Chapter 11
Biocorp hailed Onuka. It was Hali, and she didn’t seem to be bothered that she had bed hair and was clearly being woken from a good slumber. “Seriously? You’re back already?” She wiped her eyes and re-read some of the data. “OMG, you’re the luckiest fucking pilot ever! Follow STC’s instruction. Biocorp accepts your docking fees. Let me get a shower and some coffee. Want anything? Okay, see you in an hour. Wait? What? What kind of tools? Seriously. You’re not that kind of scout. Fine. I will procure you a reasonable set of tools. Damn, you’re high maintenance.”
STC expedited Jon station wards, jumping a queue for a particular dock. He and Lilith proceeded up the bridge to the station’s reception area, where the agent met them respectfully, and a green haired stranger of a woman launched herself at Jon and began kissing on him like a wife greeting a sailor. Jon stood in shock and Lilith stood there, amused, by his discomfort.
“You have fans?” Lilith finally said.
“You don’t recognize me?” the woman demanded. “I am Avery.” She was thin, hyper feminized, ultrathin was waist, large hips and bosom, big, almond shaped Disney princess eyes, and a slight pout, with upturned nose. Her clothing were thin wraps, Velcroed on, exposing legs and belly. She was human in appearance, but she glowed not with a real light, but with attractiveness. This would be the woman in the red dress in the Matrix who distracted Neo. Her dress went down just far enough to hide stuff, but if she tilted forwards or back, she would be exposed, and Jon’s eyes tracked the inner side of her thigh wanting more. Her legs glistened, even though they were bare.
“OMG, you’ve changed,” Jon said. “Lilith, this is that STC girl we met.” “I remember her. She is, well, wow!” Lilith said.
“Are you disappointed?” Avery asked Jon.
“No. No! Wow,” Jon said.
Avery kissed him. “I am so relieved. I was so worried you wouldn’t like me now that I changed. I fully intend to collect on our friendship agreement.” “Collect?” Jon asked.
“Sex. I want sex. A lot of sex,” Avery said. “You don’t know what it’s like not having a friend at this time in my life. Come stay at my pod.”
“Umm,” Jon stammered.
“He will be happy to come stay with you,” Lilith said.
“Oh, you better come down to the ship with us,” Jon said.
“For sex?” Avery asked.
“For rocks. I collected some great samples,” Jon said.
“Who cares about rocks?!” Avery asked.
“You do?” Jon asked.
“I am not that person anymore,” Avery said.
“Um, you will be?” Jon asked.
Avery sighed. “Oh, very well, let’s see what you got.”
The proceeded back down the bridge, Avery clinging to his arm, and onto Onuka, and into the spare room where they had small sample of crystals and minerals. She seemed unimpressed.
“Can we be alone?” Avery demanded.
“Sure,” Lilith said. “His room is the next compartment.”
Avery dragged him over to the next room, practically raped him, and when she was finished, she got up, started getting dressed.
“Seriously?” Jon asked.
“Yeah, thanks,” Avery said. “That was great. See you next cycle.” “That’s it?” Jon asked.
“What, you want cuddle time?” Avery asked. “That wasn’t part of the contract.” “Seriously?!” Jon asked.
Avery patted Jon’s cheek with her hand and then departed. Lilith and Loxy entered and stood on the threshold.
“You okay?” Lilith asked.
“That was confusing,” Jon said.
“Yeah, no girl has ever experience that before,” Loxy said.
“Were you satisfied?” Lilith asked.
“Yes and no,” Jon said.
Lilith began to strip. Hali arrived.
“You couldn’t wait one hour for me?” Hali asked. “Lilith, I though you wanted to sleep.”
“No, I am good right now,” Lilith said. “He’s really tense. We should both help him relax.”
“Okay,” Hali said.
“Can I at least get a shower first?” Jon asked.
“No,” they said, and tackled him.
Jon was at the mall when maintenance gave Onuka the ‘all clear.’ There was no damage. Loxy had been right, it was the perfect bit of luck for the whole affair. Biocorp called next, directing him to free up the bridge.
“I thought I had three full days?” Jon quierried.
Hali came online in his head. (“Jon, you may remain on the station for the three days, but
Biocorp needs their bridge. Direct Onuka to these coordinates.”)
“I don’t have to be on her?” Jon asked.
No one seemed to notice or care that he was talking to himself. This was standard affair for people with tech upgrades. Most people, though, had learned to talk without vocalizing, or even subvocalizing. Every now and then he imagined someone flirting with him, but when he considered it rightly, they were merely immersed in conversations with people he couldn’t see and the people he was looking at weren’t seeing him, but in the right context, he could make their looks all about him. It was the same way you could make the girl in a photograph or portrait interact with you as if it was always for you, but in reality, it was for everyone who looked at her.
