Chapter 4

Some time during the night, we had gotten moved around somewhat. As I awoke, it became pleasantly obvious that I was holding something wonderful in one hand and was partially trapped by some very fine thighs, but not as close to Paradise as I longed for. The urge to move those few inches and complete the consummation of our highly unlikely relationship was countered only by my respect for her emotional state.

Trying to put myself in her place was difficult, but I tried. Three days ago, she had been a confident (perhaps overconfident?) successful businesswoman. A day later, she had been a pitiful lump of flesh, spit up on a deserted beach by an uncaring sea, without water, food or shelter and no means of coping with her plight.

A day later, she was dry and reasonably well fed and an important part of a productive team, having survived dehydration, hallucination and the trauma of coming to grips with a dire situation.

I did not dare push her boundaries while she was in such a delicate position.

Then I could feel her soft hand guide me to where I belonged, with a sigh of content. I had no clue regarding her degree of wakefulness, if any. What a predicament! If she were still asleep and woke coupled, without having agreed to her violation, there was little hope of continuing the excellent cooperation we had achieved yesterday. We each had our strengths and weaknesses, which fortunately overlapped in the most useful manner. She had seen things I missed and I brought other strengths to the table. It would be stupid to endanger the cohesiveness of our team effort for a little bit of nookie.

As much as it pained me to do so, my only choice was to back away until such time as there was no ambiguity in her wishes.

To my great delight, the ambiguity was resolved immediately. “Why did you pull out”? She wondered, sleepily.

“Only to get a better angle”, I exulted as I adjusted myself a bit and returned to a better place.

“Uhmmm, that’s better.”

“I thought so, too”, I replied as I snuggled more tightly behind her and took a firmer grip on things before drifting back to sleep with her.

I was having the most wonderful dream. I was floating on a cloud in a sea of fluffy white clouds between the Turquoise sea and the Azure sky. Pleasurable sensations were running up and down my spine and it felt as if I were a rocket, trembling with readiness to blast off to the stars.

It seemed almost natural to hear the voice in my head. “Is this what you wanted, Earth man”?

“Absolutely”! I responded, still caught up in my sensual haze.

“What is there that pleases you about this situation”?

“Nearly everything. I have survived a horrendous ordeal in good health with no harm to my body. I have been able to use my wits to develop several sources of food supply, which gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I need no clothing or shelter and have been able to cope with someone who has a very different psychological profile than mine and whom I was previously unable to deal with satisfactorily. Further, she has become a respected, helpful and trusted friend and is even now providing me with the maximum degree of satisfaction a man can hope for.”

“Would you willingly return to your life before the cruise”?

I thought a minute, trying to give a considered response. “No, I think I would prefer to remain here”, I responded, somewhat surprised at my own response.

“Is there anything you would like to change”?

Again, I somewhat surprised myself when I responded, “No, it would be hard to improve on my present situation. It meets all of my most cherished fantasies.”

“And what are those”?

“The opportunity to succeed or fail based entirely on my own efforts, with the love, aid and support of an attractive, intelligent and capable woman companion.” Having replied, I realized that this was truly all I needed for happiness. Sure, there were many other aspects of my previous life that I had enjoyed and appreciated very much at the time, but I had no need to repeat them.

“Does Elaine fit that description”?

“Yes, she does, although I am amazed that love has flourished despite the bitterness I previously felt toward her.”

“Has she said she loves you”?

“No, and I haven’t yet told her of my love, but it is undeniable. When she awakens, I will make certain that she knows.”

“She already knows, my love, and feels the same way as you. Two days ago, I would have happily had you terminated. Now I dread the thought of life without you. How is that possible”? Ah! Sleeping Beauty awakes.

“I have no idea”, I said. “It may well be that the entity speaking to me in my mind has orchestrated everything for its own reasons. Am I correct, Entity”?

“Only partially. I set the wheels in motion to see how you would react. The rest was your doing. Why do you call me NTT”?

I explained the confusion to ‘it’. “It would be helpful if you could give us some explanation of your nature and goals.”

“Very well. I am a probe, sent to this planet to determine its suitability for colonization by my people. I am not sentient, but a very advanced form of what you call artificial intelligence.”

“Ok. We will call you Art. What happens if you send back a favorable report”?

“Then my people will begin their journey here.”

“How soon would they arrive? I assume that they are coming from a different star system, so it might be years.”

“You are partially correct. We are from a different star system, but the first ships will arrive within about two weeks after I signal that it is safe to come.”

“Two weeks! Holy shit! How may of you are there? Earth is already struggling to support the humans who are here. I don’t see how we can support a significant number of newcomers.”

“There will be about twenty billion in the first wave.”

“Twenty billion! But that is twice the number of humans who are already stretching the limits of our resources. What will become of us? Will we be eliminated”?

“There will be no need for that. We are quite small, physically, and consume very few resources. Our advanced technology, which we will make available to you, will more than offset any burden on your environment.”

“Small? How small”?

“About the size of your cockroaches.”

“Oh.” It took a bit of thinking to absorb that bit of knowledge. That changed things enormously. There were probably a great many more cockroaches than that on Earth, with little impact other than being a nuisance. Perhaps co-existence would be no problem, especially if they were bringing advanced technology.

“So your spaceship will be about the size of an Apollo capsule”?

“If you are referring to the vehicle that you sent to the Moon on several occasions, then you are correct. Our vehicle is comparable in size.”

Throughout the entire discussion, Elaine and I had remained connected, with very pleasant sensations flooding our consciousness. Perhaps these feelings were managed and prolonged to make us more readily accessible to the extremely unconventional message to which we were being exposed.

“Is that true”? I asked, as a test of whether he could read my mental processes as well as my unspoken thoughts.

“Does it matter”? So much for secrecy with this dude.

“Perhaps not. If you have the power to bring it about, then anything you need to do to aid acceptance must also be acceptable.” I felt fatalistic in a way, but not in a defeated manner. I had seen nothing to cause me to believe that there were any avoidable dangers here and we know what Confucius said about rape.

“Ok, so what do you need from us? Why have you brought us here and made this reality for us? Is any of this island real? How much is real and how much is theater, to ease our acceptance of your mission”?