Ring Transport - Origins Pt. 02

Ring Transport: Origins, Part 2

Copyright January 2024 by Fit529 Dotcom

(Started 2011, mostly completed 2018, revised 2024)

== Trigger Warning ==

Events below include a European and Asian war involving Russia, Belarus, and North Korea. These events are central points of large-scale driving action and cannot be abstracted away to hypothetical country names for obvious plausibility reasons. If you like, consider this an alt-universe where reality is somewhat distorted. This happens in the future anyway, so, sure, it's an alt-universe.

Perhaps it's best to consider this alt-universe to be one where the war in Ukraine was instead a minor skirmish and not a full-scale conflict.

No reflection or intention should be inferred about the leadership of various countries or leaders of those countries.

== Authors Request ==

If you like this story, please consider: (Upvoting / Favorite-Story / Follow-Author / Bookmark / Author's BIO page with other works).

== Disclaimers ==

All persons doing or seeing or knowing about anything even remotely sexy are over age 18.

All names were changed to their exact opposite, randomized, forgotten, remembered, and changed again to their ancient Sumerian versions, transliterated to Persian, then to Hittite, then to Akkadian, then (aw, to hell with it) switched back to random American ones.

As far as you know, some of this text might sound really cool and poetic in another language.

== Sequence ==

This book is Part 2 of a series that includes:

# Ring Transport: Origins, Part 1

# Ring Transport: Origins, Part 2

# Ring Transport: Anna

# Ring Transport: Hard Escape

== Chapter: Recap of Part 1 / Previous Goings-On ==

After divorcing and moving far away to Tacoma, Washington (next to Seattle), I was incredibly poor but had a functional job and crapden apartment. My ex, selling the house, sent me old keepsake boxes. One of those boxes probably wasn't a keepsake. It held a simple gold ring.

Putting on the ring made me sick for a month but simultaneously younger. I got to look & feel 18 years old again. It also made anyone coming close to me fall utterly in love / servitude to me.

To balance this, it enhanced both my sense of personal ethics and my libido. I didn't mind the better moral compass, but the subservience of those near me was a hassle.

This led to me dating an 18-year-old store checkout girl and her two (also 18+) friends, cutting ties with my former life, and having a grand old time with my small harem while living in one of their spare bedrooms, a basement apartment.

After a vacation to discover myself (and how to control my abilities), I found I could affect groups of people at a time, the opposite of my goal, as well as finding I could deliberately target people about 200 yards/meters away, and mentally 'speak' (but not listen) to those I'd previously encountered.

Ending that trip, I had a group of drug dealers give me all their cash, depart to restart their lives elsewhere, and help some addicts to kick their habits.

This was an interesting side project but wasn't what I was looking to do, and somehow I had a sense I ought to be doing something... bigger, and really important.

Also on that trip I accidentally (unconsciously, unavoidably) seduced six members of a college women's volleyball team staying in the same hotel as me. I nicknamed them G1 to G6, but I gave them the DIET instructions as recompense - a command set to eat healthy, exercise, and have good lifelong habits without effort.

Getting back after my road-trip, I realized how little I'd discovered, mostly due to not being able to be ALONE. Too easily distracted by having followers and relationships (I couldn't turn off my gift), I really needed to know the profound truths of who I was, what I could do, and what kind of life I wanted to lead.

None of that was obvious, but the 'with power comes responsibility' thing meant Something had to happen. I was clueless about what.

The best path seemed to be finding an empty spot. I rented an RV, recruited a former spontaneous-lover (health club trainer) as a driver, and set off. With lots of school books to try to remember the schooling I'd spent a lifetime forgetting, we were headed somewhere, anywhere, where we could be alone and I could explore myself, my needs, my gifts, and what meaning I had, or wanted, in and from life.

So, my goal was the tiny, insignificant task of finding meaning and purpose in life. At least, I needed that answer for myself. I can't tell you what to do.

As part two here starts, we - my driver Krista and I - are just leaving the Callas' house on our grand RV adventure, destination unknown.

== Chapter: An Adventure Begins ==

The first question was the hardest, when Krista asked, "Okay, boss! Where are we going?"

No decisions were needed quite yet -- we weren't at the interstate entrance ramp yet.

