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I sigh, relieved. Stacie and I might not be able to go home, but we won’t be trapped with men we don’t love or even like. I glance at Cinq. He said he was bonded, not currently. I’m afraid to ask, but feel like he needs to talk it out. “You mentioned being bonded to someone?”
“I did.” He’s quiet for a few seconds. “Raylin and I were together for several years, planned on starting a family of our own, when I was tasked with programming a new type of nano, a biologically based one instead of the usual machine based ones.”
“You’re talking about nanotechnology, right? Tiny programmable machines?” I ask, amazed none of them mentioned this to me before now.
“Exactly.” His eyes light up. “Usually, we’ve dealt with inorganic nanites but with the biological ones, EMPs were no longer a problem.”
The subject is beyond interesting, and yes, electromagnetic pulses would destroy electronics, even tiny ones. “What did or do you use nanos for? There has to be hundreds of tasks.”
“Thousands and everything a human body can need. We can program them to heal injuries or balance hormones. The regular nanos could build integrated circuitry in our brains. The biological ones don’t need to. So, people used to crave metal when first receiving their nanos and that stopped when the newer iteration rolled out.”
His enthusiasm is contagious and I’m eager to know more. “Do you have bionans, then? And how soon can I get them?” The moment I ask, I realize if I’m forced to have nanos of any kind, it’ll mean I can never go home. His expression turns as serious as mine thoughts feel. “Not that I’d want them, really. I mean, they’d be great but if no one else on Earth has them, I shouldn’t, either.”
“I do have bionans, luckily. They weren’t stripped from me after the incident. You, though, I don’t know. There was talk of letting the exiled Lesser world beings have basic nanos tailored to them, but it’s been several sas, or Earth years, since I’ve known anything official.”
He might not have meant to remind me he’s a criminal, but I refocus on what I really want to know. “How did you end up here? You don’t seem like the murdering type, so how serious was your crime, honestly?”
“This will be a little more difficult to confess.” Cinq gives me a halfhearted smile. “I’d been leading the bionan project, but even with basic nanites, our number one law is never controlling another person via their nanos.”
Is he talking about hacking? There must be exceptions, though. “What about if a person is in trouble or doing something that’ll harm them?”
“Suggesting, talking, sending messages are all fine, but directly controlling another person’s actions is strictly forbidden.”
I could agree with the law, except… “Even if they’re about to jump off a cliff?”
Cinq nods. “Even if. I can send them images of backing way, send them a loud message via our internal communications, I can even have a group of people send, “Stop,” at the same time, but I can’t take over their body or mind to control them.”
“Oh. I’m not sure how I feel about the rule because I can see both sides.”
“No, there are no two sides to this.” He stands and begins pacing. “I broke our primary personal freedoms law. I deserved worse than the punishment I’ve received.”
I can fill in the blanks by now. Somehow, Raylin’s life was in danger, he felt he had no choice but to hack into her nanos’ programming, failed or got caught, and was sentenced to a life out here, maybe. “What’s the punishment for hacking someone else and did you save her life?”
He gives a harsh laugh. “You’re good at deducing events. I didn’t save her at all, even with what I tried to do. I should have had my technology stripped from me completely before being dumped somewhere worse than this.”
I don’t understand how having nanos taken from him would be worse than death and thanks to my lack of a poker face, I don’t have to ask. After a glance at me, he grins. “You still use hands for everything on Earth, right? Communications, transportation, entertainment?”
“Yes,” I admit. “There’s not many tasks on Earth where we only use our mind. There’s voice, breath in some cases, and eye movement. Do they count?”
“Yes.” He sits next to me. “You have voice activated tech but if there’s no connection to anything else, does it work?”
“Oh no,” I whisper, understanding where he’s going with his line of thought. “You can’t get in touch with anyone, learn anything new, or even order a pizza without your nanos, can you?”
“I’m not sure what pizza is, but you’re right. If I were on my home world, I’d be more helpless than a child. Our nanos, in some advanced cases, bionans, help us move around society and keep us informed of our surroundings.”
I put my hand on his knee. “How long has it been?”
“Ten sas, which are close to your ten years.” He looks around the room, putting his hand over mine. “I had a difficult time at first, reaching out for information blocked to me out of habit. It’s tough to explain to someone from a Sixth level world like yours, but it’s like I have no vocal cords but still know how to speak.”
“I can understand a little bit. There have been tons of time where I had a broken or unconnected device. I felt lost, alone, and unable to do the things I’d relied on before.” Mentioning my much smaller loss reminded me he didn’t just lose his freedom and ability but the love of his life. “I’m sorry about your bondmate.”
“So am I. She was my universe. We’d met as children, waited to make our match official, waited too long to start a family.” His hand slides from mine. “I never considered moving on until my system matched to you.”
Now that I know more about his world’s technology, I want to learn everything about him he’s willing to tell. “How did you manage to regain your bionans or nanos? I know they weren’t removed from you. Otherwise, how could you download English or match to me? Then there’s calling up Aard. You couldn’t do anything, you said, without the tech.”
He gives me a wry smile. “I couldn’t, not until Nilt arrived. The empire had left me with the bare minimum to survive here and made regular supply drops to keep me alive. Even split four ways now, the foods from home are a welcome treat. But I suspect you want to know how I regained my technology.”
I let go of him and scoot to the head of the bed to relax against the wall. “Yes, and don’t wait on my account. I’m getting comfortable because this is going to be good.”
