by Mark Wandrey
"What does that mean?" asked another reporter.
"It means," explained Bjorn as he leaned in to enter his own code, "that once lockdown has been triggered, no one Chosen can gain access. At least one two star or higher ranking must release the lock."
"Isn't that risky?" asked still another reporter. "I mean, if there is an emergency, what if there are no ranking Chosen around. There are only a handful of two stars, right?"
"Correct, only seven Chosen currently hold two stars, and two don't work in this facility. However, with the HERT being located right outside the Steven’s Pass complex, where our global CIC is located, there are always several here. It was considered a justifiable precaution."
"Lockdown has been lifted," the computer said in calm sounding voice. The lights ceased their flashing and the armory access door slip open once more. Minu tapped in her code and was offered a weapon. She entered the code into the weapon and it was released into her hands. She hefted the gun and turned around. Several reporters stiffened, got wide eyed, or took a step back. Minu enjoyed herself as she walked away from the door then handed the weapon to Gregg who was standing by the firing range station.
"Now, Chosen Gregg Lawson will take you through the next step of the demonstration."
Minu saw an almost palpable sense of relief in the face of the press as Gregg turned and began explaining the weapon. She stood back with Bjorn and listened. It was just as they'd described. Emphasis on the destructive potential (hence the need for the HERT) and only a passing mention of their use in combat for the Chosen.
"Now I'd like to take the opportunity to show you just how this weapon works." If you will all please step back behind the yellow line on the floor?" The press and dignitaries fell back quickly. Once they were behind the line Gregg stepped up to the firing bench. The system automatically recognized his presence with an armed weapon and a thick glass shield slid into place. "That shield is not strong enough to protect against direct fire from this weapon," he spoke, his voice carried by the intercom so they could still hear. "It is just to provide a measure of protection should any flying debris reach the observation line.
"Now, I'll start on the lowest setting." At the end of the firing range, a sheet of dualloy steel rose into place. In a smooth motion Gregg raised the weapon to his shoulder and fired. Crrrack! A smoldering hole appeared in the plate, light shining through from the other side. A small halo of burning metal was thrown out to scatter on the floor. "Impressive, isn't it?" The reporters all applauded politely, the politicians and dignitaries nodded and spoke to each other. "And now the highest setting." He adjusted the controls, the action taking just as long as the mechanism needed to raise a new plate in place, and five more behind it. They were slightly staggered and a half meter apart. A display in the gallery gave the observers a better view of the targets as Gregg fired again.
Crrrack! went the beamcaster. It was a much throatier sound this time and Gregg visibly rocked under the recoil. The results on the plates were phenomenal. The first two plates were shattered, just like the one in Bjorn's office. The third plate was heavily impacted, bending convex and partially melted before being penetrated. The fourth plate was similar to the third, only with a smaller hole. The fifth and final plate was not deformed, but it was penetrated. Light shown through all five plates.
"Oh my God," Minu heard one observer intone. Someone else gasped. She didn't know who spoke, and it didn't matter. The demonstration was a staggering display of almost inconceivable power. Everyone grew up with dualloy, there were millions of implements on Bellatrix made from the fabulous metal. Who didn't own a dualloy knife or ax that never needed to be sharpened? Was a passenger on a tram which rode on steel rails, plated with a millimeter of dualloy that would last for centuries? The list went on forever. The metal was nearly indestructible, resisting all forms of corrosion, never rusted, and with a tensile strength nine times that of diamonds. Even with all that, it was no match for the focused particle accelerated energy beam of a beamcaster.
"So," Bjorn said with an amiable smile, his hair standing out in wild angles as usual, "are there any more questions on the necessity of this modest facility?"
"A resounding success, wouldn't you say?" Pip asked later that afternoon as they cleaned up.
"Oh, they were scared all right," Mandi agreed, "but was it necessary?"
"Bjorn thinks so," Minu said.
