The Pleasure Boy 34

The Pleasure Boy 34

In operation, Woodruffe's LifeMate Program - the 'WoodLMP program,' as all Woodruffe staff and most outsiders had come to call it - was successful in its central purpose. It surely did make a significant contribution to the company's recruiting and training efforts in staffing up to meet our contract with NASA to design and build robotic colonists for Mars. Early on it had been recognized that an industrial base on the Red Planet, itself capable of manufacturing spacecraft, exploration vehicles and robots, would be key for further exploration of the Solar System and for mining the practically unlimited resources of the Asteroid Belt. But how to build such a base? That's what NASA's Mars project was all about.

Its basic idea had been that instead of sending live human beings, who would require expensive and complicated life-support systems, it would be cheaper and easier to build a Mars colony with intelligent robots. Thanks to all the work on drone aircraft, self-driving cars and artificial general intelligence (AGI), in which Woodruffe Corp. had played a not insignificant role, this was now feasible. What was needed (apart from political will and funding) was to push the technological envelope just a little further. That was where my father and his company came in.

By virtue of its track record and patents in the field of semi-autonomous robotics, Woodruffe Electronics had bid on and won the contract to act as general contractor for the project. It would be responsible for the design and testing of the intelligent devices that would go to work on the red planet. It would subcontract most of the manufacturing and payload delivery to more specialized firms but would gear up to make a few of the most essential units in-house. It would coordinate the efforts of other contractors and subcontractors toward successful completion of the project as a whole. In one crucial aspect of this role, it would perform a quality control function on the deliverables of all the other participating firms, to ensure that their products met specifications and could perform their required functions, separately and together.

To play this role, Woodruffe Corp. had to grow - both in complexity and sheer numbers of employees. Formerly, it had been primarily a design company, which paid its shareholders from the royalties on the numerous patents it held for advanced special-purpose electronic circuitry. Though it could also show considerable experience in manufacturing, quality control and general contracting, it would have to expand these capabilities tremendously to meet the new contract's terms. The prime responsibility for overseeing this expansion - for hiring, managing and coordinating the army of new experts and technicians that would be needed for the NASA contract lay with my Mistress, Judith Arruda, Woodruffe's vice president of human resources and her department, in which I now played a part as the designer and effective coordinator of Woodruffe Corporation's LifeMate Program, though Alan Arnold one Judith's senior employees was its nominal manager. Alan and I worked well together. An experienced recruitment officer, he had been my main tutor in Human Resource Management (HRM) when I first came aboard to serve Judith, and was well suited to handle the over-all administration of our WoodLuMP program while I looked after the matching, contracting and mentoring of individual applicants and couples. He was nominally my boss, placed between Judith Arruda and myself on the company's org chart. But I knew Judith's concerns and had her ear more intimately than he did, so that effectively we were equals in the WoodLuMP unit, with no other choice but to get along.

Of course, the Woodruffe LifeMate Program was just a very small part of the happenings at Woodruffe Electronics as that entity grew and transformed itself to play its role in NASA's Mars Project. But, as time passed, by all parameters that could be measured, it was judged to be making a modest but significant contribution to the company's recruiting and training efforts, and to its morale. Applications for employment increased by 18% over what they had been before; stress-related sick days fell by 7%; trainees scored 12% higher on tests of skill and knowledge after a year of training than they had done previously; staff turnover, which had been low before, decreased still further. Project milestones were achieved (on average) 6% faster than before. Woodruffe's reputation as a leader in its field rose still further; and its LifeMate Program came to be emulated by most of Woodruffe's direct competitors, and also by various other companies with Woodruffe's core need to attract, train and retain highly skilled personnel.

Unfortunately, there was no objective way to separate WoodLuMP's contribution to these benefits from the contributions of various other ini­tiatives and policies. We had to make do with anecdotal evidence to judge the business benefits of lifemate relationships and of our program to encourage them. Our unit kept track of Woodruffe company's registered lifemate relationships, and wrote up this evidence systematically. For my account here, a few examples will suffice.

