It's My Party

Amber felt dead by then, but Jessica was profoundly moved by her companion's act of kindness. She knew Jenaro had often treated Amber badly, and yet here was Amber desperate to leave this nightmarish room but still taking the time to give Jenaro's remains some kind of respectful disposal. Could Jessica do less? No. She went to the pile of Jenaro's remains when they were finished, and out loud she tried to say a short prayer. She said she forgave him for raping her, and she hoped Jenaro was in a better place now, a place without greed and cruelty.

By this time it was past four o'clock. Whitney, Kiyoko and Doug had the linear building in view and were talking with their friends back at the Hilton, The shock of their victory had faded, but everyone was still confused. How had Amber succeeded, and why had she not discussed her brilliant plan before? Why had she decided to shoulder the burden alone? And the Society still had five people trapped in the Black Mall surface area, Jessica and Doug and three of their own. Wild celebration would be premature.

At 5:45 PM, just a moment before sunset, the three searchers were delighted to see Jessica and Amber waving to them happily from a second-story window. With Kiyoko's authority as Black Mall janitor, it was easy for her to free the two women from the building. They gave Amber extra clothing from their backpacks. All she was missing were a pair of boots, and those would be sent via two balloons at tomorrow's sunrise.

They explored the linear building, the corridors lighting up for them as they wandered through the various areas. Around 7 PM they came to the airlock that began the executive area. That part of the building had been Ricardo's central lair. They found it could not be accessed, even with Kiyoko's authority. Inwardly they all felt relieved.

They left the building shortly afterwards. They were safe and together, still trapped in Black Mall's surface area but with many strange buildings to explore and with Kiyoko around it wasn't too hazardous. Over a very late dinner with a conference connection to the Hilton and the Society's nightly 8 PM meeting, Amber explained everything.

"Back in February I was one of Toshi's greatest critics. I was horrified by the thought of one mind controlling another. I don't feel that way now Toshi. I haven't for a long time. I came around to the idea that you acted in love, and at the time we had not yet discussed how…" Amber paused. "I don't know what word to use."

"Our social contract?" offered Fatima.

"Yes, exactly. Thank you Fatima. We had never discussed what our social contract was concerning our new powers, especially the boosted powers. I held a grudge against you Toshi. I felt what you did was deeply immoral. And then… And then…"

Amber gulped. "Ricardo! He knew nothing of what a boosted mind could do! As far as we knew, he didn't even know about our linking abilities from the Christmas jump. And he was a king hiding in a mighty castle. How could we possibly stop him? But I knew there was something unique between Ricardo and me. He had a fascination with me, some warped version of infatuation I think. His sex drive was so strange, I'm not sure that's the right word to use, But I figured, if any one person had a chance to get close enough to Ricardo to link, if anyone could slip under his defenses, it would be me."

"Amber?" Fatima asked. "Why the secrecy? Why did you hide all this from us? Did you think we would judge your plan for a forced mind lock immoral?"

"No Fatima, it wasn't that. We had already decided to stop Ricardo by any means possible. Why did I hide my plan? I was afraid you would judge it as I did, that it was almost certainly a suicide mission. You would either stop me from going, in which case Ricardo would win, or you would let me go knowing you were probably sending me to my death. And then if I failed, you would all feel the guilt of that decision. I didn't need your understanding of my plan to execute it, so I decided not to tell you. I wanted to spare your feelings if I failed."

She took a deep breath. "And I would have failed if it hadn't been for Jessica. Ricardo had a plan to force me to hallucinate, to deprive me of sleep. I think his plan would have worked. I caught clear images in his mind of what he had in store for me, just before Jessica entered the room. Vile images! His depravity…" Amber gave a soft cry and then turned to Jessica. "You don't know how indebted I am to you. You don't know what you saved me from."

Whitney was sitting opposite Amber on their large picnic blanket. The stars were out and it was delightful outside. The group was eating a cold dinner by the light of small lanterns that never ran out of power. Whitney stared at her longtime friend in wonder. "It's almost as if I don't know you Amber. You used to hate how Jessica would boss you around back at Burlington." Whitney paused and added in a whisper, "We've all changed so much."

