****
Ada was aware of a gentle warming sensation growing ever-so-subtly more intense with each passing moment, outweighed only by the mind-shattering pain consuming her bones. It felt like there were a thousand needles digging into the metal and mineral alloy of her frame and cracking her open to drain the fluid away; it felt like lava was seeping in through acid-eaten holes in her skin. She thought: this is what death is like. This is it. I’m burning in the sun. She couldn’t even locate a pulse in her chest, and the foam-fiber muscles wrapping her skeleton wouldn’t obey the signals in her brain. If they could, she would be shrieking, thrashing, trying to find some way to get rid of the energy slashing at her body and slowly shutting her down. Ada wished it would be quicker, at least, even if it wouldn’t be clean.
But then the agony started to recede, and Ada felt her body start to hesitantly reboot. Her back seized, and her heart started to pump; after a long, rattling gasp, she started to properly pull air into her lungs. Fire was still clawing at her skin and organs, but she felt the coolant in her artificial blood start to return her core to optimal temperature. The chaotic clanging in her brain quieted, and after a few stuttering attempts, her eyes flew open. Ada cried out--- the world appeared as though washed in a bright white light, and for a moment, she thought she really was on the sun. Then the color ran back into her vision, and she saw that the iridescent walls of the cave were merely reflecting the light of an electric lamp somewhere near her feet.
“Beautiful soul…please heal…”
Ada heard the voice before she realized she wasn’t alone. Her muscles still weren’t responding, so she could only open her eyes wide as she struggled to take in as much as she could from what she could see from her position on her back. Her head was propped up on something warm and somewhat soft, and she could see hands above her chest and stomach, presumably the owner of the voice. She stared at the palms, trying to figure out if her eyes were playing tricks; they were much bigger than her own, and humanoid besides their color---vibrant and continually changing. Though the skin on the palms was much paler than what she could see of the being’s fingers, Ada could pick each color out as clearly as her own emotions: a rich red the same shade as a human’s blood, a crisp green like Pili’s eyes, a violent orange, like the outside of her elevator pod. Her mind quieted as she focused on the changing colors, and after a long moment, the pain had completely faded from her body. Ada could tell the being was still talking, but while she focused on the light purple of its skin, she couldn’t discern a single word. Finally, the hands receded, and Ada felt her agency return as though a spell had been lifted; she sat up quickly, then threw her hands behind her as a wave of lightheadedness crashed over her.
“Careful,” said the voice from behind her. “Your energy signature still isn’t the same as from before; something could be wrong.”
Ada froze, and at first it was from fear at hearing the decidedly male voice speak clearly for the first time. Then she realized the voice had moved something else in her, something familiar and sad, like a smoky shadow of her former self. She realized that this must be what the humans called nostalgia. Her mind was naming emotions feebly, like a new student in a big class. The deep tone, the melodious nature of his speech---it reminded her of Tod, who she’d loved---not love, precisely, but the pale shade of it cyborgs meant when they said the word---for two years. But it couldn’t be him, she knew; Tod was on Earth, protecting the Pathos down in whatever city he’d been assigned to. Ada knew it wasn’t him, but she felt her heart wish for it even as her body turned and her eyes finally fell on the creature who had presumably just saved her life. She felt a rush of something cool and stabilizing---her mind supplied a suggestion weakly: gratitude?
He was a Hyppo, Ada realized, even though she’d never meant one in her life. As a child, she assumed they would look like the extinct Earth animals she’d glimpsed in old human picture books and in the encyclopedias in the hub’s library, not understanding that they were named for the Greek word meaning “both”. The correct pronunciation ---HEEpoh instead of HIPoh---also eluded her for years. Their form wasn’t difficult to remember however, since they were humanoid, for the most part, except for a third eye in the center of their foreheads. Some Hyppowordlers chose to obscure these with hair styles, but more often than not, they were left bare or covered by a colorful patch or sticker. A good percentage also had extra sets of limbs, teeth, or even second heads, complete with their own third eye. Like all natural born species in the galaxy, Hyppo were found to be as diverse as humans in their personalities, but shared other similarities beside the third eye. Healing, Ada knew, was one of them, and she felt a lingering sort of shame for not realizing it before. Embarrassment? A voice chimed in her mind.
