The Kubic Kat

by Liam L. Carton

He tried what she had said, and if he didn’t look at the diminutive hands on the steering wheel he found he could just barely manage to control the electroZev. But everything was just a little bit off. He had to press the pedals a little harder to get them to do what he wanted, and put more effort into turning the wheel, to get it to react as he would otherwise have expected.

  As a consequence he did not set any speed records, and he probably only scared her during his brief lapses of control. He could not say he liked the experience but it certainly was different.

  She directed him to a small secluded bar that advertised home cooked food and he parked the car in front of the entrance.

  As he was about to get out of the car she/he leant over and whispered into his ear, “You might want to be careful, as I am not wearing any panties!” As soon as she spoke he could feel that it was true. Feel the texture of the car seat on his nakedness. He coloured up, but made sure to keep the hem down to avoid any embarrassment.

  Sally took his arm as they went into the restaurant, and he felt distinctly awkward. Even though she had worn fairly low heels he still had problems walking in her shoes. And they were now going into a public place!

  As they entered the porch way she pulled him to one side and kissed him full on the mouth and then, as a couple walked behind them tut-tutting, she grabbed his backside and very deliberately lifted the hem of the dress to reveal his/her naked bottom to the couple. They coughed and spluttered and huffed their way out of the pub.

  “That was mean!”

  “Wouldn’t you have liked to do the same to me? If our roles were reversed?” She put her arms around him, and kissed him on his forehead. “It’s okay. I am here to protect you. You’re safe with me.”

  He did not feel very safe. And his face was fiery red from the embarrassment of having been forced to flash the strangers. Then to reduce his dignity further she grabbed his hand and pulled him along behind her as she sought out a free table in the pub.

  His dress, already short and flowing, threatened to rise up at any moment and reveal the nakedness underneath. He found himself spending more time covering his modesty than in catching up with her. When she found a suitable table she held a seat out for him, ever playing the role of a courtly gentleman.

  She sat on the chair opposite, and then quite deliberately and quite obviously placed one of her feet directly on his chair, between his legs. “There! Now that’s nice and comfortable. Isn’t it?”

  The waiter came over and very pointedly stared at the foot poking up between his/her legs, then gravely shook his head. At this rate he would probably call the morality police!

  She interjected, in his mind. “They don’t do that here. This place is reserved for people like me. We were scanned as we entered, and our membership was authenticated. We would have been asked to leave if we were not of the right class.”

  He was so shocked at her silent communication that his jaw dropped open and his face coloured further. He almost spoke to her aloud, but then realised that he should probably speak sotto-voice. “How did you do that?”

 

  “What? Speak directly to your mind? Read your thoughts?”

  “Both”

  “We are interfaced. When either of us sub-vocalise the other hears the voice in their head. I can’t actually read your mind, but we can communicate directly. It is even possible, although very hard, to have both an outward and an internal conversation going on at the same time. It gets really fun when there are other people around. We can talk about stupid stuff, the weather or our jobs, on the surface; but all the while we are whispering dirty thoughts into each other’s mind. It is a great turn on, but all too easy to slip up, and say the wrong thing out loud.” She paused and then sniggered, “Maybe that’s what’s so great about it; the risk of slipping up and getting caught!”

  All the while she was talking into his head she was also ordering from the waiter, who was clearly none the wiser to their internal conversation. Mr Smith had to admire her abilities; she could easily manage the two conversations at the same time!

  “Why thank you dear! That is a lovely compliment, and so much the better given that I know that it is truly what you believe!”

  He would really have to watch himself with this sotto voice thing. God knows what could slip out.

  “But, love, that’s the whole point. Once you are used to this, trust takes on a new meaning. For example, I knew that you would make a move on Fulvia. I knew it and I wished it for you. You need to get her on your side. And to be honest, I am truly astonished at how well you have done with her. I seriously doubt that I could have handled her any better myself.” As she was talking to him she inched her foot forward. He looked down, watching its’ progress as a mouse watches the hypnotising motions of a viper.

  “Pay attention now!” she giggled at the look on his face. “There now, that’s better. So, you might assume that I would be jealous, even though I knew what would happen, accepted the necessity of the alliance, and wished that for you. But this, what you and I share, makes such jealousy ridiculous. What you feel for her, the desire, the attraction, maybe even a twinge of the love, that too, I feel, through you.”

  Her foot had made contact with his/her groin, and had lifted the dress so that anyone seated across the room could clearly see what was happening beneath the dress. Once again he blushed, then reason took hold, and he stood up and pushed the chair back.

  Out loud he said “I need to go to the toilet.” and then walked off.

  She blew him a teasing kiss, and then watched him walk over to the toilet door, and go in.

