The Master Program Ch. 06

"I don't get it; it's just a 3D model of me," said a naked Imogen as she peered closer to the screen, "A very good likeness... but a little weird if I'm honest. I don't get what you need it for?"

"Watch," said Stephen as used the Master Program to lengthen Imogen's avatar's arm by about 15 centimetres.

"Eurgh, why'd you do that? I don't have a freaky arm. Anyway, can we play with this later? I really want to have sex."

Stephen undid the change then went to the breast slider, turning her EEs into Gs.

"Hey! What are you trying to say?"

"Watch this," replied Stephen, without even looking at her, and pressed the commit changes button. Imogen made a 'ouch' noise, then furrowed her brow as she grabbed her breasts. Her eyes widened in a combination of fear, shock and confusion as her chest swelled to match the 3D model on-screen.

"Stephen, what the fuck is this? What the fuck? What the fuck have you done?"

He reverted the changes and she looked in horror again as they shrank back down to EE.

"Stephen, I'm fucking scared, what's going on? Is this a fucking dream?"

"I came across this program, back in April, just before exams, and I discovered it can shape the reality around us."

"Steve, that... that isn't possible."

"You saw it."

"That was a trick you played on me. This isn't real."

"What is the capital of..." Stephen started to ask, thinking of a relatively distant country, "Tanzania?"

"I don't fucking know. TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON!" she demanded, looking more and more hysterical.

"Answer and I'll tell you."

"Fine, fucking Nairobi, no that's Kenya. I DON'T KNOW! I've been to Egypt when I was seven, nowhere else in fucking Africa, how would I know?"

She started to tremble, staring at Stephen as he typed on the Macbook. He pressed enter when Imogen slammed the screen shut over his fingers.

"STOP IT! STOP IT! What are you doing?!"

"What is the capital of Tanzania?"

"I said I don't know!" she said, lips trembling.

"Think."

"Dodoma has been the capital since 1996; previous to this the capital was Dar es Salaam, which is still considered the economic capital," she stopped being hysterical and just stared at Stephen, mouth agape, "How do I know that? Can that program... alter my mind?"

"Yes, it works by..."

"Wait... wait... wait... you said you got this in April."

"Yes, I found it when..."

"April. We started going out around April... no, it was March... unless.... And I started sleeping around a LOT more in April. Stephen, this isn't the first time you've used this program on me is it?"

"Well no, we actually first had sex in April, you just think it was March. I kinda tweaked you to let out the bit of you that likes to sleep around."

"You made me in a fucking SLUT?!"

"Well, it wasn't that big a change actually, and most of it was actually engineering your environment..."

"YOU FUCKED AROUND WITH ME?!"

"But you like being a slut," replied Stephen, his breathing becoming heavier and more panicked.

"Because of YOUR twisted game," she said with a look of hatred in her eyes. She turned round to the kitchen counter and picked up a huge kitchen knife. Stephen jumped back out of his chair, causing it to clatter to the floor. He backed up as fast as he could until he hit the wall between Sophie's bedroom door and the bathroom door.

"Please no, don't hurt me. You can't anyway, the Master Program protects me. Master Program freeze Imogen."

Knife pointing at his chest, she walked forward, unimpeded.

"Freeze Imogen Daniels," he begged. She continued, until she was right in front of him; she drew back the knife and then with pure anger in her face she thrust it forward with all her strength.

"Nooo..." he yelled. His eyes were blurry, sweat was sticky on his forehead and adrenaline was rushing round every vessel in his circulatory system but he was alive. It had been a dream. A nightmare, actually, but still just a figment of his subconscious mind. He reached for his Macbook, which was by the side of his bed and then used the Master Program to calm himself down and send him into a dreamless sleep, which he slipped into after snuggling up to Sophie.