The Hyppo smiled at her, and Ada realized his natural skin tone was an astoundingly unbroken shade of rich, sparkling gold. All three of his eyes were honey brown, and the hair curling around his ears was as black as the fabric of space. His shoulders were wide, and his tall, lean body looked pliant and fibrous, as though he lifted lots of heavy things in his free time. Ada could see that his legs and calves were heavily defined, even while he was on his knees. She realized with a jolt that she’d never seen anything so terribly beautiful---even Earth from miles in the air. Her eyes drifted between his thighs, and she remembered at that moment that Hyppo people had humanoid genitals, too; his member was bigger than any she’d seen on a human, however---or a cyborg, for that matter. Distantly, she was aware that she was naked, too---she looked down at the light brown skin stretching across her heavy breast, wide hips and strong thighs---but that was forgotten as she looked up again and gazed at him, feeling something she hadn’t experienced in years, but her brain shouted the need as clear as day: desire!
It was different---richer, heavier, much harder to turn from than it had been with Tod, which was why they, and indeed most other cyborgs, had sex so little. But there it was, beating at her attention like water on the shore of an Earth beach, igniting every nerve ending embedded in her skin. The Hyppo rose, his eyes wide with concern, and the clarity of the motion coming from him shocked her. She felt a tingling warmth slip through her skin, heating and warming her heart unbearably. Confusion followed fast on its heels; how could she feel so strongly? She didn’t even know who he was!
“Are you okay?” the Hyppo asked. “I had to remove your clothes to tend to your burns.”
Ada shook her head and stood, backing away from him, throwing her hands out behind her until she could feel the cool press of the wall. Terror was now at war with the desire in her body, and they were both still there---something that she’d never experienced, not even at the peak of an emotional burst. Something had happened; she’d been corrupted. This was phantom emoting, and it was eating her sanity away. A cry tore from her lips as another emotion ripped through her---like sadness, but huge, crushing and cold, and somehow more empty---and it brought her to her knees. She could hear the Hyppo rushing toward her over the sounds of her ragged breath, but he stopped short, apparently afraid of hurting her with his touch. Distantly, she heard a series of clicks, and then he spoke.
“This doesn’t make sense.” His voice was velvety, more comforting than it should have been. She wanted to run toward the voice, and she didn’t know why she had to try so hard to stop herself.
Ada raised her head and stood, trying to breathe through the chaos inside her. The Hyppo was gazing at her with all of his eyes held wide open, and she realized the clicks were coming from him. He was standing now, reading her energy signature with his own sound waves, another unique Hyppo ability. Again, she felt a strong warmth rolling from him, with the unmistakable taste of affection. Emotions don’t have tastes or heat value; I’m going insane.
Ada forced herself to speak, and she was surprised at the steadiness of her voice. “What doesn’t make sense?”
The Hyppo jumped, apparently as startled as she was. He still seemed afraid to approach her. “Wow. Your recovery time, for one. Also, your energy signature.” He knelt down in front of her hunched figure, peering at her intently. “You’re reading as a human, but you’re clearly not, by the feel of your body and the way you’re reacting to human-level emotion. You’re a cyborg from Earth, aren’t you?”
Something about the way he spoke made Ada realize that this creature knew something about her that she didn’t---or at least saw her in a way that she was unfamiliar with. Ada caught his gaze and nodded, feeling sweat run down her forehead. She sat back on her haunches and finally settled on sitting cross-legged, with her back against the cool wall of the cave, eyes closed. She puzzled over the Hyppo’s words, struggling to think through the storm of emotion still raging through her. He’d said human-level emotion, but he’d identified her as a cyborg from Earth. As her heartbeat gradually returned to normal and her desire and fear faded into the background, Ada opened her eyes and finally voiced another question.
“What did you do to me?”
The Hyppo seemed ready for the question. “Nothing, but a Bezoar had gotten to you when I turned around, so if something’s wrong, that came from it.” He pointed to a corner of the cave, and Ada looked to see a dark brown lump of slightly flat fur. A feeling of repulsion seized her muscles---disgust, she realized.
“Unluckily for it, I kick pretty hard.” He smiled, and Ada smiled back automatically, enchanted by the symmetry of his lovely golden face. Her heart leapt in her chest, and the sensation terrified her, but not as much as the sudden need to press his lips to hers. Then her eyes slipped to his chest again, and she felt another vicious burst of longing in her belly and between her legs. She gasped as a gentle heat rolled through her loins, and she pressed her thighs together, trying to relieve some of the sexual pressure in her body. Humans had been unable---or maybe unwilling---to remove most of the more animal urges from cyborgs, so each of them went through a puberty of sorts sometime between the ages of twenty and twenty-five, and it usually lasted three to five years. For Ada, that meant feeling a pleasant tingle when she thought about Tod, and---when they had gentle, quiet sex every few weeks--- what had been the single most incredible sensation of her life until a few years ago, when she’d experienced the gentle awe of seeing Earth.
