The Journey of Rick Heiden - Chapters 7 and 8
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This novel contains 50 CHAPTERS, and every post will have 2 chapters each.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Activating Plan B required the retrieval of Amare's sword and Cadmar's personal effects. We passed through several junctions and corridors as fast as we dared, considering people were working and going about their duties --no sense making anyone suspicious. We arrived at the lab, startling Aiden into spilling his tea.
"Hello, Aiden," I said, "sorry we spooked you."
"My recent actions have caused me to feel on edge all morning," he said. "I'm not very good at being bad. Have you seen the body?"
"No," said David, "the body is gone. Therefore, we are taking what is not government property." He picked up Amare's sword and handed it to me. He looked for Cadmar's sword and ring on the other table, but they were gone. "What happened to them?" Frantic to find them, he searched every surface. "Aiden, what happened to Cadmar's sword and the ring?"
"I don't know. I hadn't seen them this morning. Did you say the body is gone?"
"Damn, she must have taken those too," David said. "Let's go, Rick. We haven't the time to search for something that isn't here."
"If you're leaving," said Aiden, "and I mean leaving leaving. Will you need help?"
David thought about it for a moment. "Maybe." He motioned for Aiden to join us.
The three of us left to release Amare, at which point we would need to leave the facility. We made a glance around the corner to the observation room; the two guards flanking the door stood rigid like they guarded the vault at the Bank of England. David could have stunned them, but I should speak to Amare first. I had no clue how we could get Amare out without anyone noticing on the CCTV and alerting someone.
"I hope you have a plan for this," I said. "You know this place better than I do."
"Indeed, I do. We will walk to the door; I'll get you past the guards; then, you go in and explain to Amare what's happened. Don't worry about the CCTV; they don't monitor it in real-time. Just don't give them anything we wouldn't want them to know. Signal me when you've finished. I'll take care of my part."
"What do you need me to do?" Aiden said.
"Something vital," said David. "The guards don't have to stand at attention like that; they aren't guarding Buckingham Palace. We have minimum security here, so the job's a dawdle. I've even seen the guards have tea. I would like you to offer them some, get it, and give it to them."
"You're joking," he said. "You're fobbing me off with some ridiculous errand."
"Aiden, I don't know why he wants the tea," I said, "but David says he needs it. Please, just do it. I'm willing to trade jobs with you."
Aiden's eyes grew wide. "Me...in the same room with Amare?" He shook his head in panic. "No. No. I'll go get the tea."
"Calm down, you don't speak Japanese anyway," David said. "This plan begins with you, so go ahead. Just tell them you're making a round and thought they would like some tea. Then when they say yes, bring a whole tray, tea, sugar, milk, lemon, the works, and set it on the console across from them. Once that's done, I want you to take some to the guards at the tunnel entrance."
"What if they don't want tea?" he asked.
"Trust me; they will. Go," David shoved him around the corner.
We watched as best we could from our location.
"Do you need the tea?" I asked, skeptical of the whole idea. I used my foot to slide the sword beneath the console table behind us.
"Tea will make an excellent distraction. I don't know what we'll do about Aiden since Amare scares him. What happens when we release him? We have our cue."
They accepted the invitation for tea, and we walked around the corner as Aiden was leaving to pass him on the way. Upon reaching the guards, David said, "I see Aiden leaving, did he offer to get you chaps tea as well? He got us a round earlier. Thoughtful of him, wasn't it, Rick?"
I could do nothing but smile and close my eyes in embarrassment; David would have made a pathetic liar.
"May we help you?" one guard asked.
"Indeed, you may." David retrieved his identification from the right inside jacket pocket, presenting it. "It's urgent that my friend speaks with Amare. It shouldn't take long."
"Oh, you're Mr. Levitt," the guard said. "Hey Rob, this is David Levitt." He said to his fellow guard.
"I'm sorry," Rob said, "he doesn't sound familiar, Freddy. No disrespect intended, Sir."
"That's quite alright," David said, a bit confused.
"You know Rob, David Levitt...the bloke whose name is all over the internet this morning," Freddy said.
"Why is my name all over the internet?" asked David.
"An American senator named Scott resigned this morning, and he mentioned your name. Somehow the media found out he was talking about you."
And with that, David made an uncharacteristic burst of laughter. I hadn't known what to say, but I knew I needed to speak with Amare, so I went through the door. The instant the door shut, David's laughter vanished, leaving the silence of the observation room.
Amare heard the sound when the door opened. He shot to his feet in his room of steel and glass. He stood as he often did, feet together, hands clasped behind his back with his head held high and spine straight. He had dressed, and his scarlet tunic covered in gold vine presented a fitting complement to his regal manner. Jiyu may not have royalty, but Amare must be its most august denizen, for who could meet him and not feel a sense of awe. In counterbalance to his enormity, his real strength emanated from within, expressing itself in his quiet presence.