"Bjorn blew a hole in his office to make a point," Mandi said.
"Yes," Pip agreed, a finger held up, "but that worked too, didn't it?" Minu and Pip shared a smile, Mandi just shook her head.
"So when do we get to work?" Gregg asked, coming back after finishing the check in of the weapon he'd used for demonstration.
"We already have," Pip told him and held up a computer. The energy management and analysis program he'd written was running and they could see a line of figures. "The sensors were running during the shots you did to show off to the civvies."
"Good job," Minu said, "I wish I'd thought of that."
"That's why you have us."
"Okay, meeting tomorrow, 07:00, bright and early."
Mandi only nodded and headed for the door. She'd seen the way Mandi caught the eye of a particularly handsome and particularly powerful councilman from the Summit Tribe. Minu couldn't help wondering if the provocatively dressed woman was going home, or to meet somewhere with that man. Then she wondered why she cared? You're jealous, she chastised herself.
"What are you thinking?" Pip asked, making her jump in surprise. She hadn't known he was walking along with her.
"None of your business," she snapped. Pip just lifted an eyebrow and kept pace with her. "Don't you have somewhere to go?"
"Yeah, my room, it's on the same floor as yours, remember?"
"Right, sorry." They reached the lift and she pressed the call button. Eventually her curiosity got the better of her. "Do you have a girl friend?"
"You offering?"
"Don't be crude."
"Why do you want to know?" The lift arrived.
"Sorry I asked," she grumbled and walked in with him close behind. "I guess I was just curious. I have no idea what kind of social life my team has."
"Oh, well, no, I don't have a girlfriend. I really haven't had time for that sorta stuff," he said. Even standing mostly behind him on the lift she could tell he was blushing.
"Dated at all?"
"A couple times," he admitted. Now she knew he was blushing. "I guess I just don't know how to deal with women. I wish there was a class I could take. I mean, I'm almost sixteen, you'd figure I'd have...well, you know?"
"Had sex by now?"
"Shit," he said and pushed the button for their floor savagely enough to make him exclaim and see if he'd hurt his finger.
"Do you masturbate?"
"Damn, Minu!" he cried out and turned to gawk at her. Now it was her turn to blush. "You haven't either, have you? I mean have sex?"
"Not really, I guess not."
"You don't know? Shit, I hope I'll remember when it happens."
Minu opened her mouth and almost told him she'd been raped during the Trials. Something stopped her, some hidden force in the back of her mind snatched the words before they could form. "Damn it," she cursed and gave up the effort.
Pip misread her frustration. "I guess we're in the same position. Hey, I have an idea," he said with a grin growing on his face.
"I'm not having sex with you, Pip. It would be like getting it on with my little brother, if I had one."
"No, that's not what I mean." Minu could see he was not lying, and she could also see the idea might have been in the back of his mind somewhere. "I was going to suggest we could talk about what it's like to be, well, to be our own sex."
"That might be interesting, Pip. But we're hardly typical specimens."
"Consider the source," he said under his breath and she almost slapped him. The doors opened, they had reached their floor. Minu's room was one way, his the other. "It's all I
got, take it or leave it."
"Okay, I'm not tired anyway. Meet me in my room in ten minutes."
"You got it," he said and trotted off down the hall like an excited school kid. Minu shook her head and went down to her quarters. The door unlocked automatically at her approach and she went inside. She quickly stripped and hopped in her room’s tiny shower. Though the party had been light on the physical labor, it was heavy in stress from coordinating and speaking. Talking to politicians and reporters just left her feeling dirty. Her hope was that it would be an interesting and late night with her friend, and she didn't want to keep worrying that her odor was offending him. The shower was just a stall off the apartment’s only room, same as the toilet and sink. She stepped out, a towel around her hair, and heard a choking sound. Pip was standing there turning a bright shade of red.
