Chapter 15: Digging the Foundation

I set up an appointment with Clara for Tuesday, after my sole summer lecture. Before I had a chance to take my car for a rare drive my phone vibrated with new email.

It was Genefice. Looked like they really were in a hurry. Their offer was very close to what I was asking, but they had a tight deadline. Looked like I would be getting another seven-digit payment!

Clara was pleased with the extra work. "Okay, Mitch. Looks like you were right. They pretty much crumbled. I don't see anything particularly troubling. I already sent some minor comments on their previous version to their lawyer. Do you still want to go with this lump sum arrangement?"

"Yes, Clara. Unless you find something strange, I am willing to sign on the dotted line."

"I will let you know in about an hour. Is this why you set up our meeting?"

"Actually, no, although there may be some connection. I am planning to expand the scope of my LLC a bit. Its main purpose will still be using my inventions and software, but I want to expand research, possibly extending to some education. I also want to have several people join in on the ownership and management of the corporation.

"Most immediate, I've been using my techniques to analyze geological data, and I believe I found a previously unknown source of valuable ore. I want to purchase a lot in Texas with mineral rights, and exploit it, probably using a mine operations company. Do you know who can help me with that?"

"Whoa! Let me take some notes. Mitch, do you know what you're doing? I know you struck a figurative gold mine with the Genefice acquisition, but do you want to go in these new directions? You may end up spending all you earned, for no return. Do you know anything about mining?"

"Nope! But I am learning. And yes, I realize I will be taking risks, but I am pretty confident they are calculated risks. I do, obviously, want to minimize any tax impact, so I may need your recommendations on an accountant that will help, especially with all the investments I will be making."

I spent another hour at Clara's outlining the corporate structure, research and development activity, and mining related plans.

"How much gold do you think you can mine, Mitch?"

"Not gold, Clara, palladium ore with a number of other valuable elements in smaller quantities. The extraction costs will be fairly high, but my initial estimates are to break even the first year, and make profit in the following. I estimate there's about a hundred million dollars of palladium in the ground at current market price. I can't guess how many years it'll take to get out of what doing that will cost, but I'm sure there will be some very nice profits."

I was conservative with my numbers, but the main unknown were modern mine operations. I could bring up quite a bit of ore using plasm techniques that Poli knew about, but I wanted to avoid any unexplained sources. I might have to do it to get samples, but I suspected drilling for samples would work just as well and be more explainable.

Clara promised to get me the right contacts in Texas, and order plats for the area I needed.

Alice called me while I was driving. "She is interested!"

"What? Jenny is interested? In what?"

"She is interested in hearing more. She is coming over to discuss tonight at six. Is that okay?"

"It's fine. Will she stay to eat?"

"Not sure. We don't have time to cook — can you get some Italian take out? I never asked what she likes."

"Ah, for once, I have that information. Jenny told me once that she likes Mexican, Italian, and middle-Eastern cuisine. There is a Turkish restaurant that does take-out, why don't I get it?"

"I don't think I ever had Turkish. Go for it!"

Ah. Sometimes I forgot that Alice came from a tiny New England town. They probably didn't have a Turkish restaurant within fifty miles.

The dinner started tense. Jenny kept glancing up at me, then at Alice, then back at her plate.

I tried to put her at ease. "Jenny, I hope you like the food. I recall you mentioning your yen for Middle-Eastern cuisine back in February."

Jenny smiled briefly. "Yes, it's fine. I like Café Meze — I've eaten there a few times. Thanks for remembering."

I smiled back. "I remember our talks with a great deal of fondness, even though there was a certain sense of frustration back then. Jenny, I hope you recall that I really like you. Alice likes you. Relax — I don't think our discussion is going to change that."

Jenny consciously relaxed, but I could still see her plasm pattern indicate apprehension.

"I like you, too. Both of you. I don't want to lose your friendship. Or mess anything up between you — Alice is so hard to dislike."

We were concluding the meal, so Alice decided to start the serious conversation. She got up and hugged Jenny lightly around her shoulders.

"Don't worry. Why don't you come to the couch and Mitch can bring tea and coffee."

"Let me help you clean the table..."

Alice dragged Jenny off and sat next to her with her arm around her shoulders.

As I was preparing the coffee and tea, Alice relaxed Jenny by telling her about her growing acceptance at the shop where she worked.

As I came in with a tray Alice looked at me. I shaped plasm in the form of a hand, pointing to her, indicating she should start first. She chuckled, mystifying Jenny, and plunged in.

"Jenny, are you interested in joining our relationship? Mitch and I both find you physically attractive, admirable in your focus, funny when you are not so tense, and formidably intelligent", she added in a whisper "scary smart for us non-professors."