In the morning, Stephen had considered his dream. It had freaked him out at first, because he had wondered if it was a Master Program induced dream acting as a warning to him, but the program denied doing this when asked. Stephen had been thinking about people to reveal his program to, as an alternate to Michael, and Imogen had been one of them. Despite it being a dream, he had taken this to be an insight into how Imogen might react. He knew he couldn't tell someone he had modified about the program, not without reverting them or further altering them to accept what he had done without their consent, which would then defeat the point of having a peer. Michael was his best choice, despite the fact that he had been very distant just before and over the summer. Stephen made his plan to approach Michael after their first lecture of third year, which was on Wednesday; in the first week he didn't have Monday or Tuesday lectures as all the lecture halls had been booked out for first year introduction events.

Wednesday morning came and Stephen was double checking his bag while a nude Sophie was eating breakfast. "Have you heard back from Layla?"

"I haven't texted her yet, it's only been a day," replied Stephen, casually. Layla the first automatically modified girl he'd met. She had dark skin, black hair and breasts a cup size or so smaller than Sophie's. Stephen and Sophie had been at a bar having a start of term drink when he caught sight of her buying a drink. Her tramp stamp and tight clothing had raised Stephen's suspicions, but when she agreed to come back to Stephen's and Sophie's flat after little coercion he was pretty certain she was Master Program augmented. The fact he had not had a direct hand in her transformation had allowed him to almost feel like she was a 'real' slutty girl that he had picked up. However, he also felt rather proud that he had set up this system that modified these women without his active intervention. The experience had put him in two minds about being in such a rush to share his program; on one hand, he was about to start experience a whole new level of the master program so he thought that would keep him busy on his own but on the other hand, he now was about to be swamped with several dozen new women and so there was plenty to go around. Truth is, it was a shiny toy he hadn't had a chance to show anyone for over six months now.

Stephen bumped into Imogen by the lift up to the lecture hall and she started chatting to him about Netball trials that afternoon. Netball was actually the reason Imogen was taking this particular module; university sports were played on Wednesday afternoons which was almost always followed by a heavy night of drinking. This module, 'Mathematical Methods for Experimental Physics', focused primarily on statistics and there were two alternate choices; 'Optics and Acoustics' and 'Advanced Statistical Methods'. Those students particularly interested in statistics took the advanced module because it was run by the maths department and thus went into more depth and those students who were happy to avoid any statistics took the Optics module because the lecturer of that module was regarded to be one of the best in the Physics department. 'Mathematical Methods' winning feature was that it had no Thursday lectures, unlike the other two, so sports' players didn't have to worry about their hangover from Wednesday nights.

The lecture hall was one of the smallest he had been in, yet it still had a few seats left over after the whole class had arrived. He spotted two guys that he knew played rugby, four football players, that one guy he always saw drunk at the Student's Union, a guy he didn't recognise and Michael. He took a seat next to Imogen; they were the only one in their row. He had intended to sit next to Michael, but he was in the front row sat between two of the football guys and one of the rugby players. Imogen was discussing how she had plans to sleep with some of the rugby guys tonight after Netball trials whilst they waited for Dr Leigh Sampson to arrive. Dr Sampson had been Michael's academic tutor and Michael had raved how friendly and helping she was, which is why he had taken her lecture module, but all Stephen had felt in the, admittedly few, times he had ever interacted with her was that she was a slightly overweight, middle-aged woman, who tended to drone on. Stephen had in fact only taken the class because Imogen had asked him to and he figured he could just use the Master Program to fill his brain with the required knowledge for the course if it got too boring.

The door opened and in walked a blonde-haired woman, who Stephen placed in her mid-to-late thirties. He had a feeling he recognised her, but he was sure he would have made a better mental note of someone with the kind of cleavage this woman was sporting. She wore a pair of tight jeans and a very fitted shirt; an outfit that somehow blended sexy and smart perfectly. As she placed her stuff by the projector she bent over slightly allowing Stephen a glimpse of what was perhaps a lower back tattoo, which made him wonder if this was a woman with a wilder past... or a subject to the Master Program.

"Michael, nice to see you, oh and Andrew," said the woman, smiling at Michael and then to the person sitting just to his left, "I'm not sure I recognise the rest of you, but thank you for choosing my class. I'm Dr Leigh Sampson, but you are welcome to call me Leigh. I have my email address and office number written on hand-outs that I'll pass round the room."

