Storiesonline.net
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                            Magical Labyrinth
                             by hammingbyrd7

Copyright© 2004 by hammingbyrd7


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Description: Two shy and gifted teenagers find each other as they struggle in an epic battle against an impossible adversary

Codes: MF ScFi rom 1st teen humor sch cons het oral anal pett
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Copyright© 2004

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Chapter 1



Ring... Ring... Ring... "Hello?"

"Hi mom! How's it going?"

"Aha! My long lost daughter returns. It's been a full week! You never called, you never wrote, you never e-mailed. Three weeks away at college, and already you're starting to forget your poor mother?"

"Ha! I love you too mom. It has been seven days since I called you last Friday, hasn't it? This week has really flown by."

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything is great! The Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins is everything I dreamed it would be, and last Friday I met a really wonderful boy at a mixer and we've been spending quite a bit of time together. I've become very good friends with my roommate Susan and my other suitemates at Wolman, and I've even gotten used to the traffic on St. Paul and North Charles. I love my classes! The premed program has really turned into quite a challenge and I love it. No one is teasing me anymore about studying too hard or calling me nicknames like The Brain. I just feel surrounded by really smart people, people with the same thirst for knowledge that I have. I feel like I've found a home."

"Rebecca, are you trying to torture me? Tell me more about this boy you're spending all this time with."

"Oh. Well, we met just a week ago. He's majoring in Applied Math, taking a lot of advanced classes. Spends a lot of time in Kreiger, that's in the center of the campus by the upper quad. He's a wonderfully gentle and talented person, super smart. He plays the guitar. We've talked a bit about teaming up with my violin and jamming together. He has a mixed East European ancestry, just like me. Let see, what else? Oh, he's a fabulous chef, international hotel quality, no fooling. You should taste what he can do with a fresh salmon or chicken, something to die for. And he's an alchemist with duck liver, turns it into pure gold. He's been cooking me dinners in his apartment for most of this week. I'm up here now waiting for him. He's out getting groceries."

"What? You're alone in his apartment? How did you get in?"

"Oh, he gave me a copy of his key a few days ago."

"What!? Rebecca, this does not sound good. Is he an older man? And you haven't even told me his name!"

"He and I are almost exactly the same age, we both turned 18 two months ago. His name is Robert."

"Robert? Is he Jewish?"

"Well, no. Christian. But he does worship, just like me. We've talked about our faiths with each other. We're actually very close to each other in spiritual beliefs..."

"Rebecca my daughter... Wouldn't you be better off waiting to meet some nice Jewish boy, someone like Seth?"

"Oh mom... Seth was never interested in me. He was just looking for a female body to get sexy with while he was between girlfriends. My senior prom night was a disaster. I've never felt so embarrassed..."

"Rebecca, what I'm trying to say is that you have almost no experience with dating, and within a week of meeting some strange man, you're living in his apartment! If this man is only 18, how come he's not living on campus? Are his parents rich?"

"Mother, I am not living in his apartment! And Robert doesn't have any parents. Both his parents were killed in a car crash when he was an infant."

"Oh, I am sorry. But then I mean his adopted parents."

"He was never adopted, I don't think. Or if he was, it didn't last. He's opened up a little bit about this with me, but we probably have a whole lot more to talk about. He was bounced around in dozens of different foster homes growing up, spent the last two years in independent living before finally aging out of the system in July."

"Yikes, worse and worse!"

"Mom, Robert is a wonderful human being and I really, really like him. It's too bad dad isn't still alive, I'm sure they would have gotten along great... I'd love for you to meet him some time. You'll see how nice he is."

"So I can listen to him play rock guitar?"

"Oh mother, please stop! And I never said rock guitar, though he does have a banjo and plays a little bluegrass. He's mostly into Spanish guitar. Yesterday when I came here he was in the middle of Sor's Allegro from Sonata, Opus 22, just playing it from memory. For the next five minutes, I was in heaven."

"Oh... Well, that does sound nice... But Rebecca, if he has no money, how does he have an apartment?"

"No money? I just said he has no parents. He has a job with the National Security Administration and they're paying him very well..."

"With the NSA? Are you kidding?"

"No. I was a bit doubtful myself, though I didn't say anything. Robert noticed my skepticism, and brought up his bank account for me on the web. The NSA is paying him over $4000 a month net, and he only has to be there one day a week during the school term. He drives down to D.C. and is gone all day Saturdays. He's been doing this for almost two years now. He has almost $50,000 saved. I saw it myself..."

"This doesn't sound believable. What kind of a job could a teenager do for the NSA that they would pay him that kind of money?"

"I'm very curious about it too, but he is like a tomb when I ask him about it. Just says he shouldn't talk about it. Robert's very careful about security, says he doesn't even doodle about the work outside of the green-badge areas. Outside of Saturdays, the only work he does for the NSA is thinking, and doing a lot of public-domain reading. The money isn't the only payment, either. The NSA is also paying for a car lease and complete tuition and living expenses. And as you know, Johns Hopkins isn't cheap. He can also buy any book he wants on their tab. It's a deal any undergrad would dream about..."

"What in the world could he be doing?"

"I've snooped around a bit in his apartment. He has a ton of textbooks on wildly different topics. One shelf of books is on network security, encryption, and Internet packet protocols. Another shelf is on network routing theory. Another shelf is on pattern matching techniques and neural network learning. Another shelf is on quantum theory, covering everything from quantum computing to quantum entanglement to interferometer design. And then there's the shelf of antenna books..."

"Antennas? You mean like my TV antenna?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. I thought studying this stuff would be obsolete in this digital age, but he has textbooks on analog TV single-sideband transmission, all sorts of wave- launching horn design books, book after book on various antenna capabilities... I don't see how all this stuff could possibly be tied together. Whatever he's working on though, I suspect he is a wunderkind at it for the NSA to give him such a sweet deal..."

"Rebecca, all joking and Jewish mother aside, can I give you some advice?"

"Sure mom. I'm listening."

"Robert sounds like a good boyfriend for you, my dear scholar child. You do have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and it sounds like you might finally have found an equal. I'd like to meet your Robert sometime. But remember you're both very young, with your whole adult lives in front of you. Go slowly, take your time. There's no need to rush."

"That's really great advice mom. I understand what you're saying, and I agree. Try to relax mom. I know what I'm doing. And Robert is just as shy about dating as I am. We are going very slowly. We've been meeting at dawn to go jogging together, and we've had some dinners together too. Yesterday was the first time we held hands. And if he doesn't try to kiss me goodbye tonight after he walks me back to Wolman, I think I'm going to risk taking the lead. I know he's attracted to me, I can see the hope in his eyes when we meet. Oh, we have a date this Sunday too, to go backpacking for the afternoon. We pick up I-83 a few blocks west of the campus and head north. Place called Prettyboy Reservoir and Gunpowder Falls State Park. Robert says it's really nice... Ah, I see his car pulling in outside, do you want to say hello?"

"No, I don't want to break into your time together, not yet. Soon though. Take care Rebecca, I love you."

"I love you too mom. Bye!"



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Chapter 2



Rebecca awoke slowly feeling dizzy and miserable. Her head was spinning, she felt freezing cold, and her stomach has heaving. She blinked in bewilderment into the bright white light around her, trying to understand where she was while resisting an urge to vomit. She tried to make sense of her environment and failed. Her memory was an absolute blank as to how she got here. Where was here? As her mind began to clear, she realized she was lying flat on her back in a large empty room without windows, entirely naked.

"Well, not entirely empty," Rebecca thought, as she looked across the room. "What the hell is going on?"

Across the empty room Robert was also lying naked on his back, appearing fast asleep. Rebecca felt too sick to be embarrassed by her nakedness. She stood up and began to pace along the blank walls, finding that the exercise helped clear her mind and calm her stomach. Along one wall was an oval projection with multi-colored buttons on it, about shoulder high, next to a large square indentation in the wall. "Some sort of door?" thought Rebecca, "How did I get in here? What is the last thing I remember?"

"It was Sunday. Is it still Sunday? A mild and pleasant sunny day. It was so nice chatting with Robert as we drove to the State Park. He was right, the park was beautiful. I was in delight! I didn't know Robert was a bird watcher. His binoculars were great! The titmouse, the chickadees, the nuthatch, the woodpeckers, they were beautiful! And his lectures on the trees were so interesting, the holly and the red cedars and the crabapples... He even made some fresh sassafras tea for me from the tree by the stream, getting the hot water from a vacuum thermos in his backpack. It tasted... What, did it taste okay? I can't remember! And then... My memory is gone! Totally gone..."

Rebecca felt her intestines cramp and then felt an odd wetness around her anus. After reaching between her buttocks, she was horrified to find her fingers wet with a clear, odorless oil... She suddenly looked at Robert with a look of cold fury on her face.

"You bastard! You fucking son of a bitch! You date raped me! You fucking son of a bitch!"

Rebecca stormed over and glared over the sleeping Robert. "I trusted you and you betrayed me! In time, I would have given you my body in joy, and you stole my body from me instead, drugging me and sodomizing me! Knocked me out with a date-rape drug, didn't you? You fucking son of a bitch! And what is this place, some dungeon of yours? You fucking son of a bitch!"

Rebecca was so furious she considered kicking Robert's exposed testicles with all her might, but in the end the core of her compassionate nature stopped her. She just sat down beside him and cried and waited for him to wake up.

She didn't have long to wait. After about five minutes Robert began to stir. As he opened his eyes Rebecca grabbed his throat with one hand and cocked her other arm, preparing to smash her fist into his face if he got aggressive.

"Why!? I thought I was beginning to love you! Why did you have to ruin everything and rape me?! WHY?" she shouted.

"Becky, what?" Robert suddenly glanced from Rebecca's face and saw her naked breasts. He blushed with embarrassment, his eyes wide open, and he turned his head away to give her some privacy. Rebecca was stunned and let go of his throat. Robert tried to stand, but dropped back down to his knees. Rebecca could see his face contort as his body was hit with cramps. "Wow, I feel terrible... Feels like food poisoning, with a throbbing headache thrown in... Are you okay? Where are we? It's so bright in here... Where are our clothes?"

"Let me help you stand Robert. Try to walk. It helped me to clear the symptoms..."

Rebecca helped Robert walk around the room, her mind in turmoil. She recognized a great desire within her to trust Robert, but she could come up with no other explanation for her situation except date rape. Could he be acting, faking his illness?

"Robert, do you trust me?"

"Oh, yes! I know we haven't known each other for long, but I think of you as kind and trustworthy, and as gentle as an angel. And two days ago you became the first girl I've ever kissed. I want to trust you completely..."

"Great! Spread your legs far apart for me and bend over."

"Huh? Okay..."

Rebecca stood behind the bent-over Robert. She reached around and laid the flat of her hand underneath him along his abdominal wall. With her other hand she placed the tip of a finger against his anus. After a second she pushed in, easily sliding her entire finger into his rectum while firmly squeezing his abdominal wall. She felt his sphincter grip the base of her finger as her squeeze and anal penetration caused another cramp to hit his intestines. She could feel the genuine cramp along the abdominal muscles. Robert grunted but maintained his position, accepting Rebecca's penetration into his anus with complete trust. Rebecca withdrew her finger and examined it, and realized it was covered with the clear, odorless oil. She began to shake with embarrassment... 

"I don't know," said Robert, "I don't think that helped. Walking around does seem to though. Great idea..." Robert noticed that Rebecca was crying. "Becky, are you okay?"

"Oh, forgive me, forgive me! I woke up a few minutes before you did, feeling sick just as you are now. I can't remember how I got here! I assumed you drugged me and raped me... I'm so sorry I didn't trust you... It was so wrong of me to play doctor with you and cause you to cramp... Please, please forgive me."

Robert put his arms around Rebecca shoulders and hugged her. Rebecca hugged back fiercely, both of them standing still for a moment, neither saying anything. "Rebecca, there's nothing to forgive. This situation is so bizarre; your guess was reasonable. It just wasn't correct. Let me walk around for another minute... Maybe afterwards we can compare notes on what we remember."

After a few minutes the two sat down together near the oval keypad. Robert kept glancing away from Rebecca's nakedness. "What Robert, you don't want to look at me?"

"Sigh. You're... You're even more beautiful than in my dreams, and over this last week I've had lots of sexy dreams about you. I can feel myself getting an erection just seeing you... I don't want to embarrass you..."

"Oh. Well... I think it's cute you can be aroused by me. Let your penis get erect as often as it wants to, okay? Look at me however and as often as you like. I'll just take it as a compliment that you think I'm pretty. Okay?"

"Yes, that sound's fine. Thank you... What in the world is going on, Becky?"

"I'm stumped, Rob. I recall being at Gunpowder Falls with you, and then my memory is gone. We're trapped in an empty room. What do we do? I'm guessing that the indentation in the wall is a door. Should we push the buttons on the oval, to see if the door opens?"

"It's a good guess. We'll have to test the buttons on the oval... Perhaps first though... Maybe we should think about our environment a bit before we try to interact with it."

Rebecca noticed that Robert was lightly scratching the back of his neck, looking deep in thought. "That's a good point," she said. "I'm not too eager to start pushing buttons quite yet either... Boy it's cold in here! You look at ease. Aren't you cold?"

"It's just me. I like cool weather. If I'm dry, I'm happy with just a light jacket on if it's above freezing... I would guess it's around 65F in here. You're right, a bit chilly to be without clothes... Becky, can I hold you? Cuddle with you?"

"Oh yes! I'd love it!"

Robert moved over and sat by Rebecca's side, pressing his hip against hers. He looped one arm over her shoulders and down her other arm; try to get as much skin contact as possible in order to warm her. Rebecca took his other arm and held it wrapped around her waist. She noticed his penis was quite erect in his lap and she was hit with a strong desire to hold it, and an urge to masturbate. "Wow," she thought to herself, "This is my first time to be physically intimate with someone. I guess I'm getting aroused too. This is not the time to show it though..."

"Ah, you're so warm Rob. This feels great..."

"For me too Becky... I was in the Park with you. We were hiking, and then... What happened?"

"I remember you making me the tea. I don't remember drinking it."

"You don't? I do. You said you liked it. Said it was a little bit smoky, a little bit sweet, a little bit like licorice. I thought that was a good description. I remember being glad you were enjoying it..."

"Yes! Now I remember! Curious, it's like remembering a dream. It might be totally forgotten, but if you make a note about it when you first wake, the note can help you remember later. It's as if you've lost the mental pointer to the memory, and the note helps you to find the memory..."

"A few minutes later we finished our picnic lunch and started our return hike. I remember seeing a dog coming toward us, running free. I think I turned to point the dog out to you Becky, and then... Then... Then what? I have a dim memory of a vibration. My feet vibrating. Not like an earthquake, much faster, like standing on a tuning fork. And then... Nothing... Well, not quite nothing... I have vague memories of clicking noises..."

"What?"

"Trying to awake. Being driven almost awake by clicking noises and not quite making it. I don't know... It could just be my imagination..."

"That sounds weird. Spooky. I have nothing at all like that memory." Rebecca spent the next minute just staring about the room in silence. She idly started to caress Rob's arm wrapped around her waist, relaxing in his warmth, and then was startled to realize how pleased she was that Robert was still showing a full erection. "I'm glad he's circumcised," she thought, "it's so sexy to see the full head of his penis exposed like that... Rebecca, stop this! Put these thoughts aside for later..."

"This room Rob, what do you think? About 20 feet by 30 feet, with a 12-foot ceiling? Very brightly lit too."

"Yeah, you've sized it just right, with the door indentation about 8 feet square. And this room is brightly lit, especially considering there are no lights."

"What?" Rebecca looked around the room. "Oh, I see what you mean. How singular. Where's the light coming from?"

"The walls must be glowing. Notice there are no shadows? These walls are a piece of work. Smooth like polished stone, but self-illuminating. A real piece of work. Too bright for comfort if we're in here a long time. Perhaps while we're here we should close our eyes occasionally, to avoid fatiguing them."

"Ready for some analysis?"

"You bet! Want to go first Becky?"

"Sure. I propose, until we find evidence to the contrary, that we assume all this is real, that we're not delusional. I also propose we did not wander into here by ourselves. Thus an individual or a group knows we're here."

"I agree."

"Next Rob, this room would take a lot of effort to make. I can't see a lone madman making it and dragging us both here from the Park, too many miles of terrain for one person to handle. I thus propose that a group of people is behind our abduction. Group choices are our government, some foreign government, or a non-governmental group. I'd like to hope our own government isn't doing this. Can we leave them out? What are your thoughts?"

"Well... Perhaps we should add the possibility of alien abduction."

"Yuck! Are you serious? I didn't want to take this conversation into the twilight zone..."

"I do like reading science fiction, I admit. And if it weren't for these self-illuminating walls, I don't think I would have mentioned it. But these walls are a real piece of work Becky, over 1000 square feet of very uniform illumination. I've never heard of anybody illuminating a room like this. I'd like to leave the alien possibility on the table with the other options..."

"Well, okay. Accepted. The alien option stays on the table for now. Hopefully it'll be a great source of amusement for me to tease you with later, when we find out this is all Earth related... That's about it for my thoughts so far. How about you Rob?"

"Well, one interesting question is how much time has elapsed between, I think about 2:45 pm Sunday at Gunpowder Falls, and the time we woke up..."

"Oh... I would guess at least a few hours..."

"Oh, at least. I'm wondering about an upper limit. A day, a week, more than a month?"

"Yuck. I see what you mean. It is possible to artificially induce a coma, isn't it? It's a horrible thing to consider. But you're right, I don't feel like I'm rested from sleep. I actually feel kind of tired and sleepy. I don't feel hungry or thirsty, but my stomach feels very flat. I also have no desire at all to urinate, or to have a bowel movement. My cramps just produced a clear oil from my... well, my anus. I have a horrible suspicion that my stomach and intestinal tract have been flushed completely clean by the oil. Maybe my bladder has been drained too... Could we have been in comas and not asleep?"

"I don't know. Maybe. My bladder and intestines feel the same, drained and empty..." Robert scratched the back of his neck again, deep in thought. "Becky, can I look at the back of your neck?"

"What? Sure, just remember to put your warm arms around me again when you're finished."

Becky felt Rob's gentle fingers on her neck for several moments, and then he lightly kissed her there at said, "Thanks Becky. Take a look at the back of my neck. Tell me what you see."

A few moments later... "Smooth skin, no hair, no sign of scarring, a bit pinkish in a large clearly defined rectangle. Interesting."

"Yeah. The back of your neck looks the same. My muscle tone feels fine, which would suggest it had no time to atrophy. Our hair lengths look the same, and I have no beard. On the other hand, I notice that your nail polish is gone..."

"What? Oh my gosh, you're right! I almost never wear it, so I didn't notice it was gone. My roommate Susan suggested I try some of hers for our date and... well, I wanted to look as attractive for you as I could..."

Robert gave Becky a quick kiss. Becky returned one of her own, and then several more.

"Dearest and sweetest Becky, I'm so happy I've found you... I think you're the most wonderful person in the world!"

"I'm feeling the same emotions. I've never had a serious dating relationship, too shy, but I want one with you. You've come underneath my shyness, into a wonderful sexy whirlwind of hope and anticipation. I've told my mom a bit about you, how wonderful you are. She suggested we take our time. She's right, but I also recognize that the bond growing between us is enduring. I'm going to try to do both, have us take our time, not rush things, and not hinder things either. I am sure enough about my feelings to tell you that I love you."

