A chime pulled Karin from Kittul's restful sleep to her own tiny apartment. Despite the worked-in comfort of her old rig, her muscles ached from lack of use. Her stomach grumbled at her a bit, but it seemed an almost pro forma complaint. She checked the cause of her alert. The download had finished. Her new rig was due to be delivered in just under an hour.
The data was both incredibly detailed and organized. There was even an index and brief synopsis. She pulled both of those into her implants and then dragged herself out of her rig.
By the time she made it to the kitchen, her whole body trembled with fatigue. She remembered how easily she fell last time she tried to get something to eat. This time she took care to avoid tripping on anything or overexerting her body. Her accelerated metabolism was partially to blame for her weakened condition; without it she wouldn't be fine, but she would be further from starvation. At the same time, only the mods she'd made for herself let her go without water for so long.
At least my Shifter metabolism will let me recover faster.
She froze with a gallon jug of milk an inch from her mouth. Kittul wouldn't think twice about drinking milk a day or two past the expiration date. Karin, on the other hand, had to worry about food making her sick. She sniffed the milk; it smelled a little off. Each move carefully controlled, she set the jug down and pulled a glass down from the rack. Slowly, watching the way the liquid flowed, she poured a glass full of milk. No chunks plopped out, the milk remained smooth and untainted; a little blue, but no one had ever figured out how to make skim milk the proper shade of white.
Karin leaned back against the refrigerator and reviewed the specification and the index as she drank her milk. The beginning was fairly standard stuff; human base genome, but modified far beyond anything she'd seen before. The spec indicated the organism was a biped. Fundamentally mammalian, although the mammary glands were hidden by a chitinous outer layer that made nursing unlikely at best. It was a hermaphrodite, which wasn't uncommon. Both sets of genitalia were supposed to be fully functional, which was. Something struck her as odd about some of the cranial and nervous modifications…
Within a few minutes, Karin set the remaining half of her milk on the counter, untasted. The goals stated in the synopsis required the same thing her unfinished bio-connection did; macro level energy manipulation. That single fact alone made Karin want the code. Even if the reason they needed her was to fix problems with that particular aspect, she wanted to see how they approached it.
Something else tweaked at Karin's curiosity. There was no stated end effect. The organism was supposed to manipulate energy, but nowhere in the synopsis did it list to what purpose the energy would be put. The numbers were vague, but based on what Karin could puzzle out, the results should be spectacular. Going back to her VR rig and diving into the code tempted her, but she was waiting for something. She just wished she could remember what.
Her milk sat on the counter getting warm. She chugged the rest of it and put the empty glass in the sink to be washed later. As she wandered back to her VR rig, still examining the data, her door chimed.
All at once her previous day's purchase came crashing back to her. She'd spent her next year's rent on a new rig, now it was here ready to be fit to her. She thought about hiding in her apartment until the installers left, but that was just stupid. She wanted the new rig, needed it, and if she sold her old rig she could pay for at least a few months’ rent. She would just have to finish the commission before she ran out of money.
She staggered to the door and activated the opening sequence with her implants. It slid aside to reveal two big guys, one of whom had a tool belt. Neither of them showed any signs of recognizing Karin. She let out a grateful sigh.
"Miss Padgett? I'm Frank and this is Todd. We're here to install your new VR rig. Our med tech, Valerie, is parking the truck. She'll be up shortly; we're just checking out the clearance and the spot you wanted the rig."
"Oh. That's…"
The world spun, and went black.
"Valerie? We're going to need you up here, stat."
***
M267 fought to remember his name. It began with an M, he was certain of that. Other than that one fact, he could barely remember anything of himself. The conditioning that accompanied his augmentation had stolen away much of his sense of self. His name, his nation, his unit, all these were gone, replaced by his designation and his Mistress' name. All that remained were memories of battle after battle, some real, some simulated, most too fragmented for M267 to tell the difference.
Two memories remained whole and unsullied. One of his wife, her arms and legs wrapped around him in an embrace that in memory was both passionate and sad. The other of his daughters and his son, staring up at him with a mixture of awe and joy, the weight of his armor heavy against his shoulders.
The weight of that armor would be nothing to him now, the protection it offered equally meaningless. His Mistress the Imperiatrix De'Shak had augmented or replaced most of his body, layering artificial muscles and plates of unbelievably refractory armor until he until he resembled some kind of upright crustacean. In the place of claws his arms carried weapons powerful enough to pierce even his own armored hide, given enough time. He was one of De'Shak's Imperial Guard.
