Cyborgs and Their Relationships (1/3). Space

Sci-fi erotic romance. An alternate future, with cyborgized people who retain their sexuality and passion. Part 1/3: Space.

An alternative future. Humans have not invented stable artificial intelligence or consciousness uploading (their software is stuck in the 2000s), but they have made great strides in modifying and augmenting the body. So instead of robots, they have cyborgs.

Cyborgs are made from people, it’s a completely voluntary process. They give up some of their humanity and versatility in exchange for a longer life, a stronger body, and many new abilities and sensations not available to unmodified humans. Cyborgs believe it is absolutely worth it.

Among the typical modifications that almost all cyborgs choose is a synthetic reinforced skin (with full sense of touch), so cyborgs do not need or wear shoes or clothes. Also, almost all of them remove the reproductive system almost completely, but leave the parts involved in sexual arousal and pleasure. Most cyborgs also have augmentations that give them several other, radically different sensations of pleasure that unmodified humans cannot even imagine.

Their civilization is at the stage of galactic expansion. FTL speeds are physically impossible, so they build and send huge sublight ships. During the flight, the main crew sleeps in hibernation, and the ship is run by several cyborgs on duty.

And so the first story begins…

Chapter 1. Space

Lika and Nika are the maintenance cyborgs on the TX-503 transport, which carries researchers and colonists… quite far. You can look it up in the on-board network. Lika and Nika have looked up, but they are more interested in the journey itself, not the destination, when the whole crew is sleeping in hibernation and only the two of them are taking care of the huge ship. In such a big place something goes wrong every day, just because of the amount of everything, so they have enough work to do.

Lika and Nika are repair technicians, space modification. That means they can withstand a wide range of temperatures, pressures, radiation, and significant chemical and mechanical damage. They feel all this, but do not perceive even extreme sensations as suffering. Their psyche has been adapted so that they are happy to live in seclusion for years. They connect to various devices, feel and control them as if they were parts of their own body. They can repair anything in a large ship. They have elongated toes that are useful for picking things up or operating tools. They were once women.

Lika and Nika met for the first time three months after the launch. Of course, they knew about each other, but so far they had no need to communicate. But then, on the fifth engineering floor, the fasteners of a large compressor fell apart. In principle, everything on the ship can be repaired alone, but it is easier to deal with large machines with four hands and four feet.

They meet at a large wall panel and nod silently to each other. Nika unscrews the panel and removes it by hand (with a gravity of 0.5g you can be strong, but not too light). A compressor cylinder falls from the recess onto her. Nika twitches reflexively to catch it, but she still holds the panel. Lika picks up the cylinder in exactly the same motion Nika would have done.

“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”

A second cylinder falls out of the recess, and Lika grabs it with her foot.

The two of them quickly replace the fasteners, reassemble the compressor, and secure the panel.

“You’re great to work with, sister,” Nika says. “You’re like another set of hands.”

“I could say the same thing about you.”

They nod at each other and part.

Over the next two months, they work together three more times, becoming increasingly comfortable with each other. Even though cyborgs don’t have telepathy, Lika and Nika work together as one body with one mind. I wonder, Nika thinks, if that’s because they’re cyborgs or not? She doesn’t know, she’s never worked with a pair before.

One day, Nika is hanging in a suspension seat across from the fourth control panel, checking the connections. The board is huge, there are tens of thousands of connectors. Each one has to be checked and, if necessary, cleaned or replaced. It’s a simple, meditative task, something Nika has done a million times before. But today she feels strangely uncomfortable… bored… sad… She presses the communicator and asks: “Lika, are you free now?”

“Almost. Why?”
“Will you help me? I can do it alone, but it will be twice as fast with two of us.”
“I’m coming.”

Even through the communicator, Nika could feel Lika’s surprise. Did she need it for something? Just like that?

Soon Lika is hovering next to Nika, working just as skillfully and precisely. Now and then they accidentally touch hands or feet, and each time their bodies seem to scatter electric sparks. But that can’t be, they have the board completely shut down and secured.

They finish their work, run the tests, turn on the switchboard (many, many green lights, everything is fine) and close it. They put the equipment in the cell. Lika turns to leave.

“Wait, sister,” Nika says suddenly, “let’s go to my place, huh?”

Nika’s and Lika’s quarters are on opposite sides of the ship, so that an accident doesn’t incapacitate both cyborgs together. Lika looks around. It’s a cabin just like hers. A bed with a safety net in case of sudden shocks, a folding table, a personal computer with a large screen, a few lockers, no personal belongings in sight… Everything is the same.

“What do you want to eat today?” Nika looks into the locker.

“What do you mean? It’s just food. We eat when we’re hungry, that’s all.”

Nika straightens up. “Sister, don’t turn into a robot! I hope you haven’t lost your sense of taste?”

“Well… no.”

“And you still pay no attention to what you eat?”

“Well… yes.”

“You’re embarrassing me, sister. All right, then. Then today we’ll have banosh, almost like the real thing…”

She is busy, pouring something into a bowl, adding, stirring, heating… Lika sits down on the bed.

“How did you become a cyborg?” she asks.

“Well,” says Nika, “I always liked to tinker with technology. And I wanted to see other stars. And then my friend became a cyborg and told me what it was all about. And I decided: I want to have a body like that!” She turns on one leg with a bag and a bowl in her hands. “And I have never regretted it! What about you?”

“I’ve always loved tinkering with technology, too.”
“And?”
“That’s it.”
“You really embarrass me, sis.”

