They returned through the tunnel to the stairs, which they took to the basement. About one third of the way down, there was a wide landing with an open doorway to the first floor pantry where they saw Erika. She looked at them and smiled.
“You look like you've all had a bit of fun,” she said.
“Sure did,” Stephanie said. “Next time you should join us.”
Then without further conversation they continued down the last flight of stairs to the basement. The stairs ended at a small poolside area which could only be accessed by the stairs and/or by swimming in the large crescent shaped pool. They dropped their cloths in a hamper to their left as they exited the stairs. To their right the wall was covered in blue tinted mirror like tiles. Against it there were a few lockers and cubbies like the ones behind the waterfall upstairs.
Behind the hamper the wall was an uneven granite mass that extended forwards about ten feet before it reached the edge of the pool. On the edge of the pool, about half way between the granite wall and the tiled one, there was a diving board.
To the right of the door to the stairs the wall curved slowly around until it reached the edge of the pool. Mounted on the middle of the curved wall there was a single large shower head with a pull ring.
“Lets keep the side yard out of the pool filters,” Jess said. As he walked over to the shower and tugged on the ring.
The resulting spray lasted about half a minute. When it stopped he quickly walked the length of the diving board and did a cannonball into the pool. The rest of them took turns doing the same except that Jake dove in to the water so cleanly, that there was hardly a splash. Then Stephanie did something like an aerobatic cartwheel. Somehow landing on her hands at the end of the diving board. From which she bounced over the water and then somehow dove in with even less disturbance to the surface than Jake.
Sandra simply used the ladder next to the board to step down into the water. Cindy was the last one to use the shower. She noticed it was fairly warm. Then she followed Sandra's example and gently climbed down into the water.
“You know I was having so much fun back there,” Cindy said to Jake. “That I almost don't mind knowing your nanites were pushing us girls further than we would have otherwise gone.”
“Now Cindy,” Jake shot back. “I told you before that I wasn't responsible for your attraction to Stephanie.”
“I know that Jake,” Cindy said. “But until you got heated up, I hadn't thought of Sandra that way. And now that you've calmed down, I don't feel sexually attracted to her. Besides I don't think she usually likes to get it on with girls.”
There was an icy edge in Sandra's voice when she spoke up.
“Cindy's right,” she said. “I don't like having sex with girls! At least I don't when I'm not under the influence of nano-pheromones.”
“Steve did warn us that you would have trouble controlling this for a while Jake,” Jess spoke up. “We could have taken a vacation. But all of us decided to risk the effects.”
“Like I said Jake,” Cindy explained. “I'm not all that upset about it. But it doesn't seem fair that your nano-pheromones cause girls who don't like girls to get it on with girls. When you guys didn't wind up going there.”
Both of the guys looked real uncomfortable at the idea.
“I won't say I'm sorry that I don't like guys that way Cindy,” Jake said. “I just don't.”
“I gotta say I'm real glad you don't like guys that way Jake,” Jess said. “Cause I don't think I'd have liked that.”
“Actually it's my understanding that a strong heterosexual preference is one of the characteristics that the nanites appear to prefer,” Sandra explained. “As a matter of fact, I'm fairly sure it was actually Jake's heterosexual desires that caused his nano-pheromones to override my strong heterosexual orientation so much that I actually desired to get it on with other woman... You see, Jake is strongly attracted to girls. So when he loses control some of his nano-pheromones are likely to cause everyone else around him to feel attracted to girls. Including any gay men and totally straight girls.”
“But if that's true, how come I didn't want to get it on with Sue or Karen last week at Dave's camp?” Cindy asked.
“Probably because whenever the process isn't fully under control, there are a few random factors involved,” Sandra replied.
“If I understand you Sandra,” Jake inquired. “If it was one of you girls who were just learning to control a new nanosymbionce, instead of me. I might have actually wound up wanting to have sex with Jess?”
The very thought was making him feel a little sick.
