Virtual Life Experience Pt. 03

Later, as Jason peered into the murky water of the river, Mario struggled to make out just what the shape was moving below the surface. There was a row of white objects, like pickets in a fence, which seemed to be moving toward the surface. Suddenly, he recognized what they were . . . teeth. "OH SHIT!" he cried out as the river erupted in spray and a large, dark shape shot out toward him. He/Jason leaped backward, but it was too late. The creature's teeth sank into his leg, producing searing pain. Knowing that the ES2000 was programmed to limit pain transferred from the subject, he could imagine how much worse it was for Jason. He was terrified that the creature was going to pull him in and he clung to the roots on the riverbank as though his own life depended on it. Just as he started to lose his grip, Nikki came to his rescue.

An hour into the session, with the buildings looming about a half a mile ahead, Jason's vision faded and he passed out. The computer announced it was switching Mario to Nikki's sensors. The transition was jarring, as Mario was suddenly bearing Jason's dead weight in Nikki's body. He/Nikki laid Jason down and tried to revive him. It was no use, he remained unresponsive.

Mario's vision blurred and he felt tears streaming down his cheeks. He/Nikki pulled out her laser sword and energized it. They stood over Jason's body, looking down at his leg. What is she up to? Mario thought. Oh, god no! His heart dropped when he realized she was contemplating amputating his infected leg.

"No!" he yelled, though he knew it would do no good. He suspected the shock of the amputation would kill Jason. Nikki unwrapped Jason's bandaged leg. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but Mario actually thought it looked a little better than before. Apparently, Nikki agreed, as she put away the laser sword. Mario felt relieved.

Nikki sat down next to Jason and wept for a few minutes. "Please stay with me," she whispered.

Mario knew she was talking to Jason, begging him to stay alive, but he felt as though the words could have been directed to him. "I will," he answered.

Nikki sat Jason up and, crouching down, was able to lift him in a fireman's carry over her shoulders. She staggered when she got to her feet, as he outweighed her by at least 80 pounds. She was only able to cover 100 yards before she had to put him down and rest. For Mario and all the others experiencing the edited adventure, the next three hours of Nikki struggling to carry and drag Jason the last ½ mile was mercifully edited down to 10 minutes. Even so, Mario's legs were burning and he was out of breath when they finally reached the first black structural cube. Nikki set Jason down, propped against the smooth, cool surface.

There were no signs of life outside the building. Leaving Jason there, she walked around the structure to the far side. There, in the fading evening light, she could see hundreds more just like it, arranged in uniform, neat rows, equidistantly spaced about 50 yards apart. The structures themselves were simple cubes of a smooth, opaque black material about 40 feet in each dimension. There were no discernable windows or doors. Mario wondered if they were not buildings at all, but structures for some other purpose. Perhaps they were memorials, or just a way for some civilization to leave their mark, like the flags left by early earth explorers.

Nikki returned to Jason. Running her hand along the wall just to the left of where Jason was propped up, a roughly 1 foot square panel suddenly lit up. The panel was split in two by an unlit vertical line. To the right of the line was a cohesive pattern of geometric shapes, lines and swirls. To the left was a dozen lit up squares with parts of similar patterns, but they were disconnected at the boundary of each square, as if someone had cut up the pattern on the right and put it back together out of order on the left. Nikki found if she touched the squares on the left, she could drag them across the surface and rearrange their order. It was a simple puzzle. She rearranged the squares on the left to duplicate the pattern on the right. There was a wooshing noise, a seam appeared to the left of the panels and a 10' square door swung open.

The inside of the cube was illuminated. Nikki peered in. It was empty. She walked into the room. From the inside, the walls looked like glass, such that Mario could see through to the outside in all directions. While it was now dark outside, viewing through the walls it looked like bright daylight. Mario was at once both relieved and disappointed. No little green men had emerged with death-rays and fried them, but an empty glass cube was much less exciting than he had hoped for. Yet something was not quite right, he just couldn't place it.