Jenny sat still for a long moment. Her emotional state, as indicated by the plasm colors, shifted all over the place. She finally licked her lips, probably because of nervousness, but looking really sexy.

"I suspected that's what you meant, Alice, but it's still, well, startling. Would I, you and me, I mean all of us would be lovers or just..."

"All of us, in any combination we want. Jenny, you don't have to sleep with me. To make it very clear, I would love to make love to you, but not if you are not comfortable with it. We don't have all the details, heck, any details, worked out. I assume we would sleep all together, but sometimes maybe two if one is not in the mood, or if there is something special. It's all open to discussion.

"The only thing we want in advance is exclusivity. We are not looking for an open relationship. We can't all marry, but it will be like a marriage, 'forsaking all others'."

Jenny looked at me, then at Alice. "I hope this is not a dream. Yes, yes, I want in!"

Alice muffled her last word with her lips. I did not expect my own happiness to spike until I was dizzy. I found myself hugging both of them so tightly Jenny started to wheeze. I relaxed my grip hurriedly, looking at her in concern, but she just smiled at me.

"Happy to get me, huh? I was so bummed when I saw that engagement ring on Alice's hand. Then she started hitting on me, and I wondered if she was willing to lend you occasionally. I knew it was a silly dream, but she wouldn't let me get sober and realistic, if you know what I mean.

"But now I am ecstatically happy. I hope I don't wake up to find out it was all a dream triggered by overheated lust."

"No, not a dream. It's going to be a complicated relationship, and some people will not approve. But Alice and I are real."

Jenny bit her lip, looking at Alice now. Alice sat with a smug smile, looking at Jenny like a dessert that she wanted to savor with her eyes before devouring it. I felt myself getting hard by just looking at Alice. Since I still held Jenny in my arms, she must have felt it.

Still looking at Alice, Jenny flushed. "I never had sex with a girl. I made out once, in my freshman year, on a dare. It was nice, but, well, I didn't want to be a LUG — you know, lesbian until graduation. And I liked boys.

"You kept touching me, and kissing my cheek, and looking at me — like you are looking now. I've been dreaming about you, but, I don't know if I am any good with women..."

"Oh, I will be happy to give lessons," Alice's voice was husky. "Let's continue in the bedroom."

Jenny's body was delicious. She was taller and bigger than Alice. She was a classic redhead, with very fair skin under her clothes. The skin showed her blush beautifully as she undressed.

Alice said, "let's make her less uncomfortable," and started stripping. I swear, that girl can dress and undress faster than anybody I know. She was naked in seconds, while I was still struggling with my pants. By the time I got to bed, Alice was nursing on Jenny's nipple. Jenny had her head thrown back, and she was making low sounds in her throat.

I latched onto the unoccupied breast. Jenny was delicious, and her nipples when engorged were huge. While I suckled, Alice was sneaking her hand down below, playing with Jenny's lips. In response, Jenny threw herself back onto the coverlet, momentarily breaking my contact with her breast. I followed it and sucked the nipple again. She whined and shivered. I felt Jenny's body shimmy, and glanced down to see Alice getting more aggressive. She was finger fucking Jenny while sucking on her nipple. Jenny arched and groaned loudly. I felt her belly twitch in involuntary spasms of orgasm, and reduced my sucking to gentle her down.

As Jenny relaxed and breathed deeply, Alice slipped down and started licking. I saw the brown hair obscure Jenny's spare red fuzz, and the sight made me painfully hard. The wet sounds from down below were acting directly on my cock, I felt oozing pre-cum. If this continued, I would spurt without touching my cock!

Jenny, whose breathing was accelerating again, didn't allow that. She gripped my cock gently, and using it as a handle, dragged me up until she could reach it with her lips. The inside of her mouth felt incredibly hot as she fed my cock in, still keeping her hand around the base. Whatever Jenny's inexperience with the girls, she sure knew how to give head! She fucked her mouth; she licked all around like an ice cream cone; she tickled my tip with her tongue as though trying to penetrate the slit. She sucked deeply and moved it around her mouth with her tongue. Finally, she started sucking strongly while tickling my scrotum with her finger, and I came.

Jenny swallowed everything, and then finally interrupted my post-climax stupor by throwing her head back and yelling again. But Alice was not stopping!

By the end of the evening, Jenny was nearly unconscious. I was in better shape, thanks for my frequent exercise, but I was ready to call it a night. Alice was still going strong. I finally had to give her two more of my patented enhanced-tongue-fucking with clit-rubbing to tire her enough for bed.

One thing the enhanced muscles are good for is for lifting limp female bodies to pull off the coverlet and the top sheet, wash them with moist towels, and then cover them with fresh sheets. I was still very, very happy, but my dick didn't even stir at the sight, feel and smell of two beautiful women. It was time for sleep.

