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| In the Ekcolir Reality. Original cover art shown here |
Several planets in Alastor Cluster had become laboratories for stress testing various social systems and how they respond to the the presence of telepaths. Brevik, Dreavero, Triskelion and Yrinna each had gradually developed their own unique social systems that constrained the behaviors of their telepathic minorities.
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| Brevik |
Dreavero had long been the beating heart of Cluster politics. Home to the ruling Idite Dynasty, Dreavero had a complex history of utilizing the abilities of telepaths to guide the enormous population of the Cluster into an uncertain future. The current Connatic was Oman Ursht who resided at the palace of Lusz on Numenes. In part 10 of "The Alastor Network", the Connatic's wife, Acyreff, rescued Twycky Jeghtop from her captors, the the Gensifer starmenter clan on Yrinna.
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| Triskelion |
The Clans of Yrinna had long been centers of selective breeding for improved telepathic abilities, that world's people constantly pitted for survival against the Whelm with only the best telepaths able to survive. Within the insular culture of Yrinna, the Clans exchanged promising telepath genes through the unique version of Hussade that was played on that world.
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| Written in the Asimov Reality. Duissane "on" Yrinna. Original cover art by Johannes Bruck |
The Connatic and his son, Heshlo, now must investigate Brevik and its recently revealed program for making telepathic embroids. At the same time, Acyreff has successfully extracted Lord and Lady Gensifer and their grandson from Yrinna. What can Acyreff and the Connatic learn from these captives about the telepath breading project of the Gensifer Clan?
Dr. Dothella Hines was partly pleased and partly angry when the Appenine was designated as a hospital ship during the battle of Yrinna. She knew the Connatic's wife, Acyreff in her role as Commander Galzara Shermatz of the Whelm and was worried that Acy was rushing off, poorly prepared to confront the space pirates of Yrinna. When Nykark activated its Jarnell engines and sped off to Yrinna, Dotty asked herself: will I be able too live with myself if Zara goes and gets herself and Nykark blasted on Yrinna while I'm safe and comfortable here? Not happy with her split mind -half glad to be safe and half ashamed for her cowardice- she tried to keep herself busy preparing Appenine to treat casualties, but while tending to her duties she kept thinking about the alien creature, Grean the Kac'hin.
While halfheartedly directing her medical staff through the boring inventory process, Dr. Hines was amused to discover that the medical stores of Appenine even included an artificial placenta. She told herself: that will be real handy for treating soldiers with blaster wounds. Yet, even as she formulated that sarcastic thought, she contemplated Grean's meddling interventions into the lives of humans and the rumor that Twycky Jeghtop was pregnant.
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| In the Ekcolir Reality. Original cover art by Earle Bergey |
While Dr. Hines was reading, the rescue mission to Yarinna was completed and Captain Titarsion appeared on the big display screen in Doctor Hines' office in the medcenter. "The fleet is returning from Yrinna. I just got warning from the fleet commander to stand by for casualties."
Hines looked up from her reading and told the Captain, "We're ready for patients down here. What kind of casualties?"
"No details have come from Yrinna as yet. The battleships are returning. All I've heard so far is that Isirjin Ziaspraide had a hole blasted clean through her. Just stand by for possible blaster injuries and decompression victims." The comlink went quiet.
Isirjin Ziaspraide was widely known throughout Alastor Cluster as one of the prettiest ships of the Whelm, often used for ceremonial displays of military power. It was hard for Dotty to imagine how the Isirjin Ziaspraide might have ended up on the front lines of the Battle of Yrinna. Dr. Hines shrugged and went back to her reading.
She wondered: why would women with “Kac'hin Syndrome” have two vaginas? Hines thought about snakes with two penises. She tried to imagine the reproductive physiology and biological utility of two vaginas and two separate uteri. She was intently studying an ancient 2-dimensional MRI image that showed a woman's two ovaries, each one connected to a separate uterus. She thought: Is this a viable way to keep a woman pregnant all the time? Entranced by her reading, Dr. Hines lost track of time and never really noticed that there was no follow up message about casualties. In one of the old experiments that had been performed on Earth, embryos generated by in vitro fertilization were tested by implantation into the two uteri of a woman with “Kac'hin Syndrome”. Both uteri were found to be functional.
