Brave New World Ch. 01

She sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to preach," she said. "You will need to make up your own mind about these things. In due time, that is. All these choices will be open to you, Roy, and you will have all the time you need to make them. And my opinion is not the only one. Reesh, for example, has had seven children already, and she wants more. In fact, she and Vard are probably working on one right now." She smiled. "Let's go see how they're doing."

* * *

Reesh and Vard seemed to be doing alright, Roy decided. Moans of pleasure came from behind the bushes that surrounded the pool when Tami, apparently unhindered by any thoughts about privacy, led him into the clearing.

Reesh was sitting with her back against a grassy knoll. She had her eyes closed, and her face was flushed. Her hard nipples stood out proudly from the tips of her beautiful breasts. Her thighs were spread wide and Vard was kneeling between them. His large cock stood ramrod-straight as it probed the depths of her hairless pussy. He fucked her with long, steady strokes in the best pornstar fashion, Roy thought, pulling himself all the way out of her until the unusually large head of his cock stretched the lips of her pussy, then plunging deeply back into her with a strong, quick thrust. Their moans of pleasure matched the rhythm of his strokes, and the looks on both their faces spoke of an ecstasy so intense that Roy couldn't even begin to imagine it. The two of them were completely oblivious of Tami and Roy standing there.

"Best to leave them alone, I think," Roy whispered. Tami nodded. They turned and left the two lovers to their pleasure. Just when they cleared the bushes, Reesh' long, orgasmic "Oohh... Oh... Oh... Oh... OOOOHHH!!" followed them, and Vard's loud groan of ecstasy as he came was not far behind.

"There's no need to blush, Roy," Tami said, smiling. "I know this is one of the things you need to get used to, but the more relaxed you become about sex, the easier it will be. We have no sexual taboos here. None. We share our lovemaking freely. Sex is our greatest pleasure, and we pursue it whenever we can. We have tried to make and art and a science of it."

Roy said nothing. He was no longer feeling as self-conscious as he had been that morning, but this wanton display of sexual bliss between two other people didn't exactly help.

"For example," she continued, "Reesh has given you frequent orgasms while you were recovering, didn't she?"

Roy could only nod. He felt himself blushing even harder.

"She did that because a good orgasm is beneficial to both the body and the mind," Tami went on. "While Reesh stroked and sucked your cock, your body became more active during your build-up to orgasm. Then, when you came, your brain released all sorts of calming and mood-stabilizing chemicals, and when you ejaculated, all kinds of muscular contractions contributed to getting your entire reproductive system back in shape, which helped you to enjoy sex again sooner and more intensely. So in effect, what she gave you was not only pleasure, but also the equivalent of a physical workout and a shot of natural brain chemicals that otherwise would have required medication." She smiled impishly. "And I'm sure you'll agree that she really is very good at it, don't you?"

"Hmm... Yeah," Roy said softly.

"It's alright to say it, Roy. She pleasured your cock with her hands and her mouth, and you enjoyed it immensely. And when you came, the orgasm was more intense and pleasurable than you had ever experienced. Not so?"

Once again, Roy could only nod.

"Then what's the problem?" she said. "These things are good for us. They're there to be enjoyed to the full, not to be embarrassed about." She took his hand. "In fact, I was hoping you'd spend the night with me. Vard and Reesh are obviously going to be together for the next few hours. So you're at loose ends, and I don't really like sleeping alone. We're both just naturals, but we can still give each other pleasure."

"What does being a natural have to do with it?" Roy asked.

"Vard and Reesh have both gone for most of the sexual mods," she said.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that they'll be able to enjoy sex as often as they want, for as long as they want. Vard's erection will last for as long as he chooses, and he will be able to have one orgasm after another. He will be able to ejaculate every time without running out of cum, and his cock will stay hard continuously. Meanwhile her pussy will never run dry, and she will be able to cum easily and often. And their pleasure during sex will be much more intense than it currently is for you and me. And that's only some of it."

Roy slowly nodded. "And I couldn't help noticing his... size," he said.

Tami chuckled. "Yes, and that's definitely not what he was born with. And just between you and me, I personally feel that he might have overdone it just a little. But then, most men do, and of course most women who have the mods can accommodate them, so it's never a problem. I tried, and I'll have to admit that in some ways a big cock feels great every now and then, but Vard's size it's just a bit painful for me."

