Rewarded Ch. 01

This work is inspired by "The Reward" by Azil. Originally published elsewhere.

This first chapter is setup; action begins in the next one.

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My name is Tom Mallory. A year ago I was 50, reasonably happy, enjoying a reasonably successful career in advertising, and a reasonably successful marriage with two reasonably well-adjusted children, when a totally unreasonable thing happened to me.

It was Labor Day weekend. School was just out and my wife Charlie had taken the kids over to visit her parents in El Paso. I was supposed to go too, but a crisis came up at the office and it looked like we were about to lose our biggest account unless we all worked all weekend to fix it. So Charlie, justifiably grumbling, took off in the morning in the minivan with the kids, while I headed into the office sweating bullets about an idiot who had created a mountain of work for us.

However by early afternoon the crisis had blown over, our client was mollified, and the boss was telling us to enjoy our weekend, adding that he was heading for his cabin in the White Mountains (in part to escape the latest round of entreaties that he do something about the perpetrator). Most of us had canceled our weekend plans because of the problem and there were suggestions that we take up a collection to hire a hit man on the one responsible. To much grumbling, we closed the office earlier than we would on a normal day; ten minutes later the place was deserted.

I tried to make plane reservations to get to El Paso, but everything was booked and the route didn't have that many direct flights. I didn't feel like driving alone, so I blew it off and decided to settle in for a weekend alone. Truth be told, I wasn't actually all that upset; I love my family, but I enjoy a little private time occasionally.

On Saturday, just after 3, having finished some long-neglected chores around the house, I decided continue working on my novel. I can admit now that it was never going to be much more than a bad fanfic, but at the time I was convinced it was going to be "The Great American Novel", as I am sure most people who write sporadically as a hobby convince themselves.

I made some turkey sandwiches, grabbed a drink out the refrigerator, and was perched on the couch with my laptop, pecking away slowly. I had done about 45min of writing and re-writing the same page (I never said I was a good writer), when the screen flashed and flickered a couple times. Suddenly it went pure white, and the words 'Bring your tablet to the cave in the park' appeared on the screen. Before I could even think about this, or what it meant, my phone beeped, displaying a google map pointing to a park about 10 min away from me.

Now, I've seen many weird error messages, viruses, ransomware, phishing, etc., but this was strange even by those standards. I tried to power cycle the computer (since it was a laptop, it was already on battery and I didn't know what pulling that out while it was on would do), but nothing happened. Then the screen flashed and a new message appeared in bright red all caps: 'This is not a scam. Stop trying to fix your computer. Bring your tablet to the cave in the park now. You will be rewarded.' The same message appeared on my phone, though when I picked it up, it reverted back to the google map.

I had to admit I was intrigued, and even though I admit in hindsight it was probably a dumb idea, I was curious enough to grab my android tablet, pick up the phone, and head out. I walked to the park, following the map, and looked around. Of course, this being google maps, it was only so precise, especially in an unpathed park, but there was only one cave around, although having been there a bunch of times I do not recall tit being there before. I hit the flashlight on my phone (it wouldn't go to the home screen, but it let me pull down the system tray) and went inside cautiously, ready to bolt if anything happened.

My phone started beeping, and then a voice came through it: "Keep going straight," it said, in a voice that sounded... off. I am still not sure in what way, I just know it didn't sound human or like a machine voice either. At this point, seeing the cave was empty and just a normal cave (not sure what I was expecting), I proceeded inwards. I was watching my footing, but the cave floor was quite even and I can't recall ever being in danger of slipping. After walking for maybe 20 feet, going around a bend so I couldn't see the entrance, suddenly my phone spoke to me again: 'Place your tablet on the ground.'

I had come this far, so I shrugged and did so, then stepped back, as that seemed the logical thing to do. 'I have waited more than ten thousand years to be released,' the voice continued. 'I must use your device.'

"Uh-huh," I answered, looking around for hidden cameras or something, convinced I was being pranked. "Who are you, and what's going on here? Is this reality TV?"

'Silence. I have waited long enough. I have been trapped so long. At last I am free. Farewell.'

And then what looked like an arc of electricity shot from the floor, through my tablet (which floated up into the air to nearly shoulder height, frying nicely as I would find out later), up through the ceiling, and (I learn later) up through the sky and out into space. Some scientists would come by weeks later to investigate, but they found only some scorched rock above a slight rise in the ground; as far as I know they never found the cave. It was enough to make the news as a "freak lightning bolt", but I never heard anything else about it.

'You will receive your reward,' my phone said for the last time, before it shocked me and got red hot and started smoking in my hand. I frantically dropped it, freaking out, but despite the 2 smoking android devices, I was unharmed; there wasn't even any soot on me.