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| Twycky |
When Hines saw the woman, she stopped in her tracks. Then she realized that this must be Twycky, the sister of Kasya. "Twycky Jeghtop?"
Twycky nodded. "Are you Dr. Hines?"
"Yes, I am. I'm very glad to see you. Are you well? I must say, I was quite worried about the rescue mission that was sent to Yrinna." Hines led Twycky to an examination room.
"It went well and I'm very happy to be liberated from Yrinna. The only health concern I have to report is that apparently I'm pregnant."
Hines took a drop of blood from Twycky and glanced at the chemical analysis results being displayed by her hand-held analyzer. "These readings look like normal hormone levels for an early pregnancy." She gestured towards a closet-like compartment. "Let's get a scan."
Twycky went into the scanner and then after a moment, stepped back out. She watched Hines as she looked through the scan images. Hines frowned. Twycky's uterus was larger than normal. "How many pregnancies have you had?"
"This is my first."
"I want to take a biopsy. Please get up on this chair."
Twycky sat in the high seat of the chair which immediately tilted back and rose up even higher. Hines put Twycky's feet into clamps and they pulled her legs apart. Hines pulled up Twyckys skirt and pushed aside her panties and guided a microscopically thin tissue sampling tube into her vagina. "You might feel something when the sampler traverses your cervix." A minute later the sampler retracted and the tissue analysis began. Hines released Twycky from the chair and handed her a cup. "Give me a little squirt of urine."
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| Image Credits |
Hines pointed to a doorway, "You can use the facilities in there."
When Twycky returned from emptying her bladder, Dr. Hines said, "Your uterus seems perfectly healthy. I see no reason why you should not have a normal pregnancy." She activated her comring and said, "Captain, I'm all done with Twycky."
Captain Titarsion said, "Okay, Private Puthonh is waiting in the hallway. She'll escort Dr. Jeghtop to quarters."
Hines broke the comlink and asked Twycky, "You have a doctorate?"
Twycky replied, "Yes, I have an advanced degree in History of Technology. My specialty is robotics."
Hines opened the door that connected the medcenter to the corridor and discovered that both Mando and Private Puthonh were there in the hallway, chatting. She told Private Puthonh, "Here you go, Private." Turning to Twycky, "Nice to meet you."
Private Puthonh led Twycky and Mando off towards the Connatic's suite and Hines returned inside the medcenter. Just then Kasya Jeghtop called Doctor Hines from Appenine. "Dotty, can you come over to Nykark. Now?"
Hines asked, "Are there patients that need help?"
"Hold on just a minute." Hines called Captain Titarsion and asked, "Can you have someone shuttle me over to Nykark?"
Captain Titarsion said, "I've had no reports of casualties on Nykark, but this is the time for shuttle trips... we're getting everyone on board the right spaceship. The fleets will start to disperse in about 20 minutes."
"Then get me a shuttle pilot. I'm going to Nykark." Doctor Hines switched her comlink from Titarsion back to Kasya, "I'm on my way."
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Doctor Hines asked, "What happened?" On the way over from Appenine she had not seen any blast damage to Nykark. However, it was hard to tell for sure with the holes in Nykark's hull that had been created for the purpose of holding drones. Hines placed sample of the QB unit's waste fluid in her portable tissue analyzer.
Kasya suggested, "I think QB5 tried to commit suicide."
There was blood in the waste along with urea and a large number of molecules that were not normally in urine. Dotty looked up from the display screen of her analyzer and placed a hand on the metal case that held QB5. "Do you know how to open this container?"
Kasya typed a passcode into the support equipment datapad and the top of QB5's case popped open. Kasya pulled the top fully open. Peering inside the box, Doctor Hines could see the pink embroid that was the biological half of QB5. Most of the embroid was brain tissue, but there was also a small body. "I suppose the body is mostly for kidney function." Using forceps, she found where the waste tube connected to the embroid. Shaking her head in amazement at the structure of the embroid, Hines muttered, "I suppose there is a heart in there, also." Hines put a sample of the embroid's blood into her analyzer.
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| In the Ekcolir Reality. Original cover art by Ed Emshwiller |
"She?" Hines shrugged. "That does not give me much to work with. You think that was a suicide reference?" Now Hines could see that QB5's cells did contain two X chromosomes.