I stood before him and made a low bow. He did likewise. He looked pleased to see me, and I wondered if he would remain that way after I informed him of the situation. I began with a sincere apology for his having to endure the confinement. At this, he spoke, which I thought unusual as we had yet to fulfill several customs before getting to business. He told me in Japanese, "I am over a thousand jears old, believe me, my time in this cell has been short."
I told him of what had transpired. He said it concerned him that something had happened and that we did the right thing. We should leave and not risk making matters worse if we could avoid it.
I decided to ask an impertinent question for such a curious thing to say, "At the risk of sounding impertinent, is coming here not risky? Is having the portal not risky?"
"They are," he said.
"If they are," I said, "then why risk making matters worse by doing and having these things?"
He seemed somewhat amused. "All things have an element of risk, but we keep the portal not because we seek peril, we seek greater connection. Humans are not islands, and we cannot separate ourselves from one another any more than we can separate ourselves from our past. I would enjoy continuing this conversation with you, but we do not have the time. Do you have a plan for our escape?"
I relayed the plan, but he found what I knew of it lacking in detail, and I agreed. I then told of Aiden and his terror of him, asking if he had seen Aiden. He said that he had, many times.
"He seems a rather curious fellow, both drawn to me and terrified. I do not understand the reason."
In the corridor, Aiden had returned with the tea, and as I noted later, he had the presence of mind to bring two of everything, as he had stacked the trays together. David tapped on the window, telling me to wrap it up. I signaled to him our readiness. After a few minutes, I heard faint but familiar, short, sharp chirps. David entered the room, reset the controls of his pistol, and fired upon the camera on the wall. He then imitated my bow to Amare.
Amare smiled at me before he bowed in return, and I think I knew why. I had the feeling that somehow the people of Jiyu had stopped the courtesy of traditional bowing.
David went to the door of the cell. He aimed it at the magnetic lock and fired upon it, destroying the mechanism inside.
"A directed electromagnetic pulse," David said to me and swung the door open.
The three of us left the observation room to find the two guards lying on the floor next to two cups of spilled tea. "They look dead," I said in alarm.
"They'll be unconscious for a while," he said, resetting his pistol back to its previous stun setting.
Once I retrieved the sword from beneath the console table, we began our expeditious trek through the labyrinth. It pleased Amare to have his sword back.
Unconscious on arrival, Amare saw none of that area when they brought him to the facility. He awoke in the observation room. Not knowing what to expect, he held his sword ready for a fight should the need arise. I assured him that the people working there wouldn't present that sort of danger. We also wouldn't want to alarm them further when his presence was alarming enough. He did as I requested.
"Always defer to the one with the greater knowledge," whispered Amare in Japanese as he scabbarded his sword.
"I'm curious, why the tea?" I asked David with Amare trailing behind.
"I figured having a teacup in their hand would slow their ability to pull their sidearm, and I needed all the help I could get. I kept this weapon in storage during my stay here. Firing an energy weapon is different than a projectile weapon; I've not practiced with this one in years --a fact for which Aiden should be grateful. I shot at him Saturday night and missed. If I had greater proficiency, he would be dead."
"Well, it was dark," I said.
With a rapid sweep of his arm, Amare drew us back before entering the last junction near the lift into an empty room where he whispered to me.
"What is it? What's wrong?" David asked.
"He says that the relief guards are coming to replace the ones outside the observation room. We need to speed this up, David."
"Right," he said.
Once they had passed us, we exited the room, crossed the front of the lift, and came upon the tunnel to the underground entrance. We had our choice of two electric carts used to transport people the distance. The corridor looked like all the others, but the walls had no doors, and it dipped as if it were avoiding something closer to the surface. It felt like we had ridden a half-mile when in the distance, the door appeared. It looked exactly like the one at the garage entrance, so I surmised that the other side had a white room with guards. As a more utilized entrance, they hadn't left this white room as empty as the one at the garage. It had places to hang coats, and an umbrella stand with several umbrellas inside. We burst through the door, and David stunned the two guards making tea brought to them by Aiden, who had gotten out of the way. When he saw Amare, he began screaming in terror. I went to him, turned his back to Amare, and slapped him to make him stop. That's when the phone on the desk rang.
"We don't have time to deal with your irrational fears," I said. "I will ask you once and only once. Do you want to come with us?" The phone continued to ring.
"I would regret saying no," said Aiden, "so yes, please."
"Let us go," said David. "That call could have warned them about us."
We kept Aiden in front to prevent problems. Exiting, we found ourselves in a narrow hallway attached to the London Underground. I should have guessed where it led.
David had put his pistol away, and Amare had no choice but to bend down inside the corridor due to the low ceiling. When the door closed behind him, the flat surface blended into the wall.
"What station is this?" I asked.
"It's Canada Water." Aiden pointed to the sign through the pedestrian traffic.
"I'm unfamiliar with this one," I replied.
"The tunnel passed under the Thames," David said. "We must leave here; there's CCTV everywhere."
