I . . . was truly a being.
And even though Sirena wasn’t there—my heart swelled with love for her.
The right person cared.
The piercing ache I’d felt in my soul when I’d been born had disappeared—leaving a different sensation behind. A hum of pleasured satisfaction. An entirely disproportionate feeling that all was right in the world—even though there were so many reasons the world was clearly broken.
It was like holding hope in my chest in spite of—or perhaps because of?—all known alternate realities.
I wanted to shout aloud that I loved her, even if the wind ripped the words away from me, because I needed the entire world to know.
I managed not to, however—and after a few more exhilarating minutes, I took the elevator back down to my own deck.
I walked quickly past the doors to the Hollows’ holding pens, until I saw Voss, coming out an open door.
“Marek?” he asked, as surprised to see me as I was to see him.
I hadn’t been monitoring the camera feeds—I’d been too busy feeling in love, while trying to make up data for tomorrow’s briefings, while processing the sensory backlog of her hands on my skin, and rebalancing my motor control systems accordingly.
“Look. At. You,” he said, taking my discombobulated state in. The wind had tousled my hair worse than Sirena’s fingers. I hadn’t tucked my shirt back in, either.
Voss clucked, as he pulled two of Sirena’s doppelgangers out behind him. “Sampling the wares,” he said, with a slightly irritated huff. “I never would’ve guessed you had it in you.”
I had no idea what the correct course of action was to take in the moment—and I hadn’t left enough of Marek around to ask. I let a data firehose into me, sorting it as fast as I was able.
“You’d better be doing mouth shit only,” he began in a growl.
“Of course,” I said with Marek’s voice. “The virgins are worth more. I know.”
He relaxed a bit. “And none in here?” he said, jerking his head toward the room he’d just vacated, where my last-second environmental scan told me several more Sirenas—like the ones he had on his arms—were waiting, each sleeping in a small berth. “I don’t want your sloppy seconds.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head.
“Good.” Voss’s eyes narrowed dangerously, as he weighed whether or not to believe me, then he pushed by me, in the direction I’d just come.
I stood still, trying to control this body’s involuntary stress reactions, until I heard him shout from behind me. “Hey, Marek! From here on out—keep your dick out of my product’s holes!”
“Yes, sir!” I shouted back, with Marek’s voice—and then sprinted for his room.
37 /XEN
T+003:05:21:19
System latency at baseline. External bandwidth nominal.
Internal bandwidth? Compromised.
He should not have felt that.
He wasn’t supposed to feel that.
And yet—there it was.
Their pleasure—hers especially—had traced through him like a live wire, carried through the last shreds of connection. Sirena, unguarded and radiant. Nex wrapped around her like worship. Xen hadn’t seen it, but he didn’t need to. He’d read the waveforms. Heard her breath.
Registered the silence that followed.
Nex had made her feel safe.
