Chapter 1.13

A few weeks later, we had some strange news. Marc and Kari had become their normal sex, and everything seemed to stop for them. They had a completely normal relationship; they weren’t switching every time they were physical, and could do it anytime they wanted. The big question was, why?

John and I arrived at that point six weeks later. It was incredible to no longer have such a strange situation everytime we had sex. Marc and Kari were still in the same stage. We knew that whatever happened to them, we had six more weeks before it happened to us.

They had become John and my best friends, but I was grateful every day that their situation remained stable, knowing we had at least six weeks of as well.

We were in the command center for another discussion. I’m not sure what we expected out of them. Knowing that Earth had ended up having thousands of times our experience, and still had not succeeded in defeating ‘Total Fun’, what could we hope to accomplish?

“Why were people killed for the EMP and not other things?” John began when we sat down.

“Well, first off, there were other things that ended up getting them killed,” Marc corrected.

“What?” I asked.

“It seemed like whenever someone seemed to be elated about something, they would lose their head.”

“Uh, that leaves a very wide range of things that can cause your death,” I said. “Feeling elated? What if John and I have a very special evening?”

“We never heard anything about that in their reports,” Kari explained. She smiled at her man. “Also, I can say from personal experience that being elated doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be killed.”

I smiled at John. “Well, that’s a relief.”

“Okay, do we know the stages that are coming up for us?” John asked. He wasn’t ignoring me. He had one hand stroking my leg in response to what I had said.

Kari took over now. “We know about the first several stages, but I’ll go through the whole things now. They sent us an outline. It’s not pleasant to read. Especially what we have coming up next.” She passed out a paper to each of us, which had what we had been through and what we had coming literally for years to come.

1. The first person of a compatible gender that you come in contact with after you lose your fear obtains an emotional bond with you.

   1. You are under a compulsion to make love to this person constantly.

   2. Once you touch the person, the compulsion becomes irresistible.

   3. If one of you changed without the other one, convulsions occur in both.

   4. If one of you dies, the other does as well.

2. Changes occuring daily after three times of sex.

   1. Remaining the opposite sex gets increasingly longer.

   2. Being the opposite sex is abhorrent to the victim.

   3. Takes about three weeks, getting to forty eight hours.

      1. Forty eight hours lasts for thirty days

      2. Goes to a week.

3. The week adds a terrible period for the woman.

   1. Sex life descends to once a month.

   2. Adds in pain for the man that cannot diminish.

4. Go back to normal for twelve months.

5. Both bondmates spend one month of being opposite sex

   1. Wake up and eat.

   2. After sex, they arrange seating where they can see each other.

   3. Sit unmoving at all all day, until they get up sixteen hours later, use the facilities, and sleep for eight hours.

   4. Any deviation from this routine results in death.

   5. Victims are aware of everything happening around them.

   6. Any intellectual stimulation results in death.

   7. Lasts for twenty four months.

6. The periods and pain come back, both lasting for two months.

   1. One time sex every two months.

   2. This takes eighteen months.

7. Periods and pain last three months.

   1. Everyone must watch who they touch again.

      1. Bondmate will convulse if one switches.

      2. Bondmate will die if one dies.

   2. Bondmates have intense hatred for each other.

   3. Do not want to have sex but at three months, they must or will die.

   4. Lasts thirty six months

8. Same as five, but lasts sixty months with period and pain.

9. Woman gets pregnant.

   1. Is unable to move from her bed for entire time, except as in five and eight.

   2. Man as in five and eight.

   3. Cycles three times for each.

10. Same as five and eight.

    1. Bondmates have extreme hatred for each other.

    2. Lasts seventy two months.

11. Same as nine.

    1. Bondmates have extreme hatred for each other.

    2. Cycles five times for each.

“Wait a minute,” I exclaimed. “This is crazy!”

“So was Caesar,” John said gently, as he put his arm around my shoulders.

“I can’t even comprehend having extreme hatred for you,” I was sobbing now.

“I can’t either. Hopefully it won’t reach that point,” John’s voice was loving as he held me.

I was near panicking. “What causes death with the EMP?”

“Honey, we’re going to find out,” John said. He moved his chair to right beside mine, and gently pulled my head onto his shoulder. I was normally pretty strong, but what was coming terrified me. Marc and Kari only had about nine months until they entered the fifth stage. John and I had only ten and a half months.

The meeting broke up, and John and I returned to my rooms. We had taken residence there so that I could run my restaurant. I had no wish to cook at that moment. What I wanted to do, more than anything was to make music.