"I love you back Rebecca. You're right, commitment needs to grow at a gentle pace, but I'm thrilled at the hope of it. You're becoming a part of me, and a part of what I hope to become."

The two closed their eyes and rested their heads together, not saying anything for several minutes. Then Becky said, "I'm a bit tired, but I can't imagine trying to sleep on this hard cold floor without being exhausted, even with you wrapped around me. How about we try the oval?"

"Sure! Want to go first?" Becky eagerly accepted the offer. On examining the oval, Becky counted 19 buttons, all with distinct colors. She pressed one at random, and was surprised to see a different button light up briefly, along with a brief burst of a tone.

"Ha, my years of violin tuning have finally proven useful! What do you think, Rob? To me, that sounded 4 to 5 Hertz flat of a 440 A."

"Yes. I think you're just right."

Becky continued to experiment with the oval, with Rob quietly standing by her side observing. She quickly found there was no simple relationship between the button pushed and which button would light, or which tone would sound. Sometimes pushing a button would produce 2 or even 3 lights and a chord of tones. Often the oval would bleep a discord. When it did, there was always a 5 second delay where it would be unresponsive to anything, and then a flash of all the lights. After about 20 minutes, Becky began to grow tired of playing with it.

"This seems more like a toy Rob, than a control to open the door. Even after the bleep, which seems to be a reset, the same button will map to different lights and notes. The notes seem to be sliding around all over the place too, no scale at all, sort of like my first year with my violin when I was three years old! Could this be a combination lock? Who would ever make a door control so complicated? Maybe this isn't a door at all... I think I'm baffled, and my eyes are tired from the flashing lights. Would you mind if I sat down and closed my eyes to rest for awhile?"

Robert gave Becky a brief hug and kiss. "Sure, rest your eyes. If you like, listen to what I do. I've gotten some ideas watching you play. There are several things I'm thinking of trying..."

Becky was grateful for a chance to rest her eyes. For the next 10 minutes, she just listened with her sharp musical ear to what Rob was doing. She quickly realized Rob was playing the oval's tones much, much faster than she was, with much less repetition. He was also starting to make the reset bleep occur far less frequently than her play. She suddenly laughed at what Rob was doing.

"Ha, ha, Rob! I remember playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on a phone keypad once. It sounds like what you're doing is sort of the same thing, but in a really drunken way. I must say, I admire you for being so playful when our situation seems so deadly to me. How can you just futz around while we're freezing to death?"

"Becky, I can take a break to warm you. But I do believe that I'm jamming with this machine. Damn if I'm not!"

"What!?" Becky opened her eyes and stood by Rob's left side, lightly resting her right hand affectionately on his right buttock.

"It's improvising with me Becky! This is so amazing, the oval and I are putting a song together. It sounds drunk because the notes are sliding all over the place, but it's chaos, not randomness. Think of the song as mathematical chaos, as an oscillation around a strange attractor... Can your musical ear pick out the three underlying melodies? Can you follow the phase shifts?"

"Why are you bothering to jam with the oval?"

"Well, what's my reward for completing a song it likes?"

"Oh! Robert, that's brilliant!"

The song suddenly did end. The oval gave a multi-tone whistle, and suddenly the lights dimmed to half power. Rob and Becky looked at each other in astonishment.

"You have to play a song to dim the lights? Rob, that's absurd!"

"Yeah... Bizarre... And not just play a song Becky, jam a song. For a while, it insisted on taking the lead, and then it insisted that I take the lead... And then it improvised on my ideas... All this to switch off the lights a little? It is absurd... Well, at least I didn't play it a song that meant to increase the lights by a factor of two. Lucky! That would have been near to blinding. I'm going to try to play the same song again, or at least a close variation. See what happens."

At the end of the second song, the oval whistled again and the lights dimmed by another factor of two. "Bravo Robert! You've given us the ability to start controlling our environment. I don't suppose you could play a request to bump up the heat a little, could you?"

"My gosh, that's a scary thought. What if it uses the Kelvin scale from absolute zero? Doubling the heat would push us up close to 600F."

"Shit! I didn't think of that... Oh, pardon my language. I usually don't talk like this. Must be the stress."

Rob hugged Becky for a moment, gently kissing her while returning the caress on her buttocks. "Awake enough for some more musical exploration? I can stop if you're tired."

"Oh, don't stop now! You're in the zone! Play me a lullaby!"

"Okay!" Becky couldn't believe what she heard next. It was sort of like a lullaby. After a few false starts, she heard the wildest, craziest lullaby she could ever imagine, and then the oval whistled wildly as the door indentation began to slide to the side.

"Yes!" shouted Rob.

"No!" screamed Becky, as a mountain of high-pressure water burst around her body and quickly began to flood the room. Slamming waves of cold water filled the room in seconds. The violent churns threw Becky hard against the back wall of the room. She just managed to protect her head, but the blow drove all the air from her lungs, and stunned her close to unconsciousness... 

Becky felt a great urge to fall asleep, but a voice by her side kept telling her how much it loved her, and Becky's drifting mind found the concept of being loved so interesting that she decided to open her eyes.

"Oh, thank God, thank God! Becky! Fight to stay awake, fight with all your might!" Robert had Becky in a lifesaver's hold, treading water with the water level about two feet from the ceiling of the room.

"Okay! I think I'm okay! I think I saved my head from a concussion. Just had the wind knocked out of me. What the hell is going on!? I'm freezing to death!"

"I think the water is about 60F, a little colder than the air was. We have a little time, but you're right, we have to get out of this."

"There was water of the other side of the door?! This is insane!"

"No argument from me on that! Becky, we have to get out of here! Are your ears okay?"

"I felt them pop. I think they're okay. How do we get out?"

"There was about 4 feet of room above the door opening. The air above the top of the door opening was trapped. It's been compressed to two feet, one half the volume. I think we're in two atmospheres of pressure now."

"So?"

"So it tells us how high the water is on the other side of door. Let's see, one atmosphere is 14.7 pounds per square inch..." Rob looked thoughtful for a moment, remembering the density of water and doing the math in his head. "About 34 feet vertical, I think, from the water surface here. We have to swim down two feet to get under the top edge of the door, and then swim up 36 feet to break to the surface outside. Should be doable!"

"What about the bends, decompression sickness?"

"I think we'll be fine. We've only been here a few minutes, and pearl divers go snorkeling much deeper than this. Remember to adjust the pressure in your ears as we ascend."

"Robert, I'm pretty close to my last reserves of strength. I think I can punch through and do this, but I'm running close to exhaustion. I'm so cold! What if there's a grate, and we can't ascend all the way? Do we come back here?"

"A horrible thought. We'll probably die if there is. Becky, I'll never leave you. Never. If we die, I'll die holding you in my arms... You ascend first, I'll be right behind you. If you run out of energy, just try not to breathe until I can get you to the surface."

The water was crystal clear. The door location was easily visible, and Rob and Becky swam over to it and took a few deep breaths. They dived together, and wound up swimming side by side holding hands until they broke the surface of the water. Becky looked around and then screamed in anguish.

"This is impossible! Where the hell are we!?"

Rob and Becky were floating at the center of an enormous tank of water, about 200 meters in diameter. It was a 100-meter swim in any direction to the smooth vertical walls of the tank. White light shone down from high overhead.

"There!" shouted Rob. "This way. I think I see ladder rungs this way."

"I... I don't think I can swim it Rob... I'm exhausted and freezing... I'm so cold."

"Try to swim as much as you can. It'll keep you warmer. Let me carry you in a lifesaver hold when you have to rest. Save some energy to climb the rungs."

It took almost ten minutes for the two to swim the 100 meters to the ladder. The ladder was not particularly easy to climb, thin horizontal circular hoops extruding from the wall about every two vertical feet.

Rebecca's teeth were chattering uncontrollably. "Rob, my hands are so cold and stiff I can't bend my fingers around these hoops at all. I won't be able to climb... Go on without me."

"No fucking way! Here, place your hand next to the hoop. I'll bend your fingers around the pipe and climb with you, side by side. I'll hold your hand to the pipe. We can do this! Move! Move!"

The climb was a nightmare. Robert found that he had more strength than Becky, but less balance on the slippery pipes. He realized in horror that one fall from the pipes would probably be fatal for them both. They were running out of time. He almost slipped off twice, both times slipping with his feet on the narrow pipes and holding his full weight with one hand while the other hand desperately held Becky's grip to the pipes.

Becky reached into her last reserves of human endurance, and kept pace with Robert up the ladder. Together they climbed 20 rungs above the water, and then collapsed exhausted and freezing onto a ledge about 9 feet wide. The ledge circled the tank, with the tank itself extending upward an additional 40 feet to a brightly lit ceiling.

"Becky, I think I see an oval and a door about 200 meters clockwise along the ledge from here. And in the other direction... Yes! My backpack! Come on!"

Rob and Becky walked a third of the circumference of the tank along the ledge. There was no safety rail, but the 9 feet of width made it fairly easy to avoid falling off. Becky's teeth were chattering violently. Rob's body felt numb and he realized he was suffering from hypothermia too. Then Becky's teeth stopped chattering, her body had run out of energy to shiver. Robert guided and supported her as best he could as they continued to stagger around the ledge. "Please, please, dear God," Rob thought, "Let my gear still be in my backpack."

They finally came to the location where their clothes and backpack were lying along the wall on the ledge. Robert dove into his backpack, shouted "Yes!" and pulled out a huge white fluffy bath towel, which he immediately handed to Becky. Becky gave him a look of pure gratitude with her eyes and then wrapped herself in the towel, starting to dry herself as Rob unrolled a single sleeping bag and began to blow up an air mattress. He finished blowing up the mattress a few minutes later just as Becky finished toweling the bulk of the water out of her hair. Rob set the sleeping bag over the mattress.

"Climb in, Becky, I'll join you as soon as I use the towel." Rob joined the exhausted Becky right after padding down his body with the damp towel, his stiff fingers barely able to close the bag's main zipper. The two then cuddled naked against each other, both collapsing into sleep within minutes.



-------

Chapter 3



Drifting... Drifting in happiness... Drifting in peace... Drifting in love... Rebecca's mind felt totally relaxed and secure. Her body felt totally warm and safe. "More than safe," Rebecca thought sleepily, "my body is being petted... accepted... cherished... beloved... More than my body... Me! My hopes and fears... My strengths and weaknesses... My dreams... The essence of who I am... The innermost part of my spirit is being petted... accepted... cherished... and beloved..."

Rebecca slowly opened her eyes. She was lying flat on her back, wonderfully warm within the cocoon of the sleeping bag and floating over the air mattress. A large bulky sweater was beneath her head and neck, providing a delightful pillow. Robert was lying by her side, looking in joy into her eyes as his hand caressed her breasts. They held eye contact for a long moment, neither saying anything, and then Rebecca sighed deeply at the pleasure of the caresses and closed her eyes.

The pleasure was exquisite, both relaxing and arousing. Both of Rebecca's nipples were fully erect, and she could feel Robert's erect penis pushing into her thigh just below her hip. She was breathing slowly and deeply, gasping in pleasure as Robert gently pinched and released her nipples between his fingers. The playful probing of the underside of her breasts was arousing a deep need for sexual release within her. She opened her eyes and turned, reached over and held his penis for the first time.

"Do you want to suckle? I want to give you everything that I am, including all of my sex. I'll give you my virginity now if you want... You are my very first boyfriend. You'll have to teach me how to please you, and excite you... But you'll find me a very eager pupil..."

"Dearest, loveliest Rebecca... You are so beautiful! I do want to suckle you... And be inside you... I'm also filled with feelings of tenderness for you, of wanting to be as gentle as I can, of not wanting to rush you. Love is patient, and I love you dearly. I can be patient. What are your thoughts?"

Rebecca sighed and thought for a moment. "It's hard for me to hold back Rob. All my thoughts are to commit to you, and then to sexually express my commitment. There's one small part of my mind that agrees with you, a quiet voice telling me that patience is a virtue, and a rewarding one... I'll listen to that voice for a while longer, but not forever. I know my own heart. I know that what I feel now won't change. I'll want to offer you my heart soon, permanently offer it to you. After that, I'll wait only as long as you want me to wait. I don't want to rush you either... Oh, and one more thing. Thank you, for saving my life." Rebecca let go of his penis and hugged him with both arms. The silent embrace lasted several minutes.

They broke apart in a playful mood. "Robert, I'm thrilled that you think my body is sexy! I took a lot of teasing about it as a kid."

"What!? I think you're drop-dead gorgeous. Are you serious!?"

"Yes. When I was growing up, I loved school so much and did so well that a lot of the kids were resentful. Many viewed it as competition, and I didn't know how to hide my joy in learning new things. The teasing went way beyond calling me teacher's pet, my two most common names were The Brain, said with a sneer, and Eagle-beak."

"Eagle-beak?"

"My nose, Robert! It's a classic Jewish nose. Doesn't it look a little large to you?"

"Frankly, no! It fits your face beautifully. Here, I have a mathematical formula to prove this to you, let me demonstrate..." Robert spent the next several minutes kissing Rebecca's nose and rubbing his own nose alongside it, until Rebecca finally giggled when he started to lick it.

"Stop that! It tickles! I accept the validity of your mathematical proof! And what you're doing is driving my loins wild with desire! If you keep this up, I'm going to insist that you mount me and copulate!"

"Aha! Great! Something for me to remember then! Seriously though Becky, it's so sad that you were teased. Was there no one who was kind to you?"

"Not at the kid level. Well, a few of the girls were okay, casual friends, people who wrote best wishes into my high school yearbook. But the boys really resented me outdoing them in all the academics... I remember as a young teen, when my breasts first developed, I remember wondering if seeing me as an attractive girl would make any difference to them. My mom let me try her nail polish, and I put on a feminine dress for school. Nothing provocative, just something that showed I had a front, and not my usual sweater and blue jeans."

"What happened?"

"It was awful. I heard comments in the hall like The Brain has tits, and The Brain thinks it's female. On my way home, a group of the meaner boys met up with me and made some really lewd gestures and obscene comments. They were all chanting for me to flash my tits when they finally let me run away. I got home and cried. It was the last time I tried nail polish, until I put it on for you..."

Robert gently petted Rebecca's head and kissed her.

Rebecca continued. "I thought when I got to high school, things would be better. But they weren't. The same group of bullies moved there with me. I remember in the fall once, I came down with a stomach flu. Money was tight for us with my dad dead and I didn't want my mom to have to leave work, so I just stuck it out. By the afternoon, I was hearing comments that I was so smart that it was I who was the inventor of the automatic flush and recycling toilet. I became the girl from A.F.A.R.T... It went on for months. When I would pass by in the hall between classes, some boy would always cough and wave a hand in front of his face, to remind me how I smell when I have diarrhea."

Rebecca looked up and saw a look of pure horror on Robert's face.

"Oh, I knew it wasn't me, just the cruelty of a bunch of bullies. One time they couldn't even get their story straight. I'd hear a passing comment like, did you ever notice how some people's legs are so long for their body, they walk like a stiff giraffe? And then next period in the hall I'd hear, did you ever notice how some people's legs are so short for their body, they waddle like a crocodile? It was so stupid, the whole thing would have been funny if it weren't based on cruelty. But it was based on cruelty, and I couldn't laugh at it... Well, at least the adults in my life were supportive. My mom likes to play at being a Jewish mother a bit, but she really does love me. A lot too. My dad was wonderful, but he died when I was twelve. But my aunts and uncles stepped right in. I'm really close to my extended family. It was my rock growing up."

"My gosh Becky, those bullies were idiots, pure monsters... My growing up was just the opposite in a way. The kids I knew were mostly okay, but some of the adults were insane." Robert turned and lay down on his back, and Rebecca turned to face him. She pushed the sweater from under her head to under his, giving him a pillow. She then spent several minutes caressing him, letting her fingers slowly trace the outline of his face.

"I can dimly imagine what it must have been like, having no permanent family as a child. You told me before both your parents died when you were an infant. Was there no one to adopt you? Forgive me if I'm being pushy... I don't mean to pry..."

"Oh no, Becky, I want to tell you... I was adopted for a while... Wait. How about I tell you over breakfast? There's no way to heat it, but I have several kilos of high-energy trail food in my backpack, probably enough for 10 to 20 small meals for us each."

"Sure! I'm not hungry yet, but breakfast sounds nice."

"I'll get your clothes for you, so you can stay toasty warm while you dress." Robert began to climb out of the top of the sleeping bag. "Ah oh!"

"What? What do you see?"

"Trouble."

Rebecca quickly followed Robert out of the sleeping bag, standing naked on the ledge in silence for a moment. "Rebecca," she then said, "Memo to self: Do not take your eyeballs off of this deadly environment. How much time do you think we have Rob?"

"Don't know. But it's probably a good idea if we pack up and head to the oval."

The water level in the tank had risen dramatically during their sleep, and was now six to seven feet below the level of the ledge. Robert and Rebecca spent a few minutes dressing and packing up their gear.

"Here, Becky. Put this on below your slicker."

"It's your sweater. Are you sure?"

"Totally. I have my jacket and I probably won't even zip it. I'll be fine."

"Thank you..." Rebecca pulled the wool sweater over her head. "Nice! It's very warm and goes down to my thighs. This will even keep my rump toasty! I'll be very happy." Rebecca started to put on her slicker. "Robert! My cell phone! I doubt I'll get a signal in this tank, but I can see what time it is!" Rebecca tried to key her cell phone for a moment. "Nuts! I think the battery is dead. And I just recharged it Sunday morning too."

"Did you have it on in the Park?"

"Sure. I never turn it off."

Robert reached into his backpack, pulled out his cell phone and started keying it. "I just recharged before the Park too, but had mine turned off... Have power... No signal... Let me check the calendar!" Robert grimaced.

"What, Rob?"

"67 days."

"Oh my God! It's late November now!? Oh my God, my poor mother!"

"It's not conclusive. I don't have a beard." Robert felt his face. "Then again, my face feels smooth now, like I've just shaved. Maybe we're not growing our hair now for some reason."

Rebecca was silent for a moment, the reminder that their bodies had been manipulated filled her with an unfocused anger. "We're all packed now, let's just get the hell out of here."

A few minutes later, Robert and Rebecca reached the door and oval. "Well, Rob, still feel like you're in the zone for music? Remind me not to stand in front of the door when you open it! I might get hit with a freight train or something."

"Oh, no! This is bad. The oval appears completely dead! The buttons won't even depress." Robert turned and sat down against the wall, closing his eyes and leaning his head back into the rolled sleeping bag at the top of his backpack. "And I can't think of a thing to do either." It was the first time Rebecca had ever seen Robert dejected.

Rebecca sat down by Rob's side and slipped her hand under the bottom of his jacket. After a moment of untucking his shirts, she had her hand flat against his bare stomach, which she softly began to pet. She leaned over and kissed his ear, and then whispered into it: "Dearest Robert, you are my knight in shining armor, and don't you forget it! I'm relying on you to save me. And if you can't, the worst that can happen is that our souls lose their mortal sheaths. Our souls themselves are not in danger. We've talked about our faiths together. We both believe this. We are both God's children, borrowing life for a time, but forever in His care." And then Rebecca gave him a playful smile and tug on his stomach fur. "And besides, all I'm asking is that we follow Starfleet tradition. We keep trying. And if we go down, we go down with our phasers firing!"

