was a novel experience for Six—not just
being with a female but being so completely out of control of his own body. If
anyone had told him he would not only welcome such a thing but also wish to
repeat it, he would have thought something was wrong with their logic circuits.
But that seemed to be the case. He found himself wanting to be near Mei-Li,
wishing to touch her, eager to hear her unique opinions and engaging thoughts.
She seemed to bring a whole new perspective to everything in his existence. It
was as though his entire life had been lived in black and white and she had suddenly
brought color into his world.

It was a sensation he was coming to crave
and only two things marred the experience. One was the fact that though she
snuggled close to his side and allowed her to hold him, Mei-Li still refused to
repeat the deliciously addictive kiss which she had first introduced him to
aboard the med barge. “I can do the friends with benefits thing,” she had said,
mystifying Six with her Earth colloquialisms. “But only if we keep a little
distance.”

The problem was, Six found he didn’t
want
to keep distance between them. He wanted her close where he could protect
and caress her. And he wanted, more than he liked to admit, even to himself, to
taste her soft lips again. No matter how often he told himself that she was
right to keep part of herself back in order to avoid forming an emotional
attachment, he couldn’t stop wanting that.

Part of him whispered that it was
illogical to want her in this way, that it was dangerously close to feeling.
But Six pushed such thoughts away, refusing to entertain them. For now, he was
content simply to be with Mei-Li and watch her wonder at seeing everything in
his world, often using her new enhanced lenses to examine things more closely.

The other thing that concerned him was the
dream that had woken him in the middle of the night. At least, Six
assumed
it was a dream—he couldn’t really remember it. All he knew was that he had
jolted suddenly awake, his forehead bathed in cold sweat, his heart pounding
like a joist-hammer in his chest, unable to catch his breath. Mei-Li had half
wakened as well, asking him drowsily what was wrong.

“Nothing. I am…well,” Six had said,
telling a deliberate untruth though he normally distained dishonesty. But he told
himself he didn’t want to worry her—Feelers were so sensitive, it would be
wrong to stir negative emotions of concern for him in her.

He had lain back down and Mei-Li had
curled against his side like a small, contented animal. Stroking her hair and
hearing her light, even breathing, Six had felt his heart slowing its frantic
pace. After a time, he was able to go back to sleep and he had no more
disturbances for the rest of the night.

Now, as he surveyed the Serlix market and
watched Mei-Li weave through traffic, he told himself that the night before had
been an anomaly. Certainly it was a one time occurrence that would never happen
again. In the meantime, it was time to stop thinking of the past and look to
the present. Mei-Li wanted something to spice up her
garn
and he wanted to get it for her. More and more he found that
it gave him a sensation of satisfaction to give her things she longed for and
watch the expression of delight and excitement spread across her lovely face.

If he had not been at her side to protect
her, Six would have been concerned about her habit of emoting so obviously. But
as he was near and the yellow glowing numbers of her dispensation were so
clearly marked, he didn’t reprimand her even when she exclaimed with delight or
hugged him with excitement when she found a particularly good “souvenir” as she
called the small trinkets she was gathering to distribute to her friends and
coworkers when she went back to Earth.

Back to Earth…
He pushed away the hollow sensation he felt at the idea
of letting her go. They still had plenty of time. It was only their second week
together. In the meantime, he could enjoy her company. Looking ahead, he saw
that she was already standing in front of one of the stalls in the market where
an older organic male with graying hair and a broken ocular scanner was
shouting his wares.

“Spices! Spice for sale!” he was calling
and Mei-Li was trying to get his attention. “Yes, yes, what can I do for you my
good…” The words died on the old male’s lips. “My…lady?” he said softly,
staring at Mei-Li.

“Yes, I’m a woman. Probably the only one
on this whole planet,” she replied, smiling.

“But what…how…?” The older male organic
looked at her, his faded blue eye wide with wonder.

Six frowned as he picked up the male’s
quickened heart rate and breathing as well as the expression on his face—all
clear signs of Feel-crime. But he was not here as a member of the Purge Squad,
as he had been so many times in the years before he rose high in the rubric of
the Collective. So he let the male’s crime pass and simply watched his reaction
to Mei-Li.

“I’m interested in your spices,” she told
him. “Anything that would add some flavor. I can pay—see?” She held out the
cred-chip Six had given her which was tied to his account. She had been concerned
and asked if she could pay him back for the purchases she made at first but Six
told her not to worry about any of it. He had plenty of credit since he never
spent any on indulgences for himself and it gave him a warm sensation to watch
Mei-Li find and purchase little items she liked.

