Lost Ark Ch. 02

It was just as uncomfortable as Kyle had promised. The air was frigid, surely no more than five degrees, and the floor felt even colder. Perhaps a much shorter person could have walked through with a stoop, but Sloane and Kyle were forced to crawl, their hands directly on the perforated floor. Below, she caught glimpses of pipes, tanks, wire bundles, and ductwork. An occasional radiant heater offered relief but they were too few. The metal floor was icy.

"Do you think Bauer's team came this way?" Lissa was eager for anything to take her mind off of the cold.

"I don't see how else they could have made the connection," Kyle said. Sloane could make out little puffs of steam released by his breath. "The segments appear to be completely isolated. It doesn't appear they even have airlocks or sealed doors in between them. They would have had to use this band, or do a spacewalk."

Bauer, Sloane thought, might not have minded the uncomfortable crawl space. He seemed like the sort of man who saw himself as a pioneer, accepting such discomforts as the price of pursuing his dream. She wondered about the others. How would the reserved and fastidious Dr. Li have viewed the same situation?

Their progress was glacial. In front of her, Kyle huffed as he dragged his kit along, cursing once or twice when a loose strap got caught. Sloane didn't fare any better. Her hands began to feel numb, and her knees ached from the unyielding floor. Her pack wasn't heavy, but it was awkward to drag. Sloane's breath grew ragged with the effort.

"I think we're almost there." Kyle had stopped, and Sloane could see fragmented beams of light as he looked for something. "Yeah, here," he said.

The pair reversed the process they had gone through twenty minutes earlier. Kyle opened the airlock, tossed in the sensor, and waited for it to provide a report from the next segment. When it once again indicated a hospitable environment on the other side, the two explorers took turns hustling themselves and their gear through the airlock.

Segment two at once felt different in ways that were difficult to name. The room they had entered appeared to run the full width of the habitat but was little wider than a corridor. The ceiling was lower than the ceilings in the first segment, giving the already narrow room an even more cramped feel. The only light came from dim, emergency fixtures.

"Okay, same drill as before," Kyle said. He patched his interface kit into a panel, opened the segment systems view, and started diagnostics. One after another, green status indicators lit up.

"It looks safe," Sloane said hopefully.

"Yes," Kyle said, nodding slightly. "Water, power, atmosphere, heating, and tanks. They grew clones here, too."

"Why am I not surprised?" Sloane said softly. "Wait, what's that one?" she asked, noticing one orange indicator in the list.

Kyle studied it. "Well, shit!"

"What?"

"It's for an escape pod, look."

Sloane read the text accompanying the indicator. Pod 3: Bay status good, pod absent.

"Absent? This is the pod that Carpenter's team found?"

"I think so." Kyle was staring at the display, half lost in thought. "It looks like they reached this segment then later some of them fled in the pod."

What had happened? Bauer's last log had alluded to divisions within the team. Had those divisions led to a split or had some more traumatic event forced them to flee?

She pushed the thought aside. "Shall, we?" Sloane asked, pointing toward the door.

"We can't," Kyle said. His face was still buried in the datapad. "Door's locked with a strong key."

"Again?" Sloane was exasperated. "Why? What could they have been worrying about, the Rods getting in?"

"Or someone getting out," Kyle said. "Anyway, nothing to do about it but crack the code. Might as well make yourself comfortable."

Sloane sat back, still savoring the relative heat of segment two. As Kyle launched the brute force attack against the lock she returned to the list of files that they had recovered from Bauer's quarters. One that she had flagged for later review stood out from the rest: Clone generation log. She opened it. The simple document contained notes for each clone across several generations.

Skye:

- Gen 1: Initial sexual response is excellent. Will play any of four or five different scenes if given the proper key phrases. However, she becomes listless and without purpose following any scene. Has to be rebooted to play another scene.

- Gen 2: Improvement in already excellent sexual response. Will play any of ten different scenes, even improvising in response to her partner(s) actions. Secondary purpose (cleaning) is poor. Goes through the motions, but without understanding.

Sloane got Kyle's attention with a wave. "Check this out." She re-read the paragraph aloud for his benefit.

"Rebooted?" He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "That sounds familiar. I think one of the labs I found was set up for something like that."

Sloane kept reading.

