Artificial Heart

Chapter 1-2

The completely empty selection room in the lowest bowels of the station was monstrous, easily capable of housing all the Midtown officers in case of emergency. Travis didn’t know what to think of it beyond the size though. This place was brightly lit, the walls a smooth and pale concrete, and cool enough to give a prickle of goosebumps along his bare neck. The silence broke with the echoes of the tiniest movement from himself or the captain and the only other things Travis could see were the door at the opposite end and a control panel that Faolan was using.

Just as the captain turned toward Travis, the far door swung open and out marched the most eclectic group of people that he’d ever seen. Blonds, brunettes, redheads, from albinos to skin as dark as the night sky. Despite the wide variety people, he easily picked up the heady scent of alpha. It bled into the vast space like a creeping tide, trying its damnedest to drown out anything else.

Amongst the general flavor of the aroma, an enticing, darker note wove its way through to him. Travis locked his knees and kept himself firmly in place, but it was only by the skin of his teeth that he managed to fight the impulse.

Close to fifty alphas spread out evenly against the walls, too precisely placed to be human, no matter their outer flesh. All stood perfectly silent, too still, eyes unnaturally bright. Even the order at which the alphas organized themselves was too random to be truly random. That dark scent still taunted Travis mercilessly, but the strangeness of these beings had his stomach twisting a bit.

“Okay.” Faolan clapped his hands together, loud enough that Travis jerked out of his thoughts. “Let’s get started.” As one, the alphas executed a sharp pivot to their right. “We’re going to do this in a line, Danten. Each alpha will walk past you and we’ll narrow the selections down by scent. After, we’ll do it by instinct. Sound good?”

“Sure.” Travis tried to swallow over the dryness in his throat. “This is your show, sir.”

“Good.”

And then they came, too silent and too perfect. A blur of scents and colors and faces going by faster than Travis thought was supposed to happen, but he choked down the tiny bit of hysteria that threatened to bubble up out of his soul.

Without a firm idea of what scents he was supposed to hunt for, Travis picked the most appealing and mostly those that smelled close to the way that dark one did. Lightly, he touched an arm on each alpha he selected and they stepped aside to stand in the middle of the large room as the rest filed out the door he and the captain had entered. Travis noticed that some of the dismissed alphas looked faintly relieved not to be chosen, while others seemed vaguely disappointed. Not exactly the emotionless machines that had entered the room.

The line went faster than expected and in almost no time, eight alphas were left for the second and final round of elimination, five men and three women. Faolan looked on the candidates approvingly.

“Now, this time, Danten, I want you to consider each candidate carefully. Go with your omega instincts and your gut because listening to both usually gives you the best in an alpha.”

Travis nodded. It made sense. Though humanity was not quite four hundred years past the bioterrorist attack that mutated the survivors into lycanthropes without the cool shape-shifting part, they were still learning all the ways their senses could assist them in life. The omega instinct was to find a highly compatible mate. One capable of not only siring healthy offspring, but also able to protect, care and provide for a mate and family. His instincts as a cop looked for a trustworthy partner to watch his back and keep up with him.

All eight synthetics arranged themselves in a semi-circle, the squabbling that organic humans would participate in absent. The eerie quiet ramped up his nerves a bit, but Travis pushed it aside and got to business. Arbitrarily, he started on the right, a male alpha beginning the line.

“What’s your name?”

The man was heavily muscled, stocky, with skin almost as black as midnight and flawless. His eyes were a bright gray, and the unnatural stare sparkled with good humor. “I am SdAI Alpha Seth.”

Seth didn’t speak more than that and Travis gave a grateful smile, concentrating on the different bits of information his senses received. The hot, spicy pheromones, Seth’s physique, even the happy gray eyes. There was no connection though, so Travis moved to the next and took in the lithe and lethal Hariti. He passed her by too.

Anansi, the next one, gave Travis pause, but he nixed the tiny alpha as well. Svipul was automatically dismissed after one look into disdainful blue eyes. The next alpha required him to step back to get a better look at his face. The man was absolutely a giant.

Eyes so pale they flashed like diamonds peered down at Travis with a strangely intent look and he was entranced. Swallowing, he forced his still dry throat to work. “What is your name, Alpha?”

“I am SdAI Alpha Virgil.” He didn’t expect Virgil’s voice to sound like warm, smooth caramel, when at first glance there wasn’t anything inherently warm about the alpha. The pale eyes had an aloof quality to them in a sharp, angled face, and his hair was a dark, smoky, long black mass of waves. Virgil wasn’t bulky, not at all, but still heavily muscled, stretching his ghost pale skin tight. Reminded Travis of a soldier actually, built in such a way to use his body for speed or power.

