Chapter 4

Collin tried to center himself, just as his Sensei taught. It was harder than in the dojo or on the mat. What if the labs were in use? What if there was a Confederacy AI monitoring the lab once he was past the door? What if there was nothing there, and he was taking this risk for naught?

“Eight, four, two, zero, nine, seven, five, one,” he whispered. At least one person had chosen an easy to remember code.

At the same time, he wondered if he could trust Nancy. He had decided to not bring his phone or tablet with him on this trip to the hospital. He was careful in his speculation now as well, curious but guarded. Nancy was outside the Confederacy but cooperating with them. If it was a non-biological entity as it claimed, the Sa’arm were no threat to it. Why would a representative outside the Confederacy care about their interactions with either the Sa’arm or mankind?

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you,” Collin muttered as he turned out of the park toward the hospital.

He took deep breaths, focusing on what he needed to do in the next fifteen minutes. He imagined himself greeting Sarah, then her using the planned excuse of checking on a patient to give him his chance. If she had seen anyone going in or out of the research area from her floor, she would kiss him on the lips. If it was all clear, his cheek would be the recipient of her affections.

Three minutes later, it was show-time.

Collin went straight for the keypad, swiped the card Cyndi had made for him, and entered the eight-digit PIN. There was a pause, then a green flash and a soft buzz as the electromagnetic lock opened. He grabbed to door and pulled before the sound stopped.

He was in.

The corridor beyond the door was unremarkable, just another hospital corridor. He glanced down it, and then started moving along one side, reading the door labels while trying to act like he knew where he was going. In his mind, he was mapping the floor. The first intersection would take him back to the main entrance of the section. Turning away from there would lead him toward the sky-bridge connecting to the medical school across the street. He kept going straight.

He glanced inside one lab, noticing the expected equipment on a counter. Centrifuge, microscopes, beakers and syringes; it looked like a typical blood-work lab. He moved on.

Six doors in, he saw something different. Why would there be another keycard reader and keypad inside the lab wing? It must hold something precious. Without thinking, Collin swiped the card and keyed the code. The door buzzed and he entered.

The room was larger than he expected, with normal tables and equipment closest to the door. A low workbench separated the room into two halves. The back half, not visible from the doorway, held movable whiteboards and several banks of computers, along with what looked like large microwave ovens. Collin moved closer to examine the display on one of the devices. The small touch panel was illuminated.

“Plasma, Mus musculus. Plasma, Cavia porcellus. Plasma, Homo sapiens” Different types of blood plasma; mice, guinea pig, human. Collin tapped on the human variant. The machine lit up, then the covering panel turned opaque. A minute later, it dinged, and the panel cleared and a vial of yellowish blood plasma was inside the chamber.

“A replicator,” he muttered. Everyone had heard of them, and some folks claimed the Confederacy was starting to provide them to folks on Earth, but Collin had never seen one before. He opened the machine and withdrew the vial before looking at the menu once again.

If you were going to make nanites that could operate without an AI connection, you’d need to make them in the replicator, he reasoned. Blood plasma would be a natural delivery mechanism within a hospital. Before going further in the machine’s menu, Collin looked at the whiteboards.

While he was more interested in evolutionary biology, he had spent quite a bit of time in the lab for his Masters. He could follow much of what was presented on the boards. Yes, it looked like the plasma was a delivery mechanism. Some of the stats on the board made him surmise they were seeing viability in the nanites of two to seven days without direct oversight.

Another board held additional timing data. “Atheroma progression, 96 hours,” caught his eye. Below it was “Cardiomyopathy, 81 hours.” Next was “Renal artery stenosis, 73 hours.”

It was a list of diseases responsible for many natural deaths and times. Obviously, they were testing the efficacy of the nanites against the diseases and trying to determine if the nanites were surviving long enough to influence the individuals. If the nanites were only surviving 24 hours, they would be able to help some, but if they survived longer, they could do much more.

Collin looked at another roughed-in graph. It looked like the nanite population they were playing with was not uniform, so had different survival rates within their test subjects. It was fascinating work.

