Chapter 2 Cyber Soul

Chapter 2

Cyber Soul

  Had it not been for the Nano bots swarming through Kia’s blood stream her bloody stigmatic reaction to Kian’s deadly head wound might well have cost her life. Of course, Alex’s heartfelt care and comfort played a huge role in her physical recovery as well. Still several days passed before she was able to walk and care for herself. Alex never left her side growing more attached to her with every passing second.

 The physical trauma of experiencing Kian’s death finally a memory, a terrible memory, but a memory nonetheless, deep depression again settled over her like a heavy black sheet. Not even the soothing warmth of the rising sun could draw it away. Weaponized or not Kia was still human, still a woman, a tantalizing fact not lost on Alex. The heavenly image of her sleeping on a soft bed of pine straw soothed his pain, even if it was her only way of escaping hers.

    His family was gone, probably dead. He could not find them. He could not fly that high or dig that low and even if he could, he was no longer the same. Would they accept him, he imagined not, if not for Kia he was certain he could not even accept his new self.

    He had no wife, a fact he once bemoaned but now rejoiced in. Kia was his family now. They were the same unique to themselves. All they had now was each other. How could he not love her?

 Nursing Kia back to health, gently drawing her out of the darkness she now lay in would take time. He knelt down beside her, planted a light kiss on her forehead and knew he was ready to spend the rest of his life with her, that even all the time in the world was enough for him. He wanted to spend eternity with her.

   He stood up, turning his face away from her, grateful she could not read his mind. A bead of wicked joy was growing there. Kian was dead. She was a widow and he would wait for her, ready to take her in his arms and be her husband whenever the time was right.

   He was not truly glad that Kian was dead, but it did make things so much easier. Shame bowed his head as the pure morning sun beat down on him like a whip. He turned away from her, but even as he walked down to the creek to wash his face he knew he would walk back to her still dirty with guilt, and still not caring as much as he should...   

   Tech Maria stamped her foot and slung her clenched fist at air, not caring that the company was always watching. They knew why she was angry, they would be angry too, if they were in her place. However, they had made their determination; Kress and Penny would live, if one called sleeping in suspension chambers living.

  They were living examples of the Company’s power over life, genetic predisposition anyway, prizes they could not bear to destroy. Moreover, as long as the girls were alive they were available for further tests and experiments. They yet had value. Ruthless as the Company was they were not stupid or wasteful.

   Tech Maria Salvo paced in her room, stomping a foot -path on her deep pile shag rug. Surely, she could say something to change their minds. Then it hit her; maybe she could convince them to release one of the girls to her. Propose to the company a battery of experiments and examinations on one conscious girl. She could already think of a half dozen tests she would love do, searching for latent remnants of their Chimera past chief among them. Such tests would naturally involve deep tissue surgery followed up by bone marrow extractions from various bones of her skeleton. It all would be exquisitely painful for the subject and great fun for her, and who knows it might even yield some useful information.  

  Her eyes bright with anticipation she walked over to her com-set a head set that put her in direct two way communication with the Company’s acquisition bureau and made her ‘offer’, then patiently awaited their reply…

  The sweet smell of pine straw riding on a cool gentle breeze teased Kia awake. Blood flashed across her mind, Kian’s blood. She slung her head desperate to escape the image still burning bright in her memory flinging her eye lids open in the process. Squatting half -naked by the creek, she saw Alex washing his face and armpits. For the first time in a very long time she laughed.

  For some reason watching him rub, his hairy armpits as he squatted like a monkey, struck her as hilarious. Maybe it really was that funny or maybe she needed some relief some silly excuse to simply laugh and live again. It did not matter. Alex was giving her something much needed-silly senseless joy. She loved him for it.

  Heat suddenly rushed to her face. She was blushing, blushing like a school- girl. This was new, something not even Kian had ever given her. This was something coming from inside her. It was hers. She made it without thinking, without her makers, without Kian. For the first time in her impossibly young life, she felt like her own person, a real person, with real feelings- another gift from Alexander, a gift only he could give, and he did not even know he was giving it to her. How could she not love him for it?