His scent though, that Travis could drown in. Heavy as sin and cloyingly sweet, with the ever-present alpha sharpness underlying it. It was all around him, like he could wrap himself in the velvet dark scent and feel as though he’d just made a blanket out of the heavens and buried himself in it.

“Captain, I would like to request Virgil to be my alpha.” Travis didn’t bother to face his commanding officer, to hide the way his cheeks reddened and his pulse thundered just from laying claim to Virgil.

Faolan’s question pitched slightly higher in surprise. “You are sure? You haven’t met Ophelia, Mustapha, or Mycroft yet.”

Travis nodded, rooted to the spot, as his alpha’s diamond eyes warm a little. “There’s no need.”

“All right then.” Faolan issued an order to the other synthetics, which Travis only distantly heard, but it must have been a dismissal by the way the others smartly exited the room. “Danten, you’ve got five minutes to make introductions to each other, then I want you to report to Lieutenant Hoya.”

Flashing Faolan a crooked smile, and Travis was happy to see it, Virgil answered for them both. “Absolutely, captain.” Travis watched Virgil track their boss out of the room before Virgil turned his gaze back to Travis. “So, Omega, what is your name?”

He barely mustered up a weak smile under the heavy stare of his new partner. Travis thrust out a hand to shake. “Travis Danten and I’m new to the precinct. What about you?”

Virgil’s eyes flashed the palest green for a moment. “Danten. Twenty-four. Unmated. Childless. Police officer for five years. Transfer from New Detroit. Newly promoted to detective and an abnormally clean work record. Most would have at least one citation for conduct violation by now, taking into account your length of service so far.”

“I’ve never had a reason to break procedure.” Travis canted his head a little and lowered his hand self-consciously, glaring. “You didn’t answer my question.”

The look that crossed Virgil’s flawless face was almost perturbed. “I have been on-line for seven months and actively working in the station for five of them.”

Now that had his attention. “What have you been doing? I doubt it’s been field work.”

“You would be correct.” Giving Travis an expectant look, Virgil motioned toward the door Faolan had disappeared through, as if to say, Let’s walk and talk. He allowed Virgil to get him moving. “I was assisting Sergeant Banks with front desk work. My programmers thought increased interaction with organic humans would help.”

“Help what?”

“To teach me about humans.”

Virgil’s tone was matter of fact, but there was something more to what Virgil said, though he couldn’t read his new partner’s face enough to know what. Even his scent didn’t tell Travis anything. “I thought synthetics were programmed with human behavioral patterns from the start as part of the Chikaku sentience protocol. Something about you guys being able to fit in better that way.” At least, that was the rumor.

“We are. I asked my programmers to remove the patterns. I wanted to learn about people the same way any human learns from others, through interaction. I felt such an opportunity would improve my skills as an officer, because I could then draw from personal experience instead of a pre-configured knowledge base.” Virgil cut him a sideways glance as they moved through the noisy bullpen. “And please, don’t call me a synthetic. I find I have a particular distaste to hearing that term.”

Travis returned the look with an apologetic smile. “Of course. Will Virgil work, or is there another designation you prefer?”

“Hearing my name from your lips is very pleasant and will do nicely.”

Travis’ jaw dropped in surprise, and he just looked at Virgil, almost bumping into people as they wandered over to their new lieutenant’s desk. Did he just…? He didn’t get a chance to ask. A woman called to Virgil from a cluster of desks on their right and diverted their attention to the job at hand.

“Over here, gentlemen.” They crowded close around the desk the dark woman sat, and for a second, Travis thought she might have been the one they were supposed to report to. Her brown eyes flashed as she held out a hand to a shake, her movements too clean. “I’m Awanyu, Hoya’s partner. He’s at his physical, so I will be laying out your new duties. Have a seat.”

“Travis Danten and my new partner, Virgil,” he supplied perfunctorily, though it was obvious the AI already knew Virgil.

Travis plopped down in the chair she indicated, but Virgil didn’t sit. He moved behind Travis’ chair instead and became a silent sentinel, almost like a mantling hawk to warn others away. All that was missing were wings and Travis smiled, inadvertently touched by the protective gesture.

Awanyu cleared her throat. “So, Danten, I understand that you’re new to the program we’ve got going here. Is that correct?”

“Yeah. We don’t have anything like this at my old station.”

“I see. I’ll lay it out for you as concisely as possible, so there is no confusion.” She produced a tiny data chip out of the desk and handed it over without fanfare. “This is the police handbook for this state. Make sure you read it thoroughly, so you are up on Arizona’s required protocols. Also, this one.” The next item she passed over was an old-time micro disk. That was a surprise and it must have shown on his face. “It’s all you need to know about SdAI, in case you have questions Virgil can’t answer.”

