* Angelique
I was lying on the couch of her apartment as she worked. Despite my occasional feeling of captivity, the current situation did offer something life at home often sorely lacked. The time to slow down and think. I had sat for most of the day thinking about the implications of the mesh-link as Angelique worked. It was nighttime now, and the scene outside outside might have been mistaken for any high-rise city skyline at night. "One thing still confuses me." Was she listening, or was I just talking to myself? "Why can't the device be used to move into the future, into your future?"
She peaked up from her computer workstation. "What was that?" At my request she had reluctantly agreed not to constantly wear her white labcoat. Her outfit today resembled workout wear. Tight fitting blue shorts and a top that resembled a sports bra.
"Why can't we aphase into the future? I did it, and now I'm here."
"That is not a simple question, and I'm not sure I fully understand it myself." She let out a sigh. "Perhaps I need a break from this DNA Analysis. Plus, I'm almost out of material and need another sample." She sat up, her attention on me now. "So where, or when, do you want to go?"
"Imagine how it could be used for spaceflight. Our life can't survive transit to another solar system. However, imagine we built a space-craft, placed an aphase unit on it, and then sent it out into the stars. As soon as it left, we should be able to meshlink to it in the future, when it actually arrived, assuming it arrived."
"You would think that wouldn't you. We did too, and we tried it, spent incredible amounts of effort building the spacecraft, but it didn't work. At first they thought there was a malfunction, that obviously the endpoint didn't survive. However, the real explanation is both simple, and complicated. We are still bound by the speed of light." What? Even the little I knew of the technology I had independently designed included the violation of the speed of light. I had witnessed communication and matter transported not only over great distances, but also over huge spans of time.
"But you use them for instant transit today, do you not?" She nodded. "And they violate the speed of light in doing so, do they not?"
Now she was shaking her head. "No no. They violate the speed of light as you knew it in your time. Since then we have realized that it's the causal chain which is bounded by the speed of light, not every physical property in the universe." That spun me for a loop. "You see, photos are produced when a substrate has excess energy. That energy is converted into both mass and velocity. However, as the photon is emitted directly, it can't violate the causal chain, it can only move at the speed of light.
"However, an aphasic endpoint is different. In a way, it's not moving anything at all. A resonance pattern is established, where the lowest energy state is for both endpoints to remain in resonance. When one side is disturbed, the other side follows immediately. They are intertwined at the lowest levels of our universe. When you came through the mesh-link, no atoms moved at all. Only your resonance moved, the pattern of energy and vibration that keeps the atoms organized as you."
"I'm not sure I'm following, but how does that prevent moving into the future? I mean, I did it didn't I?"
"You did, and you didn't. You moved into the future, but your causal chain didn't. Your discovery of the aphasic phenomenon, and your decision to use it, was independent of ours. By making a decision to link with ourselves in the future, we are starting a casual chain which can only move at the speed of light, and at the speed of time. That decision won't be able to affect the atoms until it reaches them, and when it does, it will be too late to connect with the past, as it will already have occured, and it wasn't able to link with the future."
"I am somewhat lost."
"That's okay. Such things are only barely understood by our best physicists." She stood and started walking over to me. "I'll tell you what. Tomorrow I have to leave for work. I'll setup a computer for you to research this. You did develop the aphase yourself, so perhaps you'll have an insight we havn't." She sat next to me as I stayed lounging on the couch. I knew why she had come over, and despite my interest in our conversation, I could already feel myself responding to her proximity. She was conspicuously tipping a plastic collection cup back and forth in her hands.
* TV
Lying in bed, I couldn't sleep. The rest of my day had included a heavy duty workout and an introduction to their educational system, both of which had left me exhausted. However, my mind couldn't shut out thoughts of Suzanne. Back at home, I had only ever seen one girl with her top off. We were shy and childish about it, and she was only just cute. I sometimes fantasized about the really pretty girls at school, but they didn't even know my name.
