I punched in the order for a pepperoni pizza, and exactly three minutes later, a fresh pizza popped out of the bottom. I slid the pizza onto a large cutting board and brought it over to one of the black leather sofas.
Help yourself. You were saying?
Zoe hopped on the sofa and lowered her nose to the pizza. I could sense her hesitation.
You've seen them. The robots. The diggers. The flyers. That's the face of the enemy. Zoe scratched her ear with a paw. It's what we were taught for generations upon generations. Mekanics were evil, mindless robots. No one questioned it.
No one?
It wasn't the type of thing you discussed in polite company. There were rumors, speculation, the kind you only spoke about in hushed tones. That the history between Mekanics and Chimerics was more complex. But talk of that type wasn't tolerated by our rulers.
That sounds…shady. An endless war you couldn't question? A ton of lower Chimerics dying while the higher one went about their business? That was worse than what Zoe had first told me.
Except the Second Strain. They questioned the War, didn't they?
Zoe shifted. No one likes war. But don't forget that the Mekanics struck here first, killing millions of innocent humans. The Chimerics came to defend your planet.
I know. Everything about the War sucks.
End the War. Isn't that what Vikki had mentioned back at the Academy? It sounded more appealing than ever.
It could be another trick. They could be stringing us along.
And the humans haven't? Like everything Dr. Hill tried to pull with the girls and me?
Dr. Hill. She confused me, but she had helped me, too. Stood up for me when it mattered against Dr. Preston. Or was it another ploy? Good cop, bad cop, to get what she wanted?
I shouldn't have thought that. I was mad about being yanked from all sides like I was piece of meat. I was mad because I might have caused Dr. Hill's death. Because I might have screwed up. Drake. The girls…
I let the slice of pizza in my hand fall back onto the cutting board. Damn it.
Zoe, what do we do? I've been trying to do the right thing, trying to save people…I threw my hands into the air. This is what happened.
Zoe stopped nibbling on her slice of pizza. She curled around me, leaning her head on my shoulder from behind.
Honestly, I don't know what to do, either. What Garvek said was…possible. Part of me fears that it's true. We can at least find out what they want.
Didn't you warn me against dealing with the Mekanics?
Yes, but…maybe you had the right idea. Maybe this is the only way forward. To end the War.
End the War. It would be worth it, everything I had gone through, if we could end the War.
***
No one else stopped by for the rest of the day.
I should have been making plans on how to steal the enemy's secrets and make a daring escape, but the whole situation was too daunting to know where to even begin. Instead, I did what any other nineteen-year-old plopped into a man cave would.
I stuffed my face with chips and dip while playing video games on the big screen TV. It was like my early days at the Academy, except better. The Academy? Damn it, I didn't want to think about that now.
Zoe prowled around the room, searching for any information, but she didn't find anything useful, either. I had a feeling that she was as overwhelmed as me. She ended up claiming a tub of cookie dough ice cream, falling asleep halfway through it.
We were basically in a prison. A luxurious prison, but still a prison.
Soon it was evening, if the grandfather clock in the room was accurate. I soaked in the bath, spent too much time trying to figure out all the controls on the built-in sauna, and then climbed into the bed. Soft, cool pillows and comforters enveloped me, and a shift in the mattress told me that Zoe had hopped into bed as well.
I reached over to pat Zoe. We'll make it through this. Good night—
My hand touched a warm metal surface. I jerked it back in shock and sat up.
Someone or something was in my bed. A figure with smooth, mirror-like skin rolled onto her side, propping herself up with one arm. Her eyes, skin, hair, mouth—all of it was made of the same polished, reflective metal. Other than that, she had the body of a gorgeous girl, like a mix of Julie's curves and Nikki's legginess. She wasn't wearing any clothes, and her anatomy from her pert nipples to her lower regions—I risked a glance—seemed to be ultra-realistic as far as I could tell.
Damn, she was hot, in a weird, alien way.
The metallic girl smiled and held out an outstretched hand.
I grasped the hand. It was oddly warm and flexible, while still being hard and metallic.
"Vikki?" I ventured.
"I'm so glad I could finally meet you!" the metal-girl I took to be Vikki said. "The real deal. Dustin Hunter." She swung her head to the side. "And his faithful sidekick, Zolandra!"
"What…" Zoe! Zoe! I searched for Zoe. She was still sleeping by the television, a metal collar around her neck. I had seen that collar before, when we had rescued Kayla and Cody from Staccato. "What did you do to her?"
Vikki glanced at Zoe. "Don't worry about her. She's enjoying her sleep. I thought we could get to know each other first. In private."
She placed two metal hands on my chest and pushed me back into bed. The movement was gentle but strong, too strong to resist. I was lying down again.
Vikki was next to me now, one leg draped across my body. "How do we do this? Say 'ahh'."
"Ahh?"
"Yes, but open your mouth more and say it longer?"
Was this part of the evaluation? Some kind of medical exam? I opened my mouth wider. "Aaaaaaaahhhh."
Vikki held my face between her hands, drawing closer. She opened her mouth, and a silver tongue snaked out, longer than any human tongue. "That's right! Open wide!"
"Shit!" I slipped out of Vikki's grasp and twisted away to the other side of the bed. "What the fuck was that!" I got up and ran to Zoe, examining the collar.
Zoe, wake up, wake up. I tried melding, but nothing happened.
Vikki hadn't moved from the bed. "Isn't that how it works? I penetrate you orally, and you do the same to me?"
I scowled at her. "Fuck no! What the hell is wrong with you robots?" I patted Zoe's face lightly and fingered her collar. It was smooth metal, and I couldn't find a catch or any buttons. Zoe, come on!
A soft sound came from the bed. Vikki was crying.
"Please. You can stop with the act," I said. "You probably don't even have tears."
"I'm not acting!" Vikki kept making sobbing noises, her hands in her face. "This isn't how I imagined it," she said softly between sobs.
I let go of Zoe's collar. I would have to convince Vikki to take it off. "Imagined what?"
"Us," Vikki said.
"Us?" I echoed. Uh oh.
"Us," she repeated. "We would fall in love and have never-ending blissful sex until the end of time. Or was it the other way? We would have never-ending blissful sex and fall in love until the end of time."
Oh, god. What had Garvek said about rebooting Mekanic minds? That it made them sane? Was Vikki some old hag robot that had gone off her rocker? "How old are, Vikki? Like since your last, uh, reboot?" I wasn't even sure if what I was asking made sense.
Vikki brightened, taking her hands from her face. "You want to know more about me?" she asked with a smile. "I was rebooted twenty-two of your Earth solar cycles ago."
"I see. Well, I'm nineteen, so we're kind of close in age, sort of." I didn't want to ask how long she had existed, afraid of what disturbing answer that might give.