Chapter 10

Kevin thought the twin/clone/sister theory to Alice and asked her to consider the odds. She was strangely silent after acknowledging receipt.

If Alice had a twin, they could compare differing recent memory sets. It might make it possible to...

The over-thinking nerd scientist in him decided to get out of the prediction business. They were going to take each day, each anomaly as it came. Every rule had so many exceptions it hardly resembled a rule. Crap was going to be crap with or without a reason. Why bother?

When it came down to brass tacks, they were safe. Or CuFeCo alloy tacks, whatever.

The group washed the grime away. Kevin dialed up the burgers, crispy fries and cola-flavored slurpees. The Hong Kong Three liked the burgers and fries, but fell in love with the icy drinks.

“The food is stuff we know, cooked different, good, but not new.” Jade noted, “This other thing is wonderful. Cold as ice, sweet and bubbly. It’s magic food.”

Kevin asked Alice for two-ounce samples in orange, lemon, cherry and strawberry. “Try these. My favorite is orange.”

He had started a riot. All seven girls went nuts sampling flavors. Vanilla bean was wonderful as was chocolate fudge. Mango wasn’t bad, green tea was iffy, and beer was not good at all. Most of the other experiments were not worth mentioning.

After dinner, the eight explorers hit the sack. Super stamina or not, the day was tiring. Tomorrow, or more precisely, whenever they decided to start moving, would be quite busy.

A good sleep had them all bright eyed and ready to rock. After breakfast, Jade, Patty and René began the alloy paint thing in the entrance, using the leftovers found in the old labs. Marly and Amber worked at the replicator, making more paint.

Andrea labored at the computers, working out the math to make minimal sheets of webbing to enclose empty space. She was thinking about having a portable front yard.

Kevin and Ruby lined the new connector tunnel and mined the original space for elements to make an AG engine strong enough to lift the whole complex off the surface of the planet.

Alice monitored everything she could while keeping the far-flung machines gathering materials needed for survival. Little AG platforms were feeding the hopper constantly.

-Boss. I found the wormhole portal where it should be. Luckily, it is on the surface. Indicators and access panels show it powered from inside. Probes show nothing underneath.-

-So it really is a doorway. A two dimensional interface across lightyears, a hole in the fabric of the universe. Think we can wrap our force field around it and take it with us when we leave?-

-No reason we can’t. No reason we can, either. Three things might happen. One: We lock ourselves to the earth. Two: We lift off and take it with us. Three: Something else.-

-Par for the course. Work out what needs to happen to make our traveling time ship look like a moonlet. Actually, to be a round, rocky sphere.-

-Use the field to break that shape away from the mountain. Get the AG to lift it up a little and spray the outside with the CuFeCo paint, thinned so it soaks in a bit.-

-So first we have to have the engine. Hollow out a space underneath the whole complex to put it. Can it be modular construction we assemble in place? Will the floor support the entire complex? Only the inside walls are coated or in the web.-

The AI hesitated before answering. -Your Malincroft was insane but thorough to the point of overkill. There was a basement and the subfloor is steel sheets laid over cantilevered steel H-beams. A giant AG could lift the whole shebang from one corner without it bending. The substructure is alloy-paint sprayed already. We can attach the lifter to the joists and enclose it in an alloy cage welded to the beams.-

-We need to leave enough stone underneath to keep from squashing the unit when we land and power down. Rather than make our moonlet a sphere, shape the field so we can use the surrounding rock to balance the load.-

-Yes. An irregular ovoid shape won’t affect the flight since everything is in the field, but we will be more agile without so much mass. I’ll put mine-bots to work as soon as we have sufficient elements to begin replication and assembly.-

-Great. We’ll move when we can. Travel forward to a geo-temporally stable era. Find the wormhole. Lock on and cross our fingers. It either works or it doesn’t.-

-Flawless logic as usual, boss.- Hesitation. -Do you really think I have an AI sister/twin?-

-Patty’s eyes suggest that is not impossible. Things out of time and place are popular here. Clearly you don’t remember being shifted or you would have mentioned it when we were wasting our brain cells earlier. But she saw what she saw.-

-It’s exciting and scary to think about. Wonder is she is self-aware?-

-One way to find out is to time travel forward a week with no destination entered. Maybe her energy leak will take us to her like the triplets found us or like we found you. Or not.-

-She could time-flip and come to us.-

-Too much ‘if’. I’m out of this conversation. Let’s get to work.-

Kevin turned his attention to Ruby, working quietly in the storeroom. “Found any surprises?”

“I’m not sure I would recognize a real surprise. No food, of course, but not much of anything that can’t be used for war. Basic survival equipment is minimal. I guess they really planned to subjugate a population for labor to make what they might need.” She frowned. “I don’t like these people.”

“Not surprising. Any ideas?”

“Scan the war stuff into Alice’s memory and toss it in the hopper. We can use the parts. Our stuff is better and their stuff is just plain hateful.”

“Then you are in charge of getting it done. Ask me if you have a question. Don’t worry about making a mistake as long as an item is scanned. We’ll get Alice to make a list anyway. If I decide we need something, we’ll make another.”

Ruby turned her name color. “Thank you.”

Kevin needed to have a discussion with the shy redhead. “Take a break, Ruby.” He sat her down an a plush sofa in the corner, one of many the Malincroft guys had stocked for comfort.

“Why do you blush so when I ask your opinion or you volunteer an idea?”