Collin returned to the replicator and hit the human plasma input once again. A minute later, another vial was prepared. He snatched it and headed for the door. He retraced his steps, stopping only at the blood lab to collect a syringe and needle set. Sarah would be able to inject him. Hopefully one of the two doses would be sufficient for Nancy to work with.

“How long?” Cyndi asked that night after Sarah injected the plasma sample into Collin.

“The nanites are spreading efficiently,” Nancy answered. “They are significantly more limited than the normal nanites used by Confederacy citizens, so I cannot get as much detailed data from them, but it should suffice. I anticipate they will reach optimal distribution within five minutes.”

“What do you mean ‘more limited’?” Sarah asked.

“These nanites appear to be tailored for specific diseases and procedures. Fully capable nanites could adapt to make changes to a body and assist it in regenerating. These are less sophisticated, likely since they are more autonomous than those used in citizens.”

“So, no physical enhancements?” Collin asked.

“Most likely not. I suspect they do not want these nanites to begin re-growing lost appendages or making significant changes to any human’s physique. They will however give you a general once-over. Since you appear to be reasonably healthy, I doubt you will notice them.”

“Will you be able to get the data you need to help us?” Collin asked.

“I believe so. I’ll ask you wear the EEG cap tonight to correlate data with what the nanites produce. I hope you have a good sleep session to maximize our observational opportunities.”

“As keyed up as I am, I’ll be lucky to get any sleep tonight.”

Cyndi and Sarah exchanged a look.

“I think we can help with that,” Sarah said coyly.

Anne rolled her eyes and Lilu shared a small smile.

Collin noticed Lilu’s nipples tightening while Anne’s look was less fathomable as Sarah quickly pulled Cyndi in for a kiss. He watched the interplay of their tongues for a moment and felt himself stirring.

“If I’m going to have to fall asleep, I should probably take a quick shower and get ready for bed before I succumb to your two’s temptations,” he said.

Without a further thought, he stood, gave his two girlfriends quick kisses, and was then surprised to see Lilu waiting for a kiss of her own. He complied and was further confused when Anne stood for her own turn.

Anne had never done more than hold his hand or arm before. Her lips were opened with just a hint of invitation as she looked up at him with her pale blue eyes. Collin leaned in, slowly to give her a chance to change her mind. She leaned in to meet him. Her lips were soft and warm, and she danced her tongue against his own lips before separating with a smile.

“I’m starting to believe you’ll do this, so I had better start getting used to the idea of being more than a big sister,” Anne said softly as they parted.

Collin nodded, and then headed to the master bath in a bit of a fog. By the time he showered and dried off, Sarah and Cyndi had moved to their bed and were enjoying a sixty-nine with Sarah on top. She looked up as he approached and captured his dick in her mouth to bring him to full hardness.

Collin knew what she wanted. Maybe it was the thrill of danger during the day, or maybe it was the promise of Lilu and Anne’s kiss. For whatever reason, Collin decided that what Sarah wanted was not all she was going to get tonight.

He pulled his dick from her lips and moved to the opposite side of the bed before sliding into her well lubricated pussy. Cyndi swiped his balls with her tongue, and he worked in and out of Sarah. For her part, Sarah appeared to be getting what she wanted, so returned her own lips and tongue to Cyndi’s pussy.

Collin pulled all the way out of her, causing a slight gasp, before pushing his dick into Cyndi’s waiting mouth. At the same time, he slipped his thumb into Sarah and covered it with her juices. As he withdrew from Cyndi, his thumb pulled out of Sarah and then pressed firmly against her asshole. Her head snapped up as he managed to line his dick back up with her pussy and thrust forward again.

Collin kept up his assault on both of her holes for a few minutes as her passion rose. He felt her inner muscles tighten and pulled out of her. She moaned in frustration, but he let Cyndi lick him again as she retreated from the edge. Collin repeated his moves, sliding inside her once again. The cycle of arousal repeated three times.

Cyndi’s shivering orgasm was apparent as he pulled out of Sarah. This time, instead of probing Cyndi’s throat, he rose higher and pushed the head of his dick against Sarah’s sphincter. His head popped in, and she lost control as her orgasm hit her. By the time he was able to penetrate her fully, his own need erupted, filling her ass with his come.

