I’m in a lab. I volunteered to be a soldier in a war I don’t remember. They’ve changed me—they are still changing me. What am I becoming?
“Galen.” My voice is nothing more than a raspy gasp. “My name is Galen.”
*****
“This isn’t supposed to happen.”
“I realize that, but with the change to the TST formula and the additional cybernetics, we knew there could be other side effects.”
“This wasn’t supposed to be one of them.”
“We’ll get it corrected.”
I turn my head toward the sound of Riley’s voice, but I feel so heavy, I can hardly move. I had just been in the lab. I had been upset about…something. How did I get here? Where am I?
“Riley?”
“Relax, Sten.”
“What’s happening?” I try to turn, but I’m strapped down to a rolling table. A bright light pierces my eyes. I need to touch her, but I can’t move my hands.
“Nothing to worry about,” she says. Her face is covered in a white mask. “We just need to make a few adjustments to your primary implant.”
“Implant?” I remember her talking about cyber implants in my head. She hadn’t given me details. It was just one of the ways they had changed me.
“There’s a small glitch. We’re going to take care of it, and then everything will be fine.”
“I remembered something,” I say, mumbling. “There was a barn...tanks. Where’s my sister?”
“Christ, how can he remember that?” A man stands beside Riley, his face also covered with a mask. I feel his hand press something to the side of my head. “There shouldn’t have been any of that left at all. Captain Mills is going to have a fit.”
“We’ll take care of it.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, fighting the nausea in my gut. This is wrong. I’m not supposed to be here. I strain against the strap around my chest, and my body suddenly goes stiff as pain ricochets through every neuron.
I scream. I buck against the restraints. I don’t just feel the pain; I can see it inside of me. I can visualize every neuron as it fires, sending electrochemical impulses across synapses from my muscles and skin to my spine, up my spinal cord, and into my brain. They’re bright flashes of white and blue. I scream again before everything goes black.
*****
My whole body aches, but the soreness barely registers compared to the pain in my head. I try to sit up and get my bearings, but I can’t move.
“Sten?” I feel Riley’s touch on my shoulder and arm. Her scent wafts into my nostrils as I inhale. “How are we feeling now?”
“What happened?” I’m tightly strapped to the bed again.
“You’re fine,” she tells me, and I relax against the bed. “I think that run might have been a little more than you were ready for, and we had to make a couple of adjustments for you, but everything is fine now.”
My head continues to throb. The last thing I remember is running on the treadmill, though I didn’t feel like I had overdone anything at the time. I must have though. I feel like I’ve been run over.
“I’m sorry.” I don’t like the idea of disappointing her, but I must have. Why else would I be restrained?
She reaches out and runs her hand over the side of my face. I press my cheek into her palm and inhale her scent, wishing I could reach out to her. I’m hard, and there’s tension radiating from my chest and groin.
“No reason to apologize,” she says. “We’ll go just a little slower next time.”
I nod, and Riley brings me water and a container of some liquid nourishment. She holds a straw to my lips so I can drink. It’s the first sustenance I’ve had since I originally woke up alone in the lab, and I wonder how long I can go without food and water.
“Can you take those off?” I ask, nodding toward the straps.
“I think we can do that.” She glances at the mirror, but no guards appear as she unstraps me and I sit up. I grab for her hand, and she lets me hold it. I flex the fingers of my right hand, curling them around hers. The bandage is gone, and my knuckles no longer ache.
I sit on the edge of the bed, and she pulls the rolling chair closer so she can sit down in front of me. From this position, I’m looking down on her. There’s nothing revealing about her lab coat. I can barely see the collared tan blouse underneath it. The sleeves go all the way down to her wrists, and the only visible skin is her legs. She’s wearing pantyhose and simple black flats.
In my head, she spreads her legs instead of crossing them. The lab coat opens and falls away, and her blouse is unbuttoned at the top. I think about how her hose-covered legs would feel in my hands as I stroked up her thighs. I think about how she would look bent over the edge of the bed with her ass in the air as I slid into her from behind.