Rod:

- Gen1: Sexual response is excellent. Engages eagerly with both male and female partners. Exhibits the characteristics of the actor from whom his DNA was taken, including excellent staying power. Stays hard throughout the entire scene. Like Skye, becomes listless after a scene, although sometimes recovers on his own and is ready for another round.

"Isn't that just like a man," Sloane joked, "doesn't take much to get him horny again." When Kyle only shrugged, she continued reading.

- Gen2: Sexual response still excellent. Secondary purpose (security) is very poor. Becomes aggressive with little or no provocation. Is docile after sex, but after less than an hour becomes aggressive once more. Keywords not reliable. This generation is unstable and difficult to manage.

"That matches up with Nkosi's journal," Kyle said. "It sounded like two or more of the Rods were making the place difficult for Bauer and his team. That's why they had to block part of it off."

"I believe it," Sloane said, as much to herself as anyone else. With a touch of shame she remembered the powerful orgasm she had experienced with Rod1 and Rod2. Pushing the memory aside, she kept reading.

Amber:

- Gen 1: Nonviable across all attempts. Li insists that the Ambers are fine; claims that Nkosi's programming is inadequate.

Jade:

- Gen 1: Not attempted. Per Li's warnings, no Jades will be grown until Ambers are successfully hatched.

Lance:

- Gen1: See notes for Jade, above. Same cautions from Li.

"I wonder why some of the clones worked and some didn't," Kyle mused.

"Dunno," Sloane admitted. Taking advantage of their downtime, she flipped through the remaining files. She started playback of another video, watched for half a minute, then turned it off. "Oh my god," she whispered.

"What?"

"You said in Nkosi's notes there was a reference to Dr. Ford, right?"

"Yes. Something about her 'giving them what they wanted'."

"I think I know what he meant. Here." Sloane turned her datapad so both she and Kyle could watch, then restarted the video.

Unlike the other videos, this one was security camera footage. It had been recorded from above in the large common room she and Kyle first had come upon. Just at the edge of the shot, two Rods paced restlessly. After only a few seconds a woman entered the scene.

"That's Dr. Ford," Kyle said.

Even seen from above, the doctor was unmistakable. As during the interview with Bauer, she wore a somber, grey suit devoid of jewelry or other ornamentation. Moving to the center of the room, she began tossing cushions onto the floor.

The Rods noticed her immediately, stopping their pacing to glare at her. "Fuck or fight?" one challenged.

"Fuck," Ford replied crisply. She finished arranging the cushions into an impromptu bed.

The clones relaxed, trotting over expectantly. Both stood next to the cushions, stroking their rapidly swelling penises. "Blowjob?" one asked.

"Mmm, no," Ford said, managing somehow to sound disappointed. "DP. Here's the lube."

"Shit yeah, bro!" said one of the clones. The two high-fived, then began coating their organs with lube.

While they did so, Ford undressed, carefully laying her clothes on the top of a table. Sloane guessed her age to be late forties, but like Bauer, she was in excellent physical condition. She carried little in the way of body fat, had a lean, tight musculature, and excellent posture. She kept her brown hair cut short, but it was thick with no sign of gray.

One of the Rods lay back on the cushions, holding his cock vertically. Ford straddled him and eased herself into position. With only a few groans, she began riding him. "Stay hard," she cautioned, "and don't cum yet. Not until you've fucked me good."

"Baby, I'll fuck you all night," the clone assured her.

"And DP me," Ford added, looking back over her shoulder at the other clone. "Fill me with cock."

The second clone was eager to comply. Wasting no time, he positioned himself behind Ford, pressed the head of his cock against her rectum, and began to push.

"Fuuuck," Ford groaned, tossing her head back.

"Well, this is unexpected," Kyle chuckled. "I didn't think the doctor had it in her, so to speak."

Sloane ignored the remark. The scene fascinated her. Just the previous day she had been in a similar situation, but frantic to avoid anal sex. Now she watched with a mixture of arousal and regret as Ford happily submitted to the double penetration. The doctor seemed to be enjoying herself, writhing between the two men and releasing a torrent of foul language as they serviced her. The clone on the bottom held Ford tight, keeping her in place while he pumped her. The clone on top crouched above her, steadying himself with a hand on Ford's back while he mercilessly drove into her ass.

"Yeah, yeah, fuck me hard. Harder, you bastards, don't stop." Ford's filthy talk could easily have come from one of the same videos that the Rods had been trained with.