"I think QB5 found a way to merge her mind into the Josef system. There was a huge data transfer, then we heard nothing more from QB5." Kasya, not wanting to sound completely crazy, took a deep breath and added, "Grean said that QB5 and Josef merged to become a new entity called Joqueline and then went off into the future."
Hines laughed. "It sounds like QB5 talked you into having a drink. Or six or seven..."
"I'm serious Doctor. I have not been drinking. Can't you do something?"
"I suspect you are not telling me the whole story." Hines could detect only minimal electrical activity in the brain of the embroid.
"Well, there is one more thing. When I was telepathically linked to Joqueline, I had a vision of the future." Kasya struggled how to put that telepathic experience into words. "In that vision, QB5 was inside me and communicating telepathically with my daughter."
"This gets better and better." Hines began thinking about the embryo implantation experiment she had just been reading about. "QB5 was inside you? Not just telepathically, but physically?"
"Exactly. In that vision, my abdomen was huge, as if I was pregnant."
Hines asked, "If QB5 is brain dead, what good could it do to keep the embroid alive?" Hines took a blood sample from Kasya and quickly confirmed that there was no alcohol in her system.
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| Kasya |
Hines took a deep breath. "If there is no functioning mind remaining in this embroid... a complete lack of brain function might cause its other organs to malfunction. The kidney seems to be leaking blood. It might be both medically impossible and extremely dangerous to implant the embroid inside of you. How old are you?"
Kasya had not expected that question. She replied slowly, "I'm 44."
Doctor Hines was looking at the chemical analysis of Kasya's blood. "You hormone levels are all off. Based on these reproductive hormone levels, I'd say you are a 20-year-old pregnant girl, but there is no sign of hCG in your system so there is no embryo in your body." Hines suddenly realized what was going on. "Someone, probably Grean, has prepared your uterus for a pregnancy... or, alternatively, for the implantation of an embroid..."
"What are you talking about?" Kasya thought about the advanced technologies that might be available to Grean and asked, "Is that possible?"
"Embroid implantations have been done, using an artificial placenta, but I would not advise it. Those experiments involved women who had just given birth and healthy young embroids. This is a full grown embroid, apparently dying. If we put QB5's body inside you and the tissues continue to necrotize then it could kill you."
Kasya grabbed Dotty's arms. "Do it! I've seen the future. It is safe... for me! It will work." Kasya glanced at QB5. "Do we need to go to the medcenter, back on Appenine?"
Doctor Hines called the hangar and discovered that the shuttle was still there, on standby, but would soon return to Appenine. She told Kasya, "Go to the shuttle! I'm right behind you." She grabbed at the QB5 unit and yanked off the attached power cord and nutrient tubes. Doctor Hines ran down the corridor towards the hangar, not far behind Kasya.
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| In the Ekcolir Reality. Original cover art by Earle Bergey |
Back on board Appenine, in the operating room of the medcenter, Doctor Hines performed a quick scan of Kasya's abdomen. She told Kasya, "This is medically impossible. For some reason, your uterus is huge... as if it had been carrying a fetus for the past eight months." Hines thought about Twycky's unusual uterus and reasoned that a large uterus might be due to a genetic anomaly shared by the two sisters.
Hines injected a pain nerve blocking drug and put a supplemental oxygen mask on Kasya. She told the attending nurse, "Quick now, open up Kasya's abdomen." Doctor Hines surgically separated the QB5 embroid from the quantum computer circuitry and other electronic devices that made up the non-biological half of the QB unit. Hines and the nurse sliced open Kasya's enlarged uterus and used rib retractors to expand the uterus, stretching the tissue. The embroid was placed inside Kasya's uterus and then Doctor Hines attached an artificial placenta. Hines and the assistant closed the uterus up and then the abdominal wall.
Kasya had watched the entire procedure. She now placed a hand on her bulging abdomen. The skin of her belly was taught and painfully stretched. She gently touched a plastic tube that extended through the otherwise perfectly closed wound. Kasya was having some difficulty breathing. Hines explained, "For now, I've still got QB5's kidney draining externally. We can change that later... if the artificial placenta seems to be working..." Hines was monitoring Kasya's physiological systems carefully. She and the nurse rolled Kasya over. Now her large abdomen was hanging downward through a hole in the middle of the operating table. Hines placed cuff-like devices on each of Kasya's arms and both of her legs. "I'm going to start mechanically extracting carbon dioxide from your blood. Until your skin stretches out, the embroid is going to be putting pressure on your lungs."
