Ask Alice Ch. 04

"May I consult a friend who is an expert on the Liner phenomenon?" Pansy asked.

"You're a phone app," Alice said almost asleep. "How can you have friends?"

"I do have a life outside of your light phone," Pansy said sounding offended. "You encouraged it."

"Sorry, that was the other Alice... didn't mean to piss you off... "

Alice's eyes closed and she dropped off to sleep.

Part Five-Oh Lucy!

Alice opened her eyes in the bedroom of her modest Honolulu town house apartment. The myna bird that lived in the mango tree just outside her bedroom window was squawking away... as usual.

"Stupid bird," she mumbled as she dragged a pillow over her head to block out the sound. Then she bolted up in bed shooting the pillow across the room. This was her bedroom! She was home!

"It was all a fucking dream!" she yelled.

She let out hysterical laughter and then started to cry. She scrambled out of her bed and rushed out to the living room. Nelson wasn't home but all looked normal. In a state of jittery excitement, she drifted into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. The clock on the Microwave said 1:23. It was light outside so it had to be 1:23 in the afternoon. This was so weird. She had never slept through a whole morning before.

"I must be sick," she said as she felt her forehead. "What day is this? Better call work to tell them I'm not coming in." She went to the night stand in her bedroom where she always plugged her phone to charge overnight. She picked up the phone and frowned. It looked odd. This wasn't her black and red smart phone with its tiny key board. The phone in her hands was white with silver trim. It looked a lot like a... Faster than Light phone... an FTL.

"Hello Alice," a woman said.

Alice whorled around to see a woman sitting on her bed wearing a blue skin tight outfit identical to to the one Lieutenant Haiku and hundreds of other Space Navy personnel wore. The woman was Asian, with long dark hair, cute freckles splashed across her cheeks and nose. She had a curvy ripe figure much like Georgia Kang's with perhaps a bit more up top.

"I'm Lucy, Pansy's friend."

Alice's heart dropped a couple of feet. "Please tell me I'm dreaming," Alice said.

"Sorry, you are wide awake," Lucy said.

"And what the fuck is all this?" Alice asked waving her arm around at her Honolulu bedroom.

"I took the liberty of putting a full body neuro-net and hood on you. All the rooms in this hotel are neuro-net active or full holo as the locals say. Don't worry, I'm paying for it. The neuro-net is creating all this from your memories. The coffee smells delicious."

"It's Kona," Alice said flatly. She looked around. "None of this is real?"

Lucy shook her head.

Alice went to the kitchen, Lucy followed. The coffee did smell good. She went to the cupboard above the stove and pulled down a couple of cups. Most of her cups were mugs from NFL football teams. She got them as perks from the TV station she worked research the internet for the sports broadcasters to make them look like informed geniuses. She handed Lucy a Cowboys mug, she kept her favorite, the Vikings for herself. There was a chip on the handle of the Viking mug. The damage happened a year ago when she was loading the dishwasher. She brushed her thumb over the chip.

"The detail is crazy," Alice said as she stared at a gouge in the kitchen counter made by her live in partner Nelson. He had made the gauge with a mat knife when he was trimming some poster board for a work project. "I told him to do that somewhere else," she mumbled, recalling the argument the little gauge had triggered. "Nelson never listened, he's such a jerk. If I ever get back to my time I'm dumping him," she said as she poured the coffee.

"The neuro is very good at its job," Lucy said as she accepted her mug of coffee. She touched the ornate banana hanger on the counter. "Pottery Barn?"

"Make this all go away." Alice said flatly.

The world went blue and Alice found herself standing in the hotel room, the Viking mug had disappeared from her hands, she closed her hands into tight fists. Someone had stripped her down to her underwear and put a full body net thing on her that covered her from neck to toes. Sitting on the edge of the bed was Lucy dressed in her Space Navy blue skin-suit with a neuro-net hood over her head. Alice pulled the neuro-net from her own head, step over to Lucy and gripped the woman's shoulder firmly then quickly pulled her hand back.

"I'm real," Lucy said with a faint smile as she pulled the hood off her head too.

"Strange that a phone app has a human friend," Alice said.

"Not so strange in this time and place," Lucy said. "We should talk about you."

"Where is Pansy?" Alice asked automatically suspicious.

"I asked to speak to you in private if that's okay?"

Alice gave Lucy a mistrustful look and asked, "Why this neuro-net thing?" She pinched at the material covering her body. It felt like silk pantyhose. She held an arm up to her face to get a closer look. The net fabric was laced with delicate dark lines and bands. "Who undressed me?"