(“No, Jon. Just direct as you would if you were on the ship.”)
Jon informed Loxy what he was doing and asked if Lilith wanted to stay on the station. Loxy reported she was asleep. He asked her to wake her and find out. Biocorp asked again for him to free the bridge. Lilith woke but said she wanted to sleep some more. Jon directed Onuka out to the designated holding area. He felt bad not being on her while simultaneously being quite happy roaming the station.
“So, Hali, I guess I am at your place tonight?” Jon asked.
(“That’s the plan,” Hali responded. “I will be home about 15:00. The door will recognize you if you get there before me. If you get lost, just ask Indigo for help.”)
Jon continued browsing the market. There were all sorts of interesting things, but he simply wasn’t interested. He quickly learn to avoid eye contact with attendants, because they were quickly at him, and pretty aggressive in sales pitches. And if they were female, there was always this undertone that if he bought, he might get lucky. He paused at one store and came to a new conclusion; he didn’t know exactly what things were. Nothing was what he was thinking they were. When he realized one shop was selling memory crystals, not just ‘crystals,’ he lingered; the crystals had been impregnated with a complex memory from another person, he was curious enough to let the store clerk explain further. A person records a memory. It could be real or fiction. Each time one held the crystal, the holder discovered a little more about the memory. So, hold a crystal, you get an impression. The longer you hold it, the more you got. One had to be receptive to an experience, so in a way, it was like a biofeedback devices, because the more you relaxed, the greater the access to the embedded memories. The attendant assured him, no one has ever bought a crystal and returned it due to running out of memories. You could hold it a life time and never sort it all out. Memory was complex. Recording memories was just as complex. Memories are holograms, she said. He decided to buy one.
“Can I buy your memories?” Jon asked.
The attendant laughed and redirected him away from flirting. He left with what she assured him was a fairly popular crystal of a celebrity from one of the Luxury worlds. He was a popular actor. Jon wanted a female, and when the attendant asked if he was okay experiencing sex from the female’s perspective, having a guy on him, Jon then decided the male crystal was a better choice. She assured him the subject was heterosexual. The price of crystal warranted a gift memory, so she threw in a crystal from a female. Jon assumed it wasn’t a ‘high’ valued crystal. It turned out it was part of a set; there were story lines and people collected different people in the story, with each perspective unfolding something unexpected. You get involved I a story from a certain perspective, and you think that’s complete, until you see another’s perspective. That was probably why she gave him the sample; she believed he would be back for others in the collection.
At another shop, he found a device that healed bruises. He didn’t need it because so far, every time he had an injury, Lilith would kiss it and make it better. Seriously, her saliva was like magical healing balm. When he joked about selling her spit, she informed him it would only work on him. He pushed on, found a bag that he liked and bought it. It was a World War II mail bag with MASH written on it. The girl was very friendly, but she stopped just shy of exchanging information with him. He put his memory crystals in the new bag and started to walk away when he realized, they were manufacturing stuff on the fly as people approached, and if they didn’t buy, they simply recycled the material to make the next greatest thing. He was targeted by marketers!
Jon stopped at a food kiosk and sat down and watched people shop. There were lots of strange aliens to be seen. Indigo Mall made Star Wars Cantina scene seem quaint. He thought he saw some Grays, but they were quickly lost in the crowd. He pushed on and soon discovered the red light distract. He didn’t even know what he was witnessing until he found someone that was human in appearance, and both the male and the female in the window display winked at him, waving for him to come in. He stopped. He was pretty sure they were not selling pajamas. The female blew him a kiss. He walked back to the beginning of the display windows and really took in the variety of creatures. There was amorphous, gelatin like creature in the first display. You could partially see through them, which increased his curiosity about how it held its shape much less remained standing. He was reminded of the Manga, Monster Women. He went up to the door and someone intercepted.
“Not human compatible,” the attendant said. “They dissolve human flesh and bones.
“Unless, you’re wanting to die that way. It is a very pleasant way to check out.”
“Not looking to die today, but thank you,” Jon said, and continued on. Ditri, the druid priestess, was suddenly by his side.
“Looking to play? I can introduce you to some friends,” Ditri said.
“I am just curious,” Jon said.
“I see,” Ditri said.
Jon looked at his trouser wondering if he was that obvious. He didn’t seem obvious. Then he realized, he was broadcasting that information; he was clearly labeled available and interested.
“I can also see that you recently had an experience,” Ditri said.
“What you mean?” Jon asked, wondering if it the profile displayed the last time he was intimate.
“It’s not your first, though,” Ditri said, focusing hard. She was not looking at his profile display. She was looking deeper. “You’re much more advance than you give yourself credit for, but so far, it has been mostly happenstance, not on demand. I am speaking of out of body experiences.”