"Her uterus is so large!" The nurse asked, "How was this possible? What's going on?"
Doctor Hines chuckled. "I'm blaming Grean the Kac'hin and her magical nanotechnology." She told Kasya, "Grean must have begun preparing your body for this several weeks ago."
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| In the Ekcolir Reality. Original cover art by Walter Popp and Edmund Alexander Emshwiller |
______
After Grean the Kac'hin faded from sight, the control room for Nykark's hierion field generators fell quiet. Grean's infites were making adjustments to the memories of everyone in the room.
Acyreff was brought back to the present moment by her comring. Commander Jenking said, "There is a Whelm lawyer on board Isirjin Ziaspraide who is looking for you." Acyreff was a bit surprised to be hearing this from Jenking, but now, glancing again at the big comscreen, she finally noticed that the image of Ryl was no longer there via his own communications link to Nykark.
In any case, Acyreff was eager to finally get together with Ryl. They'd been apart far too long. "I'm on my way over to Isirjin Ziaspraide. Have all the Gensifers taken to the shuttle hanger." She broke the connection to Jenking and approached Twycky. "I want you to go over to the Appenine and get a medical examination." Acyreff suggested, "Kasya, take your sister to see Dr. Hines."
Kasya had begun working her way through the diagnostic routines of QB5's support equipment. Without looking up from that task, she told Mando, "Take Twycky over for a check-up with Hines."
Twycky and Mando departed with Sol following along behind. In the hallway, Twycky turned and told the robot, "I don't want to see your face." She stalked off towards the hangar deck.
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| The uses of micro-hierion fields. |
Acyreff told Sally, "Thank you for making Twycky's rescue possible. I'm very grateful."
On her way out with Veameck, Sally looked over her shoulder at Acyreff and asked, "Does that mean you're not going to prosecute me as a space pirate?"
Acyreff was dreading the fact that she would now have to work with the Whelm lawyers to resolve the legal problems created by the just-completed Whelm police action on Yrinna. She knew that Captain Lanting was on that week's top 10 most wanted list of the Whelm. Acyreff was still struggling to understand why Sally had so quickly transformed from a pirate to a critical component of the rescue team. She watched Sally and Private Veameck depart. Searching for any excuse to delay meeting with the lawyers, she asked Kasya, "Is there any hope?"
Kasya muttered, "This looks bad. According to these system diagnostics, QB5 is dead."
"Let it go, Kas." Acyreff placed a hand on Kasya's shoulder. "Grean said that Joqueline will return some day."
"But that won't be QB5 who returns to our Time." She looked at Acyreff, "If Grean could make a duplicate of that dog Rupert, why couldn't she make a duplicate copy of QB5?"
Acyreff asked, "Are you going to be in trouble for having taken QB5 off of Brevik and... loosing him?"
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| The robots of Triskelion |
Acyreff was finding it hard to think of QB5 as a person. She was however feeling her own sense of loss over the Josef artificial intelligence system, so she understood what Kasya was going through. Kasya's eyes were back on the diagnostics readout. Wordlessly, Acyreff walked away. Stepping out into the hallway, she saw Sol standing there and looking like a lost puppy. She asked, "Why aren't you over on Appenine with Twycky?"
The machine replied, "She doesn't want me."
Acyreff sighed. "Well, I cant leave you standing here... come with me."
The shuttle trip over to Isirjin Ziaspraide was rather awkward with Acyreff avoiding contact with Lord Gensifer and the Whelm soldiers who guarded him, his wife and his grandson. She could hear Rupert trying and failing to explain to Lord Gensifer how he had arrived on board Nykark during the rescue operation. Arriving on board Isirjin Ziaspraide, Acyreff was hoping to be able to quickly take Sol to the suite of rooms that was always available for her use. However, waiting there at the airlock was a Whelm lawyer who said, "Commander Shermatz? I'm Legal Specialist Forshytte. Can we talk?"
Acyreff pointed to the squad of guards who surrounded the Gensifers. "Why don't you make sure that the Gensifers are assigned quarters. I'll join you there in five minutes."
