Dadr'Ba

by Tetsu'Go'Ru Tsu'Te

  Refreshed and clear-minded, with no drowsiness whatsoever P’Ko got up on one elbow and looked around. He spotted Z’Shi at the same low table that they had first had tea as if on cue she motioned him to join her.

  When he tried to get up it felt strange, a little dizzy; his limbs felt distant and slow to react, and the gravity changed. This was the first time he could remember not waking up in his room at his parent’s apartment and its gravity level.

  The last thing he remembered was he was in the Doctor’s office in Nu’Tn. Now he was in Z’Shi’s apartment high above Nu’Tn nearly the same height as the upper levels of Nu’Tn Stadium a substantial gravity change, not as drastic a change as in zone one, the power production and fusion drive zone. The workers there are in the microgravity near Dadr’Ba’s center, siphoning off energy from and maintaining the nuclear fire coursing down Dadr’Ba’s center line.

  P’Ko visited there only one time with his ba when there was a project that needed extra bodies; it was exciting, but there were far too many D’En’s working and in charge, the U’Te’s were not allowed to do anything important, and P’Ko didn’t like it.

  P’Ko looked down and saw that he wore a loose fitting sleeved tunic, with long pants, and slippers not the knee length shorts of a To’Ta. He started to feel himself, his arms and legs were thicker, muscled, his head had hair, then, he checked his sexual mods, Z’Shi paid no attention.

  The tea was a new flavor which didn’t surprise P’Ko; Z’Shi undoubtedly had hundreds to choose from. As P’Ko drank the tea Z’Shi began to explain what was going to happen, as he listened, he started to feel a little strange, not knowing if it was due to bio-mod recovery or something else.

  Z’Shi shared that the tea contained a mild relaxant that would help with what would come later. They would start with a repeat or continuation of his first interview. He needed first, to learn to control his new self, and the biomods he received required to work down in the mines. He was much stronger than he was before and it’s important that he learn a new level of self-control and discipline.

  They paired up on the stage and soon they were dancing, very slow at first. P’Ko struggled to maintain control under the influence of the tea and the uncertainty of his new physical capabilities and limitations. P’Ko soon realized that the tea was not just a relaxant, but must have also had some psychoactive/psychotropic properties.

  Giddy from his bio-mods and new strength, influenced by the effects of the tea P’Ko tried to rush the training and tried to grab Z’Shi inappropriately. Her speed and agility combined with her martial arts skill left P’Ko embarrassed, incapacitated and in pain. Several times he found himself flat on the floor, Z’Shi standing over him, clearly disappointed.

  P’Ko quickly learned his error, while still under the influence of the tea, P’Ko sobered up. Struggling under the effects of the tea, he fought to gain control over his mind and body. As the effects of the tea wore off, he found that he was better able to control his mind and body along with its new bio-modified capabilities without consciously trying.

  The training went around the clock resting, eating, and hydrating as necessary. As the training progressed, he and Z’Shi became more comfortable with each other, over time, and after many hours, they moved to a new training site higher up in the building. The gravity was much lower and the temperature much higher, the practice continued in a large, dimly lit room, padded on all sides, with each of them wearing only tight-fitting, lightweight workout clothes.

  Their practices grew in intensity. At first, P’Ko struggled to control his strength in the low gravity. Gradually he learned and became comfortable with his new strength and agility, now the training became more suggestive and erotic yet with a focus on form, self-control, and flow, they often spoke, but as practice continued and time passed, they developed a physical and mental language.

  P’Ko began to wonder if he was falling in love, Z’Shi sensing his thoughts, replied with words that didn’t register physically, only mentally. This took P’Ko by surprise because he hadn’t vocalized his wonder about falling in love, or had he? Z’Shi tried to reassure P’Ko that what they were experiencing was wonderful and beautiful and should be focused on in the immediate, at the moment.

