I AM MAN, page 4
Helios glared at the Skel. “Pretty sassy for a factory line robot.”
“Skel have organic parts, too,” Clora said. “They’re designed to have the ability to think for themselves and make vital decisions in life threatening moments. It’s important for them to keep their codes private, so they’re not corrupted.” The princess was right. Every Skel had an eight- or ten-digit code used to activate their Core. Anyone who knew this code had complete control over that unit. Even the ability to initiate its self-destruct.
Helios was not impressed. “Do you know why I love Augments, Clora?”
She shook her head.
“Because Augments are left in the hands of their designer. If I don’t want to hear someone’s mouth, I’ll remove it. If I want complete obedience, I’ll reprogram their brains to do so. My dolls are designed exactly the way I like them. But Skel—I loathe Skel. They’re not dolls, they are robots. Lifeless hunks of metal engineered in a factory for gruesome work.”
“What he means is, he can’t tell them all what to do without paying a factory an overpriced contract,” Sunder cut in, waving her fork around for emphasis.
Clora didn’t laugh but found it hard to hide her smirk.
Helios turned; his eyes glided over the crowd to land on his sister in a perfect, piercing gaze. “This isn’t a joke, Sunder. Imagine if Clora commanded her Skel to murder us all—we wouldn’t be able to stop it.”
Sunder held up one finger. “First of all, Clora would never do that.” She held up another finger. “Second, there are five other Skel in this room—two of them are directly under my command. Clora and her bot are outnumbered. There’s no reason to be afraid.”
“I am not afraid,” he corrected. “I just don’t appreciate insubordination.”
Sunder wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “You can’t enhance everyone who defies you, brother.”
“No,” Helios agreed. “But I can certainly punish them for it.”
------X------
After dinner, Clora walked to her quarters with X5. Before her confinement, she’d always walked to her room with her brother, but Helios had been cold to her after the exchange with her Guardian. He’d ignored her for the rest of the evening, only speaking to her when absolutely necessary, and when their parents had left for bed, he’d practically run from the room. Clora couldn’t complain, for once she preferred X5’s awkward silence to the mindless chatter of her siblings. He walked with her now, just a few paces behind as she turned a corner and found her grand double doors.
Clora held her data gem up to the keyhole and it unlocked, slowly creaking open to let out the chilly air inside. She hugged herself as she crossed the threshold, enjoying the sight of her old bookcases stuffed full, her paintings hanging on the walls, handmade carpets buried beneath piles and piles of worn dresses. This was her home; she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it until now. Her father’s cruel words rang in her ears and her smile curdled on her face.
Another three months; she didn’t think she could last—but there was a sliver of hope. Helios had said something about helping her, at least it’d seemed like he was going to offer help before X5 had interrupted him. Clora glanced back at her Skel, remembering his presence just now. He was still outside her doorway, standing against the wall.
She turned to him, dropping her hands to her sides. “You interrupted Helios earlier.”
He didn’t respond.
“You can’t upset him, Exfive.”
“I wasn’t trying to—”
“That doesn’t matter. He can’t do anything to you—you’re a three-hundred-pound fighting machine. But he can punish me, and he will if you make him angry.”
“I won’t let him touch you.”
“You will not interfere with my family, no matter what happens.”
He shifted, clutching his large gun to his chest. “It is my job to protect you.”
“I command you not to interfere with my family.”
X5 sighed, his blue eyes flicking off and on as he blinked his metallic lids. “I can only follow that order if you aren’t in life threatening danger. My Core can override any command it thinks will put you in further harm.”
She thought about this a moment then gave him a quick nod. “My family means me no harm.” The words tasted sour on her tongue, but she had to believe them. Her father was hard on her, her brother had his issues, but her sister and her mother had always been kind. And it wasn’t like she didn’t deserve her punishment. She’d committed a crime, after all. Even princesses could not live above the law. Her actions had ruined her reputation and tarnished the royal name. Her father and brother had every right to be cold towards her.
But Helios was more than cold, he was an ice storm in the middle of a desert. He would let this incident slide, but his forgiveness would come at a price—not to mention the grand plan he had to get her out of another three months of confinement. Clora had only been back home for a day, and she already owed too much to her brother. If there was one thing she knew about Helios, it was that he always collected his debt.
Chapter Four
Her handmaids came to her room an hour earlier than expected. Code-X5 tried to turn them away but the one in charge put up a fight. She stood in front with her arms crossed and her face twisted into a sneer as she glared at X5 and said, “We have a job to do!” Like he didn’t know. He did know about their job. He just didn’t care.
“I understand you’ve got a job—”
“No, you don’t,” she snapped. “It is our job to get the princess ready for her day.” She waved her arm around to motion to the women beside her, a troop of young girls—all Purebloods—dressed in the same golden chiffon dresses with their hair wrapped in silk scarves and their dark skin smooth as eggs. “If we can’t do our jobs, the princess will suffer.”
X5 resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He had spent three months with the princess, standing just outside her room as she cleaned and dressed herself. She wouldn’t suffer a thing without these women, but he didn’t tell them that, of course. He just took a deep breath and tried to sound understanding when he said, “I don’t have clearance from security to grant you entry.”