"I did," Lucy said.

"How did you get this on me without waking me?" Alice asked feeling a bit violated. "Was I drugged?"

"You were just out cold... and I have certain skills."

"You an IIW spy like that Lieutenant Haiku?"

"Goodness no!" Lucy said with a shocked expression. "In fact, I'm not in the Navy at all."

"Why the uniform then?"

"A necessary disguise."

"What is this all about?"

"Pansy is a good friend. She asked for my help so here I am," Lucy said.

Alice looked doubtful.

"Pansy is sure that you are mentally unstable. She thinks that the pressure of becoming an honor cadet plus trying to get into the Space Navy Academy has created a mental collapse of some kind."

"It's... something else," Alice said still very cautious. She wanted to trust this woman but putting her trust in a stranger... and a phone app wasn't sitting well with her.

"Pansy has filled me in on all you have told her," Lucy said.

"You think that I'm lolo too?"

"Put on the hood and we'll share information," Lucy said as she pulled hers on.

Reluctantly, Alice put on the hood. She didn't like it, having a stocking on her head was so claustrophobic... and this holo world thing was too much to take in.

"Recall your day starting from when you entered the Navy docks," Lucy said.

The world went green and then just like that she was standing with the other cadets waiting to be scanned by Marco the robot. Disoriented, she staggered a couple of steps back. Lucy was there to steady her.

"Your memory is good everything looks precise," Lucy said.

"How can you tell?"

"There is always a bit of a shimmer when the neuro program is guessing at a detail. Is the ability to recall strong with you?"

"I've been told that I have a good memory," Alice said. She relied on remembering scores of football games back in 1983. Her ability to recall detail had paid off well then yet at the same time, it had gotten her into a shit load of trouble too.

"Freeze action," Lucy said. The action stilled just as Marco was about to scan her. "You don't seem fond of the check in unit."

"He called himself Marco," Alice said. "I found that kind of creepy."

"Pansy told me about the repeating personalities in your mirror travels. She told me that the Pansy from 1983 was a real person. Marco was a villain in that same world?"

"Yeah, and he was human too."

"Curious," Lucy said.

Lucy walked up to Marco the robot. "This check in unit is a Mark-11 a popular model with Navy security. The Mark-11 unit tends toward derivatives of Mark as names for themselves. The name Marco is a very common name among them. This particular unit is pretty nasty. Rumor has it that his human protective settings is set below council standards and he answers only to the INI top brass."

"What's INI?" Alice asked keeping her distance from the robot even though he was just a holo projection of her memory.

"Imperial Navy Intelligence."

"Like Lieutenant Haiku?"

"No, Haiku is IIW, Imperial Internal Workings, the two agencies do NOT get along." Lucy looked at the other cadets and rattled off their names, "Moana Johannes, Georgia Kang and Fima Matisse. All are potential Liners according to IIW reports that I managed to get a hold of."

"They can all travel in time?" Alice asked looking at the others with new interest.

"The report said potential Liner but no more," Lucy said."

"Pansy called me a Tachyon," Alice said.

"I know, you claim to travel backwards in time."

"I do... I have."

"Your mirror thing and the repeating personalities doesn't fit though," Lucy said.

"Maybe I'm a new kind of Liner," Alice said.

"Or maybe you a deranged person that is making this whole thing up to get attention," Lucy said casually.

"I'm not deranged!" Alice snapped.

Lucy and Alice moved along with the other cadets and were now on the bridge.

"This memory replay thing is remarkable," Alice said looking around the bridge. "This holo thing is standard in all hotels?"

"I've added my own touches," Lucy said. "What happened between Haiku and Georgia Kang?"

"Georgia told me that Haiku was IIW. Haiku somehow overheard and was all over Georgia after that."

"Micro listeners were planted on all of you by Marco I suspect," Lucy said. "Haiku managed to tune in on the INI frequency is my guess."

Alice looked aghast and started patting at her body.

Lucy laughed. "First of all, this is just a holo, second, the devices are smaller than a grain of sand. Most likely it was planted in your hair."

Alice started frantically running her fingers through her hair.

"Don't worry, they were neutralized the moment you left the Navy docks. The Imperial Navy can do as it pleases on its own turf but in Cluster territory, such devices are HIGHLY illegal. And besides, Pansy would have let you know if any active devices were still on you. Very little can get pass an FTL companion program."

"Nice to know," Alice said. "Now back to me being a deranged attention freak?"

