Chapter 7

I spent a half-hour at the clothing store, trying things on as I thought about what Riley told me. It wasn’t that I was wholly unopposed to the idea of having him as my boyfriend, more like it was the suddenness of the prospect coupled with what he said about being made just for me. It seemed a bit too set in stone, like I didn’t even have a choice in the matter. Maybe that is the reason I’m kind of freaking out a bit. Whatever the reason, I still needed to think on it some more.

I sped down towards F level, adjusting my new clothes – a new pair of shorts, clean, fresh socks, a new tee, and a comfy pair of boxer-briefs. I had worn them straight out of the changing room once I realized everything fit properly. I admired my new footwear, hoping I could keep them clean longer than I probably would.

I had called down to Julian beforehand and he greeted me at the lift. The moment the doors opened it took my friend a few seconds to even realize the crisply dressed youth in the lift was me. “Travis? Is that you?” Julian remarked. I nodded as I stepped out. “How did you get these?! I bet there’s a story behind this somehow!” I wasn’t really smiling and he caught on. “Trav, what is it? Something wrong?”

“I-I don’t really know. It’s why I’m here. I… I need advice from someone about this and it’s definitely something I can’t talk to Jess about. At least not yet.” I heard my voice trembling as I spoke and I wasn’t quite sure if I spoke with fear or maybe even a slight buzz of excited anticipation at the prospect of what Riley told me.

“Let’s get to my quarters and we can talk it out, okay?” I nodded as he guided me towards his space. I saw Zane walking around with someone that wasn’t Kevin and he sneered at me when he saw I was back. I didn’t even bother with a reaction – I just didn’t care right then. But he stayed away in normal Zane fashion. The moment we entered Julian’s space, I sat down hard. “Alright, let’s talk. Did something happen to or with Jesse?”

“No… this involves me and… and Riley.”

“The bot? What about him?” Julian raised an eyebrow but something in his voice told me he already knew some of what I was about to tell him. Not wanting to dwell on that, I decided to start from when we got home and told Julian what Riley told me. It felt weird telling someone about how Riley was supposedly designed with me in mind. But I glanced at my friend and, confirming my suspicions from a moment ago, saw no reaction whatsoever from my tale.

“So, what do you think I should do, Jules?” I asked, with a hint of a whine in my voice.

“I knew this day would come…” he muttered under his breath.

“What? What do you mean?”

“Well,” he sighed. “Dad told me all about this little project around when I was about ten or so. He told me what I could understand at that age and told me that he kept detailed notes on everything he did under the tightest of security for when I got older and might understand even more. He mentioned working with your parents about the bot and what his primary function was. And that he was for you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? That I already had my lover built for me?!” I started to get angrier. Julian just held his hands out, trying to push my anger away.

“Look,” he said. “It wasn’t my place to tell you anything, even if I wanted to. I was told to be a tertiary backup in case all the adults were gone and Riley had irreparable core damage but was otherwise functional. It also kinda didn’t make sense to tell you anything when Riley wound up missing around the same time your folks disappeared.”

“Wait, what?” I asked, clearly shocked. “They coincided?”

Julian nodded. “I went to check out where Riley was staying around the time when I heard about your folks not reporting in for the second consecutive week. He wasn’t a prisoner in the small quarters our folks set up for him, but he was instructed to keep his distance from you until you started going through puberty. Anyway, I checked his place so I could see what his plans were with you and he wasn’t there. I searched the whole station and I just couldn’t find him. At all.”

“So something happened where he was taken out of commission around that time, I’d guess?” Again Julian nodded at me.

“When he was here earlier, I sent Jesse to go see Kevin. While he was with the boss man, I did a check-up on Riley since I had just recently finished pouring over the specs in case… in case I had to rebuild him.” I tried to speak again but Julian just barreled through. “It doesn’t matter because he’s still here. So, I looked him over and found in his system the remnants of a computer virus. It totally compromised his ability to walk, talk… pretty much everything. I purged what was left from his system but also took a sample of it out for study. It seemed that when Riley got into an extremely low power state, the virus started to, in essence, break down. All of its coding reverted to a null state. It was designed to make Riley completely inert.”

“You mean a human-like metal shell once all of his sentient functions powered down forever, right?”