“How do we know that?” the leader said.
He pulled up his feed and then remembered they were Purebloods—they didn’t have instant access to his online comms. So he waited while they held up their data gems and joined the server he’d opened to show them Clora’s schedule for the day. It was just as he’d said, the princess wasn’t scheduled for wake-up for at least another hour.
Code had expected to close his feed and find six disheartened women, but the lady in charge fished a card from her pocket and passed it to him. She crossed her arms as he examined it, her tongue wiggling from her mouth to wet her lips, like a snake hissing at its prey.
It was a pass card. A chip she’d been given that allowed her permission to alter something on the predetermined schedule; namely, Clora’s wake-up time. X5 took the card and scanned it, uploaded the data to his personal system just to verify its authenticity. It was clean. Judging from the encryption, it’d been issued by a Soldier on the security team. S14, Code remembered. He opened a channel to all the Skel on the premises and pinged everyone within reach, hoping to contact S14.
Now, all of this was happening while the handmaids were still standing there, waiting for Code to let them pass. He’d done quite a bit of investigation after receiving the pass card, but he was a Skel built for this sort of stuff. In real time, only a few seconds had passed but humans were impatient little things. In just those few seconds, the maid in charge had stepped forward and tried to snatch the card from Code’s hand.
Bad idea.
Code-X5 was a Guardian Skel, designed to protect a client at all costs. He had guns built into his arms powerful enough to take down a sand rider, not to mention the five other weapons hidden beneath his floor-sweeping cloak. He was seven feet tall, weighed 300 pounds, and was strong enough to crush the maid’s bones in his bare hands. So when she tried to snatch her little card from his grasp, he reacted without thinking by smacking her hand away and shoving her back against the wall.
Shrieks filled the hallway and Code groaned internally. Then his server pinged, right on time; just to escape the chaos in front of him, he pulled up his feed.
This is S14, what’s the problem?
This is X5, just trying to verify a pass card from a handmaid.
The feed paused. X5 could feel S14 chuckling on its end.
Oh, yeah. I gave her a pass card for the princess. Consider it verified.
This is X678. I’m getting reports of screams from Princess Clora-Vean’s quarters.
I’m handling it now. It isn’t an emergency.
Code closed the feed and noticed the maid leader cowering on the floor before him for the first time. He crouched in front of her and tapped her on the nose with the pass card.
“Don’t do that again.”
Then he stepped aside and pinged the security system to Clora’s door. It yawned open, letting out the smell of her fruity perfume.
The troop of pretty maids took two and a half hours to get Clora ready for the day. X5 had just decided to go in and inquire when the door creaked open. He took a breath when he saw her. She looked elegant, almost angelic, in her long dress and glowing skin and shining jewels. But it was her smile that set his organic parts on fire; a grin he’d never seen on her before, locked away for months on end with an antisocial Skel. She’d been dressing up a lot these last two days, going on dates with a very important guest who’d come to welcome her home.
Clora glided through the door, barely casting a glance at Code. “Thank you, ladies, you did a wonderful job.”
“Our pleasure,” they said in unison.
She turned to X5. “I’ve got another date.”
“Breakfast in the small hall.”
She nodded and turned to leave. Just like before, X5 followed close behind, never falling more than a few paces back. Last night she’d warned him not to intervene with her family—had commanded him not to—but he wasn’t sure he could keep that command. Strange, this was the first time he felt thankful for his Core having the ability to override his own decisions as well as his client’s orders. It worried him that it may have to take over because of her family.
A lavish meal had been set out for the princess and her date; Code wanted to groan over the waste, but he kept to himself. Clora hardly ate any of the food on her dates, she’d always been a light eater, but he was sure her tiny bird bites had nothing to do with her appetite.
Clora took a seat and let go a breath he hadn’t noticed she’d been holding. This date would be torture for both of them. On cue, the man of the hour walked through the double doors and every servant in the room stopped to bow.
Pygmalis du Kishara strode across the room in all the glory a Kishran prince should have. He’d arrived the day after Clora, like a shadow sneaking in through the back door. When the sun had risen, the royal family woke to greet a full platoon of Kishran soldiers with 100 horses and half as many chariots filled with gifts. If the Vale Republic was a searing desert, then the Nation of Kishra was a frozen lake. They presented furs and parkas and seeds of hardy plants native only to Kishra for the princess to add to her garden. The complete opposite of their umber Pureblood brethren, the Kishran people were a sea of sparkling blue eyes and hair so blonde it was nearly white.
Prince Pygmalis wore his white-blonde hair in a topknot with a ruby studded crown holding it in place. A grin took up his entire face, plastered across his milky white skin, it stretched as he spotted Clora waiting at the table.
“You look stunning,” he said in his sharp, Kishran accent.
She inclined her head. “As do you.”
They sat and ate with X5 standing behind. He would have fallen into his feed and ignored them both if it weren’t for the Skel standing across from him … watching him. She was a Guardian who belonged to the prince, much older and much more paranoid than X5. She wore full armor except for her helmet, which Code was sure she discarded just to make him uncomfortable. With her face out, he could tell she was looking right at him. Her blue eyes, as piercing as Pyg’s, never left his frame. If X5 had skin, it would have crawled. But he didn’t, so instead he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and concentrated on the prince’s voice as he explained to Clora what snow felt like.