"Oh, for the love of the Tog," she said and put her hands on her hips, "it's not like you haven't seen me naked before," she said and went about drying her hair. He just stood there and pretended not to watch even though she could see his erection pressing against his pants. She slid into a pair of panties, shorts, and a sleeveless shirt without bothering with a bra since it was to bed later anyway. "Is it me personally that arouses you, of just that I am a woman?"
"Minu!"
"You agreed to this," she said and crossed her arms under her breasts.
He heaved a sigh and handed her a bag he'd carried under his arm. Inside was a big bottle of mead, Bjorn's preferred brand and probably the best she'd ever had. "Yes, I did agree. And the answer to the question in the elevator is yes, and your last question is both." His face was so red it almost glowed, but he didn't glance away and looked her straight in the eye.
She thought for a second before understanding his answers. “So yes, you do masturbate, and you find me arousing because I am female and who I am?" He nodded his head, so embarrassed he was shuddering. "Thank you," she said and he looked relieved, perhaps afraid she would make fun of him.
"So do you masturbate too?" he asked shyly.
"Only a couple times," she admitted as she opened the mead.
"A day, a week, a month?"
"Huh?"
"How often do you do it?"
"Oh, sorry. I've only done it a couple times in my life."
"Wow, really?"
"Why is that so surprising?"
"I don't know, I guess it’s because since I did it the first time I've done it a couple times a week."
"Even during the Trials?"
"Oh, no, not then. I was too exhausted."
"So you're always so turned on you have to do it several times a week?"
"No, not really turned on. It's like pressure in a boiling pot, Sooner or later you have to release it, or you'll explode." Minu looked at the bulge in his pants and lifted an eyebrow. Pip laughed and sat down to hide it. She popped open the bottle and gave him a glass of mead. "No, not literally explode. But you have wet dreams. You ejaculate during the night, usually from a sex dream."
She marveled at how quickly he was loosening up. It had morphed into a sort of scientific discussion, and that was right up his aisle. “Oh, I've had those, but obviously I can't ejaculate. So do you think if I masturbate, they would stop?"
"I can't say for sure, women are wired differently."
"Yeah, we're not horny all the time."
"We can't help it; we're just designed as testicle transport devices." They both laughed and drank some of the tasty mead. Pip refilled her glass without being asked.
"Thanks," Minu said. Pip toasted her with the glass. "For the mead, and the conversation."
"Not a problem, boss."
"No, not your boss. Tonight just your friend." He smiled and nodded his head. "So, what do you find arousing about a woman?"
* * *
Pip didn't leave until well after midnight. They finished the bottle he'd brought then broke out one of her own. It wasn't nearly as good, but by then they didn't care. The conversation went from dating to kissing, then sex and masturbation before veering into their careers as Chosen, the Concordian and even a brief detour into religion. Minu considered herself agnostic while Pip was a comfortable atheist. At the end of the night he got up to leave and she held the door for him. She noted his erection was gone and the mead made the trickster in her come out. She grabbed him and gave him a full on kiss before he realized what was happening.
To his credit, after a brief moment of shock he put his hands around her waist and pulled her to him. She fit herself to his tall and wiry frame and felt him getting hard against her abdomen. A little out of breath, she ended the kiss. "That was a thank you, not an invitation."
"Too bad," he said huskily and licked his lips, savoring the exotic taste of her. This time he took the lead, quickly pulling her to him and kissing her again, long and passionately. Their mouths opened slightly and her tongue found his for a tentative touch.
"You need to go now before it's too late," Minu said as she broke the second kiss.
"Too late for what?"
"Before I make love to you, then have to fire you in the morning."
"I think I understand," he said, not bothering to hide his disappointment.
"The choice is yours," she said. "You can have sex with me, and I'm fine with that. In fact I hope you want to, more than you know. After that I can't let you on my team any more. You understand why, right?"