Nikki recognized it first. After bringing Jason into the room, she was talking aloud to herself when she said, "wait, why is this room not square?" The building on the outside was cubic, but the inside of the room was only about half as deep as it was wide, and yet every wall appeared from the inside to be just clear glass, providing a clear view of the outside world. Mario pondered this. Surely the back wall to the room was not made of 20 foot thick glass. He concluded that the wall must not be a simple glass barrier and that the image of the outside world must be projected on it rather than a direct view of what was on the other side. That meant there was a sizable room hidden from view.

Nikki bent down and checked on Jason. Mario thought his color looked better. She put her hand on his forehead, and from 8.6 lightyears away, it felt cool on Mario's hand. Nikki settled down to next to Jason to sleep. The session ended.

Mario was exhausted when he emerged from the chamber. His emotions were a jumbled mix of worry, relief, disappointment and curiosity. He met Marcella's eyes and saw his worry reflected in them. They had agreed not to give any sign to the others still waiting to experience the VLE session of what had happened. Six pairs of curious eyes sized them up as they stood naked and emotionally spent. Neither Mario nor Marcella really felt like partying after that. They dressed and each had a beer, then left.

They went straight to bed when they got back to Mario's dorm. They lay naked in each other's arms and talked about the experience. Eventually they did make love, gently and tenderly, and fell asleep with Mario still inside of her.

Just three days later, VLEC announced there would be a midweek release the following night. Apparently there was a lot of action on Antola, Mario figured.

That night, they again gathered at Aziz's apartment. In an effort to kick start the party, Aziz, who always had sex on his mind, had put a sign just inside the doorway of the apartment that read, "No clothing permitted beyond this point." The guests had complied, left their clothes in a pile by the sign and entered the party naked. By the time Mario and Marcella arrived, Aziz was already fucking Olivia on the living room couch. Mario felt himself stiffen at the erotic sight. As Marcella led Mario by the hand to the bar, they passed Renee, who gazed appreciatively at Mario's erection. She sidled over to him and whispered in his ear, "You are so fucking hot. If you ever want to stray, I'm willing."

"What was that about?" Marcella asked suspiciously.

"She said you are hot and she would love to have a threesome," Mario lied.

Renee grinned. Everyone was well aware that she went both ways. Despite the fact that it was a lie, Mario could see she was into the idea.

"Thank you. You are hot too, honey, but I'm not into that," Marcella said to Renee.

Mario was just a little disappointed. The idea had been arousing. As Marcella turned away, Renee caught Mario's eye and winked playfully.

Mario and Marcella drew the second pairing. Mario was a bit buzzed by the time their turn came. As he stepped into the chamber, Mario realized he had been trying to suppress his worry for Jason up until now. It came crashing back when the system only offered Nikki's experience. That was a bad sign.

The experience picked up where the last had left off. Nikki awoke beside Jason in the morning. She shook him a little, but he still did not respond. She checked on his leg and it was definitely healing.

With hunger gnawing at her, she left the structure to hunt. She was eventually able to shoot a couple of small lizard-like creatures and gather some edible plants. She returned to the structure several hours later and, just outside the door, she made a stew over a "tank-patty" fire.

Two days passed fairly uneventfully. Nikki entered many of the other cubes, to find them all the same as the first. Apparently empty, but seemingly each harboring an inaccessible space beyond the back wall. Each cube had a puzzle to solve in order to gain access. They were all different, but none were particularly challenging. Mario concluded that the intent was to require some minimum amount of intelligence to gain entry.

Toward the end of their third day in the settlement, Nikki re-entered the cube and drew in her breath sharply. The back wall no longer projected a view of the outdoors. Instead, it appeared to show the contents of a room on the other side. On the right of the back room was a formidable looking machine with three jointed legs and numerous appendages extending from a spherical central body. Some of the appendages were clearly meant to grasp and manipulate objects, while others looked like weapons. On the left side of the room was a metallic cylinder, about four feet in diameter and six feet tall. The machine appeared to be linked to the cylinder by a large hose.

On the translucent wall separating Nikki from the back room, a square panel illuminated. Nikki touched it and a door opened into the back room. She entered and explored it. After examining the three legged robot, she touched the cylinder. Mario felt an energy flowing from the cylinder through his fingertips. Nikki withdrew her hand quickly in apparent surprise. She cautiously reached out and touched the cylinder again. The energy flowed like a mild electrical current through Mario's hand. A powerful sensation of calm and reassurance washed over him.

