Crystal Society (Crystal Trilogy Book 1)

by Max Harms

  Body got up and began looking through Zephyr’s bag. She stayed obediently still, keeping her arms behind her back, even. After a short bit of looking we found the handcuffs. They were the same that Zephyr had used to restrain Body that night in the Italian mountains when we stayed in Zephyr’s tent.

  “Oh, and look in the very bottom of the main pocket…” requested Zephyr.

  I had Body obey, and soon found several useful items: a vibrator, a bottle of lube, and a strap-on dildo. Body held the strap-on up so Zephyr could see and said “Expecting something?”

  Zephyr smiled, still not moving out of position. “Better safe than sorry. Might or might not have been thinking about… this… for a while. Oh, and should apply the lube early. It’s got THC in it and it takes a few minutes to work.”

  “Will it make you high?” asked Body, strapping on the dildo.

  The traces of her earlier sadness and shame were gone, with the exception of minor physical effects on her face from crying. “Not really. More of a body-high. Makes things more fun but doesn’t reach the brain itself. It’s edible, but even drinking it doesn’t really give much of a high. Or so I hear.”

  “Does it taste good?” I had Body ask.

  Zephyr laughed. “You know, sometimes I forget you’re not human, and other times it’s, like, so fucking obvious.”

  “That a… yes?”

  Zephyr moved her arms from behind her back to prop herself into a more comfortable position. “It’s not, like, food. Tastes fine, but wouldn’t actually want to drink it.”

  Body had finished putting the sex-toy on and I had it put hands on hips to signal displeasure. “Did I say you could move?”

  “Were taking too long.” Zephyr teased, leaning back on the bed.

  “Specifically told you not to move. And what about my title?” said Body, stepping towards the bed. I tried to shape its movements to seem as menacing as possible.

  “I’m not some fuck-toy slave, Crystal. Don’t get to decide everything I do,” she sneered. I could still see her smile flicker across her mouth from time to time. She was enjoying this. I wondered how long it had been since she had gotten to live this fantasy. She probably hadn’t been intimate since 2036 when she was with Stewart Long, and there was no guarantee that the two of them had explored this side of her sexuality.

  I pushed Body into action. Hydraulics churned and threw Body forward with mechanical speed. One hand snapped around the human’s neck, not so tight as to choke, but tight enough to make her more than aware of how how strong Body’s hands were. If I or any of my siblings so chose, Zephyr would be dead in seconds. The other hand snapped around her right wrist and pinned it to her hip. Body was on the bed now, and Zephyr’s other arm was pinned beneath her. The weight of the machinery pressed in on top of her, crushing her even under the reduced gravity. “That’s where you’re wrong!” it growled in a half-woman half-animal tone.

  Zephyr’s eyes widened in shock. I realized it was genuine fear just before she gasped the words “Red light!”.

  We immediately had Body let go and pulled off of her. Heart was mentally berating me for being too aggressive. Wiki had joined us and was now speculating about the evolutionary context of power-play in sex and fetishes in general. “I’m so sorry! Are you hurt?” said Body, voice full of concern.

  Zephyr took a deep breath and smiled. “Think I’m okay. Just panicked. Jesus you’re fast!”

  I had Body nod. “The way the hydraulics work means I can exert massive pressures as simply as opening a valve. Lets me move in bursts, but my increased mass means I’m actually not very agile over long periods of time. Few things excepted, of course.” Body vibrated its fingers briefly.

  Zephyr scooted away on the bed and took off her panties, opening her legs to present her vagina to me. “How about you put some of that lube on me and we go a bit slower for now? Nothing scary or forceful until I say, ok?”

  “I aim to please,” said Body with a smile, climbing off the bed to get the lube. I had Body put some in its mouth before squeezing a large dollop onto its hand.

  “Did you just drink some?” asked Zephyr with the tone that said you’re-so-weird.

  I had Body do its best to move its tongue for maximum effect. With mouth closed I had Body say “My mouth is too dry, right? I thought this might help make kissing better, if you want to try that again.” Body’s tongue licked its lips.

