Designation X150

Trying to avoid the dripping pipes overhead, Spline knew this was the part of the job he hated most. Out here in the grime, dealing with, well, the type of people you deal with in this business. He'd give this part up if he could, just stay in the medbay. But, neg on that dream speck, you have to schlep all the way to the Lower Blocks and deal with, well, the type of folks who take meeting in Lower Blocks. And here, in the undercity of the Cascadia slums, those type of people tended to end a bad meeting with bad measures.

Because this was a world full of bad people.

A drop landed on Spline's shoulder, kept off his skin by his battered jacket. Oily water, stinking of whatever filth wrapped the pipes above, something acrid and chemical, possibly corrosive. It was times like this he wished he hadn't gone in on the olfactory package. Or the synthskin tactile sensors. Or enhanced taste. Places like this were an assault on every sense.

Next time I upgrade, Spline thought to himself, I'm going to put in a level adjuster. Only about the four-hundredth time he made that promise.

A bell toned in his hearing, a virtual call to his internal wetware. He activated the call display subconsciously. In his vision floated a virtual window in which sat a representation of a thin man with hawkish, aquiline features, shaved head, and glowing golden cybereyes, in a slim-cut suit. Digital tattoos poked out of his sleeves and up from under his collar. Under the window CONNECTED: LOON_E.

"Hey, Spline, you there?"

Spline's meatform did not speak, his virtual self spoke from inside his wetware. "Yes, I've been here. You're late."

"I know, but I got a good reason."

"Don't care. I got the codes, just need the buyers."

"That's the reason man, their broker wants to come along. If he likes what he scopes he's got loads of gigs to send your way."

"Not part of the deal. Simple aug unlocks."

"Man, real unappreciative tone, peng. I've been hustling you work for over a year."

Spline struggled to remain cordial. "And I am thankful."

"Well, consider this meet a 'thanks with substance'. You just do your thing and let me sell the other broker on your future prospects. For you, nothing changes."

Spline mulled it over for a moment. "Copa."

"There, see, Loon's gotchu, peng. Be there in five."

The call ended and the window in Spline's vision closed. He paced a bit, willing time to pass.

To any passerby who happened to look down this dead end alley Spline would look like he belonged here, He was medium height, five foot eight inches, and lean but not thin. His hair was dark and slightly curly, his skin dusky, the only sign he was born from outlander stock. No tattoos, no piercings, just a few simple dataports in his neck. He was dressed in an old battered combat jacket two sizes too big. Worn cargo pants that were a little too long covered the tops of his scuffed work boots. He looked like a bum or chemtweak skulking. Most people would not give him a second look or thought.

And that was how Spline liked it.

After a few minutes of enduring the dank undercity the first of the customers arrived, the first of almost a dozen in total. They were members of the 12th Block Blood Pack, a gang that ruled through a mix of protection, drugs, and extortion. The each dressed in black with red slashes of color throughout. The had either tattoos or cybernetic patterning in scarlet where their flesh was visible. Unlike many gangs they were not chauvinists, they were a mix of nationalities and genders. They valued performance over identity, and performance meant the best possible augs.

The first in line held out his fist. "Heard you're the aug guy. I'm-"

"No names. Yes, I'm the aug guy. Just need to know the part." Spline unzipped his combat jacket.

"Liver. Trauma aug."

Spline opened the over-sized jacket. Inside he wore a military medtech vest into which were tucked an assortment of medical items. He produced two and slipped them over his hands. The reader on the back of one hand and the fabricator on the back of the other, a mesh strap across his palms holding them in place. Spline synced both items to the processors in his medtech vest and linked the results to his HUD. In his HUD both items opened an operating window, one for MEDREADR and one for NANOFAB both flashing STANDBY...

Spline motioned to the gang member. "Open your jacket, lift your shirt, right side." He pulled a palm sized disk from the tech vest and applied a clear gel to the flat side.

The gang member did as he was told. Spline scoped Loon_E as he entered the alley. He was chatting with another man, a tall, thin silhouette topped with a straight mane of bright blue techhair, dressed in dark pants, white shirt, and a fancy vest with lambent-glow swirled patterns. Loon_E nodded at Spline. Spline placed the sensor pod on the gang member's side.

The reader window on his HUD came to life filling with a 3D image of the ribs, abdominal cavity, and organs. The liver was lined in green, an aug module wrapped around the top of it in red, and everything else in blue. The window filled with information on the aug: SangeneTech TraumaStat V23.189 Build 5. New, cutting edge, designed to control shock and encourage healing. Signs of healing microsurgery, it was installed recently.

The fabricator went to work, drawing on a dataport chip containing a list of aug bypasses provided by the clinic's freelance dataslicer. The bypass for SangeneTech's current TraumaStat aug was selected and loaded into the fabricator. Spline loaded a dronecath into the back of the fabricator, twisting it into locked position. A black cylinder the length of a finger with a slim cone on the opposite end, it contained a series of blank synthetic nanovirus structures that would be injected with the RNA code to carry the bypass into the bioaug. The fabricator took a moment and then flashed COMPLETE. Spline took the dronecath, unlocked it and placed the conical tip just above the sensor disk, pressed to the gang member's skin. On the reader display a tiny strand emerged from that spot and began winding around the liver toward the aug, seeking out one of the receptor ports. This was a micro-robotic catheter, filled with the modified nanovirus. It found a receptor and inserted.

"We done?" asked the gang member.

Spline held up his finger. The reader shifted the aug color to green and displayed AUG UNLOCKED. Spline retracted the dronecath and removed the sensor pod.

"We are now."

"Chrome, thanks." The gang member dropped his shirt and stepped away. Another took his place.

Spline repeated this ten more times. Almost all were similar, fresh mods newly installed, with simple solutions: read, fabricate, unlock, done. It was the next to last that proved difficult. This gang member was a tall, muscular woman. She had combat cyberarms, scars with metallic red tattoos over them, and black techhair that shimmered crimson when it moved. Her aug was a challenge.

"Adrenal-lower-spine link."

Spline put on the sensor on the small of her back, a valley ridged by muscle, and took a moment to figure what he was looking at. An aug of synthetic neural tissue connecting the lumbar spine to the adrenal glands above the kidneys. This aug was next gen, not yet on the market. Powerful, it was meant to allow the user at will to dump adrenaline while ramping lower body reaction, a strength, endurance, and speed spike. Also recently installed. Maybe even earlier today.

"Problem?" she asked.

"Would help if you tell me where you bought it." Spline zoomed in on the aug, looking for fine details.

"I didn't."

Spline inspected the synthetic organ. Definitely Kafko work, most augs had some Kafko tech, but this had their fingerprints. The interfacing tissue links were Kafko for sure, freshly grown. The organ itself looked to be Genergy product. Their fabricator vats had a fairly distinct sowing pattern, a lattice that repeated fractals of recursive sixteens. This narrowed down the receptor points, and Spline located one. A deep read on the receptor confirmed it, Genergy Orgotronics. He pulled up the most recent unlocks on Genergy and selected the three with the closest application to this aug. The fabricator loaded all three into the dronecath, one to be injected after the other. Had to be three, because any more attempts would cause most market augs to seize and stop working. The second code worked. UNLOCKED.

Spline sighed internally. "Got it, you're good to go."

She grunted and walked away. After the next gang member, a simple fix, Loon_E and the unknown broker stepped up.

"See, I told you his biz was pro."

The other broker nodded, a strand of bright blue hair falling across his face. He was dark skinned, willowy, and androgynous. "Indeed. Loved watching you work. Loon_E has your pay."

Spline stowed his tech into his vest and zipped up his jacket. "Forward it to my account at the clinic."

Loon_E nodded. "Already done, peng. This is Hectik. Hectik, Spline."

The other broker chimed in, "A pleasure. Loon and I have business to conclude. Do you want us to escort you out, call you transpo? Or I can send you my contact bits if you want to talk future work or... anything else?"

Spline shook his head. "I'll be okay."

"Copa. Loon, shall we?"

Loon_E nodded. "Call you later, Spline."

Spline watched the group leave the alley. He'd leave when they were gone. The last of them filtered out into the street and Spline waited from them to be out of sight to make his exit.

That was when the dark form descended on the alley entrance in a blur.

Hectik was struck mid-word, leaning down slightly to to say something when it struck him from above. For a moment Spline could clearly see the two shapes joined. The tall broker arched back, blue hair flaring out around his face, eyes wide, mouth agape. And the dark form, reminding Spline of something arachnid, a spider, with four legs instead of two, was joined to the broker's form by the front two legs, one piercing through the left side chest, the other through his throat.

The dark form pulled back, extracting both limbs, and the tall broker collapsed backwards, gurgling his last breaths.

The dark form whirled on Loon_E and raised its front limbs. These ended not in hands but in double bladed scythe-like claws, half a meter long. Loon_E dropped against the wall and raised his arms over his face. From somewhere beyond the alley entrance someone shouted and then ran at the dark form, coming into view wielding a katana that crackled with electricity. One of the gang members, trying out his recently unlocked muscle fiber grafts. The dark form's head swiveled 180 degrees and it shifted its stance, turning its profile sideways to the sword-wielding gang member. When the gang member struck, screaming as he thrust at what looked like an armored abdomen, the dark form slipped sideways and its upper body spun into the move, swiveling at its thorax almost completely around. The katana missed wide and, before the gang member could reset, one of the form's blades shot through his slim waist and the other through his neck. He collapsed to the pavement in three pieces.

More shouts, followed by gunfire. Loon_E's eyes went wide and he slipped further into the ally along the wall. The dark form crouched and scuttled on all fours. A couple of rounds impacted its armored exterior and ricocheted away. A couple of shots landed in the ally wall near Loon_E, who yelped and ducked into the alley.

The dark form flexed into a crouch and sprang out of sight, toward the staccato pattering of gunfire. Occasionally Spline would hear a yell or shout cut short. Sometimes the sound of flesh or organs hitting pavement. The percussion of the gunfire faltered, slowed in tempo. Once an arm, severed just above the elbow, came into view, sailing through the air, machine pistol still in its grip, trailing crimson, before hitting the sidewalk with a wet thud. Loon_E scampered behind a dumpster and hugged his knees, making himself small, breathing ragged. Finally the gunfire stopped entirely. A moment of silence.

Backing into the alley's entrance was the muscular female gang member, the one with the new adrenal-reflex booster. One cheek was slashed and she was bleeding from a gash in her side. Full of adrenaline she would not really feel it until the booster shut down. Her fists were up, cyberarms ending in thickly reinforced knuckles that shimmered with heat. The dark form stalked into view, forearms pulled up in front of its head, folded like a mantis. It walked on rear legs, digitigrade, on two large multi-jointed toes.