But he was not G267. He was M267. His name started with an M. He had a wife, and he had children, and De'Shak told him that both had escaped the destruction of his world. He would reclaim his children. He would reclaim his wife. He would wreak bloody vengeance on the demons that had destroyed his world, starting with the enemies of Imperiatrix De'Shak, and ending with the bitch queen De'Shak herself.
As the traitorous thought ran through his mind, pain shot between his temples, disrupting his focus. Pain became rage, rage gave birth to more blasphemy about his beloved Mistress, and those blasphemies triggered yet more pain. The cycle continued, his weapons dry firing impotently, his armored fists pounding the floor, until he lay twitching on the floor, his face turned toward his Mistress' bath.
She spoke with one of her Guard. Frustrated and furious, he listened, hoping for some tidbit of information that would show him the path to bloody vengeance. The Guard looked at his Mistress, disbelief plain on his face.
"Have I displeased you, Mistress?"
The Demon's voice, hypnotic as ever, rose with obvious surprise, "No, Guard. Had you done so, We would not be speaking. I would even now be enjoying the termination of your existence."
"Yes, Mistress."
"Do you understand my command, Guard?"
The Guard held himself at rigid attention after the reminder that he spoke to his goddess incarnate. "I am to return with M267 to the barracks. He is to be given all available information on your holdings, your forces, and your enemies. Once he has assimilated this information, he is to be given command over your Guard."
"Excellent. M267, attend."
M267 felt his limbs responding without his conscious consent. He stood, squaring his shoulders. At the last moment he bowed his head to hide the battle rage that suffused him. "Yes, Mistress."
A wave of enchanting sounds washed over him as De'Shak focused her attention and her voice on him and him alone. "You will take the field against the three Imperiatrices that stole the bounty of your world away from me. Ny'rk, Bst'n, and Da'Kah are their names. Bring back to me what is rightfully mine."
Her voice intoxicated, but it only stoked the rage boiling in M267's gut. The two emotions met and sank through him until they stirred a fierce lust in his loins. Before that emotion could sweep him away, he raised his eyes to look on the demon.
She stood before him in all her infernal glory. Her carapace gleamed red under the lights. It moved like human skin, but M267 knew without knowing how that tiny spines on each scale would shred anything pushed against it. Her breasts ought to be too heavy to stand up the way they did, but the armor of her skin supported them. The most immediate sign of her alien, hermaphroditic nature was the raging hard on between her thighs. The sight of it killed the lust growing in him, leaving him cold and weary, and his head bowed once more.
"Why?" It was all he could do to force the word out.
M267 watched from the corner of his eyes as De'Shak reacted to his question. First she jerked, as if he'd struck her. The shock flashed across the demon's features in an instant, chased away by rage. Her fury at being questioned was smothered almost instantly by her typical affected tolerant bemusement. She cocked an eyebrow, and her look settled into a calculating leer. When she spoke, her voice was seduction in sound.
"I've found your children."
Magnus'...
My name is Magnus!
Magnus' head snapped up, his gaze locked to De'Shak's. "Where are they?"
"I find it fascinating that you retain this much memory and connection to them, even through psychological conditioning. I must speak with my prime Researcher about that."
"Tell me, Demon!"
De'Shak made an intricate gesture with one hand, and fire raced through Magnus' nerves. He burned, but fury banished any fear. His limbs quaked where he tried to force his new weapons to bear on his infernal Mistress, but no matter how he tried, they would not respond to commands to harm her. Eventually his rage burned itself away, and he went still, drowning in an ocean of pain.
"Are you done, Guard?"
Magnus bowed his head, beaten for the moment.
"Better. One of the three Imperiatrices named took your spawn from me. I do not know which presently has them. Destroy them, recover my property, and you will be reunited with your spawn."
Magnus shuddered at the thought of his children in the hands of a demon like the one in front of him. He raised his glare to stare into his infernal mistress' slit eyes. He saw madness there, and lust, but not a trace of dishonesty. His children were in danger, and the beast that had taken them from him, the thing that had turned him into a monster, was offering him a chance to recover them.
Where a warrior's rage had failed, a father's righteous fury forced his body into motion. His spine straightened, and he stood to face the reclining demon. "Tell me where they are, and I will breach their walls myself. I'll destroy them with my bare hands."
