“How are their cilia still intact after all this time?” He asked, not in disbelief but in wonder.
“They are all clinging together. At almost all of the timing,” she said, tapping on the tablet and pulling up a schematic of the microbots. “If a cilia falling off, I either have one holding it, or I having the others gathering the fragments, and they can repairing it.
“You got them toself-repair?!” He started in shock.
Haven nodded eagerly. “They self-repair. And when I locking them together, I making sure that the space between them is loose enough that they are having enough spacing to flex. Not much. Just enough to transmitting the force down the entire body so that the bots on the front don’t be taking all of it. Makes it that much strongest.”
“But how do you get them to communicate? Microbots not in contact with their terminal all receive signals at different times so they can’t move perfectly like that.”
“They are being always in contact with their terminal.”
“That?” He looked at the tablet in her hand.
She laughed, shaking her head. “No. One of the bots. I upgrading it. Makethatthe terminal.”
“What?”
“It can’t be doing anything else. It always being held by other bots. But it receiving all the signaling, then passing it on to the others. So it being the only one receiving my signaling, while others all receivingitssignaling.”
Brilliant. It was brilliant in its simplicity. She’d basically elected one of the microbots as the singular brain of the rest of the others. It couldn’t function like any of the others, and they had to carry it around, but by sacrificing that one bots functionality, she’d made them all remote. But it was how she upgraded the cilia functions that really stunned him.
Nanobots couldn’t self-repair. The cilia, once broken off, fragmented and that was it. The tiny pieces were just dust. Gone. But by getting the others to gather and repair them, she’d essentially made immortal microbots.
“Do you realize you could be wealthy?” He whispered, awed. “If you sold that technology, you’d improve nanotech for the entire universe.
Haven grinned wickedly, then put a finger to her lips. “Yes. Maybe someday. But not now. It is being my secret now. It is being how I hide.”
“By using the microbots to gather on the ship sensors-”
“-they can be taking control over what the sensors detect-”
“Essentiallyerasingyou from camera and microphone.”
“I also be using them to controlling the ventilation system. Taking and blowing my scent away from those who can scenting me.”
“That’s ingenious,” he murmured, stunned by how impressed he was with her. She hadn’t invented the microbots, but she’d altered them in a way no one else had been able or willing to do and thus created something beyond recognition or known ability. She was essentially hacking the ship, not the program, and using the bots to keep herself invisible.
“You’re amazing,” he breathed, taking hold of her hand. The band of microbots around her arm were surprisingly cool to the touch. He pressed a kiss there, just on the inside of her upper arm at the soft, inner skin. She shivered, staring at him with a big smile but wide eyes. Welcoming but cautious.
Keeping hold of her arm, he stroked his hand under her shirt, across her belly, then around her side to her back. She leaned away. Not to get away. Her legs parted, as though in beckoning. She shivered as he ran his hand along her body, to the bindings that she had covering her breasts, but she didn’t attempt to stop his exploration.
It was in that moment that Vytln realized.
He was used to being around human females, but he knew exactly as much about her body and their differences as she would know about his. He looked at that place between her legs, concealed by her pants, curiosity and desire burning in his gut. He didn’t know what she hid from him, but he knew it would feel incredible.
“Can I seeing?” She asked, her voice soft but curious and excited. Just a moment before he could ask the same.
“Just see?” He returned, his own tone cautious but burning.
She nodded quickly, pulling back so that she was against the wall. “I will showing you me; you showing me you. So we can seeing. So we can knowing.”
He didn’t want to stop at just seeing. He wanted to grab her, hold on and never let go. He wanted her bound and helpless and his. But he also wanted more than anything to see and stare at her glory. To witness what he knew would be his and just appreciate it.
Following her lead, he pushed himself back to the opposite side of the nest. With their legs out in front of each other, they were just out of reach. But the distance was more symbolic than preventive. A reminder that they were just looking. Just witnessing.
For a single moment, they only looked at each other. The air tense and anticipatory.
Vytln moved first. He grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it overhead. As he tossed it aside, Haven did the same. Though, compared to the utilitarian way he yanked his off, the hypnotic, almost graceful way she crossed her arms, grabbed her shirt, and lifted it up and away was like poetry.