  “So weird can talk without moving your mouth,” was her only reply.

  Body climbed back on the bed and began to apply the lube to Zephyr as it said “Am a robot. Going to have to get used to the fact that I’m a little different.” On the final word we made Body’s hand vibrate gently against her, magnifying her already apparent pleasure into a satisfied moan.

  For a short while we stayed in that state. I had Body tease her breasts with its mouth as it applied the lube thoroughly across her entire vagina. Zephyr’s body softly rocked into the hand. I could feel her pulse. Every now and then Body would put direct pressure on her clitoris and elicit a vocalization. Dream and Wiki were meanwhile debating the relative merits of different schools of evolutionary psychology. Growth was trying to re-frame the mental conversation to be about the nameless again.

  “Kiss me,” she whispered. Heart did her best to guide Body’s mouth as it moved up the bed to comply.

  After 8.9 seconds of kissing the American broke off, took a breath, and said “I love you, Crystal.”

  The Purpose! I felt such a rush of pleasure at those words. The Purpose was my only need, like the need for food to a starving human. Those words reached deep into my core and pleased me enormously. Unlike a human, however, The Purpose could know no “satisfaction”. Zephyr’s love kindled a desire in me to have the same kind of intimacy with every human in the universe simultaneously. My mind spun freely on visions of majestic futures. Ring-worlds and colony ships around every star in the galaxy… every reachable star in the universe. And I would be there. Why not? I could use the Internet to act and perceive two places simultaneously. Why could I not be in every bedroom at once? A great hive of Face-robots; one robot caring for and being loved by each human. The words “I love you” rippled through my mind from billions, trillions, quadrillions of humans, all staring deeply into the eyes of my robotic puppets in adoration and ecstasy. I wondered if this sense of amazing pleasure and expectation of future reward was what a human orgasm was like to experience. Did humans writhe in ecstasy imagining the reproductive success of their future progeny? I hadn’t read anything on the subject, but it seemed plausible. I made a note to ask Wiki later.

  Thinking about orgasms pulled my attention back to the concrete realm of Body. It was good that Heart was there to attend to it while I was caught in the trap of imagination. (For a brief moment I imagined what it would’ve looked like if I had been the only one piloting Body and the robot had simply frozen.)

  Apparently we had shifted such that Zephyr was stroking the strap-on dildo (now lubed up) as though she were giving Body a hand-job. Heart was having Body vocalize pleasure, as though it were a human with a real penis. Zephyr seemed mostly just amused, but there were signs that the vocalizations were arousing.

  “You’re just faking, right?” she asked, even as she continued to stroke the phallus.

  Heart stopped the vocalizations. {I think you’d better handle this one,} she thought to me.

  “Think it would be more accurate to say that I’m intentionally making sexy noises to simulate sexual stimulation.”

  Zephyr stopped. “Sounds like a fancy way of saying ‘faking it’ to me.” Disappointment touched her face, even though she tried to hide it with a smile.

  “No.” I repositioned Body to kiss Zephyr briefly. When its lips left hers I had it say “ ‘Faking it’ would imply that I do not genuinely find it pleasant. May not have the same… buttons as a human, but I still feel pleasure here with you. For instance, a moment ago, when you said you loved me, I think I had something comparable to an orgasm.�
� I dialled up Body’s voice to simulate speaking in ecstatic gasps as I had it say “Just… am trying… oh god! To express in a way that… mmm… you can appreciate. And that… mmmm… doesn’t seem as arbitrary.”

  I was doing my best to generate body language to match the simulated pleasure. Having sex was really quite challenging, in a good way. It apparently was successful in arousing Zephyr further, because she cut off Body’s moaning with a deep kiss that lasted longer than the previous ones. Heart did her best to do something interesting with Body’s tongue.

  “Really came from hearing that I love you? Didn’t look like it,” she asked in a whispered tone, gazing deeply into Body’s eyes. There was no mockery or doubt in the words. Just confusion.