Being here in the lab was like a dream. The women were impossibly beautiful, I had already seen three of them naked, and most of them seemed to focus all their attention on me. Especially Suzanne. She was incredibly hot, impossibly hot. Being with her was like having a fantasy about a supermodel billboard, where her perfect likeness comes to life and in addition to being astoundingly beautiful, is a ten foot tall giant. Our fooling around earlier had both provided the sample Roz and the science team needed, and helped calm the powerful state Oni's natural scent had left me in. Afterwords, she let me explore my curiosity as she took her top off and I just played with her breasts. It was arousing for sure, but really it was just nice. She had patiently laid beside me, and seemed to enjoy my fascination. She even toyed with me a little at the end, playfully holding my hands down and taunting me for how much I couldn't take my eyes off her. I was beginning to wonder if perhaps I should just stay here, even if it meant leaving everything I knew behind.
Still, lying in my bed on just the second night, I felt a bit lonely. I considered blueing Suzanne, but despite my desire, I didn't really know her. I didn't really know anyone here. Sure, they were fascinated with me, but they didn't seem like friends. Friend's are people you've know for years, people who tell you about themselves. I wanted to kick back and talk with Sam. If only he were here, maybe I wouldn't feel that loneliness, maybe it would be perfect.
I turned on the computer console next to my bed, and flipped through the visual listing of video available. Several of them looked like kids cartoons with fantastically unrealistic imagery. There was a section of sports, mostly soccer. I flipped on one of the games. At first it was fascinating to watch. The overly tall figures were extremely graceful. The subtle differences in the way they moved were striking. However, after a while, it was just a soccer game. A game whose teams I didn't know, in a world I didn't know. I flipped back to the directory. No news, no sitcoms, no movies. There actually wasn't much at all to watch. Is this all they had? I pushed the blue button on the console and a chime sounded. "Is this all the TV selection there is?" My brief educational introduction had taught me more about the computer system that permeated the lab, and the world. It would be able to answer most questions for me.
The computer responded. "Negative. The programming on your console was selected specifically for you. It is all the material you have access to at this time."
"Why is that?"
"I do not have that information available. Catrina, or your guild at the lab, Rosnell, should be able to answer that question. Would you like to speak with one of them now?"
"No no. It can wait." I laid back on the bed. Thoughts of missing home sifted through me as I finally resigned to my exhaustion and slept.
* Breeding Law
My mind was still thinking science as I reclined on the couch. "I don't understand why I'm so important. With your genetic technology, you should be able to easily breed or clone a man."
Angelique was seated to my side and I was looking up to meet her eyes. "Ahh. Your intuition is sharp. We can and we can't. I'm happy to explain, but I really need some more material to study." Her hands pulled down the waist of the stretchy pants she had provided to me. The sight of her sitting over me and the light touch of her fingers on my bare skin caused my body to react. She looked at a clock on the wall. "It's only been two hours, I hope you're ready." I struggled to maintain my train of thought as her fingers started slowly stroking me.
"The explanation begins during the retrovirus wars. When the male retrovirus hit, the deaths were a pandemic and heartbreaking sight for families. Some male adults survived, but male unborn children did not fare as well. Most were still procreating naturally, and the permeation of the virus caused incredible miscarriage rates." She leaned across me and switched hands. The pace of her stroking me was slow, and I was in no hurry for her to speed it up. I tried my best to stay focused on her voice. "After the virus spread it's course, experts were in shock about how to proceed. Many took the decision into their own hands, and tried, mostly in vain, to bear children into the male side of our species. However, with very few exceptions, these attempts ended tragically, often gruesomely. Some mothers even died in the process, as the toxic cells overwhelmed them.
Her palm pressed flat against my cock, and she began to rub it back and forth against me. "Countries of the world united to devise a solution. The result was the uniform species pact of 2155. It's goal was to assure that our species would survive in the face of such a terrible disaster. Countries around the world raided and closed all retrovirus labs, helpful or otherwise. Restrictions on human cloning were lifted, and massive centers were created. A race to create synthetic incubators was started. The wealthy had already turned to remaining sperm stores and genetic selection to assure female children. However, within just a decade, public birthing facilities offered cloning and incubation to society at large. Teams worked on killing the retrovirus, and each few years tests were done to birth a male clone. However, those tests were repeatedly unsuccessful." She stopped stroking and looked down at my erection for a moment. "You don't seem at peak response. Should I hold the explanation until after?"
"No no, please continue." I was enjoying the constant contact. Her samples were usually so quick with me hyper aroused by her body that I relished the idea this was lasting a few minutes longer.
