room, Dar turned blazing eyes to him. “If you do anything that takes her from me, I will kill you. I don't care how fucking powerful you are. I’ll do it.”
Dar forced a smile when Freya came back with a carafe and refilled the cups before sitting down.
“So, if we’re going to know you for at least two hundred years now, how come I don’t know that much about you?” Freya was bothered by her thoughts because it showed in the trembling of her hands.
Cindrac ignored Dar’s raised brow and cleared his throat. “If I’m just now starting to delve into the past, our memories of one another are still forming. I’m sure we’ll remember more as the days go by.”
Dar didn’t look like he was buying the excuse and tapped his comm. “Overwatch Commander, have you ever heard of something about a creation law for AI and nanites?”
Even Cin was on the edge of his seat while he waited for the answer since his memories of the past were still forming as well.
“Sir? It’s the law agreed on by all sentient worlds to inhibit nano and AI technology's learning capacity. Your friend, Cindrac, initiated it. Is everything all right, Sir?” the Overwatch Commander sounded worried.
“Yes!” Dar was clearly shocked. “Have a good night.”
“That can’t be!” Freya looked like she would hyperventilate. “I was here when you first talked about doing it! That law didn’t exist five minutes ago!”
Dar put his arm around his mate and shook his head at Cin. “This is creepy as hell, Warrior.”
Cindrac laughed. “Yeah, I know how you feel. Three days ago, I was an enslaved soldier going to what I hoped was my death. Today, I’m commanding time. I don’t even know if this is slowly killing me or what will happen if the technology within me is ever released.”
“The nanites wouldn’t hurt their host, would they? I mean, wouldn’t they protect you?” Freya asked.
She was strangely worried about the old friend she’d only met ten minutes ago. It was the weirdest conversation Freya ever had in her life, which was saying a lot, after all, she’d been through before and after meeting Dar.
“I don’t know. Are my real eyes still there? I’ve been afraid to look,” Cin admitted and commanded his nanites to leave his eyes.
“Oh, my God!” Freya clutched Dar’s hand and stood to look closer. “Are those nanites making your eyes look white? Eeek! It is! How can you stand that? Just the thought of something like that crawling all over my eyes would creep me out!”
Cin shrugged, unsure how to explain what it felt like to him. “They’ve become a part of me, like breathing or walking. The thousands of tiny nanites covering my eyes are each tasked with discerning something different going on around me and instantly process it in my brain. It’s like watching a movie from a million different viewpoints at one time and comprehending it all within a microsecond.”
“By the Gods, you’re a creepy being, and I’ve seen a lot of weird shit in my life,” Dar admitted with a nervous grin. “How did we become friends again?”
Freya slapped Dar in the chest and turned to Cin. “Yes, you have beautiful brown eyes behind those – things. What is it like on Earth? Not what the elite tell the propaganda news to say. Hell, they were doing that back in my day, in the early 2000s. What’s the truth?”
Cin sighed and ran a hand down his face, not knowing where to start. “It’s worse than anything you can imagine. What they do to the adults is horrible enough, but what the elite do to children is unspeakable.”
Cin choked up at the things he’d seen and learned from the elite computer systems. He was more a little surprised when Freya reached a hand across the table and lightly squeezed his in comfort. It was the first time Cin had ever been touched by another person without being punished or harmed.
“Never mind, I don’t want to think of it.” Freya sat back and smiled. “So, where in time is Mrs. Cindrac? I have no memory of one at all.”
Cin chuckled mirthlessly. “I don’t know enough about myself yet to even think of such a thing. For all I know, my nanites would overwhelm a mate and create another Loquan. I can’t let that happen.”
“Can they leave your body and go to another?” Freya scooted closer to Dar.
“As far as I know, they can’t leave me unless I ask