Adult Image Library 1/Adult_Image_Library_Volume_1.iso/stories/j_01_292.txt

Text File | 1996-04-15 | 48.8 KB | 1,097 lines

     "You're showing signs of obsession," Fawn observed calmly.

     "You mean, I've never shown signs of obsession before?"  I asked,
leaning back in the leather armchair that dominated my office.  "Fawn,
if we're right I'm going to spend most of eternity with plenty of
company, but today is my thirtieth birthday and I haven't seen another
human face in nearly four years.  I'm lucky I haven't gone crazy."

     "Your dedication to your self-proclaimed project is impressive.  I
don't understand why you have a need now for company, and I don't
understand why you want this particular woman."

     "One, because she's female.  I would hardly get along so well with
another man, Fawn.  Two, because if the legends are right she has
exactly the resources I need.  And three, because I feel sorry for her.
Is the last one okay with you, miss AI?  Abused, battered, raped and
abandoned... you think I'm not supposed to feel sorry for her?  By the
way, how's my ancient Greek?"

     Fawn paused.  If she could sigh, I swear I would have heard one
right then, but Fawn is relatively bereft of emotions.  "Your Greek is
fine.  It had better be with the way I've been teaching you.  I have the
location you want in seven coordinates."

     "Thank you, Fawn."  I turned the chair around and headed down to
the hanger bay, where Fawn sat waiting in the Destiny.  How she moved
around like was beyond me; even more beyond me was why she moved at all.
Just hook a data coupling to her and she was happy; why she drew no
power was another of those things I had long ago decided not to
question.  She did what I wanted.

     Pendor!  I could open up the skylights and watch it spinning,
illuminated by the only star in this tiny, pocket universe.  According
to Fawn, this universe hadn't even existed until we came here; the
introduction of four photons moving at odd angles to one another defined
the new space.  With the dumping of our G7 (previously G8) star here,
the universe was now expanding as a sphere, at three hundred thousand
kilometers every second.

     I don't even know where the word came from; everything else I made
a conscious effort to name but where the word 'Pendor' came from was
beyond me.  But as I passed through the observatory I looked out onto
the silently turning ring, complete with land, water, and air... and
still lifeless.  And this mineral-heavy rock that my operational base
sat on, once a tectonicly stable planet in its own right until Fawn and
I had mined it clean for its internal resources, slowly orbited the star
'Pin' inside the orbit of the ring.  I couldn't help it; just looking at
it, only one-third complete but still an incredible achievement of
imagination and engineering, brought tears to my eyes.

     The shuttlecraft 'Destiny' and it's sister ship 'Density' sat side-
by-side in the enclosed bay.  I climbed into the first one and sat down
in the pilot's chair, taking a few moments to refamiliarize myself with
the controls.  "Ready, Fawn."

     The airlock opened slowly, and with a gentle turn of the auto-Z
dial we rose above the equally airless surface of Ops.  "I'm ready for
the transition," Fawn announced.

     "Then do it."

     Like blinking my eyes, I was suddenly staring out the front
viewport at a sky full of stars.  "Terra is to plus-x, minus-z.  To your
left and below, in other words.  As always, we have no telemetry," Fawn
announced.

     "Gotcha," I said.  Banking with a slight roll, I looked down and
located the islands of what would someday be known as Greece.  "Can you
give me an illustration of Ida on a map, Fawn?"

     "Right there," Fawn announced.  "Screen three."

     I glanced up and over at the screen she indicated, looking at the
map.  "Give me an approach to Ida then, and let's take her in."

     "Approach plotted.  How's that?"

     "Perfect," I said.  I rolled back to a planar attitude and pitched
forward, firing the engines.  "We're going down."

     Twenty minutes later the counter-gravitics were stirring up the
water off the coast of the island of Ida.  Outside the window I could
see the island itself, a long, sloping hillock of bright green grass,
slowing emerging from the ocean.  Further up the side of the hill I
could see a treeline, and then it seemed to drop out of sight.  "Looks
like the kind of place I'd like to retire to someday," I joked.
"Beautiful country, though."

     Fawn scanned the horizon carefully, watching for ships, observers
on the island, anything.  "We're looking for 'the caves off the rocky
coast of Ida,'" I said.

     "That implies it might not actually be on Ida itself."

     "I know," I growled.  "Don't remind me."

     "I have a geological construction that might be 'The Caves of Ida."

     "I hear a 'but.'"

     "You can't reach them without going for a swim."

     "Break out the SCUBA gear," I chuckled.  "That's not too hard."

     "I'm powering up a drone in case you need help."

     "I won't need help," I insisted.  "What's the water like?"

     "Seventy-four degrees fahrenheit," she said.  "Amazingly warm for
this clime."

     "Would you recommend a wet suit?"

     "Only the very lightest," Fawn replied.  "Soft neoprene would be
fine."

     "Got it," I said, jumping into the back compartment.  "Head as
well?"

     "Not important," Fawn replied.  "And the visibility underwater
seems to be optimal."

     "Lack of pollution," I said, pulling the jacket closed and
zippering up.  "How close are we?"

     "I've moved us to just at the opening of the caves and am about to
set us down on the water."  An accompanying 'boom' acknowledged that we
had 'landed.' "We don't have a moonpool, Ken, so I recommend you go out
the top hatch and jump in."

     "What's the depth?"

     "Where we are?  Ten meters.  No threatening life forms."