“How do you know this?” Jon asked.
“High tech,” Ditri said. “Most of the people on your world refer to it as reading auras, or accessing Akashic records. The Founders didn’t discover their spirituality until after their civilization reached a singularity point. It was when everyone on the planet was connected wirelessly through a network of frequencies that they discovered the nonphysical frequencies.” “Seriously?” Jon asked.
“Don’t be so judgmental. Not all species are as telepathic as humans,” Ditri said. “Humans are telepathic?” Jon asked.
Ditri bowed, bringing her hands together. “I am sorry. I assumed you were being judgmental. All species has a telepathic potential. You can’t be made of energy and not be. The problem lies in the evolutionary construct of bodies. Bodies were meant to fill a niche in an environment, to rely on and to harvest a particular type of energy. Humans have a very small range of physical energy. You have limited visual range. You have limited hearing range. Your brains are much bigger than you need to take in what you take in. That’s because, you have access to so much more than your kind gives you credit. More than you kind dare admit to. And, quite frankly, it’s probably good to have some social blocks because some of your kind, they’re not ready for this. The law of attraction isn’t a physical law, so that you can get more stuff. It’s a spiritual law, so that you can evolve.”
Jon frowned at her, worried she was about to sell something. She laughed.
“Next time you’re ‘out,’ may I approach you?” Ditri asked.
“You can visit me in Astral?” Jon asked.
“If you like,” Ditri said.
“I would be interested in that. And learning more skills,” Jon said.
“Do you have time to play now?” Ditri asked.
“Ditri,” Jon said, wanting to avoid a hook up. He was interested, but he was also exhausted. He was reminded of himself saying he would never say no, and never have enough.
For the first time in his life, he was quite satiated.
“Not sex,” Ditri said. “Better.”
“Pfff! What’s better than sex?” Jon said.
“Come see,” Ditri invited.
“Cum see?” Jon asked.
“If you like,” Ditri said, taking his arm.
As they walked, Jon continued to take in the attractions to be had. In addition to bioorganisms there were dolls, simple mechanical machines, robots, android, regular masseuses, and masseuses offering happy endings. It looked like anything could be found here. He paused at the tentacle monster.
“I am so coming back here,” Jon said.
“You have time,” Ditri said.
“Next time,” Jon said. “I want to know what’s better than sex.”
“Tentacles are fun,” Ditri said. “Go with the older partner. Less teeth. Unless you like teeth.”
“I will take that under advisement, for next time,” Jon said.
They walked, talking about life on a station, until they arrived at one of the rings and stepped out into the light of ‘day.’ This was full spectrum lights that was so close to sunlight Jon couldn’t tell the difference. Their entry point was elevated and they were looking out over the top of a forest. From this perspective, if he didn’t know he was in a station, he wouldn’t have suspected anything unusual. The proceeded down a winding stairs, followed a path through the woods. There were more different types of trees than Jon could even account for. Birds flew. Jon felt as if he were being watch and he paused and then realized, they were indeed being watched. Tarsiers were everywhere! Little mammals, with huge eyes. They were cute and kind of freaky at the same time. Their eyes were bigger than their brains.
“The watchers,” Ditri said. “They see everything. They see nothing. You can pet one if you like.”
“No thanks,” Jon said.
As they continued along a path that Ditri followed, the trees became smaller in size. Eventually, they were no taller than a human. Soon, they were walking in shrubs. They were making their way towards a crystal, geodesic domed structure. Bushes became plants, plants became grass, and grass became stepping stones of crystals, hexagons. The crystals were placed in a pattern, as if radiating away from the dome in a spiral orbit. People attended to plants and each other. Ditri was treated reverently by anyone that passed, and because Jon was with her, they greeted him with equal respect.
“My sorority owns this entire ring,” Ditri said. “Though the station can provide clean air and clean water, it is scientific fact people do better in nature. People of Indigo share this. It is a refuge. It provides fresh foods. It provides peace. I am a High Priestess of the order the Night.
My title is ‘En.’ We serve Nanna, the moon goddess. We serve Innana, the goddess of love. We serve Isis, the goddess of light and wisdom. We are the keepers of the Ark. We preserve all life.
When a world is ready, we can bring new life, or reintroduce life that’s been lost. We are the watchers. We watch as things grow and change to meet their needs. And when life changes, we preserve the past, and embrace the present. Biocorp likes to engineer things. We believe nature should be allowed to evolve on its own, without our guiding hand, because there is one above us who is a better guide. Still, we cherish all life. The Universe is so full of life, there is no end to finding new ways of being.”