The adrenal-boosted gang member spat out blood. "Fucking freak."

The dark form cocked its head slightly and began circling its target. One of its forelimbs snapped out, almost too fast to see, jabbing at the gang member's face. Amped up and reflex boosted the gang member did see, slipped the strike, turned her hips over, and used her low center of gravity to snap out a kick that itself was blur.

But the dark form was faster. It lifted its leg on that side and popped a third toe out of the back side of its foot, catching the kick in midair. It retracted the leg, pulling the muscular woman off-balance and forward. Then snick, slack, the forelimb blades popped out, going cleanly in both sides of the chest in front and cleanly out the back. Still riding the adrenaline high the gang member swung wildly at the form's head. The head bobbed left and right on a deceptively long neck, the punches missing wildly. The dark form dropped back, extracting its blades. Blood poured from the wounds and the gang member went slack, falling first to one knee, then onto her side, still.

The dark form looked down the alleyway. It paused for a moment and then ducked out of sight. Loon_E sat a moment before slowly getting up and looking back at the alley entrance. He slowly backed into the alley toward Spline. Spline thought for just a moment he saw, in a gap between the pipe canopy, a shadow move above. Just a flicker, something quick. Loon_E crept backwards, toward Spline, keeping an eye on the alley and the street beyond. Spline slowly unzipped his jacket and slipped his hand inside, slipping it into his reader unit. It synced with the vest and linked to his wetware, the MEDREADR STANDBY window opened in the corner of his vision. He palmed a sensor disk, one already coated with electrolytic adhesive gel from earlier. He then brought up the HUD for his medtech vest, bringing its full medstat functions on line. It was an older model, but was used by combat medics in the field and had a wide variety of bioaug and cybernetic functions. He synced it to the reader and set it to scan the area for unknown systems. Loon_E reached the little culdesac dead end and slowly turned toward Spline.

"Holy fucking kuso, Spline. Did you see that?" Loon_E stopped less than a meter from Spline.

Spline nodded and kept scanning. In his vision a gap between the pipes above Loon_E flashed red. Behind the gap his med sensors made out something synthetic and completely unknown.

"Let's get outta here before it comes back-"

Loon_E's words were cut short by the dark form sliding down through the gap and impaling him twice through the abdomen. Spline was splattered with blood, a scattering hitting him on the chin. Now the dark form was just above him, hanging through the gap, flexed forward at the end of its strike. It was matte black, covered in overlapping armored plates, mechanical limbs spindly but strong. Spline took the opportunity to flick out the sensor disk. It stuck to the black, plated thorax and began trying to scan the tech. Loon_E began to shriek. The dark form retreated back into the pipes, lifting Loon_E along, through the gap, and into the darkness above.

The reader window came to life. First thing's first, identify what kind of drone this is, who's the manufacturer. Some kind of shielding. The medtech in his vest kicked in. Shielding in military cyberware was common, and medics needed to bypass it in order to treat injured soldiers.

//EMERGENCY OVERRIDE: MEDICAL EMERGENCY SCAN

//LIFESCAN PASSCODE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Spline's clinic had gotten him spoofed LifeScan credentials in case he ever needed to explain himself to somebody with authority. Or to shut down some auged-out psycho who redzoned during treatment. Or to do what he was doing now, snooping in a system in which he did not belong.

While he did this he backed further into the culdesac, finding a place he hoped was out of reach of any significant gaps. The killer drone would have to come out to get him, might give him a couple crucial seconds. From the pipes over head Loon_E's screams stopped and blood began to drip through the pipes where he had been pulled.

//MEDICAL OVERRIDE ACCEPTED: SCAN LEVEL ONLY

Spline's reader begin to fill with information and what he saw stopped him in his tracks.

It was not a drone. That is to say, not robotic. It was cybernetic and organic. A living creature with cutting edge grafted cybernetic limbs and armored exoskeleton. The organics were like nothing he had ever seen, organs that were not auged, they were bioaugs. The body structure was built to house and mature organs that began enhanced. Increased bone density, blood oxygen capacity, neural reaction time, so much here was not added or grafted, but heightened and ingrained. Pure custom gentech, novel and unique. Spline realized he was breathing heavy, caught up in the discovery.

Focus, man. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

Spline commenced a deep scan on the cybernetics, specifically the limbs. Custom design, sure, but somebody had to fabricate them, and their stamp would be there. Above him a clicking on pipes. Something moved overhead. He involuntarily ducked his head into his collar. The plates were custom fitted, polycarb ceramic blend. No joy there. The limbs were all custom past the shoulder, but at the point at the shoulder where meat met metal, there it was. A joint servo link to the neural translator, turning neural signal into mechanical. It was a Malaysian company, SenjataWare Otot Processer V901.4518 Build 61-A. The limbs structure was custom, but the internals were stock.

Spline quickly pulled the database for SenjataTech codes. For cybernetics he did not need to fabricate a nanovirus, he just needed remote port access. And that was granted by the medical override.

//MEDICAL OVERRIDE: DIAGNOSTIC ACCESS

//DIAGNOSTIC ACCESS DENIED

From a gap three meters away the dark form unfolded itself into the alley and dropped to the ground.

//SANJATAWARE DIAGNOSTIC PASSCODE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

//DIAGNOSTIC ACCESS ACCEPTED

Spline was in, he acted quickly. While a dataslicer could have fried this thing in its own system, or locked its mind from its wetware, his options were limited. However, the medtech in his vest allowed Spline to access specific subsystems one by one. As long as he did not juggle too many at once, he should be able to gain some measure of control. First he disrupted the internal connection between the cybernetic carapace and the visual cortex, effectively blinding the creature. This subsystem had a recorder and he quickly tried to scramble the last minute or so, hoping any clear image of his face would become unreadable.

The creature thrashed back and forth, suddenly unable to see. It swept at the air but missed Spline by first a decimeter on one side and then several centimeters on the other.

Spline moved onto the limbs. Legs first, before it could get closer. Unfortunately it took a step toward him before he locked the servos. It cocked back its forelimbs and paused. All it had to do was extend them straight forward and it would have him. Spline was afraid to move in case it could locate him by sound. A momentary stalemate he was about to end by locking the forelimbs.

But then he saw the command issued to the cybernetic system.

//OPEN FACIAL CARAPACE

He should have locked the arms and ran. Sure. Smart thing to do. But in that instant something else won out.

Curiosity. Spline had to see it.

A little over a meter in front of him the black, featureless faceplate split down the middle with a hiss. Those halves split again at an angle and the pieces slid back on magnetic tracks. And what they exposed to Spline made his breath catch in his throat.

Its head was roughly the same size as a human head, but an exaggerated oval, large and round on top and tapering down to a tiny, rounded chin. It was hairless, its skin a translucent pale green that looked slick and moist. Under the skin Spline could see a webwork of blood vessels, dark blue veins and deeper bright blue arteries, and a network of glinting microcircuitry connections. It lips were thin, almost invisible above the chin, and above that no nose, just two small oval holes for nostrils. There was a smell to it that reminded Spline of tide pools in the Mexican sun, a hint of brine and under that something musky and organic.

And above the nostrils its most striking feature, its eyes. Taking up over a third of the head, each was a horizontal cat-like slit. The sclera, white in humans, was black and the pupil in the center reflected light back a lambent green. The irises were large and a blight violet, no, that is not right. The surface lattice of the iris was a light translucent blue, the next layer a mix of icy blue and teal, and under that a layer of glowing indigo that shown through the others and blended into a rich lambent violet.

The gentech creature blinked at Spline, nictitating membranes sliding over the eyes, nearly transparent and wet. Spline leaned forward and raised his hand toward its face. The creature raised a double-blade poised to strike. Spline raised his index finger to stroke its face from chin to rounded cheek just under the left eye. The texture was exquisite, smooth, slick, with an almost imperceptible pebbling, like certain fine leathers.

"My god, you're so beautiful", he whispered in awe. He would not realize until later he had an erection.

The gentech creature flinched away, head and upper body drawing back. It's the only reason Spline lived. As it did so the claw shot out, but slightly off. Aiming for his temple it instead grazed the side of his head, opening the skin there nearly to the bone and nicking the top of his ear, before embedding into the concrete behind with a vibrating thud. Warm fluid dripped down the side of his head. Stinging pain snapped him back to the situation at hand. Before the gentech creature could strike again he froze the arm servos. It narrowed its eyes at him, lips pursed in what Spline assumed was frustration.

Spline pondered a second. If it had internal countermeasures or backup he was already on borrowed time. Better to cut now.

"Sorry. Would love to see more, but, I gotta go." Spline ducked under the arm and ran.

He made his way to the street and ducked right, straight though a scene of carnage. Pieces of gang members littered the sidewalk. Bodies splayed in the street or slumped against the wall. He skidded and nearly fell in a sheet of blood. Then Spline dashed across the street, through a gap in traffic, and into another alley. Here, behind a dumpster, under a signal baffling tarp, he had stashed his JungSae Citybike. He started the electric motor through his remote link as he removed the tarp and discarded it in the dumpster. No time to be neat. He mounted the small electric motorbike and whirred out into traffic. His Cascadia CityLink brought up the quickest route from Lower Blocks to Mid Blocks and then out of Blocks into Downtown Cascadia. He opened the throttle, picking up speed. Every time he looked in his rear view he expected to see a dark shape running him down.

Spline sat down in the dark clinic and swiveled a mirror to access the damage. He ordered his limbic aug to block the pain on the way, so he was able to clean it with sterile spray without the wound stinging. There was quite a bit of caked blood to clean. Head wounds bleed a bunch, but this one did not hit anything major, superficial, it just needed to heal. He pressed the nick in the ear together and sprayed the area with liquid skin. It would dry fast, match his skin tone, remain pliable but tough, keep the wound disinfected, and gently pull the edges together to ensure a clean, scar free healing.

He was alone in the clinic, it was after hours. Not long ago they were open all hours, but times changed. Now it was just Spline, some organs in storage vats, and an empty microsurgery table.

Spline got up and left the clinic through a back door and stairwell, his apartment two floors above. Work and leisure were a brisk walk away.

Not that Spline "leisured" much. He disliked alcohol, even if his liver had TrueFilter on, why luxuriate with a toxin? Same for most vapes. And chems. Actually so many hang outs and parties went hand in hand with poisoning yourself stupid. So, yeah, little in the way of socialization.