• Probably the most typical case was that of the recent graduate who sought to jump start his career by apprenticing him- or herself to a master in that same professional field. The typical challenge for us in such cases was that only a few of these youngsters were natural submissives, while only a few of their potential masters were natural Dominants. Our problem then was to show and convince both types that some casual version of the D/s mindset and protocol could be of use to them in getting along and working well together. One splendid example for our cause was a young man named Tony Smith with a new PhD in the field of Artificial Intelligence who happened to be gay. He knew of a middle-aged luminary in his specialty, one Samuel Wilson, whom he knew was also homosexual, and currently unattached. Learning of our program, he applied for employment with us, asking us to approach Dr. Wilson on his behalf. Boldly he had already introduced himself to Wilson, and had a shrewd idea of what would happen when we did. Wilson worked for one our competitors at the time, but with the intrinsic fascination of the Mars Program and a decent pay increase (augmented too by half the entry-level salary of Mr. Smith), he was readily persuaded to join us. Their recruitment as a couple was a spectacular example of the effect we'd hoped for, and it was not unusual. It was repeated often, and justified our program many times over.

• Another success story, unique from one perspective but typical in its way was the case of the seeing-eye person, taken aboard as a lifemate for Larry Gruber, a blind network engineer, 47 years old, who had become outstandingly good at visualizing the conectivities of complex electronic networks. He loved his job but was finding both the commute and his daily life increasingly tiring. Having saved enough over the years to buy himself a small but adequate annuity, he was thinking to retire. Learning of our program, he approached us, asking us to help him find and hire a young woman who would serve him as a combination housekeeper, bedfellow and seeing-eye dog. Through Myrna Stiles and LifeMates Inc. we advertised and found a bright, sweet high-school dropout who made a fine life for herself by attaching herself to Gruber and helping him navigate his world. At work, seated almost full-time in his familiar cubicle, he didn't need her, so paid for her training as a typist and filing clerk and got us to hire her (rather than someone else) as soon as we had an opening. In this way, we got at least another eighteen years of fine work out him and as many years of competent secretarial work out of her. He got a devoted much-more-than-wife and the portion of her salary that paid for her room-and-board. She got a career that was well beyond her expectations as a school dropout, along with a kind and grateful husband who took her everywhere he went and gave her a much richer life than she would otherwise have had. It was a win-win all around.

Their case was uniquely heart-warming, but typical in some other ways. We had more than a few valued employees who would have burned out, or gave less than their best to us, because they needed regular and congenial sex and some domestic help.

• To a far greater degree than we expected, our WoodLuMP program impacted the Company's married employees - positively, in most but not all cases. Quite a few of the wives of Woodruffe's executive officers and senior managers sought to liven up their marriages by recycling themselves as 'sex slaves.' In many cases, they succeeded, sometimes well beyond their expectations. No longer able to refuse anything, they sometimes learned more about their husband's desires and fantasies than they really wanted to know. On the other hand, they discovered for themselves the D/s paradox that submission can be liberating. Now able to enjoy things that 'nice girls were not supposed to do,' able to confess desires that 'nice girls were not supposed to have,' they did indeed find that their husbands were interested more often, and that their marriage beds were more fun,

The reverse case worked too, but somewhat differently. When the stressed executives and managers were female, like Judith Arruda, for example, their husband's sex lives also improved, but at a price. As the subs in a D/s marriage, they found themselves doing much more of the housework and somewhat more childcare than they had previously. But their wives were happier, and so were they when they got used to the new regime. And in both cases, happier and more relaxed senior employees did better work for the Company.

