Page 12 of True As Steel
Isighed, feeling almost as lost as that tragic day when my parents died. Back then, I still had the army to call home. Now, I didn’t even have that. No army, no Cyborg Military Elite, no pod brothers, no purpose…
“I was to rendezvous with my pod brothers on Gorkon,” I replied.
“Pod brothers?” Tamryn asked.
“Cyborgs are divided into units of four or five members, which we call pods,” I explained. “We are connected through a closed neural network that allows us to communicate, almost like telepathy. As every member of the pod is able to access each other’s deepest thoughts, memories, and emotions, we only form it with Cyborgs we completely trust. Hence, they are pod brothers.”
“That makes sense,” Tamryn said with a nod. “But you’re reconsidering rendezvousing with them now?”
“I don’t know that there is anyone left to rendezvous with,” I said, my chest constricting with pain. “I felt three of my brothers die during the explosion of the transport ship. I spoke to Caylan, the only other survivor of my pod as we were flying away from the debris. But now, I believe something terrible has happened to him.”
“Oh no! What makes you say that?” Tamryn asked, her voice filled with commiseration and horror. “He no longer responds when you try to speak to him?”
“He’s much too far for us to be able to communicate right now,” I said, shaking my head. “We would need to at least be on the same planet to do so, or for him to be in orbit. But each of my brothers has a ‘presence’ in our neural net. It’s just inactive when they are out of range. However, when one of them dies, that presence becomes an absence or a void that feels like a part of me has been ripped out.”
“And you’re feeling that void where your last brother used to be?” she asked, gently.
“Not exactly. Caylan isn’t dead. His presence is there but not muted by distance. It feels distorted,” I said, my throat tightening. “The neural network recognizes him as being part of our pod but can no longer properly interface with him. The only thing that I can think of that could explain this is if he suffered massive cerebral damage. I fear that he’s lying somewhere, slowly dying, and I’m not there to save him. And I fear even more that he’s all alone, and that in a few hours, or maybe a few days, there will be no one left but me in our neural network. If that’s the case, there will be no point for me to go to Gorkon.”
“Wouldn’t other Cyborgs also go there?” Tamryn asked. “If the worst came to pass, couldn’t you join another pod?”
I snorted and shook my head. “It’s not that simple. Like I said, you do not form a pod with someone unless you implicitly trust them. Right now, trust among Cyborgs is in very short supply. I would not readily give access to my most intimate thoughts to a stranger, and I wouldn’t expect them to be too keen on giving me that power over them either. But there’s no point borrowing trouble. We should rest and get an early start in the morning.”
From the look on her face, she wanted to pursue the topic. To my relief, she respected my wish to let it rest for now and cast a glance at the entrance to our little cave.
“I wonder what time it is,” Tamryn said pensively. “I’m feeling quite tired, but the sun didn’t go down all that long ago.”
“It is only a little after 1900 hours, local time. But for us, on Kirs’ time, it is past 0100 hours,” I replied.
“Oh wow! No wonder!” Tamryn said, looking at the hard ground with an unimpressed expression. “But shouldn’t one of us stand watch?”
I shook my head. “I have configured the snitch to patrol the perimeter. If anything bigger than that animal we ate tonight lurks nearby, it will warn us. Should anything smaller than that come closer than twenty meters from here, it will wake me. I have highly sensitive hearing.”
Tamryn pursed her lips, eyeing me with a hard-to-define expression before giving me a stiff nod. She unfolded her legs, wincing in the process, then reached for the light stone that illuminated the room, no doubt to turn it off.
“You can lie on top of me, if you wish,” I said, stunned to hear the words come out of my mouth.
Tamryn stiffened, her hand freezing over the stone as she stared at me in disbelief.
“Excuse me?” she asked, outrage ringing loud and clear in her voice.
I snorted. “Relax. I’m not hitting on you. The ground is hard. You will wake up aching everywhere in the morning,” I explained. “Sleeping on top of me would be more comfortable for you.”
She gave me the ‘do you think I’m stupid?’ look. Although I understood her dubious stance, it irritated me.
“If I wanted to fuck, I would just ask you,” I said with a sliver of annoyance. “I say what I mean and mean what I say. You winced when you moved from your sitting position, so I offered. But if you prefer the ground, you’re welcomed to it. Good night.”
I closed my eyes and tried to relax, listening to the rain battering the ground outside. Tamryn shifted next to me. By the sound and the dimming luminosity, she’d recovered the light stone and returned to her sitting position. Her stare on me felt like a living entity, and I could almost hear the thoughts racing through her mind. That she hadn’t turned off the light yet and laid down next to me clearly expressed that she wanted to take me up on my offer. I couldn’t decide if pride after giving me attitude, genuine embarrassment at lying on top of a stranger, or a mix of both fueled her hesitation.
“I would crush you,” she said at last.
“You were lying unconscious on top of me for the two hours our escape pod took to get here,” I said without opening my eyes. “I know exactly what you weigh, which is nothing. It would take ten of you to crush me. Now, make up your mind, and let me sleep.”
She muttered something under her breath, rummaged for another second, then climbed on top of me. My offer had genuinely been innocent and merely to give her a bit of comfort. But the moment Tamryn lay down on me, a timid flame sparked in the pit of my stomach. The heat of her body on top of mine only enhanced the feel of the cold stones behind my back and the cooling evening air. Her long black hair fanned over my chest in a gentle caress as she rested her head on top of my heart. Her body perfectly aligned with mine, and I fought the urge to wrap an arm around her.
“Yeah, you’re more comfy than the ground,” she mumbled under her breath. “Sweet dreams.”
I snorted. “And you as well,” I whispered, indulging in the feel of her as I let sleep claim me.