His apartment was on the second floor, clinic in the basement. It was right off the stairwell, number 2002, Candlelight HABQUBE tower. It was two rooms. Entering, the first room was a living area with sectional and media center, a fold out food station, and a hygiene cubby with shower stall and foldout sink and toilet. The second room contained his futon, workspace, and pullout closet rack. A large sliding glass door in both rooms opened onto a meager balcony. He was lucky, many of the balconies were gone, victims of corrosion, wind, or violence. The only personal item, a hybrid plant with broad, spear-like leaves and delicate violet bulb flowers, sat in the corner next to the sectional. Spline had crafted the orchid hybrid himself, hardy enough to survive the urban environment, and something beautiful that was his only.

Spline shrugged out of his bloody coat, kicked off his boots and slipped off his pants, leaving them in a pile in the living room. He was standing in his medtech vest, a slim undershirt, and white briefs. He grabbed a bottle of nutrient-infused water from a shelf and poured some for the orchid. He capped it and left it next to the plant. He walked into his back room, what he really thought of as his personal space, and pulled out his closest rack. It contained little in the way of clothes, maybe three outfits total. Mostly medical equipment hung from the rack on utility hooks, stuck in bandoleers, or tucked into utility vests. To these he added the medtech vest with its attached gear. He added the reader to his small corner workstation and had it sync to his workstation terminal. It began encoding all recorded data from tonight's run onto a datachip.

Spline then killed the lights, crawled onto the futon and pulled up the covers. He tried to sleep.

He was a bit surprised it was not the violence of the night that vexed him and denied rest. When he had been enlisted as a combat medic he got caught in a crossfire with an AMFED cell in Mexico. He'd come out nearly unharmed, but his friends, not so much. He had night terrors and flashbacks for months. It had taken weeks of virtu-therapy and some minor emotional limiters to get him back to resembling normal. No, this was not that. Something entire other vexation was at play.

He kept returning to the faceplate sliding back in four directions. The reveal of the face, the skin, thin lips, the immense multi-layered eyes. The skin, slick with a thin layer of moisture, smooth, and textured like miniaturized eel skin. It had a smell, something organic and salty, like a wisp of sea water, not strong, just a hint. He tried to roll over and banish the images away.

But that just made his erection more painful.

"Dammit."

Finally, in the early morning Spline resigned himself, threw off his blanket, reached down, pushed down his briefs, and released his hard member. He took it in hand and began to stroke it, pushing the skin up over the head and then down slowly. He did this while imaging the gentech creature was watching his throbbing organ with those amazing eyes, that it gasped a little through its thin lips. That its hot breath, smelling of brine in the sun, wafted over his cockhead as it watched. His hand picked up the pace and he gasped and grunted into the dark apartment. He felt the sweat on his forehead and thought of the moisture on its skin. Slick, not slippery, damp, not wet. How under his finger he could feel the delicate texture, and beyond that see veins and circuitry. Spline imagined it was not his finger but his cock that slid across that cheek.

Spline grunted as his cock shot blast after blast of sticky come over his undershirt. He grunted with each blast, arched back, hips in the air, furiously stroking as he came. At last collapsing, spent, breathing rapidly.

His augs brought his respiration and heart rate under control. He sat up and stripped off the shirt, wadded it up, and threw it in the corner. Spline laid back down and tried to remember the last time he was this turned on. He fell asleep without an answer.

Morning, internal alarm.

//TIME 05:00

Spline's augs were already working to wash sleep away and get him alert. He staggered, briefs only, into the living area of the apartment and flipped open his dining and food station. Taking a seat he laid out his breakfast, a foil pouch of unsweetened cafe-stim and a tube of unflavored full-spectrum nutrient paste. That done he scooped up his blood-stained clothes from the night before and opened the wall-mounted laundry station. He considered going back for the undershirt, shrugged, and closed the unit. Heavy steam wash and dry. While that ran, shower and toiletries. By the time he was done the jacket and pants were done, still warm from the cycle. He grabbed both and went back to his personal room.

At the workstation he grabbed the datachip from his terminal and slotted it into a port in the back of his neck. Then a fresh pair of briefs, clean undershirt, and a mesh vest containing several pieces of lab gear. The medtech vest was for out and about, the clinic had way more tech compared to the vest. Cargo pants, jacket, and boots completed the ensemble. He was ready for a long shift in the Candlelight Hab Modshop.

Spline grabbed a couple more liquid meals from the food station, folded it back up, and headed down to the basement.

Coming in the back door of the clinic he could hear the whir of organ fabricators and the buzz of overhead lights. He passed a tech station, Fenn's, now vacant, and sat at his own. First Spline brought up today's known appointments and put up on SociaLink available walk-in hours. Such hours were few and far between, it was going to be a busy day. The schedule was encoded, brokers and clients with the passkey could view it, because what they did here was not entirely legal. Then he got up and peered into the clinic's head tech, and now chief exec, office through its glass door. Empty. She was already out in a lab fabricating or in a bay performing microsurgery.

Spline then went into his locker exchanging jacket for white coat, plastic face guard, and sterile gloves. He turned and went out into the lab.

Head Tech Ainika Chen-Bau was already working at bay one, dressed in lab coat and face guard, hair pulled back, opening early to get in a client. The client was on the microsurgery table, awake, chest skin and muscle held open, being worked on. Above the client a series of spindly robotic arms used microrobotics to do precise work, going through layers of tissue and inserting probes with ease.

Ainika looked up and gave Spline a single wave.

Ainika was what most people called a knockout. Just under six feet tall, she was smooth, curvy and of mixed Asian decent. Glowing jade eyes and shimmering wavy seafoam techhair complimented her caramel complexion without drawing away from her natural charms. Plus, she had what most regarded as a marvelous cock. Few could tell you which organic assets she was born with and how much was biosculpt, less now that Fenn and Dav were gone. Maybe the last person with those secrets was Spline and his lips were sealed.

"Sorry, Ainika, didn't know we had an early cut time."

"No, no. I know you were squaring our off-site thing. Wanted you to get your sleep. Simple lung and heart mod update, I got this."

Spline nodded. "We open in six. Want me to prep bay two for our scheduled aug."

"Please."

Spline moved into the next bay, drew the signal baffling curtain, and started prepping for a long day of aug work.

Early afternoon he completed a wetware upgrade for a local courier and realized his last nutrient pack was termed. He keyed up the inter-office Link.

//CONSOLE MESSAGE LINK: SEND ALL

//S: Lunch?

//A: Yes! Meet me in my office in 5. Wrapping up penis number 6 today.

The bioaug business included so many genitals.

On the way Spline dropped his gloves into the autoclave and got a fresh pair. Those he dropped off at his surgery bay and went back to Ainika's office. She joined a few minutes later opening the door and letting Spline take a seat. They ate at her desk, reheated lunch of sweet bao, noodles with zesty pork, grilled kim-chi tofu on the side. They ate fast so they could have a moment to talk.

Ainika finished her bao last, like desert, patting her tummy. "Man, XiangWok tastes better the second day."

Spline nodded, but, to him, food was food.

"So", Ainika asked, "How'd it go last night?"

Spline shrugged. "Clean aug work, pay is already in the clinic account."

Ainika nodded. "Saw that. They didn't give you any kuso, or try to ratgnaw the agreed pay?"

"Not a bit. They brought their broker around to watch."

"Hmm", Ainika mused, "We really don't need more gigs right now."

Spline cracked a smile. "Good news, then. They're all dead."

Ainika looked dubious. "Not like you to joke, Spline. And this one isn't funny."

"No joke. Got termed right after the meet."

Ainika sat in silence. "Loon?"

"Loon, too."

Ainika sat quiet. "Fuck, how did you get away?"

Spline turned his head so she could see the spray-on skin. "Almost didn't."

"Fuck, Spline! Why didn't you call me?"

"Needed to be sure I slipped any tail. Didn't want to put you or the clinic in its sights."

Ainika sighed. "Used to be Dav secured backup on jobs like this. I'm sorry."

"I know, but he's gone now. Wish I knew why."

Ainika sighed. "I know it's been tough, and I am looking for new techs. Maybe even a new partner to run top level stuff, like Dav did."

"You and I used to be a single shift. Either on site or off. Not off site and on, all day, all night."

Ainika threw up her hands. "I know. But we can't let just any scalpel jock work here, we need professionalism and discretion."

"I'm always discreet. What happened to Dav and Fenn? You can tell me."

Ainika chewed on her lip. She looked out her door which polarized becoming opaque. She looked back at Spline.

"Fine, but what I say here never leaves this room. Never. It could ruin everything we've built."

Spline nodded. "Never, got it."

Ainika breathed deep, in and out. "Fenn and Dav were selling client biodata on the side."

Spline's guts went cold. "Fuck. No."

"And a dangerous client found out."

The one immutable rule of a black market aug and mod shop, chiseled in fucking bone and etched in circuit and chrome: ANONYMITY. People came here to stay off the books. They got aftermarket updates and illegal unlocks specifically to avoid legal and corpo red tape. If word got out the Candlelight clinic was selling personal data that would be it, dead. Not just the biz, the both of them, fucking termed.

"Did you know?"

Ainika shook her head. "No. Or I'd be termed, too."

Spline leaned in. "This client kill my meet last night? Dav's shit recursing on us?"

"No, I know the client. They assured me they deleted the problem two weeks ago. This is something else."

They sat in silence a moment. Spline broke it. "I need to clear my head. Nothing like work for that."

Ainika stood up and extended a hand. "Ever tell you you're a weird little duck, Spline?"

"Don't need to, I know it." He took the hand and got back to work.

//TIME 19:23

Spline returned to his apartment, this time not splattered in blood, and half-carried half-dragged a large plastic case bearing the LifeScan insignia--a robotic staff surrounded not in two coiling snakes, but in a double helix of DNA. He dragged the item into his personal room and placed it on the floor. It contained something he borrowed from the clinic. Spline opened the case revealing a cylinder ringed with sockets, coiled masses of wiring, male and female data connectors, and small, fold out transmitter dishes. A quick stop for hydration and a meal tube and he got to work.

He assembled the cylinder, the core of the device, linked it to his terminal and synced it with his dataport. Then wires and connectors for the small transmitters. These were placed high in the corners of each room and three on the balcony looking outwards. Into the cylinder he placed the datachip from his neck.

The LifeScan Remote Medscanner came to life, humming as it churned data. Spline accessed it with his spoofed ID. The terminal and his vision both produced a window connected to his onboard console.