     "Thank you," I said, stuffing some extra hardware into a waterproof
pack and sealing up.  After assembling the tanks and regulator and
assuring that I had a good supply, I said "Ready?"

     "Be careful, Kennet."

     "I'll be fine, Fawn.  I'll be back before you know it.  And I have
my telemetry and radio rig."

     "You know I'll be watching."

     "I know."  I climbed up the ladder and up onto the slowly rocking
roof of the shuttlecraft.  Looking around, first without my mask, I
breathed in the warm, clean air.  "Terra, pristine and clear."  I saw
some birds flying on the island nearby, and laughed.  One thing we will
never get rid of, though, is the damned seagulls.

     I gave beautiful Ida one last glance before jumping into the water.
I always see this bright red button in my imagination when I do things
like that, with a finger poised over it.  The button is labled 'COMMIT.'

     The splash surrounded me and bubbles followed me down as I kicked
and regained control.  Clearing my head, I looked around for the opening
of the caves Fawn had indicated.  I could see for miles; visibility was
incredible.

     After I found the opening, I eased myself into it.  I started to
feel anxious; I knew of too many people who had died cavediving, running
out of air and slowly strangling to death.  The idea made me shiver.  I
knew, though, that if Fawn had the slightest idea I was in trouble she
would send an army of drones down here to blast their way to me and
rescue me.

     Flashlight in hand, I made my way through what seemed to be a
deliberately, if roughly, hewn passageway.  After what seemed like
forever (a glance at my watch told me fifteen minutes), I started to
notice more light around me.  I stopped for a minute, turning off the
flashlight and waiting for my eyes to adjust.  After a while I felt
secure enough to move on, making my way on just the bioluminescence
around me.

     The light brightened appreciably after a moment, and I looked up.
Through the water I could see what looked like a dome of light, and I
decided that, if this wasn't the place, I had to at least be close.  I
surfaced.

     A cliche', I mused, looking around.  A small grotto, filled with
air and covered is glowing mosses.  The air had a stale taste to it, and
a strange smell, like fresh bread.  Except for the lack of a rock in the
center of the pool, this might have been the place Bilbo and Gollum had
their famous duel.

     I took my mask, fins, and rig off and found a place for them on the
shore.  Hopping up onto the beach strewn with black and grey stones, I
looked around, that odd bread smell nagging me.  Then an old line from a
song by The Who ran through my mind, and I scrabbled for my radio.
"Fawn," I said.  "Can you hear me?"

     "Clearly," came her voice over the radio.

     "I'm fine.  I'm going to need you to send me the drone with a
medical support kit level two, with as much glucose and water as you can
possibly get it to carry."

     "On its way."

     I hummed the song that had come to mind, "Cache', Cache'," looking
for my persepective target.  She had to be here somewhere.  "Waking up
cold to the smell of bread," I said aloud, still searching.  I found her

     Comatose, I found her lying against a large boulder at the far end
of the pool from where I had come up.  Her hair was matted and
bedraggled; insects crawled over her body.  She wore a rotted tunic that
barely covered her shoulders and apparently reached down to cover her
knees when she stood.  Even through the ruin, though, I could see what
had once been a very beautiful woman.  I checked for heartbeat, pulse,
breathing.  There was some.  With my flashlight I checked her eyes; they
still contracted under contact from light.  There was still a chance.  A
pool of water had collected around her, and that worried me.

     The drone erupted from the water in a sheaf of bubbles and a slight
spray.  Behind it was a large bag filled with the medical supplies I had
requested.

     "Fawn, will these things even work on her?"

     "I have no idea," the AI replied.

     "Great," I said.  I tapped her arm at the elbow, trying to get a
vein to stand up.  I felt relieved when I found one.  Fitting the IV
quickly, I rigged the stand up overhead and began a fast drip of water
and glucose into her arm.

     One of my medical teachers once told me that starvation and
dehydration were among her favorite things to treat, because, as she
said, "You fit an IV into their arm and they're up an running like
nothing ever happened.  The family thinks it's a miracle."

     My patient didn't come around so easily.  I fretted over her for
nearly an hour, feeling better as her heartbeat appeared to get
stronger, and her eyes started moving again, albeit under their lids.
"Sleep?"  I asked Fawn.

     "How should I know?  Could you rig me some telemetry maybe?"

     "Oh, sorry," I said.

     "Don't bother," Fawn replied.  "To accurately determine a sleep
state I'd need either visual confirmation or EEG, neither of which you
have the hardware for."

     "If you say so."

     "It's all I can say right now."

     "Thanks," I said grumpily.

     I waited further.  At least I felt now that goddesses responded to
intravenous feeding.  Or hoped they did.  She did seem to be getting
better, a pink glow returning to her cheeks.  She still seemed more pale
than was healthy.

     It occurred to me that I hadn't even thought to question that the
woman before me was brilliantly caucasian.  Blond, loosely curled hair
with just a touch of golden-red to it framed a rounded face now made
haggard by her self-inflicted wasting.

     I had my back to her, putting some of my gear away (I had recently
developed a bit of a neatness complex.  I have no idea why.), when I
heard a small whimper, then a cough.  I turned around quickly.

     "Hey," I breathed.  "Calm down.  Everything is fine."

     She coughed.  I winced; that didn't sound good.  "Who," she said,
her voice rasping, "Who are you?"

     I smiled.  "My name is Kennet."

     She coughed again.  "My arms... they hurt."

     "I'm putting medicine into you."

     She looked down.  "That's... that's not possible yet."

     I smiled.  "You really do know medicine, don't you?"