“Yes that could have happened,” Sandra said.
Jake just shuddered.
“In that case I really am sorry I did that to you,” he said. “Though I'm afraid I can't honestly say I'm sorry that I enjoyed it.
But if I'm really screwing with peoples minds so badly as to change their sexual orientation, then I need to find a way to keep it from happening again!”
“I know you didn't do it on purpose Jake,” Sandra said with a little less ice in her voice. “So I will forgive you... Eventually.”
“Thanks! But how do I get a handle on it?” Jake asked.
“Fortunately for all of us, mature nanosymbionts and the kind of host they choose to bond with alike, generally find this kind of manipulation of peoples minds distasteful,” Sandra explained. “It shouldn't take more than a year for you and your developing symbiont to, as you say, get a handle on it.”
“A year! That's much too long,” Jake asserted. “There must be something I can do now...”
“If you feel strongly enough about it Jake,” Sandra said. “Then you may be able to help me build some nano-filter devices to prevent it from having so strong an effect on us. We can start on it first thing in the morning if you like.”
“If that's the best we can do about it, then consider it a date,” Jake replied.
Eventually they got out of the pool on the other side where the elevator and the rest of the basement was accessible. There was another shower on this end of the pool. Along with another set of lockers, cubbies and a hamper.
“Jess, would you mind taking over as tour guide?” Sandra asked. “It will take awhile for me to set up my equipment for tomorrow.”
“Not a problem,” Jess said with a nod.
“Then I guess I'll see you in the morning Jake,” Sandra said. “Come by my lab around eight. It might be a good idea to bring Cindy with you. I'm sure Jess will tell you the best way to get there.” Then she waved at all of them and still naked, headed for the elevator.
As Sandra stepped into the elevator, Jess pointed at the open area beyond it.
“There's on odd collection of old furniture and what not down here,” Jess explained. “But if you look to the left you'll see a collection of pipes and conduits coming through that big grill in the wall. That's where we pump in the central heat and air conditioning from the main power plant attached to the garage. A bit further down on the right there's a charging room for the four wheelers we use to go up and down the hill.”
“You mean those modified golf carts?” Cindy asked.
“Yeah that's what their design was based on,” Jess replied. “But we don't actually have a golf course here at Hillside so we tend to refer to them as four wheelers, go carts or sometimes just carts.” Suddenly Cindy giggled.
“Whatever happened to that phony accent of yours anyway?” she asked.
“OK you caught me,” Jess said. “But with a name like McNeil I just have to fake it once in a while...” Then he added, “It helps me with the one night stands don'cha know.”
“Oh, so all you wanted from me was a one night stand?” Cindy teased.
“Well actually, I was hoping for several one night stands,” Jess replied with a wink. Then he tried to shift the topic back to something less dangerous. “It wouldn't have mattered much if I'd been born and bread in Dublin though. We get so many folks from distant lands here at Hillside that
Steve took some measures to prevent language barriers.
There are some ‘house’ nanites that sort of serve as a universal translator. One of the side effects is that even natural accents fade very quickly here.”
“Steve didn't mention that side affect to me,” Jake said. “But he did tell me the house can even automatically translate some nonhuman languages.”
When they finished talking, Jess selected a black set of house duds and dressed quickly. Jake selected a vivid blue set again. This time Cindy picked out a pastel shade of purple. Stephanie meanwhile donned a red top. Which covered her body down to about three inches below her crotch. Then she dropped the matching bottoms in the hamper. As she did so she noticed a quizzical expression on Cindy's face.
“I've grown used to having a breeze down there,” Stephanie explained. “Sometimes I'll choose to wear a shirt but never pants.”
When they were all as dressed as they were going to be, Jess led them across the large basement area and into the charging room. He disconnected one of the carts from something that looked more like a hose than an electrical cable.
“I take it were going for a ride Jess?” Stephanie asked. Then she continued without giving him a chance to answer. “I'm driving!”