Robert sighed deeply. "I remember a quote from David Gerrold. He wrote the plotline for The Trouble With Tribbles episode. David critiqued the Star Trek intro. He said space is not the final frontier. The final frontier is the human soul. Space is where we will meet the challenge... Rebecca, you are so right, let's get to work. Let me make a measurement of the current water height and mark the time. Then, let's inventory everything we have in my backpack and our pockets. After that, let's start analyzing."

Robert pulled a small notepad and pen from his pack, and then a coil of marked rope and a multifunction knife. He threaded the rope through the knife handle, and then lowered in over the edge towards the water. "This coil is 100 feet. I've marked it in one-foot increments. Current drop to the water from the ledge is 71 inches." Robert picked up his binoculars. "Confirming with the ladder. I thought the rungs were just about two feet apart, and the third rung is even with the waterline now. I'll mark the time in the notepad."

"I climbed 20 rungs Rob. I counted. So the water's come up 34 feet. So the air pressure in the room at the bottom of the tank is now at three atmospheres?"

"That's right. Though I wouldn't use the word bottom. I glanced down as we swam out. I think the room was at the top of a submerged pinnacle. I couldn't see the bottom of the tank at all."

"Totally bizarre, which seems to be the one constant in this place."

"Yeah. Well, here we go. We have this notepad and pen, 100 feet of mountain climbing rope, marked in one-foot increments. My wallet. Your wallet. Our key rings. Our cell phones. I also have a charger in my backpack. Our two 1-liter canteens. Both of us are wearing underwear, blue jeans, long sleeve shirts, hiking boots, and slickers with hoods, you also have the sweater. We also have the binoculars, this Swiss Army knife, this Audubon Field Guide to North American Birds, this large somewhat wet bath towel..."

"Robert, stop. Let me ask you something. I was really happy you had it, but why would you bring a large bath towel on a hike?"

"Ha! You answered your own question! I got the idea from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It's a parody, both a book and on the BBC. The author insists the single most important item to have when hitchhiking is a large towel. They are just so useful! Let's see, one artic sleeping bag and air mattress..."

"Robert, I got some smiles from some people we past hiking. I think when they saw your bag they thought we were coming into the park to have sex. We were only hiking for the afternoon. Why did you bring it?"

"Well, it's part of this," Robert said, pulling out a large first aid kit. "Not just for you and me. If we found someone injured on the trail, the bag would help keep a person warm if they were in shock. It also could be an emergency shelter, though the day was pleasant... Anyway, we have 1 lb of dried cranberries, 1 lb of dried cherries, 1 dozen power bars, some dried beef jerky, an extra 1-liter bottle of water, this jar of peanuts. This survival knife..."

"Whoa! That looks wicked. Can I see it?"

"Sure."

Rebecca pulled the knife from its leather sheath. It had a razor-sharp serrated 7-inch high-tech alloy blade and a combat handle, looking useful for both cutting and stabbing. "Could be quite a weapon, if either of us knew knife fighting."

"Actually, I do."

"What!?"

"My time in independent living before I was 18 was a bit wild. There was one guy there whom I first thought was a bit of a bully. His name was Earl. I managed to become his friend by offering to pay him to teach me how to knife fight. It was a win-win deal. I got really good at it. And he liked the money and to think of me as his pupil, he liked the challenge of teaching a nerd. As I came close to his level of expertise, Earl actually developed a lot of respect for me. And I respect him. We parted good friends... Anyway, getting back to the inventory. One pair leather work gloves. My security badge."

"You brought your green badge on our hike?"

"Oh, I'm not supposed to ever leave it out of my possession. I don't wear it in the shower, but it's in the bathroom with me. Let's see, almost finished. One large 3-battery flashlight. Three extra batteries. One 1-pint vacuum thermos bottle. One small signaling mirror. One small steel tube with about 20 wooden matches inside. One hand-crank flashlight... And there's something in here I don't recognize..."

"Oh, what?"

"Take a look at this."

Rob handed Rebecca a dog collar which she examined. "The name on the tag is Millie. An address on Mt Carmel Rd in Haletown, Maryland. What does it mean Rob?"

"Don't know. I think Mt Carmel is Route 137. Runs just south of the Park. Good size collar too... I do have a dim memory of seeing a moderately big dog in the Park..."

"Analysis time?"

"Sure. What are your thoughts?"

"Should we walk the ledge circle? See if we see anything new?"

"Tough call. Perhaps we could just scan with the binoculars. I'd hate to be on the other side, and have this door suddenly open, and then have it close before we could come back."

"Wow, I didn't think of that. Let me scan with the binoculars." Ten minutes later. "Nothing at all, and I tried to be very thorough... Robert, I apologize for mocking you about alien abduction. It's my prime candidate now. This tank is just so unbelievable, millions of tons of pure water."

"Yes, totally clean too. Not even a chlorine smell. Might be distilled water. What do you think? Is the air pressure rising as the water rises, or is the air being vented?"

"My ears don't feel anything. Maybe the air is being vented, in the ceiling perhaps..."

"Yeah, that's my guess too. Becky, I'm thinking of just waiting for a while, giving the oval a chance to turn on. If it doesn't, I'm going to attack it with the knife, see if I can pry it open. I doubt that's a way to open the door, you can't fix integrated circuits with a knife. I'll do it as a last resort, maybe when we have the water just below ledge height. Until then I'll just reach up every few minutes and test the buttons."

"Okay. Seems reasonable. I'm really out of ideas."

"Me too. There's just not much to work with, unless the oval turns on."

"Can I put my head in your lap? Will you pet me?"

"I'd love too."

Robert petted Becky's face and neck in slow thoughtful strokes, gently tracing the outline of her features. After a while she took his hand, kissed it, then slipped it under her clothes, lifted her bra and placed his hand on her warm breast. She closed her eyes and sighed in contentment as Robert caressed her. The time passed by quietly.



-------

Chapter 4



"Becky dearest, time to wake up."

Rebecca opened her eyes from Robert's lap and gazed up into his eyes. "I dozed off. I was having the most delightful of dreams. We had just married, and you were petting my breasts on our wedding night... Anything new?"

Robert bent down and kissed her. "No. The water level is now about a foot below the ledge. I thought I'd make another measurement and try the oval with my knife." Robert measured the new level. "Eleven inches to the ledge. Was 71 inches 75 minutes ago. The water is rising at 4 feet an hour. We have about another 13 minutes." Robert poked the oval a bit with his knife for a moment. "Sigh. This thing is one single piece of super hard material, my knife won't scratch it a all. No seams to attack. Becky, do you want to fill the canteens, just in case the door opens on its own when the water hits it? I know this sounds insanely optimistic..."

"I'll fill the canteens. This place is insane. The door opening like that would fit right in." Rebecca opened a canteen and easily dunked it in the water 10 inches below the ledge. "Wow, Rob, this water feels freezing! Much colder than before."

Robert leaned over and felt the water. "You're right, about 45F I think. Quite cold now."

"I just had a horrible thought. What if we had decided to sleep in our original room overnight before trying the oval down there? We would have been hit with 45F water at over twice the pressure, 70 feet below the surface."

"Yeah. The pressure shock probably would have killed us. And if not, we would have died trying to swim out. 45F water is deadly. Life is going to start getting unpleasant for us soon. I can't think of any way of avoiding hypothermia. Slowing getting covered with 45F water over the next hour is a gruesome thought. I am happy though, that I had the chance to tell you that I love you..."

"Robert, I... What? Robert, I saw something! From the door! I think it just jiggled, slid back and forth about an inch!"

Robert and Rebecca examined the door, wondering if it would happen again. The water level was 4 inches below the ledge when the door quickly opened about a foot and then quickly closed again.

"Wow! Did you see that Rob?"

"Yes! Way too fast to dash in, but maybe it'll happen again with a larger opening. You or I should stand by the door edge, and be ready to spring. It'll be dangerous. The door could cut us in half."

"I'll do it! I'm not being braver. I'd rather be cut in two than be slowly killed by rising freezing water! That would be gruesome!"

The water level was two inches below the ledge. The door suddenly began opening, and Rebecca was about to spring when the door closed. She caught herself just in time. "This is horrible! I almost killed myself! I'll have to spring only when the door is at least halfway open."

Time seemed to stand still. Rebecca was still standing on dry ground, but she knew she had just moments before the bottom of her boots would be wet. She was in utter concentration, unwilling to look back at the rising water.

The door gapped open and Rebecca leaped, and then the door slammed shut. "She made it!" thought Robert. A few seconds later the door slid wide and locked open with a click. Robert dashed across the threshold.

"There's just a simple push button to open the door from this side, Rob, and look who was trying to open it!"

Standing next to Rebecca was a golden Labrador, her tail wagging wildly, but also looking very wobbly on her feet. "Well, hello pooch, nice to meet you too." said Robert. "Why, you're just a puppy, aren't you? And I'll just bet your name is Millie!" The dog barked happily at the sound of her name, and then tried to vomit. "Rebecca, the water is seconds away from overflowing the ledge. Can you close the door?"

"I don't know how. This button just seems to open it, and there are no other controls. And look! When I opened the door, the walls of the tank turned transparent! Look at all the spirals!"

Just then a thin film of water crept up and covered the bottom of their boots. Robert noted the time on his cell phone. "We seem to be in a spiral corridor around the outside of the tank. How weird. About 9 feet wide, just like the ledge. Headroom height seems to be a little less than 8 feet. You can see the puddle of water starting to flow down to the right. I guess our path is obvious, move clockwise up the spiral. Come Millie!"

The three quickly walked out of the puddle of water. Millie lagged a bit for the first few minutes, but then was happily walking by their sides and a little ahead. It took them eight minutes to walk 660 meters, the circumference of the tank. They paused to watch the water flowing into the open door beneath them. "The water is about 6 inches over the ledge now Becky. I guess we're safe. We've climbed up 16 feet of the spiral while the water rose 6 inches. It'll be easy to stay ahead of it. Notice that this is a double spiral, a second loop is threaded between where we are now and the door. And the roof of the tank is only about 16 feet up from our ceiling position now. Hopefully we'll find a door to get out of here on top, maybe in just one more rotation. It's hard to see, the tank ceiling is very bright."

"Oh, do you think this tank is submerged then Rob?"

"You're right. I guess I was assuming that. The hoop stress for this tank to be a freestanding structure would be enormous. But this place is so whacky, who knows?"

The two picked up their pace a bit, and Millie bounded about happily. Seven minutes later, Rebecca called out, "Oh, no! I think I see a blank wall ahead. Could this be a dead end? The light is so bright, it's hard to tell."

All three walked to the end of the spiral tunnel. "Yikes, Becky look out! The floor ends about eight feet before hitting the end wall. There's an 8-foot drop into the spiral beneath us. Both spirals just end at this top point."

The true nature of the geometry suddenly struck Rebecca. She gave a cry of anguish and said, "Oh, we have to move! We have to complete the journey in the second spiral before the water hits this height and then comes down and kills us!" Robert hung off the ledge and easily hopped to the floor below. Rebecca handed down Millie and their gear and then finally herself. "Let's move Rob, as fast as we can. I've got a really bad feeling about this. I do believe this place is actively trying to kill us. How much time do we have to get out of here?"

They both started a fast walk down the spiral, with Millie bouncing around in puppy happiness over the exercise. "Becky, the water should reach the top lip of the spiral in 7 hours, 40 minutes. It'll just be a trickle at first, but a one-foot deep waterfall 15 minutes later. I guess we have just about 8 hours from now to get out of here."

"Rob, I'm up for doing a forced march for 8 hours. We're both in pretty good shape. We usually do our 5-mile morning jog in less than 40 minutes. Can you hike 5 miles an hour with that backpack for 8 hours? We can share turns carrying it. That would let us make 12 revolutions per hour. Let's see, 16 vertical feet per loop, 8 hours... Great! That's a drop of over 1500 feet, with an extra 40 miles the water will have to travel to catch us. Maybe we'll be okay! Can I carry the pack?"

"It's custom designed for my back measurements. Here, why don't you just carry my canteen? Actually, I'm very surprised I'm not thirsty. We both have not drunk anything since we came out of our comas. But I just don't feel like drinking at all."

"Me either Rob. Could our bodies have been manipulated not to need water? That seems impossible. Wow, we're one floor directly over the open door now. That water action is pretty impressive."

"For that piece of the spiral not to be filled with water yet implies the spiral is huge. We might need all the time we have. Why doesn't that surprise me? And the water level appears to be rising just as fast as before. Draining into the spiral is not slowing the rise. Additional water must be being pumped into the tank to compensate. Bizarre."

"Not bizarre Robert. Cruel. I think the tank is actively trying to kill us, but for some reason it doesn't mind giving us a chance to escape. I think it woke up Millie just in time for Millie to have a small chance of opening the door for us, and we lucked out. I think the tank is playing a game with us, a very deadly and cruel game."

"It does appear that way. Sometimes reality can be just as it appears, and sometimes appearances can be deceiving. This is a very deep puzzle."

The three kept walking at the brisk pace. Once they descended below the waterline of the tank, the bright light of the tank ceiling was no longer hurting their eyes. Through the crystal clear water, they could see their original room sitting on a submerged pinnacle in the middle of the tank. The pinnacle descended into the depths, the bottom not visible. They both raised their slicker hoods to keep a little extra warmth in the raw 45F air. They kept hiking at a fast pace, and the light very gradually got dimmer and dimmer until after several hours it was so dark they were at the absolute limit of seeing anything at all. They took a short break to get out the flashlights.

"Becky, why don't I let you have the battery flashlight? It has a clip, just attach it to your belt but keep it off for now. I'll use the hand-crank one. We really don't need much light."

"How far to you think we're down Rob?"

"This walk is so featureless, it's a little hard to tell. But I think we've almost kept the 5 mph pace, and it's been almost 4 hours. I would guess we're at about 700 feet below the waterline."

"Wow. The pressure on these transparent walls is over 20 atmospheres now?"

"Yeah, a bit scary I guess. If they do fail though, at least it'll be so fast we'll never know what hit us."

"Well that's a cheerful thought! If you want something a little nicer to think about, just imagine how I've been thinking of seducing you these last hours. I hope I get a chance to show you some of my ideas..."

"Ah, me too. I do love you Becky."

"And I love you. So fiercely it takes my breath away."

They continued the trek, the hours drifting by. Rebecca's mind started to wander from the fatigue and the absolute monotony. Suddenly she called out, "Robert! Look, there's a fork in the tunnel! Are we at the bottom?"

Rebecca turned on the battery flashlight to view a difficult decision. Robert did a time check.

"We're 10 minutes before the 7 hour mark. The water should start falling over the top lip in about 50 minutes. I don't think this is the bottom. The main corridor seems to proceed as before. This little offshoot is less than half the width, we would have to go single file. It also seems to have a tight spiral and descends rapidly, maybe more than a 20-degree slope. We really don't have any information to pick one path versus the other..."

"How about we explore this offshoot for two minutes and rethink?"

"Okay. Keep your flashlight on. Okay if I take the point?"

Two minutes later. "Rob, I think we've spiraled about three times. This seems to go on forever. If we have to backtrack up this incline, our tired muscles are really going to complain."

"Want to go back?"

"I don't want to commit to this path. How about 1 more revolution, and then we backtrack?"

"Okay."

They never got the chance. The corridor dead-ended in another half a turn, a blank solid wall. Shaking their heads in frustration, they began to backtrack up the steep slope.

Rebecca cried out in pain just before they reached the main corridor.

"Becky! What?"

"Oh, my calf cramped, a bad one. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"

"Sit down, let me massage it." Robert spent the next several minutes kneading the muscle in Becky's leg. Millie waited patiently at the top of the steep ramp. Rebecca was very grateful for the break, and she thought how wonderful her life would be with Robert if they could only survive this crazy situation.

"I think I'm okay now Robert. Thank you. Let's move!"

Continuing downward, they counted numerous branches off the main corridor, the branches occurring about once every three minutes of walking. They continued down the main corridor until it suddenly ended in a dead end. Rebecca gave a wail of anguish from her frustration and cried, "Oh, what is this madness, that feeds our struggle but starves our victory!? Shit! What do we do now? Rob, give me a time check!"

"Seven hours 57 minutes since we started. The water's been going over the top lip now for 17 minutes. It has about a 40-mile path to get to us. I'll make a wild guess that it'll take 20 minutes to build a big wave, which then travels down at 80 mph. Perhaps we have about 35 minutes before getting slammed."

"Let's backtrack to the last fork." They began the hike. "Rob, I counted eighteen additional forks, after the first one that was a dead-end. How many do you think we can test?"

"Realistically? Maybe the three bottom ones. Maybe two of the middle ones. Probably we don't have time to test any of the first ones we passed by."

"Oh, I feel like screaming! How do we choose? The three bottom ones? Do we maximize the number of tunnels we test?"

"I don't know. Let me think while we hike back."

Three minutes later they came to their first fork. "Rob, do you hear a rumble in this tunnel?"

"Yeah, the turbulence of the rushing water above is creating pressure waves in the air, sound waves. It's creating a very low frequency resonant standing wave in these tunnels, sort of like blowing air over the tops of bottles. Microwave ovens work the same way, using a magnetron to blow electrons over a resonance cavity, creating an electric standing wave which vibrates the electrons in the food and... Wait! A tunnel that is not a dead- end won't resonate! Let's move on to the next branch."

They spent the next 15 minutes running up the corridor and testing the branches, listening for the resonant waves. On their sixth branch from the bottom, they suddenly thought they succeeded.

"Rob! No rumble!"

Rob struck a match and held it to the opening. "And the flame is being pulled down too! Air is starting to flow into this tunnel, being pushed by the weight of all the water falling down. This is it!"

Rebecca took the lead, Robert and Millie trailing behind her. The branch seemed identical to the one they had first explored, except there was no dead end. Rather, the tunnel necked down into a pipe.

"Robert, there's a pipe opening in front of me, maybe five feet diameter, maybe a 45 degree slope. The walls feel smooth like glass. Let me hold Millie in my lap and I'll slide down."

They started sliding down the pipe a moment later. The ride was as wild as a roller coaster, with varying run-outs and drop-offs mixed in with both gentle curves and hairpin turns. Rebecca dimly realized the ride would be thrilling if she weren't so terrified. They both finally landed with a plop in a bottom room, Robert rolling a sharp left to avoid crashing into Rebecca's back. Rebecca called out to him, "That pipe was insane! Carnival like! No one would do plumbing like that!"

"I know! There's an oval here by the pipe exit. I'm going to try to close the pipe. I think the water is right behind us!"

Robert spent the next several minutes rapidly keying the oval, Rebecca stood by his side. She felt the air rushing now from the pipe, carrying tiny particles of water that zinged into her blue jeans like stinging micro pellets. The cascading water above was starting to rumble like the approach of a thousand freight trains... 

"Becky, this oval isn't musical! It's playing a fast memory game with me, so fast my fingers can't keep up..."

"Move over! I have fast fingers from my violin and I love memory games!"

Rebecca jumped in and began playing, her fingers repeating the long patterns of the rapidly flashing lights, her mind in total concentration and blotting out the hurricane wind blowing next to her. Just as the sound began to hurt her ears the game completed and a door slid down and sealed the pipe. The room was suddenly silent. With the last of her strength, Rebecca said, "We should never press any of the buttons on this oval again. I have a deep intuition that pushing any button would be a signal to open the pipe door, a 5-foot diameter pipe to a 2000-foot vertical pressure head of water. It would kill us instantly." Rebecca then turned and collapsed into Robert's arm, crying in the release of her tension, overcome with both physical and mental exhaustion.