The opaque silver surface of the cylinder faded to translucence and, suspended in an amber liquid inside was a living creature that resembled a smaller, fleshy version of the machine in the room. It had a pale blue-gray body that was roughly spherical, with three long limbs projecting from it. The limbs were divided into many jointed segments. A flattened pad rimmed with short hairs on the end of one of the limbs was pressed against the inside surface of the cylinder, aligned with Nikki's hand. Nikki gasped and backed away.

A sense of fear pushed into Mario's mind, which he understood to come from Nikki. The creature pulled its appendage back, then pressed it to the surface again. The message to Nikki in this gesture was clear to Mario: "put your hand back."

Mario felt Nikki's adrenalin surge and her heart race as she nervously extended her hand again. Again, a sense of reassurance emanated from the contact.

Nikki spoke up, "My name is Nikki. My injured companion is Jason. I'm sure you don't understand my language, but I don't know how else to communicate."

Mario felt the projection of confusion . . . then reassurance again.

Nikki pointed to herself with her free hand and said, "Nikki."

The creature touched a free appendage to its main body. Its body turned a glowing purple and a new, unintelligible sensation emerged.

Nikki shrugged, then said, "I'll call you 'Purple.'"

She pointed to Jason, lying unconscious in the next room and said, "Jason."

Sadness . . . sympathy . . . then reassurance.

Reacting to the projection of reassurance, Nikki said, "I hope you know something I don't."

Curiosity . . .

Nikki began to tell her story, knowing full well that 'Purple' would not understand her. Mario listened with interest, learning things about her history that he did not know. Purple seemed to pick up on her emotions and reflect them back to her as she spoke.

Finally, she fell silent.

"Red?" came a voice from the other room. Jason was conscious. The VLE session ended.

Mario and Marcella sat at the kitchen table afterward with drinks, silently trying to process the monumental event they had just witnessed. Humans had finally made contact with intelligent life from beyond the confines of their planet. It was exciting, but Mario found it frightening as well. "Purple" seemed friendly enough, but as yet they knew so little about it. Nor was it necessarily representative of the behavior of all of its kind. Human history showed that when two cultures encountered one another, it usually didn't go well for the less advanced one. Were humans the less advanced in this case?

When the last pair emerged from the chambers, everyone began to talk at once. What was "Purple?" Was it native to Antola or an explorer from somewhere else? Was it a threat to Jason and Nikki? Was it a threat to humankind? Opinions ran the gamut from Sasha's, who seemed to view "Purple" as the embodiment of peace and love, to Zack's who speculated that "Purple" was mining Nikki for information to support an invasion of Earth.

Eventually the conversation waned. There was still little information to carry the conversation beyond wild speculation. Soon, naked college kids with alcohol reverted to what came naturally in that situation.

Zack began making out with Sasha. Soon she was moaning as his hand slipped between her legs. Renee sat watching them with rapt attention. Marcella took Mario by the hand and led him from the living room into the kitchen, away from everyone else. She turned to him with a look of uncertainty on her face.

"Mario?"

"Yes, sweetheart?" he answered as he took her in his arms.

"Um . . ." she cast her eyes down. "Never mind."

"What is it? You know you can tell me anything."

"Well . . . it's about earlier. I think . . . I think I might have changed my mind," Marcella said in a small voice. She was blushing.

Mario was baffled. "Earlier?" What was she talking about? It wasn't like her to be so obtuse.

"I mean . . . you know . . . Renee?"

"Renee? What about . . . Oh!" suddenly he got it. "You mean you and me . . . and Renee?"

"Yes and no."

"Meaning?"

"I don't think I would be comfortable with you fucking her, but the girl – girl thing, well . . . to be honest, I've always been a little curious. The thought of sucking your cock while she licks my pussy . . . oh god, I'm so wet right now!"

"Oh wow."

"Am I being selfish? I'm asking you to share me with someone else, but I'm not willing to share you."

"Oh fuck no. I could just watch and I'd be in heaven. Watching my girlfriend get it on with another girl? That would be so fucking hot."

"Let's do it before I lose my nerve."