De'Shak laughed, a sound made all the more terrifying by how innocent it sounded. "Oh, my monster. You won't need to use your hands, silly. Go with my guards. They're yours to use. Destroy my enemies, Monster, and earn my favor."
The demon's mocking laughter hurt worse than the searing pain in his limbs. Both followed him from the room, and neither mattered. To protect his children, he would gladly do the work of the devil herself.
***
Karin woke up lying on her sofa. A sweet-faced young woman with a small red cross tattooed on her left cheek leaned over her, shining a light at her eyes.
"Welcome back, Miss Padgett. You scared us for a little there."
The med tech's voice matched her face. She sounded like she belonged in a preschool classroom teaching toddlers, not a cheap singleton apartment tending to retired porn stars.
"Yeah, well. It wasn't less scary from the inside. What happened?"
"I can't be absolutely certain without accessing your medical records, but it looks like you had an extended period of deprivation. When you finally ate something, your body decided digestion was more important than consciousness for the time being. Just in case you were wondering, I'm Valerie, the med tech assigned to your VR rig install."
Karin forced a smile, "Hello Valerie. Can I sit up?"
Valerie's smile quirked up on one side, "Hey, I'm not a doctor, to tell you what you can and can't do. I’m just a med tech, here to make sure your rig is set up to take care of you."
The smile on her face got less forced, as real humor surfaced, "Sure you are. If I go look you up, I'm going to find you're enrolled in a med school program, doing this to defray the tuition, aren't I?"
Valerie laughed, her own hesitation washing away with Karin's display of savoir faire. "Actually, no. I'm going for an RN degree. My advisors tell me I could handle diagnostics, but… I just like the idea of making things happen, and I don't have the hands to be a surgeon."
"I guess that makes sense. Okay, Valerie who is not a doctor, do you think it's a good idea for me to sit up?"
"I'm not sure. Your blood sugar is a little low, but it's not bottoming out like it was before. You might be a little dizzy, but I’m right here to catch you."
With that assurance, Karin pushed herself upright and looked around. Her apartment was full of boxes and crates, and the two large men from earlier were leaning against the biggest one. One of the pair was obviously zoned out checking his email, but the other, Frank, noticed her look up and walked over.
"Is she okay, Val?"
"She's fine. She just needed a bit of food."
Frank nodded, "Miss Padgett, as I was saying, we're here to install your new VR rig. Todd and I can have your rig up and running in about an hour, assuming you've got compatible electrical and water connections. What did you want us to do with your old rig?"
Karin thought back to what she was pondering before her sudden blackout. "I was thinking of selling it. I guess you could put it in here, in a corner. I don't entertain much, I think I can deal with losing this room to storage."
Frank looked thoughtful, then reached into a cargo pocket for a tablet pc. "I think we can help you out a bit more than that, Miss Padgett. Have you sold a VR rig before?"
"No."
He nodded and handed her his tablet. On the screen was a contract, a spot open for her signature at the bottom. "We sell them all the time. Part of our service is reclaiming old rigs. I've looked at yours; it's in good shape. I can probably get full market value out of it after we clean it up. I can give you sixty five percent of market, and we'll take it off your hands."
Karin raised an eyebrow, "Only sixty five percent?"
"We have to pay for the cleaning, and I have to make a profit on the deal or it's not worth my time."
He was right. She'd lied about selling a rig. Her first one was purchased for college, and when she was done, she tried to recoup some of the cost by selling it. She wound up getting half the listed value, and that didn't account for all the money she'd spent on advertisements, or the time she spent talking to potential buyers.
"Ok. I sign here, you deposit sixty five percent of current market in my account, and it goes away?"
Frank's smile was nice to look at. There was no trace of the knowing leer that so many men she met couldn't wipe from their faces. "That's about the size of it, ma'am."
Karin used a fingernail to sign her name, and then handed the tablet back to Frank. "If you guys don't mind, I'm going to nap here on the couch while you do what you do."
"That's fine with us. When we're done, Valerie will need to run you and the rig through your paces."
"Sure."
Karin lay back on the couch, and Valerie sat down across from her. The med tech's eyes quickly glazed over with the look of someone checking routine message traffic. She couldn't quite bring herself to sleep, but the quiet whine of electric screwdrivers from her bedroom office soothed her into a restful sort of trance. After a time it stopped, the two men carried something heavy behind the couch and out the door.
When they were gone into the elevator, Valerie spoke. "You're really her, aren't you?"