     "Feeding someone through their veins... we have no medicine for
that.  Apollo said it was silly to teach me because nobody I knew would
ever be able to do that."

     "Apollo, huh?"  I said, grinning.

     "You don't believe in the gods?"  she asked, her voice cracking and
sometimes collapsing into a whisper.

     "Let's just say I might be one, and having been one, I'm not
impressed."

     She watched me curiously.  "Where are you from?"  she asked.  "How
did you find me?"

     "Where I am from," I said softly, "Is difficult to say.  I am from
an airless, waterless ball of rock that floats near another star.  I am
from from the future, and have not been born yet."

     She looked at me with no comprehension.  "You are a god."

     "No," I said, shaking my head.  "I can't take that from you,
Oenone."

     "You do know my name, then."

     I nodded.  "I came looking for you."

     "Why?" she asked, surprised.

     "Oenone, I will not be born for two thousand years.  One thousand
years from now, barbarians will come and destroy a library in Persia, a
library containing the greatest writings, the highest record of these
islands and their learnings.  Your legends will burn, and only echoes of
who you are will reach my ears.  You are mentioned only in the glossing,
Oenone, as the wife of Paris before he became important.

     "Yet, enough of your story survives to tear my heart from my chest.
Oenone, I cannot undo the wrongs that have been done to you, but I want
to take you away from this world.  I have a dream that I want you to
help me fulfill.  I will be honest with you-- I want you there for your
skills and powers, I want to use you for my goal."

     She looked away.  "I cannot.  Please..."

     "Oenone, please.  Let me convince you my goal is worthwhile.  Let
me show how much I want you there.  I..."  I reached out to touch her
cheek.  "I think you're very beautiful."

     "Not so beautiful to hold him to me," she whispered.  She looked
up, snarling, "If you want beauty, go seek Helen."

     "Helen pales compared to you, Oenone.  She is like mead; one cannot
survive on mead, no matter how light and sweet it may be.  One requires
real food.  Of all the women in Paris' life, who was true to him?  You
were.  And did he reward you?  He spurned you, is responsible for
Korythus' death, and turned to you only because he needed you to heal
him."

     "That is no less than what you want.  You said you need me.  You
want to use me.  Are you better than Paris again?"

     "No," I said sadly.  "I cannot be better than Paris.  I cannot
measure up to the man Zeus called 'The most beautiful man in the world.'

And I cannot promise you what they call 'faithfulness' here, because
that won't be the faithfulness in my world."

     She looked at me; the IV was doing its job well, because her eyes
had cleared and she looked me over with intent.  "Tell me your dream."

     I laid it out before her, weaving with words that sometimes had no
meaning to her, my entire dream of Pendor, of the people I wanted to
live my life with, of the peace I wanted to know.  Of the difficulties.
And of the powers of a Goddess who was born with the power to make the
waters do her bidding, and who had learned medicine and prophecy beyond
those, and of what she could do for me.

     Talking like that makes me enthusiastic, rhaphsodic.  She looked up
at me, reaching up with a hand.  "Kennet, you will take me away from
this place?"

     I kneeled down in front of her, brushing a lock of her hair away
from her face.  "Oenone, daughter of Celebren, I will take you to a
place where a century of peace will let you forget Paris and Helen and
Ida and Troy, and when you again hear of Terra it will be millenia
removed from this age.  Troy will be swallowed in a sea of sand, and
teachers will dig over those sands for their amusement."

     She looked up.  "Take me there."

     "I warn you.  The beginning is not going to be easy."

     "I do not want easy.  I do not want to die, and nothing here holds
me to life.  Perhaps you will have something that does."

     I smiled.  "Thank you, Oenone.  I can never repay you for your
first simple 'Yes.'"

     She scowled.  "You will find a way.  Where is your vessel?"

     "Outside these caves.  Come on."  I gave the drone the medical bag,
and we followed it out, picking our way through the rocky passageway.
Emerging into the sunlight, I blinked, looking back and making sure that
Oenone was still following me.  As I surfaced, blinking yet again, I
spotted the Destiny a few hundred meters away and began swimming for it.
She followed.  The drone was already clambering up the ladder when I got
there, and Oenone followed close behind.  "This is your vessel?" she
asked suspiciously.

     "This is my ship, yes."

     "It does not look much like a ship."  She bobbed in the water,
looking healthier by the second.  Maybe it was the sunlight.

     "It is, trust me.  Come on."  I made my way up the ladder.  At the
top, however, a pair of feet grabbed my attention.  I looked up along
the legs attached to those feet, and finally took in the sight of a
large, powerful-seeming woman standing over me.  "Come up, little
godling.  We have something to discuss."

     I blinked.  "Excuse me?"

     "Come here first."

     "I think you'd better do what she says, Ken," Fawn's voice came
from an external speaker.  "She's got me pretty frozen."

     Concerned for the kind of power that could 'freeze' Fawn, I made my
way up to the roof of the Destiny, as the woman made room for me.  As
Oenone reached the top of the ladder, "Reah!"

     "Oenone," the woman now identified as "Reah" acknowledged.  "Are
you well?"

     "I am, Great Mother."

     At least five centimeters taller than I, this woman with dark and
curly hair, her arms crossed in front of her, a long blue tunic flowing
out behind her even without wind radiated such a sense of power that I
felt myself compelled to admit that maybe, just maybe, I was dealing
with an honest 'god' of some sort.  Or, at least, a power I didn't have
at my beck and call.  "Now then, little godling, do you know who I am?"

