That was all I was willing to say at this point. I had concerns about me and about the responsibility I had to this world. I’d already forced it to make a major change in a new direction by showing Jara about furniture. Did I want to create a female workforce, forever changing the relationship between the sexes?
I wandered down to the stream and walked across it into the woods. I kept going until I came to a small meadow surrounded by trees.
[I love you, Gem. We need to talk. Here.]
She appeared in front of me a few minutes later, facing away from me, searching frantically in front of her.
“I’m back here.”
She spun around, cried out “Jeff!” and ran up to me. I held my arms out and she dove into me, wrapping hers around my waist.
“Jeff, I …”
“I know.”
“You … how could you know?”
“Gem, you’re the one who told me I was going to discover new senses. I felt something last night and it got stronger today. You’re pregnant.”
“I just found out a few hours ago. I felt queasy and had the med unit check me out.”
“Have you thought about what you want to do?”
“I want to keep it but even if I went all the way through my pregnancy and delivered it, I wouldn’t be able to. It would have to go to a creche and I would never see it again.”
“Is that what you want?”
“No. I want my baby. And I want you. I wish I could run away with you.”
We kissed for the first time and then we made love. Other than a wristband with a button on it, she was naked. She told me that she just had to press the button and she’d be returned home. Home was the room we’d shared and she had no desire to be anywhere else, although she could technically work from anywhere.
We walked, our arms around each other or just holding hands, talking, laughing and kissing. I told her that I was lonely because I was so advanced over all these people. The two older men I’d met were somewhat compatible so maybe age had something to do with it, too. My experiences were so different that I couldn’t see marrying one of the women and being happy.
“I love this place and it’s like giving an artist a blank canvas. It would be fun to explore these people’s potential. They are good people but they’ve lived hard lives and just being able to survive takes such a big portion of their lives. The young can love freely, but once they marry, they are forced to provide for each other and it’s difficult. Those boys who went out to feed their families couldn’t do anything when they came across that ger. It’s not something that happens all the time but it, or something like it happens enough that long term marriage isn’t common, even though they take lifetime vows. Lifetimes are cut short more often than lived to their natural term and the only ones I’ve seen of any age are damaged and at the mercy of the rest. They get by, but if your food is low, are you going to feed your family or the old cripple or the widow down the street?”
“You didn’t bring me here just to talk, my love. I’ve lived with you inside my head for 23 years and I know you better than that. You have something you want and you’re trying to ease me into it.”
“You got me. I guess I spent too many years sneaking my ideas in so those above me would at least take a look at them. I won’t hide anything from you, but first, there’s something I need you to answer. Honestly.”
“When have I ever been anything less than honest with you?”
“You haven’t. I don’t mean to offend you or doubt you; it’s just that this is important, maybe the most important question I’ve ever asked.”
“I will answer you truthfully.”
“Thank you. I’ve told you how I feel separate from these people because of my background and my world. Do you feel the same about you and me?”
She stopped, took me in her arms and kissed me.
“Heavens, no, you silly man. I lived in your world with you, seeing the things you thought were wrong with it and those that were right. I see the things we have become in my universe, where everyone is supposed to be so civilized, yet they can’t stand to be in the same room with another and some exist just to absorb data, solely to absorb it, not to use it, much less help someone with it. I experienced what love is and how to make love and saw how the lack of things in our realm that were normal in yours and our ability to create anything from nothing have made us less human, more machine and I didn’t like it.”
I kissed her back.
“Good. Then I want you to come here, to this planet, and be with me. Here we can raise our child the way a child should be raised, with love. He or she will be the first of many. We can guide this world to new levels, avoiding things that harmed one or both of our worlds. These are good people here, and while I don’t think we can ever be equal, I know we can be friends and treat each other with love and respect.”
“But I made a promise to produce your vids. I can’t abandon that.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to. You told me you could be anywhere and produce them. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“You also said you can return to our room at the press of a button.”
“Yes?”
“Look at the subs. In fact, you don’t have to look, I’ll tell you how the ratings have been. The surgery on Gon was high, but it wasn’t as high as when you and I made love. My meeting with Nooka was better than normal but not spectacular. My initial talk with Jara was about the same, then got higher when I started talking to him about building furniture. Am I right?”
“Yes.”
“And I bet the ratings went up when I was in the tent with Meena and Neeta but the longer it went on, the lower they got. And the ratings while I slept were lower still.”
“You’re right about everything, my love.”
“I thought so. Now, I want you to take a look at something. In general, adding everything together, were ratings higher when I was with you or after I came here?”
“They were a bit higher when you were with me but they aren’t that much lower.”