“Fear. At home, our opinions were worthless. We would have been beaten for speaking to the Master of the House before being spoken to. Worse, maybe starved or tortured if we dared to speak out of turn. Probably killed for contradicting his commands or offering a different opinion.”

“Were sons treated the same? Wives, other daughters?”

“Sons were treated as heirs, educated and pampered unless they gave reason to be treated otherwise. When they married, the dowry increased the treasury. Women and daughters, except for favored wives and concubines, were chattel, valuable property at best. Slaves or trade goods, not visibly abused, to sell or barter.”

“And your position there and your expectations here?”

“We were feared. People said we were cursed, too different. We think our real mother was our English tutor, so we were useless strange haired bastard triplets, half-breed, novelty items on the trading block, beneath consideration as wives. We were less than the lowest person.” She began to sob softly. “Not human, merely objects to be used and discarded.”

Kevin’s heart was breaking for her and her sisters. “And that’s why you ran away. Freedom at best or a quick death chosen over a short and brutally painful life. I would have done the same. Are you better here?”

“Yes. You are a different kind of Master, scary sometimes because you have much more power but use it less.” She said, eyes lowered. “You let us speak and consider our opinions valuable. You treat your women as equals, they are the ones who submit to you. You don’t demand it as your right, but seem to let them find their place.”

“What is your place?” The crux of the issue. “What do you sisters want it to be?”

“I don’t know. You treat them as intellectual equals in all ways. Yet you take them for your pleasure whenever you wish. They yield to your decisions and joyfully give their bodies without reservation.”

“But what about you?”

“We want to be full sister/wives, something we could never have had in Hong Kong. We have a good Master. There is nothing we need that you haven’t given us already. We try to anticipate your wishes and obey because that is how we are.” Now she almost whispered. “But you have not taken us fully. Are we not good enough? Do you suffer our presence out of mercy? Will you make us leave?”

“I think you are three of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen. Do you want me to have you like the others?” He hesitated for an instant. “Do you need it?”

“Yes, we need it to be complete. Afraid to want it and afraid we’re not wanted. We need it to really belong. Afraid it will hurt. Afraid to ask. Afraid you won’t.”

He tipped her chin up so her could look her in the eye. “You are wanted. You never have to leave. I will make you and your sisters ‘complete’ as you call it.” He smiled. “But know this: I am the Master of the House and I never ask for what is mine.”

He sent a silent command to Amber and Jade to excuse themselves and come to the old store room at once. They simply had an urge to see Ruby. The others thought nothing of the departures and had a sudden strong need to continue what they were doing.

“Ruby, your sisters are coming to us now. You will be taken together.” He lay her down and caressed her body, monitoring the responses to see what she liked, what ignited her passions. More than the touches, more than the caresses, it was the gentleness, and the attention to her feelings. That the Master cared for her as a person make her willing to grant his every wish, even to the point of pain. She gave herself to him completely.

Her sisters arrived and waited, enraptured at the sight before them. Kevin echoed a ghost of the emotional storm swirling in Ruby’s mind and tweaked their pleasure centers a tiny bit.

He touched her virgin center and she opened her legs. “Now, Master. Please. Make me yours.”

He positioned himself and pushed into her slowly, until he met her hymen. “You will feel this and it might hurt, but not for long and not ever again.”

Kevin did not dampen the pain of her maidenhead tearing, or the sensation of being stretched to the limit as he entered fully. He would not rob her of the total experience. This was what she wanted, willing submission at any cost. Ruby put her life in his hands.

He was affected beyond words.

Kevin began the ancient rhythm, tweaking slightly and slowly gaining speed as he sensed she was ready. This was not manipulation, merely letting her lead him to where she needed to go. She was getting there fast. Days of fear, hope and anticipation, seeing the other girls in action, the ‘lessons’ and the constant nakedness had her on the edge before he was all the way in.

She had several little orgasms once the initial discomfort faded, building to a magnificent crescendo, obvious to all. Several hard, deep strokes pushed her, wailing, over the precipice into pleasure she had never considered possible and would never have known in her previous life. Ruby relaxed into contented sleep, in the safest place she could imagine.

After a brief talk with Amber and Jade to make sure they were of the same mind as their sister, Kevin made love to them with as much tenderness and attention to their needs as Ruby received.

Truly triplets to the core, they responded the same. Even as they feared and dreaded this moment, they wanted and needed it to the point of desperation. It was the last step to inclusion into the family and their own definition of their place. Intellectual equals, physically submissive to a kind and gentle, yet firm and demanding Master. The best of any life they could ever have.

For example: Before, they followed instructions because of fear, now they obeyed because he trusted their ability and they could not disappoint. They remained naked before, however uncomfortable, because they thought the Master required it. They would happily be naked forever because he enjoyed it.

Kevin was a little surprised at the unlimited devotion, but realized this is what they wanted. They would never accept any thing else. Valued, loved and protected, they had everything possible to make them happy.

This clarified his relationships, both with the triplets and his Lab Rats. It also defined how they all approached the future.

The lab mates would still be the confusing submissive creatures they were, very smart and accomplished in diverse fields, bring different points of view to each problem. But they had a Western based scientific sensibility and cultural mindset. Science for its own sake, continuing to advance even when suspecting misuse. Rather than end a project, they attempt to hide the results. Solomon, even knowing it could fall into Nazi hands, perfected the mini-reactor and concealed it with Patty.