South? Or, East? Out of Tacoma, there were two options. I didn't know. I was pretty sure North didn't make sense, for all kinds of logistical reasons. So, a 50/50 choice. Vaguely but with some kind of pull, I felt South was better, so we headed out.

Hearing quite a bit of rattling from the back of the RV as we drove, we pulled over and fixed an unsecured PV roof panel that clearly said 'Stow Before Driving' and I'd missed it.

Back on the road, we traced down another rattle - a mountain bike in the under-storage.

Filling up with fuel was a 3rd stop before lunch, made more expensive only slightly by filling the tank of the Mini we were towing behind us. Money was no object; my bank account was more epic than it had ever been in my life, flush from cash sent in by those I'd helped by giving 'life-coach' help.

On the road, I didn't want to go into a restaurant for fear of enthralling everyone and ending up with a crowd of people just standing there staring at me. A grocery store seemed better - we'd want camping food, too, whenever that was ("I'll know when it's right.").

Krista filled and tightly packed our cabinets with staples and treats, since the weight of the food was irrelevant to the monstrosity that we were piloting down the road. Since I'd given her the DIET instructions several weeks before, she'd gotten practice cooking healthy food in a way that made it taste good - per her former roommates, at least.

Lunch from our fresh supplies was sandwiches I made as she drove. We traded off at intervals to both keep ourselves fresh and learn how the RV behaved. The vehicle was huge and took some getting used-to.

We were going mostly south on I-5 out of Tacoma, got past the Oregon border and then past Portland, and past Eugene. I didn't really have a specific destination, but the more I thought about it, the more I just decided to go on instinct, where it SEEMED like we should go.

Really it wasn't an exact-right direction, but at least it wasn't wrong-feeling. Somewhere south of Cottage Grove it started feeling wrong, like we should go inland/east, and I got more and more certain of it.

So, we turned East, heading away from the Ocean and into the Cascades, and I felt better, like that was more right somehow.

About 3 pm, we were on a state highway and I said, hey, let's hold for the night. We were going through a small town, so Krista circled until we found a city park. Both she and I were a little stir crazy, sitting all day when we'd had very active lifestyles before leaving.

She'd been teaching several aerobics classes daily,so she was even more used to activity than I was (though my body was supercharged to respond well to working out).

We changed into workout clothes, but it didn't matter -- it was raining lightly and altogether damp and cool.

I did 3 quick rounds of the small town, which was on a grid anyway and easy to navigate, about 5 miles total, maybe 45 minutes counting a stretch or two beforehand. I ended up back at our RV at the city park with its nice array of swing-set play area equipment, which is why I wanted to park there in the first place.

Play areas (empty of kids in the rain) had chin-up bars and places to hang upside down and do crunch sit ups, etc. My body craved hard work, and if I missed that, I 'itched' to do it. Plus, it was seriously fun to make my muscles burn a little.

Krista was doing rounds of the park itself, stopping every lap to do pull-ups on the monkey bars, sit-ups and pushups on a bench, squats, lunges, a sprint, and then another 5 minute lap. Her routine looked harder than mine, so I stepped it up and copied her strength moves before quitting. She was a fitness expert, so it kind of made sense.

Watching, I was pretty sure she was at a fitness level far beyond any normal fitness instructor, so some part of my enthralling her had helped her body respond well to work. I hadn't known about this side effect, yet another way enthralled people changed.

She kept going even through my stretching, but when I got to my yoga relaxation bits, she joined me. The rain soaked us both to the skin despite our running gear, mine far fancier than hers since money was newly no-object. Realistically there was no way I could spend anywhere close to the weekly haul from my self-help business, and it did occur to me then that we could probably stop at a running store so I could upgrade her equipment, too.

Entirely aside from the fact that I liked her, I depended on her being well and if she got sick from running in the rain it'd be entirely my fault (even if she'd never blame me, __I__ would know).

We decided, talking while trying to do Down Dog (yoga) in slippery grass, that perhaps parking for the night would be okay after all.

Going back to the RV, we both wanted a shower, a new thing in the RV.

Krista's toiletries were packed in one of many stuffed garbage bags she'd brought. Her move-out process was rushed and had don't-care / chuck-it-in levels of organization. Getting out permanently and fast avoided confrontation with mostly ne'er-do-well roommates.

I got my shower while she hunted for her stuff.