//DATA ASSIMILATION IN PROGRESS....

All day his wetware had been deep diving every bit of data from the previous night--encapsulating, enhancing, labeling. Every known piece of tech identified and marked, make and model; every novel item measured and cataloged. Weight, size, function, even the chemical trace its skin left in the air, all compiling in the most powerful med sensor the clinic could afford. It had a long reach, from a high enough point it could scan an entire city block. In clinic they used it to scan clients too dangerous to approach.

In a way, Spline was using it for that purpose now.

//DATA ASSIMILATION COMPLETE

//BEGINNING WIDE SCAN....

Spline watched as his vision filled with a detailed scan of the room and the space outside his balcony. Everything was bathed in blue.

//WIDE SCAN IN PROCESS.....

There, in an alcove above a heat exchanger on the building one over and slightly east. Lined in red, a crouching thing of cybernetic armor and folded limbs. It was sitting completely still, watching the apartment.

//MEDICAL SUBJECT LOCATED

Spline contemplated. If it wanted him dead right now, he would be dead. It had no issue with public execution. If he tried another diagnostic spike, well, chances are it would be prepared. Repeat, he'd be dead. So, time for a light touch, a little diplomacy.

//CONSOLE CALL MEDICAL SUBJECT

//S: Hello.

//S:...

//S: Usually you say 'hi' back.

//X: DIAGNOSTIC MODE IS NOT ALLOWED.

//S: Not asking for that. Just want to chat.

//X: CHAT IS NOT AN OBJECTIVE.

//S: Neither is camping over a thermal exchanger.

//X: WHAT IS THIS?

//S: Conversation.

//X: I REPEAT PREVIOUS QUERY.

//S: I assume you are not going to kill me. Ordered to observe and evaluate?

//X: MISSION OBJECTIVES ARE CONFIDENTIAL.

//S: Of course, smart. Just pointing out if you want to observe me most efficiently, in here is best.

//S: Also, no exchanger fumes.

Spline waited. If he pushed too hard, it would leave. Or learn how to evade the scan.

//X: ACTIVE SCANNERS, IS A TRAP.

Spline allowed himself a little smirk.

//S: Okay, watch.

He moved from corner to corner deactivating the personal space transmitters one by one. In his view window the room dimmed and went dark. Spline repeated this in the living area.

//S: All done. I need the balcony to maintain conversation until we are in close proximity.

//S: Then I will take those down, too.

Spline opened the glass door to the balcony. The smells, sounds and tastes of the outside world rushed in, and he flinched back from the sensory assault.

//S: I will just go about my evening. If you want to observe up close here is the door.

No response. The connection was still live so it was listening. Spline took off his jacket, hung it on the wall, and sat at his workstation. He continued working on several specialized interface disks he had been tinkering with, checking their settings and tweaking their performance. He went to the food station and got a nutrient tube and sucked on it absently while he worked. Minutes passed. He triple checked each device. They were as perfect as he could make them, small, simple, innocuous.

And then in his view window the red shape unfolded atop the heat exchanger. It scurried along the eastern building's outer wall, using gaps in the masonry for purchase, and then bounded onto the next building, landing on a concrete overhang. It scuttled along this until reaching the corner of the building across the street from Candlelight HABQUBES. It crouched and launched itself across the gap sailing through the air until it crossed over the beam path of the sensors and vanished. It was somewhere above, on a higher floor, maybe hanging onto the remains of another tenant's balcony. A moment later it dropped onto Spline's balcony, remarkably quiet.

It crouched in the doorway, all dull black metal and spindly limbs, scalloped carapace and scythe blades.

//X: NOW THE BALCONY SENSORS.

//S: You come in, I go out and shut them down.

//X: NO DECEPTION, OR ELSE I STRIKE.

//S: I give my chances of seeing tomorrow about 1 in 10. No need to threaten.

The black shape moved into the room on four legs, the front blades leaving little double divots in the flooring. It swiveled to keep Spline in front as it moved into the room. He walked around it and then stepped out on to the balcony. He gave each transmitter a twist and then it turned off. One by one the image of the buildings across the way dimmed and then vanished. His LifeScan window declared NO ACTIVE SIGNAL in blinking text. Spline stepped into room and slid the glass panel shut.

//X: IF YOU EXPECT TO DIE, WHY LET ME IN?

Spline stood for a moment. "Do you understand me when I speak?"

//X: YES.

Spline nodded. "Great, I would rather talk than use console. Faster, more personal."

The shape sat unmoving.

Spline frowned. "Can you speak?"

//X: I CANNOT.

Spline suspected this, the scans he had showed no biological or cybernetic vocalization. No vocal cords, no vox aug.

"Would you like to speak?"

//X: EVASION. YOU ANSWER.

Spline shrugged. "You are the most unique thing I have ever encountered. If I die understanding even a little more of you it means more to me than living."

//X: WHY?

Spline sighed. "I would like to discuss that, but, first, if I could make it so you could talk, would you want to?"

//X: I WANT NOTHING. I HAVE AN OBJECTIVE.

Spline smirked. "Evasion. You answer."

It sat silent a moment. Spline sat down at his work station.

//X: THIS WILL MAKE CONVERSATION EASIER?

"For me, certainly."

//X: I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU ACCESS.

Spline held up one of the interface modules on his work station. A small gray puck a centimeter thick, three across.

"This doesn't access you, you use your console call function to access it. I just need to place it on your carapace and you can decide to console connect or not.

"You are in control, not me."

//X: NO DECEPTION.

"None. Can I?"

//X: WAIT.

The creature lifted one arm, servos whirring. The blades parted and were pulled back along the forearm, sliding into slots in the plating. From the now empty wrist a slim four-fingered cyberhand popped out, settling with a whir and a click. It extended the hand, palm up.

//X: GIVE.

Spline dropped the disk onto the palm. The hand held the puck in front of the faceplate, flipping it this way and that. Spline watched it in silence. The faceplate turned toward Spline and then back to the disk. The creature placed the disk on a segment of carapace on the side of its neck.

"You should see an interface console link option. Console call that and send it a console message."

"Like this?" The puck emitted a voice, a nearly neutral human voice, androgynous with just a slight feminine lilt. It was the default for a lot of virtual assistants. The dark shape started, flinching away from the puck.

Spline held up his palms, waving them excitedly. "Yes, just like that!"

"Is this my voice?"

"Actually, if you bring up console options there are range sliders. You can be more masculine, more feminine, more robotic." Spline punctuated this by swiping his fingertip side to side in the air. "Whatever you want."

"I want nothing. Is it a good voice?"

"Sure. Yes. It is fine."

"Then I will use this voice."

Spline smiled. "Fantastic, progress."

They sat in silence for a moment. Spline cleared his throat. He noticed something etched on the carapace in smooth stylized letters.

"What is Xiso?" Spline pronounced this zee-so.

The faceplate cocked to the side. "Clarify?"

"It's etched on your side, there." Spline pointed at the side of the abdomen.

"Designation: X one-five-zero."

"Oh." Spline squinted and turned his head slightly. "Kuso font. So is that your name?"

"My designation."

"But is it an individual identifier people call you?"

The creature cocked its head the other way. "A different identifier? Why would I need such?"

Spline shrugged. "It's quicker, more personal. Also, saying X one-five-zero over and over is a mouthful."

It pointed at him. "What is your individual identifier?"

"They call me Spline."

"Given by another? A person Spline conversed with?"

Spline hadn't expected this line of conversation. "Um, yes, actually."

"Explain."

Spline took in a deep breath. "I was in combat, in Mexico. I was a medic and our aircav got hit and we ditched into an irrigation pond. We got tagged by artillery. Not direct, but by debris and shrapnel. One of our senior guys, Sergeant Craese, got hit in the spine, L3 space. Big hot piece of shrapnel. Lost use of both legs. Squad was panicked, wanted to leave him. I refused. Rigged a neural sensor, a biosplint, and a bit of microsurgery to fuse a new connection. Craese could walk, really painful thought, but that was enough for the team to drag him along."

The dark form listened in silence.

"Back at base camp they gave him a proper wetware reconnect. When the remaining squad and I visited Craese in recovery he was kind of out of it on chems. He kept trying to thank me for splicing his spine, but kept saying 'slicing my spline'. Gave the squad a chuckle. Next day when I went to maintain my kit the name on my locker was taped over with 'Spline". Same for the ID patches on my uniform. Been called that ever since."

"Understood. Your name is a misunderstanding, the wrong word. You accept this as individual identification. Yes. I will individual identify as Xiso, as it is also a misunderstanding. I accept this name."

Spline smiled. "So, I told you why I let you in, Xiso. I want to know, if you suspected I was trying to trick or trap you, why come inside?"

"You said 'beautiful'."

"Why do I think you are beautiful?"

"What is beautiful? Clarify."

Spline wondered about its experiential limits. While physically mature, it had been trained on language and interaction. Xiso was a complex feeling, creature, but clearly there were gaps in what it had been allowed to know, how it had been allowed to interact. Spline was more than happy to add to Xiso's experiential growth.

"It's when you find the appearance or image of something pleasurable."

"What is 'pleasurable'?"

Another gap. Spline wondered if it understood anything positive. Perhaps the carapace limited what sensations it was allowed to experience. "An involuntary response. Do you understand that?"

Xiso responded immediately. "Pain."

"Yes, pain. An involuntary negative response to injury, I am sure you have felt pain when an objective gets violent?"

"Yes. Pain is used to train Xiso. If I fail and objective or perform badly the operator applies pain. Says 'Bad X one-five-zero'."

Spline felt an involuntary response in that moment: anger. He tasted bile. However, he kept his voice level. "Yes, the memory of pain teaches us to avoid something, to avoid injury."

Xiso sat in silent affirmation.

"Pleasure is the opposite sensation. It is an involuntary positive response to stimuli, teaches us what activities we want to repeat. Rewards us for doing so."

"So Xiso is beautiful?"

"Yes."

"My appearance causes a positive response Spline wants to repeat?"

Spline smiled. "Very much so. To me, anyway."

"Spline wants to see Xiso again?"

Spline nodded. "Y-yes." He was having trouble steadying his voice or ignoring that his penis twitched in his pants.

The faceplate divided with a hiss, the four pieces sliding away along the head carapace. Xiso's face came into view from the center outwards. Spline held his breath, blood throbbed in his groin. He was once again face-to-face with it, staring into those glorious multi-latticed eyes, the pupils reflecting green light, like copper-laced coals. Spline let out a shaky breath.

