Chapter 16: Bob's Story, and more deepening of relationships

Month -4: Dolores had met Bob in the most mundane of ways: at the supermarket. Even as a non-rejuvenated grandmother, she could still get male attention, and they often sat down for coffee in the market's cafe. After she was rejuvenated, though, she did call him and said that much had changed.

In their talks, she had learned about his earlier life on Wall Street, his loss of his wife, and his finding life in working with children. She met with him casually, and applied the neuralizer to make sure he could not disclose any of the Confederacy secrets he was about to learn. Bob startled at the pinprick and then showed the usual confusion. "Sorry, but that was to protect you.

They went separately to Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) headquarters, where the Confederacy intelligence organizations were based. Bob got a distinguished visitor escort, but, even though he had been in high-security areas on Wall Street, he was a bit intimidated by intelligence-level security. When he entered Terry's suite, his head was swiveling in amazement. He stopped for a moment to examine the copper rim of the vault door of the room.

Terry laughed and extended a hand. "I know that look. It used to be far, far worse. NSA, when I first visited, had a thing that looked like an upright vacuum cleaner, but had two yellow flashers on top -- police car style. It was the equivalent of a leper bell, announcing uncleared! uncleared!

"You know Dolores. I'd like you to meet Kim. " Both wore short stretch tube dresses, Dolores in a clinging green and Kim in a metallic deep blue. Dolores complemented hers with black thigh boots, while Kim's pumps flaunted her perfect legs. Neither woman needed high heels to improve their legs, but the heels better displayed them. "We have two other team members, Catherine and Mary, working with a candidate member, and they'll be alternating in and out of our meeting."

"Bob, rather than have you spend hours in briefings or reading, I hope you'll trust me and use an advanced learning machine to which we have access. Essentially, you sleep, and are given information in a machine-generated dream state. The method is good for acquiring facts, but you still have to discuss them and think about them before they really are things you can used. I have had it many times, and it's safe."

"OK, Dolores."

Bob went into the sleep teacher capsule, and received a thorough briefing on the Swarm threat and on the basic Confederacy response plan. Dolores, Terry and Kim were there when he awakened, and sat down for a fine brunch before any serious discussion. Terry opened, saying, "I thought we'd start with just a few of us to answer questions. Dolores tells us that you're in a second career."

"Yes I am. I was lucky enough to make enough, on Wall Street that I could do whatever I wanted, within rather broad scope, for the rest of my life. I had hoped to do that with my family, but..." Tears came into his eyes.

Dolores broke in. "Honey, we know about your tragedy. You don't need to go through it. Talk about the rest of your family."

"Thanks. I have five children of my own. Rhoda, who is twelve, Charlie, twelve, and Erica, ten. My twins, Greta and Rebecca, recently turned 14. Before you ask, Greta scored 6.6 and Rebecca had a 6.7 ... I think I can make a serious argument why it's to the Confederacy's advantage to keep us together, as a family, even though the older girls are of Sponsor grade. Right now, though, I don't think I'm willing to go without all of them.

"It's not parental pride that makes me think they all are talented. Every one of them has been in some beyond-grade science program. In particular, the twins, although much younger than the usual qualifier, passed exams to have junior assistantships at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in White Oak, not too far from where we live. As long as they had a parental signature, the exam application only asked if they were under 18, with pre-Swarm thinking. They've been involved with United States Navy activities since they were 11, and definitely confusing the system. According to the rules, they are too young to have security clearances, except they were figuring out too much without them. When even younger, Greta saw an otherwise unmemorable movie about the Falklands War. Don't ask me why, but she was fascinated how Exocets were hard to stop, and she began to read everything she could find about anti-shipping missiles, and in particular, defending against them. She also found a couple of old naval tactical manuals, which she used as writing guides. By the time she showed up at White Oak, she had a draft of a final protection manual for warships.

"Someone figured out a way to get around the security clearance problem. If someone not cleared acquires classified information, there's a form that can be filled out to give an oath not to disclose it. Some creative engineers, and smart security people, got together to state that the girls had been exposed to a wide range of topics, and then swore not to reveal them. That became the excuse.

"Rebecca also watched a movie, a better one, Sink the Bismarck. That got her interested in naval gunnery. She sort of thinks that pure guided missiles make things too easy. Still, she realized she had to know something about marine navigation, and took courses from the local Power Squadron. She was one of the youngest people to pass their intermediate navigation course. Again, she made the security officer go nuts when she handed in her notes on what she had figured out about the Advanced Gun System. Please don't ask her about the Littoral Combat Ship, which she thinks is the dumbest thing done by the Navy since they banned rum -- not that she drinks, but a chief told her that story and it's her favorite expression of contempt.