She sighed as her tranquil moment shattered. "Yeah. It's me, Karin Padgett, perfect fuck doll, in the flesh."
When Valerie remained silent, Karin opened her eyes and looked over. Valerie looked like someone had slapped her in the face. As she watched, the med tech started spluttering. "I didn't… why do you… Jeez, forget about it."
Karin shook her head, trying to ignore the way that made the room spin. "I'm sorry. Back in the day I got a lot of really rabid fanboys and fangirls thinking they know me from my videos. It's… not easy to live with."
Valerie's spluttering died down as her brow creased. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I can see that. Still, do you have to be so bitchy to everyone who recognizes you?"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"For a while, if I didn't shut them down, hard, they thought it was permission to cop a feel."
Valerie's jaw dropped open. Karin giggled; she thought that only happened in movies. "Really? They tried to touch your boobs?"
"The run of the mill fanboy tried to touch my boobs. I've had men and women try to steal my clothes, yank out handfuls of hair, and even finger fuck me in front of god and everybody." Karin couldn't help it; her smile was gone and wasn't coming back. Still, Valerie's obvious disgust at the idea someone could do that to her was keeping her own self-loathing and nausea at bay.
"Oh, god, I'm so sorry." Valerie looked stiff, as if she were thinking about every move she made.
"What's wrong?"
Valerie's voice was a whisper, like she was trying to hide her words from herself. "I was gonna ask if you wanted to have dinner some time."
Karin couldn't help it. The absurdity of the situation overtook her. The first giggle escaped without her meaning it to, and before she could stop it, she was laughing so hard she rolled off the couch. When she came back to herself, the med tech was standing over her, face blank.
"I'm glad I lifted your spirits, ma'am. Now, could you review this data so I can be sure your installation goes properly?"
"I'm sorry, Valerie. I didn't mean it that way. It's just… D'you know that I haven't had someone ask me out since Kent posted my first video?"
Valerie held out her tablet. Her face twitched once, something lurking beneath her professional façade. "Please just check the data, ma'am."
Karin reached out and took the tablet, muttering as she scanned over her medical information.
"What was that ma'am? Is something incorrect?"
Karin looked back up at Valerie's stone face. "No, Valerie, everything's correct."
"Be sure, ma'am. If something is off enough to mutter about, it might be enough to cause a problem later."
Karin just stared up at the automaton the med tech had become. The words should have been reassuring, but Valerie's deadpan killed any sense of concern they might have conveyed. Karin handed the pad back.
"Look, Valerie, I'm not sure you ought to be doing this setup. It's pretty obvious that…"
Karin never got to finish her sentence. The blank façade shattered. "What the hell? It's not enough that you laugh at me, but now you screw up my job, too? What the hell did I do to you? Wait, I know, I recognized you!"
"Look, I..."
"I dared to recognize the high and mighty Karin Padgett. Don't do that! She'll crush everything you are under her heel!"
"I'm sorry I laughed. I wasn't…"
"Screw you, bubblegum girl!"
"Everything Okay, Val?" At the sound of Frank's voice from the hallway, the med tech went silent, her eyes darting back and forth.
"Everything's fine! I used to be an actress, and it turns out Val is a fan. She was reading from one of my old scripts." Karin had no idea why she was saying what she was saying. Maybe it was a habit from all the times she'd covered for Kent.
Val stared at her for half a second too long. Frank frowned, obviously sensing something wrong, but he was staring at Val, not at Karin. She stood and stepped between the foreman and his med tech, smiling brightly. "I take it you've never seen my films?"
Frank focused on her, his expression changing immediately to a professional smile. "I'm sorry, no. I'm pretty sure I'd recognize you, Miss Padgett. No offense intended, but your mods are very distinctive. Unless you didn’t have them then?"
"No offense taken. They're niche indie films, really. I did them mainly to show off my mods. Anyhow, some of them got a little emotional. Valerie said she remembered them word for word. When I told her she didn't… she proved me wrong."
Frank's suspicion, given a target, vented itself harmlessly. "I had no idea our Val had the makings of an actress."
"I'm not much of one myself. I’m pretty sure she'd have been better in my roles than I was, if it comes down to it."
That earned her an icy glare from Valerie, but neither man saw it. They moved back through the living room and carried out the assorted small pieces of the old VR rig, each one carefully labeled and stowed. When she heard the elevator door slide shut, Karin turned to Valerie.
"Look, I didn't mean to threaten your job."
