Mercury - Part 10

Part 10 – Venus

EXPERIMENT 208

01/02/2025

(Two figures sit across from each other at a table. One is a middle aged man; the other is an arctic fox recom of age six wearing a form fitting bio-tech jumpsuit. There are a few simple toys on the table.)
RESEARCH ASSISTANT: "Hello, Venus, I'd like to test you on your awareness of recent events and your intelligence."
VENUS: "Umm... okay. When is Mercury going to be back? She-"
RA: "It."
V: "... It wasn't there for music time."
RA: "That's what I mean to talk to you about. You do know that Mercury has been euthanized, right?"
V: (shakes her head) "I don't know what that means."
RA: "It was put to sleep."
V: "But she'll wake up soon."
RA: "We put it to death this morning. You won't be seeing it again."
V: "Oh. But she said that today, we were all going to have a lot of fun together."
RA: "Mercury is a liar. It could barely speak anything that's true."
V: "Oh. No. I think maybe you're lying to me. It's one of the experiments, right?"
RA: "That's clever of you to imagine that, but that's not what's happening."
V: (long pause as Venus stares at the RA)
RA: (opens his mouth as if to say something, but two silenced gunshots fire, one creating a bullet wound in his shoulder and the other penetrating the back of his head. He falls forward lifelessly.)
V: (spattered in blood, smiles towards off-camera) "Oh, you were off schedule!" (gets off its chair and runs off. Camera continues rolling for several minutes before shutting off.)

***

As I got my breath and tried to slow my heart-rate as I stared at Nova Seven (just knowing someone so beautiful was only a cash payment away...), she and Samara started talking to each other.

"Well," said Nova, "it's nice to see that you've at least got some handsome company, Tam. I always picked you out as the loner type, though."

"Really. Well, apparently not, since I can't keep his hands off of me or his tongue out of my mouth," said Samara flatly, "You're actually pretty lucky that he's so busy gawking over you that we can have any kind of conversation." I couldn't call this statement unfair, since I was definitely gawking, but it still snapped me out of my stupor. I clamped my jaw shut and narrowed my eyes a bit at Sam. "Speaking of conversations, did you get a hold of the outfits yet?"

"Why, Tammy, you really must think me a miracle worker!" laughed Nova, "It's barely been twelve hours since last we spoke!"

Okay. Maybe I'd never get out of the stupor. That's fine. Her laugh was just so charming and entrancing. I quickly understood how she could make a living. Samara glanced back at me, rolled her eyes and said back to Nova, "I wouldn't dare call whatever black magic you weave a 'miracle'. Just answer my question."

Nova frowned a bit and, before she spoke, I cut into the conversation, like a knight in shining armour, "Come on Sam, lay off of her."

Both Nova and Samara corrected in the same way at the same time, "Tam." In some ways, they seemed like sisters, despite being different species-type of recoms. Sam continued and noted, "You pronounced it wrong. And get a grip on yourself, man! She's not into you."

Helpfully, Nova threw in, "It's true, I'm really not, but I can find some girls here who would be, if you've got the money!"

I frowned and, feeling rather insulted, said, "Ugh, whatever." I paused for a moment as a thought occurred to me, "Wait a second, if I had enough money, you still wouldn't be into me?"

Both Samara and Nova looked at me with wide-eyed incredulity. I thought it was a pretty legitimate question, but apparently not. The silence was so uncomfortable, and then Nova's nervous laugh cut through it. "You're joking, of course, Mr. Dercar? No, I'm only here to match you up to someone who would suit your needs. Only regular clients with a lot, and I mean a lot, of money have access to me, and only after providing them with some specific information about myself."

"What information?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Mr. Dercar, that is none of your-"

Sam interrupted and said, smugly, "She's the same as me," to which Nova just blinked a few times and then shrugged, looking down to some of the papers in front of her. By this, I wasn't sure what Sam meant.

So it seemed pretty natural to respond with, "Uh?"

Nova smiled slightly at Sam and says, "What my dear friend Tammy is saying, is that I'm an androgyne, like her. Unlike her, I can bring myself to admit it."

"But you look so... So..." I said. I couldn't come up with the words. It wasn't really possible!

"Fabulous? Gorgeous? Incredible?" finished Nova for me, "I know. It's a funny thing, that, you know. Poor Tammy here thinks herself a woman but looks like an androgyne. Me, I think myself an androgyne but look like a woman." This comment led Samara to react by raising an eyebrow at Nova and twitching her tail irritably. "Not that I'm complaining, it really is lucrative being beautiful," finished Nova.

This whole conversation was flabbergasting. I didn't really know what to say. How could an androgyne look like that? Honestly, I didn't know much about androgyne biology, only that it was a genetic quirk that sometimes showed up. Back when recoms were designed on Old Earth, the androgyne trait was introduced in order to make them unable to reproduce, so that people had to go to the companies to purchase their brand spanking new house slave models and was just standard procedure in all new recom series. While it was standard procedures, there were fortunately some exceptions, given that our species could not have reproduced without those few with at least the ability to carry youth.

Their conversation continued as I reviewed all that I actually did know about androgynes. "Anyways," said Samara, "I was asking you a question before being so rudely interrupted?"

"Oh, yes, well, I suppose you know me better than anyone... Of course I have them. We had two members of Designer Genes security come here last night, and what do you know, they neglected to pay their bills. Just like I thought they would," said Nova, smiling mysteriously, but cutely. Even knowing what I did, it was hard not to be physically attracted to her.

"That's great!" I said, "You've been indispensable, Nova."

"Yes, well, I know that," said Nova over her shoulder as she headed into the back, "just don't screw this up for your employer. I'm not sure who it is, but I can take a pretty good guess given the particular employees he chose, the target and the timing."

I raised my eyebrow at that statement, but shrugged it off. If Nova knew Sam, then they might operate within the same circles. However, this would imply that Errol Olne had intended to hire Samara in the first place. Not surprising, given the way they were watching each other, but why do it through me? He could have hired us both onto the same contract, but separately, and ordered us to work together. There was no guarantee that I would choose Samara as my partner. Alternatively, if it wasn't Olne's intention at all to hire Sam, he could have just told me to hire a different partner. It was all very curious. I would have to look into it.

Nova Seven reappeared, key-cards and outfits ready in her arms. I looked them over and estimated their sizing, and they would both likely fit quite well. Now all I needed was the blueprints before formulating a plan. Maybe it was about time to check if Lewis was doing as good a job as Nova did...