“Yeah, looks like it.” Julian rubbed his hands together, showing he was a bit nervous. “Let me ask you something. Do you think he’s attractive?” I started to blubber out some kind of excuse but he cut me off. “Wait, stop. Do you think he’s attractive, yes or no? Don’t overthink this Trav. Don’t even think about the why or how your parents decided to do this for you. Just… if you think he’s cute, then why not ignore the fact that he was built for you and just… go for it?”

Could it be that simple? Could I just ignore the reasons why this all happened and just… accept what was given to me? I mean, even if he is a bot, I don’t have to worry about finding someone on my own. Even with the problems in the female populations across the entire solar system and even amongst the Separatists – the human faction that split from the Earth-based government – there was still some stigma with males dating males. Definitely not as bad as the fabled late twentieth century in regards to human rights. But I would imagine that it still could be better.

It all happened about a few hundred years ago. There was some law about to be passed in the global government that would affect the outlier settlements the most – more taxes, less resources – and those settlements didn’t like where the global government was heading. So all the stations from Neptune outwards from Earth seceded from that government and formed the Separatist Coalition. Things were tenuous at best during those few years after the new power formed. And tensions seemed to get higher and higher as the decades passed.

And then the Solar War erupted. I don’t remember what sparked the whole thing off, but for seven long years, both sides fought viciously over space in the solar system. The Earth Government wanted to bring the Separatists back into the fold while the rogue coalition wanted to take as much of the outer systems for themselves and force the Earth government to areas within the asteroid belt at their furthest. For a while, the Separatists seemed to do okay in the first two years before the Earth government regrouped and started pushing back out. They managed to claw their way back to Saturn when the war took a drastic turn for the worse – for both sides.

Just as the Earth government started to fortify their positions around Saturn and her moons for a big push outwards, a Separatist scientist devised a weapon so bad that the coalition didn’t want to use it. Part of the reason why the Separatists started to lose their early momentum was the fact that hardly any of the population remaining at that moment in history was female. There weren’t too many women working those outer posts before they splintered off and then even fewer remained during the Earth’s march outwards once again. And some of the leaders feared a long, drawn-out campaign and would eventually lose to no population replenishment. So one of the Separatist scientists devised a way to help rebalance the equation, so to speak.

The Double Strike Virus claimed millions. Maybe even billions.

Aptly named, the virus was designed to study the subject’s DNA before it attached itself to any cells within the body. It was only initially designed to seek out those people who carry two X chromosomes – or in other words, only women. Meant to be a demoralization tactic along with helping to eliminate half the needed parts to produce more children, the Separatists never meant to unleash it, unsure of how to keep it contained to only the enemy. But because either someone broke the seal on the virus or someone released it against orders, the virus spread quickly and efficiently. Once it found its intended victims, the virus found a way to rip apart the chromosomes and destroy them within the cells, preventing any further mitosis of those cells. It took about a week from the virus activating for most of the infected females to finally die in excruciating pain. And worse, the virus during that time insinuated its way into the X chromosome so as to further handicap population growth. Men eventually became carriers due to their single chromosome and any woman lucky enough to survive the disease was severely weakened. Any females born after this time were at risk of being struck down by the virus at any point in their lifetimes – most likely during their childhood before the onset of puberty.

Once the virus spread to both factions and populations took a crippling turn for the worse, an immediate cease-fire was enacted and the terms of the Solar War Treaty drawn up, delineating the boundaries known today. But ever since that deadly virus ran rampant, humanity has seen a steady decline in overall population. Not enough to come close to extinction but enough to warrant serious examination of long-term problems a high-male population might have.

My ruminations on history faded and I just looked at Julian. I fidgeted some more. “I hope this… doesn’t come off as conceited, but… what if people found out I was dating a male robot? It just doesn’t seem like anyone would like that – a human dating an artificial life form.”

“Again, who cares?” Julian said. “What does your heart want, Travis? Honestly, if you didn’t have to worry about social issues?”

“Then… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad?” I don’t even know why I winced. It just happened. But it faded fast as a vision of his face filled my mind. How easy it seemed for me to tell how he felt, what he probably wanted to do, or was about to even say. A part of me wondered if it was based on physical responses my own body evoked in him but then I finally just… didn’t care anymore. The more I thought about him, the more my heart started to miss him. It ached for his presence. But even with all that, could I look past the fact that he wasn’t human? That he was constructed in a lab? Would societal taboos stop me from possibly finding happiness? I frowned a bit as I stood up. “I-I think I made my decision.”