"Sure you didn't."
Karin wanted to scream with frustration, but she knew screaming never did any good. "Fine. Don't believe me. Just play along when Frank gets back, ok?"
"Why? So you can fuck me some more?"
"I thought that's what you wanted." The moment the words left her mouth, Karin wished she could take them back. The expressionless mask slid back over the other woman's face. They sat there in stony silence until Karin heard the elevator slide open again.
"I don't care what you say, that's not going to fit in there, and I'm not going to let you... Oh!"
Karin's sudden animated shout took Valerie completely by surprise. The look of surprise on the med tech's face wasn't perfect for the line, but it worked well enough to fool the crew foreman.
"Reciting some lines again, Miss Padgett?"
Karin smiled, trying to force a blush as she did so. "You caught us. I can't help it, I can't disappoint my fans."
Frank turned to Valerie, "So, is everything ok?"
Valerie stared at him for a moment, her eyes darting from Karin, to the floor, and back to Frank before she realized he wasn't asking about her emotional state. "Oh, yes. Miss Padgett is suffering from a simple case of self-neglect. The rig ought to prevent that in the future."
"Will she need to see someone for corrective care before using the rig?" Frank had just the right amount of professional concern, and Karin warmed with gratitude.
"I'll take some time off and get a few good meals and a good night's sleep before I go under again." At Frank's lifted eyebrow, she explained, "My undergrad degree followed the same track as the pre-med students, and I audited a few of the general medicine courses after I finished my postgrad work."
Frank shrugged, satisfied, but he still had to ask Valerie for the form of the thing. "Do you think Miss Padgett will be ok, Val?"
Now that she was looking for it, Karin saw the heat in Valerie's eyes when she spoke. It vacillated from moment to moment between fiery rage and burning passion, but she couldn't tell how she missed it before. "She should be fine, as long as she actually gets those meals and that night's sleep."
"Okay then. If the biometrics are all still accurate, we'll start putting this thing together. You two can talk movies until we're done if Val finished the paperwork."
Karin spoke up before Val could answer, "Oh, no. I'm not a stage actor. Put me in front of a camera and I'm ok but in front of an audience I freeze up. I'm really not sure how Val talked me into it."
"Ah... right. We'll get started then."
The silence this time was uncomfortable, but Valerie's confusion wouldn't let her hide behind an emotionless mask. She kept glancing up at Karin out of the corner of her eye, her glances alternating between frustration and hope. Karin's own guilt nibbled at her resolve until, when Frank and Todd carried the last of the packing material out of her office, she wasn't sure what she was going to do.
"Okay, Miss Padgett. We're done here."
"You're done already? I thought you'd just finished unpacking."
"Val will need to calibrate everything for you, but the rig is fully functional. While she does that, we're going to go get some dinner. We'll be back to pick Val up after that."
At the mention of food, Karin's stomach growled loud enough for everyone in the room to hear it. She stared at the floor and spoke quickly, spilling the words out before her fear or common sense could stop her. "Do you have any more deliveries today?"
Frank shrugged off his confusion at her prying, "No, you're the last on our list today."
"Oh. Well, do you mind if Valerie stays here with me after the calibration? For dinner. I can pay her fare home."
That earned her a lifted eyebrow and a barely professional smile, but Frank's voice remained calm and assured. "That's up to Val. I'm her crew chief, not her dad. Val?"
The med tech was staring at Karin, her mouth hanging open just a touch. "Oh! I guess I'd lo... I mean, I don't mind staying at all."
"Ok, then. We'll head out. See you in the morning, Val."
With that, the two of them were alone in Karin's apartment. Valerie kept glancing at her, her gaze never quite making it to Karin's face. Karin waited, mentally cataloguing what she had in the fridge. Given how much she'd just spent, she didn't have the money to pay for takeout, at least not until she finished Kent's new commission.
With the thought of Kent, something inside her curled up and hid. Long suppressed reactions sprang to the fore, and a bright smile stretched across her face. "Well, I hope you don't mind spicy ramen and tofu!"
Val looked up, startled into meeting Karin's eyes. "You're going to make us dinner? I'd love it!"
"Let's hope you think so after you've tried it." Karin moved into the tiny kitchen and started making dinner. "So. Here we are. Tell me a little about yourself."
"Huh? What's there to know?"
Karin flashed her too bright smile at Valerie again. Val's gaze glazed over, a silly smile crossing her face as she went silent. Karin could keep up a conversation by herself. She'd done it before for some of Kent's friends. But she didn't want to tonight.