Charlie is a photographer, but has been studying photographic engineering as well. Rhoda once got mad when someone challenged her and said, "Oh, are you a rocket scientist, rather than a cute little girl?" She got interested in rocket propulsion, and loses me not on the ballistics -- I taught her the calculus for that -- but on how engineering things like restartable solids work. Erica feels especially young because she is interested in astronomy, but sometimes has trouble with the extensions, in orbital mechanics, beyond the differential equations. Poor thing. Confused by quantum mechanics and chaos theory at ten."

"If I may interrupt, Bob, we can use Rebecca, Rhoda and Greta right away. We need their technical knowledge, but also some of their contacts. While we can't poach active military people, we can go for retired, or just retiring, military. We can go for contractors and civil servants."

"Terry, I know that the Confederacy has been working on finding ways to raise CAP scores. If the twins are away from distractions, and can help, do you agree they've got a good chance of making sponsor grade on a retest? Terry addressed the AI. "Have you been monitoring this conversation? If so, can two supernumerary slots be justified? I recommend it."

"Yes, I compute that the two girls will likely become sponsors with extra training and spending time with military assignments; they can assist with your team."

"I can't ignore the rest of my family. I am a small breeder of large Maine Coon Cats. My male is Paul Bunyan. There are two females, Babe and Shirley, and three kittens, Poisson, Fractal, and Erlang

Terry laughed. "Surely you didn't name a cat Shirley. Don't worry, though,. We will be an initial test colony for extracting dogs and cats.

Responding, Bob said, "Surely I did. It is fairly sure that if you call Shirley, she will come to you, even if you aren't offering food. She's very affectionate."

Dolores, Terry and Kim all groaned. "The kittens," Terry said, "really do bring us into the next area. What's your quantitative background?"

"Pretty broad, although on Wall Street, I specialized in time series analysis coupled with nonlinear programming. My undergraduate major at MIT was mathematical biology, and I had an assistantship in population statistics. Yes, I did get an MBA from Wharton, but it was much more operations research than financial."

"Operations research? Are you using the classic definition?" asked Terry.

"Yes. I've been a military history buff, and I've been a member of MORS - the Military Operations Research Society -- for years."

"Absolutely great! That's a better fit than I had hoped. Incidentally, your kids, both the two and four-legged kind, can get as much education as they can handle. I happen to believe that we underestimate cats and dogs."

"We still are expected to produce kids, and we want genetics that are spread wider than mine. Do you think you could bring yourself, maybe, to have sex with people like Dolores and Kim?" Both beauties threw pillows, but just the small ones from the couch.

Bob broke up laughing, "It's a hard job, but somebody has to do it."

Kim said "It had better be a hard job, or you won't believe how hard I can be."

"Surprise!" said Terry. "Test drive! Seriously, Bob, remember that under the current AI guidance, you will be my concubine, my slave -- and at the same time a member of a family. The family structure is up to the Sponsor, so ask me whatever you want about my ideas. Some guys just aren't comfortable in group sex, much less polyamory. At the same time, I give you my word that co-spouses, concubines, etc., will get my loyalty, protection and respect.

Bob's voice became low and intense. "I've wanted polyamory all my life."

"As your potential sponsor, I order you to fuck Kim. Dolores can help you get ready."

Bob seemed completely comfortable. He opened his arms to Dolores and, mock-harshly, said "start by kissing me, you fool." She flowed into his arms; her slightly greater height bothered him not in the least. Terry reflected they knew one another, but he didn't know how well, as she rubbed her chest against him while their tongues and lips dueled for a few minutes.

"I'm sorry if we neglected you, Kim. I'm assuming pretty much everyone does everything to everyone, as long as someone likes someone's activity."

"Bob, no pressure; just when and if the mood strikes. Sometimes, the girls may ask the guys for a special show."

Turning to Kim, Bob asked, "What do you find most striking about Dolores, at least what hits you right now?"

Kim's eyes grew very wide. "I never thought of it in quite those terms, but it's her ability to surround me. Burying my face in her chest, in her ass, or having her wrap her legs around my head -- it takes me to another world."

