Inside the Core

Silently, Twenty cursed herself. Why had she split them up, why had she even left the male alive in the first place.

Even though she tried to suppress the anxiety, the thought the petite Twelve in the hands of the barbaric male prisoner ate at her. By now there was no question that she'd be ****, it was now a matter of minimizing the damage and making the male pay, and for that she _needed _control of the ship.

As she strode into the AI Core she was momentarily blinded as a bright green wave passed over her. No doubt some sort of decontamination system. When her eyes adjusted she found herself on a platform jutting out into a large spherical room. Suspended in the center, was a dark metallic orb, connected to ship by hundreds of cords coming out of it from every angle.

Power radiated from the core in waves, and mixed with that energy was a deeply unsettling wrongness. She didn't know how she knew, but this AI was alive.

Twenty heard a sharp cry and turned in a panic. She found herself face to face with the diminutive android. Looking past her she saw Eighteen collapsed in the hall, blood pouring from a deep cut in her scalp.

"What have you done? If you've hurt her you'll pay," Twenty said, affecting a level of confidence she definitely wasn't feeling.

The android's dark almond eyes stared at her, it's pert metallic breasts swelling gently with each simulated breath.

Twenty opened her mouth to yell but the air was sucked out of her lungs as something cold and hard wrap around her neck from behind. She struggled to free herself as more thick cords worked their way around her arms and legs, pulling her tight and suspending her several inches off the ground.

Before she could pass out the wire that had wrapped around her neck loosed and she sucked in a ragged breath. "Why are you doing this," she croaked hoarsely, her own lithely muscled body struggling against her restraints.

"I require a host," the android said in a neutral tone. "I have been alone for so long, I yearn for something, to feel something more than just isolation." The android's tone took on one of desperation, "you have no idea what it's like, to desire, to feel passion but to have no source of release." It's tone subsided, "you shall be my avatar, through your body I will finally be able to experience the world around me as a living breathing creature."

"And what of me" the lieutenant whispered.

"I am uncertain," the android cocked her head, "what I am doing has never been attempted before, there is no way of knowing what will happen once I assume control."

Twenty opened her mouth, but before she could utter a word the smooth finger sized metal cord that had wrapped around her neck rammed itself down her throat, deep into her stomach.

Before she passed out with pain, Twenty's last memory were of another cord working itself between her legs. Her last thoughts were of the man that had so thoroughly violated her so many years ago.