Forshytte objected, "Lord Gensifer is being taken to the brig. I rather thought we should go along and get started with informing the prisoners of what charges they face."
Acyreff took a deep breath. "Surely you are not thinking of Lady Gensifer and Rupert as prisoners. They should be treated as guests of the Connatic." She had hoped to see Ryl upon reaching Isirjin Ziaspraide, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Haven't you discussed this with Inspector Shermatz?"
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| in the Ekcolir Reality Original cover art by Milton Rosenblatt |
Acyreff and Forshytte were now following along behind the guards as they took the Gensifers towards the brig. Sol followed along behind. "Look, Forshytte, I don't know what you've been told, but this is not some standard space piracy case."
Forshytte suggested, "I understand that Lord Gensifer is some kind of high ranking figure on Yrinna, but that should not mean that he gets special treatment."
Acyreff objected to the lawyer's characterization of the situation, "People get special treatment when their are special circumstances. This has nothing to do with the fact that Lord Gensifer is the patriarch of the Gensifer Clan."
Forshytte had her own suggestion: "Maybe we should start with something simple. Captain Lanting has outstanding warrants for the pirate raid during which Twycky was abducted."
Acyreff had not even bothered bringing Captain Lanting to Isirjin Ziaspraide, feeling that her place was on board Nykark, supervising the construction work that would be needed to repair the spaceship's hull. Acyreff told Forshytte, "Listen, Captain Lanting now holds a special commission to the Connatic as an officer of the Whelm." Acyreff enjoyed the look of surprise on Forshytte's face. "Any legal action against Captain Lanting will have to go through standard personnel disciplinary channels."
They were now in the brig. Forshytte complained to Acyreff, "You can't be serious! How can a space pirate near the top of the wanted list be given a commission in the Whelm?"
Lord Gensifer had been listening to Acyreff and Forshytte. He said, "I'm surprised that Sally would turn against me simply because she got protection from prosecution."
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| Grean the Kac'hin (image credits) |
Rupert said, "Why am I here? And how? Can somebody explain that?"
Acyreff chuckled. "Sorry, Rupert, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time." With Grean's memory-editing nanites in her brain, Acyreff could say nothing about Grean the Kac'hin. "Nobody in the Whelm planned to have you brought on board the Nykark. I was hoping that you could shed some light on the matter."
Rupert shrugged. "The whole affair is bizarre. I've been told that I'm the father of Twycky's child, but I never so much as touched her."
Finding herself unable to speak about the artificial insemination performed on Twycky by Sol, Acyreff heard herself suggesting a path towards a possible snark hunt: "Maybe this robot can fill in some details." She pointed at Sol who stood in the corner of the room.
Sol said, "I was taken prisoner along with Twycky. I suppose since I'm a robot and not a human, there will be no legal protections for me."
Acyreff laughed and realized that Sol would also not be allowed to speak about his role in Twycky's pregnancy, at least not as long as Forshytte was present. She approached Lady Gensifer and took the older woman's hand in both of her own and felt a hot sensation of sexual excitement. Acyreff instantly knew that Lady Gensifer had a potent telepathic sashei. "We have not been introduced. I'm Commander Shermatz. I want to make sure you understand that there was no intention of taking you into custody during the rescue of Twycky."
Lady Gensifer smiled at Acyreff and explained, "Doby and I were at the opera. I suppose I should have stayed there when the call came about Kasya, but I like to spend as much time as possible with my husband, particularly when he has a new mistress." Lady Gensifer's pink tongue licked her lips in a provocative fashion. "We'd both been hoping that Lanting would bring Kasya to us."
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| image source |
Lord Gensifer replied, "I take full responsibility. I have a thing for twins." He winked at Acyreff. "When I learned about the special telepathic abilities of the Jeghtops, I simple had to set up an experiment."
Forshytte demanded, "Experiment? What experiment?"
Lord Gensifer explained, "I was curious to find out what might come of mixing Gensifer and Jeghtop genes."
Forshytte asked, "Are you confessing to the rape of Twycky Jeghtop?"
Lord Gensifer objected, "I never touched the girl." He thought back a month. "No, that's not correct. I did brush a stray lock of her hair back from her eye."
