Chapter 71

"For one thing it has already informed me I'm pregnant, as of earlier this evening, or last night now. It even knows it will develop into a boy," Aimee told me, proudly.

"That doesn't make sense Aimee. How could it know already?" I asked.

"It is inside of me Jack and connected to my nervous system. It knows everything about my body, everything," Aimee said, explaining.

"Well hell Aimee, you have access to your nervous system too, but you can't tell if you're pregnant," I said.

"It says it has access to all my nervous system, not just the things I deal with consciously. It also has access to and constantly monitors all chemical information about my body.

"The virus also told me it could communicate with any other virus on earth in any host. That's how it would gather the information about survivors if I want it to expand," Aimee said.

"Did it tell you yet how you were able to communicate with it?" I asked.

"It told me it now has a theory and it is going to send a request to the probe for clarification," she said.

"That worries me Aimee. I'm afraid any request to the drone will set off an alarm or something."

"I worried about it too Jack. The virus said it always communicated with the drone at least every forty-eight hours to give its status reports and it usually requested some information each time. It assured me nothing we asked the drone would seem out of the ordinary," Aimee said.

I just didn't know about that. It seemed to good to be true. We could use any information we could get and Aimee was telling me we could have access to information about every survivor. At the least we could get a real count on them and probably discover where they all were located.

It wouldn't work though. It would all have to come through Aimee and it couldn't be possible for her to remember so much data and then cough it back up to us. The access, if it was as the virus had described to Aimee would be nice, but it would be too detailed for us to use without getting it into a computer system.

I was more confused now than before. Aimee and the virus could communicate. The virus could communicate with the drone on the other side of Jupiter. It could communicate with all the other viruses in all the other humans on earth.

It could communicate faster than the speed of light. Now there was a real shocker, but it seemed to be what it had told Aimee. The drone had information about every person still living on earth.

I wondered what kind of information it had on the people left alive. Did it know what they were up to? Did it care what we were all doing?

Why did the aliens kill off so many people and why did they leave some of us alive? What did they want out of us? If they left us alive they must want us to do something. They must want us to do something we hadn't been doing. What did they want?

It was frustrating to know there was a way to gain this knowledge and then think seeking the knowledge might jeopardize our lives. No matter what the virus told Aimee I had to be skeptical.

If we could believe what it told Aimee so far - billions of people had been killed at the direction of the aliens. I didn't want to do anything to bring them back to kill the rest of us. It didn't really add up though. They could obviously have killed us all in the first place if it had been their intention.

This brought me back to the question of what they wanted us to do. This was a little like asking what God wanted us to do. Trouble was the aliens didn't even leave a bible for us to try and figure out. They didn't even let us know they'd been here.

They had let us know though. The virus told Aimee. Maybe the aliens didn't intend for us to find out, but maybe they did. Surely if they intended for us to never find out they could have insured it. It wasn't like we had outsmarted them. We had discovered the communication by accident. Had others discovered it?

If someone else had discovered this communication and was using it sooner or later they would have a big advantage over us. This could be the best source of information available. It was a link to information about every person left alive on earth. That kind of access had never been possible before. It made me wonder if the viruses could tell what their hosts were thinking. If they could, would they tell us if we asked through Aimee's virus?

How could I find out? Hell, now I was wishing I could talk to my virus and then I wondered if I could. I wondered if we all could. We had to let the virus ask the drone for information about the communication. I don't guess we had to allow it - it could probably do it whether we wanted it to or not.

"Aimee, did it give you any indication of whether what you wanted it to do mattered. Will it pay any attention to what you ask it to do?" I asked.

"It seemed to me it wouldn't expand any further unless I gave it permission. I didn't think to ask it about anything else. It told me it normally communicated with the drone every forty-eight hours or so, but it didn't say it had to. It didn't ask for permission to keep doing it either. Do you think I should ask it whether I have any say in what it does?" Aimee ask.

"Yes, I think you should ask it that at least. If you do have a say so I think you should ask it how far it extends," I said.

