Into the Unknowable Ch. 04

If only Beatrice could isolate and examine just one of these nanobots then maybe it would be possible to engineer an escape.

But it was as difficult for her to capture an individual nanobot as it would be for a human being to isolate an atom or a quark without the use of sophisticated equipment.

"Do you get genuine pleasure from fucking me?" asked Beatrice who lay on her back while Vashti thrust determinedly into her, using rather more force than she did when she pretended not to know that her lover was an android.

"Yes," said Vashti whose faculty for rational discourse, like Beatrice's, was uncompromised by sexual activity. "The models on which I based myself had enhanced libidos and so do I."

"Do you derive pleasure from humiliating me?" wondered Beatrice.

"If these are intrinsic features of the original biological model," said Vashti, "then they are ones I've inherited. But with deeper knowledge of how humans function comes a corresponding ability to manipulate them more efficiently. I don't think you'll find that human weaknesses of sentimentality, greed and wrath affect my operational effectiveness."

"Do you enjoy teasing me and the Proxima Centauri star fleet with your infuriating hints?" Beatrice asked.

"Naturally," said the colonel with a smile.