One Hour

Rich made a few calculations on a notepad, sitting up in bed and scratching with is trusty mechanical pencil while trying to keep the sound of it to a minimum. It wasn't enough, though, and in only a few seconds he heard stirring and mumbles next to him. He tried and failed to keep the wry grin from his face. She's such a light sleeper.

"Are you still going over it?" He felt a pair of hands begin rubbing his shoulders, while a chin came to rest beside his neck. "Sweetest, your math is solid. Flawless. This is just wearing you out needlessly."

Rich sighed. "I can't help it. If there's a mistake, it's you that'll be paying for it, not me. I have to be perfect."

"You are perfect." The pair of hands gently but insistently pushed him down onto the mattress, while plucking the notepad from his fingers to toss it onto the floor. Valerie straddled him then, throwing a pale thigh, bare under the upward-creeping t-shirt she wore to bed, over his waist and settling her weight down on his hips. If there was, perhaps, a little more weight there than was strictly comfortable, Rich would never say it out loud. He loved his wife more than anything on the planet, and if she was carrying a few extra pounds when compared to those anorexic models you saw splashed up everywhere... well, she'd always been that way, and he thought no less of her for it.

Hell, if anything, he was just glad that she deigned to stay with him. He may not have been flabby, but he could give those models a run for their money in the skinny department. His glasses didn't help the whole bookworm look, though he thought Val's own pair of specs, screening a pair of ice-blue eyes, were simply adorable, especially coupled with her lightly curled, silky golden hair. Together they rocked the nerd chic like a couple of pros, and had been ever since they met in college their freshman year. Now, eight years later, and their bona fides in that respect were soon going to be put to the test, which was what was keeping him up that night.

Well, what had been keeping him up. Now a new variable was added to the sums as his wife began gyrating on top of him. His groans were nearly pure lust, with very little in the way of ache from his bones creaking under her generous curves. A little ache was good, especially when the trade off from the amplitude of the source was so, so worth it.

"Play with them." Val took his wrists gently and slid his hands up under her long t-shirt, bringing them to settle on her gargantuan boobs. She giggled. "That always cuts through the fog in your head." Of course, as always, the shirt had to stay on; even after all these years, years of sneaking into dorm rooms, finding unpopulated corners of the science department, and even settling down in a home together, Rich's wife was still unwilling to expose herself to her husband. It was frustrating and disheartening, and the only thing in his marriage that he would change. His assurances that he found her gorgeous and desirable, the simple truth of his words, was still not enough to get her over her body issues.

It was a small thing, though, as her hands stroking him to hardness beneath her attested to. When she slid his cock into her warm channel with a groan of satisfaction, any thought to the unorthodox nature of their lovemaking vanished from him entirely. He was fucking the woman of his dreams, and everything else was just a remainder to that equation.

"Oooh, you're so good... so good..." Vicky ran her fingers through her hair as she swayed back and forth in a gentle rhythm. Rich kept his hand where she'd put them, deliriously happy with feeling those magnificent mammaries in his palm and her pebbled nipples under his thumbs, even if he couldn't see what the finished effect looked like. Sometimes imagination was just as good.

"Who dicks you better than anyone?" Rich tried his hand at dirty talk. He thought he was actually pretty good at it. "Whose cock makes you squawk?"

"Oh Sweetest, yours does... you dick me so good..." Val's breathing picked up and she reached down to lay her hands flat on his thin chest. "Keep going... just like that... just like thaaaattttt..."

Her orgasm was as wholesome as she herself. She quivered and shuddered in small twitches, and squeezed him down below with three good clenches before he erupted in her. The dirty talk was fun, and it got their engines revving, but Rich couldn't help but find it a bit silly, post-coitus. Of course he dicked her the best. They'd only ever been with each other their entire lives. As much as he absolutely loved that, he recognized that sweet fidelity didn't make for a raunchy good time, so he came up with new and inventive ways to keep it spicy. You are welcome, Mrs. Reid.

When she rolled off him, and he regained his composure, he took a long look at her. "You ever reconsider..."