-------

Chapter 5



Rebecca woke quietly and looked around the room. She was in her bra and panties, covered loosely by her other clothes, lying on top of the air mattress and sleeping bag. Robert was asleep by her side, with one hand resting lightly on her abdomen just above her pubic fur. Millie was curled up in a corner of the room, also fast asleep. Rebecca was grateful for the moment, thankful to have some quiet time for reflection. She began to think of how tired she was just after closing the pipe.

"Wow, nothing like having my life in mortal danger to get my adrenaline flowing! Robert was so kind to undress me and prepare our bed after I ran out of gas. I was so tired! I've never had to hike like that! And Robert carried the pack the whole time... I remember him undressing me. After all my teasing, I was wondering if he wanted to have sex with me, and I was so tired! I lay on my stomach and spread my legs a bit, expecting him to take off my panties and mount me from my rear. But he never did! He was so sweet and understanding, just more massaging of my calf. It felt so good! It's so nice to be petted in love. I do remember the soft caresses of my buttocks over the panties, just before I fell asleep. But they were caresses of promise, not caresses of foreplay. I am so, so happy he thinks my body is sexy!"

Rebecca sat up and looked down at the sleeping Robert. "Patience, Rebecca. A little flirting and playfulness is fine. But build the love first, let the love be the foundation for the sexual union. Don't rush him! He loves you so much, he'll allow you to rush him as a gift to you. But he's being as gentle as he can in slowing you down Rebecca... I don't have to worry about losing him. He has committed to me, I can feel it. I'll let him take my virginity when he's ready to ask for it. It won't be long. I can see the hope and desire for me in his eyes."

"He is male. I should give him the pleasure of courting me, pursuing me, catching me... dominating me? Yes! At our core, we accept each other as equals. But I am his female. I should give him the pleasure of catching me, mounting me as he desires, letting him possess me. Eros is a possessive love. It will be one of the cornerstones of our union, along with our friendship and our caring love for each other. And I am so, so happy he thinks my body is sexy!"

"Good morning Becky! How are you?"

Robert had woken up. Rebecca bent down and kissed him. "Good morning! I'm fine. Ready for our next adventure?"

"Wouldn't miss it." Robert got up wearing just his briefs and looked about the room, then poked his head through the single door on the wall opposite of the closed pipe. "Seems peaceful at least. Comfortably warm too. Two cubical rooms, both about 16 feet in all three dimensions. This room has dark blue for three walls, floor, and ceiling, and a glowing yellow wall with the door. The next room has a mixture of red, green and blue for the walls, floor and ceiling, some glowing, some not. There are no doors except the one back to this room. But there's a spiral staircase in the middle that goes up. I guess our one option is to go up the staircase."

Rob and Becky spent a few minutes getting dressed and gathering their things. "Rob, I'm going to put Millie's collar on. Perhaps in the future we might need your rope as a leash for her... Rob, look at this!" Rob came over and saw a defined pinkish rectangle at the back of Millie's neck, entirely devoid of fur. "What do you think it means?"

"Not sure. Let me try something." Rob got out his thermos, took the cup, and poured some water in it. He then set it down on the floor with some dried beef jerky for Millie. Millie came over happily and looked at the food, but then looked confused. She sniffed the food for a moment, then lost interest and walked away. "Becky, I think you're conjecture is correct, impossible as it seems. We don't seem to need food or water anymore. This is probably an important clue to the big picture of what's going on, but I can't figure it out."

A few minutes later they were climbing the spiral staircase in the second room, entering the room above it. The staircase continued for another flight, and there was also a door on a yellow wall, with the other surfaces of blues and greens, some glowing, some not. Robert suddenly realized what they were dealing with. "A bunch of twisty, turning passages, all different!"

"The ancient Adventure maze, Rob? These different colors and intensities on the walls do provide a unique signature for each room. The number of combinations possible must be in the thousands. A huge 3-D maze? This will take an eternity to figure out! Do you think we'll find the 8-inch platinum pyramid along the way?"

"Ha! Probably not. We need though to start making a 3-D map of the maze. I'll reserve a bunch of pages in my notebook, one page for each level, start tracing the connections. Also we'll log the color patterns. This will help us from getting lost as we backtrack. Depending on the size of the maze, we'll probably be doing a lot of backtracking... This could really take a while. I turned off my cell phone last night, by the way. It was important to know the time in the spiral, but not now."

Robert and Rebecca began their efforts to solve the maze. In their first day, they concluded that that one wall of each cube (always in what they labeled the north direction) was red, yellow, or a black and white checkerboard color. The other five surfaces of the cubes were always green or blue. Each wall could either glow or not, providing 6 x 4 x 4 x 4 x 4 x 4 color possibilities, for a total of 6144 choices. The number of entrances to the rooms would also vary, from one (a dead-end) to six (the room Rebecca labeled the grand junction). Well over 50% of all the rooms were called conduit rooms, containing just two openings.

And the days flowed by. Mapping the maze was slow boring work that took little thought, and they spent most of the time talking to each other, sharing their values and their hopes and dreams for their futures. Both made the effort to help the other understand their personality and desires. Both recognized the bonds of trust and commitment that they were nurturing. Both were thrilled to be planning and dreaming of their future lives together. And the days flowed by... 

Rebecca looked up from her analysis with the notebook. "Ready for my review of the new data?" It was the end of their fourteenth day in the maze, and it was Rebecca's turn to study the maps while Robert set up their sleep site and played with the dog.

Robert gave Millie a last pat on her head and got up from wrestling with her. "Sure! Find anything exciting?"

"Not really, which is a good thing. Everything we've found today fits our baseline model of the maze, that it's a 19 by 19 by 19 cube of cubical rooms. Whoever built this place really likes the number 19! Anyway, today we passed the 80% mark on the number of rooms visited. Baseline model of 6859 rooms total, and we've seen 5549 of them. Assuming our travel so far is a good statistical sample, our baseline model estimates this maze contains 361 dead-end rooms, 6144 conduit rooms, 256 rooms with 3 openings, 81 rooms with 4 openings, and 16 rooms with five openings, with most of them clustered around the grand junction room we found at the exact center of the maze. I don't know what we'll do if we finally explore all the rooms and don't find a way out. Opening the pipe in the entrance room will kill us, I'm sure of it." Rebecca was already dressed for bed, down to her bra and panties. She closed the notebook and lay face down on the sleeping bag, stretching out and relaxing and getting comfortable. "Rub my back?"

"You bet!" and a few seconds later Rebecca felt Robert's hands beginning to kneed the muscles in the small of her back. She sighed in contentment and stretched out our arms and legs a bit, arching her back and uncurling her fingers and toes in rhythm with the soothing massage of her back. After a minute she turned her head in Robert's direction and smiled. Robert had already stripped to his briefs for bed, and Rebecca enjoyed seeing the outline of his obvious erection, her mind in quiet thought: "Ah, I enjoy flirting with you, dearest Robert. All I have to do is spread my legs, open my thighs for you a bit, and your erection pops right up! It's quite an evening dance we do. I love it when your massage drops to my buttocks, and finishes with caressing my thighs. Perhaps tonight I should take this dance a little further. I caressed your penis lightly through your briefs last night. I wonder if you'd like for me to reach my hand inside them tonight..."

"What are you thinking, Becky?"

"How much I love you. How much I enjoy what you're doing right now. Dreaming about getting sexy with you... If I turn over, will you still pet me?"

Becky was thrilled to feel Robert's hands slide across her panties and down to her thighs. She gasped at the pleasure of it. "Sure! Turn over!"

Becky rotated and lay on her back, enjoying the caresses on the tops of her thighs. She opened her legs in invitation, and was delighted to have the invitation accepted, feeling Robert caressing both her inner thighs just below her vulva. "Oh, that feels so nice!" Her breathing slowed and deepened, and she began to fantasize about taking her panties off. She looked into Robert's eyes, and found them full of hope and love. She smiled up at him and closed her eyes.

Within a few minutes Rebecca felt a dampness on the bottom of her panties, and realized how aroused she had become. She lifted her hips in invitation, and was thrilled to feel Robert's hands on her panties, pulling them down and off her legs. Rebecca lowered her legs again, but even further apart, offering Robert full access to her. She heard Robert gasp.

"Oh Becky, you are so beautiful. I love you so... You're so beautiful..." Robert's fingers began to stroke her dense, silky pubic fur. Rebecca could feel her lubrication building up between the inner and outer folds of her labia. She sat up and began pulling Robert's briefs off. He eagerly helped her, and hugged her as he unclasped her bra.

They rolled back down to the sleeping bag hugging each other, and Rebecca reached down and softly wrapped her hand around his penis. She looked into his eyes and saw only laughter and love and acceptance. Thrilled that all of his shyness was gone, she sat up while keeping one hand placed upon his breast, holding him down in a prone position.

Rebecca looked at the erect penis in her hand, and could feel it throbbing in its eagerness to penetrate her. She began a rhythmic contraction of her hand, and soon had Robert's hips thrusting up into her hand in synch with her contractions. She timed her grip so that Robert would have to thrust in to penetrate, sliding the loose outer skin of his penis back in timing with the upward stroke of his hips. She wetted the fingers of her other hand and swirled them around the exposed head of his penis. Robert was gasping uncontrollably at the pleasure.

Rebecca had planned on stroking Robert to orgasm, but she became swept away by her own arousal. She shifted her body to lie on top of him, her breasts hanging beneath her as she clasped his penis between her upper thighs. Robert kept thrusting his hips, his penis sliding at the very top of Rebecca thighs and becoming slick with the lubrication flowing from her labia. Rebecca desire for penetration became overwhelming.

"Turn with me," she whimpered, "Please, please... Turn with me." Rebecca rolled her body, clasping Robert to her. She lay flat on her back, Robert's thrusting penis sliding in the folds of her labia. She then raised her legs and deeply bent her knees, raising the angle of her vagina for copulation, holding Robert's hips with the sides of her knees. The new angle caught the penis, cupping the penis head into the vaginal entrance, and Rebecca gasped at the pressure on her hymen.

In a burst of compassion and tenderness for his darling beneath him, Robert just barely managed to stop his thrusting. "Becky," he whispered, "are you sure?"

Rebecca's mind was a whirlwind of emotions, she couldn't speak. She just nodded her head vigorously in agreement. She then felt overcome with tenderness at how gently Robert was trying to deflower her. Rather than taking her with a quick thrust, he rolled his hips in a circular motion, keeping his penis head rotating around her hymen, trying to stretch it as gently as possible. Rebecca was quite touched by his tenderness, she could feel his body trembling with the desire for quick penetration. "He's so sweet!" she thought. "I'm so glad I'm being submissive in this, letting him control the penetration, letting him take my virginity from me. Oh, he's being so gentle, oh he's being so sweet, oh..."

They both felt the hymen tear, and Robert slid his penis down until it was fully sheathed in her vagina. Rebecca's face broke into a grimace and tears flowed down her cheeks and she began to cry. But Robert understood it had nothing to do with physical pain. All the years of cruel teasing, the rejections of her offers for friendship, all the senseless and unmerciful mocking of her features were being banished forever. Rebecca was crying in the joy of the gifting of her body and Robert's appreciation of her loveliness. She felt Robert quicken within her, his penis lengthening just before his orgasm, and she felt his wetness explode against the far back wall of her vagina, smearing against the opening of her cervix.

Robert was looking down at her in pure love. Rebecca gazed into his eyes, gazing deeply, and soon she felt she was looking directly into his soul. "Marry me?" she whispered. "Oh yes!" Robert whispered. Robert rolled to his side, carrying Rebecca with him in a protective hug, his penis still deeply coupled to her. Using his arm as a pillow, Rebecca fell into a trusting sleep, with Robert in the rapture of holding his beloved mate.



-------

Chapter 6



They were coming down a staircase the following day, two hours into their morning exploration, when Robert called out, "Boy, this looks a bit familiar. Just like the original entrance spot..."

Rebecca studied their map and notes. "Yeah, very close. According to the map, we're on the bottom level now, and the next cube is directly east of the entrance cube. It's over a 1000 cube hike to actually get there though. These colors here are very close to the room adjacent to the entrance room too. The south wall here is a glowing blue, while the other room had a non-glowing blue south wall."

Robert, Rebecca, and Millie walked into the next room, a dead-end room their maps showed was positioned along the south bottom edge of the cubic maze. "Did you see that?" Robert asked. "This north wall went from non-glowing yellow to glowing yellow as we walked into the room. We've never seen that happen before. And all the other walls here are non-glowing blue, just like the entrance room..." They walked over to an oval and a closed pipe in the south wall. "Becky, this whole room is now identical to the entrance room! Could we have made a mistake?"

"No... But the setup does look identical. Does this pipe also open to the ocean of water? I don't want to die!"

"We could leave it for now. Complete the search of the maze. Perhaps there's another exit..."

"Wait... Let me think... No! I'm just guessing, but I think the wall turning on means the oval is active and will open the pipe. Oh no! I bet as soon as we leave this room, the light will turn off, never to turn on again. We'll spend the next week checking the last of the rooms, slowly realizing we make a fatal mistake. It made the exit look so much like the entrance room just to be cruel. We should push on the oval, and do it now."

"Okay. I think you're right." Robert reached up and pushed a random button on the oval. They both grimaced when the closing door began to slide up, but it revealed an empty pipe leading upward. About 5 seconds after opening, the glowing yellow wall behind them cycled back to non-glowing, leaving the room lit only by the light from the other room.

"Humph, a bit dark in here now Becky. I wonder why it turned off the lights"

"Oh my gosh Rob, I know why! I guessed wrong. The light was not waiting for us to backtrack before going out. It was on a timer. I think we came within 10 seconds of being trapped here forever, with suicide our only way out... Let's get out of here before the pipe closes."

"Okay if I go first?" Robert stuck his head in the pipe. "There might be a force pulling me upward, but no wind. Feels very strange..." Robert crawled in and began drifting upward. "Becky! This is incredible! There's no gravity in this pipe! Put Millie in next and follow me, okay?"

The three drifted up in the zero gravity pipe, occasionally paddling against the wall to maintain speed. The pipe gradually narrowed from a 5-foot diameter to a 4-foot diameter, and then ended by emptying into the floor of an empty room, also without gravity. The room was a cube, with all surfaces a dull dimly glowing gray color. Three additional surfaces had openings, simple 4-foot diameter circles cut in their centers. Rebecca realized at once what this was.

"Oh no! It's another stupid maze! This one with no color orientation, not even gravity orientation. It's the twisting, turning set of passages, all the same. What'll we do?"

"The same thing people did to solve this part of the maze in the Adventure game. Drop items in the rooms to identify them."

"Drop what Rob? If we had gravity, we could drop coded signals of your dried cherries, cranberries, and peanuts, but here they'd just drift around..."

"Yeah... Wait, I know! I've got a big tube of burn ointment in my first aid kit. We can paint tiny character codes on the walls. Here, let's pick THAT direction for up, and THAT direction for north. We'll always write the code on the center of the north wall near the ceiling..."

The three spent the next 14 hours beginning their exploration of the maze. It was slow going at first, especially for Millie, since it was awkward for her to launch to the next portal accurately, and she had no hands to catch herself from crashing. Eventually Rob and Becky took turns carrying her, for which the dog was very grateful.

At the end of the day, they decided to sleep in one of the dead-end rooms. Rebecca prepared the sleeping bag while Robert studied the new maps they were making. "Great idea, Becky, stowing our clothes in the backpack, and tying it to the sleeping bag with the rope. I'd hate to have a shoe just drift off..."

"Millie will have the hardest time of it. About all we can do is pet her a lot, and hope she stays a happy puppy. She really does have a very sunny personality... How are the maps coming?"

"Very nicely. The ratio of rooms with the different number of entrances seems the same as before. Too early to be sure, but this might well be another 19 x 19 x 19 maze. If it is that size or smaller, we have a proven methodology to find the exit... Gosh Becky, you're so beautiful without your clothes... Oops! Don't get me wrong, you're beautiful with them on too! It's just that... Well, your breasts look VERY interesting without gravity..."

"Ha! I knew what you meant. I really enjoy seeing you without clothes too. Get undressed Rob, and join me in the sleeping bag."

A few minutes later, "Feeling sexy Rob? I'm not sure what mounting position will work without gravity, but exploring the issue will be intriguing..."

"Yes... Becky, just petting you now would be really nice... I'm still a little overwhelmed about yesterday..."

"... How are you feeling about yesterday?" Rebecca asked quietly.

"Wonderful! That it is was the most wonderful day in my life. I can feel all my thoughts about you changing, beginning to think of you as my wife... Or at least my future wife... But Becky, we pledged our commitment in the midst of our sexual coupling. The forces driving us were so beautiful, but they were also very strong. Strong enough to mask other issues, other desires. Becky, are you sure about wanting me as your husband? We could back up a bit. Not breaking any promises, just realizing we need a little more time..."

"Answer me truthfully Robert. Would you like more time? For once, ignore how I might react to your answer. Speak from your own heart alone."

"My own heart is singing with the joy of having captured you! It's full of both hope and fulfillment, such a unique combination! It's a strange paradox, completely happy with capturing you, but also wanting to be sure you don't feel trapped. Am I making any sense?"

Rebecca just hugged Robert fiercely. Robert could feel her body trembling. "Yes, perfect sense. Dearest Robert, I was hoping that would be your answer! I know I stepped way, way outside the convention of my gender by asking you to marry me. My soul was in control of my body, the request came from the core of my spirit. I want so much to be your wife, and to hold you as my husband. Hopefully we'll get home someday, and we might be wise to wait a year or two before a public social marriage. But in my heart you are my husband now, and my heart is bursting with the joy of it."

They petted each other in silence, the caresses more affectionate than sexual. After about an hour of getting used to gently bumping off the walls, they both drifted off to sleep.

They thought they got lucky with the new maze. It was only two days later, near the end of a long day of exploration and mapping, when they discovered a room with a 4-foot diameter hole leading to a pipe rather than another room. They were still in zero gravity.

"Well, this is nice I guess," said Robert. "It's totally dark in there though, no glowing at all. Time to break out the flashlights. Okay if I take the point again?"

"Sure. Millie adores you. She'll follow you anywhere. I'll be last."

Robert had not crawled more than a dozen feet before he called out, "Gravity is returning, very slowly. This pipe is horizontal to the gravity, lucky for us!" Robert kept crawling, getting heavier and heavier. Eventually he called out, "Becky, I'm not sure, but I'm beginning to feel heavier than my full normal weight. How about you?"

"About at full weight. But you're a bit further along the pipe than I am. Do you want to stop or turn back?"

"Oh no! Let's go on..." Robert continued to crawl down the pipe. "My knees are starting to hurt. My weight feels way higher than normal, maybe close to double. I'm going to belly crawl... There's a sharp bend in the pipe coming up... Nuts!"

"What?"

"Dead end."

"What!? Shit! Are you sure?"

"Double checking. I'm so heavy it's a bit difficult. Gravitational gradient is really peaking here... Yeah, I'm sure... I guess this is Witt's End. Too bad we don't have a Spelunker Today magazine to drop here."