• However, not all our cases were success stories. Too often, inexperienced Dominants were harsher or more demanding than their subs were willing to accept. Or made the opposite mistake of not being as firm, directive and even punitive as their submissives needed. A few submissives were needy and distracting, and caused more problems than they were worth. Mostly, with experience, some general coaching and our active mentoring, these problems went away. But a few couples were simply incompatible; a few individuals were not cut out for lifestyle D/s. In these cases, we had to dissolve the relationships and contain the damage somehow, so that it did not blow up into a scandal.

Our old enemy Gordon Stuart almost caused one. When he decided that he wanted a housekeeper and sex slave, he became seriously abusive one night and almost put the poor girl in the hospital. She told us she was going to sue him, and we warned him that we would fully support her unless he gave her what she (and her lawyer) considered a satisfactory settlement. When he tried to keep us out of the matter by threatening to go to the newspapers, my father told him to his face that unless he resigned, kept his mouth shut, paid up and refrained from trying to make trouble we would make sure that the scandal destroyed him, whatever harm it did to the firm. He slunk away, my father replaced him, and that was the end of it.

In hindsight, the WoodLuMP program was generally seen as a success. In the long term, it attracted the talent we wanted - in both Doms and Subs - stimulated emulation and creativity, just as we had hoped, and generated a great deal of positive public interest. It proved well-worth its initial funding and its upkeep. The only downside was that, especially at the beginning, it was always something of a distraction - for some couples who became preoccupied with their newly intense sex lives, and for Judith's HR department with its new responsibility, (and sometimes for Judith herself), which had to iron out the snags in lifemate relationships. But the executive committee never considered cancelling the program; and when Judith and I retired, decades later, WoodLuMP had a remarkable continuation when it came time to add a few humans to the robotic and AI control team at Mars Base Camp.

As time passed, the robotic exploration of Mars bore fruit in detailed knowledge of the Martian terrain, and in new technologies for extracting and working with its resources in the thin Martian atmosphere. Of key signifi­cance for the future was the development of a technology for extracting breathable oxygen from the plentiful atmospheric CO₂. By further steps, a rocket fuel could be produced. With these capabilities, it would soon be feasible to send a team of humans to build a permanent human settlement on that planet - bringing them back to Earth and reinforcing them with new arrivals as desired.

The motivation for doing so would be to keep my father's robots under human control. It was either that or make those robots self-motivating because of the immense distance. On Earth, we could now build semi-autonomous robots which could get around on land or sea or through the air, and competently perform any task (within the limits of their physical and cognitive capabilities) that a human ordered or had programmed them to do. But Mars on average is about 8.7 light-days from Earth, meaning that it would usually take almost 9 days, and often longer, for any message or command from a control centre on, or in orbit around the Earth to reach a robotic intelligence on the surface of Mars. It would take as little as 9 seconds when the two planets were at their closest, but over two weeks (with the sun between them) when they were farthest apart. With a human control centre on Mars, the robots could be given new instructions almost instantaneously, and would not need the dangerous autonomy to think of setting goals for themselves.

Thus, soon after this oxygen extracting technology was successfully implemented, it became feasible to think of augmenting the robotic Mars colony with a small number of human officers in a self-sustaining base camp. They would not need imported oxygen and food to stay alive as their habitat would include an (artificially intelligent) life support system which would supply all their needs automatically. Robots could prepare their habitat in advance, so that they would just move in and take high-level control once they arrived. Based on instructions and continuing support from Earth, they would then direct the robots in further expansion and ventures to mine the asteroid belt with harnessed solar energy.

For the time being, at least, there was no intention that the human population would grow. Mars Base was not to become a colony (like those created on Earth during the Age of Discovery) that would eventually seek independence from its 'mother country.' Based on the expertise and work that would be needed, the plan was to send and maintain a small, stable cadre of 16 persons, half male, half female to staff this outpost. Volunteers selected for that duty would be sent four at a time, two years apart, and would remain on the Red Planet for four 'shifts' - each about two earth-years which is how often Earth and Mars come close together, making transfers between them possible. Thus, each foursome would man the Mars Base for about eight earth-years. It would then be lifted into Mars orbit by a shuttle rocket and transferred back to a refueled and re-provisioned space craft that would bring them back to Earth. Once the Base had its full staff of 16, it would receive four new persons and send two back to Earth on routine transfers between the planets every two years. By current calculations, the trip between the planets would take between seven and nine months depending on acceleration/deceleration and the orbit chosen.