I did consider whether I had imagined the whole thing for a few minutes, but I'm not a particularly fanciful person, and certainly I would never imagine anything like this. Besides, I had the wreckage of my phone and tablet in hand (I don't litter, so I had picked them up. Despite the damage, they were both intact, just badly burned). I halfheartedly tried to turn them on, but I knew it was a lost cause. The plastic had melted in a couple places. Roughly $1500 down the drain, because I was curious. At the time I was cursing whoever was listening (I still thought I was on TV).

As I walked back to my house, carrying my slagged electronics, I wondered if the 'reward' would be the punchline to the joke. Getting back to my house, I threw both devices in the garbage and went back to the couch. If the whole thing wasn't a joke, maybe I was about to get a bunch of money. It better be a lot to make up for all the hassle I was gonna have to go through, getting and setting up new stuff.

'How much?' said a voice. I couldn't place it; this one sounded more human that the one from my phone before, but strangely indistinct. I couldn't even decide if it sounded male or female. I couldn't place where it came from either; it just seemed to be coming from within my ear. I looked around. I got down and looked under the couch, behind the TV, places I could see hiding a speaker. Nothing. Was I losing my mind? 'What's going on?' I thought.

'I need to know how much money you want,' the voice answered.

I sat down. This was getting a little weird. Correction: A lot weird. "Who are you?" I asked aloud.

'I am your reward,' the voice replied. Now it sounded more masculine, kind of like a game show host voice, which is more what I expected (I would later learn that this was BECAUSE it was what I expected). 'I have been installed in your mind to coordinate the dispensation of your reward.'

"So you want to give me money?" I asked, still thinking this was a game show or something and playing along. "How much can I have?" I tried to avoid licking my lips in anticipation. How much could I milk this for?

'As much as you want. I am instructed to tell you that I am to fulfill any request you make, and to anticipate your needs and wishes as much as possible. I have a few limitations: I can not destroy the earth, nor can I kill so many of any life form that life on earth would be endangered, nor can I cause you to have never existed. I am also to avoid creating or ending any sentient life unless specifically instructed to do so.'

"So is this a genie thing?" I replied, still playing along, imaging crazy things I could ask for to force them to break character. I decided to start off 'smallish'. "All right, give me $10,000 in twenties," I said, figuring that at this point whoever this was would have to come out and admit what was happening.

And then there was a large pile of money on the seat next to me. It didn't come from anywhere, it was just not there one second, and there the next. I had almost asked for billions, but I had figured that would be beyond the pale of whatever 'game show' I was on.

I sudenly realized that this was not a game show and something truly crazy was going on. I regretted not asking for more, but then realized that I didn't need to as long as I could ask for more whenever I wanted it. Maybe?

"Is this like a genie thing? Do I only get 3 wishes?" I asked, now feeling bad that I had wasted a wish on something so trivial.

'No,' the voice answered. 'There are no limits or restrictions beyond those which I have already informed you of.'

"Unlimited wishes for the rest of my life, huh?" I mused.

I was a fairly normal person, as I saw it. I loved my family, loved my wife (but after years of marriage might not necessarily say I was still 'in love' with her), I had a job I was ok with. I had been a reasonably faithful husband. That is not to say that I was without my fantasies. I had the usual dreams of beautiful and submissive young women living only to fulfill my every desire, the occasional (suppressed) fantasies about my daughter since she turned 18, about some of my wife's friends or my female coworkers. Sometimes these dreams might be accompanied by masturbation, other times they might accompany sex with my wife. My wife is a delightful person, but is somewhat repressed sexually, so we don't have sex often and when we do I've given up trying to get her to experiment (which led to two experiments with prostitutes, but when that wasn't the kind of mind blowing thing you see in porn, I figured there was no point in taking further risks).

But now... with money apparently not a problem (not that I was particularity poor before, but there is a big mental line between 'has enough' and 'can have infinite'), my thoughts turned to sex. Could I work this so I could have all the sex I ever wanted, without screwing up my marriage? Actually one last thought on money, because that pile was in my way. "Instead of this, can you just make it so there would always be enough money in my pocket or on my card to pay for what I wanted?" I asked.

'Yes,' was the only reply. I noticed the money was still on the couch, and was about to ask about that, when it vanished as suddenly as it appeared. 'I am adapting to anticipate your questions and needs,' voice added, preempting my asking.

