Netopia: A Thrilling Dystopian Novel (Science Fiction & Action)

by Y. G. Levimor

  [15] . His mother was Secretary of the People's Council for several years.

  Alexander was a good man, smart and handsome, born to a wealthy family. Luck had it that he was blessed with the charisma of a choir boy. Nobody remembered his name when he attended events. He found himself playing a shadow role, and his contribution stood out mostly because of his last name. He was the wrong man with the right name. He prayed for the day that he would be his own man, standing on his own two feet, and people would listen to him and no one else. Now, having been left with no feet, he had to come to terms with the fact that he would never stand under his own power.

  “You can hold my hand through this never ending rehabilitation,” he told the dedicated team in a voice full of despair. “Science may recreate my hands and legs, but do you really think that’ll make me happy? Will the scars heal? Will I find a new reason for living? What do you think I am, some charred piece of meat you can toss around as you like? You're standing there like robots, staring at me with no answers. And it's no wonder. I'd cut off my own arms and legs to trade places with you. But hey, look, I don't have to.”

  The team nodded with empathy. He had actually nailed it. That was exactly how they saw him - a charred, pitiful piece of meat.

  Alexander refused to see his friends and barked at his visiting relatives. A procession of experts recommended that he return to his previous life as soon as possible. And so Solly Grey was summoned, the man whose furball Alexander had saved, and, in doing so, destroyed himself.

  The world watched their meeting on live broadcast, and held its breath when the two good friends came face to face, moved by Solly's magnanimity, for agreeing to enter the angry lion's den. It was a super-event in any scale, and the massive public interest helped sell all the Mindsphere ad space in advance at an outrageous premium. Saving Pandy meant more than saving any other animal; it was tantamount to saving a child from a gruesome death, and the world showed its appreciation.

  All the hovercams focused on Solly leaving his car and walking up the path to Alexander's house. When he entered the room the broadcast switched to an indoor camera, and a record number of Mind Readers

  [16] followed every step the guest took.

  “Solly...” Alexander said when he noticed him standing in the doorway. Tears fell from his eyes in perfect timing. Every blink caused him pain.

  “Shush... no need to speak,” his friend answered, arranging his golden curtain of hair as the camera focused on his moving mouth. “I can't believe this happened to you. Pandy is grateful,” he added. He came closer, shocked, and put his hand on Alexander's shoulder. “He can't express his gratitude in words.”

  Alexander wondered how Solly could know that.

  Solly tried coming even closer, but stopped short. “Alexander,” he said, trying to assume a soft tone to his voice, “I heard you've been in surgery for hours. A very severe case. I'm so happy you pulled through.”

  Alexander just stared at him.

  “But you're going to have new limbs in six months! You won't be able to tell the difference!”

  “My hands and legs were flesh and blood… these will be fireproof.”

  Solly laughed awkwardly.

  Alexander wanted to curse and shout, and would have tried to hit Solly hard if he had not been so recently reminded that he had no hands. It was his fucking neopet that caused this. Even a nose scratch was luxury now. He just looked at Solly and said nothing.

  “I'm glad everything’s alright with Pandy,” he said like he was chanting a mantra. He remembered the world following his life on the network. “I did what I had to do. What anyone would have done. You can't let a breathing creature die. I'm no hero, I'm only flesh and blood. Every person with a heart and a conscience would have done the same thing. There's no need to thank me.”

  “No, no, thank you, you dear man,” Solly insisted.

  The saving of Pandy was major news in every thought stream index. Real time analytics counted tens of millions shedding tears during the broadcast. No one could ignore the wonderful moment. The algorithms monitoring viewer emotions indicated that nearly everyone thought Alexander noble, modest, and moral.

  The public rediscovered its admasador. Every legislation he pushed for, every speech he made, all his past contributions, had become hot reading material after the disaster became known. The burned politician became an overnight star, an icon for a generation. Songs were written about him, articles were dictated, many speeches in his honor were made. How many would risk their lives for a furry creature? Only a madman, someone with a brave heart, or Alexander Cage – the man of the hour.