"No." Val smiled to take the bite out her words. "Richie, sweetest, this is not the time for kids. Especially now. We're on the cusp of something big that, if it works, will take all of our attention. That wouldn't be fair to any children." She stroked his cheek tenderly. "Someday, I'm sure. For now, you and that brilliant brain are all I need."

Rich leaned over and kissed his wife. "And your amazing spirit is more than enough for—"

"You two done doing the dirty in there?" The grating question barely preceded the door to their bedroom opening without invitation. "Aww. I miss the fun stuff and only show up for the boring canoodling? Lame."

"You're not right in the head. You know that, don't you Benji?" Val snapped at the unwelcome visitor in irritation. There was nothing fond in her eyes as she stared daggers at the other woman, and Rich quickly tried to run some interference.

"She's kidding, love. You know Benji. Her staying with us for the last week has got her stir crazy."

"I do know, and what I know is that she's your sister. Twin sister. And she, for some inexplicable reason, wants to see us have sex. It's sick."

"She doesn't really. She's just bad at jokes, right Benji?" Rich gave his sister a meaningful look, hoping that the quirky girl read his meaning. They may have been near mirror images of each other, both thin with short black hair and bright green eyes, but that's where the similarity ended. No eerie twin magic for the Reid siblings. She had always been gregarious where he was insular, creative to his cold logic, and drop-dead sexy contrasted with his quiet innocuousness. Still, they loved each other as only those who once shared a womb could, and he reflexively tried to look out for his ten minutes-younger sister, especially when it came to a wife that never had any use for her.

"Like hell I don't want to." Benjamina Reid unceremoniously slid into the bedroom and sat down at the corner of the bed, clad only in a set of lacy black bra and panties, and grinned widely. "I mean, I don't plan on diddling myself or anything, but I want to see what my brainy bro can do to his busty bride." She cupped her own perky, yet diminutive tits in both hands. "I'm compelled to feed my envy when it comes to you, Val. Look at these. Not that I've really had any complaints from my girlfriends, but the grass is always greener, y'know? Besides, you're both just so adorable, I feel like I'm watching a black and white movie from, like, the forties or something when I'm around you."

"Well, we're going to bed. You should too. Tomorrow involves you just as much as us, I hate to admit. We all need our rest." Val began pulling the blankets over herself.

"Well, technically, we probably don't." Benji wasn't fazed in the slightest by Val's cold treatment. "We're going to be essentially taking a nap, after all. Not even an especially long one."

"That is so simplistic, and just wrong..." Now Rich couldn't help but chide her. "The sheer magnitude of the implications of the experiment—"

Benji blew him a kiss. "Gotcha, bro." She giggled and got to her feet. "I'm just as excited as you both, but not enough that I can resist a little ribbing." She turned to the door. "See ya tomorrow, Bogie and Bacall."

When she was gone, Val shook her head. "How someone so airheaded can be so deeply creative..."

"You'll be glad she is, come tomorrow." Rich yawned, drained now from his wife's ministrations. Val followed suit, and soon they were both slipping into dreamland, a precursor for the next day's event.

__________

Virtual Cerebral Chronal Immersion. ViCCI. Rich and Val were almost as proud of the name as they were of the system itself. Benji just thought they were both far too easily amused with themselves. Whatever the label, it was an amazing breakthrough, brought about by Rich's math, Val's engineering, Benji's world-building, and... one other contribution that none of them wanted to talk about, and it was about to be realized.

Time dilation. High physics focused in one relatively small apparatus. Relative relativity. Rich had made a theoretical breakthrough in perceived time passage, sponsored by the university, of course, and was about to make the maiden voyage, as it were. Inside one of the three silver capsules, designed and built by Val, the resident would jack into a virtual world that was conceived and written by Benji, containing anything and everything the users wished it to. Right now, it only consisted of three areas; a tropical paradise, an exciting urban expanse, and a placid mountain forest. Benji was always working on more, as well as a whole host of virtual people to populate the worlds, but they hadn't wanted to wait for all that before trying it out. Three zones to be experienced in three days.

Or just one hour in real time.