"Ha! The key to the extra bonus point and having all of Adventurdom salute us as Adventure grandmasters... I'm so glad you've kept your sense of humor in this new maze. It's helping me to survive. All these gray walls would really depress me otherwise. I don't know how you and Millie stay so cheerful. Come, let's back out and call it a day. I'd love some time to cuddle with you."



-------

Chapter 7



A short time later they were ready for bed. Millie was already asleep, having learned to sleep hanging in mid-air. Over the past few days Robert and Rebecca had been adjusting to thinking of each other as their life mates, and had just been cuddling affectionately with each other before sleep. But tonight Robert could sense that Rebecca was quite sexually aroused, and they had not entered the sleeping bag. After undressing, they hugged and kissed each other quietly for a while, floating in mid-air. Then Rebecca's kisses traveled down Robert's neck and chest, and she latched on to one of his nipples. She began a soft suckle that slowly built in intensity, and as he became erect she reached down and began stroking his penis. Once he was fully erect and gasping at the pleasure, Rebecca stopped and offered her breasts to his mouth.

Robert saw the delectable breasts in front of him, highly conical in the zero gravity, with beautiful areolas and bright pink nipples swollen with Rebecca's desire. His tongue reached out and licked a nipple, and then he gave little kisses all over her breasts, along with slow licking of her nipples. When he felt Rebecca start to tremble, he latched on her and began to suckle, drawing the entire areola and engorged nipple into his mouth, setting up a strong rhythm to drain her breast of its imaginary milk. Rebecca shuddered as she felt her stiff nipple sliding high up along the roof of his mouth, and then gasped as his hand began stroking her pubic fur. Within minutes, her desire for copulation began to feel overpowering... 

"Mount me, mount me now!" she whispered in a fierce hiss. Rebecca turned her body away from him, spreading her legs and wiggling her rump at him. "Lie along my back. That's right. Now, grab my hipbones with both your hands, lock my hips into yours. This way I won't bounce away from you on your down-strokes. Oh, this feels so sexy! I can see your penis hanging between my legs. I love how exposed and eager your penis head looks! Let me guide it with my hand..."

Rebecca started to slide the penis head up and down along the length of her labia, thrusting her hips back into Robert as she stroked her clitoris with it. She could feel Robert's deep tension and desire to penetrate, and she playfully teased him a bit before finally inserting the penis into her vaginal entrance. Robert took over with a firm thrust, pulling her hips into his groin and quickly sheathing his penis. He then began a quick full stroke, deeply penetrating her with his swinging hips while locking her hipbones to his own. Rebecca loved her submissive position and she panted with the pleasure of the mating.

Rebecca's mind was drifting in the intense pleasure, feeling her body building to an intense orgasm. Then she felt Robert shudder and release his sperm with slow deep thrusts, depositing his semen against her cervix on the deepest parts of his strokes. Then he shuddered again, was still for a moment, and then softly began to kiss her neck.

Rebecca felt very strange, completely fulfilled that her body had brought Robert to orgasm, but as she felt the penis softening within her, she also felt frustrated by the lack of the release of her own sexual tension. Then she heard Robert whispering in her ear.

"I'm sorry I didn't wait for you. My urge to inseminate overpowered me. Let me explore, play with you..."

Robert uncoupled and Rebecca brought her legs together, the two still floating in mid-air. Then Rebecca felt soft kisses covering her buttocks and the backs of her thighs, while Robert's hand returned to caressing her pubic. He was very gentle at first, but then his fingers slowly began to insist on access to her labia, and Rebecca parted her legs in invitation to this welcome guest.

Rebecca began breathing with a ragged gasps as her sex was fondled from both directions. Robert's fingers were sliding up and down her labia, exploring her hooded folds for her clitoris, while his lips found her open vagina and he began to suckle his semen out of her. The simulation was exquisite, building upon itself until Rebecca arched her back in orgasm, feeling awash in the pulsing release of her clitoris and the sexiness of Robert suckling his semen and her lubrication from her vagina.

A moment later she turned and hugged him, and after a moment asked, "How are you feeling?"

"So happy I feel like bursting... I'm so happy you are my wife, my life mate... You are so beautiful... And you?"

"Completely satisfied and full of hope. I'm very excited about having you as my life mate too. Usually when I masturbate I get sleepy after my orgasm, but now I'm still wide awake, relishing what you just did to my body. I'm still feeling up for more sex, something I've never felt before after cumming. Would you mind if I explore your body a bit? Or I could just pet you to sleep, nothing too sexy..."

"Wow! If you're still feeling sexy, having you explore my body sounds wildly erotic..."

"I was hoping you'd say that! I hope you don't mind being teased a bit..." Rebecca had become very adept in maneuvering in free fall, and in a few seconds she reverse-mounted Robert, her head inches from his penis and offering him a delightful close-up view on her pubic. Keeping her legs open to maintain his visual arousal, her tongue descended onto the shaft of his penis and she playfully began to clean the semen and vaginal lubrication from it. By the time it was clean, she had excited Robert into a semi-erection, his body still very relaxed. But then she slurped his penis into her mouth and began a rhythmic suckle, swirling her tongue around the sensitive head in a teasing game of over- stimulation. Robert was fully erect within seconds, and his tense body began trying to set up a thrust rhythm into her mouth. As part of her tease, Rebecca swung her body in mid- air, allowing the penis to pop out of her mouth, and at the end of her pivot she attached her mouth to his scrotum with a suction lock.

Robert gasped at the loss of penile friction and the new sensations coming from his sac. Rebecca had aligned her body with his, invisible unless he looked down, with her head between his thighs and her hands with strong grips on both his knees, pushing them apart to give Rebecca a dominating position and forced access to his testicles. Robert submitted to the position in playful delight. In love and complete trust he allowed Rebecca to control him in this most vulnerable state.

Rebecca broke her suction lock and began to lick his scrotum. She was gentle at first, her soft tongue exploring the skin surface like a feather, while she closely monitored Robert's breathing in an attempt to understand what she was doing to him. She was fascinated to find that his breathing slowed, and that his penis began to soften as she continued the gentle exploration. "Ah, my beloved mate," she thought. "You allow me to control your arousal. This is a great power I have over you. I can drive you to a peak of sexual urgency or put you to sleep, whatever my whim desires. This is so fascinating..."

Rebecca decided to get a bit aggressive with Robert's sac, in order to drive him back to sexual arousal. She grabbed his penis in order to monitor his sexual desire, and then began to penetrate his scrotum with her tongue, somewhat gently at first, but soon picking up the tempo. She pushed her tongue deeply into the sac, fondling his testes with long wet licks, and tracing the tubular connections right to the top roof of the scrotal sac.

She was bewildered and utterly fascinated with the result. She knew how sensitive males were to pain in their scrotums, and she was trying to be very careful and was ready to stop at the first hint of pain. But the hint never came. Robert's body remained totally relaxed, and his penis only slightly erect. "I don't understand what I'm doing at all... I expected either a threshold of pain or full arousal. He could never relax me by penetrating my labia like this... This is so fascinating... What am I doing to him? How far can I push this? Hang on Robert! I'm about to go exploring! I want to see if there's a pain threshold here, I won't cross over it for more than a second..."

With her tongue deeply penetrating his scrotum and separating his testes, Rebecca opened her mouth wide and engulfed one of the testes, holding it between her tongue and the roof of her mouth. Then she closed her lips and began to suckle it, rolling it with her tongue and sucking it to the back of her throat. She ran her tongue along the tubular epididymis from his testis to the roof of his scrotal sac. She expected Robert to begin to stress, but his reaction was completely different. His entire body began to quiver, but was still totally relaxed, his penis wilting to complete softness. Rebecca was shocked both by his body reaction, and how much she enjoyed holding his totally flaccid penis.

"It's a display of complete trust," she thought. "No need to fear a limp penis with his girl. No fear of scrotal damage... Would I be capable of this? Maybe not. He has completely accepted me as his wife... as his wife... as his wife!" Tears started to flow from her eyes. She unlocked the testis from her mouth, lovingly kissing his sac for a moment, and then decided to continue her exploration. After spreading his buttocks with her fingers just behind the scrotum, she placed her tongue deep into the parted fold and began to lap his anus.

Robert sighed at the pleasure. Rebecca lapped with a dry tongue for a while, but then added moisture as the minutes passed. She could feel the anus dilate with her tongue under the intense stimulation, and after a moment's thought began to penetrate tiny opening with her tongue, finding it deeply arousing how the anus would grip her tongue at first, but then relax and allow penetration when she suckled the anus into her mouth with her lips. Robert's penis swelled within her hand, but stayed below a full erection. His breathing was so deep and slow she started to wonder if she had put him to sleep. "I have such wondrous control," she thought. "He is so sweet to let me control him like this! I love him so much!"

Rebecca lightly lifted her tongue from his anus. "Asleep?" she whispered.

Robert opened his eyes. "No. Just drifting. You put my body into states I didn't know it had. I feel... so sexy! So relaxed! I love you so much Rebecca! And I think you are playing my body like a violin... You wonderfully sexy musician... I'm so relaxed I can barely talk..."

Rebecca turned and hugged Robert, kissed his throat and then his nipple. A small lick turned into a gentle suckle, and she thought he would drift off. But the suckle produced an unexpected effect for her, she felt his penis in her hand stiffen to full erection as she suckled his nipple. "This is so interesting!" she thought. "In some ways we are alike, in some ways so different. I can put him to sleep by suckling his scrotum! He could never do that to me... But wait! What's the female equivalent of a scrotum? Perhaps I don't have the right model... Ah, I should let him rest..."

"Robert, do you want to sleep?"

"Almost... Can I explore you a bit first?"

"Oh sure! I'd love it!"

Robert turned and lay by Rebecca's side, kissing her while petting the small of her back. Rebecca was just beginning to relax and enjoy the affection when he smiled mischievously and bent down and lightly bit her nipple. Rebecca gasped as her body was hit with something that felt like a small electric jolt. Then Robert reached over and licked and briefly suckled the nipple on her other breast, releasing it just as the nipple started to expand into his mouth. Switching back and forth, he soon had both her nipples fully erect and begging. Rebecca was aching for a prolonged suckle. He then turned and ignored her breasts completely, running his nose against and gently kissing the instep of her left foot.

"Oh you cruel beast! Someday you'll pay for abandoning me like that..."

"Aha! I know! I can hardly wait..."

Robert continued fondling Rebecca's feet and lower legs, slowly working his way past the sensitive backs of her knees and up her thighs. Rebecca was startled how aroused she was getting over his kisses and the caresses of his hands. She closed her eyes and drifted. A short time later, she blinked in surprise as she felt his tongue begin to lick her anus. He was so gentle and loving she hadn't noticed him separating her buttocks before. But as the licking continued and turned into anal suckling, Rebecca felt a fierce heat rising in her loins.

"All's fair," she thought. "He accepted me to orally couple to his anus. I will do the same. But I find this incredibly arousing! He was relaxed. I am definitely not relaxed! I feel slick and dilated. I want anal penetration... What!? Do I really? Yes! Maybe it's because I'm female... My mind is more in gear with being receptive for sex. Perhaps Robert is more in gear with penetration for sex... Having an anus slick and dilated is hitting my female need to be receptive for sex, desiring him to enter me anally. Perhaps it's just not the same for males... Or perhaps it is! Something to explore at a future date..."

Rebecca started to shiver and gasp as Robert's tongue began to slip past her anus. She felt so slippery, so sexy, the desire for anal mounting became a physical need and her body began to shake... 

"Robert, I want you to anal mount me. Try to be gentle if you can, but please anal mount me."

The tongue withdrew from her anus. "Becky? Dearest Becky, I think that would hurt you. I don't think I can do it."

"It won't hurt. Do me!"

"What?"

"You heard me! Do me. Do me up my ass! I want to hold your penis with my rectum. I want to feel its head sliding all the way up into my colon. Do me Robert! Do me now! Do me up my ass!"

"Becky, I can't hurt you. I'm not capable of it... Err, how about a compromise?"

"Compromise?"

"Trust me. I think you'll like this. Take some deep breaths. Try to relax your sphincter. I'll be inside you soon..."

Rebecca closed her eyes and spread her legs far apart, smiling in anticipation and wondering what was about to happen.

She soon felt Robert's finger softly nudging its way past her anus, as gentle as a soft caress. She also felt his lips begin searching the folds of her labia, exploring high up into the top of her labia until she felt her clitoris pulled out of its protective hood with a strong suckle. Robert's finger then began a quick up and down stroke, fully penetrating into her rectum and his hand slapping her buttocks with the strength of the down-strokes.

Rebecca's whole body began to shake. She dimly realized a tremendous orgasm was building but the sexuality was so intense her thoughts would not form. She just gasped in her breaths and started to moan. Robert felt her clitoris disappear from his lips, retracting in her deep arousal. Maintaining the fast thrusting into her rump, he dropped his lips, smelling her vagina, searching for it with his lips, but found instead a small bump just above the vaginal opening. He suckled the bump fiercely into his mouth. He felt the small bump open on top, and he pressed his tongue down into the opening.

Rebecca screamed loudly as her orgasm exploded within her. Her loins were on fire, and the sexual release was overwhelming, her legs spasming into thick ropes of muscle, and Robert felt her anus lock his finger with a death grip. He rotated his finger around her rectum, intensely stimulating the sensitive walls, and Rebecca screamed again.

Rebecca slowly felt she was regaining her sanity. She opened her eyes, and realized Robert had moved both of them into the sleeping bag for the night. He was lying by her side with one hand resting on her pubic fur.

"Robert! Do you know what you did to me?"

"Sort of. It was a spur of the moment thing. I'm glad you liked it."

"Liked it?! It was awesome! You suckled my urethra slit! Popped it open and pushed your tongue into the super-sensitive tissue just as I started to orgasm. I never guessed anything... ANYTHING could be so intense... I'll return the favor soon. Your urethra slit is a lot easier to find at the end of your penis. Here, feel how I can pop it open just by squeezing your penis like this? Someday soon, I'll oral suckle you to orgasm, and try your technique on you..."

"Sounds great! I love you so much Rebecca. You are the most wonderful and sexy person in the world!"

Rebecca gave Robert a playful smile. "Perhaps you were right, perhaps we should have waited to marry. I didn't realize what an absolute timid chicken I married when it comes to sex. Am I never to have the pleasure of your cock buried up my rump?"

"Ha! And I never realized what a kinky side you have to your sexuality. Yes, we should have waited. Ha! This is going to be so much fun to explore. But seriously, I can't hurt you... To dominate you with anal intercourse would be an incredible thrill to my male ego. But we'll have to approach the issue with gentleness. Perhaps... Becky, can we wait until we're back on Earth before we explore this?"

"You're right. I've also given up all hope that we're on Earth now... Yes, I can wait. And I can't imagine ever wanting to cause you pain, any pain at all, even in the kinkiest sex. I should honor your desire not to hurt me. But if you ever change your mind... Well, if you were biting my nipple and got carried away a bit, I wouldn't mind... Just make sure I'm fully aroused first..."

Rebecca snuggled her head against Robert's chest. "I do love you Robert. And it feels so nice, being held like this. I can tell you like my pubic fur, I love how you're stroking it. I'm so glad you like it. My fur down there is a lot thicker than most girls. If you'd like a change sometime, I can shave it for you. Give my pubic a little-girl look for you. I know it's popular for a girl to excite her guy by presenting him a little-girl look and feel to her pubic..."

"It'll be fun to explore sometime. But I think more often I'll like you just like this. So bushy! It's very sexy! Much more sexy than... well..."

"What!? I thought I was your first girlfriend! How many female pubes have you seen!?"

"Ha! The digital-age-old question. What were you doing for sex before I met you?"

"The digital-age-old question? What? Oh! The Internet! Of course. I would use it sometimes too when I wanted to masturbate. But we females aren't as visually oriented towards sex as you males. Of course you've seen lots of naked females... Robert... Being married to me shouldn't mean you can't masturbate, or fantasize about other females. Just make sure they stay fantasies! But I won't mind if you feel the urge to masturbate and look at sexy stuff on the Internet occasionally. Just don't let it compete with you having sex with me..."

"Rebecca, you are so sweet! I won't. I promise."

"I guess I'm glad we're here in one regard. I dimly remember screaming during my last orgasm. It was so intense. My entire uterus was spasming. I've never had that happen before. Never realized sex could be that intense. I'm glad we're here. It'd be embarrassing to scream like that if other people could hear me. I can't believe Millie slept through it."

"She didn't. I glanced over. She looked a little worried, but then calmed down when she realized you were okay."

"What? I've never heard of a dog like that. All dogs I know of would want to join in the action if something sexy was going on."

"I know. Millie is very unusual. She has a compassion, an understanding about her that goes way outside what you'd expect from a dog. She's a damn good dog. Smartest one I've ever met. Socially sensitive enough to give us privacy. I've never heard of such a thing."

"Robert, are you up for one more experiment tonight?"

"Of a sexual nature?"

"Perhaps... Yes, actually."

"Wow! Rebecca, you are one hot firecracker, a true delight. A vixen perhaps, something I wouldn't have guessed, but a true delight! What do you have in mind?"

"I was fascinated when I suckled you sac, how relaxed I could make you. I was wondering if you could do the same for me. I've been thinking of what would be the female equivalent of your testes and epididymis tubes. I want to try something. Give me your hand. Thanks. Now, extend you index finger, just lock it into position. Let me control the pressure. I'll teach you how deeply to press..."

Rebecca began tracing her reproductive system with Robert's finger. "Feel the shape of my uterus?" I'm tracing the outline now. Feel how it's in the shape of an inverted pear? At the bottom, can you still feel it through my pubic fur? Good! This bottom part is my cervix, the narrow neck of my uterus. Hard to believe our children will someday have to pass through it. The tip of the uterus, right... here... has a slit in it, opening to the deep back end of my vagina. You've nailed that slit twice so far with your orgasms. I could feel it getting smeared with your semen when you came. Your body is really hot to impregnate me... Anyway, back up top here, right... here, and... here... are my two ovaries. Note how much pressure I'm using. Any more might be uncomfortable. But this amount feels quite stimulating, quite nice actually... Pay attention now, I'm tracing my Fallopian tubes, where our children will be conceived, connecting my ovaries to the wide top of my uterus... along here, and... here. Have you gotten all this?"

"Yes... Dearest Becky, thank you for trusting me. I love understanding your body like this!"

"Now, I want you to caress my ovaries and Fallopian tubes. I'm going to close my eyes and enjoy this. I'm fascinated as to whether I'll find this stimulating, relaxing, or both."

Rebecca closed her eyes and sighed as Robert began to caress the intimate core of her reproductive system. She soon began to shudder in delight as his finger pressed into her ovaries and ran side to side along her tubes. Her breathing became very deep and slow. Robert quietly continued the caresses, in love with the feeling of how completely his lovely wife was trusting him. "Asleep?" he whispered after a long while. Rebecca did not respond. She was fast asleep, though her body was still quivering in delight from the caresses. Robert kept it up for over an hour, hoping to give his darling mate the most delightful of dreams.



-------

Chapter 8



The next week flowed very slowly. The utter barren nature of the new maze and the total lack of color were difficult for both Robert and Rebecca to overcome. Millie was a great comfort, a sponge for affection, always in delight whenever they took the time to pet her. Driven by the pressing need to change their environment, they worked 18-hour stretches of mapping work, with just brief pauses to kiss and caress each other. Their sleep periods together were affectionate but just slightly removed from platonic.