     I thought for a second, trying to remember who Reah was.  "The
Titan Reah, mother of Zeus."

     She smiled.  "You are correct.  You are threatening to take one of
my children offworld without her knowing the full import of her acts."

     "Reah, she's going to die if I don't."

     "Maybe that is her destiny."

     "Really?" I said.  "Is that what your prophecy says, Reah?"  I
pointed to Oenone.  "Is the skill you gave her so small you can't tell?
That is your particular skill, isn't it, Reah?  Prophecy?"

     "Do not meddle with me, Kennet Shardik.  I have learned much about
you from your meddlesome clockwork."

     I grinned.  'Clockwork' was anachronistic for Reah; she shouldn't
have known it as a word.  'Clocks' didn't exist in ancient Greece.  "I
asked her to come of her own free will, and she does so with what
knowledge I have given her.  Is that so wrong?  Did I lie to her?"

     "We are not meant for the stars."

     "I've been there, Reah.  I've been there and back.  Oenone wishes
to get away from this little ball of rock.  Mine is much less prettier
right now, but that will change with time.  She can help me.  Tell me,
Reah, how much of your pantheon is built on use?  How much of life is
built on how 'useful' Artemis is, or Eris, or yourself?  Can't Oenone
offer something just as useful, just as beautiful, to my world and my
people as you do to yours?"

     Reah seemed thoughtful.  She looked over at Oenone, then crossed
the deck to lift Oenone's face up to look at her.  Something passed
between them, but if I could find words to express it I would.  It was
simply ineffable.  Then she turned to me.  "Kennet Shardik, I am warning
you.  I taught Oenone one-third of her skills out of love.  She is a
child of mine.  My grandson abused her body, and a man my son admired
abused her spirit and her love.  She has nothing that is unbruised.  So
listen, young godling.  Your powers are vast, vaster even  then my whole
pantheon, because they are backed by your dream, a plan so audacious
there is no mind in this era that could hold it.  I wish you good work,
and I hope you find Oenone  useful to you and she find yours useful to
herself.  But if you harm her in any way, I will reach across the
centuries and the stars to strangle the life out of you with my own
hands."

     I gulped as the sun itself seemed to dim against her promise.
Finally I nodded.  "I understand."

     Her hand brushed my cheek, and my whole body lit up as if on fire.
"Do not be afraid.  You are a good man, Kennet Shardik."

     "I hope so, Reah."

     "Go, both of you."  I clambered down into the Destiny, Oenone
following behind me anxiously.  "Close upper hatch," I said the moment
she was clear.

     "Closing.  That was truly Reah!"

     "Yes it was," I said.  "Or at least, an amazing simulation.  Let's
get out of here."

     "I have full power."

     "Hold on," I said.  "We'll strap in.  Oenone, sit in that chair."
The rather confused little nymph sat down in her chair timidly, looking
surprisingly fetching in what seemed a fully-healed state, but her dress
torn and tattered, exposing much of her body to my eyes.

     I reached over to her and helped her buckle in.  "Safety first," I
said.  She smiled at me wanly.  "Full power, Fawn."

     The ship lifted nose-first from the water, and then with a powerful
kick we were skyborne.  I looked over at Oenone.  Her face was one of
sheer terror.  "Celebren!" she gasped.

     I grinned and paid attention to flying.  "Transition in ten
seconds," Fawn announced.  I nodded as the countdown continued.  When it
reached "now" the sky blanked and suddenly we were over Ops.  "We're
ready for the landing," I announced.

     "Copy," Fawn replied.

     "Landing," I said.  "Home again, home again, jiggety-jig."  I
laughed softly as the shuttlecraft was once again pulled below the
surface of Ops and the doors closed over us.



     "It's all so much!" Oenone said with a gleeful giggle as she dove
into the beautiful pool of waters that stretched out in front of us.  "I
do not believe how much power I have had here!"

     "Millions of years have been compressed for us by travelling
forward," I said, sitting by the edge of the pool as she swam naked
through the waters.  "You and I, we have only watched six years, Oenone,
but for Pendor, millions have slid by as Fawn has pulled us along,
stopping as I order to make sure that life is taking the path I most
intend for it to take.  The azzies keep the process moving forward while
culling those lines that might compete eventually with my plans."

     She swam over to me and folded her arms over the rock I sat upon,
holding her head out of the water.  "Centaurs first?"

     "I've already begun work on them," I said.  "I've even chosen the
field where they will be released."

     She frowned slightly and then disappeared under the water.  Knowing
full well she could hear me, I said "Something wrong?"

     "I do not want... visitors."

     "They're not visitors.  They're going to be my children, Oenone.
They're going to be the people I bring up into the world.  Reah called
me a godling, and I'm going to prove her right.  I'm going to create a
life where there was none."

     She walked out of the pool and sat down next to me, her limpid
curls dripping with water.  She touched my cheek gently, her fingers
cool.  "I have had the most peaceful six years of my life here.  I have
been allowed to be alone, and to be at peace.  I have left my old life
behind, Kennet, and all for you."

     "I couldn't have reached this," I said, gesturing around, "If you
hadn't been there at the start.  The power you wield when nobody limits
you is unbelievable, I agree."

     "That does not matter," she whispered.  "I did as you asked, and
you did as I asked.  There is no bargain between us anymore.  I have no
right to ask you to cut your dream short because I like Pendor the way
it is now, alone, pristine, unmolested."