David had parked a small van in a nearby parking garage during the first week of Amare's capture. We had a tight fit as he hadn't planned on taking an extra passenger, but fit we did. Aiden sat in the front with David. The cramped space in the back, lit only by tiny windows on the rear of the vehicle, forced Amare to fold himself a bit, but otherwise, he seemed okay. It concerned me that we left without hindrance.
"You are worried," Amare said to me in Japanese.
"It shows?" I asked, and Amare nodded. "Someone is watching us, I think."
"How?" he asked.
"I don't know, there are many possibilities, but we escaped too easily," I began rubbing my stubbled hair.
"Should you be correct," he said, "without knowing how in time, we can only act as events unfold." He looked at me in curiosity. "I noticed that your hair is growing now. How long have you known Mr. Levitt?"
"About two months. Do you think that we're moving too fast?"
"No one, but you, should judge your life," he said. "The question is, do you think you are moving too fast?"
"It's unusual for me, and I know what people might expect of me by my upbringing, but no, David's amazing. I want nothing more than to be with him."
"Then you have answered your question," he said, "but even if you change your mind later, let the decision be yours. It isn't for others to decide what is best for you, pressuring you into living the life they would choose for you."
"Does Jiyu have marriage?" I asked.
"Not as you would understand it. We have no government to recognize marriages, and without that, it is just a promise made. So, you either keep your promises or you do not. People of honor and integrity need no witnesses or ceremonies for such things. However, most couples on Jiyu do not bother with such promises. Life is complex, and future circumstances, too difficult to predict. Most couples live without judgment or expectation. Because of this, we have couples who have stayed together hundreds of jears."
"From what David told me," I said, "Jiyu uses the honor system. How does that work?"
"We have a few simple rules," said Amare. "Please, understand --regardless of how it sounds-- we make no unreasonable expectations of anyone. We always try to consider circumstances and intentions. However, our culture expects you to say what you mean, and mean what you say, and to treat others how they want you to treat them. But what you do reflects on your standing in the community. When someone willfully demonstrates that they do not keep their word, tells lies, doesn't apologize, and treats people poorly, others will feel less inclined to embrace them. Given the level of interdependence integral to our culture, the community not embracing you makes life difficult. For clarity, this happens not as punishment; it's a natural result of acting unkind, dishonorable, and without integrity."
"David feels sure that the failure to retrieve Cadmar's body will result in a stain upon his honor," I said. "Is that true?"
"If we have any failures as a culture," said Amare, "it's that we have an overzealousness in ensuring our children grow with a sense of integrity and the understanding that they must protect their honor. Under normal circumstances, it would be a good thing. But I believe some parents do not balance these concepts well enough with reason, understanding, and compassion --not for others, as their parents will certainly teach that, but rather compassion for themselves. The inability to forgive oneself for perceived failure is damaging to the individual. It causes them to expect unrealistic and unreasonable things of themselves, and that is no way to live a good life. As mate to Mr. Levitt, please remember that for him. He will need you."
The trip tossed us about in the back of the van for 90 minutes before we came to a stop. The front doors of the vehicle opened and slammed shut. If we had reached the end of the road, I was grateful. The warm, muggy air in the back caused profuse sweating. The rear doors opened, and a cool breeze refreshed my senses.
David grew alarmed to see us in such a state, "I'm sorry, we should have arrived long ago. Construction forced us to take a secondary road, and that delayed us. Are you okay?" David asked, pulling me to him.
Once I was breathing fresh air, I felt fine. Amare, who could straighten himself once again, seemed well. Aiden, rudely but prudently, stood with his back to us to not induce panic.
"I feel okay now that it's over," I said. "Where are we?" We had parked in the lot of a cafe, and I saw a path through a walled brick enclosure.
"We're at the park at Painshill, and in case you don't know, that's southwest of London near Cobham, and yes, I know you don't know where Cobham is either," he said, smiling. "That's quite alright; it doesn't matter in the slightest." He gave me a quick kiss.
I saw that Amare had a little smile on his face. It made me wonder if Amare had a mate. Whoever that might be, they would make an intriguing match.
"So," I said, "where do we go from here, and what should we do with the van?"
"We go into the park, and we'll abandon the van. It's unimportant." David stared at the back of Aiden's head. "Are you okay, Aiden?"
"If I don't think about it, I'm fine," he said with a quake in his voice.
With Aiden leading the way, guided by David, we marched into the park beneath the gateway of the brick perimeter wall. The park had well-manicured grass that had gone dormant for the winter. It had many trees and vast open spaces divided by pathways, as most of the parks in London did. We took a shortcut through a stand of hardwoods that during summer would have a lush green canopy. We came upon an oval-shaped clearing.
David gestured to the center of the space, and Amare came forward. When he stood within thirty feet of the spot, something faded into appearance before him. Aiden hadn't noticed Amare stood by him, too enthralled by the object.