  P’Ko’s thoughts continued, has the connection he and Z’Shi built allowed her to read his mind? Or was it something else? As he wondered about it, he felt a poison seep into his mind, a poison he fought to suppress, but failed.

  Had Z’Shi’s “experience” with who knows how many other people, other men, developed in her an innate sense of what her partners are thinking and when they’re thinking it? Was he jealous? Feeling inferior? The thought ate at him and gradually worsened. Then his mind flashed to Su’Zi and that this feeling was probably like what Su’Zi felt when he declined her offer for mentorship.

  Suddenly Z’Shi slapped P’Ko, sending him spinning. As P’Ko came to his senses, he found himself on the floor in the dimly lit, low-G room, in an embrace with Z’Shi, he didn’t know how they got there. But as he slowly regained his senses, guessed, that his mental self-interrogation, had once again been the root of the fall.

  Z’Shi looked P’Ko straight into the eyes and said, very stern and serious, “P’Ko there are times to think and times to act, too often you spend too much time thinking and analyzing your actions before you act. So far you’ve been lucky, and there haven’t been any serious consequences, but there will come times that thinking instead of acting could cost you your life.”

  “First and foremost you must make sure that the present is taken care of, only then worry about the past and the future; you’ll find that you’ll be happier and more alive if you do.”

  With that Z’Shi kissed P’Ko, and he allowed himself more than ever before in his entire life to be lost in the present.

  The mentorship continued, and P’Ko learned techniques to control himself and to manipulate, to the extent Z’Shi permitted it, the sexual experience.

  P’Ko learned the intimate dance on the edge of a precipice, the game of brinksmanship, the various degrees of pleasure, excitement and the feeling of two connected, becoming one. With practice and a little effort, P’Ko could imagine himself as Z’Shi and perform in ways that she would like, and she did the same for him.

  P’Ko learned what it was like to be, with another, a single physical being. How to unite and became like neighboring organs within one body, functioning together to achieve a common goal. And that goal, after stripping away all the mechanizations was to become as one.

  He imagined that it was like trying to embrace someone while standing tiptoe balancing atop a needle. At first, they never succeeded, then with practice they would come close to balance and for at time dance together as one upon the needle but would always fall in reset. Each time satisfied, but a little frustrated at never succeeding in prolonging the dance as long, or dance as deeply and unified as the longing and desire they felt called to them for.

  In this way, P’Ko learned the art and discipline of working with his partner and mentor Z’Shi. He learned the art of reduction, reducing a person’s existence to its simplest and purest forms. Focusing, creating, simplifying and maintaining a kind of bubble, one of nature’s simplest, purest and most fragile forms. The pinnacle of physical pleasure that two people can attain, then, unable to keep it any longer, experience the flood of pleasure. Sometimes experienced as a feeling of falling, sometimes of draining away, at times soaring high, that accompanies some level of reset. Sometimes the reset would be partial and result in only a pause in activity, at times the reset would be total, causing a lapse into involuntary convulsions to varying degrees.

  P’Ko knew and accepted that Z’Shi was always in control of her resets and only allowed him to witness them as part of their mentoring. This knowledge only drove him to try harder to satisfy her and feel legitimate pleasure in the knowledge that she shared, relinquished a part of herself to him. Just as he shared and abandoned part of himself to her. She coul
dn’t hide that she liked what she did and was very, very good at it, and she liked what he did, and enjoyed it even more as P’Ko became more practiced and proficient, gaining confidence, the skill and muscle memory, that like many physical sports separates the novice from the expert.

  Sometimes they would reset together, P’Ko liked those best, recovering in each other’s arms, still coupled, then ever so slowly after the other woke, to begin the process again.

  The mentoring included slow dances and massage sessions which served as both a break and a prelude.

  They practiced pleasuring the other, which taught the technique of total focus on the other, without the distraction of self. How to sense and internalize the other’s experience. Learning the pride and satisfaction of being able to, in a sense, play, interact, manipulate and control the most beautiful and complicated musical instrument ever, another being. P’Ko Learned how to make beautiful, satisfying and profound music, all the more meaningful because it can’t be stored or recorded except in one’s memory. It is the ultimate and most intimate performance art.

