Ghost in the Machine (Corwint Central Agent Files) Read online

  When the Tarsen discovered our empathic abilities, they suddenly wanted more than fruits and beads. They invaded our homeworld and began experimenting with us. With their advanced technology, we were easily overcome. The Tarsen then used our natural empathic traits and amplified them to turn what remained of us into weapons of subterfuge. We were then turned loose on other worlds like Orell to commit the same atrocities that had been committed against us.”

  Her voice was casual, but her eyes seemed to be gaining a darker tone. Still, Ethan’s curiosity urged him to press for more information. “But with your abilities, how were they able to control you?”

  “When they first invaded us, my people’s abilities were not as advanced as they are now. We were a simple people, Ethan, and our empathy was just a way in which we communicated with each other. Once we began to benefit from the genetic alterations and the selective breeding being done by the Tarsen, they starting using the low-gravity requirements of our bodies to keep us in line. It was something they were unable to genetically breed out of us without undesirable consequences. When that no longer sufficed, they switched to cerebral implants.” She tapped the side of her head lightly. “They placed a microchip in the brain that could be detonated remotely.”

  Ethan’s lips curled in disgust. That sounded like a Xen’dari tactic. “You mean they would blow your heads off if you didn’t cooperate?”

  She was still looking in Ethan’s direction as she nodded, but she was no longer seeing his face. Her vision had become clouded with the memories passed down from generation to generation.

  “Many still resisted, choosing to die rather than fight. So the Tarsen took it a step further and began implanting the neuro chips into the young. The choice was simple: fight and kill, or die and kill your children as well. Over time, we began to learn how to disable the devices, and we started to train the young. When the Tarsen realized we were no longer under their control, they detonated any implants that had not been disabled and started to track us down for termination.”

  His jaw was set in a ghastly horror at the images he imagined. “How many?”

  “We do not know for certain, but in the story we pass down, it is said that of the two thousand and three hundred who at the time lived, approximately eight hundred survived the initial detonation. Over the decades that followed the event, we raced to erase ourselves from history and to bring down the Tarsen Empire. The Tarsen continued to hunt us down, even as their civilization crumbled around them. At our lowest point, our numbers dwindled to below four hundred.”

  “Four hundred?” He repeated in disbelief.

  She nodded. “Luckily, the engineers had been greedy bastards who wanted the most return on investment possible. We had been bred to be almost genetically flawless. Combined with our naturally long lifespans, the founding Four Hundred lived very long lives and had many daughters. Lately, however, our lifespans have been decreasing as our blood is mixed with non-Vesparians.”

  “Non-Vesparians? Then the rumor that you are limited to only female children is true?”

  “Yes.” She almost laughed. “Hence the story about us taking men to procreate with and then eating them.” Her laugh caught in her throat and instead she frowned. “There were male Vesparians before the Tarsen invaded our homeworld, but they were slaughtered. The Tarsen believed an all-female population would be easier to control. They genetically altered our wombs so that a male embryo was interpreted as a threat and would self-terminate. It is one of the alterations we have not been able to overcome.” Her words trailed off into silent thought and her hand fell across her stomach.

  Ethan instinctively reached out and touched her hand. “I’m sorry. You can stop there.”

  Her eyes looked down at his large hand covering her small one. It seemed so strong, but the touch was so gentle. It was such a simple comforting gesture, but to her, it was closest thing to compassion she had received in a very long time. It gave her the encouragement to continue being open with him.

  “After the fracture, we knew that in order to continue our race, we had to seek assistance from outside. Early on, the Four Hundred were so afraid to be discovered that they often did kill the father of their daughter until the art of memory exclusion was perfected. It is not something we are proud of, but we did it to survive.”

  He saw no shame on her face when she brought her eyes up to look at him again. She was being open with him in a way that he could tell was a rarity. “I understand now. Because you are having to dilute your Vesparian genes with that of the common races, your life spans are decreasing. You don’t really know if you are young or old because you have no idea how long you have to live.”

  She nodded her head slightly and glanced to the side. “I can estimate by those with similar genealogy to mine, that I will have somewhere between five hundred and eight hundred natural years. But no, I have no certainty. Then again, who really does?”

  “No one. Not even me.” He lightly squeezed the hand that still rested on her stomach so she would look at him again. When she did, he removed his hand and offered her a genuine smile of gratitude. “Thank you for telling me about your people.”

  She took in a slow breath as she realized just how much she had shared with him. She hadn’t intended to, but it had just come out so easily. The day before, he had been a complete stranger. Now, he was someone she had confided the secrets of her people in. She had always been more comfortable around Mecha. They were immune to her empathy, and she had always found them to be strikingly honest in their view of the world around them. Ethan, however, was a far cry from a typical Mecha, and she couldn’t deny how much he reminded her of another Mecha she had known; a Mecha who had been a most cherished friend. As her thoughts dwelled on that past friendship, her curiosity about Ethan flared. “May I ask you some questions?”

  “Seems only fair.”

  “How old are you?”

  Ethan gave a small chuckle. “I guess I opened myself up for that one. I’m sixty-two years of Corwint.”