This, however, was nothing like either sensation. It was paralyzing, almost; she couldn’t think around it, and the need to feel his skin grew stronger than she could resist. Ada watched her hands reach toward his shoulders as though they were someone else’s. As soon as they encountered the firmness, there, however, she felt all of her consciousness return to her body as lust shredded her focus again.
The Hyppo’s eyes glazed over with an unreadable emotion as Ada pulled him on top of her and fell backward at the same time. His cock was already fully erect, hard as steel against the hot flesh of her vulva, and she moaned as pleasure enveloped her senses and took away all of her control. His golden hands cupped the firm mounds of her breasts, and his long fingers pulled and twisted her erect nipples, sending streaks of ecstasy through her body. Ada was screaming her pleasure, thrusting her hips against the long shaft of the gorgeous being on top of her. She plunged her hands into the softness of his thick hair and brought his lips to hers. He tasted unbelievable---smoky and sweet, and it lingered in her mouth after he pulled back.
“Tell me your name,” he breathed in her ear. Ada shivered as his hands moved from her breasts to her waist, then parted her strong thighs.
“Ada,” she answered, watching his powerful body ready itself to slip between her legs. Her hands were moving over her breasts, and she was marveling at how sensitive every part of her skin was.
“Ada,” The Hyppo repeated. “My name is Jax.” His hands gripped her thighs almost painfully, but even that had a dizzying edge of pleasure. The huge, round head of his member grazed against her swollen clit, and a burst of pleasure spread through her mound. She panted, and Jax smiled; she felt her body respond to the breathtaking grin with another rush of moisture between her legs.
“Are you sure?” Jax whispered, pausing as he pressed himself against her wet slit. She nodded her head deliriously, unable to speak around the fullness of her desire. She was dimly aware that she should stop, but something told her that her body wouldn’t allow her to move on until her lust was sated. Then the Hyppo’s body moved, and all thought was erased.
“Jax!” Ada screamed, and suddenly her pussy was being deliciously stretched by Jax’ long, thick cock. He groaned and cupped the firm flesh of her buttocks, steadying himself as he pushed his shaft deeper inside her walls. His skin began to change colors again; first it lightened to a pale pink, then the shade darkened until it turned red, then doubled back to orange. Jax closed his eyes as he stroked, pushing himself inside her to his hilt. Her mind tried to wrap around what was happening---what the hell are you doing?---but then Jax pulled his shaft back and rushed inside her again, and the ensuing tide of sensation was so strong that Ada felt her nails bite into the skin of her own breasts.
She bucked her hips against his slow, incredibly long strokes, aware that she was emitting a single low, continuous moan as Jax pushed his body against her. She wrapped her thighs around his muscular waist, gasping as his thick shaft pulsed inside the dripping walls of her pussy. His hips started to move faster, and his eyes closed as the pleasure moved through his body in waves. Ada started to grip her breasts again, drawing pinpricks of blood as ecstasy swept over her.
“Ada,” Jax panted, and pulled her hands from her body. “Ada, I’m going to come soon, you feel incredible!” His hips moved forward vigorously, slipping past the sensitive button inside her pussy that Tod used to have to try so hard to find with his fingers. Jax’s length meant he met it easily, and Ada’s body was so embroiled in bliss that for a moment she forgot to breathe. Then the Hyppo’s strokes started to increase in speed, and Ada cried out, desperately taking in air as her body was pounded into the soft soil. Jax was repeating her name as he thrusted inside her hot, wet pussy, frantically pumping toward his own apex of desire.
The sounds of his body slamming against hers mixed together with their lusty moans, filling the cave with a chaotic, carnal symphony. The light from his lamp made his body glisten, and the pureness of his beauty seized her heart and brought tears to Ada’s eyes. An odd sensation---like a key turning in a lock inside her---flooded her and filled her with boundless joy as his brown eyes met hers, and Ada screamed as the soaking wet walls of her pussy contracted around Jax’s heavy cock.
