Her Cyborg will be out by the end of April.
Chapter 1
Three months later
“Maybe I should apply for a cyborg too,” Phoebe heard Faye laugh on the other side of the phone line. “I want a month away from work too.”
Phoebe laughed back. “Well, it's a little like having a baby, you know. The basic programming is already there, like eating, walking, and so on. I will have to teach him everything else, though. I will live at MedAct for four weeks to help him adapt to society.”
“That sounds like a lot of fun.”
“So why don't you give it a try? You already have the necessary requirements. You're thirty years old, you're single, you're healthy, you have a well-paid job, and a place of your own.”
“Yeah and then there's all that testing to find out how whacked up my head is. You spent months going through that.”
“It's for the cyborg's safety. MedAct wants to make sure that they are with good people. You can never abandon your cyborg because of the bond. It would kill him.”
“And that's why I'm not sure I want to apply for one. I like my privacy.”
“But that's the nice thing with this. You can program him to enjoy some time on his own. You can give him a personality that fits you.”
Faye sighed. “I don't know, Phebs. What if he won't like that part of his programming? He will be an aware being, a person of his own, like you and me, and he will have the option to ignore his programming.”
“It's your choice, Faye.”
“I must admit that I'm tempted, but I will wait and see how things turn out for you before I make my decision.”
“All right. I will call you in a few days and tell you how things are going. I'm entering MedAct in a second.”
“Good luck!”
“Thanks,” Phoebe smiled and ended the call.
She stopped outside the huge building with more glass windows than she could count. She had no idea how many floors there were, but it seemed to be more than fifty. She had taken her classes here and she had been tested here to see if she was suitable to own a cyborg or not. She had signed the papers here and this was where she would live with her cyborg for one whole month. Doctor Jade Silva and her team would have a watchful eye on both of them during that time.
She entered through the wide glass doors. A clean and bright hall with windows instead of walls greeted her. A sign above the reception desk said “MedAct”. Today was the big day. Today, he would open his eyes and look at her for the first time. Nothing could go wrong.
She hurried to the elevators, dragging her wheel bag behind her. She felt like a child who was about to open the best present ever. She noticed people smiling at her when they saw her happiness. She smiled back and stepped into the elevator. It felt like hours for it to reach the right floor. When the doors opened on the eighteenth floor, Doctor Jade Silva was already waiting for her. Her light brown hair was put up in a ponytail and she wore a doctor's robe over her black shirt and jeans. Jade was a slim and short woman with her five feet, two inches stature. Her facial features were sweet and gentle, but her eyes shone with strength and determination Phoebe rarely saw in people's eyes. This woman knew what she wanted and her intelligence was not to be taken lightly.
“Hello, Phoebe,” Jade said and shook her hand. “Are you ready?”
“Oh yes!” Phoebe was unable to hide her excitement.
“Good. Let me show you where you are staying during your visit here.”
Phoebe followed Jade through a long hallway. The walls were white and decorated with beautiful lamps. A gray carpet lay on the floor. There were white doors on both sides and Jade stopped in front of one of them. Phoebe stopped too.
Jade pressed a key-disk against a metallic plate located next to the door. It clicked and the door opened. They walked inside and Phoebe took a look around. The apartment wasn't big. A small kitchen, one bedroom, one small living room, and a bathroom. Everything was clinical and white. No paintings on the walls and no patterns on the curtains.
“This will be your apartment for a few weeks. Make sure he stays in here for at least two or three days before you show him around. Remember, he won't be able to talk in the beginning. It will take a few hours for his brain to function properly. Primitive instincts will drive him during that time and you will need to be there for him. Everything will be confusing to him.”
“I understand,” Phoebe said and placed her bag next to the bed.
Jade looked through the few papers that she held in her hands. “I see that you have taken the shot to prevent pregnancy. That's good. You need to focus on him in the beginning while he learns. Becoming pregnant during that time is not recommended.”
“I know,” Phoebe answered.
She didn't want that either, but she hoped that they one day would have a child. She had made sure that he would want one in the future. She had put it into his programming, but that was as far as she could go. He had his basic programming, but he wasn't a machine. He was a constructed humanoid with cybernetic implants, created in a laboratory. And once he opened his eyes, he would be a person of his own, capable of questioning his programming. The only thing that would never change was their bond. She owned him and always would. Without her, he wouldn't survive.
The bond was love, literally. He would love her from the first moment he laid eyes on her. During her classes, the teachers had taught her and the other students the importance of the bond. It was the only thing that kept the cyborgs sane. Without it, they went crazy, but most died. She didn't know why, but that was the last thing she wanted to happen to her cyborg.
“Have you chosen a name for him yet?”
Phoebe nodded. “Shade.”
“That's a good name,” Jade said and wrote it down in her papers.
Cyborgs were not allowed to have human names like William, David, or Luke. It was a way of separating them from the humans. Phoebe didn't like that rule, but she had no other choice but to follow it. Cyborgs had made-up names or names of things.
Jade lowered her papers and looked at Phoebe. “So, are you ready to meet him?”
Phoebe's heart raced. “Yes.”