Including travel time, with preparation before and debriefing and physical retraining after, serving one eight-year shift on Mars would be a ten-year commitment. At least initially, all persons selected were to be kept on birth control for that time, and would have their eggs or sperm frozen and stored before the trip to be sure of reproducing safely at a later date. Women would also have an option to have one or more of their eggs fertilized and then brought to term and raised by a surrogate mother while they were away, and would thus come home to a ready-made family. These children would grow up with two sets of parents, meeting their biological mothers only when these returned to Earth.

So far as Judith and I were concerned, NASA's key decision was to send these teams not as four individuals but as lifemate couples - one already competent and another somewhat more expert and senior in each needed area. Almost automatically, this would create a desired relationship of teaching and learning and provide the redundancy of skills and knowledge required for safety's sake. As an eight-year, temporary marriage and giving each couple its own shared cabin, it would allow the couples to relieve each other's and their own sexual needs and to develop a measure of intimacy between them. Learning to watch and cover for each other, hopefully they would spot and correct each other's mistakes before these became the cause of lethal accidents.

Aware of my father's successful lifemate program, NASA invited him to bid on a further contract to train these couples. Judith and I wrote the Woodruffe bid, and won the contract. In our bid, we described the teaching problem as follows, before explaining in detail how we would handle each step:

1. What NASA intends is to select individuals who are already competent in various desired fields, deciding who will be senior and junior - Dominant and submissive - in each couple. In the months of training to survive and work on Mars, NASA will observe the couple to confirm that this intended relationship of junior to senior is actually taking hold. If so, Judith and I will enter their training program for a few weeks, as needed, to prepare them as a lifemate couple.
2. The first step will be to explain and demonstrate the advantages of an explicitly D/s relationship, for safety, comradeship and sexual relief in the isolation and danger of an eight-year posting on an alien plant millions of miles from home. Through explanation, demonstration, and practice, the couple will learn the roles and explicit protocol of 24/7 Dominance and submission, and will learn that there is honour, not shame, in the submissive role.
3. Three ideas, in particular, characterize the D/s lifemate relationship. The first of these, called 'participatory obedience' removes the possibility of conflict. The sub promises to obey the Dom. The Dom knows that he or she will be obeyed, will always have the last word, but consults the sub's beliefs and desires as time and opportunity permit, and makes decisions for the good of both parties and their relationship as a whole.
4. A second idea, called 'sexual service' provides sexual pleasure and release without the need for love or any personal relationship. Love and intimacy come after, if at all. The idea is that the submissive serves the Dom sexually just as the Dom directs, but accepts his or her own pleasure as the Dom's free gift, often after a certain amount of deprivation. In particular, the sub is forbidden to climax without permission and is always punished for doing so. The Mars-bound couple have probably just met, and are still strangers to one another. The concept of sexual service allows them to use sex as a way of getting to know and care for each other.
5. A third idea called 'consensual correction' uses punishment - usually some mild form of corporal punishment (CP) such as spanking or strapping - not so much to correct faults, still less change attitudes, as to affirm and deepen the relationship. CP is primarily a ritual, desired and agreed to by both parties, to restore balance and harmony to a relationship after these have been broken or violated in some way. In D/s relationships, it should be somewhat painful and humiliating but not beyond voluntary endurance. It can also feel highly erotic although painful at the same time. It can be performed in front of witnesses, for closure and for added humiliation. The crucial point is that the sub must accept, and even desire the correction as just, and much preferable to any damage to their relationship.