     "And I won't do it anyway," I said firmly.  "Forgive me for being
imperious, but on that I am adamant.  You will not get me to give up the
gene tanks."

     "I did not think so," she smiled.  "Can you... Can I ask you a
favor?"

     "What?"

     "Find me a place where I will not be bothered."

     I nodded.  "How about on Pandora?"

     "Anywhere," she said.  "On Pendor, Pandora... just, somewhere
silent, pleasant.  I do not want to be here when the Centaurs are
decanted.  I want to be far away, where I can forget."

     "Do you want the library?"

     She smiled.  "Yes, I would like a copy of the library."

     "You know what that means, don't you?"

     "If ever an age comes when Pendor falls, I will have some
responsibility for putting it all back together again," she replied. "I
am prepared for that eventuality.  And, I trust you, Kennet.  Pendor
will not fall."

     "Is that hope or prophecy?"

     "I will not say," she said, smiling at me, then diving back into
the water.  I hauled out the little folding terminal I carried around
nowadays and waited for the connection to solidify.  After a few
minutes, I located a clump of isolated islands on Pandora with good
weather.  I ordered that the five nearest Shipping SDisks be removed
from around those islands, that one of the moderate-sized islands on the
outskirts of that clump be selected as a construction site, and that a
robot team head there the second one was free.  I spent about an hour
working up site characteristics and construction, and when I was done I
had something that was more Roman in outlay, but I retained the Classic
Greek construction, as near as possible.



     "You have pitched a tent?" she asked, looking at the unlikely
construction that reigned over much of the meadow.  "And you have
brought those awful machines."

     "They're sleeping," I said.  "In a few days, the Centaur are going
to wake up under this shape.  It's up to them what they do next;
hopefully, they'll learn that if they want to live in something other
than this, they'll have to build it themselves.  Halloran will only
teach them; they will have to do with what they learn.  That's why I
built in such powerful curiosity into them."

     "I came to thank you," she said.

     "You're leaving, then?"

     She nodded slowly.  "I am going to my home on Pandora to stay this
time.  I have learned, from you, that I have much to do with myself
before I want to face the world.  I have hated enemies to forget, and to
bury.  And I have to learn that I can never love you."

     "Oenone!"

     She shook her head.  "No," she said.  "Do not disagree with me,
Kennet.  I can never possess you the way I want to.  You are destined
for different loves and a different life."  I listened intently.  What
she said next angered me, though.  "I was merely a tool to you, I know."

     I reached out and seized her arm.  "Listen to me, Oenone.  I love
you.  Do you understand that?  I don't ever want to think of myself as
someone who just uses people and then throws them away.  I love you.  I
can never give you myself, alone; I am too much inclined to share.  But
you've given me every reason to respect and treasure you, and none to
hate you.  You're so incredibly beautiful that I can understand Apollo's
losing control of himself."  I realized what I had just said and
released her arm, looking away.  "I'm sorry."

     Her hand touched my shoulder gently.  "Kennet, if you were to
ravish me, I would cry your name with pleasure while it happened.  It
takes a strong man to be what you are."

     I turned and looked into her face.  "Oenone, what kind of strength
does it take to admit that I'm a coward?"

     "Coward?" she laughed.  "Cowards do not confront cowardice, Ken.
You are an honorable and gentle man, Kennet."  Her hand slipped down the
front of my shirt, and then I felt her warm breasts pressed against my
back through the soft flannel of my shirt.  "I wish you would accept one
night with me before we go our separate ways."

     "Destiny, here, now," I said.  The small shuttlecraft appeared in
front of us.  I turned, swept Oenone off her feet and boarded it.  "Her
place."  The shuttlecraft literally teleported itself until we were on
the beach of her home.  The sun was brilliant outside, and I ran, still
carrying her, together into the sunlit Atrium with it's brilliantly
clear and beautiful pool of polished black-and-white marble and the
tunnel leading out into the ocean.  Two dolphins swam back and forth
casually, surprised by sudden shouts of glee as two humans leapt in with
them.

     Oenone dissolved in my arms, only to reappear behind me, her body
pressed against mine in all the right places.  "My liege, I do love
thee," she whispered.

     "My lady, I love you as well," I said, turning in her grasp to hold
her close and kiss her throat, the curve of her jaw, the pure paleness
of her cheek, and her bright red lips.

     "You turned me into a full-fledged goddess," Oenone whispered.  "I
am everything my grandfather was, and maybe even more.  I can become a
wave, or a droplet, or a woman, or an eagle."

     "And you turned me from an engineer into a father.  How can I ever
forget that?"

     She laughed.  "You will never have to."  As I tread water, she
again dissolved away.  Damn, I hate when she does that; it's
frightening.  Then she reappeared and dove under the water, head-first
for my manhood, taking it into her mouth and closing down.  I gasped
hard, unbelieving at the warmth.  She slid along the length of my
erection, making me harder than I had ever been in my life.  I wanted to
reach down and grab her hair, but I was afraid she might drown.  "Grab,
then," her voice whispered in my ear, and I laughed; as if I could drown
the Goddess of the Oceans of Pendor.  I reached down and seized her
hair, just holding her while I felt her mouth work its magic about my
erection, feeling her tongue caressing my manhood and her teeth just
lightly grazing the underside.