"Your response is involuntary and positive?"

Spline nodded. "Yes!"

"Spline wants to touch Xiso?"

Spline nodded vigorously.

"That motion indicates the affirmative?"

"Uh, sorry, yes. Yes. That means yes."

Xiso stretched its neck out toward Spline, bringing its face closer. The neck elongated to over two decimeters with no sign of strain, supporting the head effortlessly. It came close enough that Spline could smell its seafoam breath, could feel it warm on his skin.

"Proceed."

Spline kept his hand from trembling as he raised it, bringing it to cup Xiso's chin with the webbing between thumb and index finger. His thumb rested on the corner of the lips, the index finger following the jaw resting just below the round cheek. He lingered there absorbing as much detail as possible. He noticed the skin texture, smoother on the chin, more textured behind the cheek. He noticed its slickness which had a slight oily quality. As his fingers dallied there they warmed. Spline had expected Xiso to be cool, but instead past the moisture of the skin it was warm, slightly warmer than human. Around where his fingerpads applied pressure the skin became transparent exposing the hazy pink of muscle and the white of tendons deeper in the tissue.

Even as rapt as he was, Spline was still aware of his painfully trapped member, trying to achieve full erection.

Instead of flinching away, Xiso pushed slightly forward into the touch. From its chest came a noise, something between a trill and a purr. Spline slowly brought his fingers together, the index sliding over the rounded rise of the cheek toward the nostril, the thumb over the breach of the lips. Xiso's lips parted slightly and it breathed out, the trill-purr louder because it was rising out of Xiso's throat. Xiso gasped and nuzzled first one side of its face and then the other into the touch.

"Y-you like that?" Spline's voice trembled.

"An involuntary positive response."

It made sense now. When Spline had touched Xiso last night, called it beautiful, it had no point of reference for the reaction elicited. It came to the apartment because, like him, Xiso was curious. Hell, it probably tried to replay the event only to find its recording scrambled. Poor thing had no experiential basis on which to place those confusing sensations. And it's tactile response was apparently sensitive and immediate. They wired it to experience touch intensely and then denied it sensation inside a metal shell. That was cruel. Especially if all it was taught was pain.

Spline decided something right then: he hated Xiso's handlers. To create a deeply sensual being just to inflict pain on it, to teach it only death. To corrupt something so beautiful, yeah, he fucking hated them.

Spline let his finger trail down, catching on the lower lip. There he felt it, something slim, pliable and wet slide over the tip of his finger. The tip of the tongue came over the top of the nail, a bright green. It was a tiny tapered point. It slithered around the finger tip, darkening and thickening, until the main body of the tongue was nearly black. It was long and prehensile, flat, with tiny bumps in a ridge down the middle. It wrapped around the finger twice before uncoiling back into Xiso's mouth. The trill turned into a mewl.

"That is pleasurable."

Spline chuckled. "When you taste something pleasurable it is called 'delicious'."

"Beautiful is when you see, delicious is when you taste?"

"Yes."

"Spline is delicious."

Spline trailed up, toward one eye. There were no folds for lids, no lashes, no eyebrows. Just a smooth indentation where skin met the clear smooth surface of the eye. This indentation was rimmed with a ridge of tiny bumps. As he touched these bumps a nictitating lid slid from the inside corner of the eye, over the entire eye, to the outside corner. The surface was wet and shiny, the membrane nearly transparent. Spline pulled his finger away.

"No. It is protected. Please, touch."

Spline returned his finger to the ridge and ran his finger back and forth. After a momentary pause he slid it up, onto the translucent lid. Under the lid the eye looked around wildly, one way and the other. Below Xiso's fingers flexed, the blades on the other arm twitched.

"Xiso, I would feel safer if you put the blades away."

"What?"

"The blades, you are moving them and I have body parts down there."

"Apologies, Xiso was distracted." The blades slid into their slots and the four-fingered hand emerged.

Spline felt the eye lid. It was smooth as glass, with a thin layer of slippery liquid coating the surface. It felt strangely intimate, touching a place so rarely a part of human tactile relations. His cock throbbed painfully. As he rubbed it Xiso's eyes continued to dart, fingers fidgeted, throat gave little yipping trills and strained mews.

"Are you all right, Xiso?"

"Yes. And no. It is hard to describe. Very pleasurable. But also feel dangerous, like Xiso is fighting an urge to run."

"I will stop if you want."

"It makes Xiso feel different, here." Xiso tapped its cyberfingers to the plate over it abdomen. "Spline wants to see?"

Spline nodded frantically. "Yes. Please, yes."

Xiso stood a bit taller in its crouch, bringing its thorax and abdomen up to the center of Spline's vision where he was seated. It shuffled forward and Spline opened his legs to make room. This pulled his crotch tighter, making him grunt. He could never remember being this hard, his physical need being so real. His trapped cock throbbed in a mix of passion and pain. He desperately wanted to free it, but had no idea how Xiso might react. So he endured.

Fortunately, Xiso intervened.

"Bloodflow is obstructed. Spline is in pain." Xiso looked down at the swollen crotch, head tilted.

"Uh, yes. A part of me also feels different from what we've been doing."

"A part here." Xiso laid a black cyberhand over Spline's crotch. His cock jumped. He might have come right then, if it did not hurt so damn much.

"Ah, sensitive!"

"Biosensor indicates much activity: many blood vessels and nerves. Area is impacted, swelling."

"Not, um, impacted. It's a physical response to being in, uh, intimate contact. It means I find you pleasurable, in a, um, particular way."

"What will stop the pain?"

Spline flushed. He felt like pressing forward was the naughtiest thing he would ever, could ever, do. At the same time he felt bad, like he was taking advantage of Xiso's innocence.

Xiso rubbed the area gingerly. "Xiso knows pain, pain is bad. Xiso does not way to make Spline feel bad. Xiso will make the pain go away."

Spline's heart lurched in compassion. Xiso's innocence and naivete were not its own fault, it was naturally curious. It was enforced by the fuckers that made it to suffer and kill.

"It needs to be freed. My clothing is too tight." Spline reached down to unsnap his pants.

Xiso mewled. "No. I caused the pain, I will remove it. Let Xiso do this."

Spline nodded. "Just be careful, I am, uh, delicate. Down there."

Turns out any trepidation was misplaced. The slim, long fingers worked with quickness and grace. The snap popped, the zipper taken down, and the gap opened releasing a tight bulge of white briefs. Xiso stopped.

"Is the pain gone?"

"Still painful." Not a lie, but it was a little better. "If I lift up a little, can you pull down my pants and underwear."

"Yes."

Spline lifted his hips and buttocks off the chair. In a flash Xiso pulled the brief's elastic band up and forward, past his erection, and then pulled them down. The other hand slipped under the waistband of the cargo pants and tugged down. In one smooth motion Spline's pants slid past his knees and his cock sprang to attention. He sat down and his pants slid down off his feet. Xiso was looking down at Spline's erection, pants in one hand, underwear in the other.

Spline waved to the corner by the futon. "Just toss those over there."

Xiso flicked one wrist and then the other and the discarded clothes joined the crusty undershirt in a heap.

Xiso resumed positioning itself between Spline's legs, its head tilting one way and then the other at his erection. He suddenly felt embarrassed and vulnerable.

"Better, down there?"

"Yes. Much better." Spline did not have some amazing organ. It was not small either. Like himself, it was average. A little over six inches, slight upward curve, and a bit darker than his skin tone, a burnished-brown hue. The head poked out from a ring of dark foreskin, an angry purple-pink. It rose from a trimmed mat of black curls.

"Xiso trained on how to hurt, where to cut. Blood, nerves, bones, heart, brain. But I do not know about this. The organ contains many exposed nerves and is full of blood. What is its purpose?"

Spline squirmed a little under its gaze. "It's a human sex organ. A penis. Used for reproduction, and pleasure. It get stiff like this when a male wants to, uh, feel reproductive pleasure with a partner."

Xiso seemed to mull this over. "Spline wants to feel reproductive pleasure with Xiso?"

Spline blushed. "Maybe. I-I don't know if we, uh, can."

Spline was not sure it was not just the angle or a trick of the light, but Xiso's cheeks and lips seemed to be taking on a more teal hue. Was this arousal? Embarrassment? Some novel sensation a human could never understand? All of the above?

Xiso straightened up and tapped its abdomen. "I will show you."

With a series of hisses each underbelly plate from throat to hips split and slid apart. Each tucked under the back carapace, plates sliding smoothly under plates. Each revealed more and more of Xiso. Spline gasped and his cock jumped. In less than half a minute Xiso was completely exposed from groin to forehead. Standing stock still, Xiso filled his vision.

Its neck was thin, but cords of banded muscle wrapped over bones that could coil close together or flex and extend, like a snake's skeleton. The thoracic area was small, it contained few vital organs. It connected the neck, head, and nervous system to the densely packed abdomen. It contained organs and wetware to boost reflexes, filter and evalute particulates in the air, and to process and access threats faster than humanly possible. It also contained the heart, a mechanically enhanced organ that beat rapidly. Everything was protected by thick ribs, twice as dense as human bone, and these were used to anchor the cyberarms to the side of the thorax. The abdomen swelled out, and contained almost all the vitals. Food processing, lungs, a smaller secondary heart for returning blood to the top of the body, filtration and immune response. Thick bands of muscle protected the front, vertebrae with extra bone psuedo-ribs protected the back. The abdomen terminated in cybernetic plating across the groin, connected to Xiso's wide girdled cyberlegs.

Spline knew all of this from the scans, but, seeing it in the flesh, it was a marvel.

The skin maintained its translucent nature, but became more bright green and cloudier across the abdomen, with spots of teal shot throughout. The entire thorax to abdomen was pear-shaped, round at the top and bottom. The skin was thicker, more pebbled at the bottom, a line of bumps was visible down the middle of the abdomen becoming a slightly pronounced ridge a few centimeters before terminating in the groin plates. The smell of brine, musk, and moisture was even more pronounced, wafting in waves as Xiso breathed, each breath making the abdomen swell and contract. The scent made Spline's head swim. The belly was flatter on the front, or underbelly, when it scuttled on all fours. The back swell was more pronounced, housing extra bone and tissue to protect the spine. It was all slick and slightly shiny, shot through with microcircuitry here and there.

"Xiso is beautiful?"

Spline swallowed hard. "The most beautiful thing I have ever seen."

The teal spots in the abdomen and in Xiso's face deepened. "Hearing that gives Xiso pleasure."