My friend smiled at me but it broke the moment his door opened. We both saw Scooter standing in the doorway. The young boy seemed to be a runner of information between the various quarters on F level. “Oh good!” he said raggedly. “You’re still here! Comms just told me that the station received an urgent transmission from a vessel out near… I think Alpha Centauri. Whatever – Travis, they think it’s from your folks.”

I didn’t even apologize as I shoved Scooter out of my way, running full out towards F level’s communications hub. I feared what the message might say, but… what if it was actually a live call? That thought made me smile so widely I didn’t even feel badly for the several kids I barreled through. It took me a couple of minutes to make it to the hub and I saw both Kevin and Zane standing there.

“It’s not a call from them, only a transmission. Most of it seems garbled – at least the audio portion is. But it seems that there’s something else being sent behind the audio component,” Kevin said as I tried to regain my breath.

“Play it!” I shouted. “I need to know what they said!”

“Shouldn’t you get your brother down–”

“I said play the damn audio! It’s m-my Mom and D-Dad…” I forced myself to hold it together, mostly for the fact I refused to let Zane see me cry like a baby. I think he got some satisfaction in just seeing me a little unnerved and rattled from this most unexpected development. Kevin sighed as he nodded to one of the other kids. The speaker crackled to life.

“Trav… well… unsure if… intact… Radiation… area… high and is… with… iation. We just… the rest of the… tact. In case… ears… with you, we… know what… and… say what… Gotta… and… you and Jess… safe. We… miss you and… forgive… love… both so much. Good–” The message cut out abruptly. On a nearby screen I saw lots of data being scanned by the computer, presumably the data hiding within the communication.

I swallowed a large lump in my throat. I turned to Kevin. “C…Copy all of that data onto a disk for me. Clear all records of it from your databanks – I don’t want anyone else seeing whatever this might be. It… I-It appears to be a… f-final gift from my p-parents.” He just nodded and pressed a few buttons. A few seconds later, a clear plastic square popped out of a slot near him. He handed it to me.

“Travis… I’m truly sorry. I also copied the audio onto the disk… so you can play it for your brother.” I slumped into a chair, totally shaken up from actually hearing my mother’s voice once again, even if it was garbled. One by one, Kevin’s Krew filtered out of the room when Kevin nodded at them all. Zane tried to stay back but Kevin grabbed his arm and took him outside. Once the doors shut, I finally started to cry. I wasn’t really quite sure why I was – perhaps it was just the fact that after eight months, I finally heard from them. Or maybe it was the tone I got from the message. That maybe, they didn’t think they were coming back. At all.

That thought really hurt to think about.

I probably would have stayed in the communications room for a long time but eventually Julian came in and interrupted my silent vigil as I played with the cube of data that was meant for me. Then I thought about it. What if the data was for Riley in some way? What if it changed him fundamentally and… and he became unable to be around? Or what if it was corrupted and would damage him further? “Hey,” Julian said softly. “Your brother just called down to me, wondering if you were with me. He… he said something about how you and Riley had a fight and wanted to know when you were heading back up.”

I sighed. I knew I had to face my brother with this latest bit of news. Just as soon as we both caught a break, something seemed to dash our hopes against the cold, bitter moons that swarmed around the biggest planet in the solar system. “I… I’m going.” I stood up and looked at my friend. “Before I do that… can you… can you analyze this data? I… If it’s for Riley, I don’t want to hurt him with corrupt data.”

“Sure, let’s stop off at my quarters. You can call up to Jess from there.” He almost helped me out of the room and I saw Zane hovering around the entrance. Both of us stopped. “Hmm… maybe I should double check that Kevin erased that data from the comm panel that intercepted the transmission.” Zane saw Julian rush over to the panel and I swear I think I saw him grimace before walking away, a look of defeat crossing his face. For a brief moment, I thought Zane had really wanted to manipulate me with that data in some way, but I just couldn’t really get why. I mean sure, we both knew we hated each other, but did he really have sinister motives towards me?