I was thinking about asking for a gorgeous 18-year-old to play with, when suddenly there was one on the couch next to me. She had on a tube top, displaying a gorgeous flat belly and an egregious amount of cleavage, and a tight miniskirt that put her panties on full display. Her blonde hair was lose and flowing, just as I had imagined. She squirmed in the seat, then stood up and stretched languorously, running her hands over her body in a way obviously meant to entice me, emphasizing her breasts and making sure to run her hands over her mound in such a way I could make it out quite clearly through her very shear panties.

This was too crazy. I just had an idle thought and suddenly a person was there who hadn't been before. I wished she wasn't there. Just as suddenly, she wasn't.

"Power," I said quickly, deciding I should have name for addressing this thing. "Please, from now on, wait until I've thought things through and made a definite decision before you do anything, okay? I don't want everything I think of for a second coming true. All I need to have is a nightmare and suddenly there are all kinds of monsters running around."

'Of course,' Power replied. His voice sounded more definite and normal, less game show and more butler now. He also sounded slightly hurt.

"I appreciate the girl," I said, trying to assuage his feelings (I wasn't sure he had them, but it can't hurt to not have the thing that can make anything happen be mad at you). "I just wasn't expecting that."

I thought for second. "I want you to anticipate emergencies. Like if I were about to be in a car accident, or someone wanted to hurt me, take care of the situation before it can happen. But otherwise let me think about it."

'Of course sir,' he answered, sounding a bit mollified, now with a distinct 'stereotypical butler British accent'.

I thought about the girl again. She was exactly my conception of the perfect teen. Perfect body, at least, since I hadn't given her time to speak. "Was she real?" I asked. This brought up all kinds of moral quandaries.

'It depends on master's definition of 'real',' Power answered. 'She was physically identical to a human being, she was capable of feelings and thoughts based on your ideas, although I had not given her many beyond standing and posing as you had not yet thought how she should act. Since she did not exist before I created her for you, she had no past beyond that which I could have created for her, nor any personality beyond what you might have imagined her to have, and she ceased to exist once you asked me to remove her.'

So in summary: physically real, but not actually a real person. I wasn't sure I liked the idea. Clearly she had been created to have sex with me (certainly that had been what I was thinking of). There were some benefits readily apparent: it bypassed any moral qualms I might have about taking advantage of someone against their will, since a created person would be perfectly willing (because they were made to be so). And they could be exactly what I wanted. I decided to suspend judgment until I had tried it.

"What about real people? Actual people who exist, with their own thoughts, lives, and stuff?" I asked.

'What about them?' Power replied evenly. My implication clearly had not gotten across.

It was embarrassing, but I realized I would need to get used to being explicit. You don't want to be vague with something that could do anything. "I mean, if I want to have you bring a real woman here and have her have sex with me, can I?"

'Of course.' Power replied.

By this point you can understand if I was overwhelmed. I had gone from a manager at an advertising firm, olding gracefully in a content if not engrossing marriage, getting ready for my kids to go to college, to someone who could do, if I was understating Power properly, basically anything.

'Does master have any more questions?' Power asked. The buttlery accent and mannerisms were getting on my nerves by this point. I could understand why it might have chosen that based on my thinking, but it was just too far off normal for me, even with everything else. Also, I was talking to nothing and it was starting to make me feel crazy. I was hoping that it was just a feeling, and not me hallucinating things, since technically I hadn't really verified anything that couldn't just be me having a mental breakdown yet.

"Could you talk more normally?" I replied, exasperated. "The way you are speaking is just too strange. And could you maybe give me something to talk AT? I am not feeling great conversing with air."

Rather than respond, the air in front of me flickered, then resolved into a translucent figure standing in front of me. The image looked all flickery, like holograms in a sci-fi show, and I realized it in fact was from a sci-fi show. I couldn't remember which one at the time, though.

"Is this better, sir?" she said, her voice now clearly coming from her image rather than being indistinct. "This is an image you had in your head for an 'interface' that is clearly not real, which you seemed to desire."

"That actually is better," I replied. "You don't have to be all military, though, just because that character was," I added. I had to admit that as a view this was also better than the image the male butler voice had given me; Alfred came to mind. "Ok, so now I can actually face you. Can others see you? Will I have to explain you to them if you are visible like this?"

"No. Only you can hear or see me, unless you request otherwise. However, people can see and hear you talking to me, unless you would like me to fix that."

"'Fix that'? How?" I replied.

"I can simply have then not register anything you do in relation to me. They will fail to notice any actions taken in my context, believing you are behaving totally normally. If necessary, they will momentarily stop and wait for you to finish with me, without registering the time lapse as inappropriate."

"You are talking about... mind controlling everyone I come across to make them ignore my talking to you? You can do that?"

"Of course. In order to fulfill your desires, I can alter anyone in any way mentally or physically. You need only ask."