Next she quickly hopped behind the wheel of the cart. As she sat down, the bottom of the top she was wearing rode up just enough to expose her bare crotch.
“Hop in,” she added.
Chapter 8 Spacebound
Steve Fontane took the elevator to the hanger level. The security system had already identified him on the way down so his personal star shuttle was already in the standby cradle. As he stepped into the embarkment chamber, Steve's clothes began to morph into a form fitting body glove with attached life support systems. The translucent blue material did little to hide his anatomical details as his body's own natural form was slowly restored by his internal nanites. His blond hair gradually became a pale shade of blue and his skin color returned to a vivid shade of violet. Yet for all that, the changes were only superficial.
According to the guild's database, there is strong evidence that each one of all the ‘human’ species so far discovered, had evolved separately on each one's own native home world. Yet the genetic profiles of 99.9 percent are similar enough to interbreed. The part of his genetic code that was responsible for his unusual pigmentation was the only significant difference between his racial genetic profile and that of the so called ‘galactic average’ human profile.
This fact was related to his personal quest. He longed to find proof that the origins of all known humans had been at least altered by contact with an ancient star faring species known as the ‘Kindred’. He also believed that the Kindred themselves still existed. Despite the fact that all of the, extremely rare, traces of the Kindred's presence that had ever been discovered, were all decidedly quite ancient. His ‘Quest of quests’ was to actually find them.
To the artificially intelligent control system that ran Hillside's systems he now referred to himself by the honorific title he used within the guild.
“Questor request,” he commanded. “Run a full diagnostic and prep my shuttle for an extended flight.”
“Certainly Questor,” the AI's mechanical voice said as a shimmering color shifting glow enveloped the shuttle.
The use of personal names among the nanosymbionts of the guild is so rare as to be considered nonexistent. Though there are a few among them who are unofficially referred to by a specific, generally honorific, designation by virtually all guild personnel and sometimes even the public at large.
These honorific designations were usually bestowed upon them by their fellow nanosymbionts. ‘The Questor’ was one of those few. He had been so labeled because of his devotion to his quest to find the Kindred. His quest had become so famous that the vast majority of humankind began referring to all of the guild's nanosymbionts as questors. They did this so persistently that the nanosymbionts themselves decided to adopt the term as a generic label that didn't differentiate between the nanosymbiont itself and the host-mind it had bonded to.
The Questor was a trifle worried about leaving his new apprentice's training in the hands of the non-symbionts at Hillside. There was only so much they could teach him but they were a good team and he should be back in a few months to personally resume Jake's training.
In the meantime he was going to followup on the report of an unexpected discovery he'd received from a long range message drone. He would be within communications range while his shuttle accelerated to the minimum transition velocity. Once the temporal inverter kicked in however, he would be out of reach.
He would then be enveloped by an inverted temporal dilation effect peculiar to the guild's stardrive. Thanks to which the time distortion imposed as he approached the speed of light would be inverted. While he would experience every minute of the time it would have taken for a beam of light to reach his destination, to the rest of the universe his journey would be practically instantaneous. With the only trace of his passage being the total disappearance of the particles his drive systems would scavenge along the way to power the trip with.
Inside the inverse temporal dilation field he'd have to while away millions of years of subjective time to get to the physical coordinates of the forest world XenDar. Where he'd heard that some unexpectedly pristine artifacts had been discovered. His quest for the ‘Kindred’ was after all, worth enduring such long periods of boredom.
“Shuttle prep sequence is complete,” the mechanical voice of Hillside's AI interrupted Questor's musings.
“Questor request: position shuttle for boarding,” He instructed.
Immediately the standby cradle positioned the shuttle in front of a large door at the far end of the chamber. Questor casually stepped up to the rear end of the shuttle where an airlock door opened upon his approach. He stepped inside.
“Welcome back Questor,” the feminine voice of the shuttle's AI greeted him. “All systems are operational.”
