by D. R. Rosier
He frowned in thought, and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong Jen?”
Jen chuckled a little sadly, and then sighed, “Nothing Ted, you were wonderful, thank you. I… really need to think, and I don’t think I can handle you holding me right now, okay?”
He nodded slowly, and didn’t take offense, although he did want to cuddle with her and hold her, he wasn’t so needy he couldn’t give her space. He was pretty sure he knew what was going on, but then women were rather a mystery to him, so he could be way off base. Either way he sighed softly and laid back. Right or wrong about what he believed the problem was, she needed to figure it out for herself.
Still, he’d seen the longing in her eyes under the lust and wanton desire. Maybe her plan had just been to try and be fuck buddies, like the relationship he’d described to her when he told her about Kara and Nicci. It would explain why she demanded they fuck, and why she’d spoken dirty that way, to keep her emotional distance. The same reason she didn’t want his touch now, because she wanted to melt into it.
But from where he sat, her idea hadn’t quite worked to plan.
Or, he could be reading into it way too much. He tried to convince himself it wasn’t his problem, she was a grown woman, just like Mia had said. Still, that didn’t make him feel like less of a dick, as she got up from the bed, pulled on her armor, and mumbled a goodbye in a strained voice before she left out the door.
“Fuck,” he whispered quietly but fervently after the door shut.
Sleeping with her had been his fantasy for so long, but in his fantasies it had never ended this way. He wondered if they were even friends now, he would have to wait and see. He hoped so, but it wasn’t up to him. He brought up the overlay command window for the game, and watched as her icon grayed out.
She’d logged off.
“Fucking fuck,” he muttered under his breath, he felt like an ass. He sighed, and got dressed himself before he logged out.
Chapter Thirty-One
After he logged out, he took a moment to bounce to Silvia’s apartment, and he checked it over more carefully room by room. There was no indication she’d been coerced, or taken from there. All the usual stuff a woman would take with her was gone, and she’d left no messages, subtle or otherwise.
He still hoped that he was blowing this all out of proportion in his head. He’d come to the conclusion though, that there was nothing at all he could do but wait. Either Silvia would contact him, and he’d feel like an idiot, or the A.I.s would track her down. He couldn’t really even contact the police, not until forty-eight hours were up he couldn’t.
He bounced back and left the sound and touch program active, and then sat in the room on ship for a moment. He actually had some free time before his night with Trudy, he’d only been in the game world for a little over an hour and a half, but going back didn’t appeal to him. He brought up his overlay, and thought he might as well study. It wouldn’t help if he just sat there and pulled his hair out in worry…
He looked up as the door opened, and Trudy was covered with a dust like substance.
He smiled.
“Hey baby, looking good, you need help in the shower?”
She frowned at him and he tried to look innocent. The truth was she was attractive, no matter what she had all over her.
“I’ll just be a minute,” then she shook her head and seemed to change her mind, “I suppose I could use help with my back, one of the fabricators had an… issue.”
He chuckled and got up.
While they took a quick shower to conserve water, she mentioned the message he’d sent a few days ago.
“Theoretically the mass cancellation field is possible, but it would have to be applied from without, because electricity wouldn’t work correctly if the field was applied to circuits, or the field generator itself. You were also correct that it would be disastrous on anything alive, especially any animals or humans, since circulatory systems rely on mass more than other biological systems.
“So yeah, it wouldn’t work on a missile either. It would make a devastating weapon to use on another ship however, as a beam. No more so than using the gravity systems however. Still, you weren’t wrong, and there may be other applications. You’re shield idea would work well I think. Most other useful applications however, would be just as easily accomplished using artificial gravity fields.”
He pinched her ass, “I love it when you talk science. It turns me on.”
It really did. Now that she didn’t intimidate him quite so much with her intelligence, he was turned on by the thought of how incredibly intelligent the sexy as hell, voluptuous golden blonde haired woman was.
She giggled, “Cut that out Dr. Stedman.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said innocently… as he pinched her ass again.
He laughed when she slapped his hand.
They finished up the shower without too much fun, he couldn’t wait until they didn’t have to conserve water quite so much. Until then shower fun times were pretty much off the table, except for in virtual world of course.
As they dried off and got dressed she said, “Helen will contact me if she finds out what happened to Silvia okay?”
He nodded, “Thanks.”
She grinned, “Anytime. You ready for some hang gliding?”
“Wait,” he turned to Trudy, “What?”
Just a few minutes later in virtual world, she helped him put on some crazy suit and contraption that would tie them together, and strap them to a tandem hang glider. He’d never done it before, so he was a bit nervous, even if they were in virtual world, and he was immortal, jumping off of a cliff strapped to an overgrown kite still seemed like a really bad idea.
He did it though, just to prove how insanely he loved his golden blonde haired goddess.