“They’re going to get lower and lower if things don’t change. I had a lot of things to keep me busy when I arrived but the longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve realized that what is here isn’t enough for me. I’ve started to miss you after less than a day, and if I know I won’t see you or my baby, things are going to get really bad. But if you are here with me and we are able to work together and make things better here, think of how much the ratings will go up. You once told me that as long as I feel OK, the ratings will be OK. I am feeling OK less and less. This is the perfect solution. If you have to work from the room, you can go back when you need to. There certainly isn’t enough to take up all day, every day observing graphs and monitors. You can think or plan right here. We could even figure out some way of getting the information you need here. If it can be transmitted to some coordinates that don’t exist in the real universe, it can certainly be transmitted here. We can set up graphs or whatever you need in our tent or we can find a cave you can go to as often as needed and put everything there. Don’t you think you’ll do a better job as a producer if you’re happier?”
“Of course it would go better, and you’re right; I’ve been miserable since you left. You have no idea how good it was to hear you in my head. I know you’ve already figured out a way to make all of this happen, so tell me about it.”
“My original thought was we’d set up some kind of conference call with the production board but I don’t think that’s going to be necessary. I’d be willing to bet my life that the ratings have gone through the roof since you arrived and that a majority of those watching won’t be satisfied until we’re together on this planet. Oh, they may let us move on after we’ve done our job here, but I think the team of Gem and Jeff is going to be an unheard of success. I’ll bet the production board and finance are trying to figure out what just happened to make the graphs spike and subscribers are doing whatever they can to demand that we be allowed to be t
ogether.
“In the early days of television, there was a show called I Love Lucy. Lucy starred with her husband but they played a made up family. When Lucy got pregnant in real life, they had the woman on the show get pregnant, too. One of the highest ratings in TV for years occurred when she had her baby. It was the biggest topic of conversation in America for weeks before it happened. I think the reaction to our child will be similar, but they’ll be able to see you carrying the child, the birth of the child and the child as he or she grows up. I’ll tell you what would really make the ratings jump through the roof …”
“What’s that?”
“Make you a vid subject. I’ll bet at least 75% of my subs would also subscribe to you if they could.”
She stiffened as if she was listening to something. A smile came to her face as she continued to listen.
“I have to go back,” she told me. “They want me to become a subject and move here permanently with you. Everything you have said was true and as soon as you suggested making me a vid subject, your subs went wild. Finance has already given us unlimited dittoes. Since I can’t communicate telepathically, they need me to go back to the room so we can make contact and work things out. They mentioned using our baby as a vid subject, too.”
“No deal on that for now. Go back, talk to them, make your best deal for the two of us. I want us to have complete control. If things go the way I think they will, there will be some other vid subjects, at least part time. I wonder how Jara or May or Neeta would go over?”
“Now I know how Jara feels when you keep pointing out new things he can make. This is so exciting, Jeff.”
“Good. Go back, make your deal, see if you can work something out so you can work from our home. The celebration of my victory over the ger is tonight so I need you here in three hours. Meet me in the meadow where you did earlier.”
We kissed each other; she took a step back, pressed the button on her bracelet and disappeared.
******************
Chapter Nine
I snuck back to the village and over to Nooka’s tent. He was sitting on his log in the same place as before. He smiled when he saw me.
“Ah, Jeff, my friend. You look at peace with yourself.”
“Indeed I am, wise Nooka. I took your advice to heart and was able to find the answer I was looking for. I came to thank you and to ask you two favors.”
“Thanks are not needed but are appreciated, nevertheless. Any favor I can grant, I will.”
“They are both simple enough. I wish to bring a guest with me to the celebration.”
“It is your celebration. You may bring whoever you wish. I assume this guest was a fish in another stream when we last talked?”
“Yes, she was, though I must say it didn’t take much effort to catch her.”
“That is good. I anticipate seeing this fish that had you so upset. What is the other favor?”
“I need some leather thongs, similar to this one that holds the tokens from the ger.”
“We should be able to do that. How many of them do you need?”
I counted out the people in my head. “Enough to make ten necklaces,” I told him.
“I think we can do that,” he said as he stood. “Follow me.”
He walked into his tent and I trailed behind him. There was a woman close to him in age, curled up on some furs, obviously in pain.
“This is my wife Nona, he told me. Forgive her for not being able to serve you as someone of your stature deserves. She fell many months ago and hurt her hip. She hasn’t been able to move on her own since then and is almost constantly in pain.”
I leaned over her and took her hand in both of mine. “I have no stature. Your wise husband is the one with stature and since we both know it is always the wife who makes the husband what he is, you have more stature than both of us. Please allow me to give you a kiss.”
She presented her cheek and I leaned closer, reaching out and turning her head and kissing the surprised woman on the lips. We swapped spit, and, I hoped, nanites.
Both of them looked shocked but were afraid to say anything about what had just happened.
Nooka dug around and came up with four thongs of the length I needed and a large coil of leather that would make twenty or more, giving them to me.