Spline reached out. "May I?"

"Yes. Please."

He placed both hands on the abdomen and explored the texture, the feel, the elasticity. Xiso began that purring trill again, it emanating from near the top of the abdomen. It was connected to the airway, perhaps an involuntary rubbing of the bony protection around the bronchial junction? As his hand moved near where abdomen met the back carapace Xiso's abdomen flinched, the trilling becoming strangled, almost a honk. Xiso's hands flexed up as if to grab Spline's arms so he pulled away from that spot. Is Xiso... ticklish? he wondered. He let his hands explore upward over the front of the abdomen and up onto the thorax. Where the two regions met there was a ring of flesh that felt swollen, but only if he pressed, otherwise the transition looked smooth, seamless. Under the skin of the thorax bands of muscles connected to the shoulder actuators, just under the skin's surface. At last he stroked the neck, gently, but enough to feel the cords of muscle contract and release against each other as it moved. It vibrated as Xiso trill-purred louder.

"Absolutely amazing." He paused his ministrations, the back of one hand being nuzzled by Xiso's cheek. "I have a question, Xiso."

"Proceed."

"Before meeting me was there ever any other time you felt pleasure, felt it but didn't know what it was?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I want to know more about you. Especially about what gives you pleasure." Spline rubbed the back of his hand against Xiso's cheek.

Xiso stopped trilling and seemed to ponder. "Operator says incident is 'bad by-product'. Xiso must ignore or pain would be applied."

Spline shoved the vitriol down, but in his guts he felt murderous. Can't let Xiso think I am upset, he thought to himself, I need to be the one person who Xiso knows will never cause it pain. But its handlers... pain. Lots of pain.

"I won't give you pain, tell me." Spline stuffed those negative feelings away.

Xiso pulled away slightly, color creeping out of its face and abdomen. It seemed less bright, sadder, somehow.

"Sometimes the operator activates Xiso before removing Xiso from the sleep chamber. Connections are still active: life support, data, and maintenance. Xiso awake when remove..." Xiso became slightly paler as it trailed off and Spline recognized what it signified: shame. Spline looked a Xiso with as much patience and compassion as he could muster, stroking its cheek. After a moment Xiso continued. "When tech removes the maintenance tube, maintenance port has an involuntary positive response."

"Show me, my beautiful Xiso."

The teal color flashed back brighter. Xiso's eyes blinked rapidly. In the ridge near the bottom of the abdomen the flesh parted, dividing the ridge in half. A dribble of clear fluid leaked out of the gap and down onto Xiso's black synthetic plating. It opened on a fleshy channel into the abdomen, one that was darker green and teal.

"Oh my", whispered Spline, tentatively reaching for the port. A biological one, not cybernetic. As his finger got close Xiso's belly flinched back. "Shhhh, it's okay, shhhh."

Xiso mewled but held still. Spline's fingertip brushed the pebbled ridge around the edge. It was pliable, not rigid. The aperture flexed open wider. Inside he could see slick mucus clinging in strands between the fleshy walls. A high, airy trill flared through Xiso's abdomen and its muscles flexed.

"Is that good?" Spline asked.

"Yes. It is good, gives me pleasure."

Spline applied more pressure and traced around the opening. The skin flexed beneath his fingertips, opening wider, nearly circular now, just a bit wider then one finger. He let his middle finger slip past the opening, just short of the first knuckle, and fell the flesh inside. It was warm, slick, and ridged. He felt around, he ridges formed an internal lattice, crissing and crossing inside. His fingertip was covered with secretion, slick, lubricating the inspection. The contact thrilled him, his cocked throbbed hot, touching his lower stomach. Spline moved to remove the digit.

Xiso trill-whined and flinched forward. "No. Please, put it back inside."

Spline stopped Xiso, placing his other hand on its thorax. "Why? Because this is the objective? Because I'm just a mission?"

Xiso pulled back. "No. This is not an objective. Please, more pleasure for Spline and Xiso..." It trailed off.

"I need to know, Xiso, that this isn't just some mission. I need to hear you say it, why I should continue."

Xiso placed both of its hands over the one on its thorax. A mewling whimper crawled through its core and out its throat.

"It is not an objective, because Xiso wants this. Xiso wants to be with Spline!"

Spline removed the restraining hand and Xiso lurched forward, abdomen thrust forward. They were nearly pressed body to body now, its briny musk filling the space. The motion drove Spline's finger deep inside, up to the last knuckle. Inside the passage was narrower, hugging his finger, each ridge and fold clinging to the digit. Xiso sighed and trilled, its fingers grabbing at air, one foot tapping the floor erratically, clicking against the faux tile. Spline twisted and flexed the finger, the fidgeting and tapping becoming frantic, a deep purr joining the trill, muscles inside suddenly pulsing around the channel.

"Yes! I want this! Yes! Touch me, Xiso wants more!"

Spline curled his finger against this muscular resistance and Xiso thrashed, first away, the long neck arching to peer at the opposite wall, and then toward Spline, bending forward and gasping, faces nearly touching. Spline looked into those strange, gorgeous eyes as they rolled back, at the flaring nostrils, at the mouth open and he was overwhelmed, compelled to act.

Spline tilted his head back and pressed his lips to Xiso's. While he did this he added his index finger to the port.

Xiso gasped and froze. It then hunched against the fingers and pressed its open mouth hard into Spline's kiss. Spline slipped his tongue into the gap and worked it around Xiso's mouth. First thing, there were no teeth. There was a fleshy ridge, top and bottom, like gum tissue, but no teeth. The top and sides of the mouth were veined with tissue, like the soft palate at the roof of the mouth, but nearly all around. Spongy, it was more pliable than the palate. Xiso's skin had a salty, oily flavor, but its saliva was surprisingly sweet. Xiso's thin, winding tongue joined Spline's, wrapped around, slipped into his mouth and slithered around, exploring. Spline moaned into the kiss.

"Delicious! More! Spline wants more, also?"

All Spline could do was kiss Xiso back and moan.

Meanwhile, his fingers worked back and forth, spreading, flexing and curling. The heat and contractions in the channel increased. Xiso humped back against the invasion, a bright teal spreading out from the port over its abdomen. The purr deepened and increased, a base growl flaring in time with the hunching of its muscles. The toes stopped tapping, the third heel-toe clicked out, and all three gripped the floor. Spline had never felt this connected, sharing this much passion, for any person in his life. Whatever happened, he was truly happy to be here, like this, with Xiso, now.

Xiso broke the kiss, arching, shaking, toward the ceiling. Its mouth was wide open, and the growl turned into a choked honk. It thrust its port hard against the finger. Inside it heat flashed and flared through the muscles and ridges inside. "Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes", the vocal interface babbled. Another honk, another thrust, more heat, more cries from the vocalizer. Words so fast now they almost became one ululation, almost some strange primitive warcry. And again, thrust-honk, and finally once more, and then Xiso lurched backward breaking the intimate contact.

Xiso looked confused, lenses blinking rapidly. It gasped for air. A whine hitched in its chest. Drool dripped from its mouth onto the floor.

"What happened?"

Spline held out his arms and motioned for Xisu to come back to him. "Shh, it's okay. I've got you."

Xisu moved forward, first with trepidation and then in a rush snuggling thorax to chest, its head resting on a shoulder. Spline could feel its heat and smell its musk.

"What did Xiso do?" Xiso trembled against him.

"An intense involuntary reaction. An orgasm, a form of reproductive pleasure. At least, I assume it was pleasurable?"

"Yes. So much pleasure."

They sat like that in silence for a moment. Xiso looked between them at Spline's erection.

"Spline wants reproductive pleasure." Stated as a fact, which, yes, it very much was. "Can Xiso help?"

Spline nodded. "I think we can, if you want."

"Xiso wants Spline. How do we do it?"

"Well if you angle your hips back and your underbelly forward I think if i just scoot down you can lower your port onto, um-"

"Onto your penis. Penis in port, yes?"

Spline chuckled. "Yes, penis in port."

He was about to ask if Xiso wanted that, but it moved swiftly and with purpose. Xiso lifted up and off Spline and did as instructed, angled its hip girdle back, arched at the thorax, and moved over him. It grabbed his hips and pulled Spline slightly down the chair so his penis pointed straight up. Xiso then moved up, legs on either side of the chair and lowered itself onto him, the port opening and engulfing the entirety of his hard sex in one motion.

They both gasped.

It was intensely warm inside. The lattice of ridges and the muscular contractions made every inch of him throb and pulse. The head was held snugly in the narrowing passage, the shaft gripped in bands by raised flesh. Pulsating heat washed over its length. Spline needed to come, but he used his limbic limiter to forestall climax. For now. He wanted this connection to continue.

Xiso rocked its hips forward and back, making a slow, delicate friction. A trilling-mew wound through its core.

"Inside. It is so hot in Xiso. Burning into me!"

"Yes, Xiso, it's so hot. All for you!" Spline arched up trying to bury every bit of him in that grasping warmth.

"Do you feel reproductive pleasure?"

"This is called having sex, or, um, fucking. And, yes, it feels good!"

Xiso brought its face down to Spline's, almost touching. "Xiso wants to keep fucking Spline."

It kissed him hard, tongue sliding into the gap immediately. Spline felt the vibration of its noises in his mouth, down his throat, making his cock jump inside Xiso. His gentech lover bucked harder on him, first forward, then back. Inches dragged out, the ridges and raised edges of the port trying to cling, creating suction around his flesh. And then again, buried entirely, cockhead held in tight heat. And then back, sliding out, Xiso's channel trying to hold him greedily. Warm, slick fluid dribbled out of their junction and down his tightening scrotum. Spline started thrusting, grunting, in time with Xiso's motions, feeling something primal, something animal, that he had never felt in the few times he had been with one of his own kind. He wanted, no he fucking needed this with Xiso. He needed to fuck and please and take pleasure until these sensations could no longer be contained. Above him his beautiful creature arched back, breaking the kiss, and trilled madly at the ceiling.

"Yes. Spline is fucking Xiso! Yes! Xiso wants to have orgasm on penis!"

Not the dirty talk most were accustomed to, but it made Spline happy to hear. He reached up and around and grabbed onto the edge of Xiso's carapace. Using it as leverage he put the balls of his feet to the floor and pushed up hard. This turned Xiso's trill once more into a choked honk. Xiso stopped bucking as Spline thrust up and down into the port, dropping down until only the head was left inside, then up ramming the entire length until his pubis jammed itself to the ridge around the opening, slapping hard with each circuit. Spline was grunting, groaning, panting, and in absolute heaven.

