He put his arm around her. “You're welcome, Pira.”
“Don't tell.” Then she collapsed into tears of relief.
Oh yes, she needed him. And maybe he needed her.
3
Crossed Lasers
Orion completed college, getting his degree in general arts. He was not a top scholar, merely adequate; that got him by. He had continued dating, but for some reason no girl seemed right, though more than one had been interested. He remembered Pira saying he would wait for her; was that really the case? Had she somehow spoiled him for regular girls? That seemed unlikely. Maybe it was that he was looking forward to getting involved with the crossed lasers, and that meant her.
She called him. “Orion--”
“Come on over.” He could tell by her tone that she was excited in a positive way. That meant she had made it. That excited him more than he had anticipated. He did want this adventure.
She arrived shortly, positively glowing. She still looked about nine years old, but she was now fifteen. Wordlessly, he swept her into his embrace, picking her up so that her feet were a foot off the floor, and she feverishly kissed his ear. There was an odd padding on her back; what was she wearing?
“So how was it,” he asked as they settled down.
“I loved it. Not being away from you, I mean, but the classes. It came natural to me. I was first in my class.”
“How big was your class?”
“Six finished, out of twenty who started. They didn't all flunk out; some lost their taste for it and quit.”
So it was not a huge deal, but good enough to qualify her. “Are you wearing body armor?”
She laughed. “Were you trying to feel me up? There's nothing to feel, yet.”
“I felt the padding when I hugged you.”
“That's my harness with my power pack. I'll be wearing it always, awake and asleep, except when I shower. Then you'll hold it.”
“Oh, I don't want to invade your privacy.”
“Yes you do. As my companion you'll always be close to me. You'll see me naked.” She grimaced. “I wish I had more than a little girl's body to show you, but that just has to wait.”
“Why should I see you naked?”
“And feel me, too. So if we're in trouble, and can't make any sound, in the dark, you can still verify that it's me. You have to be sure, always.”
“I'm not sure I understand. I thought you were into crossed lasers.”
“Oh, yes. I'll show you. Hold up a piece of paper.”
Orion picked up a section of the day's newspaper. A scorched hole appeared in it. “What?” he asked, confused.
“I lasered it.”
“But you didn't do anything. You just stood there.”
“Hold up another, so it hangs down.”
He held up another sheet. Then as he watched, a burn mark appeared on it, curving around like script. In fact it was script: Pira. Her signature.
But still she was holding nothing and her hands weren't moving.
“Now you have my attention. This relates to seeing you naked?”
“Yes.” She took off her shirt. Under it was a thick flesh-colored padding that mounded on her back and fastened around the front, like a large backward bra. Sections of it extended down the insides of her arms to her hands, where she seemed to wear transparent gloves. “This is my harness,” she said, turning around so that he could see it all. “This is my most valuable possession. It's worth a fortune.”
“It doesn't look like much.”
“It's not supposed to. It's supposed to be inconspicuous, so no one notices it. Now I'll take it off.” She pulled on one hand with the other, prying off the glove, then tackled the other side. The padding peeled away from her arms, and then her body as she unhooked it. She stood bare from the waist up, her body completely childish, holding the ponderous harness. “Hold it.”
Orion took it. It weighed about twenty pounds, a hefty weight for a girl her size to carry around, and was awkward in his hands, like a sliced animal carcass. “Weird.”
“We'll assume I just took my shower. Now give it back to me.”
He helped her put the harness on. This was a slow, careful process. Then without putting her shirt back on, she faced the burned newspaper. It suddenly burst into flame.
“Hey! Don't burn down the house!” he exclaimed, stomping it out.
“The power travels down my arms to my hands, where the lasers are generated. I control them with my orientation and my fingers. Without that harness I have no power.” Now she donned her shirt and tucked it in.
“I don't see any generators. Your hands are bare.”
“They're in the gloves. They're flesh colored, and transparent at the tips of my fingers to show my nails, so that my hands seem bare unless you look closely.”
“They fooled me! I didn't realize they were gloves until you took off your shirt and I saw the harness extensions.”
“That's the idea. That's why I stripped: so you would see.” She flashed a shy smile. “If I had my grown body, you'd never notice my hands at all.”
“I never would,” he agreed. “So the idea is that I have to guard you when you're without your weapon?”
“Yes. So no one else should even see the harness. It must never leave my body, or your hands, except when recharging. It's dangerous.”
He nodded. “I appreciate that. So I have to stay close enough to you to see that no one takes it from you.”
“Yes. If someone grabbed me when I slept, I'd have trouble focusing. The two hands have to be apart, so the beams can triangulate. You need to see that that mischief never happens.”
“But what about when I sleep? Unless we take turns sleeping, you'll be vulnerable then.”
“Yes. That's why you'll have to sleep with me. Sharing my bed. Your hand on my body. So that if anyone even touches me, you'll wake and react.”
“Sharing your bed,” he repeated thoughtfully. “Pira, I don't think that's wise.”