Nor did the clones disappoint. They were relentless, neither tiring nor cumming too soon. At one point the three changed positions, rolling onto their sides. The doctor was difficult to read, but Sloane had the impression she came repeatedly, a slowly rolling orgasm rather than a single explosive one. By the time the clones finally yielded to their own release the three were drenched in sweat, and Sloane was damp with desire.

Next, a curious thing happened. As soon as the clones collapsed with fatigue, several of Bauer's team entered the room. Ignoring Ford and the clones, they worked swiftly to scoop up portable computers, personal possessions such as bags, and scientific gear. Li walked through carrying armloads of clothing.

"Sooo," Kyle began, "it looks like Ford went in to take a bullet for the team, then while the Rods were nice and docile the others grabbed up things they didn't want to leave behind."

"It does look that way," Sloane agreed. She was still barraged by conflicting feelings about what she had just seen. Never before had she considered anal sex appealing, but watching Ford writhe in ecstasy while two strong men took her had flipped a switch inside of Sloane. Not only was she wet, she found herself fantasizing about what she had seen, substituting herself for Ford.

Perhaps mercifully, Kyle interrupted her reverie. "Lock's open," he said, rising awkwardly. Is he hard? Lissa wondered.

The chamber they had occupied had a lower ceiling than the first segment, and the same was true in the next rooms as well. The entire segment, in fact, felt less opulent. Instead of being painted and hung with art, the walls were plain, with easy-clean surfaces. Unconcealed conduit and ductwork ran overhead. The whir of mechanicals was less hushed.

In the first segment, the outer ring had been large enough to house the personal quarters, common rooms, and lab space. The inner ring had been reserved for environmental systems and storage. It was clear that in the tighter second segment the outer ring didn't have enough room for personal space. Instead, Danton and Lissa immediately found themselves in a room which mirrored one Danton had encountered in the first segment - a lab stuffed with computational equipment, gene sequencers, and more of the hospital bed-like gurneys with the elaborate headsets.

"Looks like they had to downsize," Kyle observed.

"Bauer said they were fighting over sharing rooms. I wonder if this was really a better solution."

After the lab, the corridor ended at an airtight door hung incongruously with a hand-lettered sign which read 'The Spa'.

"Oh," Kyle said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "this will definitely be normal." He shot Sloane a glance before opening the door.

"It's spa time!" A woman's impossibly cheerful voice rang out across the room. Sloane poked her neck into the room but saw no one.

"A motion-activated recording," Kyle said. Like Sloane, he stepped into the room cautiously, his eyes searching every corner. "I wonder what else might have been activated?"

The room, which was the size of both of the lab rooms, did remind Sloane of a salon or spa. To either side were stools, each set in front of a mirror with grooming tools. An oversized tub occupied the center of the room, alongside a low-slung bed, while a cooking area clung to the far wall. The lighting was bright but not as harsh as the earlier rooms. And as they entered, soothing music began to play.

"This reminds me a little bit of the-" Kyle started to say, but was cut off as a door on the opposite wall opened.

Three young women dressed in matching, loose-fitting attire strolled into the room. One was immediately recognizable as a Skye, with her characteristic warm-toned skin, petite, curvy figure, and carelessly long jet hair. The other two were twins, or rather clones from the same DNA. Both were markedly taller than Skye, slender, and blonde. They were pretty in an almost austere way, with high cheekbones, narrow noses, and bright blue eyes.

The three seemed to have been laughing about something, and their smiles didn't diminish when they spotted Sloane and Kyle. "Girls," one of the blondes said, "we have clients!"

"Oooh," Skye said, seemingly delighted by the discovery. Her playful eyes swept first over Kyle then Sloane. "Bed or beauty?" she giggled.

"Well, this certainly beats 'fuck or fight'," Kyle whispered. This generation of clones must have been given a different secondary purpose, or at least the females had.

"Beauty?" Sloane tried.

"Oh yes, lovely," one of the blonde clones said. With Skye in tow, she went to one of the stools and tapped it for emphasis. When Sloane obliged by taking a seat, she spun the stool until it faced the mirror.

"You're pretty," Skye said, then added, "I like your hair." The brunette brushed her fingers against Sloane's hair, guiding a stray lock into place before turning to the blonde. "What do you think, Amber, does she need a trim?"

The blonde clone stood behind the stool, assessing Sloane's reflection in the mirror. Of the two she seemed the more serious, still confidently sexy, but with a purpose. "I think so, yes, just a bit. And we should do her nails."

