Chapter 80

Time: Thursday, May 14, 2019 10:01 AM

Carla was a latecomer to Aggie’s five-woman team, having just returned from boosting at the Bee Park two days ago. But in her short time with the group, she had stressed the value of contingency planning. The group had already designed their response to losing contact with Aggie. Leaving Frida and Hannah on the outside of a wedged entrance door, Carla quickly reentered the building and joined Cassidy by the trapdoor. Cassidy had already taken off the harness holding her Leophone and video camera. She had also extracted a small red envelope from her backpack.

Cassidy looked up at Carla as she approached and then back at the envelope in her hand. “I really wasn’t expecting we’d be using this.”

Carla nodded. “None of us were. Are you all set?”

Cassidy nodded and then said, “Akiko, I’m assuming you can see on our videos that Carla and I are together. We are ready for Plan-C testing. How do you read us?”

“All of your signals are excellent, audio and video. You are go to proceed with Plan-C testing.”

While Carla as a backup kept the trapdoor firmly open, Cassidy acknowledged and placed her harness and the note to Aggie inside the trapdoor. Then both women stepped aside.

From Carla’s video, the members of the society from many locations saw the trapdoor close. A few seconds later Akiko spoke up. “This is strange. I’m getting the same results as our original Leophone test. The video signal is gone, but the audio signal is still strong.”

“What can you hear?” asked Jada from Manhattan.

“It’s the same as before, nothing at all. I’ve got the input going into a waveform analyzer. There’s absolute silence on the other end.”

“What’s the gain set at?” asked Jada.

“I have it cranked to maximum,” replied Akiko. “We should be able to pick up normal human breathing in a moderately sized room.”

An idea occurred to Mark who was sitting at a console in the Red Mall library. He had come there to research the drop of the census counter. “Akiko, can you send a chirp to the original Leophone we sent? And Fatima, I’m returning to the Hilton now.”

Akiko saw the point immediately. “Yes! Thank you Mark, great idea. One moment...” A few seconds later. “We have the signal! I’m hearing the chirp loud and clear on Cassidy’s phone. I estimate the two phones are approximately ... Let me run the test again.” A moment later. “Maybe four meters from each other, less if there’s something in between.”

Paige’s voice came over the network from the Bee Park. “So why can’t the phones hear Aggie?”

Emily was sitting by Akiko’s side at the Hilton and she answered the question. “My gosh, Mark, your multipoint hypothesis, maybe you were right.”

Two nights ago the group had devoted an entire evening’s discussion to the issue of the Green Mall trap door. A primary concern had been the silence measured on the Leophone probe. Why were the missing members of Party #2 not monitoring the entrance to wherever they were? A common guess was that the spot was inhospitable, that the missing group couldn’t maintain a presence there. But Mark also advanced the opinion that they couldn’t assume that the trapdoor without people would transport to the same location as when there was someone inside the carriage.

There was precedence for such behavior. The semi-functioning elevator at the entrance to Wobanakik would allow the flow of goods out but not people. Mark’s conjecture was the deciding reason that further unmanned test plans were abandoned. They just might not be relevant to the location of the missing party.

Fatima was sitting at the Hilton conference center feeling miserable. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up and saw Mark. They made eye contact.

“There’s nothing more to do now,” he thought gently. “And you should be back at the Bee Park. May I walk with you?”

Fatima replied with the thought construct of a deep sigh, unaware her body was also reflexively performed the motion. “I feel I should stay ... Oh, you’re right. I shouldn’t be second guessing.” Fatima broke her link with Mark and spoke into the bridge. “Plan-C options are in effect. Carla, please guide the away-team home. That means you too Cassidy. I know how...” Fatima paused with a lump in her throat.

Cassidy replied. “It’s difficult for all of us Fatima, but I promise, I will stay on mission plan.”

“Acknowledged. Thank you. Kiyoko...”

“I’m still here at the Black Mall library. I’m ready to return whenever you are.”

“Right. Mark and I will be there in just a moment. Fatima out.” She got up and, holding hands with Mark, walked out of the Hilton conference room and to the nearby elevator. The two emerged into the Black Mall library a moment later. Kiyoko gave them both a brief hug and then all three of them walked through the vestibule to the first-floor perimeter walkway. After a few seconds of Kiyoko issuing an override command, the three were inside the diamond complex and getting back to the Bee Park.

They walked back to the Bee Park in silence. It wasn’t far, one kilometer and a bit in hundred-meter increments as the traveled the hexagonal segments. They went through the one-way door at the entrance top to the Bee Park without concern. They had Kiyoko with them now, and besides, there were two Black Mall mushroom locks permanently stationed at the Park for when other people wanted to leave, the result of leaving open two small bookstores near the 36 km mark of Black Mall. Everything else in the great mall was still under lock and monitor.

The three of them started to chat a bit as they descended the 1296 steps to the Park. It was a delightful day in the simulated environment. A spring shower was ending, and the air was rich with the smells of the damp earth and of life. The trees and fields of wild vegetable gardens were almost ready to burst forth, and the flower displays promised to be spectacular.