“When it is fresh, it is soft. Like your skin.” He had her hands in his, brushing his thumb over the inside of her wrist as he spoke. X5 could hear Clora’s pulse quicken, though you didn’t need super hearing to realize she didn’t like the prince. While he was handsome and rich and exotic, he was also pushy and touchy and found a way to make even Skel feel uncomfortable.
He leaned in so he could whisper, “Are your lips as soft as the rest of your skin?”
Clora squirmed but didn’t pull away—she couldn’t pull away because his gentle caress had turned into a firm grip on her arm, holding her in place. “Pyg,” she said softly.
“Let me see if your lips are soft.” He dipped his head, but Clora turned so he only kissed her cheek. His blue eyes glowed with anger when he pulled away, but his temper fizzled out when the princess smiled.
“Maybe you can find out later.”
He grinned, cupping her chin. “Is that a promise?”
“It’s a possibility.”
The prince wasn’t satisfied but he was out of time. Before he could argue more, Clora’s data gem chimed, and she stood so fast she bumped the table and nearly knocked over her glass of cucumber juice.
“I must go!” she said quickly.
“I will see you tonight?” He watched her rush away; a pleading look in his eye.
“Perhaps,” she offered and scurried off.
Code followed her out, thankful no one ever expected a goodbye from him. Their dates always seemed to go that way; the prince getting grabby, Clora never liking it but also never fighting it, until one of them had to go. X5 hated it because there was nothing he could do. Though, the princess didn’t like Pygmalis, she wasn’t in any life-threatening danger; so he couldn’t rip his arms off for holding her hand or bash his face in for trying to kiss her. He’d already been reset for losing one Kishran prince, he’d likely be dismantled for killing another. So X5 kept his mouth shut and his eyes forward whenever the prince came around which was All. The. Time.
Strolls in the gardens, tea on the balcony, lunch on the grassy plains of the oasis with his horses grazing about. Pygmalis was always there, barely giving Clora—nor Code—any time to breathe. It was exhausting, despite the fact that he hardly had any real work to do. X5 put more energy into ignoring Pyg’s Skel and all her staring than he did in actually monitoring or protecting anything. Though he did wonder if he would have to work tonight, with Clora dangling the possibility of a kiss over the prince’s head. He would undoubtedly come to test his chances; it was just a matter of how forceful he would be.
------X------
Clora was getting changed for dinner now. X5 could hear the handmaids inside her room, chattering like little birds as they applied makeup and balms and tied her coils of hair into elaborate braids. He ran a security check through his systems while he waited and then checked his weapon just to be safe. When the deed was done, Clora emerged in another new gown and brand-new rabbit skin slippers—a gift from the Kishran prince. If Code didn’t know any better, he’d say the pig was trying to court her. And he’d say she was alright with it, considering she’d decided to let her feet sweat in rabbit skin shoes instead of wearing traditional Valetian sandals.
“Are you ready?” she asked him, as if he had any say in the matter.
He nodded and waited for her to take the lead.
With an entire Kishran platoon to feed, the royal family held dinner in the great hall. It drove X5 mad with all the guests—military officials, Valetian and Kishran, high ranking Purebloods of the Vale, and even elite Augments with specially issued passes to enter the pyramid. There were easily 500 guests in the hall and only 10 Skel to stand guard. Technically, 10 was all you needed against a bunch of weak Purebloods and a handful of Augments, but with at least 4 of the 10 Skel there on private contracts instead of official security, it left only 6 units to focus on keeping threat levels down to a minimum. And by “threat levels” that usually meant keeping the guests from getting too drunk and hurting themselves—or keeping the Augments from stealing anything, which would undoubtedly cause the Purebloods to hurt someone.
Code-X5 maintained his connection to the open server for the Skel on duty while he watched Clora throughout the evening. He could have stayed focused on his client and ignored all the pings he’d been getting from the other units, but he was bored of listening to Pyg’s desperate flirting and, also, he wanted to see if he could get a reaction from the prince’s Skel. So, when Pygmalis leaned over and brushed his hand against Clora’s knee, he sent to his feed, Keep an eye on foreigner. He’s getting too grabby with my client.
X678 sent back, Will do.
S14 didn’t like being told what to do but being in charge of General Security meant it would be blamed for any incidents or complaints, so it complied anyway with a quick, Already on it.
A few seconds later a new Skel joined the feed and said tartly, That “foreigner” is Crown Prince Pygmalis du Kishara.
Ever the leader, S14 replied, Unit X5 didn’t mean any offense, X04.
Code took note of her reference ID, glancing up to find her across the room. She was tucked against the wall, inconspicuous except for her bulletproof armor and bulky shoulder plating. He would have glanced away when he realized she was still looking at him, but her eyes were dull and unfocused as she stared at the messages in her feed. Only part of him relaxed, he didn’t doubt she was still watching him through the cameras hidden in the wall hangings and golden fixtures. Since he knew her reference ID, now he could open a private channel with her.
