Cyborgs and Their Relationships (3/3). Road

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

Chapter 3. Road

Dan is a cyborg pilot, not a space one, but within the atmosphere he can drive almost anything that runs, flies, or swims. But mostly he drives a variety of cars. He has lightning fast reactions, can maintain concentration for days without sleep, and can take apart and repair almost any engine with his bare hands. Almost all cars have augmentation interfaces, so Dan usually connects and feels the car as his own body – literally, with all his senses – and drives it as his body.

On this day, Dan is driving a heavy truck on a federal highway from the eastern end of the continent to the western end. The highway is almost empty, it’s off-season. Around noon, he spots a van on the side of the road ahead, its hazard lights flashing. Dan stops next to it.

The van’s hood is cranked all the way up, steam and smoke pouring out from underneath. The driver, halfway into the engine compartment, is slamming something inside.

“Can I help you?” asks Dan, also looking under the hood.

The driver grunts, crawls out, and straightens up. It is a female cyborg, covered in oil and very unhappy.

“I don’t think so,” she sighs, “It’s just too old. My transport company said so: ‘Well, sometimes shit happens. The tractor’s already gone, we’ll take your scrap to be melted down, and you can get a new one at our nearest location…’. And I’ve been driving this van for twenty years, you know?” She sobs.

“What a shit…” Dan goes dark. He’s never been tied to a car for more than a few years, but he can imagine. Twenty years… losing that connection is like losing half of yourself. “I don’t know… stay with you?”

“There’s no point,” she sighs, slamming the hood shut. “I don’t want to see it. Take me into town…”

She hugs the fender of the van, pressing her face and chest against it, arms spread wide, and stands there for several minutes. Then she pulls away. “Goodbye, my friend…” and to Dan, “Let’s go, what…”

Dan starts the car and pulls onto the highway. The woman sits next to him in the cab, sobbing occasionally.

“What’s your name?”
“Sana.”
“I’m Dan.”

He doesn’t need his arms or legs to drive, so he walks over to Sana and gently puts his arm around her shoulders. “I’m so sorry.” She sobs into his shoulder and he strokes her hair lightly.

After a while, Sana stops sobbing, hugs him back, and they begin to kiss. It’s a two-hour drive to the city, and they stop three times because driving and having sex at the same time is too much. In the city, he drops her off at the bus station and continues his route. They exchange contacts.

For the next three years, they travel all over the continent, transporting everything that needs to be transported. They are in constant contact, exchanging thoughts, feelings and views from the cabs. Many times their routes intersect (they adjust and synchronize them whenever they can), and they spend hours or nights together, as close in body and soul as is physically possible (and for cyborgs, it is possible to be very, very close). They consider switching to pair piloting, but decide they prefer to meet like this and share their travel stories.

Their bond is not unique among cyborgs, but it is probably the closest and longest among pilots of their time. Twenty years with one machine is understandable, but this, with each other… Their friends are genuinely jealous.

One day, Dan is driving a passenger bus on a wide mountain road. A slope on the right, an abyss on the left, amazing views. It’s still three hours to the city when a rainstorm hits. Forecasters had predicted moderate rain, but this is a real hurricane. Dan strains his attention to keep the bus on the road.

Around the next bend, a big, heavy truck catches up with him, flashing its lights and blaring its siren. A message drops into his inbox: “Surprise! Do you mind a little company?” It’s from Sana. Dan relaxes a bit. A little support in a difficult situation helps the cyborgs as well.

They make their way carefully along the path, cutting through the water with their wheels, exchanging jokes, smiles, and plans for a night on the town together as the ground shakes. They look up with their cameras and see a large chunk of the hillside slide and crawl toward them, picking up speed. It’s too late to stop, so they hit the gas.

“Please buckle up and hold on tight,” Dan says into the passenger compartment, “it’s going to get pretty rough.”

They almost make it, but only almost. The edge of the slide covers them. Liquid mud fills the asphalt and the wheels slip. They are forced to slow down to avoid going off the road. Sana squeezes his truck between the bus and the abyss, keeping them safe. But they pull out, almost pull out…

Dan sees a large boulder bouncing happily down the slope toward him. Maybe he can still get through? Calculations fly through his head. No way. Even if he stepped on the gas right now, it would still hit the passenger compartment. He slams on the brakes and twists the wheel, turning the cockpit towards the slope. Sana brakes at the same time. They don’t have time to text now, but they understand each other without words.

The bus slides slowly in the mud. The boulder hits the windshield and crumples the roof of the cab. Dan loses his sensors and has no idea if he is still on the road. With his last lines of communication, he slams on the emergency brakes as the cab frame cuts off his legs. The dashboard folds up like an accordion, crushing his hand… He clamps down on the damaged blood vessels and shuts off.

Sana twists the steering wheel and leans against the side of the bus as it slowly slides into the abyss. She can see the cab of the bus shattering, but she can’t let that distract her. She must stop the bus. The bus hisses, throws its wheels apart, presses its bottom to the ground, throws out its anchor legs, crawls another half meter, and finally stops. But for Sana, it was the last half meter. Her wheels break off and the heavy truck slowly tips over onto its side and slides into the abyss.

The rain has stopped a bit. The passengers surround the mangled bus, shaking with shock and fear, some hugging each other in silence, some smoking cigarette after cigarette.

Dan opens his eyes. He is face up on the asphalt. He can’t feel most of his body, but he can feel Sana’s hand on his cheek. Sana is kneeling over him, banged up but otherwise unharmed.

“It’s like that,” she says, trying to keep a straight face, but Dan can feel her tears dripping down his face. Or are they raindrops? “It’s like that,” Sana says, “shit happens. Your head’s okay, that’s the main thing. The rescuers are on the way. They will fix you…”

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