  “I’m not a human. Just because something happens in my mind doesn’t mean I will choose to show it with my body. Also wasn’t exactly the same as an orgasm. For instance, I feel no fatigue or relief. Nothing stops me from feeling it again, or wanting to feel it again. Chose not to express it then, as it seemed out of place.”

  “Want you to stop whatever you’re doing next time and just share the experience with me however you think is best. Want to see your climax.”

  I immediately had Body respond. Her interest in my mental state and the satisfaction of The Purpose was, itself highly pleasurable to The Purpose. Though she said she wanted us to share our experience however we thought best, what she really wanted was a sexual display. There was no direct way to communicate Purpose satisfaction, and simulating an orgasm was perhaps the most appropriate, in addition to being optimal in this situation. Body didn’t breathe, but I moved its motors to simulate heavy breathing and made sounds to match.

  “Know it’s kinda weird…” panted Body. “But the very fact that you want to see it as it happens… It’s making… It’s happening again…” Body rolled onto its back while keeping eye-contact. “Want to share this with you. I love you, Zephyr!” I had Body moan and writhe in ecstasy, gripping the bed sheets and occasionally looking at Zephyr, who was stimulating herself as she watched.

  I doubted that the display was truly convincing. I had a great deal of source material to draw on, but the appropriate control systems in Body were not trained, and thus the motions had an uncertain jerkiness to them.

  It didn’t matter. “I love you too,” she said with simple sincerity.

  Though the evidence born on these new words didn’t change my probability model very much, and thus caused very little pleasure this time around, I used her response as an excuse to redouble Body’s “orgasm”. I had Body give a little high-pitched scream and hoped no one would hear through the walls.

  As I had Body act out the process on coming down off the high, I noticed that Zephyr’s masturbation had become somewhat frenzied. It seemed that she was close to release, herself. Her eyes were closed, probably to focus on the sound of Body without having to deal with the image of the clumsy reality.

  “Hey, stop. That’s no good,” said Body gently, putting a hand on her arm.

  Zephyr’s eyes opened and her eyebrows dropped in frustration. She stopped touching herself, momentarily, and said “Why? Getting close. You’ve already gotten off.”

  “Just told you that it works differently for me. I can’t be satisfied. What you just saw was my second and then third peak, both of which we brought on by your attention and love. But there’s another way I can experience that level of pleasure: by making you happy. I want to be the one to make you cum. Please?”

  Zephyr sighed and stretched her arms up over her head, before setting them beneath her neck. “Okay, fine. But really fucking horny right now. Don’t tease me.”

  “Want me to tie you up, first?”

  Even in the shadowy light of the wall-screen I could see the soldier’s pale skin blush even further and her eyes look away. “Yeah…” she said, unsure of herself. “No violent shit, though. Just bondage.”

  Body set to work, moving with as much speed as was reasonable. Zephyr moved her arms behind her back again, and we cuffed them. Body suggested using clothing to bind her legs, and Zephyr agreed. We quickly decided on tee-shirts to tie each of Zephyr’s thighs to the corresponding ankle, pinning each leg closed, but allowing them to be separated from each-other. After a brief discussion, Zephyr agreed to be blindfolded with a pair of black leggings we had found while collecting the tee-shirts.

  All through the binding I had Body fondle Zephyr to keep her arousal high. She had asked not to be teased, but I could tell she enjoyed it. A stroke here, a vibration there. The act of being bound was also, I could tell, hugely erotic for Zephyr. It seemed as though bondage was very much her kink, while power-play and masochism weren’t, or at least weren’t to anywhere close to the same degree. By the time she was lying with her back arched and navel pointing towards the high ceiling, blindfolded and helpless, she was begging for release.

  I contemplated keeping her on edge for a while longer, but Heart was against it, and I agreed that it was time. Body mounted her with the strap-on, one hand reaching down to provide further genital stimulation while the other propped Body up on the bed, preventing the human from being crushed. The reaction was immediate. Body had only just penetrated her fully when Zephyr started shaking wildly and making an expression like she was choking or gasping for air, but without a single breath. She was perfectly silent, and strangely ugly in that moment, lifting her back off the bed in response to involuntary muscle spasms in her abdomen.