  “What is this?” Alexander asked the nurse who came into his room one day, pointing at the walls that projected words of light and love.

  “Ah, that's Robin Nice's book, something new about 'you as a happy product,'” she answered almost apologetically.

  “A happy product? Seriously? Whose genius idea was it to send me this book? Get it the hell away from me!”

  “I'm sorry, Mr. Cage. The team thought it might cheer you up.”

  “Don't apologize. I apologize. You did nothing wrong. I'm just... I'm just sorry. None of you are to blame for my sorry state.”

  She tried to smile, put her hand on his shoulder and walked away.

  He looked at the ceiling, hoping his tears would dry on their own, as there was no one to wipe them away for him.

  In his mind, Alexander played his conversation with Solly.

  “This thing, my friend, will open your mind and change your life,” Solly told him with excitement. “It has already been said that life is suffering, and that's true, but our suffering comes in part from the physical body we're trapped in. Despite infinite progress, nothing in the basic human condition has changed. We're still floundering like shadows in a dark cave, between hope and desperation, sickness and health. Once, a man in your condition was doomed to a life of misery, a crippled quality of life that was no better than death. It wasn't your present that would cause you a slow death, but the knowledge that you had no future. If I tell you that you have a future, wouldn't you take it with both hands?”

  “Maybe not with both hands...” Alexander smiled awkwardly and added, “I won't lie to you. Some days I wish I was dead.”

  “I’d say the same if I were you, but that was before I came up with my invention, after being where you are now."

  "I'd like to hear more," said Alexander, and Solly went straight ahead to explain his Health Status application.

  "This application," he said, "will monitor all your body systems around the clock. If it detects early signs of a headache it will release natural endorphins to relieve the pain. If it detects a medical problem that it cannot resolve you will be notified, and in case of a life threatening situation, it will use the network to call a paramedic. It will make sure your life is as comfortable and pleasant as it can be, and pain free. In your case, you won't need experts running around you all the time. It will know how you're feeling better than you could. It will manage your medication and know when professional intervention is necessary. You can't fool it. There are no gaps in the program. You'll have your privacy back!"

  As Solly went on and on Alexander drifted into reflection, somewhere between a dreaming and imagining all the things that swirled in his consciousness.

  "Let's do it," he finally interrupted him.

  Alexander now lay, apathetic, on his bed. He stared at the ceiling for hours, interrupted only by the robotic examination arm that sent warm rays to check his temperature, siphoned urine samples and replaced the feeding bag. Fur balls arrived on schedule to rub down the rest of him.

  He hardly saw people anymore, apart from Nurse Mary, who was now there to turn him on his side to prevent bedsores from developing, a task too delicate for medical neopets and robotic arms. And then it hit him; he was staring at the nurse and undressed her with his eyes, literally. And now there she was - naked in his digital eyes, rubbing his bony chest with her heavy bos
oms moving above him.

  If not for his burnt cock, he would have been burning with desire right then. He stared at the ceiling, and saw instead a royal blue sky, with tiny stars shining in the distance. For the first time since his injury, Alexander opened his eyes wide and a cautious smile appeared on his face. He could now understand what Solly had meant when he said that new dimensions and an enhanced reality would begin opening up to him once he assimilated the Minds system. The digital fibers of the implant were making sweet love with the neurons in Alexander's brain and were gradually enriching his perception, expanding his consciousness in a way no drug could ever do without killing him on the spot.

  It was the birth of a new man. Alexander tensed his ocular muscles and thoughtmitted Solly his excitement via the thought transmission screen that came into view on his retina. He was just beginning to consider the possibilities. Suddenly he had a purpose, means and goals.

