Human After All by Connie Bailey

with your disappearance? Everyone knows I don’t mingle with Bioware.” The Deep paused. “Are you frightened?”
    “Of course I am.”
    “So there are no inhibitions on your emotions, only your actions. How convenient, perhaps too convenient, but if you are a trap, you should know that whatever plan you have is doomed to failure. Just because my guards are not present doesn’t mean I’m not protected.”
    “I understand. I have no plans to harm you,” Jaymes said with patent sincerity. He didn’t intend to do anything inimical, and his new programming was not accessible to him. Whatever happened would be as big a surprise to him as it would be to the Deep.
    “I could be throwing away everything I’ve worked for three decades to build, but that thought only excites me more. I wonder if I might be going mad.”
    Jaymes shivered as Ampery ran a dry palm over his shoulder and down his chest to his groin. The politician handled the young man’s cock and balls with all the passion of a cook testing a piece of fruit for ripeness. Without warning, the D.P. squeezed hard, making Jaymes wince, and finally a spark of genuine warmth lit the politician’s black eyes.
    “That hurts,” the Companion said.
    “I thought it might, but I appreciate the confirmation. I wasn’t sure if you felt pain the way real people do.”
    “I’m a real person.”
    “I’m sure that lie is a comfort to you, but we both know it’s not true. I’ll prove it to you. On your knees. Now.”
    Jaymes knelt.
    “You see? You’re product. You come with an operating manual. How could you ever think you were a true human?”
    “You’re wrong. I’m as human as you are, and someday I’ll be a Citizen too.”
    “No, you will not. After what we’re going to do together, you cannot be allowed to live.” Brandel gave Jaymes another slap, evening out the angry red splotches on the Companion’s pale cheeks. “I’m really going to enjoy this,” he said. “And it might take a while because I don’t know when such an opportunity will present itself again. Maybe after I’m President-General.”
    “I hope that never happens.”
    The Deputy President grasped a fistful of Jaymes’s long thick hair, pulling his head up. “Perfect,” he said in answer to the Companion’s verbal defiance. “Now, go over to the table. No, don’t stand. Crawl to the table.” Switching his grip to the back of Jaymes’s neck, Brandel applied pressure, pushing the T-bred’s face to the polished surface. “It’s always been a pet peeve of mine the way you Thoroughbreds strut around as though you’re the equal of any Citizen. I know that haughtiness is part of your conditioning, but it still gets under my skin, and now I’m going to get under yours.”
    “You’re a monster.”
    “Oh, very good, that is delicious irony. The incubus calls me a monster. Do you know who subverted your programming with the compulsion sequence?”
    “Lady Alvera of House Cygne.”
    “Interesting, but not unexpected,” Brandel said as he opened his robe and trousers. “I’ll make sure she goes down in the scandal with Londean. I’m sure her trial will make people question the wisdom of letting Bioware become Citizens.”
    With fatalistic logic, Jaymes admitted the Deep was right, and his first thought was of Valens. “You’ll ruin several lives for a few minutes of pleasure?”
    “It will be more than a few minutes, I assure you.”
    Jaymes was prepared to beg when he felt the displaced air of a security door opening, and the D.P. turned to reprimand his guards. The T-bred realized he had an opportunity while Brandel was distracted, and hard on the heels of that thought, the final component of the compulsion clicked into place. Surging up from his knees, Jaymes spun, extending his arm in a flashing arc, bringing the tips of his fingers across the Deep’s throat. Nails dug deep, cutting channels in flesh that allowed the blood to flow freely. Brandel clutched at his neck,