     Her hair was silky between my fingers and I exercised my legs to
stay floating with my head above the water.  Her hands grasped my
buttocks, and slowly her fingers crept closer to my anus, massaging it
in tiny circles.  I objected a little; I didn't enjoy that kind of
stimulation.  But she didn't stop, and I didn't want to press it as she
just lightly massaged around and around the tight ring of flesh.  Her
hand slid down to play with my testicles, scratching along them, even
underwater, with her long fingernails.

     She surfaced, and the rush of cold water around my thighs made
whatever gains in rigidity go away almost instantly.  "Did you like?"

     "Oh, Oenone," I said, swimming for the steps, "Come here and I'll
show you how much I liked it."  She swam towards me in the more
conventional fashion, the way we humans are known to do.  I grabbed her
by the waist and hauled her out of the water, spreading her legs with my
hands.  Her feet dangled in the water, and her sex was splayed open for
me.  The flesh was pink and full, covered in the lightest wisps of
golden pubic hair that hid nothing at all.  I leaned down and kissed her
mound softly, tasting her full-fleshed outer lips as she moaned with
bright passion.  "Oh, Gods, Kennet..."

     I kissed her vulva, parting her open and tasting her juices that
ran so clear and fine only a goddess could have had them.  I found her
pleasure center and licked her teasingly, licking at the thin, inner
labia.  She wrapped her legs around my shoulders and pulled me close,
wrapping her fingers through my long hair, which I suppose would have
been fair if I could have breathed water just as easily as she had.  As
it was, I was breathing through my nose and desperately hoping she
didn't pull to hard on my hair.  Not that I objected too strongly to
this.

     Her legs unwrapped from around my shoulders and she sat up, slowly
pushing me back with one hand on my chest.  "Kennet... please, love me.
Like a man and a woman should."

     I smiled and stood up on the steps, my erection standing out fully
in front of me.  I reached down and grabbed her buttocks with both
hands.  She grabbed my shoulders and in one smooth move the two of us
met, my manhood plunging into her without a chance of mis-aim.  We
joined together at the hip, she and I, as she wrapped her legs around my
back.  "I love you," I whispered.

     "And I thee," she whispered back.  We giggled gently as I began to
stroke within her.  She pulled herself up on her arms, holding us close
together as we made love, our bodied pitching back and forth on the edge
of her water-filled home.  The dolphins watched us with curiosity, and
once, when we paused, we both turned to look and splash at them.

     I felt my urgency rise.  I slowed down; I wanted this to last.  It
wasn't fair to my Goddess if this all ended too soon.  Her mouth was
open and pressed to my shoulder, dropping hot kisses along my arm.  I
gathered her in my arms as I looked down, watching our joining, then
glancing up into her face.  She smiled; I kissed her smile as I
climaxed, moaning against her mouth and tongue.  With just as much
passion she seemed to moan in reply.

     "Gods, Oenone," I said, leaning back and away from her.  She smiled
as we slowly released each other so that she again lay on her back
against the cool marble of the poolside, and I slid out of her and into
the cool water.  She slid into the water, her soft golden curls
following her as she shook her head.

     "I love you, my lord," she whispered.  "I understand you."

     I smiled wide, unable to control it.  Tears lifted in my eyes.  "My
Gods, Oenone.  Nobody understand me.  Least of all myself."

     "I understand you enough," she replied I settled down onto the
steps leading into the pool and she settled herself into my warm lap.
"I know what you want, and I know you will never lie to me to get it.  I
have never been able to ask that of anyone, and now that I understand
that, I know I shall want you to be my friend and my lord forever."

     I wiped tears from my eyes as I held her closely; she touched my
cheek, taking a tear against her finger and taking it into her mouth.
"Sweet salt, without which man would not exist," she said.  Then she
kissed my cheek.  "Such a man are you, Kennet.  A hero to put even
Odysseus to shame."

     We dined that evening on cold, cracked crabs, hot soup, and tough
brown bread, drinking a dry mead and idling about a warm fire outside
her home, on the beach.  I talked of my dreams again and of the life
burgeoning in the quiet amniotic tanks upon Pindam.  We didn't talk very
much; as alone as Oenone said she wanted to be, she had also often
sought me out for companionship, complaining that Fawn and Halloran were
boring beings.  I had laughed, Fawn had "Hmph'd," and Hal had remained
silent.  We had said almost everything we could to each other; now her
mere presence satisfied me, wordless and lovely.  These crabs, the bees
that had made this mead, could only have existed with both of our
efforts.  Power without thought is chaos; thought without power is
impotent.  Without Oenone, I would not have had the right kind of power,
and the power I did have would have been applied without thought.  I
owed her everything.

     She took a stick of wood that she had held back and thrust it into
the campfire, lighting one end of it on fire, like a torch.  Then with
her other hand she took mine and led me into her home.  Looking back, I
had just enough time to watch the beach wash up much further than
natural one last time and wipe out our fire.

     She led me into her bedroom, a room decorated in tapestries I had
had Halloran make for her, tapestries depicting her in fanciful and
beautiful settings, such as one of her nuzzling a unicorn, or another of
her leaning against her crookstaff.  The tapestries and the rug warmed a
room covered in blue-veined white marble and open to the sky.  Tonight
the weather promised to behave, although if it didn't the cover could be
drawn with a single string, or a word from the owner.  Four slit windows
provided more ventilation.

     One wall was less covered than the others; it had to make room for
a huge fireplace framed with black marble.  Above it a tapestry that was
more a banner than anything else hung, depicting the symbol of Pendor,
an elliptical ring with an eight-pointed star in the center.