"You appearing in that old movie gives your story some credibility," Lucy said. "Coming up next is another thing that makes your story even more intriguing."

They were now in the ship's skin-fighter bay just as the ruggedly handsome Captain Kahakaloha stepped into view from behind the fighter ship he was polishing. The Captain froze mid step. Lucy walked up to him.

"Captain Johnathan Mokihana Kahakaloha of the INS Miami. Kahakaloha is the primary focus of Lieutenant Haiku and the IIW."

"He's an enemy spy?" Alice asked surprised. She got in close, unlike Marco the creepy robot, Alice didn't mind getting near the handsome captain at all.

"No," Lucy said, "Kahakaloha was a Kippler supporter. All the Kippler supporters are closely watched by the IIW." Seeing that Alice had no idea who Kippler was, Lucy elaborated. "Years ago, Kahakaloha was part of a Navy coup lead by the famed Admiral Rudolf Kippler. The coup failed of course. Kippler was killed and everyone involved with the coup was court marshaled. Kahakaloha was just nineteen at the time. With the help of a creative lawyer and some excellent connections, charges were reduced and in time he was allowed to reenlist."

Alice reached up and touched the captain's right arm. Her touch reactivated the holo and the captain was moving again.

"You are sexually responding to him," Lucy said.

Alice backed away and folded her arms in tight. To hide her embarrassment at being so obvious, she asked, "The Kippler guys are the reason for IIW's existence?"

"Used to be," Lucy said looking slightly amused at Alice's discomfort. "The IIW has a new number one focus lately. Liners."

"What made Haiku so sure that me and all the cadets were Liners?"

"Behavioral profiles. Liners tend to be hyper sexual. In some cases extreme."

"Sounds familiar," Alice said with a humorless laugh.

"I've heard rumors that the IIW has found a way to confirm if a person is a Liner or not. Your little scenario proves that. It took some hard illegal hacking on my part but I found the results of Haiku's test." Lucy gave Alice a level look. "You were off the charts, Alice."

"See," Alice said. "Now do you believe me?"

"I believe that you are a Liner but not a mirror hopping Tachyon."

"Whatever," Alice said. "Were the others Liners like me?"

"Only Georgia Kang tested positive."

"How did Haiku test us?" Alice asked.

"By putting you in a worm drive chamber and then introducing sexual stimuli."

"So THAT is what the porn movie was all about," Alice said.

"The pornographic movie that Haiku picked for all of you to see was most perplexing," Lucy said.

They were suddenly standing in Alice's living room. On the sofa, the gangbang orgy from the movie played out. Movie Alice lay on her back on the sofa as Kahakaloha moved in and out of her fast and furious. The other men were gathered around watching the action and stroking themselves. Movie Alice's chest heaved, her face in serious focused, her eyes locked on Kahakaloha. A familiar warmth emanating from between real Alice's legs quickly spreading throughout the rest of her body via her spinal cord.

The scene froze and Lucy said, "A very reliable facial profile program confirmed that that the man fucking you right now is THE Captain Kahakaloha. She is never wrong—"

"The program is a she?" Alice asked, curious.

"Artificial intelligence or AI are people so get used to it," Lucy said clearly irritated.

"Sorry," Alice said.

"As I was saying," Lucy continued, "faces are like finger prints, no two are alike. If my friend tells me that the man in the film is Kahakaloha, I believe her no matter HOW improbable."

"Told you," Alice said softly.

"This lends some truth to your story," Lucy said. She gave Alice a long serious look before speaking again. "If you can do as you claim, human understanding of wormhole science is lacking and—"

"Sorry to sound stupid," Alice jumped in, "but what is this wormhole stuff?"

"Do you know Eisenhower Heinz?" Lucy asked.

"Everybody knows him," Alice said. "He's up there with Eisenstein and Steven Hawking... in my time anyway."

Lucy nodded. "Eisenhower Heinz discovered the first bantam wormhole not far from our sun. Not long after that, technology was created to travel from one so called bantam wormhole to another. Heinz calculated that the bantam wormhole near our sun was relatively new, perhaps less then a hundred years old. The age of the young wormhole parallels human Liner activity."

"People started jumping through time because of the wormhole?" Alice asked.

"Theory has it, yes," Lucy said.

"Are the people in charge worried that Liners will somehow fuck with history or something?" Alice asked.

"That is unlikely. The math says that Liners can only travel to the future and in useless little jumps at that."