Ditri directed him to his own stepping stone, but continued to hold his hand. She guided him to a next stone, while moving to a corresponding stone. “This is the dance,” she said, orbiting around him. “What you discover, you do not discover alone. You discover for your entire species. Even if you never speak what you discover, your species benefits from your exploration of all the worlds. Your world has had many awakenings. Each time, when confronted with the Great Choice, it was decided to return to sleep. The people of earth are still feral, hardly better than Meer Cats in temperament, spooked by shadows they go running back to the nest, the collective. That is not a disparagement. Some shadows will eat you. Maybe you’re adjusting so well, Jon, because you’re a product of your time. You believe in others. You have no doubt. Volunteering to be cloned, well, that was a safe way of stepping out into the bigger world without actually taking the risk of stepping out. It is still a step forwards. Yay you.” They arrived at the building and entered. They entered an airlock where it was compulsory to undress. Jon was directed to the right, Ditri to the left, where they were cleaned.
They were not satisfied with Jon’s thoroughness, so an attendant came in and assisted, instructing him, and then he was passed through. He was greeted by Ditri and provided a robe. She led him through a maze of crystals. They appeared to be of the same quality and type he had recently found in the giant space geode. They arrived at a private room that was illuminated by a small clam shaped bath. The water radiated soft pastels, rolling gently through the spectrum. The walls rippled with light, like moonlight filtered through a swimming pool. Ditri removed her robe and hung it. She had Jon do the same. He was aroused with anticipation. Ditri took his hand and led him to the bath. The water was warm. Precisely, it matched the normal human temperature. It had an oily feel to it. She asked that he lay in the water, on his back. He seemed hesitant.
“You cannot sink. This water is hyper-salinated,” Ditri said. “I am with you.” Jon took a moment to get in position. The buoyancy of the water held him in a way swimming pool wouldn’t. She put a crystal on his forehead. (“Can you hear me?” she asked.) “Yes,” Jon said.
(“With your mind,” Ditri said.)
(“Yes.”)
Ditri lay in the water beside him. There feet were directed into the small of the clamshell shaped pool. She took his hand and their upper bodies away from each other. She kept him the right distance, her fingers gently locked with his. The clamshell lowered, sealing them in.
(“Easy. I am with you. We’re just going to float together. The waters are healing. The buoyancy is better than any massage because it holds all of you at every point of your being. Your skin is taking in the salts, it is nurturing. We become one through the waters. Our heart beats are syncing. Our breathing is syncing. This is the closest you will get to being in the womb, short of being in the womb. This is better than zero g floating.”)
The passage through the spectrum was accelerating, and the light was fading.
(“You may close your eyes. You may even sleep. Or you can leave your eyes open. You may see things in the dark. Lights. Faraway places. Faraway places that are not so far away, but actually contained within you. Be at peace, I will travel with you,” Ditri said.)
Ditri’s internal voice was loving, both motherly and as seductively as a lover so familiar she need but touch you and she has you where she wants you. The lights went out so subtly through dimming that Jon didn’t panic. He had already relaxed to a greater degree than he imagined he would. He would relax a great deal more as time passed. There was no way other way to be in this environment. The more his body accepted he was safe, not sinking, not drowning, the more it succumb to peace. It was if it was remembering. It did this for nine months. For most beings, the womb is the most comfortable part of the life cycle.
Jon remembered. There were drugs that burned. There were biochemical attempts to end the pregnancy. There was a physical attempt that failed, home remedied coat hanger. It resulted in hospitalization of the mother. The mother even attempted suicide. All these memories were locked inside his being, even though he was only a clone.
(“I am with you,” Ditri said. She moved her fingers so he felt the contact.)
(“I am scared,” Jon said.)
(“I got you,” Ditri said. “I will not let go.”)
Ditri shared her pre-birth experience with him. Not for compare and contrast, but to reveal possibilities. She shared songs and warmth and they established a new start point. Jon had sense of falling and then suddenly he was not in dark, he was in the light of day. Ditri was beside him. She smiled. There was a woman and child gardening. A man was planting a tree.
(“Oh,” Ditri said. “This is the home of my youth. That’s me! That’s my mother. That’s father.”)
(“You were on a planet?” Jon asked, the sun seemed intensely white.)
(“Yes,” Ditri said. “It was a very good life. I think this was the best life. In truth, it was just a different life. Perhaps a respite from the other lives, which were much more labor intensive.”)
(“Why did you leave this life?” Jon asked.)
(“I have not. This is still my life. Oh! Even in the mind we misread things. I heard the calling,” Ditri said.)
Ditri moved them. They were suddenly in the center of a crowded, public dining hall. There were pedestrians, shopping. Families. Kids running amok. People eating. People feeding children and babies. People nursing. People quarreling. There was so many conversations and so much bustling commotion it was imposs