"Well, right now all I know is that you work as a med tech, you want to be a nurse, and you're into girls and adult films. Not bad for a first date, but I was hoping to learn a little more about you. Where are you from? What do you do for fun?"
Karin felt more than heard Valerie approach, until the other woman stood less than an arm's reach from where she prepared dinner. Karin smelled the rich, musky odor of the other woman, so different from her own sugary sweetness. Without turning, she dropped her smile, replaced it with a look of embarrassed horror.
"Unless those two are what you do for fun? I mean... oh, god, I'm so sorry." She spun to face Karin, who hovered just out of reach. "I got so caught up in the date thing. I mean, nobody's asked me out just to get in my pants."
"Really?"
Karin let some of the carefully hidden loathing at her former life leak through, "Nobody ever thought they needed a ruse for that."
Valerie's hand turned her around, gently pulling her into an embrace, "That's terrible. Everyone needs to be treated nicely. I can't believe people were so cruel to you."
Karin kept her face turned to the floor, but her proximity to Valerie took hold. Her own body, crafted to be what it was, betrayed her as it had so many times before, as she'd known it would from the moment she chose to invite Valerie to stay for dinner. She saw the med tech reacting, her whole body tensing as she sniffed the cotton candy smell in the air.
"I think you really need to eat something, Karin." Val pushed away, stepping back into the living room.
"Yeah. You're right." Karin didn't have to fake the regret in her voice, but she clamped down on her emotions anyway. If Valerie heard the self-loathing in her voice now, she might realize how much she hated what she was doing, what she'd made of herself.
She threw the meal together as quickly as she could manage, burning one of her hands in the process. The pain only amplified her distress. She knew that anyone close enough to smell her would react. By the time she carried two plates into the living room, the carefully crafted cotton candy scented pheromones had done their work. Valerie lounged on the couch, shirt half unbuttoned, her face flushed, her eyes staring into space dreamily.
"Dinner's ready!"
"I can't wait to eat." The words could have been innocent, should have been, really, but Karin suspected Valerie hadn't been too balanced to begin with. After half an hour in an enclosed space with Karin deliberately working herself up, the other woman's inhibitions had evaporated.
Karin ignored the double entendre and sat down on the floor across from the sofa. Her ravenously empty belly was all that made the food seem tasty. Without hunger to add spice, Karin was an indifferent chef at best. She saw realization of that enter Valerie's eyes after the first bite. While Karin wolfed down her food, her date picked through hers bit by bit. By the time Karin's plate was empty, Val had given up pretending to eat entirely.
"Are you done?"
"Yeah, I think so. I'm just so nervous."
Karin pushed the plates aside, stepped around the table, and curled down next to Val. "Don't be. I'm not any different from anyone else."
Karin held her breath as she stared at the side of Val's head, praying she'd believe the lie. Karin knew she wasn't like a normal human; she'd been tinkered with over and over at Kent's instigation, until she knew she'd never have a normal relationship again.
The worst and most brilliant modifications she'd done made themselves known even now. Val's eyes glazed; her breath deepened into a hungry pant without her realizing it. At the same time, Karin's body tensed as an unquenchable need kindled to life between her thighs. It was too late to do anything about now. She could prevent the reaction when she was furious enough to hurt someone, but once her body got going, she was as helpless as whoever was close enough to smell her.
Valerie's voice quavered when she spoke. "I can't believe I'm saying this, after... after you told me you wanted a date, but... do you want to go in the other room?"
Karin quirked an eyebrow at Val, "You want to configure my rig now?"
The look on Val's face was precious, a mix of frustration, anger and lust. "No! I mean, I know I'm supposed to... Look, I want you. I want you right now. Do you mind if I do that later?"
"You don't have to do it at all. Or do me at all. Which would you rather do?"
In lieu of an answer, Val turned and pulled their lips together. An eternity later, they fell apart, gasping for breath. "Oh my god. I don't even want to go to the bedroom now."
"You don't want me anymore?"
"No! I meant I don't want to wait."
"So why are you still talking?"
Words disappeared beneath a tangle of limbs and lips and cotton candy seduction.
***
Magnus fired the cannon fused to his left arm. The recoil spun him, shoved his whole body sideways across the slick bedrock beneath him. His shot went wide, burning the sensors from the enemy guardsman rather than destroying him outright. He slammed his armored feet into the rock beneath him and fired once more. His shot hit his blinded opponent squarely, and nothing remained but a rapidly expanding cloud of vaporized armor.