"I do," he said, “but it doesn't make the decision any easier.” She could see the battle raging between his mind and his penis. A detached part of her found it an interesting experiment, and that made her feel embarrassed for using her friend like that. Another part hoped he came back inside and let her see that bulge in his pants, to touch it, to taste it, to feel it inside her. She shivered slightly at that last.
"Good night," he said finally and quickly walked away.
Minu closed the door and turned off the lights. She climbed into her bed and stared into the dark for a few long moments. Her skin was all tingly and a shudder ran up her back. Never since the Trials did she ever actually considered what she'd just almost done. That moment with Aaron by the river was as close as she'd ever come. She'd considered dating yes, but to be moments from having willing sex with a man, never. Despite the almost clinical nature of the conversation with Pip the information was invaluable. A certain understanding of men felt like a kind of armor to give her the protection she needed to be able to allow a man close to her, while keeping some degree of control.
She slid her left hand under her panties and almost tentatively touched herself, the first since that river encounter. It only took a moment to have an orgasm so powerful her legs shook. She almost picked up her communicator to call Pip back. After their conversation she was pretty sure he'd already masturbated at least once. Figuring that was a good idea, she slid her hand back down again. After a few moments of bliss she wondered why she didn't do this more often.
Eventually she fell into an exhausted and nearly dreamless sleep. But during the night a surprising face and well-muscled body drifted into dreams, into her arms, into her bed. In that safe place, snuggled warm against the security of four ceramic concrete walls, she made mad, passionate love to Aaron. Minu didn't wake as the orgasm rumbled through her sleeping body, she only moaned in pleasure and slipped deeper into sleep.
Chapter 17
April 1st, 517 AE
HERT, Chosen Headquarters, Steven’s Pass
The meeting the next day was no different from previous meetings. There were fewer projects underway because they were dedicating all their time to the energy weapons program. When Minu checked the morning logs she saw that Pip spent two hours late last night working on range two, taking test reading with their primary experimental weapons. She also noted it was less than an hour after leaving her apartment. He hadn't gone back and masturbated after all. She looked up and caught his eye, giving him a little smile. His own smile matched hers, and was maybe a little sad. Minu understood. The moment was past, and woul
d never come again.
Now the smile on Mandi's face was entirely different. She moved around the lab gathering equipment, making notes in a tablet, chatting with the other team members, all the time with a smile, a spring in her step and a ring in her voice. Everything about her screamed sexual satisfaction. Minu knew the feeling, if to a lesser degree. Another brief regret of not insisting Pip spend the night flickered in the back of her mind. She crushed it under the boot heel of her will like a cockroach intruding in her kitchen.
Later in the day they moved to the HERT and started a series of tests. First, to finish the series with the primary weapons that Pip began last night, then with the second series of four test weapons. Damage yields were nearly identical with the scale they were devising. Their first tests were elementary and only to establish a baseline. They were necessary because of a complete lack of data in the computer network for real world applications of beamcasters. The Concordia database the Chosen were provided access to provided nothing. "Rated M for mature," Pip joked, referring to their status as a client species.
By early afternoon they broke off to let Pip and Alijah calibrate the data against their models. The pair was talking animatedly in a language Minu was not yet fluent in so she went to speak with Terry and Mandi. They were working in the armory with a couple mock up copies of the final stocks. As she approached she saw Terry standing in the hall sipping a bottle of water.
"Taking a break?" she asked.
"Yeah, too hot in there."
Minu looked confused. "The air conditioner not working?" Because of the ceramic concrete bunker, the whole HERT tended to get overly hot during the afternoon when the sun cleared the big building and beat straight down. The air conditioner system was a used model (to save funds) and struggled under the summer sun.
"Hot? Yeah, you could say that."
He was being sarcastic and annoyed by something and not wanting to tell Minu what was wrong. Instead he went back to his bottle and offered no more information. Minu shrugged and tried the door. It was locked. Grumbling, she keyed in her command code and it obediently popped open. What she found inside was not at all what she expected.