For the next hour or so, they glided over canyons and desert as the sun sank down toward the horizon, only to land a few minutes before twilight. He had to admit he enjoyed himself, when he wasn’t worried about falling to his death that is. The view had been incredible, and of course, being tethered to Trudy and basically lying on her back was fun in itself.
He sighed, “That was fun, if a little crazy.”
She grinned and kissed him softly, “I have an update if you want to hear it,” she said after she’d broken the kiss, and started to unpack their camping equipment.
He nodded and she said, “The last place Silvia was seen was at a food store just after ten, and her car is still in the parking lot. Helen is attempting to get the surveillance video in the parking lot for that time, to see if she can identify what happened.”
He had a bit of trouble breathing for a minute, so she was taken. Son of a bitch. Still too early for it to have been Sara though, so that was one good thing. He couldn’t imagine how crazy he’d be if that whacked out bitch had her.
He nodded slowly, “Thanks. Anything else going on?”
She sighed and shrugged, as if reluctant to talk about it, but she eventually said, “The government is shutting down all government employed A.I.s, especially that serve in law enforcement. They started to do that a couple of hours ago. To be honest though, there weren’t very many of those at all, most A.I.s work in the public sector. It’s clear though that the government doesn’t believe we can’t lie, or they wouldn’t be so paranoid and untrusting.”
He frowned, “Sorry, I kind of ruined the mood for our date didn’t I?”
Neither of them were very flushed with excitement anymore. Normally, the adrenaline from doing what they’d just done, would have had them all over each other. Things just felt flat with their worries.
She shrugged and hugged him, “It’s okay, I was already distracted with it anyway. Let’s eat and finish watching the sunset.”
They started a small fire, and warmed up some soup and she made a couple of sandwiches. It was a basic meal, but he enjoyed it well enough while they watched the sunset. He knew he was being a horrible date, his mind kept wandering back and forth between Silv
ia being abducted, and trying to figure out what the government’s next move would be after they’d secured their systems from A.I. access.
Of course, Trudy looked a bit distracted herself. There was too much shit going on to really enjoy themselves, but sitting around in a depression wasn’t the answer either. The issues were being dealt with as best as they could be already, there was nothing really to do but wait, so he did his best to enjoy her company, and enjoy the rest of their date.
Still, the desert they were camped in had a strange barren beauty to it, as well as the rock formations nearby. It really was a romantic setting, and after they finished eating, he pulled her in front of him and wrapped his arms around her. She relaxed back with a sigh and put her hands on his legs.
He really was too worried to truly be in the mood for sex, but he was also a guy and knew it wouldn’t take all that much to get him there anyway.
He started to massage her neck and shoulders, and play with her long golden blonde hair in a casual relaxed way. Her scent as usual was quite pleasant, and despite their worries the touching and the closeness of their bodies slowly shifted the mood, and their need for each other, and perhaps some comfort, lessened their worries.
Not that their worries weren’t important, but it was impossible to stay in a stressed out worried state constantly, and it wasn’t healthy either. Plus, she really was beautiful, soft, and felt good in his arms. So despite, or maybe because of their worries, they made love next to the campfire under the stars in the desert for most of that night, and he wouldn’t have traded that moment for anything.
Their time together was if possible, even more passionate than usual, as she sought solace in his embrace, and he accepted the comfort she offered him as well. After cuddling for a short while, they logged out, and he spooned her and held her tightly in his arms as they went into offline mode.
That was one more advantage he supposed, of being digitized. Once he decided it was time to sleep, he went into the offline sleep mode without any trouble. No tossing and turning at all…
Chapter Thirty-Two
That next morning, his quickie with Mia had evolved into a four-way, he’d had so many female hands and body parts against him he’d been in heaven. Perhaps they were all just trying to find a moment of pleasure as the stress of what was going on got worse. The government was quiet as a mouse, and hadn’t done anything since cleaning the A.I.s out of the government agencies yesterday.
None of them were really worried they could do anything here on Mars, they could launch an attack and it would take a long time for it to get here, months if not years. The Earth was no threat to Mars, not without the artificial gravity technology to get here quickly.
But they were all worried about the A.I.s left on Earth, which was most of them, and what the governments planned to do.
Even he was concerned about the A.I.s, he couldn’t think of them as anything less than deserving of life, rights, and respect. Just because they were backed up and safe, could be restored if something happened, didn’t make the treatment they received right. But he was also worried about Silvia, as was Helen, Mia, and Trudy.
He wasn’t sure what the problem was, maybe a legal issue, but Helen still hadn’t gotten her hands on the archived footage. He imagined she was probably trying to get permission from the store owner or manager, because he was sure she could get in if she wanted, or knew an A.I. who already had the access. But they couldn’t break the law, even if Silvia was missing.
He also felt guilty, because while Silvia was missing, he’d been going around everywhere and had slept with Amber, Jennifer, Trudy, Mia, and Helen, the latter two not an hour ago now. Not that keeping it in his pants would have changed anything, but guilt was one of those emotions that didn’t always make the most sense.