The pain his infernal mistress inflicted still ran through his limbs, but the fury of his battle rage lifted him above it. He screamed his defiance to the sky, brought his cannon to bear on another enemy. He and his foe traded shots, but de'Shak had armed him with weapons rivaling her own, and the armor on his squat frame was thicker than her hide.
His enemy's attack still knocked him off his feet. He rolled, his armor scraping great furrows through the rock beneath him. Fire filled the sky above him, three of de'Shak's guard trading shots with two of Ny'rk's. Magnus watched the display with awe and disgust in equal measure.
The power that lashed across the blackened plain was greater than anything the world of his birth could have created. He knew that now. De'Shak's people could tear the very fabric of space apart. Their personal weapons manipulated energies far in excess of the vehicle mounted cannon Magnus had damaged De'Shak with.
At the thought of harming his mistress, another wave of pain ripped through him. Fire raced through his brain as the heavens burned above him. Both went on for an eternity.
When he rose, M267's three Guards had been reduced to two, both damaged and under heavy fire. Ny'rk's full Guard was responding to the raid, and no force in this world or any other could resist them for long. As he watched, another of his forces fell.
M267 fired from his prone position, sweeping the torrent of ravening energy across the whole front of Ny'rk's forces. It wasn't enough to damage them, but it blinded them for a precious second and threw him in the opposite direction. He screamed an order at his final minion as he threw himself into motion. The enemy opened fire, scoring M267's legs, slowing him, but before they could immobilize him the other guard fulfilled his orders.
The explosion of an Imperiatrices' Guard was normally a dangerous affair, but safeguards kept their power supplies from detonating. A deliberate overload was something none of them even considered; the power supplies were too valuable, too hard to replace.
When the guard self-destructed, it threw M267 into the air once more. As he tumbled toward De'Shak's demesnes, his only thought was that if the remaining guardsmen were not where he'd placed them, his pursuers were going to tear him to pieces and leave his remains in the rapidly decaying crater behind him.
***
Karin lay on her bed, spent. Next to her, faint noises of skin flickering over wet skin told the tale of Val tending to her own frustration. Guilt and loathing washed away for the moment by serotonin, Karin listened to the quiet sound of breath as it quickened, caught, and then released in a single deep, relaxed sigh.
"Feel better now?"
A sound that was half whimper, half growl was all the response Val offered. Karin couldn't consciously smell anything different, but she felt her body relax, finally, as her mods recognized the other woman's relief.
"I'm glad. I'm sorry I'm not very good at it."
"Were you really trying?"
Karin frowned, but she couldn't blame Val for her skepticism. "Yeah. I was. I've never really been all that good in bed. Kent made sure to tell me that after the cameras stopped rolling. Every. Single. Time."
Valerie ignored the old bitterness in Karin's voice. "Then how did you get all those girls in the vids off?"
"That's why they're called actresses, Valerie."
A gentle snort was enough to furrow Karin's brow, and an old tirade, worn soft by time, slipped from her mouth before she had a chance to think about it. "You think what they do isn't acting? They do take after take, working under hot lights with half a dozen guys staring at them bitching about everything from how they're gaining weight to why they can't balance on their shoulders indefinitely. Most of the guys are too big to really be comfortable, and despite Freud, not every woman has a secret masochistic streak.
"You take all that into account, add in the fact that they might never have seen the guy before, and you think every woman on the set is getting the big O every time she acts like she is?"
The bed wobbled, and Val's hand touched Karin's shoulder, butterfly soft and tentative. "I thought... you always looked like you were enjoying it."
"I was. That's what made it sell so well. Especially the sensory recordings."
"But you said...?"
Karin rolled onto her back, trapping Val's arm beneath her. The other woman responded by curling up beside Karin, draping an arm and leg over her. "Yeah, most of the women in porn are actresses. There are also some exhibitionists, and more than one masochist. Then there's me."
"What are you?"
"You're looking at me and you don't get it?"
Valerie just stared at her; confusion clear on her face. Eventually, Karin sighed and took pity on her. "The mods, Val. I turn on real easy. Once I'm turned on, making me orgasm isn't the hard part."
"What is?"
"Well, for most of the part-timers and amateurs, it was holding out long enough to keep the shoot going."
"What about the experienced guys? They have tricks for that, right?"