"You mean... You and Vard...?" Roy asked.

"Of course," she said brightly. "I told you, Roy, we enjoy sex and we share it freely. Sure, there are those who choose to be in monogamous relationships, and it seems to work for them. But most people are quite free and relaxed about it. If people like each other, and nobody's feelings get hurt, what is there to stop them from enjoying sexual pleasure together?"

Roy slowly nodded. "I have no problem with that, Tami," he said. "It's just that..."

She nodded. "Yes, it's far removed from what you were used to. You grew up in a society that was sexually repressive, to put it kindly. By the way, that's another example of what cultural historians will be interested in. It may even have been one of the factors that contributed to the war erupting out of control as it did."

She thought for a moment. "Today's world is definitely not a utopia, Roy. And not everyone gets along with everyone. But at least we have learned to become much more relaxed with the essential human need for some good, healthy intimacy."

She reached out and stroked his ass. "Take you and me, for example. We can just be together and enjoy each other if that's what we both want, and no-one will be offended." She reached between his legs and caressed his balls from behind. "I like you, and I enjoy giving you pleasure. And you have given me pleasure as well, and I'm hoping you will give me more." She looked at him and smiled. "Will you?"

Roy smiled. He felt his cock swell again in response to her caress. He looked down and she followed his gaze.

"I take that as a yes," she said, smiling. "But first things first. I promised you some answers. We're going to see someone who can give them to you. Her name is Kyo. I'm not an engineer, but she is."

* * *

She took him a long way across the garden, until they came to the circular wall again. She selected a door and pushed a button. A human voice answered. This time Roy could almost understand some of the words, but somehow, tantalizingly, the language still eluded him. The door opened, and they entered a pleasant, airy room. The floor was covered with what looked to be grass, and some of the molten-looking furniture stood in its center. Along one wall was a counter with some sort of console and something that looked like a microwave oven. A soft light permeated the room, but again Roy could not see where it came from. There was no ceiling. The walls of the room seemed to go up all the way to the low edge of the transparent dome, showing the black, star-filled expanse overhead.

"Camtru m'ere!" a voice called from an open door in the rear wall of the room.

Tami led him through it, into what appeared to be a bathroom of some kind. Off to one side Roy saw a pleasantly shaped asymmetric pool built into the floor, filled with clear water. To the back of the room was a stall which seemed to contain... some sort of tornado, Roy thought, a small, tame, low speed waterspout. The vortex of water droplets went round and round. A fuzzy shape appeared to be moving inside it.

There was a sound of rushing air, and the waterspout dissipated. In its place stood a woman. She had her arms upraised, her hands on the top of her head. She stretched luxuriously. She was petite, with a slender, cat-like body, shapely and full but not overly large breasts, a slender waist, and the most gorgeous ass Roy had ever seen. Her short, black hair, her coffee-and-cream colored skin and her almond-shaped eyes told him she almost had to be of Asian descent, although he had no idea exactly where her origins might lie. On the left side of her face she had some of the golden markings that he had seen Reesh wear earlier.

"Tamroi ryu?" she said.

"Slow down, Kyo," Tami said, smiling. "Did you forget your hypno already?"

"Sorry, Roy," Kyo answered. "I meant to say: Hi, Tami, and Roy. How are you?"

Roy slowly smiled. Suddenly he understood why this strange speech was so tantalizingly close to being intelligible. Most of it was in fact a severely abbreviated, simplified, contracted and speeded-up version of the English that he had spoken all his life.

"I'm fine," he said, meaning it. Tami simply stepped forward and gave Kyo a brief but warm hug.

"Sorry I'm a bit late," Kyo said. "The hypno took longer than I expected. I've never been good with languages."

"Hypno?" Roy asked.

"Hypnotic learning," Kyo said. "I had to learn archaic English, and I only got Tami's request about two hours ago."

Roy looked at Tami and raised his eyebrows. "Archaic?" he asked mildly.

Tami smiled. "Only from a language perspective, Roy," she said.

"Sorry, Roy. I'm still getting used to it," Kyo said as she walked out of the bathroom. Roy's eyes were glued to her gorgeous ass as they followed her.