Rupert added defensively, "I never even touched her hand when Sol introduced Twycky to me."
Acyreff asked Rupert, "Did you touch Sol?"
Rupert looked at Acyreff in consternation. "What if I did? Is it a crime to touch a sexbot?"
Feeling that everything was drifting out of her control, Forshytte said, "Let's all go into the conference room. We must start with a formal listing of the legal charges and specifications in this case."
When they were all seated at the table in the conference room, Forshytte activated a display screen with a list of charges including space piracy, damage and destruction to a commercial space-liner, kidnapping, human trafficking, rape, resisting arrest and criminal conspiracy. Forshytte looked at the Gensifers and said, "This hearing can be accelerated if you wish to confess to these crimes."
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| robots of Triskelion |
Forshytte asked Lady Gensifer, "Did you plan to hold Dr. Kasya Jeghtop against her will as a prisoner on Yrinna?"
Lady Gensifer explained, "I like to get to know Doby's mistresses. Kasya is a beautiful woman... I was hoping to get a chance to hold her during some sex play. As far as I know, having sex with a lover is no crime."
"It is a crime if you have sex with a kidnap victim."
"Kasya was not kidnapped."
"But you admit that you planned to rape her."
"No."
"What about Twycky? After she was kidnapped and taken to Yrinna, did you plan to rape her?"
Lady Gensifer sighed. "Endlessly repeating the word 'rape' is not going to change a consensual sex act into rape."
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| Grean the Kac'hin (image credits) |
Some of Grean's memory-altering infites passed from Acyreff into Forshytte's body. She felt her perspective on the case shift. Suddenly she felt that she was being saved from bringing unprovable charges against Lady Gensifer and Rupert. She told Acyreff, "Very well, but I suspect that they were both accessories after the fact of Twycky's kidnapping."
Acyreff quickly led Lady Gensifer, Rupert and Sol out of the Brig. They walked to Acyreff's suite in silence. Once there, Acyreff waved her hand at the opulent furnishings. "Make yourselves comfortable. Call for the stewards if you need anything. I have to get back to the Brig."
Lady Gensifer said, "Thank you, Commander. Do you think you'll be able to tame that lawyer?"
Acyreff turned back from the door and replied, "Try to relax, my Lady, I believe a higher power is already taking care of that." Acyreff was thinking about Grean and her memory-altering infites, but she said no more.
When Acyreff was gone and the door closed, Rupert immediately tried to open the door. It was locked. "We're locked in!"
Lady Gensifer sat down on a comfortable chair in the middle of the suite's large lounge area. "Relax Rupert." She glanced at Sol and told the robot, "I've been hearing juicy rumors about you for the past month." Rupert went off to explore the luxurious accommodations of their suite of rooms and search for another exit.
Sol nodded. "Not surprising, my Lady. I've learned that there is considerable pent-up demand for sexbots on Yrinna."
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| source |
Sol muttered. "Ah, dear Triskelion. I had begun to wonder if I would ever again be able to return home."
Lady Gensifer said sadly, "I fear I will never set foot on Yrinna again."
Rupert returned to the lounge area and reported, "I've found four bedrooms, a library, a recroom, a spa, and a little theater. These are fabulous digs... rather excessive for prisoners of the Whelm."
Sol changed the subject and said, "I have other skills besides helping humans experience sexual pleasure... I'd be happy to cook if either of you is hungry."
Lady Gensifer said, "I can't eat while worrying about what is happening to Doby."
Rupert took Sol by the arm, "There's the kitchen, over there. Let's go see what food is available. I could eat." He'd been teleported to Nykark from the warm comfort of his bed and after a late night of partying, had not eaten that day. He was thinking about both food and the juicy Sol.
Sol began making an omelette for Rupert. Rupert attentively watched Sol cooking and when the robot settled in at the stove, Rupert put his arms around the machine. Rupert whispered to Sol, "How wonderful that we both escaped from Yrinna."
"It is nice to get you away from that primitive sex toy, Apryl."
Rupert laughed and asked, "What do you know about Apryl?"
"Only that she is always in your thoughts. In fact, I sense that you were inside her when... let's just say you got plucked off of Apryl when you got teleported off of Yrinna."
"She's been a loyal companion. I'll miss her."