I ignored those thoughts as Julian helped me into his quarters. He took the data cube from me as I stepped over to his comm panel. I typed in our quarters and sent the call. Almost immediately, Jesse’s face appeared on the monitor. “Travis! Are you okay? Riley said you’d be gone for about an hour but it’s been almost two! I thought… maybe you got arrested again somehow…”

“No, nothing like that, bro. I’m fine. It’s just… well, something happened while I was down here visiting Jules.” I swallowed. “There… there was a transmission that came in… and it was from Mom and Dad.”

His face paled. “Wh-What?”

“Before you start to get upset, it wasn’t a live call – otherwise I’d have gotten you. It was just them sending a message along with something else that Julian is analyzing right now. I’ll play the message they sent for you when I get back up there. I should be leaving the moment Julian is done scanning the data, okay?”

I saw some of the anger leave his face, the anger I knew would have been directed towards me. I could tell he still seemed peeved that I didn’t call him anyway. I just hoped that I could explain why I didn’t and not anger him further. “All right. You better not sight-see on your way back up. I… I-I wanna hear what they had to say, okay?”

“I know you do, Jess. I was going to play it for you the second I walked into our quarters. I knew better than to keep this from you. I’ll see you soon?”

“Yeah. Sounds good. Oh, before you go…” Jesse glanced around him before he continued. “Riley seems really… agitated as of late. What did you two fight about? He won’t talk to me and is now holed up in Mom and Dad’s room, waiting until you get home. I-I’ve never seen him like this.”

I sighed as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Look, can I talk to you about that in person? I know probably why he’s upset and I wanted to talk to you about it when I got back anyway. But I’ll have to talk to him first. Let him know that I’ll be home soon as well.”

“Okay. See you soon Trav.” The line went dead.

“Now that that’s settled, I think I’ve analyzed whatever it is your parents sent to you.” Julian directed me towards a screen showing the data scrolling across it. “From what I can tell, it’s for Riley. But that’s as far as I can take it. I’m not sure what purpose it serves for him. I don’t know to the extent of how it could affect him. The only thing I can recommend is having him passively scan it and not integrate it into his programming until he can determine it’s safe to do so.” The chip slid out of the port my friend put it into. He picked it up and placed it in my hands. “Go on and get going. I bet Jess is tearing up your place waiting for you to get back.”

I laughed a bit hollowly. “Probably. Thanks Julian. For everything.”

The moment I walked into my quarters, Jesse was upon me so fast I didn’t have time to even blink. I moved past him, slid the chip into a nearby console, separated the audio from the other data and spit that onto a different chip. I shoved that into his little hands and told him to go listen to that in our room. He smiled a bit at me before he disappeared. And just as he did, Riley came out and sat down, looking almost stoic.

“Travis,” he said neutrally. He wasn’t even looking at me. I swallowed as I took the data over to him and sat down next to him. He just stared blankly ahead. “I have nothing else to report about my damaged memories. At least not yet.”

“Th-That’s okay, Riley.” I looked to the ground, nervous as how to proceed. Normally never one to beat around the bush, I summoned as much courage as I could. “About what we talked about before I took my walk… I just want you to know that for a little bit there… I was… afraid. Of everything you told me. But now, after thinking about it… I’m not so much anymore.” I felt Riley’s eyes lock onto my form but I didn’t look up. He said nothing. “I-I’ve never been in any kind of relationship before. A-And honestly, at one point I wanted to maybe see… see if Julian would go out with me.”

“What are you saying?” His voice was so quiet and it also sounded so… broken. Just hearing him talk like that stabbed me in the heart. I hated hearing him sound so hurt.

“What I’m saying is that that’s changed. I wanted to try it out with him eventually, but then…” I looked up into his shining azure orbs, trepidation and fear lingering in them, “but then I met you.” All the negative things he thought slid away quickly and I saw smiles starting to shine in those hypnotic eyes. I almost forgot what I was saying. “I-I met you and… and despite all my reservations about possibly dating a robot… I-I can’t in good conscious just… throw you away like that, dismiss what I-I feel whenever I’m around you.”

“A-Are you saying…?” He sat up straighter, happier than he was a moment ago.

I nodded slowly. “I-I want… want to give us a shot. I-I want… you to be my boyfriend too.”