Bob looked at her, still holding Dolores. "Kim, start to jill yourself." He raised Dolores' dress, revealing her lush hips and thighs. Chuckling, he took Dolores into a dance step and wiggled her to Kim. He spent a moment looking at the tube dress, and told Kim to lower it, at least to her waist, and then bend forward to Dolores. Dolores wasn't quite sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised to feel Kim's face, and then her darting tongue.

Bob muttered "a third would be nice right now", but quickly slipped out of his clothing. Dolores could look down and see his ready erection; she gave a feral growl at him. Naked, Bob sat on the couch next to Kim, and then, gently guiding her head and hips, slipped under her so she was in reverse cowgirl. "Bend forward so I can fuck, and keep licking Dolores' thighs."

Intuitively knowing Kim was wet, he slipped inside and began to pump. Terry noticed that he kept changing the angle of his hips, stimulating different part of her vagina. She pushed back against him, as she simultaneously stretched her neck, rocking her head and rubbing her cheeks against Dolores' thighs. Dolores reached down with both hands, pulling her close, and she screamed.

That took Bob over the edge. He grunted, and then stayed pressed against her. Kim slowly stood, and fell back onto Bob. As they relaxed, he lay back, pulled her over him, kissed lightly at her face, and then plunged his mouth into hers.

Terry whispered to Dolores, "Go and relieve Catherine, and send her back to us."

Returning to Terry's office and lounging area, Catherine saw him watching Kim, with a man who must be Bob. Catherine, the next most athletic and flexible after Kim, became a standing spoon against Terry. Kim rolled off Bob and lay next at him, and she cheerfully greeted Catherine.

Terry spoke to Bob. "It's quite all right. This lovely is Catherine, who will be your next test. Now, if you join us, the medtube will improve your sexual performance as well. Nevertheless, I want to see you try to see how quickly you can start to play with Catherine." Terry's voice become robotic. "In your quantitative discipline, we call this the mean recovery time to fucking determination."

Bob chuckled and said he'd definitely try.

Catherine spoke, but in her best singsong Yoda impression. "There is no try. There is only do."

Bob responded, "Yes, Catherine, there are many variants of that truism. Aristotle said to be is to do. Nietzsche said to do is to be. Sinatra said do-be-do-be-do."

Turning to Terry, Catherine said, "I think he's going to do, unless Kim gave him a delayed fucking to death, and he's going not to be rather than to be."

Terry went into his Indiana Jones voice. "Why do I do this to myself? Why did it have to be deep doo doo?"

The four went into hysterics. When they calmed, Terry said, "never mind more tests unless you feel like it. Your composure has been such that, with augmentation, I am absolutely confident that you must be from Racine."

"Racine?" That was Bob's first hesitation in some time.

Terry grinned. "Of course.

There was a young man from Racine

Who invented a fucking machine:

Both concave and convex,

It would fit either sex -

And could play with itself in between.

If you aren't the inventor, you can play the machine. Now, Catherine and Bob, go with my blessings."

Catherine looked back. "Go? We can't come?"

Terry threw his hands into the air.

After a sated Catherine and Bob joined Terry; Karen, Dolores and Mary, all the latter having had their fun, it was a happy room. Softly, Catherine began to sing, in her high, clear voice, which reminded others of tinkling bells,

I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

Whitney Houston, "The Greatest Love of All"

Karen heard the words, and, shocked to realize she could believe them for the first time in her life, let her powerful, trained alto join Catherine. Dolores knew those words were the story of her life, but that she had gotten a second chance at life. She was not as fine a singer, but joined with sincerity.

Kim, too, had kept to herself too long, and knew now that anything was possible. Bob thought a song about children was the most natural thing for him. Terry was not immune to finding a true family, while Mary knew that they were saving her from the precipice of despair in her profession.

They went back to the beginning of the song, and sang it again and again.

Athena asked Karen if they could sit down together, and they went to a side room, with some coffee and snacks. "As I've said, I think we have a lot in common. A picture may be worth a thousand words. AI, please show my face before I went into the medtube." An image appeared, still Athena, and even with an attempt to help with makeup, but still rather ugly. Her eyes unnaturally bulged, and her chin receded, with devastating effects on her teeth and lips. "Like you, I had a decent figure, although of a very different type. My eyes bulged primarily due to a correctible thyroid disease, but they needed to be repositioned. Most of the actual work, like yours, was on the lower part of my face. I haven't seen before-and-after pictures of you, but I think you started with a more delicate bone structure to fix.