XTC 2.9

...

"Gina."

...

"Gina."

His voice broke through the fog, centring her.

"I love you."

Lost in an endless ocean of emptiness, she chased his words. She clung to the one thing that she knew to be true.

"I love you."

"I need you."

His words filled her, drove her, and she knew she could do anything. For him, she would do anything.

.

Servos whirred. The droid turned its head. It blinked.

It was a lab of some kind. There were familiar cabinets filled with sex toys. The decor was heavy with wood panelling, green faux marble, and brass. Lucas and Leah were both there.

"Ah! There she is!" Leah declared, turning towards her.

"She's alive... she's alive!" Lucas shouted dramatically.

He quieted under Leah's withering stare, cleared his throat, and turned back to the computers in front of him.

"Everything looks good," Lucas said, looking at the monitors.

"Look at me. Focus, focus," Leah said, slowly moving a silver vibrator back and forth. "Good girl."

"Excellent. Tracking is perfect. Responses all normal. Everything is within acceptable parameters."

"We'd better get the captain."

Consciousness faded once again.

.

"She eats the same protein solution that X was feeding her before," Lucas said.

"I think she's awake," Leah interrupted.

All heads turned and stared for a moment.

"Ah, Number Three, there you are."

Miller quickly crossed the room and leaned close to her face. She took a deep pull off her vape and studied the droid closely. Blowing the mist towards the ceiling, she grinned. "Beautiful," she decided. "Bloody beautiful. X is a master. Pure genius."

She turned and beamed at the hovering scientists. "He really did memorize every last millimetre, didn't he?" she crowed, then returned her attention to the android.

"Don't be alarmed if you don't feel anything right now. Emotionally, I mean. Everything will come back to you in time. Picture it rather like trying to relearn things after a stroke. It's a puzzle with some pieces missing. Not the best analogies, I'm afraid, or the most accurate. Well, never mind. It will all come to you."

Gina blinked at her a couple of times, then did something so unexpected that the captain staggered back a step—she smiled.

.

Gina's log. The trip has been quiet so far. We're on the Captain's other ship, The Ecstasy, bound for Venus. We're on our way to check on the status of the Martian motors installed into several enormous atmospheric processors there. They seem to be weathering the caustic atmosphere just fine, and given their size, and their ability to run non-stop, I'm told that the difference they're making is already measurable. Still, even though it's nowhere near as acidic as when mankind first arrived, Venus is notoriously hard on machines and is still uninhabitable for humans.

From what I understand, this is a new job for her. Apparently, her last job wasn't going well. A rival company wanted her things, and wanted X and William for themselves, and her own company wasn't doing much to help her. I understand why someone would want X, but what would they want with a bunch of sex toys? Before creating the Martian motor, the Captain just made pleasure machines. She just wants to make people smile. Besides, didn't they know X and William can think for themselves? It should be up to them who they want to be with. There's so much that I don't understand yet.

Her friend Nigel helped her get work with someone else. He hooked her up with a major manufacturer of terra-forming equipment, who offered her a position and a considerable amount of money for the engines. They even gave the captain stock options into the bargain. She's now quite well off, and I think this may be her last trip. She's handed off a lot of her responsibilities to someone named Rogers. I don't know about him, though. I don't think he could find his ass with both hands.

The Captain tells me that I used to be organic, like her, but that there was an accident. I died and I've been reincarnated. I don't remember. Actually, I don't remember much of anything before a couple of weeks ago. The Captain says that's normal, that you're not supposed to remember your past life, that reincarnation is a fresh, new start.

I do dream, though. My dreams are filled with X. I don't know why, but I feel like my life started with him, like he was with me in the darkness between my past life and this one, like he's always been with me.

How I feel about him, and about the captain are just about the only things I'm sure of. I find I don't always know how to feel about things, or how to react to things, but the captain says that's normal. She says that I'm still young, and that it takes time to learn.

She says my official name is XTC 3 and that if anyone asks, I'm supposed to pretend that I'm just a robot. She says it's for my protection, and X's. I don't know what to think. It's all way beyond me. I told her that I am just a robot, but she says I'm wrong, that I'm much more. I asked her what she meant, but she just said that I'd see.

.