I witnessed a wondrous, round, dark metal structure. It stood 4 feet high and 20 feet wide and reminded me of round podium steps. There were four steps to the top, and the top had a walkway surrounding a deep concave recess, inside which emanated a strange blue light that moved about in swirls like an electrical fluid. Centrally, near the crevice and level with the walkway, floated a thin, round, semi-transparent platform. Smaller than the pathway, it left a gap of a few inches. Alien-looking, silvery filigree covered the three lower risers, and writing unlike anything I had ever seen, wrapped the riser at the top. A thin blue light wrapped the device in the center of every tread.
That's when a female voice interrupted the silence behind us. "My goodness, what an interesting piece of machinery."
We all turned. Katheryn Elliot had followed us, and she held a pistol. David shielded me, and Aiden stood near Amare behind us.
"I thought someone was watching us," I said. "How did you do it?"
"I placed a GPS tracking device into the lining of Amare's jacket," she said. "I'm not much of a seamstress, so imagine my astonishment when the cut I made in the jacket sealed itself. How thoughtful."
"You could have just watched and waited until we left," said David. "What's this about?"
"I had that plan too," she said, "but I knew Aiden came with you. I have a little score to settle with you. You managed to block my appointment to the council for two years. I have hated you for that, Aiden, but when Cadmar fell into our laps, I saw it as an opportunity. I went to the appropriate people, told them what I knew, made a deal or two, and they offered me everything I could have wanted, but Cadmar wasn't enough. I had to find the portal on my own because they wouldn't believe it existed. So, I tracked you all down only to find you, Aiden, after all the things that you did to me. Oh, I won't kill you; I want to hurt you. Considerate it a bon voyage gift." She pulled the trigger.
David and I were not standing in a position to see, but given the result, I surmised that Amare jumped in front of the bullet, saving Aiden. It left Aiden screaming in horror as Amare dropped to the ground. David pulled his pistol and fired, causing Katheryn to collapse where she stood.
Aiden leapt upon Amare in a flash, applying pressure to the wound in Amare's abdomen. We rushed to his side.
"We need to get him through the portal," David said. "They can help him there."
I asked Amare, who hadn't fallen unconscious if he could make it to the portal with assistance. He said he would try. The effort of David and I, with Amare's help, wrangled him unsteadily to his feet. Aiden continued the pressure on the wound. He lurched forward as best he could with our support. He collapsed on the top of the platform.
"Pull his legs in, we must get completely on the disk," David said.
As we dragged Amare, I asked Aiden, "What happened to your fear?"
"I don't know! Right now, I'm just afraid he'll die."
We bent Amare's knees, drawing his feet in until they cleared the edge as the light in the recess began to intensify. David and I stood, and he held onto me as we watched the energy through the semi-transparent disk start to coil rapidly like a hurricane, and arcs of light began to emanate from the crevice. It turned and swirled as it reached higher, curving outward and over us as it went. I squinted to watch for as long as I could. It began closing in at the top, enveloping us within a sphere of energy, so intensely bright that it disappointed me when I couldn't watch anymore.
"Close your eyes. The light could blind you!" David yelled.
The bubble of light surrounded us, and the inside of the sphere glowed ever more brilliantly, which I could sense even with my eyes shut. I squeezed them tighter and buried my face in David's shoulder. I couldn't say how long it took, moments maybe. I felt an odd sensation, like a faint, but it must have lasted a split second as I still stood in David's arms. I realized a weight had come upon me, like having donned a coat with pockets full of lead, and a scent like that of extreme cleanliness. The light dimmed, and I could once again open my eyes. We had moved indoors to a white-walled room, in the same positions as before on a disk that floated on an identical portal like the one in the park, and I knew we were no longer on Earth.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Upon arrival, a flurry of movement had Amare surrounded by medical people who carried him away. They monitored the portal night and day for any activity, awaiting his return. They believed he would bring back Cadmar and David; they never expected that result. After a diagnostic assessment, they determined that Aiden's quick actions prevented Amare from bleeding out, saving his life. His enhancements would ensure a swift recovery, and we were relieved.
They kept the portal in the middle of a stark white, circular containment area where a bin lay on the floor and a small, sealed pass through the size of a breadbox on the wall. To the left, we could see people in the monitoring room through a thick, curved glass window, eyeing us with their entomological stares. The entrance to the room laid before me, and to my right, the door to decontamination, where we would find the exit.
They used level one containment to prevent contamination of the planet from microbes and insects, especially insects. Jiyu had no indigenous animals, and they took precautions to ensure none got through.
David pointed to the upper corner of the glass window. It had a series of numbers representing the time and date. It helped people orient themselves upon arrival due to the time differential. It read: 07:20.54-201-3154. The time was 07:20.54 on the 201st day of the jear 3154.
"I've been gone for a long time. I should let our communication system know I'm back," said David, pushing his pointer finger into his neck just behind his left ear, and after a moment, he tapped the spot twice. "Hello Iris, it's David. Yes, I'm back." David laughed, listening to the voice only he could hear. "Okay, I just wanted to say hello and let you know I'm on the system again should anyone wish to speak with me. It's good to hear from you too, but I must go. We need to get through decontamination. Okay, bye."
Aiden's face held a wide-eyed expression of wonder. "I want that!"