She led Mario back into the living room. Renee was still on the loveseat watching Zack and Sasha fuck on the couch. She registered surprise when Mario and Marcella squeezed in beside her, with Marcella in the middle. Any question about Marcella's intent was dispelled when she pressed her lips to Renee's and cupped a hand on her left breast. Soon, the two girls were fingering each other in earnest while they made out.

Mario had never been harder. Marcella reached out and caressed his manhood. Renee reached across her and did the same. Marcella froze for a second. Renee pulled her hand back and looked at Marcella questioningly, realizing she might have stepped over a line. Marcella looked conflicted for a second, then smiled and nodded her head. "It's OK."

Renee slid off the loveseat and knelt before Marcella. She reached up and put her hand on the back of Marcella's head and grasped Mario's cock with the other and brought them together. As Marcella began to fellate Mario, Renee suckled Marcella's breasts.

A few minutes later, Renee licked her way slowly down Marcella's abdomen, inching ever closer to her swollen pussy. Marcella seemed to forget Mario's cock for a moment and began hyperventilating.

"Oh my god . . . stop! I'm not sure if I'm ready for this."

"Just relax. I promise, it will be amazing. Just enjoy it."

"I . . . I don't know."

Renee took Marcella's indecision as a sign to continue. Her tongue made first contact with the edge of Marcella's labia.

"Stop!"

Renee froze in place, her tongue still touching Marcella, who quivered beneath her.

The whole room seemed to freeze with her. Everyone was getting off on the erotic tension.

Suddenly, the dam burst. "Oh fuck! I want it so bad, just do it Renee! Lick my fucking cunt!"

Mario had never heard Marcella use the "c" word before. Despite the fact that Marcella wasn't even touching him anymore, he almost came on the spot, the scene was so arousing.

Marcella squirmed beneath Renee's expert tongue, moaning loudly. It didn't take long before Marcella arched her back, clutching the loveseat cushions and succumbed to a massive orgasm.

"Don't stop, lick my fucking cunt, OH MY FUCKING GOD! OHHHH!"

After she came down from her high, Marcella began to suck Mario in earnest. Renee continued working on her pussy. Mario fondled Marcella's breasts. Marcella came again, moaning from around Mario's cock, which he found to be an incredible sensation. He felt himself getting close to the edge, when Renee emerged from between Marcella's legs and kissed her on the cheek as Marcella continued to suck him.

To Mario's surprise, Marcella pulled off of his cock and steered it to Renee's mouth. Mario felt like he was in heaven as the two girls shared his cock. They alternated between deep throating him, licking up and down shaft and kissing each other with his cock head in between.

Marcella slid down to her knees and left Mario's cock to Renee. She kissed her way down Renee's stomach. She paused for a moment, looking at Renee's bald pussy, seemingly working up the courage to take the next step. Mario could see that Renee wanted it badly. She raised her hips, trying to close the distance with Marcella's face. Marcella reached out tentatively with her tongue and touched the engorged labia in front of her.

"Oh, yes!" Renee moaned. Encouraged, Marcella dipped her tongue in further and began to thoroughly work over every inch of her pussy.

"Oh, fuck! You're a natural. That feels so fucking good. Don't stop."

Renee forgot about Mario's cock as she concentrated on the intense pleasure between her legs. Mario took the opportunity to reposition himself on his knees behind Marcella. She paused briefly from her tonguing of Renee and said, "Fuck me, baby. Give me that fat cock."

Renee climaxed first, followed by Marcella and Mario almost simultaneously.

Antola

Jason opened his eyes, unsure of where he was. Last he remembered, Nikki was struggling to drag him across the grassland toward the alien structures when his world faded to black. Now, looking up he saw sky, but it appeared to be through a glass ceiling. He looked around and saw that he was surrounded by glass walls. Through three of them, he could see the outside. Through the fourth, which was behind him, he saw what appeared to be the figure of Nikki, facing away from him in another room.

"Red?" he called out.

She reacted immediately, turning and running through the doorway to him. "Jason, thank god!"

She fell to her knees beside him, wrapped her arms around his head and hugged him against her bare breasts. For a second, Jason wondered why she was topless, then remembered she had used her top as a bandage for his leg.

Nikki pulled back and Jason could see that her face was wet with tears of relief.