Tami smiled at him. "I'm noticing you noticing her," she said softly.

Kyo giggled. "Hey, Roy," she said as she wiggled her butt at him. "I hope you like what you see?"

She looked over her shoulder and smiled when she saw Roy's cock, which was rising rapidly.

"Hmm... I guess you do. Can I play with that a little later?"

Roy turned beet red.

"I keep telling you, Roy, there's no need to be embarrassed," Tami said as she saw the look on his face. "A spontaneous erection is one of the best compliments a woman can get. And it's well deserved, too. I wish I had an ass like that."

Kyo wiggled her gorgeous buns again, giggling. "You can have it any time you like, sweetie," she told Tami. "Just say the word."

Tami smiled and slowly shook her head. "Thanks, Ki, but like I told you, I need a cock inside me. I'm the old-fashioned type." She looked fondly at Roy's cock, which by now stood proud and hard in front of him. She reached out and put her hand around his throbbing shaft. He felt his own heat pulsing between her fingers.

Kyo walked over to the counter. "Can I get you guys something to drink first?" she asked.

Tami nodded. "I think we also need to eat something," she said. "Would you mind, Ki?"

"Not at all. Something light?" Kyo asked.

"Yeah. Roy still has a lot of nanotech in him," Tami said. "Thanks, Ki."

"No problem," Kyo said. She began to tap her fingers on the panel at the counter, then retrieved two full glasses from somewhere and handed them to Roy and Tami.

Roy sipped, grateful for the change of subject. While the glass didn't feel cool to his hand, the liquid in it was icy cold. It tasted sweet with a hint of alcohol. His hard-on began to subside.

"Hmm," he said appreciatively, and took another sip. "Thanks."

"You like?" she asked. He nodded.

Then he took a closer look at the glass. Glass? Maybe not. It was extremely thin but felt sturdy in his hands, and it seemed to be an almost perfect insulator. And... Was he imagining it, or did it still seem as full as when she gave it to him? He drank again.

No. The level in his glass had clearly gone down... Then he saw it. The upper edge of the rim of the glass slowly shrank, leaving the glass just a little shorter. He drank again. The glass shortened again.

"Kyo..." he said, still staring at the glass. "Tami said you could answer some questions for me."

She nodded. "I'll try."

"Okay," Roy said, looking up. "Let's start with this... glass, I guess. What is it? How does it work?"

"It's not glass," she said. "It's a modified protein with a molecular structure that makes it extremely strong. It includes an enzyme that's activated by air when you drink, and which breaks down the protein into gaseous components, so the material disappears as soon as it becomes redundant. It's completely organic and it fully biodegrades, which means we don't have to manufacture anything or recycle anything, other than through hydroponics. A lot of things in the hab are like that."

"So why haven't I seen it before?"

"Probably because we don't use it in the medical wing. The traces this stuff leaves are harmless and dissipate quickly, but they can still interfere with air sterility. Didn't you notice that the rooms there are kept slightly over-pressurized?"

"No, I didn't."

Roy drained his glass and watched it disappear. "Chemistry sure has come a long way..." he mused. He sat down on one of the molten-looking chairs. It felt warm and comfortable against his skin, and he felt himself relax.

Kyo sat down across from him, sipping her drink. "I think I can see how your mind works, Roy," she said. "I understand you were a soldier. But you have the mind of an engineer. What was your specialty?"

Roy smiled ruefully. "Electronics," he said. "That's what got me stationed at a listening post instead of a combat position. And still it got me blown to bits." He looked down at his abdomen. "I still don't know how you guys fixed that up."

"Reesh and Vard are good at what they do," Tami told him.

"And so are you, Tams," Kyo said. "I don't know much about medical sciences, Roy. Other than the mods I have, I've never managed to get myself interested. But with the technology stuff I can probably help you. And I guess the good news is that the principles haven't really changed over the years. There's just been a lot of progress, that's all. So you can learn, Roy. You're never too old to learn."

He smiled. "I hope so," he said. "Right now it's the small things that keep bugging me." He looked around the room. "Like, where does the light come from?"

"In here, you mean?" she asked. He nodded.