"Soon enough, Aiden," he said, "first thing's first."
"David," said one of the women behind the glass, "we've left gel and soap in the decontamination room. Do you need any nano-suspension?"
"We need one," David said.
She placed a four-ounce glass of something dark in the sealed pass-through. David retrieved it, giving it a whiff. "You have no vanilla?" he asked her. She shook her head, smiling. He held the glass out to Aiden.
"What is it?" Aiden asked. "It looks like prune juice."
"Hmm." David thought for a moment. "In computer terms, within this glass lies the operating system upon which all other enhancements function. If you want the secret to immortality, you can't have it without this first."
Aiden hadn't thought twice; he took it from David and downed it.
"What's it like?" I asked.
"Not bad. It's a bit thick. It tastes like fruit."
"It's okay," said David, "but the vanilla one tastes better. Oh well, keep an eye on the clocks, Aiden. Tomorrow at roughly two o'clock in the morning, yours should kick-in."
Next, we had to decontaminate ourselves in the next room. Although there were discussions for years about whether decon was even necessary, David had expected the standard procedure. They would also subject Amare to it while they removed the bullet. We removed our clothing, placing them, our mobiles, and everything from our pockets into a containment bag for them to collect later.
The decontamination room consisted of another stark white round room, twelve feet in diameter. The center held a round shower head, four feet wide with a drain beneath it. The walls held a curved bench seat built into them, and I could see the exit on the opposite side. The goopy gel-like substance used to kill spores and microbes smelled a bit like antiseptic. David told us to cover ourselves with it, let it dry, then use the soap they provided to wash it off.
Standing naked with relative strangers caused Aiden some embarrassment, and he tried looking anywhere but our direction. I couldn't understand why he bothered; he had removed his glasses and couldn't see. I dealt with nudity as best I could, but I found it easier when David and I were alone. As for David, I had never met anyone with such extreme immodesty.
David began rubbing the gel into my back for me, and I noticed Aiden kept his head turned toward the wall. "You don't have to feel awkward, Aiden."
"No, but I do," he said.
"It seems only fair we should see you naked, Aiden," said David. "After all, you watched us screwing."
I couldn't help but laugh. David sometimes had a wicked sense of humor.
"I'm sorry," Aiden said as he struggled to keep his eyes diverted from David's direction. "I had no idea I would intercept that."
"I'm joking," said David, "it doesn't bother me."
"Well, it wouldn't bother you, would it?" Aiden asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
"What do I mean? Look at him," Aiden said, gesturing to David. "Michelangelo would sculpt that."
David looked down at himself. I wouldn't call David's appearance perfect. He had a great upper body, little body fat, and a wonderful cock, but his disproportionate leg-heavy physique contrasted in every way with Aiden's.
"It's probably true, David," I said.
"I put on my trousers the same way as everyone else," David said to me. "Aiden, are you sure you're straight?" David smiled.
"I'm straight," he said, "but I know what attractive looks like."
"I'm sorry," said David. "I don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable, and I promise, in just a few days, you will think of this in a whole new light. Trust me."
Afterward, we donned the robes left for us on hooks and exited level one containment. Traditional Japanese motifs covered many of the walls made of paper in level two containment. It had plenty of red-painted wood with all the columns, and a gorgeous stone tile covered the floor. Someone had strived to create the impression of an authentic Japanese temple, but I would find none of the rooms I saw while snooping in a temple. They had modern interiors, and some contained curious scientific-looking objects whose function I couldn't guess.
We met Cadmar's fraternal twin brother, Magnar, a tall, fit, thickly built, dirty blonde and bearded man with a gruff baritone voice. He wore the same clothes as Amare, codpiece, and all, but his Prussian blue jacket had none of the embellishments that characterized the one worn by Amare. He stood several inches taller than David, and he had the look of a man in his mid-twenties, like Amare --if appearances meant anything. He seemed like an intelligent and rugged fellow, and I noted he wore the gold ring like that of his brother and Amare. I tried to remember to ask David about them.
Magnar seemed to take Cadmar's death, and that his body was missing, as one might expect of a brother. I got the impression he would mourn later when he had time to himself. After relaying the story to him, Magnar blamed neither David nor Amare for what had occurred, no one did, but I knew that David blamed himself.
They gave Aiden and me orientation the first day and scheduled a medical examination the next. Afterward, they would provide whatever enhancements we requested from the menu we received in orientation. It seemed they made getting enhanced so easy to accomplish, and so much a part of their everyday lives that they naturally assumed we would want it as well.
They gave us rooms for the night decorated in the traditional Japanese style, consisting of a small sitting area and two bedrooms. Upon the beds, they had laid clothing for us to wear until we could get our own, a pair of navy-blue, pull-on pants with a drawstring, a cream color pull-over, and slip-on shoes with sturdy soles.