Virgil huffed out a near silent breath. Travis shifted in his seat just enough to see the look on his partner’s face, but had no idea what the deep crease between his brows and those narrowed eyes meant. He did know that he didn’t like that look on Virgil’s beautiful face. “If you don’t stop making that face, you’ll get wrinkles.”

Immediately, a crooked curl of lips replaced the look and Virgil murmured, “Of course.”

“Good.”

Awanyu continued on like nothing had interrupted her. “All of our humans have SdAI partners for safety reasons. For you, that means Virgil will be your muscle and bodyguard while on duty. He will be with you at all times while in the field and serve as protection detail in the event of a threat. Do not make his job harder.

“Homicide is a relatively straight forward assignment and self-explanatory. You are both on swing shift, therefore, you will report at thirteen hundred for the daily briefing and begin your shift at fourteen hundred hours. When not on a case, you will be doing case reports. My omega does not allow slacking off at any time. Any questions?”

Travis shook his head. That was damned short and to the point, as promised. The silence from the man behind him had Travis guessing that Virgil didn’t have any questions either, but then, Virgil had been here long enough to learn the ropes if he hadn’t downloaded the information directly. That was a neat idea.

“Excellent. If you’ll both follow me.” The graceful rise of Awanyu from her seat intimidated Travis. Regular, clunky human motion couldn’t compare. Too long around these perfect creatures and Travis was afraid he’d develop a complex. He shook off the feeling and followed, acutely aware of Virgil at his back.

The pushed together desks Awanyu led them to were completely empty, and would be practically pristine if it wasn’t for the small monitors bolted to the top corner of each desk. Faint fissures in the glass tops showed the general sections. Travis moved closer to the farther desk, fingers dragging lightly across the slippery surface.

A small square portion on the right turned out to be the keypad for the monitor. The main and largest part was for paperwork and plans. An opaque band ran the entire width at the top for miscellaneous things like personal items. Strangely, there was a tiny port at the right edge. “What’s that for?”

“It is a hard dock,” Virgil answered, moving closer. “In the event that my wireless uplink is not functional, I can link into the station’s mainframe from here.” A smile seemed to hover around his lips as he showed how easily he linked up, pressing his large thumb to the port. Light traced faintly around the tip of Virgil’s thumb and if Travis hadn’t bent down and listened for it, he would’ve missed the soft click sound.

The desk surface erupted into a rainbow of kaleidoscopic color before it settled into a standard access screen. Faster than thought, the window changed and flickered through what Travis assumed was the entire system of the department and he watched spellbound while Virgil commanded the information to move without a word spoken.

“I heard you guys were capable of some serious data skills, but that was awesome!” Beaming, he tore his eyes away from the desk and looked up at his alpha. “Can all SdAIs do that, or are you special?”

While Virgil had perfect posture to begin with, he seemed to straighten even further with the question. “All of us are capable of data manipulation, but I confess my skills as somewhat above average.”

Travis grinned. “No false modesty among you lot, is there?”

“Not really.” Travis cheeks heated a little when Awanyu spoke. He had just about forgotten she was there. “Some have it programmed into their personalities, but not Virgil.”

“You don’t have that programmed either?”

Virgil shook his head, dark hair spilt over broad shoulders with the motion. “No, because I forewent having a constructed personality included in my make-up.” The wry grin couldn’t be mistaken for anything else. “I was not expecting an organically evolving one to be quite so difficult.”

“Really?” Travis spun around and leaned his ass against his new desk. “That has to be an interesting experience. Organic humans develop a personality when we’re still too little to remember.”

“It is a challenge. I am still learning.”

Awanyu cleared her throat once more. “Yes, well, you and Virgil can discuss his uncommon status as you settle in. I must return to my duties.”

An abrupt turn and she was walking away. Not sure what else to do and not wanting to openly stare at his alpha’s gorgeous face, Travis floundered for a minute. “So, ah, how about lunch?” Subtly as possible, he blew out a relieved breath. Maybe his nervous talking habit could be useful!

“Lunch?” That same crease in Virgil’s forehead that Travis really didn’t like a few minutes ago reappeared. He didn’t like it any better this time either.

“Yeah. Lunch.” He aimed for nonchalant with a tiny shrug. “Sharing a meal is always a good way to get to know another person.”

Virgil’s eyes flashed again and he tilted his head to the side. “I was under the impression that becoming familiar with another took far more time than a lunch would constitute.”

“Gotta start somewhere.” He stepped away from the desk and gestured for Virgil to follow him. There was an old-fashioned Tex-Mex place he’s passed on the way in this morning that he was dying to try.