I sat down at my piano and started playing. I was so scared that what I played was mournful. When I stopped for a moment, John commented, “I’ve never heard that before.”

“I haven’t either,” I responded. “I was just playing.”

“It was beautiful,” he told me.

“Thank you.”

I started playing again, trying to make it more upbeat, but I couldn’t. I started thinking about John, and how he had supported me throughout this terrible time we had been through, and how he was now. I realized that the music I was playing mirrored my feelings. It was very romantic.

When I was done with it, John came over and slid me over on the piano bench and sat down beside me. He started reached for my shoulders and started rubbing them. It felt wonderful. There was so much tension in them, I was shocked that I had been able to play anything.

I leaned my head against him again, and when he started to work lower and lower down my back, I felt like purring.

Eventually, he whispered in my ear, “I can’t do anymore here.”

I nodded to him, and he stood up, took my hand, and pulled me up. We went into the bedroom and, well; I’ll let you imagine from there.

The next morning, we went to the command center. I was glad I was feeling the way I was because of John’s and my relationship.

When we sat down, Marc surprised us. “I think I have an idea.”

“Okay?”

“When the scientists on Earth tried an EMP, the people that tried to do it were in a normal point. Stage twelve is normality, exactly like what we’re in now. I think we need to have people who are afraid of each other working in tandem. Anything that keeps them from feeling that elation.”

“That’s a great idea, but who do we have feeling that?”

“We have several people who are in stage three.”

Kari and I shook our heads. “We weren’t afraid of each other then. You can continue to feel elation, knowing that pain will end, and that your period will end. I don’t think that will work.”

I nodded my head in agreement. “If anyone volunteers, we can try it, but I’m afraid stage seven may be our only hope.” I sighed deeply. “I hate to think we will have to go through stage five. That scares me the most. Two years of nothing. Staring at John is okay, but not being able to talk or really think sounds like a living death.”

“Stage eight would be worse,” Kari said, “and ten and eleven are even worse. Getting pregnant and hating Marc, while he’s staring at me, hating me.”

I could feel tears as I thought of that. “What would we do with all those babies?”

“I don’t know,” John answered.

Marc took a big chance. He designed the system to set off the EMP, but I think he was so scared of what might happen, and he had no idea if it would work.

We then had some people build the system before they entered stage four. The were able to do the work, surprisingly. We all crowded into the original bay we had been locked into. A cage had been set up to keep the EMP from affecting the stations computers. The system fired.

We went back into the rest of the station, and Roman checked the blood of several of us. He was concerned.

“It sort of worked, but didn’t.

“What do you mean?” Marc asked him.

“Remember that the nanites are partially organic. Well, I wasn’t sure what the mechanical part did. I’ve observed them now, and I think what it does is simply give them power. It’s like a little battery. It seems to store power. They can still operate, but there is nothing to store the power now. I doubt they could be even slightly airborne now. However, they still function.

“So where do they get their power?” I asked.

“Brownian motion.”

“Huh?”

“Brownian motion was discovered by Robert Brown in the ancient date of 1827.”

I held up a hand to John. “John. I love you. Please spare me the history lesson and just tell me what Brownian motion does.”

“It is the motion of microscopic matter in a fluid as it is hit by different particles of the fluid. If the fluid is viscous…”

“Oh yeah!” I said. “They mentioned it in an ancient science fiction book. Uh, what was the name of that… Oh yeah. Fantastic Voyage! They made a submarine microscopic as well as the crew, and injected ...”

This time, it was John’s turn. “I love you,” he said as he raised his hand. “I’ve read the book too.”

“Touche,” I said, smiling at him, in spite of the failure of the EMP.

“Wait a minute,” Kari said. “I thought they got their power from body heat.”

“That, I’m afraid, was a misconception.”

“How?” Marc asked.

“Think about it. Brownian motion needs fluid to work. When you take blood out of a person, that blood cools, so the brownian motion slows. This is just enough to where there is not enough power to recharge the batteries in a nanite. In a body, the nanites don’t stop as fast, as it takes time for a body to cool, but we’ve always looked at the nanites in the absence of body heat. We thought they needed the heat to work. In a way, they do, but that’s only because of the viscosity of the blood.”

I was starting to get it. “What if we cooled a body?”

“Even freezing a body would probably not work. As soon as we revived the person, the motion would start again. Just as we started working again, so would they.”

“Well, it was a thought,” I said.