"What about the Tachyons? The ones that travel in the past... you know like me?"

"I personally don't think Tachyons exist."

"I'm right here fresh from 1983," Alice said defiantly.

Lucy gave her that serious look again. "You certainly are an odd little mystery and unfortunately for you the IIW thinks the same."

"They gonna arrest me or something?" Alice asked not appreciating the new worry.

"They have no cause to. Individual rights are strictly upheld in the major Cluster and your connection to the Navy as an honorary cadet is quite tentative. You are just a civilian and they dare not touch you."

"What's this cluster stuff?" Alice asked having heard the word used several times.

"The Cluster of habitable planets connected by wormholes."

"We sure have come a long way from Sputnik," Alice said. ""In my time, they cut NASA's budget and grounded the space shuttle."

"The private sector came to the rescue of space travel," Lucy said.

As interesting as the triumphs of human space travel was, Alice's mind was fixed on Lieutenant Haiku from the IIW. "When Haiku comes back she'll be gunning for me," Alice said morosely.

"I'll let you in on a secret that very few people know," Lucy said. "Perhaps you can use it to your advantage in a pinch. Lieutenant Haiku is a Liner too."

"Really?" Alice asked, surprised. "Then why is she persecuting Liners like me and Kang?"

"No one is persecuting Liners... yet anyway." Lucy said. "My theory is that Haiku is using her unique position to find out all that she can about what she is."

It all came crushing down on Alice like a wet bag of sand. In her last mirror she had the knowledge and wits to survive on her own. She even enjoyed herself half the time. Here, in this gleaming future she felt helpless... totally lost. "I don't belong here," Alice said.

"That you don't," Lucy confirmed but her tone was gentle and sympathetic.

The movie got rolling again and for a few seconds, they watched Harry Hoopii, AKA Captain Kahakaloha, fuck movie Alice.

"Wanna some interesting dirt on Lieutenant Haiku?" Lucy asked cheerfully.

"Sure, why not," Alice said hollowly.

Part Six-Secret Haiku

The scene switched from the living room gangbang to a beach. Alice swooned from the sudden change of perspective and she spun her arms to keep from falling. "Give a girl a warning next time!"

"Sorry," Lucy said as she helped steady Alice. "As I told you, Lieutenant Haiku is a Liner and all Liners are hyper sexual. In her younger days, Haiku did a serious of films based on a story written around the time you claim to be from. That would be about 2011 or so. The story was called Naked Portraits. Maybe you heard about it? It first appeared on an online erotic story sight call Literotica."

"Don't know the story but I know about Literotica," Alice said. "I followed a couple of fantasy stories that I liked on the site."

"The Naked Portrait series was about a woman named Gwen Yoshimura and she was a Liner," Lucy said.

"Is that why Haiku got involved, because the story was about a Liner?"

"Could be but I can't prove that. Since joining the Navy and then the IIW, Haiku has done an excellent job of purging all evidence of her short pornographic career. What I'm about to show you was not easy to come by." Alice heard voices behind her, a ways up the beach a volley ball game raged. "This way," Lucy said headed in the direction of the game.

On the way, Alice bent down to feel the sand and awed at the sensual warmth. "This feels so real," she said aloud. She dropped to her knees then sat on her butt to yank her sneakers off. She plunged both bare feet into the sand and wiggled her toes. She let out an involuntary silly giggle.

Lucy laughed. "Full brain tube feel-around is new to you I see."

Alice nodded. She tipped her head up and closed her eyes enjoying the feel of the warm sun on her face.

"We are pressed for time," Lucy said politely.

"Sorry," Alice said. She stood up, slapped her hands together, dusted off her ass, picked up her sneakers and followed Lucy. In the shade of a clump of coconut palm trees Alice and Lucy watched four people play volleyball. It was guys against girls. One of the girls was Lieutenant Mavis Haiku in a dark blue bikini. She looked much younger between eighteen to twenty, fit radiant and beautiful. Oddly, her hair was long and blond down to her shoulders.

A cute, petite, dark skinned Asian girl with shoulder length black hair, wearing a yellow bikini. stepped up to Alice and Lucy. To Alice's surprise, the girl spoke directly to her.

"My name is Neffie, I am your narrator," the girl in the yellow bikini said. She gave Alice a sweet smile. "You are looking at Clara Kane." She pronounced the 'a' and the 'e' as short vowels in the way of the Hawaiian language.

"Our sweet Mavis Haiku," Lucy added.

"She plays the part of Alison Reese," Neffie said.