"Very well. That part of the story is rather somber." Her hand resumed it's position and motion, rubbing me back and forth. "A few decades in, the focus on cloning and genetics spawned an incredible number of advancements. Private birthing centers opened offering designer genetics. At first it was small aesthetic changes. What wealthy mother didn't wish to have a more beautiful daughter? However, the incremental changes slowly built until they were compounding and truly changing the form of our species." She sat up straight and took her her hand from me to run it down her leg. "According to our records, it started with longer, slimmer legs and arms. The first generation of height enhanced children surprised everyone. Fifteen years after they were born, that elite group turned out to be over seven feet tall, and began to grace the covers of magazines and draw public attention everywhere." Her opposite hand slid down onto my crotch, her fingers gently massaging me.
"The public was enamored, and in the next generation the technology was improved as the majority pushed to have their children more beautiful. As bones were improved to provide a stronger, lighter structure, offspring became taller and taller. Don't get the mis-impression it was a time of uniform beauty, but those with the most desirable traits became the basis for future offspring. It wasn't until fifty years later that scientists confirmed what we broadly feared. The new genetics were incapable of handling natural childbirths. After much public debate, most saw no path to bring society back to the old genetics. The mechanical incubators had effectively become part of our species.
"At this point, only a handful of men were still alive. Their place in society was confused, and their numbers dwindled as they aged. Breakthroughs in killing the male retrovirus were made, but sadly the genetic modifications had another effect. They made male offspring either impossible or un-viable. Offpsring either developed into a distorted female form, or not at all. It was then that society enacted the birthing laws, stating that all incubated human offspring must carry an XX chromosome, the combination that naturally creates women."
She looked down at my still incomplete erection. "So you see Steven. You are in fact very important. You are one of the only male humans among us, and a necessary source of male genetic material." I'm not the only one? I started to open my mouth, but her fingers pressed against my lips. "That's enough questions for now. I want you to focus on me now." She ran her hand up her side. "I know you like my appearance."
* Day 3
It's hard to describe this morning as uneventful. Afterall, a ten foot tall woman named Lisa was waiting outside my dorm. Once in the shower area, she stripped down naked right in front of me. She was stunning. She was a bit more athletic, her arms showing a strength that some of the other women didn't have. However, she showed very little attention to me. She operated the water controls, handed me soap and shampoo when I needed it, but otherwise kept to herself. Perhaps she was like Roz and prefered the company of women. Perhaps I just wasn't her type. The experience shattered my budding dellusion of grandeur that every woman in the lab wanted me. That said, she didn't mind me looking at her, and she was amazingly beautiful.
My first order of the day was an educational lesson. Roz had led me to a small room with scattered multicolored bean bag chairs. She took a seat byt he door as I laid myself down in one and picked up the educational tablet. My previous session had simply been an orientation with the computer system they used for teaching. The device had no keyboard, and navigating involved touching the screen and occasional verbal input. I was still learning my way around the interface, but they had prepared some simple early lessons for me to start with. The first was a transitional overview of social differences in the past few hundred years. It answered many puzzling questions that had been on my mind. Apparently, physical modesty had dropped away centuries ago as a result of both the shift to an all female society and genetic control allowing most everyone children with the physical appearance of their choice. Further, with physical intimacy no longer playing a role in childbearing, and the end of transmitted diseases, the need for monogamous lifelong partnerships had ended. The human lifecycle had also been dramatically altered, mostly slowed. From what I learned, most of the women in the lab, even those who seemed young, possibly as young as me, were in their thirties. Women now reached their adult maturity, and height around twenty-two, and only gained a moderate appearance of age before death in their 90s.
Then I reached an unusual interactive chart of average age and height. An animated woman appeared next to the chart and moved slightly. She seemed to be looking right at me, making her feel very real. I was close enough to six feet tall, and when I looked back at the chart, it showed that peers about 2 meters tall would be only twelve. As my fingers brushed the row of the chart, the animated woman came to life and seemed to become younger and shorter. "At twelve years old, I'd be about 2 meters tall. How tall are you now?" I felt self conscious about speaking with Roz sitting across the room. The speakers of the tablet were designed to focus sound on the user, but she'd hear me if I spoke. I mouthed out the words, and was impressed at how well the device could read my lips. "Six feel tall is about one point eight meters. Just about my height." A black female silouette appeared next to her, to represent me I suppose. Looking back at the chart, age sixteen averaged eight feet tall! While the idea of a girl my age being two feet taller was intimidating, it also caused a chill of thrilling curiosity. I slid my finger across the row and watched the figure become slightly taller and more mature. "Four years later, I'll be about two and a half meters tall." The head of the black silhouette was about even with her breasts. I slid my finger along the chart and enjoyed watching her grow taller still next to the silhouette. She didn't speak anymore, but did shift her weight back and forth.