The bathroom opened to the hallway, and I was slightly self-conscious when I walked in there naked; I knew we'd seen each other naked before, when we'd had our 'interlude' weeks before at the fitness center, but it was still a little odd to be naked around an almost stranger.

The shower's water volume left a lot to be desired, but it was sufficient for the task. I cleaned up happily and came out whistling, warmed up and both energized and relaxed by the workout and shower. I called out, 'shower's ready' to Krista as I passed her door, but purposefully didn't look in. I didn't know how this was going to go, but I didn't want to spoil my re-acquaintance-surprise later.

Dressed, I went front and grabbed a book, a small one to make sure I could read it quickly. It was 'Old Man and the Sea' by Hemmingway. Egads, it was almost written for kindergarteners! I skimmed it quickly, and though I liked it, I wasn't quite sure what the fuss was about. His writing style was oddly ultra-simplistic.

My previous life, The Life Before ("TLB") hadn't included Hemmingway or much college at all. I'd married early and my wife's absolute insistence of not moving to a new town prevented me from getting a better job.

No, that's not right.

The actual truth? I was stuck in a dead-end purchasing agent job because I didn't think I could change my lot, I was convinced that life just sucked and nothing would change. I let the lack of a nearby college be a convenient excuse. Even if there'd been one, I would have found a reason that going there was an impossible task.

I wasn't in a good emotional place when I got married... or most of the rest of my life, actually. The only way I could get out of that mindset was a move more than half a continent away, to a new place, a new LIFE that I was inventing.

Of course, a year later I'd gotten the ring and TLB was a memory with an ex-wife, a daughter I rarely saw, and a lifetime - 50+ years - of regrets and angst-filled memories of failures, and failures to avoid failures, and failures while other failures happened nearby.

Dwelling in the past wasn't good. Hemmingway hadn't done this to me; I just randomly had flashbacks to TLB that contrasted my 18-year-old (seemingly) body with what I'd so recently been.

When we parked in the lot, we had a plan to get Krista some experience with driving the stick shift Mini (in the car-carrier trailer the RV was towing), which she said she didn't know.

My quick intro led to practice in an imaginary car until she got the moves down. After 10 minutes of me giving speed up, shift; slow and shift; hill and shift... she got it mostly down, at least for imaginary pedals and gearshift.

Mind you, I wasn't the expert, but my daughter had bought a standard transmission as her second car ("'Cuz it's sporty, Dad!") and we had both learned together how to not grind the gears too much.

Detaching the Mini was something I'd only done twice before, so we both got the experience. The fancy motorized car-trailer ramp extended and lowered, ungrabbing the wheels and recessing the parts in about 2 minutes with almost no interaction from us.

I backed up, and she took over to drive around the parking lot a little. There was some traffic in town, but not too much, so she got a chance to tool around for a half hour or so stopping at stop signs, getting up to 4th gear going out of town and coming back, even doing reverse a bit.

It turned out Krista was pretty smart and reasonably self-aware.

I didn't learn stick anywhere as quickly, and she was really comfortable even with her own mistakes. She even made quite a few innuendoes about always being 'into sticks' and how they 'rev her up'. Since we hadn't talked about our sleeping arrangements, I wasn't quite sure what her plan was. There were two beds in the RV, but we both knew we'd be in one.

Really, it was the reason I had her along.

My horny frustrations in that hotel had made people randomly show up at my door; if I went off for a whole week without 'trim' I had to figure people would be following me from all over.

I needed Krista, and it wasn't for 'want' reasons, it was because I literally could not control whatever brain waves were streaming out of my head.

And, she was happy to be there. I was paying her a good salary, double what she'd have made at the health club.

Really, my worry in thinking about the upcoming night was that I didn't want to presume we'd have sex, that kind of smarmy thing wasn't my style. If I asked, the answer could be no and that'd be fine.

At least, I told myself that.

Really, I knew the answer of any enthralled person would automatically be yes unless there was a medical issue involved.

Getting back to the park where the RV was parked, it was just getting winter-dark out, but there was a police car next to the RV!!

The rain had stopped, so we pulled up and stopped.

The officer got out of his car and shone a very bright flashlight on us. Looking in the Mini, he told Krista to turn it off and get out slowly, so we did a dance where he patted her down a minute, but then he stopped and came over to the car where I was sitting. He crouched down so his face was visible through the window and looked at me.