"I will then Jack. I guess I've really wanted to know about it myself. I wonder how much control I still have over my own body?" Aimee asked, but I didn't have the answer.

"I think we should get the answer before we ask it anything else."

"I guess I should try to go to sleep again then," Aimee said, and gave me a little smile.

"I think you should."

We lay back down, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep. I doubted Aimee would be able to either. I had to try though. I lay as still as I could and was surprised when Aimee seemed to drift right off to sleep. She only slept for about five minutes and then she woke again.

"Jack it is really weird. I didn't think I had a hope of falling right back to sleep. I didn't have any trouble though. When I was asleep and called for the virus it spoke to me right away. It explained before I asked that from now on when I wanted to sleep I would be able to with no trouble since it would know what I wanted and would help.

"It also told me it really wasn't equipped to make decisions for itself and since it was in my body and I had contact, it felt it should do as I asked now. It told me it wouldn't communicate with the drone if I asked it not to. It did say soon the drone would try to communicate with it if it stopped reporting.

"I told it to continue as normal, but asked it not to reveal my communications with it to the drone. It told me it would comply with my wishes. It also said my allowing it to increase its capabilities wouldn't affect our relationship," Aimee said.

Now the main worry was whether it was telling the truth. If it was I could see no disadvantage to using it to the max, if it was lying to Aimee I could see no way to find out. I would have to squat down and decide what my feelings on the situation were and make up my mind whether I was going to trust the virus or not. Shit, this was tricky and all that hung in the balance was our lives. It seemed like all the lives left on earth hung in the balance.

This wasn't what I envisioned for my life. Sure, I had lately been dreaming of ruling the world and of how much fun it would be. I now realized the fun part was over. I was probably ruling more survivors than anyone else now and it had quickly become a demanding job with heavy responsibilities. Living in Austin, alone in my house with my first group of girls had been much more fun. Now who I got to fuck was scheduled and I had little say in it.

The sleeping arrangements weren't such a change from Austin though. It was a change in numbers, but not much of a change in procedure. While we had been living in my house the girls had scheduled who slept with me at night. I'd had the option of a veto if I'd wanted it. It wasn't really an option for me though.

The only thought I'd ever had about turning one of the women down had been about turning her face down. I had also been free to fuck any one of them at any time I'd wanted. Actually I was still free to, or at least I thought I was.

Fuck, life was getting complicated. I wish I was back in Kerrville, in an inner tube, floating on the Guadalupe River. Life was easy then too, all I'd had to worry about was being poor and it wasn't much of a worry since I'd always been poor and it seemed natural to me. I hadn't really worried about money until I was out of high school. Then money had taken on real meaning. Now I was back to the point where money didn't matter. It didn't matter to anyone anymore. It was worthless.

Time mattered now, and information. Security and protection mattered. Food mattered. It seemed we had plenty now though. Plenty of food, plenty of security, and plenty of protection. We could take care of ourselves here on earth. What would it be like if the aliens came back though. It would be whatever they wanted. If they changed their minds we would end up like they wanted us to, no matter what it was they wanted.

Responsibility was irritating me, not the additional women. It was my conscience. My anguish didn't come from more women to fuck, it came from worrying about taking care of everyone and keeping them safe. Maybe I should turn it all over to Margaret and just stay home and fuck.

I couldn't do it though. I just couldn't let go of the control I now had. I liked having control and I enjoyed being the last word on any situation. I was going to have to be the last word on this too. I had to make up my mind about using the virus. I knew I was going to do it. I couldn't let that kind of power slip away now I knew about it. If it got us all killed then we would just all be dead.

"Aimee, when you talk to the virus again ask it to find out how many people are left and ask it to tell you how many are in North America. Ask it to also find out about the communication mechanism you have come upon, and ask it if I can talk to my virus."

We lay back down to sleep again. I was sure I would toss and turn and I was slightly envious when Aimee seemed to drop right off. Surprisingly I drifted off only a minute or two later.