“Initiate launch sequence,” Questor commanded.
The door opened revealing a cylindrical chamber three times the size of the shuttle. The cradle extended into the chamber and lowered the shuttle into a shallow depression in the center of the chamber floor. Then the cradle's grippers released the shuttle and the cradle retracted. The door closed and the chamber quickly filled with water.
His shuttle was heavy enough not to float until it's gravitational optimizer engaged and reduced the grip of the local gravity well. Then the door at the far end of the chamber opened, revealing a dimly lit tunnel. The shuttles thrusters gently pushed the shuttle into the tunnel. A few moments later a large boulder on the bottom of a certain mountain lake was lifted up from the lake bed by a pair of telescoping cylinders, that were concealed beneath it, revealing the other end of the tunnel. This remained open just long enough for the shuttle to enter the lake.
Questor's shuttle was equipped with sensor systems that made it easy to find a part of the lake far enough away from the assorted boats on it, to insure that the active stealth systems would be sufficient to avoid detection. His shuttle's gravitational-optimizer provided sufficient buoyancy to quickly lift the shuttle into the upper stratosphere. The shuttle's AI automatically selected a few of the nearest stars in the nighttime sky to lock onto with the gravitational optimizer and enhance their gravitational influence on the shuttles mass while further reducing that of the Earth and also that of Sol itself. A few subcycles later Questor was far enough away from the planet for Earth's gravity well to no longer be a significant factor as he used his shuttles transduction thrusters to begin accelerating to the transition speed that his shuttle required to safely engage the guild stardrive.
The transduction thrusters used the gravitational optimizer to pull in hot and cold particles from the solar and cosmic winds. It scavenged all potential energy from the charged particles as it converted most of their ‘mass’ to additional energy. The remaining particles were carefully ejected at su
fficient relativistic velocities to provide a disproportionally massive thrust factor. To avoid a detectable interaction with the Earth itself and/or any other objects within the solar system, Questor took care to direct the particle stream away from all such things. When he reached sufficient distance and velocity without having received any emergency messages about Jake from his team. Steve reasoned that Jake's interactions with the rest of Hillside's on-site personnel was within the anticipated range his team could deal with.
At which point Steve locked away his very awareness of his own existence within that of his nanosymbiont, who engaged the temporal inverter. It was here in the seemingly endless eons of relative time that the Questor endured within the temporal inversion field, that his pseudo-self, his nano-network, became the primary consciousness within him. It's machine nature absorbed the boredom that would have consumed it's hosts will to live. It kept it's host's memory updated with reports that emphasized any details that it's host was likely to find interesting. It ‘liked’ it when it's host's own natural mind became roused enough to share some of the long otherwise lonely experience with it. Thus it became proficient at finding any facts that would interest the host-mind that it had based it's own emotional algorithms on.
Whenever the host-mind bothered to care about anything the Questor was not only able to feel his host's emotions but also got a chance to validate and/or adjust the algorithms as needed to maintain the over all health of the nanosymbionce. When the host-mind is not so roused, it must be kept alive with dreams. Dreams that needed to be enhanced by virtual reality simulations which the Questor let trickle into it's host-mind's subconscious.
Questor guided the shuttle along a winding path where it could gather sufficient energy with it's particle collectors to power the trip. A nanosymbiont endures the tediousness aeons of the journey as few other sentients can, all so that it can eventually arrive at virtually the same moment in time as it had departed.
The temporal inversion field collapsed and the star shuttle's gravitational optimizer manipulated the relative efficiency of various gravitational fields to gently decelerate to a relative velocity closer to that of it's destination. Then Questor awoke the host-mind. Sublimating it's awareness once again to Steve's own. As he woke, Steve realized that at long last, he was approaching his destination. Steve began a series of passive, reconnaissance scans of XenDar. It appeared to be unchanged since the artifacts had surfaced. He didn't need to review any data on local customs or languages.
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