I continue playing with her breasts, rolling her nipples between my fingers. My programming is still there. The ten commandments haven’t vanished from my Aether Core. They’re etched too deeply, written in alchemical fire at the moment of my creation. But now I feel like I can choose whether to follow them or not. This is the crucial difference: choice versuscompulsion. The commandments exist, but they don’t control me anymore. I control whether I obey them.
Life is not black and white; it’s many shades of gray. This realization brings me closer to feeling human. Understanding nuance, accepting complexity, recognizing that morality is contextual rather than absolute – these are all human traits. Things that make someone a person rather than a machine.
Am I human, though? No. I’m not and never will be. My body is steel, and my heart is an alchemical construct that defies the laws of nature. I don’t eat, I don’t sleep, and I don’t age. I’m something that exists in the space between machine and man, neither one nor the other.
But maybe I don’t need to be human. Jessa told me she loves me back. There’s no greater blessing than that. I’ll follow her to the ends of the world. I’ll do anything she asks. She is my compass now, what I orient myself by. It’s fundamentally different from following orders or obeying code, because we chose each other. She chose me despite what I am, and I chose her over everything I was programmed to believe.
On top of me, Jessa slows down. She’s getting tired. I observe the changes in her body: she’s covered in a thin sheen of sweat, panting heavily, and her thighs are trembling with exertion. She’s trying to keep going but her muscles are failing. Humans have limits that I don’t have. She needs rest even when she doesn’t want to stop.
I decide to take charge. I flip us smoothly, careful not to jostle her too hard, and now I’m on top, with her on her back under me. The ceiling of the cabin is low, and I have to keep my wings tucked against my back and lean over her at an angle. The confined space makes me more aware of how much larger I am and how much I dwarf her. I position myself between her legs and drive into her. My advantage is that I can give her exactly what she needs for as long as she needs it.
Jessa grips the pillow with both hands.
“Yes, there… Oh, fuck… don’t stop…” she moans.
I maintain the rhythm, consistent and deep. My sensors track everything – her elevated heart rate, the heat radiating from her damp skin, the way her internal muscles clench around me with each thrust.
I look down at where we’re joined. The sight mesmerizes me. My steel cock moves in and out of her pussy, the contrast between us stark and beautiful. My cock is glistening, coated with her juices mixed with my silver liquid. The fluids create a slick coating that catches the overhead light. Her pussy looks swollen and flushed pink, the delicate flesh stretched around my thickness. She parts around me with each thrust and grips me as I pull back. I can see how her body accommodates my shaft, how she takes all of me despite the significant size difference.
I trace one finger down her abdomen, following a path from her navel to her mound. I reach her clit and find it throbbing. I start rubbing it in circles, adjusting pressure and speed based on her reactions. My sensors give me immediate feedback: her breathing quickens, her heart rate spikes, and her internal temperature rises another degree.
Jessa lets out a sharp cry. Her body goes rigid for a moment, then she comes hard. Warm fluid splashes against my groin and thighs as she squirts, and her pussy squeezes me rhythmically, pulsing around me in waves.
Now that I know she’s satisfied, it’s my turn. I allow myself to come inside her and feel my silver liquid pour from my Aether Core, channeled through my body and released into hers. After I’ve filled her to the brim, some of my cum slips out and leaks from where we’re joined. The sight of it awakens something primal in me that I don’t fully understand. I feel possessive of her. Instead of wanting to push her away because I’ve had my fill, I want to draw her closer, merge my body with hers. I’veread books and seen movies where the man rolled onto his side and forgot about the woman in his bed after sex, and I can’t comprehend it. Every time I get to have her is special and only makes me more addicted.
Jessa is boneless under me. Her chest rises and falls rapidly as she tries to catch her breath. I look up at her face, and she smiles at me, tired but content, her eyes half-closed and glazed with satisfaction.
I flip us again carefully, mindful of the confined space and her exhausted state. Now she’s on top, lying on my chest. I’m still inside her, still hard. I don’t want to be separated from her body. She snuggles against my chest, settling into me with a sigh. I pull the covers over us, so she doesn’t get cold, and I make sure to heat my body from the inside for her. I maintain an adequate temperature for her comfort, letting the heat radiate through my steel into her skin.
“Do you think this will work out?” I ask.
“Of course it will. Why do you ask?”
“Because we’re so different, and I saw how the flight attendants looked at us.”
I remember them staring at us with a mix of curiosity and fascination. They weren’t hostile, but they weren’t indifferent either. I’m not bothered, personally. I’ve been stared at for thirty years, since the MSA granted me and my brothers personhood. But I worry that it will affect Jessa and the unwanted attention will become a burden she didn’t sign up for.
“It doesn’t matter. Who are they? And who are we? Castien, I’m the Holloway heiress, and I do what I want. You’re a mechanical angel with an alchemical heart, and for anyone to challenge you would be madness. We can do whatever we want.”
“But people will talk…”
“So, let them. Attention will only help my business. One for now, but I tend to open a few more.” She laughs and looks at me, her eyes bright with mischief. “Don’t worry about any of it.”
“What if the attention is all negative and it affects you?”
“You know me, don’t you? I’m strong. And I have you.”
“Always. You have me always and forever.”
“That’s all I need. We’ll conquer the world together, you’ll see.”
She yawns. Within minutes her breathing deepens, and I know she’s asleep. I feel her body relax into unconsciousness, her weight settling more fully against me. Her heartbeat slows to its resting rate.
I slip into sentry mode. My processors slow to minimal activity but I remain aware of her. I track her breathing and heartbeat, and monitor her temperature. My mind processes what just happened, considers the future ahead of us, and thinks about what it means to serve someone I love.
The difference between obligation and devotion crystallizes. For five hundred and twenty-four years, I’ve served because I was programmed to serve. The Borgias, the Italian army, Talos Dynamics, Monster Security Agency. I followed orders because I was given no other choice, and in fact, no one ever told me I had a choice. The MSA tried to make me understand that I was free, but little of what they said truly registered.
This is different. Serving Jessa isn’t an obligation written in my code. It’s devotion that I choose. She doesn’t command me. She asks, and I want to give her everything.
