Sergei Lukyanenko - The Genome

“If anyone interrupts us now, I’ll kill them!”

Alex glanced at her body—her slender, perfect figure, her tousled hair, her fingers flexing in anticipated ecstasy.

“Agreed… We’ll kill them together.”

After all, he had been deprived of decent sex for almost five months, and the dreary virtual sex imitator at the hospital contained only the programs that bored Alex even back in his puberty days.

“Alex…”

Maybe promising to kill was a mistake. She was, after all, a strange hybrid of fighter and hetaera. Quite possibly, violence excited her as much as sex did. She pounced upon him with a passion he hadn’t seen even in the most experienced professionals.

“I’ll do anything you wish, anything,” she whispered, helping him undress. “Anything. Just love me, you’ll see, no one will ever love you like me, no one… only love me…”

Alex kissed her again without answering.

Sex with her was really wonderful. Alex had never much cared for hetaeras, who were specialized to look like nymphets, but this was something different. He couldn’t help feeling that Kim would be just as seductive in the full glory of womanhood, and in later maturity, and even in old age. Possibly she had been pre-programmed for delayed aging, giving her almost a century of youth. But it was also possible that she would age the way ordinary women did. In any case, the sexual charge emanating from her seemed endless. Alex took her four times in a row. Every time, she had an orgasm. But it seemed she could keep going the whole night and the following day, and never get bored.

She rested for just a few minutes—Alex felt her rapid kisses on his body, and her hot lips, and her quick slender fingers. He opened his eyes and whispered:

“Kim… I’ll pass this time…”

She laughed quietly, pressing against him with the same passionate readiness.

“Was it good for you?”

“Yes, Kim. It was great. Thank you…” He lightly kissed the tip of her nose. “You’re wonderful. I’ve never met anyone like you.”

Kim smiled proudly. But her smile quickly faded.

“Alex…”

“Yes?”

“You know… something’s not right.”

She sat up on the bed, wrapping herself in a thin blanket. She looked suspiciously at Alex.

“Tell me, are you really attracted to me?”

“You couldn’t tell?”

This time, her smile was even more evanescent.

“Alex… well, something’s wrong! You don’t… love me?”

It would be nice to get some sleep now, and not start this senseless discussion…

“No, I don’t.”

“Not at all?” she pressed.

“Not at all, baby.”

“But why?” She tossed her hair back. “You think I’m a sex maniac? I’m not! I won’t ever say a word to you about it, if that’s what you want. I just saw that that’s what you needed.”

“Kim, I’m a pilot-spesh.”

“So what?”

“Damn it, Kim. My ability to love is removed. Artificially removed.”

Her features froze. Then came a sheepish little smile. “Alex… you’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. It’s true, baby. I’m incapable of love. Anything but that.”

“How can… love be removed?” Kim’s voice quivered. “It’s like breathing… walking… thinking… Alex! You’re pulling my leg! You’re joking, right?”

“Kim, I’m telling you the truth. It is common knowledge that pilots, detectives, and tax collectors are genetically modified to be incapable of love.”

“Why?! Why pilots?!”

“We have a feeling of confluence with the ship, Kim. It must be… well, it’s probably something like love. It’s like with the hyper-channel, you know. There cannot be more than one hyper-channel in the galaxy. Same with love. Either you can love people, or you can have confluence with the ship.”

“And you chose a chunk of metal?”

“The ship is not a chunk of metal, Kim,” said Alex quietly. “It’s alive, though not sentient—it’s a biomechanical organism. And I didn’t choose. None of us chose. No one has figured out how to ask for an embryo’s consent yet.”

“Alex…”

He was expecting an explosive reaction. Was ready to face it. Ready to have Kim punch him, if her fighter instincts took hold of her. Ready to see her run away in tears.

Once again, Kim surprised him.

“Oh, you poor thing…”

She hugged him with the impulsiveness of a hetaera and the forcefulness of a fighter. She made him sit up. Pressed his head against her small, firm breasts.

“Alex… you poor darling…” He was suffering, all right—the pose she had bent him into was very uncomfortable. Besides, his pilot instincts were telling him that this pose would be dangerous, should the gravity vector suddenly change. But Alex kept mum and waited.

“I won’t leave you!” cried Kim suddenly. “I won’t, no matter what! They couldn’t have removed your love completely! You will fall in love with me! I’ll teach you how to love! I swear I will!”

Her skin scent was cool and gentle. Maybe perfume, maybe natural pheromones. When the scent became spicy and heady, Alex realized that it must be pheromones.

He freed his head from her embrace and returned another kiss.

Alex had never been one for great sexual exploits. His best achievement must have been participating in the traditional graduate orgy at the pilot academy. The event started at sundown and lasted till sunrise. And it was devilishly multifaceted, with sex simulators, tonics, invited geishas, fellow graduates… Even some exclusive virtual images from the world’s best modeling agencies. The graduates had held a big fundraiser to get them. Alex had never suspected that one girl, young and inexperienced, could excite him so much.

Kim was putting her heart and soul into it. They tried several old but fun sexual diversions, drank a bottle of dry wine from the bar, then began anew. But as soon as Alex started to feel he was participating in some exhausting sport competition, Kim quieted down. Maybe she really was well tuned to his emotions. Then again, she may have been watching the Demon.

“Should I let you rest?” Kim lay on her stomach, slowly caressing his shoulder. Her pose was a compromise between her next attempt to seduce the captain and the inescapable need to rest. “You’ll have to be back on the bridge soon, right?”

“In three hours and seventeen minutes.”

“Your internal clock is very accurate.”

“Part of my specialization. I feel time to one-tenth of a second.” He slid his hand along her spine. Thank God, Kim didn’t bring up his inability to love again. Perhaps she felt sex was a worthy alternative. Or maybe she was still coming up with a crazy plan to overcome his specialization.

“You have a little scar…”

Alex looked down at his own stomach. Yup. The scar was really thin, but went all around him, like a belt, just below the belly button.

“I told you… there was an accident. I was torn in half.”

Kim winced.

“Poor thing. It must’ve hurt like crazy?”

“I lost consciousness immediately. I hardly remember anything.”

“So what happened?”

“We weren’t going to land on Quicksilver Pit. Docked at one of the orbital ports to get some fuel. Our orientation engines had a small malfunction… so I went to the aggregate module. That’s also a part of a pilot’s job—small engine systems repairs. And then…”

Alex lapsed into thought.

“No, I don’t remember. There was a flash… and that was it. There was a minor problem with the force field generator, and plasma burst out at the very moment I entered the module. The burst was not a big one, so I wasn’t incinerated. But a shard of the generator cut me in half. I got lucky, though—our fighter-spesh was walking down that passage. He heard the explosion, took me out, and hooked me up to an IC unit. Then he took me to a shuttle, delivered me to the planet, and brought me to the hospital. I hope William doesn’t get into trouble for that.”