“That's why it can't be just anyone. I don't want a stranger in my bed.”
“You don't want any man in your bed! You're young, but you're still a woman.”
She made a helpless gesture. “I'm not afraid of—of rape. I'm afraid of losing my harness. That's more valuable.”
This bothered him. “I don't know quite how to say this without being crude. I'm a man. If I slept with a woman in my arms, even a very young one, a girl, I might forget she wasn't there for sex. That could be extremely awkward.”
“I'd let you, and be glad of it, even if it hurt.”
“You're a virgin.”
“Yes. But you're the one I want to lose it to.”
She was determined. “I'd have to sleep fully clothed, so it couldn't happen.”
“No. In your pajamas, so no one would know we weren't lovers.”
“A man and a child!”
She gazed at him sadly. “That's the irony. It's the harness that must be protected, not my virtue, in reputation or reality.”
“I'd be convicted of child molestation.”
“I'm sorry I'm not a grown woman!” she flared. “Must you rub it in?”
This was getting nowhere. The problem was not so much her body, but her evident willingness. “Maybe I should talk to your mother.”
“Yes!” she agreed gladly.
That set him back. He tried to regroup. “Is this the only sticking point?”
“Maybe not. You may not like the action.”
“The action?”
“I—I may have to maim or even kill someone, sometime.”
“Maim or kill! What are you getting into, Pira?”
“The crossed lasers may be used in hostage situations. To take out the bad guys before they kill their hostages. I'm trained to do that.”
“Pira, you're not a killer!”
“I'm not,” she agreed. “That's why I need you.”
“I'm not a killer either.”
“But you have more martial arts experience.
You're trained to handle tough people. I need that.”
Orion sat on the couch, feeling faint. “Oh, Pira, I don't want you getting into combat situations.”
She joined him, touching his hand comfortingly. “Hostage, not combat. But it could be life or death. I couldn't handle it alone, but you could tell me what to do, and I'd do it. You have the—the mature perspective. I really do need you, Orion.”
“You really do,” he agree, awed. He knew he was going to do it. “Let's go talk to your mother.”
They walked to her house. Manta met them at the door; she must have been expecting them. “In the living room,” she said. “So as not to disturb your father's TV in the family room.” She clearly knew what they were here for.
“I'll join dad,” Pira said, excusing herself. That was another signal: this was adult business.
Orion tackled it. “Pira tells me that if I sign up for this, I'll have to be her close bodyguard, day and night. Even if others misunderstand our relationship.”
“You'll be her guardian. We'll sign the papers.”
“I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of commitment.”
“Pira is a very determined girl. She needs a firm hand.”
“I'm not that hand!”
“Yes you are. She'll do anything for you.”
“That's the problem. She says I could do anything, including inappropriate touching, and she wouldn't tell.”
“She wouldn't,” Manta agreed. “She needs a guardian because both her training and her equipment are valuable. Neither can be left unattended, for even a moment. That harness is worth a million dollars alone, and it cost a similar amount to train her.”
“A million dollars!”
“To start. So you can surely appreciate that not just any person will do to be with her. It has to be one she trusts and relates to, and one that both the Crossed Laser authorities and her father and I accept. We recommended you; they did a thorough investigation, and we agree: you're the one.”
“But I'm just the neighbor boy!” he protested. “We just happened to get together, as friends.”
She put her hand on his arm. Her touch made it tingle. “You are more than that, Orion. You are a fine young man, worthy in every respect. Your martial art facility adds to it; you can protect her from incidental mischief.”
“I'm not worthy! I—in the night—with a willing girl—I fear the temptation. I'm a normal young man, always aware of sex, awake or asleep. Pira is a child, but she has told me that she loves me, woman to man, and I believe it. She constantly flirts with me, and behaves seductively. It may be a game to her, but--”
“It's no game. She loves you, as she says.”
“That's mischief. If I ever got drunk, I might forget. Surely you understand.”
“Pira is young and inexperienced and painfully shy. She has not learned to express herself with appropriate subtlety.”
“Shy? She's not shy with me!”
“That's what makes you special, Orion. She's at ease with you. You were the first to relate to her as a person. Not as a parent, or a bully, or a child her age, but as a friend, reaching across your differences in age and gender, being special. You never talked down to her or made her feel isolated.”
“Of course I didn't! She's a real and worthwhile person.”
“You have not had sufficient occasion to see how awkward she is in normal social situations. She's not autistic, just not properly social, largely because of her size and the social isolation home-schooling entails, not to mention her premature interest in sex. You will have to teach her how to be at ease with others, as you are.”
Orion shook his head, recognizing the validity of her assessment; there had been hints. “That may be. But she even spells out what she wants, such as getting naked in bed with me. Does she have any idea what that means?”
“She does. I taught her the relevant biology. She knows what goes where, and the significance of the act. That's why she wants it, even if her body is not ready. She is more than willing to put up with a little pain, for the sake of the larger objective.”