In that area, they had made the internal walls of shoji --having partitions of paper left us little real privacy. We had a bathroom that had a bowl-sink decorated with plum blossoms, a large walk-in shower, and an unusual waterless toilet. I couldn't fathom how it functioned, and I never wanted to know. The room also had a thick, glass window on an exterior wall whose view faced away from the city, but we could see a dense rainforest below to the west. At the window, David's arms wrapped around me, we gazed at the expansive view.
"It's beautiful, just as you said."
"It's a tradition to watch the sun rise and set every day. It helps to keep your circadian rhythm to that of the planet."
"We'll have to do that," I said. "What's the weather like here?"
"One City lies in the tropical zone, so the temperature stays between fifteen- and thirty-two degrees. I guess that's between sixty- and ninety degrees Fahrenheit for you, although sometimes it gets hotter. It rains regularly, and while we get storms, we don't see any tornadoes or hurricanes here."
During orientation, we learned many important things. They measured time differently on Jiyu, counting days and jears with precision, and their clocks reflected that counting out 29-standard hours, 32-minutes, and 16-seconds for each day. Jiyu's jears, however, had 412-days, 3-hours, 45-minutes, and 12-seconds. Unlike on Earth, the measure of both days and jears occurred independently of one another to prevent the need to harmonize the two, so it could remain consistent. Jiyu couldn't measure months, as it had no moon, but they broke jears into quarters of 103 days, used to mark the seasons, and they halved each quarter into two periods of 51.5 days. They celebrated the New Year at what on Earth they would call the cross-quarter --the first actual day of Spring, or in One City's tropical location, the beginning of the rainy season.
We also learned community structure, expectations of the individual by the community, and a few hundred jears of Jiyu's history, which proved far less involved than the tales of Earth's cultures. Jiyu's contained none of the wars based on religion, resources, or ideologies. They had barely seen more than a fistfight. That, however, did not mean that the people of Jiyu had acclimatized themselves to passivity. They defended Jiyu in ways that far exceed the technology of Earth, although with so much to cover, I hadn't learned more about that at the time.
Due to the time dilation, and the absence of various progress impeding mechanisms indigenous to the cultures of Earth, Jiyu had advanced twenty-five hundred jears ahead of Earth with its culture and technology. It resulted in embracing an existence more harmonious with the planet sustaining them. So, when we left the facility the next day, we shouldn't have expected to see a shiny stereotypical city-of-the-future made of metal and glass. They preferred One City's advancement to remain concealed with a subtle integration of their technology, which allowed its aesthetics to shine through.
Humans evolved with the rhythm of the Earth, and just like Earth, the length of days and nights vary on Jiyu, albeit to a lesser degree in the tropics. Sleeping hours, known as 'beddo', consisted of a block of 9-hours, 32-minutes, and 16-seconds, which began two hours after sunset. The long nights also meant that people arose from their beds well before dawn.
David and I lounged in our sitting area, while Aiden took a long shower before beddo. I was reading the list of available exotic and fantastical enhancements we could receive the following day. Everyone had the main one, known as the Foundation. It integrated the nano-robots, known as nanos, into the body to set up a network in which all other enhancements function. It also made life in a higher gravity environment possible by making our bones super strong and toughen our joints while leaving them flexible. It also prevented illness and tuned our body toward the accumulation of stronger, denser muscle tissue. It did this through the alteration of gene expression and the manipulation of androgens, myostatin, and activin A, so that the higher gravity became less burdensome.
The list had some intriguing enhancement choices like life-long youth --known as 'Forever Young'-- and 'Fertility Control', a form of birth control, where you and your partner could decide when you wanted children.
David told me that all pubescent children have Fertility Control. Unlike humans on Earth, the people of Jiyu refused to fight biology when it came to sexual matters. Centuries ago, they discovered that one could not stop teenagers from getting together and having sex. If they want to do it, they will do it whether adults wanted them to or not. So, with disease and religiously induced shame not an issue, along with its sexist, antiquated, and freakishly obsessive ideas about virginity, they had no reason to stop them. However, they had every reason to prevent unplanned pregnancies. The culture embraced that wholeheartedly by having their pubescent children's fertility controlled until they reached adulthood; at that point, they could have it reversed when they chose.
They had other treatments along sexual lines, things like libido and genitalia enhancement; it hadn't surprised me to see those on the list. Humans have concerned themselves with that since time began. It demonstrated how deeply sexual human beings were, as well as occasionally insecure, or acutely concerned about the sexual happiness of themselves or their mate.
For other things, they had the communication link, memory boost (and who wouldn't want that), synthetic eyes of various kinds and abilities. They offered enhanced hearing, permanent accretion or elimination of hair, height enhancement, and various other genetic and epigenetic alterations controlling anything from skin tone to tetrachromia. It seemed to me that the people of Jiyu studied the human body with immense interest, and with time and effort, they resolved to have no compunctions whatsoever in altering it.
David showed a keen interest in my choices, and as we had the discussion, I realized what David was doing. He attempted to take up the slack from Maggie's absence. I would miss our spirited debates.