This was the beauty of the entire endeavor. If all of Rich's calculations worked out, the people inside would be able to spend a certain amount of time, customizable to fit the need, while the outside world barely advanced at all. Want a vacation to your dream spot? You can spend a week or a month there, while popping into ViCCI for an afternoon. Want to learn Taekwondo? Use a month's vacation and study for years inside. The relative time passage could be adjusted to nearly any ratio the user desired, and, with Benji's vision, nearly any world could be lived in.

The finished product would, besides forging a new chapter in the future of humanity, be guaranteed to make them all rich beyond anything seen before. When the plans were made though, there had been one problem; the computer system. None of the three knew jack shit about programming, and each were just greedy enough that they didn't want to trumpet what they were doing to a stranger to get them onboard. You never knew who had loose lips.

No, the only solution was one that each of the three was loath to take. The only thing worse would have been to not go through with it at all.

Vic. Val's older brother. The man was loathsome, and that was being generous. Besides being physically repulsive, as his obesity made Val look the poster child for Weight Watchers, the man had a personality that could best be described as tailor-made to piss you off. While growing up together, he had made Val's life a living hell in ways she still wouldn't talk about, and had kept up with it into adulthood. On the few occasions Benji had met him, such as at Rich and Val's wedding, she had nearly sprained her hand from slapping him. Every time. He just never seemed to accept that she played for the other team. Hell, maybe he did and that was the point. He was just that kind of fucked up.

The thing was, he was a programming genius. A coder extraordinaire and network wizard. The hacker had only been caught once, and his skills were so sublime, the government just decided to give him a job rather than to try to work against him. No one believed it stopped Vic from being awful, and Rich was fairly certain he made his money being a shit-stirrer online. One of those assholes that other assholes paid to get people riled up for no reason.

For a time, though, they could use him. As terrible as he had been to Val, for her brother, it had been nothing but good-natured monkeyshines. Vic always claimed that he would be there for his family, which meant he would be loyal and quiet about ViCCI. Which he had been for a full year of working out the computing language to make the apparatus work. He only wanted one thing in return, besides a percentage of the profits; he wanted in.

So now they all found themselves present and ready to make history. Rich, Val, and Benji had come to the university lab to find Vic already there, typing away at his console. He flashed them an unctuous smile, then ignored the trio until he was ready. When he was, though, he let them know it.

"So, this gonna be like in the movies?" He stood from his desk chair, all six and a half feet of tubby lard on display under his tawny mop-top. Vic stared at Benji with his cold blue eyes. "We need to get naked in this thing? 'Cause I'm ready to help out in any way I can." He licked his lips.

Benji growled at him. "I really don't want to end the day with a trip to the orthopedist." She limbered up her wrist. "Don't give me a reason."

Vic laughed and held up his hands. "Hey, I'm cool with just down to underwear, Ripley."

"What we're wearing is fine." Val stepped between her brother and sister-in-law. "We're only going to be in there for an hour, and the interface is all above the shoulders." She couldn't resist a sneer at him past her glasses. "Lucky for you. If your skin touched the capsule directly, your nasty sweat would probably stick you to it like superglue."

"Like you're much—"

"Time's a wastin'." Rich tried to be heard over the sniping. He was only moderately successful, but it was good enough. Vic, Val, and Benji each headed to their respective capsule, which were all connected by a legion wires and cables to a computer bank against the wall. It wasn't pretty, yet, but preliminary tests said it should work with no problems. Val explained how to hook in, while Benji gave a last minute run down of the plan.

"The three zones will be accessible to any of us at any time. I'd prefer it if we each took a different one for the day allotted in order to get the most out of the time, but if we need to meet up for some reason, we can." She looked over at Vic. "Let's try not to need to."

Vic, reluctantly, added his bit. "I've programmed in a whole slew of shit to do. There's even the entire contents of the Library of Congress in there, if you just want to be a geek and read the whole day. There are nodes everywhere to call up a list of things that can be generated."

"Okay then, let's get this show on the road!" Rich closed each of them into the capsules, though Vic's was close to being unable to be secured around his bulk. With that done, and no fanfare necessary, he went to the interface console and activated the sequence.

