“Why? Does it give you pleasure?”
“I’ll turn the question right back at you, 3Maggie. How did you feel when you kissed me?”
Her brow furrowed. She looked at him quizzically. “I’ll have to try again, to be sure.”
She posed him so his head was back and slightly tilted up. She moved the top of her body over his and kissed him on the lips. A tiny bead of spittle ran from her mouth to his. She kept kissing him, at first nibbling and then pressing. Her mouth formed an O and she kissed him in the French way. Manny rose to kiss her back, but she pressed her hand on his chest to keep him in place.
“Tell me how you kiss,” she said. Then she laughed. She laughed so hard, she had to hold her sides. She did not stop laughing for a long while. She then took his hand and pulled him towards her.
He raised himself so he was now kissing her from the top. He stopped after a moment.
“Does that please you?” she asked.
“Very much. And you?”
“I’m pleased by your pleasure.”
“And nothing else?” he asked.
“What would you have me feel, Manny Farstar, Galactic Edgemaster?”
“I would like you to feel gratified, whole, tender, alive, possibly grateful, warm?”
“What a marvelous combination of expectations, human.”
“What a mechanical assessment of the potentialities, robot.”
They both laughed until she looked at her human’s lips and grazed on them gently. He looked deep into her matchless eyes trying to parse the Frictenicht eye signs from the eyes of his former, lost 3Maggie, whom he had loved.
The human and the robot spent a long time gazing into each other’s eyes, and it was she, not he, who began kissing in earnest, and she who seemed to crave to have more of them together than they had ever conceived of separately.
AFTERWORD
I have been asked why Manny Farstar chose to remain in the old, corrupt universe rather than to follow Luc Phuket and the rebel fleet into the unknown region beyond its edge—to discover a new universe with goodness and light at its center. Farstar was daring and, to a degree, visionary, but he was rooted in his role as purposely as the emperor’s rebellious daughter was. He reasoned that he had served as a Janus-like figure, looking forward and backward at the same time. He also had integrity: unlike the perfidious princess, he viewed his life as whole. As long as the old universe provided things for him to do for the kind of remuneration he desired, he was satisfied. Ironically, his 3Maggie held him back from the brink. In a word, love for an artificial intelligence kept him from springing forward along the path he showed the Arcturus. Does it matter that Farstar refused to acknowledge the dark side of his environment? That is for each reader to determine for himself or herself. In the Buddhist tradition, one religious figure, the Bodisattva, refused to take the final step of Buddha in his transcendental transformation. He remained behind to show others the way rather than to avail himself of the opportunity of achieving total spirituality. Of course, Manny Farstar would never have pretended to be a guru. He was merely the best investigator in the universe—a human who successfully worked the boundaries of the universe. He might have entertained the concept that he was a gatekeeper of sorts, but even that role would have held him in check, stifled him and limited his freedom to do as he pleased. Besides, Manny Farstar is palpably real—and revels in consensual carnality—with his favorite learner artificial intelligence and robot 3Maggie. As I have written, I have witnessed how contemporary history parallels my prophecy. Precise dates are not the issue, but the trends are clear. The wise should be wary: this fiction is becoming increasingly REAL.
E. W. FARNSWORTH
GILBERT, ARIZONA
August 2019
About the Author
E. W. Farnsworth, the prolific Arizona writer, is widely published on line and in print. He has written in a great number of genres, but his science fiction stories stand out as a unified cosmogony centered on The Voyage of the Spaceship Arcturus. Concerned by Luddites’ unreasonable view that advanced technology, particularly robots and artificial intelligences, threatens humans, Farnsworth posits an end-game where the brilliant creators and their high tech creations must depart Earth and fly to the edge of the universe to escape the ignorance and illusions of the destructive masses. To his DarkFire at the Edge of Time, DarkFire Continuum: Stories of the Apocalypse, and DarkFire Warrior: The Story of Nitrous Belle, he adds this volume, Weird Stories about THE END, Including the Stories about Manny Farstar, Galactic Edgemaster, to flesh out the story of the inimitable Manny Farstar. The author incorporates the latest astronomical discoveries and ties them back to black operations begun during World War II. Some of his fragments are poems that give the sense of an eventual epic, and his short stories give him the opportunity to test his audience and gain their buy-in and feedback as he continues to work within his enormous design.
Forthcoming Works by the Author from Celestial Ink Publishing
Wiglaff: Journeyman Shaman – Volume III in the Wiglaff the Shaman Series
Wiglaff: Master Shaman – Volume IV in the Wiglaff the Shaman Series
‘The Spelunker Who Had Chiroptophobia’ and Other Caving Stories (YA)
‘The Dating Site’ and Other Chilling Stories
Singleton – a female police procedural
The Ghost Wedding Machine – a macabre crime novel
Rachel Runs Amok – the second action-packed Anderson spy novel about Agent Rachel
For further information about the author and his works, please see www.ewfarnsworth.com.
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