There’s a hole burned into his torso from the blaster, but he seems to feel only minimal pain. Something’s different about him.

No human could survive that blast.

Then it hits me. I realize what he is.

“You’re a cyborg?” I say, my mouth dropping open.

“That’s right, sweetheart,” he says. “How do you think I managed to take out those commandos?”

“I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“That’s because you’ve probably never seen a cyborg before.”

“No,” I say. “I haven't.” I’m starting to calm down, which is good. After all, I need to assess my situation and try to make the most logical move. There's got to be a way out of this, I’m sure of it. “Now tell me what you’re doing with me.”

“What you probably don’t know is that there’s something happening with us cyborgs,” he says, a cocky grin on his face. When I first woke up, he was cold and steely. Now he’s acting like an arrogant prize fighter or something. It’s such a big transformation, I can’t not notice it.

“Yeah,” I say. “I gathered that. You happened to me.”

“There’s much more to it,” he says. “And while you may know a little of politics…”

“I know more than a little,” I say, annoyed.

He just chuckles at me. “What you definitely don’t know is that your father is the head of a secret committee dedicated to the destruction of us. He wants to wipe us all out with a single nuke.”

“Nukes are prohibited.”

“Yes, but you don’t think they kept a few around, for special occasions?”

“Hmmm,” I say. After all, it is possible, but I don’t want to admit it. “Well, if my father wants to destroy all of you, I’m sure there’s a good reason. After all, you’re obviously a threat. Look at you, you just kidnapped me from Earth, and God only knows where you’re taking me.”

“I’m taking you to Mina Dos.”

“The mining colony?”

“The only remaining home of the cyborgs.”

“And what are you going to do with me?”

“You’re an important piece of our strategy. I don’t think the senator would like to nuke a moon when his daughter’s on it. He wants to destroy us, annihilate us, wipe us out completely. And do you want to know the reason?”

“You’re obviously a menace.”

“Do you want to know the real reason?”

I bite my lip. Curiosity gets the best of me, as it always does. “Fine,” I say. “Tell me your big secret.”

“He does want to wipe us out because he thinks we’re a threat, but not for the reasons you think. Recently, a comet passed by Mina Dos.”

“So what?”

“It wasn’t on any of the charts. It wasn’t supposed to come so close. And there was something strange about this comet.” There’s a far off look in his eyes as he says this, as if he’s remembering something that was both wonderful and terrible at the same time. “It had an orange glow to it…”

“Comets don’t look like that,” I interject.

“This wasn’t any ordinary comet. Once it passed, and we could all see it, we all started to… change.”

“Change?”

“We started remembering things… just little fragments… But some of us believe they were pieces of our old lives.”

Cyborgs were once humans. Dead humans, who were reanimated with special technology built into them. They’re not supposed to be their old selves. Their old personality is completely erased.

“Impossible,” I say. “Cyborgs don’t remember anything from their past. You’re basically just a machine with a program running on you.”

“That’s what I said at first,” he says. “But something definitely changed… Unfortunately, it caused a lot of chaos on Mina Dos. The next human to come for the cargo shipment was murdered, unfortunately, and that’s how I got this ship.”

“You must have murdered him,” I say.

He shakes his head sadly. “No,” he says. “It wasn’t me, and the cyborg who did it was punished. But the comet changed our colony forever… We’re different now. And your father wants to destroy us completely because he’s terrified of us… Not just us, but what we might learn about ourselves.”

“Bullshit,” I say.

“Believe what you want,” he says. “Doesn’t matter to me.”

There’s a long silence. We both gaze out of the glass at the stars that shoot past in the blackness of space, the immensity that swallows us up whole.

“What’s your name anyway?” I say.

“Why? What does it matter?”

“Shouldn’t I at least know my captor’s name?”

He shrugs. “It’s 98XF5.”

“That’s not a name.”

“It is. It’s my name.”

“No it’s not,” I say. “It’s not a name.”

“I used to have a real name,” he says, speaking slowly and gravely, as if he’s thinking of something far, far off. “But I don’t know it anymore. I’m different now.”

“You know,” I say. “They’re going to come after me.”

“They can’t track us.”

“But they know where you’re headed. They’ll know you’re a cyborg. The commandos will report. They have bio signal reading equipment anyway, that’ll report back everything. They’re going to beat us to Mina Dos, and they’ll be waiting for you. What are you going to do then? Even a cyborg can’t fight off a whole flotilla, and don’t think my father’s going to send anything less for me.”

“I’m taking a special route,” he says. “There’s no way they can beat us there, and they’ll never guess the route we’re going to take.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because it’s far, far too dangerous for any human to navigate.”

“What’s that?”

“The asteroid belt of X-Gamma 88.”

“Are you crazy?” I say. I’m terrified just thinking about the idea. The asteroid belt of X-Gamma 88 is something I learned about in school. No ship has ever passed through it, but many have crashed trying.

“Maybe,” he says.

“What makes you think you can navigate it?”

“I’m not human, am I?”

“You’re human enough to be an asshole,” I say.

He chuckles. “Maybe you’re right,” he says. “Maybe I am human. But I’m going to try it anyway.”

He may be an asshole, but he’s a hot and gorgeous asshole. He may be a cyborg, and not entirely human, but he’s the kind of guy who I’d love to have fuck me powerfully and relentlessly.

Then again, he’s my captor. And that’s not the sort of thing one does with their captor.

Then again, it’s been a long time since I had sex. A very long time.

And he’s not just hot. He’s the hottest guy I’ve ever seen, cyborg or not.