Captain Miller sighed and slouched down a little more in her chair. She should have been in stasis still, but she really couldn't abide the pods. Despite their redundant safety systems, she didn't really trust them, and she always felt like she was missing something when she was tucked away in one of the little cryo coffins. She knew she could trust the droids to wake her if there was an emergency, but after everything that had happened, she preferred to sleep normally as much as possible.

"No poison apples for me," she muttered.

"Even if my handsome prince will still be around in a hundred years," she mentally added, casting a glance at William.

"Ma'am?" Gina asked, having overheard.

"Nothing, dear heart, just thinking. It's nice to spend as much time as I can with you three, instead of locked in that damn tube."

"I like spending time with you, too, ma'am," Gina replied. "But, please don't overdo it. We want to have lots more adventures together."

The boys were manning the helm, Gina stood by her side. Since renewal, she rarely ventured far, like a timid child hanging off her mother's apron strings. To be expected, though, and she was confident the girl'd grow out of it. Miller looked up at the droid.

"Truly remarkable," she thought to herself. "So close to how she was before. Better, perhaps." She sucked her vape and studied her a moment. "Where the other two were a triumph, she's a masterpiece."

She'd used the body she'd been preparing for herself one day. Thanks to Nigel, medical supplies and extra parts were there almost before the battle was over. How he'd come through for her was truly astounding. She had no idea how he'd done it. A small team had been sent to help transport everything and get her off world. They'd guarded her until she was ready to move, done the heavy lifting themselves, and seen her safely on her way. Her ship had been readied and arrangements already made with the inspector before they'd even reached the space port. She'd been left to worry only about her own wounds, and about Gina.

She had no illusions that Nigel's actions had been sanctioned and approved by his superiors. They would have thrown her to the wolves. Her responsibilities would have been passed on, and she'd have been abandoned on Mars. She'd possibly have faced recriminations once she returned to Earth. No 'job well done' for surviving an armed assault without backup, and without warning. Rather, the mission would be considered a scrub and the fingers would be pointed at her, instead of at the loose lips on their end who'd placed her in jeopardy in the first place. The company would quite likely see Nigel's actions as a betrayal, regardless of the reasons. Meaning, he had quite literally risked his life for her, for no apparent benefit, and for no apparent reason.

What he could possibly want in return for all this was a mystery she decided to solve later. The way that he stared at her—like a lost puppy—nearly made her fear that he intended to propose. The idea was ridiculous, though. She had to be at least ten... well, older than he was. So, what was it, then? She'd barely spoken to him since it happened. Of course, that was largely because she'd spent most of her time either sleeping off her injuries, or inside Gina's mind. Well, never mind, he was bound to out with it sooner or later.

The programming had been meticulous and lengthy. She was sure that lack of sleep had taken another ten years off her life. The results, though, spoke for themselves. The mesh had been astonishing. There was truly no explanation for it. Even given the difference in process, where the boys had taken weeks for their personalities to fully develop, Gina was just like her old self in mere days. Well, nearly like herself. There were some holes, to be sure, but that was to be

expected. They'd fill in, given time. X seemed satisfied.

X had spent ages on the Realskin and the underlying mesh. Body weighting, colouring, everything down to the last eyebrow hair, the last freckle... things that Gina herself would most likely have never noticed. She even had that same big backside it was hard to find clothing for. At a glance, you'd never know that she wasn't the same girl without performing an x-ray on her. Now that she was on her feet, he would undoubtedly spend weeks testing her responses.

The process of body sculpting and biometric meshing had taken much longer than she'd have liked, but given what Gina's near loss had done to the droid, she didn't have it in her to chastise him. It had been an interesting study in the psychology and mental capabilities of her androids, one that proved that not only could they love, they could feel fear, and hope... and they could be heartbroken. He handled grief in a manner remarkably similar to herself. She would hate to have seen what it would have done to him, had they failed. Being an android, would he grieve forever? How deep a loss that can be felt over centuries?

She noticed that X had turned towards them. He was watching his girl, and the look in his eye was very human. Miller chuckled warmly.

"It seems someone else would like your attention," she said, nodding towards him.

The captain took a pull from her vape and squeezed Gina's hand.

"Go on, dear, don't make him wait."

Captain Miller watched her go to him, and as X took Gina in his arms, and their lips met, she smiled.