Oh good! Corinne felt a rush of relief. There was an easy fix—the manual even said so!
“Okay, how do I make it?” she muttered, scrolling down some more. She was looking for a list of chemicals or ingredients, and soon enough she found them. There were four or five easily sourced or replicated herbs and compounds. Soon she saw that the DDE drink should be no problem to make. She sent the list from her interface to the replicator at once and a moment later, she had a small cup of milky, pale blue liquid in her hand.
Corinne almost called K-lx—who was standing quietly in the corner of her room—out of his internal review to drink the liquid at once. But then she realized she hadn’t read the dosing instructions yet. What if he had to drink some in the morning and some at night? Or what if the stuff was meant to be injected instead of taken internally?
She went back to her monitor and continued reading the manual. What she saw, made her turn as pale as the liquid in the small metal cup.
As soon as you have synthesized the DEE, you must drink it immediately, the manual read.
“What—me? I have to drink it?” Corinne muttered, her brow furrowing. “That can’t be right—can it?”
She read on.
Roughly ten to twelve hours after you ingest the Dream Elimination Elixir, your breasts will fill with Nectar, the manual continued. DO NOT simply give the DEE liquid to your Cyborg to drink—it will not help and may do actual harm. The DEE must be processed through the Handler’s body in order to work as it should.
Corinne stared at the screen blankly. Well, it was a good thing she hadn’t given K-lx the liquid to drink right away, but she still couldn’t believe what she was supposed to do. What could the early Cybernetics scientists have been thinking? What if she didn’t want to fill her breasts with “nectar” and let her new K-Unit suck it out of her?
Feeling blindsided by the whole thing, she read more of the manual.
Some Handlers may object to this method of treating their Cyborg, it read.
“Yeah—no shit,” Corinne muttered.
“But do not fear—the DEE will only cause nectar production as long as you keep drinking it every morning or every night. It will take only a week for your breasts to cease production after you stop drinking the formula,” the manual assured her. The DEE is harmless to you and extremely beneficial to your new Cyborg.
We considered other ways of helping to suppress traumatic memories, but ultimately settled on this method for two reasons. First, when the Handler’s body processes the compounds her Cyborg needs, he becomes more physically attuned and mentally attentive to her. And second, allowing your Cyborg to suck the Dream Elimination Nectar from your breasts deepens the emotional connection essential between Cyborg and Handler. Once a Kindred male is attuned to you and he sees you as his Mistress, he will be much more likely to obey commands.
There was more, but none of it looked important. It was mostly the writer’s justification for this odd and inexplicable method of memory control—which in Modern Cyborgs was regulated by partial mind-wipes if a Unit started showing signs of distress.
However, Corinne didn’t want to wipe her new Cyborg’s mind—not even on a limited basis. She didn’t know enough about his circuitry and internal mechanisms to be sure she wouldn’t break something beyond repair. K-lx was unique—a treasure to be slowly unpacked—not a random piece of space trash to rip apart so she could see what made him tick.
Reluctantly, she decided she would have to drink the DEE. It made sense now—the way he’d complained of being thirsty and his request to suck her nipples. At the time, she’d thought he was just horny. She had noticed how he didn’t get soft, even after she had jerked him off. Apparently the Kindred didn’t have a refractory period or at least his kind of Kindred didn’t.
She wondered what kind of Kindred he was. The huge Aliens had left Earth hundreds of years ago, taking most of their knowledge with them after a world war had erupted. They had tried to mediate the conflict but when the nations of the Earth started bombing each other, they had decided that humanity was a lost cause. Later she might ask K-lx about his branch of the Kindred family tree or try to look up his characteristics, but for now it was almost time for breakfast.
She rose from her desk chair…and saw the small metal cup of milky, pale blue DEE sitting by her interface. She had almost forgotten to drink it. Well, crap—she was just going to have to do it. At least none of the ingredients were harmful so she didn’t have to worry about getting poisoned.
No, all you have to worry about is your breasts swelling up with that “nectar” stuff—whatever it is, she thought to herself. But there was no help for it—she was now the Handler to a massive, incredibly deadly, seven-foot-tall Cyborg. She absolutely could not neglect him.
K-lx had already caused massive damage and killed two people—it was her job to keep him in control so nothing like that ever happened again. Corinne knew she would do whatever she had to in order to rein her new K-Unit in.
Even this.
Closing her eyes, she tossed back the milky liquid, expecting it to be bitter and disgusting. Instead, a sweet, slightly fruity flavor filled her mouth. The taste wasn’t bad at all. In fact, if she’d been offered a drink at a party that tasted like the DEE, she would have asked for seconds.
Corinne drained every last drop and then put the cup into the recycling bin, where it was whisked away to be used in further replicator requests.
“Well—that’s that,” she muttered to herself. She waited to see if she felt any different…was there a faint tingling in her nipples? Then she looked at the chronometer on the wall. Damn it—they were going to be late for breakfast if she didn’t hurry!
Going to K-lx, she touched him on the arm to wake him from his internal review.
“Come, K-lx—we need to get going,” she told him.
His pale blue eyes fluttered open and he looked down at her. A flow of deep emotion—mostly caring and devotion—suddenly came through their Link. But Corinne also felt possessiveness, protectiveness, and sheer lust as the huge K-Unit knelt before her.
“Mistress, I am yours,” he growled softly, his eyes half-lidded as he looked at her. “Do what you want with me. Use me in any way you see fit.”
“Oh, um…” Corinne frowned. “Are you all right, K-lx?”