The moment she said her name, Stephen instantly saw the resemblance. He thought back to his vague memories of the 'old' Dr Sampson, or rather Leigh, and could see her hair; it was thicker now and no longer had hints of grey. Her physique had been trimmed down, not drastically, just enough to take her from a bit chubby to pleasantly voluptuous. Her facial features had livened up in a way that shaved ten years from her appearance. Had he been more familiar with Leigh before her transformation, he knew he would have recognised her straight away; the tune up to her had been minimal, yet it had yielded such appealing results.

"I hope I can sleep with her to boost my grades," whispered Imogen into Stephen's ear, "actually, who am I kidding? I hope I can sleep with her, full stop."

New Leigh held the gaze and attention of the entire class in a manner Stephen thought that old Dr Sampson could never have hoped to achieve. She confidently strode around the room as she spoke, occasionally making eye contact with one of her students giving them a flirty smile; Stephen noticed that Imogen returned hers with incredible enthusiasm.

For the first time since he began lectures, Stephen found himself looking at the clock and hoping it would slow down. As it ticked over their allotted time for the class; the next lecture would start in five minutes, Leigh fetched a set of papers from her bag, "OK guys... and girl," she said, giving Imogen another, reciprocated, flirty smile, "today is your first assignment, it covers today's work, and some of what we'll look at on Friday. It is due back next Wednesday. Just to give you an extra incentive, whoever gets the best score on the work, and if more than one of you get the top mark, this applies to all of those folk individually, I am willing to do whatever you may choose for an hour. I mean in my private office. You don't need to take me up on this offer, as you maybe have girlfriends you are too busy with to find the time to... visit my office. I just advise you that I am a married woman, so I have to devote time to my family, so whatever happens in my office for that hour is all that happens. Also," she said, engaging eye contact with Imogen, "I firmly believe in equal opportunities, so I would never offer things to the men that I wouldn't to the ladies."

In stunned silence the whole class collected their homework and left the class, waiting until Leigh was well out of earshot before discussing in hushed voices if what their lecturer had just implied was actually what she meant. One of the rugby boys declared his intention to go home that minute and start the assignment in the two hours before rugby trials in order to 'get a head start' so he could 'win that fucking prize'. Imogen was in the middle of proposing to Stephen that they should collaborate on their assignment and then share their two hours with Leigh when Stephen noticed Michael was taking the stairs to the ground floor, rather than wait for the lift.

"Mike, Mike! Michael!" shouted Stephen down the stairs, whilst running after him.

"Oh, hey. Steve. I think I'm gonna head straight home, so don't know if I can really stop to chat."

"OK, why the rush though? You've been a little weird with me, since... before summer."

"Nah, I'm just... busy."

Stephen was unconvinced, but he ignored that feeling and pulled out his new tablet computer, "Mike, just let me show you something."

Michael looked relatively unenthused, but waited on a step a few below Stephen.

"Look at your left hand. I want you to give me a number between three and six."

"Four."

"Four centimetres it is."

"Ah," exclaimed Michael, wincing a little as his left index finger involuntarily contracted. With an expression Stephen presumed he had had when he first saw his finger grow in the British Library six months ago, Michael stared at his elongating finger, "Stephen. What the hell have you done?"

Glad that Michael had remained surprisingly calm, he returned the finger to its normal length and then showed him the interface. The disbelief turned briefly to fear and Stephen was leaning towards running the 'Forget' routine Michael had written the previous night; its purpose was to wipe Michael's memory of the Master Program entirely, in case his demonstration went badly. Michael's fear peaked and he began to calm down enough to try another small modification; he made his thumb double in size.

"OK... I still almost don't believe it. I'm expecting to wake up at any minute," said Michael, more to himself than to Stephen.

"Give me your phone; I investigated some of the features of the program and I can allow you access to my version. I'll upload this to your phone, and give you the permissions to alter just yourself for now. Just don't delete your saved state; otherwise you can't revert to normal. I will be locked out of your profile as long as you are an active user, so it's totally up to you what changes you make."