HIs eyes went soft and his mouth opened slightly. He was enthralled.

He said, "What are your orders, Master?"

I said, "You must tell us the complete truth." That was something I'd said a lot, it seemed to give people a task and get ready to answer questions. Otherwise, they seemed nervous because they didn't know what was expected of them. This way, they settled down quickly and did what they would have done anyway - tell the truth.

I got out and walked around the car so we could talk. Krista walked up beside me.

One time, I'd dealt with a person who had been in the US Army or something. His first question, instead of some kind of supplication, was similar to this cop's question of 'what are your orders'. Flashing back on that, I started out with, "Name and Rank?"

"Randall Wittingham Tierny, Chief Master Sergeant, United States Marine Corps, retired. Also, I'm a Sergeant, Apple River Police Department."

"You go by Randy?"

"Nowadays, sometimes. My buddies called me chief. I'm not the chief of police here, but thems that knows me, from my military rank, says Chief."

"Good to meet you, Chief. Hoo-rah." I stuck out my hand to shake it.

"You Corps, sir?"

"No, Chief. I just have met some before." My Marine-friends (acquaintances, really) were from TLB and there was no way I could explain that.

"Ah."

"Why did you stop us?"

"Can't nobody park in the park after dark, ain't 'lowd, town ord'nance. I was just gonna make sure you wasn't drug runners, what with that fancy trailer and giant rig or somethin."

"Where do we stay if not here, overnight? Where can we park?"

He thought, "You can park anywhere, sir. Anywhere. Hell, you can park at my house if you want. I'm the only person that'd do summin, and I ain't agonna do squat, you'ze guests."

I didn't want to get Chief in trouble. I asked, "Where would you have anyone else park?"

"Oh, I'd get 'em out of town, or maybe ... the church parking lot's pretty big."

"We'll take that."

He got out his phone and looked up a number, then dialed on speaker. An older lady answered, "Hello, this is Mae."

"Mae, Chief here. Gotta couple here in an RV that needs to use your parking lot overnight, any trouble with that?"

"Why, not at all! Send 'em over. Do they need me to visit for some reason?"

He looked at me and I said, "Ma'am, Reverend, we're just passing through in our RV. We don't need any charity, or pastoral care. Just a parking spot and privacy. I apologize if it's any imposition."

"Not at all, Sir. If Chief says you're alright, that's good enough."

"We'll be over soon then."

Chief hung up. We tried to say our goodbyes, but it turned into a chat, mostly between Krista and the Chief. She was interested, she liked people.

He had done 3 tours in Afghanistan and been in some hairy bits, was unmarried because some of his violent outbursts scared his girlfriends. I asked him, "You have nightmares, too? PTSD?"

"Nothing official from the VA, sir, no. Unofficially, oh-my, yes, nightmares, somethin' fierce."

"What do you see?"

"Some of our actions, sir. They were justified, but... they led to civilian casualties, and some militant ones, too. I saw those kids, fighters, younger than me, opened up, all, ... opened up. Insides. It was pretty grim stuff, sir. Righteous, had to happen, but still, don't nobody need to see that. I powered through it, but... the visions come back, and I can't kick'em. Don't sleep some nights, get the shakes. It's hard to talk with people, nothing I could say gets through what being in the shit was like, and for them... we were in their house, their town... their... Backyard. I can't un-see it, it's just an image, overlaid on top of other things, at... at the grocery store, sir. Everywhere. Nighttimes, them's the worst, though."

This guy needed forgiveness, I thought. He was feeling guilty. I said, "Chief. I'm going to tell you something now, something really important. I am an Angel of the Lord Your God Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, Builder of Worlds, the beginning and end of all things. Stand straight and close your eyes."

He did. Krista was staring at me, wide-eyed in terror. Chief was also struck his mouth open, his face screwed up like he was about to be struck dead.

I said, "Randall Tierny, You have sinned in action and thought. You have violated the most sacred commandments, knowing they were wrong and yet doing them anyway, many times, many ways. Do you freely admit that you have done so?"

"Oh, God, yes! I have, Yes! I have sinned. I have broken commandments, Yes." His breath came in gasps and huffs and abject fearful terror.