I never viewed having augmentations or enhancements as a problem; humans had done that for ages, just to a lesser degree. We have used glasses, dentures, hearing aids, pacemakers, artificial limbs, and wheelchairs as augmentations or enhancements to improve or extend the lives of the people who used them.
I had the willingness to remain young for my entire life. To my mind, growing physically old serves no real purpose, and the notion of my new hair turning grey hadn't appealed to me. We could get nano-craft tattoos which sounded interesting. We both liked the eyes we had, and neither of us wanted to be taller.
"You used the communication link earlier, right?" I asked him.
"Yes," he said, "I recommend it; as our enhancement version of a mobile phone, you needn't worry about losing or breaking it. It links to Iris, the artificial intelligence that controls communication."
"Does she read your mind?"
"Oh no," David said, "your hearing and speech would connect to Iris in a far more ordinary way."
During that discussion of enhancements, a question came to mind. After having had sex with David, and with the list in my hand, I had to know. "Have you had the sexual enhancement?"
He grew a concerned look, "Are you not happy with me?"
"No, of course, I'm happy," I said. "It's just that, if you had gotten it, things would make a bit more sense."
David smiled. "No, I haven't, but if it would make you happier, I will."
I paused to think. "Aah...Saturday and Sunday night..."
"Yes, what about them?"
"Are you always that, aahm...consistent?"
"I don't know," he said, "did you not like that?"
"Yes, I loved it! It just surprised me, that's all." --I took a deep breath of regret at having mentioned it-- "Quickly moving along... Hair. Wow, you can customize quite a bit with nano-induced manscaping. I want some body hair, but I'll have to figure out what. So, have you any thoughts on body hair? Ever thought of becoming more bearish?"
"Oh, that doesn't matter to me," he said. "What would you prefer? Would it make you happier if I had hair like a bear or slick like a dolphin?"
I laughed. "We are having the strangest conversation, but I probably prefer bears to dolphins, but in the usual manly places. If you had asked Maggie, you'd have gotten a different answer. She loves hair. Just choose what you deem appropriate."
"I just want to consider your preferences when I upgrade your playground equipment," he said with a crooked smile. "Speaking of that, why did you skip over the genital enhancement? It's astonishing how common it is here. Does talk of penises embarrass you?"
My face reddened, and I felt like he caught me at something terrible. "Yes, it does. I'm from the American South where they have religious insanity over sexuality. They have a flair for making you feel like you shouldn't even have genitals, much less talk about them, and don't even think of using them."
David wrinkled his brow. "That doesn't sound conducive to a healthy adult sex life, but you do well, considering."
"Hey, I know a stunted sex life when I see one. I've worked hard to get where I am. Where I grew up, nudity was taboo, and you weren't allowed to be male in your clothes either. To them, that part of you should cease to exist the instant you put on a pair of trousers lest they shame you as 'advertising'."
"Humans are highly sexual beings; it's unhealthy to make people think that way." --David tipped his head, and his brows lowered-- "At 30 years of age, why do you police yourself now when they're no longer around?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I guess they live rent-free in my head."
"No, they don't," he said. "Please, don't think that way. It gives them power over you they don't have. Let me tell you something. I see you as perceptive, intelligent, and courageous. In the United States, you saw what was coming. You knew you couldn't stop it, but you knew you didn't have to take it. So, you uprooted your entire life, like a big twenty-eight-year-old tree and did what you must to escape their tyranny. That takes courage; you beat them, and I think you can beat this too. You know they were manipulating you; so, be bold and don't let them get away with it.
"While we're on the subject," he said, "we have the perfect opportunity for you to understand something I said Saturday on the way to The Tea Room. Remember when I said people were being infantilized, among other things, and you thought that was going a bit too far?"
"Yes," I said, "and you're saying this is one of those ways."
"Oh, yes," he said. "Now, I know you can think as the adult you are, so let's do that. Let us have a rational and reasonable discussion about penises and throw out that foolishness they tried shoving into your head because it's not there if you don't believe that it is. The only thing stopping you is you. Now, you have the enviable position, in which many men would kill to find themselves, with the opportunity to alter your genitals. Would you be willing to do that? Why or why not?"
"Would some people kill?" I asked.
"Rick, on Earth, penis enlargement alone exists as a worldwide multi-billion-pound industry that cannot compare to what we do here. Then there's the libido enhancement, also another multi-billion-pound industry, responsible for the endangerment of several animal species, many of which are going extinct. So, would some men kill for the chance you have now? Absolutely. And most men wouldn't mind some alteration, even if only a little."
"I have a question," I said, "but before I ask, you should know that I have great admiration for you. I see you, and I think to myself how perfect you seem to me, so confident and untroubled over things that don't matter. Are you willing to do it?"
"As a matter of fact, and I thought to discuss this with you because I promised no more surprises, but yes."
I couldn't believe it. "Really. And that doesn't bother you?"
"No, nor should it."
"What happened to the old saying of not worrying about the size of your wand, worry about how you wave it?"