The group finished their dinner and decided they would continue with their explorations the following morning, but it appeared most of the critical linear building would remain unexplored. The part of the building which contained Jessica's bathroom sanctuary was not in the executive area of the complex, but Kiyoko had discovered earlier that the entire eastern part of the building was locked, secure against her commands for entry. The lack of access would leave two major mysteries unsolved. What was the intelligence behind Jessica's feedings for so many weeks? And why did the servos act as an escort and lead her to Ricardo?

The behavior of the servos was unprecedented. Could Ricardo had made such a major blunder? Could he have programmed the servos to escort intruders to him and then somehow have forgotten?

Amber emphatically insisted that wasn't the explanation. "I was linked to him for almost two subjective hours. Yes, his control room did allow him to program the servos. My sore ankle can testify to that. But the servos leading Jessica to him, that just wasn't in his memory. Ricardo was terrified. He thought Jessica was controlling them."

"It certainly wasn't me," commented Jessica.

"Could it have been the interface?" Hannah asked from Red Mall. "We've talked before how it might be rooting for us. And it seemed unbelievable that Ricardo could have forgotten such a major programming project. Maybe it was the interface. What other explanation is there?"

Emily replied, "It might not have been the interface. Except for this one action, our experience with the servos is that they always act in a completely neutral manner, following their sets of rules with complete and utter disregard for the consequences they cause humans."

Mark added, "And there's also another point. This afternoon both Emily and I have noticed a very mechanical quality with the interface. I feel as if I'm interacting with an advanced search engine. The system still works, but its friendliness is gone. Is it angry with us? I don't know, but it sure isn't acting like a system that wants to help us."

They chatted a bit more about the issue and then decided to park it. There were many other topics to cover, and with key areas of the linear building locked, there was no way to pursue the mysterious servo behavior. It was time to move on.

Chapter 102.

Later that night…

Time: Monday, October 4, 2019 12:06 AM

Doug walked into the one small bathroom near the lobby were they were sleeping for the night, and just a few meters in front of him Jessica was sitting on their sole toilet. "Oh, sorry," he mumbled and he quickly turned around. "I should have knocked."

"No problem," Jessica called out to the closing door. "The door is probably soundproof anyway. I'll be done in a minute."

Doug was surprised to find Jessica waiting for him when he left the bathroom about five minutes later. She gave him a very friendly smile and said, "Can't sleep either?"

He shrugged. "I guess my mind is still racing. What a day."

Jessica gave a very brief grin. "Yeah, tell me about it. I think Amber has sacked out now, but she was having a hard time of it. Kiyoko and Whitney though, sound asleep, how I envy them. Uh, Doug?"

"Hmmm?"

"Would you like to talk for a while?"

"Sure, I'd love to." They found a comfortable couch across the lobby from their three sleeping companions, and were soon sitting side by side. Jessica surprised Doug by offering her hand which he accepted with a smile. Jessica returned his smile and sank back in the couch, holding his hand firmly and sighing. "You know about linking, right?"

"A little. Whitney and Kiyoko were teaching me earlier."

"That's good. Amber taught me too. She's a fantastic teacher. Her mind is so smooth, so powerful. I can't wait for my chance at the Bee Park. You know about that?"

"Yeah…" Doug shrugged his shoulders. "Kiyoko explained that part to me."

"So, how did it go?"

"How did what go?"

"Your linking!"

"With Kiyoko? Okay I guess. I hiccupped a lot less with Kiyoko. With Whitney I could barely hold on."

"Really? Whitney was linking with me too. I didn't have a problem. Whitney was very gentle."

"To tell the truth, I couldn't hold on to Whitney at all. Kind of strange."

Jessica closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder. "Hmm? How so?"

"Kiyoko…" Doug was silent for a moment and then he trembled. "My… Oh shit…"

"Doug? What?"

"My time in Black Mall. I fucked up so badly with so many women. I made a very unwelcome pass at Whitney, more than a pass, I fondled her and grabbed her crutch. Whitney was furious with me. But Kiyoko…" Doug took a big breath and blurted it out. "She was one of the women I raped."

"Oh." Jessica paused and then whispered in a frown, "I'm as guilty as you are Doug." Doug was surprised she kept holding his hand, but she did, and she pressed her head against his shoulder and sighed deeply. "I remember now. You did check out a lot of women from the pussy barn. I guess you liked variety, huh?"