  “Sixty-two?” Orynn leaned back in surprise. She thought, due to his advanced nature, that he was much older. “That is actually quite young for a Mecha. Much younger than I suspected.”

  “I hope you aren’t trying to say I look old.” Ethan liked the look of slight embarrassment that came across her face.

  Her cheeks warmed with a flush of color and her eyes looked away from him. His face was not at all old looking. It had a strong but youthful appearance with a well-defined jaw line. He had a small dimple that would appear on his chin when he laughed, and she enjoyed the playful way his dark blue hair arched over his brow. The strong thin frame of his body was also pleasing to look at.

  And his eyes.

  Blue sapphires that held more depth than she had seen in most Organics. She couldn’t deny that she found him attractive. “No, not at all. I meant that your social abilities and A.I. seem so advanced. I have worked with Mecha three times your age that had evolved less personality than the hydrator in the kitchen.”

  She looked back at him as he let out another laugh. She hadn’t intended for her words to be amusing, but when she thought back on it, she supposed that they were. Her own light laughter joined his. “Well, it is true. The way in which you socialize with others, and the emotions you exhibit, it all seems so...” She stopped.

  Be careful. Do not destroy the progress you just made with him.

  “Organic?” Ethan gave voice to her thought. Her laughter died and she bit her bottom lip for the third time that day. He was really starting to enjoy seeing that look on her face. It gave a hint of her insecurity. “It’s true. It’s how I was designed.”

  Her fear of insulting him diminished. “I would assume that it was not a factory design, as I have never met another with your specifications.”

  “Correct.” He could have let the answer end there, but she had been willing to share so much with him. It felt wrong to hold back. “My designer was a Mechatronics engineer at Central Command�
��s Research and Development department. He was actually quite a genius in his own right, and he felt limited by the A.I. governance laws that were in place at the time. So, he built several models on his own time using a lab he built in the basement of his home. I was his fifth attempt.”

  “You were built in a single man’s spare time? In a basement?” Her eyes roamed his body again in amazement. “But how is this possible?”

  “He had several connections on the Mechatronics black market.” He held up his hand and flexed it. “My hands, for example, were designed using a schematic that was still under development and smuggled out of a lab on Merae. The design never made it to production due to a flaw in the servo motor timing relays, but Marcus was able to compensate.”

  “Marcus was your designer’s name?” she stared at his hand, taking new appreciation at how natural its movements were. The digit of every finger moved without a single stutter or pause.

  “Yes.” He dropped his hand. He hadn’t meant to actually say his name. That name hadn’t crossed his lips in a very long time.

  Her eyes followed his hand as it dropped back to the arm of his chair and watched it for another moment. When he didn’t continue, she moved her attention back up to his face. Their eyes met and she saw a new emotion in them that was on the verge of sadness. It was the reserved melancholy that only came with time after a wound on the soul had begun to heal. She thought that perhaps he missed Marcus. “He must have been very proud of you.”

  “I was actually one of his greatest disappointments, and it was something he reminded me of every day, until the day I left.” Ethan’s words surprised himself. He hadn’t intended to say it out loud. The look of disbelief and heartbreak that flashed across Orynn’s eyes surprised him even more.

  “But why?” She shook her head slowly, unable to comprehend how anyone could have looked at Ethan, especially his designer, and been disappointed.

  He couldn’t look into the compassion in her eyes any longer, so he looked to the side. A sneer forced its way onto his lips, but he gave a small chuckle to counter his sudden anger.

  “He was trying to engineer the next generation of Mechatronic advancements that would allow us to cross the line with Organics, and, as he liked to say, he got me instead. Marcus had an obsession with perfection. Despite his genius, he wasn’t able to overcome subtle flaws in my design, such as the tinting of my skin which is caused by the necessary cooling fluid for the multi-processor construct and nanite designs he used. My height, another giveaway that I’m either not Organic or I’m a very odd looking Ruisk, was needed to compensate for a stabilization issue he never quite worked out. I became the embodiment of his failure to overcome those obstacles.”

  He let out a bitter laugh. “Even my name was an afterthought for him. I went two years without one, until one day he ranted about how he’d gotten tired of referring to me as the Mechatronic Automaton Number Five in the papers he was writing about his research. He yelled and said ‘every thing has a name!’, E.T.H.A.N., and that became my name. Ethan Greyson, and I only got to use his last name because Mechatronic Regulations of Registration at the time required the Mecha use the surname of their lead designer. So no, I wouldn’t exactly say he was proud.”

  “How sad.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

  “I’ve gotten over it.” He replied flatly. He didn’t need her pity.

  “You misunderstand, Ethan.” When he continued looking away, she reached out and touched his chin to draw his attention back to her. When his eyes lifted back to her face, she smiled.

  “I am not sad for you. My sadness is for him. He spent his life searching for something which could never exist. Perfection itself is the very antithesis of what it means to be Organic. We strive because of our imperfections, not in spite of them. That you are not perfectly like an Organic is not a failure. It is simply a failure on his part for not recognizing the truly remarkable being that you are. I am sad that he was never able to understand that.”