     Oenone tossed her torch into the fireplace, and it lit; although
the night had not been very cool, she apparently felt a fire was
necessary.  Then she pushed me towards the bed with one word.  "Undress.

     I complied, pulling off my shirt and disposing of my pants quickly.
She walked towards me, pulling my face up to look into her eyes.  "My
beloved Kennet Shardik.  Do you know how precious you are to me?  If I
never leave this place in ten centuries, I want you to promise me you
will visit me."

    I felt a wave wash over me inside, looking into her beautiful face.
"I promise you, Oenone, I'll visit you.  I don't know how often, but
visit you I will.  If only to remember how special you are to me."

     She smiled.  "Stand," she said, "and remove my tunic."

     I stood, slowly gathering her tunic about her waist.  I pulled it
up and over her head, the silken blue cloth falling without a sound to
the floor.  I glanced at her right bicep where a gold circlet wound
three times about her arm, and brushed my fingers along it gently.
"You're far more beautiful now then when I first met you."

     "I was something of a waste when you found me, Kennet."

     "I know," I replied, pressing my palms to her cheeks and cupping
her chin in my hands.  I pulled her close to me and kissed her, her eyes
closing.  We kissed passionately, lovingly; I pressed my tongue to her
lips and her tongue slithered out to touch mine, wrestling.  We slowly
fell towards the bed; I lost my grip and we tumbled apart, both of us
laughing.  She was quicker, straddling me first and looking down at me
with a light in her eyes.  She slid forward until her sex hovered just
before my eyes, and then she parted her legs and lowered herself to my
mouth.  I kissed at the insides of her thighs, tasting her sweetly clean
skin before turning my head to face her sex, digging deep between her
lips to take in the wetness dripping from her.  I chuckled softly; Water
Goddesses should be wet, I supposed.

     I pressed my chin against her perineum and licked at her clitoris
with my eyes open, looking up along the beautiful length of her body,
between her full breasts to see her staring down at me, her mouth
smiling.  "You are so good at that."

     I didn't answer, instead nibbling at her labia while trying, again
without success, to control my smile.  It's not that I don't like
smiling; it's just that I had better uses at the moment for the muscles
in my mouth without my grinning like an idiot.  Especially since Oenone
could only see the pleasure I was experiencing in my eyes.  Her sex was
flowing, and I actually had to swallow her fluids, happily too.  She
cooed softly and the chords in her legs became visible as tension
mounted in her body.  As I licked her clitoris harder the orgasmic
tension suddenly sprang from her in loud, gasping moans, her head tossed
back to shout "Kennet!" as she came.

     The spasms subsided and I let my head fall back to the pillow.
"Oenone?" I asked, looking up.

     "I told you I would cry out your name with pleasure."

     "But I'm not ravishing you," I said, smiling.

     She reached down behind herself; I felt the tips of her fingers
touch my erection.  "You are hard as coral, Ken.  Why don't you?"

     "You used a contraction," I said, suddenly distracted.

     "I did?" she smiled.

     I slipped out from underneath her; my feet had been dangling well
off the edge of the bed as I had licked her, and I easily found myself
standing again behind her kneeling form.  Before she could turn around I
mischievously placed my hands against her shoulders and pushed her face
down onto the bed.  "Whoops!" I said.

     She gasped as we fell, and then giggled.  "What are you going to do
with me, my lord?"

     I seized an ankle and turned her over.  She turned with me, and
with one hand on each ankle I pulled her legs apart, exposing her sex
like a glistening pink flower.  "Ravish you," I said as I crawled onto
the bed and slid myself into her, my hips pressing down upon her spread
thighs.  She opened her legs further.

     I grabbed her wrists and pinned them down to the bed with my hands.
"You want to be ravished, Oenone?"

     "Oh, Kennet," she gasped as I laid my violent hands upon her,
plundering her sex with my manhood.  "Kennet!"

     "Cry my name, Oenone," I growled, thrusting into her harder,
pushing deeper within her.

     She gasped as I smiled down at her.  "Ken," she breathed.  "Ken!"
she cried.  "Yes, Ken, please!"

     I possessed her, my hands gripping her wrists tightly, holding her
in place, making demands of her that her body gave back willingly.  Her
breasts heaved with every cry of my name, with every gasp of pleasure,
with every desire for more.  Our earlier play in the pool rewarded me
now with a slowed response, and as I took her she took from me as well,
and when my climax struck me like a wall of water she still cried my
name as I screamed hers... and then I collapsed upon her.

     "Oh, Ken," she gasped.  I had somewhere released her wrists, and
she wrapped her arms around back, slowly turning us onto our sides.

     "Oenone," I murmured.  I raised my hand and pushed a lock of hair
away from her face.  "You are so beautiful."

     She smiled.  "You are still a man," she said.  "You are tired."

     "Food and lovemaking sort of have that effect on me."

     "In that you are just like other men," she said, stroking my chest
with her fingers.  "I do understand you."

     "I'm glad someone does."

     "Would you like to sleep now?"

     I nodded.  She smiled back, and almost instantly I was asleep.



     When dawn came I was still tucked quietly between the sheets of her
bed; the roof had been opened, and light streamed in from the sun coming
over the horizon.  I turned slowly and looked, seeing Oenone sleeping
peacefully beside me.  Looking around, I eased myself out of bed and,
stark naked, made my way to the beach where the Destiny lay parked.  I
reached up into one of the cupboards and pulled out a clean and dry set
of clothing.  "Good morning," Fawn said cheerily.

     "Hiya, Fawn," I replied.