  With Z’Shi’s help, P’Ko mastered control of his bio-mods and the mentoring became more varied and began to include deep, serious, intense sessions as well as playful tricks and games. Z’Shi even played some of the musical instruments that adorned her apartment and demonstrated her deftness with each one.

  P’Ko’s psychic empathic abilities seemed to improve because, as Z’Shi played, he could feel his fingers touching and manipulating the instrument, much like he had learned during their sexual encounters, an ability that dramatically intensified the experience.

  They had long discussions about right and wrong uses of sex, recreational sex, the importance of honesty and the distinctions between sex, love and procreation.

  Once, as they were recovering from an unusually intense reset, Z’Shi waxed philosophical that long ago, before Dadr’Ba ever launched and left the Or’Gn world system, all people were bio-naturals. There were no radiation resistant, gene-locked, long-lived clones.

  People’s bodies grew and aged naturally, only rarely could people expect to live past one-hundred. Then, as today sex was used for recreation and satisfying self-esteem, along with the need and desire for a climaxing reset, pair bonding and sharing intimacy. Back then sex also had a biological function; it was the way most Bio-naturals exchanged genetic material to create a Bo’Ba. Few had psychic abilities and procreation was based solely on the physical sharing of genetic material and not on the psychic union used today to transition self to a Bo’Ba.

  P’Ko was amazed to hear Z’Shi speak of this history, discussion of physiology and pre-Touch of God history had been outlawed for hundreds of years. P’Ko wanted to learn more about how exactly people shared genetic material but was afraid to ask; he didn’t want to spoil the moment. He decided instead to keep one the readers and data cartridges he had recovered in the junk yard and study them.

  Z’Shi explained that while achieving ultimate unity of physical and psychic, that she and P’Ko danced around where a couple goes on the way to conceiving and bringing life to a Bo’Ba, it’s a challenging and holy thing and should be reserved for and practiced only with your soul-mate, your true love.

  P’Ko felt not a deepening of his relationship with Z’Shi but a maturation of it; he realized that they had reached the limit of the depth they would achieve and that knowledge brought along with it a level of trust and understanding. It carried a reminder of teacher, student, even during those times when Z’Shi allowed him the dominant role.

  P’Ko learned that the martial arts that Z’Shi had mastered dealt with pressure points, speed, agility, manipulation of joints and exploiting the opponent’s strength and momentum. When she wanted or needed to, she could move incredibly fast. More than once, Z’Shi demonstrated her speed and agility when P’Ko got too carried away or ignored the hints or signals Z’Shi gave him that he was going out of bounds.

  Z’Shi never taught him her form of martial arts, saying he had no need, that his specialty should rely more on his own unique capabilities, concentrating on his strength, speed, and momentum. Still P’Ko learned the basic moves from having them used on him.

  P’Ko began to sense that the mentoring was coming to an end, finally, Z’Shi announced that he was ready, but mentoring is not a one-time thing, it evolves. P’Ko should not likely need any more sexual mentoring, but there may come other “occasions” and should P’Ko feel the need, he should seek Z’Shi out and not hesitate when the need arises.

  Z’Shi took P’Ko home to his parents’ house in her car dropping him off on a blind corner, then after a warm embrace silently disappeared.

  P’Ko’s parents could hardly recognize the new P’Ko nearly everything about him had changed. But as he drew near first, his mother, then his father and brother made the psychic connection and anxiously embraced him welcoming him home.

  Throughout his bio-mods and mentoring P’Ko didn’t have his TaC-B and hadn’t accessed electronic messaging, having left a non-availability notice (traditional during mentoring sessions). Once he got back online and checked his voice and text messages, labeled high importance among dozens of teases and congrats from his friends was his report to work notice from the CA.