"Simple. A small trickle current flowing through the walls and other surfaces activates a coating so that it gives off light. Regulating the current regulates the light, so that the levels are equalized throughout the room." She glanced at the door. "Out there in hydroponics, it's a little more complicated. I'm not an expert on all of the details there because optics isn't my field, but what it comes down to is that sunlight is being refracted and piped in from all directions through the dome. At the same time a polarization effect prevents any glare. So you've got sunlight coming in without being blinded by a single source and without creating any hard shadows, which also gives us an optimal crop yield."

She looked at him. "Does any of this help you?"

Roy nodded. "Actually it does. It helps a great deal. Thank you."

She smiled. "Then I think what we need to do is take some time to give you some general background on stuff like this. But Tami tells me you've still got some recovering to do, so I guess that will have to wait a while."

Tami nodded. "Yes. Roy is scheduled for the autodoc tomorrow."

"Autodoc?" Roy asked.

Kyo nodded. "Think of it as a... robotic surgeon," she said, "but far more advanced. Depending on the model and programming, autodocs can deal with any standard medical issue. And with some non-standard ones, in your case."

"Don't worry, Roy," Tami said. "You'll see. We've all spent time in autodocs before."

Roy sighed. "Disappearing glasses, bending light, automated surgery... And that's only the small stuff." He warily rubbed his eyes.

"You'll get through this, Roy," Tami told him. "We will get you through this."

"Thanks, Tami," Roy said. "I know you're doing your best. And it does help. But it's all a bit... much."

Kyo nodded. "I can imagine. What we take for granted is all completely new to you. So feel free to ask. I'll help you in any way I can."

Roy smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Ki. But I've got a million questions."

"That's alright," Kyo said. "Ask them one at a time."

Roy thought for a moment. "Okay," he said. "What about the artificial gravity here?"

Kyo shook her head. "That's the wrong term for it. Artificial gravity is impossible. You can't create gravity, not even in theory, not without affecting time, mass, inertia, the structure of space..." She thought for a moment. "Instead what we do is... Let's just say we manipulate existing gravity. We are still within Earth's gravity field. It's just that our orbital velocity keeps the hab from falling down. So what we do is..." She paused. "How's your quantum physics?"

Roy winced. "Not good at all. I know some of the bare basics, just enough to give me a headache. But beyond that..." He shook his head.

"Okay," Kyo said. "What the gravity planer does is essentially to allow gravity and centripetal acceleration and various other forces acting on matter to act selectively. Like, our orbital velocity affects the hab, but not us. Within the gravity planer's field we appear to have weight, but all that really happens is that the force created by our orbital velocity which pulls the hab outward from Earth's gravity does not act on you and me."

Roy struggled to visualize the unfamiliar concept. "So..." he began. He thought for a moment. "Could you use that effect in reverse to launch something off the surface of the Earth?"

Kyo's face split into a huge grin. "I told you he had the right mind for it!" she said to Tami. "Yes, Roy, you can. We used it to put the habs into orbit, among other things," she said. "There's also a huge amount of energy involved. There are limits to what practical gravity planers can handle, and getting the hab up to altitude and velocity requires much more energy than that. But essentially, yes, that's part of how it works."

Roy felt as if a huge weight was slowly being lifted from his chest. Suddenly the idea of having to live in this new world with all its new concepts did not seem so daunting anymore. While he still did feel like a caveman, he now had some hope that he might be able to evolve a little.

"Right," Tami said, seeing his relief. "Let's eat."

"Yes," Kyo said, smiling. "Would you like to eat me, Roy?" She stood before him, spread her legs and put her hands on her head, tilting her upper body slightly backward so that her perfect breasts were raised. The effect was stunning.

"Easy, Ki. Maybe later," Tami quickly interjected.

Kyo giggled, then turned around and walked over to the counter, wiggling her ass at Roy, who felt his cock stir again. She tapped out some sequence on the panel, then opened the microwave-like box and took out three bowls of food. She handed one to Roy along with a utensil that looked like a cross between a spoon and a spatula. The bowl appeared to be made of the same sort of material as the "glass" he had seen earlier. The food looked to be a mix of finely chopped vegetables and small cubes of meat, with a hint of herbs and spices. It smelled good, Roy thought.

"I hope you like it," Kyo said. "I'm not sure what Reesh has been feeding you so far. This is one of the lighter combinations in the synther. It should be alright for you."