“Oh Travis!” Riley shouted as he launched himself upon me. His arms slipped around my torso and it felt so… so right to be in his arms. Ignoring that nagging part of my brain, I just let it be and I instantly felt it. Some kind of connection to him. The moment I felt it, I could almost feel what Riley was feeling. It was like he plugged himself into me and I had access to how his computerized brain processed things. It nearly overwhelmed me. And as Riley rained kisses down onto my face, I started to smell the sexiest thing I’ve ever smelled. I could feel my own brain clouding over in extreme lust.

“Wh…What is that I-I smell?” I almost groaned. I even pushed up into my new boyfriend, grinding my hips into his.

He giggled. “I’m sorry, Travis. I got so caught up in the moment that… I released a lot of pheromones into the air. They are… keyed directly to you. So that you would find me… irresistible. For now, I stopped dispersing them into the surrounding air. The effects should fade rather quickly.”

As I came out of that chemical haze, I could feel that Riley was actually… hard. Next to mine it felt so perfect. So right. Any last comments that nagging voice had died in that moment. How could I even think to give this robot up? “So… if you could do that all this time… why didn’t you?”

Riley stared down at me, his eyes painfully near mine. His lips caressed my right cheek just below my eye for a second. I shivered in delight. His hands rested alongside my head, his fingertips toying with my hair. I nearly purred in contentment. “I had to make sure you decided you wanted this. I didn’t want whatever we had to be forced on my part. I-I… I want us to be equals. All the time. And that couldn’t happen if I kept spitting out pheromones to seduce you.”

I smiled radiantly back at him. “Thank you for that, really. It’s very… considerate.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Oh hey!” I squealed in delight. “You used a contraction!”

Riley giggled and I felt the vibrations from him roll across my own body. My skin tingled from the sensations. “I did manage to fully repair my language subroutines. And, as you suggested, I integrated a copy of them into my emergency communications subsystem in case I get really low on power again.”

“If I have anything to say about it, you’ll never get that low ever again.” I shook my head, trying to scatter the thoughts away. “I remember seeing how scared you were when I first found you. I-I don’t want you to be that scared ever again.”

His eyes misted over as a dopey smile crossed his face. “That’s so sweet.” He bit his lip in what appeared to be a nervous reaction. “W-Would it be too soon if… I said I-I… I love you?”

I thought about that. Was it too soon to declare this to be love? Maybe on his end it was okay, where he was designed to basically mold himself to be my perfect lover, but was I ready to admit that I loved him too? It just seemed so sudden, after only being together for at most a week and officially boyfriends for the length of time it normally take me to go to the bathroom. But that was my brain talking – my heart decided to voice its opinion. I didn’t even have to think once my heart made its case. Instead of speaking, my hands slid into his silky blond strands and slowly lowered his face towards mine.

Just like the last time, feeling his lips on mine nearly short-circuited my entire being.

I felt myself swirling deeper and deeper into this boy bot the longer we held our lips together. And the moment his lips wiggled just a fraction of an inch, I groaned and moved mine a bit more than he did. That made him moan into my mouth and a battle of wills to ensue. But, figuring him to be mechanical, somehow I just knew he’d outlast me as I started to become dizzy. I pushed him away gently as I sucked in oxygen.

He gazed down at me adoringly as I struggled to breathe.

“Oh my God…” I whined as I wriggled my hips into his. I tried to contain my growing lust but it was very, very hard. Riley seemed to be amused by my attempts to control my animal instincts. “Why did I resist this for so long?”

Again, Riley stroked my head lovingly. “You have to be sure of things before you take a chance. Your thievery was an exception out of necessity from what little I’ve observed of you. But when you do decide, you like to put your heart completely into it. If you can’t for whatever reason, you won’t be happy with the end result.”

I just lay there, with him still on top of me, slightly stunned. It seems as if he had me pegged already. But that made me wonder. “Riley, don’t take this the wrong way, but… how do you know all of this about me already? Is it… does it have anything to do with the other tests that were run on me while I was still in the womb?”

Again he bit his lower lip and it made me sigh lovingly. Even if he was pensive or reluctant, the action made him cuter than it could be possible. “…Perhaps. I was… given a sample of your DNA just before you were born. I’ve had… some time to analyze your genes and used an algorithm to deduce certain traits or tendencies you might have while also using a gene database to cross-reference my findings.”

