Science Fiction, Short Story, Lodestar Gazette

💖 Heart Of Metal 💖

A futuristic steampunk love story

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Twirling a lock of midnight black hair around her pinkie, Serafina Goldrush sat at the bar awaiting her love. It was almost midnight; most folks were stumbling home or falling asleep at tables. The smell of cigar smoke filled the room from gentlemen playing rounds of poker in dimly lit, shadowy corners.

More than once, Serafina had been approached by some gentleman or another hoping to buy her a drink. She wasn’t stupid; she knew she was good-looking—more than the average person. With long, inky hair and onyx eyes, the combination with her pale snow skin made her look like a delicate doll.

However, the last thing Serafina could be called was delicate.

A single father, an outlaw, had raised her. He ran his small town with an iron fist. Nobody messed with him, not even law enforcement. And you especially didn’t mess with his little spitfire of a girl.

Serafina barely remembered her mother. All she knew was that she had been beautiful and kind but naïve. She refused to let anyone point out her father’s faults or that the man was a criminal.

Zia Goldrush would not hear of any of it. Maybe it was because she already knew they were right, but she loved the man too much to give him up.

She had been a baby when Zia had passed away from an alien virus that had struck the world at the time. The virus had wiped up a good sixty per cent of the population, causing scientists to scramble for a cure and a vaccine. It took them two years.

During that time, Creed Goldrush had taken his daughter deep underground with his crew of trusted men, and there they stayed until it was safe to return to the surface. By that time, a lot of the town had been decimated, including the law enforcement, which left it free for Creed to take over and rule entirely, without question.

After the virus was defeated, the world scientific division, created after the mass wipeout of Earth’s general population, began to look for a solution to the dwindling population count. Birth rates remained alarmingly low; the virus has done a number on fertility health as well as survival rates.

That was when Doctor Memphis Stellarian received a large grant for his cybernetics work. Until then, he’d only been able to research and invent advanced prosthetic limbs and brain chips for those suffering degenerative neurological diseases and conditions. With this large sum of money thrown at him, he fulfilled his dream of creating his race of synthetic humans.

They would be mass-produced in large factories worldwide and implanted with unique artificial intelligence chips that would allow them to develop their own opinions and personalities.

They would have all the best parts of humanity without the ability to get sick or age. Enough of them would be made to make up for the lost population, and with their prosthetic genitals and reproductive systems, they would also be able to help humans reproduce and regain their numbers.

Initially, the program was met with disgust and fear from the world. What if these things turned on them? What if they became too advanced and decided to eliminate humans? Why not investigate ways to revive some lost fertility and increase the birth rates?

Doctor Stellarian assured them that these cyborgs would be born with a self-destruct button in their necks that would kill them if any ever stepped out of line. They would have all the benefits of humans but without the freedom. As for the fertility questions, the WSD insisted that it would take far too long for them to make those developments before humans died off at a rate uncontrolled.

For Serafina’s generation, the cyborgs were a normal part of life. You couldn’t tell the difference between a cyborg and a regular human. It was considered rude even to ask unless you were an asshole or just a nosy idiot. There were, of course, lots of anti-cyborg groups that had popped up from their creation, who insisted they ought to be put down and not allowed around real humans.

Cyborgs, for their part, had next to no rights compared to humans. Cyborgs could father or mother children with humans but would have no lawful right to see or help raise them unless they were a married couple. Even then, if the human spouse decided to divorce their cyborg, they’d be left with nothing.

Serafina had studied Cyborg-Human relations with an intense fascination since she was a child, ever since she saw a cyborg enter her daddy’s establishment. Her dad had no issue with cyborgs; in fact, he took issue with any human that came into his bar talking shit about them.

A few men in his crew had cyborgs but were people with thoughts and emotions like humans. They also had a fierce loyalty to her dad for giving them a place and, most importantly, freedom.

Suddenly a shadow took shape over Serafina’s table, interrupting her thoughts. She smiled as she recognised the outline. “Well, it took you long enough”.

“Sorry darlin’ I was takin’ care of a few anti-cyborg losers”, Serafina’s boyfriend, Sol Nexus, explained, pulling her out of her chair and onto his lap.

Unlike most cyborgs, Sol was unable to hide his more robotic side. Half of his face had been melted off in a terrorist attack on a cyborg factory when he’d only just taken his first breath.

The damage to that side of his face was too much to repair. One side of his face was human, with tanned skin and handsome features. The other was metal and wires, which had never put Serafina off. She had always found him beautiful, just the way he was.

Even though, as a couple, they regularly drew dirty looks from the more conservative members of society, Serafina had never been ashamed to be seen holding his hand.

Sometimes she found him more human than so-called real humans. His soul was pure and sweet, and he was one of the many reasons she became a cyborg rights representative.

Cyborg human rights committees were quite a recent thing after pro-cyborg groups had loudly and insistently screamed out about the unfairness of the treatment of their fellow sentient beings. They had every right to be treated with equal decency and respect.

Only then did the governments agree to allow law firms to represent cyborgs and for organisations to officially form. They had yet to decide to give Cyborgs the freedoms they deserved, but Serafina figured it was only a matter of time.

“They didn’t hurt you, did they?” she fretted, touching the exposed side of his face tenderly.

His lips quirked up in a wry smile. “They gave it their best shot as usual, but your dad came out guns blazing and scared them off”.

“That’s daddy alright”, Serafina grinned, her mind conjuring up images of her dad chasing after some redneck religious fanatics with his laser blaster 3000. She couldn’t be prouder than to be ‘The Sheriff’s’ daughter. He wasn’t a real Sheriff, of course, but he ran the town like one, so that was what the locals lovingly called him.

Suddenly Sol’s smile slipped away, replaced with a melancholier expression. “I sometimes worry you’ll get hurt one day, bein’ with me. I’m not even a real person”.

“How can you even see that? You’re as real as anyone I know”, she replied, sorrow shadowing her face. “I hate that they make you think you aren’t. You are as sentient as I am, aren’t you? You have thoughts, opinions, and dreams all your own. Just because we’re not made of the same stuff, doesn’t mean we ain’t the same”.

Sol cradled her close to him, sighing. “Except your heart pumps blood, mine pumps fuel”.

“So what? My heart’s flesh, your heart’s metal but they both love the same anyway”, she retorted. “I don’t wanna hear you talk about yourself like that. You’re the man I love, and I wouldn’t trade you for anythin’. Anyone who talks shit about us can fuck right off”.

“You’re so romantic”, Sol smirked, mischief returning to his eyes as Serafina’s love chased away the dark thoughts that had plagued him for a moment. “Just so you know, my metal heart is all yours”.

I love a good robot/human love story. Don’t you?

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