     "Ken?" she asked quietly.  The tone of her voice sent a chill up my
spine.

     "Yes, Fawn?"

     "It's time for me to go.  We agreed."

     I closed my eyes and sighed, looking down at the clothes I was
wearing.  Blue jeans, a flannel shirt of red and black checks, yellow
leather boots with yellow laces.  I looked in the mirror; a little
older, perhaps, than I had looked ten years ago, even with the
immortality sequences installed.  I was even unshaven.  "When?"

     "As soon as we can."

     "Back to Pindam then."  The Destiny was instantly back in Pindam,
and next to it and The Density lay an old Pontiac '84 station wagon.
Fawn tranported herself into it while my back was turned.

     I sighed, walking out to the station wagon and getting behind the
steering wheel.  "I wonder if I remember how to drive one of these
things."

     "You don't have to," Fawn replied.  "Ready?"

     I cursed softly.  "Yeah, I'm ready."

     I blinked; we were again on the campus of the State University of
New York.  "Morrow Hall is right over there," Fawn said.  I nodded,
looking out the front windshield.  "Campus doesn't open until tomorrow;
someone walking with a large trunk will hardly be noticed."

     I got out, blinking up into the hot late-summer sun.  Young men and
women, preparing for college, milled about me.  I slammed the car door
shut, walked around to the back and opened up the tailgate, pulling out
the large, black trunk.  It was lighter than it should have been; more
of Fawn's doing.  I walked across the poorly-tended grass to the
whitewashed building, trimmed in red.  The second 'r' in 'Morrow' was
tilted slightly, as if it was about to fall off.

     I stepped into the overhang and climbed the stairs, taking a right.
A young blond man held the door for me as I stepped through, and I
thanked him, remembering to speak current English.  The first door on
the left had been mine.  I knocked.

     The face that answered the door made me smile.  "Who is it?" he
asked, looking up at me.  "Oh, my God..."

     "Hello, Ken.  Would you let me in?"

     "Who are you?"

     I bullied my way into his room and closed the door behind me.
"Would you believe, I might be you?"

     The room was a disaster; four two-liter bottles of Coke, one
half-drained, another unopened, sat on his desk besides an ancient
computer.  Several copies of Playboy lay strewn about the floor, and the
place obviously hadn't been swept in weeks.  I knew if I opened up the
closet his laundry would physically assault me for interrupting its rise
to sentience.  And on the bookshelf, in a cloth-bound three-ring
notebook, I saw my dreams and fantasies as they had once been a decade
ago.  He sat back on the edge of his bed, unmade of course, and said "I
might believe it."

     "It doesn't matter what you believe, anyway," I said, smiling.
"I've come to give you something."

     "What's that?"

     "What's in the trunk," I said, pointing.

     "Okay, so, what's in the trunk?"

     "You'll find out in about ten minutes."  I turned the knob on the
door.

     "Wait!"

     "I can't," I replied.  "I promised I wouldn't."

     "But... but... I don't understand."

     "Neither did I."  I closed the door behind me.  Quickly, I made my
way down the stairs.  By the time I got to the bottom step I was running
for the car.  I slid in behind the driver's column just in time to see
him running down the stairs.  "Perfect timing," I replied.

     The universe blinked out again, to be replaced by the inside of the
Pindam hanger, and then a soft "pooh" of sound told me that Fawn had
left my life... forever.  She had promises to keep, but I didn't think I
would ever actually meet her again, not in this lifetime.

     "Hello, Ken," Halloran said quietly as I closed the door to the
station wagon.

     "Hello, Hal," I replied.  "How's Paul Lewis coming?"

     "He's ready for decanting right now."

     "How long before dawn at the decanting site?"

     "Four hours.  Decanting will take five and a half, I estimate.
Consciousness would occur around seven hours from now."

     I walked down to the lab control room where displays revealed the
status of the seventy-two surviving Centaurs.  I let my eyes scan Paul's
screen carefully.  "Begin the decanting process.  Start with the
serotonin levels when you're ready to initialize the mentation
processes."

     I thought for a moment.  "Hal?"

     "Yes, Ken?"

     "You have the entire Pendor zoological databank separated from your
processor-accessed memory, correct?"

     "Yes?"

     "Erase it."

     "Excuse me?"

     "Erase the Zoological Databank.  And the geophysical, the
geographical, and the meteorological.  Call all of the weather stations
around the ring sequentially; they're to operate independently until
further notice, as they were designed.  This world is for other people;
they should explore it, and put the data in themselves.  They are an
AI's environment, not the other way around.  Do you copy?"

     "It will take a while."

     "Do it," I ordered.  I sighed and sat back in the chair, waiting
for Paul to awaken, waiting for Halloran to tell me he was done.

     His voice interrupted me.  "Ken?"

     "Yes, Hal?"

     "I've found something you probably want to look at.  It was at the
end of the erasure sequence, but it's marked to not be erased until you
have a look at it.  It's creator, according to the rec, was Fawn."

     "Display it, please."

     The screen suspended from the ceiling on my right lit up.  The
message was simple.  "Once more into the breach, dear friend."  I
smiled.  "Goodbye, Fawn," I whispered at the screen, wondering if she
meant herself or me by saying "once more."  And then I immersed myself
in my work, my obsession.

--
"Days Before"
The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., And Related Tales
are (c) 1989, 1992 Elf Matheiu Sternberg.  May be freely distributed by
cybernetic media; hardcopies are limited to single printings for
personal use.