“This is far too much, my friend.”
“Take it. Use what you need. If you must, bring back what you don’t use. I suggest you make necklaces for all of them because you are a man who makes friends easily and likes to reward them.”
We walked out of the tent while he was talking. I took his wrist in my hand. “Nooka, my friend, if I offended you by the way I treated your wife, I apologize. I have things in my body that made me younger and stronger. I spit into Gon’s wound yesterday and he is healing many times faster than I have ever seen. If there is any chance that they can ease her pain, it is worth a little embarrassment. I would have told her the reason and gotten her approval but this is all new to me and I didn’t want her to expect something that wasn’t going to happen. For now, let her think I am an ignorant stranger with no manners.”
“Jeff, my friend, I accept anything you do, so your apology is not necessary. I do accept and appreciate it, though. If you can help my wife, I will be in your debt.”
“Thank you for the gifts and I will see you at the celebration tonight.”
***************
I went back to the meadow and made necklaces for all the tokens. I put the two with large fangs around my neck and tied the rest of them together with a scrap of thong. Then I lay down and took a nap.
I woke up like Sleeping Beauty, with the most beautiful woman in three worlds kissing me. Gem was glowing. All of her worries were over and she was a pregnant woman in love.
“They went along with everything. We can build a castle if we want, have our own processor and travel to any coordinates and it’s just a formality of letting the production board know who and why if we want to create any more vid subjects.”
“That’s nice, but I don’t want to be a king and queen in the castle while the peasants work for us in the village. I want to be part of this world and that means living in a tent and hunting our own food. I don’t want everything given to me at my every whim. That’s what was happening in my country and seems to have happened a long time ago in your realm and I don’t think it did either of our worlds any good. Eating a bara I killed myself and lying on the skin of the ger I killed will mean more to me than the perfect food or the most comfortable floor created by punching buttons on a keypad. We’ll get along just fine with the people here as friends and our minds to guide us.”
I reached up, removed one of the necklaces and held it out toward Gem. She lowered her head and I put it on her.
“Gem, will you be my wife and have my children for this lifetime and any other lifetimes, in this place or any other?”
“Jeff, I will. Will you be my husband?”
“I will.”
We kissed and made love to seal the deal.
I woke up to find Gem toying with the fang on my chest and the hair around it. As soon as she saw that I was awake, she leaned down and kissed me.
“Are you now a vid subject?” I asked her.
“Yes, I have my very own vid chip and I had very acceptable sub stats before I left to come back.”
“Well, I’m sure they’ll move up higher now that you’re here with me. Of course, they’ll never be as high as mine …”
She slapped me on the arm, then kissed where she slapped me.
“You’re right. Just when we think we’ve got you figured out and you can never come up with anything as good as you already have, you have a handful of new ideas that that nobody else would ever have thought of. If I can be with you and inspire you every now and then, I’ll be happy.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. I’m sure that once you get used to the freedom and the potentials of this world, you’ll start coming up with your own ideas. Are you ready to be
presented to the village?”
“Oh, my. I feel … what is that? Nervous? My stomach feels all jumpy.”
I gave her a quick kiss. “Yes, you’re nervous. You’re just feeling what every woman goes through when she realizes she’s finally going to meet the family. Either that or you’re pregnant.”
That got me another slap and another kiss on the arm.
There was a clearing used as a town square, in the middle of the village. Wedding announcements, fights to settle disagreements, celebrations, just about anything that most of the village attended were held here.
All of the villagers were gathered and I could see that just about everyone had a bowl with the local grog in it. There was a large fire pit off to the side and a couple of women were twisting a spit that held the ger over the flame.
Nooka was in a place of honor, sitting on a stump. Nona was there, too, lying on a pile of furs at his feet. She looked much better and I couldn’t see any evidence of pain on her face.
“Gem,” I said, “This wise man is Nooka. He settles disputes in the village and sees things that are hidden from others. This lovely woman is his wife, Nona. Nooka and Nona, this vision of beauty at my side is my wife, Gem.”
“A wife! I was not aware.”
“I am a new wife,” Gem answered him. “He captured me from my stream today. He didn’t have to resort to a net; he called me and I came to him.”
“You are from a different world than Jeff’s,” he told her.
“Yes. We were together on my world for a short period. But I have known and loved him for more years than the two widows he spent last night with have lived.”
Nooka was ready to come to my defense.
“There is no need to speak for Jeff, wise old Nooka. The two women needed comfort and he comforted them. Not as much as they wished, but enough for them to make it through the night. I’m looking forward to meeting them and becoming friends if the rest of the village allows me.”
“I’m sure that you will be welcomed,” he told her.
“And, you, Nona. You are looking much better than you did when my husband kissed you as if you were his lover.”
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