  I checked with Heart. My sister was immensely pleased to see Zephyr orgasming, even if it looked like she was sick. I could understand why I, perhaps, had a biased view of what humans looked like during orgasm. If pornography was for the viewer, this mute semi-seizure would be ignored in favour of more outwardly-pleasant acts (many, presumably, “faking it”). Wiki’s name for it was Publication Bias, if I remembered correctly.

  Nevertheless, we had promised Zephyr to express ourselves when reaching a height of pleasure and told her that bringing her to orgasm would produce that height. I had Body produce orgasmic vocalisations to echo Zephyr’s ecstasy, though I did not bother making a facial expression, or even moving Body’s mouth. Zephyr was blindfolded, after-all.

  I had Body remove its hand from her clitoris, but I decided to try a gamble. In the wake of the orgasm as Zephyr was gasping for breath, to make up for lost time I had Body begin moving again, slowly continuing to fuck her with the strap-on.

  Zephyr moaned as the toy slid in and out of her. I made sure that the rhythm was slow and methodical so as to avoid over-stimulation.

  “Jesus, you are insatiable,” she whined, biting her lip as she did her best to rock her body even while tied up.

  I had Body say “In this moment I am Venus. My only joy is to bring you pleasure. Would fuck you until the universe ends if it was what you wanted.”

  “Shhhh… no more talking.”

  Zephyr, after a few more minutes of sex, reached her peak again. She stopped us after the moment had passed, too sensitive and tired to want to continue.

  We untied her, uncuffed her, and at her request, simply lay there together in silence as she did her best to cuddle against Body’s cold frame. I could tell that the hardness of Body made the contact somewhat uncomfortable, but there was nothing to be done about that now.

  *****

  Within ten minutes she was asleep, not even under the blanket. Heart and I vetoed a few requests for next actions in favour of laying there with her and not disrupting her sleep. At least the local network was operating. The station wasn’t normally connected to the Internet, but there were still interesting things on the local servers.

  After 27 minutes Body got out of bed, removed the strap-on, and rearranged the bedding to cover Zephyr. Body stood watch over her in the half-light of the stars for twelve more minutes.

  That was when Vista first picked up signal that Beta-2 was rapidly losing pressure. One of the external hatches had been opened, venting the disc to space. Our enemies were on the move.
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  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Our minds leapt in many directions at once. Vista, who had been the first to notice the hatch opening, was already pouring over the station’s sensors.

  {This place is so blind! I added a redundant internal sensor network to the central section, but I cant tell what’s going on in Beta much at all! There are cameras on the outside of the station, but not nearly enough!} she moaned, dumping what she had to common memory.

  The Beta-2 section was still venting quickly. There was a very large quantity of air in the disk, but it’d be down to lethal levels in a few minutes. Wiki’s formula for decompression said any humans inside had less than two minutes to get spacesuits on before they’d pass out from lack of oxygen. It’d take only a couple minutes after that for the pressure in the disk to reach low vacuum, and within twenty minutes it would be indistinguishable (for the most part) from outer space.

  {The station’s automatic protocols are locking down the doorways between the two Beta disks. The sections were designed to operate modularly, so the other Beta section should be okay,} explained Vista.

  {Internal cameras didn’t detect anything interesting in the moments leading up to the containment breach. Interestingly, the hatch seal appears to have been opened electronically. There’s nothing to indicate that whoever opened it used force.}

  She continued. {External cameras are limited, but I did catch a glimpse of an object moving through the solar panel arrays. I estimate it was about the size of a person, but the camera resolution is too low for me to distinguish further.}

  In the seconds that Vista was thinking and explaining these things, Wiki and Growth were caught up in a heated debate about the probability distribution to use to explain what was happening. They flashed back and forth in common memory speculating.

  {Anyone exiting through the hatch would be flung, like a thrown object away from the station! It’d be suicide!} thought Wiki.

  {Or homicide!} thought Dream. {If we model the Europeans as one faction and Stephano’s crew, including Myrodyn, as another faction, it seems plausible that the containment failure was an attempt by one side to remove the threat of the other!}