  He had no words to offer for a reply. For the first time since she entered their lives, he was finally able to feel the full emotions of her empathy through the touch of her fingertips on his chin. If it was true or simply a ploy to gain his trust, he no longer cared. It felt real, and he wanted to feel more of it.

  His hand moved up slowly to hers and grasped it. Instead of pulling away from it, she closed her fingers around his hand and squeezed it, and the connection between them increased.

  It’s not enough.

  He wanted more. He pulled gently on her hand, causing her free floating body to move toward him. A look of uncertainty filled her eyes, but she didn’t stop him. His other hand reached out and passed across her cheek and through her hair as it drifted in white waves behind her. Without taking his eyes away from hers, he moved his hand from her hair to her bare shoulder and wrapped his fingers around it. Closer.

  This is wrong. Orynn’s mind pleaded with her to push away from him with another well-practiced smile. You know what will happen if you do not stop this now. Everything will be left in ruin.

  The pressure at the top of her scalp from her hair clip throbbed, but it could not compete with the loud thumping of her heart that filled her ears. She let him pull her so close that she could make out the subtle lines of his face. The tips of his arching bangs brushed against her forehead, and the sapphire irises of his eyes became the only thing she could see. She didn’t want to stop this. She didn’t want to push him away.

  I am so tired pushing people away.

  He let go of her shoulder as she hovered motionless above him. His fingers found their way back into her hair, its white silken strands flowing freely around her face. So close, her eyes had lost their mercury coloring and gained an opalescent quality. In them, he saw hues of blue, green and amber. He also saw an uncertain fear. His hand moved to her cheek and caressed its warmth, and a look of timid happiness came to her face.

  He made a decision. He was going to let her in.

  When she felt the connection form openly between them, the fear in her eyes dissipated into wonderment. A small gasp left her lips, but she didn’t push the connection further. She wanted him to have complete control over what he was willing to share with her.

  He wondered how far he should let her in, and he wondered what she really wanted from him. As his arousal flared at the proximity of her mouth to his, he knew what he wanted from her. Leaving all logic behind, he closed his eyes and pulled her down to his lips.

  “Compression seal release in progress.” Zera’s voice collapsed the connection between them. “Returning to normal gravity.”

  “What?” He opened his eyes to see Orynn’s eyes wide open in terror. “Zera, override and continue current settings.”

  “Unable to comply. Administrative override in progress.”

  “Fuck!” He pulled Orynn tight to his chest. “I know this is going to hurt, but try to hold on to me.”

  He felt her arms and legs wrap around him as he moved forward out of his chair. The door hissed as the compression disengaged. Her fingers clung to his jacket as she buried her face into his shoulder with a wince in expectation for what was to come. The gravity of the room shifted violently and he stepped into it while trying to redistribute the heavy weight that came crashing against them. His hand cradled the back of her head and held it to his shoulder in an attempt to lessen the impact. He heard the sickening pop of bone and she let out a breathless whimper.

  11 Turn and Burn

  When the door to Ethan’s room slid open, the last thing Hank expected to see was the bodies of Ethan and Orynn intertwined. He stood in the doorway with an embarrassed grin on his face and scratched the back of his neck. “Sorry, I didn’t...”

  “Stop grinning and get out of the fucking doorway!” The rage filled look in Ethan’s eyes took the words out of Hank’s mouth and caused him to take a step back.

  Hank’s whole body tensed. He had never heard Ethan’s voice so filled with malice before, and certainly n
ever directed at him. Sure, he may have just inadvertently interrupted an unexpected intimate moment, but anger over it was the last thing he expected from his friend. He heard a small pained cry come from Orynn and realized she wasn’t moving. He decided an explanation was in order and stepped inside the room. “What in the universe is going on?”

  Ethan ignored Hank’s question as the door slid shut again. “Zera, resume previous gravity settings immediately!”

  “Command confirmed.”

  “Whoa, what?” Hank grabbed onto the edge of the console as his feet left the ground.

  “Don’t you ever fucking knock?” The venom in Ethan’s voice hissed as he glared at Hank. His muscles tensed in the fury he was suddenly filled with while he continued to protectively cradle Orynn’s body. “You could have killed her!”

  Hank’s own anger started to build at the undeserved backlash he was getting. “What in the universe are you going on about? I came to see how the progress on the permits was going, but the door was sealed, so I overwrote it.”

  “The door was sealed for a reason!” Ethan felt his whole body shake with the eruption of his seething rage. It wasn’t a feeling he was used to conveying, and he knew it was getting out of control. He felt like he could tear the room apart.

  “I thought she may... that she might be...” Hank had thought she was doing something to compromise his friend. Now he had his friend looking at him like he wanted to rip his head from his shoulders.

  The worried look on Hank’s face dissipated some of the anger Ethan was experiencing. A soft squeeze on his arm brought his attention back down to Orynn. Her eyes were still closed and she was breathing slow labored breaths, but at least she was breathing. He carefully loosened his hold on her so he could look over her. Her body showed no signs of any obvious damage, but he was worried about the internal injuries she may have suffered. He brushed the hair away from her face and placed his fingertips on her cheek.