Skye darted to a cabinet next to the mirror, returning with a tray of tools. She selected a tiny scissors and began to trim Sloane's nails. "What's your name?" she asked, giving Sloane a glance that bordered on flirtatious.

"I'm Lissa," Sloane replied.

"I'm Skye." The clone's hands were soft, gently cradling each of Sloane's fingers in turn as she snipped away. Both she and Amber were wearing loose trousers and smocks of a flimsy material. "It was nice of your husband to bring you here for a spa day."

Sloane flicked a glance at Kyle, who appeared to be mid-conversation with the other Amber. As with the Rods, she decided to think of them as Amber1 and Amber2. "Yes," she said, unsure if there was some other meaning behind Skye's question or if the young woman was simply making programmed small talk. "He's a good man."

"He's a lucky man," Amber1 said. The blonde had picked up a comb and scissors and began trimming the tips of Sloane's spiky hair. Once or twice, while testing for evenness, she ran her fingers across Sloane's scalp, trailing them down her client's neck. "Lucky to have a beauty like you."

Warmth tingled across Sloane's skin. The attention of the two young women was seductively relaxing. She found herself looking at Skye's full, soft lips, idly wondering what it might feel like to touch or kiss them. And when she met Amber1's eyes in the mirror the look she received back was flagrantly inviting. It didn't, Sloane realized, matter that she had chosen beauty over bed. A different path to pleasure was never far away.

In the other chair, Kyle seemed to have settled into a comfortable path of his own. Amber2 was close behind him, snipping away at his hair while making cheerful small talk. Like her twin, Amber2's hands frequently slid down to stroke Kyle's neck, fuss with his collar, or brush away clumps of hair. Idly she wondered what innuendo Amber2 was favoring Kyle with, and how seriously he might be considering it.

Skye finished Sloane's nails with an emery board. "Pretty," the clone said before her face fell. "I'm sorry we don't have any polish for you. It's all dried up for some reason."

Well, it's four hundred years old... Sloane thought.

Amber1 finished trimming Sloane's hair. "Either way," she said, "It's time for your soak."

"Yes, a bath!" Skye said. Looking over her shoulder to see if Sloane was following her movements, the brunette sauntered to the tub and turned on the water. Soon the oversized tub was giving off heavy tendrils of steam. When Skye squeezed in a few drops of lavender oil the aroma became positively heavenly.

Unexpected fingers caressed her. Before Sloane could even think to disrobe, Amber1 had found the zipper on her flight suit and began tugging it down. When Sloane tried to take over, Amber1 gently guided her hand away. "Let me," the blonde whispered. Meanwhile, Skye returned from the tub and unfastened Sloane's shoes, not missing the opportunity to stroke her now bare ankles and feet. Seconds later, after Amber1 urged Sloane to a standing position, the explorer found herself naked.

Not that Kyle seemed to notice. After smartly trimming Kyle's hair, Amber2 had moved on to shaving him. She hovered close, expertly scraping away several days of growth while periodically leaning in to whisper something into the man's ear. And like her twin, Amber2 had already partially unzipped Kyle's flight suit.

"You'll get cold," Skye chided. Taking Sloane's hand, she guided her to the tub and into the almost unbearably hot water. When Skye noticed Sloane's discomfort she stopped, giving her hand a comforting squeeze. "You'll get used to it," Skye assured her. And so, after a minute of tentative progress, Sloane, at last, eased completely into the water.

"Isn't that just lovely?" Unnoticed, Amber1 had disrobed and slipped into the tub behind her. She began to knead Sloane's shoulders. "You're tense," she said.

"I guess a little," Sloane admitted, unsure how much of her tension was caused by the hazardous mission and how much was from the intimate scene.

"We'll help with that," Amber1 purred. "Look, Skye is going to join us."

Knowing she was being watched, Skye put on a show of disrobing. She stood at the end of the tub, locking her eyes on Sloane as she unfastened her smock and tugged it off. Sloane watched with a twinge of unexpected arousal as the young woman's heavy breasts bounced free. Skye shook her hair, sending it spilling across her chest, then took a strand and pulled it teasingly across her lips. Finally, she wriggled out of the loose trousers, letting them drop to the floor.

As Skye eased herself into the tub, Amber1 continued her massage. "We're a pretty good team, I think," the blonde said. "I'll get these knots out of your back, and Skye will work on your feet."