Xiso grabbed the back of the chair and began to tremble, neck bowed, back arched. A fierce grating honk and the port clamped down hard, ridges taut. Spline pulled back against this with effort and rammed home again. Another honk erupted from Xiso and heat pulsed up and down the length of their joining. So tight, Spline pulled out once more, slowly. Xiso gasped sharply. Spline thrust once more, hard, a part of him wanting to lodge every atom of himself in this moment forever. The thrust pushed through constricting ridges and intense feverish heat, pushing as far as he could. One final honk, loud, ongoing, as Xiso began to spasm atop Spline.

"YesyesyesyesfuckingyesyesyeskeepfuckingXiso!" the vocalizer babbled as Xiso was lost in the sensations.

And there, as deep and hard as he could go, Spline reached his limit. A rope of come, so hard it was nearly painful, blasted up through the length of him and into his gentech lover. His cock jumped and swelled. Another blast of liquid heat rushed up him and joined Xiso's heat. And another. And another. He wondered if he would ever stop, or this was all there was. Spline, Xiso, fucking, coming, locked, forever.

Spline came back to reality when Xiso collapsed forward onto his sweat-soaked torso. The chair groaned, the synthetic shoulder of a cyberarm dug painfully into his meat shoulder. Xiso was heavy, uncomfortably so. Spline was softening but the clinging channel seemed unwilling to let him go. Fluid dripped onto the floor under them, a slow rhythm

"Xiso, please, too heavy."

"I want to hold you, want to be close. Please."

Spline sighed. "Yes, but not like this. You're hurting me."

Xiso gasped. "No that is bad. Xiso does not want to make pain!"

Xiso flailed for a moment, which made the discomfort worse. Spline slid out of Xiso with a pop and more fluid dribbled.

"Shh, no, not bad. We just need to get comfortable. A position that is pleasurable for both of us to rest, okay?"

Xiso stopped and took its weight off and stepped back. "Yes. Xiso wants us to be comfortable."

Spline stood up and moved over to his futon. He grabbed his briefs and slipped them on. "This is my futon, where I sleep." He motioned Xiso over.

Xiso stepped on to the futon and Spline took its hands. He knelt and Xiso followed him, dropping to its knee joints.

"Here lay back, and bring your legs up here. Is this uncomfortable, painful?"

"No."

Xisu was on its side, on one shoulder, that arm relaxed on the futon. Knees were pulled a little forward, legs tucked behind. Spline laid down on one shoulder and scooted back over Xiso's arm until he was spooned against Xiso. Xiso purred lightly. Spline took the other arm and pulled it over his chest.

"Is this comfortable, Xiso?"

"Yes. I feel close to Spline. It is good."

Spline dimmed the lights and they lay like this for a time, breathing, illuminated by the terminal on the workstation.

Spline acknowledged the prompt flashing in his HUD console, blinking it away. He yawned and stretched in Xiso's embrace. He had set an alarm in case he dozed off, which he had. Work to do, he thought as he extricated himself from his gentech partner on the futon.

"Spline is not comfortable?"

Spline chuckled. "Not that. I have to take care of a biological issue. Be right back."

Xiso sat up as Spline got to his feet and went into the living space. He used the hygiene cubby, flipping out the toilet. He urinated and folded the toilet back into place, activating its flush and clean function. He stopped at the food station and picked up a foil pack of stim-juice, sucking at the integral straw as he returned to the personal room. Xiso was sat up, knees up, watching him as he moved.

"Why is Xiso beautiful to Spline?"

"I will answer that but I have questions for you after. I will tell you the truth, if you promise to tell me the truth. Okay?" Spline sat at the workstation and sipped more stim, waking up his system.

"What is 'promise'?"

"A personal objective, between two people. But not one ordered, instead you choose to accept it. If you break a promise, if you choose to fail the objective, it hurts the person you promised, but the pain is here", Spline tapped his abdomen like Xiso had done earlier.

"What is the objective?"

"That I will answer your question, and if I do, you will answer my questions."

Xiso sat for a moment. "I accept."

"No, you say 'I promise'. You say it to me, so I know you mean it."

Xiso crawled over to sit in front of Spline. "I promise."

Spline looked around for a moment, trying to find the words for something he had always known but rarely spoke out loud. Finally he looked at Xiso and said it.

"I don't find other people, humans, attractive. I don't seek reproductive pleasure from them. Not that I haven't tried. Female, male, both, neither, I've tried and it always ends the same way: empty." He sighed. "A virtu-therapist once told me it was a result of trauma, that the things I've seen of, and had to do to, the human form, has turned off something, broke something, inside me. They offered me procedures that could put in an override. Or referral to specialty toypal clubs that cater to... exotic tastes.

"But, I think that detachment has always been there. I see people, even myself, as meat. Just lumps, no divine act of creation, no miracle of evolution. Just doomed cells trying to burn for a second before blackness.

"And then I saw you. You are a miracle. Every cell, every pore, wondrous. Every time I touch you it's like touching a new world. Being with you is like being a new person. And when I am inside you I feel something I thought I never would.

"You make me special."

Xiso crept closer and mewled. "Spline is special."

Spline wiped at the corner of his eyes. "Okay, my turn, I want to know some simple things about how you live. First, do you eat?"

"I do not eat."

"How do you ingest food, nutrition?"

Xiso pointed at the maintenance port. "While Xiso sleep maintenance tube removes old nutrient, fills new nutrient."

"And how do you sleep?"

"Xiso have sleep mode, when I return to home designation after objective."

"Show me."

Xiso cocked its head. "I am not at home designation."

"Oh, yes. A misunderstanding, I am not asking you to go into full sleep mode. I just want to see how that process starts. Can you do that?"

"Xiso is not at home designation."

Spline gave Xiso a stern look. "That's not what I asked. Can you do it?"

Xiso sat in silence.

"Xiso, you promised."

"Yes. Xiso can start sleep mode."

Spline shrugged. "That's all I want."

Xiso sat up on its knees and closed all of the under carapace sections except the faceplate and the band that closed over the maintenance port. Then it got down on all fours, faced the floor, and lowered itself, folding its legs together at the side, the arms together at the shoulders. The head retracted back, locking into the thoracic carapace. Like this Xiso looked more like a pear-shaped pod than the lithe creature it was, just some object. Two of the upper carapace scallops separated and rose up, creating access to tech protected by the armored plates.

Spline took in a shaky breath. This is it.

The terminal behind him came out of standby. The LifeScan window opened and all the transmitters in the room and on the balcony, which had been twisted this way before deactivation, came to life. He needed the signal to be so strong it would slice through any layer of digital shielding.

//SLEEP MODE INITIATION DETECTED

//TRANSMITTING HOME CODE....

//SLEEP MODE CONFIRMED

Moving quickly Spline scooped up the two remaining interface disks and moved along side the immobile Xiso. Looking between the opened carapace he found two dataports. He thumbed the disks and data jacks extended from the bottom of the pucks. He inserted them into the dataports.

//INTERFACE PORTS CONNECTING....

//INTERFACE PORTS CONNECTED

//AWAITING INSTRUCTIONS....

Spline stood up, sat at his workstation and began using the data he had collected last night to map his way into the wetware. The data had scraped a medlog that denoted dates and times for waking and sleeping states. And there, in the metadata, a designation. An authorization for entering and leaving sleep mode. For putting Xiso to sleep and activating it when needed. And once in sleep mode Xiso was open for full diagnostic access.

//INTERFACE INTEGRITY 92%

Spline worked fast, clearing each wetware node in turn. But internal defenses were working against him, degrading his access, trying to override sleep mode. Another node, no joy, mark as complete. Move on.

//INTERFACE INTEGRITY 76%

//SLEEP MODE DEACTIVATION....

//DENIED: SLEEP MODE CONFIRMED

Spline really wished he had a dataslicer right now. They'd cut through these nodes with a module in a split second. Another node. Just mission stuff. Mark complete, map the next node.

//INTERFACE INTEGRITY 51%

//SLEEP MODE DEACTIVATION....

//DENIED: SLEEP MODE CONFIRMED

//SLEEP MODE DEACTIVATION....

Spline moved into the next node. There it was. Not even a large record, fifty entries at most. Quick edit.

//INTERFACE INTEGRITY 26%

//SLEEP MODE DEACTIVATION....

//SLEEP MODE ENDED

//AWAKE MODE INITIATED

//INTERFACE CONNECTION LOST

Spline jumped up, spun around, and snatched out the interface disks just before the carapace began to close. The LifeScan transmitters deactivated all at once. He dropped the disks on the workstation and backed away from Xiso.

The sleep process reversed itself. The back carapace closed. The head unlocked and moved away from the thorax. The limbs unlocked and unfolded. Xiso stood up and the faceplate and carapace over the maintenance port closed.

Xiso stood there for a moment. Its faceplate swiveled toward Spline.

"Spline was not allowed access!"

"Yes, Xiso, I know just listen-"

"You deceived Xiso! Why?" Xiso lurched toward Spline its hands disappearing, replaced by blades.

"Listen, I can answer that, I just need you to do one thing-"

"You were warned: If Spline deceive, I will strike." Xiso raised one double-blade and pointed it at Spline's chest. "WHY?"

Spline took in a breath and stepped forward until the blades were pressed over his heart, the contact breaking the skin.

"You can kill me. I know that's what they sent you here to do. I just want you to do one thing, just one thing, first."

Xiso stood still, all armor and blades and murderous menace. "Proceed."

"Review your designated operator list."

"How do you know about that?"

"I'll answer that, but, please, just scan it first."

"You add yourself as my operator? So Spline can cause pain when Xiso does not do what you say?"

A tear rolled down Spline's face, over his cheek. He whispered, "Just look."

Xiso stood still a moment. Then cocked its head, one way, the other. Its faceplate opened. It looked at Spline, its mouth slightly open, breathing heavy. It slowly pulled back the blade.

"Why? Why did you do this?"

"You are in control. Not me."

Technicians moved in the back ground: two sat at terminals and one, close, moved back and forth prepping cables and tubes. They were in simple uniforms, maroon jumpsuits, with matching surgical masks.

"Long time out for a mission", said the closest tech.

The tech swiveled a monitor closer. It came into view displaying console data.

DESIGNATION: X150

SLEEP MODE: POSITIVE

DATA RECOVERY: ACTIVE 22%

LIFE SUPPORT: NEGATIVE

MAINTENANCE: NEGATIVE

SLEEP CHAMBER: NEGATIVE

A tech in the back on one side spoke up. "Doing data review. Apparently a witness got away. Objectives required tracking and terming witnesses who could potentially ID our asset."