Fesinaet and I finally got our prototype plasm-phone network set up. About 600 miles of plasm conduits would now vibrate with a frequency and a complex phase pattern keyed to a "subscriber". Each subscriber had to recognize their ring, and answer it by connecting to the nearest amplifier node. You had to be within about a mile of the conduit, which paralleled the deeper larger underground plasm streams.

For our tests, the members of Summer Wind and New Hope traveled to various points of the tiny "grid" and called each other. So far we had about 80% connection rate. The "ring" patterns had enough degrees of freedom that we could have millions of them; all we needed was to assign one to each Nalu and to a couple of humans. And we needed a few million miles of the conduit. I had an idea of using higher-level constructs to create both the conduit and the amplifiers that had to be anchored to the large streams every few miles, but it needed more testing.

Everybody but Fesinaet was pleased. He, like me, was looking at what needed to be improved. We agreed to meet in a week with new ideas for a larger-scale deployment. Fesinaet appeared ready to skip sleep, food and personal hygiene to work on improving the plasm amplifiers. He'd be a pretty good addition to New Hope, but I liked Selsiraet enough that I didn't want to annoy her by trying to poach from her House. Besides, what exactly do you offer a Nalu? Sign-up bonus? More vacation days? Stock options?

Still laughing at myself, I visited Clara. The Texas agent she identified was making progress: they identified the owner, and verified that he had mineral rights. There were no restrictions on mining in the remote area, but actual mining operations required all kinds of paperwork and inspections. They were ready to approach the owner and start title search but they needed a formal agreement from me. Not to mention a deposit for their services.

I signed the agreement, as well as the corporate paperwork Clara prepared.

"Who is Alice Caffrey?"

"Alice is my fiancée. I will need to update my will; I already got the beneficiary designations handled. There may be one or two others joining the board; I will let you know soon."

"Will I meet this Alice and the others?"

"Of course you will! Well, Alice, anyway. I may also need your help with some pre-marriage agreements. No, not a pre-nup, but things like power of attorney, living will, etc. so we can act for each other."

"So you are pretty serious about this?"

"Absolutely. There may also be a similar arrangement with one other person — again, I will let you know soon."

I could see Clara's curiosity, but she avoided asking me any more questions, and I didn't volunteer anything.

I called a House meeting for the following day. Luckily everybody could attend.

Alice's commute was the shortest — from the bedroom to the living room, but she was the last. "Talking to your mistress," she replied saucily to my raised eyebrows.

"You all know about my plans to form a corporation to support the House activities in the 'human domain'. Actually, I am expanding the scope of my existing company. It will be an S-corporation, with Alice and me owning stock. I'd like to include the two of you as well. Poli, you have quite a bit of experience managing human documents and finances, but it will create a link between your official persona and me and Alice. That increases the risk of discovery if somebody starts investigating."

"I am not too concerned. If the worst happens I will just abandon my identity in Alabama. No big deal."

Gensoniraet spoke in Nalu. "I have no Zve identity. Too long to get a good one. You and Poli and Alice are fine."

After some discussion we agreed with him, although I was clear that he had an equal vote on the House decisions.

"That brings me to my next point. Poli already knows that Jenny Sanders has joined Alice and me in a relationship. I'd like to invite her to join the House. She has no plasm talent. I would like to explore if there is a way to enhance untalented humans to see plasm, but that's in the future. I'd like to tell her, and that increases risk. I also want to invite her to join Acker LLC, the company I mentioned."

All voted for Jenny. Gensoniraet added, "Many attempts to enhance untalented Nalu to see and shape plasm all failed. Humans may be different, but probably not."

"There are untalented Nalu?" asked Alice.

"Not now. In the far past. They had much shorter lifetimes without plasm, and over time most of them consciously avoided having children. For many generations, no plasm-blind Nalu had been born," said Poli.

Remembering Alice's skepticism earlier, I decided to start with a demonstration. We told Jenny that we wanted to talk to her about some "confidential business initiatives".

Alice and I were on the couch, with Jenny in my favorite recliner. Poli was keeping quiet in the bedroom.

I started the ball rolling. "Jenny, what we share with you is not widely known. It's quite surprising, but we want to ask for your word in advance to keep it a secret. No criminal activity is involved except some false identification. This false id is not used to commit any crimes, and is used solely to preserve the privacy of the matter. Will you give your word?"

Looking quite mystified, Jenny slowly nodded.

"Okay, we'd like you to meet the individual with the false id. I'll provide the explanation as soon as she joins us, but I will warn you that she is not of our race." I used the modulated plasm vibration to invite Poli in.