  He walked up to one of the stalls, and reached down to open his fly, only then realising that he was not ‘himself’. He looked to the side, and saw the shocked look on the face of the man standing at the next urinal. All he could do was croak out “Sorry!”

  Then Sally was behind him dragging him into a cubicle, “Ah, there you are my sexy little minx! Come in here with me!” The door swung closed on the astonished look engraved upon the startled man’s visage.

  Back at the table the drinks had arrived, and the waiter had of course placed them the wrong way around. His scotch sat in front of Sally’s seat, and her cocktail awaited him.

  “I don’t want to do this anymore!”

  “Oh come on! We are having a great time!” Sally seemed to have become even more aggressive as a man than she had been before, as a woman.

  “I thought you said that you would not force me to do this, if I didn’t like it.”

  “Yes, but firstly, you know how to switch it off yourself, and secondly, I had rather hoped that you had learnt how to assert yourself. It is plain that you need a lot more experience in this matter. You success with Fulvia is beginning to seem like a fluke.”

  “So I should assert myself! You practically raped me in the toilet. And that man, he could hear what you were doing to me. How is that supposed to make me assertive?”

  “It isn’t meant to make you assertive, it is meant to force you to become assertive. At any time you can take over. What is stopping you? Your gender?”

  “I feel humiliated. Like when I was a kid and my big sister made me dress up in girl’s clothes.”

  “Well, if I wanted to be mean I could point out that that is the way women usually feel. We are expected to be good girls, but if we are then we get called frigid, and if we are naughty then we are called sluts. Not exactly fair, now is it?

  “But I won’t be mean to you, or at least not too mean. You have the power here, if you take it. Remember, that is my body you are using, not your own. Anything you do with it can never reflect on you. If that man were to call you a slut as you walked out of this place he would be calling me a slut, not you. And if he ever saw you again, back in your body, he would think you none the less for it. Me on the other hand, I will have to accept such insults, as it was my body he saw doing those things.

  “Just think, right now you could go up to him, and take him back to the toilets a
nd blow him, and it would be my mouth you would be using.”

  “You would like that, wouldn’t you?”

  “No, of course not! I enjoyed going down on you back there, because I know who you are, and yes, because in a way I was going down on myself. And you were there watching me. But that man I do not know, and I would not be there to see what you were doing! None the less, if you did take him into the toilets, I would have to accept it. Can't you see that in letting you use my own body in this way, that it must surely show you how much I trust you. You are about the only person that I can think of that I could entrust with such an honour.”

  “So how do I assert myself?”

  “God, you really are dim at times, dear! Think, here we are, you and I, in a public tavern, and we are here on a date. What would I have done to assert myself, where I to be in my own body?”

  “You would flirt with me shamelessly, just for the fun of seeing the other people’s shocked looks.”

  “Exactly!”

  He did not think he had been as assertive as he could have been, but she still seemed moderately impressed. And he had managed to get them thrown out of the pub due to the complaints of the other patrons. None the less, he had felt somewhat less than stellar in his performance.

  They had gone back to her apartment, and she had put on some quiet, smoky jazz music. They lay on the couch, cuddling together, yet had anyone been watching, they would have seemed like a very strange couple. The man, resting his head upon the woman’s breast. the woman with her arm protectively around the man, and not a word between them. Just long, deep, lingering looks.

  But inside their heads they were talking.

  Mr Smith was inquisitive, “So why did you pick me? Was it because I was a remote operator?”

  “Oh no, my dear, of course not. I chose you specifically. I saw you on the street that day, and there was a look in your eyes; a look of anger and repugnance. You looked ready to commit murder, or worse. And then you glanced in my direction, and it all washed away, in just a moment it was gone, like the footprints in the sand that are erased by the shifting tides.

  “And at that moment I knew who you were. For a second I could see into your soul. And that’s why I blew that special kiss to you.”

  “So is there someone else who gave this to you? Who blew you that special kiss?”

  She looked sad for a moment, “No, I got it in a different way. There was no one to reach out a hand to save me.”

  He hugged her tighter, cupped her chin in his hand and raised her head, so that he could gently kiss her nose.

  After a pause he went on, “So where did you get it from?”

  She smiled up at him, and then let out a sigh. “It was a simple experiment, really. My team wanted to find a way to make a direct connection between a computer nexus and the brain. We already have remote control and all the connections for full sensory output, but we wanted to take it to the next stage, a true human - computer interface.”

  “Well, you certainly succeeded in that!”

  “Well, yes and no. Yes, we made the connection, but then again, no, what we got was never what we expected.” She reached her face up to his, and kissed him slowly.

  “Close your eyes, my love.”

  Part 8 - Expansion