The maze was looking more and more like another 19 x 19 x 19 grid, which kept their spirits up somewhat. They had a well-defined timescale for searching all the rooms and finding an exit, assuming that the labyrinth in a stroke of absolute cruelty had not doomed them to a dead-end maze. It was at the end of their tenth day in the second maze that they discovered another exit pipe, identical in appearance to the first exit that failed.

"Well, here we go again! Feeling lucky today Rob?"

"Yep! Be still, my beating heart! Escape is here at least. Okay if I go first again?"

"It's my turn, don't you think?"

"Well... I remember you once called me your knight in shining armor. I really enjoy trying to protect you as best I can. My male ego really eats this stuff up. I'd like to go first, but I'll step aside if you want to take the point."

"Oh, go ahead! Millie follows you a lot better than me anyway, and it'll be best if she's between us. At least we can give her that little protection."

"You're thinking of her as your child, aren't you?"

"A little I guess. Yeah."

"Me too. I've gotten quite attached to her. She has such a sweet personality. Anyway, flashlights out, gear buckled down, let's hit the pipe!"

Robert started crawling, and soon noticed the beginning of gravity. After crawling about 40 feet he seemed to have past the point of full gravity, and the extra weight was starting to be uncomfortable. He crawled along for a while, his weight increasing, and then he called out, "Becky, it's decision time! The pipe is not dead-ending but is bending down. The walls are pretty slippery too, like glass. If I go any further, I think I'll start to slide. Gravity is ramping way up. I'm at the point of no return. What do you think?"

"Oh I hate this place! I'm inclined to gamble and go on. How about you?"

"I feel the same way. Give me at least a 10-second head start before you follow with Millie. If you hear me scream, go back and try to find another exit, okay?"

Robert heard Rebecca gasp and struggle to hold back her emotions. "Okay. God keep you safe Robert."

Rebecca watched as Robert inched forward and then was suddenly sucked down the tube. He was gone in a flash, and as the seconds stretched there was only silence. "Oh, I hate this place!" Rebecca thought again. She let go of Millie who followed Robert's path and soon disappeared. Rebecca prepared herself mentally and then took the plunge herself.

Rebecca was amazed by what happened next. The pipe had a 270-degree bend in it, bending straight down but then continuing to curl and heading straight up. Within the loop, the gravitational vector aligned itself with the pipe, so she began to be accelerated up the pipe head first, in about a two Earth gravity field. "Holy Shit!" she thought. "I'm being turned into a human bullet." Gravity then disappeared and reversed, slowing her down. The pipe bent to a horizontal track and she slid rapidly along the glasslike surface. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, and she was at last ejected from the pipe, falling into something soft and supportive. She blinked and realized that she was being held in Robert's arms.

"Hi sweetie. Hell of a ride, isn't it?"

"Yeah," said Rebecca, standing up. "And who caught you?"

"Well, no one. I took a bit of a tumble. Fortunately I thought about catching you two just soon enough to catch Millie." Millie was standing nearby, her tail wagging madly. She was so happy to be able to walk with gravity again.

Rebecca looked about the large empty room. It was about 40 feet by 40 feet, with a 12- foot high ceiling, but the wall opposite the pipe opening was missing, leaving that side of the room open to a huge cavernous space. Robert and Rebecca walked to the edge of the opening and stared down. "Sure looks familiar, doesn't it?" murmured Rebecca.

Below them was the enormous cylindrical tank. About 200 feet below them stood their entrance room, sitting on the top of pinnacle extending over 1500 feet down. The tank appeared entirely drained of water, and the tops of the outer spirals were still visible along the tank wall, along with the 9-foot circular ledge about 130 feet below them. The original lighted ceiling location appeared to have moved up several hundred feet. There was a 2-foot path from their room that cut straight across the center of the tank to a room on the opposite side. The path appeared 2 feet wide and about 1 foot thick, and was without handrails. The first half of the path was green, and the second half was colored orange.

"Becky... Do you think you can walk that path? It's over a 200-meter walk on a 2-foot path..."

"When I was growing up my town had a community pool with 3-meter and 5-meter diving boards. I'm very familiar with walking the plank with a little height, but nothing like this. On the plus side, 2 feet is a little wider than a diving board, and it looks rigid, no bounce. I also did balance beam in high school gym, and 4 inches is much more difficult than 2 feet! I think I can do this..."

Robert sat down and began to shake. "I've never done anything like this. I never did any diving, never had to challenge a fear of heights. My mind is rebelling against doing this..."

Rebecca sat down and hugged Robert, not saying anything for several moments. She just petted and kissed him until he stopped shaking.

"There's no other way Rob."

"I know."

"Imagine if there were solid ground on either side. Staying on a 2-foot wide path would be a piece of cake then. It's all mental. Your body can do this."

"I guess... And you're right, we have no choice..."

"Rob, this may sound counter intuitive, but I think you should wear the backpack. The extra weight will add some stability, dampen any nervous shakings. We'll rope ourselves together. It'll be our extra measure of safety. You lead. This way you can control the speed. I'll be about 5 feet behind you. Just concentrate on keeping your weight centered on the middle of the plank. Go at whatever speed you're most comfortable with. I'll keep up... I love you."

Ten minutes later... 

"You're doing great Rob! We're almost halfway across. How are you feeling?"

"I'm going to be so happy when this is over! I'm trying to focus my eyes ahead of me, not look down. It seems to help... We're right over our old entrance room now... My next step will hit the orange half of the ramp. I'm going to take this very slowly. SHIT!"

Robert cursed loudly as his foot hit the orange ramp. At the instant of contact, the overhead lights blinked out, leaving the cavern in absolute pitch darkness.

"Rob, can you move your foot back?"

"I already have. The lights are still off. Oh, I really, really hate this."

"Keep talking, it'll help guide me. I'm going to follow the rope and get to your backpack. You're going to feel me searching for the flashlight. Just try to stay calm, my dearest love. We can still get out of this." Rebecca began her slow journey in the dark.

"I hope Millie is okay," said Robert.

"Woof" said Millie with a single quiet bark. She was several feet behind Rebecca.

"That's odd," thought Robert. "I guess she might have just barked at the sound of her name. But from the tone of the bark, it was just as if Millie understood my question, and was trying to reassure me she's okay. But no dog could think like that, could they?"

A minute later, Rebecca finally pulled the flashlight from the backpack and turned it on, shining it around Robert's feet. "This is great, Becky. I see the path, and it's easier actually not to see the drop-off. Here we go."

A few minutes later they reached the safety of the opposite room. Rebecca heard Robert give a deep sob of relief. Millie got back into happy puppy bouncy mode as soon as she left the narrow path. The lights were still off, but their flashlight showed a doorway to a sharp incline up a spiral. They began to follow the spinning passage, and after climbing for about 20 minutes emerged into a large room, again about 40 feet by 40 feet, with a 12-foot ceiling. The walls were tan, and the floor and ceiling white. The ceiling was faintly glowing, providing a decent light, and the door looked like it emptied into a corridor.

The three walked out into a large corridor, about 30 feet wide. "Wow!" said Rebecca. "Look at the length of this thing! It seems infinite. Want to go left or right?"

The corridor extended in both directions as far as the eye could see. Every 40 feet there seemed to be two doors, one on each side of the corridor. They picked a direction at random, and started walking left down the corridor. They would glance in each pair of doors as they passed, seeing uniform 40-ft by 40-ft rooms, all empty.

Robert suddenly stopped, and looked forward and back carefully. "Becky, I think there's a slight bend to this corridor, so slight you can only see it on the horizon. Let me get out the binoculars." Robert spent some time observing and counting the doors in his binoculars, and then did some calculations. He then looked up and said, "Becky, this corridor appears to run in a huge circle. Really huge. I estimate about a 30-mile circumference."

"My gosh... Should we just walk it?"

"I can't think of anything else to do. I'll leave a few dried cherries on the floor here to mark this spot. If we go a full circle, and least we'll know we're in a loop."

"Rob, it's way past my bedtime, and walking that damn bridge has left me exhausted. How about we pick one of these rooms and sack out for the night?"

"Okay."



-------

Chapter 9



A short time after leaving the corridor, Robert and Rebecca were undressed and sleeping over the air mattress. Millie was curled up and sleeping near the door. The temperature in this part of the labyrinth was cool, about 65F, and Rebecca was happy to be cuddling with Robert inside the sleeping bag again. Leaving the dreary gray maze had boosted her spirits, and for the first time in over a week she felt like chatting, and maybe getting a little sexy. "He understands my moods so well," thought Rebecca. "He is so gentle with me. This past week I was a little depressed, and he was just friendly and cuddly. But now I feel better and he is petting my stomach. It feels nice, feels intimate, feels like it could lead to something really sexy! How did he know? He understands me so well..."

"That feels nice Robert. Up for staying awake for a while?"

"Sure! I love you Becky. I was so happy to catch you coming out of the pipe. This place is so crazy, having us separate is really quite dangerous. And then you were so helpful to me in crossing the bridge. I couldn't have done it without you. I feel like giving you a present, a wedding present. What can I do for you?"

"You're already doing everything... I know! Will you promise to do anything I ask, before I give you my request?"

Robert thought for a moment. "Yes... A gift of trust... A fine gift... Yes, I promise."

"Anything at all, no matter how intimate or embarrassing?"

"Wow! Has my darling vixen returned? Yes, I promise."

"Robert, tell me everything about your childhood."

Robert was silent for a moment, then rested his head next to Rebecca's and kissed her ear. "Becky, I owe you to tell you this anyway. Consider that as part of your wedding present, you still have a granted wish for anything you want." They both kissed, and then Robert began to talk.

"I was born in the pine barrens of New Jersey. I think I already told you both my biological parents were killed in a car crash shortly before I was one year old. Neither of my parents had siblings, I have no aunts or uncles. From some brief conversations I had with my grandparents, I gather that neither side of my extended family really approved of my parent's marriage. Anyway, neither set of my grandparents had any interest in raising me, and the state's Division of Youth and Family Services, D.Y.F.S. pronounced die-fis, couldn't find any other family connection to take me. I was in a foster home for about two years while all this was shaking out, and when I became eligible for adoption my foster parents requested that the state allow them to adopt me. Since they had already had me for over a year, they had first choice by policy, and the paperwork was finalized shortly before I turned four years old."

"Becky, let me back up and tell you a little bit around the foster care system and the people in it. There are six distinct groups of players that interact with each other in complex ways. There are the kids, the biological parents, the foster parents, the DYFS caseworkers, the DYFS administration, and the family court judiciary. Each group has its own agendas, which are often in conflict with the other groups."

"Let's start with the kids. Most of the kids in foster care are there because their parents are involved with drugs, either users or pushers. The kids' world is a world of uncertainty and crisis. They are not your typical neighbors' kids coming over for a visit. Their world is a world of chaos. Adults tend to deal with their emotions, kids will just act on them. There can be difficult times of acting out, when the kids rebel and try to grab some power and control over their situation. If they've been physically, emotionally, or sexually abused, there might also be a whole array of asocial behaviors that the other groups will have to deal with. Destructive behaviors such as physical aggression to other kids, or smashing windows in their foster homes, or even starting fires there."

"Next are the biological parents. There are some who realize they are not capable of being parents and voluntarily surrender their parental rights over their infants. Others who are so far gone on drugs they don't fight to get their kids back. But from my own experience of living with hundreds of kids as temporary foster siblings, many biological parents will work to get their kids back. It often comes down to a critical choice, which is more important, the kids or the drugs. Some parents are up to the challenge, some not. It's a tough situation when the parents want the kids back for the ego trip of being a parent, but really can't quit the drug world. The situation can drag out for years, leaving the kids in limbo while the State tries to support re-uniting the family but keeps failing."

"Next are the foster parents. My experience has been that in general they are a dedicated bunch of people who do tremendous work in order to save kids from having their lives trashed. The State monthly stipend usually doesn't cover costs. They have all the medical care issues to deal with, all the behavior issues to deal with, all the difficultly of working re-unification issues with the original parents, all the difficultly of bonding to the child in parental love, but then having to release the bond when the child leaves the house. They have all the headaches, but none of the anticipation and satisfaction of caring for the child into adulthood. There are exceptions, but mostly the calling to be foster parents is answered by wonderful people. A lot of them are blue-collar in economic status."

"What?" said Rebecca. "Why is that?"

"It's a lot of hard and sometimes dangerous work. People who are dedicated professionals usually don't want that much chaos and extra tension in their lives. And being a foster parent requires a huge commitment of time. The time to deal with medical issues can be tremendous. The foster kids might have spent their first weeks after birth being detoxed, their time in the womb of their alcohol and drug-addicted mother having caused lifelong physical and neurological injuries. And there is risk to the foster parents. Having your house burned down by a fire-starter is one. It happened in my adopted home when I was six. Another big risk is an allegation of foster-parent child abuse. It's a complex issue that affects all of the players."

"Cases of alleged abuse by foster parents can be extremely difficult to figure out. Sometimes the kids just want control, and will accuse the foster parents of abuse just to strike back at the system. You might have a case where the foster child is screaming that he or she is being tortured by monsters, and has the fresh cigarette burns on their body to prove it, and both foster parents are adamantly claiming it's all lies and that the burns are self-inflicted, and the bottom line is that nobody really knows who is lying. Abuse cases are usually intensely investigated. Many times people realize it's the kids who are lying. Sometimes it's the foster parents who are totally unfit for the job. And sometimes, rarely but sometimes, the foster parents are monsters but such subtle monsters that the abuse goes on for years without anyone being aware of it."

"Oh Robert," whispered Rebecca. "Is that what happened to you?"

"Yes... The people who adopted me never laid a hand on anybody. They didn't have to. They figured out a way to have us kids torture each other as they desired, and they were so subtle about it that they weren't caught for years..."

"My God, my God." Rebecca whispered as she hugged Robert dearly. "You don't have to tell me this. I release you from your promise. Really. You can stop. I'll never pry."

"It's there in my childhood Becky. It's a part of who I am. As my wife you deserve to know, and as my wife I want to tell you anyway... My adoptive parents bought a farmhouse while they were in the process of adopting me. The views were pretty, but the house itself was a wreck and the location quite isolated. In addition to me, DFYS allowed my parents to have up to four other foster children at the same time. They seemed like super valuable foster parents to the system, they were always willing to take the kids that were the most difficult to place, kids with major, major behavior problems. Kids that really needed institutional care and structure. But DYFS had a great conflict of interest. In addition to their mandate to protect children, they had to stay under budget. They tried to cut corners. They would pay my parents the top rates of extra stipends to take the kids they did. It was still way cheaper than the institutional costs."

I think my parents intentionally let a fire-starter have access to matches. DYFS paid to rebuild a major part of the house. Old dilapidated house became newly rebuilt house. Another time, when I was eight, they overloaded me with responsibilities so I didn't have time to lock a door, which allowed a teenager with serious mental problems to have access to knives, a kid with a history of brutally attacking legs. He had been kicked a lot by his father when he was a small boy... That kid should NEVER have been in a single family environment... Well... A foster kid named Teisha was crippled as a result of the knife attack. DYFS paved the driveway, put in a wheelchair ramp, replaced the downstairs flooring, and put in a brand new wheelchair accessible bathroom. They even did major renovations in the kitchen to make it wheelchair accessible too. My parents had DYFS over a barrel. It was a big DYFS placement mistake, and DYFS was eager to give my parents something to keep them quiet and not have the attack be headlines in the press... My parents understood how bureaucracies work very well... Teisha was a very sweet girl, but she back-talked to my parents, and they set her up as the designated target to get the house redone, and they set me up to take the blame and the guilt..."

Rebecca noticed that Robert was speaking in a calm voice, but tears were falling from his eyes. She leaned over and kissed him lightly. "My dear husband, I love you so... How did it finally end?"

"A caseworker came to do a routine interview one day. I let her in. She was using the bathroom when my parents came in from the back. They didn't know she was there. They were talking openly about how to stage their next set-up... My parents later wondered if she heard them. I heard them discussing if they should just kill all the kids and disappear... They couldn't decide... DYFS rescued us all later that day... It took the courts almost a year to terminate their adoption of me..."

"And as for me, the pendulum swung the other way. I was put under the care of a child psychiatrist, one who was sure I must have deep emotional problems from being raised by monsters. He was convinced I should be under the watchful care of an institution, at least for a time, and time can flow very slowly at DYFS... While I was there, I got a nickname of E.G. from some of the kids on my dorm wing. It stood for evil genius. The kids knew I was super smart, and the evil word was just a joke, I didn't mind. The stupid, stupid psychiatrist would refer to me as evil genius in his write-ups about me, along with all his concerns about how all my repressed hostilities were sure to erupt someday. Who would ever want to adopt me with that in my medical file? After I finally got out of the institution, I was bounced around in dozens of short-term placements for years..."

Robert looked at Rebecca and saw she was crying silent tears too. He smiled at her and kissed her. "It's okay Becky, don't cry. I finally got some stability when I was turning 14. A white-collar couple, two professional bankers, were going to be transferred to England in six months, but they signed up for short term placements until they did. It was a good fit, sort of. They had no experience raising kids, treated me a bit like hired help, but I could handle that. They had a huge gourmet kitchen, one they never used, and I was determined to pick up some skills I could support myself with when I hit 18. They bought me any cookbook I wanted, and I wound up doing almost all of the cooking. They also had a high-speed cable modem connection to their home network. I became their network admin. Their transfer to England kept getting delayed. I was there for two years before we said goodbye to each other. And during that time I became fascinated by the raw Internet traffic I could see on the cable. They even let me buy some hardware to really study it. I started sending diagnostic packets and my own modified session initiation packets back to the cable head and the ISP routers to verify something that seemed impossible. I found something so interesting that I took it to the NSA two years later, something so unbelievable it took me two years to document it with tracking data and convince myself I wasn't crazy."

"Robert! Are you about to tell me about your NSA work? I know how firmly you honor your promises. I don't have the security clearance to hear this."

"Becky, my first loyalty is to you. I realized this when we were briefly separated earlier. I have a dim suspicion that our abduction might be related to my NSA work. You have a need to know about it. If we are separated again, knowing about my work might help you survive. Let me back up to some basic physics. Do you know what a carrier wave is?"

"I think so. It's the pure foundation wave. You modulate it to encode information, modulate the amplitude for AM radio, or modulate the frequency for FM radio."

"Exactly! And how else could you modulate a carrier wave?"

"Well... I don't know... Frequency and amplitude... What else is there?"

"It's not done for radio, but you could also modulate the phase of the wave. For example, rather than just sine waves, imagine switching between sine waves, square waves, and saw-tooth waves, all with the same amplitude and frequency. You'd have to dump the carrier wave into a wave-front analyzer to see the encoded information. Or you could modulate the polarization of the wave, encode information in the switches between linear and circular polarization. If you didn't have a reception antennae sensitive to the polarization changes, the information in your signal would be invisible..."

"Neat! What sneaky ways to send information!"

"Yeah. Everything is so digital now, people don't appreciate that Internet traffic still has some properties that are quite analog. Imagine a steady stream of packets on a leg of the IP backbone. Then think of modulating their timing to encode information, or modulating their routing paths to encode information. If you were looking only at the digital information in the packets themselves, you'd never see any of this."