He was also too stressed to study, and paced uneasily around the room. He could still remember everything he read, even when distracted, he could picture the page and the words and formulas in his mind, but without concentrating on it he couldn’t truly learn and digest it, understand it, so he’d closed his overlay in frustration. Now he couldn’t even study for a distraction.
He stopped himself from bugging Helen about it for the thousandth time in the last hour, she’d tell him when she knew something. It wouldn’t help anyone to badger her about it, and would only make both of them more miserable. Still, it would have been something he could do, even if it was foolish.
The morning went by in a haze of frustration and building anger, it was an impotent anger though. Someone had taken his fiancé and the future mother of his child, and there was nothing he could do about it. While he had seven other women in his life, that didn’t lessen the worry in his heart, and at the moment none of them were around to comfort him.
They all had their own things to do, and he really didn’t want to be a needy pain in the ass.
Of course, his silence didn’t work, because they always kept track of him. It was close to eleven and he was about to start deconstructing the bulkheads, violently, when Mia walked into the room with a determined look on her beautiful face.
He cleared his throat and tried not to appear as if he was losing his mind.
“Hi gorgeous, what’s up?”
Mia crossed her arms and said firmly, “You need to stop this pacing. Go do something.”
He went to object that he was too worried, but she held up her hand, “Take a ship, go let Kara and Nicci distract you, I know you’ve been looking forward to sleeping with them in real life. As for Silvia, it will help with that too. At least you’ll be on Earth, with a ship, so you’ll be able to react quickly once Helen locates Silvia and be there in minutes.”
He frowned, “Are you angry?”
She shook her head, “Worried sick about you, I know you’ve been pacing all morning, but I wasn’t sure what to say, not until now anyway. But now that the time has come you need to go be distracted. Go… enjoy being their fuck toy, I know you like it, and it will if nothing else, help you relax a little bit.”
She came over cautiously and hugged him tightly, and he held her back. She was right about that too, there was something very relaxing about letting a woman control things in bed for a while, two of them even. Maybe because he had five others that listened to him, and that he felt responsible for, he didn’t mind releasing that control for a while, it was a time to step away from all that and relax.
It still seemed wrong, but he didn’t want to argue with Mia. Also, despite being worried sick, he had been looking forward to Kara and Nicci’s real life tryst. He also didn’t worry much about how things seemed to be changing there, especially between Nicci and himself, it just didn’t seem that worrying in comparison with Silvia being missing.
He sighed, he was running out of excuses, “What about the government? Won’t they scramble fighters and send agents to try and grab the technology, not to mention me.”
She shook her head slightly against his shoulder, “I set up a programmed approach, trust me, they won’t even know you’re down there. At least, not on American soil.”
“Which ship?”
She kissed his neck, and said playfully, “You’ll know it when you see it.”
She squeezed his ass and kissed his neck softly, “I love you, now go away so I can miss you,” and then she let her arms drop and she stepped back with a teasing look in her blue eyes.
He snorted a laugh, “Fine, you win,” and he headed down to the larger airlock which held a few ships…
He chuckled when he saw a ship that didn’t fit in with the rest. It looked like the latest VW bug, in yellow, something he wouldn’t actually be caught dead in, except he really didn’t have a choice. It looked perfect, as long as no one actually touched it they probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. He wondered when they’d made it, or anticipated he’d need something like it.
He opened the door, got in, and closed it. He brought up the command interface and activated the pre-programmed course. The ship’
s large airlock depressurized, and opened up to space, and he shot out and was on his way to Earth.
He understood Mia’s course comment, when he came down in the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere a few hundred miles’ northeast of the Bahamas. Then he cringed as he went under the water, and wondered if he should have checked out her programming. The ship started to move up the coast along the continental shelf at a very fast speed.
He’d thought for sure she’d screwed up, he must have been lighting up the sonar detectors the United States would have out here to detect approaching subs, but when he looked out the back window, there was no cavitation at all. Somehow the ship was using gravity to counter the violent flow of water around the ship.
He also knew the gravity drive was completely silent. He wasn’t as sure about himself however, so sat as quietly as possible.
He relaxed a bit, rather impressed, and ten minutes later he was driving up a boat ramp somewhere in Massachusetts. It appeared even the wheels worked, hopefully no one would notice it was completely silent as it raced through the streets, using weak gravity as locomotion, much like a go-cart on a hill.
The ship took him straight to the parking lot for an apartment complex attached to one of the colleges. He knew from their message yesterday that they shared an off campus apartment while at college. He checked the time, it had only taken him a little less than an hour for the entire trip, and most of that had been on Earth itself.
He waited for about ten minutes, but could see no evidence the government was aware of his landing, or at least, his destination. The ship’s sensors hadn’t picked up anything either. When the authorities failed to show up, he got out and closed the door and headed into the apartment building. They were in apartment three-zero-six, which was on the third floor, and he took the stairs up, and felt a little excited, nervous, and guilty as he knocked on the door.