A few moments later the the educational lesson moved on. The rest of of the session was an intermix of geometry and algebra. At first I cringed and looked for the door, but Roz was patiently seated near it reading, and I wasn't getting past her. Once I resigned to pay attention to the lesson, I was amazed how much it made sense. The computer education system worked very differently than traditional classroom learning. It tossed up concepts and examples in an interactive fashion. The animated woman even reappeared to explain right triangles. It was funny watching her walk around and interact with the line drawings. I was thoroughly entertained. When the lesson came to a close, I set the tablet down and Roz was already looking up from her tablet and waiting patiently. "Ready to go? I have a surprise for you."
She led me down the white corridors, until I entered a room with much more equipment than any I had seen before. It was arranged neatly along a console desk, with several chairs spaced apart. The top half of the wall behind the console was a clear panel, but I wasn't tall enough to get a look through it. Two women were sitting in the chairs facing away from me, one with black hair, one brunette, both wearing long white labcoats. Then I heard it, Sam's voice! "I apologize I didn't make our arranged time yesterday. I understand you were able to talk to my associate, Andy. Heather indicated I should check in and let you know that everything is progressing as expected." He was working so hard to sound official, but with the voice of a teenager, he wasn't even fooling me. Yesterday? Wasn't I supposed to go back right when I left?
"It's not Steven Lindstrom. So it's this teen Sam then?" The brunette was speaking, in a moment I realized it was Catlin, the lab director. "Heather? does that mean we sent her too?"
Roz knelt down beside me and spoke softly, "It's your friend Sam. We can't let you speak with him, but I thought you might like to hear his voice."
The dark haired woman turned around towards us, and I realized I recognized her. It was Angelique! She was even more stunning in person than she was in her photo. "What? He can't be here. The causal chain! Get him out of here." With that Roz quickly apologized and held my arm tightly as she dragged me through the door.
* Overheard
My feet were dangling from the chair Angelique had raised up high for me to reach the computer console. I had been researching my aphasic theories all morning when I was interrupted. I wasn't sure what I was hearing at first. A moment later it was clear a a conversation was coming over the workstation speakers. Searching the screen for clues quickly showed that it was over the aphasic link. Who was it? After only a few minutes I recognized Angelique's voice. She was talking to someone named Sam. "I understand you were able to talk to my associate, Andy. Heather indicated I should check in and let you know that everything is progressing as expected." His diction sounded official, but it couldn't mask the childlike tone of his voice. He was young.
"Sam, no apology necessary. Is Andy there with you? Has he decided to return?" Return? So there are others that have been in the future? I wanted to know where they were and how Angelique was involved. The situation seemed quite suspicious.
"Andy is ready and positioned in the mesh. Initiate transfer." Some signals changed on the display, and an indication that an aphasic matter resonance transfer was occuring.
A moment later she spoke again. "Andy has arrived. Are you and Heather ready?"
"Heather has requested I inform you of her intent to stay here, at least for a while." A very long silence followed. Who was Heather?
"Sam, that is as unexpected. Is she with you? Can you put her on the microphone?"
"She is not. She will be back to discuss this with you in 24 hours time."
The conversation was puzzling, but even more puzzling was how I was hearing it. I picked through the displays and thought about my newfound understanding of the aphasic endpoints. It was as if they were tuned to the same channel, and I was listening in. That shouldn't be possible, unless... Of course! Unless Angelique had intentionally transferred the synchronization resonance codes to her endpoint here. That must have been how she stole my endpoint and ultimately how I ended up here in her apartment instead of at the Reslink lab. It seemed likely the lab wouldn't know about her activities here. For a moment I considered trying to speak into the channel to somehow get through to Reslink. Was she even at Reslink? I had only heard her voice, and I wasn't sure anyone else was listening on the other end.
Just then the door to the apartment slid open behind me, and I turned to see Gina walking in.