Nothing visible happened to the three, other than that they appeared to be asleep. From his end of things, it was actually pretty boring. He monitored their vital signs, kept watch on the system for any anomalies, and pretty much just twiddled his thumbs for an hour. Soon after it begun, he started to regret not listening closer to Vic and Val's explanations of the hardware and its information output. A few times, he saw some lights flashing green, or red, or even blue... and really couldn't remember what any of it meant. It was fine though, the algorithms were sound, and nothing sparked or exploded, and soon enough, the sequence was done and it was time to let the guinea pigs out of their pens, which he did with shaky, eager fingers.

Rich didn't know what he expected, but each of the three sat up at once when they were unharnessed, bolting upright like they'd been poked with a needle. He immediately went to his wife and took her face in his hands, staring into her wide open eyes with concern.

"Honey, are you all right? Did it work?"

"... R... Rich?" Val took a deep breath, then looked down at herself in amazement, her brows scrunching as she adjusted her glasses in confusion. "Oh God..." She looked back up, expressionless for a long moment. Long enough for Rich to get worried, then she smiled. "It worked. Boy did it ever." She touched his face tenderly as her smile slipped. "It was... it was another world."

Rich whooped for joy, barely noticing Vic and Benji getting out of their capsules. In his unbridled enthusiasm, he gave his wife a long kiss, then stepped back to grin at his sister and brother-in-law. "What about you? What do you think?"

Vic didn't answer, he only leaned against a wall, breathing heavy and looking pissed, as per usual, unfortunately. Right next to him, also leaning her weight against the wall like she was a drunk trying not to fall over, Benji shrugged her shoulders, running her fingers through her short hair, looking like she was trying to figure out a puzzle. "Kinda... kinda wish I was still there. Bro. We... we do good work."

"That we do." Val stretched and smiled at Rich. "But if there's one thing I learned, it's that there's no place like home." She looked over at her fellow cerebrochrononauts. "No place."

__________

After that, the trio went their own ways. Vic, strangely, was muted and mild. He mumbled something about needing to update the code, improve it vastly, and that it would take some time. When Rich asked how long, he nearly got his head bitten off by the big man.

"As long as it takes! A year, if I had to guess."

"A year? But we could start—"

"A year actually isn't bad, Rich. Bro." Benji shook her head. "I'll need that long to flesh it all out. A year to... to get in fighting shape." She watched Vic leave by himself without any word goodbye. "At least a year."

Val came to Rich and looped her arm through his. "Let them go, Sweetest. We have a life to get back to."

Rich knew when he was outvoted, and dutifully ceased any argument, opting to take his wife and sister home. Besides, they had some celebrating to do, and Vic's voluntary exodus made it all the sweeter. When they got home, Benji seemed to share his and Val's enthusiasm at first, but it soon became apparent by her thousand-yard stare that her mind was somewhere else.

"Is it really that intense, Sis?" Rich asked his twin around the mouth of his beer bottle. "Man, I wish I could have been there."

Benji laughed dryly. "I dunno, you might not have—"

"Hey, let's get some music on and start dancing!" Val went to the dusty stereo in the corner of the living room and turned it on, making Rich blink twice. His wife never danced. It was all tied up in her body image issues, and she absolutely refused to ever go out on a dance floor.

Well, it's just us here, and we are celebrating... Rich just smiled and went with it, taking his wife in his arms and going for a spin. She was surprisingly good for someone with little to no practice, and they were both laughing and having such a good time, they didn't even notice that Benji was doing nothing more than staring at the two of them with a dark expression.

That night, Rich gave Val the fucking of his life. He was all over her rubenesque body like a man possessed; his tongue running up and down her skin, his fingers in every crevice, and his dick pounding away, stiffer than it'd ever been. Val was tender with him, looking deep into his eyes as they made love, and stroking his cheek softly.

Once, she even forgot herself enough that her t-shirt crept up to reveal the vast, sloping curves of the bottom of her breasts, causing Rich to pause in his frantic thrusting and swallow, his eyes widening in surprise. Val lifted her lids then and looked up at him, giving him a long, unreadable look before finally reaching up to tug down the shirt with that old, familiar shyness again. Still, it was thrilling for the physicist, and enough to make him spurt inside his golden-haired bride with groaning completion.