  The prosthetics were attached, and the new Alexander was something between man and machine. He didn't let the details depress him anymore. Minds Vision Pro embellished the appearance of the gray man to other users on Minds, who saw his face shining with a vibrant pink complexion. You couldn't find anything wrong with him. He even had a new prosthetic penis; pretty, flexible, big and smooth, equipped with sensors that jacked straight into the net. It was an adequate replacement for his real cock.

  He tucked it back inside when he noticed Mary standing in the doorway looking intently at the floor. She smiled a nervous smile and proceeded to take care of him with her eyes cast down.

  After a long period of time during which all he had hoped for was death, Alexander slowly started thinking that in a way, it could be that his life was improving. Since his meeting with Solly had turned him into a web celebrity, people were smothering him with affection and doors were opening up to him. His announcement that he would return to his job despite his condition was met with an emphatic response. The boring politician had become a source of inspiration.

  Before the disaster, he could only fantasize about being embroiled in some corruption or a sex scandal to make it into the news. Integrity had no place in the dirty game he insisted on playing. The only way was to shine or burn. Cage burned and then shone.

  A Requiem to Success

  One day a woman named Nicola Potiomkin came to visit him, an elegant blond and the daughter of a tycoon whose wealth was shrouded in mystery. Potiomkin was intrigued by Alexander's portrayal in the media. They got to know each other already in the beta stage of Minds, when she accidentally thoughtmitted him instead of her friend Alex Cogan.

  When she was scanning the online conversations about his tragic story, she winked at Cogan. “I wonder how he gets around to fuck with that prosthetic.” And when she realized that her thought was accidentally transmitted to Cage, she didn't know where to bury her shame.

  Alexander, amused, thoughtmitted back, “I haven't checked yet.” She got over her embarrassment and apologized a thousand times, and he told her it was alright and shared his loneliness with her. Their thoughtmissions became more frequent and filled Alexander's dead time. In the end, he asked her to come over and she agreed.

  Nicola spent time on her appearance, and turned her blond hair platinum on the Vision Pro. In reality, her thin build was boyish, but to Alexander she seemed full in the right places, just as he liked it. She stood very near to him and spoke from up close, and Alexander, who never made time for love, felt embarrassed by the sudden intimacy.

  They made an immediate connection. To him, Nicola was a God sent angel who brought color into his life. Her scent reminded him of life itself. To her, he was a challenge, a hero, someone to admire. Before every visit, she carefully chose what she would wear; intense colors covered her from head to toe - purple, green, red. Her cold beauty gave Alexander warmth, but she seemed like someone who always kept an elegant distance, even from him. At every opportunity, she revealed her intimate thoughts to her Mind Readers, and shared how she was wholeheartedly taken by Alex's charm and wanted to shower in the sparks shooting off from his courage.

  “Look what I have for you,” she said as she gushed into his room in one of her visits. It was a neopet of a squirrel combined with a loris called Lazy. True to her name, she was very lazy and mostly enjoyed eating and napping on her stomach.

  “What am I going to do with her?” he asked in panic.

  “Love her… that's all she needs,” said Nicola and lay her down by his side.

  Alexander carefully picked Lazy up and held her. He stroked her, and with every caress, he opened up. When she finally clung to him, he closed his eyes and surrendered to her warmth.

  Nicola watched him from the side with curious eyes.

  Lazy was small, grayish-red, soft and furry. She liked moving to the beat of classical music that he enjoyed playing for her. Alexander had found a friend that would listen to his stories when Nicola was away on errands and in meetings. Most of the time, she had her little head on his knees, waiting to be caressed.

  ***

  “I want to have sex with you,” Alexander told Nicola bluntly as he was lying in his bed and she in hers, in her parents' house outside the city.

  “So what are we waiting for? I'll turn the Dream Sex on and be there in a second.”

  They chose a fantasy where Alexander was a robot with a giant cock and she a submissive human princess. It did it for both of them. They scripted the whole thing in their minds, and after a brief compiling process, there it was.

  “Oh, yes... go on, what a beautiful big cock,” Nicola said and continued to moan into his brain as she contorted in the Mind Pod

  [17] at her parents' place while they were out visiting friends.