Nika places the food on two plates. It steams deliciously.

“Take a bottle and two glasses, the cupboard is on the right,” she says.

Lika takes it and looks at the bottle. “Wine?”

“Well, yes. Synthetic, of course, but it’s good. Why?”
“I’ve never drunk alcohol before.”
“Ever? Are you serious?”
“Never.”

“I’ll tell you what,” Nika looks at her friend carefully. – “From now on I’ll be your tutor.”

She opens the bottle and pours some wine. Lika tastes it carefully, but she likes it. They sit down to eat.

“It’s delicious!” Lika leans back against the wall beside the bed.

“So,” Nika refills their glasses, “you must have chewed the simplest concentrates so far. Just because we are cyborgs doesn’t mean we can’t live like humans…”

“I was that way a human too.”

“You’re embarrassing me,” Nika repeats, “What kind of life did you have? What about sex? Did you even give yourself the usual pleasures? Do you ever give yourself pleasure?”

“Well… yes. Sometimes. To fall asleep faster and sleep better.”

“Tell you what,” Nika stands up in front of her, “I have a feeling our training is just beginning. We have a very, very intense course ahead of us!”

Lika laughs. “I agree!”

But that night they did nothing but fall asleep in the same bed, hugging each other in trust.

Since that night, they have slept together, either at Nika’s or Lika’s, and they try to work together, unless the job requires them to separate. Nika teaches Lika everything she knows or can invent about pleasure (and she can invent a lot). Lika is eager to learn. “I had a normal life, really,” she says, “I just didn’t have the chance.” Nika just hums.

Lika has a kind of fantastic sensitivity, she conjures over her friend’s body as if it were some kind of sophisticated device. She always knows exactly which part of the body to press or tickle. And Nika just generously gives her friend everything she has and what her soul is looking at right now. What do they feel? Well, you know about sex (only hers is more colorful). And the other five pleasures? Well, those who are very lucky with hallucinogens can imagine a faint hint of one of them. But it’s only a faint and approximate one, and it’s only for one of the five types.

It also turns out that it is much more interesting to read books if you can talk about them with someone later. And watching movies if you can laugh and cry and comment together. And playing games together. They never play against each other, only in cooperative mode.

One day, six months into the flight (they have already accelerated to cruising speed), the ship shakes and rumbles with an impact. Three minutes later, Lika sits on the flight deck and turns on the screens. In another minute, Nika flies through the other door and falls into the chair next to her.

“Front shield minus thirteen percent. Symmetry broken, we’re spinning.”
“A meteor?”
“We’d be gone by now. I think it’s an interstellar gas fluctuation.”
“A chunk of the port shield was knocked out. The ship is undamaged.”
“The precession is increasing.”
“Should we wake up the emergency team?”
“Aye.”
Lika presses a few buttons.
“Twelve hours to wake from hibernation.”
“Precession is increasing. Course corrector is not working.”
“Not enough thrust?”
“There is enough thrust. It was not designed for a situation like this.”
The course corrector window closes, generating an overflow error. Nika restarts it. It immediately crashes again.
“What kind of asshole wrote this…”
“The precession is increasing. Soon we’ll be torn apart.”
“Should we shut down the engines?”
“Three hours to shut down the reactor cleanly. Before that we’ll be torn apart.”
“Then manual control,” Lika flips a few switches, “you have the left-lower maneuvering, I have the right-up.”
They grab the handles.
“Let’s keep the cross in the circle.”

Three hours pass. They stare at the screens and hardly move the handles. It’s like a trance. The cross is exactly in the center of the circle, the thrust is compensated.

After five hours, the ship trembled again. The cross flies out of the circle and begins to make loops.
“The shield is minus five percent, in a different place. We’re spinning again.”
“So let’s balance again.”
“Listen, can’t we just debug the course corrector?”
“That would take too long. I can’t hold the ship alone.”
They bring the cross back into the circle.

Twelve hours pass. The men enter the flight deck, still sleepy. They touch shoulders.
“I have the watch.”
“I have the watch.”
“Thank you, girls. You can rest now. Now it’s our turn.”
They slowly let go of the handles and, without closing their eyes, fall out of their chairs.

Nika wakes up in her cabin, alone. Alone? And Lika? What about her? Nika screams, gets up, pushes open the door and limps to Lika’s quarters.
Lika wakes up in her cabin, alone. And Nika? Where is she? Her eyes are filled with tears and she is sobbing louder than ever in her life. She brushes away her tears, pushes open the door and limps to Nika’s cabin.

That’s how they are found, in the middle of the path between their cabins. Lika and Nika are sleeping on the floor, hugging each other, clinging to each other’s arms and legs.

“There must be something we don’t know,” the captain says, smoothing his moustache. The danger is eliminated, the shield is balanced, and the course corrector is updated. The emergency team prepares to return to hibernation.
“What now?” asks the co-pilot.
“Nothing. It’s none of our business. Maybe they’ll tell us later. In the meantime, we’ll put them both down together.”
“Where?”
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s go to Lika.”

Many months later. The ship stands in the middle of the plain like a Tower of Babel, with caravans of crawlers stretching out in all directions. Nika and Lika are working near the third cargo bay, helping to assemble and launch the crawlers. A colonist approaches them.

“You’re doing a good job. It must be good to be a cyborg.”
“You bet!”
“But I couldn’t do it. I can’t imagine my life like this, without love, without family…”

They pause and look into his eyes. “You know what? We can’t imagine it either.”

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