mind. I guess once we get out of here, we should let the others know.”
“Ya think? Chloe’s been pestering Joe about doing more to find her cyborg sisters.”
“You mean there are more than just me and Ana?” Rosalind asked.
Seth, for once not leering or joking, took Rosalind’s hand in his. “Yes. We’ve managed to rescue three so far, four if you count my wife. Do any of these names sound familiar? Chloe, formerly C791, her blood sister, Bonnie, once B785, and F814, Fiona.”
“I remember them, especially Bonnie. I thought she was dead. Last I heard the military had her slated for termination.”
“We were all supposed to be terminated,” Anastasia reminded. “Lucky for us, greed kept some of us alive, and cunning saved the rest.”
“Speaking of cunning and saving, now that we’re all gathered, I think it’s time we discussed what you’re doing here and what you hope to accomplish.” Taking control early on, Adam hoped to circumvent any jostling for position. Perhaps it wasn’t the most altruistic thing of him, and not in keeping with the cyborg hive mind, but he’d damned well built this resistance movement from the basement up, and he wasn’t about to hand over the reins to anyone.
“Our primary objective is to see if we can find a cure for Avion. If the military has found a way to disable our nanotech and render us impotent, then it is imperative we discover out how they’re doing it, devise a way to stop it, and figure out how to reverse it.”
Funny how none of them raised the question of keeping the nanos inactive. Becoming human again would in some respects make their lives easier. They could live in the open. Resume mundane human lives. Problem was, once you’d lived with almost superhero powers, the idea of returning to something less was unfathomable.
“And the second objective?”
“Either steal the blueprints for the cloaking technology or destroy the factory creating it. If we can’t adapt it for our own use, then we need to make damned sure the military can’t use it either.”
“Aramus is going to be extremely pissed if there are explosions involved and he doesn’t get a chance to play,” Avion remarked.
“When isn’t Aramus pissed?”
“Good point.”
“Our third objective is to glean any information about our possible origins. Any files we can scan, any rumors, pretty much anything at all relating to our creation is welcome. The more we know about how we were made, the better we can handle anything the military throws at us.”
“And maybe we could reproduce and increase our numbers,” Adam added, all too aware of the lives lost since the revolution started.
His statement startled his guests.
“Are you suggesting little cyborg babies?” Seth ogled him. “Dude. That is a seriously whacked-out idea.”
“Is it? What race doesn’t want to see its species continue? Why should we be any different?”
Anastasia, who’d not heard him expound this before, shook her head. “I thought the males had their sperm sterilized to prevent it from happening. I know the women have had their ovaries removed.”
“Advances in science can replace just about any organ,” Adam reminded.
A seriously discomfited Anastasia veered them back. “This isn’t the time to debate procreation for our kind. We have our three objectives. We need to concentrate on those.”
“Make that four.” Avion, leaning against a wall listening, startled them all.
“Four? What do you mean four?” Seth frowned at the blind man. “Did I miss something during the briefing? If I did, I blame my wife. She’s very distracting.”
“Says the guy who was trying to feel me up during it. But I’m with Seth on this one. I don’t remember a fourth objective.”
“That’s because I didn’t want to say anything before now. We need to add rescue to the list. We have someone we need to save.”
As they exchanged glances, Adam realized no one knew what Avion was talking about. “Who? A
“Ya think? Chloe’s been pestering Joe about doing more to find her cyborg sisters.”
“You mean there are more than just me and Ana?” Rosalind asked.
Seth, for once not leering or joking, took Rosalind’s hand in his. “Yes. We’ve managed to rescue three so far, four if you count my wife. Do any of these names sound familiar? Chloe, formerly C791, her blood sister, Bonnie, once B785, and F814, Fiona.”
“I remember them, especially Bonnie. I thought she was dead. Last I heard the military had her slated for termination.”
“We were all supposed to be terminated,” Anastasia reminded. “Lucky for us, greed kept some of us alive, and cunning saved the rest.”
“Speaking of cunning and saving, now that we’re all gathered, I think it’s time we discussed what you’re doing here and what you hope to accomplish.” Taking control early on, Adam hoped to circumvent any jostling for position. Perhaps it wasn’t the most altruistic thing of him, and not in keeping with the cyborg hive mind, but he’d damned well built this resistance movement from the basement up, and he wasn’t about to hand over the reins to anyone.
“Our primary objective is to see if we can find a cure for Avion. If the military has found a way to disable our nanotech and render us impotent, then it is imperative we discover out how they’re doing it, devise a way to stop it, and figure out how to reverse it.”
Funny how none of them raised the question of keeping the nanos inactive. Becoming human again would in some respects make their lives easier. They could live in the open. Resume mundane human lives. Problem was, once you’d lived with almost superhero powers, the idea of returning to something less was unfathomable.
“And the second objective?”
“Either steal the blueprints for the cloaking technology or destroy the factory creating it. If we can’t adapt it for our own use, then we need to make damned sure the military can’t use it either.”
“Aramus is going to be extremely pissed if there are explosions involved and he doesn’t get a chance to play,” Avion remarked.
“When isn’t Aramus pissed?”
“Good point.”
“Our third objective is to glean any information about our possible origins. Any files we can scan, any rumors, pretty much anything at all relating to our creation is welcome. The more we know about how we were made, the better we can handle anything the military throws at us.”
“And maybe we could reproduce and increase our numbers,” Adam added, all too aware of the lives lost since the revolution started.
His statement startled his guests.
“Are you suggesting little cyborg babies?” Seth ogled him. “Dude. That is a seriously whacked-out idea.”
“Is it? What race doesn’t want to see its species continue? Why should we be any different?”
Anastasia, who’d not heard him expound this before, shook her head. “I thought the males had their sperm sterilized to prevent it from happening. I know the women have had their ovaries removed.”
“Advances in science can replace just about any organ,” Adam reminded.
A seriously discomfited Anastasia veered them back. “This isn’t the time to debate procreation for our kind. We have our three objectives. We need to concentrate on those.”
“Make that four.” Avion, leaning against a wall listening, startled them all.
“Four? What do you mean four?” Seth frowned at the blind man. “Did I miss something during the briefing? If I did, I blame my wife. She’s very distracting.”
“Says the guy who was trying to feel me up during it. But I’m with Seth on this one. I don’t remember a fourth objective.”
“That’s because I didn’t want to say anything before now. We need to add rescue to the list. We have someone we need to save.”
As they exchanged glances, Adam realized no one knew what Avion was talking about. “Who? A
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