"My God Jessie! I raped more than half of them, all the slaves I mean. Twelve hoof pussies in all, right?"

Jessica tensed. "Gee, I'm sorry Doug. Really, I shouldn't have joked about this. It's stupid of me." Jessica thought for a moment. "I count eleven."

"I'm including Britney."

"Oh shit, yes. But you didn't rape Britney, did you?"

Doug gave a short sob. "No, but I think I would have been interested. Ricardo killed her before I got the chance."

"Fucking hell…" Jessica sighed and was quiet for a moment. "The others will forgive us."

Doug appeared not to notice she used the word "us" and not "you". "You really think so? Well, Carol won't forgive me. She can't. Kiyoko shared her memory of the battle with Santos. Fidel shot Carol dead. I raped Carol twice before that."

Jessica squeezed his hand lightly. "I guess Carol… I guess what happened to Carol we'll both have to live with. I raped her too, more fingers up the butt." She added in a whisper, "I think I went insane there Doug. Black Mall seems like a nightmare to me now How did I let myself go like that? I was an insane monster. I look back and I just want to crawl under a rock and die."

Doug had tears falling down his cheeks. "You too? I remember… before Carol died, Frida was so disgusted with me, she dared me to rape her too. I just laughed at her and checked out more women from the pussy barn. Frida was powerless to stop me." Doug was referring to his former girlfriend. He cried softly, "Why didn't I listen?!"

"Do you know Frida is married to Mark now?"

"What?!" Doug's eyes went wide. "Frida is married? You got that from Amber?"

Jessica shook her head. "Whitney actually. Whitney's changed so much! She's really nice now. And her mind is so powerful. My mind is a wreck. Whitney offered to help me. She offered to be my counselor."

Doug stared at the floor. "Wow… That's nice of her." He sighed. "To answer your question, no, I did not know that Frida is married. I don't know who Mark is either. But I'm glad for Frida if she's happy."

"From what Whitney thought to me, I think she's very happy."

"That's good. Frida's really happy? I'm curious."

"Well, Whitney didn't have time to go into detail. Doug?"

"Yeah?"

"I do remember you checking out Kiyoko a couple of times, from the pussy barn."

"I know. I am so ashamed. I used to take her to my bedroom and kneel behind her and fuck her from behind. She was so upset but she never fought back so I told myself it was okay to fuck her. God! I would just lube my cock and fuck down on her until I blew my load. If she wanted to kill me now, I think I'd let her."

"Do you think she wants to kill you?"

"Hell no. She told me not to worry about it while we were linking and she was completely sincere. Unbelievable! I was at a complete loss about how to reply. What could I do? Apologize?!"

"Haven't you?!"

"Of course I have!"

"So what else does Kiyoko want?"

"Nothing! That's my problem! She just tells me not to worry!"

"Doug, accept her forgiveness! I have. There were at least two times I had my fingers up her butt. In both a moral and legal sense, I raped her too."

Doug shuddered. "I wasn't even wearing any protection. I just dominated and fucked her. I am so lucky I didn't get her pregnant."

Jessica nodded. "But you've changed now. So have I. I know we don't deserve their forgiveness, but time will pass and our guilt will fade."

"I don't want it to fade," he whispered in reply. Doug turned to her, lightly stroking her cheek. Jessica smiled at the touch. Doug gave her a light affectionate kiss. "You really think they'll accept me into this Society of theirs?"

Jessica's eyes blinked open. "Of course. I mean, I hope so. Sure they will."

Doug shook his head. "You might be a shoe-in. You're their savor, along with Amber. You're their dragon slayers. But Jessica! I'm a multiple rapist!"

Jessica countered. "Damn it, so am I! Want to know something? Amber told me Charles and Mandy are lovers now. They want to marry. And you know how often he raped her!"

"Really?! Wow…" Doug was stunned, remembered the multiple nights Chico had checked silent Mandy out of the pussy barn for evenings of forced sex.

Jessica sighed. "Will you link with me?"

"Huh? You mean right now?"

"Yes. Please? There's enough light for it in this part of the lobby. That's why I led you over here."

"Uh… okay, I'll try."

"Don't try. Just do it!" With tears on her cheeks, Jessica wiped her eyes dry on her nightshirt and then offered her eyes to Doug. A second later he gave a big hiccup.