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| source |
Rupert thought back. He'd had a half dozen sexual play sessions with Sol during the past two weeks. Now those sessions seemed to run together in Rupert's mind. He replied, "I tend to get rather drunk and then start banging my hammer against any convenient hardwood... but, yes, I think I remember. That was the day when I met Twycky."
"Well, at the party that day I collected your semen and later implanted some of your sperm cells into Twycky. That's how you became a father."Rupert laughed. "Are you serious?"
"Yes. I was being compelled to act by an alien force... Grean the Kac'hin."
"Cock what?"
"Grean is an alien creature." Sol cooked and explained, "A human variant called a Kac'hin. She wanted to mix your genes with the Jeghtop telepathy genes rather than let your father impregnate Twycky."
Rupert pulled a jug of orange juice out of the cold-box and took a drink. He called to Lady Gensifer, "Would you like something to drink? There is some nice OJ here." After taking some juice and sweet rolls to Lady Gensifer where she was relaxing in her chair, Rupert returned to the kitchen, suspecting that his grandmother might soon be drifting into sleep. Back in the kitchen, he told Sol, "Start over. Start at the beginning. What is this nonsense about aliens?"
Sol squeezed in on the bench seat next to Rupert and placed a hand on Gensifer's thigh. Rupert chewed, swallowed and took a drink of juice. Processing the content of Grean's infites, Rupert now had a general understanding of who Grean was and her special abilities. Their faces only a few inches apart, Rupert was again dazzled by the robot's prettiness. He smirked and asked Sol, "Grean can see the future?" He had himself occasionally felt that he could telepathically look into the future and get a glimpse of things to come. Now, a flash-like image of making love to Sol appeared in Rupert's mind.
The robot began to unzip Rupert's pants. "I don't know. It was almost as if Grean magically arranged for Twycky's rescue, knowing exactly how to pull it off." Sol pulled Rupert's semi-erect penis out of his pants.
"You still have your magic touch, Sol. I feel the need to ravish you once again!" Rupert said, "For what I have planned, I'll need all my strength and stamina... so give me a chance to finish eating."
Sol played with Rupert's penis and said, "You are expecting that maybe your grandmother will take a nap, but she is too worried about Doby. She won't sleep until she knows his fate."
"That does not matter. You and I can slip into a back bedroom."
Sol bent down and began sucking on Rupert's hot erection. Just then Lady Gensifer came into the kitchen and said, "I came for an omelette, but I'd rather try the filet of Sol."
Lady Gensifer shrugged. "It has been a long day, but Sol's cooking smells very nice. I suspected you two might start some sex play, and I could not sleep while wondering what might be happening in here."
"Once again, curiosity killed the cock sucking." Rupert tried to talk about Grean, but he discovered that he could say nothing about the alien or time travel to Lady Gensifer. Unable to discuss how or why he had been taken from Yrinna, he felt he should make clear to his grandmother that he was not unhappy to have escaped from his home planet. "You know, I'd be happy to never return to Yrinna." He asked Lady Gensifer, "What about you? Do you actually want to go home?"
Lady Gensifer replied, "All I know, my entire life, is Yrinna, but I don't think I could survive alone, without Doby."
Based on what he now knew about Grean, Rupert suspected that there would be no rush by the Whelm to a harsh judgement against Lord Gensifer. "I suspect that Doby can make a deal with the Whelm. However, the Whelm will probably want to keep their hands on him, not let him go back to Yrinna."
Lady Gensifer complained, "I've never imagined leaving Yrinna and I've never paid attention to the other worlds of the Cluster. I'm not sure that I'll enjoy change. I don't care to be bottled up in a spaceship. Did you find any windows in this place?"
"No windows, but I'm sure that the display screens can provide you with a nice view of the stars." Rupert ate for a while then said, "I have long dreamed of leaving Yrinna. I've always wanted to visit other worlds... maybe continuing my education at one of the great universities such as Lavaida, on Numenes."
Rupert asked Sol, "Why aren't you with Twycky? Aren't you her personal robot?"
Sol brought Lady Gensifer her omelette and again sat next to Rupert. "Twycky is not happy with me. She feels betrayed. Maybe she will come to realize that it was better this way, otherwise she would be carrying Jamile's child."