"Oh, I'm not disputing that technique means far more than size," he said, "because it does. However, on a side note, I suspect that a man's wife invented that saying to make her husband feel better about the size of his. Here is the thing about technique over size, if someone has a great technique, they don't need size, but it's an apples and oranges comparison. You can have size and still have great technique. Those things are not mutually exclusive, and if someone in our enviable position wanted to change theirs, why not do it? So, I'll ask you again, would you change yours?"
"Probably," I said.
David thought for a moment. "No, I made that too easy. Let me restate that so it doesn't sound like a hypothetical question. You have the opportunity in front of you. When the time comes, will you do it?"
"I know me; the thought of it makes me afraid."
"So, you would if you weren't afraid. I won't push you into it, but I will ask you this, do you aspire to live your life in fear?"
I suddenly felt a little ashamed of myself, but I knew he was right. "Be bold," I said. "This will require some thought. So, why would you?"
"My last name is Levitt," David said. "I had Jewish parents that I never knew. I grew up outside the Jewish tradition, and I have no use for theology. They had me circumcised on the eighth day after my birth, and quite frankly, it's patently barbaric to elect to cut on a baby's genitalia for non-emergency reasons. I've considered it for a long while, and I intend to undo what they did to me."
"Wow. That is something. I didn't know you could do that. Come here," I said, urging David to stand so that I could hug him. "I love you, and you have my complete support for that." I took a deep breath. "I thought you would tell me you wanted to make it bigger or something."
"I added a bit long ago, but I could add more if you like. It's all for you anyway."
I just looked at him for a moment and hugged him again. "I would be happy with you no matter your size."
Aiden exited the bathroom wearing his robe. "Good evening, gentlemen," he said with a smile. "So, David's getting uncircumcised? That's brilliant! Is this an awesome planet, or what?" He pointed at me. "Hey, you're American." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "I bet you could use that too. I'm glad I grew up a gentile Brit. They don't start hacking on you the instant you're born."
"Is there anything you don't know about us, Aiden?" David asked in irritation.
He continued to his bedroom. "Not lately, it seems."
"Well, I promise you'll have more to overhear later tonight," I said.
"Go ahead! I usually sleep like a stone."
Before bed, David lured me into the bathroom. We removed our clothes and stepped into the shower made of black matte tile that resembled faux wood grain. On the floor sat a three-legged, wooden stool, and the back wall had two, titanium, vertical hand bars two feet apart that spanned from the ceiling to a foot above the floor where it curved and attached to the wall. I thought they had installed them for safety purposes. David turned on the water. The showerhead poured warm rain upon us. We held one another and kissed for several minutes. He maneuvered me in between the bars and put the stool in front of me. He sat down and began sucking my cock. The pleasure he gave me made my legs weak. I grabbed the bars to hold myself up, I stopped him just before I came.
"No! Not now," I said pulling his head off my cock. "I want you."
He licked his lips. "I love the way you taste," he said. "One of these days I want to milk you on one of these milking stools."
We swapped places. I sat down with my head at the perfect height, I took his cock into my mouth. I used two of my fingers to grab the skin of his scrotum and pulled on it, rubbing and stretching it. I began a smooth undulating motion, sucking his cock in a leisurely fashion. He held one of the bars and the back of my head. I looked up. Through the rain, I saw him watch me. His scrotum relaxed enough from the warmth of the water to wrap my hand around it, holding both of his oversized nuts in my hand. I gently pulled them, using them as leverage to draw his cock to my throat. Usually, I felt tireless with his cock in my mouth or my ass, but I began to feel the effects of the excess gravity. It made me tire more quickly. David's cock popped from my mouth, and I stood.
"Will you fuck me in bed, so I can lay down?" I asked.
"Aiden will hear," he said.
"He already watched us, it's a little late to be shy, and I want you inside me."
"If you're fine with it," he said, "then I'm fine with it."
David and I dried off on the same bath sheet and left for our bedroom. We had darkness, but no real door existed on any of the bedrooms, just the surrounding paper walls. I desperately wanted David's cock inside me, I didn't care who heard. He lay beside me, and he kissed me.
"How do you want it?" he asked.
I rolled onto my stomach. After a generous application of saliva to my hole, David pushed into me. I made the mistake of thinking the low, platform bed wouldn't squeak or rattle. The instant David began thrusting the entire bed creaked with the rhythm announcing our activity to anyone within earshot. I luxuriated in the sensations, too deep in my own world to care, and David enjoyed thrusting into my ass too much to stop. I got upright on my knees, and David remained behind me never skipping a beat. He kissed me, and I grabbed his hair holding his face against my cheek.
"You feel so good." David ground his cock deep into my hole. "I never want to take it out."
"Don't stop," I whispered, "don't ever stop."
He bent me over and leaned over me moving his feet forward so he could stand in a half squat over the top of me. He put his hands on my shoulders and began thrusting harder, pulling me onto him. His muscular thighs allowed him to stay in that position for an interval of several thousand thrusts, and during that time, I came twice.
"I can't hold back anymore," David said, and held his cock deep inside me, breeding me as a mate should.