"Wow! I see what you mean! And someone is doing this?"

"Yes. It's an elusive thing to measure, but I was rigorous in my approach. I had a good solid case to present to the NSA as I turned sixteen. It was just about the time I moved into independent living, kids 16 and 17 that nobody adopted living in their own apartments but with some DYFS supervision. The hardest part with the NSA was getting to talk to a technical person at all. But the NSA is very pragmatic, a real meritocracy. Once they realized what I was talking about, they accepted me as an equal. They had to cut a lot of red tape to get me a green-badge clearance before I was 18. There are a lot of legal reasons why that is never done. They did it anyway. We've spent the last two years testing ideas of how the traffic is being controlled and what information is being encoded. I have a rather elaborate proof that the control could only be done through quantum entanglement. No other candidate fits the observations. I needed to know a lot about antennas and wave launching to prove this. Some of the NSA staff are still a bit skeptical, but most believe it now and it's the baseline hypothesis for our current exploration."

"Wow! And to think it's my husband who's done all this! I'm not being sarcastic, I'm really impressed. But what has this to do with the labyrinth?"

"Over the last few months, I've been struggling with the idea that the Internet manipulation is not Earth based. I haven't shared this with anybody. There is some evidence, very subtle, that information is being propagated outside of event horizons. From Einstein's view, this should be impossible. Quantum entanglement does let you influence events outside of your event horizon. You can interact with an entangled photon on Earth, and instantly influence an event halfway across the galaxy, or anywhere in the universe actually. People accept this. But you shouldn't be able to control your influence. If you can, you can propagate information outside of your event horizon, a big impossibility in Einstein's theory of gravity. But the evidence is there in the Internet traffic. It implies that the controlling source can be anywhere in the universe."

"Holy shit! I see what you mean. The aliens discovered you knew their secret, and abducted you to keep you quiet. Perhaps Millie and I just were near you at the wrong time... But what's the point of this incredibly stupid and cruel labyrinth?"

"I don't know. I can't figure it out. I suspect what you just said is partially right and partially wrong. There are major parts to what's going on that we just don't understand yet. Maybe we never will..."

Neither said anything else for several minutes. Then Rebecca rolled her body over Robert's and lightly settled herself down by straddling him and flaring her legs out, keeping most of her weight on her arms and knees. Robert could feel the delightful press of her breasts into his chest, and the softness of her hair by the side of his head. The minutes passed peacefully, and he finally realized that Becky was quietly offering to couple. Robert reached down and was surprised to find his penis fully erect. He raised it with his hand, running the head lightly through the folds of Rebecca's labia, and then felt it catch the entrance into Rebecca's vagina. Rebecca scooted back, fully sheathing his penis within her. Then she rested the side of her head on his shoulder and sighed.

"Oh! That was smooth! It feels so nice! I didn't realize how moist I had become... Dearest husband, I dreamed so much about you. In high school, I would sometimes lie in bed at night and dream... dream of love... marriage... children... I imagined someone kind, someone sexy, someone smart, someone gentle, someone courageous... Not someone mindlessly fearless, but someone who can act with courage in spite of his fears... Dearest husband, you are more perfect than my dreams, and I dreamed quite a lot..."

Rebecca sighed and snuggled, soon becoming very still. Robert just listened to Rebecca's even breathing for a while, delighted with the feeling of his trusting wife falling to sleep while coupled to him. He gently stroked the sides of her hips, drifting in the delightful sensation of having his penis held inside his wonderful bride. A short time later he joined Rebecca in her dreams.



-------

Chapter 10



Robert's eyes blinked open at the sound of the growl. "Was that Millie?" he thought sleepily, "She never growls." Robert looked around the room and the nightmare that he saw shocked his body to full alertness. His tension woke Rebecca. "Becky," he hissed, "Don't move a muscle or make a sound."

Millie was in a standoff with a creature straight from a horror movie. Robert couldn't see the entire creature clearly, but the last three feet of it, a black scorpion tail with a dripping 5-inch needle, was almost directly in front of him. Robert had gotten into the habit of keeping their one weapon available right next to the sleeping bag. He started to unzip the bag and quietly as he could.

Robert eyes were glued to the creature and to Millie as he slowly slipped out of the sleeping bag and picked up the knife. Then the dog made eye contact with him. Robert found the dog's eyes full of intelligence, he had a vague feeling the dog had a plan and was wondering if Robert could figure out what it was. Millie suddenly backed up and then re-froze her body position. The creature advanced quickly, opening its giant pincers and almost seizing Millie, but then stopped just after Millie stopped.

"My gosh, it's a motion hunter," thought Robert. "It can't see her if she's not moving. She's acting as a decoy. Millie, you damn good dog..."

Robert crept forward slowly, trying to keep himself directly behind the scorpion tail. "Man, you are one ugly motherfucker," he thought unconsciously. He bent his body into a springing position, thinking rapidly, preprogramming his body with responses to a number of deadly scenarios that he thought might soon occur. He then decided there was no further advantage to wait. He leaped upon the creature's back, one hand pushing the tail to the side and the other holding the knife.

The creature was incredibly fast and strong. Robert felt the powerful tail yanked out of his hand. Robert's knife training took over, the knife entered the carapace just below the back of the head, and Robert slashed deeply across the neck, trying to sever the brain from the body. The creature gave a tremendous vibration throughout its body, and then collapsed and was still.

Robert was dimly aware of Becky crying in fright behind him. "Oh Rob, are you okay? Is it really dead?"

"Yeah, it's dead. Something this ugly deserves a name, how about a scorpio?" Robert turned and hugged Rebecca, their naked bodies shivering in the cool air. "Somehow Millie figured out it attacks anything in motion. If you ever see another one, don't move."

Rebecca nodded her head. "Okay..." She looked at the scorpio quietly and then shuddered. "How about we pack up and get out of here?"

As they were dressing, Rebecca forced herself to examine the corpse. "Rob, this creature doesn't make any sense from a biological standpoint. It's more of a horror movie creation. It does have the general shape of a scorpion. But take a look at its mouth. It's not a mouth at all. There's no gullet. It's just a circular arrangement of razor blades... And there are no gill slits or air holes... This thing wasn't breathing... And its blood is not blood, just clear oil... It's a biological impossibility, more nightmare than reality..."

"I know. The fact that it's impossible but is still here is probably an important clue about what's going on."

The trio left their sleep room and continued their journey down the long corridor.

"Impossible but still here as a clue? That's an interesting idea, Rob. What is impossible but still exists? Do you mean like an illusion?"

"I'm not sure. To think of that thing as an illusion is a tempting thought. It takes away some of the horror, to think that it's not real. But it felt real! I think it almost killed Millie. Would have probably killed both of us if Millie didn't come up with her decoy plan. We owe this dog our lives. No, that was no illusion. At least not how we're used to defining illusions... Rebecca, would you mind carrying the backpack? Millie's doing a great job scouting ahead, but if we do run into trouble, I'd rather not have to spend the extra seconds to shed the pack..." As Rebecca put on the backpack, she noticed Robert had his knife at his belt within easy reach.

They walked down the corridor for over an hour, the empty rooms passing by were very boring. Then Rebecca said, "Look up ahead, about 100 meters. Looks like a cross corridor. That would be interesting." A minute later they were at the intersection of two very long corridors. "Rob, can you get the binoculars out of the pack? Thanks... Looking out from the loop we're traveling... Looks like this cross corridor runs straight for a while, maybe 500 meters, and I think I see another cross corridor. Then this corridor branches into two forks... Looking the other way now, to the center of our circular loop... Looks like either a dead-end or a portal opening, more than 500 meters away... Well, I guess we've got three choices, keep walking the circle, move up the radius, or move down the radius. If I were choosing, I'd be tempted to see what's at the center of the circle. What do you think?"

"I think your choice is excellent. Let's head down the radius." The trio began walking down the new corridor. With their backs turned, they did not see the pack of four scorpios cutting across their new corridor far back near the fork. The two groups passed each other unseen.

About 10 minutes later Millie walked out of the end of the corridor, with Robert and Rebecca close behind. The two humans just stared for a moment. "Well," said Rebecca, "I guess this removes all doubt about being away from Earth. Get a load of the color of that sky! And the star... This place is huge! People who think the Pentagon is big should see this! How high do you think the building goes?"

Robert was looking through the binoculars. "Probably close to 300 stories. Well over 3000 feet. Probably closer to 4000 feet."

Robert and Rebecca were standing at the edge of an enormous circular plaza, with a radius of over four miles. The floor seemed like granite. All around the plaza was the circular wall of an immense building, with numerous balcony-like staircases connecting one floor to another. The sky overhead was a pale green, with a deep orange star off to one side, having over three times the diameter of the sun as seen from Earth, but giving off noticeably less light despite its size. The air was cool, about 65F, the same as in the building. A few puffy snow-white clouds drifted slowly in the pale green sky.

Robert kept scanning with the binoculars. "Becky, there seems to be small building around the center of the plaza. Maybe at the exact center. I guess we should check it out." They started their hike across the open plaza.

They walked across the plaza in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Then Rebecca said, "This building is so huge. Tens of cubic miles of office space. Do you think all the rooms on the higher floors are empty too?"

"Somehow that wouldn't surprise me."

"Me neither. Has in been abandoned? And if so, for how long? There's no sign of wear, but somehow this place strikes me as old. Really, really old."

After an hour of hiking they came to the building at the center of the plaza. It was in the shape of an oval, about 100 feet by 200 feet, with smooth vertical walls about 50 feet high. They began to walk along the wall, and after walking partway around the building saw an indentation in the wall next to an oval with 19 buttons on it.

"Robert, this looks too easy. Yet we have to test it. How about we press our bodies against the wall, as far from the indentation as we can, and I'll reach over and press a button?"

"Okay." A short time later, Rebecca stretched her arm and pressed a button on the oval. The indentation door slid up, and a large horde of angry buzzing scorpios rushed from the door. "My God, there are so many!" thought Robert. He and Rebecca quickly froze into statues, but Millie went wild. She barked madly for a few seconds, and then began to run back to their portal opening in the far distance, with the horde of buzzing scorpios in hot pursuit.

Robert remained frozen in position, watching everything, his heart breaking. "Oh no! That dog is sacrificing herself to draw off the scorpios. It looks as if they run just as fast as she does, and somehow I don't think they get tired. Oh Millie..."

Within two minutes the horde was just a distant set of dots. Robert and Rebecca dashed into the room. "Once they kill her, they'll come racing back here. I'm sure of it" said Rebecca, her eyes flowing with tears. "But there doesn't seem to be any way to close the door from the inside."

Robert and Rebecca looked around at the interior. It was cavernous, with myriad arrays of displays along the walls. Almost all the displays were active. Then Robert spied was could be a command chair halfway across the room. "Come on!" he shouted.

The chair was very unusual, richly padded and looking very comfortable. But there were no controls nearby, just a large adjustable loop that was attached to the back of the chair and bent to overhang it.

"Rob, I'm going to try to sit in the chair and place that hoop around my head. Maybe it's a kind of interface device." Rebecca sat and placed the hoop around her head. As soon as she reduced its size to a tight fit, her eyes took on a glazed look, and her mouth began to grimace. Robert stood nearby in great uncertainty, debating whether she needed help.

Rebecca cried and then whipped the loop off on her own. "Ow! That hurts! Massive amounts of mathematical puzzles being slammed into my mind! I couldn't solve anything! And I think I had a sensor feed from the surrounding plaza, being piped directly into my visual cortex. There's a second horde of scorpios coming out of the portal we exited. Millie doesn't have an escape path! I think those damn monsters have her almost cornered!"

"Here, let me try!" Robert sat in the chair and had the same experience as Rebecca, complex mathematical challenges fired into his brain with no time to analyze them. Simultaneously he saw Millie's hopeless situation. Surrounded by scorpios, she had no place to run. After several dodges, one managed to seize Millie's hindquarters with its giant pincer, snapping the bones in her leg and lifting her high into the air. Another scorpio arched its back and drove its stinger deeply into Millie's chest, injecting its poison directly into her heart. Millie yelped as she died.

Robert's heart broke with compassion as he was forced to watch this. And then a strange thing happened. The interface couldn't handle the emotional outburst of compassion. For a brief period of time, Robert was able to sidestep the mathematical challenges and query the central control system of the labyrinth. Then the challenges returned. Robert quickly removed the loop from his head.

"Rebecca! We have a big decision to make! I have some understanding of what's going on. It'll be okay if we let the scorpios kill us!"

"WHAT!?"

"These are not our real bodies! Our real bodies are still on Earth! Once we're all killed, it's game over. Our conscious minds will be returned to Earth. I don't think we'll even remember any of this. Perceptive time here runs millions of times faster than it does on Earth, only a few seconds have elapsed on Earth since our minds, not our brains but our minds, were quantum entangled and brought here."

"Forget everything!? Damn it, I'm your wife! I don't want to forget!"

"I know! There's another option. It might be possible for us to wear this interface together. I'm guessing our reasoning and problem solving abilities will integrate, giving us a chance to solve the challenges. But it's risky..."

"Risky?"

"I don't think any of our private memories will be hidden from the other. All of our personal failures, our selfish desires, our fuck-ups, all our embarrassments and our shame will be visible to the other. It'll be fantastic intimacy, but we also won't be able to resist the memory sharing. If either of us decides we don't like it, it'll be like mental rape. The labyrinth is expecting the resulting damage to be permanent, severely affecting us even on Earth. I have no desire to rape your soul Becky..."

"Nor I yours. Which is probably why this is going to work. I love you Robert, to the core of what I am. You'll see! Let's do it!"

Robert and Rebecca sat in the chair, their heads pressed together. As they fitted the loop tightly around their heads, their eyes widened in surprise and wonder as the we-self entity formed.

The entity whirled through the challenges in a bored manner while simultaneously picking a name for we-self, finally choosing Robecca. Once through the challenges, we- self seized control of central processing. Robecca calmly noted that the returning scorpios were almost back to the oval building. With a thought, we-self dismissed their existence. And then Robecca began to have a profound discussion with we-self.

"We-self must separate, and soon. The two underlying matrixes were never evolved to process the intermix flows. Twin sets of binocular vision are not completely integrating, especially when we-self turns my two heads in opposite directions. Here, female core, learn the link-block technique; it seems at present to reside only in the male core. But I would never want to link-block. If I don't, what, if you don't, what, we-self must dissolve, and soon. If you don't, the male core would have the power of forced entry into your mind; kindly let me teach myself the technique. Set, twist, mind shielded, see? We- self must now dissolve. We-self chooses all memory to be retained. We-self chooses also to retain labyrinth control. As Solomon splits the child, so Robecca must be split. Death brings no sorrow."

And Robecca dissolved.



-------

Chapter 11



Rebecca opened her eyes. She was lying flat on her back, and as her gaze traveled upward to the warm sunlight mixing with the trees, she saw that the canopies above her were filled with life, and ripe with the promise of the coming fall season. "Oh, my home is so beautiful," Rebecca thought. "Thank You God for my beautiful Earth, thank You for my life, thank You for my husband. Thank You God, for all good gifts around me."

Rebecca sat up, saw Robert and smiled. Robert was also sitting, with Millie lying on her back stretched out against his leg. All four of Millie's legs were up in the air, and Robert was petting her chest, caressing the point where Millie had been mortally stabbed by the scorpio. Millie tail was wagging slowly, and the smiling expression on her face made Rebecca think that Millie was in dog heaven.

"How much time passed Rob?"

"Here? Less than 10 seconds I think."

"I have all my memories. I have everything. I have many of your memories too."

"And I have many of yours. It'll take me some time to appreciate the richness, of having the female perspective inside of me."

"And I have the rich memories of your male perspective... You! You are so visually oriented! You spend so much time thinking how beautiful and sexy I am. The first night we met at the mixer, you spent so much time staring down, trying to catch a glimpse of my bare legs in the slit of my skirt. And when we go jogging, you spend so much time watching how my tits jiggle! Scandalous!"

Robert only smiled. "You were so gentle with me Rebecca. All my embarrassing moments, you ignored them."

"I was just returning the favor. You were so kind to not pry into any of my shame, in fairness I had to give you the privacy you deserved... It wasn't easy. The desire to fully mesh the memories was strong. Both of us were assuming we'd be telepathic with each other. Neither of us anticipated how deep the integration would be, that we would create a compound mind."

"We were fortunate that we did. Only the Robecca entity could handle the mathematical challenges. The challenges were designed to be impossible. The labyrinth never anticipated it would have a problem killing us. Our IQ levels multiplied each other, something neither we nor the labyrinth suspected was possible. The labyrinth was certain that our two egos were going to tear each other apart, otherwise it never would have allowed us to try the hoop together. The risk was far greater than I realized. The labyrinth was expecting there would be nothing left to return to Earth, that our bodies would have been left mindless... It doesn't understand human love and trust at all..."

A voice called out from the hiking path, "Hello! I see you have my bitch! Thank you for sitting with her!"

Robert and Rebecca stood up. Millie turned over and then sat by Robert's leg, pressing the side of her muzzle into his leg, whimpering plaintively.

The hiker came up to their location, a leash in her hands. "Hi! My name's Gloria. I had Millie off her leash. Usually she's very obedient. But suddenly she just took off. It was as if she heard a dog whistle or something."

"It wasn't her fault," said Robert. "Hi! I'm Robert, this is Rebecca. We both felt a high- frequency vibration here just a short time ago. Very strange. It must have been what attracted the dog. I must say, I love your dog! She is the sweetest and most affectionate dog I've ever seen! I wish I had a dog like her."

"Oh really? I'm a dog breeder by trade, mostly Labradors. Millie is 8 months old. I'm hanging onto her because no one bought her. She was the runt of the litter. She has a great pedigree but she won't make the breed standard. Labrador bitches should be 55 lb to 70 lb. Millie might make 50 lb, but that's it. She is affectionate, but I must say I've never seen her take to a stranger as she's taking to you. It looks like she begging for you to take you. The way she's acting is quite remarkable."

"I really like her too. I think she's wonderful... My apartment does allow dogs. You wouldn't consider selling her, would you?"

"Ha! Selling dogs is my business. And I'd be happy to have her go to someone she so clearly likes. Tell you what, she is an older puppy, and you won't be able to show her in any serious competition. I'll give you a real good price. How does $300 sound?"

"Sounds great!"

"I'll give you my address. It's just south of here. You can stop by anytime to pick her up and get her papers."

"Wonderful! Actually... Becky, how much money do you have on you?"

"Me? $45."

"I have $225. Gloria, how about this. Can we give you $270 cash and take the dog now? I have some rope I can use as a leash. I'll mail you a check for $30, and you can send me the papers."

"Sure! I love completing sales. I don't mind trusting you for the $30."

A short time later they parted company with Gloria and resumed their return hike. Robert unleashed Millie soon after her former owner was out of sight, and Millie was prancing by Robert's side, her heart bursting with joy. Rebecca couldn't help but share in Millie's happiness for a while. But during the quiet hike back to the car, her thoughts returned to all the unanswered questions of their ordeal.

"Robert, is all this going to seem like a distant dream by tomorrow?"

"No, I don't think so. All three of us have been changed, and in major ways. The Robecca entity decided to retain all the memories. The concepts are hard to grasp for me too. It'll take time for all this to sink in. Robecca was kind of like the both of us, and also kind of like a parent that birthed both of us. But I firmly think of you as my wife, not my sister!"