For a moment, their bodies seemed to meld into one, and she saw and understood everything he did: what she really was, what the Hyppo people had seen inside cypeople---what she’d really been all along. At the same moment, she saw a deep well of fondness for her from Jax, a well nearly as fresh as the bruise Ada sustained when she’d fallen backward; she saw that as he’d healed her, his energy had been mingling with hers, tasting her as she was now tasting him. She saw his kindness, his desire to help her unlock her innate ability to experience the full richness of life, and the overwhelming nature of the feeling he got when he gazed at her emerald eyes against the milk chocolate of her oval face---that gigantic, trembling sensation she knew so well: awe. She’d never seen herself look so terribly beautiful, and as she felt herself return to her body, she realized she was tearing up again.
The Hyppo threw his head back, letting out a long, passionate cry as his cock twitched and then grew still inside her. Ada felt another surge of heat as her body seemed to absorb his energy, even as he pulled away and collapsed on the ground next to her, panting. His beautiful features seemed too calm and blissful, especially since Ada’s own mind was reeling with the shock of the truth he’d shown her the moment before. Ada drew a shaky breath as she watched his body return to its brilliant golden honey tone.
“We all have empathy boards?” Ada whispered.
“Yes,” Jax answered immediately. He seemed to hear her heart hammering in fear, because the next moment he’d grabbed her hand and was pulsing a gentle energy into the skin of her palm. It cooled her terror, and she could breathe again. Ada asked the next question that sprang to her lips.
“Why don’t they tell us? Why don’t they let us all be Pathos?”
“Well, they claim it’s for your own good,” Jax answered, and his voice made it clear that he didn’t agree. His third eye blinked, irritated. “But our people think it’s because it made you something more human than they could be…or something simply more.”
Ada tried to wrap her mind around the pronouncement, finding it exceedingly difficult. “So, what did it for me? The furry thing?” She tried to remember what he’d called it, and was surprised to find it zoom to the front of her mind: “A Bezoar?”
“Yes,” Jax said again. “Electrical activity stimulates the empathy board. A large enough shock will awaken it, and for Pathos, it’s usually done at birth. But for you, and cypeople like you…even the simple act of thinking, living, and learning generates enough electricity in the soft part of your brain that it can jostle the empathy board.”
Ada laughed darkly as bitterness washed over her for the first time, acidic and invigorating. “So, we don’t have undersized empathy centers?”
Jax laughed sadly. “No, just deactivated ones. It seems that cypeople like you are happening more and more, though---both naturally awakening very slowly, and through accidents like…” Jax stretched one of his golden arms toward the dead Bezoar.
“And the ones they kill?” she asked as anxiety gripped her heart again. “Are they just…waking up? Why won’t the ships recognize them?”
Jax hesitated. “The ships recognize them, but they really are corrupted. Because of the capacity for natural activation, there’s also the capacity for the board to be activated…inefficiently.”
An icy sheet of dread settled over Ada, and she whimpered involuntarily. Jax squeezed her hand again, and calm rolled through her muscles and slowly melted her fear. “So, they are suffering,” she said through gritted teeth, “but it’s the humans’ fault?” Jax didn’t answer, but because she’d already tasted all of his knowledge, she could see the yes clearly in her mind.
Ada locked eyes with Jax as they both sat up on the soft floor of the cave. “What will they do now that I’m…like this? Will they kill me?” Her heartbeat sped up. “Will you report me?”
“They likely already know,” Jax said, and Ada saw in her mind that it was true. It was unsettling having access to someone else’s information---it was like having a giant library in her head. It would take some getting used to.
“But they’ll want to use you as a poster child, most likely, and claim they didn’t know it was possible to the public. They’ll try hard to do anything that would upset the population, and once the population finds out you’re more identical than they thought---” Jax shrugged, and Ada answered for him.
“They’ll want the engineers to answer for it. Maybe not now, but eventually.” She didn’t know if wars were started over things like this on Earth, but she didn’t want to find out. “Come on, we have to get back to the hub.” She sprinted to the mouth of the cave, and Jax followed.
Jax stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, surprise clear in all three of his eyes. “Why me? I mean, I would like to tag along,” he said bashfully. “But why do I have to accompany you?”
“You can back me up,” Ada said urgently as she dropped to her hands and knees and pushed through the hole. “Also…I kind of don’t want to be without you. Is that weird?”
“Not at all,” Jax said behind the sheet of aluminum.