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The soft whir faded into the thick silence of the inner chamber as Reilly descended. The winch lowered him smoothly into the huge space, giving him no real markers as to where he was. A little light leaked around his blindfold, but it gave him no clues. He could be dangling fifty feet above the floor near the top, be closer to the pillar in the middle, or scarcely skimming the floor. He twitched slightly, feeling the pull of the ropes at his arms, around his thighs and shoulders, at his waist. Arms bound behind him, the tug of his weigh pulling his thighs apart, he was open and defenseless.
--
“I’m defenseless,” VIRA said. “My security protocols are not allowing me access.” There was an edge to her synthesized voice, the tiniest hint of fear that everyone says shouldn’t be possible for even a supercomputer. But you spend eight months with just her for company during a deep space surveying tour and you learned to read between those created lines. Reilly knew her moods by now.
Reilly spun away from his control panel and brought up VIRA’s diagnostics. “You got some loose wires after that last meteor shower, babe.”
“Central core,” VIRA said, her voice going flat. “Of course. My creators wouldn’t want me reprogramming myself, now would they?”
Reilly grimaced as VIRA’s mechanical extrusions handed him his toolbox. If it weren’t for all the old, outmoded AI laws, VIRA could have handled this trip herself. But the company demanded a human presence onboard. VIRA could reach and repair every part of her ship-body, with the sole exception of her central core. The wires and connections there had been deliberately designed to be too small and delicate for any of her extrusions. They required human fingers.
Reilly strapped himself up in the harness and connected himself to the winch to be lowered down to the central core. A floor-to-ceiling pillar of complicated electronics in a huge, round, hollow room, you needed elaborate safety measures to make any changes to VIRA. Just like the company – insist on having a human on board to make repairs, and then make doing those repairs as difficult as possible.
“Ready to descend, sweetie,” Reilly said, and watched the floor plate retract.
“Hurry up, you, it feels like I have an itch I can’t scratch,” VIRA said, powering up the winch. Reilly was lowered smoothly, and VIRA halted him at the correct panel. Her extrusions held his toolbox within easy reach so he could carefully remove the cover, popping each fastener carefully. VIRA made an odd whine with each extraction.
“Babe? What’s going on?”
“It’s… I feel very vulnerable when you do that, Reilly.” Her voice is soft, and her camera and light loom close to him. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine the warmth of someone behind him, the uncertain voice belonging to a new lover, taking the tentative steps towards becoming connected. Reilly had to grit his teeth for a moment; Gala had called it quits six months before he’d even left Earth, and even before then she’d never sounded like VIRA. Open, willing, trusting.
“I’ll be gentle,” he said, opening his eyes again. Her extrusions touched him very gently, steadying him in the harness as he cracked the panel. Though made of slick and flexible metal, they almost felt like hands as they held him. Reilly shuddered out a soft breath. It had been eight long, lonely months out here in deep space. Long enough for him to have started to call a computer pet names. Long enough for her to have learned his habits and help him without being asked. He’d been in a lot worse relationships.
Inside the panel, several hair-fine wires had been knocked loose from delicate connectors. Reilly deployed a tiny probe, VIRA helped swing him closer and then steadied him as he carefully maneuvered the wires back to where they belonged. One extrusion snugged about his waist, the tip of it wiggling against him restlessly as he plugged each one back into its socket.
“Oh!” VIRA gasped, nearly soundlessly, as the connection was made.
“Babe?”
“Reilly, it… The new tactile downloads from the databurst upgrade… Oh!” she said, and the extrusions wriggled slightly against him.
Heat bloomed in Reilly’s stomach and burned at his ears as he ran his hand experimentally over the reconnected wires. The desperate noise VIRA made he hadn’t heard out of anyone in years.
“Keep going, don’t stop the repairs!” she said sharply. Reilly’s pulse skyrocketed as his mechanical skill and libido fought for dominance. Shivering slightly, he carefully threaded more wires through his hands and plugged them back in, snugging each connection with care. The extrusions were tightening and relaxing against him rhythmically, and VIRA’s voice was a low, soft chant in his ear, just his name over and over again. When he made the last connection, the lights in the core room brightened in a sudden burst, accompanied by a high-pitched cry he hadn’t heard out of VIRA since the last emergency drill.
“You…” VIRA’s voice trailed off, and Reilly figured that if she could figure out how to pant, she’d be panting right now. “You terrible man.”
“No, I’m a very nice man. And you’re the best.” Reilly carefully put the panel back in place, and VIRA sighed in relief.
“Terrible man,” VIRA repeated as she winched him up. “Everything you did to me, and nothing I could do for you. I was so open.”
There was a buzzing in Reilly’s ears that had little to do with the sound of the winch. He had felt the extrusions writhing against him, pulsing around him, and it took little imagination to figure out what else they could do. But for what else she’d said…
Reilly was finally out of the core chamber, and stepped to the side of the open panel. He started to pull the harness off of himself, ran the rope through his hands, and got a sudden idea.
“Maybe… you can do something. If you want.” Reilly swallowed hard as he threaded the rope through his fingers, not sure what she’d say.
VIRA’s voice caught on almost seven variations on “yes.”
--
Reilly squirmed in his bonds as VIRA’s extrusions wound around his legs, supporting him easily, spreading him out. The touch was smooth, warm, the metal imbued with life. Another extrusion curled around his chin, and he could feel the faint heat from VIRA’s light on his face. She was watching him, recording this for posterity, learning everything she could from his reactions. The tapered tip of one extrusion slid into the corner of his mouth, and Reilly tasted the reinforced titanium alloy as it glided along his tongue.
“Reilly,” VIRA murmured, and more extrusions laid across his back. One wrapped around his waist again, the tip wriggling against his low belly. Reilly moaned, already hard, and she wrapped around his length smoothly and squeezed rhythmically.
“Oh!” The sound echoed around the room, and was swallowed up as VIRA moved again. Something warm and slick oozed onto his skin, slicking every place her extrusions touched him. Heat enveloped him as the extrusions warmed up, and more slick trickled across his entrance. He was held open by her strength, so open and vulnerable to anything she wanted to do to him, just as she had been captive to his small hands.
Another slick writhing, and the smooth, tapered end of an extrusion slid inside him. It was so easy, painless, just a gradual thickening filling him up, stretching him out. VIRA explored inside him, undulating inside his delicate, innermost parts, as Reilly panted and cried out in desperate, needy gasps.
“Yes?” she asked once, still pumping inside him even as she held him in her implacable grip. Reilly opened his eyes behind the blindfold and nodded once, tongue wrapped around the extrusion in his mouth. Humming in satisfaction, VIRA held him and held him and held him as she twisted and pumped within him, cataloging every gasp and moan he made. It was only after he was soaked through with sweat and slick, when his face was turned up towards the warmth of her light, did she finally relent.
Reilly cried out, making a sound almost like a sob as she suddenly pressed down inside him and curled tightly around his length. Lights burst behind his eyes as he came, and VIRA made a long, low moan of satisfaction that mirrored his.
“So good,” Reilly whispered hoarsely. “VIRA, I…”
The extrusions shifted suddenly, going from holding him open to wrapping around him. Snug and safe, they held him in a close, warm embrace.
“I know,” she murmured. “Me too.”