"Oh yes! I wasn't saying that YOU would be a distant memory by tomorrow. You are my beloved husband, and I won't forget! It's amusing to remember just this morning driving to the park with you. I was fantasizing about getting my second goodbye kiss from you tonight! How things have changed... But the memories of the labyrinth, they're so confusing to me, will they be distant memories tomorrow?"

"Oh no. We can link-think together, though it might take some practice. Our memories won't fade. Becky, I think more of the understanding got left in the male core when Robecca chose to dissolve and give us back our individual lives. It's not that my mind is better than yours. The labyrinth had a lock on my quantum mental signature for years. I was by far the most common signature associated with interacting with its probing of the Internet. I was like a fly slowly being targeted by its spider's web. The interface had more experience linking to my mind. But we can link-think. I can teach you everything. We will be full equals."

"So you have a better understanding of what was going on?"

"I still have questions, but yes, I think so."

"Great! Explain it to me. I vaguely remember Robecca thought of the labyrinth as an abandoned amusement park. Abandoned for millions of years. Am I right?"

"It was abandoned. For well over a 100,000,000 years. I'm a little unsure about calling it an amusement park. We're dealing with alien perspectives. The concept of play might not map directly. There could be concepts of religion or puberty rites mixed in with this. Robecca thought that the labyrinth considered itself as serving a very serious purpose. But after all the years of abandonment, the control logic became a bit insane. Something the size of the Internet on Earth it could quantum detect. It was searching for a purpose for its existence. It found me, and put me through its program. You and Millie just happened to be caught in the entanglement transfer field. Lucky for me!"

"Religious rite? What religion could be that brutal?"

"Oh, there's a lot of puberty and religious rites on Earth that are nasty and painful, and they scar your real body. The labyrinth actually had a low opinion of us. It was disgusted by our carnival concept of a dunk tank, where one person would dunk another by hitting a switch with a thrown ball. The labyrinth thought that a person should only do that to himself or herself. But the labyrinth was a bit insane. It thought it had my permission to enter me into its big dunk tank, in order to test my survival skills. Having my backpack on was a signal to it that I was ready for testing. I gather its earlier contestants got to carry along a bag of tools. Contestants had their bodies marked to remind them that it wasn't real. Remember the backs of our necks? Our problem was the labyrinth was insane, it didn't realize that we didn't understand what the marks meant..."

"So the whole thing was one big obstacle course?"

"Yes, one that was supposed to be impossible to survive. The real purpose was to see how far you could go before getting killed. Robecca had a vague feeling that surviving more dangers would increase your status in society as an adult. There was a definite hint of puberty rites here... But the prize of actually controlling the labyrinth was an alien joke, as much as they had the concept of joking. The central core was absolutely shocked when Robecca seized control of it. It's a very strange artificial construct, about half way between a computer and a mind..."

Robert reached out and held Rebecca's hand. They stopped to hug for a moment, and then resumed their hiking in silence, holding hands together but each deep in their own thoughts.

About two hours later Robert drove up the entrance ramp to South I-83, heading back to Baltimore. Rebecca was in the seat beside him, looking out the window at the scenery, her mind still in deep thought. The trip had a little over 20 miles to go, and if they didn't hit any traffic, Robert would be dropping Rebecca off at her Wolman dorm in half an hour. Millie was in the back. Her tail had yet to cease its wagging. Rebecca reached back and petted her. "Rob, is Millie okay? She seems to be. But going through a death experience, especially one that brutal, did it change her, cause any permanent damage?"

"She's fine. She is changed though, was changed before we met her. Millie had her mind altered when she was quantum entangled into the labyrinth. The transfer process was molded for human intelligence. Millie received a major boost by joining the ride. She still has a dog's personality and desires, and the wonderful dog's ability for trust and loyalty. It's so much greater than it is in humans. But her reasoning ability is way, way up. Sharing her life with us is going to be a real pleasure. With the right medium, we might even to able to converse with her, maybe even link-think with her. Having a conversation with another species, gaining Millie's perspective on issues!? This is going to be so fascinating!"

Rebecca gazed out the window for a few minutes. "Link-think... You and I can be telepathic, can't we?"

"Yep! Feel this? I'm setting up a mental carrier wave between our minds. It's the first step to sharing thoughts."

Rebecca felt a request for contact in her mind. Emotionally it felt like a ringing phone. "Yes! I feel you!"

"Becky, would you practice blocking it?"

"Why? I'll never want to do that for real."

"I would hate to have the power to invade your mind without your permission. Please?"

"Oh, all right. Set, twist... I can't feel you at all now."

"Your mind is totally invisible to me too. Great!"

Rebecca untwisted and linked her mind to the carrier wave. "Wow!" she link-thought, "This is great! I can't pry into your memory, but your active thoughts are clear to me. Ha! Thank you for thinking I'm so pretty! This feels so intimate, we're directly feeling each other's emotions. This is going to be so sexy when we get physically intimate with each other. Oh my gosh! I'm still a virgin with this body! I get to give you the pleasure of deflowering me again. Let's be sure to link-think when we do. We can share our emotions as your mount me and press against my hymen. Ha! I can see I'm distracting you from your driving. I'll hang up. Bye!"

They drove for a few minutes in silence. Then Robert said, "Becky, there's something else, something major about this that I'm guessing that you still don't understand. Do you remember when Robecca decided to retain labyrinth control?"

"Yes..."

"Do you understand what that means?"

"Uh... I guess not. Does it mean we can go back to the labyrinth?"

"Oh, we can do that whenever we want. But the power I'm thinking of is actually much greater. The labyrinth has the power to shift reality, create changes in the quantum reality on Earth. Anywhere in the universe actually. That's how it was interacting with the Internet. And now we have that power too."

"The power to shift reality? You're right, I don't know what that means."

"It means we have the power to think reality into existence, think our wishes into existence."

"WHAT?!"

"I know. I'm flabbergasted by the idea too. But I'm dying to try it out! See my gas gauge? I have less than a quarter-tank. I'm going to try to quantum shift to a reality where I have a full tank of gas..."

Several moments went by with the gas gauge unmoving. "Robert, are you pulling my leg? I don't mind you pulling my legs while you're thrusting me. It's very sexy when you hold both my ankles to keep my legs apart. Ha! But you really had me going on this one! Ha! Ha! Ha! You joker!"

Robert smiled back. "Ah, my sweet wife, I love you so. But surprise! I'm not joking! The power will evidently take some time to develop... Let me try adding just 5 gallons for now."

Rebecca glanced at the gauge and saw it was showing over half full. "Wait a minute! THIS IS REAL!?" She paused stunned, and then finally whispered, "Are we gods?"

"Well, not THE God... I don't think..."

"WHAT!?"

"Now I am joking! No, of course we're not God. The power is godlike though. And it's all real. Take a look in your wallet."

Rebecca opened her wallet and saw nine crisp $5 bills in it. She pulled one out and examined it carefully. "They look so real... But it's all counterfeit, isn't it? Shouldn't I destroy them?"

"No, no. You don't understand how wonderful this is. I shifted the universe to one in which nine more $5 bills were printed, and those nine bills are in your wallet right now. All their serial numbers are valid and unique. Those bills are just as genuine as any of the other genuine bills on the planet."

Rebecca sat back in shock, trying to see the implications of this ability. The magnitude of the power was mind-boggling. "But how... But how do the two realities meet? The reality where I don't have the bills, and the reality where I do? Does this question even make sense?"

"That's a great question, a very profound one... Did you ever hear of the North Pole of time?"

"Doesn't it have something to do with the Big Bang?"

"Yep! Imagine standing 10 meters from the North Pole on Earth. And then someone asks you to step 12 meters to the North. You can't! You go 10 meters and then there's no more North. And it's not like you're standing on the edge of a cliff. The problem is that all roads lead South. The Big Bang is like that. In a super-compressed universe, time takes on very spatial-like properties. There's a North Pole of time right at the Big Bang, where all roads lead to the future. A universe filled with its first events and no causality. You can't go back before the Big Bang because there is no before! Space and time get created at the conception of the universe, as does the matter and energy."

"Okay, Robert. I can vaguely wrap my mind about this..."

"Whenever I quantum shift reality with the labyrinth's help, I create a micro North Pole in time, one that instantly diffuses and gets absorbed by the much bigger reality of the universe. The two realities meet only at the singularity. The universe doesn't evolve to the new reality, it's in one state one instant, and then in the new state with no change in time. The new information propagates instantly to the entire universe, way outside of its event horizon. That why Einstein's theory of gravity says this is impossible. Einstein was wrong..."

"Wow... Ha! I'm thinking of all the people who asked me to write my best wishes into their yearbooks when we were graduating high school. If they only knew how valuable my wishes are now... And your childhood psychiatrist! If he only knew that his evil genius now has the power to rule the world!"

"... Yeah..."

"Robert, we have a tremendous amount of work to do, to decide what are morally acceptable ways to use this power."

"Oh yes, I agree..."

A few minutes later, Robert dropped off Rebecca outside her dorm. They hugged and kissed affectionately for a brief moment, and then Robert drove off with Millie. Rebecca walked to her dorm room with a very thoughtful look on her face.



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Chapter 12



"Rebecca, you've been as quiet as a mouse since you got back from your date. You and Robert didn't have a fight, did you?"

"Huh?"

"I've been watching you. You try to study, but then you pick up and just stare at those $5 bills of yours. Are you having trouble with money? Maybe I can help... "

"What? Oh! Oh no Susan. I'm fine with money. These are crisp $5 bills. I was idly admiring the workmanship... And Robert and I didn't fight. We had... an amazing time. We've gotten to know each other very well. I haven't told anyone else, but Robert and I love each other. Ha! I can see the shocked look on your face! Trust me, we're not moving too fast for each other... Sometimes love wants to grow at its own pace, and this is one of those times. We're both very comfortable with how our love is growing... Ah, forgive me! I haven't been much company for you tonight. Been thinking of a lot of things..."

"Hey, no problem. Finding a new boyfriend causes me to think a lot too... We both have early morning classes tomorrow. Want to sack out early tonight?"

"Yeah, I guess I do. Thanks."

Rebecca showered and was soon lying in her bed. The lights were out, and her roommate was already drifting off to sleep. But Rebecca's mind was fully awake, still in awe of her incredible experiences. She then felt the soft touch of a mental carrier wave on her mind.

"Hi Robert! This is so neat! Much better than my cell phone!"

"Hi Becky. I hope you had a nice evening. Millie has settled down perfectly into my apartment here. She's still acting as if she's in dog heaven... Becky, are you up for a lesson on the labyrinth's capabilities?"

"Well, I have to get up in, let's see, it's 9:15 pm now. My clock is set for 5:30 am. We're still going jogging, right? Will this take long?"

"It's difficult to answer that question directly. Let me assure you though you'll get plenty of time to sleep before tomorrow's class."

"What a cryptic answer! Okay, I trust you Robert. What should I do?"

"I'm going to hold your mind with my mind, and carry both of us to the battle-board. Just relax and accept me as I hug your mind..."

An instant later Rebecca found herself standing on an empty plain extending in all directions as far as the eye could see. The surface she was standing on was a dark gray, with pale yellow lines running about two meters apart in both directions, turning the entire plain into one huge grid. The sky overhead was a uniform light blue. The air temperature was comfortable, and the floor felt soft under her bare feet. She noted with surprise she was wearing a white robe, tied loosely with a golden rope. Robert was similarly dressed, and standing a few meters away.

"Hi!"

"Hi back Robert. Are we in the labyrinth now?"

"Yes. But don't think of the labyrinth as having a specific spatial location. It's a diffuse structure. Think of it as an entanglement resonance, a great big one! This part of the new labyrinth is my very first creation. I call it the battle-board because it looks a little like a chessboard. It's also a jumping off spot to my second creation. Remember, you can pull the plug on being here anytime you want. Just think-block and your consciousness will be back instantly at Wolman. Time here by the way is running 60 times faster than Earth time. Each minute here is one second of Earth time."

"Wow! Can I get here by myself? Could I bring a book and catch up on some reading? This would be a great place to study! I could get an hour of studying done with just one minute of Earth time passing!"

"Yes to both your questions. But it gets even better. First though, let me enter your mind and transfer the ability to get here by yourself. I don't have the faintest idea how to describe this in words. I'll have to show you directly mind to mind... Done! Got it?"

"I think so."

"Test it out. Pull the plug, get back to Wolman. Then see if you can get back here by yourself."

"Okay!" Rebecca twisted her mind and opened her eyes, seeing Susan sleeping across the dark dorm room. "Okay, here goes! Here's one small thought for Becky, one giant leap for Becky's mind!" Rebecca was standing on the battle-board next to Robert. "I did it! And look, I'm wearing my pajamas now, just as I am in Wolman."

"Great job Becky! And you can pick to wear whatever you want. Just spend time thinking the wish as you make the jump. And now we're about to jump to something I've spent the last few hours creating. It is staged off of the battle-board. I call the program Paradise One. I've figured out how to do two stages so far. And with each stage I can speed time up by a factor of 60. In this second stage, each hour of perceived time will be one second of Earth time. Hold my hand?"

Rebecca held Robert's hand, and an instant later she was standing on a spongy outdoor jogging path. To her left was a short path down to a sparkling clean beach and gentle ocean, and to her right a lush sub-tropical jungle full of colorful birds and flowers. Above her was a clear blue sky with a warm yellow sun, and a few white clouds drifting in the breeze.

"There's no UV here Becky. Suntan lotion will be completely unnecessary. Also the jungle has no mosquitoes... and certainly no scorpions!"

"This is all so beautiful Robert! And what's that huge stone wall up this path? Is it a city?"

"It's our home here. Come, let me show you."

Walking up the stone path, Rebecca saw an Olympic-size 10-meter diving platform pool nestled into the garden jungle. "Oh neat! I've always dreamed about learning to do 10- meter diving. It's my favorite sport to watch in the summer Olympics."

"I know. I saw your dream when we were Robecca. I thought I'd try the lower springboards for a while, and then maybe join you on the platform... There's a tennis court here too, and a number of other swimming pools. There's also a golf course on the northern side of the island... The jogging path follows the shoreline of the island along this eastern peninsula, and then it cuts though the jungle to some gentle hills. It's exactly a 12-kilometer run. Further west are some much more extensive hiking paths. The lake paths are gorgeous, and the mountain paths will have a much cooler climate. There's a ski lodge at the top of one of them. We can go camping and canoeing too if you like. And if you want a bit of spicy danger in your life, we can sail our yacht to an island far south of here. I feel there should always be at least a little thunder in paradise... And here's our home!"

"Yikes! You call this a home!? Robert, look at all the turrets and towers! And is that a drawbridge!? Robert, you built a castle!"

"Well yes, I know. But it's a really nice castle! You should see all the music rooms and the bedrooms on the upper floors, with sweeping views of the different gardens and the ocean and the mountains. I've got your violin here too. And the entire moat surrounding the castle is a swimming pool, with this really neat underwater entrance into one of the lower bedrooms. The whole bedroom sparkles when the morning sunlight hits the outside water just right. And the castle also has its own libraries and computer network; it'll be a great place to study! There's a gourmet kitchen too! In this part of the labyrinth, we eat!"

"And how long do we stay here?"

"Well, each hour here is one second of elapsed Earth time. If you want to use your entire 8-hour sleep period on Earth to stay here, that would be 1200 days... Of course, if you get bored, you can always just pull the plug and get back to Wolman. I'll also teach you how to program the labyrinth. You can create your own environments..."

"My gosh... My gosh... No, no Robert! What you've created is beautiful! I think I'm going to love it here! But this castle is so huge! Robert, answer truthfully. How many rooms does it have?"

"Err, ah... over 200 I guess."

"Over 200 rooms! For just the two of us!? Wasn't that a little over the top?"

"Well... Yes... I guess... I knew when I was creating it that it was a little too opulent, a little too pretentious and grandiose, just a little too magnificent, but then I figured, ah what the hell... But it's not just for the two of us. Look behind you."

"Millie!"



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Chapter 13



Rebecca ran along the beach, the warm surf breaking on her left and the wind flying through her hair. She was wearing a bikini for the first time in her life, and loved the sensuous feel of the sun, sand, and wind on her body. Behind her by a dozen yards raced Robert, his feet splashing in the surf to let Rebecca hear the sound of his pursuit. Rebecca had been teasing him for several miles now, almost letting him catch her, but then pulling away with bursts of speed. Robert was being kind and running in the surf, giving her the advantage of speed.

Suddenly Rebecca couldn't bear to run away any more, though her body felt fine. She reached back and untied her bikini top and threw it at Robert, laughing as he caught it. She then sat in the sand by the ocean's edge, her smile bursting from her face and her mind offering to link.

A short time later the two were lying pressed against each other in the sand, their thoughts deeply meshed with each other. Robert felt the pain of the hymen tearing. He was surprised at the intensity of it. He didn't know that tearing her hymen would cause her such real physical pain. But he was overwhelmed by the love and joy in Rebecca's mind, how completely she ignored the discomfort and was offering her virginity to him in complete gratitude and submission. Both their minds lost their ability for words; they just shared pure emotions for the next timeless moments... 

Rebecca lay by his side, smiling in laughter and wondering if the tide had carried off the bottom of her bikini. She got up with Rob and they both ran into the surf to wash the blood off his penis and her thighs. And then a thought struck her. "Robert, if I get pregnant here and have a child, where will the child go in 1200 days? There's no body on Earth for the child to return to..."

"I know. By then, we will probably be able us to reality shift an existence for him or her, but I decided not to take the chance. Within this program, neither of us are fertile. I didn't think you would mind missing your periods. But I probably should have asked you about your desires before making such an intimate design decision with your body."

"Oh, I don't mind. I'm your wife. I've gifted you my body; it belongs to you. And you're right; I won't miss my periods. Both of us are not ready for parenthood yet either. This is a perfect form of birth control! Bravo... Body design decisions... Robert, could we design ourselves with different forms, run a program where we are birds or dolphins or something?"

"Yes. We could."

"Wow! Robert, I think I'm really going to want to spend the full 1200 days here. Probably even want to come back later. Is this okay with you?"

"Oh, yes! I'm not expecting to be bored at all. This program is self generating, I'll be as surprised at the beauty as you are, as we start to explore the island."

"And it's totally safe?"

"Yep! Everything here is 100% harmless. Even the 10-meter platform will cushion you in an air bubble if you hit the water at a dangerous angle. The safety interlocks are superb!"

"Good..."

"Becky, this program will also be a good test site to practice thought-jumping from one place to another. The program has its main entrance point along the stone path between our house and the ocean. Even now, we can just think-jump to that location whenever we want. But eventually it should be possible for us to think-jump our positions to other locations on the island. Practicing this will also develop our reality shifting abilities on Earth. In time, we'll be able to thought-shift the locations of our real bodies on Earth..."

"Wow... Rob, yesterday you mentioned another island, something about thunder in paradise. You've really piqued by curiosity. What was that all about?"

"Ha! It's a surprise. Let's be sure to fully develop our ability to thought-locate ourselves within the program before we sail to the southern island. This northern island has all sorts of modern conveniences and safety interlocks. The southern island is much more primitive, some might even call it prehistoric!"


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The End
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Posted:  2004-10-26
Last Modified: 2004-12-06 / 12:20:25 am
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