“Oh. I was just wondering.” Some of my enthusiasm waned at hearing this. “So… does this mean I-I can’t surprise you… ever?” That felt to be a sticking point for me. I knew I felt romance was far from dead and I hoped that I could shock Riley with some flowers or a surprise gift every once in a while. I wanted to be able to see the surprised delight wash onto his face as he opened his gift or saw the flowers in my hands. Seeing that reaction from him would make me feel so… alive and happy that I could do something nice like that for him. I’m not sure if I’m explaining it right, but that’s about as close as I can get.

“Oh, I’ll still be able to experience surprise just like you might.” A small smile crossed his face as he brushed his fingertips across my forehead. “You just… might have to work really hard to do it.”

I grimaced. “Can you… do me a favor?” He nodded slowly. “Can you… refrain from trying to predict when I might try to surprise you? I-I mean, I probably can do something your subroutines won’t be able to guess, but I’d like to be able to surprise you with lots of things.” My hands slid down along his trim torso. I felt him through his shirt and tried to see if my touch could decipher his faux skin and fake muscles from those from the real thing. And I found it was almost impossible to figure it out. As far as my hands were concerned, they plied the smooth flesh underneath the fabric of the shirt of a human, not a robot. I smiled at that realization. “Did you give yourself some muscle? I can’t feel your skeletal frame.”

He smiled as he finally sat up, pulling me with him. “I did. I really always had some kind of ‘muscle’ just to help with the illusion that I wasn’t just a walking, talking computer. The exposed part of my exoskeleton had that layering stripped as well – I figured I’d have a better chance at survival if I did things evenly like that.”

Just then, Jesse came out of our room and threw himself onto me, crying into my shoulder. “Travis! Wh-What does their m-message mean?!”

I rubbed his back, hoping to calm him down some. “Shh… it’s okay Jess. I honestly don’t know what it meant. I could speculate but I could be wrong in that regard.” Jesse leaned back and looked into my eyes, a few unshed tears pooled in the bottom of each of his green eyes. My vision then went to Riley. “Perhaps… maybe Riley can clean up the message better than the station’s computers can. Will you give it a try?”

He nodded. “I can’t promise success but I’ll give it my best try.” Jesse climbed off me and ran back to our room.

“Before he comes back, there’s also something else I’ll want you to look at. It came with the transmission, but it was data. Julian thinks it was made for you, but before you study it, set up quarantine protocols in case it’s corrupted or designed to try and change you for the worse. If you can, I’d like you to study the hell out of it to make sure it’s safe and if it really is for you. Only then would I recommend you integrate it into your system.”

“I’ll make sure to take every precaution known to me. I’ll even have Julian’s external repair device give it a scan before I give you a report.” Jesse came back into the room with the audio in hand.

“Here Riley,” Jesse said with a bit of a sniffle. I pulled my brother onto my lap and held him to me. I wanted to ease his mind while Riley worked on clearing up the interference. He suddenly jerked a bit in my arms and giggled a bit. “Hey! That tickled!”

I slid my hands closer to his belly. “Sorry, bro. Just trying to get you situated on my lap is all.” I saw Riley’s eyes cloud over as he internalized himself to take a look at the transmission. “Hey, while he’s busy I want to share something with you.”

“What’s that?” My brother leaned back into my chest and rested his head against my right shoulder. I heard him sigh out some of his building tension.

“I just wanted… your opinion on what you might think about me and… a-and Riley… dating.” I blushed a bit before I felt Jesse trying to contain his laughter. “What?”

“N-Nothing at all. Just… I was wondering when you’d get over yourself and just get with him. I knew when he kissed you back at Julian’s place that I figured I’d be looking at Riley as a future brother-in-law. Which actually is okay – you could do a lot worse than Riley.”

I hugged Jesse tightly as I felt him wrap one of his arms around my head to do his best to return the gesture. “Thank you Jess. That… this actually means a lot to me. I’d hate it if my relationship with Riley hurt ours in some way.”

“I know what you mean.” Jesse felt a bit warmer to me. I glanced at his face and it tinged a shade of pink. “I-I think… I think I might like Julian a bit. I don’t know for sure though.” He turned to look me in the eyes as best as his position allowed. “You wouldn’t mind that… would you?”

My smile brightened warmly. “Not at all bro. Not at all.”