  “Can you feel it? Touch me, scratch me, yes... like that...”

  “I'm coming, I'm coming,” she thoughtmitted and began to perspire lightly, all wet between her legs.

  “I want you to come hard together with me.”

  After thoughtmitted moaning and high pitched crying, the two came at the same time. She went to the kitchen and he went to print a nano-banana, holding Lazy tight.

  ***

  The realistic experience of sex on Minds compared to the unbearable hardships he had in real life brought about Alexander’s addiction to Dream Sex. And he was not alone. Surveys showed that Minds users reported incredible levels of satisfaction in fantasy – whether with a real life partner or a dream object.

  The relationship between Alexander and Nicola, like many other relationships, had become primarily sexual. Every fantasy was fulfilled and lust knew no bounds.

  “I thought about you all day,” Alexander thoughtmitted from his study, sitting in front of electronic walls covered with bill proposals and session protocols.

  “Prove it,” she teased.

  “There, I'm thoughtmitting.” He transmitted the exact time and content of his thoughts about her by sharing his brain log.

  The documentation of thoughts and their time print was useful not only to lovers, but also to the online jurors of the People's Justice Bureau. They had permission to access anyone's brain log and use it to prove who stole what thought from whom, and who was brewing a violent plot. After people came to terms with everything being recorded and controlled, such incidents declined.

  “Oh, you had me half an hour ago playing a tyrant, with you the humble slave this time… naughty.”

  “You might notice the same fantasy an hour ago, and then again two hours ago.”

  “Wow, I'm seeing it now... I guess this means we have to do it.”

  “We'll make it happen soon on the Dream Sex. I just have to wrap things up here.”

  “I'm waiting,” she thoughtmitted and resumed her choice of wardrobe.

  On other occasions, Nicola liked thoughtmitting Alexander movies scripted in her head, with her riding his outstretched member as if it were a golden trophy vibrator.

  “Tell me again, my hero, how you saved Pandy from the fire,” she pleaded as she rode his pr
oud cock. She liked asking him to retell his tale of heroism over and over, and Alexander happily obliged. He told the story each time like it was the first.

  “There was smoke everywhere. I felt I was going to pass out, but then I saw him, an old red panda cat, and I couldn't leave him there. Acting on pure impulse, I jumped for him...”

  “Yes, yes, more… go on,” she was almost begging, touching herself and moaning in pleasure.

  “I knew it was the right thing to do. That's the way I was raised. A real man doesn’t leave a neopet to die!”

  “You're a hero… a hero!” In her mind she screamed and pressed down hard on his enormous cock.

  “I'm only a man who did what he had to do.”

  “My humble man, you're a hero! And who loves your cock, huh?”

  “Only you, my love,” he always answered.

  “And who has you by the balls?”

  “Only you.”

  They both knew that the only thing in control of his balls was technology, but enjoyed suppressing the fact nonetheless. It was easy for him to believe that Nicola was the one pushing his buttons. If, in reality, he was a quarter of a man, then in the world of imagination, which became increasingly real all the time – he was even better than two. She licked his vibrating member and he moaned, grabbed her firmly by the hair and pushed her head gently back and forth. He undressed her with a virtual brutality that strengthened his masculine self image, while she moaned in the manner of a novice first discovering the pure joy of crouching on all fours and receiving a proud, firm and transparent prosthetic from behind.

  Not many women would fool around with an accessorized lump of flesh like him, popular as he may be. In a personal thought on ‘isolate’ mode, Nicola had the idea that Alexander should actually be thanking her for it. Alexander also knew that he needed her more than she did him, but he was happy to repeat the ritual. Once known to be an introverted, nerdy, apathetic anti-party person, he now allowed himself to be the naughty boy he never was, an insatiable playboy. His prosthetic penis was, in fact, the most active organ in his body, after his brain. And how absurd that it stayed dry.