"Oh, yeah. They've got tricks. Mostly they're completely desensitized. Thing is, orgasms, real ones, are powerfully erotic. Especially when the hormones in question have been enhanced. So even some of the pros had stamina problems. That's why Kent had me put together the mods for him."
"Really?"
"Oh, yeah. You want a good time in bed, he's the one you go to. Not me. If you want to satisfy someone? I'm your girl. If you want to be satisfied? Probably not. I'm just not… not very good at it."
"Hey, you're good enough for me." Karin forced herself not to wince at the insincerity in Valerie's voice.
The hormones began to ebb as guilt at her greed and shame at her inadequacy washed over her in waves. "Yeah, that's what you were doing a minute ago, reveling in how well satisfied you were."
Valerie recoiled, stung by Karin's words. "I... I'm sorry. I thought you loved me."
It was all Karin could do not to leap from the bed screaming when Valerie said the word 'love'. She'd dealt with stalkers before, but she'd never done anything this stupidly risky to get rid of one of them. "Yeah, well. It's not you. It's me. Kent... Kent broke things. I'm not sure I'll ever love anyone, Val."
The sincerity in her words must have reached the med tech, because she leaned over and began gently massaging Karin's shoulders. "It's ok, Karin. I understand."
Karin didn't have to fake the cringe at the other woman's touch. She curled into a ball, whispering just loud enough to be sure Valerie heard. "I just want to be alone right now."
"But..."
"Please. Just leave."
"I want to stay with you."
Anger seeped into Karin's voice, anger at Kent, anger at Valerie, anger at a world that could keep every physical ailment at bay, but couldn't seem to keep stalkers and weirdoes from finding their way to her door. "I said go!"
"Fine. I'll go. I guess you got what you wanted."
"Does it matter, Val? You didn't get what you wanted. Does it really matter to you whether I got what I wanted or not?"
Karin was getting louder and louder, and she couldn't bring herself to care. She also couldn't bring herself to uncurl from her safe little ball. She lay tucked into a fetal ball while the other woman dressed. Little angry grunts of pain accompanied each slide of cloth over sensitized skin. Eventually, Valerie stalked into the living room, and Karin started to relax.
Before she could rise, Valerie returned, shoving a tablet into her face. "I still need you to sign for this, if I'm going to keep my job. Unless you're planning on taking that away from me too."
Karin raised a weary hand and scrawled her signature onto the pad. "No, Valerie. I know you don't believe me, but I don't mean to hurt you."
"Yeah, well. You've done a great job of it for someone not trying to do it."
"I know. It's all I'm good at, it seems."
"I'll see myself out. Don't worry about the cab fare."
She was too tired to protest, so Karin just lay there, silent, as the med tech stomped into the living room. While Karin tried to forget her pain, both real and feigned, Valerie gathered her things and stalked to the door. She paused there with the door keyed open, almost as if she were regretting her angry words. Karin held her breath, perfectly silent, as Valerie muttered to herself. After an interminable wait, the med tech stepped out into the hall, her footsteps receding toward the elevator. Karin didn't twitch until she heard the lock on her front door engage.
The moment she was certain she was alone, Karin shoved herself from her bed. Her latest stalker was gone, leaving nothing but body funk and an air of disappointment in her wake. The funk Karin could tolerate until she showered. The disappointment, however, was too much for her to bear. It drove her to her new rig, where she cycled through the configuration routines as fast as the rig could process them.
It had been a while since she set up a rig. Options and interfaces had moved on while she rattled around in her old machine. Still, there are only so many ways to refer to a nutrition drip, and human beings still produced the same kinds of waste. Within ten minutes the rig was ready and waiting for her.
She didn't stop to think. If she did, she knew she'd be overcome by self-recrimination and loathing about what she'd just done to and with Valerie. Instead she dropped into her rig, falling into the embrace of the Wider World. A moment after she was immersed, she felt faint cool sensations in spots across her body as the rig applied a topical anesthetic spray. In the crook of each elbow, behind her shoulders and hips, and in her crotch, she felt pressure as the machine secured her, inserted feeding lines, and set itself up to deal with waste.
She ignored it all. She stared at her other self, watching her body slide smoothly from housecat to human to hybrid catgirl. She was pretty, but she wasn't a freak. She was beautiful and graceful, but she wasn't a self-made succubus. She was Kittul, and a little girl was waiting for her.
With a contented sigh, Karin slipped back into Cat's Paw.