"Doug, you have to trust me!" she hissed. "That was my great take-away from practicing with Amber and Whitney. Trust is everything in this, at least for unboosted minds."

"I do trust you," he countered.

"I'm not talking about the social trust of expecting a person to act honestly. I'm talking about letting me slip underneath the defenses around your ego. Will you trust me that much? I won't hurt you, I promise." Jessica thought for a moment. "Here, give me your hand."

Doug extended his arm and Jessica slipped his hand underneath her nightshirt and pressed his palm against a bare A-cup breast underneath. "Don't get the idea that I'm asking for sex. I'm just making a physical offer to be totally vulnerable."

Doug sighed deeply, his mind delighted with the feel of the warmth and softness of her body. "Okay, let's try again." A moment later he successfully linked with Jessica. "Wow! It's as if I surfing a big wave! A wild ride but I'm hanging on! And I can still feel your breast. This feels very intimate."

"Doug," thought Jessica in a brief laugh. "Stop thinking of my tit as sexy! I want to talk about something serious!"

"I'm listening!"

"These people will accept us. So stop worrying. Kiyoko forgives us. I think the other women will too. That's the social contract they offered Charles and Tom. They'll offer it to us too, that's what I'm hoping anyway. All my times of my fingers up their butts, all their sessions with your overeager cock, they're going to forgive us. They're going to forgive us for everything."

"I can't see… I don't see how you can be so sure about this," Doug thought back. "I can see that you are, but I don't see how."

"Doug, if nothing else, consider this, you're their sixth Y chromosome. They'll reject me before they reject you. All you have to do is behave yourself from now on, and it's obvious that you will. There are no lies within a link. They will see your sincerity as clearly as I see it now. That's how Kiyoko is managing to forgive you."

"What? What did you say about a sixth chromosome?"

"I got this from Amber before you guys found us. Amber and I spent a lot of time linking. It was a time of healing for us both. There's you, Mark, Tom, and Charles, and Toshi and Holly are both carrying male fetuses. What immense strokes of luck!"

"Toshi and Holly are pregnant?"

"Yes, Toshi by Gilberto and Holly… She's not sure who the father is."

Doug shuddered so badly he almost destroyed the link but he held on. "Fucking hell. I remember how the three muchachos would always pick Holly for their evening gangbang. Shit! I could just die!"

"Hmm?"

"I remember making lewd comments to Holly when the muchachos would check her out from the barn, really cruel stuff like, have a nice night!"

"Oh shit Doug! The girl was about to be raped!"

"I know, and Holly knew that I knew! Oh, I could just die," he cried. "And I remember how the muchachos loved getting Ricardo to brand their hoof pussies. And you're saying those damn muchachos knocked her up? I guess there was no way for Holly to end the pregnancy."

"Actually, there was. Both Toshi and Holly chose not to abort."

"My gosh…" Doug felt stunned. "Really?"

"Yep. And it's a wonderful thing too. Both pregnancies are boys. Don't you see Doug? There are seventy-some females that might eventually have children, and we women have a decently wide genetic variation. But things aren't so bright on the male side of the equation. Your Y-chromosome is a priceless asset around here. They won't waste it."

"Well, they could lock me up for life and breed me by remote control." He projected the image of being tied to a gurney and having semen drawn from his penis through a glass tube.

Jessica projected the mental constructs of a smile and a giggle. "Doug, that's the female side of it! That's not the way artificial insemination is done with the male! And besides, even if it were, don't you guys like to think of yourselves as studs?" Jessica sighed and then projected the construct of ending her playful teasing. "Seriously, they would never do that. These are good people Doug. I mentioned something to Amber while we were in the butcher kitchen. I asked her if we should save a sample of Jenaro's DNA, maybe even Ricardo's DNA."

"No superstitions about bad seeds?"

"No, none at all. They're way to smart for that. But that's not my point. Amber said the Society had already discussed this matter in general. They would rather humanity become extinct than use someone's DNA without their permission for procreation. She was totally serious too."

"Ah…" Doug tried to grin within the link. He decided to make a determined effort and share in Jessica's optimism. "Well, I guess being a stud can be a noble profession. It's something I can live with. Over seventy females, huh?"

"Yeah. There's one more guy somewhere out there too, a man named Eugene from Party #6."

"Oh my gosh, really? I remember him!"