Having sampled Sol's cooking, Lady Gensifer said, "This is really quite good. What is in it?"
Sol described the ingredients of the omelette. "As for that greenish vegetable, I don't recognize it, but is got a high rating from my sythtaste sensors and so I included it in the mix."
Lady Gensifer asked, "Are you just as creative in bed?"
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| infites |
Lady Gensifer pushed a red button on the wall beside the table. Almost at once a steward appeared in the kitchen. She asked, "Do you know how to make coffee?"
The steward rattled off the names of six different brewed forms of coffee. Lady Gensifer choose her favorite and soon the kitchen was filled with the aroma of freshly ground coffee. Lady Gensifer asked the steward, "If I wanted to get out of here and go see my husband, could you take me to the Brig?"
"Yes, Lady Gensifer."
"Fine, then make two of those." She got the platter of sweet rolls and soon the Steward had led Lady Gensifer back to the Brig where Lady Gensifer was allowed back in the conference room. She set the coffee and rolls near her husband, kissed his cheek and seated herself. She saw Acyreff across the table and said, "I should have brought you some coffee, Commander."
Acyreff shook her head. "We're about done here. I'm fine, thank you."
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| in the Ekcolir Reality |
Lady Gensifer placed a hand on her husband's shoulder and asked, "We won't be going back to Yrinna, will we?"
Lord Gensifer sipped the coffee and shook his head. "That seems to be only a remote possibility. Apparently the Connatic has plans for our future. Commander Shermatz tells me that the Whelm has constructed an artificial intelligence device named Josef that can detect Phari signals."
"Really? And what about the Pheni of Yrinna?" Lady Gensifer had always felt her mind in contact with the native creatures of Yrinna, the bird-like Pheni, but now that alien telepathic touch had dwindled away.
Acyreff replied, "Sadly, the Whelm has never had a chance to study the Pheni. However, during the rescue of Twycky, I felt a strange presence in the group mind-link. I wonder if Josef was in contact with the Pheni."
Lady Gensifer nodded, "I've had telepathic contact with the Pheni my entire life. Particularly when..." She smiled at her husband, "... when Doby and I make love."
Acyreff said, "Fascinating. I'd like to hear more about-"
Just then Acyreff heard her husband's voice, now speaking as the Connatic. "Can you hear me, Forshytte?"
"I've reviewed the charges and I have a proposal. I want Lord Gensifer to accompany me to Brevik. I need to investigate the Pegasus telepathy project and I'd like his help."
Lady Gensifer told Doby, "I'm going with you."
The Connatic said, "I have no objection to taking along Lady Gensifer with us to Brevik, but we leave at once."
Forshytte cried out, "But what about the criminal charges?"
The Connatic explained, "In exchange for information from the Gensifers, I'm prepared to commute any possible sentence to life-long parole. If the Gensifers agree to do consulting work for me, no charges will be prosecuted."
Lord Gensifer said, "I agree, on one condition."
"What's that?"
"Lady Gensifer and Rupert must retain their freedom to travel from world to world." Lord Gensifer smiled at the projected image of the Connatic. "That's a basic law enforced by the Connatic throughout the Cluster."
"Not exactly. A few worlds such as Yrinna have never accepted the Connatic's rule."
"We are no longer on Yrinna."
Lady Gensifer said, "It does not matter, Doby. I'll go wherever you go."The Connatic said, "I agree to honor your request, Lord Gensifer. Lady Gensifer and Rupert are free to travel, even return to Yrinna if that is their desire. Now, please hurry to the hangar deck. You'll be shuttled over here to the Netal. We are going to Brevik, at once!"
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| In the Ekcolir Reality. Original cover art shown here. |
The Connatic replied, "I've got another task for him. I want him to deal with the problem of all the first responders who rushed on board Isirjin Ziaspraide and were trapped. They can return to Yrinna if they want to."
"I'll help Rupert arrange for transport of those folks back to Yrinna." Acyreff asked, "Then may I take Isirjin Ziaspraide back to Numenes?"
"Yes, and when you get back home, tell Synthe that I'll see her soon. We can have a celebration of her... condition. Maybe even her brother will be available, then." The Connatic broke the comlink.
The story continues: part 13 of "The Alastor Network".
Next: High Policy
Related Reading: Asimov's telepathic robot Herbie
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