He pushed into her, reveling in the feeling of taking her ass, before pulling out slowly. They had experimented with anal sex once or twice, but Sarah had never orgasmed from those attempts. The fact that she had this time made it even more special to Collin. He leaned forward to kiss her as she turned her head and gave him a weak smile.

Collin awoke refreshed and felt more alert than he usually did before his first cup of coffee. Sarah was in his arms, spooning Cyndi as he was spooning her. He smiled as his lovers, his future concubines, and then slipped from bed. He took care of his morning routine and waited until he had poured that first cup of coffee before speaking.

“Nancy, did you have much luck with the nanites?” he asked the empty room.

“Good morning, Collin. Yes, I did have some success. You are a very interesting species and individual.”

Collin smiled. “What did you manage to figure out?”

“These nanites are not as capable as the version the Confederacy uses on volunteers or concubines. They appear more specialized to only target certain conditions or diseases. They also don’t have the same communication mechanism the full version has to provide diagnostic data. However, they do have some rudimentary sensing and communication capabilities to allow them to coordinate actions. I was able to use these limited abilities to assess certain brain chemistry changes that map to your ECG responses from the cap. As I said, it is very interesting.”

“And what did you learn?”

“I believe you will have no problems with your score when you next test at the CAP center. Based on my observations, it appeared you were processing three separate cognitive streams last night once you entered REM sleep. Do you remember any dreams?”

Collin shook his head. “Just swirling colors, really. I did feel very well rested this morning but thought it might just be side effects of the nanites.”

“Based on the electro-chemical activity of your brain, I suspect you will feel sharper and more focused today.”

“How long will the affects last?”

“Interpreting the readings from the nanites, I believe this level of cognition will be permanent.”

“How is that possible? Were any of the nanites set to affect brain chemistry?”

“No, not directly based on the functional data I could glean from them. I suspect this was just a small enough catalyst to accelerate changes you were already undergoing.”

“Hmmm,” Collin said, sipping his coffee. “So what should I plan for, then? Should I take the day off and see if it sticks, or go to the CAP center today?”

“An immediate retest may raise some inquiries from the Confederacy AIs.”

“I think so, too, but I hate wasting time if I’m going to score higher. Getting us off Earth is the short-term goal.”

“Humans, and most of the Confederacy races have a different perspective of time, than I do,” Nancy commented. “It is highly unlikely that a Sa’arm ship will make successful planetfall here in the next human year, so a delay of a few months does not increase your risk much.”

“It’s not the Sa’arm I’m worried about.” Collin went on to explain the Earth First phenomenon and his professor’s recent comments and observations.

“There has not been a significant change in this human-based risk profile. Your efforts to date have sufficed to keep you off their radar, so to speak. If you continue to maintain a low profile, you should be safe until re-testing,” Nancy concluded.

Collin nodded. “Are there any external datum that should influence the timing of my re-test?” he asked.

“I’m not sure of what you mean,” Nancy replied.

“Can you tell me when optimal colonies are being recruited for? It would not be good to jump out of the frying pan on Earth and into the fire of a colony too close to the swarm line of advance.”

Nancy was quiet for a moment. “I will have to perform some data queries with the Confederacy AIs.”

Nancy split off additional sub-processes to begin analyzing Collin’s latest thinking. His questions opened alternative paths not previously considered. That alone was sufficient reason to allocate more resources for consideration. The creative leap to ferment new possibilities was intriguing.

<<There is a 89% probability that Collin’s surmise on the Confederacy AI’s long-term Sa’arm and human containment plan being correct. All observed data fits this hypothesis, >> one background process returned.

<<Introduction of Collin and his off-spring into such an environment may limit continued development of multitasking capabilities, stifling higher-order sentience development, >> another process opined.

<<A low-technology colony may provide options for continued observation and development, but such a colony is contrary to current Confederacy plans. Current operations have all pick-ups slated for colonies that can contribute to the war effort.>>

<<Significant trading capital may be used to influence one or more colonies based on the current AI-based diaspora. However, such efforts would only have a 3% probability of halting the AI plans to control humans and would most likely only delay the de-militarization of the species once the conflict with the Sa’arm is resolved.>>