Human (for the lovers among)

by Nathan Hays
graphics by Michael Corrado



Arryn paced the floor, wringing her hands. She didn't have much time to act, but what she contemplated was always either lethal or led to insanity and the ethicists had long decided it despicable. The green that ate away at Hanson's frozen body was spreading so fast she could almost see it grow. How long before it reached his cortex was anyone's guess, but he was certain to be unrecoverable before the week's end. His clone would have been ready for the transjection, but it too was showing signs of space rot.

"Damn it, Hanson!", she pounded on the suspension chamber that would soon be his coffin. "All those lives of waiting and you have to blow the biocide protocols."

Her own clone was only just pubescent a few months ago, but it had excellent bio-stats and could take the transjection. The problem was, her own bio-stats showed pre-tumors forming too rapidly to be stemmed. She would need the clone long before another could be grown. Often the price of one's immortality is the death of another's, but she'd come too far with Hanson to give up now.

For over two hundred years since their first cyberlink Arryn and Hanson had forged a deep bond even though the parsecs between them had made it an anachronistic intimacy. Hanson had lain in suspension for nearly ten years as his transport crossed the void. They had wanted to run the transjections at the same time, side by side, but that was no longer possible. Two dying bodies, one clone.

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The fog slowly lifted from Hanson's mind. He noticed something strange almost immediately. He remembered the numbing cold that he went to sleep with and knew he should feel violently hypothermic now, but instead he felt quite warm and cozy. Instinctually, he tried to take a deep breath, but found it awkward.

A voice came through, "Easy, my love. It's Arryn. You're going to be all right. I had to start the transjection while you were still hibernating."

Something must have gone wrong, he thought. Well, he was beginning to be conscious so it couldn't have been all that bad. He started the litany to orient himself to his clone, but again something was not right. He should be feeling a powerful erection as the clone responded to activation, but there was nothing. In fact, it felt more like he was strangely naked and yet potent in a way unfamiliar to him. A sudden realization poured over him as he put together the signs: the nakedness, the softness of his flesh, the inner potency, the pervading sense of love.

That's when he noticed he wasn't alone in there.

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Arryn's mind was darting everywhere. "Hanson, I know how you feel. We share glands after all. It's just that, well, I like being female. I'm not sure I'll be able to inhabit a man's body. It seems so icky."

Hanson was slipping again, "My love, I can barely stay aware these days, you know that." He shook their head to stay awake. Arryn let him, though she could have easily overpowered him. "I feel so dependent on you and I'm fearful your love is turning maternal."

He sure had a way of hitting the nail on the head. "Yes, you're right of course," she thought. "I often confuse my instincts. I know that we must do this, I'm just putting up some resistance so I'll have no regrets. I do love you for who you are, not as a child."

She stared at the masculine figure in the clone chamber, her eyes tracing the powerful build and naked manhood they were about to inhabit. He was like a Greek statue in his alabaster skin. An old feeling stirred in Arryn that she'd almost forgotten.

"Hanson my love, when I rewired the transjection machine to merge our minds, I knew we were inextricably linked and we would never share a lover's carnal pleasures. But this next clone is exciting me."

He of course could feel the adrenaline. "Yes. Perhaps I understand a bit of what it means to be taken," but he had never experienced it. For all their years in their female body, Arryn had remained celibate out of respect for Hanson. This was the first time he got an inkling of what female submission really means.

As their female body got even more aroused, Hanson felt a new invigoration. Though the clone's body was behind a glass wall from him, he felt in control. "Arryn, I love you as no other. I cherish you and will not let you fade. I am your rock and you are mine."

"Yes, I know that now," she replied, her mind giving in to his. He stepped into the transjection machine, its probes and sensors lighting up as it began the scan. She wrapped her love around him and he beamed with joy. Their minds held each other in a way no other human had ever known. Love eternal, a race made whole.