As a girl in Syria, Fatima loved the occasions when she could walk through rain, and she never lost the joy of it. So she and Mark and Kiyoko took their time and were thoroughly wet by the time they reached the small house by the pond. The rain was just stopping as they arrived, and they met the other four boosters who were about to take off for a picnic lunch.

And remarkably, the picnic baskets were only packed for five. Kiyoko dashed into the one bedroom for a quick change of clothes while Husna apologized to Fatima with a grinning smile and explained that Fatima would just have to wait her turn until tomorrow for her share of a picnic.

While all this was happening Mark managed a few words with Lucia on the other side of the room. “I hope everything worked out okay last night.”

Mark was referring to Boost Team-5. They had arrived at the Bee Park two days ago on the 12^th, and last night was their time for the primary transformation. Lucia nodded and then blushed at the memories. “Everything went well. It was a little more ... energetic than I was expecting.” Lucia batted her eyes playfully. “But the senior team did a great job of shepherding us through the process.”

Kiyoko then came out of the bedroom in a new outfit, and she and Husna and the three med-techs of junior Boost Team-5 gave cheerful goodbyes and headed off to a hill in another area of the Park.

Fatima exchanged a couple of glances and raised eyebrows with Mark and then they both changed into bathrobes and put their wet clothes into the device that would clean and dry them. Then Fatima flopped down supine on the one great bed, unconcerned that her bathrobe was riding up well above her knees. Mark joined her, sitting at the bottom edge of the bed. After a moment he reached across and gently held her foot. Fatima wiggled her toes in appreciation, and then she gave a playful laugh. “A picnic lunch only large enough for five! Oh boy, that was subtle!”

Mark grinned. “A match made in ... Bee Park. And look, they even put on clean sheets for us.” Another grin. “I had a parting link with Tajana. She promised they won’t be back for several hours.”

Fatima nodded and fluffed up a fresh pillow and placed it behind her neck. She relaxed for a moment, enjoying Mark rubbing her instep, and then commented. “I really don’t need to be here.”

“Sure you do.”

“Sure I don’t. I can feel my mind, Mark. It’s fully boosted. I’ve been here six days now. That’s sufficient. The extra two days are”

“Insurance! Don’t change the recipe! You didn’t eat anything at the Hilton, did you?”

“No, I wouldn’t do that.” Fatima sighed and closed her eyes. “I want to link with you and play with you in a dream, and I want to lie here and let you pet my feet for real. This is a very vacation-like decision.”

“The dreams are real too,” Mark whispered. He leaned down and kissed her foot.

“Yes, you’ve told me that before, and now I can appreciate what you mean. Such power, Mark! The abilities, they’re so beautiful! They’re breathtaking!” She looked at Mark. They shared the briefest of a link, mere milliseconds in objective time. Then Fatima laughed and wrapped the edge of the nearby bed comforter around her head, letting only her face show as she clutched the comforter tightly under her chin. “You really think I look sexy with a headscarf?!”

“Wow, did I let that slip?!” Mark blushed slightly and looked down at Fatima’s foot in his hand, and then his eyes traveled to her fine ankle, the very strong calf muscles, cute knees, and then many delightful centimeters of bare feminine thigh before the bathrobe cut off his view of how Fatima’s thigh would meld into her hip. Mark paused and sighed, thinking how neither of them was wearing anything under the loose cotton robes. He turned to lie in the opposite direction of Fatima, head to toe for both of them. Mark kissed her foot again, and then brushed his lips across her ankles. His lips wandered to the skin of her calves, gently gliding against the surface softness and occasionally pushing down to admire and kiss the firm muscles beneath.

A soft giggle. “Oh, that would be so ticklish if I weren’t in the right frame of mind!”

“Oh yeah?” Mark asked playfully. “And exactly what frame of mind are we talking about here?”

“I’ll let you know in a bit!” And then a timid whisper. “Mark?”

Mark was pre-occupied admiring her bare leg, sniffing her, even tasting her with his tongue. But he finally paused at her worried whisper sank in. “Hmm? Sorry. What?”

“Perhaps I should be the one to apologize. I was thinking about what I just did. Your memory of me looking sexy in a headscarf, you didn’t let it slip. I pulled it from you. I didn’t ask permission or anything. I just went into your mind without permission and took it.”

“Fatima...”

“It happened so fast, Mark!”

“Fatima, it’s okay! Toshi and Frida and I were doing that to each other constantly the first few weeks after we boosted.”

“Really? Constantly?”

Mark tried to give a more honest answer. “Well, a number of times. I remember several. I’ll share the memories if you like. I have their permission.”

“I know. We women have talked too. Your wives have pledged complete openness to the rest of us who want to date you. We made the same pledge in return.”

Mark nodded. “I sort of know this.” More kisses on Fatima’s ankle, more toe wiggles in return. “I’ve never pried, but I am curious. No constraints at all?” Attracted by the wiggling, Mark began to sniff between her toes.

Fatima shivered at the sensation of Mark’s nose burrowing into the undersides of her toes, and then she nodded. “One great and single constraint. We will never pry to be nosey. We do it because we need to understand. We’re attempting a new social contract, a group intimacy at a level that goes far beyond what was ever attempted with polygamy on Earth. For this to work, we sister-wives have got to understand each other’s emotions. But...”