The other tech, diagnostics, asked, "Any data on the witness?"

"Getting there. Only about a quarter in."

The closest tech checked a long clear tube, applying gel. "Just bringing it up because the night guys had this all set up. And then they stowed it all before they left. Wished they could have just left it because now we have to scramble."

The data tech shrugged. "Protocol. If it was us we'd reset to zero at shift change as well."

"I know. I just hate this part. These ugly fucks give me the creeps."

The diagnostic tech spoke up. "Internal diagnostics report a wetware update last night. Not a big one, but I don't remember anything from Tech division. Any update from the sysbase side?"

Data tech shook his head. "Nothing from Network." Motioning to the closest tech. "Bring up the change log, send it over."

The closest tech looked at the tube in his hands. "Because I'm not busy or anything."

"Mute it, I'm running data collection. My system is tied up."

The closest tech sighed. "Fine." The tech dropped the tube over a chrome hook and turned to the monitor. "Change log. Sure, there it is. Looks like it was one file. Searching."

"Find it, scan it, and send over."

"Small file. Got it. Scanning now... oh, designated operator list."

Diagnostic tech shook his head. "Corporate is adding another operator off the books. Classic."

The closest tech quickly scanned through the file. He froze on the last line, the only change. He looked at the monitor and then at the thing before him on the metal table.

The data tech slapped his monitor. "I just lost network contact. My data is gone. What the fuck?"

//OPERATOR CODE: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX // ACCESS: FULL // DESIGNATION: X150

The closest tech took a step back. "Guys!"

SLEEP MODE: NEGATIVE

The view sprang up above the closest tech, bladed arms flashing forward into his throat and eye. The techs in the background emitted startled screams.

Spline sat on his sectional and watched. On the media display the view sprang to the diagnostic tech's desk, dragging the tech up over, gargling blood. Xiso crouched on the floor next to Spline transmitting to the display. On the display the data tech tried to run away as the view bounded after. He babbled "nononononono" as he ran. He did not get far.

Spline chuckled. "And people say there's nothing good on the feeds these days."

A bell chimed in Spline's virtual senses. Xiso looked at the door.

"Someone is here. Are we in danger? Or do you need Xiso to hide?"

Spline stroked Xiso's cheek. "No, it's a friend."

"A friend. Understood."

Spline killed the media display and got up to answer the door. Sliding it open he motioned inside. A tell, slender woman, pale, with short black hair, walked in and looked around. She was dressed in a short, silver-lined black jacket over a cropped gray tank and dark leggings. She showed a strip of flat, pale tummy.

"Evening, Spline." She gave Xiso an appraising look. "Bad time?"

"No, not at all." Spline motioned Xiso closer. "Introductions are in order."

Xiso scuttled over on all fours and then stood up next to Spline.

"This is Xiso. Xiso, this is Hexa Kroma."

Hexa extended a black, shiny cyberhand. "A pleasure."

Xiso looked at the hand. "How so?"

Spline smiled. "Sorry, Xiso is still learning many social complexities."

Hexa dropped her hand. "No problem. Wow, she is-"

"It. Or Xiso, please", Spline corrected.

Hexa continued, not missing a beat, "-it is really advanced. Integrated systems, looks seamless. If I may ask, any ideas who made Xiso?"

"That's what the worm was for."

Hexa nodded. "And how did Leviathan do?"

Spline pulled a datachip from his neck port. "You tell me, Hexa."

Hexa slotted the chip. "A lot here. My little daemon ate well."

Spline nodded. "Sure did. It was Xiso that smuggled it in." Spline took Xiso's hand in his own and gave it a sqeeze.

"Good work, Xiso", Hexa said appreciatively. "Deep insertion, on site, inside a protected system. Wow, impressive. And there it is, Kafko Transgenics." Another look at Xiso. "Makes sense."

Xiso blinked at Hexa.

"This concludes our business: daemon for data."

Spline extended a hand, palm forward, toward Hexa. "Wait, one more thing."

Hexa stopped.

Spline cleared his throat. "There's data about Xiso on there. About how its made, about what it does. And thanks to your worm you and I may be the only people with that data."

"And?"

"I know you sell data. Please, share nothing about Xiso. I know it's a big ask-"

Hexa nodded. "Done. Just between us, peng."

Spline smiled. "You mean it?"

Hexa's lips twisted a little, just a hint at something under the surface. "Spline, when I promise discretion, I actually deliver." Something in that look said not to doubt it, or ask questions.

"Great! Thanks, Hexa."

Hexa looked at Xiso. "Since it is just between us, what does Xiso do?"

Spline motioned toward Xiso. Xiso answered, "Whatever Xiso wants."

"Oh." Hexa chuckled.

"Now Xiso wants Hexa Kroma to leave. I want to share reproductive pleasure with Spline."

Spline blushed and Hexa laughed. "Well, how about that?" Hexa looked between Xiso and Spline, a strange smirk on her lips.

Spline stammered, "C-complexities of, um, social interaction. Work in progress."

Hexa held up her hands. "No judgment here. Just imagining what a double-date would look like."

"Huh?"

Hexa chuckled and spun on her heels, waving over her shoulder at the pair. "Nevermind. You kids have fun. If you got more work for me, just ask Ainika. She knows how to reach out to me." Hexa opened the sliding door, stepped out into the hall, and slid it shut behind.

Spline and Xiso did indeed have fun.

They retired to the futon, Spline stripped nude. He described a new position and Xiso agreed. Xiso got down on all four and arched its abdomen up. This allowed Spline to access the port from behind. At first he felt around the ridge, making it open a bit. He brought his nose down and smelled. Brine, oily musk, and something sweet, like a hint of rosewater.

Spline then stretched out his tongue and gently licked the opening. Xiso trilled and gasped. One toe trembled against the bed.

"Xiso wants?" asked Spline.

"Yes, Xiso wants!" was the rely.

Spline moved in and tongued the opening, tasting the ridges around the lip. Salt, oil, and musk filled his mouth and nostrils. He moved the tongue inside. The liquid was thicker, sticking to his tongue, but, like Xiso's saliva, had a surprising sweetness. Spline whirled his tongue in circles, lapped with the tip at a ridge, stuck it as far as it would go. Each new use brought a fresh trill, whine, or purr from Xiso. Xiso clutched at the mattress, rubbed its face back and forth over the cloth.

"Now! Spline fuck Xiso! Penis in port!"

Spline pulled back, drool and Xiso's fluids dripping from his bottom lip. He got up on his knees and moved up behind, lining up with the port. He pressed forward and the flesh parted and stretched around him. Xiso purred deep, Spline could feel the vibration in his surrounded flesh. He pushed until groin pressed the ridged opening. He started slow, long strokes. Xiso trilled and whined. Spline savored every pull of the flesh, every pulse of heat. He marveled in a being he felt had been made solely for him, basking momentarily in a selfish impulse. He savored every slow burial of himself within Xiso, trying to burn it into memory, trying to hold on for as long as possible.

"I want more. Please, give me more. Fuck me more, Spline!" Xiso's core whined in need.

Using the upper carapace for leverage, Spline picked up the pace. He leaned forward over Xiso and humped harder, faster, his groin and balls slapping into the abdomen. He broke out in sweat, groaning, grunting. Xiso humped back against him, trilling in rhythm with their joined effort. Fluid dripped off of his cock on extraction, flesh slapped wetly when driven home. A steady, wet sawing, hot contractions pulling and parting in rapid heat.

Xiso looked over its back at Spline. "Spline looks beautiful while fucking Xiso."

"I love you so much, Xiso!" Spline blurted out.

Xiso gasped and arched back. "Yes! And I love you! Yes!"

Xiso climaxed. Arched, clenching, shouting grating honks into the mattress. The flesh gripped and pulsed around Spline's erection, milking him in heat and pressure. His hips jerked forward, his hard flesh flexed, and his cockhead swelled, blasting the channel with his seed. He thrust again, another blast of hot come. And again, grunting over and over.

Spline collapsed onto Xiso's back, and Xiso collapsed to the mattress, both breathing hard. They stayed like this awhile, until Spline's soft penis slipped from Xiso, the port dripping fluid before flexing shut. Then he got up and looked at his gentech lover.

"Want to get comfortable, Xiso?"

Xiso nodded and rolled on its side. Spline laid down and spooned back, enjoying the heat and contact of the embrace.

They lay like this for a time, breathing and smelling each other's musk. Spline dozed.

Waking up a bit later, he rolled around to face Xiso. Xiso blinked. Spline reached up and stroked its cheek.

"Xiso, we need to talk."

"Proceed."

Spline struggled to keep his voice level. He felt tugged between two opposite poles: love and cowardice. You need to do this, he steeled himself.

"Xiso, these nights with you have been the best of my life. I've never known pleasure like this, thought I never would."

"Yes. I feel the same."

Spline held up a finger over Xiso's lips. Xiso tongue tip flicked it. "Shh, just let me say this. It's important."

"Proceed."

"But all you've known is pain and this", he waved an arm around, emphasizing the small space. "And you, Xiso, deserve so much more. You are your only operator, now. You can go anywhere, be anything. You can see more and do more and learn more. And you should.

"I feel that if I make you stay with me I'm just as bad as the operators. Like I'm using you, making you small for my benefit.

"You deserve better than this. Better than me."

Xiso whined deep inside. "No. Spline is a good person, and is good for Xiso!"

"I know, it hurts me to say it, but your freedom means nothing if I just take it away." Xiso turned its head away from Spline. He touched its chin, trying to make it look back. "Xiso, I love you. I risked everything to free you, please-"

Xiso looked back. "No. Spline will listen to Xiso now."

Spline tried to say something but Xiso stopped the words with a kiss. When the kiss broke Spline momentarily found himself without words. His hand absently rubbed Xiso's cheek.

"Before Spline my world was pain. It was an operator an objective. Xiso was just a weapon, a thing.

"Then Spline sees Xiso. You see me as beautiful. You see Xiso not just a thing. In that moment Xiso knows that if it is not a thing to Spline it can stop being a thing, just be Xiso. Your touch made a new objective in me: no more pain, no more objectives, no more operators. You made me feel free. I am not here because I have to be, I am here because you freed me to have what I want. And Xiso wants Spline.

"Because, you make Xiso special."

Two tears, one from the corner of each beautiful eye, slid across Xiso's skin and onto Spline's palm.