Michael left after saying very little, which was a little bit of an anti-climax for Stephen, but he remembered it took him a little while to adjust to the realisation of the power he now held. Not to mention the revelation that all the Universe around them was an experiment created by some sort of super-intelligent aliens.

Stephen saw Michael three times between then and the next Wednesday lecture; once on Friday for Leigh's second weekly lecture, which had full eager attendance, then again on Monday and Tuesday for the other lecture course they shared. Each time he saw Michael he looked better; the first time he had bulked up his skinny frame with some modest but obvious muscles, the second time he had widened his jaw a little and given himself some stubble among some other aesthetic changes and the third time, he noticed nothing externally obvious but he saw Michael run up four flights of stairs with almost no loss of breath when he got to the top. After every occasion, Michael had left pretty swiftly, saying he wanted to get back and play with the program but this time he had asked Stephen if they could chat after Leigh's lecture.

The entire class handed in their homework with enthusiastic delight; Leigh flirted individually with each student as they passed her their answers. Stephen knew he had all correct answers, so it was only a matter of her marking them and he would get her alone in her office for an hour. He thought about the fact she was married but her actions could be totally at his whim and it made him remember the rush of power he first felt when he modified Imogen. He had a grin on his face after seeing Leigh's left nipple was pierced; it was obvious through her top, and this smile lingered as he walked towards the common room with Michael.

"I see you've made some changes; looking good," said Stephen.

"Yeah, I feel pretty super human. It's a pretty awesome device. I saw you had already made some tune-ups to me though. I suppose I should thank you."

"Oh yeah, I just made a bunch of people healthier and fitter and such."

"Yeah, I also noticed some mental changes that were made to me."

"I didn't.... I don't think," Stephen paused to think.

"Not consciously, but little memory changes that I've undone. Like I now remember what Imogen used to be like and how you were a bit chubbier," Michael patted his stomach as he said this, "back in March."

"Oh, of course, the Master Program does that automatically if I make changes."

"Yeah, well, last night I finished our assignment, knowing I'd got everything right. I assumed you had too, so I figured that meant at least the two of us would be getting an hour with Dr Sampson, or Leigh, I should say."

"OK, what's your point?"

"Well, with the power to manipulate anyone, we don't need to share do we? I changed one of my answers, so I'll get 28/30, good but no 'teacher's pet's prize'. So I was thinking, you've got all those women, Sophie, Alice, etc, maybe you could let me have one? Like, Imogen for example."

"Well, that seems fair, but I don't suggest Imogen, she's untameable; an actual sex machine."

"Well, we could always tweak her a bit... because the thing is... I've always had a little crush on Imogen."

"Oh... I see... you never said... is that why you've been a bit weird with me?!"

"Oh, well yeah, I don't really like to talk about that kinda stuff. And yeah I suppose I just felt a little confused around you two."

"Well, OK, but I'm just reluctant to give up Imogen," Stephen paused, and 'hmmmed' while he thought, "How about I give you five of my slots, as well continued exclusive access to your own profile."

"I... could live with that... but that doesn't stop the fact you were fucking someone I fancied for the past six months..."

"I didn't know!" retorted Stephen, feeling a little guilty but also a little annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah but how about I use one of my slots to make a girlfriend, and then you program yourself to fancy her. Not madly, just enough to want to sleep with her but she'll be my girlfriend."

Stephen pondered the request. He thought it was an odd thing to ask, but he understood why Michael had asked it. He had lusted after women who had not returned the feelings and he knew it was unpleasant but when your best friend was the one who was screwing that object of desire; he imagined that would make it all the worse. If he did agree to this he could always undo it if it became too difficult. For now, it seemed like a good decision; if it meant he and Michael could be friends again.

"That is a bit weird, but I've not been in a situation where I've wanted someone I can't have for a long time; that could be...fun. Maybe. Provided your girlfriend is someone who I would find sexy, I will program myself to strive to have her but I think a life-long lust might be a bit excessive, so let's go with six months, to make it evens. Also, I'll give you full access to the program, but you won't have access to my profile or any of my girlfriends. I won't have access to you at all and you can pick ten people to alter, after which their profiles will also be locked to me, but, again, only for six months. Seem fair?"