“She has to know that's not proper.”
“She knows intellectually, not emotionally. She wants so much to impress you. You will have to show her that there are other ways beside sexuality to do that. So that when she comes to her maturity, and has a body like mine, she will use its power carefully. You must civilize her in a way we have not been able to. She will learn from you, because she wants to win you.”
“Win me?”
“Don't be naïve. She wants to marry you.”
“Marry me! She's fifteen!”
“When she comes of age in three years. She already knows her will, and I doubt she is mistaken; you're more than worthy. Don't dismiss her ambition out of hand, Orion. She's young now, but she'll be a lot of woman, when.”
That set him back anew. “I can't promise her anything like that. She's a nice and talented girl, and I do like her, like her a lot, but this is a different league of commitment. The—the way things are going, she'll be ruined before she ever gets mature in body or mind.”
Manta met his gaze, and he was struck again by her beauty. She was consciously showing him what her daughter would become. It was phenomenally impressive. “I do understand, Orion. We are asking a lot of you. But this is important. Pira has a rare opportunity, something that will truly exploit her special ability. It's the chance of a lifetime, for her, and we must facilitate it. It will also be a significant service to the welfare of the world. She needs your help. Do you want to deny her her dream?”
“No, I want to support her. But sleeping in her bed--”
“We do not approve of juvenile sex, of course, for the record,” she said earnestly, leaning forward. He couldn't help noticing how that brought more of her fine full breasts into view. “But we must be realistic. The average age of first sex for a girl is fifteen. She is in the range, despite her appearance, and more than into it emotionally. It would not be a disaster, regardless of the law, as long as no one told, and no one would.”
He was shocked. “How can you say that? You're her mother!”
“You have no idea how far I would go to help my daughter become all that she can be.” She inhaled, and the view intensified dramatically.
“Manta! This—you--I can't believe that--”
She closed the remaining distance and kissed him on the mouth. “Now will you shut up and listen?”
He nodded, at the moment unable to speak. She had silenced him more effectively than a blow on the mouth would have.
She smiled reminiscently. “I do know how it is, and I'm a realist. A bit of private personal history, trusting your discretion. I was a gymnast, a good one. A small, light, immature body can be ideal, if there is coordination, and I certainly had that. My trainer was a good man, knowledgeable and caring. I loved him. He was married, but he had a thing for fit young girls, and I was more than willing. I never regretted it. I was fifteen. I never told anyone except my later husband, and now you.”
He stared at her, speechless.
“I was shy too; that's one reason I got into gymnastics: it's an individualized sport. My trainer made me a star performer, and also his secret mistress. But more importantly, he socialized me, taught me to stand up for myself, and gave me vital self confidence. After that I was ready to handle the world, especially when I matured physically. I owe him more than I can say, and I love him yet, in my fashion. Yes he seduced me, but the larger experience was well worth it, and the sex wasn't bad either. He introduced me to the female orgasm, and I loved having him in me.”
“You shouldn't be telling me this. It's no business of mine.”
“Ah, but it is. Must I say it directly? You would hurt Pira far more by refusing this mission than by having sex with her. You will have a scant three years to socialize her; once she blooms, you will no longer govern her, she will govern you. We trust you to do the right thing, whatever that may be.”
What could he do?
She had overwhelmed him. Pira, mature, would be like Manta. “I will try.”
She smiled, and it was as if the room brightened. “Thank you, Orion. I apologize for treating you roughly. I had to get through to you, just as you have to get through to Pira.”
Dazed, he knew he was committed. It was time for the crossed lasers.
4
Demo
Orion's own parents weren't so sure. “We paid your way through college, so you could throw it away nurse-maiding a snot-nosed neighbor's child?” his father demanded.
This was not going well. “She's a pretty unusual child.”
“Dear, we'll need more than that,” his mother said in a tone that brooked no refuting.
He would have to do it. “I can show you how unusual she is,” Orion said carefully. “But you must swear secrecy.”
“Secrecy!” his father said.
“There's—government involvement. This must not be known outside of particular circles.”
His parents exchanged a glance. “Granted,” his father said gruffly.
He brought in Pira, who had been waiting in another room, ready in case it came to this. “Make the demonstration,” Orion said.
She made it.
His folks didn't say a word, but the issue was settled.
There were necessary complications, forms to be filled out and notarized, partial explanations made to family and friends, but within a week Orion was Pira's legal guardian for any travels away from her home. He had a new expense account to cover any costs; and a regular check was to be deposited with his family, payment for his services. They also had new unlisted cell phones. Things had been accomplished with remarkable efficiency, as if hidden strings were being pulled. It seemed Crossed Lasers had resources, but they kept out of sight.
Pira was thrilled; this was her dream, to have the ideal job and, as she saw it, the ideal man at her beck. It was exciting for Orion too, in its fashion, but he was wary.
“What now?” he asked her. “Do we go check in at Laser HQ?”
Pira Page 3