  P’Ko is to report to his new work site tomorrow; he found the package mentioned in the message, with his new work uniforms and two eSuits set to the side just inside his room by his parents. He immediately sent Su’Zi a coded message to meet, tonight.

  Chapter 33, Chn’Gi Starts Using Reader

  Chn’Gi spent several weeks contriving the cover for her access to the reader and data.

  She began an exercise program, nothing in-depth, being clones without the power of natural regeneration and muscle building, the best a GLC (Gene-Locked-Clone) could hope for is to keep their systems working optimally and avoid atrophication.

  A modicum of exercise several times a week is enough for most people who weren’t practicing for a sport where improved kinesthetic sense or developing muscle memory is the goal. There are a few compulsive individuals that find exercise addicting, but Chn’Gi wasn’t one of those.

  Chn’Gi didn’t feel much different after each workout; maybe she wasn’t doing it right. But that wasn’t the point; it was going home after working out and soaking in the bathtub behind a locked door that she longed for.

  The bathroom was one spot in her house; that wasn’t under CASS surveillance, (all people in critical positions are under home surveillance). Although the sound sensors in the adjacent rooms might be able to pick up something she always turns on music in the outer room loud enough to hear from the tub.

  Chn’Gi was careful always to use the small reading light that Lu’Gs insisted on her taking and had stressed that she use it whenever she read. She keeps the light close by and always read out of view of the surveillance cameras.

  The light fit rather comfortably in the palm of her hand when on it seemed to shimmer while looking directly at it, yet produced a soft light that was not unpleasant to read by.

  Lu’Gs never explained in detail, but hinted that the “Reading Light” would somehow disable or interfere with the functions of some undescribed “other” forms of surveillance, but had to be used privately so that those surveilling didn’t find out she was using it.

  If discovered or questioned about the light her response should be something like she “just likes it”, and the less she knows about its operation and function the better, she wouldn’t have to hide or conceal what she didn’t know.

  Chapter 34, Su’Zi Meets P’Ko after Mentoring

  Su’Zi walked into the Hn’Gri Bo’R, knowing that P’Ko would be there, she got the previously agreed to A-OK coded message to meet him that she’d been anticipating and tried to set a new speed record getting to sector three’s Ol’Tn.

  They decided to take turns visiting each other until they could arrange to get on the same crew. Su’Zi had hoped that they could get on the same crew someday. But pr
ivately hoped that P’Ko wouldn’t get assigned to her crew. It would be awkward for P’Ko to show up on her crew. And after P’Ko’s description of his interview, she realized that it was her Su’Pr that was super critical of P’Ko.

  Her crew was also especially distrustful of the CA, D’En’s and For’Nr[81]‘s in general and in spite of P’Ko’s friendship with Su’Zi or perhaps because of it, they would undoubtedly give P’Ko a hard time.

  As soon as P’Ko gets assigned to a crew Su’Zi’s plan will be to start working a job swap from her end. P’Ko wouldn’t be able to swap jobs until he completed his apprenticeship and that would take, if they were lucky five or ten years. Many apprenticeships last as long as twenty-five years, it all depends on P’Ko and his trainer.

  There was a one in five chance he would be assigned to her crew, but she knew already, he wasn’t coming to her crew; Mi’Nr’s are a close-knit community, and she used some of her contacts to learn which crew he was going to be assigned to. Mostly the Mi’Nr grads get assigned to the home sectors they grew up in, but since P’Ko was a U’Te/Mi’Nr transfer, it’s uncertain what sector he would go.

  She walked in and scanned the crowd, expecting P’Ko to play with her and try to hide. She scanned more with her psyche rather than with her eyes and spotted him right away. When she laid eyes on him she was surprised, he looked so much different, he barely fit into the used pair of his Ba’s mechanic coveralls. And he had muscle’s, muscle’s that showed through the coveralls in his shoulders, arms, and legs, and he had an unruly mop of hair on top of his head instead of the mechanic’s cap that used to cover his pre-grad baldness.