But right now she wasn’t having much luck
in purchasing any of the spices for sale because the older organic was too
overcome.

“My lady!” he exclaimed, falling to his
knees before her. “The prophesy—it is coming true at last!”

“The prophesy? What prophesy?” Mei-Li
looked confused.

“And one shall come—a female of surpassing
loveliness. Small in stature but large in spirit. When you see her you shall
know…for she marks the beginning of the end.” The old male sounded like he was
quoting something—Six had no idea what. Except the words he had spoken seemed
somehow familiar…
Jax, please…

Six pushed the memories aside and
concentrated instead on what was happening to his female.

The older male took Mei-Li’s hand in his
and, ignoring the cred-chip she was holding, began to kiss her fingers
reverently. “It has come to pass—and in my lifetime! To think I should
live
to see it. You are so beautiful—so exquisitely lovely, my lady! You light up
our dull and dreary world like the sun!”

“Well, thank you.” Mei-Li smiled at him
uncertainly, looking as though she wished she could extract her hand from his
grasp. “I came because—”

“She came because I claimed her and
brought her here,” Six growled, coming up to them at last.

He didn’t like the sight of the old male
touching his female and he
especially
disliked the way he was kissing
Mei-Li’s fingers. No one ought to be kissing or touching any part of her but
him
and he would be damned to the Seven Hells if he stood by and allowed this
effusive display of emotion directed at his female to continue.

“High Executor Twelve?” The old male
looked up at him, fear blooming suddenly on his face like a poison flower.

“I am Six, now. Others have been
dispatched and I have grown closer to the Collective,” Six told him. “I am no
longer on the Purge Squad but I will not allow you to molest my female.”

“Molest? Oh, no—certainly not!” The older
male organic dropped Mei-Li’s hand as though it was burning hot and stood up
straight. His face, so full of fear just a moment before, was suddenly blank.
“Apologies, Executor, for the misunderstanding.” He spoke in a perfect,
emotionless monotone, displaying no emotion whatsoever though Six’s scanner
detected an elevated heart rate and rapid breathing.

“It’s all right, Six—he wasn’t hurting
me,” Mei-Li protested. “I think he was just surprised to see a girl since you
guys don’t have any here. Anyway,” she said, turning back to the older male.
“As I was saying, I’d like to buy some of your spices.”

“Spices? I fear we have no spices here.”
The male shook his head.

“But you were just saying—”

“Spices to enhance the flavors of
comestibles might cause an emotional reaction,” the older male continued. “I
would never promote Feel-crime in such a way. In fact, please excuse me. I must
go.”

“But…but…” Mei-Li protested.

But the older male organic was already
packing his wares into a large metal bowl which he tucked under his arm. He
strode swiftly away, looking neither left nor right. But as he went, a soft,
frightened murmuring spread through the busy marketplace.

Other organics, both buyers and merchants,
looked up from their purchases. When their eyes settled on Six, they, too,
hastily packed their wares and left.

Soon the market was empty except for a few
mechanoids strolling through it to get to other places.

Mei-Li looked around, mystified. “What
just happened? Why did everybody leave? Are they really that afraid of you?”

“They fear anyone high in the Collective’s
rubric.” He frowned.

“Well, what was all that about a prophesy?
What was he talking about?”

“I have no idea,” Six said shortly. “Come,
today is apparently not a good day for buying spices.”

* * * * *

Mei-Li sighed as she wandered around the
empty domicile. Six had been called by his boss, One, who apparently was
working on some top secret project and needed his help. Six had apologized for
leaving her alone and had given her several options for entertainment before he
left but she still felt lonely and a little blue without the big Kindred.

Don’t be silly,
she scolded herself.
It’s ridiculous to be missing him
like this when he’s only going to be gone a few hours. It’s not like you really
care about him or have any feelings for him—hit it and quit it, remember?

But she couldn’t help the way she felt—she
did
miss Six. They’d had such a
good
day together. He had shown
her around the city and taken her to the weird museum which gave the history of
how the Collective—the bank of thinking machines that ran the planet—had risen
to power. There was also an exhibit showing how a fully grown “organic” as they
called the human-type people who lived on Z4, was raised in a huge tube until
he (it was always a he) was ready to come out and join society as a fully grown
warrior.